Vientin, who’d hurriedly tried to get his flushed face under control, spoke up. “Even for an archmage, time travel is impossi… No, just extremely difficult. If you put it in terms of probability, it’d be about 0.00001%. A probability like that is generally considered ‘impossible,’ but…”
“Duke Vientin Kalinos managed to create the ultimate healing potion, <Troll’s Snot>, with a 0.00001% success rate. If time travel has the same odds, then it’s more than possible you’ll pull it off too.”
“So my future self made a healing potion. By the way, <Troll’s Snot>, huh? That’s actually quite a decent name.”
…So this man had already possessed a destructive talent for naming things even in the past.
“Exactly. Please cooperate with me. It could be an interesting experiment, you know?”
“An interesting experiment?”
“Yes.”
“Alright, I’ll cooperate.”
As expected, bringing up an experiment had been a pretty good choice. I watched him, his eyes shining with enthusiasm.
“So, there’s something called a worldline, right? You can turn back time and all that.”
“Yeah, more or less.”
“Then we need a mechanism to determine whether we actually turned back time or not. Some kind of meter that can prove time actually went back.”
“Mmm.”
“And time paradoxes… If we assume there are multiple world lines, those are completely solvable.”
Vientin was getting way too into it, immersing himself in the situation. He really did look like someone who desperately wanted to see his older brother again. He’s really pitiful… The reason he had thrown himself into the monster war to such an excessive degree had probably been because of his older brother too. Thinking about that made my heart feel heavy, so I lowered my gaze.
I really do want to help him. I wanted to help this man meet his older brother, even if it was just once.
I held out my hand toward him. “I’m an archmage.” Just like last time, when we went to see my parents. “I can protect you!”
Vientin stared straight at me. Then he frowned ever so slightly and muttered, “…Fine, but in return.”
“In return?”
“I want to get my memories back first.”
He wanted to get his memories back first, huh.
“Why?”
“Because I want to meet my older brother after sorting out all my feelings and becoming an adult.”
“Ah…”
He rubbed his face with a dry hand. “If it were the me who had recovered my memories, I wouldn’t have acted like a child like I do now.”
I see. In that case… It would probably be better to try more physical contact. I nodded inwardly. They say you should strike while the iron is hot. There’s no reason for me to hesitate now.
I strode right up to him and set my hand on his shoulder, where he stood frozen in a daze. Then I leaned in and pressed a quick peck to his stiff lips, grinning as I did. “How was that? Did you remember anything this time?”
At that moment, his unfocused eyes grew wide. “You, w-what on earth are you doing…!”
“What do you mean by what am I doing? It’s something married couples do.” I shrugged.
He shot back, “You can’t have physical contact without mutual agreement. Do you want to be a shameless woman?”
“Yesss, Giselle is ve~ry shameless~!”
He probably still had no immunity to Giselle’s ‘being nuisance’ skills. It was just as I’d thought.
The eighteen-year-old Duke Kalinos merely glared at me, his cheeks still as red as an apple. “That, that…” By the time his face had turned into a bright red tomato, I finally got to hear the electrifying words that slipped out of his mouth. “Was, my first kiss.”
Apparently, I really was the shameless woman he said I was. Because after hearing that, the idea of apologizing didn’t even cross my mind…
“I like it very much, though.”
If anything, I was delighted.
I leaned in until my face was right in front of his. Right now, we were so close the tips of our noses brushed.
“But Duke Vientin Kalinos, you like things to be precise, don’t you? So I thought I’d try being a bit precise too.”
“W-What are you… Move your fa—”
“What we just did wasn’t a kiss. It was just a peck. Even kids do that.”
“W-What?”
Ah, there was one good thing about my husband becoming eighteen. He’s become completely innocent. The original Duke Kalinos had been a lifelong single too, but he’d at least racked up some years of worldly experience. He never acted this adorably. This is thrilling. To think he could make such an inexperienced expression.
When he gritted his teeth at the sight of my expression, I shrugged. “Want me to give you an adult’s kiss?”
At that moment, he looked as though he had just been hit over the head.
“N-N-No ne…” And yet Vientin couldn’t bring himself to say, ‘No need.’ Instead, he vigorously rubbed his lips. His lips, already red, were becoming even redder.
He’s being ridiculously cute. Compared to Duke Vientin Kalinos, who was older than me, this eighteen-year-old Vientin was much cuter. Cute enough to make me wish, just a little, that he wouldn’t recover his memories.
I grinned and teased him. “Oh, are you deliberately provoking me more? Asking for more kisses?” Then I shrugged again. “Well, it just feels like this helps jog your memory a bit better. How about it? Remember anything now?”
“Ha, ha…”
After repeatedly letting out sharp breaths, he abruptly stood up. Then he went outside.
What’s with him all of a sudden?
But his neck was bright red all the way up, and I couldn’t bring myself to stop him.
* * *
Damn it. She really is a crazy woman… But why didn’t he dislike it?
Intense images from the past kept playing in his mind. It was the day he first met Giselle. A scene that had remained incredibly vivid in his mind. It must’ve been at some party… She was wearing a garbage-bag dress back then.
Vientin sat down on the floor, his face bright red. I guess I fell in love with her then. Otherwise, there was no reason for his heart to have pounded so wildly upon seeing that scene. That woman really must have been my first love.
If it were the Vientin Kalinos who’d already been through hell and back, maybe it would’ve been different. But right now, Vientin Kalinos was just an eighteen-year-old kid, and he had zero immunity to things like love. Especially…
How does a person even think of wearing a garbage bag?
Her image kept lingering in his mind. And then…
He touched his lips as he thought. My heart is beating about 1.5 times faster than usual. The pumping of my heart has accelerated.
…The rather romantic kiss he had shared with her kept coming back to him as well. “Ah…” The moment he recalled that kiss, his face instantly turned red.
I remember now. Bits and pieces of their memories came back to him. Amidst all sorts of messy things… That woman was smiling so brightly. What he remembered was Giselle’s radiant smiling face.
Vientin, who was still only eighteen in his head, went beet red in a heartbeat. More than all the adult things he’d done, seeing her smile just once was even more…
…She’s so pretty, damn it. He clutched his throbbing head and let out a low groan.
It was right then.
“Looks like you remembered.”
When he lifted his head, Giselle was there, smiling as brightly as she had in his memories. In that instant, his expression twisted like he’d just taken a punch to the solar plexus. Then he muttered under his breath. “I think… quite a lot of my memories have come back now.”
“So physical contact really was the trigger that brought your memories back. How romantic.” Giselle looked at him with a grin. “If all your memories are back, then we don’t need to do any more of that physical contact, right?”
“Well, only about half of them back.”
“Ah…”
“Maybe we should start over from the kissing, since it feels like my memory still isn’t all there.”
The moment his red lips curved into an arc, Giselle smiled brightly as well.
“Liar.”
“Why do you think so, Wife?”
“Because the fact that you’re speaking formally instead of casually seems like a sign that all your memories have already returned.”
He grinned and asked. “Is it that obvious?”
“Yeah.”
Still…
“I get the feeling we can just drop all the complicated thoughts.” Giselle looked up at him and smiled sweetly. Then she pressed a firm kiss against his lips and pulled away again. “There. We kissed, okay?”
At that, Vientin grinned. Then his fingertips began to move slowly along the line of her neck, almost like he was tapping it. “You said an adult’s kiss was different. This much is… still far from enough.”
Feeling his hand wrapped around her neck, Giselle had thought… that tonight might be a little long.
[End of Special Story 2.]
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