Never Saved You

Their first meeting. Ophelia jumped.

She wanted to die. There was no better reason for her to want to leave this world other than having swallowed a mermaid’s scale.

But why was it that this bothered Alei.

Perhaps it’s because Ophelia didn’t look like someone who wanted to die, being as lively as she was.

Why did she have eyes full of the desire to live when she was about to die?

‘I don’t understand how people feel…’

Sighing lightly, Alei opened his lips to speak.

“Ophelia, the spell you’re under is not something ordinary people can do. As far as I know, there’s only one person who can.”

“And who’s that?”

“Who else? Me.”

Alei responded in a cynical manner and took a sip of his tea.

“That’s why I’ve been very confused all this time. I thought I did something to you before I lost my memories, but now that you said that it’s the work of a mermaid’s scale, I kind of get the gist of it.”

“Is the problem serious?”

“It is, and it isn’t. What’s certain is the problem would have been more serious without the certainty that the medium was a mermaid’s scale.”

“Sante says it’s a type of conditional magic. Do you know anything about it?”

Conditional magic. They clearly said this.

“Maybe there’s a separate term for it in their language, but for humans, it’s called conditional magic.”

“Is that all you’ve heard from them?”

“For some reason, they both didn’t explain much. Sante seemed to have a strange conviction that you’d know.”

“He’s right. I do remember more about magic.”

Alei held his teacup as he nodded. Ophelia couldn’t ingest hot drinks or food well, so right now she was just touching the rim of her teacup with her fingertips. Then, she suddenly asked.

“I’ve always been curious, but is there a line between the memories that are gone and the memories you’ve retained?”

“To put it simply, it’s like a divide between the personal and the scholastic.”

“Even if you say that, I don’t entirely understand.”

At Ophelia’s answer, Alei seemed to be lost in thought for a moment, then he raised the cup that he was holding.

“For example, this tea right here.”

Alei tilted the teacup slightly.

“I know that this is tea. Chamomile, dry herb leaves that become tea, and it’s good to drink when you can’t sleep well. And people usually drink it hot.”

“Even habits must remain in your memory.”

“Because it’s something that’s ingrained in me.”

However, there were enough times when he couldn’t remember even though it was ingrained in him.

So if he were to guess, it was like these kinds of memories escaped the filter when he lost his memories. He shrugged.

“But I don’t remember who I drank this tea with or where. Even though I know that this is how it’s supposed to be ingested.”

“Have you felt any sense of déjà vu?”

“It happens once in a while. After drinking this tea, I would feel that I like this scent and taste, and I feel that I liked it quite a lot in the past, but other than that there’s nothing else.”

“Is it like spilled ink over a letter?”

Alei’s eyes widened.

“How did you know? It’s exactly like that.”

“I’m not sure. Have you ever had a similar conversation to this before?”

Ophelia replied with a bitter smile.

A letter with ink spilled over it.

The letter would have been received from somewhere, covered with ink that conceals words or memories from another place.

Alei said this in the past as well.

—Trying to regain my memories… it’s like I’m trying to see through a letter that’s been spilled over with ink.

He had struggled to describe the desolation he felt before, and Alei back then was reluctant to mention the topic.

So the fact that they could talk about it until this much now meant that they were closer than they were in the past.

Or perhaps their relationship had become one that’s built by trust.

The realization made Ophelia feel a little awkward.

Because she could still recall the emotions she felt when she found Ariel’s letter inside one of Alei’s books.

It was the same at that time. She regarded him as a friend, and he did not.

The more she brooded about feelings of betrayal, the more she felt that it was absurd. So it wasn’t worth talking about.

As she recalled the misery she felt at that betrayal, Ophelia unknowingly clutched her teacup.

The warmth that almost stung helped ground her to reality.

‘It’s necessary to maintain a certain degree of friendship and trust with Alei.’

So she shouldn’t be uncomfortable. It’s just that she didn’t trust him.

If he didn’t trust him in the first place, then she wouldn’t feel betrayed by anything. It’s important to keep the other person at an arm’s distance somehow.

Ophelia recalled this, then she said his name without realizing it.

“Alei.”

“What is it?”

“Do you remember what I told you yesterday? That you’re the most important.”

One of Alei’s brows was slightly raised.

“That’s out of the blue. Do I seem so dull that I’d forget what happened a day ago?”

Even if he answered bluntly, his expression remained the same—a vague expression that seemed to shroud his embarrassment with annoyance.

Ophelia regained her composure. Then, she added as she smiled.

“I know it must have been difficult for you to talk about this. I’m just saying… Thank you for telling me.”

“It’s nothing.”

Even though he said so, he still looked embarrassed.

Rather than his words, his dropped gaze said more.

‘You’re such an honest person.’

But why did he trick her in the past?

Ophelia thought about the bitter feeling for a while, drinking her hot tea as though to erase it.

A tingling tongue was better than a bitter taste in the back of her throat.

Tak.

Ophelia set down her cup and resumed their conversation.

“It’s a natural conclusion to think that your memories have been erased by a person because they’re so clearly bound.”

“Is that something I mentioned to you?”

“It’s a guess on my part. Your memories could have been forcefully erased through magic.”

Of course, this was a conclusion that she heard from Alei himself in the past.

There was a reason why Ophelia brought this up.

Because she felt that they were getting closer to the truth of Alei’s magical erasure of memory.

“If it’s magic that erases your memories and it’s something you can’t solve, is it only me thinking that it’s similar to my situation?”

“You’re not wrong. It’s similar in practice, and that’s why I think your problem is grave.”

Ophelia’s problem was something related to magic, but she thought that Alei wouldn’t be able to solve it because he might have forgotten much of his knowledge in the subject.

But after talking to him, Alei’s understanding of magic seemed to be higher than she expected. And since this was the case, a question hovered in the air.

If Alei had that much knowledge in magic, why couldn’t he solve the problem Ophelia had despite him being a mage so outstanding that he became the lord of the magic tower?

The answer was simple.

“What you’re caught in is also conditional magic.”

Alei and Ophelia. They were in the same boat.

“That’s right.”

Alei’s calm answer seemed to say that Ophelia herself would not be free from Ariel’s spell for the rest of her life.

Unconsciously, Ophelia winced.

“Just what is conditional magic? Is it very different from other kinds of magic?”

“There’s nothing different with the formula used for it, but it’s just called ‘conditional magic’ for convenience. It’s, quite literally, a type of spell that would end only after certain conditions have been met.”

This meant that only when the conditions were known that the spell could be solved or destroyed.

“Of course, the spellcaster knows the conditions, but if it’s a situation where you can’t meet the spellcaster, then there would be no method to break the spell.”

“If it’s that simple to end the spell, just knowing the conditions like that, why is it that everyone’s reluctant to talk about conditional magic?”