Chapter 37 – Almana’s harvest time

“…Ke… Up…”

“Wake up Mister Chrom… Mister Chrom Chronogate.”

This is a memory of future me.

It’s one hundred years from now. Civilization has collapsed, and the world itself is in ruins.

I was weaker than anyone, and worked desperately hard to become strong enough to protect everyone.

I ran through battlefields to attain power, broke all sorts of taboo, and joined the Sorcerer Association that took my hometown and my friends away from me.

I defeated demon kings that appeared one after the other, and got the power of a demon king for myself.

And a hundred years later, I became the world’s strongest time mage.

…But it was too late.

By the time I became strong, there was nothing left to protect.

I couldn’t save anything. The girls who were my childhood friends, the town that raised me, the girl that was always by my side…

So I made a decision.

I would redo my life from a hundred years in the past. Go back to the past, and save everything this time.

“Please don’t cry anymore, Mister Chrom.

You’re starting a new life.”

In the ruins of a city painted by the twilight, one girl comes close to me, and tenderly hugs me from the front.

“Make sure you save this future.

And please… Be happy.

I’m sure… You are loved by a lot of people.

But I don’t have to be there.

I’m happy that I met you.”

I reach out with my hand, but don’t grab anything.

The magic circle releases pale lightning, and the world in front of me is painted with a white light.

“Let’s begin the time leap.”

Space-time is crumbling.

The sight in front of me cracks like glass, and breaks.

This time is being erased. The girl in front of me is being erased.

There is no turning back. No saving this girl.

So, as this world ends, I swear I will save everything this time.

◇

“…Ke… Up… Chrom…”

I’m swaying.

I feel something shaking my body, and wake up.

The white light in front of my eyelids creates a dull stimulation deep inside them.

“…Hn.”

I slowly open my eyes, and…

Don’t see that ruined future in front of me.

Not a battlefield with blood dancing around, not a laboratory with paper scattered all over the place…

(…This is…)

The blue sky fills my eyes, and I hear the wind gently shaking flowers.

I move my eyes a little, and see a peaceful town below a hill.

This is that field of flowers. I used to come here all the time when I was younger.

Apparently I dozed off outside.

“Ah! Chrom! You’re finally awake!”

A girl’s face peeks in front of me all of a sudden.

“Geez, you’re going to catch a cold if you fall asleep out here.”

The girl peeks at me with a concerned expression.

She reminds me of a spring sun. Her light, golden colored hair is like melted sunshine, and her light eyes are like a blue sky.

She has a flower crown on her head that looks to have been made just now.

Looking at her, there’s no mistaking it.

“…El?”

“Yes, it’s me, El.”

El sounds happy, as an innocent smile forms on her face.

The hero, Elluna Moonheart.

The childhood friend that supposedly died when I was younger.

Originally, she shouldn’t be alive at this point, but here she is.

(…Ah, that’s right.)

I shake my half asleep head, and look towards the symbol of this town, the clock tower.

The goddess calendar, twentieth day of the fourth month of the year one thousand two hundred, thirteen hours and one minute.

My peaceful hometown, a hundred years in the past.

It’s been ten days since I’ve returned to the past, but it all feels like I’m still in a dream when I wake up.

“…It looks like I was really fast asleep. Thanks for waking me up.”

“It’s fine~. I got to get a nice good look at your cute sleeping face~.”

“Is that… Fun?”

“Really fun!”

El says strongly like she’s talking about her reason for living.

“A-all right.”

“You’re really cute when you sleep, kind of like a kid. You groan when I poke your face, and when I grab your hand you grab it back.”

“Uu…”

El says like she’s teasing me.

It looks like she had fun at my expense while I was sleeping. It’s kind of embarrassing.

If El released any amount of bloodlust, I would’ve woken up immediately… It’s her complete lack of ill will that makes it so I can keep sleeping peacefully even when she’s near me.

“But it kind of sounded like you were having a nightmare. Are you all right?”

“Did I?”

El sounds concerned… But I don’t remember anything.

Did I have another dream about the future?

I feel like I dreamed about something important…

(Remember.)

“…”

A voice suddenly echoes inside my head.

Like suggestion. Like a curse. Like blood being vomited.

(…What? Was that my voice?)

I think back, but can’t seem to remember this voice.

I feel like there’s someone I must save… But I can’t remember.

“…? What’s wrong, Chrom?”

“Ah, nothing…”

I smile to try to smooth over it.

“But thank you for worrying.”

I say while placing my head on El’s head.

“…”

El freezes completely.

“Hn? Is something wrong?”

“Fueh!? N-no… Nothing… It’s just that recently you’ve been feeling really mature sometimes…”

“Eh? R-really…?”

“Up until recently, you wouldn’t have tapped my head like this…”

“Ah, yes… I guess…”

I’m keeping it a secret from El and the others that I came to the past, so I need to act in a way that doesn’t seem unnatural.

(…This hundred year wide gap really is big…)

I’m missing the more minute parts of my memories from this time, so sometimes habits from the future slip through.

But at least it doesn’t look like El minds it too much.

“A-anyway, break over! We have to go back to helping everyone!”

El says with a flustered tone, before turning around to hide her face.

“Yes, you’re right.”

That’s right, we were working.

I get up to go and follow her, but…

“…Hn?”

I notice a small blue flower beneath my feet.

“…A forget-me-not?”

A common wild flower that is typical of the fourth month.

I usually see them near water, but I guess they’re growing here too.

As the name implies, their meaning in the language of flowers is…

“Don’t forget me…”

“Chrom? What is it?”

“Ah… Nothing, I’m going.”

I shake off my thoughts, and really follow El this time.

◇

The sun of the last third of the fourth month is shining, as Almana is in its busiest season.

Spring is the season of flowers. Other towns start growing things like wheat at this time, but for Almana, the town known as the flower town, this is our harvest moon.

“It’s like a festival.”

I walk through town with El, as all the townspeople come together to harvest and separate flowers.

The smell of flowers is everywhere, and I can hear girls singing flower stitching songs.

Almana isn’t surrounded by fields of flowers just because it looks picturesque.

There’s a lot of demand for flowers from both nobles and commoners.

They are used as decoration in important ceremonies, perfume, dried flowers, pressed flowers, potpourri, medicine, insect repellent, dye, herbal tea, conserve… And more.

Spring is a very active season in the world of nobility, and many commoners get engaged and married too. Demand spikes at the start of the next month as the capital hosts a large flower festival.

And the one who accepts this demand single-handedly is none other than Almana, a town close to the capital.

The ones commanding the harvest of these flowers all the way to their processing is the feudal lord of this town, the Moonhart family.

“Everyone! Let’s all get fired up!”

“““Oou!”””

Says El, and the girls knitting flowers all raise them at the same time.

(…It’s so peaceful…)

I really feel that.

And to think last time this town was destroyed ten days ago.

I still dream about that. The town crushed by monsters, the nauseating stench of blood, burning flower petals falling…

But the future has changed.

I changed it.

The first demon king, Ancestral Dragon Verboros.

The second demon king, Ultimate life-form Ultimelt.

I’ve defeated these two demon kings here in the past.

Nothing major happened this past week after Labrys was kidnapped by the Sorcerer Association.

The future is starting to change in a big way, and most certainly in a good direction.

“Chrom, we don’t have enough people over here. Come help!”

“Yes, got it.”

I roll up my sleeves, and join a circle of townspeople.

I’m a freeloader, but I am technically a part of the Moonhart house, and I need to make up for the time I spent sleeping.