Honestly, I wasn’t even really listening to what he was saying. Did I really need to hang on to every word an eighteen-year-old kid said?
The real reason I’d been quiet was simple. I liked the aroma of the tea, so I’d just been letting it linger in my mouth. Though I guess that might’ve accidentally made him feel guilty.
I watched him, almost like I was studying him. He kept dodging my gaze and muttered, “Sorry if I hurt your feelings. Since you are… my wife, I suppose my words could hurt you.”
Ah, so that was it. Who knew Duke Vientin Kalinos had such a cute side to him? If the people who called his red eyes demonic saw him now, they’d probably fall flat on their asses.
After a brief silence, he spoke again in a low murmur. “But anyway, putting everything else aside, there’s something I want to ask. I mean, is it really…” He drew in a short, deep breath, then whispered even more quietly, “Is it really true… that my older brother is dead now?”
I just couldn’t muster the courage to answer that properly. Because his eyes looked so terribly hurt. At this rate, he looks just like an abandoned puppy. But lying to him wasn’t an option either.
I let out a deep sigh. “Yes. He passed away.”
The rims of his eyes flushed red. He looked like he might cry any second. When he reacts like this, my heart really breaks.
I reached my hand out to him. “You woke up to the news that your older brother died, suddenly found out you’re married to a strange woman, and can’t even find any trace of your older brother. You must have been so thrown off, right?”
“That’s…” He stole a glance at me and turned his gaze away. “…My older brother’s death is a shock. That’s true.”
“…”
“Still, I have something to say. I never… thought of you as a strange woman. Maybe as a woman… I can’t stop thinking about.”
“A woman you can’t stop thinking about?”
“Yeah. Roughly once every ten minutes, you pop into my head.”
“…?”
“Ever since the opera that day, I guess. I keep having, i-improper thoughts about you…”
What is this even…? I tilted my head and asked, “Is that a confession?”
“…” Vientin’s face started burning up again.
Ah, I should probably stop teasing the poor eighteen-year-old now.
I offered him a bright smile and held out my hand. “Hand.”
“What…?”
“At times like this, we should at least share some warmth while talking.”
“What are you talking about? There’s no research that reports anything like that.”
I said, naturally as ever. “Ten years ago, which you have no memory of, there was a paper published about the effects of physical contact.”
“Really?”
“Yup.”
“…Then, excuse me.” He slowly brought his hand to the tips of my fingers.
How naive.
Honestly, I had no idea if a paper like that existed or not. But there was one thing I did know. When you lose someone you love, that despair can be healed by the warmth of another person. That’s why I held my hand out to him.
“Ah…”
Yet the very moment our fingertips brushed against each other, he subtly knitted his brows.
“What’s wrong?”
“My memories… it feels like a little bit of them is coming back.”
“Huh?”
“Did I originally… address you with formal speech instead of informal language?”
My eyes widened in surprise. “You switched from informal to formal speech after we got married.”
“Right, I remembered that hasty marriage. In front of my parents…”
“Hasty marriage? We went through proper wedding vows and everything.”
“…And the marriage contract too. Bits and pieces of that….”
How strange. Perhaps the trigger for Duke Kalinos to regain his memory was physical contact. Then should I try holding his hand tighter? But just as I was about to grab his hand more firmly, Vientin shot to his feet.
“No.”
Ah, is he back about the premarital chastity thing again? I’ll let it slide this time. Besides, I have plans anyway.
* * *
“Giselle! I hear that good-for-nothing Duke Kalinos is in bad shape these days.”
Meanwhile, I was dragged to the parlor by Count Florette, who had dropped by the mansion late. Even though this was a strict class society… Count Florette has just about stopped caring about propriety, hasn’t he…
Anyway, Count Florette sat on the parlor sofa, huffing and puffing. “I’m still mad I ever agreed to that ridiculous marriage in the first place!”
“Yes, you look really mad.” His face is bright red…
“Exactly! Cursing at him every single day isn’t even enough. But after taking you, he has the audacity to be weak and sickly! I don’t like him one bit!”
“Is that so? Then what’s that bundle of medicine you’re holding?”
“Hmph!”
“It says, ‘To: Vientin Kalinos.’”
“It’s nothing! I just grabbed whatever was lying around.”
He looked just like a father, no, a grandfather, who boils up deer antler tonic the moment a kid at home gets sick. He kept saying how much he hated him, but did he grow fond of Vientin in the meantime? Well, if so, that wasn’t a bad thing.
Count Florette let out a scoff and grunted. “S-Still, you like him, Giselle, and he made you happy! I absolutely still haven’t acknowledged him as my son-in-law!”
The words ‘We’ve been married for years. What are you going to do if you don’t acknowledge him…’ almost spilled out of my mouth. Because I’m a dutiful daughter… I forced myself to swallow the words.
“T-Then I’ll be going, Giselle. The doctor said that medicine is good for memory, so make sure he takes it!” Maybe embarrassed by the fact that he’d just worried over Duke Kalinos, he scurried off without even waiting for a proper goodbye.
Watching Count Florette’s retreating back, I snuck a look at the medicine packet.
[Effective for strengthening memory]
Seeing the word ‘memory’ suddenly made me feel a bit sentimental.
To eighteen-year-old Vientin Kalinos, Giselle didn’t mean anything at all.
Clutching the packet Count Florette had left behind, I let out a long, heavy sigh. Teasing him is fun, sure…. But all of a sudden, I found myself wishing he’d hurry up and get his memories back.
“Ah, right. Giselle?”
“Yes?”
“There is that… thing your parents sent you a while back.”
“What…?”
“It’s a novel titled [Time Travel], but I can’t tell if it’s a novel or some kind of theoretical text. Would you like to read it?”
My eyes went wide. Time travel?
A story about how to turn back time appeared before my eyes as if it had been prepared in advance, just waiting for me to see it.
* * *
Right after I got the time travel materials from Count Florette, I headed straight for Vientin. But he looked even worse than before. He couldn’t meet my eyes properly, and his face was flushed bright red, like he was drunk.
Is he that upset because of his older brother? …Once he got his memories back, his feelings would naturally fall into place too.
I carefully lifted the bundle of papers toward him and gave it a little shake. “You look like you’re having a hard time because you can’t even find a trace of your older brother, so let’s go back to the past together. I’ll help you so you can at least say a final goodbye to him before you part.”
“How are we supposed to go back to the past? What exactly are you planning to…?”
I grinned. “What they call time travel.”
He probably didn’t remember any of it right now. But not long ago, I’d traveled through time and met my parents in their younger days.
“But time travel’s impossible. The accepted theory is that you get caught in a time paradox and end up stuck.”
I brought my index finger close to his lips and grinned. His words cut off in an instant. From the tip of his nose where my hand brushed, a slow flush spread.
“W-What are you doing all of a sudden?”
“Normally, sure, time travel would be impossible. But.” I smiled and drew my hand away from his lips. “I’m an archmage, remember?”
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