chapter_0141

There, sitting on the bed, was Elder Lich. No, she wasn’t just sitting there; she was as unresponsive as a doll. Her unfocused eyes didn’t blink at all, and she didn’t respond even when the Chairman prodded her.

“She’s been like this since I brought her. She still has the Life Vessel, but she doesn’t react to any external stimuli at all. What happened to you, child?”

I hesitated for a moment, wondering how much to tell her, and then shared the information about the magic Elder Lich had used, from its purpose to its mechanism.

The reason I was able to do this was because I had slightly misunderstood the magic, and instead of a one-way memory sharing, it had become a two-way sharing, allowing Elder Lich’s thoughts to flow into me as well.

“A magic specifically designed to break the Sword Saint… I never would have guessed.”

“She thought that without the Sword Saint, the rest of humanity wouldn’t matter.”

“Yes. Did you withstand the magic, interpret it, and turn it back on her?”

“Yes. She couldn’t take it for long. If the mind breaks inside, it never comes back, so maybe that’s what happened to her.”

At least there was no lie in what I had just said. Elder Lich couldn’t handle the memory of death, and she didn’t expect to experience the pain herself. After all, the memory of death was mine.

“I see…”

Suddenly, the Chairman teared up and hugged me.

“Ah, child… The memories of the undead… How painful it must have been… How hurt you must have been… It’s okay. You can let go and lean on me as much as you want…”

It was a shocking experience in a completely different sense than being painful or hurtful, but I couldn’t say that here, and I knew what response I would get if I said it was okay, so I just sat quietly in her arms.

Anyway, no matter how many times he said it was okay, she wouldn’t really listen. She would just think I was trying to be strong and endure it on my own.

‘I don’t really mind, though.’

The Chairman hugged me for almost an hour, patting and comforting me, before finally letting go. The heat from my face, which had been buried between her breasts for so long, was palpable.

“What should we do with that? Feel free to dispose of it as you wish, child. It’s yours, after all.”

The Chairman pointed with her long fingers at Elder Lich.

“What about the undead on the front lines?”

“They’re still rushing towards humans, but unlike before, they’re not suddenly emerging from the ground or showing intelligent, organized movements. They’re moving as slowly as corpses now, and the number of Death Knights has decreased significantly.”

It seemed that without Elder Lich to give them orders, their organization had weakened, and Leona could finally breathe a sigh of relief.

“What if we kill her?”

“Hmm… I don’t know. She won’t crumble and disappear, so it will either go berserk or stay the same. I can’t be sure since this is my first time experiencing this.”

“Then for now, I’ll keep the possibility of going berserk in mind. Since the undead are moving slowly anyway, it doesn’t really matter if we kill it now or later.”

The first thing to keep in mind was that there was absolutely no intention of letting that thing live. This was just a matter of whether to kill it now or later, not a choice between killing it or letting it live.

Rather than hesitating like Dullahan, Elder Lich was the kind to rush into a suicidal last stand, so there was no need to hesitate.

‘I wonder how Dullahan is doing.’

The number of undead with Demon Swords couldn’t be infinite, and eventually, the relationship between demons and humans would have to return to the way it was. One of them had to die.

Nika was a very special case; Dullahan would choose to die in a last stand rather than surrender to humans. After all, he was the kind of guy who had been acting like that solely out of loyalty to the Demon King.

“Uh… Child?”

As I was thinking about what to do next, the Chairman, who had been fidgeting ever since our conversation ended, cautiously came over and took my hand.

“Do you need anything else? You can just lie down and rest, child. There might still be injuries that haven’t healed… I’ll stay by your side and take care of you…”

She rambled on, but what she really wanted to say was simple. She wanted to take care of me.

“What do you want to do for me?”

“Well, I don’t want to… I mean, of course I do, but… It’s just that…”

Each word was dripping with desire, no denying it. Raising a human awakened maternal instincts, but with no outlet to express them, she had been piling them up for 130 years. Finally meeting someone she could truly let it out with, her instincts took precedence over her rationality.

“Alright. Let’s take a break. It’s the right timing anyway.”

