"hh— hic... hh..."

Her breathing kept breaking, like she couldn’t pull in enough air.

"Hello, miss. Are you okay?"

I smiled. Genuine-looking. Completely fake.

"hng... hic..."

She pressed a hand to her mouth, trying to muffle the sound.

Do I look like a monster or something?

"Hey. Hey. Stop crying, tell me what happened."

"...sniff... hic..."

Her shoulders trembled. Quiet sobs barely breaking the silence of the forest.

I stood there.

This was not in any of my plans. I had never been a babysitter and had absolutely no intention of becoming one.

Even though she looked like an adult, her crying face was something else entirely.

Like a child who had no idea what was happening.

Then I noticed it.

Blood. Dried, but there matted into her hair, running down the side of her head. Her leg wasn’t moving right either. She was sitting at an angle that meant she couldn’t stand even if she wanted to.

I opened my inventory and pulled out a mana potion and a healing potion. The items materialized from the air in front of me.

She didn’t even blink at that.

Too out of it to question it. Or too used to it. Either way.

I tried to hand them over.

She kept crying.

"...Why is it so hard to deal with a crying person," I muttered under my breath.

I sighed.

Okay. Different approach.

"Hey..."

I stopped mid-sentence.

Wait.

I have the system.

"System," I whispered.

[....]

"Show me her profile."

[1 PS.]

"Scammers."

I looked at her. Still crying. Shoulders are still shaking.

"Fine."

[STATUS WINDOW]

Name: Lina Vale

Title: Spirit Sorceress

Potential: S+ Rank

Age: 18

Skills: Mid-Rank Spirit formula/High-Rank Wind Spirit Bond

State: Suffering from memory loss

I stared at the screen.

S+ rank.

Above Aria. Above almost everyone I had read about in this novel.

And she was sitting in a forest where nothing living came willingly, crying, with dried blood in her hair and a leg that wouldn’t move.

Memory loss.

So she didn’t know who she was. Didn’t know how she got here. Didn’t know anything.

That explains the crying, I thought.

I closed the status window and crouched down in front of her.

"Hey."

She was listening. A little.

Enough.

I took the healing potion, drank a mouthful myself, and moved closer. She looked up at me with wet eyes, confused.

I clicked my tongue, grabbed her chin gently, and made her look at me.

"Open your mouth."

She didn’t respond.

I sighed.

Then pinched her nose shut.

Her mouth opened on instinct.

I didn’t waste the chance.

She froze completely.

Stopped crying.

"...mm..."

I didn’t pull back until she swallowed.

When I finally moved away her face was the color of a tomato. Eyes wide. Not crying anymore just staring at me like I had grown a second head.

Well. That worked.

I held out the mana potion and the remaining healing potion.

"Drink these too."

She took them quietly and drank without argument.

Her leg was already starting to look better. The color is returning. Whatever damage had been done was knitting itself back together.

"Good."

I looked at her calmly.

"Do you remember anything about yourself?"

A long pause.

Then she shook her head slowly.

And then quietly, like she wasn’t sure she was allowed to ask she looked up at me.

"...Who are you?"

Her voice was small. Careful. Like she’d been holding the question for a while and had finally run out of reasons not to ask it.

I looked at her for a moment.

"Someone who found you," I said. "That’s enough for now."

She considered that. Then nodded once.

I glanced toward the mansion.

"Can you walk?"

Silence.

"...Okay. You’re coming with me then."

I sat down on the ground next to her.

"Piggyback."

She pulled back slightly.

"You won’t fall."

She looked at me. Then in the forest. Then back at me.

"...Promise?"

"Promise."

She thought about it for another thirty seconds genuinely deliberating, like this was a contract with real terms, then gave one small nod.

Is this what having a lost puppy feels like?

Getting her back to the mansion was its own kind of adventure.

The guards at the gate stared. Not subtly. The kind of staring that had opinions in it.

I ignored them.

Inside, I found the head maid and gave her simple instructions: bath, clean clothes, nothing complicated. She asked no questions and got it done.

I went back to my room.

Lina, apparently, had other ideas.

She followed me like a koala that had decided I was its tree. Every time I moved she was already behind me. Every time I turned around there she was. Silent. Waiting. Going absolutely nowhere.

At one point I stopped walking entirely, just to test it.

She stopped too. Half a step behind me. Waiting.

Yeah.

I sat at the desk and opened my diary.

Plot points. Upcoming events. Characters I needed to remember.

I flipped through the pages until I hit the section on heroines.

Spirit Sorceress. S+ rank potential. High-Rank Wind Spirit Bond. Eighteen years old.

I looked toward the door.

Different names. Everything else identical.

I closed the diary.

Of all the forests. Of all the mornings.

She wasn’t leaving my room.

After a bit of negotiation she agreed to take the guest room next door.

That lasted approximately two hours.

She didn’t speak much. Just head movements. Yes and no. The occasional sound that might have been a word if you were generous about it.

I sighed.

Today I had a lot.

I fell asleep faster than usual.

The next morning my body felt like it had been filled with concrete overnight.

I tried to move.

But I couldn’t. I looked sideways.

There she was.

Lina Vale. S+ rank Spirit Sorceress. Potential that exceeded almost every character in the novel.

Curled up next to me, gripping my arm like it was the only solid thing in the world. Dead asleep. Completely unbothered.

I stared at the ceiling for a long moment.

She’s going to be so embarrassed when she gets her memory back.

I almost felt sorry for her.

Almost.

[Achievement Unlocked: ???] 𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

[You received 1000 PS.]

I stared at the screen.

"...What?"