A villainess would certainly snap back, but Duke’s full-on Grim Mode glare stirs my desire to flee.
“What are you doing?”
Relief takes root in my heart the moment I hear that voice.
……Brotherly love is a powerful thing.
“Oh, Henri. This girl just started talking to me out of nowhere.”
“Huh?” Henri’s face twists. It’s reassuring that Henri is reacting just as Gill and I had.
“Duke…have you forgotten who Alicia and I are?” Gill asks Duke, his eyes wide.
“You’re Gill,” Duke replies with suspicion in his eyes.
I’d love to return that suspicious glare right back at you. Why do you recognize Gill, but not me?
……Why has he forgotten me? This is just all too sudden.
Especially when he gazed at me with such tenderness yesterday…
“Maybe somebody erased Alicia from his memory,” Henri suggests.
“Alicia, if it was erased intentionally, Duke’s memory might not come back,” Gill says.
Their words make me feel an unfamiliar discomfort in my chest. If his memory never returns…
Will that erase Duke’s feelings for me?
The diamond pendant he gave me suddenly feels very cold against my skin.
“If you have no business with me, can I go now?” Duke grumbles in annoyance.
Okay, I remember seeing a similar scene in my past life… Duke used to often act this way around Alicia. So did Duke’s memory get erased—and the story has returned to its default settings?
If we stay on this path, will Duke and Liz wind up together? I mean, I am the villainess. Wouldn’t this be a great opportunity to make a new villainous first impression?
If Duke really does have amnesia, I have to exploit it!
“Prince Duke, allow me to reintroduce myself. I am Alicia, the eldest daughter of the Williams family.”
I lift the hem of my skirt and curtsy at a perfect forty-five-degree angle.
“……Alicia,” Duke mutters, staring hard. “What is the nature of our relationship?”
“……I don’t know—you tell me.” A challenging smirk forms on my lips.
Well? Peak villainess behavior, if I do say so myself.
“Alicia, was it?”
“Yes.”
“Your eye… Is it hurt?” Duke dubiously scrutinizes my eye patch.
……I suppose I’ll have to explain this again.
I smile and reply in a deep voice, “Not hurt; missing.”
Duke’s eyes are sparkling in the sunlight that’s streaming through the window, yet their color appears darker than usual.
His eyes look like they’ve lost their light. His face looks the same, but this is definitely not Duke.
“What happened?” he asks stiltedly.
“……Let’s just say it was an atonement for my sins.”
““Huh?”” Gill and Henri blurt out, both staring at me in surprise.
Well, I had to assert myself as a villainess to the amnesiac Duke. I’m not going to get this opportunity twice.
“Atonement, you say?” Duke asks, his brow furrowing.
“That’s right. I have many enemies… Do you have a problem with that?”
I speak cheerfully, with a smile on my face and my head tilted. Behold my villainy!
However, my words appear to rub Duke the wrong way…
“I’ll be going now.”
And with that, Duke turns his back on us and leaves.
……Did I make a good villainess impression on him?
“Your eye… You gave it to Gramps as an act of service. It wasn’t at all atonement for your sins…”
“Oh, Gill, a great villainess makes enemies everywhere she goes. If Duke doesn’t remember anything about me, isn’t this a great way to establish my villainy to him?”
Gill sighs. “Seriously, Alicia, that’s all there is to you, isn’t it? Who in the world did that to him?”
“Yeah, we have to find the bastard,” Henri mutters.
“Considering my level, there’s a long list of suspects,” I say. But I have no idea who it might have been. “……Was this issued to me as a challenge?”
“Hey, why are you smiling?” Gill demands.
“Because I’m happy, of course. When a villainess gets her first provocation to fight, that’s when she’s a full-fledged baddie.”
“You’re spinning this in a strange direction, as usual… But if you’re happy, I guess that’s all that matters.”
There’s a scornful twist to Gill’s lips, but he seems to have given up on the lecture. Henri wears a similar look on his face, like he’s just eaten something bitter.
“Well, our first step is to gather our allies and talk it over.”
“No thank you,” I reply. “This is my personal matter.”
“Compromise is necessary sometimes,” Gill argues earnestly. “Especially this time. This whole ordeal has pesky written all over it.”
Henri nods in agreement.
“……Fine.”
I feel a little wary about it, but I eventually assent.
“Ali-Ali! Heeey! Oh, why the long faces, everybody?”
Mel, Duke’s ever-elusive attendant, shows up. She seems to remember me.
We explain Duke’s amnesia to her. After a few quiet moments, with a perplexed look on her face, she says, “I’ll give you the details tomorrow.” Then she leaves.
Mel seems to know something…
We say very little as we head home. We probably each have our own thoughts on the matter.
Why was I the only one erased from Duke’s memory? The erasure of a prince’s memory is a national emergency. And the one who has the most to gain from it is…me?
I’ll admit, it’s convenient that I can rebrand myself now that Duke has forgotten about me, but I wouldn’t have done such a thing to him intentionally. I was about to open up to him…
Wait, no! The story reverting to its original trajectory is exactly what I was wishing for!
I need to stop thinking about this and just go to bed. Ugh, but I’m obsessing over this so much, I can’t sleep…
I managed to fall asleep anyhow. Now I’m looking outside at the sun, which is already high in the sky. As my hazy brain sorts out the events of the day prior, a booming knock sounds at my door.
“Alicia—are you awake?”
My father? What’s he doing here so early?
“Yes, I’m awake.”
Not a moment later, the door swings open.
“We need to talk.”
My father looks like a wreck. And he seems grimmer than ever…
“Is it about Prince Duke?” I ask.
“So you know.”
“Yes, well…I did see him at school.”
……Our prince having amnesia is quite the dilemma, but the fatigue on my father’s face could be from something different. Like, for example, family troubles…
With a dark tone, my father says, “There’s already a short list of suspects for who stole His Highness’s memory—and you’re on it.”
……Me?! Here I was, assuming that as the prince’s close friend, Henri had gotten caught up in the mess.
“Um…why?”
“I don’t know… His Majesty’s guards are waiting outside right now.”
“Am I going to the dungeon?”
My father is silent for a while. Yes, I suppose a father could never look his beloved daughter in the eye and tell her she was going to jail.
“……Are you going to run?”