There were so many things Amy wanted to ask her, but now that she had the chance, she just felt disoriented. Plus, Amy had done nothing but relax the entire day. She didn’t feel nearly mentally prepared enough to deal with this unexpected turn of events.
It’s not like I can just come out and ask her, “Are you the heroine?”
In the otome game Amy played, the main character’s avatar was customizable, so there was no preset heroine she could compare Yasmine’s appearance to. Amy’s prediction that Yasmine was the heroine was purely based off her intuition and past experience reading books about such things.
Not to mention, concepts like “previous lives” and “reincarnation” were generally not known, even in this world of magic. They were known, at best, as terms used by certain fortunetellers.
If Amy came out and told Yasmine, “I have memories of my previous life,” she wouldn’t want to have anything to do with her.
“Do you like tea?” Amy asked.
“Y-Yes, I like it! Thank you very much! Thank you!”
As Amy pondered internally over what to do, she put the cup on the table as Yasmine continued thanking her profusely.
Amy was shy herself and knew exactly how nerve-racking it was to meet someone for the first time, so she felt a sort of kinship with Yasmine.
Yasmine awkwardly drank her tea, her cheeks bright pink. Amy had been so frightened to meet the heroine, but she actually found her to be rather charming.
Yasmine doesn’t seem scary…
She was taller than Amy and quite beautiful. Yasmine looked older, but now that Amy was seeing her up close, she thought they were around the same age.
After taking a few sips of tea, Yasmine gently returned the cup to the saucer on the table and squeezed her hands together on her lap. She took a deep breath, as if she were steeling herself to do something, and looked straight at Amy across the table.
Amy’s heart thudded loudly when their eyes met.
“U-Um… Lady Amy…”
“Y-Yes?”
“Do you know—remember—me? Not me, but, I mean…Yasmine?”
“…What?” Amy asked, bewildered by the unexpected question.
Yasmine was the name of Harold’s gaming buddy from their past lives… But she can’t be referring to that, can she?
Seeing Amy’s expression, Yasmine frantically waved both hands and hurried to explain.
“I-I’m so sorry! It doesn’t make any sense when I say it like that, does it? Um… You’ve been reincarnated too, haven’t you, Lady Amy?”
“Wha—?”
“I have, too!”
Wh-What did she just say?!
Amy was frozen in shock. Yasmine took a deep breath and steadily held Amy’s gaze.
“My name is Maria Clifford,” Yasmine explained in a rush. “My name before was Marika Hayase. In my past life, I would play video games using the name ‘Yasumi.’ I’m the same ‘Yasmine’ that used to play video games with your older brother.”
Amy’s eyes widened so much she was afraid they might pop out.
“The same…?”
“Yes. Oh! But please don’t call me by my real name, Maria—just call me Yasmine!”
Perhaps she felt better after getting that off her chest, because Maria—Yasmine—looked relieved and started to speak in a more chipper voice.
Amy blinked in silence, ruminating over what she had just heard.
‘Yasmine’ from their previous lives…
“Um… You’re the same Yasmine with the cat-girl avatar and the highest-ranked gear?”
“Yes, that’s me.”
“Whose unmatched playstyle of rapid-fire support skills would put pros to shame?”
“I-I don’t know if…I’d go that far…”
“Aren’t you the heroine?!”
“The heroine?”
Yasmine tilted her head, still covering her cheeks with both hands to hide her pink blush at Amy’s praise.
There she is being adorable again! Just like a heroine!
Amy had gotten distracted, but she reconsidered and thought it would be better to hear out Yasmine’s story first. She glossed over the outburst with a small cough.
“Um… Ahem… It’s nothing. I-I had just assumed that Harold played with a guy, and that Yasumi was the guy’s name or something, so I was just surprised.”
That hadn’t been the only thing I had been surprised by, but…
Yasmine laughed a little uncomfortably.
“Well, my former name, Marika, was written using the same characters for the word ‘jasmine’ in Japanese, and ‘Yasmine’ is a variation of the name ‘Jasmine,’ so I just used the opportunity to obscure my gender by using the name ‘Yasumi’… That way I could just focus on playing the game.”
“Ah… I see.”
Even Amy had heard about people that would harass solo female players in video games. Pretending to be a boy was probably an effective way of avoiding the harassment.
“I never thought I’d go back to that flower and be called ‘Yasmine’ again, though,” she said, blushing again and giggling.
Amy watched her, vaguely remembering that ‘Yasmine’ was the Persian word for ‘Jasmine,’ when suddenly she recalled a very distant memory of a princess from a fairy tale named Jasmine… Amy must have seen the Hollywood animated version of the flying-carpet adventure at least once in her past life.
“I’m so happy… You really do remember me! Hal told me that I should talk to you because you’d definitely remember me, so today we…”
Yasmine suddenly stopped and tears spilled from her emerald-green eyes. Amy quickly scooped up Tigger and went to sit next to Yasmine, offering up her handkerchief.
“I-I’m sorry for crying like this…”
“It’s fine!”
“It’s just…I was always cooped up in hospitals in my past life.”
“Really…?”
“My body had been frail, ever since I was born… But I could play video games even just sitting in bed, so I played them whenever I felt up to it. I didn’t have any friends either, so…for you to remember me… I’m so happy.”
Yasmine certainly had the cards stacked against her in her past life… Perhaps she finally felt comfortable enough to speak about the difficulties she faced now that she had crossed over into another world and so much time had passed.
Yasmine sniffled quietly, and when she looked up, she wasn’t crying anymore.
She looked not at Amy, but at the front window that was bathed in the glow of the setting sun. Amy admired her profile as Yasmine continued to reminisce about her past, clutching Amy’s handkerchief in her lap.
“It was so much fun. I could barely walk in real life, but in the game, I could run, jump, and even kill monsters.”
“That does sound fun.”
“I started playing online, too, but no one played with me because I was never on for very long at a time—and because of my avatar.”