"There's pain? This is the first I'm hearing about that. Since I haven't tried it myself..."
There was only one type of potion that worked on ntal illnesses. While there were still several bottles of the potion Esperanza had brought, they were useless in this case.
"Wait a mont."
Esperanza ran to the research lab. Hearing the urgent clattering sounds, Cider glanced anxiously toward the door. She wasn't breaking anything, was she?
"Ah, Howard. You don't know about the research content either, do you? Millen neither?"
"No. No one would know. It was research the Count did alone. For now, it seems there's no thod other than recovering your mory."
Cider wasn't particularly enthusiastic about recovering his mory. Things seed fine enough as they were now. Esperanza was interesting in herself, and ti passed quickly just reading the research materials accumulated over three years. Besides, wouldn't cases where only specific period mories disappeared so cleanly be extrely rare? He wasn't without desire to enjoy this rare state a bit longer.
But that didn't an he could go to a demonstration where even the Queen was coming without knowing anything.
Whether the reason for not doing military work was to secure ti for spaceti machine research or for other reasons, there was no point in unnecessarily falling out of favor with the royal family. Seeing that even the Pri Minister was attending, it seed like they were trying to handle his absence from the House of Lords as well.
It was also true that he needed to periodically give both the Queen and Pri Minister opportunities to utilize him.
"It would be better to postpone the potion."
Esperanza, erging from the research lab, slumped onto the sofa. Her cheeks seed a bit paler than before.
"Did they say it's ineffective?"
"That's not the problem—they say it's painful enough to make you faint."
Cider, receiving the report, flipped through several pages to skim the results section. Eight out of ten test subjects complained of extre pain and fainted. The remaining twenty percent also reported considerable pain. Even with good luck it was 'considerable pain,' and with bad luck it was pain severe enough to lose consciousness.
But it wasn't fatal, nor did it cause permanent damage. Wasn't fainting-level pain a reasonable equivalent exchange for three years of mory?
However, Esperanza was firm.
"We should look for another thod."
"Weren't you hoping for my mory to return?"
"Not through this thod! You're talking nonsense, really."
Surprised by the unexpectedly strong rejection, Cider slowly nodded. Only then seeming relieved, Esperanza continued in a deflated voice.
"We still have ti, so let's try classical thods first."
So what she brought out was a photo album.
"Will this work?"
"Honestly, I don't think it will, but we have to try."
Cider had an expression that seed to say 'If you don't think it'll work, then why?' but Esperanza ignored it.
The first page was already an unfamiliar photo. Cider was soone who made caras, not soone who got photographed. The collection of this many photos was probably because of Esperanza too.
"This is Glailly House."
Cider was leaning against the research lab balcony, and it was a photo Esperanza had taken after spotting him from the first floor.
It was a completely unfamiliar face. He had never thought of himself as soone who could make such an expression. Such a face that seed to be lting, already half-lted. It was understandable that Esperanza considered the current Cider a different person from him.
The next photo, the one after that. Sotis there were photos of the two together, and photos of Cider alone were generally taken secretly by Esperanza. There were also photos that seed like Cider had taken of Esperanza, but the first few had blurry subjects. He thought that when putting them in the album, he himself would have quite strongly objected.
The well-taken photos were definitely by Esperanza. Her eyes sparkled when turning the album pages.
"I'm pretty good at taking photos."
"It seems so."
Photography was invented to convey things as they are. He knew that purpose well and had made machines to achieve it. But these photos contained emotions that shouldn't exist in photographs. Very sweet and soft emotions, so vivid they seed like they would rub off on one's hands.
There were only a few, but there were wedding photos too. Among them, only one showed the two kissing. Turning a few more pages, faces of people he knew, people he knew but wasn't close to, and strangers appeared mixed together. Why had he beco friends with these people? Since he couldn't understand, Cider beca briefly bored.
"This is Cordelia. The Cordelia of the Mabelwood baronial family. We sohow beca close. You wouldn't rember, would you?"
