3 A Tragic Tale of an Immortal

Title: A Tragic Tale of an Immortal - Eternal Sleep of Nagi Ysa Kailanman

Genre: Tragedy, Romance

One-shot:

Once upon a long time ago, those who only knows the merit of an eternal life keeps dreaming, while those who knows the suffering of having an endless life dreams for their death, their end.

When she was a child, the other children would tease her that she'll live a long life but would be alone for most of the time.

It was all due to her name.

She would always disregard what they say, knowing that it was silly beyond belief but later, she was left stupefied.

Eighteen, this was her age when she stopped growing up, no matter how many years have passed, the youthful appearance of her eighteen years old self never aged.

The hair of her friends became gray, yet her's retained it's shiny black glow. Her nieces and nephews died one after another but she remained as youthful as ever.

Experiencing this, she was somehow bewildered at the naming ability of her parents, and then thought if either her mother or father was a prophet.

During her second century of living, she met this man who sees only goodness in everything. That man had a plain appearance but his sky colored eyes was more than enough to call his appearance exceptional.

The two ended up living in the same kingdom, same fiefdom, same city and same house.

As time passes the two became close enough to the point that she told the man her biggest secret, that she was an immortal.

The man didn't doubt it and just asked...

"Did you save a world in your previous life or maybe helped the God of Longevity?"

She just laughed it off thinking that the man was just messing with her and moreover, she wasn't a big fan of past life reincarnation whatnot.

But when that time came where she held the man's cold and lifeless body, she remembered what she was told when she revealed her secret.

She tightly embraced the wrinkled and aged corpse and said...

"Many thinks I'm blessed yet no one knows that I'm truly cursed. Did I destroy a world in my previous life or maybe angered the God of Longevity? If not, then why am I suffering like this?"

The man died not because of an injury nor disease but simply because of the passage of time and she, who is immune to the power of time was left alone by her beloved.

Unwilling to suffer once again, she decided to accept her fate, to live a lonely and endless life.

Away from the civilization, she found a large lake, and on its center, she created a house where she never stepped out for centuries.

Living a life of a hermit, she was oblivious that humans created a village by the lake while she, the resident of the lake was regarded as a fairy.

Though she had noticed how the little village became a town which in turn became a city, she had never thought that it would turn into the capital of a newfound kingdom. She was tickled about the fact that the whole lake was the kingdom's sacred place while it's resident, which was her, was the guardian of the kingdom.

But since no one dared to disturb her peace, she decided not to leave the lake and play the role which was given to her. She let the royals see her 'mysterious' self beyond the misty lake, singing with her siren like voice and other things which made her look so awesome and mysterious.

This pranking continued for many generations and soon she started to worry about herself... Worrying that she won't be able to stop herself and start meeting and socializing with other humans.

Due to this, she thought of leaving the lake and search for a place where she could truly live a life of loneliness but it was soon forgotten after she saved the royal Prince from drowning in the lake.

The Prince was only six at that time, and he was full of creativeness and dreams. She knew that child greatly adored and revered her thus when she saw the boy drown due to his eagerness to see her, she wasn't able to stop herself from truly acting her role which was being a 'guardian'.

After the prince found out that the guardian was true, he became a synonymous existence to a cockroach in her mind. The Prince would intentionally drown himself knowing that the guardian would certainly save him which she certainly have done.

Due to this, her lonesome life didn't seem as lonely as before.

Years passed and the Prince continued visiting her while she always wondered how other royalties never visited or pestered her like the Prince, but knowing the dark dramas of royalties, she never bothered to ask.

She just continued her life of acting so awesome, mysterious and cool like a guardian in front of the awestruck Prince which seemed idiotic when facing her. She continued this brief time of rest from loneliness.

One day, a perfectly fine day turned into one of her most dreaded day. The Prince which turned eighteen came and asked her hand for marriage.

She seemed torn between anger and sadness, anger at the fact that the boy whom she thought as her little brother has unashamedly proposed to her and sadness due to the fact that even if she loved him, she would never consent it.

Her answer to the half kneeling Prince was a gaze as cold as the coldest iceberg which was thankfully understood as a 'no' by the seemingly idiotic royal child, but still, the Prince continued visiting her.

