Chapter 16
Charmant, unable to understand the true meaning, looked dumbfounded and asked with a blank expression.
It was as if Aheel wasn’t speaking to Charmant Pepe, but rather to Charmant Noël Kenders.
Maybe it was because Aheel looked so serious.
“You said you lost your memory.”
“Oh, right.”
Charmant’s tightly wound tension suddenly relaxed.
‘That damn memory! But… does he actually believe me?’
“I meant you should take it slow. And call me casually from now on. However you want. But I think using my name would be better. I’m off.”
And with that, he vanished without leaving even a sliver of room to respond.
“……”
Did he somehow figure out that she’d been going out of her way to avoid using any direct address at all—saying “you,” “that person,” or not calling him anything and just dodging conversation entirely?
Charmant stared blankly at the spot where he had just disappeared.
“What a strange man.”
There was no other way to describe him.
Only after quite a while did Charmant step back inside.
The door soon closed with a click and was firmly locked from the inside.
A few more days passed as she waited for Bucky.
Now, Charmant was no longer so nervous about opening the shop at 10 a.m.
Today, not a single customer came in. Even so, many people still stopped by.
People asking how she was doing, bringing meals, helping with cleaning, delivering gifts—there was barely any room to feel lonely.
Yesterday, she learned how to brew tea from Miya Wilkinson. Miya even left an entire canister of the tea that Charmant had said smelled nice.
Ah, the day before that, a thief had broken in once.
It must have been during the wee hours, when everyone was asleep. The way they moved around—anyone could tell they were just a petty thief.
They were making quite a ruckus, so Charmant, still lying down, casually reached out her hand and summoned a flash of lightning outside. The thief screamed and ran off.
Compared to the assassins and thieves of Lintvel, it was almost cute.
Other than that, everything was peaceful.
Just days ago, she had been commanding hundreds, even thousands, every morning. And yet now, it felt as if that time had been a lifetime ago.
At 6 p.m., as the shop closed for the day, Charmant took out the tea Miya had given her and started boiling water instead of preparing dinner.
While waiting for the water to boil, her gaze drifted toward the box of rings sold by her very first customer a few days ago.
After experiencing such a strange phenomenon once, she couldn’t help but wonder what would happen when the next item found its true owner.
The boiling sound snapped her out of her thoughts, and she poured the tea.
The warm steam began spreading the soft aroma throughout the space.
Holding the teacup with both hands, Charmant slowly sipped it.
“Ah.”
It was comforting. Why had she never known this kind of comfort before?
Always feeling chased, constantly following her master’s orders—it all felt like a distant memory from a different life.
Honestly, it was almost laughable.
Just then, she sensed a now-familiar presence outside, followed by a knock on the door.
Aheel had come to fulfill his promise.
Charmant immediately opened the locked door.
But what greeted her wasn’t Aheel Duff’s face—it was a massive pile of books.
“…Books?”
Books stacked taller than an average adult male.
“Is there space inside for all this?”
Aheel’s voice came from behind the mountain of books.
Charmant looked over her shoulder and scanned the room.
Thankfully, thanks to days of cleaning and organizing, there was enough space to put them, even if the room wasn’t big.
“Of course. But… why did you bring so many books…?”
Just then, the books moved. As Charmant stepped back, Aheel entered, carrying the whole stack.
“You said you lost your memory. You probably don’t know anything, right? Where should I put these?”
Aheel looked around, casually holding a pile of books that seemed heavy enough for two people.
He made it look so effortless that the suggestion to just use magic to move them vanished from her mind.
When Charmant pointed to a clear spot, Aheel quickly set the books down there.
“I brought some history books too. Read them whenever you have time.”
“…Do people ask about that kind of thing at banquets?”
Charmant asked seriously.
Like, would the gatekeeper start quizzing her? Either way, judging by the sheer number of books, even reading one per day wouldn’t be enough to finish by the day of the banquet.
‘He did come to help me prepare for the banquet, right? …Or maybe asking him was the wrong move…?’
Charmant looked at Aheel uneasily.
After transferring over thirty thick books with ease, Aheel clapped the dust off his hands.
“It’s not that, but, you know—since I was already bringing stuff, I figured it might help. You lost your memory, after all.”
