A strange silence flowed between Pina and me.
Rather than my heart racing, we were trying to decipher each other’s expressions.
A confession inevitably comes with a predetermined answer.
Yes or No.
Acceptance or Rejection.
At this crossroads, she has no choice but to make a decision.
We could never go back to being friends, Pina Grancia and I.
If we were clueless about the situation, it might have been different, but now we know each other too well.
If it’s going to hurt, it’s better to drift apart.
Like a wolf in disguise being exposed by a red cloak— there was no other way left.
“…What did you say?”
Her little lips flutter. Her golden eyes widen.
Moving her white wolf ears like an antenna to gauge my thoughts, Pina is trying to read me.
“Do you think it’s impossible, Pina?”
I deliberately provoked her pride.
To hide the fact that I didn’t want to lose my memories.
‘No matter what, it’s better for memories to be cherished beautifully.’
Half a year. It’s a period that can’t be considered short by any means.
The time spent getting to know Pina is nothing but memories I don’t want to lose now.
“Um, could you give me a moment to think?”
Pina placed a hand on her chin and began to ponder.
She’s probably contemplating a way for me not to lose my memories.
“No, I can’t. That would just make me embarrassed.”
But once she awakens properly as a Hero, she won’t have to worry about the powers of the Demon Kings.
This is the best method.
In the future, she was a naive and clumsy Saintess in every aspect.
Even her name was nonexistent, so she had to be called nothing other than Saintess.
But what about the Pina now?
She changed while meeting people at the Academy, just as I changed after getting to know her.
“Licht… I don’t want you to forget your memories…”
The once empty Glass Knight was starting to understand emotions.
Now, she was crying. Sparkling glass shards fell from her eyes down her cheeks.
“I don’t want to forget you… I only just figured it out…”
“I’m fine, Pina.”
I wiped her tears, comforting her.
Even if everything is lost, all the memories Pina and I made can never be taken away.
She always said she came to rescue me, but in reality, it was the other way around.
“This is the best I can do for you.”
I tried to act as calm as possible.
Now that my mind was made up, I couldn’t burden her any further.
When I was young, I was saved by Pina.
A game poster I saw from a rooftop saved me.
The strings of text that might have meant nothing to someone else allowed me to breathe again.
At the edge of a dark world, it pulled me up.
‘…It’s a pity not to hear an answer to the confession.’
A confession doesn’t force or beg for an answer.
It would be better to forget everything this way. I shouldn’t leave her with lingering feelings.
Someone once said that a confession isn’t about sharing feelings but rather a process of ‘confirmation.’
Is that really true? Is the affection level that appears in front of me everything?
[Lee Soo-hyun ♥ Pina Grancia 39%.]
The Status Window shows an affection level of 39%.
It’s a hollow number like an empty cry. A percentage visible only to me.
Could I really think Pina likes me just because of this number game?
“…..”
No. In love, there shouldn’t be wrong or right answers.
Just like filling up a blank music sheet with notes, every person’s shape and form is different.
The tones and melodies created within depend on their lives.
It’s not for someone to judge or evaluate.
Some might say that the song isn’t beautiful.
But life is such that you can’t say ‘you’re wrong.’
That is the love I believe in.
If it’s a belief or a stubbornness, that’s fine too.
[Lee Soo-hyun, what are you doing right now..?]
Seeing the Status Window talking in front of me, I couldn’t help but grin.
Even if other couples knew they liked each other, Pina wasn’t one of them.
[If I drink the potion to lose my memory, could my affection level with Nameless Saintess reset..?!]
[Warning: May lose affection level with Pina Grancia.]
Perhaps this isn’t what the Creator intended. The potion was plastered with translucent warning messages.
It could be a setup to become the Nameless Saintess.
I wouldn’t do as you wish. If I lose my memory here and then lose my strength next?
Even if everything I’ve done up until now goes to waste, Pina is more precious than any affection level.
“Um… asking me to make you fall in love again means… that, right?”
Pina’s face sparkled like fireworks.
