He did not remember me.
No, he simply treated me like someone he had never met before.
As though I were someone he had never seen before.
As if he had never met anyone named Dorothy to begin with.
What was that supposed to mean?
Why had he forgotten me?
There had been so many things I wanted to say when I saw him again.
I had piled up so many of them.
I wanted to shout all that at him.
But I could not call out to stop the man walking away.
All I could do was watch his broad back grow smaller and smaller.
Because I did not have the courage to look at that fierce face again—
To hear those words I never wanted to hear again from him.
He did not remember me.
No, he behaved exactly as though I were a complete stranger he had never met.
As though he had never met a girl named Dorothy in the first place.
What on earth was that supposed to mean?
How could he possibly forget me?
There had been countless things I wanted to tell him when we met again.
I had a mountain of memories stored in my heart, having waited only for this very moment.
I wanted to scream and grab him by the collar right then, but I could not bring myself to call out to that broad back as it receded into the distance.
All I could do was watch his retreating figure grow smaller at the edge of my vision, crying like a fool.
Because I did not have the courage to face that fierce yet dearly missed face and hear the cruel confirmation I never wanted to hear again.
It really had all been a lie...
That man had never existed in my world to begin with.
Like a futile dream on a sweltering midsummer day.
Like a cruel fantasy that would crumble into nothing, bursting into bubbles the moment I reached out my hand.
He had simply vanished like smoke.
Then—
"No..."
"Don't do this."
Vines began to slowly creep out from the shadows.
That halting voice I had heard then rang out lowly once more.
Just like then, the brainless pumpkin was burning every flame inside its head and stretching out its vines, wringing out every last scrap of wisdom it did not possess in order to speak.
But—
"Stop. I don't want to hear it."
I did not want to hear anything right now.
I did not have the strength to hear whatever Sancho was trying to tell me.
It did not matter whether what he had said back then had been a well-meaning lie meant to plant false hope in me, or a truth he had genuinely seen clearly.
Because just as he had said, there was no man like him in Logres—no man who recognized me—to begin with.
"That... my lady? That is not the knight you speak of."
A lie.
"The knight you speak of... is only a vessel. There is no soul within him."
Don't say something so ridiculous.
Stop shaking me.
Don't fill me with empty hope.
"He... never existed in the first place."
"He exists."
"He doesn't! I saw it with my own eyes! There was never anyone like him... not from the beginning!"
"But the iron helmet is real."
Sliiide—.
From deep within the black shadow that made up his body, Sancho slowly drew something out.
It was an old, rusted iron helmet—yet one more familiar to me than anything else.
"This... is proof that the knight was not a dream."
The cold feel of the helmet placed in my hands made my eyes sting.
"But...! We came all the way to Logres, just like you said, and he still isn't here...!"
"We merely arrived a little earlier than that knight did."
As Sancho finished speaking, the flame inside his head slowly sputtered out, and the halting voice that had been squeezing out wisdom gradually faded away.
"So rest for a while, and wait patiently."
Before me was nothing but a pumpkin whose flame had gone out.
As though it wanted to warmly stroke the head of the crying me, a black vine slowly rose and came to rest quietly atop my head.
It did not move.
It merely remained still, its vine resting atop my head.
"Retreating is not running away, and waiting is not recklessness. My lady, you have endured a difficult adventure to make it this far. So for tomorrow's sake, you stop your steps for today."
Yet it put me at ease.
Only a single large leaf at the end of a vine had been gently placed atop my head.
The fresh scent of pumpkin drifting faintly from Sancho.
The soft, warm feel of the large leaf against my head.
"Not rushing headlong into completing every adventure in a single day—that is what a wise person does."
'So today, we eat this delicious pumpkin soup, then go to sleep.'
The memory was hazy, and I could no longer remember who had said it.
But it made me dimly recall something I had loved and relied on most during the childhood I had forgotten.
"Though I lack a brain and cannot think... I have at least reached a certain level when it comes to waiting beside you."
Looking at Sancho, who had spoken fluently without a trace of hesitation, I quietly nodded.
"Because I am a scarecrow."
I was used to enduring things by then.
And so, together with Sancho, I decided to wait for that unbearably slow old man.
One night passed, then two, and the nights went on without end.
Little Dorothy grew into a proper young lady, Dolnesia. When she became old enough to reach the gates of the academy, she took second place in the academy entrance examination alongside Sancho and Rocinante.
