Episode 01
I gambled away my entire fortune.
"Are you alright, young lady...?"
As an elderly gentleman nearby asked with concern, Tania drew a soft curve on her lips.
"I'm fine. It’s just that my life is ruined."
The atmosphere around her grew even more somber at those words, but she laughed nonchalantly.
With a youthful, pretty face that looked like she had just reached adulthood, she looked completely out of place in a gambling den.
"You’re a kind soul to worry about others in a place as treacherous as this."
Tania twirled a strand of her soft, rose-gold hair around her finger.
"Sigh, I guess I’m just not cut out for gambling. That was a close call."
At that, the people around her looked at Tania with expressions that clearly said, 'It looks like you're already in deep trouble.'
"I don't know how wealthy your family is, but with an amount like that..."
Despite the concern pouring in from all sides, she only smiled with a sense of ennui.
"You're right. It’s enough money to have swallowed up several buildings in the heart of the capital."
And who was it that earned that money?
She knew the value of that sum better than anyone.
"But this round wasn't my fault. The opponent cheated by bottom-dealing, so there's no reason for me to lose the money, is there?"
She had clearly memorized every card, yet the fact that the outcome kept deviating from her predictions was proof enough.
"This is why you shouldn't even play against professional gamblers."
Tania clicked her tongue as if she had wasted her time, then suddenly shrugged lightly.
"But it’s fine. I can just use my ability to fix it."
To begin with, she hadn't exactly played a fair game either, since she had memorized the cards in advance.
As Tania spoke as if she were about to flip the table, the guards focused on her and began to approach.
Feeling the physical pressure, she gathered her brows as if it were a pity.
"Unfortunately, I’m not very good at physical combat. Isn't it fortunate that saving has become a habit for me?"
Tania smiled brightly and personally introduced her motto to the others.
"Let’s all make saving a part of our daily lives. Backups are not an option, but a necessity."
[Loading Save Point 1.]
In an instant, her vision flipped and the scenery shifted.
As soon as Tania used her ability, everyone in the gambling den, including herself, vanished, leaving only silence behind.
No, it wasn't that the people had vanished. Everything that had just happened had been rendered as if it never occurred.
✦ ✦ ✦
I fidgeted with my fingers in front of the tightly shut door.
It was fine to come see my only friend, Elysion, before leaving for a distant place.
But now that I thought of it as the last time, I couldn't bring myself to knock.
...Wait a second. We are friends, right?
Suddenly contemplating our ambiguous relationship, I tried to shake off the thought and knocked softly.
"Sion, I'm here."
As I rapped on the door of Elysion's Laboratory, a small voice leaked from inside.
"There is no such person here."
Excuse me? Then who is the owner of that familiar voice I just heard?
I briefly considered forcing the door open, but out of spite, I waited patiently for him to open it.
"Fine. I’ll hold my breath until you open the door."
Ten minutes later.
With a look of betrayal, I raised my voice as if to make sure he heard me.
"You murderer!"
To not open the door for long enough to kill a person—wasn't that too heartless?
That was when it happened. This time, as if my voice had finally gotten through, the locked door rattled and opened by magic.
He was going to open it eventually.
I shrugged lightly and stepped into his Laboratory.
"Hello. You look busy."
Elysion calmly set down the quill he had been moving diligently and turned his gaze toward me.
"Tania, didn't I clearly ask you to tell me a year in advance if you had a request?"
There was a playful glint in the corner of Elysion's mouth as he said that.
If he wanted me to tell him a year in advance, didn't that mean I shouldn't make any requests at all?
"I just came to see you today because I missed you. Should I go back?"
"...Welcome to my Laboratory."
Perhaps pleased by the words that I had come because I missed him, he stood up and began to prepare tea himself.
He glanced at me curiously as his hands moved busily.
"It’s not like you to come see me without a request..."
"It's the first time, isn't it?"
"Is something wrong?"
At his piercing question, I couldn't manage my expression for a moment.
I hurriedly composed myself and asked in a teasing tone.
"Sion, have you ever accidentally, or unfairly, lost data you worked hard on?"
Like, if this were Earth, you're just about to save a file and a blue screen suddenly pops up.
Or the power goes out unexpectedly before you can save.
Or you accidentally overwrite a finished file with another one.
At my question, Elysion furrowed his brows and looked disgusted.
"Why are you suddenly talking about such a horrific thing?"
"Oh. Your expression is worth seeing."
I pulled up the corner of my lips crookedly. It was a slightly more interesting reaction than I had expected.
Well, he was a mage, so he must have experienced such disasters quite often.
For instance, research data compiled over several months being blown away by an explosion during an experiment...
