C178
Midnight.
I opened my closed eyes and searched for signs of others in the darkness.
I could hear Lucy, acurrucada en la mesa, breathing evenly, and the parrot that yacía a su lado was as still as if it were dead.
Kais said that when he falls asleep, the connection between his alter ego and his main body se bloquea hasta cierto punto.
The only people who were not asleep were Terence and I, who occasionally daban vueltas a mi lado.
When I saw Terence, who parecía bastante angustiado sleeping in the same bed as me, I felt a little sorry.
"Was it very tough?"
But I also had an excuse.
In fact, I didn't drag Terence into bed simply para burlarme de él.
Terence.
When I called his name in voz baja, his eyes turned towards me.
"Wait a moment, I have something to tell you."
I was planning to confesar un secreto that había estado postergando revelar for a long time.
"Well, en realidad vi a Terence in the memories of the verdadera Ethel. In una vida pasada, tú y ella… fueron amantes."
Terence's eyes opened like platos, as if he were quite surprised, but he didn't interrupt me.
As if he were just listening and it was fine to keep talking, he found my hand enterrada debajo de la manta and touched it suavemente.
"You and Ethel se conocieron por primera vez en el Bosque Errante. Justo like nosotros."
Thanks to this, I was able to continue esta incómoda historia more easily than expected.
My voice resonated suavemente in the cuarto oscuro.
Kais didn't know it, but there was a possibility that Lucy, who simplemente estaba dormido, se despertara and me escuchara, but I really didn't care.
I knew todo about Lucy, who se había convertido en la segunda persona más familiar para mí después de Terence.
Before long, mi historia llegó a su fin.
I told him about the memories of Ethel and Terence that había visto in my sueño with the mayor precisión posible.
The decision recayó ahora en esta persona, who había sido el amante de Ethel in una vida pasada and now era my lover.
......
Terence kept silent for a while, as if considerando mis palabras.
"First of all, don't think that I easily pasé por alto tus palabras."
Then he opened his boca.
"To be honest, lo escuché a través de ti, so I really don't care that ella and I were lovers in the pasado. I can't imagine it very well."
"Of course, I understand."
"Fortunately. Still, I tried to accept tus palabras tal y como eran as much as possible. I wonder, if I really había sido su amante in una vida pasada, what efecto tendría eso en esta vida?"
I swallowed nervously and focused on his palabras.
"The answer is nada. Nada cambia."
Terence raised his mano and revolvió un lado de mi cabello.
"A past life is a past life, and the person I love in this life eres tú."
I clenched my teeth as sentí que mi corazón latía con fuerza.
"But Terence said he se enamoró de mí at first sight."
I puse en palabras las dudas that más temía.
"Maybe it's because todavía tienes recuerdos de tu vida pasada, and that's why comencé a gustarle..."
Terence me interrumpió por primera vez today.
"It's not like that. Definitivamente me gustaste at first sight."
However, he continued to hablar con calma.
"My life was so desigual that pudiste derribar la valla de mi corazón with ese tipo de buena voluntad. The person I love es definitivamente tú aquí."
Terence me tomó con cuidado entre sus brazos.
"I love you, whom I have seen and experienced personally hasta ahora. You don't give up no matter what trials you face, tienes consideración por los demás, and eres fundamentalmente recta."
Terence Belver Asteroth was truly a hombre que tenía una habilidad especial para hacerme llorar.
I had prometido a mí misma that definitivamente vería llorar a Terence la próxima vez, but now estaba derramando lágrimas de impotencia.
"I love you too, I love you too."
Le susurré mientras veía unas lágrimas empapar su ropa.
As I couldn't dormir, we spent the tiempo posterior teniendo conversaciones aleatorias.
"Blame Tita. I went to the Bosque Errante as if it were my front yard, but I never knew there was such a tree there."
Terence habló en voz baja.
"If it were the fruto del árbol Tita, Terence también lo habría comido."
"Me? I don't remember haber comido fruta de un árbol del que no sé mucho."
"It should be. Te di de comer en secreto."
Sonreí and se lo recordé.
"¿Lo has olvidado? The recipe for the té medicinal que le di a Terence includes frutos secos del árbol de tita."
An infusión de hierbas eficaz para los dolores de cabeza provocados por el poder de la familia real.
Even now, when está lejos de mí, the té medicinal que bebe a menudo contiene el fruto del árbol Tita.
Terence said, "Ah" and seemed avergonzado.
"Now that I think about it, es así. Nunca lo había preparado con mis propias manos except las primeras una o dos veces, so lo había olvidado."
I used to preparárselo, but hoy en día, Jack prepara el té medicinal según the recipe que le di.
