Time passed quickly.
It had already been a week since I'd been flung into the past. A long time, if you thought of it that way, and a short one if you didn't.
That week passed without incident.
There was no fighting between the Zeus Familia and the Hera Familia. Materia and Cranel never descended into the church basement.
Even the Freya Familia, the group I'd been most worried about, stayed quiet and obedient. There wasn't even a hint that they were plotting something.
Honestly, I wasn't even sure how that week had gone by. No matter how much time passed, the sense of unreality that had swallowed me never faded, leaving my mind floating somewhere above the ground.
My head understood it, but my heart couldn't accept it. Or maybe I was still there, in that place, after all.
Whether this was the past or the future, perhaps I couldn't find any meaning in it unless it was that one specific moment.
"Vesta. What are you thinking about?"
"...No, nothing."
All I really did that week was keep Ais company.
As expected of the future Sword Princess, Ais was showing frightening growth day by day, chasing after me with all her might.
Of course, even so, it would still take decades before she truly bloomed. But the moment I watered such a promising seed, I felt a satisfaction so deep it was almost enough to remind me I was alive.
Come to think of it, this wasn't so bad. Maybe when I returned to my own time, I should raise a disciple or two. The Black Dragon may be dead, but monsters were still around, so it would definitely be useful.
"Haa..."
"Ah."
Past... future? Anyway, just like when we trained together later on, she seemed even sleepier than she had been back then. Maybe it was because she was younger.
On some days, she slept more than she trained. To be honest, most of our training sessions ended that way.
"...I'm sorry."
"No, it's fine."
Riveria, who had insisted on observing because she was worried about Ais, ended up apologizing with a flushed face, as if she were more embarrassed by Ais's behavior than anything else.
Ais always slept with her head on my lap. Apparently, she couldn't fall asleep any other way.
Riveria had been watching me with suspicion, and now that Ais was acting so shamelessly, I supposed she felt embarrassed, much like a parent would. Still, the jealous look she kept giving me made me wonder if Riveria had once tried to use her own lap as a pillow and failed.
"Could it be that she won't sleep unless it's my lap...?"
Never say never, but surely not. If she truly couldn't sleep without my lap, that was already a sickness.
"Tch..."
Riveria looked at me with the eyes of someone whose lover had been stolen. Hey now, don't look at me like that. It makes me feel weird.
Training usually ended around dinner time, because by then Ais's stomach would start growling.
"Potato Balls."
I'd heard that after that day, Ais had started eating nothing but Potato Balls.
Since she'd been moving around without eating properly all this time, Riveria had been delighted when she first learned there was a food Ais actually wanted. But after seeing her eat only that every day, she'd started worrying. Apparently, it wasn't good for her health.
Honestly, I agreed. Even if something is healthy, eating only one thing isn't good.
And now, with the current version only selling plain Potato Balls without any of the variety found in the future, it was even worse.
Watching Ais head toward the Potato Ball shop with an expectant look on her face, I finally decided to take the drastic measure I'd been considering.
"Ais. Ais."
"Hm...? What is it?"
"It's a little hard to say this, but... from now on, you're only allowed three Potato Balls a day."
Crash—!
A bolt of despair flashed behind Ais's back. She was so shocked that she dropped the wallet she was holding.
With a soft clink, the coins inside spilled onto the ground. Riveria sighed and bent down to pick up the wallet and coins.
I hadn't coordinated with Riveria beforehand, but she didn't object. She must have been thinking the same thing I was.
After watching Ais stuff herself with Potato Balls three times a day for a week, I couldn't stay silent.
Honestly, I wanted to limit her to one a day, but if I did that, she really did seem like she might go berserk, so I settled on three. From her perspective, even that seemed insufficient.
No, wait. Three Potato Balls was basically one meal. Why was she getting so angry about having only one meal a day made of Potato Balls?
"W-why...?"
Despair clouded her face.
...That much? Was being unable to eat Potato Balls really that devastating? She looked so miserable you'd think her parents had died.
"...Ais, I—"
Unable to watch any longer, Riveria stepped in to persuade her, but I stopped her.
However you looked at it, Ais was still a child. If we talked to her about nutrition and balance, she wouldn't understand, and she wouldn't try to.
If you tried to persuade her, you'd already lost. What she needed here wasn't persuasion, but acceptance.
They were similar, but not the same. Persuasion was about changing her mind. Acceptance was about making her understand even if her mind didn't change.
"It's the law."
"Eh...?"
"Hm...?"
"By some law or another, if you eat more than three Potato Balls a day, you won't be allowed to enter the Dungeon."
"Th-that..."
Ais hurriedly looked at Riveria. She probably couldn't easily believe what I'd said.
That was only natural. Because it was Ais, it ended at suspicion. If it had been anyone else, they would've laughed and called it nonsense.
But it worked on Ais. Especially on young Ais.
"Th... well..."
Riveria looked troubled. A noble high elf was extremely reluctant to lie to a young girl, even for her own good.
But what were you going to do about it? If you didn't lie here, what exactly were you going to do?
If you didn't lie, Ais would spend the rest of her life eating nothing but Potato Balls and become the spirit of Potato Balls. What were you going to do then?
