༺ Time Paradox ༻
The young Irina, who had been sitting in the lobby with a vacant expression, rose from her seat with a pale face upon seeing Frey.
“What’s wrong, Irina?”
Uncertain of what to say, Irina hesitantly started talking.
“The werewolf that chased us back then… I mean…”
“Yeah, what about it?”
“…You really don’t know?”
Hearing her words, Frey replied in an unruffled tone.
“I haven’t been able to understand what you’re talking about since a while ago. It was just a ferocious werewolf that happened to follow us into the mountains, right? The werewolf is dead, and we’re safe, so it’s all in the pas-“
“Frey.”
However, Irina interjected with a trembling voice, cutting him off.
“I… actually saw….”
“Saw what?”
“…The werewolf reverting halfway to its original form.”
Frey’s face momentarily contorted, but he soon feigned confusion with a tilt of his head.
“I don’t quite understand what you’re saying.”
“You were kneeling in front of the werewolf.”
“What on earth are you…”
“I was only pretending to be unconscious.”
Irina confessed with a pallid face.
“Since things turned out the way they did, I pretended to be knocked out to try and get more compensation money…”
“…Ah.”
“So, I saw everything. I heard everything. The werewolf… was actually… actually…”
Irina, who had spoken up to that point, trailed off.
“…Huh.”
Frey briefly lost his composure, and fear filled Irina’s face as she fidgeted in her seat.
“Irina.”
Frey intently looked at Irina and declared once more,
“That was just a werewolf.”
“What?”
“We just happened to encounter a werewolf… no, a wolf, while playing there.”
“You’re telling me that now…?”
“I was the one who got lost there, and I was the one who defeated the wolf. It’s all my doing.”
“…Ugh.”
“There’s no reason why you should feel guilty when you tried to protect me.”
Frey picked up the scroll as he comforted her.
Fzzzzzzz…
“Understand?”
Irina’s lips moved to say something, but Frey tore the scroll before she could make a sound.
“Eumm…..”
Then, a moment later-
“What, Frey? When did you come?”
Rubbing her eyes, Irina saw Frey standing in front of her.
“…Just now.”
“Really? I see. Well, um…”
Irina trailed off as Frey calmly replied.
“You seem a bit down… Do you want to go eat some fish?”
Her cheeks turned rosy as she blushed.
“Sorry, I’m a bit busy right now.”
“Oh? Uh… Okay…”
However, faced with Frey’s prompt rejection, she stammered dejectedly.
“Let’s go.”
Frey then whispered to the older Irina, who was blankly staring at her younger self.
“Clana and Ferloche are in the reception room.”
“…….”
Frey slowly walked away but looked back to call out to her when she remained dazed.
“Miss Mage?”
“Uh, yeah.”
Irina regained her senses and followed behind Frey.
“Even if we look alike, we’re just too similar…”
‘…..!’
Hearing her younger self muttering with a chilly voice behind her, Irina stopped in her tracks.
“No, I must be mistaken.”
‘…The next thing she’s going to say…’
A hazy scene from a childhood memory suddenly surfaced in her mind.
““There’s no way my chest would get that big.””
Irina muttered, and just as she did, her younger self repeated the exact words.
Irina’s eyes widened in surprise.
“…What on earth is going on?”
Irina started to sense something strange from that moment on.
“Miss Mage, please hurry up!”
“…Oh, okay.”
But without time to fully ponder the strangeness, Irina followed Frey’s lead as he led her towards the reception room.
“Frey, why do you look like that? Your expression is so grim.”
“You! Get a grip! There’s a princess and the Saintess right ahead!”
Frey opened the door and immediately bowed his head in apology to Clana and Ferloche upon entering for keeping them waiting.
“…I’m sorry.”
“Are you sure you’re okay…?”
“W-what is it? Could it be that you’re hurt somewhere?”
Although they hadn’t yet heard the news of his mother’s passing, they became worried after seeing Frey’s miserable appearance.
“I have something to tell you both.”
“Yes? What is it…?”
Right as Frey bit his lips and opened his mouth to speak, Ferloche abruptly stood up from her seat with a troubled expression.
“W-wait. I-I need to use the restroom.”
“…Oh, okay.”
Frey blankly stared at her and nodded with difficulty as Ferloche quickly disappeared out the door.
“““………”””
A brief silence enveloped the room.
“Your Highness, do you remember?”
“Remember what?”
“The oath we made in the forest.”
Amid that silence, Frey’s question traveled across the room, and Clana answered with a bashful smile.
“How could I forget? I serve you, and in turn, you’ll make me the Empress.”
“…So you do remember.”
Clana suddenly cleared her throat.
“Uh-hm, about that…”
“According to the oath, you will somehow make me the Empress… But I also have to serve you, right?”
“Yes.”
“But it’ll be quite a problem for an Empress, who is in the highest position, to serve another individual, even if it’s the first son of a ducal family…”
Clana explained with a troubled expression. Then, she subtly averted her eyes to the side.
“So I thought about it carefully… and there’s only one way to fulfill my part of the oath.”
“Your Highness.”
“I-if I… take you as my husband…”
“Haa…”
Frey heaved a deep sigh, and Clana flinched slightly before continuing with sweat trailing down her face.
“D-don’t misunderstand. You and I are just friends. This is just a way to avoid breaking the oath. If you don’t like it… Uhm… We can always look for another way…”
“Clana.”
“…Huh?”
Frey called out her name and cut her off.
“I’m sorry…”
With a pained expression, he began to speak after bowing his head on the table.
“I shouldn’t have made that oath back then… No, I shouldn’t have gone to your tea party in the first place…”
“Frey?”
