Happy Diary

“—Then, Subaru! He didn’t pay good enough attention to what was behind him, so he ended up tripping over Mr. Bucket. Everything around him got drenched in water. Hee-hee.”

While gently shutting her eyelids, Emilia couldn’t help but let out a smile as she recalled the scene at the time.

It wasn’t so good for Subaru, who got absolutely soaked, but he looked so clean with his hair stuck to his head, that even though he asked me to “Forget it,” I don’t think I’ll be able to.

“And besides, this diary is here so that I don’t forget.”

With a mischievous smile, Emilia ran the tip of her quill over a white page.

It was her memories of the day that she wrote about without any hesitation. —What she remembered just now being Subaru getting completely soaked, and other events that happened today.

Garfiel getting told off by Ram for burying a gnawed-up knife in the yard, Otto getting scolded by Petra for working too much, Frederica being appalled by Roswaal’s villainy, Subaru getting soaking wet and Beatrice getting dragged into it—

“Sooooo many things happened again today!”

Even for Emilia, who didn’t have such a good memory, there were many unforgettable events. The situations of everyone in the manor were like a treasure chest of happiness that always surprised her.

Subaru might get sulky since he asked me to forget about it, but I just can’t help but keep a diary of such fun and exciting memories. While muttering, “Cause Puck will definitely be happy to hear about it later,” Emilia turned her attention to the crystal stone hanging from her neck down to her chest.

It was a crystal stone with a cracked surface, having lost its sparkle. Inside, Puck, a dear part of Emilia’s family, was in a deep sleep. There were many problems that needed to be overcome for him to be awakened, so his slumber should last for a while.

Meanwhile, this was Emilia’s very first experience of being separated from Puck.

Along with the sound of knocking at her door, a familiar girl’s voice came from the other side. “—Emilia, do you have a moment, I wonder?”

Hearing the voice, Emilia put down her quill, slightly widening her eyes.

“Beatrice?” she asked. “I hardly ever see you at this hour. Has something happened?”

“Betty has something she wants to discuss,” replied Beatrice. “Do you mind if Betty come in, I wonder?”

“Sure, go ahead. Come in, come in.”

It was the time of day when dinner had ended, and the sun had already set. The world was about to enter Earth Time now that Water Time was over, which was not a usual time for a visit.

Not only that, but it was not Subaru, nor Ram, nor Frederica, but Beatrice; for the first time.

“Then Betty shall impose on you for a while,” said Beatrice. “This wasn’t a very good time, I suppose.”

“Yeah, it’s totally fine, but what’s wrong?”

Beatrice opened the door and timidly showed herself. She appeared not in her usual dress, but in her nightwear, which she wore after bathing.

In her fluffy princess-like nightwear, and with her ribbon undone and her long, wavy hair flowing down her back, Beatrice looked around Emilia’s room.

Appearing somewhat restless, Beatrice turned her gaze to the desk, which held the quill Emilia had placed there, and her diary, which was still open.

“That... Have you been writing a diary?”

“Yeah, I have,” Emilia replied. “Well, Subaru also keeps a diary, right? So I’m just following suit and writing down all the things that have happened lately.”

Beatrice pouted and responded to Emilia, who now had the diary in her hands. “It seems a little odd to call Subaru’s a diary, I suppose...”

She’s probably embarrassed. Subaru says the diary he keeps every day, without fail, is called “Beako’s Growth Diary,” which describes the things that happen in Beatrice’s daily life.

He occasionally showed her what he was writing, which described, from his perspective, how much affection he had for Beatrice day after day.

“There’s always pictures of you drawn along with it, so I’m looking forward to seeing it.”

“It...it...doesn’t feel very good for Betty though, you know. Subaru reveals too much in whatever he writes down, I suppose. It lacks elegance.”

Emilia tilted her head at this unfamiliar word. “Elagan...” and Beatrice replied proudly with her chest pushed out. “It has a similar meaning to ‘grace’, I suppose.”

It appeared that was also a local word from where Subaru was from. It looked like Beatrice, who recently learned such words from him, was having fun using them.

—Has it been about three months since Subaru and Beatrice formed a contract?

Emilia was observing the way they were getting along better and better each day, and it filled her with joy.

“But it looks like you are happy using Subaru’s language,” Emilia commented. “It’s kind of like Roswaal.”

“What!” Beatrice exclaimed. “How can you say such a thing?! That’s the worst assessment Betty could think of, in fact!”

“Eh... I... I’m sorry. I didn’t think you would get so angry.”

“Hmpf, of course Betty would!”

She’d just said what came to mind, but she had made her angry without realizing it.

