Memory (2)
Memory (2)
I had a brief conversation with Odin while moving to the place where the frozen Koschei was being kept.
"Have you been doing well?"
"Do you think this looks like I've been doing well?"
Dark circles were deeply etched onto Odin's face as she pointed at herself with her fingertip.
"Well, you should have taken enough rest."
"And whose fault is that!"
"Don't tell me it's my fault?"
When she raised her front paw and pointed at me with the tip of her claw, Odin nodded vigorously and replied.
"Yes! Between the work you assigned me and managing Asgard, I don't have a moment to rest!"
"Is that so? Then don't rest."
"What?"
"I said don't rest. You said you don't have time to rest because of all the work I gave you, so what can you do? You just have to not rest. It's not like you can create time that doesn't exist, right?"
"Grr! You call that a reasonable thing to say..."
"A slave. Talking back?"
"Aaaaargh! So annoying!"
Hmph. This punching bag. The impact feels better than I thought.
She's someone who's already thinking about betraying me in the future anyway, so I can tease her without hesitation.
Watching Odin, who seemed to think it wasn't time to betray me yet, pulling her own hair out and throwing a fit, Freya approached us on our path.
Perhaps she also had a lot of work like Odin, as her usually flowing golden hair looked a bit frizzy.
"Haa. I was wondering why you weren't coming. If Odin were to collapse from stress here, it would be troublesome for me, you know? Could you stop and come to the laboratory?"
"Fine. I've teased her enough already."
Seeing Freya clutching her forehead as if she had a headache, I decided to stop teasing Odin for now.
If either of them collapsed, the progress of the work I assigned would be delayed.
I turned around and followed Freya, who was heading toward the place called the laboratory.
Odin, following about two steps behind me, gave me a murderous look.
If it were possible to curse someone with just a look, I think I would have been torn to shreds over a hundred times by now.
We arrived at the laboratory a short while later.
It was a place prepared in the basement of Odin's main palace.
In the middle of a place overflowing with unknown experimental tools, the frozen Koschei stood like a decoration.
"As you wished, in order to extract the memories, we first needed to use magic that avoids the technique called Permafrost."
"You explained that before."
"Yes. After you left, I analyzed that magic called Permafrost in detail, and it was more powerful than I thought."
"Well, it's a finishing move used by a dragon like me."
"It wasn't easy to analyze a magic structure I'd never seen before, especially one that touched the realm of Authority, but I analyzed it without rest for the past few days and managed to create a route to avoid it. And this is that avoidance route..."
Freya had written out the magic grandly enough to fill one wall, but my skills in magic were too poor for me to understand it.
"As expected, you can't understand it, right?"
"Right. I know it's difficult and impressive, so let's just proceed."
"Phew... Alright. I've prepared everything in advance, so I'll start right away. Odin. Could you help me?"
Odin, still silent, helped Freya manifest the magic.
As the two reached out and used magic, dozens of types of magic circles appeared on the laboratory ceiling, floor, and even in mid-air.
Thin lines extended from the magic circles that appeared as if to wrap around the frozen Koschei, and they attached to his body.
"Process complete. I will begin the extraction."
As soon as Freya finished speaking, something was slowly pulled out along the lines.
That unknown thing was pulled from Koschei's body and flowed into a bead prepared next to him.
It was being pulled out without stopping, but only for a moment. After a few minutes passed, nothing more came out.
"Extraction complete. The operation was a success."
With nothing more coming out, Freya and Odin retracted the lines from the magic circles and dispelled the magic, and Koschei remained in the same frozen state as before.
I took my eyes off Koschei, who looked perfectly fine, and looked at the bead that appeared to be the result.
A translucent bead with something like hazy mist floating inside.
"Is this Koschei's memory?"
"To be precise, it's a copy of the memories of the entity known as Koschei. If I had just extracted the memories, he would have become an idiot without needing to maintain the seal like that."
"That wouldn't be bad either..."
"Then should I just extract them now?"
A magic circle that felt somewhat dangerous, different from the one before, appeared above Freya's hand.
If she used that, would it extract all his memories, turn Koschei into an idiot, and eliminate the need to keep him in the state of Permafrost?
I pondered what to do for a moment, then shook my head.
I learned from the book Zmei gave me that the only thing that doesn't stop and remains active in a target affected by Permafrost is their mind.
For a guy who revives no matter how many times you kill him, there's no greater punishment than being unable to move for the rest of his life while only his mind remains awake.
Freya dispelled the magic circle floating above her hand and looked a bit disappointed.
