Loss (2)
Loss (2)
If I could skip a memory, then in this case that was the right call.
The damage from earning Kiel's suspicion outweighed any benefit I could get by handing the Fragments of Truth to Melina.
The real problem, though, was Melina. The Melina who would have been waiting for a whole year.
'...She'll be fine, won't she?'
A disciple who should have returned long ago had not come back. The shock would not be light.
'Without my help she won't reach the Truth anyway.'
Of course she wouldn't lose her mind the way the "current" Melina had, but she would certainly be deeply heartbroken.
I had no choice, though. I couldn't die just to soothe someone's feelings.
Olivia made her decision.
[Clue #2, you have skipped the memory from Imperial Calendar year 992.]
[Clue #2, would you like to view the memory from Imperial Calendar year 994?]
- Time Limit: 42:00:00
Olivia held off on using the next Clue for the moment. The things she had to think through were far from one or two.
First she had to recall what she had even been doing in 994.
'Let's see, taking the whole Genocide Run as a whole, the Holy Kingdom and Eastern Coalition storylines happen around this time. I met Aria and Melina on and off too. And with Kiel, I shot the breeze during a Clue.'
Reaching that point in her thoughts, Olivia paused.
'...Wait. How many regressors are tangled up in 994 right now?'
Three in the Empire. One in the Holy Kingdom. Two in the Eastern Coalition.
'Six?'
Her head grew complicated. If she had already recalled this many just from fragmentary memories, then including the ones she hadn't yet dredged up meant there were even more.
'...Mmnn.'
Olivia closed her eyes and retraced the detailed movements of the Genocide Run.
From the start of 994 to its end—where she had been, whom she had met, what she had done. Then she reached the following conclusion.
"...I'll have to skip this one too, huh."
She might somehow manage to fool the Martial King holed up in the Atila Mountains, but fooling the other regressors was impossible.
'Why are they all nothing but sharp-witted bastards!'
Even setting all five aside, Aria was the problem. If she activated the Clue, opened her eyes, and found Aria right in front of her, that meant annihilation.
Here a bomb, there a bomb.
If she didn't use the Clue, she couldn't reveal the Truth to Melina and would be ruined. If she did use it, she couldn't fool the regressors and would be ruined.
She could somehow pass herself off as the Genocide Run Olivia for a few hours, but this one was a whole two days long.
Acting completely identically to the Genocide Run for two straight days was impossible.
"I can skip a Clue whenever I want to, right? There aren't any hidden conditions or anything, right?"
Olivia glared intently at her Status Window. As if this damn Status Window were the very emblem of unhelpfulness, it only ever spat out critical information right when she was facing the situation.
'The Game Operators may be a pack of lunatics, but they're not the type to make the game literally unbeatable.'
Olivia was certain of it.
And exactly one minute later, the following message appeared.
[You may skip Clue #2, the memory from Imperial Calendar year 994.]
- Skip this memory?
Olivia clenched her fist. They said even a dog in a scholar's study recites poetry after three years, and ten years of Lactea experience meant she could see right through the Operators' bullshit.
[Clue #2, would you like to view the memory from Imperial Calendar year 998?]
- Time Limit: 84:00:00
One year, two years, and then four years later.
If she entered that next memory now, Melina would be reuniting with Olivia after a full seven years.
'From my side it's only been a day.'
The original plan had been to hand all the Fragments over to Melina by 994, then set aside time for a final conversation. The way she'd done with Kiel.
But this time she didn't have that luxury.
Just helping Melina would be more than enough to handle.
'At least the last one being 998 is a relief.'
In 998, there was no need to expend mental energy on other trivial matters.
Because that was the year the Genocide began in earnest.
Olivia slowly extended her hand forward.
[That memory contains the last memory of 'Melina Diviae'!]
- View anyway?
'Last?'
The moment she grasped the meaning, Olivia briefly hesitated.
But the answer was already decided.
-Fwoosh!
Her consciousness flickered.
***
Olivia kept her eyes shut and waited for the right moment. She'd used Clues so many times that she could now sense by instinct when the transition would take hold.
'Should I call it a feeling of debilitation?'
Once she felt that sensation, opening her eyes would not be too late.
But today something was different.
Even after waiting a long while, the characteristic debilitation never came. Unable to bear it any longer, Olivia stealthily opened her eyes.
A Notification Window hovered in front of her.
[You have skipped the memory of Clue #2 twice.]
[As the cost of skipping, you must spectate the 'compressed memory' from the skip start date until the Clue activation point.]
[Current point in time: Imperial Calendar year 992]
'What the hell is this now...'
