Tilea's Worries

To have come this far! To have come this far!

It's frustrating.

Miless grits her teeth.

She had avoided the hundreds of magic bullets the Demon King fired by using high-speed thinking and time magic.

But for the Hiyou that appeared surrounding her on all sides...

Fight?

No. Neither physical attacks nor magic attacks worked on Hiyou.

The current me could find several ways to defeat them, but there's no time.

Then, run?

No. Hiyou relentlessly pursue those who know the truth no matter where they go.

There's no way to outrun them.

Fighting won't work.

Running won't work.

If I'm possessed by Hiyou now, it's over.

I won't be able to stop the Demon King's revival.

What should I do to protect Tilea, Timu, and other important people?

I rapidly accelerate my thoughts.

...

......

.........

...I have no choice.

I'll erase my own memories.

Hiyou prioritize possessing those who know the truth.

There are others here besides me who know the Demon King's true identity.

Elizabeth's intelligence agents who stubbornly cling to life despite suffering from the minor poison.

Those scum are intelligence agents.

Given their nature, they must have been listening to my conversation with the Demon King despite their suffering. All to greedily obtain information.

That's good.

Keeping them alive to prolong their suffering has proven fortunate.

If I erase my memories about the Demon King, the Hiyou will rush to those who know more information.

Memory erasure!

I voluntarily overheat my brain to wipe my memories.

After activating the technique, memories are deleted at a tremendous rate.

Memories of the Demon King.

Memories of the Human Queen.

Various battles and their life-and-death outcomes...

As if the memories of the past few days never existed.

Tilea, don't worry. I will, I will definitely save you.

...

......

.........

My eyes snapped open.

An unfamiliar blue sky.

When I woke up, I was lying in the middle of the main street.

Huh? What was I doing?

It feels like I've lost something important...

A dream?

I have no memory of the past few days.

Somehow, I feel like this keeps happening to me lately.

How far back can I remember?

My recent memories... Ah, that's right!

I had infiltrated Elizabeth's mansion.

Teaming up with Ortissio for something reckless akin to burglary.

I entered Elizabeth's mansion, and then...

My memory stops there.

Hmm, I feel like I experienced something terrifying.

Somehow I think so.

It's intuition.

No, I've actually lost my memory.

There's no doubt I went through something terrible.

Something terrible... I examine the clothes I'm wearing.

Yeah, I haven't been— no way!

Something was done to me!

Uwah! What is this?!

It looks like I've been through an incredible battle.

My uniform is in tatters.

It's cut diagonally. The threads are frayed terribly.

W-was I attacked?

Used for pleasure and then abandoned in the plaza?

The worst possibilities sent a chill down my spine.

I hugged myself, trembling.

Oh, but despite the damage to my clothes, my body doesn't seem too injured.

...Phew, it doesn't seem like I was assaulted.

Huh? Am I seeing things?

I rub my eyes vigorously.

The scratches that were there just now seem to have healed when I look again.

Even without casting a healing spell...

Hmm, what's happened to my body?

After examining myself thoroughly, I realized.

This isn't my body.

It's definitely different!

All the old scars I remembered are completely healed.

The scar from falling while climbing a tree when I was six,

The burn mark from magic practice when I was eleven,

All the scars from my memories are completely gone.

It's a flawless, clean body.

Impossible.

Feeling scared, I decided to check my face.

I entered a nearby shop and looked in a mirror.

There I saw my own face with lowered eyebrows and an anxious expression.

Phew.

It's my face. That's reassuring-- wait a minute!

I move closer to the mirror and examine my face carefully.

Huh? What's going on?

It's definitely my face.

The same face I see every morning when I wash and fix my hair.

But the skin is different.

Completely different!

W-what beautiful skin!

A-amazing.

Wow! Wow!

Beautiful, so beautiful!

Beautiful skin without any makeup.

