Arc 37: Memory (2)

“... Erased?”

Quinier opened her fan, taking a guarded stance. One glance was enough to tell her this man was not friendly. And her memory had been “erased”? He made it sound as though he had deliberately erased it himself.

Whether her memory really had been erased was beside the point. What motive could someone have for erasing another person’s memories, if not something sinister?

“What are you talking about? There is nothing wrong with my memory.”

“Ahahaha. That’s the fascinating thing about humans. You’re wired to believe there’s no problem rather than solve it. The old you would surely have known. There’s a serious contradiction in the way you are now.”

“... The old me?”

The man nodded at her question. Quinier could not tell what expression lay behind his mask.

“Yes. You, thirteen years ago.”

But his voice had unmistakably dropped.

A dreadful chill ran through Quinier, and she fell silent for a moment. When her lips parted again, they trembled slightly.

“... That was...”

“Yes. The day your ‘fear of corpses’ began.”

This man knew her past, her weakness. That meant he was very likely the one who had written the magical notice at Constel.

But more importantly, she could no longer dismiss what he was saying.

“It’s strange. You developed that fear after the ‘incident’ that day, so how can you keep that wild beast around?”

“... Wild beast? Don’t tell me you mean...”

“Yes. Kora.”

Kora? Why Kora? Why was his name coming up now?

What did Kora have to do with what happened that day?

“It’s strange, Quinier,” the man said. “You watched him commit a massacre right before your eyes. When you were six.”

“...!”

“You saw him tear everyone around him to death without distinction. You saw the corpses strewn all over the floor, those ridiculous sights with an upper body here and a lower body over there. That’s what made you afraid of corpses, isn’t it?”

“... Cut the bullshit. I developed my phobia because of the wolves that attacked the mansion.”

The man chuckled at her objection.

“I see. So that’s how you remembered it.”

What did he mean, how she remembered it? What else could it have been?

Kora, killing people? A massacre?

That kind of... that kind of bullshit, how could she—

THUD-THUD-THUD-THUD!

Just then, she heard footsteps racing toward her room.

They came too rapidly to be a person running. This was...

“Oh, perfect timing.”

As the man spoke, Quinier turned and shouted.

“Stay away, Kora!”

BANG!

The door flew open, and Quinier looked back toward the window, certain the masked man was after Kora.

But he was gone.

“Huh?”

Had he fled? There was no one outside the window.

“Quinier, are you all right? Someone was here, weren’t they?”

Kora approached her. When she nodded, he looked around, twitching his nose.

“I smelled something unfamiliar near your room. An unpleasant smell. They made an even worse stink to cover up the first one. It’s hard to pick up at first, but once you notice it, it smells absolutely disgusting.”

Kora stuck his head out the window and scanned the surroundings. But even his extraordinary eyes apparently could not find the man.

Quinier watched him in silence.

‘Kora committed a massacre?’

And that was what had given her the phobia?

She couldn’t believe it. Of course it was a lie.

... But her memories of the incident were certainly hazy. The image in her mind was clearly of wolves attacking.

An animal on four legs, covered in thick white fur, with red eyes...

“Quinier?”

“...!”

Startled by Kora’s voice, Quinier opened her eyes. He was looking at her with apparent concern.

“Quinier, are you hurt?”

“N-no. I’m fine.”

Quinier looked at Kora.

Thirteen years ago. Her memories were hazy. Were they merely hazy, or had they really been erased, as the man claimed?

... It wasn’t Kora. It couldn’t be.

Her head throbbed.

* * *

“Hmm. She really doesn’t remember me.”

The masked man stood at the tip of a branch high in a tree. He balanced on one foot atop the pointed branch, as though he actually found it comfortable.

“I erased Quinier’s memories of me, but it seems her memories of the incident changed in the process. Fascinating.”

He murmured as though conducting research.

He had come today to check once more whether Quinier remembered him from the incident thirteen years ago. Though he had erased those memories, the shock had been so intense for her that some might have survived.

Instead, he had discovered something unexpectedly interesting.

Once the memories of him—someone who had indisputably been present—were neatly removed, Quinier’s memories had rearranged themselves, perhaps to conceal the contradictions left by that gap.

“Of course, I didn’t expect even Kora to be erased from those memories.”

No wonder. He had thought it strange that she kept Kora by her side. This would interfere with his plans.

“I’ll have to eliminate Kora first.”

It wouldn’t be particularly difficult.

He only had to repeat what had happened thirteen years ago.

“It’s time, Quinier. Time for you to step down as head of the family.”

He had been waiting for this moment.

For Quinier to restore the family’s prosperity and stabilize its relations with the neighboring families.

“I’m tired of a life of oblivion.”

Muttering, he lightly leaped from the tip to the branch directly below.

Now, if he eliminated Kora and everything went according to plan, the Biet Family would be his.

“Hm?”

Suddenly sensing eyes on him, he looked to his left.

CAW!

There was a crow.

It looked at him, tilting its head from side to side, then flew off with a flutter of wings.

