148. Facing (5)
“Wow, it’s snowing outside······!”
“Mijung.”
“Hmm?”
“Do you remember? We passed by here together.”
“When are you talking about? I don’t know because it’s not a road we’ve only passed by once or twice.”
A deep valley with snow falling.
The transcontinental train was crossing the bridge of the strait connecting the northern and southern continents.
Mijung seemed to find the sight amazing, and she stuck to the window and exclaimed in admiration before turning to me and smiling.
It was the first time I had seen her like this.
Mijung, who always sat still and blankly stared out the window.
Now, she was as excited as a child.
“It seems like it’s the first time you’ve reacted like this.”
“But it’s cool even if I see it many times? It’s the first time I’ve come when it’s snowing!”
“Huh······.”
Somehow, every time we passed the strait, she would stare out at the scenery.
Was she this happy inside?
I felt a little sorry that I hadn’t seen this side of Mijung until now.
Closing my eyes for a moment.
Just in case, I called up the stat window.
But as I expected.
The guardian knight was still not activated.
“Mijung.”
“What again?”
“Memories······ Do you want to get them back?”
“Me? Well. Do I want to get them back? I’m so, so happy right now, but if I go back······ Hmm······.”
Mijung laughed and grabbed my hand.
She really looked happy, with that kind of face.
Mijung closed her eyes and leaned against me.
“But if Eugene needs me······. It’s okay to turn back. I’m happiest when Eugene needs me.”
“If I hear that, I won’t be able to turn back.”
“Oh, is that so? hehehe. I’m sorry, Eugene. I made you feel guilty. It’s really strange. Memories are just a collection of information. It’s not even recent, but when you erase a little bit of memories from long ago, you become a different person······.”
Mijung’s fingers penetrated between my knuckles.
Mijung sniffed and swallowed as if she was sobbing slightly, and then she faced me.
With those red, clear eyes.
She looked at me and said.
“Turn it back, Eugene. The old me would have wanted that too.”
“You? What do you want to do?”
“That doesn’t matter, does it?”
“······.”
Mijung laughed, evading the answer.
That doesn’t matter.
It was true.
The thoughts of someone who would soon disappear didn’t matter at all.
It’s true.
Obviously······.
.
.
.
“This is it. Here, you can use magic to revive the memories stored in your brain.”
“What······. Do you need such a grand machine?”
“Because a vampire’s brain is more delicate and complex than a human’s.”
“Wow······.”
Basement of the White Magic Tower.
At the end of the long corridor, a door opened.
A spherical room covered with white tiles on all sides was revealed.
Mijung’s mouth dropped open.
“Let me introduce you. This is a device called ‘Alma’. It’s originally a machine for looking into people’s souls, but if you adjust the settings, you can also look into the brain. This facility was built to materialize the memories you look into into reality. I’ll restore them right away once you find the memories you want to revive and materialize them.”
“Do I have to materialize it?”
“It’s an essential process.”
“······.”
Eugene’s expression distorted.Temulen looked at Eugene with a secret sneer.
Of course, it was a lie.
It was possible to restore memories with a relatively simple procedure, and there was no need to implement memories.
‘What will he do?’
If he implements the memory, the erased memory will unfold vividly as if it were at that time.
Will he be able to proudly display the past of this vampire?
If this guy is the great devil, he will say that he cannot use ‘Alma’ for fear that the fact will be revealed.
Otherwise, he would have come forward confidently.
“Don’t worry. I won’t leak what I see here to the outside. Of course, that’s the basics.”
“It’s a little unpleasant, but it’s okay. I can’t help it because I’m asking you.”
Eugene, who is surprisingly docile.
I wondered if there was really no dirty corner.
No. Maybe it’s because there isn’t much important information in this vampire’s memory.
It was forbidden to be relieved.
The methods of intelligent monsters that invaded from the afterlife were truly beyond imagination.
In the case of the spider monster, he tried to control the world tree, and in the case of the necromancer, he acted as a cardinal and almost destroyed the old capital of the holy kingdom.
No one knows what new methods will emerge.
“Lie down here and connect to Alma. I’ll quickly go from present to past, but you may be shocked in the process, so be prepared.”
“Huh… Eugene. I’m scared…”
“It’ll be fine. It’ll be over soon.”
“Can’t you hold my hand?”
“Yes…”
“It’s possible for two people to connect together. If your mental strength is weak, it is very difficult to increase the time speed to turn back the past. If someone who can reassure you connects with you, you will be able to turn it more smoothly.”
“Then let’s go in together.”
I’m hooked.
Temulen secretly cheered inside.
If two people connect together, the implementation of their common memory becomes easier and more detailed.
What I’m looking at is the memory of a girl vampire, but I can get specific information about the man’s past.
“Then let’s get started.”
The two held hands and lay down side by side.
The wires that sprang up from the floor crawled and attached electrodes to their heads.
Soon, my eyes closed.
Alma’s panel lit up and the memories of the past began to be ‘implemented’.
.
.
.
The implementation of memory…
I imagined something like a simple hologram or a screen.