"With a lump of life force that size, there are many ways to use it, you know."
"Is that so? Then think of a way to extract just the life force. If you succeed, you can extract just enough so he doesn't die and use it."
"Really... wait, no! If my workload increases any more here, I'll actually die!"
"Forget it if you don't want to."
Freya and Odin were already busy, and when my slip of the tongue added another task, they freaked out.
But when it comes to not being able to extract life force from Koschei, who is the one who loses out?
It's those two.
When I left the choice to them, Freya pondered for a long time before finally nodding.
"Ugh... A-alright. I'll research it whenever I have time."
"Good. When you get results, report it through Linnea."
"You have overflowing life force anyway, so you wouldn't need it, right?"
"Still, he's a guy I caught, so I should at least get reports on what you're doing with him."
"That's true. Yes, if there are any results, I'll tell Linnea."
Having finished the conversation about what to do with Koschei in the future, it was finally time to look into his memories.
"So. Which part do you want to see?"
"Oh. Have you gotten over being sulky now?"
"I'm not sulky!"
"Sure. Whatever you say."
"Grrrrr-!!"
"Have you devolved into a beast? It suits you well."
"Kyaaaa!!"
"Ah, seriously! Please stop it!!"
While Freya and I were talking, Odin, who seemed to have calmed down a bit, finally exploded again.
Because of the Geas, she didn't attack directly, but when her ferocious magical power made a mess of the laboratory, Freya, who had reached her limit, pulled out her staff and smacked Odin on the back of the head.
Blood slowly trickled from the head of Odin, who had collapsed after being hit on the back of the head by Freya.
"Is she okay?"
"Would you like to take a closer look?"
"A closer look? At what?"
Thinking Freya wouldn't say something for no reason, I observed Odin, who had collapsed on the floor, closely and saw that her breathing was regular and gradually becoming deeper.
"Zzz- Phew..."
"She fell asleep."
"Well, she hasn't been able to sleep properly for days."
When Freya waved her hand, the head of Odin, who was sleeping while drooling and bleeding at the same time, was stitched up, and her body floated up and was moved to an empty desk in the corner of the laboratory.
"So. Now let's get to the real point. Is there a memory you want to see?"
"Do I have to decide every single thing down to that?"
"I pulled out everything, even the memories buried deep in the unconscious, so unless you want to see from infancy, you need to set a range."
"Is that so..."
I briefly recalled the conversation I had with Koschei.
When I saw him at the auction house, he said he had been observing me all this time.
That meant that even if it wasn't right after I crossed over to this world, he had been observing me consistently after my name became known to some extent...
"Then I'll just start from when I first crossed over."
Since I didn't know the exact time, I decided to check from after I crossed over to this world.
"When did you cross over?"
"Well..."
I told Freya the date I crossed over to this world with Ratatoskr, and she picked up the bead containing Koschei's memories and used magic to manipulate something.
"Now, shall we take a look?"
"Wait, before that."
Considering Koschei's actions, there was a high possibility that his memories were footage unsuitable for the faint of heart, the elderly, or preschool children.
I called Linnea and ordered her to play with Haeryeong, then sent her out.
Haeryeong didn't look like she wanted to leave, but this time I firmly told her no and made her go play with Linnea.
Seeing that, Freya's eyes narrowed.
"You have an unexpectedly kind side... even though she's not your real child."
"She's a child I've already decided to take in. What does real or fake have to do with it?"
"Hmm..."
"Stop yapping and show me the memories."
When I spoke as if to urge her on in response to her meaningful gaze, she chuckled and played Koschei's memories.
Light poured out from the bead, filling one wall, and the memory played from someone's first-person perspective, just like a movie.
It was probably Koschei's perspective.
He was doing some kind of experiment inside a dim, closed room.
An object of a familiar shape, presumed to be a fragment of Zmei's heart, was submerged in a red liquid, and unknown languages were densely carved onto the bones.
For a while, Koschei's unknown experiment continued.
Freya gave me a rough explanation from the side, but it was difficult for me to understand at my level.
Occasionally, he would catch humans from somewhere to extract their life force, and this went on for days.
Just when I was thinking about skipping the memories until something different appeared.
Suddenly, Koschei stopped the experiment he was doing and turned his head.
There was an 'eye' there that I didn't know when it had appeared.
A bizarre sight of just an eye floating in empty space, looking at Koschei.
However, Koschei spoke to the eye naturally, as if it were a familiar situation.
[Baba Yaga. What brings you here?]