A Taste of the Past (2)
The damp night air clung to everything. Crackle, crackle. The campfire danced atop the kindling Vivian had brought, its flames twisting like living shadows. Saren slept soundly nearby, our spare clothes serving as both blanket and pillow. Vivian and I sat side by side, staring into the fire in silence.
“She’s sleeping well, Saren.”
“The young lady hardly moves at all on normal days, so she must have been exhausted. It’s impressive that she followed us without a single complaint.”
“······.”
It was probably because of me that she’d pushed herself. In moments like this, she really did seem like nothing more than a devoted twin sister who adored her older brother. How had this beautiful child become so twisted? What exactly had happened before I took over this body?
······Huh? Wait a second.
This was the perfect opportunity. With just the two of us awake, there was no better person to squeeze information about me and Saren out of than Vivian.
“Vivian.”
“Yes, young master?”
I stopped short. Was it really safe to reveal my true identity? Would she even believe me? What if she thought I’d lost my mind? Those thoughts flooded my head all at once.
“Young master?”
Still, I couldn’t keep wandering around in the dark forever. No matter what her reaction was, I had nothing to lose.
“How long have you been with our family?”
“It will be ten years this year.”
Ten years. Long enough to know us inside and out.
“Then you must know a lot about me?”
“Pardon?”
She tilted her head, clearly confused by the question.
“Don’t I?”
“You do. I knew you even before I came to this household. But why….”
Just as I thought. No matter how I looked at it, Vivian was the ideal person for this.
“I’ll just say it straight.”
“······?”
“I’m not the Serion Elsia you know.”
Vivian’s already tilted head cocked even further. Her blue eyes filled with bewilderment.
“You’re not Young Master Serion? What do you mean by that?”
How was I supposed to explain this? And even if I did, would she actually accept it? Everything still felt foreign to me too. But there was no other way.
I took a deep breath, looked at her, and began explaining everything that had happened to me. Everything except the regression part.
“······.”
Even after I finished, Vivian remained silent. She simply stared at me with those hollow blue eyes. It was strangely eerie.
“V-Vivian?”
“I don’t understand.”
“You don’t have to. I don’t understand it either.”
“So you’re saying you were suddenly dragged into this place one day?”
“More precisely, today. You brought Saren’s medicine this morning, remember?”
“Yes.”
“That was the start.”
“Hmm….”
Vivian gently bit her lower lip, lost in thought for a moment, then looked at me again.
“Then are you saying the young master I saw until yesterday and the one in front of me now are different people?”
I nodded.
“But your speech and behavior haven’t changed at all….”
That was the part that puzzled me too. There must have been a Serion before I possessed this body. So why wasn’t anyone treating me like a stranger?
“Anyway, that’s not what’s important right now.”
“Then…?”
“I don’t know who I am. Not Saren, not you, not even my parents. So I desperately need your help.”
“You don’t know?”
“Yeah.”
“Really nothing? Not even one thing?”
“That’s what I’m saying.”
“······.”
For a split second, a smile flickered across Vivian’s face. It was so brief I almost thought I’d imagined it.
“Why?”
“Pardon?”
“You smiled just now.”
“I didn’t.”
“···?”
Maybe I’d seen wrong.
“Then I’ll explain everything to you step by step.”
“Ah, yes. Please do.”
Vivian thought for a moment, then suddenly grabbed my hand.
“Please forgive my rudeness.”
“···Hm?”
Before I could even process what she meant, she yanked my arm toward her and pressed her lips against mine. I couldn’t react at all. I just sat there in a daze as her hot, wet tongue swept through my mouth.
“······.”
When she slowly pulled away, a thick string of our mixed saliva stretched between us before finally snapping and falling to the ground. Only after seeing her face flushed bright red did my heart begin to pound violently.
“W-W-What did you just… do?”
“Exactly what you’re thinking.”
But right now I wasn’t thinking anything. I just stared at her with my eyes wide open.
“There’s no need to be so surprised. We’ve had this kind of relationship for a very long time.”
“Originally?”
“Yes.”
“······.”
It sounded like a lie. How could a noble and a maid be in that kind of relationship? Of course, since I wasn’t originally a noble, it didn’t really matter to me. If anything, I was grateful to be in that kind of relationship with such a beautiful blonde girl.
“It’s obviously a secret, right?”
“Yes. If we’re discovered, I’ll be purged immediately.”
