And ten minutes later, in front of the empty house.

Vincent, who had arrived a step too late, knocked on the door.

Knock, knock, knock.

“Adele?”

His face, unable to conceal his excitement, gradually stiffened in the continuing silence.

Knock, knock, knock, knock.

“It’s me, Vincent.”

He eventually flung the door open and looked around inside the house. Sensing no sign of anyone at all, his heart began pounding wildly.

Vincent urgently opened every door in the house. But Adele was nowhere to be found.

In despair, he staggered and braced himself against the table with his hand. Was meeting Adele yesterday a dream? Where had she gone again, leaving him behind?

And then something touched the tips of his fingers.

Vincent’s gaze turned in that direction. There was a note with a few short words written on it.

Gone out to hangout with Nelly Jeffney.

* * *

There were two knights assigned to Nelly. Judging by how they deliberately kept their distance, she seemed to be the type who disliked having knights follow her around.

Some nobles would deliberately flaunt their status by bringing at least five knights with them, or would insist on riding in a carriage even through narrow alleyways.

Since Adele had spent most of her time on the battlefield, she had rarely seen the scenery of the capital. But even in those few memories, nobles had always been causing trouble in the streets.

The person who had been most at the forefront of such ostentation was the queen, Layla.

The knight who had always been brought along at those times was Adele herself, the national hero, which must have made Layla hold her head even higher.

Layla had often asked Rohide to bring Adele along even in situations that did not call for it.

Adele, who had been reminiscing about before her regression, looked around. It was her first time walking the streets as an ordinary citizen rather than as a knight. So this was what it felt like to not be on guard against one’s surroundings.

The morning streets were lively.

Merchants opened their doors and unloaded goods as they prepared for business. There were also residents who had come out early in the morning to do their shopping. Children clinging tightly to their mothers’ hands and rubbing their sleepy eyes could be seen as well.

Adele, who had been looking around constantly, made eye contact with Nelly right beside her.

But what was it? This strange sense of familiarity.

She looked down at Nelly, who was pressed close to her side, and fell into an inexplicable train of thought.

‘Looking down at her from above like this, she seems even more familiar…’

Among the knights, there had been no one with a face like Nelly’s.

Besides, looking at her build, she seemed far removed from swordsmanship. The probability of running into her in the swordsmanship department would likely be quite low.

“What department are you in?”

Nelly answered with delight at the attention Adele was giving her.

“I’m in the Magic Department!”

As expected, it was a place with no connection to her.

In that case, she was certainly someone Adele did not know. The strange sense of deja vu must have been nothing but an illusion.

Adele thought as much and walked with Nelly toward a shop that had just opened its doors.

Outside the shop, accessories were displayed. Hair pins and hats were hung up as well, and Nelly, upon seeing them, ran over excitedly.

“Lady Adele! Come look at this.”

Nelly picked up a ridiculous hat hanging in the shop.

The pointed hat that shot up high into the sky was such a murky dark color that one had to wonder if anyone would ever buy it.

Nelly seemed to think the same, as she burst out laughing and turned the hat this way and that.

‘But somehow even that dreadfully ugly hat… looks familiar.’

It was just around the time Adele was thinking that.

“Is there anyone who would suit something like this?”

Nelly playfully plopped the hat onto her head and looked up at Adele.

Looking up at her with those eyes, Adele was so startled that she stumbled backward.

“Whoa!”

“Wh, what’s wrong? Is it really that strange?”

“Yes. It’s strange. Take it off right now.”

At Adele’s words, Nelly took the hat off with an awkward expression.

Adele was only able to shake off the shock after handing Nelly the red ribbon pin that was nearby.

Nelly’s face immediately lit up with delight at the pin Adele had chosen for her.

Adele looked at that pleased expression and let out a sigh.

The image of Nelly smiling brightly while wearing that ridiculous hat. Having seen that scene, Adele could not help but remember.

‘No wonder I kept feeling uneasy.’

Now everything came back to her. If Adele was a court knight, then Nelly was a court mage.

There was one difference between the two of them. While Adele had belonged to the royal palace, Nelly had been the queen’s personal mage.

