It feels like I’m floating. My hair flutters, my bangs stand up, and a loud sound like that of a mighty gust of wind right next to my ears makes them hurt. I guess going back to the past feels like flying through the air. I can even breathe somewh—
“We’re falling!”
“Ahhh!!!”
If this is what feeling “head over heels” is supposed to be like, the world’s romance novelists are sorely in need of correcting. As I am right now, there’s a beautiful clear sky below me, and I can see the ground above. It becomes apparent that I’m plummeting headfirst through the air. I hurry to hold down my skirt. It’s not like I’d hate to have someone see my underwear, but I feel like it would bother anyone who did. Mainly the prince.
“Wait, are we really meant to be time traveling this way?!” I exclaim.
Isn’t there a safer way? At least everyone else is still by my side. It’s pretty cliché in stories to get separated at times like these.
“You folks really thought it would be so easy?!”
Suddenly, I hear the voice of someone who shouldn’t be here. As I turn to look beside me, my eyes meet with those of a gnome in a red hat.
The Time Keeper is just as I last saw him, being hugged by Benjamine. What’s more, there’s a pink bubble around them, and they look to be completely prepared for the fall. It’s actually refreshing to see such brazen favoritism.
When did he sneak his way into our midst, anyway?
“You’re here, Keeper?!”
“Why the hell are you coming with us?!” asks Satanás at the same time as me.
Seeing our confusion, the Time Keeper smirks, still wrapped tightly in Benjamine’s arms. This guy...
“Whoever said you get to travel safely? Did I ever say such a thing, my little Benjamine?”
“You damn old pervert!” exclaims Satanás.
Forget what I said about this journey feeling like flying through the air. I can’t believe this old bastard would make us go through something like this. Where exactly are we, geographically, anyway?
The five of us naturally assuming a ring formation as we fall, we exchange glances.
“Do you guys even remember that you’re magicians?”
Suddenly, my body flips upright and I find myself floating. Holding my head due to feeling a little dizzy, I gaze with respect at Prince Zenon, who has his arms folded and looks like he can’t believe us. He looks gallant as he slowly manipulates us with an idle flick of his hand, despite his bangs going up and leaving his forehead in full view.
“Thank you, Your Highness!”
Right, we can use magic. I forgot. I’m angry at myself for having degraded into the kind of klutz who’d let her worries turn her around so bad she’d forget basic facts. And I even took it out on the gnome for no good reason.
As land approaches, I can clearly see the Royal Isle with Doran’s castle and the magic school. Looks like we’re falling from right above it. The prince says we’ll have to start by visiting the school anyway, and makes us float towards the Isle’s landing zone. This spot is the official entrance of the Isle—landing anywhere else without making a stop here first would get you arrested on grounds of trespassing. It’s like the gates of a school.
There’s no point hashing out our plan any further—we all figure Treyse must have gone straight to the school. And according to what we managed to get out of the gnome, she chose to travel to the day of the school entrance ceremony. Looks like she plans to approach Rockmann starting from this day. I’m conflicted on how I want to proceed: on the one hand, I want to stop her; on the other, I feel like I shouldn’t get in their way if Rockmann and Treyse do end up in a relationship.
Though when she heard about my internal conflict, Benjamine snapped and scolded me with a raised eyebrow. “Hold on, you can’t be serious! No matter how you think about it, she’s the one who’s getting in your way and trying to undo things by changing the past!”
“She went back to the day we entered school, right?” asks the prince again.
“That’s correct,” replies the Time Keeper.
Eventually, we arrive at the landing zone, slowly touching down. Nikeh is the first to set foot on the ground, followed by Benjamine, then Satanás. When my heels finally rest firmly on a solid surface, I am at last able to make a mental switch from our flight, at once too long and blessedly short.
“We’ll have to get through here first,” says Prince Zenon.
He suddenly snaps his fingers and turns into a young boy shorter than me. What did he mean by “getting through”? As the rest of us follow his line of sight, we see a knight approach from far away. I recall that when I arrived here on the day I entered school, a knight led me there from this place.
