Ch.74Memory Alteration

“Christine. Don’t make any moves from now on. Whatever they say to me, or to you. Ignore everything. Got it?”

“Yes, my Lord and God.”

“Just… stay here and pray quietly. If you behave, I’ll let you burst my heart later.”

At my words, Christine’s face filled with ecstasy. Her cheeks flushed red, and her eyes looking at me welled up with rapture.

Neither the one promising to let someone burst their heart, nor the one delighted by such an offer, could be considered particularly normal.

“Ah, to bestow such excessive grace upon this humble lamb… I am overwhelmed by your mercy…”

Leaving Christine behind, trembling and crossing her legs in excitement, I walked toward where the Royal Knights had gathered. As I approached, I assessed the atmosphere among them.

As expected, the mood was far from pleasant.

‘Given Christine’s personality, she probably didn’t treat them kindly, which would have been the first problem.’

And above all, that arm.

Alesia’s eyes turned toward me as she heard my approach. I ignored her and carefully examined the female knight whose arm had been torn off.

The cross-section was a mess. It wasn’t cleanly cut but showed signs of being forcibly ripped away. The torn arm was nowhere to be seen.

Christine’s doing, no doubt.

I didn’t need to look further. If she had been attacked by a Black Blood monster, her entire body would have rotted away before she could even experience such pain.

And it was hard to believe that royal knights would suffer such serious injuries from other monsters, which left only one culprit.

“Stop right there.”

With a swift motion, Alesia pointed her sword at my throat. The tip stopped just in front of my Adam’s apple. Her gaze was murderous.

Not just Alesia, but the other knights’ eyes weren’t friendly either. I couldn’t tell if their expressions conveyed wariness or anger.

The only certainty was that they seemed ready to stab my throat if I said the wrong thing.

Not that it would kill me anyway.

“Who are you? I don’t recall seeing your face when we first arrived.”

“I was trapped inside a monster’s stomach. That nun over there saved me.”

The moment I mentioned “that nun,” referring to Christine, the atmosphere shifted dramatically.

If the previous mood had been uncertain about whether to treat me as an enemy, now they were definitely on guard against me.

I thought I’d done a good job keeping Christine from causing trouble, but apparently not. It seemed she had already done her share of damage while I was inside the monster.

Still, just tearing off an arm was quite restrained by Christine’s standards. Normally, it would have been a neck rather than an arm.

“Would you mind lowering your sword so we can talk? As you can see, I’m just an unarmed adventurer. I don’t think I warrant such hostility from knights like yourselves.”

To emphasize my lack of hostile intent, I raised both hands to head level. Alesia’s eyes quickly scanned my waist and palms.

“I don’t believe you. If you were inside a monster’s stomach, how can you be so unharmed? You don’t have a single scratch.”

“Because I was rescued before being digested.”

“Don’t talk nonsense.”

But it’s not nonsense, it’s the truth.

My hyper-regeneration ability prevented the monster from digesting me, so I was indeed rescued by Christine before being digested, but she wouldn’t believe that.

“And if that crazy… nun saved you, that makes you even less trustworthy to us. Do you truly not know what she did?”

“What did she do?”

“Look behind you. We came to rescue people, and suddenly an arm gets ripped off. Why should we trust someone who sides with that nun?”

“I never said I was on her side.”

Alesia snorted at that.

“I remember clearly what the nun said. Something about carrying a god and where we thought we were going. I remember her babbling that to us monsters. And you said you came out of a monster’s stomach. Even a fool could figure out who that nun’s god might be.”

Did Christine really say that?

At this point, there was nothing more I could say. The Royal Knights now viewed me the same way they viewed Christine, and further verbal persuasion seemed futile.

Given enough time, it might be possible. But Alesia wasn’t in the mood to give me that time.

No choice then. I’ll have to use the last resort.

“If that’s how it is, I have no choice.”

“Good decision. I won’t waste words, so immediatelyㅡ”

“Charlotte.”

With a jolt, Alesia’s body stiffened as I called Charlotte’s name. The life began to drain from her eyes. The other Royal Knights froze in the same manner.

I carefully pushed away the sword tip that had been at my throat. Alesia’s blade lowered compliantly.

I glanced back at Christine. I thought she might react to the name Charlotte, but she was on her knees, praying with tears streaming down her face.

No need to worry about her then. Reassured, I turned back to face Alesia’s cold, vacant eyes.

“You heard what they just said, right? Since things have turned out this way, let’s start over from the beginning. Erase their memories from when they first arrived here. Make them believe the destruction around here was caused by a monster horde…”

I was now speaking to Charlotte.

This doesn’t mean Charlotte had directly manifested here. That would inevitably lead to a confrontation with Christine and everything would fall apart.

It was thanks to the magic embedded in the Royal Knights’ armor. A spell that allowed Charlotte to freely alter the wearer’s mind and memories if she wished.

