The truth is, one of the reasons I came here was because I was afraid of dying.

Just because I can rewind time doesn’t mean I’m invincible. The first few times I rewound time, it wasn’t by choice, but at least I didn’t die. Or rather, that’s what I believed.

After that, each rewind was something I consciously initiated.

In fact, it’s probably more accurate to say that even those first few times were triggered by my intense will. Whether this ability truly belongs to me or is the power of some other force observing me from above, I don’t know. I didn’t meet a god or receive any explanation when I came to this world, and there’s no system or status window to guide me.

It’s not like saving and loading in a game either. Unlike saving at a specific point and reloading from that spot, my ability rewinds time to a necessary point, precisely when needed.

While the trigger seems to be a "strong desire," it doesn’t necessarily have to be during a life-threatening moment. Even if I’m embarrassed or just want to make a different choice, time can rewind quite easily.

But what if I’m in a situation where I can’t make that wish?

If I’m shot, or my body is torn apart in an explosion before I can react...

...or if an ice spear pierces straight through my head.

Mia Crowfield is a serious threat to me. She doesn’t yet have the means to kill me, but if she had this Marmaros, she might be able to. Her specialty is ice magic, after all.

I don’t want the protagonist’s party to be in danger, but I also can’t ignore my own survival. For now, I’ll keep this Marmaros with me. Once the likelihood of Mia trying to kill me is almost nonexistent, I’ll hand it over. At least until the end of the first semester, it’s unlikely she’ll come across a Marmaros of this quality, so I’ll buy myself some time.

The problem is that I have no way to explain this to them.

What they’re curious about isn’t why I took the Marmaros, but how I knew it was here in the first place.

“...I can’t tell you yet.”

In the end, I had no choice but to stubbornly stick to that answer.

“...”

Alice stood in front of me, staring with an intense gaze, but I tried to keep my expression unchanged as I spoke again.

“One day, when the time is right, I’ll tell you.”

Alice continued to look at me.

She’s become quite good at reading my expressions. Maybe she’s already realized that I’m flustered. How she’ll interpret that is beyond me, though.

“...”

“...”

We stared at each other in silence for a while.

“...Hmph.”

Thankfully, it was Alice who backed down first.

“...You know,” Alice said, her eyes still fixed on me, “I have a pretty good memory. I won’t forget that you said this. So when the time comes, you better really tell me.”

“I understand.”

I had planned to do that anyway.

Once we were close enough, once everything was over, and I no longer needed to use this ability. If by then I still had a positive relationship with the protagonist’s group, there’d be no reason not to tell them. By that time, my “role” would have lost all meaning.

But not now. It’s only been a week since the story really started. It’s too early to reveal all the secrets, and doing so might put the protagonist’s group in danger. If these justice-driven fools found out about the emperor’s schemes, they’d likely turn on him immediately.

And, above all, Charlotte wouldn’t stay still if she found out about the looming conflict between Belbur Kingdom and Azerna Empire.

“When the time comes, will I be able to hear it too?”

“...I think so.”

When I said that, Alice’s expression softened slightly.

“If Silvia says so, then it means she’s certain. You’ll probably be there with us to hear it, Charlotte.”

“Is that so?”

Alice’s words seemed to placate her for now, though Charlotte still didn’t fully trust me.

And that’s understandable. I had, after all, once directly threatened her father, the King of Belbur.

“Well, I guess there’s nothing we can do about that. If Silvia decides to stay quiet... Honestly, I don’t see a way to force her to talk.”

It was a good thing I’d built up that mysterious image of myself. While Alice might be able to read my expressions, to everyone else, I remained an enigma. If they gave up early on, that was enough for me.

“Is that it for now? Then let’s head out. Honestly, the smell in here has been awful from the moment we stepped in. I feel like my nose is completely numb now.”

“...Let’s change our clothes first. I doubt we’ll be able to wear these again.”

...She was probably right. The fur lining on my coat was likely going to stink. Could I wash it out?

“And while we’re at it, why don’t we all grab some parfaits after we change? You love parfaits, don’t you?”

Alice turned to me with a grin on her face.

...Even though I’d worked so hard to control my expressions, it seemed Alice had still seen through me.

“Did you really look like you were enjoying it back then?”

“His emotions show clearly on his face.”

After Alice made that remark and turned around to lead the way, Charlotte looked at her with a strange, almost puzzled expression.

At least, in this moment, I couldn’t help but agree with Charlotte.

How does Alice manage to see through me like that?

Even after waking up early, completing a guild quest, exploring the sewers, cleaning up, changing clothes, and grabbing a bite at the café (with parfaits!), it wasn’t even 3 p.m.

It felt like there was so much time left when the morning started early like this.

“More work to do?”

When I mentioned I had something else to take care of after finishing my parfait, Alice gave me a slightly exasperated look.