At first, she looked dazed like a lit fuse, but now she blushed again like a ripe tomato.
As she gazed at my face, her gloomy expression slowly faded away.
Glancing at me then quickly lowering her head again, she asked,
“You liked the Saintess more than me, didn’t you?”
Breath hitching, she trails off her words.
It seems she finally grasped the meaning behind what I said.
A fire ignited in the girl’s heart.
I could feel the rapid heartbeat in me too.
Whether it was a connection through magical circuits or a red thread, between us, there was a vague distance that made it hard to define if we were friends or lovers.
‘At first, I clearly liked the Nameless Saintess more…’
But now my heart wouldn’t distance itself from her anymore.
I could assertively say not now.
“If it were true, I wouldn’t have gone through all this trouble, Pina.”
“…Ah.”
The potion swirling in front of me ominously felt unbearable.
If I drink this, will I truly forget all my memories?
Or will I return to a time when I didn’t know Pina?
I don’t care about either.
The potion going down my throat was bitter— just like the lies I told Pina until now.
I grimaced as I poured the empty potion above my head.
I wanted to see Pina a little more.
My eyelids felt heavy, like being drunk, and I started to sway.
Black Knight.
If I have to lose my memory for Pina’s happiness, then I finally acted worthy of that name.
“Pina, then I’ll trust you and wait.”
I smiled, not wanting to worry her.
*
[What?! Licht drank the potion to lose his memory..?]
Soft breathing.
Licht was now asleep on Pina’s lap.
As soon as he fell asleep, Pina Grancia used telepathy with the Hero couple outside.
She had the desire to confirm if the person calling herself a Saintess was indeed herself.
[Yeah, he just fell asleep.]
Pina gently arranged the sleeping man’s hair.
The scar occupying one side of his face— how much did he suffer alone?
[You two are really okay, right? Your voice sounds low.]
[….]
In fact, things were not okay. It didn’t matter that she was the Nameless Saintess.
It was simply her fault for not noticing sooner that Licht shouldered the burden alone.
Guilt gnawed at her.
Licht was her source of comfort. So she never realized the weight he carried.
She had said, if there were hardships, they could get through it together.
‘What a fool…’
Licht saved her at the cost of something precious.
But she hadn’t acknowledged his important worries. Pina sighed while fiddling with her hair ornament.
The confession was the same; she couldn’t easily give an answer about Licht’s feelings.
She wished she had spoken before the potion.
“Licht… how can I make you fall in love with me?”
Somehow, she muttered to herself.
Even the smallest things made her want to lean on and rely on him.
Who is this Nameless Saintess that Licht has struggled for so much?
If she heard that that person was her future self, would she be angry or envious?
‘…..’
Her lower lip wouldn’t stop being bitten.
At first, she thought it wouldn’t matter. But she never expected him to confess like this.
What does it even mean to like someone?
Is it simply valuing them?
Right now, Pina Grancia’s chambers were filled with items related to Licht.
When he came to the palace, she had hurriedly hidden them, but now they were back on display.
‘I even made a doll resembling Licht…’
If this is what it means to like someone, others could do it too.
That’s why she couldn’t easily respond to a confession.
Love, liking someone.
Those concepts were far removed from her until now.
She never imagined a man bold enough to confess to a princess.
The corners of her mouth turned up slightly without her realizing.
So innocent.
So innocent and kind, it was cute.
Yet, she couldn’t ignore the determination and sincerity hidden behind that.
She had asked for just a moment to think but had drunk the memory-losing potion, wearing a sad expression.
Could she really save Licht? A vague suspicion clouded her thoughts.
“…If I pass through the maze, will my memory return?”
Pina asked the dwarf who had just returned.
“I don’t know. Only the Gods know that story.”
Grundle replied with a sympathetic look on his face.
Even if she passed the test, it didn’t mean she would regain her memory.
“I’ll give it a try. I’m Licht’s Black Knight.”
Without a hint of hesitation, she leaped into the shimmering full-length mirror.
She vowed to give her answer to Licht once he regained his memory.
