If feelings were what influenced this world of the mind, then I knew just what feelings I needed to call upon to reach Claire. I pointed a finger her way and envisioned a scene in my head. A dazzling light shot forth from my fingertips to her.
“To think a commoner would even fathom sitting next to me. Know your place!”
The light burst, and a deeply familiar line rang out in the darkness of my mind. The sunset-lit classroom shifted, changing scenes to a nostalgic moment in time: the one in which I first met Claire.
“Is that…me?” Claire murmured.
“Yes, Miss Claire. These are the memories of your true self,” I said.
“No… I don’t remember any of this. Don’t think I’ll believe such rubbish!”
“It’s not rubbish. I’ve been by your side since the beginning! Since this moment here!” I raised my voice, hoping my feelings would reach her—that my words would wake her corrupted mind.
One after another, I shot forth more lights filled with memories.
“Miss Claire, I love you.”
“Wh…wh-wh-what…?!”
I gave voice to my feelings for her the day I had transmigrated to this world and had continued to ever since.
“Oh, I beg your pardon? You were standing there staring off into space, so I thought you were a statue.”
“You have minions that could do your bidding, but you do your own dirty work and don’t rely on others! I would expect nothing less from you, Miss Claire!”
Each time a light reached Claire, the world around us changed. This time, the joyous days during which she bullied me appeared.
“Why do you say you like me?” The day I became a maid and started serving at Claire’s side appeared next. “Contrary to appearances, I know myself. My personality isn’t one that earns affection.”
“Miss Claire, I intend to remain by your side because I truly like you. I have no other motives.”
“So, you’re going to play innocent to the very end…”
“You don’t believe me?”
“No.”
“Then I will do my best to make you.”
There had been a time when she wouldn’t accept my love for her, but that had only made me try harder.
“Thank you for your service, Miss Taylor.”
At yet another point in time, a rift formed between us because of Manaria, and I quit being Claire’s maid.
“Whether or not these divine Scales recognize it, I love you. No matter who I lose to, I will continue to love only you.”
But we reconciled and grew even closer.
“Rae is mine! Don’t take her from me!”
That was around the time she began to really show how she was changing. But it didn’t stop us from clashing again.
“Then why?!”
“Because—I am an aristocrat.”
She once chose to fall with the old era as the times changed. But together, we overcame the challenge, just as we had many times before.
“Shut up! Listen to what I want for once!”
“Ngh… These illusions don’t affect me one bit!” Claire said, a bit pained.
“It sure doesn’t look that way,” I said. “Perhaps the real Claire inside you is reacting?”
“As if!”
“Well, I’m just getting started!” I fired off even more lights.
“You with the cute short hair! We will call you May.”
“Cute…? May?”
“And you with the lovely long hair—your name is Aleah.”
“Lovely…? Aleah?”
The day we met May and Aleah.
“I’m glad we came today. Thank you, Rae.”
Our peaceful newlywed life.
“You have done well to come all this way. I am Dorothea, the Empress of Nur.”
Our move to the empire.
“I didn’t understand her. I thought she only wanted to hurt me. But I was wrong. There’s no doubt in my mind now that the one who gave her life to save me was someone I could call my mother.”
The failed assassination of the pope.
“Rae, do you realize you’re blushing?”
“And who’s to blame for that, Claire?”
“Hee hee, oh, you… Hm?”
The dance we shared at the ball.
“You are hereby exiled for high treason.”
The temporary setback in our plan to best the empire.
“Salas is a monster.”
“He is indeed.”
“I despised him before, but this incident was the final straw.”
“I couldn’t agree more.”
“We’ll capture him—won’t we, Miss Claire?”
“Absolutely.”
The time we helped our students.
“Have you realized yet, Dorothea?”
“What?”
“You lost long ago. Long before this summit. In the very moment you released that girl. Ha ha… Ha ha… Oooooho ho ho ho ho!”
Our turnabout against Dorothea at the summit.
“The Demon Queen has arrived. Despair, foolish humans. Then die.”
The time we were driven into a corner by demons in the imperial capital.
“Right, you’re a genius. That’s why…I’m sure you’ll be fine on your own.”
“No… No. Please don’t leave me, Claire. Please…”
The moment we learned the shocking truth of the world.
“You dunce, you idiot, you fool…!”
“I’m sorry, Rae. I’m sorry I scared you. Please forgive me.”
Our cutthroat battle against the Demon Queen.
And finally, now.
“Haaah…haaah… How could such fabrications affect me so?” Claire panted.
“Isn’t it about time you let yourself remember already, Miss Claire?” I asked. “Our bond isn’t so shallow that it could be forgotten, not when weighed against something as trivial as the fate of mankind.”
“What—did you just call the fate of mankind trivial?!”
“You bet I did. Everything is trivial compared to our bond. How can you not see that?”
“How can you call that trivial?! Are you insane, Rae?! …Oh.”
“Yes, yes, just like that. Are you starting to remember, Miss Claire?”
“I’m…what, no…why?” Claire recoiled from me. The thick violet glow enveloping her body began to weaken. She writhed in pain, as though trying to keep the glow from leaving her.
“Try to remember, Miss Claire! All the people you know! May and Aleah! And most of all, me!”
“Ngh…!” The violet glow flickered. It had to be the cause of whatever was binding her heart.
“We promised we would return home together, all four of us! So let’s do just that, Miss Claire! Let’s go home!” I put my most heartfelt memories and feelings into my last two lights and fired them off toward Claire.
“Really? Then let me try again.”
“Fine. I’ll allow it.”
“No, not that.”
“Huh?”
Our first happy kiss together, after overcoming the revolution and affirming our feelings for one another.
“Ah…ahhh…”
“Miss Claire.”
“Yes.”
“I love you.”
“As do I, Rae.”
“I vow to love you for as long as I shall live.”
“And I vow to support you for as long as I shall live.”