The once playful bantering of the guardian and idiotic Prince acting like a spoiled brat turned into a flirting bantering caused by the seemingly mature Prince which still acted like a spoiled brat.

This was never changed, even after the Prince was crowned as the king and noticing how the new king continued on flirting her, she preached him for not being loyal to his queen which was again retorted with another flirty line that goes with 'I'm flirting with my queen', 'you are my queen' and whatnot.

It turned out that the Prince never married anyone and continued on hoping that she would say yes to his proposals.

It was difficult for her acting like she didn't care when she knew that she had once again fell in love.

As a regular human, the king continued to age while as an immortal, she always looked the same.

She saw how the Prince turned into a youth and how he was crowned into a king. She saw the youthful king enter his prime and how he is transitioning to his old age.

She can't help but cry in the dark, knowing that this love was turning like the first and knowing what it's end would be, she decided to leave the lake.

But as she entered the city, she was met with shock, astonishment, and disbelief. The kingdom which she thought was flourishing and prosperous was filled with slaves, beggars and prostitutes.

She thought that the king would be a kind and just ruler but how could she learn that the man whom she thought she knew was completely different when he was facing others?

She heard all the disparaging adjectives connected to the king's name, and she did not want to believe it. But it seemed impossible to deny, when she was caught, and dragged to the royal palace.

She saw the king in his bed with his wrinkled and limp body and soon tears began to fall from her eyes, wishing to leave this place, not wanting to see another love one die.

The king made a wry smile and said...

"I did my best to search for the fountain of youth, but I never found it."

Hearing this, she cried even harder as she rushed to the old king remembering about the time when she said that she would only marry someone who'll spend eternity with her.

She cried and cried on the chest of the king, but a second passed, and she felt pain on her chest. She looked down and saw a knife which passed through the place where her heart should have been.

With a pained expression she asked "Why?" and soon it was answered with...

"If I can't spend eternity with you in the world of the living, then we will spend eternity in our afterlife."

With that, the king spent his last breath, thus he didn't see how the knife fell from her chest and how the wound healed in a blink of an eye.

She cried even harder which made her look like she was wailing, and in between her sobs, she whispered...

"I can't even remember how many times I have tried to kill myself, and you think you can kill me with a puny knife in this useless heart? Idiot.... You really are an idiot."

After the death of the King, she immediately left the kingdom and wandered across the world.

At first, she thought of searching for a more secluded place but just after a few years of solitude. She wasn't able to bear the loneliness thus she decided to travel the world, meet new people but never make any deep ties with anyone.

She became an adventurer known for her youthfulness. Many thought that she was using magic or witchcraft to maintain her youth but after witnessing how her head was cut but immediately connected back to her neck, everyone knew that it was better not to mess with her.

The girl continued her adventure, spreading her fame all over the world. She made many friends, albeit not close ones, and also enemies which helped her on her research as to what can cause her death.

Centuries passed and later, she became one of the revered and feared personalities in the whole world. She befriended the elves with their long lives and the dragons possessing eternal youth. But even with this, she never opened her heart completely since even if the elves had long lives, they were still bound to death, and even if the dragons are not tied by time, they could still be killed by external factors.

They were unlike her who is not bound by time, death or end. She was bound to live an endless life.

But while she had completely accepted this fact, someone crept to her heart, like a thief whose mission is to capture her heart.

That thief was a youth with youthfulness such as her's. No one knew how old the youth was, but many said that he was as old as the world itself.

He was very, very overwhelmed after meeting her whom he consider like him and self-proclaimed himself as her husband. Everyone who knew the both of them played along with the youth, calling her his wife and calling him her husband and as time flowed, many misunderstood the two as a married couple.

After the ones who knew that it was seemingly a joke died one after another, it became a fact in the whole world that two 'immortals' were married to each other.

No one doubted it because they were like a match made in heavens, not only with their immortality but also with their otherworldly aura and peerless appearance.

The youth was overjoyed about this advancement while she wasn't able to do anything but just go with the flow. Later, the two unknowingly became a real married couple in act and they unconsciously understood within their hearts that they fully accepted each other as their wedded partner.

