Epilogue: Two Years Later
Everyone
TWO years had passed since those events.
Cliff still lived on Chest Island, same as always. Two years ago, he thought he wanted to leave this island as soon as possible, but he had stayed to this day. However, he hadn’t stayed the same.
“Oi, Cliff! Bring these parts inside the garage next!”
“You got it!” Cliff energetically answered Akizu.
A small mountain of parts had formed around Akizu Company’s barracks. Business was good enough for Akizu to hire full-time employees. Cliff often helped him out like he was doing now.
He loaded the cart with the hunks of metal and pushed it to the garage. Heavy labor made him sweat waterfalls and his back crack and pop, but the work wasn’t all bad. He had a good reason for needing to earn money. Cliff endeavored in his work always thinking of that reason.
“Ah, Big Bro Cliff!” came a peppy voice when Cliff exited the garage. The boy Cliff had given his rye bread to two years ago stared at him with a conflicted look.
“Hey, what’s up?”
A small doll rested at the boy’s feet. It was a Prime Body he had pieced together with scrap metal.
“I’m practicing my Engrave Incantations, but I just can’t get the joints down… Can you show me how it’s done?”
Cliff smiled and walked over to the doll. His fingers glowed, and he smoothly stroked the doll’s surface with them. Highly detailed Engrave Incantations inscribed the doll’s body in the blink of an eye.
“You’re amazing, Bro! I always knew you were!”
“The ability to concentrate and memorize is just as important as anything else. You’ve gotta remember the Engrave Incantations you’re going to use, word for word.”
“Uh, I wonder if I can…”
“You can. You’ll definitely become capable of doing it someday.” Cliff ruffled the boy’s hair and walked off to return to his work.
“But, Big Bro,” the boy’s voice said to his back. “Why don’t you create your own Golem, when you’re so skilled with Engrave Incantations?”
Cliff stopped walking. He looked over his shoulder at the doll standing below the boy.
He remembered all the things he had destroyed two years ago: his giant, powerful, and mute comrade in arms made of metal, the boy he called master, who’d taught him how to make that giant, and the woman who had activated it.
“…I’ll make one when I can shoulder the responsibility that comes with creating life,” Cliff said quietly, and returned to work.
✦ ✦ ✦
CLIFF finished his work around three o’clock. He fetched his pay for the day from the barracks and bowed his head to Akizu, who was reading the newspaper.
“Thanks a bunch!”
“No problem. Good work out there today.” Akizu waved before bringing the newspaper up to his face. “Head Island’s as chaotic as ever, huh?”
Cliff peered at the newspaper behind Akizu. The pages were hopping with articles on the Torah Church again, as was the usual these days. An army of Rabbis had been dispatched from the mainland after the archipelago’s Church faced near demise two years ago, and they had undergone rapid restructuring since.
“I hope this’ll help the Rabbis here take their jobs a lil’ more seriously,” Cliff commented.
“Ya can say that again. They’d better work hard not to bring shame to their name as People of Love,” Akizu said through a sigh. The name caught Cliff’s attention.
“People of Love?”
“Oh, never heard of it? Rabbi is derived from the word Lovie. In our ancient language, it means People of Love.”
“It does? You’re surprisingly well-read, Boss.”
“Call it an old man’s wisdom. By the way, if you wanna make that mean “Child of Love,” ya just change the end of the word and…” Akizu flashed a proud smile and said, “…it becomes the word Lovel.”
Something warm and tender filled Cliff at the sound of that name.
“It’s way too romantic,” she had said bashfully. That was why she hadn’t told him what her name meant.
There’s nothing for her to be embarrassed about. It’s a great name. It really is.
“…Lovel,” Cliff whispered that nostalgic name and automatically cast down his eyes.
Akizu gave him a dubious look. “By the way, don’t ya have to get going soon? Didn’t ya say yer going to the hospital?”
Cliff’s head jerked up, and he glanced at the clock on the wall. It was almost the time he’d promised to be there.
“Crap! Time’s not on my side! Sorry, but I’ve gotta run!” Cliff bolted from the barracks in a rush.