Bang.
As the door closed, a landscape unseen before appeared before me.
“…”
This room was definitely unfamiliar.
Yet for some reason, it felt oddly familiar.
Raphne had become trapped in this tower as a penalty for losing to Ken in their duel.
No one told her how long it would last.
She was left alone in this place, waiting for a day that might never come.
“… You said you liked me.”
Tears dropped from Raphne’s downcast eyes.
“… You said you liked me…”
A voice filled with resentment.
But the source of her tears wasn’t resentment.
After losing to Ken in their duel, the words he had told her echoed in her mind.
“Raphne, for tormenting me, you are confined to the tower.”
She remembered the cold gaze he had given her.
Why had she forgotten?
She had been the one tormenting him.
Somewhere along the way, she had blinded herself with affectionate feelings for him, forgetting that fact.
Faced with his cold gaze, the forgotten truth resurfaced.
Raphne was not upset about being trapped in the tower.
“… Sniff, sniff.”
It was simply the realization that her dream of a happy future with him was no longer possible.
That thought clutched painfully at Raphne’s heart.
“Why did I do that?”
Now she regretted her past actions.
“… Sniff, I’m such an idiot.”
She sank to the floor, weeping endlessly.
More than the man who had locked her away despite saying he liked her, she resented herself for tormenting him.
“I’m really such an idiot…”
Just a little while ago, she hadn’t felt these emotions at all.
Suddenly, her mind was filled with thoughts of him.
Suddenly, she dreamt of becoming his lover.
Forgetting everything she had done.
Then Raphne’s gaze drifted to the empty space before her.
The furniture necessary for living was adequately prepared.
Yet, for some reason, that space felt achingly empty.
“… Why, is this happening?”
As Raphne looked at the void space, her shoulders began to tremble.
For some reason, this place was repulsive.
There was a disgusting sensation slowly creeping up from her chest.
But Raphne couldn’t understand what this feeling was.
It was a sensation she’d never felt before.
But it felt so familiar it was frightening.
“… Ah, ah….”
Suddenly, that sensation grew overwhelming.
“I, I hate it, I hate it, I hate it—!”
She curled up, wrapping her arms around her head, pressing her face against the cold stone floor.
Then she felt she understood the nature of this unpleasant sensation.
Crippling loneliness attacking her like a wild beast.
And the pain of everyone rejecting her.
Parents, clan, friends, academy, even her country.
No one was looking for her.
Everyone had turned their backs on her.
Forgotten despair washed over her again.
“Sniff, sniff…”
For some reason, in that familiar feeling, panic set in, and Raphne’s mind kept conjuring his face.
“… Ken… Sniff, Ken!”
Tears dripped down, soaking the floor as she endlessly called the name of the person she longed for.
When everyone turned away from her.
Only one person.
The one who would come to find her.
And the more she searched for him with desperate longing,
“I’ll never abandon you…”
Fragments of memories she had never experienced began to surface in her mind.
“What is this…?”
Raphne wept as she looked with despair across the room.
There, she saw herself.
Clinging to someone and pleading for them not to leave, while crying.
And before her stood a beloved figure.
With a round and plump body.
But kinder to her than anyone else.
“Stop crying now. I’ll come again tomorrow.”
A gentle smile gazed fondly at the girl in her memories.
When together.
As long as they could be together.
It made her indifferent to who rejected her.
That precious person.
That cherished memory.
“… What is this?”
Raphne watched in disbelief at a sight she had never encountered before.
*
“Is she doing well?”
I was lost in thought, looking at the moon that rose from the window in my dormitory.
My mind was filled with thoughts of Raphne.
She had ended up trapped in that tower as I intended.
When I considered a shocking situation that would trigger her to regain her memories after the consultation with Alicia.
That tower immediately sprang to mind.
The root of my meeting with Raphne.
And the space that existed in most of her lost memories.
The moment I first met Raphne rushed back.
Her mind had crumbled, desperately clinging to me, begging me not to go.
“… Will she be alright?”
That was why I worried.
Raphne really hated being alone in that place.
Thus, I created the pendant to break her curse and help her escape the tower.
“… Haah.”
I gently brushed the pendant resting in my hand.
Since I had made it once, I could replenish it and create it again by transforming my magic into the necessary materials.
Of course, by now, such an item was unnecessary for Raphne.
But still, it was the result of the memories we had worked hard to create together.
“… She must be struggling.”
Even though Raphne had no memories, the emotions from the past flared up easily.
If that was the case, trapped in the tower, those feelings would resurface as well.
I once again looked at the moon shining in the dark sky.
And the image of Raphne, trembling alone in the tower, came to mind.
“…”
This was not good.
I jumped straight out the window.
Thud.
My light body landed softly on the ground.
Then I dashed along the familiar path to that dear place.
