The Sun Medallion
The space was barely large enough for one person to hide. Tucked into its corner lay a half-disintegrated skeleton. Its size suggested it might once have belonged to a child—no older than an elementary school student.
“Did they hide here alone?”
“Looking at the size, four people could barely crouch inside if they really squeezed,” Adela said, examining the area with careful eyes. I gave a small nod. She was right. The space was tight, but not so small that only one person could fit. If they contorted themselves enough, four could have managed. Yet the fact that only one skeleton remained told me something had gone terribly wrong.
The skeleton was crouched in the corner, half-buried in seaweed. In its bony hand rested a familiar medal. Its pristine condition—untouched by the passage of time, showing not a single scratch—immediately drew my gaze. The brilliant sun medallion was painted in colors so beautiful I had never seen their like, even in this fantasy world. The moment I saw the sun emblem radiating light that illuminated all things and fostered life, a memory I thought long buried rose to the surface.
“It’s the same as the pattern I saw in the ruins where I met the Laserdon… the one from that magnificent palace.”
“You mean the memory you gained after absorbing the seed?”
Adela tilted her head at my muttered words, clearly wondering why I was bringing it up now. I pointed at the sun medallion to explain.
“The pattern on that palace is almost identical to this medal.”
“Really?”
“I even drew it out and showed it to Delian. There’s no mistake.”
He had gone so far as to participate in the academic festival to identify it. How could I possibly be confusing it? Now that I thought about it, I couldn’t understand how I had forgotten this memory at all. No matter how casually I had brushed off matters related to the ancient civilization, this was a story tied to the secrets of the world itself. The hypothesis that some unknown power was deliberately suppressing information about the ancient civilization suddenly felt far more convincing.
“Let’s secure the medal first.”
I carefully pried it from between the skeleton’s fingers. The sunlight that had been illuminating the half-disintegrated bones vanished, plunging the space into darkness. In that same instant the skeleton crumbled away like dust.
I stared at the spot where it had been, my expression strange. Coincidence? Or fate? Whatever the reason, this was clearly no ordinary situation. I turned and headed back toward the excavation team.
Perhaps it was because I had found the Sun Medallion. On the way back I studied the streets more closely, and traces invisible from above now stood out clearly. Scratches left by something sharp on building exteriors. Structures that looked as if they had collapsed under some enormous force. Weapon fragments, heavily rusted and broken, scattered everywhere.
This ancient city had undoubtedly been invaded by something.
“Was it humans? Or another race?”
If the traces had been fresh I might have been able to tell, but after a thousand years of damage it was impossible to identify the culprit. “Judging by the size of the marks, it looks like a monster.”
“Plenty of monsters rely on claws.”
“Exactly. They’re so common it’s actually a problem.”
Every hint that came to mind pointed to monsters, but the excavation team might have reached a different conclusion. With that thought in mind I made my way to where the scholars were gathered.
I found them debating in what must once have been a spacious plaza.
“The traces left in this city are far from ordinary.”
“Of course. We’ve found marks of things melted by some unknown force and buildings coated in what appears to be metallic substances.”
“The most likely hypothesis is still a large-scale monster invasion.”
“You mean a monster wave?”
From the conversation drifting over through communication magic, it seemed they too had settled on monsters as the prime suspect. To be fair, the varied and violent destruction of the buildings would be hard to explain any other way.
I swam closer. The excavation team noticed our presence and their faces brightened with welcome—until their eyes landed on the medallion in my hand. The atmosphere changed instantly.
“Oh! Argo? So, what did you think after looking around the city…?”
“Truly magnificent, isn’t it? Even half-destroyed, it doesn’t lose out to any modern city…”
“What? Why did everyone suddenly stop mid-sen—”
The scholars and mages froze like statues, then surged toward me like drowning ghosts. They scrambled over one another in a frenzy, eyes bloodshot, all staring at the medallion clutched in my hand.
“W-what is that?!”
“You found it in the city?! For real?!”
“Please say yes! Please!”
“Uh… yes, I did find it in this city.”
The moment the words left my mouth, an ear-piercing scream erupted. Or rather, a cheer. I instinctively covered my ears as they burst into delighted laughter like teenage girls meeting their favorite idol.
“Ooooh! It’s so radiant! I’ve never seen colors like these!”
“A discovery of the century! An ancient artifact in such perfect condition!”
“Does it symbolize the sun? Or perhaps the royal—or imperial—family of the ancient civilization?”
