The morning after their first date began with a question.
"What should we do today?"
Haruto looked up from buttering a slice of bread.
"I thought you were the librarian."
"I am."
"So aren't you supposed to know everything?"
Sakura gave him a perfectly flat look.
"I know where everything is."
"Is that any different?"
"It is."
Haruto nodded thoughtfully.
"...I was hoping it wasn't."
She sighed.
"You really don't make my job easy."
"I make it interesting."
"You make it longer."
He smiled proudly.
"I'll take that as a compliment."
---
After breakfast, they wandered through Wayrest once again.
Not because they lacked somewhere to go.
Because, for the first time in years...
There was nowhere they needed to go.
The streets was lively as usual.
Merchants from distant regions displayed fabrics dyed in impossible colors, polished gemstones, spices whose scents drifted across the square, and curious little trinkets carved from pale wood.
Sakura stopped at almost every book stall.
Haruto stopped at almost every food stall.
"This is why we walk slowly," Sakura said.
"I'm conducting research."
"On roasted chestnuts?"
"I need multiple samples."
"The first four weren't enough?"
"The scientific method demands consistency."
"I don't understand."
She laughed and shook her head.
"I married a fool."
"You certainly did."
"And I'm strangely okay with that."
---
As they passed one of the quieter streets, a small crowd had gathered outside a modest post office.
Nothing dramatic.
Just confused voices.
An elderly postmaster stood behind a wooden counter, repeatedly checking a leather ledger.
"I'm sorry," he said for what sounded like the tenth time.
"I can't find your letter."
A middle-aged woman frowned.
"But I received it yesterday."
"You replied to it yesterday," she insisted.
"I watched my husband seal it."
The postmaster looked genuinely distressed.
"I believe you."
"But..."
He flipped through the ledger again.
"...there's no record that it was ever delivered."
Another clerk joined him.
"We checked every shelf."
"Nothing."
The woman slowly frowned.
"...Maybe I'm mistaken."
Haruto's smile faded.
The certainty in her voice...
Had weakened.
As though even she was beginning to doubt herself.
Sakura noticed it too.
The two quietly stepped away without interrupting.
They continued walking in silence until the noise of the market faded behind them.
Finally, Haruto spoke.
"...Did you feel that?"
Sakura nodded.
"It wasn't normal."
"No."
"It wasn't."
Neither of them mentioned the curse.
Neither needed to.
It hung between them all the same.
---
They eventually reached a small park overlooking the river.
Children chased one another between flowering trees.
A grandfather patiently taught his grandson how to feed the ducks.
Life continued peacefully.
Haruto sat on a wooden bench.
"...Do you think we should ignore it?"
Sakura sat beside him.
"The letters?"
"The forgetting."
She watched the river flow beneath the bridge.
"I don't know."
"We promised ourselves we'd stop chasing every mystery."
"I remember."
"But..."
She looked toward the families enjoying the afternoon.
"What happens when that mystery affects everyone else?"
Haruto didn't answer.
Because he couldn't.
---
The silence was interrupted by a familiar voice.
"There you are!"
Haruto turned.
Belial came jogging toward them, slightly out of breath.
The little creature was carrying a satchel almost as large as himself.
"You vanished."
Haruto blinked.
"I've been in the same inn for three days."
"I know."
"It took me three days to remember which inn."
"Who are you?"
Sakura asked.
Naruto sighed
"Here we go again."
(You don't have to read all this)
"I AM THE UNPARALLELED, PREEMINENT APEX OF CAPRINE MAGNIFICENCE, AN ENTITY OF SUCH STAGGERING, UNMITIGATED GRANDEUR THAT THE MORTAL VOCABULARY FRACTURES UNDER THE SHEER WEIGHT OF MY GLORIOUS MANIFESTATION, KNOWN TO THE COSMOS AS BELIAL: THE NONPAREIL SOVEREIGN OF THE SULFUROUS CRAGS, THE DEFINITIVE ARCHETYPE OF ABYSSAL SPLENDOR, AND THE ABSOLUTE, UNCONTESTED ZENITH OF DIABOLICAL PERFECTION WHOSE PEERLESS CRANIAL APPENDAGES AND LUSTROUS OBSIDIAN HOOVES RENDER THE VERY CONCEPT OF CELESTIAL BEAUTY UTTERLY MUNDANE BY COMPARISON."
"And the apex got lost."
"..."
"..."
Sakura looked at Belial.
"Were you actually lost?"
Belial puffed his goat beard high.
"I prefer the term..."
He thought carefully.
"...temporarily adventurous."
Haruto burst into laughter.
"You got lost."
"I was exploring."
"I bet you asked the same person for directions multiple times."
Belial looked offended.
"He kept changing his answers!"
"He was pointing at the building behind him."
"...It was a very confusing building."
Sakura couldn't hold back her laughter anymore.
Belial looked between them before smiling to himself.
Haruto tilted his head.
"What ?"
"You are laughing again."
Neither Haruto nor Sakura answered.
They simply smiled.
---
As the sun dipped lower, the three of them returned to the inn together.
The post office incident lingered quietly in Haruto's thoughts.
Not because it had been dramatic.
Because it had been ordinary.
A single missing letter.
An event small enough for most people to dismiss.
Yet Arthur's words echoed in the back of his mind.
*The world doesn't erase everything at once.*
*It begins with things no one thinks are important.*
That night, before blowing out the candle, Haruto opened his sketchbook.
Instead of drawing a person...
He drew an envelope.
Plain.
Unopened.
Beneath it, he wrote a single line.
> **"The world has started forgetting words before it forgets people."**
He stared at the page for a long time.
Then quietly closed the book.
Outside, the streets of Wayrest settled into silence.
Somewhere across town...
A woman searched her desk for a letter she was certain she had written.
She never found it.
By morning...
She wasn't sure why she'd been looking in the first place.