The Memory I Couldn't Save
The Memory I Couldn't Save
Frien still did not answer.
But in her faintly trembling eyes, agitation could be glimpsed.
Because of that, Seraile felt as if all the doubts she had harbored in her heart were being resolved.
She had learned what the true nature of the black mana was.
She had learned what a being who possessed black mana could do upon reaching the pinnacle of their ability.
"You haven't been using healing magic all this time. Because you never had that kind of ability from the start."
Her conjecture accelerated.
"To begin with, you. From what I investigated, weren't you constantly abused at home? Your family treated you like an invisible person, and that man you call your father cursed you as the devil's spawn every time you asked for something? How wretched. A household so repulsive it almost inspires pity."
She was in a house, but she had no home.
Seraile knew of Frien's childhood, spent in a place without rest.
"In such a household, how could you have learned and used healing magic? In a miserable home that wouldn't even buy you a single book on healing magic."
Seraile remembered.
Frien in a household stained by abuse.
"Shall I make a guess? You asked your father for something and were cursed for it, right? Violence was certainly part of it. Am I wrong?"
She was not wrong.
Because Frien, in her childhood, had asked her father to buy just one new blanket, saying the attic was too cold.
Upon hearing those words, Frien's father scolded her for showing no sign of repentance despite having received the devil's mana, and struck her cheek.
"How pitiful. Seeing as you don't deny it, I suppose it's true?"
Laughter crept into Seraile's voice.
"After being hit by your father and returning to the attic, you must have thought: It's my fault. If I hadn't said such a thing, Father wouldn't have gotten angry. I want to go back. I want to go back to before I said such foolish things to Father."
Frien's mouth quietly opened, then closed.
It was because she disliked Seraile speaking for her childhood self, but she could not refute it.
Facing Frien's pain and suffering so directly, Seraile slowly moved her lips.
"That was when the black mana first helped you. Because an ability blooms from a small wish. It couldn't turn back time entirely, but it must have sent the wound you suffered back into the past. Seeing that, you firmly believed that you had become able to use healing magic."
A thin smile hung on Seraile's lips.
"But now that you've reached the pinnacle of your ability, you know, don't you? That isn't healing magic. It's the power to turn back time."
An error and mutation that defied divine providence head-on.
That was exactly how Seraile viewed Frien.
"I'm truly curious. How many times have you turned back time so far? Hmm? Isn't it okay to tell me? Since it's all been found out anyway. And anyway, even if you tell me, once you turn back time, I'll forget everything again."
Frien's breath came out in a long, chill exhale.
She looked as powerless as a fallen leaf about to crumble away.
"If you don't want to answer, you don't have to. But this one thing, I can say with certainty."
Confidence tinged Seraile's complexion.
"No matter how many times you turn back time from now on, you cannot defeat me."
Seraile read people's destinies.
Just as Frien had been marked with black mana from birth, Seraile too had been able to hear the voices of the stars from birth.
Reading a person's destiny through the stars was akin to seeing that person's future.
It meant she could hold Frien's courses of action in the palm of her hand and observe them.
Of course, it was not without limits.
Because she could not ascertain every course of action in minute detail from beginning to end.
Seraile's method of viewing a person's destiny involved gathering fragmentary, scattered pieces and then combining all of them to draw a conclusion.
It wasn't perfect, but that was sufficient.
Because if she could know even just the target's major movements, she could prepare for all other situations.
It was the same now.
Even knowing Frien would attack her, Seraile had personally moved her puppet.
Thanks to that, she had been able to hold a conversation and satisfy her curiosity as she was doing now.
All events were proceeding within the grand framework Seraile had planned.
"The moment you turn back time, your destiny is bound to change as well. Each time that happens, 'I' will take that changed destiny as a new starting point and prepare for all situations. Consequently, you have no chance of victory. Judging by your expression, it seems you've undergone countless regressions, but you know it too, don't you?"
The corners of Seraile's mouth rose.
"That even if you repeat time for an eternity, you cannot defeat me."
Right after finishing her words, Seraile could not hold back and burst into laughter.
Ahaha, hahat, hahahaha!
The laughter, bouncing in all directions, swirled inside the field tent before vanishing.