Originally, I had planned to leave Raphne alone in the tower for a few days.
Just in case a short duration might cloud her memories from returning.
But wanting Raphne to regain her memories was merely my selfish desire.
Was it alright for her to suffer in the tower because of my desire?
I had just confined her there myself.
Rushing to her without wasting time was a ridiculous sight.
“… Let me just check on her state.”
Before long, I arrived beneath the familiar tower.
Still old, shabby, and with a simple high structure.
“Hmm, the entrance is probably hard to peek through…?”
I looked up at that tall tower.
The only opening there was the window of the room where Raphne was.
In the past, I would have never imagined taking such action.
But now I planned to climb the outer wall of the tower to approach the window.
With the strength to take down even a field boss single-handedly, this shouldn’t be too difficult.
Whoosh.
First, I carefully leaped silently from my spot.
I reached halfway up the tower and placed my hands at a suitable position.
As expected of an old tower, it was easy to find a grip with the gaps in its wall.
Before long, I reached the topmost floor where the window was located.
Clunk.
I cautiously grabbed the window frame and pulled myself up.
It was late at night now.
If it were the usual Raphne, she would have been asleep by now.
The silence from within suggested she wasn’t crying.
I peeked over the window ledge to check the state inside the room.
“… She’s not on the bed…”
And then I spotted Raphne lying on the floor.
“R, Raphne—!”
Upon noticing her, I unconsciously shouted and jumped into the room through the window.
Was confining her to the tower too cruel after all?
It must have been hard for her to endure in such a space.
I hurriedly lifted her into my arms.
“Raphne—! Wake up—!”
Her body was warm, and her breathing was steady.
Still, she had a pained expression on her face.
“… Mmm.”
As I cradled her in one arm and gently shook her by the shoulder with the other, her eyes slowly opened.
“Ken….”
When Raphne opened her eyes and saw me holding her, her pupils shook.
“… Ken.”
She raised one hand to my chest and clutched my collar.
As if to say ‘Don’t go anywhere.’
Then her hand gradually rose, and soon she wrapped her arms around my neck.
I felt Raphne’s familiar warmth as she buried her face in my neck.
“R, Raphne… are you okay?”
She didn’t seem to have any visible wounds.
Yet her state felt strange.
She held me tightly without saying a word.
Then suddenly, she opened her mouth.
“Ken… am I… hated?”
Her voice trembled.
In stark contrast to her bold tone from earlier, her voice was anxious and frightened.
‘Is it because I confined her to the tower…?’
I couldn’t muster a response.
There was no denying it, I had confined her to the tower as a punishment for my torment, after all.
I could only stroke Raphne’s head gently with sympathy.
“You know… I realize I did things that would make you hate me.”
At this, Raphne continued her own thoughts.
In a voice that threatened to break, one that sounded like tears were imminent.
She turned her face, which had buried itself in my neck, slightly to look at me.
As I had expected, small tear droplets blotted her eyes, looking at me sorrowfully.
“But I can’t stop thinking about you.”
“Raphne…”
Eventually, the tears gathered in her eyes overflowed, sliding down her cheeks to fall to the floor.
“I know I’m bad… but I keep thinking about you, and I keep wanting to see you.”
Looking as if it was difficult to meet my gaze, she dropped her head.
“… So I met you like this, but I still wanted to see you.”
Then she shook her head.
“No….”
“… Not so?”
What did ‘not so’ mean?
I had assumed Raphne would naturally seek me out.
That’s how it had always been since before she lost her memories.
But now she was saying that wasn’t the case.
“The you I want to see, the Ken I’ve missed… isn’t like this…. Sniff.”
“… Raphne, you.”
“I want to see you. I didn’t have such memories before you lost weight… but I really miss the you from then….”
Finally, Raphne laid her face against my chest, sobbing softly.
‘This is…’
It’s working.
It was clear that even before being trapped in the tower, her feelings for me were significant, but now Raphne was undoubtedly searching for the ‘me’ from her past memories.
Not the current version who looked different after losing weight.
But the one who had come to find her persistently when she was trapped in the tower.
Although she hadn’t clearly recalled it yet.
Something was still missing.
While her memories had been triggered by the trauma of the tower, the parts of her that were forgotten hadn’t wholly returned.
“Raphne.”
As I stroked the hair of the sobbing girl, I called her name.
Then, gently gripping her shoulders, I looked into her tear-filled face.
“… Though I look different now, the Ken Feinstein you’re looking for is definitely me.”
“…”
“I’ll prove it to you now.”
Raphne stared at me silently.
When I first heard about shock therapy from Alicia, this was the method that came to my mind first.
But since it was a strong memory from my perspective, I hesitated on whether it would apply to her.
Still, I was certain it would work now.
If Raphne was seeking me with such desperate longing.
This memory must hold significance and intensity too.
