“Mm…”

“How do I put it…”

“You’ll see when we get there.”

Turing blinked, raised a finger to her lips, and gave Merka a mysterious smile.

She ran over to Merka, took his hand, and excitedly pulled him toward the edge of the plaza.

“Hey—the driver!”

“Take us to the Haukadru Valley. Money’s no object.”

Turing flagged down a driverless car speeding through the air beside the road and spoke to the little robot inside.

She lifted the hovering car’s rear door and clambered inside, pulling Merka into the back seat with her.

“Certainly, ma’am. The car is about to depart. The journey is estimated to be 1,036 kilometers. Please fasten your seat belts.”

A cold mechanical voice sounded. Two seat belts sprang out from the back seat and automatically strapped Turing and Merka in.

No matter how many times Merka saw something like this, he couldn’t help marveling at the magical technology of this world.

He tugged at the seat belt and couldn’t help snickering to himself.

He remembered his time at the orphanage, long, long ago. Every day, he had to sling a strap over his shoulder to go up the mountain and chop firewood. Back then, that strap had dug into him just like this one did now.

Who would’ve thought modern tastes would come full circle and end up right back where they started?

“Turing, do you remember…”

“Turing?”

Merka smiled and turned to Turing, wanting to share a funny memory that had just come to mind. But he found her sitting there with a blank look on her face.

She gazed at Merka in a daze, her sky-blue eyes narrowing slightly as she watched him in silence.

It was as if she were pondering some profound question.

“Have we… gone out together like this before?”

Turing asked Merka hesitantly.

“Oh? You mean back in Bocheng?”

“We rode in the same carriage and sneaked into that gathering of mages… Heh. You said you didn’t like Italian food back then. There were whole tables of delicious dishes, but you only ate dessert.”

“I still remember how put out you looked.”

Merka’s eyes shifted slightly as he quickly thought of the times he’d spent with Turing.

Just thinking about those sweet memories put him in a particularly good mood.

“No, not Bocheng… I…”

“There must’ve been another time before that, right? Earlier. Much earlier.”

“We’ve known each other for five years… No, it’s been seven years, hasn’t it?”

“The first time I met you, you said my eyes were pretty and my hair looked nice…”

Something seemed off about Turing. She rambled on about things Merka couldn’t understand, as if she’d wandered into a maze of her own memories.

In truth, Turing’s memories were simply a little jumbled.

Back then, to get her angel, she’d had no choice but to erase all her memories from the time when she’d been a boy, then fill in the gaps with similar memories.

Though Turing had patched those memories together, trying to make them as complete as possible, quite a few details had still been lost to the river of time.

Perhaps the key to awakening those old memories lay in all the little moments she’d shared with Merka before she became a girl.

“Uh…”

“Turing, when did all that happen?”

“I don’t remember any of it.”

Merka certainly remembered the first time he’d met Turing.

It was just that he’d approached her on a mission. He didn’t remember ever making such a direct move on her. After all, he’d been afraid that Turing, suspicious by nature, might see through him.