The reason Adele had escorted Layla when she went to see Vincent was simply to prevent the king’s wrath, not because she was the queen’s personal knight.

Furthermore, even when the queen brought Adele along for private matters, she had always obtained the king’s permission first.

Nelly, however, regardless of the exact nature of their relationship, had always been at the queen’s side.

‘At this point, I wonder if everyone I know is at the academy.’

Even the queen herself had graduated from the academy’s Magic Department.

Although her magical power was minimal and had never been of great help in war, the soldiers loved Layla. Having even the queen step forward in person had boosted morale.

From Adele’s perspective, the one thing that had been most tolerable about having the queen around was the purple-haired mage who was always right beside her.

She had heard many times that the mage was useful in various ways.

She had not known her name. She had never seen her in any other state besides wearing a pointed, ugly black conical hat pulled low over her head. At some point, she had heard in passing that the queen had given it to her as a gift.

To think that a dreadful hat identical to that one was here.

Until now, she had never once imagined that the mage’s name was Nelly Jeffney, or that she was the same person as the woman standing before her.

Nelly Jeffney. At the time, she had not been a comrade on the same side, nor someone Adele had taken much interest in. And yet to meet her like this was nothing short of remarkable.

Thinking back to those days, Nelly had always clung to Layla’s side and never left. Without even making eye contact with other people.

She had done whatever Layla said, and carried herself as though nothing in the world existed except Layla.

She had even performed simple attendant duties, so when Adele first saw her, it had never occurred to her that the woman’s status was that of a mage.

Occasionally their eyes had met, and every time, Adele had clicked her tongue inwardly.

Layla had a tendency to spread her affections here and there, so it was obvious that anyone hoping to be treated as special would end up that lonely.

No matter how much you waited on her hand and foot, Layla’s eyes were always looking somewhere else.

She did not know whether Nelly had survived before the regression.

It was because she had never paid close attention to whether she had remained by the queen’s side or not.

At the time, after the war that Vincent had started came to an end, Adele had nothing in her head except retirement.

And shortly after, the war of conquest to become an empire had begun, so there was no way she would have had time to look for Nelly.

At that moment, someone placed a hand on Adele’s shoulder.

A molester. That was the only conclusion she could naturally reach, and Adele immediately turned around to deal with the shameless person who had dared to lay a hand on her shoulder.

And there was…

“Adele!”

Vincent, catching his breath.

“What? It was you?”

Looking at Vincent’s face more closely, it was slightly flushed. On top of that, he was so out of breath.

This was clearly someone who had been training since early in the morning.

She had not told him to, and yet here he was, looking so admirable. Adele smiled with satisfaction and patted Vincent’s arm.

Even her subordinate was working this hard, so was it really all right for her to just be standing around picking out clothes?

They were just academy students who would be no match for her at this point anyway, but she did not know what would happen if she kept being complacent.

Of course, enrollment at the academy was not yet fully confirmed, nor was her identity completely established, but Adele was already dreaming of the future after enrollment.

While Adele was deep in thought, Vincent stared at Nelly behind Adele for a long moment before opening his mouth.

“Is this the kidnapper?”

His voice was filled with fury. Adele, snapping back to her senses, was flustered.

No, she had clearly… left a note saying she was going out to play. Had he not seen it?

Just as Adele was about to explain, Nelly’s voice came from behind her.

“My, aren’t you the worst kind of person who trampled on my cherished handkerchief?”

Nelly was no pushover either. She was so full of irritation that she did not know what to do with herself.

No, but… hadn’t she been happy about the handkerchief being trampled on and getting dirty yesterday? Adele turned around in confusion.

Vincent grabbed Adele’s hand and pulled her into his arms.

Not to be outdone, Nelly grabbed Adele’s other hand.

Her body would not be torn apart by the strength of just these two, but from Adele’s perspective, stuck in the middle, it was truly a predicament.

For one thing, she could not sympathize with either of them. What on earth did they think they were doing?

Unable to bear it any longer, Adele shouted.

“Let’s just eat! I’m hungry!”