Episode 1: Egg Bread
[Today's Diary]
Date: July 3rd
Weather: Sunny
My Lady's Mood: 😕->😯
- First diary entry since coming back.
- My Lady came back too.
- She didn't look particularly happy.
- I'll probably have to tiptoe around her for a few days.
- My Lady snatched away all the egg bread I'd made to eat myself.
- Her plump cheeks puffing up as she munched were cute.
* * *
The sun setting beyond the horizon.
An early summer evening where sunlight pouring from beyond brushed between the leaves, sparkling crimson.
Beneath it, teatime was in full swing inside the glass garden.
However, the attendees were far too few.
Only two were seated.
A man and a woman who appeared to be in their early twenties.
The expressions of the two sitting face-to-face were somewhat contrasting.
The woman maintained a deadpan expression, her lips pressed into a straight line,
while the man couldn't hide the smile tugging at his lips.
Among them, the silver-haired, red-eyed woman twirled her side hair round and round as she looked at the man opposite her.
“Rio.”
“Yes, My Lady.”
“What day is it today?”
“July 3rd, 2026 by the solar calendar.”
“...I see. We really regressed, you and I.”
My Lady made a dumbfounded expression.
Truthfully, I was the most bewildered one sitting before her.
The moment I died with my neck hung.
I had thought I wanted to see My Lady's face one last time,
but I never imagined I'd see her again like this.
'I mean, come on. Usually it's like "I want to see you before I die," or "let's meet again in heaven," right?'
But when I closed my eyes and opened them, I'd returned twelve years into the past.
At first, not knowing what had happened, I wandered here and there for several days.
But.
The My Lady of that time didn't know the future.
She was truly the My Lady from when she was twenty.
A person who didn't know the future me.
The differences born from that sense of dissonance drove me crazy.
Day by day, the more I faced her, the more I withered.
Then this morning.
The moment I faced My Lady at the door with dead eyes, as always,
I realized in an instant.
I couldn't help but realize.
It was the My Lady from those days who had spent time with me.
My Lady had returned with me.
And with her memories intact.
'But My Lady was really cute earlier.'
Since My Lady is twenty now,
I suppose she's about 155cm tall?
'So there's about a 30cm difference between us?'
The princess who came running with short legs, patter-patter, and kicked me.
Even though her temper was ferocious, she was so cute that even that looked like affection.
["You! You came back too?!"]
Putting that chirping voice behind me, I moved away, avoided people's eyes, and arrived at
the current glass garden.
“I didn't know the ability could be used like this….”
A sigh slipped out between her small, cherry-like lips.
As I watched her with a constant grin, a sudden question came to mind.
“My Lady.”
“What.”
“Then, does this mean you can no longer use your resurrection ability?”
The three ducal houses of the empire.
Nôtre.
L’Aube.
L’Éternel.
Their direct descendants are each granted a special ability from birth.
Among them, the house where My Lady has her roots.
Nôtre.
They are granted abilities related to resurrection from God.
At a glance, it might look like a cheat,
but if you looked into the details, it wasn't necessarily so.
Because until they actually died, they didn't know how they would resurrect.
'In fact, there was a case where only bones moved in a coffin after twenty years.'
In any case, as long as it counted as resurrection, it meant they came back to life.
In that sense, My Lady's regression could be seen as the most valuable form of resurrection.
'Since she revived in the past with both an intact body and her memories.'
However,
one question remained.
Why me?
Why someone like me, who was at best a guard for the family's most cherished daughter, had regressed,
was beyond my own understanding.
Then, My Lady casually opened her mouth to me, who was making a blank expression.
“Yeah. Can't use it anymore.”
“Ah…….”
It was a shame.
Because now she had become an ordinary woman.
Even more so, she was a woman who had already experienced death once,
and had trauma from it.
But how had she died?
Had she died of old age?
If not.
'...An accident?'
I was curious but afraid to ask.
'What if I touched on a wound?'
At that moment, perhaps noticing my curious demeanor,
she mentioned her own death.
“And I died of an illness.”
“What kind of illness, if I may a—”
“Hwabyeong.”
“.......”
Hwabyeong.
A syndrome in which suppressed anger that couldn't be properly vented manifested as physical and mental symptoms.
A unique culture only seen in a previous life.
'It exists here too?'
No, of course the symptoms themselves might exist, but I hadn't expected the terminology to be the same.
I stared at her, my mouth hanging open in disbelief.
At that, My Lady snorted and turned her head sharply away.
