Loss (4)
Loss (4)
Over the past few days, Melina had lived inside a strange sense of déjà vu. The beginning of the matter was that very day she had faced Duke Kiel.
It felt as though her memories kept cutting off, one after another.
The circumstances were far too contrived to be simple memory loss. Almost as if someone were selectively erasing only the memories related to "Olivia."
"I haven't forgotten."
There was no way she could have forgotten. An Archmage's memory transcended that of ordinary people by an immeasurable distance.
Over several days, Melina endeavored to discover the cause.
The first hypothesis that surfaced was Olivia's extinction. Not a simple extinction, but an erasure of her very existence.
But...
That did not make sense.
Olivia must have paid an immense price to cross over the timeline. So immense that Melina, who had not yet reached the truth, could not even dare to imagine it.
Even so, the erasure of existence itself was far too excessive.
And before even considering excess, there was no way Olivia would have consented to it.
"That child, more than anything else, would fear being erased from my memory."
If all her hard work resulted in being forgotten, she would not have crossed the timeline at all.
Unless someone else was deliberately erasing Olivia's existence.
For now, this was the most plausible hypothesis.
But who, who in the world would do such a thing?
The pencil in Melina's hand shattered. She was now genuinely furious.
Was Olivia the sort of person to harbor grudges against others?
No, absolutely not.
You could tell what sort of person she was after speaking with Olivia for just three minutes.
Warm, deeply considerate, devoted, and humble.
Goodness itself.
This was not solely Melina's thinking. The other mages of the Gold Tower would undoubtedly feel the same.
Over the last two years, the atmosphere of the Gold Tower had flipped 180 degrees. As the disposition of the Tower Lord Melina grew gentler, those beneath her softened as well, influenced by that change.
So much so that the lords of other Magic Towers clicked their tongues whenever they visited, saying they could not adjust.
"All thanks to my disciple."
A person's disposition does not change easily. The more one knows and the older one is, the more pronounced this disposition becomes. And the Gold Tower was, without a doubt, a Magic Tower that gathered only those renowned for their obstinacy.
An utterly individualistic, selfish, and narrow-minded Magic Tower.
The Gold Tower's mages were so hopeless that there was even a saying that the Saintess of the Holy Kingdom herself could not reform them.
Yet it was Olivia who had changed such a Magic Tower in a mere two years.
Melina could not fathom it any more than before.
How vicious must one be to make up their mind to annihilate that lovable child?
[Tower Lord.]
The Crystal Orb rang.
[Something urgent has come up. I believe you'll need to come down for a moment.]
The lower floor was noisy. Senior elders, famous for never budging from their seats, were rampaging about, holding tools unbefitting their dignity.
"Bring the crowbar!"
"A hammer! A hammerrr!"
It was a clamor bordering on a marketplace. But the moment Melina confirmed the place where they had gathered, she could no longer stay still either.
The door they were pounding on was unmistakably Olivia's laboratory.
"What in the world is all this commotion!"
At Melina's sharp cry, the corridor fell instantly silent. Among them, Melina pointed to the Fourth Elder, who at least seemed to still possess his reason.
"Fourth Elder, immediately explain to me what the situation is..."
Melina's words could not continue.
"...!"
The moment she took a step forward, her head reeled.
Just like that time.
The Fourth Elder approached and explained the situation, but not a bit of it reached Melina's ears.
They were vanishing.
Memories that must not be forgotten were vanishing in an instant.
"...Ugh."
Melina exerted all her strength and endured.
Because she did not want to lose them, because she could not lose them.
With the desperation of grasping at straws, she endured and endured.
"My disciple whom I love."
"My disciple who gave up everything for me."
"My disciple who taught me the truth."
But the speed of losing them was faster than the speed of remembering.
Frantically, Melina took out the paper Olivia had left behind. Then, with eyes wide open, she read the contents written on the paper, and read them again.
One, two, three, four... eight.
She read it. Even though interpreting what it meant was unbearably difficult, she kept reading.
One, two, three...
The legacy Olivia had left behind.
One, two...
Olivia.
Legacy.
One...
So, in other words.
"...Olivia?"
Melina furrowed her brow. Her gaze was no longer directed at the paper.
"What did you just say? Our Olivia said what?"
"Duke Kiel dragged Olivia into the laboratory, then locked the door and is barricaded inside."
"...What?"
