Arc 37: Memories (3)

9:52 a.m.

In a third-year classroom, a theory lesson had just ended. Quinier kept fiddling with the glasses perched on the bridge of her nose, clearly unaccustomed to them.

“Oh? Quinier, did you buy glasses?” her friend Anne asked, approaching her.

“Ah, yes. I think my eyesight’s gotten a little worse.”

Quinier brushed the question off with a convenient lie. Of course, her eyesight was perfectly fine. She had acquired these glasses at Frondier’s suggestion.

“They look good on you. I guess with a face like yours, you can pull off anything.”

“Oh, stop.”

Quinier waved away the compliment, which sounded entirely insincere, and checked the view through her glasses again.

‘They do get in the way a little.’

She checked the lower-left corner of her field of vision.

[9:52:32]

The time, down to the hour, minute, and second, remained fixed in the lower-left corner of her vision.

‘So if that time suddenly jumps ahead, it means I’ve lost my memory?’

If the man erased her memories, that stretch of time would disappear with them. To her eyes, it would look as though time had suddenly skipped forward.

‘Who on earth is he?’

The masked man was most likely a Constel student. She did not know his precise objective, but she knew there were only so many reasons to target her: the Biet Family’s wealth, the family itself, or revenge from another family whose sordid crimes she had exposed.

‘But bringing up my past like that... he must want to do something to me.’

He had even lied that Kora was responsible for that incident. Thinking about it made her head throb again, but that could wait. Once she caught him, she would learn everything.

‘... But these glasses.’

They were far too obvious. Quinier did not normally wear glasses. Would he really approach her when she suddenly put on a pair the very day after meeting him?

Besides, there were few models that displayed the time down to the second. He might already recognize the pair she had obtained in such a hurry.

Uneasy as she was, Quinier diligently watched the clock. It was not as though she could think of another option herself. At least wearing these glasses would make him wary of using his ability too freely. She would take comfort in that for now.

DING-DONG, DING-DONG

The bell rang, signaling the end of the break.

Afterward, Quinier kept checking the clock while pretending to concentrate on her lessons. She did the same during breaks.

But the morning lessons, lunch, and afternoon lessons all passed. Even after school ended, the clock never jumped ahead.

Just as she had feared, the plan had failed. He was not approaching her.

BZZZ

Her phone vibrated. A text had arrived. As she had half expected, it was from Frondier.

[Quinier.]

It read almost like a greeting. He probably wanted an update. With a wry smile, she began typing a reply.

While she was typing, “The plan failed. Nothing strange happened with the clock,” another message arrived.

[I found him. Thanks to you.]

“... Huh?”

He had found him? How? And thanks to her? Why?

As confusion filled her head, another message came.

[So, I have a question for you.]

This time she did not reply. Frondier’s words made so little sense that she was busy trying to sort out her thoughts. Meanwhile, the next message arrived.

[Was it a lie that Kora is coming today? Or did you mean it?]

“What?”

That was even stranger. Trying her best to make sense of the message, she came to a conclusion.

She had spoken to someone about Kora today. Frondier knew that and was asking whether what she had said was true. Which meant...

‘Did I lose my memory?’

The belated realization sent chills down her spine.

* * *

The previous night.

After texting Quinier, I told Gregory what I had sent.

[“Glasses for Quinier?”]

“Right. If she loses her memories, she’ll forget the time that passed during them too. From her perspective, it’ll look as though time skipped ahead.”

He could erase memories, but he could not do anything about time that had already passed. If she could always check a clock, then even if she could not prevent the memory loss, she could tell that it had happened.

Except that was not actually true.

“... Or so Quinier will think.”

[“What? So that isn’t how it really works?”]

“No. His ability doesn’t wipe out entire memories. It only erases him from them.”

According to Gregory’s report, Quinier remembered a wolf attack as the cause of her fear of corpses.

‘But Kora probably really was the one who killed those people.’

Kora carried the blood of the White Tiger. Killing several people would be easy if he set his mind to it. But it was probably not of his own volition. The masked man must have used something to send him on a rampage, whether magic or drugs.

In any case, Quinier had not forgotten the incident entirely. Rather than vanishing, her memories had readjusted without the masked man or Kora in them. In the process of erasing his own existence, the masked man had taken Kora along with him.

“So no matter how closely Quinier watches the clock, she won’t notice anything wrong. Her memories won’t disappear entirely. Only the man himself will drop out of them, and her mind will fill in the gaps on its own. She can’t doubt her own thoughts.”

[“Then why did you tell Quinier to get glasses? They won’t help her counter his ability at all. If anything, he’ll get overconfident—”]

The crow abruptly fell silent. Gregory had realized it himself. Watching a crow’s beak move busily, then snap shut midsentence, was quite an unusual sight.

I said, “Exactly. He’ll get overconfident and use his ability without hesitation.”

Quinier’s precaution was the wrong countermeasure against the masked man’s ability. I would lay the bait right where he believed she was mistaken.

“He seems to think he’s pretty smart.”