Nika returned to being a maid, and since the Elder Lich was effectively finished, there was nothing to do until the Dullahan initiated a conversation again. There was still some time before the final exams for the subjects I was taking. If not now, then when would I rest?

“Is that really true?!”

The director’s face lit up.

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“Thank you, Beatrice. Now I know how much you’ve been taking care of me normally. I finally understand what it means to lose one’s dignity as a human. If you hadn’t stopped me, it could have been a big deal.”

“……What are you talking about all of a sudden, Young Master?”

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Elder Lich’s affairs were all settled, but there was one last thing to take care of. During the memory sharing with that thing, there was something from my past that I couldn’t quite understand.

To be honest, it was a mystery to me as well. How could there be something from the first world that I couldn’t remember?

If it was a memory created by that thing, then Elder Lich’s mind would have been broken by the fear she felt, which was an absurd conclusion, so I had to assume it wasn’t.

“……So. I want to ask you guys. If I sealed my memories, why did I do it? And why did I seal only a part of them instead of all of them?”

Fortunately, I didn’t have to struggle with this dilemma as a lone reincarnator. After hearing my question, Priscilla, Rosalia, Laura, and Elysier each fell into deep thought.

“It’s possible that you didn’t want to experience too much shock”

Laura, who had experience with memory sealing, was the first to speak up.

“Think about it. You still don’t want to remember the old days. If you had to seal your memories, you would have sealed them all, not just a part of them. In that situation, if a trigger suddenly activated and you regained all your memories, what would you do? Can you be sure you wouldn’t crumble?”

“I… I don’t know.”

“You see. You yourself are not sure about it. That’s why you sealed only a part of your memories. I found out who you are, but just like the memories of the 1700 loops that haven’t been recovered yet, the memories of the past are still missing.”

“Or it could have been someone else’s will, not yours.”

Elysier suddenly cut in. Laura glared at Elysier for a moment, but finished what she wanted to say and reluctantly gave up her seat.

“Not my will?”

“The Laura I’ve been watching doesn’t shy away from the past, even if it’s painful. Except for one thing. However, there was no need to go out of your way to seal a memory that wasn’t particularly painful. So, it’s possible that someone else’s will intervened.”

That made sense. The memories Elder Lich saw weren’t particularly painful, so what was the standard? There were quite a few questions about what the criteria were.

“Or maybe someone tried to seal all your memories, but you resisted and only a part of them were sealed. Who, why, and for what purpose they did it, we’ll have to find out little by little. Your explanation made it sound like a god descending to the earth, but who would be powerful enough to seal the memories of such a being?”

“Wow, then what the hell is that crazy guy?”

Rosalia stuck out her tongue. Elysier calmly finished his sentence.

“Nothing is certain yet, so just think of it as another possibility. What do you think, Rosalia?”

“Hmm… I agree with Elysier. I think it’s more likely that it’s Laura’s side. When I saw how Mira looked when he remembered the past, I thought he wouldn’t have buried all his memories. Priscilla, what do you think?”

“I’m on Laura’s side. I don’t think there’s a stronger guy than the old Mira. Or maybe it’s something else, since that bonehead thought it was a seal.”

“If we start suspecting like that, there’s no end to it. However, as Priscilla said, we’ll have to filter it out a bit. After all, it’s just his thoughts.”

The three of them seriously discussed their opinions. It seemed that they were more concerned because it was related to me.

“……”

Everyone was deep in thought, except for Laura, who seemed to be lost in thought.

“Why?”

“I feel a sense of familiarity with your dilemma. But I don’t know exactly why.”

“Didn’t you say the same thing last time?”

“When I mentioned the Mana Breathing Technique, I felt the same way. I suspect that our situations are similar, since we both sealed our memories.”

“That might be the case.”

“That’s not just a possibility, it has to be. Otherwise, there would be another secret between you and me, and my head is already about to explode as it is.”

I stared at Laura, who was sitting with her legs crossed on the sofa. Laura looked at me, wondering why.

“Why are you taking my shirt then?”

“I can’t help it. I’ll give you one of my shirts to wear as you please. If you want, I can throw in garter belts and stockings as well.”

“……”