Episode 25
At first, I thought it was a dream.
It had been years since I graduated from the Talent Training Center; there was no way I could have traveled so far back into the past. I never once imagined that Tania would be capable of resetting a period as long as twelve years.
Until now, whenever time had looped, it had been a matter of mere minutes, or a month or two at the most. Naturally, I had assumed that was the limit of her ability. The reason I had been able to endure those repeating cycles without much complaint was because they had always been brief… but what on earth was this?
If I didn’t activate my nullification ability, I wouldn’t necessarily be pulled back whenever she used hers. However, I never deactivated it. After all, I was curious. I wanted to know what kind of devious things Tania had done to warrant a time reset. Besides, if I hadn’t kept my ability active at all times, I wouldn’t even have remembered our first meeting.
Ever since I awakened as a child, I had been searching for an Abilitator who could “turn back time.” That person was the savior I had been waiting for. Although I knew she only turned back time for her own sake, I had always wanted to repay that kindness.
Yet, the user I searched for in vain finally appeared, moving with calculated confidence. She snapped up only the most profitable mining veins and became the major investor in businesses destined for massive success. It was as if she were shouting, “I am the one you’ve been looking for!”
For a long time, I watched Tania from afar, keeping tabs on her news. It was quite entertaining to watch her path shift from moment to moment each time the clock turned back. When I became certain that Tania was the one, I frequented the ballrooms she attended, lingering nearby until she finally paid me some mind.
I knew very well how easily my face could win the favor of others. My expectation was spot on.
“Wow… is this a person, or a statue?”
There were many who would whisper and look at my face from a distance, but Tania was the first to admire me so openly, right to my face, with such genuine wonder. Finding her reaction amusing, I waited to see what she would say next.
“Whoever marries you will be lucky. Getting to look at a face like this every day.”
I had expected her to at least apologize for staring or introduce herself, but that wasn’t the case. I wondered if she even realized how lovely her own rose-gold hair was. She probably didn’t know how I wanted to nibble on her cheeks, which still carried the soft, round contours of childhood. Without realizing what I was doing, I stared at her, waiting to see how far she would take it.
But then…
After that brief exclamation, she turned back time as if she had no regrets. As if she hadn’t said a single word to me.
I was dumbfounded. She had been the one to openly admire me, so how could she reset everything without even attempting a conversation? In the end, it was I who had to approach her and break the ice. But even after we spoke, Tania made no effort to get close. It was as if she were treating me like an artifact on display in a museum. She treated everyone that way, intentionally keeping her distance.
And so, it was I who grew impatient. I visited her every single day, talked to her, granted her various requests, and finally succeeded in winning her over. And yet…
“So, after you kissed me, you ran away twelve years into the past, is that it?”
Because of that kiss, I already had two rabbit-like imagined children! At first, I was simply angry. Everything we had built together had been wiped clean. Moreover, I couldn’t engage in any intimate physical contact in this child’s body. She was three years younger than me. Waiting for us to reach adulthood felt agonizingly long.
“But if Tania is seven years old now, just how many more years do I have to live in celibacy here…”
The legal age of adulthood in the Empire was eighteen. Even if we married as soon as possible, I would have to wait at least eleven more years. It was despairing. After returning to the past, I searched for Tania like a madman, but she kept a low profile, making her impossible to find.
Then, at one point, I came to my senses and found myself back in my adult body. I went straight to find her—I was so desperate I hadn’t even thought to teleport. Tania was neither at home nor at her usual places of business. In a fit of suspicion, the last place I checked was my own town house in the Papiope territory. Surprisingly, she had come to the Duchy on her own.
Hearing from the butler that she was in the drawing-room, I went straight there.
“Tania!”
She, who had suddenly told me to take care and then turned back time by twelve years, was standing right before my eyes. I strode toward her and firmly grasped her wrist so she couldn’t run away.
“You, how could you…!”
Her eyes widened in shock at my angry expression. At that moment, inevitably, time turned back again. The afterimage of Tania, who had been right in front of me, crumbled away like grains of sand. That was the moment I realized she was an existence I could never truly grasp, no matter how hard I tried.
It was maddening. Why was she doing something so absurd? The wealth she had accumulated was beyond imagination; she could have done anything she wanted.
“Did you turn back time to a point when someone who was like family to you was still alive?”
But hadn’t they said that person passed away five years ago? There was no need to go this far back. Reflecting on these inferences, I regretted showing my anger to her. I should have calmed down and spoken carefully; at the very least, I shouldn’t have grabbed her wrist so roughly.
But the next day, a shocking rumor spread at the Papiope Talent Training Center. Three people had passed the entrance exam in a single day, and one of them had shattered all historical records. I immediately knew it was Tania. In the past, no such thing had ever happened.
I ransacked the Training Center’s files and found her name. It was her. I thought it was for the best—if she entered the Training Center, we would naturally have more opportunities to interact. I thought I could take my time and persuade her slowly.
Every day, I went to the reception desk to see if she had arrived. But even a month after the results, Tania did not appear. It was a stark contrast to the twin siblings who had passed on the same day and enrolled immediately. I remember how bewildered I was when Rosemary, who had been my younger sister in adulthood, appeared alongside her biological brother.
As the adoption competition drew near, I grew anxious. It seemed the competition had been moved up because of Tania’s influence. Yet she, the very cause of it, had not shown up. Hadn’t she taken the exam to be adopted by the Duke?
I sighed and headed to the reception desk out of habit. The moment I saw that lovely rose-gold hair at the counter, I called out her name before I could stop myself.
“…Tania?”
She, who had been bowing her head, turned her gaze toward me. It was the meeting with Tania I had wanted so desperately. But I felt such a shock, as if someone had struck the back of my head, that I couldn’t say a single word.
A tiny, small body. Thin arms and legs. Remembering her as an adult, it felt as though this child might crumble and vanish if I so much as tapped her. It was easy to guess that she had endured a painful childhood, just as I had. It wasn’t just because she was thin. She had that distinct, venomous look in her eyes that only those of the same kind could recognize.
People who have suffered in their youth and achieved success usually don’t want to return to their past. And yet, for her to have come back to this point in time…
There must be a reason.