That’s not all, though. There are guards here who ensure no suspicious individuals enter the Isle. If we look like this, they’ll probably start questioning us, and because we don’t have any kind of valid ID, they might even arrest us if worse comes to worst. Sneaking past them doesn’t seem like a good idea, since for all I know they could have traps laid for those who try. It seems wise to change our appearances to match how we were at the age of twelve, when we entered school, just like the prince just did.
“You’re adorable, Your Highness,” says Nikeh.
“Ah, you’re so cute!” adds Benjamine.
Those childish cheeks of his that no doubt stretch so much if you pinch them... It’s so adorable how they turn a bit red at the girls’ words. And that cute sullen look on his face...
Following the prince’s example, the rest of us shape-shift too. The technique, like any other form of magic, calls for a strong imagination. Those who fall short have to describe the person whose form they want to assume in detail (such as their date of birth, where they live, their build, etc.) before saying the incantation.
“Prinaade,” says Nikeh, becoming a young girl in a lovely yellow outfit.
Her faintly blonde hair remains the same length. Remembering how she used to tie her hair in pigtails makes me nostalgic. I plead for her to tie it in pigtails again and her cheeks turn red, just like with the prince. She’s barely ever done her hair that way since graduation.
“Try not to look too much, okay?”
As she reluctantly fulfills my request, I tightly embrace her little figure.
“Oh, come on! My chest got so tiny!” complains Benjamine in the meantime.
I’ve always thought she looked mature for her age, but looking at her twelve-year-old figure now, as a grown-up, I realize how much that impression was rooted in my being a child myself at the time. She looks like an ordinary cute little girl. Benjamine simply radiates loveliness with those large, catlike eyes and long eyelashes. And with that red hair and good complexion, she gives off the impression of a young girl brimming with health. It’s probably because of Satanás that so few guys have ever confessed to her. I’m certain of it, in fact. I keep wondering, but... Are you sure you’ve made a good choice of partner, Benjamine?
I don’t have anything particular to say about Satanás’s own twelve-year-old figure as he stands there picking his nose.
“That dark-brown hair doesn’t look right on you at all,” says Nikeh, staring at my now-shoulder-length hair once I snap my fingers and turn small in an instant.
“I was born with this color, though...”
By now I’m completely used to my blue hair; it gives me peace of mind, as opposed to my natural hair color. Reverting like this feels like visiting a stranger’s home: even if you know the etiquette inside and out, you can’t help feeling awkward.
About a minute after everyone’s done shape-shifting the knight finally reaches us.
“How strange... Did you see any adults here?”
“Huh? There aren’t any,” replies Nikeh, bringing her index finger to her lower lip and tilting her head. How exquisitely lovable.
The knight looks like a decent man. He wears a white uniform and has freckles on the tip of his nose.
“Your Highness? What brings you here?”
“My friends got lost and I brought them here. I’ll return to school at once.”
“Ah, you’ve already made friends? There isn’t much time until the entrance ceremony—shall I ready a coach for you?”
“Don’t bother. We’ll make it if we run.”
Checking the clock tower at the landing zone, I see that the ceremony will start in thirty minutes.
The knight makes way for us without any trouble.
“Please hurry,” he says, lightly pushing our little backs.
As we run to the school, I look back and see him waving a hand to us. Given how easily he let us through, I have to wonder whether the security of this island is too lax. It’s kind of anticlimactic.
“I’ve known that knight since I was little. His name is Jute. Even back then we talked sometimes, and I found him to be a reasonable, good-natured man. He didn’t reproach me when I was tired of my studies and came to talk to him for a change of pace,” the prince explains while we run.
For a child to think of someone much older than him as “reasonable” is bold, to put it lightly. Add to that his current cute appearance, and you’ve got an incredible combination.
“Good thing I called Noir over, right?”
“Don’t even think of ever using that device again. You’re bothering His Highness,” replies Nikeh behind me.
“What are you, his mom?”
“‘His mom’?! I don’t remember giving birth to anyone!”
The two start bickering behind me. Nikeh only ever gets like this with Satanás. They probably don’t think of each other as members of the opposite sex. It just looks like two kids having a fight.