So I approached her as she looked up at me, teary-eyed.
And I kissed her.
“… Huh?!”
As I kissed her suddenly, I heard Raphne’s surprised voice, but her trembling hands didn’t push me away.
Instead, she clutched my shoulders tightly as if trying to hold on.
The sensation of her soft lips returning after so long.
And the warmth of her body and the familiar comforting scent enveloped me closely.
“… Ah, aah…”
After a moment, I gently pulled back my lips, and a blushing Raphne looked at me with trembling eyes.
“Y, you just kissed…!”
Her mouth fumbled over her words in shock, and her eyes spun around, flustered.
Then, Boom!
“… Whaaa!
With steam rising from her head, Raphne collapsed into my arms.
“W, what?! Raphne?!”
I hadn’t expected her to faint.
*
Perhaps it was a mixture of the intense stress from being in the tower, the gap between the me in her memories and the me in reality, and the surprise and excitement from the sudden kiss overloading her thoughts.
I figured this out as I caressed Raphne’s cheek while she lay on the bed.
‘No fever, thankfully.’
Luckily, Raphne, who had been like a shaken leaf, calmed down after being laid down on the bed for a while.
Now she lay peacefully.
‘… I wonder if it worked.’
I couldn’t think of any more intense experiences that could ignite her memories.
Of course, jumping into the trap at the Tower of Tarros could be considered a powerful memory, but I couldn’t risk doing anything so dangerous.
If possible, I hoped this would be enough to bring back her memories.
Waiting with my hand held around Raphne’s, I prayed.
“… Mmm.”
Raphne opened her eyes.
Swish.
“Raphne? … Are you okay to get up?”
As soon as she opened her eyes, Raphne sat up.
And stared blankly ahead.
There was no reply to my call.
With worry flooding my heart, I waited for her to take some sort of action.
Then—
“… O, oh?”
The vacant expression in her eyes began to regain its light, and soon Raphne’s face was enveloped with confusion.
“Raphne…?”
“Ken….”
When I softly called her from the side, her trembling eyes looked my way in surprise.
Then she looked at me with an inexplicably frightened expression.
… What was going on?
If it was because of the kiss a moment ago, she should be blushing, not terrified.
… Could it be?
“Raphne, have you… regained your memories?”
“…”
I asked her about the moment I had been longing for, gripping her hand with anticipation.
But for some reason, Raphne averted her gaze awkwardly, as if she were playing dumb.
“Me, memories? Hehe, Ken, wh-whatever do you mean? I’ve never forgotten you!”
It was clear that her memories had returned.
The Raphne right in front of me, her demeanor, everything was identical to before her past was altered.
Yet…
“… Why can’t you look me in the eye?”
“W-wha? Me? No way! I can see you perfectly!”
Something was off about Raphne’s state.
She appeared to be hiding something.
This was Raphne, who had spent the most time with me since I possessed Ken. Her reactions usually gave away her inner feelings.
“… Wow~ It’s incredible, though! I just returned from a journey, and it’s so cool~ I suddenly woke up on the bed. Hehe.”
In particular, her current demeanor was similar to when she was lying.
If her memories had returned, why would she lie?
What was she even lying about?
“… Wait, did you say you just came back from a journey?”
“… Ugh.”
She likely referred to the time after we conquered the Tower of Tarros and returned.
… Have her memories only been restored from that point on?
‘Then what about her memories before she lost them…?’
It couldn’t be that regaining her memories would cause the new ones made afterward to fade away.
Whenever I heard Raphne speak, it sounded like her prior memories had vanished.
“… Hehe.”
“…”
When I stared at her suspiciously, she forced a smile, as if to gloss over things.
But as that gaze continued, tears began to fill her eyes.
“I’m s-sorry! I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I’m so SORRY!”
Suddenly, her tears burst forth, and she clung to my waist.
“Sniff I’m sorry! Ken…!! But that wasn’t me! I wasn’t the one who did those things…!! It was all the me who had no memories…!!”
Then she looked up at me, pleading.
Ah, I see. So that’s what it is.
When she had lost her memories, Raphne had caused me misery.
When she regained her memories, the recollection of her tormenting me mixed with the memories of our time together.
It appeared she was feeling remorse because she was still the same person who had tormented me back in her second year.
“Sniff I’m so sorry! I’m so sorry for what I’ve done!”
Soon she began to sob uncontrollably.
To be honest, I had no memories, so I had no idea what she had done.
The fact that she was crying and begging like this meant that…
… What exactly had she done?
After that, I tried to probe further, but Raphne shook her head and refused to answer.
Well, as far as I was concerned, it was all in the past.
I didn’t ask any more.
Instead, I said,
“Welcome back, Raphne.”
I hugged her and gently stroked her hair.
“… Ken.”
Raphne’s memories had returned.
