I lost my entire fortune while gambling.
“Miss, are you all right…?”
When an elderly gentleman nearby asked in concern, Tania drew a faint smile across her lips.
“I’m fine. It’s just that my life is ruined, that’s all.”
At those words, the atmosphere grew even more solemn, but Tania merely laughed nonchalantly.
Her face was youthful and lovely, as if she had just come of age. She looked completely out of place in a gambling den.
“To be worrying about others in a place like this, where it’s like walking on thin ice, you’re awfully kind.”
Tania twisted a lock of her soft rose-gold hair around her finger.
“Haa, I guess gambling really doesn’t suit me. I nearly got myself into serious trouble.”
Then the people around her looked at Tania with expressions that clearly said, ‘Pretty sure you’re already in serious trouble.’
“I don’t know how rich your family is, miss, but that much money…”
Despite the outpouring of concern from all directions, she merely gave a bored smile.
“That’s right. It’s enough to bankrupt several buildings in the heart of the capital.”
Who do they think earned that money in the first place.
She understood the value of that sum better than anyone.
“But this round wasn’t even my fault. The other side palmed cards and cheated, so there’s no reason for me to lose my money, right?”
She’d clearly memorized every card, and the fact that things kept deviating from her predictions was proof enough.
“That’s why you’re not supposed to sit at a table with pro gamblers.”
With a look that said she’d wasted her time, Tania clicked her tongue, then suddenly gave a light shrug.
“But it’s fine. I can just use my ability to fix it.”
It wasn’t like she’d entered the game entirely fair and square either, as she’d memorized the cards beforehand.
As Tania looked ready to flip the entire table at any moment, the guards began eyeing her warily and moved in closer.
Feeling the physical pressure, she pulled her brows together as if feeling regretful
“Sadly, I’m not blessed in the muscle department. But isn’t it lucky that I at least have the habit of saving?”
With a bright smile, Tania graciously shared her personal motto with the others.
“Let’s all make saving a habit. Backups aren’t optional, they’re essential.”
[Time Slot 1 Loading.]
In an instant, her vision flipped and the scenery changed.
At the same moment Tania used her ability, everyone in the gambling den, including her, disappeared, and only silence lingered.
No, it wasn’t that people had actually disappeared. It was that everything that had just happened was wiped from existence.
✦ ✦ ✦
I fidgeted with my fingers in front of the firmly closed door.
It was nice to get a chance to see Elysion, my only friend, before leaving for a faraway place.
But thinking this might be the last time made it impossible to raise my hand.
…Wait a sec. Are we even friends?
I was abruptly struck by thoughts of our ambiguous relationship, then forcibly shook off those stray thoughts and gently knocked.
“Sion, it’s me.”
When I knocked on Elysion’s lab door, a small voice leaked out from inside.
“There’s no one here by that name.”
Huh? Then who is that familiar voice I hear?
I briefly considered forcing the door open and barging in, but my pride kicked in and I decided to quietly wait for him to open it himself.
“Whatever. I’ll just hold my breath until you open up.”
And so, ten minutes later.
With a look full of betrayal, I deliberately raised my voice.
“You murderous bastard!”
How could he not open the door for long enough that someone could literally die? Wasn’t that too heartless?
It was then. This time, my voice must have gotten through because the locked door gave a rattle and opened by magic.
I knew you’d open it eventually.
I lightly shrugged my shoulders and stepped into his laboratory.
“Hey. Looks like you’re busy.”
Elysion calmly set down the quill he’d been diligently moving and turned his gaze toward me.
“Tania, didn’t I specifically ask you to let me know a year in advance if you ever had a job to request?”
There was a playful smirk hanging around Elysion’s lips as he said that.
Asking me to tell him a year in advance was basically telling me not to make a request ever.
“Actually, today I just came because I wanted to see you. Should I leave again?”
“…Welcome to my lab, then.”
He seemed quite pleased that I said I came to see him, and he got up from his seat and began to prepare tea himself.
He busily moved his hands and glanced at me with a puzzled look.
“Coming to see me without a request… that’s…”
“The first time.”
“Is something wrong?”
At that spot-on question, for a moment I couldn’t keep my expression in check.
I hurriedly composed myself and asked in a teasing tone.
“Sion, have you ever accidentally or unfairly lost data that you worked hard on?”
Like on Earth, right when you’re about to save, the blue screen of death suddenly pops up.
Or before saving, the power unexpectedly goes out.
Or by accident, you overwrite the completed file with another one.
At my question, Elysion furrowed his brow deeply, looking thoroughly disgusted.
“Why would you suddenly bring up something so horrifying?”
“Oh. That’s a face worth seeing.”
I lifted the corner of my mouth in a crooked grin. That reaction was even more entertaining than I expected.
Well, he was a mage, so he probably had even more chances to suffer those kinds of disasters.
