“I brought these to show you. Aren’t they pretty?”

Yuphe placed the flowers he had picked at her bedside and smiled gently.

“They smell nice. You used to say that. That smelling these flowers makes you feel better. I’ll leave them here, so I hope you have good dreams.”

Helasio explained that to awaken her soul, they needed to provide a familiar environment. So Yuphe deliberately stimulated old memories to get her soul to respond.

“Remember, Jella? What you taught me. Rolling the flower stem like this…”

Yuphe took one of the flowers he had placed at her bedside and rolled the stem into a circular shape to make a flower ring.

When they were young, his clumsy skills often caused the stems to unravel, but when had he become so proficient?

“Ta-da. It’s done. I’m good at making flower rings now.”

Just as Yuphe was giggling and about to slip the flower ring onto her ring finger.

Pause.

His eyes suddenly froze.

Had he seen wrong? Just now, her finger had twitched…

Yuphe swallowed hard and slowly raised his head with a pale face. The flower ring in his hand dropped to the floor.

“Jella!”

She was blinking her eyelids that had been closed for so long.

“Jella, are you conscious?”

Yuphe quickly helped her sit up.

Jella, who had just awakened, leaned her weak body against his chest and turned her head slightly.

Mysteriously colored red eyes that could enchant people stared directly at Yuphe.

Yuphe’s eyes trembled uncontrollably as he discovered her soul stretching beyond those eyes.

“Jella…”

Although her appearance had changed, the moment he met those eyes, Yuphe knew.

This woman before him was Jella. It really was Jella.

Whoosh!

Yuphe pulled her into his arms and shed tears.

“I missed you, Jella. I, I missed you so much, so…”

At this moment, she carefully pushed him away and asked.

“Who are you?”

***

Jella’s soul, which had opened its eyes again in Ga-eul’s body, remembered nothing. She was like a blank slate.

[It’s a temporary phenomenon. Well, you revived a dead body. Did you think there wouldn’t be at least this much of a side effect?]

Helasio was snorting when he got hit by Cail.

“…I’m glad, Jella. That you’re safe.”

Cail muttered, looking at her sleeping face.

He had rushed over immediately upon hearing that Jella had awakened, but by the time he arrived, she had fallen asleep again.

His usually expressionless face was somewhat softened.

In any case, Cail and Yuphe were relieved that her memory loss was just part of the process of her soul adapting to the physical body, and there was no problem with her mind.

Jella gradually recovered her body while receiving their attentive care in the deepest part of the Great Temple.

“How is it?”

Jella, who had been concentrating on writing something with a pen in her hand, turned to Yuphe and asked. She looked a bit nervous.

“Wow, you wrote so well. You’re really amazing, Jella.”

At those words, Jella smiled brightly.

“Shall we finish today’s writing lesson and go for a walk outside?”

“I’d love to!”

Jella excitedly ran outside first.

Yuphe followed behind her with a smile.

Just as Jella had once taken him out of the basement where he was confined and taught him about the world one by one, he cared for her and returned everything she had taught him, one by one.

From reading and writing to the history of this world and the etiquette she had forgotten, everything needed to live in the world.

[Even if you take such good care of her, she’ll forget these current memories once her old memories return, so why bother?]

When he turned his head toward the mocking voice coming from the side, the black dragon was cackling in the air.

Yuphe smiled along with the dragon, then drew out his holy power and struck the dragon’s head.

[Eeek! You damned people! Who do you think is responsible for Jella being alive? Treating me so carelessly…]

Helasio’s voice, which had been squawking angrily with a lump on his head, was suddenly cut off, and his small body flew far away.

When he turned his head toward the direction where magical energy was felt, Cail appeared.

“Is there really no way to get rid of that dragon?”

“Not that I know of. Unfortunately.”

Cail and Yuphe exchanged conversation indifferently.

Then suddenly, both men’s gazes turned to the same place.

A soft groan escaped between the two men’s teeth.

At the place where their gazes were directed, Jella was humming, sitting by the fountain, splashing water and playing.

Yuphe overlaid memories of his childhood days on that sight.

He remembered when he was much smaller, going into that fountain to play with water and getting scolded by Father Johannes.

A laugh escaped him without realizing it.

It was truly peaceful.

Jella, having lost her memories, no longer disliked him.

His turning away from her, hurting her, and making her lonely—all of it became as if it had never happened.

Thus, while he sometimes wished she would never remember those times, when he saw her unable to recall any of the childhood memories left all over the Great Temple, he felt that he wanted her to remember everything, even if it meant she would hate him again.

Because the newly created memories could never be the same as those from childhood, and the fact that only he remembered the memories they had built together felt so lonely.

“When will you come back, Jella.”

Yuphe muttered with a melancholy smile.

***

“The priests say my name is a bad name.”

Pause. Yuphe’s hand, which had been combing through Jella’s hair, stopped in place.

“…Who said such a thing?”

“Priest Ante and Priest Liam.”

“Ah. Ante and Liam…”

Yuphe quietly repeated the names Jella had mentioned.

But Jella didn’t hear it and chattered on about what she had heard during the day.

“The priests said that long ago, there was a very bad person called Tyrant Jella. She killed many people to become emperor and did a tremendous amount of evil things…”

“…”

“Fortunately, Lord Yuphe joined forces with other heroes to kill that woman and brought peace…”

“…”

Suddenly noticing that Yuphe was unusually quiet, Jella tilted her head and turned to look at him.

“Lord Yuphe? Is something wrong?”

“No, it’s nothing. Nothing at all.”

Yuphe smiled and shook his head.

But despite his round eyes smiling, the numb sadness in his golden eyes was palpable.

Jella was very bothered by that expression of Yuphe’s.

‘Why did he make such an expression?’

For a while, the afterimage of that melancholy expression wouldn’t leave her mind.

While eating, while walking, while sitting alone in meditation in the field, she kept remembering that melancholy expression she had seen that day.

Jella was sitting on the grass, touching flower petals and lost in thought.

Not far away, she felt a quiet presence.

‘Huh? This presence.’

Jella immediately turned her head. It was an extremely agile movement, though she herself wasn’t aware of it.

In the place she turned to look, there was nothing visible except rustling falling leaves.

But Jella could feel the gaze directed at her.

“You’re watching me from there, aren’t you?”

“…”

Jella spoke toward the bushes where not even a small shadow was visible.

There was no response, but Jella smiled as if she had expected that and continued.

“You’re always watching over me around me.”

“…”

“I want to see your face, knight. Won’t you come out now?”

“…”

At those words, there was a startled movement and several leaves fell with a rustle.

Jella calmly waited for the hidden man to reveal himself.

After a brief silence, a man with silver-white hair, tall stature, and an ascetic yet untamed impression appeared.

Jella stared at him blankly for a moment.

‘How can a person be so…’

A slight tremor ran through her as she met his blue eyes.

Jella swallowed hard and thought.

‘How can a person look like that…’

He was a man who looked as if God had sculpted him with all His might.

At this moment, the man silently bowed his head toward her.

Flinch.

Jella cleared her throat, worried that he might have somehow read her inner thoughts.

“Are you going to stay there? Don’t do that, come over here.”

She said, patting the spot beside her.

Cail hesitated for a moment, but then habitually scurried over at her gesture and sat beside her.