“Well, alright. I guess I am curious about what you’re up to, but... honestly, I don’t think I’d figure anything out even if I looked into it more.”

I was relieved to hear that.

And Alice was spot-on with her guess.

I was planning to head back to my room and flop onto the bed, doing nothing.

It had been a long Sunday—working nonstop for hours, even rewinding time—and I figured I deserved some rest by now.

Leo and Claire were probably out running various quests right now, and Mia Crowfield was likely holed up in her room.

“Charlotte, want to study together?”

“I suppose I could. Silvia, today was quite fun. I still don’t know much about you...”

“Yeah. When else would we get a chance to explore the capital’s sewers, right?”

Nodding at Alice’s comment, I wondered what her reaction would be when she eventually faced much worse horrors in far deeper sewers.

Hmm, on second thought, it was probably better not to mention it. If I told her now, instead of scrunching her face in disgust, she’d likely just ask me how I knew such things.

Sometimes, there are things you can know without rewinding time.

“See you later this evening.”

“Alright.”

I gave a slight bow as the two walked away.

“...”

And then, I let out a small sigh.

Phew.

Exploring the sewers alone would have been exhausting, but doing it with two others? It felt like double the effort.

...Okay, time to do absolutely nothing for the rest of the day.

I’ll go back to my room, collapse on my bed, and relax. And when evening comes, I’ll rewind time and do it all over again. Then, maybe I’ll rewind one more time after that, just to make sure my mental exhaustion has been fully erased.

“Oh, Princess.”

And just like that, my expectations were brutally shattered by the appearance of some tanned, blonde punk.

Seriously, a blonde tanned punk.

And to make it worse, he was flanked by girls on either side.

“...What do you want?”

Do you even know who I am?

I barely managed to hold back the urge to say that, instead asking calmly.

At the very least, this was our first time meeting.

I wasn’t sure if he’d stopped to talk to me by chance or if he’d been waiting for me on purpose.

But... based on his posture, I was leaning toward the latter.

“Oh, I’m sorry.”

The blonde tanned punk immediately bowed slightly. Despite his rough appearance, his bow was smooth and respectful enough to be impressive.

Well, that made sense—he was the eldest son of a well-known duke’s family in the Empire, after all.

By the way, his tanned skin? It was from actual tanning. He wasn’t naturally dark-skinned.

As for the black-haired girl standing beside him, her dark skin was natural.

Of the two girls flanking him, one had an expressionless face, likely because she was from a colony. You couldn’t tell from the illustrations, but in reality, she looked as if she could be of Indian descent. She wasn’t a full-blooded colonial, though—half of her lineage was imperial.

The girls with him greeted me as well. Just a moment ago, they had been giggling, but seeing my expression must have wiped away their smiles.

“I just happened to see you while passing by and wanted to greet you. I apologize if I disturbed you.”

“...”

What’s the point in beating around the bush?

He’s one of the protagonist’s party members.

People often associate tanned blondes like him with characters who steal heroines in doujinshi, but that’s just in adult comics or eroge. In reality, these kinds of characters are usually just hot-blooded fools.

Not that he’s a complete idiot, but... well, being unable to tolerate injustice kind of makes him a typical hot-blooded fool.

He’s popular with girls, good-looking, and outgoing, but he only ever focuses on one girl. The half-colonial girl standing next to him. If I remember correctly, she’s a distant relative of his, though far down the family line. She carried the blood of the duke’s family, but because she was half-colonial, she was technically his "maid."

She was allowed to enter the academy as a student rather than a servant, but her status as a commoner split their classes.

“Jake Lindbergh,” he said.

In the original, he wasn’t much of a schemer. He wasn’t completely devoid of noble instincts, but to put it bluntly, he was the type to act before thinking.

He was kind to women but harsh toward men, often filling the role of the "comedic relief." The type of character you’d see as the protagonist’s best friend in a harem novel.

The developers probably included this character to avoid him becoming a nuisance to the harem dynamic.

Still, this made him somewhat of a hopeless romantic, which secured his niche role in the story.

“Silvia Fangryphon,” I replied.

Jake Lindbergh straightened from his bow slightly.

“It’s an honor to meet you.”

“...”

Do you have anything more to say?

I cast him a glance, trying to convey that thought, but only Alice seemed to ever understand my expressions. There was little chance this fool would.

Sure enough, Jake just kept grinning like the social butterfly he was.

...But if he had a reason to talk to me...

I shifted my gaze slightly to the half-colonial girl standing beside him.

In the original story... while she had her share of interest in Jake, her role was mostly to support him. You could exclude one of them from the party if you wanted, and she had her own connection quests, but she wasn’t meant to end up with the protagonist.

She’s probably the one who prompted him to approach me.