Chapter 317: Memory (2)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 317: Memory (2)
To be honest, the name Blessing of Lethe stood out to me from the moment I heard it. It couldn't be a coincidence that a medicine that could wipe someone's memory would have the same name as a river in Greek mythology, a mythology that didn't even exist in this world. Of course, I didn't think much of it at the time. That was because this was a city where evil spirits lived their lives openly. There would be nothing strange about that name coming out of a player's mouth at some point.
But to think that player would be me...
From the false rumor spread by Felic Barker earlier to incidents like this, the blows kept coming one after another, and it wasn't even funny.
While I was sitting there blankly, Ipaello eyed me suspiciously. "Wait a minute... How did you know about that medicine? So far, it has only been distributed to fewer than twenty people."
Oh, that.
"I heard Felic Barker received it from the castellan."
"Hmm, is that so?"
Despite his slightly skeptical look, I proudly straightened my shoulders. I wasn't exactly lying. Felic Barker really did have the Blessing of Lethe. Of course, he didn't exactly flat-out tell me that, instead just dropping hints that he had received a secret medicine the alchemist supplied to the castellan as a reward.
"True, the castellan seemed to be watching him with interest recently, so that could be the case." Ipaello accepted this without further argument, but I guessed he was curious about one last thing. "But where did you hear the name Blessing of Lethe?"
"I don't know, I think those guys said it. I may have misheard it."
"Haha, I guess they've already created slang for it?" Soon, the suspicion disappeared from his eyes. That was one issue sorted, at least.
Now that I was in the clear, I snuck in a question of my own. "But is that medicine okay to use? I heard it was only made recently. It doesn't cause any other issues?"
"Not to worry. Aside from some irregularity in the amount of memory that gets erased, there are no side effects."
Irregularity, huh?
It seemed the research needed to mass produce the medicine with consistent performance hadn't been conducted yet.
"But when you take into account what most people would be using it for, a side effect like that doesn't really matter, does it?"
"That's true, but it could be defective or not have any effect."
"There's little chance of that happening. If anything, it's overly effective. And after the first test, there have never been any defective batches."
"Overly effective?"
Like the scholar he was, the old man seemed excited when the conversation shifted to his field of study. Ipaello asked me to wait a moment, then brought out a box that was stored in a corner of the workshop. "Now, this is the first dose of this secret medicine that I produced." The box he opened contained a pure white pill. Although there were more than ten storage spaces, except for one, they were all empty.
"It looks twice as big as the one I saw."
"Haha, it's not just the size that's big. One pill and almost all of your memories will be erased."
"...What?"
An entire lifetime of memories would disappear if you took this thing? Then wasn't it weird to call it defective? Wait, why was he even making a mass-produced product when he had a prototype with better performance in the first place?
When I asked this out of pure curiosity, Ipaello's answer was typical of a researcher at a large company. "Ah, that's because it costs tremendous amounts of money to produce even one of these pills. The castellan said we wouldn't break even."
As an office worker, this was a completely understandable explanation.
True, since the medicine was originally made to be used on people who witnessed things they shouldn't have, a few days' memories would suffice.
After that, I spoke with Ipaello for about five more minutes, and that marked the end of our conversation for that day.
***
Time continued to pass, and soon it was the day before D-Day. We ran through our plan one last time. Well, after everything was said and done, the question as to whether it could be called a plan remained, but what could we do? Sink or swim, we had to try. Anyway, to summarize the major parts of the plan, it went like this:
First, we would infiltrate the castle and seize the Fragment of Records Stone. This was my sole responsibility. There wouldn't be any troops in the castle tomorrow, and Amelia seemed to think me capable of robbing an empty house just fine. Anyway, while I was busy in the castle, Amelia would be sticking close to her young sister. The problem with our plan arose here.
After joining Amelia, we would run away with the sisters. At least, that was what we were saying we'd do, but we hadn't properly ironed out how exactly we'd do so. Even if that old guy found a way to break the Unhealthy Contract Felic Barker placed on Laura, everything else would have to be left to improvisation.
Third, the Rainwales sisters would obtain new identities above ground and live happily ever after. This was the extent of our plan. To be honest, I didn't think it would go well at all. The problem wasn't that it wasn't detailed enough. The problem was that the most important component was missing.
"A timeline once observed cannot change."
