The memory shards discarded by Lou’s fiancé remained in Adin’s mind, causing minute, irreparable fissures.

  One who has peered into another’s secret abyss can never return to their former innocence.

  Those fissures became the inevitable gaps through which Adin’s once-sturdy moral world collapsed, making way for a new order.

  Sin, at times, facilitates growth in a certain sense.

  Adin felt the weight of a strange, new responsibility settling upon his shoulders.

  He finally realized that he had traded the light, pure footsteps of a boy to stand alone on the desert—a man burdened by uncomfortable truths.

  This was not merely physical maturation.

  Only those who have made an irrevocable choice possess that chilling serenity that deepens the gaze.

  Adin’s shadow stretched longer and darker than before, engraving his presence upon the dunes.

  Clink.

  Chime—

  Beyond the golden horizon came the sound of countless glass vessels colliding.

  It was no simple, clear sound; it was a layering of high-pitched, transparent friction and low-frequency, blunt echoes, creating a resonance akin to a grand orchestra performing a mournful symphony in the silence.

  Soon, the silhouette of an old man pulling a massive obsidian wagon appeared.

  Upon the black cart, which seemed to swallow all light, sat rows of hourglasses, large and small, pouring out golden sand at varying speeds.

  It was a sophisticated choir of glass, devouring the frigid night air of the desert.

  “I hear the footsteps of one who has pried open a taboo.”

  Thump…!

  The old man brought the wagon to a halt and spoke.

  His eyes were more transparent and piercing than the artificial moonlight of the desert.

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  “How does it feel to have stolen and drunk the time of another? It seems that wretched secret has made your gaze far heavier than before.”

  Adin did not avert his eyes. His voice was calm, yet firmly grounded.

  “I could not look away. If this sin of mine can restore her to her true self, I will gladly pay its price.”

  The old man adjusted his grip on the wagon's handle and studied Adin silently.

  “Boys always leap recklessly into deep wells in the name of love. But a man is different. A man must embrace the ruin brought by his own sins as entirely his own. You are now one who can no longer discuss justice while hiding behind someone else.”

  The old man pulled a particularly intensely glowing hourglass from the wagon and upended it before Adin’s eyes.

  The moment the slender golden sand began to divide the glass and flow, the noise of the desert vanished in an instant.

  The air stood still with a viscous density, and Adin’s consciousness sharply synchronized with a single, flowing grain of sand.

  “People believe the twenty-four hours created by God are equal for everyone,” the old man began, pointing to the flowing sand.

  “But that is a gargantuan deception manufactured by the system. The clocks of Ivory carve up and exploit human time in the name of efficiency. But the time trapped in this glass bottle is different.”

  The old man’s gaze remained fixed on the sand.

  “The moment you gaze upon this, the physical timeline of reality loses its meaning. Whether it is fifteen minutes or an hour, while you entrust your consciousness to this flow, you possess a ‘territory of your own’ where the world’s rules cannot reach. That time exists outside the day—a margin permitted only to you.”

  Adin chewed over the old man’s words.

  When the sound of falling sand became the only heartbeat drumming against his eardrums, he truly felt himself becoming his own world.

  It was not mere rest; it was the density of '+Alpha'—a space occupied by his own will, completely deviating from the system’s commands.

  “Only those who have owned that time earn the right to protect the time of others,” the old man continued.

  “Your seeing the memory discarded by Lou’s fiancé was not merely stealing a secret. You witnessed how he plundered her time and imprisoned her in a cage named ‘Elegant Serenity.’”

  Adin clenched his fist.

  The image of the fiancé in the memory was not that of an ordinary lover, but a predator who had severed all her possibilities, excision her life so that he alone remained her only world.

  The peace Lou believed in was merely the process of her soul being deleted.

  “Do you see now? The sin you committed was the first price for her salvation.”

  From deep within the wagon, the old man pulled out a crystal-clear, empty hourglass containing nothing. He handed it to Adin.

  “First, go and find your Auri, Sori. And from now on, begin to create the time that you and she will share.”

  Adin enclosed the cold sensation of the hourglass within his palm.

  The old man silently resumed pulling his wagon and disappeared into the desert night, the lingering echoes of clinking glass fading like ripples.

  Adin looked at himself while watching the old man’s retreating figure.

  The guilt had not vanished, but it was no longer a hindrance. Rather, the will and responsibility to restore Lou to her rightful place filled that void.

  The golden desert stretching before Adin’s eyes was once again undulating with his vast yearning for Lou.

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