Every Royal Knight’s armor has this magic cast on it. Only Charlotte has the authority to activate it, and I refused when she offered me the same authority.

However, this magic doesn’t allow communication with distant subjects.

The knights’ minds went blank as soon as I called Charlotte because she was already watching me through observation magic.

I’ve strictly forbidden her from doing this normally, and she generally restrains herself, but in situations like this, it would be stranger if she weren’t watching.

She has the perfect excuse of observing the Royal Knights in battle.

Well, it’s a flimsy excuse that I pretend to accept. If I tried to block everything, I’d never hear the end of it.

For reference, Serena’s armor doesn’t have this magic.

Charlotte initially offered her armor with the spell, but Serena demanded a normal one, leading to a confrontation that nearly destroyed the palace if I hadn’t intervened in time.

“Is the memory alteration complete?”

Alesia’s head moved slightly up and down in a nod.

“Good job, Charlotte. Oh, one more thing. Can you reattach that torn arm?”

I said this because if her arm remained torn off, we’d have to modify the memories of why it happened, which would be twice as troublesome.

Even if it’s not fixed immediately, the royal mages will treat her when she returns to the palace, so she won’t have to live as a one-armed person.

Charlotte’s response was quick. A green light swirled around the empty shoulder, taking the shape of an arm.

By the time the green light faded, not only was the arm restored, but even the armor was completely repaired.

According to Charlotte’s explanation, it’s not so much healing or recovery as completely regenerating the damaged part, but I didn’t bother listening to the details.

If it were magic for destroying bodies, I might be interested, but what use would I have for healing magic?

After confirming the torn arm was perfectly restored, I made a final request.

“Don’t kill them when they return to the palace, okay?”

“…”

“You need to answer.”

Alesia nodded slowly, as if reluctantly. But it didn’t matter. Charlotte isn’t the type to lie.

She’s just the type who never lies, that’s all.

“Good. Now… let’s start over from the beginning.”

The memory alteration was extremely successful.

Alesia and her knights’ memories were changed so that they arrived late, after all the monsters had been killed, rather than meeting Christine earlier.

Their purpose for coming was also altered from exterminating Black Blood monsters to investigating unusual monster activity detected in the area.

As a result, Alesia had no reason to be wary of Christine and me. On the contrary, she developed a favorable impression because we had defeated the monsters before their arrival.

“So that nun burned all the monsters and purified the area? That’s amazing! I should at least greetㅡ”

“No, please don’t disturb her. She’s praying now, so it would be better to wait until she’s finished.”

There was one tense moment, but I managed to handle it smoothly.

This is a prayer she’s doing before bursting my heart. Who knows what Christine might do if someone interrupts that.

Everything went smoothly after that.

We returned to the city where we had purchased the carriage, escorted by the Royal Knights, and reported what had happened to the Adventurers’ Guild and the carriage rental shop.

The Adventurers’ Guild was shocked to learn that an A-rank party had all perished except for one member. The carriage rental shop reacted similarly.

The reason these people believed my story without question was largely due to Alesia’s help. Who would dare question something vouched for by the captain of the Royal Knights?

“It’s time for us to part ways. Before that, perhaps a handshakeㅡ”

“I’ll have to decline.”

Having completed her business in the city, Alesia offered a farewell. She seemed to have a very casual personality, even offering a handshake, which I politely refused.

My reason was the very proper and plausible explanation that a low-ranking adventurer like myself couldn’t presume to shake hands with the Royal Knights’ captain.

Of course, the real reason was that if our bodies made contact, I couldn’t guarantee Alesia’s fate after she returned to the palace.

Alesia and her knights would likely have all memories of meeting me completely erased as soon as they returned to the palace. Charlotte would make sure of that.

And if she had shaken hands with me on top of that? Before having her memories extracted, she would probably experience every pain a human could possibly endure.

If she had just been hostile or someone I’d met briefly in passing, I might not care, but Alesia had actively tried to help me, so I couldn’t let that happen to her.

It wasn’t out of any particular emotion.

Kindness for kindness, favor for favor. Alesia had shown me goodwill, so I returned it in kind.

“Christine, are you ready?”

“I am finished, my Lord. How about you, my God?”

“I don’t need to do anything special, do I?”

Next came Christine’s time. With an ecstatic expression, she squeezed my heart several times. She even brought her mouth to the blood flowing from my heart and drank it.

It was all pointless since everything would regenerate anyway, but Christine seemed to derive immense ecstasy from the act itself.

While drinking my blood, she also diligently tried to kill me using holy power. Setting aside whether it was even possible to kill me with holy power that originated from me.

After mangling my entire body throughout the night, Christine left, saying she needed to offer prayers of repentance for my mercy.

Her chilling promise to prepare a thousand new sacrifices was just a bonus.

Two weeks have passed since then.