Finding the Hidden Cinderella - Chapter 18

Most people said spring stirred their hearts.

For her, it was autumn.

There was only one reason for that.

Because autumn brought the Harvest Eve Festival.

A very long time ago—or perhaps not that long ago, merely long enough—when Daisy was still a young girl, she had attended the Harvest Eve Festival exactly once.

It had been one month before she was to receive the Grand Archmage’s staff.

At the Winter Investiture Ceremony, she would inherit the Grand Archmage’s staff, and she had felt that once that happened, whatever little freedom she still possessed would disappear forever.

So she had gathered her courage, slipped out of the tower and committed the one and only act of rebellion in her life.

The first Harvest Eve Festival she ever attended had been incredibly noisy, and the lively atmosphere felt utterly unfamiliar to her.

It was the first time in her life she had worn a frilled skirt and shoes that were difficult to walk in. She stumbled, and the flowers she had carefully placed in her basket scattered across the ground.

Daisy already knew that, during the Harvest Eve Festival, young women gave flowers to the man they fancied and invited him to dance.

She could have restored the flowers to their fresh, pristine state with magic.

But the moment she fell, the first thought that crossed her mind was that she should never have come there in the first place.

Regretting that she had come, she was about to leave the basket behind and return to the tower when someone reached down and helped her to her feet.

「Are you alright?」

A boy she had never seen before. A gentle smile. Holding one of the flowers that had been ruined in the fall, the boy had said,

「Since I received your flower… would you like to dance?」

The flower had been crushed. The hem of her skirt had been stained with dirt. And yet, without caring about any of that, the boy had taken her hand and happily danced with her.

Even after she fled back to the tower, she couldn’t forget him for a long time.

She had been punished for leaving without permission and confined to the tower for quite some time, but throughout it all, the image of that boy smiling so brightly never left her thoughts.

Little by little, she thought those precious memories were beginning to fade.

Then one day, while attending the investiture ceremony for the Holy Knights, she saw him again.

Some time had passed, and the boy had become a young man. But his face was exactly the same.

While bestowing her blessing over the Holy Knight’s head, had her voice been trembling? Had the hand she raised in blessing been shaking?

After that, she spent her days secretly watching the Holy Knight from the tower whenever he passed below. But the human heart inevitably grows bolder with time. Simply stealing glances from afar was no longer enough, so she gradually drew closer. Of course, he never knew.

Whenever she happened to pass by him and was caught stealing a glance, she erased his memory with magic. She repeated that over and over again countless times. Whenever they crossed paths on the stairs and their eyes met, she would cast a spell on him as they passed. So that he would not remember meeting her gaze. So that she would leave no trace in his memory.

As more time passed, he became a Gold Hand Holy Knight and eventually the kingdom’s most famous playboy. Even so, her feelings for him never changed. She simply could not bring herself to approach him. He was always surrounded by beautiful women, dazzling wherever he went. But she was nothing more than a gloomy mage.

Even so, she wanted just one memory with him. Just one would be enough. If she was destined to live her entire life as a mage, then she wanted at least one precious memory to carry with her through that long life, however brief it might be.

The one who made that possible was Olson from the royal kitchen. Olson, who brought meals to the tower every day, was remarkably perceptive and immediately understood what Daisy truly wanted. Then she made a bold proposal.

「Let’s pick a day and get it over with.」

And so, on that day, she shared a bed with the man Olson had lured into the bedroom. For the first time in her life, she kissed someone, took off her clothes, and gave herself to him. She never expected there to be a second time. Nor had she ever intended to make him take responsibility.

So she erased his memory with magic. No, she made it so that he could no longer remember her face. So that he wouldn’t remember her, not even as someone he had merely crossed paths with.