I hurriedly tried to remember whether I had ever read a romance fantasy story with a plot like this, but at least among the ones I had seen, there was nothing.
In other words, there was nothing I could refer to for this ridiculous coincidence.
“Sweetie? What’s wrong?”
When I didn’t move a muscle, as if I had been struck by lightning, a worried voice reached me. I wanted to answer that I was fine, but at that very moment, my tail began to tingle.
‘What is this? Ah, the memories are flooding back again.’
Inside the darkened bedroom.
I saw Ariadne and Kiraxus, looking unmistakably as though they were secretly plotting something.
“Mother is going to be so surprised when she sees the memory stone later, don’t you think? She’ll probably ask what’s gotten into her daughter.”
“She will, Sister.”
“We should put the dice we have in here for now, too.”
“But…… it would be better for you to take this with you, Sister. If you suffer an injury that cannot be healed, the Dice will be a great help.”
“No. You shouldn’t use something so carelessly when it hasn’t been properly verified. They say the Dice can amplify Iculis by up to ten times if the compatibility is right, but how do we know whether the price might be our life?”
“……There haven’t been any cases like that, though.”
“Besides, we chased after the Dice for so long, yet we found only two. Even if we count the one Rahin gave us, there are only three. The Holy Empire bastards are after them, too. What if they take it from us on the battlefield?”
Ariadne reached out her hand.
Resting there was a sharply cut gemstone die. Even in the darkness, it emitted a faint glow, making it clear that it was no ordinary mineral.
Kiraxus’s lips tightened, but when Ariadne once again affectionately called him ‘Lushan,’ he could only nod as though he had no choice.
“Then where will you hide it?”
“It has to be a piece of furniture Mother can discover, while also being something she would never throw away. This dressing table, which Father had made as a wedding gift, is the most suitable.”
“There was a secret compartment here?”
“Mm-hm. I made it. Without Mother knowing.”
“……Sister. I think you could stand to be a little less proud of yourself sometimes.”
“Do you think so? This is a secret between the two of us, okay? Promise me you won’t show her until Mother finds it herself someday.”
“If that is what you wish, Sister, I promise.”
“Such a good little brother. Whose brother are you, anyway?”
Ariadne grinned mischievously as she took hold of the solid-gold leopard.
Crack.
She twisted the leopard’s neck into a rather grotesque position, and the underside of the dressing table seemed to open. Ariadne then placed the letters and the memory stone inside……
“Gasp!”
“Little lady! Are you all right?!”
I shot my upper body upright with a sharp gasp, and my nanny’s face appeared before my eyes.
“You just lost consciousness! Oh, goodness! Were you feeling unwell? What should I do? I’ll take you to the infirmary right away!”
“No, no, wait.”
My entire body was damp with cold sweat. Even my fluffy tail was still tingling at the tip.
But even though I staggered, I eventually managed to straighten myself.
‘I can’t think straight.’
After taking a few deep breaths, I realized that my tiny heart was pounding rapidly.
Lady Inna, who had been on the bed, had also raised herself halfway upright. She must have been terribly startled when I suddenly collapsed.
‘I want to tell her…….’
The memory stone Lady Ariadne had hidden.
But if she asked how I knew about it, what was I supposed to say?
After thinking for a moment, I eventually began putting on the most terrible act imaginable.
“Wo-wow……. Why is dat sparkly?”
“What? Sparkly?”
“I saw it when I fainted just now. Somethin’…… was all sparkly. Like dere was somethin’ hidden!”
Maybe I should use this card a little more cleverly. I could even negotiate with them, saying I would give them the memory stone.
But I didn’t want to become that kind of inhuman person.
“Looky here. The leopard’s neck is sparkly!”
The crying I had heard when I was a tree was still vivid in my ears. The voice that had wailed while searching for her daughter had clung to me and refused to go away.
So I pointed at the solid-gold leopard ornament, pretending as much as possible to be a child who knew nothing.
“Hm? Little lady, what are you talking about? Which part is sparkly?”
“Oh, geez. Dis! If you turn it like dis, I tink it’ll work!”
