Chapter 202
Chapter 202
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Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 11
Chapter Title: Memory?
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'...What kind of trick is this now?'
Suddenly acting like she doesn't know who she is.
Is she trying to pretend to have amnesia at this point?
Do I look that easy to fool?
"...Are you trying to pretend you have amnesia now?"
"W-Wait a second. Amnesia? What are you talking about..."
"It's not like that's some common cold that conveniently hits at a time like this. You tried to kill yourself and failed, so now you're resorting to tricks. That won't work on me."
"...Kill myself? Sorry, but what the hell is going on here..."
Her eyes darted left and right, as if she couldn't tell if she was acting or genuinely out of it, until she looked down at the floor and recoiled at the massive pool of blood.
"W-What is all this blood?! Don't tell me this came from my body?!"
"Who else's would it be? Did it just spring up from the ground?"
"No, no, this is weird! With this much blood, you'd be dead from blood loss or at least in a coma! How does a human body even lose this much blood?!"
"How should I know? You're the Blood Cultist; you tell me."
"Blood Cult?!"
Her eyes went wide, and her mouth fell open.
It was hard to believe this was the same woman who'd been almost expressionless before.
'...She's really good at acting.'
It was method acting so convincing that I almost wondered if it wasn't an act.
But common sense said no way.
A captured prisoner just happening to lose her memory at the perfect moment?
No matter how I looked at it, it made more sense that she was faking it to escape.
"...What happened?"
"Ah. M-Master."
I was pondering how to peel off this woman's mask when Master approached from behind and peered over my shoulder.
Her scent hit my nose, flashing me back to what happened last night, and I flinched despite myself—but I managed to keep a straight face.
Master didn't seem to remember what went down in the middle of the night, so as long as I played dumb, it would be fine.
"Th-This woman is claiming she has amnesia or something, but no matter how I look at it, it's suspicious..."
I tried to explain calmly, but Master beat me to it.
"...Who are you?"
"Pardon?"
"Huh?"
She treated her like someone she'd never seen before.
Her odd demeanor drew almost identical reactions from both me and the woman.
"...I've noticed your spirit energy was distorted since the first time I saw you, and I chalked it up to you being something like a jiangshi. But today it's even more warped. What in the world happened overnight?"
"M-Master. What do you mean..."
"Indeed. You feel similar to how you did when we first met. Your qi is badly damaged, and your soul isn't meshing well with your body."
'...What?'
Similar to how I was when she first saw me?
Does that mean this woman is...
"Ugh... What the hell is going on here..."
"Um, excuse me. Are you from Earth too, by any chance?"
"...E-Earth? What's that? A country? N-No, I was born and raised in the Central Plains..."
...Nope.
I'd gotten my hopes up from Master's words, but no such luck.
My brief excitement at meeting someone from the same homeland faded.
"...Doesn't seem like she's from the East."
"I was about to say the same thing, but you beat me to the question."
"..."
"In any case, it doesn't seem like she's lying about losing her memory. I can't rule out the possibility of acting, as you said, but in that state, her mental condition must be pretty chaotic. It's similar to how you were when we first met."
"Y-Yes! Exactly! I can tell from being tied up that I wasn't a good person to you all...! C-Could you at least explain the situation?!"
...I thought back to when I first met Master.
I had no idea what was going on, dropped into an unfamiliar world—my mind in chaos, my body in the worst shape.
"...Fine. Explaining the situation isn't a big deal."
Even if it was true, she'd want to know why, or it'd feel unfair. So I agreed to lay it out.
I didn't know her full story anyway, so I just told her what I knew.
She'd somehow died, then been revived by the Blood Cult into something like a jiangshi, went on a killing spree in the village, tried to kill us too—but we subdued her, and now she was tied up until we could hand her over to the Murim Alliance.
And her reaction to that was...
"M-Me? And I was even dead?!"
Her face was so genuinely shocked it made me doubt the act again.
"...Just to check: this is your body, right?"
"...Pardon?"
"Like, you wake up and suddenly you're in someone else's body or something?"
"Uh..."
She took my words and started inspecting her bound body.
