Just as Jhin was sweating through his clothes, the unconscious Kyaru was deep in a dream, speaking with a mermaid who had long golden hair and sea-blue eyes. Twenty-one translucent coins were pressed into her hands.
"Um, who are you? And how did I end up here?"
The mermaid watched her with a gentle gaze. "You are very much like the person I once was, and the one you chose did not fail you. So I am returning all of these coins to you."
"Huh? What's that supposed to mean?"
"Even I cannot repair damaged memories for you. But I believe they will trouble you no longer. Go now — return to the stranger's side."
With that string of riddles finished, the Mermaid Empress waved her hand and sent Kyaru out of the dream. The Mermaid's Dream had been slightly warped by some mutated creature, and in the process of fusing the memories of the two of them into a world, all sorts of bizarre rules had sprung up specifically to target this trial-taker — and yet Jhin had still given her an answer that satisfied her.
An unfamiliar world, less than three days spent together, and after losing his memories a second time he had found her — reborn out of the sea foam — on instinct and pure feeling alone. In several hundred years, not one challenger had managed that. And those challengers had only been asked to find their own lovers again while stripped of their memories.
Compared to the malice packed into Jhin's trial, theirs had been easier by an incalculable margin.
Kyaru did not wake the moment she left the dream. The coins dissolved into streaks of light, one after another sinking into her body, and her memories from inside the Mermaid's Dream slowly filled in the blanks in her own. Less than three days' worth of time, and yet it was enough to fill her entire life to the brim.
The shackle called "the past" was unlocked by those memories in the gentlest way possible. She would never suffer over her missing memories again, because she had gained a bond that mattered more.
Even if she remembered nothing at all, everything Jhin had done for her inside that dream was proof enough: from beginning to end, he had genuinely treated her as a comrade.
Her eyes opened, damp at the corners. The first thing Kyaru did upon waking was search for Jhin — and there he was, sitting on the edge of the sofa chatting with the others, with a newly awakened Kokkoro sitting in his lap.
"Ko… Kokkoro?" Her voice came out like sleep-talking. Part of her thought the scene in front of her was just another brand-new dream.
"Ah! You're awake!"
That ordinary smile, that ordinary tone of voice, and a film of mist rose over Kyaru's eyes. She launched herself forward and held Kokkoro tight, repeating the same two words over and over. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry."
Soothing her all the while, Kokkoro guided her into her own bedroom. She wanted to talk with Kyaru alone — which was exactly what everyone had been discussing a moment ago.
"All right… that's enough crying. Keep this up and I really will get angry."
"Ngh… I'm really… really sorry." Kyaru forced the sobs down, her ears and tail drooping listlessly.
"It's fine, I forgive you. Thinking back on it now, the way you kept leading us in circles on the road — you were hesitating, weren't you? Torn about it."
"I… I don't remember."
"Whoever was pulling the strings really went too far… So the memories you have left only involve us. Is that right?"
"Mm."
Kokkoro drew Kyaru over to sit on the edge of the bed and spoke to her with quiet weight. "Just treat today as a new beginning for your life. Don't worry about the memories you lost."
"I… I will."
"Good." Kokkoro had expected to spend a great deal of time talking her around, and here she was, already out of the pit on her own.
She thought back to how, the instant Kyaru woke, her gaze had gone straight to Jhin. That feeling in it was one she knew well. She had seen it in Megumin's eyes before — and lately she saw it in her own, in the mirror.
So Kokkoro asked her, "Kyaru, you're in love with Master, aren't you?"
Kyaru's tail went off like a live wire, every hair standing on end from root to tip, and her drooping cat ears flattened back against her head. Never in her wildest imagination had she expected the freshly awakened Kokkoro to see straight through her.
Guilt already sat heavy on her; she couldn't bring herself to lie. All she could manage was two stiff nods of her neck.
"That's wonderful!" Kokkoro sprang up in delight, dug out a bottle of pale-violet liquid, and pressed it into Kyaru's hands. "This is a Charm Potion I was given back among my own people. Tonight, use it and have a talk with Master. With this to help you along, I'm sure the two of you will patch things up."
"Are you sure it's okay to give me something this important?"
"Mm. Make up with Master quickly, and then let's get back to the Gourmet Edifice's adventures. I'll help however I can!"
"I… I understand." Kyaru solemnly tucked the potion into an inside pocket. She badly wanted to tell Kokkoro that she and Jhin had already confessed to each other inside the dream — but she was the only one who remembered it now. Everything had to start over from repairing what was between them.
The two of them came out of the bedroom talking and laughing, and in that moment the Gourmet Edifice's cheerful everyday life came back too.
Kokkoro found a chance to quietly tell Jhin that Kyaru had something to say to him, and that he should go to her room later.
As it happened, Jhin had just promised Megumin a massage in a little while, so he figured he'd settle things with Kyaru first. He went straight to her, catching her just as she was about to head back to her bedroom. "You wanted to see me about something?"
"Waah!" Kyaru clearly hadn't expected him to move that fast, and the fright made her jump. She pulled herself together quickly, opened the bedroom door, and offered the invitation. "C-come in and sit down first."
"Sure."
She eased the door shut, then popped the Charm Potion open while he wasn't looking. Before she could even settle the question of whether to drink it or rub it on, the liquid inside evaporated away to nothing.
"So hot…" Flames kindled from the depths of her soul, and Kyaru's hands went to the buttons at her collar without her deciding to move them. Jhin had become an oasis in the middle of a desert as far as her eyes were concerned. Every last defense she had came down, and she pounced, pinning him beneath her like a leopardess bringing down prey.
Pecorine and Kokkoro were in the kitchen putting dinner together when a bright yelp of pain came through the second-floor walls and reached their ears. Pecorine was already turning to charge upstairs and check when a small hand caught hold of her.
"It's all right… trust me." Kokkoro said it calmly, as though she'd known this would happen all along.
"O-okay." Out of sheer trust in her, Pecorine hesitated a moment, then went back to the cutting board, picked up the knife, and resumed chopping, praying in silence that Jhin and Kyaru would make up.
That sentiment didn't last long, though — because the two of them were making up a little too well.
The sounds pouring down from upstairs were relentless and completely unmuffled, the kind that set the blood roaring and clawed at your insides like cat's paws. Pecorine felt the knife trembling in her grip, her body gone soft and strengthless as she propped herself against the stove.
She turned a stunned look on Kokkoro, who hadn't been fazed in the slightest, and thought: do elves seriously treat even a situation like this as perfectly routine?
____
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