LMHS 01

Chapter 01

I lost my entire fortune to gambling.

“Miss, are you all right……?”

When the elderly gentleman nearby asked with concern, Tania drew a crescent-shaped smile on her lips.

“I’m fine. It’s just that my life is ruined.”

At those words, the surroundings grew even more somber, but she herself smiled calmly.

A youthful, pretty face that looked as though she had only just become an adult. It was an appearance that did not suit a gambling den at all.

“To be worrying about others in a gambling house that’s like walking on thin ice—you’re a kind person.”

Tania twirled her pale rose-gold–colored hair around her finger.

“Haa, I guess gambling really doesn’t suit me. I almost got into big trouble.”

At that, the people around her looked at Tania with expressions that said, “It seems the big trouble already happened.”

“I don’t know how rich your family is, miss, but with an amount like this…….”

Despite the worries pouring in from all sides, she only smiled languidly.

“That’s right. It’s an amount that would have wiped out a few buildings in the capital’s central district.”

And who earned that money?

She knew the value of that amount better than anyone.

“But this round wasn’t my fault—my opponent cheated by dealing from the bottom, so there’s no reason for me to lose money, right?”

She had clearly memorized all the cards, and the fact that things kept differing from her predictions was proof of that.

“This is why you shouldn’t even deal with cardsharps.”

Clicking her tongue with a look that said she had wasted her time, Tania suddenly shrugged lightly.

“But it’s fine. I can just use my ability and take care of it.”

From the start, since she herself had memorized the cards in advance, she hadn’t been playing the game fair and square either.

When Tania spoke as if she might flip the table at any moment, the guards approached her while keeping a close watch.

Feeling the physical pressure, she knit her brows as though it were a pity.

“Unfortunately, I’m not very good at physical force. At least it’s a good thing saving has become a habit, right?”

Smiling brightly, Tania personally introduced her motto to the others.

“Let’s all make saving a daily habit. Backups aren’t optional—they’re essential.”

[Calling up point in time 1.]

In an instant, her vision flipped and the scenery changed.

The moment Tania used her ability, everyone in the gambling house, including herself, vanished, leaving only silence behind.

No, it wasn’t that the people disappeared. Everything that had just happened became as though it had never occurred.

✦ ✦ ✦

I fidgeted with my fingers in front of the tightly closed door.

It was fine that I came to see my only friend, Elysion, before leaving for a faraway place.

But thinking this might be the last time, my hand just wouldn’t move.

……Wait a moment. We are friends, right?

As I suddenly thought about our ambiguous relationship, I shook off the stray thoughts and gently knocked.

“Sion, I’m here.”

When I knocked on the door to Elysion’s laboratory, a small voice leaked out from inside.

“There’s no such person.”

Pardon? Then whose familiar voice is this that I’m hearing right now?

For a moment I considered forcing it open, but out of stubbornness I waited patiently for him to open the door himself.

“I don’t know. I’m going to hold my breath until you open the door.”

And then, ten minutes later.

With a betrayed expression, I raised my voice so he would hear.

“You murderous bastard!”

To not open the door for a length of time long enough for someone to die—wasn’t that too heartless?

That was when it happened. This time, it seemed my voice got through, and the locked door rattled as it opened by magic.

So you were going to open it eventually.

I lightly shrugged my shoulders and walked into his laboratory.

“Hi. You look busy.”

Elysion calmly set down the quill pen he had been busily moving and turned his gaze to me.

“Tania, didn’t I clearly ask you to tell me at least a year in advance if you ever had a request?”

There was a playful look around Elysion’s lips as he said that.

If he wanted a year’s notice, wasn’t that basically saying not to make a request at all?

“I just came because I missed you today. Should I go back?”

“……Welcome to my laboratory.”

Perhaps he was quite pleased by the words that I came because I missed him; he stood up and began preparing tea himself.

As he busily moved his hands, he glanced at me as if puzzled.

“For you to come see me without even a request…….”

“For the first time.”

“Did something happen?”

At the question that hit the mark, my expression slipped for a moment.

I hurriedly composed myself and asked in a teasing tone.

“Sion, have you ever accidentally—or unfairly—lost data you worked really hard on?”

Like, if we were talking about Earth, just when you’re about to save a file, a blue screen suddenly pops up.

Or the power goes out unexpectedly before you save.

Or you accidentally overwrite a completed file with another one.

At my question, Elysion frowned deeply and clicked his tongue in disgust.

“Why are you suddenly bringing up such a horrible story?”

“Oh. That expression’s worth seeing.”