“If I knew things would turn out like this, I wouldn’t have made contact with you at all… I’m sorry. I’m truly sorry.”
Clana, unable to understand what he was saying, tried to speak up.
“What are you talking about right now…”
“The mage said this memory manipulation magic works flawlessly on memories you want to forget… but memories you don’t want to forget somehow remain in their original form.”
Frey’s voice quivered.
“Even if I use this scroll, the contract will remain. If we had just been strangers, it would have been much easier for the both of us…”
“Frey…?”
Although Clana couldn’t exactly understand what Frey was saying, she could feel the depth of his sadness.
“I don’t know what’s going on, but I’ll help you. If I, your friend, am with you… we can somehow find a solution…”
She cautiously reached her arms out to Frey, who still had his head down.
“Still… It’s better than not using it.”
At that moment, Frey tore the scroll he was holding in half.
Shaaa..
“F-Frey, what is this? What did you do to me…? Ah…”
A myriad of colors enveloped Clana as her voice died down.
Frey, who had his head down the whole time, weakly called out to Irina, who was standing in the corner of the room.
“…Miss Mage, can you… do the same for Ferloche?”
“H-huh?”
“No, not just Ferloche… everyone else too.”
His face was wrought with unimaginable pain.
“I wanted to bid everyone farewell before changing their memories, but I can’t do it anymore.”
“Ah…”
“Ferloche, my younger sister, and everyone else… I’m sorry, but I feel like I might give up halfway if I do it myself any longer.”
Frey weakly lifted his head as he pleaded with a pained voice.
“I won’t ask for much. Just… please tell them that I love them. That I’m sorry. And that we should meet again.”
“………”
“Then, I’ll leave it to y-”
Frey abruptly paused before continuing.
“…Oh. Please leave out Serena’s scroll.”
“What?”
“At least hers… I should be the one to do it.”
Saying that, Frey stumbled up from his seat.
“Frey…”
Irina watched on with a look of pity as Frey tottered out the door.
“This… this is too unreasonable. Why are you having him bear everything? Just why? What are you doing when even the Demon God is so active?”
She murmured resentfully.
“Why does he have to experience such tragedy…”
However, she stopped and began chuckling dejectedly when she saw that the sun had already disappeared below the horizon.
“Ha, haha… hahaha…”
Blood dripped from her lips as she bit down with clenched fists.
“E-excuse me!”
At that moment, a voice rang behind her as Irina felt someone poking her back.
“…Ah.”
“Where did Frey go?”
It was Ferloche who had returned from the restroom.
“Frey said…”
“Huh?”
“That he loves you and that he’s sorry.”
Irina grabbed the scroll with both hands and closed her eyes.
“And…”
Then, she tore the scroll in half
““…to meet again.””
“……Huh?”
No, she tried to.
“Gugu!!”
A white dove she had seen many times before flew in and caught the scroll before it could be torn.
.
.
.
.
.
“…Phew.”
On the night Irina infiltrated Frey’s Ordeal
“Today was another fulfilling day!”
Within the dormitory, Ferloche Astellade was sitting in front of her desk and stretching her body.
“Then, let’s write today’s diary…”
After stretching, she picked up her quill pen with her usual bright smile.
However.
“Gugu… gu…”
“Huh?”
Her eyes widened as her pet dove flew in through the dormitory window.
“Gugu! Where have you been that you’ve just come back…”
She crossed her arms with a stern expression to scold the dove but soon gasped.
“…Huk!”
Seeing the dove’s body thoroughly injured, she stood up in shock.
“What happened?!”
‘…Finally, the time has come.’
From that point on, her expression began to change.
Shaaaa…
“Gugu! Who hurt you? Was it that violent owl?”
‘After countless repetitions, I finally reached the destination I’ve been longing for.’
As she infused her holy power into the dove, her thoughts were completely different from what she was saying.
“There’s no helping it! Come in! The wound is too severe!”
‘Did you remember? Did you? You did, right?’
With one hand, she pushed the dove, which had turned into a white lump, into her heart.
Then, with the other hand, she urgently unfolded the magic scroll she had recently received from the scroll merchant and started to mumble.
“I remember. I remember it completely. I can reproduce it exactly without a single mistake.”
Sincerity could be felt in the words which didn’t seem to be of unconscious or deliberate intent.
“It’s the first and last chance. There’s no next time if I fail. Everything will be over.”
She continued to mutter with a grim face.
“I have to meet the condition of ‘five enlightenments’. Will I be able to do it? Can I really do-“
Koogoogoooong…
“…Ha.”
As the sky started to rumble, she looked up and chuckled.
“Demon God, did you just notice? Well, I did make quite a ruckus.”
Koogoogoogooong!
“But it’s no use raging because that fury will be as if it never happened.”
Koogoogoong!!!
“I’m going to escape into the ordeal, the past that you deceived me into thinking was a fabricated world.”
Then, Ferloche declared-
“I’m leaving now.”
While shedding a single tear-
“To the only path that will bring you a happy ending.”
And finally, she quietly whispered.
“Retry.”
The world turned upside down.
.
.
.
.
.
“Good job, Gugu.”
Ferloche gently stroked the dove that brought back the scroll Irina was about to tear.
“W-what are you doing!?”
Irina stared at Ferloche with a dumbfounded expression.
“Lady Irina.”
But Ferloche remained unperturbed and posed a question instead,
“Did you know?”
“What?”
Her expression turned cold as she continued.
“…Even the dazzling sun is just one of the countless stars in the sky.”
Then, Ferloche took out the magic scroll from the scroll merchant, which had been copied without any error, and handed it to Irina.
