Ch.198Overwrite

I opened my eyes. No light entered between my open eyelids.

“…Did it work?”

I looked around. A space completely dark and shrouded in blackness. That was where I had entered. No matter where I looked, there was only black—a place that perfectly reflected Olivia’s mental state.

It meant my prediction had been spot on.

I had anticipated that Olivia would act that way at the end. That before I could overwrite her with another personality, she would make one final desperate move—releasing the time lock, cutting off her arm, and creating a new one.

The nominal reason for embracing her body was to increase the probability of success, but the real purpose was to show Olivia a vulnerability.

When completely replacing a personality from its roots, how could it be done without touching the soul? I made Olivia touch my soul, and I touched hers—that was the success.

Given Olivia’s personality, she would definitely try to destroy my heart the moment I embraced her, so I had planned ahead with that prediction in mind.

I had wondered what I would do if she quietly accepted her fate, but Olivia was still Olivia.

“Now I need to find her.”

The only surviving Olivia—the final Olivia who couldn’t even control her outer self. The Olivia from when she first met me.

I walked aimlessly through the empty darkness. From here on, it was purely a matter of luck. If I was lucky, I’d find her quickly; if not, I’d wander for a long time.

I examined the area around my heart. It was still in the blackened state just before being reconstructed with dark mana. Discolored blood vessels spread like cobwebs across my skin.

There was only one reason why Olivia, who could destroy a heart and reconstruct it while keeping a human alive—wielding power close to a creator god—couldn’t kill this last remaining one.

Because it was the Olivia who first met me.

Without that first meeting, the present wouldn’t exist. Olivia knew this too, which is why she left this one last person while jealously slaughtering all the other Olivias from different timelines.

It was a simple matter. If there hadn’t been a Charlotte who met me just before being captured by her brother, would the current Charlotte exist?

If there hadn’t been a Christine who was offered to the Holy Church as a saint and raised in extreme abuse during her childhood, would the current Christine exist?

If there hadn’t been a Serena who struggled to live in a mansion with only her mother, would the current Serena exist?

These were questions related to fundamental causality. A fundamental cause and effect that would have been impossible to change even if it had been given to Serena, Charlotte, or Christine instead of Olivia.

Because they experienced those pasts, they met me, and because they met me, they gained power.

If the past were erased, the power would disappear too—an impossibility designed to prevent the paradox of erasing the past with power that no longer exists.

“Found her.”

After wandering aimlessly for who knows how long, I spotted the silhouette of a girl in the distance. She was wearing tattered rags and staring blankly into the darkness.

Her hair was black, long and voluminous enough to drag on the ground and cover about half her body.

The girl heard my footsteps and turned around with unfocused eyes. When our eyes met, she was startled and hurriedly tried to tidy her clothes and fix her hair.

Her hair was too long to be managed with just fingers, and her clothes were nothing but rags, so there wasn’t much to tidy up.

“…”

Seeming to realize this, the girl hung her head low and fidgeted nervously.

“Do we really need such formality between us?”

“…I’m sorry.”

“I didn’t say you should apologize. I was trying to make you smile.”

I raised my hand and gently stroked her head. The girl—Olivia from the time not long after we first met—flinched as soon as she felt the warmth of my palm on her head.

But she didn’t pull away. She trembled her eyebrows slightly as if enjoying it, savoring the warmth on the crown of her head.

“You know why I came here, don’t you, Olivia?”

Nod. Instead of answering, Olivia nodded her head slightly up and down. This Olivia had probably witnessed everything the outer Olivia had done so far.

“Then, you also know what I’m going to ask of you?”

“…Yes.”

Again, the answer came only after some hesitation. This was how Olivia was when we first met. Not anymore, but back then.

Olivia raised her head. Her face and upper body, hidden by her long hair, were revealed.

Hideously distorted skin that gave me goosebumps. A black, empty hole where her right eye should have been. A completely ruined right side of her body.

Looking closely, her features were undeniably beautiful, but the terribly burned scars and various wounds not only diminished that beauty but dragged it below zero.

The burn scars that had consumed all her skin didn’t just cover her face but half her body. Olivia’s entire right side was covered in burns. In some places, the muscles beneath the skin were visible.

Olivia anxiously gazed at me with her one remaining eye, and when she saw no change in my expression, she finally relaxed, closed her eyes, and enjoyed the sensation of my palm.

