Chapter 9
For Clarisse, the person walking side by side with her was Mr. Kanzaki. Even though the early morning air was cold, her heart felt warm.
As they drew closer to their destination, Clarisse spoke up in a deliberately casual tone.
"Mr. Kanzaki, let me help you later."
"No need. How could I let a visiting friend do heavy chores?"
"Then, Mr. Kanzaki—wouldn't you say it's perfectly normal for friends to help each other?"
"…It is."
"Exactly! So if I help clean your teacher's house, in return you have to help me with one small favor. Deal?"
Clarisse's lips curved into a smile, her eyes crinkling happily.
She had already guessed he would refuse, which was exactly why she had phrased it this way.
"What favor?"
"I recently signed up for a fashion design class and I'm short on male model body measurements of different heights…"
As she spoke, Clarisse looked Kanzaki Tomomu up and down.
"…Mr. Kanzaki, your height is clearly over 180 cm and your build is tall and well-proportioned—perfectly matches one of the required standards."
Knitting a scarf didn't need this data, but a sweater did.
She had started learning hand-knitting some time ago and was still in the stage of gaining experience and skill, so she could skip precise measurements for now.
But she was improving quickly. Now she could take Kanzaki Tomomu's measurements and use them for the final product.
"Just giving you body measurements hardly counts as helping," Kanzaki Tomomu said.
Yes! Just as I thought!
The girl's heart fluttered with joy.
She felt she had figured out a small part of Mr. Kanzaki's "user manual."
Now she could smoothly move on to the next step.
"Then, Mr. Kanzaki, could you sacrifice a little more and be my model…!" Clarisse's eyes sparkled with anticipation as she stared at his profile.
"…"
Kanzaki Tomomu considered his own situation for a moment, then nodded without hesitation.
"Alright. But I can't be your model for very long."
"That's fine! Just today is enough. Are you going somewhere important?"
"…Mm. I'll be away for a while soon."
"May I ask how long exactly?"
"It's hard to say."
"Oh, then I won't ask."
She wanted to know, of course, but Clarisse understood that pressing too hard wasn't right. It was obvious Mr. Kanzaki didn't want to go into detail.
Chatting lightly, they arrived at the house.
Kanzaki Tomomu disabled the security lock. "It's open. Let's go in."
Cleaning wasn't complicated—just sweeping and mopping the floors, wiping down furniture and decorations.
Once they finished, Clarisse took the chance during their break to measure Kanzaki Tomomu's shoulder width, chest, waist, neck, and other measurements.
She seemed a little rushed. After finishing, she didn't linger and quickly said goodbye.
...
Three days later, evening.
Kanzaki Tomomu sat as usual on the windowsill, cradling the zhongruan in his arms. His fingers moved rhythmically across the silk strings.
The sky had grown dark and the lights were off, so his figure quietly blended into the shadows.
Kanzaki Tomomu's gaze was unfocused. At some point the melody had slowed by a few beats; every note dragged heavily, sounding especially clear in the night.
Clearly his thoughts had wandered far away.
"Meow~~"
The round orange cat leaped up from the floor and landed precisely on Kanzaki Tomomu's lap.
It arched its body, tucked its paws underneath, and curled into a fluffy land-sea-cucumber.
Its solid weight pressed down. From above, Kanzaki Tomomu's lap seemed to disappear entirely.
Feeling it still wasn't warm enough, Little Orange scooted closer to Kanzaki Tomomu's warm abdomen before finally closing its eyes contentedly and purring like a tiny engine.
Several minutes later, the melody that had lagged behind gradually returned to its proper rhythm.
"Burning passion, a thousand cups down the throat… what more could I ask of separation? Whose heart is breaking inch by inch?"
Kanzaki Tomomu kept his eyes lowered. His low, deep voice melted into the thickening night as he unconsciously sang the song that seemed to have been written for no one.
When Clarisse arrived with Mrs. Durand, the sound of singing made them both stop in their tracks.
The bamboo house was pitch dark. They instinctively remained silent so as not to disturb him.
From the melody, Clarisse seemed to hear the disappointment of love that could never be obtained.
"…"
She stayed quiet. Only when she unconsciously wiped the corner of her eye did she realize her eyes had grown moist at some point.
She had heard Mr. Kanzaki play this piece before, but this was the first time she had heard him sing it.
When the final harmonic trembled in the air and the sorrowful tune finally fell silent…
"…Dr. Kanzaki, we're here." Clarisse steadied her emotions.
The bamboo house was quiet for a brief moment before the soft sound of something being set down was heard and the lights came on.
"Please come in."
"Meow~"
The voices of one person and one cat rang out in succession.
Kanzaki Tomomu's tone returned to its usual gentle calm. To fulfill the promise he had made to the girl, he had prepared for this day for a long time.
The success rate of curing amnesia was now infinitely close to 100%.
As Mrs. Durand lay down in the medical pod, Kanzaki Tomomu carefully attached various electrodes to specific spots on her head.
"Mrs. Durand, the procedure can begin at any time. Are you ready?"
"Thank you for all your hard work, Dr. Kanzaki. I'm ready."
"Drink this." Kanzaki Tomomu handed her a tube of medicine.
Mrs. Durand drank it without hesitation and let out a soft sigh.
"See you tomorrow, ma'am." With those words, Kanzaki Tomomu activated the program he had prepared long ago.
Mrs. Durand's vision quickly blurred, and her consciousness sank into peaceful darkness.
Noticing the trace of worry on Clarisse's face, Kanzaki Tomomu spoke gently to comfort her.
"There won't be any accidents. I promise you."
"I believe you, Mr. Kanzaki."
For the next stretch of time, Kanzaki Tomomu entered a state of total focus. The surgery itself would not fail, but that was only on the premise that the first half of the treatment went perfectly.
He needed to integrate and digitize all the memory archives Mrs. Durand had left behind from previous sessions.
After that came the exact treatment protocol he had used when he performed the clinical trial on himself.
He had written an automated program at the time, and no issues had appeared in any of the experiments.
However, every person's memories were different. Even though he already had Mrs. Durand's memory backups, he still felt manual operation was safer.
Clarisse's gaze remained on Kanzaki Tomomu almost the entire time.
The strings of numbers and letters on the screen were half incomprehensible to her.
All she could understand was the sight of Kanzaki Tomomu's long, slender fingers dancing across hundreds of different keys on the control console.
In previous treatments, Mr. Kanzaki had never been this busy.
Right now, the man performing the surgery radiated the intellectual aura of a true scholar.
Clarisse simply watched him, her gaze growing softer and softer.
She didn't know how much time had passed when Kanzaki Tomomu tapped a final key. A green progress bar appeared in the center of the screen and began rising from 1%.
"Done. The only risky part of the treatment is safely over. Now we just need to wait nine hours."
Only then did Clarisse check the time and realize three hours had already gone by.
"Thank you, Mr. Kanzaki…"
The day she had waited for so long had finally arrived. Clarisse's heart was filled with a complicated mix of emotions.
"The night is long. Go get some sleep," Kanzaki Tomomu said softly.
"I can't sleep."
Clarisse looked at her mother's face, her expression serious.
"Mother is at a critical moment that will decide her future. As her daughter, of course I have to stay by her side."
"That's true."
"Mother once told me: Life is a winding labyrinth. Aside from memory, we have nothing… Mr. Kanzaki, how do you understand those words?"
"…" Kanzaki Tomomu fell silent.
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Bonus chapters
200 Stones - 1 chapter
400 Stones - 2 chapter
600 Stones - 3 chapters
And so on