Like, research data he’d spent months on getting blown to pieces in an accidental explosion mid-experiment…
“So anyway, how does it feel when that happens?”
“Makes me want to drop everything.”
“And?”
“Makes me wish I could turn back time.”
“Exactly.”
I smiled faintly and finally spat out a thought I’d never voiced to anyone else.
“Honestly, that’s my life right now. For the first time ever, I want to turn it back.”
“Tania.”
Elysion’s blue eyes darkened.
“Your life right now is already brilliant beyond compare. Why on earth would you think something like that?”
I let out a self-deprecating laugh.
“I’ve got plenty of money. But I don’t have any family to share my happiness with.”
“…Should I become your husband or something?”
I let out a small giggle at his joke.
“Sion, you might not know this, but I used to have someone very precious to me, they were practically family. He passed away five years ago.”
Unc Aiden.
A man who spent his whole life struggling just to raise me, who wasn’t even his real child.
How could I simply let him go, telling him to live well in the heavens?
I only ever had one option.
To throw away everything I’d built here and go see Unc Aiden.
Ever since Unc Aiden died, I’d been gathering information to use in my next life.
Big things like the past climate and political trends, down to small things like the nobles’ various scandals.
I had decided to abandon this life from the moment I confirmed Unc’s death, so I didn’t regret what I had accumulated.
But there was just one thing I felt a little lingering regret over…
I stared blankly at Elysion.
His silver hair catching the light and gleaming. His blue eyes that brought the sea to mind.
Despite countless nights spent up working, not a single blemish on his face.
I always thought his outrageously handsome face was chock-full of divine favoritism.
Without thinking, I grabbed him by the collar, dipped my head, and before he could even react—pressed my lips to his.
The warmth of his lips against mine was vivid. My heart thumped pleasantly.
When I pulled away after the simple kiss, I gave a beaming smile.
“That is a farewell gift.”
“Wha…?”
Looking shocked, he didn’t even seem to register that I’d said it was a farewell gift, and simply staring at me with dazed eyes.
How long is he going to look at me like that?
Elysion’s face flushed red the second he realized what had happened.
In a way that didn’t suit him at all, he covered his lips with both hands and quickly stepped back from me.
“You, you…!”
I hid my faintly rising lips and let out a small mischievous chuckle like a mischievous boy.
“Sion, you like me, don’t you?”
“…What?”
He stared at me blankly for a moment, then shouted with a somewhat agitated face.
“What! You’re the one who’s liked me all along!”
“Hmm?”
I blinked my eyes.
I’d always known that one day I would have to part ways with Elysion, so I’d deliberately kept my distance.
Besides…
No matter how I thought about it, from the first time we met, it was always him who sought me out each day for no particular reason.
Even when I treated it as a golden opportunity to exploit a rare mage and asked him to do this and that, he’d oblige without complaint.
And yet he thinks I’m the one who liked him?
Pure curiosity made me tilt my head.
“Why would you think that?”
“Because…!”
He opened his mouth with a face full of things he wanted to say, then hesitated and bit down on his lip.
I gave a little snort and poked one of his cheeks with my index finger.
“It’s better that you don’t have feelings for me.”
Makes it easier to part ways without regrets.
Swallowing down the rest, I looked at Elysion and smiled brightly.
“Take care.”
And then, I quietly closed my eyes and used my ability.
[Which save point would you like to load?]
▶ Time Slot 1
Imperial Year 286, September 28
19:41:42 (19 years old)▶ Time Slot 2
Imperial Year 286, August 1
15:50:29 (19 years old)▶ Time Slot 3
Imperial Year 286, October 1
12:41:42 (19 years old)▶ Time Slot 4
Imperial Year 274, April 20
13:07:42 (7 years old)
Do you know what the biggest advantage of having a save point is?
It’s that you can always toss out a ruined life and start over from a point you saved.
That’s right, I was about to restart my life.
If it wasn’t the only save point when Unc Aiden was still alive, I never would’ve gone back…
To my seven-year-old self, when it was the absolute worst.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Take care.”
“Tania, what the hell do you…!”
Tania, who had been standing right in front of him just moments ago, vanished, and Elysion found himself speaking in a room that was not his laboratory but someplace unfamiliar.
Realizing that Tania had rewound time again, he ground his teeth.
“So now you’re going to kiss me and just act like it never happened?”
Ha! Unbelievable.
If nothing else, shouldn’t she at least leave something that monumental for him to remember as well?
And what was with that farewell? Acting like they’d never see each other again.
He didn’t know exactly what she was trying to pull, but there was no way he was letting her go like this.
Elysion’s blue eyes gleamed sharply, like a predator who’d just locked onto its prey.
“If you blatantly seduce someone, you have to take responsibility.”
But what he didn’t know at that moment—
Was that Tania had rewound time to a point in time far earlier than anything she’d ever done before.
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