The Protagonist's Party is Too Diligent

When Charlotte first approached me, my plan had been simple: engage in light conversation and then rewind time.

By doing so, my little midnight outing would be erased, and Alice and Charlotte would both remain in the hotel, blissfully unaware of my absence.

While it meant I wouldn’t be able to sneak into the cathedral to investigate, I could at least gauge how much the Kingdom of Belvur suspected me and how wary they were.

Then I could rewind time again, take a different route to avoid Charlotte entirely, and carry on with my plans.

But...

The sound of footsteps heading back to the hotel was not mine alone.

Charlotte was walking beside me, and a squad of guards followed closely behind, keeping a protective watch over us.

We didn’t exchange many words on the way back.

Still, Charlotte’s face looked far more at ease than when she had confronted me in that alley.

Meanwhile, my own thoughts were far from calm.

Maybe Charlotte was right. At least I had mastered my poker face well enough to conceal the storm inside. Then again, even criminals can develop new skills when they spend enough time practicing them.

The walk back to the hotel took a while. I had been wandering long enough to cover a fair distance while Alice was showering.

At least I had been intercepted before reaching the cathedral.

“Sylvia.”

Alice was waiting for me in the hotel lobby.

Just as Charlotte had said, her hair was still damp.

Her eyes widened in surprise when she saw me walk in with Charlotte, but her expression quickly turned more complicated.

Of course, it did.

“You must be tired from wandering outside,” Charlotte said gently. “Why don’t you get some rest? Tomorrow we’ll have more practical lessons to go through, and then we’ll head out to enjoy Lutetia’s cultural festival.”

I had no choice but to nod at her suggestion.

*

When we returned to the room, Alice didn’t sit down immediately. Instead, she paced around the space, her movements restless. Then, she spun on her heel to face me.

"Why didn’t you use your ability?" she demanded.

"If you truly thought I would use it, why did you go looking for me?" I countered.

“...So you weren’t planning to use it?” she pressed further.

“I was,” I admitted.

“....”

Alice’s expression grew complicated as she walked over to sit across from me, dropping heavily into the chair with a thud.

“I mean... even if you have the ability to make everything that happened disappear, I can’t just ignore the fact that you vanished without a word. I can’t leave everything to you and sit around doing nothing.”

Her words left me momentarily speechless.

Of course, she would worry. It wasn’t just a matter of whether I could rewind time or not. Alice had seen me fail to rewind it before. She had also witnessed the toll it took on me—the moments where I pushed myself too far and ended up in a coma.

Not being there to see for herself must have been terrifying.

“So, why didn’t you use your ability and instead chose to walk back?” Alice asked again.

Hmm.

There wouldn’t be any harm in telling Alice the truth. She thought of Charlotte as a close friend, so she wouldn’t take issue with me forming a deeper bond with her. But admitting that my conversation with Charlotte made me hesitate to rewind time... that felt a little too personal.

And honestly, a little embarrassing.

“....”

I remained silent, and Alice narrowed her eyes at me. Then, with a sigh, she said, “Fine. I’ll just ask Charlotte tomorrow.”

She wouldn’t bring up my ability to rewind time, but she would certainly ask about the conversation we’d had.

That much, I decided, was acceptable.

If Charlotte didn’t feel embarrassed about it, she might tell Alice herself.

Of course, she had dismissed all her guards before speaking to me, so whether she’d share it or not was anyone’s guess.

*

The next day, for some reason, I found myself surrounded by people.

It occurred to me that I had a surprisingly large circle of friends in this world. Whether Claire counted as a friend or a little sister was debatable, but if I considered her a sister-like friend, it was possible I had more people to keep in touch with here than I ever did in my original world.

The issue was that all of these so-called friends were clustered around me.

Normally, even if I was alone or just with Alice, my friends wouldn’t hover too much. But now, they were all here, subtly watching me. Even I could tell the situation had taken a strange turn.

When I looked at Alice silently, she avoided my gaze.

Of course.

Charlotte had mentioned yesterday that Alice had been wandering the hotel with wet hair, asking where I was.

It wasn’t likely she’d asked only Charlotte. In fact, I was probably one of the least likely people to be alone with Charlotte.

She must have approached Claire, Leo, Mia, Lena, Jake, Roti, and even Sophia.

And all of these people knew me well enough to recognize that I wasn’t like an ordinary person.

Naturally, if I disappeared, they would assume I had vanished to get myself into trouble.

Which explained why I was now surrounded by my friends, who were all keeping a close watch on me.

Or, from their perspective, maybe it wasn’t surveillance. Maybe it was concern.

I slid over to Alice and jabbed her in the side with my finger, making sure no one else was watching. This was something I could rewind later if needed.

“Eek!” Alice squeaked, then quickly checked to see if anyone had noticed before glaring at me.

“What?” she hissed in a low voice.

Keeping my voice equally quiet, I asked, “How much did you tell them yesterday?”

“I... I just... thought you were... you know...” she stammered, looking around nervously before changing the subject.

I almost facepalmed.

Of course.

Alice had assumed I’d rewind time.

She must have thought asking around about me wouldn’t cause any problems. Even though she’d seen me fail to rewind time due to the Masked Woman, that hadn’t happened here yet... Her anxiety and her trust in me had mixed together to create this illogical behavior.

“....”

I stared at Alice silently. She avoided my gaze for a moment before muttering, “You... you do the same thing. You leave stuff to Father all the time.”

That... was fair.

While I couldn’t offload the cathedral incident onto the Emperor without sparking a war, I had shamelessly dumped countless minor problems on him without a second thought.

I considered jabbing her in the side again but decided against it.

Why?

Because her earlier squeak had already drawn a few glances our way.

Charlotte, walking ahead, didn’t turn around, but Claire, further back, was glancing over. Leo, with his keen senses as a swordsman, and Sophia both seemed to have noticed too.

Mia had been sneaking glances at me the entire time, and while Jake and Roti were walking side by side, they occasionally glanced in my direction as well.

For a brief moment, I seriously considered rewinding to yesterday.

But then...

Honestly, I didn’t entirely mind.

If the people watching me were doing so because it was their duty, I would have done everything in my power to escape their surveillance.

But the eyes on me now weren’t those of guards or spies. They were filled with concern.

And that feeling... it was strange.

It was a little ticklish, oddly embarrassing, and overall just... strange.

But despite the strangeness, I couldn’t help but think that thanks to those eyes, I’d managed to live reasonably well in this world.

Sure, it might seem ridiculous for someone who constantly caused trouble to feel this way.

But hey, that’s just who I am.

*

We couldn’t spend all our time here as if we were on a sightseeing tour.

Even if Charlotte had played her trump card, I still needed to find my own way.

“Are you sure about this?”

Ah... Well, maybe I wasn’t entirely alone in this.

“I’m not planning to tell her everything,” I replied to Alice, who had been following me.

She fell silent for a moment, her expression serious as she considered my words. Then, with a firm nod, she agreed.

I nodded back at her, turned, and knocked on the door in front of us.

[“Yes, come in.”]

Charlotte’s voice came from beyond the thick door.

I glanced at Alice once more.

Both of us nodded to each other before I opened the door and stepped inside.