Then, a splendid invitation to a banquet sent by the Imperial Palace arrived.
"Excuse me, Lady Dolnesia. Would you deliver this invitation to Young Master Ian? Ordinarily, it would be proper for me to bring it myself, but the head of the family instructed that you deliver it personally."
At the head butler Alfred's request to pass it along to Ian, I received the invitation addressed to him.
This invitation had been sent to the academy's incoming students.
Come to think of it, had the head of the family said that Ian would be entering the academy this time as well?
But why on earth was Ian going to the academy?
Standing before Ian's firmly shut door, I tilted my head.
It was not as if I deliberately avoided Ian or kept my distance from him because he was not the man I had been seeking.
I simply did not visit his room privately when I had no business with him. Whenever we met in the corridor, we were on ordinary enough terms to exchange a small nod of greeting.
Ian was the same way.
Curiously enough, Ian was a man who never greeted anyone first.
A man who, as though nothing in the world interested him, never approached anyone of his own accord.
Yet he never ignored words directed at him, always responding quietly.
A strange man who answered when spoken to, but never took the initiative himself.
That manner of his...
Reminded me of Sancho as he usually was.
A doll-like man who silently carried out only the tasks he was given and did nothing of his own volition.
Perhaps because of that, the head of the family never made Ian's existence known outside the Logres family.
Whenever there was a social banquet, he brought only me along; Ian had never once appeared in public.
Even Brother Cassian had repeatedly warned me never to mention Ian outside, so much so that 'Ian of Logres' was practically taboo beyond the family.
At first, I did not understand why, but even when I asked Brother Cassian, he merely shook his head sadly, as if there was nothing to be done.
I was not close enough with Ian to have private conversations, so I neither asked further nor remained particularly curious.
Still, why had the head of the family suddenly decided to enroll Ian in the academy?
Just as I was about to knock in order to enter the room—
The door suddenly opened.
"You were already inside, Ian."
The man standing directly before me in the shadow cast by the open door was none other than Ian.
"Ian, I came because I have something to do today."
The moment I was about to speak to him, a peculiar sense of unease suddenly wrapped around me.
How should I put it? His build beneath his clothes felt far larger and heavier than before, but stranger still was...
Had Ian ever once opened his door and come out on his own?
And—
Had Ian ever failed to answer me immediately?
The Ian before me simply stared at me without a word, as though he had frozen where he stood.
He only gazed blankly down at me.
As though he had seen something astonishing.
That was surely an emotion the Ian I knew would never harbor.
"Ian?"
When I sensed something was wrong and called his name again, he finally opened his mouth as though waking from a distant reverie.
"I've kept you standing outside too long. Come in."
Speaking in a tone so natural it felt foreign, he led me into the room.
A brief moment passed from when I crossed the threshold until a teacup was set heavily upon the table.
It was when I took a sip of tea.
'It is the knight, my lady. My lady.'
To Sancho's telepathic voice ringing in my mind, I replied quietly.
'I know, Sancho.'
To calm my heart, which was pounding as though it would burst, I clutched only my teacup and continued taking sip after sip.
It was truly such an unexpected reunion.
I had only come to deliver an invitation on the head of the family's orders.
And yet I had met my old man, whom I had waited for so long, like this.
But far too many years had passed for me to simply be happy to see him.
The little Dorothy from five years ago was gone, and standing here now was the grown-up Dolnesia de Logres.
What was I supposed to say?
Should I shout at him resentfully, asking why he had only returned now?
Should I just get angry?
Or should we spend all night talking about everything left unsaid over the past five years?
After I waited and waited amid that inner turmoil—
At last, his mouth opened.
"So, what did you need?"
Huh?
#
"But you kept pretending not to know me all this time, didn't you?"
"Ahem."
"So I got stubborn and decided to see how far you would take it. I held back and did not say a word until you spoke first... but then, out of nowhere, you started teaching me about things I needed to get at the entrance ceremony. I kept dropping hints right beside you, you know. Honestly—you kept your mouth shut to the very end. Really."
I had nothing to say to that.
It seemed Dolnesia intended to pour out every word she had been unable to say all this time. Her stream of words showed no sign of ending.
Unable to look her in the eye, I could only keep awkwardly clearing my throat.
So that was why, when I told her about the academy's hidden pieces, she had only nodded without asking a single question.
"No, then why didn't you say anything?"
If you had said something, I would have known.
