A twenty-four-year-old young man with short black hair lay on a single bed wearing gray pajamas.
He was looking outside the window at the colorful neon lights of the city and distant flying cars while his black eyes behind the rims were dim and looked profoundly tired.
"I-It's a bad news, Aleron."
A butler looking in his early sixties with short brown hair stood beside the bed after talking with someone on the phone.
He had the classic butler outfit adorned and his figure looked slim with a fit six-foot stature.
"Mr. Lakesmith claimed all of your insurance in the last attempt to save the company…"
"Including your life insurance," The butler's lips trembled. "You are already registered d-dead."
His voice cracked in sadness and anguish.
"The Earth Union cannot grant any support to you. This trash s-system will not help you," Alfred's voice was laced with despair and anger. "You helped millions with your research even though it disabled your limbs, b-but..."
Alfred wanted to curse the entire world as his vision became blurry the more he saw Aleron, who was not despairing about his situation despite his life coming to an end.
"Alfred, it's time for you to think about a new life and perhaps a family, haha," Aleron chuckled as he turned his gaze from the window and looked at his butler who had taken care of him for the past fifteen years.
"I think I had a fulfilling life despite my circumstances. I helped a lot of people. I read lots of fantasy light novels and experienced various lives by reading them," Aleron cheekily grinned. "I'm satisfied."
Alfred's eyes started streaming with held-back tears that came pouring out.
What fulfilling?! What satisfied?!
It was a cursed life! He was just 25 years old, but was on the bed for the past 15 years!
'God. If you are there somewhere, why did you give such a life to this kind and brilliant soul? He deserved to enjoy his life more than anyone I know!'
"Stop crying, haha. This house is going to get confiscated, so it's time for me to leave too. You know my life will end soon."
Alfred repeatedly shook his head, his tears not stopping.
Aleron wryly smiled. "It might be cruel for you, but I want you to do it as my last request."
"I want the fastest and painless death. I heard there's a pill that can do it swiftly. Hmm, but It requires some documents…"
Aleron helplessly smiled, "It seems that we have to think of something else since I'm already registered dead."
Alfred bawled while wiping his face, but his tears just wouldn't stop.
"Come on, Alfred. You know we have no other choice. I might get my brain taken out for experiments if Earth Union found me."
Alfred wanted to speak, but a huge lump had blocked his throat.
He knew it was Aleron's end, but…it just felt unreasonable, unjust, and unfair!
"I-I can support us both for a while with money you've been giving me to save and if I start working somewhe-"
"Oh Alfred," Aleron rolled his eyes as he interrupted his butler. "You have to first think about where you will live tomorrow since this house will be gone. I don't want to burden anyone else, especially you."
"You've done enough, so let's get freedom together," Aleron widely grinned. "I'll have my freedom and you'll have yours."
Aleron eyes sparkled as he added, "And I'm sure I'll be reborn in some magical world with moving limbs in my next life and live like others."
"I-I'm sure of that too. You will live w-wonderfully in your next life. You will live however you want. I-I'm s-sure," Alfred said while trying to smile, but his eyes couldn't stop the tears.
Aleron nodded and grinned, "Yep. So let's finish this, no joke. We have to think about how you will give me freedom from this body seriously, haha."
Alfred's lips trembled and more tears streamed down as he knew what Aleron's words entailed.
…
After Aleron fell asleep once they finished talking, Alfred went to get a pill illegally by paying a few Earth credits extra.
He returned soon and caressed Aleron's head while holding back his tears and putting a pill into his mouth.
It swiftly dissolved in Aleron's mouth as its tiny particles spread into his body, reached his heart, and stopped it at once. The same thing happened with his brain, to kill it swiftly for a painless death.
As per Aleron's wish, Alfred carried his body out of the room and descended into the empty house's living hall.
It was a large house, but no one was living there anymore.
Alfred put him on the sofa and used a razor shovel that ran with a battery to dig the ground behind the array of colorful flowers that Aleron requested to grow three years ago.
The spot where he was digging was Aleron's favorite spot to read when the weather was nice.
Aleron wanted to be buried there after his death.
Alfred carefully put him inside after digging six feet and looked at his face one last time as his tears dropped.
"Goodbye, Aleron. May you live to the fullest in your next life."
"This is not your end. I firmly believe it."
Alfred wiped his tears as he bid farewell and shoved a huge chunk of soil dirt he had dug back into the hole and started burying it.
Alfred adjusted the soil properly to avoid making it look like someone was buried there and left with a heavy yet light heart.
It was the start of his new life, and he also believed it was the same for Aleron.
He soon left after calling a taxi with his two big suitcases containing his things.
*Crackle…*
"The wheater suddenly turned so strange, sir. We haven't had such a pouring and lightning in a while," the driver said with a light chuckle.
"The sky is crying and mourning…" Alfred murmured as he looked at the roaring lightning amid dark clouds in the sky while rain continuously poured.
"Is that so? Well, who knows?" the driver wryly smiled.
The weather remained terrible throughout the night and when the clock turned 3:37 in the morning, a lightning bolt struck down.
It landed right on Aleron's grave and struck him before his body disappeared.