“Umm, Ojisama. What did you just say?”
Iris’ sleek silver hair fell from her shoulder as she tilted her head to the side.
Luru had been thinking that he didn’t want to tell her if possible, but that was impossible.
As long as you were living in this world, this era, it was something you needed to accept at the bare minimum.
That’s why he told Iris clearly.
“…Iris. From that time; from the time that I was killed by the hero, thousands of years have passed. I’ll say this just in case, but this is definitely not some misunderstanding. It’s something that I’ve properly confirmed; a reality. Having said that though, I’m only estimating based on things I’ve come across in books and hearsay, so there might be a measurement error, but…”
While speaking about this, Luru hinted that there might be a small possibility of a mistake.
It was in consideration for Iris.
He thought that it might be easier to accept if he spoke about it like that.
Luru had confirmed that there was no mistaking that thousands of years had passed since those days, but it was unreasonable to expect the girl before him to accept immediately.
For now he would have her keep mistakes in mind as a possibility, and then have her slowly comprehend and believe in the reality.
However, Luru had underestimated Iris a little.
There was no mistake that Iris felt shock at Luru’s words, but even so, she was certainly not rejecting his words.
On the contrary, she was properly processing this inside, and even investigated on top of that.
“That is… You must have found some proof that convinced you, correct?”
Whilst feeling shocked, Luru slowly nodded.
Despite her proper speech and the intelligence she had, Iris was still a child.
Unlike Luru, there was no mistake that she was genuinely a child of roughly 10 years old.
Though she had lived a few years after Luru’s death, there was no mistake that she was not yet an adult.
But despite this, Iris calmly spoke to Luru with a pensive expression.
“Ojisama. Ojisama. I am fine… I cannot say that I was prepared, but though I feel sad at having those close to me suddenly having gone far away, but I have become a little used to it already…”
Her words contained a deep grief, and the remains of a sadness that had been worn down from experience, time and time again.
‘Right…‘ thought Luru.
The period in which Iris had lived, and the period in which Luru had lived were the same.
The weight of a life was unbelievably light, and both of them have seen over and over the scene of a comrade losing their life just a few dozen centimetres away from them.
Though Iris was still a child, she had gone through such experiences; being concerned about her resolution was an incredibly foolish act.
“…Sorry.”
So Luru apologised.
It was an apology as the demon king for failing to protect his race, as well as an apology as her friend for failing to protect his own life.
Iris accepted them with her eyes straight ahead, and then smiled with a soft expression.