60 Nothing Lasts Forever 3

The sound of the flowing river, the chirrups of birds flying around town accompany the silence around the young knight and the young girl.

But after a short while, Lyrica finally breaks up the quietness.

"I hated my parents."

"Huh?"

Confused, Riko watches the girl sit down on the sloping grassy surface.

"You hate your parents?" Riko asked.

"Yes," Lyrica replied with a slight nod. "I hated them for lying and betraying my trust."

While saying that, Lyrica's memories, the ones that had a great impact on her life from 6 years ago start coming back and replaying in her mind.

From the promised flower field to finding out the situation circling her family, to falling ill and learning about their affairs. All those events that have happened in Lyrica's old days turned a shy but kind little girl who would help anyone with a helping hand, into a high schooler who hates her parents and avoids getting involved with everyone else's troubles.

"I've decided that I want to forget everything about my parents, so I went and started living alone in a place far from my old house."

Lyrica tried to lead a life in Metro Manila, thinking only about herself and nothing else. Not even her parents.

"But I wasn't able to completely forget my parents at all."

No matter how hard she tries to forget them, everything around Lyrica just keeps on reminding her about her parents' faces.

"At one point, I asked myself, "Why?" Lyrica uttered. "Why can't I forget about my parents at all? Well, the answer is plain simple."

Hidden deep within Lyrica's hatred towards her parents is her desire to be with them once again. A desire she wanted to achieve more than living in a peaceful world with no trouble.

"So you didn't hate your mother and father after all?"

"I did," Lyrica replied to Riko with a melancholic smile on her face. "It's true that I hated my parents so much that I've decided to cut my ties with them. But like you said, nothing lasts forever. Not even hatred."

By the time Lyrica severed her connections with her parents, the hatred she had kept for so long has slowly subsided. It's only that she failed to realize it early on.

"Perhaps the reason why I wasn't able to realize it before it's already too late was because of the idea in my head that I should hate my parents who lied and betrayed my trust."

By the time she realized it, Lyrica found herself facing death's door. A jeepney came rushing towards her after trying to save an old man in the middle of the road.

"So you died in your world?"

"Yes. At least to the people who saw and may have heard about my final moments on Earth." Said Lyrica in reply to the young knight. "But just when I thought I already accepted my fate, a woman who claimed to be a goddess gave me chance to continue living."

"A goddess?"

"Yes."

Lyrica opened her eyes and realized that everything had stopped moving. And it's done by none other than the woman Lyrica mentioned to be a self-proclaimed goddess.

She offered Lyrica a deal. The girl gets to live in Alteria and make it so that the world can be what she desired. Or if she doesn't like the deal, she can simply go to kingdom come.

"You're here, so that means you accepted the deal."

Lyrica nodded slowly.

"I did. I accepted it. But I wasn't all for it from the beginning."

When she arrived in Alteria and the voice or Mousai informed her about the deal, Lyrica denied that she made a deal with Mousai, saying she can't remember coming into an agreement with the voice.

However, it was all a lie. In truth, Lyrica remembered everything full well. From the voice asking her what world she desired and herself giving Mousai an answer, to then learning the condition to fulfill her wish and then fully accepting it.

"Why?" Riko questioned the girl who's staring into nothing. "Why did you lie to her?"

Lyrica let out a monotonous sigh.

"... I guess I still want to be with them... Just like how you still want to be with your father."

That's right. Lyrica lied to the voice in hopes that she can return to Earth alive and meet her parents once more.

"When I thought I was going to die, I didn't just realize that I no longer hate them." She stated. "Saving that old man made me realized what I could have done to stop them from falling down the wrong path."

Lyrica thought about what could have happened if she called her father and stopped him from entering the woman's mansion instead of watching him from afar. She thought about what could have happened if she stood there in front of her mother and her mother's employer instead of hiding in a pole and letting her emotions burst out.

"Maybe..." A small pool of tears formed from the corner of her eye. "Maybe we are still together. Maybe right now, I'm still with them."

But no matter how long she thinks about those possibilities, it will never come to pass. No matter how much she wishes to be with her family, it's already too late. And it will remain unchanged.

"So now you're here in Alteria, stuck until you either fulfill your desire or die of old age?"

Now that Riko thought about it. He and Lyrica are quite similar. Both of them hated their parents. But deep inside, they still care for them. They both want to be together with them, spend days together with their family. But deep down they know, it will never happen again. Ever.

Lyrica slightly shrugs her shoulders at the same time she slowly shook her head while pursing her lips.

"I wouldn't call it being stuck. Not anymore." She said to the young knight as she continues to shake her head slowly. "Right now... I'd say it's a chance to start anew. A chance not to let the same mistakes from happening again. But..."

Riko turns to Lyrica as she pauses.

"But...?" He asked in wonder.

"Is it all right for me to leave the things I left unresolved?" Asked Lyrica as she sniffles. "Do I really have the right to do the things I couldn't do for my family in this world?"