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There’s pink petals fluttering in the wind. Reibana’s sakura flowers are much closer to those in my past life compared to those from Seperion.

The garden of the Urado mansion is filled with them, and they’re all visible from the window in the room they gave to us. Our arrival was far less formal than I expected, and now I can just enjoy the view.

I feel like I got bored to death seeing these flowers every year in my past life, but now they feel nostalgic. It’s been four years since I reincarnated here as a magic automaton, but I guess I’m still Japanese at heart.

“It’s a nice garden, isn’t it?”
“Yeah, it is.”

Ruri enters the room, followed by another maid. I heard before that Ruri is a pretty high ranking servant of the Urado family, so I guess she’s in charge of the other maid.

Ruri sits down next to me and takes the tray the other maid was holding, serving tea from a delicate teapot into our cups. Once the tea is served, we each take a cup and gently sip.

I like it.

“Hey, Natalia. Do you remember my katana?”
“I think you mentioned it has a really sharp blade and is called Shisui?”

I’m not sure why she’s saying that all of a sudden, but that’s all I remember about it.

“Actually, this katana was once enshrined in the lost woods deep within the mountains, and through a Bankai release it gains the name Meikyou Shisui. And by combining mastery of the Earth, Sea, and Sky techniques it gains the ultimate technique Avan Strash”
“You’re mixing up way too many things at once! At least stick to only one series!”
“I always believed you would tell me off!”
“Don’t place that type of faith in me!”

I end up screaming in annoyance.

“Incredible… There’s someone who can actually go along with Ruri’s jokes…”

The maid had a face like she had just witnessed something out of this world. But no, I don’t want to go along with anything!

Ruri laughs happily for a bit, and then sends the maid away, leaving only the two of us alone.

Olivia went to Ryuka’s room, and Fan Yen went somewhere a while ago. Clarissa and Erika are napping in a corner of the garden, and Akane hid underneath the balcony.

“I think the festival is starting tomorrow?”
“The Tsuebe Festival? Yup, it starts tomorrow and lasts three days. Lady Ryuka will also present a kagura performance on the second day, so I’m looking forward to that.”

So that’s the name of the festival. And if it’s starting tomorrow, then we really arrived at the very last moment.

“I really have to say though, Olivia looks even prettier than before.”

Yeah, she’s gotten taller than when she graduated, and her fashion sense improved too. I’m quite proud of her as her maid.

“She also looked beautiful in a dress when she attended a noble’s party.”
“I’d love to see that! Do you have any pics?”
“How? There’s no cameras in this world.”
“You can’t make one with alchemy?”
“At the very least, I can’t.”

In theory, it should be possible, but I don’t have enough knowledge about cameras and photography to do it.

“That’s a shame. Oh yeah, speaking of dresses, I prepared some yukatas for everyone tomorrow.”
“That sounds fun.”

Considering Olivia is the descendant of Shuma, who was Japanese, I’m sure she’ll look great in a yukata.

“Now that you mention it, you’re actually wearing a proper kimono compared to the one you had in Seperion.”
“I mean, that one was really worn and torn, so I had to amend it like that.”

After that we just talked about random stuff for a while until Ruri had to go back to work.

I barely had any time to admire the mansion’s splendor before I was taken to Ryuka’s room.

I found her there together with Amy, so I was really happy to see both of them again. Now that I think about it, this is the first time I was away from Amy for so long. But rather than celebrating our reunion, we ended up talking about everything that happened since we last saw each other.

“So there hasn’t been any progress at all, huh.”
“This is quite troubling…”

Once I tell them everything, Amy and Ryuka let out sighs of disappointment.

“Huh? What’s the problem?”
“Your relationship with Natalia.”
“I was really hoping we were worrying too much, but turns out things went even worse.”

I guess that’s true, there hasn’t been much progress with her during the last year. I feel like I’ve been doing my best, but I also feel like we just keep getting closer and then drifting away over and over.

“Ah, but I just told you what happened when I got drunk for the first time! I feel like that worked, didn’t it?”
“No no no, at best that changed nothing in your relationship, and at worst it just made her put even more distance between you!”

Considering her reaction that time, I feel like she did see me as a romantic partner for once, and she didn’t say she didn’t like me either. I’m sure we would’ve kissed if Fan Yen didn’t interrupt too, since she wasn’t pushing me aside that time.

