༺ The Eraser Within My Mind ༻
There exist two kinds of unknowns in the world. One is not knowing the answer, and the other is being unaware of not knowing. Though the latter may seem far more distant from us, surprisingly, we can find it close by.
Let’s revisit our memories. When you look back at your shining childhood of long ago, those days undoubtedly hold a splendid nostalgia that makes you special. Back then, you were the center of the world, the ruler of the loftiest dreams, and the protagonist of a grand epic.
Yet, the trivialities buried beneath those brilliant memories don’t reveal themselves. The mundane, like the coolness of a sip of water on a certain morning or the sun-kissed scent rising from a pillow. These moments, while life-enriching, are extremely hard to remember. They’ll sink below the mind’s surface, never to emerge again.
You can’t even attempt to recall such details until someone mentions them. And even then, any remembrance isn’t the true memory, merely an imagination stitched together with the fabric of your experiences up to the present. Such is the nature of the abyss of memories—generous, yet heartless.
So no one should be able to blame me, even if I can’t remember something nobody points out.
“Wait, Mr. Shei.”
“Huh?”
“Aren’t we forgetting something?”
The regressor scowled as she retorted.
“You’re talking like that again? Can’t you be straightforward?”
“Talking like what? What do you mean?”
“That damned way you replace subject, predicate, and object with ‘something’!”
Feeling a prick of conscience, I hastily gestured in denial, trying to make an excuse.
“That’s unfair. I genuinely can’t remember either! At least not this time!”
“Seems like you were aware, you rogue.”
I was devastated by the undeserved reprimand, but it wasn’t the time to fuss over something so small.
The officer’s package—given to her by ‘them’, to be opened when she needed a helper—contained a broad, fan-shaped leaf with a message written alongside it: [Remember whom you have forgotten.]
She had yet to remember, but the problem was that I also forgot “whom” the message referred to. Being a mind reader didn’t mean I could recall something I didn’t even know.
But something, something, tugged at the corner of my mind. Something pretty important that had slipped away.
I made every effort to recall the hazy memory.
“What could it possibly be? It’s related to you, Mr. Shei. Mr. Shei. Could you describe your characteristics for me?”
“What the heck’s gotten into you?”
“Because I’m in a hurry. Quickly.”
At my prodding, the regressor crossed her arms and fell into thought.
“My characteristics…?”
｢Regression… I can’t say that. A devourer of fortune, keeper of a treasury, and all gear no skill… Tsk. Why does only stuff like this come to mind?｣
At least her self-assessment was pretty honest. But as that wasn’t what I wanted to know, I began reciting the regressor’s characteristics one by one.
“Distrustful of humans, likes men, quick-tempered, amputee production manager…”
“Got a death wish? Of all the things to recall, why those?”
“Amputee production manager? Amputee production manager. Serial right arm killer. I figured it out. The right arm!”
“Are you sure? You’re just teasing me, aren’t you?”
Teasing? Did she think I was the type to randomly tease others?
Though I wanted to give her a piece of my mind, this wasn’t the time. I whipped around to face the regressor, raising my voice.
“The right arm! Where’s the right arm?!”
The regressor scrunched up her face.
“It’s on your right side. Why, want me to cut it and show you?”
“This isn’t the moment for jokes! The undying, Rasch! His right arm! Where is it?”
“…Undying?”
Finally realizing what I sought, the regressor brought up the undying from her memories. She remembered about his right arm rotted with curse, his scattered flesh, and how she had brewed a potion to heal him, submerging his arm in it.
But she had no memory of taking the healed arm back out, which was only natural—she’d completely forgotten about the arm after dunking it in potion!
The regressor sighed.
“Oh. I forgot.”
“Forgot? How could you forget that?!”
As I cried out in astoundment, the regressor ran her fingers through her hair, appearing bewildered as she gave a timid reply.
“W-well. I put it in a potion to heal him, you see. But wouldn’t you want to forget as well if that arm keeps flopping around?”
“You sure are talented! Doesn’t it move over on two fingers and tap at you when it’s unhappy? How’d you let that slip your mind?”
“I mean, the curse wasn’t lifted but the arm kept trying to come out of the potion tank so…”
“So?”
The way her eyes darted around, she resembled Azzy after causing a mess. What the heck had she done?
“I chained it up and sank it under.”
“Sank it?”
Even if I wouldn’t have done that. She’d take the cake for being radical alright.
“Well, fine. Let’s assume that’s okay. Still, you must’ve seen it at some point while coming and going!”
“No, uh, the healing potion stank so I left it in a secluded room. And I put up a barrier to keep the smell from escaping…”
“Sorry, but is that really a curse removal? Isn’t it just a sealing ritual?”
Unbelievable. I thought I was living pretty planlessly, but the regressor was of a different breed that would toss away even existing plans.
During the three days I was trying to revive Tyr’s heart, the regressor was so curious about what I was doing that she neglected the undying and completely forgot about him!
I fixed the regressor with a frosty look.
