Chapter 89 – Volume 18 – People Who Walk on Time (4)
The exhibition hall is a way to view while walking all the way, or the barricade is round, so it feels like walking along the shape.
The shape of the sole of the foot is drawn on the floor following the shape, so it must be clear.
While she thought so, she looked at the floor, and somehow she noticed that there was a large sole right where she was standing.
“Uh, why is it so emphasized here?”
It feels like you are here to see the work.
Everyone judged her similarly to her, once they gathered around her without moving and started looking at her work.
But why do you encourage people to look at the work from the side instead of the front?
It was the moment when she moved her steps while having such a question.
Suddenly, the picture seemed to be distorted, and it was strangely divided vertically and changed into a strange shape.
As her exhibit turned out to be two paintings cut out and jumbled together, she stopped in surprise.
“What… Wasn’t it just a painting?”
At that moment, her heart, which had been calm until just now, was pounding, and anxiety overtook her.
The soles of the feet and the surrounding props, which had not seemed so distinctive until now, are beginning to come into view.
At first, it looks green and clean, but the further you go, the more it looks like it has been worn over a long time.
It’s as if time is passing at a rapid pace, keeping pace with her own steps.
In the form of a pavilion that gives the illusion of walking on accelerated time, she followed the shape of her footprints while remaining speechless.
Attention is focused on the floor where the flow of time is felt rather than where the work was.
When you wake up, all that time has passed, and you arrive at a footprint that is as big as before, but in a much older state.
“…Ugh.”
Even though she definitely expected this kind of work.
The moment she actually checked the result, she couldn’t hold back the bursting sigh and let it out of her mouth.
The happy family of three that had been seen before was no longer there.
It must have been the same picture, but the moment I walked up to here, it was changed to a completely different picture.
That step was the moment when time felt so savage.
“Oak…”
The images of elves and harps enduring sorrow in front of the orc’s grave crossed my eyes and stuck in my mind.
The overflowing emotions make the whole body tremble.
It’s just a character in a cartoon, but her heart has been hurting desperately, as if even an acquaintance of hers has died.
As she tried to leave the exhibition hall on her feet, which did not come off easily, she discovered that the place where she had just last looked at her work was quite large.
She had a sudden thought, but she walked out of the exhibition hall without even thinking about getting the copy she had reserved.
Then she bought something and went back to the exhibit.
‘…I hope that this sadness I feel will be conveyed to the writer, and perhaps beyond that, to the characters in the work.’
As she prayed in her heart like that, she concentrated all the emotions she felt and laid them down on her cold floor where there would be nothing.
『In a world where erotic comics are legal』
“Still, I was a bit surprised. It’s not yet released, but Carly would show us the work in advance.”
“…There’s a reason for that.”
It’s an environment where you can’t go out to your heart’s content in our school.
Because of that, I couldn’t see the advance exhibition, which was a pre-registration privilege of ‘An elf who dreams of having an affair with an orc is still frustrating tomorrow’.
So after talking, we decided to open the exhibition at our school.
‘It’s because we don’t have enough manpower, so we have to deal with the first few days.’
In the beginning, the school’s hands were tight just to deliver the reserved items.
Until this stabilized, we had no choice but to take care of this exhibition.
So, in order to manage it, you have to see it before it gets spoiled, so I showed you the work in advance.
‘Still, surprisingly, the last scene endured well.’
I wondered if Orca was having a hard time enduring that scene.
Maybe it’s because the incident isn’t as strong as the one that Orca’s father went through.
Other than a slightly sad expression, she confirmed that she was seeing it without any problems.
Of course, the biggest problem is the exhibition I will be going to see together from now on…
Although I decided that this was the best ending that this work could show, so I chose it.
That’s only true from my point of view as a writer, and it could have done a lot of damage to an Orca who was going through a similar situation.
That’s why I want to see you like that, I sing and look forward to it, but I can’t stop it…
“Orca, hold my hand.”
“Yes!”
Seeing her smiling brightly without any doubt about her, something pricked her heart.
First of all, in case something goes wrong, I hold her hand tightly and head inside.
Orca didn’t know anything, and looking at the first picture of her, she laughed bashfully, saying that the harp looked like her too.
“Uh…?”
