“Yeah, fine. Anyway, write to me when you get back. Here’s my address.”
Since he told me to write, I did take the slip of paper with his address on it.
“You’re not even surprised that it says Count Sehera?”
“It’s not like you really tried to hide it in the first place.”
“Is that so? Well, if you ever come to my mansion, room and board’s free. Got it?”
“Well… okay.”
We were never going to see each other again anyway.
I felt like I was about to cry already, so I turned my head away. “Then goodbye.”
“Not even taking your wages. What a useful mercenary you are. Anyway, you—” He shouted loudly at my back as I turned around and hurried away. “Don’t crumple that note! Come back again someday! Then I’ll give you a present!”
…Without ever getting to hear what kind of present it was,
That was how I left him behind.
* * *
That night, the magic of the <Time Slip Machine> came to an end. Clutching my spinning head, just as my vision went completely white, I quietly opened my eyes. It wasn’t the mercenary band from twenty years ago. I was back in the Kalinos Mansion.
“How much time has passed?”
“I checked the clock. It’s been thirty minutes and thirty seconds.”
“I see…” I let out a hollow little laugh when I saw Vientin by my side, holding my hand tightly.
“Giselle, are you alright? I’m worried. Shall I call a doctor?”
“No, I’m fine. It’s just, right now…”
“…So?”
“I just want to rest a bit.”
In the end, I hadn’t managed to change the future where my parents died. Even though I’d gone back to the past, I hadn’t changed a single thing. The moment that thought settled in, all the strength drained from my body.
“…I truly wonder if you’re actually fine, Giselle.”
Even as he kept asking, everything felt strangely unreal. It was like I was just floating above the world. On top of those restrictions… I even found myself wondering if maybe all of it had just been a dream. But…
“Even if it really had been a dream, if I said I was happy just because I got to see my parents again… would that sound weird?”
My one week probably hadn’t left even the briefest trace on my parents’ lives. But if I said that just the fact that I’d gone back in time and met my dead parents again made me happy…
“I’d call that a romantic story.”
Hearing that from a man who didn’t know the first thing about romance made me burst out laughing in earnest. As Vientin stared at me, looking completely at a loss, someone knocked on the door behind him.
“Come in.”
“Your Grace, Madam. Count Florette has arrived in great haste.”
Over the butler’s shoulder, I saw Count Florette hurrying in, all flustered.
The count waved a hand at me and shouted. “Giselle, Giselle! They’ve found more of Count Sehera and his wife’s belongings! Isn’t that something? We definitely turned the place upside down. Where on earth did this come from?”
“…”
“It’s pretty worn out, but still. Come on, let’s have a look!”
The moment I saw what the count was holding, I was struck speechless.
* * *
Vientin, Count Florette, and I sat facing one another with a round table between us.
“It’s the strangest thing. I swear it wasn’t there when I went through everything, and then it just suddenly popped up out of nowhere.”
“Ah.”
“Is this a bit undignified of me? But it’s just so amazing, I can’t help it!”
In the count’s hand I could see an apple-shaped brooch and a crumpled piece of parchment. My father’s handwriting was on it. Maybe because I had just come back from seeing him, I couldn’t bring myself to open it. I just stared off into empty space, and Count Florette urged me on.
“Giselle, go on, check it. Looks like he must’ve had a friend with the same name as you. Your name’s written on the outside of the envelope!”
[To Giselle]
The moment I saw the outside, I opened the envelope as if under a spell. A piece of parchment, now all worn out with age, slipped out from inside.
[Hey, Giselle. Spending time with you was actually pretty fun, you know? I wonder if the day will ever come when I can send this letter to your home address. Anyway, there really isn’t another mercenary like you. I even thought about taking you on as a disciple, but a free spirit like you ought to be off wandering the wilds. I hope you’re doing well.
p.s. This is a present. I never told you this, but when you drink, your face gets ridiculously red. I honestly thought you’d turned into an apple. So when I was going around the jewelers and saw an apple brooch, it made me think of you. It’s not expensive, but my fiancée and I picked it out after a lot of thought, so you’d better keep it on you until the day you die.]
“Apparently it was sent to the Adelia and got turned.”
“Ah…”
My foolish father must have actually trusted that fake identity and sent this letter. So this was probably the last note my father had tried to send me.