Charmant nodded, still skeptical.
Maybe it was just her imagination, but it felt like Aheel Duff kept reminding her she had lost her memory.
As if he knew it was a lie.
Well, still—she could understand why he brought so many books.
Hadn’t he even risked his life to protect Elyum?
That kind of love for Elyum must’ve driven him to bring all this stuff.
It was a bit overwhelming, but she didn’t want to ignore the sincerity behind it.
“Well then, shall we begin?”
If it had to be done, it had to be done.
Charmant tied her hair back again and put on a resolute expression.
Charmant had always given her best to everything.
As a child, she’d done her best just to survive and not starve to death.
When she decided to follow Lakan and entered the academy, she’d pushed herself to the top of her class.
If she didn’t understand something, she’d learn it. And if that didn’t work, she’d just brute-force memorize it all.
Under normal circumstances, she could’ve sat still for hours without issue. But with this new body, even ten minutes in the same position made her entire body ache.
It was as if someone were whispering, “Come on, get up and play with me.”
Still, her stubborn personality wouldn’t let her slack off. So she groaned and forced herself to focus on the book.
Whenever she tilted her head, her silver-sky-colored hair swayed gently like a tail.
The table served as both a dining table and a desk. It was just large enough that, when two people sat at it, their heads might accidentally bump.
From the furrow of Charmant’s brow, to her lips tightening and relaxing, to her small sighs—all of it was close enough for Aheel to see clearly.
As she crammed the book’s content into her brain, a soft chuckle came from in front of her.
“…?”
Charmant, holding her pen, slowly looked up to find the source of the laughter.
“It’s just… you were concentrating so hard.”
“Well, since you went to the trouble of bringing these, I ought to make the most of it.”
Aheel gave her an odd look.
Feeling awkward under his gaze, Charmant lowered her head again.
“Weren’t you surprised when you woke up with no memory?”
Charmant didn’t lift her head, only nodded.
“I was a little shocked, but I was okay.”
“Didn’t it feel unpleasant?”
Unpleasant? She’d escaped death—how could it feel unpleasant?
“I was surprised, sure, but I wouldn’t say I disliked it.”
“…That’s a relief.”
Charmant shrugged and returned to her book.
“No other strange symptoms?”
But before she could even read a sentence, another question came.
She looked up and saw Aheel, chin in hand, leaning sideways as he waited for her answer.
“Not really…? Ah, I did have a bit of a headache.”
Of course, it wasn’t from hitting her head on the bed, but from the clash with her original memories.
“If anything weird happens, even later, tell me.”
“To you?”
“Yeah. Since you lost your memory, I figured you might not have anyone you can open up to.”
…This memory loss again.
If not for that, he really did seem like a decent person.
He wasn’t wrong, so she slowly nodded.
“Thanks for being considerate.”
Since they were close enough to help each other like this, it seemed natural to accept help as well.
She could always repay it later.
In just three hours, Charmant plowed through a thick history book and stretched her arms up with a satisfied groan.
“Your focus is amazing.”
“It’s actually pretty fun, this book.”
Reading it made the differences between Lintvel and Elyum even clearer.
It explained things in much more detail than what she’d researched on her own.
Unlike Lintvel, known for its strength, cruelty, and countless wars, Elyum’s history felt like reading a fairytale.
Now it made sense why they had fallen so easily in battle.
They had managed to hold out only because they had so many capable people.
No wonder Aheel Duff wanted a magic amplifier.
‘But Halslake only wanted my heart. He didn’t even look at anything else.’
Before she realized it, Charmant had stopped looking at anything related to the banquet and was instead diving deep into Elyum’s geography and military strength.
She flipped through a book that was barely a quarter the size of the history volume.
Unlike the history book, this one didn’t even contain much of the intel she had previously gathered—clearly censored—but it did have a detailed map that might come in handy.
“What are you staring at so intently?”
Aheel had been observing the whole time, then finally asked when he saw Charmant practically burning a hole through the map.
Startled for a moment, Charmant quickly composed herself and replied calmly.
“…Just thinking that maybe I’ll go traveling if my memory ever comes back.”
And with that, she subtly pointed to a very specific corner of the map.