Purged. The single word brought back the memory of the guillotine in an instant, wiping the smile from my face. Saren’s severed head. Vivian’s headless body. The images flickered before my eyes as vividly as if they were happening right in front of me.
“Are you alright? You don’t look well.”
Vivian held my hand tightly and asked gently.
“······Yeah, I’m fine.”
“I’m sorry. I should have explained first before kissing you. I’ve been holding back for so long.”
So she was going to kiss me either way.
“No, it’s not because of you…”
And if Saren saw this, it definitely wouldn’t end with something like what happened with Chloe. She’d already cut my throat just for calling her pretty. What would she do if she saw us kissing?
The fear made me instinctively let go of Vivian’s hand.
“Ah…”
Hurt flashed across her face. But I deliberately looked away. I had to.
“Can you explain things to me now?”
“Ah, yes…”
Vivian took a short breath.
“You have never disappointed the master’s expectations. Whether it was academics or swordsmanship. You even picked up magic quickly, and the imperial family had their eyes on you as a promising talent.”
“But right now I can’t do any of that. That’s the problem.”
“That’s outside my area of expertise…”
“Yeah, I know.”
I couldn’t exactly ask a maid to teach me swordsmanship or magic. But if I just sat here doing nothing, would I even be able to progress the story? How the hell was I supposed to clear this?
“Ah, Vivian.”
“Yes?”
“What was my relationship like with my father?”
“What do you mean by that?”
When I’d looked for my father in the mansion earlier, both Saren and Vivian had looked shocked. That clearly meant something.
“Exactly what I said.”
“The master cherished both you and the young lady dearly. He always showed the same love to both of you without any discrimination.”
“Then why did you look so surprised when I asked for my father earlier?”
“Me? When?”
“Ah.”
Oops. That wasn’t something that happened in this life. My memories were starting to get tangled.
······I need to be careful.
“Not you. Saren.”
“Ah… I see.”
Vivian glanced at Saren, then leaned in close and whispered softly in my ear.
“The truth is… there was a time when the young lady asked the master to let her marry you. It happened right after her fiancé went missing.”
“Missing? How?”
“That still hasn’t been solved. Anyway, after that incident, the master stopped liking the two of you being together.”
It wasn’t particularly surprising. I had already seen her spit out the words ‘Big brother is mine,’ drenched in madness.
“Then what kind of child was Saren?”
“The young lady has always been quiet. She rarely spoke to the master or the mistress. She only smiled in front of you. Even I don’t really know the reason…”
She didn’t even speak in front of her parents. There had to be a reason.
“And from the moment I started serving her, she was already frail. No matter how hard the master tried to find the cause, he always failed.”
“I heard about that. You said you traded with the saint for medicine.”
“Yes, that’s correct. She was a sister from the very order we’re heading to now.”
“So that’s why our family has such a deep connection with them.”
“Yes, tha—!”
“Ah!! That saint!!”
When I clapped my hands together, Vivian jumped in surprise, her eyes widening.
“Do you know that saint’s name? The medicine-peddling saint!”
“Medicine-peddling saint…? Pfft!”
She looked momentarily flustered by my words, then let out a small laugh. The way her blue eyes curved beautifully was breathtaking.
“Ah, sorry. That was a bit crude, wasn’t it?”
“Not at all. Her name is Estelle. She is Sister Estelle Arcana.”
“That’s right! Estelle! It was Estelle!!”
The moment I heard the name, it flashed through my mind from the quest dialogue window. A smile naturally formed on my lips. As information slowly piled up, I started to see a glimmer of hope. Asking Vivian had been the right choice.
“Is there anything else you’d like to know? I’ll tell you everything I know.”
“More importantly, you don’t have to speak so formally to me. I told you, I’m not Serion.”
But she didn’t seem to care at all. She tilted her head slightly and answered with a radiant smile.
“No. To me, you are still the one and only young master in the world. You are my everything.”
“······.”
Thump. Thump. My heart began to race wildly again. That cringey yet sweet line had struck a chord in me. Damn it. I couldn’t even meet those blue eyes that were gazing at me so intently.
“Young master.”
Vivian’s warm hand cupped my face.
“Won’t you look at me?”
“······Huh?”
When I slowly lifted my head to look at her, my breath caught. Her face was flushed deep red, and she was staring at me with half-lidded, misty eyes. She leaned her upper body forward, bringing her face so close that our lips were about to touch.
“Should we… go into the forest over there?”
“W-Why?”
“······You know why.”
With those words, our lips met once again.