“The apple brooch is a bit worn, though…”
The brooch was rusted and old. Even so, I couldn’t hold back the sudden, overwhelming feeling that welled up inside me.
So I really did meet them. Both of them. I had crossed time and space to go meet my mother and father. It had been like something out of a dream. And now that moment I’d thought was only a dream had come back to me, spanning all those years. Before I knew it, tears were falling, drip, drip, onto the tattered parchment.
“Oh dear, Baby. Why are you crying like that?” Count Florette looked at me, clearly flustered. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have brought this.”
“No, I’m happy. I’m crying because I’m happy.”
In the end, memories are what stay with you. I remembered the words written in the <Time Slip Machine> manual. The <Time Slip Machine> responds to your innermost wish… Only then did I realize I had been longing for my parents for a very, very long time.
“Ah, haha…”
“Giselle, are you sure you’re really happy? You don’t look well at all…”
“She’s just overcome with emotion. I’m sure she really is alright.”
At Count Florette’s worried words, Vientin answered almost mechanically, then drew me into his arms. I cried in his embrace for a long time.
Count Florette, and even the butler standing in the doorway, could never truly understand how I felt, but…
“This is a very fine brooch, isn’t it?”
…There was one man by my side who understood my heart.
He whispered softly. “Yes.” As he pinned the brooch to my dress, he murmured, “It suits you very well, Giselle.”
I clutched the brooch he’d just fastened and said, “So, um, there’s somewhere we need to go.”
“…A place we need to go?”
I took Duke Kalinos’s hand and said, “Yes. Somewhere we absolutely have to go.”
“Where are you going?”
“… That’s a secret.”
Count Florette still looked worried, but I was truly fine.
* * *
“Oh, welcome!”
…To run into the innkeeper I’d seen just yesterday, in my time. He’d aged more than twenty years, his hair gone completely white, making him look unfamiliar. Yet he was still in the same place, guarding his inn with the same lively energy.
“Welcome! Are you staying for the night?”
“No. We’re just here for the pub.”
The innkeeper enthusiastically suggested the bar tables. “Have a seat, and here! The menu!”
After ordering two beers and sitting down, I looked around. “The mountain’s gone completely.”
“The mountain’s completely disappeared, yes. About twenty years ago, Count Sehera and the mercenary band moved it for us! Thanks to that, you don’t see even a trace of monsters around here anymore!”
“…Ah.”
“And that mountain’s become completely purified now. People complain, saying they don’t get why anyone would move a whole mountain. But honestly, it’s because they moved it that the monsters were wiped out for good. Count Sehera really had foresight!”
“I see.”
“Oh, am I rambling too much? Folks from the capital probably don’t know and don’t care about this sort of thing. It’s just some forgotten old story to you…”
“Ah… It’s not that I don’t care. If anything, I care a lot.”
When I answered clearly, the innkeeper, who’d been peering down at me with a flustered face, faltered.
“I was wondering why your face looked so familiar. Somehow you look like one of those mercenaries who were here back then. But I’m an old man now. My memory’s fuzzy.”
…I felt a prick of guilt. It made me think that my past self really had left some kind of mark on this man, at least. There was no way he’d actually recognize me, but I should still make myself scarce.
I boldly downed my beer in one go, then asked him, “Then where’s the mountain Count Sehera moved?”
The innkeeper pointed off into the distance. “Over that way.”
Following the direction he indicated, I kept walking. At my pace and Vientin’s, it took about an hour before a green mountain came into view.
“I don’t see any trace of monsters.”
“No, and no sign of felled trees, either.”
“And no mercenary band…”
For some reason, it felt a little lonely. Standing before the unfamiliar mountain where I’d first met my parents, I quietly closed my eyes, then opened them again. Father and Mother weren’t here. Only I was left. But…
“Giselle.”
“Yes?”
“Don’t make that lonely expression.”
“…”
Did I look like that?
“It’s just, it feels a little lonely that everything’s gone.”
“Not everything is gone.”
“Is that so?”
As I lowered my gaze, Duke Kalinos lightly brushed the brooch pinned to my dress. “Here. This is proof the count and countess loved you, isn’t it?”
I let out a small laugh and touched the brooch myself. “You’re right. Just like memories remain even after time passes…”
The moment I finished speaking, a breeze blew across my cheek, as if wrapping me in warmth.
[The End of Special Story 1.]
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