Well, I had also deliberately avoided bringing it up because I was afraid you might get angry.
"Did I really have to say it myself? You oblivious idiot."
Dolnesia puffed out her cheeks in irritation and sharply turned her head away.
Her reaction left me dumbfounded.
So... she had wanted me to realize it first and say something?
She had kept quiet for nearly a month over nothing more than that pride?
In a way, she was rather impressive.
I pressed a hand to my throbbing forehead and let out a deep sigh. As the chirping insects, which had been crying incessantly, briefly fell quiet—
'...And all the while, you were flirting with other girls.'
A very soft grumble, casually tossed out as though she were talking to herself, drifted past on the breeze.
But I did not hear it.
What was that?
If she was going to curse me out or complain after seeing me again for the first time in five years, she should say it loudly.
"...What did you say?"
"Nothing!"
At my question, she squealed and sharply turned her head away once more.
The tip of her slightly exposed earlobe looked faintly red.
What on earth had she muttered to herself?
Haah.
Letting out a heavy sigh, I looked up at the moon in the night sky.
Unlike the Dolnesia I had expected, who I thought would be furious, she let the matter pass with only a light complaint.
If I had known she would end it with such a calm reaction, perhaps I should have worked up the courage and spoken first much earlier.
Had the lack of that one thing made us waste an entire month for nothing?
"...Dolnesia."
"What?"
Her cool tone snapped at me as though she were sulking.
Still unable to gather the courage to face her directly, I continued in a low voice while silently watching the moon.
"...Do you resent me?"
"Yes. Very much."
That was awfully blunt.
Of course she did.
It had only been ten minutes for me, but it had been five whole years for her.
Even if she outwardly complained so lightly, it would have been stranger if she did not resent me for disappearing so suddenly one day.
"Still."
Dolnesia rose quietly from the bench and stepped in front of me, blocking my view of the moonlit sky. With one hand, she lightly tucked her hair behind her ear.
"...Now that we have met again, isn't that enough?"
Meeting my gaze quietly, Dolnesia gave me a bright smile.
Her silver hair shimmered brilliantly against the moonlight at her back, as though welcoming the glow.
Her blue eyes shone even more clearly amid the deep shadows, refusing to be swallowed by them.
And with that naturally smiling face added to it all—
...She really was fucking beautiful.
No wonder she was the protagonist of a romance fantasy.
Just as I was naturally appreciating the beauty before my eyes—
The Dolnesia who had been so confident until a moment ago suddenly lowered her head, face reddening, and began fidgeting with her fingers.
"...And you haven't forgotten, have you?"
"Forgotten what?"
"That! Your promise that you would let me hire you once we arrived in Logres!"
Ah, that?
"I'm already a member of Logres. How am I supposed to be hired by you?"
Unfortunately, this body belongs to the same Logres family as you.
I don't think that will work.
But—
"You have no intention of becoming the head of the family anyway, do you?"
"...That's right?"
"What if I become the head of the family and hire you?"
As if that would work...
I was about to shake my head with an incredulous expression.
But at that moment, a bolt-like memory flashed through my mind.
There had definitely been an ending route where Dolnesia became the head of the family as well.
But...
That required Cassian to be gone.
As long as Cassian existed, she could never reach the ending where Dolnesia became the head of the family.
"Hey, Cassian is right there. How could you become the head of the family?"
"Of course I'm joking. Brother Cassian is perfectly fine, after all."
Dolnesia stuck out her tongue slightly, then rested her chin on her hand and fell quietly into thought with a contemplative look.
Then the atmosphere suddenly grew cold.
"...Then should I ask him once Brother Cassian becomes the head of the family?"
Dolnesia muttered to herself in a quiet, whispering voice.
"...Ask him what?"
A chill ran down my spine, and I cautiously spoke to Dolnesia.
"Nothing at all."
But she wiped away that unfamiliar air from moments ago and returned to normal, smiling prettily again.
...But why was it?
For an instant, it seemed something sticky had lurked in her glittering eyes.
Must have been my imagination, right?
"Well then... mister."
Dolnesia naturally clung close, wrapping herself around my arm.
A dizzying softness pressed directly against my arm.
And her sweet body scent rode the breeze, stimulating all my senses.
Just as I froze in surprise at her sudden action—
"...Shall we make a spirit together?"
Her playful yet secretive whisper brushed past my ear.
With a smile as though it were nothing at all, Dolnesia whispered and slowly pulled me along.
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