THEN, one day, with life going along peacefully and smoothly…
I walked in to find Ed sitting in our mansion’s sitting room, frowning over a book. He was on the sofa, head bent over the book, scanning the pages solemnly.
“Hey, Ed, what are you reading?”
Peering over his shoulder, I could see that he was looking at a very old magical text.
“Oh, Princess. I was wondering again about what kind of magic it was that I cast on you in that other world you speak about.”
Ed seemed surprised, like he hadn’t noticed me come in. He closed the book with a thump, smiling at me.
We were married, so I wasn’t a princess anymore. But Ed still called me that whenever we were alone. At first, I’d point out to him that I was no longer a real princess. But Ed would just respond with: “You’ll always be my Princess, Annabel.”
Eventually, I dropped it, figuring it was fine for him to call me whatever pleased him. Besides, I didn’t mind when he called me princess. Not one bit.
“The magic you cast on me, you say?”
“Yes. Based on what you’ve told me, I assumed it was some sort of Time Regression magic, only…”
“Only it wasn’t?”
“I don’t know. All I know is that Time Regression magic is just a theory. It doesn’t exist, at least not at this moment in time. And we don’t even know why he sent you back in time in the first place. So I thought that perhaps…”
But then Ed cut himself off.
My heart skipped a beat. The reason why the Ed of the old world had sent me back in time. Obviously, it was because we’d been facing a situation from which there was no other escape.
But Ed—the Ed of this time—didn’t know that. He assumed we’d been living happily in the other timeline and that there’d been no real reason for me to have been sent back in time.
“Well, I don’t know either, but what I do know is that I’m happy now, in this time, with you.”
“I’m happy with you, too, Princess.”
He cupped my cheek and we kissed.
Our married life together was picture-perfect.
There were no real arguments. We just lived our lives in quiet peace. We focused on the simple pleasures, like discovering a new flower growing in the gardens of our residence. Two years after we were married, we were blessed with a new little life to love and care for. And then, three years later, we were blessed once more.
And just as Ed swore to me, he gave me all the love in the world until the end of our days together.
Count Edoile Almare, the second Magic Count the land of Najir had ever known, went on to develop many new forms of magic after we were married. His inventions changed people’s lives all across the world, not just in Najir.
But the Mind-Altering and Mind-Controlling magic that Toll had been working on was deemed too dangerous to pursue any further, and that research was permanently sealed in the research lab’s vault.
After decades together, Ed passed. And on that day, a very strange thing occurred. A Magic Sigil appeared suddenly beneath Ed’s body. It was around six feet in diameter, and I didn’t recognize it as any type of Magic Sigil I knew.
Even our son Hugo, a top-level Royal Magician, seemed confused by it.
And I noticed something else odd.
“Lilia, Hugo…where’s Daddy’s earring? Have you seen it?”
Ed had worn my Magic Stone in his ear ever since we were married. He was never seen without it.
“I don’t know.”
Hugo shook his head.
“Maybe that Magic Sigil was meant for him to be able to take your Magic Stone to heaven with him, Mom.” That was my daughter Lilia’s guess.
“That would make sense. After all, this is Dad we’re talking about.”
My son, Hugo, nodded.
I would’ve felt silly suggesting it myself, but the fact that my children thought that was just proof of what a devoted husband Ed had been to me.
“I wonder if that’s true.”
In my heart, though, I thought it probably was.
My children and I smiled together, united in our affection for Ed and his magic.
After Ed passed, I was kept busy with my children and directing the servants, so I overcame my grief before too long and got back to some semblance of normal life.
But I spent the rest of my days often gazing at my ring and the necklace I still wore, thinking of the old days and all the fun we had.
Recently, I’d kept having the same thought.
If the old Ed could only know of how joyful my life turned out to be, would he be happy for me?
In that dark jail cell, he’d promised to make me happy. If only I could’ve let him know that he had succeeded. If only I could thank him.
It’s warm today…
It was strange. I felt sleepier than usual.
I lay down on the sofa in my bedroom in our mansion and slowly closed my eyes.
My ring…it feels hot somehow?
But I found that I could no longer open my eyes.
I sank down, deep into a darkness that seemed to have no end.
RUMBLE.
An earthquake shook the very ground beneath where I lay.
I opened my eyes to see a cloudless blue sky above me.
…What?
My body ached all over. I lifted my arm slowly, looking at my own hand in front of my face. I was overcome with shock. My wrinkled skin was smooth and white again, as if restored to full youth.
And for some reason, I was dressed in shabby rags.
What’s going on?
Startled, I managed to sit upright and look around me. What I saw…was unbelievable.
No…
I could see the Sunruta palace, partially destroyed. People were fleeing…plumes of smoke were rising from the palace remains.
After all these years, the terror of this scene had never left me. And now I was back. Back here, at the end of everything.
Arc 1 FIN