"That's…..a secret. I'll tell you when we graduate."
I narrowed my eyes at him.
"What kind of magic did you put in this for you to hesitate like this?"
"I just told you that it's a secret."
Cory laughed quietly before thinking about something. He went quiet.
"If you want one hint, when I engraved the magic into it, I hoped that you would reach back for your happy memories alongside your sad ones."
"What the heck does that mean?"
Cory sighed and roughly messed with his hair when he saw that I tilted my head in confusion.
He stretched out his hand towards my ear and put a finger near it.
"Well, it is what it is."
Then, he unlocked the time magic in the piercing. Cory poured in some of his magic into the locked magic circle and made the spell within it activate.
Golden light began to leak from the magic circle as it drew out a small circle on its own.
I stared at the incredible sight of a time magic circle slowly turning as the piercing unlocked. Moments later, the magic circle began to emit light that seemed to pulse brighter and changed into an active state.
I took off the piercing from my ear and just stared at it blankly when a knock suddenly sounded.
"The…uh, sir Cory, a student was practicing magic and accidentally made a mess of the damage minimizer device that the professor installed, so… The professor said that they needed help and to call for you."
A student knocked and entered the room, asking for Cory.
The student carefully glanced at Cory before looking scared out of their wits. They were on the verge of tears as they apologized. Cory's eyes had narrowed in annoyance at his words.
Cory pouted as he began to whine. He roughly tousled his hair and muttered, "But I don't wanna go…."
In the end, Cory was dragged out by the student who was scared of him but still completed his duty. When I told Cory to break a leg as he was showered with love (work) from the professor, he looked miserable.
Then, the door closed. I was alone in the club room again.
I turned my gaze away from the door and into the piercing in my hand. The refreshing orange-shaped piercing was emitting a bright light. The hazy time magic circle became clear as it hovered slightly above the piercing.
I touched the small magic stone embedded in the orange core and touched the stone.
Once the time magic circle became clear, I could see exactly what this circle had done until now.
"Wow, Cory DuBois, you really….."
A corner of my mouth lifted up without my realizing. I couldn't help but laugh aloud in surprise.
I poured my magic atop the circle that Cory had drawn so long ago.
As soon as my magic flowed in, I could see a fragment of time from the past.
The first part of the clip began when I was touched by Cory's gift and I stuck the earring into my ear immediately after receiving it. The center of the memory seemed to be me–I could see things that I had seen but hadn't noticed.
[What's with the sudden gift? It's so touching.]
I couldn't see my own face, but my voice was incredibly excited.
And with that memory to start, I looked through a few more memories to check.
[Eaaaaaaaugh! Shushu, please stop playing it! Please stop abusing it!]
I could see a tiny looking Hylli. I could hear my laughter alongside the miserable voice of Hylli's.
I wondered what this situation was before I suddenly remembered. This was when I had been annoyed at Hylli and his wretched training schedule and I was teasing him. I'm sorry to say, but our royal highness was fun to tease ever since he was little.
Those were some fun times.
More videos flowed from the earring.
[Shushu, my work has been chosen to be published in a major newspaper!]
A video showed Hestia hugging me tightly as she cried tears of joy. She held my hand and went in circles, so the video within in also circled around.
When I glanced at my shaking hands in Hestia's, I could see that I was just as excited about her accomplishments.
Yes, there had been these times.
And after that, fun, enjoyable videos continued to play.
The card crown from the junior end party, the time when all of the swordsmanship students had played a prink on our teacher and had gotten punished together, laughing all the way.
The magic that Cory had placed in my piercing was incredibly kind.
The time circle within the piercing captured and stored only the most enjoyable, happy moments of my life.
There was a caveat that these moments were only stored when 'I had the piercing on', but I was too lazy to take on and off accessories so all of the happy memories I had from my junior years and onwards were all stored here.
Thinking back, this was a gift that I had received after I had shown him my embarrassing moments, the time when I had been sad, a long time ago.
"Cool bastard."
If I had received this magic as a graduation gift, I would've genuinely been touched. Of course, I was just as touched right now.
I stopped my flow of magic into the piercing and put all of my happy memories back into it.
I buried my face between my knees and sighed deeply. I didn't have the words to express the emotions I felt at the moment, so I just fiddled with my fingers.
I was smiling, but I wasn't completely elated.
I suddenly remembered Cory's words from earlier.
That's right, I didn't have to be happy all the time, right?
I didn't have to force myself to forget my past life and try to be happy.
It was okay for me to just accept it as it is, take my time to be sad, and give myself some time.
Currently, I admitted that I was very content with my life. My current life was just as important as my past. I realized it while I was looking through the mountain of happy memories. Just because I was a bit down and sad didn't mean that time was wasted. And I still had a lot of time to make happy, precious memories now.
I just wanted to be sad for just a bit longer for my past life's siblings and for myself.
Something that Yves had said time and again from before was that he wanted to 'relax and have fun'.
