Chapter 56 – Doll

“So… I guess this is checkmate?”

“Ah…”

I say while grabbing the book Memoria was holding.

This book is probably her invocation item, so I’m sure she can’t use magic without it.

“Now let’s have a little chat…”

“…Give it back. Give it back.”

Memoria starts hopping, trying to take back her book.

“…Kick. Kick.”

Now she’s kicking me.

“…”

She really doesn’t know when to quit.

“Ei.”

I smack her in the head with her book, and she crouches while holding her head.

“…Ouch.”

Tears well up in her eyes, as her face stays emotionless.

“…You’re awful. Chrom Chronogate really is a bad guy.”

“Eh, I don’t remember it hurting that… S-sorry.”

I unconsciously get flustered.

(What’s with this frail creature…?)

I feel like that strong character aura has gone missing.

I guess she’s no good without her magic.

“…M-Memoria will kill you.”

“No, you won’t.”

“…Really?”

Memoria looks up at me with a blank, puzzled looked on her face.

I’m kind of taken aback.

“Anyway, I want to ask you some things, so I’d be really happy if you surrendered already.”

“…Can’t. Memoria has to take away Chrom Chronogate’s memories. Give memories please.”

“I can’t do that even if you start pleading for it.”

“…Why not? Forgetting isn’t scary. You even forget you forgot.”

Memoria tilts her head in confusion.

I think for her, memories are just something that can be easily replaced. That’s probably why she doesn’t even see anything wrong with taking away people’s memories.

“You can have happy memories of different people in return. You’ll be happy if you have a lot of happy memories.”

“No, Every memory is important to me. I can’t just give them to you.”

Especially since my current strength is tied to my memories of the future.

Without these memories, I’m nothing more than Chrom the failure.

That’s why I was more wary of Memoria than anyone in this era.

(…I honestly didn’t think I’d win so easily.)

I had more things planned, and more magic ready to be used…

Memoria’s combat strength is lower than I thought.

“…But that’s a problem. Without your memories, ‘father’ will be mad.”

“‘Father’?”

“…Memoria is ‘father’s’ doll. That’s why ‘father’s’ orders are absolute. Memoria lives for ‘father’, and will die for ‘father’. That was why Memoria was created.”

“…I see.”

Memoria’s ‘father’… There aren’t many people she would call that.

“Is your ‘father’… The life sage Cradle Destar?”

I ask while acting like I’m calm, but the palms of my hands are sweating a little.

The fourth seat of the twelve sages, life sage Cradle Destar.

The person who was the key to leading the future into ruin.

The leader of the project to create demon kings, and the brilliant life mage who succeeded in creating artificial demon kings.

It was him who directed a demon king into Almana, making him my enemy.

(Cradle was mostly responsible for all those demon kings appearing.)

In this era, demon king cells are still being researched.

If I kill Cradle, all that research data and formulas will be lost. And if I can dispose of the demon king cells he has… At the very least, demon kings will stop appearing for a while.

That’s part of why I wanted to extract as much information about him from Memoria, since there were records of her having worked as his underling in the future, but…

“…Forgot the name.”

“F-forgot?”

“…Memoria’s memories are periodically reset. Memories of ‘father’ in particular are thoroughly made to be forgotten.”

“Made to be forgotten? Is that… One of ‘father’s’ commands?”

“…Yes. Memoria is father’s doll. That means Memoria can’t remember what she shouldn’t.”

“…I see…”

Periodically resetting memories… That’s probably…

To make her stay a doll, to make sure feelings of defiance don’t sprout inside her, to make sure information doesn’t get leaked…

But then… He’s pretty much using her like a tool.

“…Are you all right? Are you hurt?”

“Eh?”

Before I know it, Memoria is peeking directly into my face.

“…It looked like you were going to cry.”

“Ah…”

Now that she mentions it, I realize my face is completely stiff.

Memoria looks at me and starts waving her short arms.

“…If you’re hurt, Memoria can make you forget. Pain pain go away.”

“Hum, what’s that?”

“…Memoria saw it in someone’s memories. You can make people forget they’re in pain even without using magic if you do this.”

Memoria says proudly, although her expression doesn’t change.

She really is hard to figure out… But I don’t think she’s bad.

My mouth loosens into a slight smile, and I scratch my head.

(Geez… A bad habit of mine is rearing its ugly head.)

She’s an enemy, but I’m starting to feel for her.

Even though I know from my experiences in the future how much pain this can bring.

“It’s all right. Thank you for worrying.”

“…? Memoria was worried about you?”

“Weren’t you?”

“…Don’t know. It’s a feeling that’s not in Memoria’s memories.”

“I see. But… I’m sure you’re a nice girl.”

I place my hand on her head.

“…? Memoria likes that. More. More.”

Her back straightens as she presses me to pat her head more.

I oblige, and she lets out a sigh of satisfaction.

Looking at her like this makes me feel calm.

“…We were fighting just now.”

“…?”

It’s like she took to me in a second.

I don’t feel a milliliter of enmity coming from her anymore.

(…So ‘father’ ordered her to take memories…)

Is that really the only reason why Memoria wants to take my memories?

It’s not like she really feels any enmity towards me.

She’s like a blank piece of paper. Not evil or righteous, and not stained with any color.

A doll that moves once commands are written into her.

(I guess… Defeating Memoria really has no meaning.)

One thing I did find out.

This attack was also carried out in accordance with ‘father’s’ will. The life sage Cradle Destar.

Even if Memoria is gone, he’ll just continue attacking using other pawns. So what I should do now is…

“Memoria, want to make a deal with me?”

“…What is it?”

“You don’t want ‘father’ to get mad at you, but I don’t want you to take my memories, so…”

I look into Memoria’s puzzled eyes.

“Let me meet ‘father’.”