What unfolded before us was something completely different from such expectations.
“What…”
The view of the surroundings, which had been all white panels, changes.
A lush forest.
The sound of birds chirping from all directions and the sound of bushes brushing in the wind can be heard.
Sunlight pours through the lush leaves.
I slowly move my body.
Then my body rises naturally.
I was soon able to face ‘me lying down’.
It feels like I’m out of body.
Then, the one lying down is the main body, and this body is implemented as an illusion magic…
The fact that it is so vivid is unbelievable.
‘Not only the five senses, but also the sixth sense…’
Not only the sight and sound, but also the feeling of touching the body is the same as reality.
It doesn’t stop there, and you can feel the magic and magic flow all around.
If I had opened my eyes here without knowing anything, I would have definitely mistaken it for reality.”Eugene······!”
At that moment, a hoarse voice was heard from beyond the bushes.
Mijung ran over and hugged me tightly.
Her body was trembling.
It seemed that she was very surprised by the ‘materialization’ that was much more realistic than she had thought.
[This place is where you can adjust your sensitivity. How is it different from reality?]
“Not at all. There’s no way to tell the difference from reality. If I get trapped here, I’ll die without even thinking about getting out.”
[hahahahaha. That’s inevitable.]
The old man’s voice was heard from the sky.
No. More precisely, it was heard from everywhere.
I couldn’t figure out where the sound was coming from.
It felt like the voice was echoing from inside me.
[Then I’ll rewind your memory now. Let’s make physical contact.]
“What?”
“Huh······!”
[No, I meant to hold hands······. Well, whatever.]
Mijung bit my forearm tightly.
Her trembling subsided as if she was comforted by the flesh that filled her mouth.
Now we were ready.
The moment I stroked Mijung’s head with my other hand.
The scenery of the forest that had surrounded us on all sides began to change.
‘This is······.’
Time was rewinding.
Mijung and I, who had been lying down, got up and walked backwards, leaving ‘Alma’.
We got on the elevator and went up, then went down to the first floor and walked backwards out of the white pagoda.
The rewind speed gradually increased.
At some point, the scenes passed by so quickly that it was hard to follow them with my eyes.
In between, for a brief moment.
The memories of Mijung and I together flashed by like a revolving lantern.
‘That’s why I hated it······.’
It was an unpleasant feeling.
It was more unpleasant than I thought to see myself through the eyes of another person.
Now that I see it, I was already treating Mijung preciously since the time I said I wouldn’t give her my heart.
There was never a moment when I thought of Mijung as an object, not even for a moment since the day we first met.
It felt like she could see all of my true face.
“Please rewind it faster!”
The speed accelerated even more.
Now the scenes were rewinding so fast that they were unrecognizable.
But strangely enough, some moments were captured well and flew by.
The common denominator of those scenes was that they were moments when Mijung and I were together.
It was as if some kind of force was acting to pick out and capture only those scenes.
I couldn’t help but watch, even though I didn’t want to.
Even if I closed my eyes or covered my ears, those memories were etched in my mind and projected forcibly.
From Noble mtl dot com
The moment Mijung lit a fire with magic and walked through the dark dungeon.
The everyday moments when Mijung sucked my blood.
The moment Mijung practiced the True Law with a concentrated expression.
The moment Mijung came out of Kali’s Celestial Plate Armor and cried in my arms.
The moment we first met.
Those moments were coming together to create a single picture.
There were no sad memories in it.
“As the speed increases, strange scenes are captured and remain as afterimages. What is this?”
[You don’t have to worry about it. Usually, only one or two scenes will remain, so don’t worry, it’s a natural phenomenon.]
“There are already hundreds of scenes? What is this?”
[Huh? That’s······. That’s strange······. The scenes that are captured as afterimages during the process of rewinding the past are memories that the subject cherishes very much.]
“······.”
Only then did I realize why Mijung, whose past memories had been erased, had such a cheerful personality.From the moment she joined me,
Mijung had been cherishing each and every day as a precious memory.
At that moment, the images that had been flashing by like a revolving lantern suddenly stopped.
The rewind had stopped.
A village where even the grass swaying in the wind, the birds flying, and the people were all frozen in place.
Time had stopped in the scenery of that strange village.
[From here on, it’s a past memory that has been erased from consciousness and sunk deep down. If you look beyond this, your memory will be restored and rise to consciousness. Memories that you have forgotten naturally over time, and memories that you have refused to recognize because they were painful, will all come back to life and you will never be able to erase them again. What will you do?]
I felt the strength of her hand holding mine increase slightly.
When I turned to look, Mijung, who had her eyes tightly shut, slowly opened them.
Her face, which had been pale and white, was flushed.
The pupils that had been glowing with a red light were now pitch black.
Before she became a vampire.
In other words, the appearance of a living human.
Mijung, like that, let go of my hand, gently grabbed my hand, and whispered.
“Let’s go, Eugene.”
Once we pass this point,
The cheerful Mijung will disappear.
Whether she knows it or not, Mijung just looks at me and gives an unnatural smile.