Although my nanny looked puzzled, she did as I told her for the moment. I repeatedly clenched and opened my little chestnut-sized hands, and then I discovered the underside of the dressing table, which was only visible from my height, slowly opening.
Thud!
At the same time, everything hidden inside the secret compartment spilled onto the carpet. It was almost as though presents had come tumbling out of a sack.
“W-what are all these things, Madam?!”
“……!”
I hugged the memory stone first, then surveyed my surroundings with the sharp eyes of a hawk.
If the ‘Dice’ Ariadne had mentioned in my memories were here, I intended to sneak it away. She had said it could amplify Iculis, after all.
‘Huh? It’s not here?’
But no matter how much I looked around, there was no jewel shaped like a die. Even when I craned my neck and peered deeper into the secret compartment, it was the same.
‘Tch.’
I had wondered if possessing it might let me become human.
Clicking my tongue inwardly, I hugged the memory stone and toddled off.
Pushing off with my hind legs, I went hop-hop-hop and stopped in front of Lady Inanna, whose face had gone stiff.
“Lady Inna, dis one is the pwettiest. Is dis a jewel?”
“……Evangeline. W-was there a secret compartment in that dressing table? That…… even I didn’t know about.”
The Duchess’s pheromones carried the shock she felt.
I had expected as much, so I simply giggled and held out the memory stone.
Lady Inna’s slender fingers trembled as she recognized, a beat too late, that it was a memory stone.
Could it be? Surely not.
Playing little pranks like this was something her daughter used to do often.
But could it really be?
—Ah, Mom! You finally found this!
But the very next moment.
Inna clutched her chest and collapsed. The moment Iculis was infused into the memory stone, the face she missed, the face she missed more desperately than death itself, appeared in the air.
***
—Mom, Dad. I think this is the first time I’ve called you that. How was the event? You were surprised, right?
A bright, healthy voice filled the bedroom.
It was a video they had already played and replayed more than a hundred times.
—I love you. I feel like I haven’t said that enough. Um, but I thought it would feel awkward, and…… it is awkward.
The beautiful woman with black, wavy hair had a cool overall impression and a lithe physique.
Perfectly honed muscles and the upright posture formed through harsh training from childhood. An arrogance born from superiority and skill blended together to create an unmistakable nobility.
The woman in the video was more beautiful and noble than anyone I had ever seen. And yet, there was also an easygoing warmth and gentleness about her that was unique to a knight.
—Live a long time. If possible, until my sons have all grown up and have children of their own.
Ariadne spoke cheerfully, then burst out laughing and awkwardly scratched her cheek.
—If I don’t say it now, I probably never will, so once again…… I love you, Mom. I love you, Dad.
Crackle. The video ended there.
Only then did the sound of people finally letting out the breaths they had been holding come from all around the room.
And that was roughly the hundredth time they had watched it.
“To think…… she left something like this behind and went away. What a wretched girl……. You have to tell us these things for us to know.”
When word spread that I had discovered Lady Ariadne’s memory stone, Grandfather, the head of the family, abandoned even his meeting and came running. Naturally, the retainers who had loyally served the young head of the family while she was alive came with him.
“What an unfilial girl. How could you leave your old parents behind and, while you were still so young, go ahead of us like that? You always came back alive. So why couldn’t you come back the last time? You little…… you little fool.”
At the head of the family’s lament, his eyes reddening, all the retainers turned their heads away and wiped their tears.
“Then, yes. Who found this?”
“The new little one found it.”
“The new little one…… how did she know? That there was such a device here, I mean.”
Fortunately, there was no atmosphere of interrogating me or anything like that. Both Lady Inna and Grandfather, the head of the family, asked me gently despite their hoarse voices.
Still, I couldn’t tell them the truth, so I simply answered like a child.
“It was sparkly. It just looked that way to my eyes…….”
“Could you see the magic? Perhaps you possess a talent for magic.”
“I dunno…….”
For now, I’ll just deny everything. I felt a little guilty, but it wasn’t a bad lie.
“Yes, what does any of that matter? You allowed us to…… see our daughter as she was in life again. You showed us our daughter telling us to live.”
And with that, the end of Grandfather’s voice grew wet with tears.
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