“…Mr. Shei. Do you happen to dislike Mr. Rasch?”
“Er, actually, I can’t say I’m particularly fond of him.”
“Hm. So even though you like men, it doesn’t mean you have no taste.”
“Stop emphasizing stuff like that! I just forgot okay?!”
｢I did lock it up in too inconspicuous a place… The sight of that flopping right arm alone gave me illusions of that terrible corpse golem. And afterward, I was so preoccupied with Tyrkanzyaka’s heart that I had no mind to spare… I should reflect. I was too short-sighted.｣
So she did know how to reflect. The girl apparently still had the heart of a human.
Yeah, who cares? People can be forgetful sometimes. It’s absolutely not because I’d forgotten as well…
“Hold up! More importantly! You’re the one who used the undying’s arm! You should’ve remembered a bit!”
…Cancel that. This girl was a screwball who didn’t even know the meaning of reflection.
Sure, I also forgot. As the owner of Immortal Righty, I admit to being a teensy bit responsible. But you know…
“My situation was different from yours, Mr. Shei.”
“What excuse are you gonna make? We both forgot in the end!”
“But back then, I was trying to revive Tyr’s heart, and I almost died while losing my own identity. You expect me to remember some man’s dirty right arm?”
“…Well.”
“I even left a note, considering I might lose my memory. But what about you Mr. Shei? Didn’t you keep your wits just fine?”
“…”
“If you have anything to say, go ahead, Mr. Shei. I think I’m gonna have to weigh your conscience today. I bet it’ll come just around Chun-aeng’s weight.”
She was on the hook now.
The regressor crossed her arms, putting on airs for nothing, and smoothly turned to point outside, avoiding answering.
“I sealed the right arm in the laborers’ quarters over in that corner. Well, it’s not urgent, is it?”
“It’s way late, but let’s go have a look.”
I went in the direction she pointed.
The laborers’ quarters had dozens of generic-looking doors lining the corridor. Some were broken, and others had completely fallen off, but even such traces of destruction lacked any uniqueness because they could be seen everywhere. Without senses as keen as Azzy, it’d be hard to find something hidden somewhere in this place.
“This way.”
The regressor opened one of the doors at the end of the corridor. The moment I stepped inside, I was hit by a wave of hot air along with the pungent odor of herbs. Beyond the hazy smoke filling the room, I saw a square tank in chains, placed on a bed. I fumbled my way forward to confirm its contents.
In the tank, the undying’s right arm was submerged in a boiling, transparent potion. At first glance, it resembled an ancient ritual underway.
As I turned wordlessly to face the regressor, she averted her gaze, clearly at a loss for words herself.
I pointed at the tank and began to talk.
“You left it here all this time?”
“…Mhm. I only had to remove the curse, so there was no need for anything else.”
“Seems like the curse is completely lifted.”
“Yeah… Seems like it.”
“Why didn’t you take it out?”
“I… forgot.”
“Ugh, you blockhead.”
“What?!”
Musing that the girl sure was sensitive to certain words, I set about releasing the chains wrapped around the whole tank. With each loop of the chain I freed, the undying’s right arm flopped with increasing vigor.
“Wait just a second, Righty. I shall set you fre—”
But the moment I was about to take the chain off, the right arm seized the opportunity of its loosened bindings and sprang out of the potion like a carp, smacking the bridge of my nose.
“Gagh!”
While I was momentarily stunned, the right arm swiftly landed on the ground and scurried away on two fingers.
Holding my smarting nose, I cried out.
“Mr. Shei! Catch it!”
“Mm?”
But the regressor had moved out of the right arm’s way, evading it. The arm escaped the room and started sprinting down the corridors in the blink of an eye.
I hastily got up and raised my voice resentfully.
“You just let it go?!”
“It’s a bit gross so… Why though? The arm will go looking for its owner anyway. Weren’t you intending to bring the undying back to life?”
“That’s what I intended to do! Before she interfered!”
“Huh? What do you mean?”
“No time to explain! Where is Mr. Rasch’s body now?”
“In the classroom cabinet.”
“Why’d you put it there of all places?! That makes it look like you’re trying to hide a corpse!”
I immediately rushed to the classroom, while the regressor followed me cluelessly. We rushed down the corridors without pausing for breath, following the right arm’s fingerprints.
Upon arriving, we discovered the officer standing in front of the cabinet with a package in hand, and the right arm bouncing off the wall to fly toward the undying.
“Holy crap, the arm’s flying.”
I absentmindedly mumbled to myself: with that level of physical control, it might even pull off a triple-disc catch.
Meanwhile, the right arm stuck right to undying’s shoulder and began to transfer the abundant life essence it had absorbed from the regressor’s special healing potion. It looked like a gigantic syringe was being injected into the undying’s shoulder.
With each substantial contraction of the swollen right arm, the essence it contained flowed into the undying’s body. And as the undying’s flesh accepted that energy and let it course through his veins, vitality began to return to him.
Then all of a sudden, the undying’s eyes snapped open.
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