You're going to lie, right?
"Y-yes. There is such a law."
"Th-there's no way..."
Even with the high elf confirming it, despair deepened on Ais's face.
I felt a little guilty, but I couldn't just let this continue. This was a hurdle she had to face sooner or later.
Come to think of it, how had the future Ais stopped eating Potato Balls?
It was hard to say she'd stopped entirely, but at least compared to now, she ate less. Looking at her current state, it was hard to understand how that had happened.
Did she naturally learn restraint as she got older? Then maybe I was the one making a fuss over nothing.
"Eeeh..."
...No, that didn't seem likely.
Judging by the way Ais looked after being sentenced to "three Potato Balls a day," that didn't seem likely at all.
Even after being limited to three a day, Ais still came to buy Potato Balls.
Well, that was exactly why I'd set the limit at three in the first place. She wasn't the sort of person who would stop eating Potato Balls over something like this.
"Three Potato Balls, please."
"Oh, little miss, you're back again? Only three today?"
The shop owner, who had recently been making about forty percent of his income from his young regular customer, said that with a disappointed look. It made sense that he'd be upset when a big spender who usually bought dozens every day was only taking three.
Especially since he was the one who had kept taking Ais's orders despite my glare and Riveria's glare.
He could have just made some excuse about being out of stock or something, so why did he insist on taking the order and causing this mess?
"Uu..."
Ais still looked gloomy. Was the sentence of three Potato Balls a day really that painful?
But it couldn't be helped. Living on Potato Balls alone was a problem. Someone had to put on the brakes.
Why it had to be me... I really did feel wronged.
Seeing Ais so depressed made me gloomy too. The fact that I was the source of it all made my conscience ache even more.
That was why I eventually crossed a river I should never have crossed.
"Shopkeeper, could you put this and this into the Potato Balls?"
"Huh? No, that wouldn't taste good at all."
"It's fine."
"Tsk... You shouldn't play with food..."
Even as he said that, the owner listened to my request and made special Potato Balls with a separate ingredient added in.
This should cheer her up a little. I handed Ais the custom-made, well-crafted Potato Balls.
"...Why?"
"I made them with things I thought you'd like, Ais. Try them."
"No, wait. Didn't you just put something weird in here?"
"I did."
Just as Riveria had said, I had put in a very special ingredient.
The filling inside the Potato Balls that Ais—more precisely, the future Ais—loved most.
Potato Balls filled with jewel-like red bean paste and pure white cream.
Ais's favorite Potato Balls: [Red Bean Cream Flavor Potato Balls].
"...Are those good?"
"Who knows?"
I hated sweets, so I couldn't understand the taste, but the future her had loved them dearly.
Since she wasn't eating them now, I'd wondered if her tastes had changed... but to think it was a menu item that simply hadn't appeared yet.
I felt like I was crossing a line I shouldn't cross, but... well, surely nothing would happen because of this, right?
"Hmm..."
Ais looked at me with a doubtful expression. She had become picky about Potato Balls lately, so she was looking at this one, with random things stuffed inside it, even more coldly.
It was not a look a child should have. In her eyes, I could see the Sword Princess standing before a monster.
She was a child, and what stood before her was a Potato Ball, but still.
"If it tastes bad, I'll eat it, so just take one bite."
At that, Ais reluctantly picked up the special-order Potato Ball.
In just one short week, she had gone around every Potato Ball shop and eaten every kind they sold. By now, she had become a Potato Ball expert with very strict standards.
And red bean paste and cream in a Potato Ball? Her brow furrowed.
The man in front of her had seemed like a good person. Was he actually someone who treated food carelessly?
Thinking of the affection they'd built up over time, she would at least take one bite, but she could already imagine her future.
The worst possible future, in which she would rage at this insulting food and hand him a Potato Ball in return.
Ais took a big bite of the Potato Ball with a deeply wrinkled face.
Crunch—
...
...
...
"...?"
Clack.
The sound that rang out in that instant made a hook seem to spring up in Ais's head.
That sound, no matter how she thought about it, was not the sound of eating a Potato Ball.
It was the sound of something hard striking something hard. More specifically, teeth hitting teeth.
No, more importantly, the feel of the Potato Ball in her hand had vanished. When she came to her senses, there was nothing left in Ais's hand.
"Huh...?"
"What's wrong, Ais?"
"The Potato Ball... is gone?"
"Gone...? You just ate it in one bite."
She had devoured it with such speed that it could only be called swift, even using the wind that would one day earn her the name Sword Princess.
"No."
Ais couldn't understand. The instant she brought that Potato Ball to her mouth, all memory of the moment had flown away.
She had no memory of eating it. She hadn't eaten a Potato Ball.
So she had to eat another Potato Ball. That was how it was.
Swoosh—
Ais turned her head and looked at the Potato Ball in the man's arms.
Swoosh—
The man turned his head away, avoiding Ais's gaze.
Grip, grip—
But it was useless. Ais had no intention of compromising or bargaining.
"Give it here."
Her sharp golden eyes pierced straight through the man's body.
That day, Ais ate six Potato Balls.