“HMM?”
I turned my head when I noticed a glint of light in the corner of my eye. Refusing to give in to my near hopelessness, I was on all fours, observing every last world that appeared as a grain of sand.
When I turned around, I saw that the beach was giving off a faint glow. I rushed to the shore, fell to my knees, and scooped up the twinkling grain of sand. I stared at the grain, smaller than even a sesame seed, until I heard a voice cutting in and out.
“Laetitia?!”
“King Glenreed?!”
As soon as I shouted his name…
My vision felt like it had spun upside down, and then I was staring at King Glenreed.
“Your Majesty?! How did you get here?!”
His body seemed to flicker like it was experiencing static interference.
“I’m here to call you home! Come, take my hand!!”
“Your Majesty…!”
I reached out to him reflexively.
But he was too far. I couldn’t reach him. No matter how much I stretched my hand out or stepped toward him, I felt myself forcefully yanked backwards.
“Laeti-… Ngh!”
King Glenreed let out a pained groan. He was flickering even more violently now. I realized that, whatever was happening to him, it wasn’t good.
“…!”
I wanted to take his hand.
But I couldn’t reach. His Majesty looked like he was in so much pain.
“Please…”
Please give up. Go home without me.
Just before I could say that, King Glenreed stuck his hand into his breast pocket.
“Look at this!”
He pulled out a strawberry. He was desperately trying to hold the strawberry out so I could reach it.
“The Gardener Cat, Lucian, Claude, and I are all praying that you’ll come back to us!”
“…!”
I want to go back.
I want to go home.
Those feelings exploded in my chest as my eyes filled with tears.
“It’s a strawberry! Come back so we can eat strawberries together every single day!”
King Glenreed was screaming. His voice moved my heart so dearly, I reached my hand out again.
“What?!”
I could move. My body went forward.
The force pulling me backwards faded away, allowing me to keep going towards him.
I couldn’t let this chance escape me. Desperately, I stretched my arms out.
King Glenreed was reaching out to me as far as he could.
As soon as our fingernails brushed against each other’s, my vision was filled by a blinding light.
Remembering everything at last, I was swallowed up by the grain of sand that held the people I loved.
✦ ✦ ✦
“LAETITIA!”
I awoke to find myself in King Glenreed’s firm embrace.
His strong arms enveloped me, pulling me as close as they could. His Majesty buried his face in my shoulder, his voice quiet as he uttered words to me.
“Thank god…! I thought I would never get to hold you like this again…!”
“Your Majesty…” I reached up and wrapped my arms around his back as he clung to me. “Thank you, Your Majesty. I got to come back because of you…!”
I embraced King Glenreed, hugging him tight with all of the love and gratitude I felt in my heart.
Thump, thump. Ba-dump, ba-dump. Our two heartbeats overlapped against the other.
“Meow meow meow!”
“Whoa!”
“It’s my turn now!” she insisted. Berry squeezed in between King Glenreed and me to nuzzle her body against mine.
“…I’m home, Berry.”
“Meow meow!”
I placed my palm against her paw pads like a high five. That was when King Glenreed let out a big sigh.
“You truly came back to this world… I never believed in miracles, but maybe I shouldn’t have been so naive.”
“Miracles…?”
“We needed your name or nickname from your past life to call you back… But sadly, I didn’t know either one. The fact that you’ve returned proves the strawberry was the right choice after all. I think your love for food defied all logic and brought about a miracle.”
“…No, that’s not it.” As I spoke, I glanced at Lucian and Big Brother Claude at my bedside.
“It’s hardest to see…what’s right under your nose…” The clever Big Brother Claude seemed to have figured it out already. He covered his face to hide the expression on it.
“I was able to return because you called my name, Your Majesty.”
“…What does that mean?”
He looked at me suspiciously. I decided it was time to reveal the true nature of this miracle.
“My nickname in my past life was ‘Strawberry.’ My real name was Ichiko, but strawberries in the language I spoke were called ‘ichigo.’ Since they sounded so similar, people liked to call me ‘Strawberry.’”
Inside the light shining from that grain of sand, I’d remembered everything about my past life name.
My full name was Yamase Ichiko. The nickname “Strawberry” came from its similarity to “ichigo.”
Now I understood why I couldn’t recall what sparked my love of strawberries.
It started in kindergarten, when I took a liking to the fruit that resembled my name. I was overwhelmed by their delicious flavor and began to eat strawberries all the time. The boys even teased me, calling me a “cannibal” for that.
Forgetting everything relating to my name meant I couldn’t recall that beginning to my love of strawberries.
“Once I remembered that, so many other things came back to me too…”
Remembering the name “Ichiko” was the first step in remembering where Jiro’s name came from.
I was the first-born child of the Yamase family, and “ichi” meant “first” in Japanese. This simple naming system was my dad’s own creation. My mom would go on to give birth to Shou, my little brother. Once we took in our beloved male shiba inu, Dad named him “Jiro” which meant “second son.”
“…I see. So that’s what happened.” King Glenreed nodded firmly as I explained my past life name to him. “Then it really was a kind of miracle that your love for food brought you back to this world. You grew a fruit that wasn’t even eaten in this country, and turned its long, unpleasant name into the simple word ‘strawberry.’ All of that history led me to bring you back how I did. I’ve never been more grateful that you love food as much as you do.”
“Hehe! Thank you. …But I think there was more to it than that.” I stroked Berry and smiled shyly up at King Glenreed. “You set out to rescue me in the face of danger, Berry entrusted you with a strawberry, and Lucian and Big Brother Claude watched over me protectively… Thank you, everyone. All of your efforts are why I’m able to be here now.”
I felt a bit bashful saying it out loud.
But if being back in their world was a miracle…
I simply had to convey my gratitude to the group of people who brought that miracle into existence.