It would be your audacity [Volume 1 epilogue]

“Shiidou… Shiidou… how long must you sleep?”

I find myself blinking a lot as the white abyss and the real world slowly merge into one, and eventually the white fades from my view.

“Did you have trouble sleeping? It is unlike you to wake up so late.”

I look at Ann’s face, and she appears a little concerned. I must have remained asleep for quite a while.

“Ah- sorry, Ann. I slept fine, I just… I guess I was stuck in a dream.”
“A dream? Has the same nightmare from before returned to you?”
“No, it wasn’t that. It was… a good dream, I think. Yeah, a good dream.”
She breathes a sigh of relief, the concern on her face melting away. Come to think of it, I had a question I needed to ask her.

“Hey, Ann. What ever made you fall in love with me?”
“Hmm? What makes you ask such a thing?”
“Well, I told you all the things I love about you. I never really heard the same from you.”

She tilts her head as if thinking the request is strange, but after a few seconds she starts talking again.

“Well, I don’t think there were any reasons more important than any others, but if I had to choose one, it would be your audacity.”
“Audacity?”
“Yes, your audacity. As a maid, I was brought up always to do exactly as expected of me. Nothing more, nothing less. Follow all orders, break no rules. But your audacity, it made me feel free.”
“I’m…not entirely sure I follow.”
“What I mean to say is that I fell in love with your tenacity to do as you desired. You cared not for rules or established customs, you simply seized what you wanted and disregarded those who told you that you can’t. Yours was a spirit that was truly free, while mine was one that was shackled to the weight of expectation. Were it not for you, I would have lived my life a puppet, afraid to do anything but what was asked of me. The sheer audacity you had to laugh in the face of expectations, it set me free. And so, with you, I feel so deeply in love.”

Ann’s cheeks tint red, as they so often do, but her expression doesn’t change. She doesn’t look away with a bashful face. She looks at me with nothing but pure affection. I’m once again reminded just how deeply in love with this woman I am.

“I suppose I could ask for no answer better than that.”