Chapter 130: Henrietta ; Night Before the Competition

Oh? I've never seen this girl before. Is she a visitor? That's most likely the case if I were to take her reaction upon seeing me into consideration.

From the looks of it, she has been close with 'Wales Tudor', or else she wouldn't react this way.

The next moment, the girl breaks into a sprint and embraces me, which further supports the notion of her being close to 'me'.

"Say, Louise," I say, "Mind introducing the young lady to me?"

The moment the words leave my mouth, the girl's body flinches as she moves hastily moves her head to look me in the eyes.

"Ah, alright," Louise says before stating, "This girl is the Crown Princess of Tristain, Henrietta."

Tears seem to be welling up in the girl's eyes as if she can't believe the fact that I don't know her.

Perhaps, 'my' relationship with her was much stronger than I suspected?

"Wales?" she mutters as a single tear rolls down her left cheek.

I lift my hand to wipe the tear off her face before closing my eyes and shaking my head.

"I'm sorry. I don't know who you are, nor do I know who am I."

In response to my words, Henrietta just peers into my eyes as if waiting for me to tell her this all a joke.

However, it's not - and she knows it.

Once the idea of me not being the Wales she once knew settles in her head, Henrietta slowly lowers her head.

What follows, is the sobbing of a broken-hearted girl.

Despite not knowing her, I still feel uncomfortable if a girl just begins sobbing in front of me, so I place my hand on her head and slowly rub it.

After a few moments, Henrietta raises her head, revealing reddened eyes and a sad smile before she says,

"Even now, after forgetting me, you console me the way you used to."

Letting out a sigh, I embrace her and say,

"I'm sure that my memories will return one day, so don't be so desolated."

Henrietta hums an 'um' as confirmation before she hugs me back.

A few minutes later, she steps back and says,

"Greetings. I'm your cousin, Henrietta."

Cousin, huh? Interesting.

"Nice to meet you, Henrietta. I go by the name Victor for now."

The reason I introduced myself in such a manner is to cement the idea of me being a different person than before.

In this way, a thin line forms between the past and present. If she took too long to realize this, things could get troublesome.

"Well, let's set all that to one side," I say, "Why is the princess of a kingdom here?"

Henrietta suddenly seems like she got enlightened as she says hastily,

"No, why are YOU here?"

…

Whatever, I will just tell her the exact same thing I've been telling everyone.

--

After a long while of recounting and consoling, I finally get to know the reason Henrietta is here.

Apparently, when she was younger, Henrietta was close friends with Louise. They were playmates that spent most of their childhood together.

Henrietta had found out through the headmaster that Louise was unable to summon a proper familiar.

She asked him about the exact specification of what transpired, but Osmond decided that the matter was too complicated to be discussed through letters.

And thus, Henrietta came here early to check on Louise and investigate the aforementioned matter in one go.

"So, even after you kissed Louise, the mark of a familiar didn't appear?" Henrietta asks calmly.

"That's exactly so," I respond.

She seems to be a little saddened by my response, which I assume is either her care for Louise's situation or something else that I mentioned.

"What's Louise supposed to do for tomorrow's competition?" I question.

"Nothing," Henrietta directly replies, "She has no familiar to participate with, so other than spectating the other participants she doesn't have much to do."

I thought as much.

Looking in Louise's direction, I see her slightly lowering her head and an aura of sadness envelopes her.

"Can't she just summon another familiar?" I ask.

"I'm not sure about that," she responds, "A mage can summon another familiar if the one they were contracted with has deceased. So, I'm not sure what to think of Louise's case."

Is there such a thing in the contract?

{Affirmative. It's one of the things that has been left untouched during the ritual.}

Can't you modify?

{Negative. A contract can't be tampered with once it has been formed.}

I see… how unfortunate.

"I have to go now," Henrietta all of a sudden says, "It's going to be problematic if I don't head back soon."

"I'm sure it would be," I say, "Being the crown princesses, you should have limited freedom."

"It's as you say," Henrietta says despondently.

The next moment, she shakes her head a little before beaming a smile and saying,

"I missed you both a lot. Try to visit the castle sometime."

"Sure," I simply respond, while Louise nods her head with a smile on her face.

After bidding us farewell, Henrietta uses her robe to cover herself before leaving the room.

I turn to face Louise who seems to be thinking of something and say,

"We should go to sleep now."

Louise looks at me for a few seconds before setting her sight on the bed.

Gabriel, Aruru, and Ddraig have been asleep the whole time. Well, we didn't make that much noise for them to wake up.

Also, there is the possibility of them being fatigued after all that has happened today.

"Come on," I say before grabbing Louise's hand and dragging her to the bed.

I make use of telekinesis to gently move those lying down away a little before climbing onto the bed ourselves.

Taking this opportunity, I position Louise in a way that she's exactly within my arms.

"Let me go," she whispers.

"Forget it," I respond in a low voice, "We wouldn't want to wake the others up, so just sleep like this for tonight."

"B-b-but," I don't let her finish what she has to say by moving my head and giving her a quick peck on her cheek.

"Just sleep," I whisper before holding her close to myself.

As I am practically sticking to her body, I can feel and hear her heart's beat-rate rising rapidly.

I then close my eyes and drift off into dreamland.