I Picked Up a Witch With Amnesia

4. Island Lumentium – 02

After that, the conversation between us and the emperor went smoothly. The emperor no longer asked the reason for the breakup, as if he had expressed his affirmation to the princess’s words, and the story that followed was the conflict between Count Sernard and the Duke of Estel, or post-marriage after the breakup. It was just a trivial story like what to do

In other words, it meant that I couldn’t interfere in any way, and that there were only things I could do without paying attention. In a nutshell, I want to say that being here now was nothing more than an act of killing time.

As I tried to hold back my yawns and quietly listened to the conversation between the emperor and father, I noticed that the princess sitting on the right side of the emperor was making strange movements toward me. Yes, if I had to use a metaphor, like a person trying to convey something other than language to me.

“…?”

Of course, I couldn’t understand what she wanted to convey. The princess and I aren’t even lovers who can understand each other’s thoughts just by looking into each other’s eyes, so if you thought that you could know the other person’s thoughts at the very least by blinking your eyes, it would be a big mistake.

“…..”

As I made an expression of incomprehensibility, the princess’s eyes began to change sharply at that moment. I didn’t know anything else, but I could definitely recognize that expression. Because if I didn’t understand her teachings, the princess would always make that face toward me and beat me up in the name of sparring.

When I nodded, the princess also nodded slightly. I don’t know the details, but she seems to have judged that I answered her question in the affirmative.

“your majesty.”

“…it was. Duke, I think Jim- …well, why? Iris?”

The emperor cut off the conversation with his father in the middle, and the princess bowed her head slightly toward the emperor and spoke.

“Is it okay if I just leave? We have not yet finished the preparations for the banquet to celebrate the National Foundation Day tomorrow. I believe that the preparations should be completed at least before the end of the night, so that the banquet tomorrow will not be disrupted.”

Saying that, the princess pointed at the sunset outside the window with a wink of her eyes.

“…Uhm. I have something to do with you, but I can’t hold on to you any longer. good night. I won’t allow you to retreat.”

Saying that, the emperor nodded, and the princess quietly turned her head to look at me.

“Your Majesty, I’m sorry during the conversation, but would it be all right if I borrow Duke Estelle for a while?”

“…the little duke of Estelle?”

The emperor looked at the princess with an expression that he couldn’t understand at all.

“Why?”

“Actually, we needed someone who could objectively evaluate whether the preparations for the banquet were going well. The Duke of Estelle here has never attended a banquet for the National Foundation Day, so I thought he was someone who could evaluate me from a third party’s point of view without prejudice.”

“…Hmm.”

At those words, the emperor showed an uncomfortable expression for some reason. That’s right. Although I am not familiar with the etiquette of the imperial family, I was well aware that it would be extremely rude for the emperor to leave the place on his own while all of his business had not been completed.

But even for a moment, the emperor nodded his head kindly to the princess’s request.

“It’s rare for you to ask me for a favor, so it must be something I can’t help but do. I will. You can also borrow Estelle’s Little Duke. It was because the story was about to end anyway. Oh, and the little duke.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

“I ask for an escort for Iris. I believe that you, as a gentleman, will not do anything strange to Iris. Heh heh.”

“…..”

It is clear that this is nonsense. Rather, no matter what happened to me, I couldn’t do anything to her.

****

“…thank you. Lowering.”

“No. It’s just that I came up with a good excuse when I was getting tired of the story. Your Majesty is basically a nice person, but sometimes he sits down with young people and has boring conversations. It’s Your Majesty’s only shortcoming.”

Saying that, the princess muttered with a bitter smile on her lips. The face of the princess, who smiled lightly with a slightly fresher face than the one I was familiar with, brought considerable freshness to me.

“…..”

“…why are you looking at me like that? Little Duke Estelle?”

“no. just…”

“…?”

That’s because it’s amazing. The princess in my memory must have been the kind of woman who couldn’t be easily called a normal person who was stubborn and inflexible, her tone was as hard as a rock, and she fanatically worshiped martial arts.

Putting everything else aside, I think it’s an act that a normal person can’t handle to be beaten every day for a year in the name of making people stronger. And the princess did such a terrible thing casually. That was the reason why I was extremely reluctant to meet the princess face-to-face.

However, the princess of the present time was different from the princess of 10 years later. No, at this level, it is safe to say that they are completely different people with the same face. The flexibility to express the emperor’s words as ‘boring’, the meticulousness to take care of me even in the emperor’s face. All of these were factors that were at the opposite extreme from the princess 10 years later. It was a fact that was quite unexpected to me, but the princess of the current time seemed like a common sense person with a normal way of thinking.

It seems that the worries I had were only groundless. The thought that such a normal woman had no intention of harming me naturally made my heart lighten.

“…By the way, Duke Estelle, I want to ask you something.”

Just as I was regaining my peace of mind while looking at the princess, the princess asked me a question with a very hesitant expression. It’s the first time I’ve ever seen her, so it’s just amazing.

“I-I don’t know if it’s okay to ask something like this… but I can’t stand being curious. Are you okay?”

“…? it’s okay. I don’t mind if you ask me anything.”

When I answer her question with a somewhat bewildered look, she suddenly stops and starts looking straight into my face.

“I mean, to be honest, I am very familiar with you. As if it were someone I had known for a long time. Aren’t you curious? To have these feelings for someone you’ve never met before. I’ve met so many people so far, but I’ve never felt this way before.”

Saying that, the princess chuckled and smiled.

“In that sense, let me ask you a question. Don’t think too strange. This is just a question out of simple curiosity.”

The next moment, I didn’t miss the princess’s eyes emitting a sharp light.

“Sir Cain, have you ever met me before?”

“…..”

For a moment, I was so shocked that I felt a sense of suffocation. I was so surprised that I couldn’t answer anything because my whole body stiffened as it was. And it saved me If I had been sane, I might have backtracked like an idiot or, at worst, collapsed on the floor.

“…Well, I don’t think I have any personal memories of encountering the lower classes in the past. In the first place, since I was born, I have never left the Duchy of Estel and visited any other place at all.”

At the answer, which seemed a bit stiff even to me, the princess showed a dissatisfied expression, like someone who heard an unsatisfactory answer. As if he was claiming that the answer he wanted was not like that.

“Yeah, that’s right. You’ve never met me personally in the past, I mean…”

The princess, who was looking at me with a puzzled expression, clicked her tongue once and looked away from me.

“I’ll try to believe your excuse this time. But keep that in mind, Duke Estelle.”

“…What do you mean, my lord?”

“Let me tell you that there is a limit to such an absurdity. There is no evidence right now, so I’m going to step back like this-“

“Once the magic is revealed, then it won’t go over like it is now.”

“…..”

At those words of the princess, I unknowingly clenched my fists. I don’t know why, but there was one thing I could be sure of.

The princess is also a regressor.

A kind of future person who, like me, went through a regression 10 years later.

And it must be. Today’s Iris El Devhart knows something.

…maybe even about myself I don’t know.