"Pitiful and insignificant little stone. Go on, keep turning back time. The time given to you is infinite, but the human mind is not. I don't quite know why you're going this far, but surely it's you who will go insane first—"
Frien drew her revolver and pulled the trigger.
Tang!
The flying bullet pulverized the puppet's head.
Yet, as if unsatisfied, Frien pulled the trigger in rapid succession.
At the end of the gunfire and flashes, the puppet's head was ruined beyond recognition.
Now only one last round remained in the revolver.
Frien, who had been gazing down at the puppet's death with lifeless eyes, felt her hand tremble.
But soon she steadied her heart and gripped the revolver tightly.
Unlike other cycles, Seraile had uncovered far too much this time.
It must have been a mistake not to kill the puppet in one blow, worn out as she was by the repeating time.
So she had to turn back time.
Again.
She had to start from the beginning.
"It's alright."
The muttering, unclear who it was meant for, scattered as a chill.
"I am truly alright."
The voice flowing from her parched lips was as cold as a blade.
"So please believe me."
Yet within it, a faint flame burned without extinguishing.
Frien put the name of that flame on her lips.
"Major General Daniel Steiner."
She slowly raised the hand holding the revolver.
"No matter what happens......."
A faint smile lingered on Frien's lips as she brought the muzzle to her temple.
"I will not give up on you."
The next moment, Frien placed her finger on the trigger.
*
Daniel, who had gone to the medical unit to ask Frien herself why her hair had been found at the murder scene, couldn't help but be bewildered.
"Pardon? Captain Frien said she couldn't sleep and went out for a walk a short while ago."
Going out for a walk this late at night was suspicious in many ways.
If she was wandering around to commit another murder, he had to stop her by any means.
After telling the soldier guarding the medical unit that he understood, Daniel went searching for Frien.
He couldn't determine exactly where she had gone, but he could make a few rough guesses.
'To commit murder without anyone knowing, she'd have to avoid detection by the soldiers on sentry duty. She'd have to use a route that was sparsely traveled and lay in the sentries' blind spots.'
Thinking from Frien's perspective as he walked, it wasn't long before Daniel arrived at the encampment where the engineers were stationed.
'If she hides her appearance well, she can come from the medical unit to here without being detected. But.......'
He couldn't understand what business Frien could possibly have at the engineer encampment.
It was precisely the moment he was pondering what the purpose could be.
Tang!
The sound of a revolver shot cracked like thunder not far away.
Daniel, who could not have mistaken it, turned toward it and easily identified the source: the field tent of Engineer Staff Officer Rodel.
Unable to delay, Daniel immediately kicked off the ground and ran toward the tent.
And then he saw it.
Major Rodel collapsed with his face crushed, and Frien gazing down at the scene as if it meant nothing.
The situation was a chaotic mess beyond understanding.
But one thing was certain: sadness filled Frien's eyes.
Thinking he should hear the full story, Daniel stepped forward, then froze.
'Wait.......'
Because Frien had brought the muzzle to her own temple.
"Frien!"
The thought was short, and the action was reflexive.
Daniel instantly accelerated his nerves and ran toward Frien.
In a world that seemed as if time had stopped, only Daniel was moving.
However, neural acceleration was literally the ability to accelerate the nerves, not to stop time.
Very, very slightly.
Minutely, but steadily, Frien's finger on the revolver's trigger was moving.
Thinking he must not let Frien die, Daniel sprinted desperately and grabbed the barrel.
The instant he wrenched the barrel aside, his accelerated nerves returned to normal, and the trigger was pulled.
Tang─
The bullet pierced the back of Daniel's hand, which was blocking the muzzle, and then grazed the back of Frien's head as it passed.
At that moment.
Hwaaaaaak─
From behind Frien's head, black mana erupted as if exploding.
It was a rampage of mana, as if something had tried to activate and failed.
"......!"
Even though the neural acceleration had been released, everything still moved in slow motion.
Daniel's blood mingled with the black mana that had instantly filled every direction.
Just when he could not tell what on earth was happening, the black mana climbed up his wounded hand and infiltrated his nervous system.
Simultaneously, unknown images began to play before his eyes.
No, they were far too realistic to be called images.
'This is.......'
The memories of a woman who, even after countless regressions, could not save one man.
It was the chronicle of Frien's failures.