As usual, everyone in the manor was struggling a lot with how to interact with Roswaal. Neither Subaru nor Ram could interact with him like they used to, either.

However, Ram’s change from before seemed to be less from awkwardness and more because of some other reason.

“That’s something different, I suppose! Betty didn’t come to talk about such things. We should just put Roswaal aside, in fact.”

“Right... Yeah? Then put him in the corner of the room... What happened tonight?”

Beatrice threw the invisible Roswaal, and Emilia made a motion as though to catch him, and then put him in the corner of the room.

After that, Beatrice plonked herself down on top of the bed and finally got to the point. “There’s nothing particularly monumental Betty wants to talk about,” she began. “Betty just came to talk to you, I suppose.”

“To talk to me? Why, all of a sudden?”

“Betty just thought, ‘why not!’” It was just on a whim, I suppose... But, you know, Betty hasn’t had many chances to talk to you,” spilled out Beatrice while abruptly turning her face away and hugging the pillow. Upon hearing that, Emilia was both delighted and surprised at the unexpected offer.

Indeed, Emilia and Beatrice had never been able to just slowly settle down and talk.

The two first met at Roswaal’s manor—which, moreover, was the one that had burned down—when Puck had been there between them. Beatrice had taken such a liking to Puck that she wanted to be alone with him whenever they spent time together.

So, Emilia had been treated as someone who was in the way, and they couldn’t spend time together.

“But, Puck isn’t here right now...”

“—. It’s not that that is the only reason why, I suppose.”

“Huh?”

Burying her face deeply into the pillow, Beatrice, in characteristic fashion, turned her eyes towards Emilia. “It’s very lonely to not have Bubby here, but Betty trying to talk with you is not a case of replacing him, I suppose... It’s rather that Betty just thought she should talk to you, and that’s it, in fact.”

Emilia received the greatest surprise of all today upon hearing Beatrice’s words.

“Oh my gosh! I have to write what happened just now in my diary so that I don’t forget it...”

“You don’t have to write about it, I suppose! Do you also mean to write revealing things about Betty down like Subaru!?” Beatrice exclaimed.

“But I don’t want to forget how incredibly happy I am... You know, it’s also written that you and Subaru both got aaall wet.”

“Subaru must have also said to not write about that and to forget it, I suppose!”

Beatrice, with a flushed face, tried to snatch away the diary, but Emilia raised it up above her head, saying, “I won’t let you!” and kept it there where her little hands couldn’t reach.

Beatrice stretched out her hands, hopping up and down for a while, but when she realized she wouldn’t be able to take the diary away from Emilia, she dropped her shoulders, crestfallen.

“Uh, Bubby will find out about Betty’s shameful past...”

“It’s nothing that shameful at all. Now Puck is sleeping, and all I want to do is just tell him all the things that have happened when he wakes up.”

“All the same, is it really necessary to tell him about even such trivial things as this, I wonder?”

“—Of course it is. Because Puck is an important part of my family.”

Dejectedly, Beatrice got back on the bed, and behind her, Emilia held the diary to her chest.

Each of the events described here were like a bouquet of precious memories tied together that she wanted to tell Puck about, that she wanted him to know. Because—

“Puck told me something at the time I was to leave the forest I’d always lived in.”

“...It was when Roswaal came to meet you, I suppose. What did Bubby say exactly?”

“Umm... He said that ‘Down the road, all sorts of things are going to happen right in front of me, and that I want to see, feel, and remember all of those things together. That’s why, every day, I look forward to the next.’”

“───”

“I was truly out of it when I lived in the forest. Though I was with Puck every day, I don’t have many decent memories.”

Emilia had spent many years alone together with Puck, while taking care of the white, snow-covered forests and all the elves frozen in ice.

Hardly anything changed. Day after day, it was as if time had stopped.

So, when Roswaal appeared to meet Emilia and she left the forest after being invited to join the royal selection, Emilia was worried about moving the time that had stopped. That’s when Puck said it.

“He said, ‘Everyday, I’m looking forward to the next.’ Puck was looking forward to it.”

“—. So, what you mean is that you are writing this down for Bubby?”

“Yeah, that’s right. I also want to make Puck happy.”

Each and every single bit of time I spent with Puck is irreplaceable.

However, after spending time in the manor away from the forest, she met lots of people day after day, including Beatrice, of course, who was right in front of her, but also Subaru, Ram, Frederica, Petra, Otto, Garfiel, and then Roswaal. For Emilia, that was also time that was irreplaceable.

She was laughing and having fun every day, and she wanted Puck to know about even the times they couldn’t be together.