"Not at all. If mory that didn't return even seeing you won't return seeing Lady Cordelia."
"Even hearing Mabelwood, nothing cos to mind?"
"Unfortunately not."
Esperanza hesitated briefly before speaking.
"We beca friends there. Various things happened. We searched for things together. You completed your machine too."
"You beca friends?"
It was sohow untrustworthy. It didn't seem like a lie, but it was strangely disagreeable.
"We did. Um, we t Lord Sterling then too."
Should she talk about dungeons or not? Esperanza briefly read the situation.
Let's skip it for now.
The next photo was Bellingham. Because of dungeons, the two had traveled to many places. Even seeing the photo of the vast ocean, there was no change in Cider's expression.
"Photos don't work? Then do you rember this by any chance?"
She extended the watch she was wearing on her wrist. Cider opened the diamond-decorated lid. It was a bit heavy, but there were no other notable functions.
"Did I give this to you?"
"A week ago."
It was during a late morning while leaning against the headboard making silly jokes. 'When will you take care of my wrist?' A casual remark. Looking down at the wrist from that comnt, there was a watch that felt no tallic coldness at all, as if it had been put there at so point.
"What's the occasion for the gift?"
Her birthday had passed, and their wedding anniversary was far off. She tried calculating if there was so forgotten anniversary, but nothing ca to mind.
"Gifts given by counting dates are boring."
That's all Cider had said. Well, Cider was always the type to suddenly present unexpected gifts at unexpected tis. Esperanza liked this approach too.
"But is it really just a watch?"
"It's just a watch. Sotis things like this are nice too."
Cider's eyes had sparkled with mischief as he said that. Esperanza beca suspicious, but thinking he'd hide it to the end anyway, she didn't ask further. In any case, the watch was very pretty, and Esperanza had liked the gift.
That's how it had been...
"Is it really just a watch?"
Cider asked. He seed suspicious.
"According to you, it's just a watch."
"Yeah right."
"Then what is it?"
"I don't know for now. I can't disassemble it. I don't rember."
Esperanza hid her disappointnt and put the watch back on her wrist.
Next ca the necklace received as a wedding gift, the magic stone pin she had personally fastened for Cider, and even a sumr outing hat, but nothing helped at all.
"If this doesn't bring it back, there's no answer."
Esperanza, pulling the hat down low, sprawled on the sofa. The wide hat brim cast shadows down to her nape.
It was familiar sohow. Cider definitely thought so. But the mory was only hazily outlined, as if covered by fog.
"For now, let's rummage through research materials. Looking at them, sothing might suddenly click."
"I don't think that'll happen, but it wouldn't hurt to look."
Cider gladly brought over old materials and began skimming them. He belatedly thought it would be more comfortable to read at the desk, but there was a sense of stability this position provided.
After lying there for a while, Esperanza carefully removed her hat, hung it on a coat rack, and headed to the bookshelf. Cider's used notebooks should be sowhere around here.
When Cider, who had pushed aside several research materials that gave him an 'unlikely' feeling, looked up, Esperanza's toes were floating in the air.
Really.
White skirt hem wrapped around her ankles. Cider's gaze slowly moved upward. Esperanza, with her arm propped against the topmost shelf of the high-ceilinged first-floor study bookcase, was dangling her toes while searching for books. She looked as peaceful as if standing with her feet on the ground.
And now it wasn't very surprising. Neither the Countess who went around barefoot, nor himself who didn't find that sight unpleasant despite having no mory of it. Probably before losing his mory, he had been so accustod to it that he couldn't even be conscious of it. ...Or perhaps he had been conscious of it in a different sense.
Hair swaying at her waist and toes repeatedly hiding and appearing inside her skirt. The sound of quietly humming an unfamiliar song. Sharp gaze and perfectly accurate sniping. From her gait to her thoughts. This mage was fundantally a foreigner, and he didn't dislike such aspects. Even the feeling of being led along a path of polished emotions was rather welco.
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