While I watched the scholars and mages lose themselves completely in their own world, Delian and Neon—the only two in our party who recognized the pattern—wore grave expressions.
“Argo, if my memory is correct, this pattern matches the one you showed us before.”
“It does. That’s why I was so surprised when I found it.”
“Then the memory you saw really is connected to the ancient civilization?”
Delian’s words drew every eye in the area. The conversation had taken a serious turn; the others held their breath, desperate not to miss a single scrap of information. In the hushed space, Neon asked carefully.
“Do you remember the inscription on the ruins where you encountered the Laserdon?”
“…I remember.”
As the past rose in my mind, other memories followed like fish tangled in a net. The words carved alongside the Dragon Slayer’s Sword-Spear in those ruins came back clearly.
“For the greatest dragon hunter.”
“We will remember him. His great achievements shall be recorded here.”
“Lest we forget the one who shone in the most chaotic of eras.”
When I recited the lines aloud, the expressions around me grew even more serious. I went on to explain exactly how I had discovered the medallion. The scholars’ gazes sharpened further.
“There was a ruin like that in the North…”
“Then finding this medallion was no coincidence.”
“The flow of fate, perhaps? It seems I’ll need to read the heavens’ destiny with crystal divination tonight.”
While the scholars each sank into their own thoughts, one elderly academic offered an intriguing hypothesis.
“Perhaps the gods themselves have been watching over you.”
“The gods?”
“You said the sunlight pointed you toward the medallion, did you not? In theology, the sun is known as a divine revelation.”
It was a convincing point. As everyone’s attention turned to the old scholar, he continued calmly.
“I chose ancient theology as a minor during my academy days, so I happen to know this. In the past, the gods were far more active than they are now.”
“But these days their activity is so low we barely know if they exist at all.”
“They say the gods ceased their activities from a certain point onward. The reason remains one of the greatest unsolved problems among priests.”
The mages raised objections.
“Couldn’t it be a Mystery phenomenon?”
“The theological interpretation makes sense, but it’s hard to believe gods who have been silent for so long would suddenly intervene. Their miracles have always brought about massive change.”
“I wouldn’t know. The fact that I even remember the contents of a minor elective is miracle enough.”
The old scholar shrugged at the mages’ questions. He wasn’t a theology major; simply remembering his school lessons was already doing his part.
Before the discussion on the ancient civilization could resume in earnest, Neon—who had been silently turning the inscription over in his mind—spoke up with a serious expression.
“The parts of that inscription we should focus on are ‘remember’ and ‘lest we forget.’”
“You think some kind of power is obscuring our memories too?”
“Exactly. A mage’s memory isn’t that unreliable. It doesn’t make sense that we’ve all been forgetting things related to the ancient civilization until now.”
It seemed Neon had also recovered memories connected to the ancient civilization only after seeing the Sun Medallion. His face remained grave as he traced through those newly recalled fragments.
The excavation team’s attention snapped back to him. They looked at one another, stroking their chins in thought.
“Hmm… memories related to the ancient civilization are being erased by some unknown power…”
“It is a relatively recent hypothesis.”
“When you consider that the oldest academic record concerning the ancient civilization is an investigation report from five hundred years ago, it becomes a very reasonable suspicion.”
“That would explain why there have been strangely few materials on the subject, and why public interest has been so low.”
“Interest only began to rise in the last century or so, didn’t it?”
“Then is the power that erases memories weakening with the passage of time, causing this situation?”
“A plausible theory.”
The historical community wasn’t foolish; they must have already debated this hypothesis thoroughly. They simply lacked the funding to prove it. Now, with unprecedented sponsorship and intense interest focused on the subject, the scholars’ eyes glittered with realization.
“For now, you should keep the medallion.”
“Don’t you need it for research?”
“Investigating a single medallion won’t take long, and since fate seems to have delivered it to you, hold onto it. Besides, any proper analysis will require returning to the village anyway.”
“We’ll need to reset our investigation’s direction. Focus on the traces of the civilization Argo witnessed in his memory.”
Once again lost in their own world, the scholars scattered to begin a new survey of the city. Every member of the excavation team had over ten years of experience, and they displayed their professionalism without reservation.
Watching them, Adela and I decided not to interfere. We surfaced. Six ships and hundreds of additional excavation personnel were approaching from the distance; it was clearly better to stay out of their way.
Besides, I needed to return to the North as quickly as possible—before the memory slipped away again. The one being who could most reliably unravel this secret was waiting there.