I crookedly pulled up the corner of my mouth. It was a bit more entertaining a reaction than I expected.

Well, since he was a mage, he must have experienced such disasters even more often.

For instance, research materials studied over several months being blown away by an explosion during research…….

“Anyway, how does it feel when that happens?”

“You want to quit everything.”

“And?”

“You think about turning back time?”

“Exactly.”

Smiling softly, I poured out a thought I had been keeping to myself without telling anyone.

“That’s what my life is like right now. For the first time, I want to go back.”

“Tania.”

Elysion’s blue eyes darkened.

“Your life is still brilliantly radiant beyond compare. Why on earth are you thinking like that?”

I let out a small, self-mocking laugh.

“I have plenty of money. But I don’t have a family to share happiness with.”

“……Should I be your husband, then?”

I chuckled softly at his joke.

“Sion, you may not know this, but I had someone precious to me who was as good as family. He passed away five years ago.”

Uncle Aiden.

He was someone who suffered his entire life to raise me, even though I wasn’t his biological child.

How could I casually send him off with words like ‘live well in heaven’?

For me, there was only one choice.

To abandon everything I had achieved here and go to meet him.

After my uncle passed away, I constantly gathered information to use in my next life.

From big things like past climate conditions and political trends, to small things like various scandals of nobles.

Since I had decided to abandon this life the moment I confirmed my uncle’s death, I didn’t regret what I had accumulated so far.

However, there was just one thing I felt a little lingering attachment to…….

I quietly looked at Elysion.

Silver hair that sparkled as it reflected the light. Blue eyes that reminded one of the sea.

Even though he stayed up all night countless times because of work, there wasn’t a single flaw to be seen on his face.

I always thought this, but his handsome appearance felt like it was filled to the brim with divine favoritism.

Suddenly, I lowered my head and, before he could even realize it, grabbed his collar and pressed my lips to his.

The warmth of his lips against mine was vivid. My heart beat pleasantly fast.

After pulling away from the simple kiss, I smiled sheepishly.

“This is a farewell gift.”

“Ah……?”

As if he couldn’t even process the words “farewell gift” due to the shock, he stared at me with blank eyes.

How much time had passed?

Once he grasped what had happened, Elysion’s face flushed hot in an instant.

Covering his lips with both hands in an uncharacteristic manner, he hurriedly backed away from me.

“Y-you……!”

I hid the upward curve of my lips and giggled like a mischievous boy.

“Sion, you like me, don’t you?”

“……What?”

After staring at me with a stunned expression for a moment, he shouted with a somewhat agitated face.

“What! You’re the one who’s liked me all along, from way back!”

“Huh?”

I blinked.

Because I knew that someday I would have to part from Elysion, I had deliberately kept my distance all this time.

Besides…….

No matter how I thought about it, from our first meeting onward, the one who came to see me every day without any particular business was him.

When I thought it was a good opportunity to make use of a precious mage and asked him for various things, he always complied without complaint.

And yet I like him?

Purely out of curiosity, I tilted my head to the side.

“Why do you think that?”

“Well, because……!”

He opened his mouth with a look like he had a lot to say, then hesitated and bit his lip.

I snickered and poked one side of his cheek with my index finger.

“If you’re not actually in love with me, that’s rather a relief.”

I’ll be able to part without regret.

Swallowing the rest of my words, I smiled brightly at Elysion.

“Take care.”

Then I quietly closed my eyes and used my ability.

[Which point in time would you like to call up?]

Do you know what the greatest advantage of save-load is?

The answer is that you can always throw away what’s gone wrong and start again from the saved point.

Yes, I was planning to start my life over.

If it weren’t the only time period when Uncle Aiden was alive, I never would have gone back…….

To my seven-year-old self, the worst time of my life.

✦ ✦ ✦

“Take care.”

“Tania, what do you mean by that……!”

Tania, who had been right in front of him just moments ago, vanished, and Elysion spoke in a strange room rather than the laboratory they had been in together.

Realizing that Tania had turned back time once again, he ground his teeth.

“So you’re just going to pretend it never happened after kissing me?”

Ha! It was absurd.

If nothing else, shouldn’t something this monumental be left so that he could remember it too?

And a farewell? Acting as if they’d never meet again—what was that about?

He didn’t know what she was planning, but he couldn’t just let her go like this.

Elysion’s blue eyes gleamed sharply, like a predator that had spotted its prey.

“If you openly seduced someone, you should take responsibility.”

But at that moment, he didn’t know.

That Tania had turned back time to a far more distant past than ever before.