Chen Mian was slightly taken aback by her words. According to her log, all of the Life Witch's family and friends were already gone by the time she chose to live a new life.
But now, her memory seemed to be stuck in a time when her loved ones were still around?
Moreover, she seemed to have lost her memories of her time as Louise as well.
“You lived for a very long time, and because you were too lonely, you wanted to live a new life,” Chen Mian said. “But then, something went wrong.”
She fell silent upon hearing this, her violet-gold eyes narrowing slightly as if she were trying hard to recall something. Her fingertips unconsciously pinched the edge of the coffin, and then she shook her head. “...I don’t remember.”
After saying this, she fell silent again for a moment. Finally, she raised her head to look at Chen Mian, her expression shifting into a relaxed, casual one. “I'm hungry.”
“...” All three of them looked at her in surprise. Should they say she was indeed Keyins?
Just a moment ago, her eyes had been red, yet in the very next second, the topic had completely shifted to food.
“I've been asleep for four hundred years, so of course I'm hungry,” she repeated righteously. Her gaze swept past Chen Mian and landed on Flora. “I smell the aroma of food. It smells delicious.”
Flora was slightly startled and blinked. “That was made yesterday, and we've already finished it.”
“Then can you make some more now? I can help. As for the question from earlier, you don't have to answer me. I'll remember eventually.”
As she spoke, she pressed her hands against the edge of the coffin, trying to climb out. However, because her body had not yet fully recovered, she almost fell.
Chen Mian reached out and gave her a hand.
Once she steadied herself, she looked down at the black robe she was wearing, then back at Chen Mian. “I didn't dislike it when you touched me. I believe you're my companion now.”
She tilted her head, a trace of confusion in her voice. “Did we have any other relationship besides being companions? Like... partners? No, that's not right either... My body is still intact, so we probably weren't partners.”
The air fell silent for a brief moment.
Flora and Loviki were startled by her words. With blushing ears, they looked at Chen Mian before quickly averting their eyes and pretending they hadn't heard anything.
Did Mr. Chen Mian just get teased...?
Chen Mian did not answer the question.
Keyins did not press further either. She merely looked down at the ground and stepped barefoot into the sea of flowers, her fair toes curling slightly. “It's a bit cold.”
Then she looked up, her gaze sweeping over the blooming windbell flowers, a touch of confusion in her eyes. “Windbell flowers... Everything here feels so familiar, even you. But I can't remember anything.”
“There's no rush. Let's eat first. You can take your time remembering the rest,” Chen Mian said to her with a smile.
Keyins was startled by his words. The confusion in her eyes faded slightly, and the corners of her mouth curved upward. “Then what is your name?”
“Chen Mian.”
“Chen Mian... Then what was the name of the me you knew?” Keyins asked, looking at him very seriously.
“Louise.”
“Louise...” She blinked and muttered the name softly under her breath. Then she raised her head, the smile on her face becoming more pronounced. “Then from now on, my name is Louise.”
“My name is Flora, and the one next to me is Loviki,” Flora said as she rummaged through her backpack and pulled out a spare pair of boots to hand to her.
Louise stood barefoot in the sea of flowers. She looked down at her bare ankles, then looked up, her gaze falling on the spare boots Flora was offering.
“They're a bit tight.” She took a couple of steps after putting them on. The boots didn't fit perfectly, but it was much better than walking barefoot on the gravel path.
“Just make do with them for now. I'll buy you new ones when we get back to the apartment,” Chen Mian said with a smile.
Louise paused slightly at his words and turned her head to look at Chen Mian. “Back to the apartment?”
“Yes, my place.”
Louise blinked her violet-gold eyes, the corners of her mouth curving upward as she said, “Your place... Are you trying to abduct me to your home right after I woke up? Well, all right! I don't mind.”
Flora glanced at the somewhat helpless Chen Mian and let out a quiet giggle.
Loviki watched Louise. Although her eccentric, lively personality was much more subdued due to her amnesia, one could still see traces of the Life Witch Keyins in her.
Flora quickly whipped up a simple pot of mushroom soup to fill Louise's stomach.