Between her fluttering silver hair, her bright red ears flashed past.
She seemed embarrassed.
“So that was it.”
“Yeah.”
“In the end, it was because of that Crown Prince bastard….”
“Ah, that's not it.”
“Then why?”
My Lady paused for a moment, then lowered her gaze to the ground.
She fidgeted with her hands and feet.
“...Because you weren't there. You're my emotional trash can!”
My Lady yelled, red flushing all the way down her neck.
The embarrassed demeanor from moments before had completely vanished.
Instead, she looked at me, cocking one eyebrow.
Even that look was cute.
“What's with those eyes!”
When I stared at her slack-jawed,
she glared at me with narrowed eyes, then soon gave up and let out a deep sigh.
“Sigh... Anyway, this all happened because you died, so you absolutely cannot die before me.”
“Yes, yes.”
“How did I get entangled with a guy like this......”
“Ahaha.”
How could I not adore her?
What the hell is wrong with that Crown Prince bastard who committed adultery without recognizing a woman like this?
'If he throws another fit, I'll have to pop one of his testicles.'
Since the lineage must continue, I've been letting him off easy.
While I was firming up this resolve,
My Lady made a strange expression, twisting her side hair round and round.
Then, as if trying to hide her embarrassment,
with a quick, fluid motion of her long hand, she pointed at the small plate.
“But what is this? Why bread?”
“Ah, I made this.”
“You?”
“Yes. It'll be delicious, right?”
“Hmm......”
Hehe.
This lady.
I wonder if she's ever heard of egg bread.
Made by putting a whole egg into a flour-based bread,
in a previous life, it was a snack that once ran neck-and-neck with bungeoppang.
“It's sweet, savory, and delicious, My Lady.”
“Mmm... I'm very uneasy since it's made by you, who only twirls toothpicks...”
“Toothpick, My Lady! This is a famous sword!”
“You only use it to poke scarecrows, so should I call it a scarecrow-pick?”
“...Please just call it a toothpick.”
Scarecrow-pick.
From My Lady's perspective, she wasn't wrong.
I do cut animals with it, you know.
'Ah, that's not important.'
I reached over the plate and picked up an egg bread.
“Hurry and try it. Just hold it in one hand like this and bite into it together with the egg.”
As I watched My Lady while munching,
she made a suspicious expression, then soon picked up the bread and brought it to her mouth.
And.
Munch, munch.
Gulp.
She swallowed.
“.......”
Munch, munch, munch.
Gulp—
She swallowed again.
I asked her in a voice full of anticipation.
“It's delicious, right?!”
“...Well, it is delicious.”
“Right?! Kya, as expected of me!”
This was truly something to boast about.
My Lady is someone who, if something doesn't suit her palate even a little, will never touch it again.
The fact that I made her eat more than twice was something deserving of praise.
'I should eat one more too—'
Just then.
My Lady uttered something I never expected.
“Put them down and go.”
“...What?”
“I'm telling you to put them all down and go.”
“Eh...?”
“Go.”
“.......”
No way.
I made these to eat too?
And there are seven of them?
I even helped the chef prepare ingredients during the day to make those.
Does My Lady know how picky that bear-fur-shedding-looking chef is?!
…The desire to scream that was burning inside me.
'Even if I try, I'll just get hit once and have them all taken anyway.'
If the result was the same whether they were taken this way or that, I thought it better not to get hit.
“Yeees....”
I stood up with a sulky face.
Even as I left, attachment welled up and I kept glancing back.
*Munch.*
'I only ate one, so it's really tantalizing.'
Should I barge back into the kitchen?
I let out a short laugh, thinking of the chef who'd panicked watching my cooking process, and left the glass garden.
* * *
Rio gradually moved beyond the door.
She was slightly annoyed that he kept looking back as if expecting her to be gone by now,
but she endured with patience.
'It was egg bread, right...?'
It was a bread she'd heard of for the first time.
It had a wrinkled shape that looked like it'd be sold in the streets,
but the egg puffing up plumply made even her heart feel warm and fuzzy.
He'd made it for her.
Wasn't that rather touching?
“...Didn't he say that?”
Whatever.
'If it's delicious, it's mine, mine.'
*Nom.*
“Should I ask him to make it again tomorrow?”
Sitting in her chair, she swung her legs, brushing the ground, and bounced them impatiently.
It was so sweet and savory that she regretted having only six left.
She savored and ate all the egg bread alone until the sun set.
Without knowing that the guard who had left earlier was secretly watching.