By the ti we made it up to the Special Class deck—
“What the hell.”
I muttered in disbelief.
“There’s no one here?”
They’d really all gone off on the lifeboats.
Jumping down from Zahid’s arms, I stood on the slightly tilted deck and looked out into the distance.
Several lifeboats were slowly heading toward the Belotsa port.
The Empress Dowager and Linna were probably on one of those. Cash had acted fast.
“Myaoooooong!”
That’s what it yelled at one last ti before leaving...
As I blankly watched the lifeboats—
Boom, boom, boom-boom-boom!
Suddenly, sothing exploded.
Startled, I turned around.
Boom boom, boom-boom-boom-boom!
It was... fireworks.
I stood there, dazed, watching the dazzling multicolored fireworks filling the night sky.
“This evening, before we reach Belotsa port, there’ll be a fireworks show for couples. I hear it’s best viewed from the Special Class deck.”
It must’ve been the fireworks magic devices installed on the ship, automatically going off on schedule.
Boom boom, boom boom, boom-boom-boom!
I’d spent a long ti at the Magic Tower, but I’d never actually seen real fireworks explode.
It really was a breathtaking scene, like stars falling from the sky. Even the surface of the water, shimring in rainbow colors from the reflected light, was beautiful.
“Rosie.”
I was lost in the fireworks, forgetting reality, when Zahid spoke.
“There’s so much I want to say, but...”
The sea breeze brushed through my hair.
“First, happy twenty-first birthday.”
“Oh.”
“I missed my chance to feed you cake, thanks to Lady Idra...”
Zahid pulled sothing from his pocket.
“This is your birthday present.”
With trembling hands, I accepted what he handed . It was a fountain pen.
“It looks ordinary... but I bought it at the Magic Tower. If you press here, you can record about two seconds of sound.”
He explained gently.
“You can capture this mont and keep it.”
I held the purple fountain pen and couldn’t speak for a while, for so many reasons.
Before regression, when I first learned to write, he’d given a pen. Told to hide it in the cracks of the prison walls...
But he couldn’t give ink, so that pen ran dry quickly.
Back then, Zahid promised that once I got out, he’d buy the best fountain pen. And at the sa ti...
“I just... want to rember this mont sohow.”
That’s what I told him on my twelfth birthday at the Academy.
He rembered that, and prepared this.
“...Did you know you’d et today?”
“No.”
Zahid smiled faintly.
“But it’s your birthday, so I thought... just in case, I wanted to have it.”
“...”
“I’ve always done this on your birthday, for nine years.”
I gripped the fountain pen tightly. More than today’s gift, the weight of all the gifts that hadn’t been given hit harder.
“I can’t tell you how happy I am that I finally get to give you your present today.”
Behind Zahid, fireworks kept bursting—boom boom, boom-boom-boom.
I caught my breath and murmured quietly.
“I want to make a wish.”
“Okay.”
Zahid chuckled softly.
“Make two.”
“Huh?”
“I never made a wish on my birthday, so you could have two.”
Tears welled up.
“But... can I really make two wishes, Zahid?”
“Why are you asking that?”
“So you don’t know either. Then I’m making two.”
Even though I used to brush things off, he rembered it all.
“...Didn’t you wish for to co back safely?”
“That’s sothing Ethan and I can make happen if we try.”
Zahid spoke quietly.
“If there’s sothing I can do, I should be working on it, not wasting ti on wishes. Aren’t wishes for the things we can’t change, no matter how hard we try?”
“Wow, that’s a really self-driven and future-oriented interpretation. Fine, I’ll make both.”
I gripped the fountain pen and made my wish.
‘Please let my brother get his mories back.’
With the boom, boom, boom of fireworks, I layered it with the sa wish I’d made before.
‘And...’
I barely held back the tears welling in my eyes.
I didn’t want to cry on a good day.
This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight.
Before regression, I’d never seen the sea, and I once told Zahid I wanted to.
Maybe he rembered, because when he died, he told this:
“If the regression works, /N_o_v_e_l_i_g_h_t/ live freely. Go see the sea you always wanted to. Now you can read, so go to the Academy, make lots of friends...”
But Zahid never knew the wish I left out of all those dreams, and died not knowing.
I wanted to go to the Academy with you.
I wanted to make friends with you, and I wanted to see the sea with you.
So even though this is the fourth day on the Entoho, today, seeing the sea with you is the most beautiful.
Instead of words I couldn’t say, I made the sa second wish as before.
‘And please let Zahid rember our ti together too.’
I knew it was impossible, I knew there was no way, I knew it was sothing I couldn’t even try to change.
‘But I have too many precious, too many warm mories just for ... too many words I can’t say, too many feelings I have to swallow alone. So even when I’m happy, my chest hurts so much...’
After earnestly making my wish, I slowly opened my eyes.
“All done.”
Zahid was staring straight at .
Behind him, fireworks were still exploding.
I held back my tears with all I had and spoke in a trembling voice.
“...I know this isn’t the ti for it, but you really look amazing. I think the view’s better from where I’m standing—want to switch spots?”
“No.”
Zahid slowly shook his head.
“I like seeing you better. Oh, should we record now?”
He glanced at my fountain pen.
“Actually, we don’t have much ti left...”
“If we don’t have ti, why’d we co all the way up here?”
“Because I want to do everything I can for you.”
Zahid smiled softly.
“There’s a lot we’ve missed out on.”
At the sa ti, his hand gently tangled with mine, gripping the fountain pen together.
The warmth of our touching skin made my heart pound.
Honestly, ever since we ran into each other in the Special Class deck with the Empress Dowager, sothing had been stirring inside .
The clear gaze, the lazy smile, the heat in his eyes, even the way his mouth seed to be holding sothing back—
Zahid had grown so much more handso than I rembered or imagined, and just receiving that deep, steady gaze made feel like I couldn’t breathe.
Standing close like this, our shaky breaths mixed in the sea breeze.
With our fingers overlapping, we clicked the button on the fountain pen.
Now these poetic, beautiful two seconds would be recorded—
“Woof woof woof! Woof woof woof woof woof!”
...Recording over.
Fire had returned, mission complete.
“Woof woof woof!”
Fire rubbed against my leg and barked.
Zahid and I stood in silence for a mont, then pressed the fountain pen’s button again to hear the playback.
“Woof woof woof! Woof woof woof woof woof!”
It was just Fire’s loud barking, recorded perfectly.
“Ah...”
And as Zahid slowly covered his forehead—
“Everyone, please remain calm and gather on the deck!”
Ray’s voice rang out through the broadcast.
“A rescue ship is arriving!”
At the sa ti, from far away, a large ship appeared on the horizon.
It wasn’t as big as the Entoho, but it was big enough to carry everyone safely.
And written in big letters on the ship’s side was the na...
‘Ah...’
.
‘Brother... you still haven’t gotten your mories back. It’s not the RosieRosie...’
Julian had brought the ship to rescue everyone, right on ti.
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