"Anyway, how do you feel when that happens?"
"I want to throw it all away."
"Anything else?"
"The thought of wanting to turn back time?"
"Exactly."
I smiled softly and poured out the thought I had been harboring without telling anyone.
"Actually, my life is like that right now. I want to go back to the beginning."
"Tania."
Elysion’s blue eyes sank into the shadows.
"Your life is still brilliant beyond measure. Why on earth would you think such a thing?"
I let out a self-deprecating laugh.
"I have plenty of money. But I don't have family to share my happiness with, do I?"
"...Should I be your husband, then?"
I giggled at his joke.
"Sion, you might not know, but I had someone precious who was like family to me. They passed away five years ago."
Mr. Aiden.
He was the one who had suffered his whole life just to raise me, even though I wasn't his own child.
How could I just let him go easily, telling him to rest well in heaven?
I only had one choice.
To abandon everything I had built here and go to meet him.
Ever since he passed away, I had been collecting information to use in my next life.
From major things like past climate conditions and political trends, to minor things like various scandals of the nobles.
Since I had decided to discard this life the moment I confirmed his death, I didn't feel like what I had built up was a waste.
However, the only thing I felt a lingering attachment to was...
I stared blankly at Elysion.
His silver hair shimmering in the light. Even his blue eyes that reminded me of the sea.
He stayed up all night for work countless times, yet there wasn't a single blemish on his face.
I always thought that his handsome appearance felt like a full measure of divine favoritism.
I suddenly leaned in and, before he could even register it, grabbed his collar and kissed him.
The warmth of his lips against mine was vivid. My heart was pounding in a pleasant way.
I pulled away after a simple kiss and beamed at him.
"This is a parting gift."
"Ah...?"
Perhaps because he was too shocked to even process the words 'parting gift', he stared at me with dazed eyes.
How much time had passed?
Elysion’s face, having finally grasped what had happened, flushed bright red in an instant.
He covered his lips with both hands, looking quite out of character, and hurriedly backed away from me.
"You, you...!"
I pointed at the corners of my mouth, which were creeping upward, and giggled like a mischievous boy.
"Sion, you like me, don't you?"
"...What?"
After looking at me with a stunned expression for a moment, he shouted with a somewhat agitated face.
"What! You’re the one who’s been liking me for a long time, aren't you?"
"Huh?"
I blinked my eyes.
Because I knew I would have to part with Elysion someday, I had deliberately kept my distance.
Besides...
No matter how I thought about it, it was he who had come to find me every day since our first meeting without any particular business.
Even when I asked for this and that, thinking it was a good chance to put a precious mage to work, he would listen without a word of complaint.
But that I liked him?
Purely out of curiosity, I tilted my head to the side.
"Why do you think that?"
"Because...!"
He opened his mouth as if he had a lot to say, then hesitated and bit his lip.
I chuckled and poked his cheek with my index finger.
"If you don't like me, that's actually a relief."
I can leave without any regrets.
I swallowed the rest of my words and smiled brightly at Elysion.
"Take care."
Then, I quietly closed my eyes and used my ability.
[Which save point would you like to load?]
▶Save Point 1
Imperial Calendar Year 286, September 28th.
19:41:42 (Age 19)
▶Save Point 2
Imperial Calendar Year 286, August 1st.
15:50:29 (Age 19)
▶Save Point 3
Imperial Calendar Year 286, October 1st.
12:41:42 (Age 19)
▶Save Point 4
Imperial Calendar Year 274, April 20th.
13:07:42 (Age 7)
Do you know what the greatest advantage of Save and Load is?
The answer is that you can always discard a ruined outcome and start over from a saved point.
Yes, I was planning to start my life over.
To my seven-year-old self, the worst time of my life—a time I would never have returned to if it weren't the only period when Mr. Aiden was still alive.
✦ ✦ ✦
"Stay well."
"Tania, what is that supposed to—!"
Tania, who had been right in front of him, vanished. Elysion found himself blurting out those words in an unfamiliar room, not the Laboratory where he had been with her.
He gritted his teeth, realizing that Tania had turned back time once again.
"Are you trying to pretend nothing happened even after kissing me?"
Ha! It was absurd.
If nothing else, shouldn't she have left something behind so that he, too, could remember such a monumental moment?
And what was with that farewell? Why act as if they would never meet again?
He didn't know what she was planning, but he could not let her go like this.
Elysion’s blue eyes gleamed sharply, like a predator that had caught its prey.
"If you’re going to seduce someone so openly, you have to take responsibility."
However, he did not know it then.
That Tania had turned back time to a point in the distant past, incomparable to anything that had come before.
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