"It’s difficult."
The ten-year-old boy muttered, crumpling a piece of paper covered in magical formulas with a rough hand. This was already the umpteenth sheet he had crumpled and tossed aside.
Elisha looked at the pile of paper strewn behind Erich and spoke in a listless tone.
"Even if you are a prince, you shouldn't waste resources so carelessly."
"……."
"I was told that if you squander the national treasury, either the country falls or the Emperor gets his head chopped off."
"How can you say such things so casually?"
Erich immediately shifted his gaze from the paper to Elisha, spitting out the words. Elisha simply shrugged her shoulders in response.
He hadn't even looked my way this whole time, and now he finally makes eye contact.
I didn't want to disturb him, so I just stayed quiet.
"What is it for?"
Now that we’ve made eye contact, it should be fine to approach him.
Elisha rose from the sofa and walked over to Erich. Erich placed a fresh sheet of paper from the stack beside him onto the desk and replied, pouting.
"There’s a magic I want to create, but no matter how I combine them, the magical formulas won't complete."
"A magic you want to create?"
Come to think of it, he did say he wanted to create magic that would make life easier.
When Elisha asked with her blue eyes sparkling, Erich cleared his throat and spoke awkwardly.
His voice sounded a bit embarrassed.
"……Magic that brings back memories."
"Memory magic? You already created that a long time ago, Your Highness."
I still remember how he stayed up for days and nights to create it, saying that his memories of his mother were starting to fade. Unlike other magic, he had even kept that one a secret from Bernhard.
Elisha tilted her head, looking genuinely confused.
Erich rolled his eyes and continued his explanation.
"That one requires a medium, after all. And it has to be an object that the person in question used for a long time."
"Yes, but."
"You haven't been here for very long, so……."
Besides, she must have already discarded the clothes she was wearing when she first arrived.
After finishing his sentence, Erich fidgeted, his lips twitching. Elisha blinked rapidly and asked again.
"Why me, all of a sudden?"
Her expression showed she truly didn't understand.
Erich couldn't meet her eyes and pursed his lips, then gripped the edge of the desk and grunted out his answer.
"Well……, it’s because I want to help you find your memories."
"My memories?"
"You said you don't have any memories from before you came to the imperial palace."
Unless she had sprung from the ground as an eight-year-old, it was only natural that she would have a past and memories of the life she had lived.
Yet, Elisha claimed she couldn't remember anything at all. Even when she first met his father, she had only said, "I think I was called a princess."
At first, he had brushed it off, wondering what kind of child she was, but if Elisha had truly lost her memories, that was a different story.
"Aren't you curious about your real name?"
"……."
"What about the people who raised you? Your parents?"
I was so afraid of forgetting my mother that I created magic behind my father's back. Even now, I look into it whenever I miss her.
"I……."
At Erich’s question, Elisha slowly fluttered her eyelashes and replied.
"I'm not very curious right now."
"How is that possible?"
"It’s not impossible. They’re memories I don't have, after all."
If there were even a faint trace left, it might be different, but there was no need to chase after intangible emotions that were as good as erased.
Without memories, there was no longing, and without longing, there was no will to search for them.
Of course, there were times when curiosity stirred.
"Because I like the present better."
"……."
"I like it now, and I don't want to know about a past that might have been good or might have been bad."
Considering her first meeting with His Majesty, it was highly likely that they weren't good memories.
Elisha continued in a perfectly calm tone. Erich forgot what he was about to say and just stared at her silently.
Not all memories can be good.
He should have known that.
"……I’m sorry forted in without asking and trying to find your memories."
Erich offered an apology without taking his eyes off Elisha. Elisha gazed at him for a moment, then opened her mouth with a faint smile.
"Did you just apologize to me, Your Highness?"
"N-no, I didn't!"
"You just said you were sorry."
"That was just…… without me realizing it."
"I read it in a book once. Words spoken unconsciously are the truth."
I don't know if he’d lose anything by just letting it go, but he really never knows how to lose an argument.
Erich pouted and looked at the white paper in front of him.
She likes the present so much that she doesn't bother to search for her memories.