“So, is it okay if I also write about how you and Subaru got all wet?” she asked.

“...Ahh, you are an impossible girl, in fact,” Beatrice replied. “When you reveal things about Bubby like that, Betty’s resolve weakens, too.”

“Right, well then, will you let me do it?”

“If, from now on, you let Betty check and edit out the things about her that she wants to, I suppose. Let Betty make sure there are nothing but facts.”

“Sure, you got it. Well, you’ll have a chance to check the diary every day, so…”

With her big round eyes wide open, Beatrice was astonished at the unexpected amount of work. “It’s true for Subaru, too, but why do you write so much about Betty every day, I wonder?”

However, even just such a cute and flustered appearance provided enough material to write about for the diary. Emilia totally understood why Subaru kept recording things about Beatrice nonstop.

“Goodness, Betty’s head hurts... Petra and the others will surely be upset when they hear about how what you write goes too far, I suppose.”

“But Petra has complimented me on how easy to read it is...” Emilia revealed.

“This has already been inspected by Petra?!” lamented Beatrice as though the world had ended, after taking the diary that had been handed to her.

However, though the appearance of Beatrice holding a large book with her small body was something that Emilia had seen many times before, it looked somehow new to her now.

The Beatrice of the past had worn this very same appearance, but it had been tense, and she seemed like she couldn’t relax. “I’m sure it’s because she is having way more fun than she used to,” she murmured to herself.

“...Are you talking about Betty, I wonder?”

“It’s nothing. It’s just that you are carrying a book like that, but the air about you is sooo different compared to before.”

Appearing not in a dress but in her sleepwear, with her hair hanging down, ribbon undone, and a book in her arms—not desperately clinging to it. That’s definitely what’s different about her.

Upon hearing Emilia’s words, Beatrice murmured, “It’s strange.”

“Strange?”

“It’s strange because I don’t feel guilty when told things like that, I suppose. Even when I burned the books...the precious books that Mother gave me.”

“That’s because...the entire Forbidden Library had burned down...”

As far as Emilia remembered, the Forbidden Library in the burnt manor held an enormous number of books. She could see why Beatrice was disappointed.

The way Subaru and Petra told it; it was due to Otto’s carelessness that the manor burned down. However, Otto was probably always working late to make up for it.

“That’s not the only reason,” said Beatrice, “and if we accept that as so, it makes Otto look way too pitiful, I suppose...”

“You think so? But that’s what I wrote in my diary...”

Beatrice shrugged her shoulders in resignation. “If that’s the case, checking it over is going to take a considerable amount of time, I suppose.”

Seeing her stroking the cover of the diary with her soft hands, Emilia struck upon a great idea. “That’s it!” she exclaimed. “Hey, Beatrice. If you like, how about staying over in my room today? Then you can ‘cheke’ the contents of the diary? Yeah?”

“En...”

“I’m sure there are a lot of other weird things in it. As it’s something I want to show to Puck, I’m sure he’d be pleased if you helped with it too.”

Putting her hands together in front of her chest, Emilia brimmed with enthusiasm at her great idea.

She could picture the sight of Puck jumping up and down, rejoicing. No doubt Subaru, too, would be pleased to see Beatrice giving it her best. It was a wonderful idea that everyone would be happy about.

“What can I say. I guess I’m just soooo smart.”

“If that’s true, surely the contents of the diary are just too scary, in fact! ...I was expecting that, I suppose.”

Beatrice sprung out of bed and thrust the diary she was holding at Emilia. Emilia quickly took it, and tilted her head, baffled. “Beatrice?”

“Betty will go and tell Subaru that Betty is going to stay at your place tonight. If I don’t, there is bound to be a lot of fuss about how I have run away from home, I suppose.”

“—. Hee-hee, I don’t doubt it. Subaru loves you.”

“Good grief, it’s tough being born cute.” While saying so, Beatrice left the room with pride in each step.

Beatrice is going to return with her own pillow this time. Emilia, her heart skipping with joy at spending the night together with her, looked at the diary. “Right.”

Of course, she was going to write down all of this evening’s happy events in her diary, but there was something else that occurred to her. —Giving my diary a name.

“Like the way Subaru writes things down about Beatrice, I, too...”

…want to give it an important name, since it’s going to be read by Puck once he wakes up.

Every day from now on, Emilia wanted to cherish and share her days with others—the days Puck said he was looking forward to.

“Wake up soon, Puck. —Because I’m soooo happy every day.”

With a smile on her face, Emilia hugged her dear diary tight—which would later be named, with Subaru’s input, “Happy Diary.”

END