Chapter 3

"It's okay.. I'm fine now."

"Are you sure? You.."

"I told you I'm fine now, didn't I?!!" Elise shouted.

Leo kept silent. It might be better to leave her alone for a while, I guess. But then, it might not be too. Afterall.. she lost a MEMOIR just now.. NO! It was.. Maybe I should stay with her after all.

Elise was still lost in her thoughts. What happened? Everything was fine until just a while ago. But then, they came. And, they took her memoir. Memoir? A memory? Is that all?? NOOO!!!! SHE LOST RISA! RISA IS DEAD!!! She's no more!!! How did it end up like this? Why? Why did it happen? WHY?!!! Even though she had sworn to protect her, then why? 

"It's just like.. that day two years ago. Again.. it happened all in a flash. Again I couldn't.. Why? Why me always? Why does this happen every time?" She mumbled. Her voice was so low that even Leo could barely hear it.  

"She slept." 

Leo could see she had no strength left. Her face was expressionless. More like she was drained of life. If this goes on..

After few hours, Elise woke up in a tree's heart. 

It was a well built room at one of the Giant trees. As the name says, giant trees were really big and tall. Their top would pierce even the clouds in the sky. And some were so tall that you couldn't even see the top. It would just continue about the clouds endlessly. And on these trees, people had built small living places on the branches calling it 'Tree's heart'. They were much more popular before the civilisation grew. Nowadays, people have shifted to land. Very few still reside in the Giant trees.

"I carried you here." Murmured Leo while he was standing near the balcony. 

"I see." Elise realised she had been sleeping for quite a while when she saw the dark sky outside.

"What are you going to do from now on?"

"..."

"You know anything about them?" 

"Them?"

"Those two men who attacked us."

"..." Elise didn't want to think about it.

"I know you are going through a tough time and you don't want to discuss this. But if we don't search for them now, we may never get a second chance. That's why..!"

"Search?" She turned at him.

"Ye-eah.."

"For what?"

"For what you say.. isn't it obvious? They took your memoir. Don't you..!"

"Don't call her a memoir!!! She was.. a HUMAN. A living being!"

Leo could see her trembling. That's right.. she was a living being. But for this world, people who are dead are simply referred to as a memory. Just a Memoir. Since once they die, their whole existence is erased from this world. Their pictures, possessions, names, memories.. Noone remembers them. Just a feeling of emptiness remains in the people who knew them, like they lost someone. There was a person.. that's all they can remember.

"Elise, you called her a living being. That's all the more reason we should search for those two men."

"What do you want to say?" 

"Join our army."

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