Below her line of sight, Melina appeared. She was pacing around her office, her face anxious.
[Currently spectating 'Melina Diviae'.]
Olivia had become a spectator.
*****
Summer of 992.
Olivia returned after completing her seclusion training. The Gold Tower's many mages rejoiced at the news, but the person who rejoiced most was, by far, Melina.
'...At last!'
The period Olivia had been out training was, at most, a mere half year. But Melina had waited more than twice as long.
A year and some months.
An entire year and a half had passed since she'd received the eighth Fragment of Truth.
Melina gazed at the papers on which the Fragment was written, her eyes wistful. They were one of the few things Olivia had left behind with her.
Whenever she missed Olivia, Melina would stroke these papers. Doing so allowed her to overcome the sense of loss, if only slightly.
- I promise. When the time comes, I will definitely tell you.
'My disciple is not a child who would tell a lie.'
Some unavoidable circumstance must have arisen, Melina thought.
'She will return. If she is my disciple, she will definitely return.'
By now it was practically self-hypnosis, but Melina herself did not realize this fact.
"When do you think she will arrive?"
"She should reach us within the hour."
"That is far too long..."
Melina was visibly riddled with tension. She could not tear her eyes away from the capital's main entrance for a single moment.
The secretary, witnessing Melina practically hopping in place, gave a dry cough.
"Tower Lord. You must maintain some dignity..."
"Sh-she's here!"
"..."
Ignoring all the eyes around her, Melina ran toward Olivia, who was walking through the city gates.
And then she embraced her outright.
"T-Master?"
Olivia's eyes rounded in a fluster. Regardless, Melina had no intention of releasing Olivia from her arms.
"Are you hurt anywhere?"
"No, I'm fine."
"That... Dear disciple."
"Yes, Master."
"D-did anything perhaps happen during your training?"
Melina asked on the faint chance.
"...Something happen?"
"Your memories, are they strange or..."
Melina stared at Olivia with desperate eyes, then soon shook her head.
"...It is nothing. Pay it no mind. You must be exhausted from traveling such a long way; I can hardly detain you for no reason. Let us go inside and rest first. Is there anything you wish to eat?"
Melina did her best to act composed.
She already knew that this child was not the Olivia she had been waiting for. Yet now that she stood face-to-face with her, hiding her disappointment proved difficult.
Which was why she had embraced her. Because she did not want her disappointed expression to be discovered.
'I know that as this child grows, she will become that child...'
Melina bit her lip in secret.
Sometimes she had thoughts like these.
The first person who had ever poured out unreserved love on a human being like herself was 'Olivia.'
The one who had revived feelings she had long forgotten was 'Olivia,' too.
- Smile. And straighten your shoulders.
Since the one who had given so unilaterally was that child, naturally the one who ought to receive the return was that child as well.
"Steak, for now. A good thick cut, with spices heaped on generously."
...Not this child.
Melina shut her eyes tight.
It was a thought she knew she must not entertain. But even knowing she must not, she could not stop it from forming.
Of course she loved both of her disciples.
It was simply that she loved 'Olivia' more.
This was not discrimination. It was only proper that way.
"Very well. I'll instruct the secretaries to prepare it in advance."
[Currently spectating 'Melina Diviae'.]
With her arms folded, Olivia silently took in Melina's daily life.
This spectating state was truly an ambiguous thing. She had no body, yet neither could she call herself a soul. If she were a soul, Melina would certainly have sensed her.
If she had to make a comparison.
'It's like watching through an incredibly vivid screen.'
All she could do in this spectating state was, literally, spectate.
'Is this the penalty for skipping?'
Even so, Olivia considered this not too bad.
If she'd had to fully experience the span of six years it might be different, but aside from specific moments, time truly flowed by fast.
'Three days just flashed by in that small gap.'
She understood now why it was called a compressed record.
Still, she felt no particular emotion. She already knew roughly how the story would unfold.
The scenery changed again. This time it was the Gold Tower's council chamber.
[Today's meeting is concluded. Everyone, you are dismissed.]
Beside Melina, the secretary approached and whispered.
[Tower Lord. Duke Kiel is currently waiting in the reception room.]
[Duke Kiel? What is his business?]
[He... did not inform us.]
Melina promptly headed to her office.
[Well, who do we have here? Isn't that Duke Kiel?]
[Indeed. I came because I have something to ask...]
[Ah, let me organize the documents first, then I'll listen.]
At Melina's gesture, the documents rose and moved, each settling into its proper place.
[Done. Now you may ask.]
[By any chance...]
At Kiel's next words, Olivia's eyes snapped wide open.
[Does a mage ever experience a separation of the self?]
It was the first time.