She clenched her teeth and folded the package away. By then, they had reached Echi's private washroom.
"Go ahead and wash up - I'll lay out your clothes. Would you like me to bring breakfast to your room, or will you be eating with the family in the dining hall?"
"Together. With whom, exactly?"
"Why, with the Master, the Mistress, and the Young Master, of course. You usually sleep through breakfast, so if you'd like to join them today, I'll need to let the kitchen know."
"The Master and the Mistress... my parents. Right… my parents. And Lancel?"
"Who else would your parents be? You're very strange today."
"Parents…"
"Shall I tell the kitchen you'll be joining them, or not?"
"Yes…"
As Echi answered in a daze, Nora bustled off toward the kitchen. Echi pushed open the washroom door and stepped inside.
The washroom had a large full-length mirror. She stopped when she caught her reflection.
There she was, twenty-year-old Echinacea Roaz. Young. Unbloodied. Unbroken. Herself.
Nora, alive and scolding her, had just spoken of her parents and her little brother as though it were ordinary.
She had asked whether Echi would like to eat with her family. That simple, ordinary question had lodged itself somewhere in Echi's chest.
Her reflected face crumpled.
"Everyone is alive. They're really alive."
Her heart felt as though it might crack apart. She wanted to run immediately to see her father's face, to throw herself into her mother's arms. Her whole body trembled, and her legs gave way. She sank to the floor right where she stood.
She had done it. She had actually done it. It had truly changed.
Unlike that other March 17th, everyone was alive this morning.
The memories came in a flood - six years of nightmares, nine years of hunting Giosa without rest. Scenes soaked in blood. The raw ache of desperate struggles and real pain.
And yet, against the weight of what she had managed to change, all of that felt like nothing.
The relief broke over her like a wave, and Echi sat there and breathed through it for a long time, cheeks flushing hot, pressing her hands against her eyes before the tears could show. She couldn't afford red eyes - everyone would worry.
The thought of someone worrying about her. What a sweet and unfamiliar reality that was. It had been so long since anyone had cared whether she lived or died. The one person who had appeared like a miracle - who had tried to help her despite knowing what she was - had died at her hands.
Yurien de Harden Kyrier.
Blue eyes, staring straight at her.
Eyes she had not been able to close as he died.
'He's alive. He must be alive.'
She wanted to find him. She missed him, in a way she had no right to. She wanted to tell him: I made it. Your choice wasn't wrong.
But he knew nothing of any of it. And that was better. It was a better memory. Besides - given what she had done, she had no business seeking him out at all.
Echi pressed her hands over her face again.
Then the mark on her palm caught her eye, and she went cold all over.
'What am I going to do about this?'
The simplest answer was to cover it. Thin gloves - that would do for now.
After a quick wash and a search for silk gloves, Nora returned and dressed her in a pale lavender day dress. Not for any occasion - just for wearing around the house. It was a dress she had longed to wear for years.
Echi smoothed her hands over the fabric without thinking. She traced the lace, delicate as a spider's web, with her fingertip. It was pretty, and soft, and gorgeous. She loved the way the hem swirled when she moved. She was giddy with it.
Because it truly felt as though everything had come back.
As they walked to the dining hall together, Nora glanced back at her and said, "You seem in good spirits today, Miss. I was a little worried earlier... you were acting quite unlike yourself."
"Do I look happy?"
"You're smiling."
"Smiling?"
Echi touched the corners of her mouth. She could feel them lifted.
She didn't know how many years it had been since she last smiled like that. Something uncontrollable welled up in her, and she laughed out loud.
"A lady never laughs out loud, Echi."
A gentle voice came from behind.
Echi's steps halted. Nora dipped into a bow.
"Master, Mistress, good morning."
"Good morning, Nora. Echi, you're up early today."
"It's been a while since I've had breakfast with my daughter."
Her parents passed by with warm greetings and entered the dining hall.
Lancel was already at the table. His hair was still damp from washing after training. The Countess lightly noted it, and Lancel shrank with a sheepish grin.
The Count mentioned that Nicole would be arriving at the mansion tomorrow. Nicole was a mage under Roaz's patronage, based at the capital's mage tower, who stayed with them often during her holidays.
She, Echi, and Lancel had always been as close as siblings.
Lancel brightened at the news. he'd been looking forward to seeing Sister Nicole. Both the Count and Countess smiled at that, and then they turned together toward the doorway, where Echinacea stood and hadn't moved.
"Sister, are you still half asleep?"
"Echi, what are you doing?"
"Come and sit down."