When she came to her senses, she was already kicking open the laboratory door and charging inside.
And she witnessed the sight of Olivia collapsing.
She could not remember much after that.
However, it was certain that she had lost her reason.
She drove Kiel out. She lifted the collapsed Olivia and laid her on the sofa. She thought she might have also shouted to summon a healing priest.
Melina tightly grasped both hands of the unconscious Olivia. Because she felt as though the moment she let go of these hands, she would lose her once again.
"...Again?"
Melina flinched.
Again.
She had definitely never lost Olivia before. Melina continued to think, still holding onto Olivia's hand.
"...Master? What happened?"
Until warmth began to return to Olivia's hand.
"Did I perhaps collapse?"
"...You don't remember?"
It was strange. It was clearly a question she was asking Olivia, yet oddly, her chest fluttered.
"Duke Kiel harmed you."
"...Duke Kiel did?"
"He did."
She was angry. She was angry at Kiel, who had harmed Olivia.
And, she was angry at herself.
"...Why?"
It was strange. Utterly strange. From start to finish, everything was strange.
Why on earth was she angry at herself? Because she had failed to protect Olivia? Because she had not been at her side when she was hurt?
She could not figure out anything, but at least she could tell that the answers were not among those reasons she had just thought of.
"Just what..."
Melina kept talking reflexively. She felt compelled to.
"Olivia, as a rule, one can never truly know what lies in another's heart."
"No, Duke Kiel could never harm me. Never."
"There is no such word as 'never' in this world..."
"There is."
Olivia drew closer. Her lips whispered.
"Master could never, ever hurt me."
"..."
For no reason she could discern, Melina was at a loss for words.
"Never." How arrogant a remark.
It was not incorrect. The share Olivia occupied within Melina's heart had, long ago, grown larger than the truth itself.
But.
"My disciple would be incapable of saying such a thing."
Olivia felt strangely unfamiliar.
"I'm right, aren't I?"
"..."
Melina did not refute her. To be precise, it would be more accurate to say she could not.
Someone whispered from deep within her heart.
That this child was all she had left. That if she lost even this child, it would be utterly irreversible.
And so.
"If you don't give me permission, I won't call you Master anymore."
She did not resist.
"If you forbid me from meeting Duke Kiel, I'll be truly sad. I might cry every single night. And for the rest of my life, whoever made me like that..."
"..."
The Olivia Melina remembered was not a child who would blackmail anyone. But the Olivia before her eyes was undeniably threatening her own master.
Even smiling a smile that seemed confident of victory.
"You'll give me permission... won't you?"
*****
Several days passed since that day.
"Master, I'll step out for a little while."
From some point on, Olivia spent more days outside the Magic Tower than inside it.
"I'm going to meet Duke Kiel for a bit, Master."
Another few weeks passed.
"Sorry, Master. I have an appointment with Duke Kiel today. I'll be back soon."
And then a few months.
Melina found Olivia growing more and more unfamiliar.
It was because the memory of that day, the day Olivia had collapsed, came to mind.
Arrogance, and threat.
Those words were, undeniably, incongruent with "Olivia."
"...No way."
One horrifying possibility surfaced in her mind, but she soon dismissed it.
It was nothing but the youthful folly of her younger days.
Though she could not erase the feeling that she was forcing herself to rationalize, this was not a situation where she could examine such a terrible possibility.
The crucial fact was that she had forgotten yet again.
- I'll definitely tell you. Master.
At this rate, she did not know when she might forget again.
Suddenly, she grew afraid. It felt like if things kept going this way, all memories related to "Olivia" would disappear.
To have abandoned everything for her master, only to be forgotten by that very master.
"...This cannot happen."
If it came to that, she felt as though she would be unable to forgive herself even in death.
Melina spread out the Fragment. Since the days Olivia did not come in had grown more frequent, she had been able to fully immerse herself in the truth.
"Master..."
"Ah, yes. Go on your way, then."
One year passed. "Olivia" still had not returned, and there was no progress on the truth.
Two years passed. Still nothing had changed, but Melina's original resolve also remained the same.
Thus, three years.
And then.
"Ah..."
Melina's voice trembled. With her hands clasped tightly together, she curled her body up as if in prayer.
"...My disciple."
Melina was sobbing even as she smiled.
"...Just a little, wait just a little longer."
Thus far, four years.
At last, she realized.
It was the ninth Fragment.