057. Memory (2)
057. Memory (2)
Umm.
Ummmmmm.......
"Rinne, I'm asking just to be sure."
"Huh?"
"You didn't actually like me from the start, did you?"
1 second.
2 seconds.
3 seconds.
"......Hah?!"
Just as expected.
Rinne erupted in vehement denial.
"What kind of bullshit is that all of a sudden, Oppa? What, do you think every girl is secretly into you or something?"
I didn't.
I didn't, but I still had reason to suspect it.
I held up the PDA displaying Rinne's status window.
The same message was still there: Rinne had suffered no status abnormalities in the past 24 hours.
In other words, Rinne had never been affected by her self-inflicted charm effect in the first place.
At least, according to phase engineering.
Had Rinne understood that fact as well?
Her face, already red with anger, now reddened for an entirely different reason.
"Th-the system is wrong."
"Do not be ridiculous."
"No, it could be wrong!"
True.
After all, a status window merely analyzed a phase pattern and returned an approximate diagnosis.
Unlike a game status screen, it wasn't infallible.
Sometimes it detected information it shouldn't, and sometimes failed to detect information it should.
Even so, there was no basis for assuming this happened to be one of those rare exceptions.
Objectively speaking, the simplest explanation was that she had liked me all along.......
"It's not! Definite-ly not! The moment the Narrative Granting took effect, the way I saw you completely changed, Oppa!"
"Or maybe it wasn't that you were actually hypnotized, but rather a kind of placebo effect occurred......."
Whatever the case, I told her to think about it objectively.
I wasn't going to make fun of her.
Was it because I had repeatedly asked in earnest? Rinne sank into thought for a moment.
Then she spoke carefully.
"......I'm not saying I hated you, Oppa, or anything. We've been together every day lately. More than that, you've helped me with all kinds of things. So yeah, it's true I liked you at least a little."
"Really?"
"Y-you said you wouldn't mock me! Wanna die?!"
I wasn't making fun of her, though.
"The corner of your mouth went up a little."
"Anyway, so you liked me at least a little?"
"......Shit."
Rinne spat out a curse and continued.
"I did like you a little, but it wasn't anything huge. More like, if I ever got a boyfriend, someone like you'd be nice? About that much? Closer to "I could like him" than actually liking him...... Anyway! What I feel now is on a completely different level. So this feeling right now came from the skill."
"Are you sure?"
"I'm sure."
So she said.
"Then maybe kissing me in that state made your real affection shoot up?"
"Do you think I'm some girl in an otaku manga? Like my affection would skyrocket just because somebody forced a kiss on me?"
Fair point.
Then what was it? Why had Rinne's feelings become strange even though she hadn't been afflicted with a status abnormality?
More importantly, it was strange that no status effect had been detected at all. She had used Narrative Granting on herself, so some kind of effect should have occurred.
Puzzled, I checked the status window again.
This time I checked the rest of the window too, not just the status abnormalities.
The basic information, including her model designation, looked normal.
Her awful stats were unchanged too.
The component configuration page likewise showed nothing unusual.
Lastly, the special notes page——
[Special Notes]
The target biodroid is not a military biodroid. Due to the nature of precision analysis specialized for military biodroids, there is a high possibility of error in the result values.
That familiar warning was all there was.
Or so I thought.
There was something else written beneath it.
(New!) Ego Restoration Work has been performed.
- Memory restoration work failed. [Warning: Unauthorized Access]
- Emotion restoration work partially succeeded. [Warning: Unauthorized Access]
......Huh?
"What's wrong?"
Rinne watched my face from a step away and asked.
Then she scanned the PDA screen and tilted her head.
"Ego Restoration Work? What's this?"
That was exactly what I wanted to ask.
I didn't know what it meant either. Ego Restoration Work?
Still, the circumstances gave me enough to hazard a guess.
"......Could it be restoring memories or emotions from a past life?"
"What? Did we do something like that?"
We hadn't.
At least while I had been commander, Rinne's body had never been modified apart from installing the skill module.
I was about to ask whether she had ever undergone anything like this before, but her reaction made it clear she had never heard of it either.
Then what was it?
Could this be a record of something one of Krädel's previous commanders had done?
I carefully checked the timestamp.
That immediately ruled the idea out.
[6 hours 17 minutes ago]
Six hours and seventeen minutes ago—not six months and seventeen days.
What that meant was clear.
This mysterious Ego Restoration Work had been triggered by the narrative Rinne had granted herself.
She had activated the skill at exactly that time.
......But why?
The narrative Rinne had granted herself was the story of me and my first love.
Why would granting that story trigger a process that restored Rinne's former ego?
If she had really overlaid the romantic story of a complete stranger, she should have suffered the status effect she intended.
I puzzled over it for several minutes.
Suddenly, a thought flickered through my mind.
"......Ah."
Perhaps.
Maybe Rinne's Narrative Granting hadn't worked by making her like someone she'd never liked.
It couldn't have.
Because I wasn't someone she had never liked.
In other words, this girl standing next to me, perhaps——
"Oppa?"
Rinne called out to me, cutting off my train of thought.
The Rinne who looked back at me couldn't remember any of it.
The sight snapped me back to myself, and I grabbed her hand.
And then.
"Follow me."
"Huh?"
I started leading her away.
"Wha, what. Isn't the date over?"
Rinne asked, flustered.
I didn't answer.
It wasn't because I wanted to continue the date. We'd already visited every location from the novel. Our date was over.
There was simply one more place we needed to visit.
A place that might have been important to both of us.
Eventually we reached a small forest in Metropolis District 8, not far from the amusement park.
