I Even Forgot that I Wanted to Remember it
“By the way Lucy, you said you kept a cat?”
Ortensia asked, and Lucy responded with a nod.
“What kind of cat? What color was it? Its name?”
“It was just an ordinary cat. Ah, but since he was a cat from the east, I feel like he had shorter hair than cats around hear.”
“So he had short hair huh….. Cats are lovely, whether they be slim or fat. So, what was its name?”
“…….name”
Lucy muttered the word to herself while resting her hand overtop her chest. She could feel the slight bulge of where her book was underneath her clothes. The first page had certainly said…..
“…..Ril.”
“Ril? So it’s called Ril. Is it a boy? A girl?”
Ortensia kept firing off questions one after another as her eyes shined like stars in the sky while Lucy did her best to trace her memories and give an answer. Whenever she tried to force something to be remembered, her consciousness would remain blank, but every once in awhile a memory would randomly pop up–albeit in a worm eaten state. She has been losing memories of old times many times since long ago. She would lose it, and then remember, then lose it again, and this was their state after numerous repetitions.
Actually, even though she could remember Ril’s silhouette, there was no recollection of her feeling any intense love or emotions. There was only the thought, “She was pretty,” left behind.
Ril was a gray, well-minded cat. Her tail was long, loving to sweep itself back and forth, and whenever you called out to her, she responded with a high-pitched cry. A cute cat with sapphire eyes.
She disliked wearing a collar, but when I placed a small belt on her front right paw instead, she purred happily and proudly narrowed her eyes.
Cute cute little cat Ril. She was kept at the laboratory…….but then the accident…..
Accident? What accident?
…….the experiment. Yes, it was an accident after the experiment. It succeeded……
Well, what experiment succeeded?
I cannot remember, but some experiment succeeded, Ril was hurt, it was serious, I wanted to help, so I desperately used magic………I didn’t want to forget, but I wanted to help. I used a large amount of magic…….
I forgot. I was thinking about how much I didn’t want to as I did. Ah, my life’s like that……
“……….Lucy? Lucy?”
Ortensia called her name several times before Lucy finally returned to herself, anxiety filling her eyes as she watched her roommate.
Apparently Lucy had completely blanked out while trying to look back at her memories, and Ortensia was continuously mumbling ‘Mi~”s to herself until Lucy finally nodded her head that she was okay.
“Sorry I’m feeling a little hazy. Um, what were we talking about?”
“What, you didn’t hear me? The letter my father sent, he was asking whether or not you knew how to properly take care of cats and if you were possibly allergic to them.”
“Astonishing development. Perhaps the Rosedot family has a cat…..”
“Two of fine pedigree!”
Lucy postponed the matter of her previous memories as Ortensia went into a long tirade about the elegance of the Rosedot family’s two high class cats and just how fluffy their fur was.
From a cat she had taken care of in the past, to a lady and cat she may end up having to take care of in the future. Focusing on the future rather than the past, that was how Lucy decided to live her life.
After school one day a certain conversation took place.
While she was walking in the schoolyard, Lucy stopped in her tracks and looked around her when she heard someone excitedly shouting, “Lucy!”
She soon saw a black-haired woman running towards her with an outstretched hand. It was obvious at a glance that the cape and robes she was wearing were not woven, and the guards were already close behind. She was an outsider, and she was now running towards an acquaintance she had seen…..was the way the situation looked. Although the woman kept calling Lucy’s name, and even though Lucy had no recollection of the woman or felt that she had ever heard her voice before, Lucy stood their planted to the ground with her eyes open wide.
She felt happy seeing that laughing expression on the woman’s face. Lucy tried to grab the book she kept close to her chest, but she was brought into a tight hug before she could.
“Um……”
Who are you? There was no way Lucy could ask that in this kind of flow, so she kept quiet while staring at the woman embracing her.
She wondered if her memories would restart after a long time when she noticed the tears in the woman’s eyes. However, no matter how hard she tried, she could not bring forth even a single memory. Lucy finally decided to try asking the woman since it couldn’t be helped…..when this time her name was called by a different voice.
It was a clearly spoken man’s voice. Lucy did have memories of that voice. She had not forgotten, she knew who.
Picturing the man the voice belonged to while looking back over her shoulder, there stood the figure of the golden prince.
“Claudio.”
“Lucy, who is that woman?”
“This person is…..”