"If I had known que estaba en el Bosque Errante, simplemente lo habría recogido. I don't know why pagué tanto dinero para comprar frutos secos que venían del otro lado del bosque."
When refunfuñé, Terence se rió and dijo que iríamos juntos al Bosque Errante cuando regresáramos.
As it was also the lugar donde nos conocimos, I accepted de buena gana su oferta.
Then Terence de repente se puso serio.
"Disculpa, but ¿puedo preguntarte cuál es tu verdadero nombre?"
"¿Mi verdadero nombre?"
"Sí, not el nombre del dueño de este cuerpo, sino el nombre que usabas en el mundo en el que vivías originalmente."
"Puedes seguir llamándome Ethel."
"Tengo curiosidad. Quiero saber todo sobre ti, aunque sea trivial."
He lowered sus ojos with expresión vacilante.
"Actually, I wanted to ask you from the moment I first heard that you were not from this world, but I didn't have the courage.
"Why?"
"I wondered what would happen if you missed your hometown or wanted to go back. I'm afraid that if I ask, that longing will be even greater."
I was quite surprised because I never imagined that he would have those thoughts.
"Isn't it cowardly? I asked you to tell me everything honestly."
"Not at all. I'm actually glad you told me now."
For some reason, I was reassured by the fact that he, like me, was worried and doubting about love.
Because it means we're not so different.
"And you don't have to worry about that. I have no intention of leaving you to go back to the world I come from. For starters, I don't have many good memories there."
"... yeah."
Terence chuckled softly at my words. It was a very beautiful smile.
"Then can you tell me? Your name."
I smiled and opened my mouth.
"My real name is..."
And then I just licked my lips.
As the silence grew longer, Terence tilted his head.
"Why are you doing that?"
"......"
"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to."
No, it's not that.
It's not that I didn't want to, it's that I couldn't say it.
I couldn't remember my original name.
Quietly, I tried to recall my memories.
What was my name?
No matter how much I racked my brains, it didn't come to mind.
"Why?"
Even though I had been living as 'Ethel' for almost three years, it was strange that I had even forgotten my name.
Wait, let's calm down. After calming down, if I remember other things calmly, the name might come to mind automatically.
How did other people call me?
As I was an orphan, I had no family. There was no one in particular to call a friend.
No, there were many other people who called me by my name... I couldn't remember it.
"Someone! I need to think of anyone!"
But all my memories were filled with darkness.
Even if I tried to remember anything other than people from the previous world, the result was the same.
The house I would have lived in, the school I would have attended, the streets I would have walked, the workplace I would have gone to, and even the car accident that would have caused my death were very blurry.
A vague memory that may or may not have happened.
Only one kept its presence clearly in my memory.
<Return and walk on a flower path>, it was that novel.
---------------------------------
It's been two days since that day.
On the surface, I led the same life as before.
But I was still bothered that I couldn't remember anything and that I had never noticed until Terence asked.
Why did I never feel strange?
Why didn't I try to deeply remember the memories of my past life?
There were too many suspicious things to say it was simply because her life before transmigrating was difficult.
I felt as if someone had restricted my thinking so that I wasn't aware of my past life.
So, is the culprit the goddess?
I wanted to ask her immediately, but Miella hasn't responded to me even once since the last night we met in my dream.
There were many unanswered questions.
But as I was in enemy territory, I couldn't just stop.
"Ethel, are you okay?"
"I told you I'm fine. I left the complicated worries for later. Let's focus on the present."
I left the room with the divine beast while reassuring Terence, who was worried about me again today.
In my pocket was a black bead, the Cassius family relic.
"How did I get this...?"
The day I was almost kidnapped by Liena, I was hastily packing and ended up taking this orb.
I stored it with the artifacts with the intention of returning it after examining it, but I never thought I would come with it.
My conscience was somewhat disturbed for taking a relic from someone else's house, but today I had something to prove.
Last night, it suddenly occurred to me that maybe this bead was something that was originally in this building.
Cassius is descended from demons, and this building was also used by demons in the past.
Thinking it was a reasonable assumption, I headed to the rooftop of the building.
Right at the end of the rooftop was the statue I was looking for.
I found this statue while looking inside this building, and it was quite an unusual statue.
But it was at that moment.
Bam! The rooftop door suddenly closed with a loud sound.
"Ethel, what are you doing here?"
And Liena was standing in front of the door.
I took a step back unconsciously. This was because the smile on Liena's face was somehow eerie.
"Hey. I found something interesting yesterday. Want to guess what it is?"
Liena said as she walked slowly towards me.
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