Voice (4): The Seal of Memories
"It's okay."
"Haa... haa..."
Erin nearly had a breakdown several times as she told me what had happened. She'd already freaked out just from seeing me unable to speak. Reliving that traumatic memory must have been excruciating for her.
"Thanks, Erin."
But she kept going despite her ragged breaths and clutching at her throat. All for the sole purpose of letting me know.
"Just... give me a sec... to rest..."
She went limp and melted into my arms. I said nothing, just held her until she calmed down.
"...Hehe."
Covered in cold sweat, she let out a little laugh—God knows why—and clung to my arm.
A little shocking, yeah.
Honestly, what Erin had told me was mind-blowing. Me, of all people, becoming a knight and fighting demons? And the Demon King awakening was one of the game's bad endings—one that triggered forcibly if certain conditions were met.
Yet you fought back anyway.
In the game, there were no real choices. Once the conditions were fulfilled, it railroaded straight into the bad end, leaving me as a helpless spectator. But in that previous loop, I had been different. I'd picked up a spear and charged into battle myself.
A spear, though...
Suddenly, the spear in Lucia's room flashed in my mind. The one she'd hurled outside the moment I showed interest.
"Erin, do you remember the spear I used?"
"Yeah, I remember everything about you, oppa."
I described the silver-white halberd in Lucia's room—one longer than I was tall.
"That was... in Lucia's room?"
"Yeah, though she chucked it right outside..."
"No way—how?"
Erin turned the question back on me, baffled at how something like that could even be there.
"The spear you used was made from an evil dragon's fang. That one was probably just a replica."
I couldn't exactly ask why it had been in Lucia's room. Compared to Alessia, who was always scheming to kidnap me, or Erin, who'd terrified me just moments ago, Lucia's behavior seemed almost normal. But of course, Lucia wasn't all right either. My brief, intense encounter with her was proof enough.
"Oppa."
Erin looked up at me from my arms.
"You're... gonna leave this place, right?"
"Yeah, I think I have to."
Someone might say, Why leave? You've got a beautiful girl doting on you—live it up. But I couldn't see it that way. And it wasn't because of the warped affections from Alessia or Lucia, or the heroines I hadn't met yet.
"Life's too precious to waste holed up here, don't you think?"
"Oppa, you're really..."
She let out a deep sigh, shaking her head. Then she stretched out her arm and cast a spell.
"Memory"
⟨ Memory ⟩
Ice began spreading from Erin's hand, a bizarre sight—like the space itself was freezing over. It was stunningly beautiful.
"This magic...?"
"It's called Memory. I started researching it back in the previous loop... to protect you, oppa."
She clenched her fist, and the ice shattered with a sharp crack, like breaking glass.
"The Eternal Winter I used on you before? Just a byproduct of this."
"Eternal Winter"
"So what you just showed me is...?"
"Memory is a sealing spell. It preserves living beings perfectly in stasis. No one but me can undo it."
The chill prickling my skin, I asked Erin cautiously,
"No way... you were gonna use that on me?"
"Yeah. If you kept insisting on leaving... I had no choice. I just want to protect you."
If I'd forced my way out, I could've ended up hit by her spell—neither dead nor alive, sealed forever.
That realization hit me with the deepest terror I'd ever felt.
"But... it's useless now."
"...Why?"
"I finally realized it. Who you really are, Rion. Just that simple truth. How did I not see it until now?"
She snapped her fingers, and the books around us floated into the air. They began swirling around me and Erin, blocking our view.
Tweet—
When the books vanished, we stood in a vast plain. A cool breeze blew through, carrying the fresh scent of grass. Warm sunlight bathed us, and birdsong echoed from afar.
"This place..."
"It's real."
I knew without her saying. This wasn't some illusion she'd conjured.
"This is Ormus Plains."
The future—or rather, the past. Where I'd lost my voice, and Erin had regained hers.
She beckoned to the sky, and a bird flying in the distance landed on her finger.
"If you'd left through that passage earlier... I'd have sealed you with Memory. Thinking you could be in danger anytime, anywhere."
"..."
"But you didn't. Honestly, I don't get it. Why didn't you?"
Erin gently stroked the bird on her finger. It sat calmly at first, but flew off the moment she touched it—like rejecting her touch.
"You've always gone beyond what I expected. Up until now, and this time too. So I started thinking..."
She bounced lightly out of my arms and stood, letting the wind carry her. She swayed with the breeze, dancing freely.
"You're truly free, oppa. Just like that bird. So if I caught you and locked you in a cage..."
She looked straight at me, her eyes shining like a deep blue sea—deeper than I'd ever seen.
"Wouldn't that just be another kind of death? Was I the one pushing you toward it with my own hands?"
"Erin..."
I had no words. Or rather, I didn't know what to say to her. I wasn't some ancient sage or scholar of the human heart—just a regular twenty-something who'd transmigrated after a normal life.
What would you have said?
What would pre-regression me have told this Erin? At least he'd have known the right words to help her, unlike me.
So I tried thinking from his perspective. What would I want to say?
I stood and walked over to her. She watched me with questioning eyes.
Thump.
I placed my hand on her head. She was so small—barely reaching my chest. Such a tiny girl.
"Erin."
I spoke the words he might have carried in his heart.
"You've worked hard all this time."
She'd received my voice, endured my death. The guilt must have been unimaginable. But she'd persevered—created magic that didn't exist, even achieved the impossible regression. That path couldn't have been easy. Walking a thorny road toward a goal that might never come.
I couldn't erase that pain. It was etched not in her flesh, but her soul. All I could do was one thing: help her forgive herself. Ensure she suffered no more.
"Now look at me—the me of the present, not the past."
"Huh...?"
"This time, I'll make sure you never feel that same sorrow."
A promise I might not keep. But one I had to make.
"No, wait—ah... why is this happening?"
Tears began streaming from Erin's eyes, like a faucet rusted shut for years suddenly bursting open. Emotions long pent up pouring out.
She didn't even seem to understand why, mumbling questions as she frantically wiped them away.
"What the heck is this..."
But her tears ignored her will, flowing endlessly. Wipe, glance at me, wipe again—she repeated the cycle, lost.
I hugged her like before. She sobbed wildly in my arms. How could so much come from such a small body? Pure magic.
This world's full of magic-like miracles.
Even Erin's presence here felt like one.
I held her as she wept endlessly, hoping these tears would wash away her wounds. Hoping they'd pave the path forward.