The moment I heard his words, my heart couldn't help but grow heavy with conflict.
His claim—that he had traveled back through time specifically to ensure our daughter would be born—made me feel as though our first night together was nothing more than a mechanical process designed to achieve a specific result.
A chilling thought began to take root in my mind: was he intending to hold me not out of genuine affection for who I am, but out of a sense of duty toward a future he wanted to protect?
Of course, the act of embracing him was something I desired from the deepest recesses of my soul.
Though the birth of a daughter was a variable I hadn't anticipated, the ultimate outcome of marrying him was exactly what I had always wanted.
Even for someone as pragmatically result-oriented as I am, I knew that letting this opportunity slip through my fingers would be a regret that would haunt me for a thousand lifetimes.
And yet, a discordant emotion continued to swell within a corner of my heart.
Logically, this was the best possible outcome—one might even say the answers were being hand-fed to me—but a part of me simply could not accept the premise of this situation.
Why?
Why was my reason screaming at me to accept it, while my emotions refused to yield?
To understand him, I realized I first had to understand the root of my own emotional resistance.
Let us go back to the beginning.
Why did he choose to come back to this point in time, ten years in the past?
I remembered him once telling me that time travel was a precarious endeavor; the slightest miscalculation could cast one beyond the Imaginary Space and into the Sea of Quanta, leaving them a ghost lost in the fold of dimensions.
He had told me he never wanted to attempt such a thing if he could help it, for fear of never being able to see his loved ones ever again.
And yet, despite those risks, he crossed the boundaries of time to be here.
He did it for one reason alone: for our daughter, and for me.
"...Ha."
To be honest, when he regained his memories and the precious moments we shared, I truly believed I would finally have a chance to stand by his side.
But I quickly realized that was nothing more than a fleeting delusion.
Whenever he was alone, he would gaze up at the sky with a melancholic expression, often opening the locket hanging from his neck.
Inside was a photograph of a red-haired woman with her arm draped over his shoulder; in the picture, his face was flushed with a mixture of embarrassment and bashfulness.
That red-haired woman, Senior Murata Himeko, was someone even I knew.
During our first and last meeting, I had spoken quite harshly to her.
Yet, it was because of that very Senior that I resolved to become a Valkyrie through my own strength. It is truly a strange twist of fate.
At the time, I had realized the standard Valkyrie Academy curriculum she offered didn't suit me, so I chose to pursue my training alone.
Ah, I seem to have lost the thread of my own thoughts.
What I meant to say was that she was the primary reason why I—and every other woman who harbored feelings for him—couldn't simply throw ourselves at him.
The weight of her sacrifice to save Kiana was carved too deeply into his soul.
Her presence created a sanctuary of grief around him that no one dared to intrude upon.
Watching him mourn and yearn for her, we could express our affection, but none of us had the courage to ask him to move on—to start a real relationship.
And then there was the way we all kept each other in check... no, looking back coldly, it was mostly the latter. Everyone was too busy watching one another to take a single step forward.
That was when Miss Bronya appeared like a celestial event.
While everyone else dismissed her as a mere child, she underwent a growth spurt that stunned us all, sweeping into the position by his side and heading straight for marriage before anyone even realized what was happening.
Even I, who lacked the courage to convey my feelings and watched from a third-person perspective while cheering for Kiana, failed to notice it.
However, I suspect Rita knew.
At today's retirement ceremony, she was one of only two people who wasn't in a state of panic, maintaining a calm, knowing smile.
The other was Miss Mei, who wore a gentle smile even when others weren't looking.
In any case, because the Captain had always been that way, his sudden proclamation didn't sit right with me.
To be precise, it left my heart in a state of restless turmoil.
The man who had never noticed the advances of any woman had suddenly risked his life to leap through time—all for the sake of making sure a daughter was born.
In that moment, I finally recognized the emotion boiling inside me.
It was jealousy.
Ridiculous as it was, I found myself jealous of a daughter who hadn't even been born yet.
When his memories returned, I truly wanted him to notice my love. Even if I was cheering for Kiana, I couldn't completely hide the affection I held for him in the corner of my heart.
But he never noticed.
Of course, expecting a man who missed the obvious signals of everyone else to notice mine was foolish, but now those memories were feeding this envy toward my future child.
Because the way he spoke... it could be interpreted as him embracing me not out of love for me, but as a means to reach our daughter.
"Are you—"
"Yes?"
"Are you planning to hold me simply for the sake of a daughter born in some future?"
The question escaped my lips before I could stop it.
Caught in the gaze of his wide, stunned eyes, I belatedly realized what I had said and clamped both hands over my mouth.
What on earth was I thinking?
If my words made him lose interest entirely, I would be throwing away the very chance I had waited so long for.
A single momentary lapse was threatening to erase every possibility.
"...Ah, I see. You could certainly look at it that way."
As I stood there, unable to control my trembling, he wore a bitter, complicated expression as he stood up from his chair and approached me.
I couldn't meet his eyes. I kept my head bowed, my gaze flickering with anxiety, until I felt his hands wrap around my shoulders, drawing me firmly into his chest.
Eh?
I stood frozen as he slowly and affectionately began to stroke the back of my head. Then, a voice echoed in my ear—a tone deeper and more resonant than the one he possessed in this era.
"That's impossible. It's true that Selene is precious to me. But how could I not cherish you even more—the woman who brought such a precious daughter into my life?"
"Does that mean...?"
"The 'me' from the past probably couldn't say these words. At this point in time, his feelings for you are closer to a deep friendship than anything else."
—But I am different now.
Saying this, he pulled back slightly, his hand gently tilting my chin up. He leaned down, bridging the distance between us, and pressed his lips against mine.
The sudden kiss sent my train of thought crashing into a halt. My eyes were wide with shock for a fleeting second before I slowly, reflexively let them drift shut.
It was intense, yet brief. But in the suspended animation of that moment, it felt as though an eternity had passed. My heart felt tighter than it ever had during the most grueling combat missions.
As he slowly pulled away, I blinked at him, still dazed. Seeing my state, he reached into his back pocket and produced a handkerchief.
With a natural, gentle motion, he began to dab away the tears that had started to trail down my cheeks. Then, wearing a smile more devastatingly charming than I had ever seen, he spoke.
"I love you, Bianca. I truly love you."
Hearing those words, I finally reached my breaking point. The overwhelming tide of emotion was too much to bear. I reached out and grabbed him by the collar.
"Hm?"
He looked surprised, a reaction I found unexpectedly cute, as I pulled him back down and crashed my lips against his once more.