“…”
But after she started moving her steps, she felt something was wrong and her words started to decrease.
When she finally reached the point where the painting completely changed, she closed her mouth completely and began to stare at her work.
She then put strength into the hand that held me and said as if pleading.
“Carly, isn’t it? This…”
“Sorry.”
“…Sigh, huh. Ah, blah. Swallow…”
Of course, she knows that this is her work, and it is a story completely separate from her own family.
It was enough to serve as a reminder of the future that I had already noticed in the last incident.
In the end, she couldn’t hold back and burst into tears.
“Ahhh…!”
“Orca…”
It wasn’t that she didn’t know she was going to be like this, of course, but it was painful to see Orca struggling like that, too.
I definitely liked the work itself, and the flow of it also fits well with the concept.
Even though she knows this will happen, she blames herself for having to do it.
“I’m sorry, Orca. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t apologize. Don’t apologize… It’s not Carly’s fault. It’s just, it can’t be helped…”
It’s because it hurts more that you can’t help it.
I wish I had known it would be like this, but I thought it would have been better not to have had an ending like this.
In the end, from the moment this ending came to mind, I couldn’t think of any other ending.
Even if the content was postponed like that, I wondered if it would have been finished in a similar form.
As far as comics go, I’m the stupid person who can’t make that kind of compromise.
“Hey, Orca. Shall we walk in the opposite direction for a bit?”
“Yes…?”
“Come on, this way.”
Reversing the path we just walked, we return to the picture before the orc died.
Then he hugged Orca and said Orca was still here.
There’s still a long way to go, so you don’t have to worry anymore.
“That’s what Orca will go through, albeit a little sooner than the rest of her family. She’s what all her households will have to go through eventually.”
“…Yes.”
In fact, it was a story that could be used even if it was not an elf or an orc.
It only stands out more because they are elves and orcs, because parents and children of different birth times will experience it someday.
You will regret it and be sad anyway, but in order to relieve those feelings a little bit.
So that those who have not yet reached that time have time to return.
Wouldn’t it be a little more comfortable to think of such an opportunity?
“Maybe I can see it that way?”
“I still have time…”
“Yeah, that’s why when vacation comes, I play a lot with your father and make a lot of memories.”
I’ve already fought a lot about my future, so it might be difficult to have a relationship like that.
Orca is still on good terms with her dad.
Would that be possible then?
“Yes…”
Only then did Orca smile at her again.
In fact, regardless of the work, if Orca were saddened by this work, she thought about how to comfort her, but it was an explanation made up.
Still, it seemed to have comforted Orca somehow.
“If it’s too hard, the three of us will do it. Orca doesn’t have to come.”
“No. I want to see. How everyone reacts.”
“Yes.”
And while we were running the exhibition, we got to see a really diverse group of students react to this piece in real time.
Of course, there were people who got angry or cursed at me for drawing this picture.
There were also people who shed tears as they were saddened by the situation of the orcs.
There were also those who suffered silently and silently.
Rather, there are many people who sympathize with and suffer from this situation.
It seemed to comfort Orca a lot, and the more she looked at other people’s reactions, the more Orca regained her bright self.
And I was very satisfied with that work.
“…Huh? What’s that flower?”
“Flowers? Huh?”
At first I thought someone dropped it by mistake.
That place was, of course, a place to watch the second form of the work, that is, a place where you could see dead orcs.
In this world, there was a culture that expresses condolences through flowers like the earth.
“It’s a flower… I feel like I’m comforted because I smell it like this.”
“Maybe he left it like that.”
And around that time, the management of the school’s exhibition center was out of our hands because we had enough hands.
After that, I went out of school and looked at the exhibition hall outside.
I realized that this is not just happening in our school.
Flowers piled up on one side of the exhibition hall catch my eyes.
I was very surprised to hear that they were even controlling the amount by regularly removing it.
Most of the people who came here said they were on the side of going back and buying flowers.
“…Wasn’t it prepared by the exhibition hall?”
“Yes. One day, starting with someone putting it down. Naturally, you and I both started bringing flowers…”
And when I heard that the craze for laying down these flowers was continuing not only in the capital city, but also in exhibition halls across the country.
A subtle and strange feeling that is really difficult to express in words came to me.