The group began to retrace their steps. As they passed through the sea of windbell flowers, Louise slowed her pace slightly.
She bent down, plucked a light purple flower, twirled it between her fingertips, and casually tucked it behind her ear.
“Who planted the flowers here?”
“You did,” Chen Mian replied from the front without turning back.
Louise pursed her lips, adjusted the flower in her hair to make it more secure, and quickly caught up.
By the time they returned to the dark cavern on the fifth floor, Louise's steps were visibly lighter than before.
Although she had lost her memory, she possessed an almost instinctive familiarity with the paths here. Even when she reached out her hand to condense mana for illumination in the darkness, the surrounding magical beasts didn't attack upon seeing the light. Instead, they kept their distance and avoided them.
The rustling, crawling sounds that had closely followed them on their way in had completely vanished. The entire cavern was so quiet that only the footsteps and breathing of the four could be heard.
Flora walked on Chen Mian's left, Loviki on his right, and Louise followed closely behind Chen Mian, occasionally stepping on his heels.
“Sorry,” she said when she stepped on them for the third time.
“It's fine.”
After a few more steps, she stepped on them again.
“I say, Louise... are you doing this on purpose?” Chen Mian turned around to look at her and asked.
Louise looked up, shaking her head with an innocent expression. “No, I'm just still getting used to walking. After all, I've been asleep for four hundred years.”
She was indeed doing it on purpose. For some reason, seeing Chen Mian walking ahead of her made her want to step on his heels.
“Then walk in front of me so you don't trip,” Chen Mian said softly, the corners of his mouth curving upward. Louise used to do this kind of thing all the time. Even though she had amnesia, her behavior hadn't changed much.
“Alright~”
As they stepped out of the fifth-floor cavern, the light outside made them squint slightly.
The magical sun of the fourth floor hung high on the ceiling, and the air became somewhat hot and humid, filled with the scent of soil and vegetation.
Louise stood at the exit of the cavern, raising a hand to shield her eyes. “I feel like I know how to make that miniature sun.”
Flora gave a soft laugh. “That sun was made by you.”
“Really?” Louise's eyes lit up as she turned to look at Flora.
“It was mentioned in the logs.” Flora took out Keyins's two notebooks from her backpack and handed them over.
Louise took the notebooks and flipped through a few pages. She looked at the densely packed experimental records... making food fly into one's mouth, making mushrooms grow legs, glowing pudding, catapult peas, bursting potatoes...
After reading for a while, a smile unconsciously spread across Louise's face. “It seems there really is such a thing. I feel like I have some impression of these experiments.”
The path through the fourth-floor sea of trees seemed shorter than before, and the four of them were traveling much faster than when they arrived.
When they passed by the lake from earlier, Louise stopped. She stood by the shore, looking down at her reflection in the water for a moment, and asked, “Is the flower in my hair still there?”
“Yes,” Flora said.
When the four of them finally made their way back through the upper floors of the dungeon and stood once again before the massive ice-blue stone doors at the entrance,
Louise looked back at the deep, dark passage behind her, a trace of an indescribable emotion in her expression.
“It seems... I really am very familiar with this place.”
“Reluctant to leave?” Chen Mian asked.
“A little bit.” She touched the windbell flower by her ear. “If I really slept here for four hundred years, then I suppose this counts as my home.”
She paused, then added, “But I don't plan on staying. Since you woke me up, you have to take full responsibility for me.”
Loviki snorted. “You're quite the parasite, aren't you?”
“Mm.” Louise admitted it frankly. “Then I must have been very clingy in the past too, otherwise why would I have troubled my companion to search for me for so many years?”
The corners of Chen Mian's mouth curved upward. He turned around and said, “Let's go. It's time to head home.”
【Tenant 003: Louise (Keyins)】
【Race: Vampire (True Ancestor Bloodline)】
【Profession: Life Mage】
【Mana Level: 120 (Recovering)】
【Charisma: 10】
【Sense of Belonging: Level 4 (Sourced from favorability toward Host)】
【Specialty: Healing, Creation】
【Wish: 1. Regain memories. 2. None for now】
Rate on N.U.
