Mage Manual

"But I do understand your feelings."

Ash placed Sonia’s feet on his thigh, naturally helping her untie the laces and remove her boots: "Just like you being jealous of Freyja, I actually feel a bit jealous of you, Sword Maiden."

"I’m not jealous at all," Sonia mumbled, feeling strangely ashamed as Ash took off her white socks, her toes instinctively curled, and she turned her head to emphasize again, "Not at all!"

"Then let me be the jealous one." Ash laughed, "Do you remember how I’ve lost my memory several times in the past six months? First Vishi, then Weiser, finally Diya... I forgot each of you one by one."

"The thing I’m most grateful for is that I never forgot you. Perhaps Death Mad took special care of us, she kept memories of you until the last, like saving the most delicious cake for last... Yet even after I sold off the last piece of my soul, she never took away memories of you. I haven’t forgotten you for a single moment."

"On reflection, she probably wanted to try seeing if I would only like you if I forgot the Witch and the others."

Sonia’s eyelashes trembled slightly, she lowered her head and said nothing.

"But like a sheet of paper filled with words, even if wiped clean, traces of emotions remain." Ash’s voice was light-hearted: "Even after losing memory, I still came to like them again."

"... It’s a good thing you liked them again," Sonia said softly, "If the feelings were unable to withstand such a small matter as amnesia, they wouldn’t break into Heaven with me to rescue you."

"So now I’m regretting a bit."

Sonia looked at Ash in confusion, only to see him blinking: "I regret why I didn’t forget you."

"...Huh?"

"Don’t you understand? Now I’ll never be able to hold my head high in front of you!" Ash expressed with deep distress, "You’ve experienced liking me anew after amnesia, but I haven’t had the chance to like you anew after memory loss. To use exams as a comparison, it’s like we used to take the same test and got the same score. But now, because you answered the amnesia question, and I didn’t, your total score is always higher than mine. Even if you claim to love me more, I can’t argue against you! If we ever argue, you just need to use this trump card, and no matter how unreasonable you are, I can only swallow my pride!"

He concluded earnestly, "Because I haven’t forgotten you, Sword Maiden, now I’ve suffered a huge loss!"

"I won’t be unreasonable... No, even without the amnesia question, my score has always been higher than yours!"

"How is that possible? This is a joint exam, how could your score be higher than mine?"

"Because I am indeed taking a joint exam, but you’re with four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten people—"

"Wait, there’s not ten people!" Ash quickly interrupted Sonia’s chant, but after a moment of thought his tone became hesitant: "Probably not ten people..."

Sonia lightly bit her lip, refraining from making fun of him, bringing the topic back: "You don’t need to prove how much you love me; you’ve already done too much for me. The one who truly needs to prove something is—"

"It’s not just about proving."

Ash locked his fingers with Sonia’s, his eyes fluttering as he looked at her, smiling: "More than that, I’m regretful I didn’t get to like you twice."

"Isn’t it often when you read a good book you have such thoughts? ’If only I could forget, then I could read this book again’..." He said longingly: "If I lost my memory, I could meet you again, introduce myself again, get to know you again, fall hopelessly in love with you again... I wish we could fall in love all over again!"

"So, you’re saying you’ve finished reading my book and find it boring and tedious now?" Sonia asked calmly.

Ash was stunned, his whole body rigid, his mind racing at an overload trying to come up with the perfect answer to fix the situation, his gaze wandering, as if hoping a Divine Lord would jump out from a corner of the room to divert the tension. After exhausting his brain with deep thinking, he chose to surrender: "Forget it, just be mad directly, no need to go through the motions. I managed to creatively come up with such sweet words and I still can’t appease you, seems like I don’t have the talent to be a bad guy..."

Sonia’s mouth twitched as she restrained her laughter, watching Ash turn his head in embarrassment, she was both amused and annoyed, she went over to hug him, saying: "Come on, have some confidence, you are clearly the Supreme of Magic in the Meiwa faction, the number one scoundrel in the Seven Heavens, anyone who dares not acknowledge this, I’ll be the first to disagree!"

"It’s too late to flatter me now, I’m very mad, the consequences are serious, the most serious being ignoring you for an hour!"

"Then what do you want?"