The morning sun poured through the dining hall windows. Her family, breathing and laughing in that light, called to her.
For a moment, Echi forgot to breathe. She didn't blink. Then, as though a soul returning to a body, she blinked once, slowly.
Even when her eyelids fell and rose again, her family was still there. They didn't dissolve. This was not a dream or a vision. It was real. Her throat tightened, and she barely managed to answer.
"Yes."
She walked into the scene she had ached for. Let it fill her eyes. This was a life she had won back at terrible cost - a life she would protect no matter what.
Which meant she could not let the demonic sword ruin it.
She crossed the threshold with her right hand clasped tight. One step at a time, her family's faces drew closer. The tighter she held herself together, the more her chest ached.
Something escaped her in a murmur.
"I've missed you all so much. So very much."
"What? We just saw each other yesterday."
"Sister woke up early and she's been strange all morning. You must have had a nightmare."
"Bad dream, Echi?"
Her parents and her little brother each offered a word, puzzled and gentle. Echinacea smiled at them through eyes that burned red
"Yes. Maybe I did."
* * *
She couldn't have said afterward how the day passed. Her literature teacher and her dance teacher both scolded her for the mistakes she kept making, but she didn't mind in the least.
She deserved the scolding - she had apparently forgotten everything they had taught her days ago. From Echi's perspective, it was her first lesson in fifteen years, which explained the gaps, but there was nothing she could do about that. Even so, the lessons that had once bored her were a pleasure throughout. She was even glad to hear the scolding.
The first day back was over. Echi lay in bed after Nora turned off the lamps and withdrew, listening to the stillness settle. She made sure Nora was well gone, then quietly sat up.
She didn't need a lamp. She crossed to the window, drew back the curtain, and let in the moonlight. Even by that thin light, she could see the room clearly as if it were day.
She sat on the edge of the bed and turned her palms up. She had worn gloves all day, but she couldn't wear them to sleep, it had taken careful management to keep Nora from catching a glimpse of the mark. She held her right hand out and studied the dark glyph on her palm.
A sword rose from the pattern - glass-clear and transparent, neat enough to look like an ornament. But this was the demonic sword, drunk on the blood of tens of thousands.
Echi regarded it with cold eyes.
"Vel."
No response. She laid it flat across her lap, took hold of the hilt, and brought her mana down against the glyph in a sharp slap.
[Ow! What — ! Wake me up properly, would you!]
"You're finally awake."
She tossed the sword carelessly aside. ValderGiosa, accustomed to nine years of exactly this treatment, only grumbled.
[Worked half to death, and even now my master won't give me a moment's peace...]
"You're clearly coherent enough to whine, so explain yourself."
[What.]
"Explain why you're still bonded to me."
[Oh, this again. Time reversed, but your soul remained. And I am a Giosa embedded in your soul.]
"I gathered ten other swords before the reversal. What about the rest?"
[You collected them, but you never awakened their consciousness. To truly become a Giosa's master, you must awaken its ego. That is why I alone am inscribed on your soul and if your soul is unchanged, then naturally, I am unchanged as well.]
ValderGiosa delivered this as though it should have been obvious, and Echi's expression darkened further.
The sword continued without noticing.
[By the way, the reason you remember everything is because you are a Giosa owner. Without me, you would have forgotten your entire past life and woken up as an ordinary twenty-year-old. And then I'd have taken you over again eventually.]
"Wait."
Echi's face had gone pale.
"Are you saying that if I release your bond, I lose all my memories? Everything from before the reversal?"
[If you held other awakened Giosa, they might preserve them — but with only me, yes, you would forget. But, master… do you truly want to be rid of me?]
The question came out in a slightly deflated tone. Echi laughed despite herself.
"Wholeheartedly."
[Heartless human...]
Even if the entity causing her slaughter and its ego were separate things, it was still a demonic sword at its core. Nine years of hunting Giosa had taught her that much.
ValderGiosa was a sword of slaughter - forged from human malice and killing intent.
Even if it seemed harmless, she could never let her guard down around it. Lowering her guard meant being stained by the sword's nature, and then she would want to kill. She had made that mistake more than once, in the years before the reversal when she was still learning.
Those were memories she had no wish to revisit. Echi stared at the demonic sword with undisguised distaste.
She had been able to keep it by awakening its ego. She could have thrown it away the moment she first grasped it... but she had held on out of fear of what would happen if it fell into someone else's hands.
Now there was another reason she couldn't let it go.
Her memories.
The demonic sword whined about wanting to kill, but it had not lied to her.
"I can't release it until I have another Giosa to take its place."