Lucy’s eyes moved between Claudio and the brunette woman still hugging her, and any possible response got choked in her throat. Seeing that reaction, the woman swallowed a short gasp and slowly let Lucy go before bowing her head to Claudio. Her movements were somewhat awkward, and she bowed just a little too low creating a greeting that was just a little frightening.
Lucy finally was able to provide an answer, “Elena,” as the tension in her voice finally slackened a little. She remembered, Elena was like that.
“I am Claudio Barek. Welcome to Liztena.”
“Prince Claudio. It is an honor to meet you.”
The woman already knew Claudio was the second prince, and Elena once again awkwardly bowed her head. Claudio on the other hand told her, “I am just a student,” looking just a little bit tense. —It was certainly a meeting in stark contrast to when he met Lucy and really highlighted what he meant when he said, “Everyone knows me.” Lucy at the time though was standing to the side trying to loudly whisper to him, “Your highness, your highness, you’re being too self-conscious your highness.”—
Then Claudio tried to prompt Elena to raise her face before she turned her face towards Lucy again. She looked like she was about to cry, possibly even grieving. Something completely different from before…..
“Elena?”
“Lucy, you remember me?”
“I remembered. I’m sorry Elena, the letters…..”
Lucy was stopped before she could say anything else.
But rather than being unable to continue, it was that Elena had interrupted her again with another hug.
“Elena, what’s the matter?”
“Lucy, you…….you remembered right?”
Questioned by a trembling voice, Lucy could barely nod her confirmation.
She was feeling uncomfortable mingling like this. Even though Elena used to take care of her and hugged her every single day like this, it was much more embarrassing now for some reason. —Elena hugged her, and Lucy remembered some things. But that was it.—
Elena sensed that hesitation in Lucy and slowly parted once again, this time caressing her cheek gently looking a little disappointed.
“I would like to go greet the headmaster, Lucy, could you show me there?”
“Allow me.”
Elena was more than a little surprised when Claudio interposed himself into the conversation.
Even inside the academy there were students who would find it unbelievable that the prince of a country would act as a guide, but after seeing the expression on his face, Elena bowed her head once again saying, “Thank you.”
“Lucy, Ortensia was calling you. Something about the material for your dress.”
“Oh no.”
“Don’t make such a blatantly bothered face. I will take care of guiding your guest to the headmaster, so return to your room as soon as possible.”
“Yeeeees. Then Elena, let’s share a meal together next time.”
“Eh, right…….”
And so, Lucy left leaving behind a small farewell behind.
She waved back, pausing to look over her shoulder once, but still, only once. After waving her hand, she headed straight down towards her dorm, no sign she would miss the people she was leaving behind until her figure disappeared completely in the shadow of the building.
It was a sight that Elena couldn’t bear, and she crouched down onto the ground, covering her face with both her hands.
Security was about to move in to grab her, but they stopped upon seeing Claudio putting his hand on her shoulder to sit down next to her. A thin whine was quietly escaping her lips, and her thin, feminine shoulders were trembling. Claudio waved the security away as he continued to try and console this woman on the verge of breaking.
“…..I know it’s cruel to ask this kind of thing now, but if you know about Lucy, her magic…..”
Claudio tried interrogating her while still rubbing her shoulder.
Elena wiped her eyes, but new tears soon came to replace those, but she was still able to choke out some words in her trembling voice while staring at the space where Lucy had gone.
“Lucy is an ordinary commoner. She doesn’t have any magic power…..”
“What? Then how does she use magic?”
“That child uses…..it’s not magic……..”
Elena wasn’t able to finish what she was saying, but the point was made and it caused Claudio to completely freeze for a moment.
Magic is made by using your magic power, it boils in the pit of a person’s stomach until it is converted to perform whatever spell the person is using. Therefore anyone who doesn’t have any magic power cannot perform magic. That’s natural. How to use magic, every living thing knows this.
That’s why anyone who would think that Lucy’s magic worked differently would be seen as strange. The magic tool showed an usual reaction, but she still would have needed magic power to activate it in the first place. Its presence could have been said to be the one absolute.
…………….But what if you could create magic using something that wasn’t magic power?
For example,
“……….Lucy uses her memories to cast magic?”
Elena once again started to break down beneath Claudio’s touch.
It was neither a voice confirmation nor a even a nod, but it was an affirmation all the same.