Extra: Elizabeth’s Circumstances
“KYEOOOOOOOOORGH!”
That horrible sound, like metal grinding on metal, reverberated through the palace’s halls. I cast aside the papers I’d been looking at to chase the noise. That was Lars’ cry, but without any of the cutesy posing he’d usually do. He only made such an utterly draconic sound when there was some dire issue—most likely concerning Elizabeth or her safety.
I knocked at the door that Lars was crying behind but didn’t wait to throw it open.
“What’s wrong?!”
It was a parlor designed for the queen to hold salons or tea parties. Elizabeth was lying prone on one of the large plush sofas.
“Elizabeth?!”
I dropped to my knees and peered into her face. She was breathing, fortunately, and her complexion was fairly normal. It seemed she’d just passed out. I looked around for Lars, finding him sprawled in a pile in a far corner of the room with Plum. They were both crawling weakly under the sofa, having noticed my arrival.
I wasted no time grabbing the pair by their tails and yanking them free.
“What happened?” I demanded.
“M-Mew…”
“Kyigh…”
Their gazes wandered, and both refused to look at me. That implied there was no direct danger to Elizabeth, which was a relief. Lars would never be so relaxed otherwise.
“Nngh…”
Elizabeth moaned, waking up before I could get either familiar to answer me. She shakily looked about the room as she came to her senses. She had an odd expression, however, and as soon as she spotted me, she froze. She let out a cry of surprise and leapt to the far end of the sofa, away from me.
Wait… I recognize that look…
“Er… Might I ask whose room this is?” she asked dazedly. “To think I’d fall asleep beside a gentleman I’ve never seen before…”
That was all I needed to hear. I glared down at Lars and Plum with a frigidity that would put even Harold to shame. Hallowyrm and cait sidhe stared at the floor.
“If you know, could you please tell me?” Elizabeth asked. “And if you don’t mind, who might you be?”
I could see her try and fail to remember me, but my name never emerged from her lips. Instead, I caught her sighing slightly, her amethyst eyes fixating curiously on me. She was quiet and hadn’t “introduced” herself, despite her dedication to proper manners. Then, she hurriedly dropped her gaze, cheeks blushing faintly.
Wait… Is she having a love-at-first-sight moment, too?
The thought made me shy, in turn. I never could’ve imagined becoming the kind of man she’d fall for at a glance.
“I’m Vincent.”
“Lord Vincent,” she repeated softly to herself.
Given the circumstances, I had to assume Plum had hit her with the same “loss of one’s most precious treasure” affliction that he’d struck me with. That meant I had to catch her up on our relationship and convince the cait sidhe to unseal her memories as well.
I wonder how she’d react if she heard she lived here and that we’re already married?
My pulse quickened, half from anticipation and the other fear. Despite her first impression of me, the news would come as a shock. If she hated me in the slightest, I’d break down crying. That, if nothing else, was proof that my love for her was real.
No, this isn’t the time for thinking.
I needed to tell her everything, smoothly and confidently—how much I loved her, how much she loved me, and how worthy I was of her affections. Before I could tell her, there was a subtle shift in her expression—half confidence and half disbelief.
“Wait… C-Could we perhaps be…um…”
She looked up and stared into my eyes as though peering through them and into the depths of my soul. I met her gaze squarely and realized her eyes still had the same wit and determination within.
“A-Are we lovers…? No, I recognize some of these things. We couldn’t be…married, could we?”
I could only stare.
“…Am I wrong?” she muttered.
I shook my head. By then, my face was beet-red. “No. You’re right.”
The tension left her shoulders all at once. “Oh, I knew it.”
Her memories couldn’t have returned to her. While I was mulling over what to say, she’d arrived at the correct answer on her own.
“How did you know?” I asked.
“I may be reading too far into the situation, but it was your eyes. They’re as deep and blue as the ocean, and I could feel love in them. There was empathy, gentleness, and worry. But more than that…” She chuckled. “I could tell from the way you smile and how you hold yourself that you put a lot of effort into your appearance. That, and you had the eyes of a puppy desperate not to be abandoned, the kind that made me want to embrace you on the spot. I was hoping so dearly that I was right—that you truly cared for me as much as I hoped you did.”
“E-Elizabeth…”
Drat, I’m still embarrassingly red, aren’t I?
Just like when my memories were erased, everything about me and the years we’d spent together was wiped from her memory. All she had to go by was the man standing before her now. She was different from her usual self, granted, but she still accepted me and my feelings as I was and smiled. She was the same angel I knew and loved at heart. I had to cover my face with my arm.
I spent all this time and effort trying to be perfect for her, and she likens me to a sad puppy?!
“I can’t imagine you would feel so strongly for anyone you had a passing interest in. There must be a reason.” She paused. “Come to think of it, I’ve heard of a very similar spell to this…”
She looked down at my feet, where Lars and Plum were watching our conversation unfold. A somewhat ill look was on the dragon’s face as though he were about to vomit another manacite. Plum was yawning, ignorant of this new development in our relationship.
Elizabeth got up from the sofa to crouch in front of the familiars.
“Lord Lars, Lord Plum, please return my memories to me now.”
With that, Elizabeth’s memories were restored as quickly as they were taken from her. As for the cause of the problem, it seemed that Plum had a quarrel with Mother. It flew about the halls angrily searching for her when it barged in on Elizabeth by accident, which prompted Lars to leap to her defense. The situation rapidly escalated from there, and Elizabeth ended up on the receiving end of the memory-sealing spell instead.
Ultimately, Plum was forbidden from using magic in the palace again, and Lars was thoroughly reprimanded. He sat with his head drooping throughout the entire lecture—though from the way he wagged his tail from start to finish, I doubted he learned his lesson.
Elizabeth and I sat on the parlor sofa as we put the second memory dilemma behind us in so little time.
“That was a disaster,” I muttered.
Elizabeth giggled. “I wouldn’t say so. That look in your eyes was no different from when you had your own memories sealed. It’s because of that I was able to regain my senses so quickly. You saved the day yet again.”
I grimaced a little. “Are you sure?”
“Positive.”
To be fair, I’d fallen in love at the very sight of her when it was my turn. According to her, she felt the same way back then—even though I’d changed, I was the same man she loved deep down. That was what kept us falling in love with each other, time and time again.
I chuckled. “At this rate, we’d fall in love with each other even if we were reincarnated.”
I put my hand in hers, and our fingers entwined. I feared I’d waxed poetic a little too much, but her cheeks were pink with agreement, and she nodded silently but firmly.
✦ ✦ ✦
💕 💕 💕
AWAY from the others, Lars whispered for only Plum to hear, “Looks like no matter which of them loses their memories, they will always fall in love at first sight with each other and not run into any real issues…”
Plum patted the melancholy hallowyrm’s white back to console him.