No matter what you did in the past, the future remained the same, and there had been ample evidence of that so far. Dwalkie and Raven, the barbarian hearts, and even the Blessing of Lethe; if I already had this many examples, Amelia would have even more. She would have been feeling déjà vu several times each day we lived through, recalling her old memories.
Tap.
Just then, something touched my forearm. When I turned my head to the side, I could see Amelia holding out a bottle of alcohol.
"...For me?"
"Yes."
"Out of the blue?" I asked incredulously.
"Tomorrow is D-Day," Amelia answered, expressionless.
"I mean, still..."
"I also have something to tell you."
Ah, you should have said that from the start.
I took the bottle and uncorked it, laughing as I did so. Since she couldn't get drunk, she wanted me to have a drink in her stead. Well, even if you were sober, it was easier to talk if the other team was drunk.
"Hah..." I chugged down half the bottle in one go, then said, "So what do you have to say? Is it important?"
"Not exactly. But... I feel like I haven't been able to talk to you properly recently." Amelia avoided my eyes as she spoke. Was she embarrassed right now?
"Uh... R-Right..." That also made me embarrassed for some reason. Was it because of the alcohol?
Whew, this drink is really strong. And super bitter too.
When I asked this out of pure curiosity, Ipaello's answer was typical of a researcher at a large company. "Ah, that's because it costs tremendous amounts of money to produce even one of these pills. The castellan said we wouldn't break even."
As an office worker, this was a completely understandable explanation.
True, since the medicine was originally made to be used on people who witnessed things they shouldn't have, a few days' memories would suffice.
After that, I spoke with Ipaello for about five more minutes, and that marked the end of our conversation for that day.
***
Time continued to pass, and soon it was the day before D-Day. We ran through our plan one last time. Well, after everything was said and done, the question as to whether it could be called a plan remained, but what could we do? Sink or swim, we had to try. Anyway, to summarize the major parts of the plan, it went like this:
First, we would infiltrate the castle and seize the Fragment of Records Stone. This was my sole responsibility. There wouldn't be any troops in the castle tomorrow, and Amelia seemed to think me capable of robbing an empty house just fine. Anyway, while I was busy in the castle, Amelia would be sticking close to her young sister. The problem with our plan arose here.
After joining Amelia, we would run away with the sisters. At least, that was what we were saying we'd do, but we hadn't properly ironed out how exactly we'd do so. Even if that old guy found a way to break the Unhealthy Contract Felic Barker placed on Laura, everything else would have to be left to improvisation.
Third, the Rainwales sisters would obtain new identities above ground and live happily ever after. This was the extent of our plan. To be honest, I didn't think it would go well at all. The problem wasn't that it wasn't detailed enough. The problem was that the most important component was missing.
"A timeline once observed cannot change."
No matter what you did in the past, the future remained the same, and there had been ample evidence of that so far. Dwalkie and Raven, the barbarian hearts, and even the Blessing of Lethe; if I already had this many examples, Amelia would have even more. She would have been feeling déjà vu several times each day we lived through, recalling her old memories.
Tap.
Just then, something touched my forearm. When I turned my head to the side, I could see Amelia holding out a bottle of alcohol.
"...For me?"
"Yes."
"Out of the blue?" I asked incredulously.
"Tomorrow is D-Day," Amelia answered, expressionless.
"I mean, still..."
"I also have something to tell you."
Ah, you should have said that from the start.
I took the bottle and uncorked it, laughing as I did so. Since she couldn't get drunk, she wanted me to have a drink in her stead. Well, even if you were sober, it was easier to talk if the other team was drunk.
"Hah..." I chugged down half the bottle in one go, then said, "So what do you have to say? Is it important?"
"Not exactly. But... I feel like I haven't been able to talk to you properly recently." Amelia avoided my eyes as she spoke. Was she embarrassed right now?
"Uh... R-Right..." That also made me embarrassed for some reason. Was it because of the alcohol?
Whew, this drink is really strong. And super bitter too.
Just as I was about to ask where on earth she got this drink, Amelia called my name. "Yandel."
"I thought you wanted us to use pseudonyms even at the inn."
"That ends today, anyway. Even if anyone hears, it won't be a problem."
"...So what do you want to talk about?"
"There is something I need to tell you," Amelia said, before quickly correcting herself. "Actually, it's more of an apology."
"...An apology?" I got an ominous feeling the moment I heard that. And as always, my instincts never led me astray.