Their life together wasn't always filled with happiness. There were problems and misunderstandings, but with their endless life, time was the only thing they didn't lack thus all were always solved like a knot being disentangled.

Some of their fights lasted for several years, a few of them even taking centuries but the result would always been the two of them reuniting after experiencing bitter loneliness.

She was happy and often gloated at her deceased childhood friend's grave that even though she would live a very long life, an endless one at that, she would at least not be alone.

All was well and fine but for some unknown reason, a hero was summoned to their world. A hero which is a person who possess incomparable strength which is summoned by the world itself whenever something calamitous was bound to occur.

As an immortal, she didn't have anything to worry about since she couldn't die and so is her 'husband' but who would have thought that all she knew was like the soft white side of a black art paper?

Being one of the most superior creature in the world, she was bound to meet the incomparable hero and be a part of his group to save the world and as things escalated and her understanding became deep, she learned of a shocking truth.

The youth, her seemingly husband was not like her, a real immortal, but someone who attained longevity through sacrifices. She found out that unlike her who was innately immortal, he became what he was right now due to worshiping a devil and after the countless sacrifices and offerings he had given, the devil was bound to dominate over their world.

She was shocked and at the same time thankful that she was the first one to learn of this and with this information in tow, she went to her partner and pressed him for answers.

The reason was the usual reason why people coveted immortality but even with this, she subconsciously tilted to the side of the youth. Her mind being clouded by darkness and fear of loneliness, thinking that if the hero successfully save the world, then her husband will undoubtedly die and she will truly be alone forever just like what her name says.

Coupled with the fact that she had learned to love her husband and about the sincerity of his love for her, she chose to betray the hero and join the forces of the devil.

It was a cruel time of wars. Million of deaths were happening every minute and billions were losing their loved ones.

She was blinded by her fear of loneliness that she started treating lives as dust, killing billions just to save her husband from the forces of the hero.

She had changed. All knew. Her friends. The Hero. The Devil. The World… And even the youth.

He was deeply moved by her love, so moved that he decided to save her from the darkness, so moved that he had forsaken his life.

Unfortunately, things didn't go as the youth expected, on the contrary, everything became worse that it already was.

She was deceived by the Devil that the one who caused the youth's death was the hero and with her raging fury, she battled with the hero killing billions in the process.

In the end, the hero wasn't called incomparable for nothing. He had successfully trapped her within a crystal coffin that was as tough as the toughest matter in the whole world, and there, he explained the truth about the youth's death.

The reason for his death was her love that moved him. Her love that awakened him from his selfishness. Her love that taught him that there was something more important than an everlasting life. Her love that was his treasure.

To save the one who gave him that love, he sacrificed himself, hoping that she'll be aroused from the darkness, but it turned into a tool for the devil to manipulate.

With a simple but beautiful ring in his hand, he placed it on a carved part of a coffin...

"This ring was created by the greatest dwarven craftsman. The craftsman told me that it had been commissioned by your husband before I even arrived at this world and seeing that it was a pair of ring, I had done the honors to place the other one on the groom's coffin. I actually wanted to personally hand it to your hand but I'm afraid it'll take me another month before I'll able to shut you in this coffin." With his goofy smile, the hero explained.

The rage on her eyes disappeared and serenity appeared for the first time in years. With a wry smile on her lips she replied...

"Now that I have thought of it, we didn't even had any wedding. Even signing of marriage papers. We were together for numerous millennia but...", Heaving out a sigh, she continued with a withering look in her eyes...

"Do me a favor..... Please let me sleep for all eternity.... At least even if I live forever alone, I won't know it."

The Hero heavily nodded but before he casted a spell, he asked what her real name was. With a confused face, she realized that she never told anyone what her real name was except for the her first love, the Prince and the youth.

After the great war between the humans and the Devil, the hero triumphed, successfully killing and dissipating the soul of the Devil, but after the passage of hundreds of millennia, the only thing that remained from this supreme war was a crystal coffin housing an otherworldly beauty, and on its side were words that can be read as...

"Nagi Ysa Kailanman"