Can I?

"Um, I didn't mean to make Huanyue cry." Rinne immediately felt at a loss. After hesitating, she slightly raised her fingertips, then lowered them again.

Should I... do this?

Is this... okay?

As the maintainer of [Eden], she had once only needed to watch in silence. From the moment of her birth, what she had seen was Huanyue—helpless, her eyes utterly dim, yet still persisting through despair.

At that very moment, something deeper than her mission had taken root in her heart—she had resolved to use this [Eden], at any cost, to bring happiness back to everyone, especially Huanyue.

But the situation had changed.

Huanyue was no longer merely someone who needed saving.

With Shiori here, Rinne knew better than anyone that as long as Shiori remained by Huanyue's side, Huanyue's road to happiness would never be cut off.

Shiori would accept every part of her—her strength, her weakness, and the more straightforward version of her that had emerged from losing her memories.

Rinne firmly believed that if they were given time to communicate and spend time together naturally, the warm future that should have belonged to them would be almost within reach—after all, she had seen it before...

But—

With a confused, faultless little "um" escaping her lips, Rinne ultimately could not resist the urge to draw close and comfort her. She wrapped Huanyue in a reassuring embrace and softly said, "I'm sorry... truly..."

I'm so sorry. Memories are precious things.

And yet I took them away from you... without permission.

Guilt, self-reproach, sorrow, and a faint, pitiful sense of happiness.

Huanyue was slightly startled by the sudden embrace, but soon relaxed and rubbed against the other girl's pink hair.

"Why are you apologizing to me?"

"Because... I carelessly made Huanyue troubled. Seeing you make that expression because of