"Still, I do understand how you feel."
Ash placed Sonia's foot on his thigh and quite naturally helped her untie her laces and remove her long boot. "Just like you're jealous of Freya, I'm actually a little jealous of you too, Sword Maiden."
"I'm not jealous," Sonia muttered. For some reason, when Ash peeled off her white sock, she felt a little embarrassed, and her toes curled up instinctively. She turned her head aside and emphasized heavily again, "I'm not!"
"Then let's just say I'm jealous of you." Ash smiled. "You still remember I lost my memory several times over the past half a year, right? First it was Vishy, then Vesir, and finally Diya... I forgot all of you one after another."
"The thing I'm most grateful for is that I never forgot you. Maybe Death Frenzy took special care of us. She put the memories about you at the very end, like saving the most delicious slice of cake for last... But even until I sold off the last piece of my soul, she never took away my memories of you. Not for a single moment did I forget you."
"Thinking about it carefully, she probably wanted to try seeing whether, if I forgot Witch and the others and only remembered you, I'd end up only liking you alone."
Sonia's lashes trembled slightly. She lowered her head and said nothing.
"But it's like a sheet of paper covered in words. Even if you erase it clean, traces of emotion remain." Ash's voice was light. "Even after losing my memories, I still fell for them again."
"...Good thing you fell for them again," Sonia said softly. "If your feelings for them couldn't even beat a little thing like amnesia, they wouldn't have broken through Heaven with me to save