Moist, fine-textured skin. Plump and soft. Even the acne scars I was concerned about have all disappeared.

Yeah...

It's as if each cell has been refreshed and revived.

H-hehehe.

I can't help but smile.

I've become super beautiful.

Ah, was I being a bit narcissistic just now?

...W-well, I guess it's fine.

Something clearly extraordinary has happened.

Well, beauty isn't something to complain about.

I don't feel unwell either. On the contrary, I feel great.

I feel so light that I might be able to fly if someone told me to.

My body is fine.

Looking around again.

Terrible.

It's as devastated as if a war broke out.

What happened?

Did the security forces fight with Elizabeth's guards?

Hm!?

Someone is lying on the ground.

Suffering and writhing.

"Um, excuse me? Are you alright?"

I immediately rushed over and called out.

"Hiiiii, no, no! It was all Elizabeth's orders, she, she killed them, ugh, ow ow ow!! I-it's tearing off! Hahi, that's right. I, I killed them for fun. Women and children trying to escape, uhihihihi"

He was terribly emaciated.

However, this person appears to be Elizabeth's servant.

Moreover, a villain who has committed severely atrocious acts.

I intended to help, but my motivation rapidly disappeared.

But I still need information.

If he'll provide information, I might as well put him out of his misery.

"Hey?"

When I shook his shoulder, he collapsed like a puppet whose strings had been cut.

He's dead...

Extremely terrified and delirious, he ended up dying.

The other fallen people had roughly the same reactions.

What I understood was only that they were all threatened and killed by an incredibly powerful person.

I wonder what happened?

Were they shocked and terrified by the strength of the Eastern Kingdom's elite forces, Nielsen and Ortissio, after fighting them?

That's a plausible story.

Nielsen and Ortissio are demonically strong, after all.

Ah~ but even so, they wouldn't just leave these people without killing them or taking them prisoner.

No good. I don't understand at all.

Anyway, I want information.

Let's go back to Tilea's shop for now.

Hm?

Something caught my eye.

A staff?

A staff broken cleanly in two was lying on the ground.

I picked it up casually.

Amazing.

It has a sense of luxury, or rather, it's overflowing with an intimidating aura.

Hmm, should I turn it in to the authorities?

It's too fine an item for an ordinary magic caster.

It wouldn't be strange for a great noble or court magician to own it.

If there was a name or family crest, I could identify the owner, but...

There's no inscription on the staff.

It's nameless.

However, there's something like a display on the staff, showing something.

Let's see, what does it say?

"Master Memory Download in progress... 53% complete..."

Master Memory?

Download?

What is this staff?

Curious, I tried various things like waving the staff.

The staff doesn't respond at all.

Probably because it's downloading memory and can't accept the next command.

I should definitely turn this in to the authorities, right?

It's quite a high-end item. The owner must be troubled.

But I'm a bit curious.

My intuition tells me to keep it.

No, no, what am I thinking!

That would be theft, a crime.

As I waved my hand, regretting such an outrageous thought, I heard a whistling sound from somewhere.

Whistling... it gives me a bad feeling.

A misplaced melody, as if toying with life.

Hm!?

If Elizabeth's intelligence team was infiltrating...

The Baccio Special Forces might be here!

That's it. That's why the whistling.

Hyuma of the whistling has arrived in the western street.

A man notorious for his cruelty even among the Baccio Special Forces.

A villain who gleefully massacres civilians is in the western street!?

This is bad.

I have to go help immediately!

I'm facing a group of battle-hardened professionals.

There's not much a mere student like me can do.

But I can't just do nothing.

If civilians are fighting, I'll fight too.

That's the duty of a magic student, the pride of a warrior.

Besides, Timu and Tilea might be there.

My precious friends are in danger.

I can't just sit still.

I hastily tossed away the staff I was holding and ran toward the direction of the whistling.

A gust of wind passes by.

Behind, there was only the silent, deserted plaza.

→to be continued.