Yasmine assured her the root of her self-isolation had more to do with her own issues, not so much the people around her, but Amy couldn’t help flashing back to her own experience.
Amy had managed to accept the memories of her previous life because her family, who had gone through the same thing, had been by her side.
It must have been so hard to come to grips with that all by herself, and at such a young age…
Yasmine continued that while she was readjusting to this world with her new memories, she learned about a dual-wielding student named Harold, who would be one of the students coming from the Royal Academy to study in Wallum.
“I had…maybe you would call it a premonition. I had a strange feeling, so I went to watch the students arriving. That day became a turning point in my life. I hadn’t even known what Harold looked like in my previous life, and I had no proof that he had been reborn, but when I saw him, I immediately thought—that’s him! My heart pounded so hard against my chest, and I ran away before he could see me.”
It sounded like how Amy had instinctively assumed, without any proof, that that girl watching them that day was the heroine.
“That was the first day I saw you,” Amy confessed.
“Really? Not the day the kraken appeared? I was so nervous… I mean, aristocrats from the royal capital… You guys are on another level entirely!”
“No way!”
“Really! Isabelle is as beautiful as a lead actress, and you…well…you’re a little chubby, but…”
Amy smiled forgivingly as Yasmine chose her words judiciously.
“You don’t have to find something to say.”
“No, that’s not it! It’s just…your aura, you know? It’s so different from everyone else! And I was so surprised by your cat, too!”
“Tigger?”
Even though he was a quiet, gentle cat, Tigger’s size would surprise anyone.
“You two walked along the beach a lot when you were in Wallum, right? I saw you there a few times. I remember thinking about how cute you guys were…how close a bond you must have with Tigger…and how different you were from the other ladies from the royal capital.”
For a moment, Amy wished that Yasmine would have called out to her back then.
But if Yasmine had actually said something, would Amy, then still fearful of her, have been able to respond?
Amy was able to laugh with Yasmine now because of how far she’d come, but back then, when Amy was still suspicious of everything, she would have simply run away from her.
I guess there’s a right time for everything. Maybe working through all those painful emotions was necessary, too…
“Oh, I’m sorry, I’ve only been talking about myself!” said Yasmine.
She prompted Amy to talk about something, but Harold and her parents were sure to be back at any minute and, judging from their outfits, Yasmine and Harold would be heading out right after. Amy didn’t have much time left.
After a moment’s hesitation, Amy took the plunge to finally set her mind at ease.
“So…in your previous life, did you ever like girly romance video games or web novels, or anything like that?”
“Oh! No, sorry… I only liked action and fighting video games. I was never interested in romance games.”
“Oh! I-I see.”
“I was never a very strong reader,” Yasmine continued, laughing. There wasn’t anything in her manner that raised Amy’s suspicions.
Amy was sure Yasmine was telling the truth. From what she’d seen of Yasmine, she was the last person Amy could imagine playing otome games or reading novels about them.
“But…” Yasmine added, suddenly remembering something, “all this talk of video games reminds me of a game I played that really resembled the world we’re in now… Of course, we have magical beasts here, not monsters, and the weapons and equipment in this world are different, too. But how the world looks and feels is kind of similar, somehow… Oh! And I was shocked when I realized the geography and kingdom names were nearly the same, too.”
“How the world looks and feels…”
Amy was convinced that not everyone had reincarnated like she did—only specific people.
And if so, she began to wonder, could this game be a mixture of video games that we played…?
But Amy sharply came back to her senses.
It’s not right for me to link everything back to the previous world or video games. Doesn’t that just make me a prisoner to my own thoughts? It’s like living with horse blinders on to the past, unnaturally living in two worlds at once.
And perhaps the fact that this awareness sprung up in Amy as naturally as a surge of spring water was proof that she had finally been able to break free from the binds of her “reincarnation game” thought patterns.
And she felt like this truly started changing for her…yesterday, when she finally opened her heart to Edward.
Let’s talk about something totally different from video games!
Let’s see… She’s a girl around my age… We were both reincarnated…
Having finally met Yasmine after so long, there must be other things Amy could talk to her about.
That’s right!
Tigger was sitting on Amy’s lap. She started petting him.
With his gold eyes squinting contentedly, he rubbed his own paw against his head in an adorable motion.
“I had allergies in my previous life, so I wasn’t able to have any pets,” Amy said. “When I found out I had been reborn, the first thing I wanted to do was adopt animals—but I wanted a cat to start out with.”
Yasmine’s eyes widened when Amy told her about how her father’s condition for letting Amy get a cat was that she learn magic.
Yasmine had struggled to get a handle on her own magical power when it had suddenly manifested. Much like Amy, she had frequently worked herself too hard during her magic training.
Using healing magic consumed a lot of magic power and was also very difficult to control. Yasmine, who had learned the basics of it for her position as a support, fully appreciated how high-level Amy’s healing magic was.
“That’s amazing!” said Yasmine. “So both of our dreams have come true, huh?”
“No. You and I…we made our dreams come true!”
“Huh… You’re right! I wanted to be an adventurer, and I worked really hard for it.”
“Exactly! I’ve put a lot of work in, too!”
“Right!”
Amy and Yasmine laughed, lifting their hands into the air in celebration.
The sounds of hands high fiving each other and the twinkling of laughter echoed throughout the Northland family’s living room.