An old mansion stood inexplicably in the middle of it.
"This place......."
"It's the Ghost House."
At my words, Rinne flinched in surprise.
"The Ghost House? The place where you said your first love lived, Oppa?"
"Yeah."
Even now, I still didn't think it was quite enough to call her my first love, but anyway.
This was the mansion where that girl had lived.
"Why did you bring me here?"
"Because the thing you were looking for is here."
"......Eung? What do you mean?"
Explaining it here would spoil the fun.
And make the story unnecessarily long.
So instead of answering, I simply looked up at the Ghost House.
The walls were still towering, and if anything the eerie atmosphere had only grown stronger.
All things considered, it did not look like somewhere you could casually walk into.
Even so, I knew a way inside.
Step into the depression at the corner of the wall, then climb onto the large tree beyond it.
From the tree, over to the barred window——
"Eutcha."
I was in.
Of course, I didn't intend to go in alone.
"Rinne, you climb up that way too."
"What is all this about, anyway?"
Rinne grumbled but followed my instructions.
We soon arrived in the Girl's room.
The interior hadn't changed at all from what I remembered.
Antique, perhaps. Or fairy-tale-like. That was how the room was decorated.
"......Whoa."
Rinne seemed to like it.
"Let's claim this place for ourselves!"
"Didn't you tear into me last time when you heard I had tried to burglarize an empty house?"
"Our situation is different. We're soldiers protecting the nation and its citizens. We can legally claim it."
No, we couldn't.
More importantly, why was she quietly including me in that "we"? I had no intention of joining a band of thieves who occupied empty houses.
Besides, this probably wasn't an empty house.
It had been more than ten years since I met the Girl. If the mansion had been abandoned the whole time, it wouldn't still be in this condition.
Someone had been maintaining it.
For example——
"The girl came back?"
"I doubt it. That seems unlikely."
Because that girl had been somewhere else all this time.
"......Another place?"
"Yeah. Another place."
"Where? And more importantly, how do you know that, Oppa?"
Rinne peppered me with questions, obviously curious.
I shrugged and answered.
"She told me during our last date. Where she was going next."
"Eh? You didn't say anything about that last time."
I hadn't.
"Because I didn't remember back then."
"And now? You remember?"
I nodded.
Not all of it, of course. Just a little.
But I felt like I could remember more.
By walking through this place—the mansion where I had dated the Girl—and reenacting what happened.
I was sure I could remember more.
So.
"Rinne, could you get on my back for a moment?"
"Eh? Why all of a sudden?"
"I think carrying you would help bring the memories back."
"How is that supposed to help?"
Because I had carried the Girl on my back during our date too.
If I wanted reenactment to revive my memories, matching the original conditions as closely as possible should help.
In that sense, Rinne was a suitable stand-in for the Girl.
"......I'm not exactly a frail, delicate beauty, you know."
At least she knew she didn't fit that archetype.
Well, it was fine.
I offered my back again so Rinne could climb on.
Rinne carefully climbed onto my back.
"I can probably use this in my romance writing too."
With that unnecessary excuse, she wrapped her arms around my neck.
With both hands supporting Rinne's buttocks, I opened the door.
A slightly steep staircase lay beyond it.
I remembered going down these stairs.
On the way down, I had asked the Girl.
—Come to think of it, what exactly is your illness?
The Girl answered aloud instead of writing.
—Phase Erosion.
—Phase Erosion?
—Yeah. A Legion bit me when I was a baby...... I don't really understand it either, but they said my nerves were being eroded by Legion Phase. That is why my legs stopped working.
After a moment, the Girl added:
The medicine had been suppressing it, which was the only reason it had not gotten worse than this.
But now even the medicine could no longer control it.
—I'm going to have surgery.
—What? Surgery can fix you?
—They say I can get better, at least.
—Then that's good. That's a relief.
I had said it sincerely.
But for some reason, the Girl answered sadly.
—I don't want surgery like that.
I hadn't understood.
If medicine could no longer control it, wasn't it obvious that she should take a chance on surgery that might cure her?
Still, I didn't want to press the issue and ruin a rare date.
More importantly, by the time I was debating whether to say anything, the Girl and I had already reached our destination.
The same place Rinne and I had reached now.
"......A study?"
That's right.
It was a study.
It was enormous. Calling it a library rather than a study might have been more accurate.
Anyway.
"The thing you were looking for was here."
"So what are you talking about......."
She did not get to finish.
Rinne had been looking around the study, and suddenly her expression said she understood.
"The Little Mermaid with the pirates?"
"That's right."
I answered lightly.
The unusual version of The Little Mermaid she had read in her past life—the one that gave her a dream—was somewhere in this room.
I knew because the Girl and I had read it here.
"I'll look for it right now!"
Eyes sparkling, Rinne began searching the study packed with storybooks.
One by one, she pulled books out and checked them.
How long did she search?
At the very bottom of the shelves. In the last compartment.
There, Rinne pulled out another book.
......It wasn't an ordinary book.
A notebook.
It wasn't blank. There were traces of handwriting inside, and most of all, a title had been written on the cover in clumsy handwriting.
「The Little Mermaid —The Corrected Version—」
Anyone could see it wasn't a published book. Rinne opened the notebook.
Before she had even finished a breath, Rinne shouted.
"This is it! The novel that made me dream of becoming an author! Who on earth wrote this......"
Rinne stopped mid-sentence.
Because at last she had remembered completely.
The memory even the skill couldn't restore.
The instant she saw the three-character name written on the back of the notebook.
Author: Han Si-hu
How had this happened?
The story went back about ten years, to the last day the Girl and I met.