Bang!
Just then, a loud sound echoed in the room, making Leticiel flinch.
“Drossy!” The door burst open, slamming against the wall with a bang, a girl calling her name from behind seemingly floating after the shock. Drossell turned to look behind her.
“---!” Young Drossell said something to the girl who’d walked in, but Leticiel wasn’t able to make it out. Even though the words were coming from her own mouth—rather, young Drossell’s mouth—just that word was inaudible, as if it had been muffled by something.
Drossell took a step to run just as the midday sun peeked out through a gap in the clouds, shining brightly in the reflection of the room’s windowpane. The scenery of her dream was enveloped in a light so bright it made her dizzy. When she turned around, Leticiel thought she could see a young girl with fiery red hair smiling innocently.
“…ell! Miss Drossell!”
Leticiel’s consciousness snapped back to reality at the sound of someone shouting Drossell’s name. In front of her, Zeke was peering at her, looking worried and panicked.
“What’s wrong? Are you not feeling well?” he asked. When she had suddenly slumped forward in her seat, he had jumped up, kicking his chair back, and supported her shoulders with his hands.
With his help, Leticiel slowly sat up in her seat and shook her head. “I’m fine. I just got a little dizzy.”
“Are you sure you’re all right? Perhaps you should lie down…”
“No, there’s no need for that. Please don’t worry.”
Zeke still seemed anxious, but he respected Leticiel’s wishes. She closed her eyes for a while to try and calm down. Once she was calmer, she slowly opened them.
“Is the dizziness gone?”
“Yes, I’m fine now.” Sitting up in her chair, Leticiel pointed at the ticking clock. “Since we were able to fix it, let’s go and return it.”
“Yeah, there’s no point in holding onto it any longer. Let’s go together.” Zeke began to clean up the tools he’d used. Leticiel put the books scattered across the desk back in their places.
Once everything was cleaned up, Zeke and Leticiel left the school to head to the antique shop. With Zeke’s guidance, they easily reached it after just a ten-minute walk.
“Hello,” they said when they entered. Naturally, the shop hadn’t changed much since yesterday. No one was at the counter, but a voice called out a greeting from the back before the shop manager hurriedly appeared.
“Welcome! Oh, it’s you, Zeke! And the lady from yesterday.” He looked surprised to see them.
Leticiel held out the clock she’d been carrying. “We finished repairing your clock, so we came to return it.”
“What? Already?!” The shop owner stared at the clock as if he couldn’t believe it. But when he saw that the hands were indeed ticking, he accepted the clock with a relieved smile. “I didn’t think you’d have it fixed so quickly. Thank you. I couldn’t possibly express the depth of my gratitude.”
“Please thank Zeke, not me. He’s the one who did the repairs.”
“Thank you, Zeke. You really saved me.”
“No, I couldn’t possibly have done it myself. I received help from many people.”
While the shop owner and Zeke were talking, Leticiel sensed someone watching her. The manager’s son was peeking out from the far wall behind the counter, staring at her anxiously. “Papa, is the clock fixed?” he asked.
“Yeah, it is. See? It’s moving properly.” The manager met his son’s gaze and smiled, holding out the clock. The two hands ticked at appropriate intervals, telling the time on the face with numbers arranged in a circle.
“You’re right! Zeke, Miss, thank you!” Eyes sparkling, the boy pounced on Leticiel, taking her aback, and hugged her arm. The boy made eye contact with Zeke and beamed.
“You’re welcome. Be sure to take good care of it this time,” Zeke said gently, patting the boy’s head.
“Yeah! I promise I will!” He nodded in agreement, a big smile on his face. Then he looked up at Leticiel as if he wanted to add something.
“What is it?” she asked.
“Um, Miss, take this as a thanks!” The boy held out a box that was just big enough to hold in both hands.
“What is it?”
“A music box! I want you to have it, Miss.”
While researching clocks, she’d read about machines called “music boxes” that had similar mechanisms. If she remembered correctly, they were objects that could play music on their own.
“My son said that he wanted to give you this music box as a thank you gift if you were able to fix the clock,” the shop owner said while squeezing his son’s shoulder. “We hope you can accept it.”
The boy looked at her with a mixture of hope and trepidation. Leticiel hesitated for a moment before taking the music box from his hands. “Thank you. I’ll take good care of it. How cute and lovely it is.”