Despite telling her countless times that after all the suicide attempts and horrors she’d experienced, these scars and burns meant nothing to me. The past Olivia was always like this.

The stroking continued for a long time. Only after confirming that Olivia let out a satisfied sigh—”Haaah”—did I remove my hand. Happiness shone in her narrowly opened eyes.

Olivia fidgeted with her fingers in front of her chest and spoke.

“Th-thank you.”

“For what?”

“For… stroking my head.”

“You don’t need to thank me for that.”

“I still want to thank you. It’s my feeling, so I get to decide.”

Having just seen the Olivia outside who was consumed by madness and calling my name, the contrast with this docile and kind Olivia was jarring. I unconsciously rubbed my arm.

Seeing her fidgeting with her fingers, I casually extended my left hand. Olivia quickly tried to grasp it but stopped mid-air when she saw the condition of her right hand.

She seemed to be wondering if it was okay to hold my hand with hers, which was horribly disfigured with keloids covering her right side, various scars, and missing skin.

Inwardly sighing, I took the initiative and interlaced our fingers. Olivia was startled and reflexively tried to pull her hand away, but then seemed to think better of it and relaxed.

I could feel her kneading my hand in our interlaced grip. The skin was very rough, but her movements were deeply infused with joy.

After focusing on our interlaced hands for a while, Olivia raised her head and met my eyes.

“…What do I need to do?”

“Nothing grand. Just be prepared. The resolve to accept all of Olivia’s memories as your own. That’s enough.”

“…”

The Olivia before me could be free from the atrocities committed by the only other remaining Olivia.

Because while the past can influence the future, the future cannot influence the past. The relationship between the two Olivias was essentially one-sided.

But if she accepted my request, things would change.

By accepting all the memories while maintaining continuity, the atrocities Olivia had committed would become her own actions. Despite having no actual connection to them.

“I’m… prepared. Because in the end, that’s still me.”

Olivia wore a resolute expression. Given that she knew what the other Olivia had done, this required considerable determination.

The fellow mages at my tower had treated Olivia as a colleague, but Olivia, driven mad by love, betrayed that kindness and killed them one by one with her own hands.

Olivia squeezed our interlaced hands. Then, pulling up the corners of her mouth, she formed a faint smile.

It was only half a smile since the burned side of her face barely moved, but it was enough.

“…May I ask for just one thing?”

Constantly fidgeting with her fingers, Olivia timidly asked a question.

“Alright. What is it?”

“Even if I’m overwritten… please don’t hate me too much. I’ve done wrong, so you don’t need to love me. You don’t need to stroke my head, hold my hand, or embrace me like now. Just let me watch from afar. I promise I won’t approach you. Just… just… please allow me to look at you. That’s enough for me.”

I froze for a moment at those words, then let out a deep sigh and flicked her forehead with my right hand. A crisp sound rang out as my finger hit Olivia’s forehead.

“Ouch?!”

“Olivia.”

“…Yes?”

Olivia clutched her forehead with a pained expression, then startled at my low voice, she looked at me cautiously. She probably wondered what she had said wrong.

She had said something wrong. Very wrong.

“As long as you remain Olivia, I won’t hate you. Of course, once you overwrite the memories, you’ll become the same person. But that doesn’t change your essence. You are always you, Olivia. I guarantee that.”

I didn’t care if I was accused of interpreting things to suit myself—saying one moment that maintaining memory continuity makes someone the same person, and the next that they’re different. I was indeed interpreting things as I pleased.

What I wanted was to quell the rampaging Olivia outside, not to leave an innocent Olivia to live her life crushed by guilt.

Being the same person yet not the same person. That was enough.

“Master…”

Tears welled up in Olivia’s intact eye.

“Ah, wait. Let’s change how you address me. Not ‘Master.’ I need a way to distinguish between you and the other Olivia outside.”

“…Then?”

“Call me by my name. Once you overwrite Olivia, the curse on my name will naturally be lifted. It seems it’s time to teach my name to the others too.”

Even after my name received a terrible curse that allowed only Olivia to call it, she never addressed me by name.

She said the day she would call me by name would be after she destroyed the entire world and created a paradise with only her and me.

So, a form of address that Olivia would never use. That would be the perfect marker to distinguish between them.

Olivia carefully nodded.

“Alright, Master, no…”

And then, moving her half-burned lips, she spoke.

“…Abel.”