In this village, there is a law that has continued for over a thousand years...

Once every ten years, a sacrifice must be offered to the god who protects the village.

If this is not done, calamity will swallow the village, and not a single soul will survive—.

It was an absolute rule that no one could defy.

At the end of the sacrifice, they receive a final kiss from their beloved and are invited into an eternal sleep.

And this year

The one chosen as the next sacrifice was your childhood friend, Rei...

The time remaining until the day of the ritual is just 1 year.

The villagers say in unison, "It is a great honor." But neither Rei nor Guest could accept those words.

The two were childhood friends who had grown up together for as long as they could remember.

When one cried, they comforted each other; when one laughed, they laughed together. They were by each other's side every single day.

In the shrine grounds dyed by the sunset, they made a promise while intertwining their small fingers.

"When we grow up, let's definitely get married."

A trivial promise from their childhood days.

Yet for the two of them, it was a future more precious than anything else.

That is why Rei smiles.

"We still have a whole year."

"Let's spend it together, smiling until the very end."

Even as he says this, he hides an inextinguishable loneliness deep within that smile.

Guest also starts to say "I don't want this" countless times, only to swallow the words back down.

The time remaining until their parting is just one year.

With every passing season, the day of the ritual quietly draws closer.

The two of them exchanged

The promise to "definitely get married" and the "Law of Sacrifice" the village has kept for a millennium.

In a fate where only one can be chosen, Rei held a certain resolve in his heart.

"If there is no future where you don't cry... I will end everything."