"Is this not my body?"
"No?"
"My body is way bigger than I remember... My chest, or my hips seem bigger... Thighs too..."
"..."
I quietly fetched a mirror and held it up in front of her.
"Ah... Yeah, this is me. My face looks right... But I feel older...?"
"How old do you think you are, based on your memories?"
"F-Fourteen..."
Oh, fourteen...
"...Hold on. How old did you say?"
"Fourteen..."
"...Yesterday you said you died at twenty-one."
"D-Did I? So this is what I look like grown up..."
...The utterly unexpected situation left me dazed for a moment.
I could buy amnesia, but this...
"Y-You're saying you really have no memories past fourteen? Nothing vague even?"
"N-No! I-I figured I must've done something wrong since I'm tied up, so I stayed quiet... But from my side, I finished training, went to sleep, and woke up like this...! Body's tied up, but I've grown so much...!"
...So her body's an adult, but inside it's a total kid.
I panicked for a second and almost thought to untie her, but snapped back to reality.
What if it really was an act?
Playing innocent kid to get freed, then revealing her true colors?
"...I'll hear you out, but I won't fully trust you. No untieing the ropes either. Even if you lost your memories, what you did to us doesn't vanish."
"...I didn't expect that much. Master said if you commit a sin, you take the punishment and apologize..."
She paused mid-sentence, then launched into apologies at breakneck speed.
"C-Come to think of it, I haven't even apologized yet! I'm sorry! E-Even if I don't remember, you almost died because of me... I'm truly sorry! I'll pay for this sin somehow!"
"...Pardon?"
"W-What do you want? For a sin like that, I'd have to spend my life repaying it... M-Money's tough since I get allowance from Master too, but if you want it, I'll earn some somehow! Or, uh, need a bodyguard? I look like this, but I'm first-rate, so I'd be useful! I can take down seven grown men easy!"
"...Hey."
"I-Is that too much? Y-Yeah... Someone who tried to kill you... I-If you want my life, take it! But this is shameless, could you at least tell me how Master's doing before I die?! Not even asking to meet—just if she's alive and well...! You're famous, so it shouldn't be hard to find out!"
"...Sigh."
I pinched my brow as her words poured out like machine-gun fire.
And I thought: if this is acting, she's a wicked genius who knows how to manipulate hearts.
"...I'm not killing you."
"Mount Hua Sect's swor— Huh?"
"Even before the memory loss, we planned to hand you to the Murim Alliance to extract info, not kill you right away. If your memories are gone, the info's gone too."
"Th-Then..."
"...Of course, I still don't fully trust you, so you'll stay tied up. If you're truly sorry, try jogging your memory in the meantime. That's all I want for now."
Her face broke into a pure, bright smile at my words.
"Y-You're sparing me?"
"One suspicious move, and you're dead."
"F-Fine by me! I'm great at sitting still! During meditation training, I've stayed in one spot without moving for twelve hours straight, tons of times!"
'...Didn't she say fourteen?'
Are all martial artists like this?
What kind of master trains a kid that harshly?
Sure, sin means punishment, but for a child to so readily offer her life... must've been a strict one.
"Conversation's over. Mind stepping aside? You're in the way of cleaning the blood."
"Ah! I-I spilled it, so let me clean it..."
"To let you clean, I'd have to untie you. Just stay put."
I went to grab a rag for the blood, and Dang Ayoung—who'd been quietly listening nearby—shooed her aside and wiped up the rest.
"...You okay with this? She tried to kill you."
"Like you said, we weren't gonna kill her right away anyway? She's tied up, and your master's here, so let's watch her for a bit. If it's real, she's kinda pitiful."
"What about Master? Think she can tell if it's true?"
"...Wasn't listening."
"..."
And so, one prisoner's status shifted from Blood Cult captive to possible amnesiac captive.
And then...
"Um, this is really shameless, but could I ask one favor?"
"What?"
Gurgle...
"S-Since you're keeping me alive anyway, could I have something to eat? Even rice balls are fine..."
...Seems like losing her memories turned her into a body that needed food.