Thud, roll.
The half-empty liquor bottle fell from my hand and rolled onto the floor. Ha, no wonder the drink was so bitter.
"What did you put in it?" I asked, placing my practically paralyzed arm on my thigh.
Amelia's face was still expressionless as she answered. "All the medicine I have that is not life-threatening." Saying something like that with that look on her face made her really look like a serial killer. But despite the shiver that went down my spine, I was able to learn one thing.
So, she isn't trying to kill me.
I swung the small emergency hammer I carried in my thigh holster like a dagger as hard as I could. Unfortunately, the attack failed.
Whoom!
Amelia leaned her upper body back, and the hammer hit empty air. "I knew you would do that the moment you moved your hand down."
Considering I used a surprise attack every time we fought, it seemed she was able to figure out what I was trying to do just by the look in my eyes. "Goddamn it." My muscles lost their strength, and my body staggered when I stood up, but Amelia prevented me from falling to the ground.
Yeah, I knew you would do that.
"Ah...!" Taking advantage of the fact that she was supporting my weight, I quickly moved my arm to put pressure on Amelia's neck. The technical term for this move was the Triangle Choke. But this woman wasn't that easy to beat, unfortunately.
Bang!
A powerful blow landed on my temple and my body was thrown back. As my head spun, I saw two women in front of me. It seemed she'd managed to summon a doppelganger in that brief moment to deliver a high kick to my head.
I'm done for.
In addition to being drugged, my head was also injured and my body wouldn't move at all.
"...You really never make things easy." Amelia let out a scoff, then picked me up and laid me on the bed. Then she started a one-sided monologue. "Sorry. It seems I won't ever be able to be your comrade."
I used the last of my strength to grab Amelia's wrist as she turned around. "You... what are... you trying... to do?"
Amelia did not answer. She just pried my hand off, then put on her equipment piece by piece with a grim look on her face. She looked like she was about to go to battle.
"Open the drawer when you wake up."
That was the last thing I remembered.
***
Amelia Rainwales looked into the mirror. Then she straightened her clothes and brushed back her hair. That revealed the scar on her ear, which had been cut a long time ago. It was a wound that would definitely have become a flaw if she wished to live a typical woman's life, but as it stood, she couldn't even call this a loss. She'd had to sacrifice much more than this to stand here today.
For some reason, however, she was finding it difficult to leave. Why? Amelia stood in front of the mirror and took stock of her emotions. It wasn't because she was afraid. After that fated day, life became nothing more than a means to an end for her—and that was still the case even if today changed nothing, meaning decades of effort in pursuit of a single goal would be for naught.
She was not afraid of failure. Rather, that in itself would be almost salvation. While she had been sprinting toward the future without stopping, she had desperately looked forward to this day. At the very least, she could hold onto the fact that she never gave up trying to protect her. Then what was it? What on earth was holding her back?
Amelia turned around, and there was the sleeping barbarian. The strained expression he wore as he asked her what she planned to do was gone and he was even snoring, dead to the world.
Step, step.
Amelia walked over to the bed and opened the drawer to the nightstand. Then she placed the note she had written earlier inside and turned around. At that moment, she remembered a conversation she had a few months ago.
"If I succeed in saving your sister and take care of the logistical hurdles once we return to our time..."
"...Yes?"
"Then join my clan."
Even the memory of his offer was absurd. It made no sense, realistically. But if she were to let herself imagine it for a moment... it would have been quite enjoyable. Every day she spent exploring the labyrinth with this foolish man would have been full of all kinds of surprises. Yes, no doubt...
"Ah..."
It was then that Amelia realized why she couldn't move her feet. It was out of regret—a lingering regret about a future that would never come to pass.
But feelings were just feelings. If her feet were heavy, she just had to apply more force to move them. She couldn't stop walking.
Creak.
She took a moment to catch her breath in front of the door and then turned the doorknob hard. When she stepped out, she could see the chaos had already begun.
"F-Fire!"
Flames were rising in the eastern district. Amelia quickly moved through the crowd of people that filled the street. Although she had lied to that man and said that it was tomorrow night, D-Day was actually today.
Just as I was about to ask where on earth she got this drink, Amelia called my name. "Yandel."
"I thought you wanted us to use pseudonyms even at the inn."
"That ends today, anyway. Even if anyone hears, it won't be a problem."