Then, what if the moment comes when she has to find them?
* * *
Time passed, and several springs went by.
From the winter of the year he turned twelve, Erich no longer went out of his way to retrace his memories of his mother.
Because this moment had become more precious. Because he had become too busy to even catch his breath just maintaining his daily life.
* * *
"Erich, are you listening to me?"
Dante, who had been sitting on a sofa in the corner of the office, spoke up. Erich lowered the staff he was holding and shifted his gaze.
When Dante met his eyes, he let out a small sigh and began to speak again.
"Elisha asked the magic research department for help."
"When?"
"The department head came to tell me a little while ago. He said Lucy Forte asked for a spot in the lab because there was research she wanted to do."
You seem to have been too distracted to hear it.
Dante glanced at the firmly closed office door and continued.
"I suspect she might be trying to investigate her own mana, but if she’s gone as far as asking someone else for help, I think we should assume there’s more to it than that."
Of course, he wasn't entirely without his own suspicions.
Perhaps it was magic to summon monsters, or perhaps highly efficient, destructive magic she could use even while disguised. There was plenty to research.
That was something he could just ask about later when he went to the estate.
"But, you."
Dante fixed his purple eyes on Erich and asked.
"It’s not like you suddenly went blind or deaf. I kept calling you, but you didn't answer. What on earth were you thinking about that you didn't even react when someone walked in?"
Come to think of it, he had been like that ever since he returned from Erebna Palace.
He had suddenly grabbed the staff Elisha left behind, and from then on, he hadn't responded to anything anyone said.
As if he were lost in something…….
"I read the memories stored in the staff."
"Huh?"
At Erich’s deadbeat reply, Dante let out a strange sound.
You read the memories?
"You’ve developed magic like that? Haven't you been doing any research related to memories since I arrived?"
"I developed it before that. I haven't had much use for it since."
It wasn't like he had created it to use in front of anyone, anyway.
"But why all of a sudden? No, more than that, reading the memories of that staff would only show Elisha's memories."
Reading someone else's memories without permission is a bit…….
Dante muttered with a grimace. Erich spoke with an indifferent attitude.
"I can only see memories related to the caster, anyway."
Therefore, the only memories he could see were the conversations from the time Elisha was holding this staff.
Of course, that was exactly what Erich had been aiming for.
Unless something special happened, Elisha never let the staff out of her possession. This was the same even when she met Erich.
"Then why did you suddenly look at it?"
Dante asked again.
Erich glanced at the staff beside him and slowly opened his mouth.
"I needed to see objectively how I had been treating her all this time."
It was a fact he had already known well—that his words and his thoughts were two different things. But because he couldn't live his life looking in a mirror every second, he hadn't been able to properly grasp what kind of expressions or actions he used when dealing with others.
The words and actions one performs are glorified in one's own favor. Conversely, the harm one suffers is distorted, jumbled, and transformed into hideous memories.
Therefore, Erich needed to view it objectively.
It was the first true step toward clearing up the misunderstanding with Elisha.
And the result of watching all the memories in the staff was…….
"It was miserable."
"What was?"
"I didn't know I scowled so much when I dealt with Elisha."
Every time their eyes met, he felt his whole body trembling, so he had avoided her gaze. Whenever they talked, he felt like he would keep bursting into laughter over nothing, so he had suppressed his expression time and time again.
But it turned out he hadn't been composing his expression; he had been scowling.
"And my tone was quite…… blunt, too."
"That’s still the case now."
Dante muttered with sincerity. Erich easily ignored his words.
Anyway, according to these memories, it was no wonder Elisha reacted the way she did. Especially since Elisha was poor at reading emotions, she wouldn't have known the feelings hidden within them.
In such a situation, who would believe him when he said things like, "I’ve never disliked you"?
"……I have to set the misunderstanding right."
While I’m at it, I should proceed with the research on Elisha's mana, and I’d better fix my expressions and tone of voice, too.
Erich muttered with a face of utmost determination. Dante clicked his tongue as he watched his lord.
He couldn't tell how things had been unfolding since earlier, but one thing was certain.
Erich had committed a grave mistake against Elisha.
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