“Hee hee!” The boy’s face shone happily and he grinned after Leticiel thanked him.
“Please come again. We’ll be waiting for you,” the shop owner said.
“Thank you.”
The shop owner bowed politely. At his feet, his son jumped and waved at them. “Bye-bye Zeke, Miss!”
“Bye-bye.” After waving goodbye to the shop owner and his son, Zeke and Leticiel left the shop. The sun had already set beyond the horizon and the streets were filled with people rushing to get home.
“It’s already this late…”
“Time really flew today. Since it’s late out, I’ll see you home.”
“Thank you. I would appreciate that.” Leticiel took Zeke up on his offer and they walked together through the city, the hustle and bustle of people trying to get home before dark accompanying them.
“Zeke, why are you so good with machines?” Leticiel asked suddenly as they walked down a boulevard sparsely populated with townspeople.
“My parents own a sheep farm. So I was raised around spinning wheels and other textile-related things.”
“I see. What other sort of things are there?”
“Well… I suppose the most popular one would be the loom. Using a loom helps improve our efficiency and production, though I prefer to weave by hand.” Zeke made a gesture as if he were weaving with his hands. He’d talked with Mr. Bauliogh in the art room before about different types of weaving.
“You said before that you like to weave,” Leticiel recalled.
“Yes, I’ve enjoyed it since I was a kid. It’s fun.”
“Could I ask you to teach me if you have the time?”
“Of course.” As he watched the sun sink slowly, Zeke’s eyes squinted as he fondly recalled his childhood days. “Anyway, clock mechanisms are interesting too. I feel like they could be applied in a variety of ways, so I want to study them further.”
“Zeke, is there something you want to do?” Leticiel asked after a pause.
“Yes. I want to modify spinning machines. Right now, they are used manually, but it’d be easier for people back home if I could make them move by some other power.”
Zeke seemed genuinely excited to talk about his family and textiles, his profile sparkling as he chatted. He must truly love textiles and his hometown. The thought was so heartwarming that Leticiel let a small smile slip.
She casually looked around the city while making small talk with Zeke. Her first walk through the capital was full of new things, bringing with it memories that Leticiel was unfamiliar with.
I wonder if I’ll be able to talk about my past as freely as he does one day…
She couldn’t talk about her past life as it shouldn’t exist. And she couldn’t talk about her past in this current world, since she had no memories of it. Zeke’s profile as he happily talked about his own memories was somewhat blinding in Leticiel’s eyes.
✦ ✦ ✦
“I’m home.”
“M-My lady! Welcome home.” When Leticiel returned home, Nicole was fervently reading some sort of note in the entrance hall. When she heard Leticiel, she immediately came to greet her and put on an apron to start preparing dinner. “Dinner is almost ready, so please wait a moment!”
“All right. I’m going to head to my room, then.”
Nicole acknowledged her cheerfully and entered the kitchen while Leticiel headed to her room. After changing into a randomly-chosen dress, she dove into her neatly-made bed and rolled over onto her back. Then she gently placed the music box the little boy had given her on her bedside table.
There was a small spring on the side. Leticiel opened the box’s lid and wound the spring a few times. After a pause, a clear, bell-like melody began to play. The simple, delicate notes sank into her eardrums.
Leticiel looked out the window. The garden outside glowed silver in the moonlight, putting her at ease when combined with the slow and calming music box tune. Even though she was hearing the tune for the first time, her heart felt warm and somewhat nostalgic.
After a short while, the tune came to a quiet halt as if the notes had been sucked back into the small wooden box. Wanting to listen more, Leticiel wound the spring again.
Just then, there was a quiet knock on the door. “Excuse me, my lady.”
“Oh, Ruvik.”
Ruvik let himself into the room. His eyes widened when he heard the beautiful tune, but they quickly crinkled as he broke into a smile. “That’s a lovely tune. Where did you get this?”
“It was a gift.” Leticiel told him that she had repaired a clock with a friend.
“How nostalgic. You loved music boxes when you were a child, my lady.”
“…Yes, that’s right.”
“I often listened to them with you. All your music boxes from back then were taken away, but with this, it feels like we’ve gone back in time.” Ruvik smiled wistfully. Unable to respond, Leticiel smiled back vaguely. Her empty memories were extremely vexing.