After watching it for a moment, he turned back toward the Biet mansion and gave a little laugh.

“See you at Constel, then, Quinier.”

* * *

[“What an unpleasant bastard.”]

“Agreed.”

The crow perched by the window told me what had happened to Quinier.

An idea had struck me while I was teaching Selena the ancient language, and I had hurriedly sent Gregory on an errand.

It had certainly yielded enough.

“... Memories, huh.”

It seemed the enemy could erase other people’s memories. Though I didn’t know exactly what conditions that required.

‘Looks like my guess was right.’

I didn’t know a character named Kora. Despite his being such a rare beastman, I had never seen him or even heard of him.

But what if that was because Kora’s very existence had already been erased in the game?

What if he was never even mentioned because he had vanished from everyone’s memories?

‘The protagonist, Aster, only really gets involved with Quinier after she graduates.’

In other words, if everyone forgot Kora before then, naturally the player would never learn anything about him either.

That was why no one knew Kora existed. Not even the player.

[“He seems to be planning to kill Kora.”]

“Yeah. He seems able to erase an individual’s memories without much trouble, but erasing someone’s existence from everyone’s memories apparently requires him to kill them first.”

The crow bobbed its head at my words. I couldn’t tell whether that was Gregory’s doing or a reflexive movement of the crow’s.

[“Erasing memories alone is an incredible ability, but erasing someone’s existence from everyone’s memories? Is that even possible, even with ‘murder’ as a condition?”]

Exactly.

I agreed so profoundly with Gregory that I sank deep into my chair.

Then I murmured, almost sighing.

“That’s what makes it divine.”

[“Divine... You mean he has Divine Power?”]

I nodded.

Making one person lose their memories was one thing, but erasing someone’s existence from everyone’s memories?

As far as I knew, only one being could do that.

“Lethe, the goddess of oblivion. It’s probably her Divine Power.”

[“Lethe... The Lethe of the ‘River Lethe’?”]

“Yes. They say that if you drink from the River Lethe before reincarnating, you forget everything about your previous life.”

That was how it worked in the game—or rather, in this world, at least.

When the dead drank from the River Lethe, it meant not only losing their own memories, but being forgotten by everyone else as well.

The so-called “second death.” When the dead vanished even from the memories of the living.

That was why a dead soul needed over a hundred years to reincarnate. So that drinking from the River Lethe and being forgotten by everyone would not create too great a discrepancy for those still living.

[“Then when that masked man kills someone...”]

“Yes. He uses his Divine Power to make them drink from the River Lethe.”

[“What a terrifying Divine Power.”]

“It does have a weakness, though. Or a limitation, rather.”

[“What is it?”]

“The River Lethe doesn’t work on people who are too famous.”

[“Famous...? Ah, I see.”]

Deeds great enough to be passed down in legend, military exploits worthy of written records, heroic sagas that left their mark on history.

Such people would never vanish from memory, no matter how much time passed. They would be further glorified and sanctified, their existence growing more powerful.

Even if people forgot, the records and historical evidence would remain. In fact, only the elaborate, exaggerated accounts would survive, making the heroes even more powerful.

“That’s why heroes can’t reincarnate, either. You’ve heard stories about them ascending to godhood or becoming constellations, haven’t you?”

[“Yes. You mean the ‘Zodiac’?”]

The Zodiac: twelve living weapons designated by the Terst Empire.

Nowadays, the title simply referred to the twelve strongest people in the empire. Originally, however, as the name suggested, it had meant people destined to become constellations after death. Their achievements warranted it.

“But right now, neither I nor Quinier nor Kora has any achievements of that caliber.”

[“So there’s no way to stop it.”]

Exactly.

If the masked man was targeting Kora, Quinier was probably in danger as well. Once Kora died, we would forget him. Quinier would become the next target without any of us even realizing something was wrong.

‘But Quinier definitely existed as a character.’

If the man had killed Quinier just as he had Kora, I should never have known either character. Both would have been erased from the game.

That meant that in the original world, he had succeeded in killing Kora but failed to kill Quinier.

... Or...

‘He never intended to kill Quinier in the first place?’

[“So what are you going to do about him? He was masked, but I remember his build. If we knew where he would show up, I could probably identify him by sight.”]

“It’s obvious where he’ll show up. Constel.”

He was almost certainly a Constel student. Either that, or he was pretending to be one.

He would have used Kora’s loose tongue to spread rumors targeting Quinier, so he must have approached her like an ordinary person.

[“Then we can ask Quinier tomorrow. He must be close to her.”]

“I told you. He can erase memories. Even if he’s spoken to Quinier, she might not remember it.”

[“What a nuisance.”]

I thought for a moment.

He was certainly a troublesome opponent. One wrong step, and we could forget everything about him and end up back at square one.

Having made up my mind, I picked up my Sagephone.

First, I would put a little insurance in place.

I sent Quinier a text.

[Please get a pair of glasses. Ones that let you check the time at any moment.]