Even before he was free from the guild leader and after, Yves spoke a lot about not wanting to think and live a life of comfort.
But even after he had been freed, things didn't change too much. He still lived a routine life of constant work, work, and work. It looked like he had become a bit more relaxed compared to before, but he still worked ten times as much as a normal person.
So when he said that he wanted to play, that meant that his playing focused mostly on relaxing. His idea of relaxing was just being next to someone who made him feel comfortable. Because of that, he searched for me often whenever he wanted a break.
Yves knew a lot of people, but he never formed deep relationships with them. Honestly, I had no idea why I became special for Yves. Our relationship began under a contract where I worked under him and got paid. I didn't do too much for him.
I just stuck to him like glue during his paid request and cared for him after a while. Considering who Yves was, I felt like he opened his heart way too easily for me. Moreover, weren't his original plans for revenge completely foiled because of me?
Yves and I went through multiple hurdles together, but it was still weird that we became so close.
I promised to play with him in the city today so I was grabbing my belongings when I suddenly remembered something from the past.
Before, when Yves and I met in the city because of the guild leader, I had changed my appearance to do so. I had changed my appearance without thinking, and 'Ye-an' had popped out.
When I thought of the past, I worried about something briefly.
"It won't matter, right?"
It probably wouldn't.
I finished changing clothes and twirled in front of the mirror.
I gathered my strength into the center of my body and poured my magic in. I drew a circle with my finger and wrote out the details of the circle after. It was a high-level magic that required a lot of magic, so a bunch of my magic disappeared right then and there.
If I had been my old self, I woulnd't have been able to even attempt this because of the sheer amount of magic I would've needed. But I had a lot more magic compared to before, so this was all bearable.
A bright light shone from within my body as my appearance began to morph.
My orange hair turned black, and my blank sambaekan eyes became normal, monolid eyes. A dot appeared between my eye and my cheek.
When I opened my eyes after using my magic, my appearance stood out to me first.
It was Han Ye-an.
It was completely embarrassing to change my appearance like this and then call myself by my old name. I scanned the room out of embarrassment.
I knew that I was alone, but still. I took out a hooded jacket from my closet and put it on.
"Shushu?"
Yves was waiting for me in the streets. He had been reading a book until he had found me. When he saw my appearance, he raised a single eyebrow.
He closed the book he had been reading and placed it between his arm and his waist before turning his body in my direction.
"That's a familiar face. What's up?"
I didn't respond to Yves' question. I was currently taking on the appearance of Han Ye-an. I just lowered my hood even lower and pouted. I walked a few steps ahead of him.
Then, I suddenly wondered why I felt embarrassed about walking around with my current appearance.
I took off the hood and grabbed Yves' wrist and walked in front of him.
"Yves, no matter what, don't spend any money."
I grabbed his arm and walked slightly faster, but he was long and just casually followed. Yves tilted his head at my words. It looked like he had a slight scowl, too.
"Today is the day that I'm going to spend all the money that I earned for myself. I'm more powerful than you today."
"And if I stop you?"
"If you stop me, then the contract penalty is going to activate. That's a betrayal."
As if shocked, Yves' face stiffened up at that comment. Do you really have to go that far? I nodded decisively at his question. The one who spent money was the one who had more power. Today was going to be a day when I was going to abuse that power.
"Let's go to that game area over there."
Until now, I couldn't think of anything to play and had always just followed others around. So when I enthusiastically chose what I wanted to do next, Yves' eyes widened slightly as he let out a short huff of laughter and a nod.
There were a lot of amusement centers in the city. There was a place where you could earn prizes by throwing darts, another one where you kicked a ball to win a prize, and another where you had to smash something to win a prize.
"Yves, watch me do something really cool."
I handed Yves a recording device and headed over to the stand where you had to smash something.
The pine-board smashing game looked almost impossible to win, and people seemed to avoid it because of that. It was so empty that the only living beings around it were the owner and the flies. The owner immediately stood up when guests arrived.
"Wow, we have some incredibly precious guests here today. So, the gentleman is here to score some points with the lady, right?"
The owner began setting up the pine board as he looked at Yves with a leer. Wow, someone tried to best Yves at being greasy? He couldn't even hold a candle to him.
"But doesn't the gentleman over here look a little too weak? The only thing he has going for him is his looks, huh~."
When the owner nudged Yves a few times with his elbow, Yves mockingly smiled back.
When Yves gestured with his chin towards me, I pulled up my sleeves and walked up to the pine boards. The owner tried to stop me when I walked towards it, so I grabbed his shoulder and shoved him aside.
"I'm just showing off my strength,"
I said as I collected my magic into my hand. When I secretly added some extra magic buffs, my arm suddenly began bulging with muscles as it grew larger. I pulled my strength towards my arm. My muscles bulged alongside my veins. The owner's eyes grew wide.
I tilted my body slightly and used the rebound to throw my fist onto the board.