I had almost missed it because I couldn't see it that well.
There was something else that didn't belong other than Swan's magic circle.
There was another set of lights tied together by a spell.
They weren't completely submerged in the water–they were half-floating. The lights were dim, but it looked like they wanted to float upwards.
The magic circle surrounding these dim lights seemed like they were shoving these memories into the water. The circle, however, seemed old and had lost a lot of its former vibrancy. I was surprised that my eyes had caught them.
I was moving quickly. My bangs flipped back. I stretched my hand towards the memories that wanted to resurface in the water and dragged them back out. I breathed in deeply and blew on the circle.
The circle spit out a small, almost powder-like piece of white light and soon became a bright white.
I frowned as I checked the magic circle.
"Swan's circle…..?"
It was Swan's magic circle, but it seemed very old.
The circle's light flickered on and off, so I touched it up and fixed the circle back to its full strength.
First, this circle was definitely Swanhaden's. The magic that was being emitted from the circle was definitely Swan's from the feel of it.
But there was something strange about this–if Swan's current circles were incredibly precise and detailed, this was a lot more haphazard and messy.
It looked like the purpose of this circle was to drag these memories down into the water, but seeing how these memories were trying to resurface meant that there were a lot of errors in the circle.
It looked like this had been drawn by someone who wasn't completely skilled in white magic just yet.
There were a lot of blank spots and mistakes in the circle, so it was incredibly easy to nullify its effects.
It was impossible to nullify white magic with normal magic, but it was possible with black magic–its total opposite. I used black magic to cut the web-like surface of the white magic circle.
The circle snapped like a worn out rubber band and melted away in the face of black magic.
Right as it snapped, the interconnected lights began to float upwards into the air.
When the lights that had sunken underwater began to emit its individual colors, the water began to shine brightly, all of the colors mixing into each other.
The red, blue, green, and other colors began to shine gently in each of the lights and grew brighter in their own colors as they resurfaced from the water. It was a beautiful sight to behold.
Whenever each of the lights began to float upwards, my head began to slowly fill with all of the memories that I had forgotten, one by one.
The multicolored memories began to float up on the surface. I couldn't help but laugh in shock as a torrent of emotions washed over me. The lights floated up into the dark, night-sky like surface and stayed there.
There was only one thing I could say as a torrent of memories resurfaced in my head.
"Oh my god...."
I couldn't cry or laugh. I just stared into the sky.
"Swanhaden Blanche!"
I shoved the door to the blue class to the side. The wooden door made a loud clattering sound as it opened.
I went into the classroom and looked left and right to look for him. The blue class students seemed surprised at my sudden appearance. They all stopped joking around and just blinked.
I didn't see Swan. I hurriedly walked over to a random blue class student.
"Did you see where Swan went?"
He slowly shook his head. I turned my head to look at their friend, and they also shook their head. Nobody seemed to know, so I walked over to Swanhaden's desk. Swan was sitting at the very back corner of the room.
There was a neat pile of books on his desk. All of the books were filled with doodles. They were all drawings of a orange ball of fur, but I had a feeling that they were me so I just scratched my cheek.
It seemed like Swanhaden had just left. The chair was facing the door. I rushed to exit the room.
"Swanhaden Blanche!"
I yelled Swanhaden's name as I looked for him.
"Swanhaden Blanche!"
He wasn't in the green class.
"Swanhaden Blanche!"
He wasn't in my class either.
"Swan!"
No way he was in the red class.
Swanhaden was gone. Well, it was more like I couldn't find him. Seeing how Swan appeared in the east and in the west and wherever he wanted to be, it seemed like he was also prone to disappearing.
I walked along the halls and looked to see where Swanhaden was. Missing: Swanhaden the runaway. He had a silver head of hair and pretty jewel eyes. I'm looking for a pretty little Swanhaden. Where's our little terror, Swannie?
I looked around and around for Swanhaden. Whenever I saw anything vaguely silver, I reacted with a fire in my eyes. I tried to set my body to react to Swanhaden to catch him.
I dragged my finger on the wall and finally found someone with a head of silver, almost white hair. They were near the path outside, next to the school building. He was sitting on a bench with a four-leaf clover in one hand. He was staring intensely at the clover.
"Swan!"
I leaned on a windowsill and called his name. I used my core to call his name loudly. Swan's eyes went from the four-leaf clover towards me. Swanhaden's ears grew red as soon as he saw me. His face was red too.
When he immediately sat up to leave from the bench, I scowled and called his name again.
"Swan! Don't you dare move!"