Why not see whether he was as smart as he thought?

* * *

The next day, I gave Gregory his instructions as planned.

Or rather, I tried to.

“...”

“What’s wrong, Frondier?”

Aten asked as I sat silently staring at the crow. We were in the classroom.

For my plan to work, I needed continuous reports from Gregory. Here in this classroom, right beside Aten.

‘... Ah, screw it.’

Whatever.

“Once the bell rings, proceed as planned. Keep me updated.”

[“Understood, sir.”]

I spoke to Gregory, and he opened his beak to answer. He even used a respectful tone, apparently picking up on my intention.

“Huh? What?”

Aten looked back and forth between me and the crow in astonishment.

“Th-the crow can talk...?”

“Mm. I worked hard on taming.”

A highly skilled tamer could teach animals to speak. It was easier with intelligent creatures like crows in particular. But that required a truly exceptional tamer, and a considerable amount of time.

In my case...

“When did you get so good at taming...? No, that’s impossible. Is it talent? Divine Power?”

Naturally, this was the reaction I got.

With a confident expression, I pulled my lips into a smile. Selena had recently taught me how to smile naturally, though I had no idea whether I was doing it right.

“Talent, Divine Power, and so on. You could call it the ultimate result of combining everything you can think of.”

I spouted whatever came to mind.

But Aten brought a hand to her mouth and furrowed her brow in earnest.

“Talent, Divine Power... The ultimate result of combining everything...”

Aten, don’t mutter that so seriously.

Hearing it from someone else made me realize just how embarrassing the nonsense I had said was.

“Now, then.”

I looked at Aten and asked, “Can you cast Wind Whisper?”

I was openly dragging her into the incident. She nodded.

“Cast it now, please.”

Without asking any questions, Aten opened her hand.

Wind Whisper: a soundproofing spell that would let only Aten, Gregory, and me hear one another’s voices.

After confirming that it was in place, I looked at the crow.

“Report immediately if you find anything. If it’s urgent, you can interrupt class.”

[“How can I determine whether he’s using his ability, sir?”]

“... I explained all of that yesterday.”

[“My apologies. My memory is rather hazy. I am a crow, after all.”]

The bastard was obviously asking for Aten’s benefit. Sure enough, her eyes sparkled with interest and curiosity as she watched him.

With a sigh, I said, “You don’t need to check whether he uses his ability. What matters is what they say.”

When he saw Quinier wearing glasses, he would certainly approach her, believing that she had misunderstood his ability. Of course, that was actually true, so he could hardly fail to believe it.

Quinier was popular. She would talk to plenty of people. What mattered was the content of those conversations.

Who would bring up Kora?

‘The fact that I don’t know Kora means he was almost certainly eliminated in the game.’

In other words, the man was targeting Kora before Quinier. Kora was the greatest obstacle to his plan.

“Find whoever asks about Kora. If he asks when Kora’s coming to visit Constel again, or something along those lines, we’ve got our man.”

[“I see. Just as I would expect of you, Master.”]

The bastard was getting into this.

DING-DONG

As the class bell rang, the crow bowed his head with impeccable courtesy.

[“Then I shall carry out your orders.”]

As she watched the crow fly away after those words, Aten’s eyes shone more brightly than ever. And Gregory was undoubtedly enjoying himself too.

I turned to Aten, who was still gazing blankly after the crow.

“Aten, are you okay with this? You don’t even know what’s going on.”

“It’s fine. It seems important. As long as you aren’t planning to commit a crime, Frondier.”

Then she gave a startled gasp and looked at me.

“Don’t tell me I’ve become an accomplice?”

“No. Of course not.”

“Of course. I was joking.”

Yes. That was what you called a joke. Aten had newly learned the art of “joking.”

“Because I trust you, Frondier.”

... And acquired “piling on the pressure” as a bonus.

* * *

Some time later.

[“I have a report, sir.”]

It was not until after school that we got results. The crow flew to the window and opened his beak.

[“I found someone asking Quinier where Kora was. He even asked when he was coming. He was quite blatant about it.”]

“Good. What did Quinier say?”

[“She said he was coming today. However, I do not know whether that is true. Quinier would surely have been suspicious of everyone approaching her at the time.”]

Naturally, Quinier would be wary of anyone who asked about Kora. She might therefore have lied, or she might instead have told the truth to lure the man in. After all, she believed she could tell when her memories were erased.

Either way, he had taken the bait.

“Then he must have done something to erase her memories after asking. Did you see that too?” I asked Gregory.

If he had asked about Kora, he would naturally have taken steps to erase her memories afterward.

[“... Well.”]

Uncharacteristically, Gregory hesitated.

[“From what I saw, he touched Quinier’s arm with a finger.”]

“... That’s all?”

[“Yes.”]

I narrowed my eyes.

So all he needed to erase someone’s memories was a brief moment of physical contact?

‘No. Maybe the conditions are relatively simple because it was only a short memory.’

... Even so.

In that moment, I keenly felt just how frightening Divine Power could be.