I don’t know how she’d feel if that actually happened though.

“But anyway, I believe this issue with Natalia is much more deeply rooted than we anticipated. That’s why I sent someone to check on how Natalia truly feels.”
“I’ve returned.”

The room’s door opens and Ruri silently steps in.

“Ruri, was there any success?”

Ruri sits down next to Ryuka and lets out a sigh.

“Nothing. If we don’t do anything she’ll just stay like that forever.”
“Stay how?”

I’m not sure what she means so I ask, and Ruri shrugs before replying.

“She just keeps all her worries and troubles to herself and refuses to move on, she’s always running away from everything, even if it hurts her and everyone around her. Even though she knows everything will crumble down eventually.”

Ruri looks almost annoyed by her, though her wry smile also has a hint of pity.

“You mean all her talk about being an automaton? Though I also get where she’s coming from…”

Amy is right, that’s what Natalia always brings up as the reason why she avoids my feelings. Even if she thinks and acts like a regular person, everyone in Seperion and the neighboring countries sees her as a monster or a tool, and so she keeps to herself.

At first, I thought it was just a problem between us and that other people didn’t matter, but I’ve seen people look down on her many times because she’s a magic automaton, so now I understand that it’s a broader issue. But that won’t change my feelings.

“If you really want, I can pitch in and help out.”
“But what would you do, Ruri?”
“I’ll just push Natalia in the right direction to be truly honest for once. That’s something only I can do, as we’re in the same situation.”

Ruri’s voice changes all of a sudden. All of her cheerful and easy going attitude is gone, so I can tell this is something serious.

“I have to warn you first. The true reason why she won’t give a clear reply is a secret Natalia has kept the entire time. And if you hear the truth, you and everyone here might see her in a completely different way. It could easily hurt both of you very deeply, and destroy any connection between you. Do you still want to potentially ruin everything?”

I close my eyes and think about it.

When I first saw her, I thought she was beautiful. When she rescued me, I thought she was cool. Whenever she took care of me, I appreciated her presence. Every time she refused to acknowledge my feelings, I felt frustrated. Then I got enraged when people insulted her.

I wanted her to rely on me a bit more when I saw her pushing herself too hard. I didn’t like how she had no regard for her own life at times. And every time we lock eyes or our hands touch, my heart starts racing. Every time she smiles, I feel something warm in my chest.

Yeah, I still like her as much as ever. There’s only one possible way for me to reply.

The Tsuebe Festival was always conducted in the Tatsuhiro Shrine, located a short walk away from the Urado mansion. The road approaching it was already lined with food stalls, all in preparation for the festival. People could be seen everywhere, hard at work so everything was ready.

Fan Yen watched all of that while prodding around her memories of the past.

“Tsuebe… Urado… I remember that name, back when Seperion began invading.”

Back then, at around the same time Longshan was under attack, Seperion was also trying to invade Reibana, and Tsuebe Urado, the head of the Urado family at the time, fought to defend the Land of Kanon. He was also Ryuka’s ancestor.

After Seperion’s army was forced to retreat and give up, an enormous dragon came to attack the Land of Kanon, and Tsuebe gave his life to defeat it.

“Sashimi Harbor, Kushizashi Highway, Mimisogi plains… All of these vile names for landmarks also serve as a reminder of history.”

When Tsuebe was fighting Sperion’s army, he would often leave their dead bodies in horrifying states, cut to shreds, impaled, or with their ears missing. All of that helped to intimidate Seperion’s army, demoralizing and weakening their ranks until they left.

Those acts had been immortalized in the names of certain places of the Land of Kanon.

“I probably would’ve envied, at one point in my life.”

Tsuebe had protected his country from invaders and a dragon, immortalizing his name in death. That was something Fan Yen admired greatly, as dying in battle was the greatest honor for her.

While she still believed that, she had recently changed a bit, as now she found no shame in continuing to live, and she no longer harbored regrets for the past. At the very least, she wanted to continue living to see the future created by her past brethren in arms.

Olivia: “Especially every time I see her chest bouncing or her skirt flips up. It really makes me want to make her mine.”
Amy: “I take back everything.”