Swanhaden glanced at me and stopped. His ears were still incredibly red. He seemed like he was still, but he glanced at me again and began to move.
When he tried to run away, I put my foot on the third-floor windowsill. I was tiny, so it was easy for me to position myself on the windowsill. I was doing some weird stuff to catch Swanhaden of all people.
I flew. It was more accurate for me to say that I fell instead of flew, but still. I used a bit of magic to use the flying spell, so the two types of magic within my body began to swirl and embrace me. I spun once midair and slowed down enough to land on my feet. Then, I began chasing after Swanhaden.
Swanhaden looked behind him to see me chasing after him at full speed. He looked surprised at me before raising a finger. He pointed in front of me.
"Be careful of the rock."
"….."
I had been too busy chasing after Swan to check around my feet. When I skipped over the rock, Swan seemed reassured as he began to run again, ears red. Sweanhaden ran into a one-way road and slowed down when it seemed like the path was slippery. He looked at the notice that said "Do not run" and began to walk slowly. When he arrived at the end of the path, he turned around to look at me.
"It says not to run."
"....."
Swanhaden was walking carefully, so I felt like I had to do the same. I also walked slowly on the path. Then, as soon as he arrived at the end, he began to run again.
It felt like he wasn't going to be caught, so I slowed down and let out a deep breath. I wanted to beat Swanhaden, who was basically jogging around the campus with a bored expression on his face. His ears were still red throughout all of this.
'I'm going to catch you no matter what.'
I put my hand on my shoes and activated a spell. I was determined to catch him. I had originally created these shoes so I would get to the cafeteria quickly, but I could use this to catch Swanhaden right now. My shoes whirred for a bit before absorbing my magic.
I got myself in position and breathed. I put the speed on max on purpose so that I wouldn't be able to control it. Then, I began to run.
Bam!
"Uck."
Swanhaden, who had still been running, fell forwards as I shoved into him from behind. I deactivated the circle in my shoes as soon as I bumped into him. Then, I landed on top of Swanhaden and forced him to look at me.
When I tried to look at his face, Swanhaden grabbed a handful of leaves from next to him and covered his face.
"...…puu."
But when a small green caterpillar made itself known from the handful of leaves on his face, Swan brushed the leaves off of his face. He looked incredibly shy unlike his usual self.
When I carefully stretched my hand towards him to touch his face, Swanhaden began to blush as he looked straight at me. I slowly put my face near his incredibly red one. Swanhaden looked at the hand on his face with a wide-eyed stare before he tightly closed his eyes. I tilted my hand and grabbed at his shirt collar.
"You wanna die?"
"….I knew it was too good to be true."
Swanhaden looked balefully at the hand that was now on his collar.
I couldn't help but feel a sudden burst of emotion at his joking tone.
I traced his appearance into my mind, one by one. I could still see his old self in his current appearance. His almost white silver hair, his neat profile, his bored expression.
The Swanhaden in my memories was always covered in blood. He was always hurt, and there wasn't a single place on his body that wasn't riddled in pain. He bared his teeth at every passing day, and he was always miserable and in pain because of the overflowing magic within his body. He had always clung to my clothes because he didn't want to be alone and in pain in his room. He was a pretty, delicate child that was always hurt.
When I just blankly stared at Swanhaden, he looked at me and gave me an awkward smile, forcing his lips to curl upwards.
I looked at how well he had grown.
The small, hurt child from back then was fully grown now. Our similar heights had changed, and he was healthier and brighter now.
He still had residual scars here and there, but he wasn't miserable and in pain because it had overflowed.
He must have tried his best to escape from the pain and until he could endure it.
He had gotten out of the room. He had bore all of it alone. Did he overcome the pain to get out? I smiled bitterly.
I couldn't help but compare his current self to the dream Swanhaden from before. I couldn't help but feel sore at how different the two were.
"…..you."
".....?"
"Why is it so good to see you again?"
Swanhaden was staring curiously at my hand as it grabbed his collar before hurrying to look up at me. One of his eyebrows was raised.
"You... Did you."
"It's me, your teacher."
When I pointed at myself and said that I was his teacher, Swan's blank eyes began to focus on me. "Teacher….. You are my teacher. Teacher. Shushu the teacher. The game teacher." Swanhaden muttered quietly with an uneasy smile.
"Did you erase my memories so that I wouldn't leak the secret? I saw that the circle was drawn by you instead of the duke, though."
Swanhaden's expression stiffened. He slowly averted his eyes from mine before nodding.
Cold sweat was flowing down his forehead.