"...So what do you want to talk about?"
"There is something I need to tell you," Amelia said, before quickly correcting herself. "Actually, it's more of an apology."
"...An apology?" I got an ominous feeling the moment I heard that. And as always, my instincts never led me astray.
Thud, roll.
The half-empty liquor bottle fell from my hand and rolled onto the floor. Ha, no wonder the drink was so bitter.
"What did you put in it?" I asked, placing my practically paralyzed arm on my thigh.
Amelia's face was still expressionless as she answered. "All the medicine I have that is not life-threatening." Saying something like that with that look on her face made her really look like a serial killer. But despite the shiver that went down my spine, I was able to learn one thing.
So, she isn't trying to kill me.
I swung the small emergency hammer I carried in my thigh holster like a dagger as hard as I could. Unfortunately, the attack failed.
Whoom!
Amelia leaned her upper body back, and the hammer hit empty air. "I knew you would do that the moment you moved your hand down."
Considering I used a surprise attack every time we fought, it seemed she was able to figure out what I was trying to do just by the look in my eyes. "Goddamn it." My muscles lost their strength, and my body staggered when I stood up, but Amelia prevented me from falling to the ground.
Yeah, I knew you would do that.
"Ah...!" Taking advantage of the fact that she was supporting my weight, I quickly moved my arm to put pressure on Amelia's neck. The technical term for this move was the Triangle Choke. But this woman wasn't that easy to beat, unfortunately.
Bang!
A powerful blow landed on my temple and my body was thrown back. As my head spun, I saw two women in front of me. It seemed she'd managed to summon a doppelganger in that brief moment to deliver a high kick to my head.
I'm done for.
In addition to being drugged, my head was also injured and my body wouldn't move at all.
"...You really never make things easy." Amelia let out a scoff, then picked me up and laid me on the bed. Then she started a one-sided monologue. "Sorry. It seems I won't ever be able to be your comrade."
I used the last of my strength to grab Amelia's wrist as she turned around. "You... what are... you trying... to do?"
Amelia did not answer. She just pried my hand off, then put on her equipment piece by piece with a grim look on her face. She looked like she was about to go to battle.
"Open the drawer when you wake up."
That was the last thing I remembered.
***
Amelia Rainwales looked into the mirror. Then she straightened her clothes and brushed back her hair. That revealed the scar on her ear, which had been cut a long time ago. It was a wound that would definitely have become a flaw if she wished to live a typical woman's life, but as it stood, she couldn't even call this a loss. She'd had to sacrifice much more than this to stand here today.
For some reason, however, she was finding it difficult to leave. Why? Amelia stood in front of the mirror and took stock of her emotions. It wasn't because she was afraid. After that fated day, life became nothing more than a means to an end for her—and that was still the case even if today changed nothing, meaning decades of effort in pursuit of a single goal would be for naught.
She was not afraid of failure. Rather, that in itself would be almost salvation. While she had been sprinting toward the future without stopping, she had desperately looked forward to this day. At the very least, she could hold onto the fact that she never gave up trying to protect her. Then what was it? What on earth was holding her back?
Amelia turned around, and there was the sleeping barbarian. The strained expression he wore as he asked her what she planned to do was gone and he was even snoring, dead to the world.
Step, step.
Amelia walked over to the bed and opened the drawer to the nightstand. Then she placed the note she had written earlier inside and turned around. At that moment, she remembered a conversation she had a few months ago.
"If I succeed in saving your sister and take care of the logistical hurdles once we return to our time..."
"...Yes?"
"Then join my clan."
Even the memory of his offer was absurd. It made no sense, realistically. But if she were to let herself imagine it for a moment... it would have been quite enjoyable. Every day she spent exploring the labyrinth with this foolish man would have been full of all kinds of surprises. Yes, no doubt...
"Ah..."
It was then that Amelia realized why she couldn't move her feet. It was out of regret—a lingering regret about a future that would never come to pass.
But feelings were just feelings. If her feet were heavy, she just had to apply more force to move them. She couldn't stop walking.
Creak.
She took a moment to catch her breath in front of the door and then turned the doorknob hard. When she stepped out, she could see the chaos had already begun.
"F-Fire!"
Flames were rising in the eastern district. Amelia quickly moved through the crowd of people that filled the street. Although she had lied to that man and said that it was tomorrow night, D-Day was actually today.