Fragments
I opened my eyes to sunlight.
Birdsong, a view beyond the window, a warm blanket.
A life so gentle it felt extravagant to me.
...This really does feel as though I've just woken from a nap.
Were all those things I saw merely daydreams...?
I searched my memory, but it was empty as ever.
Perhaps I'd grown used to it; the wrongness no longer struck as sharply.
Hrrgh...!
That memory just now... What was it?
Why did it suddenly come back to me?
...
Am I... becoming strange, too?
Maybe some fresh air would help.
I braced a hand on the desk, struggled to my feet, and looked up.
...?
Something caught my eye.
This book... How long has it been here?
Did it fall from the desk?
A fairly thick book lay some distance away.
Now that I looked, several more books were stacked on the desk, as though someone had left them there to read.
The Star Savior's Secret...
Star Savior's 101 Habits...
...The Secret Life of the Star Savior.
Anyway, this book is called The Star Savior's Secret.
And that is Star Savior's 101 Habits.
And that is The Secret Life of the Star Savior...
...It can't be.
Are these all...?
I checked the books on the desk, then turned to the last one lying on the floor.
My fingertips trembled, as though I were about to cross a forbidden line.
...
...Ascension and Lies.
It's a collection of essays called Ascension and Lies written by a historian called Estelle.
Interestingly, it's about following the traces of the Star Savior after his disappearance.
Do you know what happened to the Star Savior after the Age of Darkness ended?
The Star Savior... is said to have ascended at the end of the Age of Darkness.
The Grand Witch Alicia, founder of the Nebula Observation Agency, said...
That the Star Savior ended the Age of Darkness and ascended.
Ascended... or so she claimed.
What a convenient lie.
...Then again, from a different perspective, perhaps it's the truth.
At some point, I found myself turning the pages as though entranced.
The words refused to sink in. Not because I already knew them, but because my memories were tearing through my mind, leaving no room for anything else.
Ha...
Then, as I turned another page...
I found a carefully folded piece of paper tucked inside like a bookmark.
Just pick some random guy and marry him.
Look, just fill out a marriage license with this person's name on it.
That makes you legally separate from House Stranis.
D-do you believe in fate?
I think... this might be one of those times!
...I thought they were all dead.
So why now... Why again...?
...
I closed what I'd been reading and added it to the stack on the desk.
But I kept the bookmark.
Captain...
I held a fragment of memory close to my heart.
A fragment by the name of lingering attachment.