"Say sweet words to cheer me up." Ash blinked, "You haven’t completed today’s daily task yet, it’s almost refresh time at midnight."

"I didn’t say them every day before either." Sonia retorted with mild annoyance, but meeting Ash’s expectant gaze, she still affectionately wrapped her arms around Ash’s neck, burying her head against it, in a voice both gentle and firm:

"I will never make you worry again, nor will I ever make you sad again."

"You’re even worse at this than I am," Ash critiqued sharply, "You have no talent in this area!"

"Then in the future—"

"That’s why you need to say it every day, and say it often. If you lack talent, make up for it with quantity. I’ll reluctantly listen to your sweet nothings every day," Ash said with deadpan seriousness. "Don’t lose heart. One day, your Mage’s Handbook will be filled with your love words!"

"Is this your latest way of torturing people? Even after death, you won’t let go, replacing the Mage’s Handbook with unbearable content after someone’s gone?"

"That’s a good idea. If I can ever use the Time History Book to modify the Mage’s Handbook, I’ll mark in yours that you fell in love with me at first sight, you confessed, and you proposed, while I was always the pathetic and weak Rara Fat—"

"Go to hell!"

The two of them playfully wrestled on the bed, and when they stopped, Ash was on top of Sonia, blinking as he leaned down to kiss the Sword Maiden.

Gentle, sweet, soft.

As their first kiss after days apart and days of being unconscious, it felt just right, allowing longing and love to ferment between their lips into a soul-drenching wine, without letting desire prematurely drown their reason.

"Don’t blame yourself."

Ash whispered, "If we judge love by post-amnesia behavior, I’m probably worse than Vishi. After all, Vishi at least can sense my presence, while my memory loss would likely make me forget I ever had a lover. As long as you’re not in front of me, I’m determined not to believe I have such a wonderful lover; in fact, sometimes I still question whether I’m dreaming, whether I’ve been swallowed by Uroboros, and this is actually fantasy time."

"Not only ’such a wonderful lover,’ but ’so many wonderful lovers,’" Sonia glanced at him and continued, "I’m not blaming myself, I just feel like I’ve lost, so I feel a little..."

"Unwilling?" Ash blinked, sighing, "Even though there shouldn’t be winning or losing in love, if you must prove who likes me more, I can’t stop you from following through on your beliefs..."

Though Ash spoke with a straight face, he couldn’t hide the smug look on his face, clearly displaying a ’let them have at it’ expression. Sonia couldn’t resist pinching his cheek—it was just so infuriating.

"Though you say that," Sonia suddenly said, "if we disappeared and you lost your memory, even if you can’t remember us for the time being, you’d eventually realize our existence and would stop at nothing to find us."

"Just like you?" Ash chuckled.

Sonia’s eyes sparkled, her lips curled slightly, showing a faint smile: "Just like me."

"You just asked if I’m tired of reading your book; actually, I wanted to ask you the same," Ash said, "Though I feel like I can understand your book, every time I read it, there’s something new. It feels like I’ll never finish it or figure it out, whereas I’m like a very simple book. I often worry you’ll get bored of it."

"Even if you’re easy to understand, it’s like a collection of joke stories—every time I read it, I can’t help but smile. No matter how much I read, I never get tired of it," Sonia laughed. "Reading it makes me happy, makes me feel warm."

"See, I can’t figure you out again. It feels like a compliment, but also like you’re badmouthing me."

"Hmph."

"I feel like my score is higher than yours," Ash gently embraced Sonia from the side, speaking softly, "because I’m falling more in love with you."

"Impossible," Sonia lifted her chin proudly, "No matter how much you love me, I’ll always love you more!"

The two looked into each other’s eyes and burst into laughter. Ash covered his mouth and laughed, "It feels just like a conversation between silly lovers."

"Being with you lowers my IQ," Sonia blushed, complaining, "I don’t want to talk to you anymore."

"Alright, then let’s not talk."

They used the most direct way to silence each other, their clothes making soft rustling sounds. Fingertips brushed against smooth skin, soft curves pressed against his chest, sometimes like twin fishes swimming together, sometimes like twin snakes biting each other’s tails. The wine glasses on the nightstand wobbled back and forth as the room’s temperature quietly rose.