Memoirs of the Returnee - Chapter 267: Real, Fake (2)

…It’s a faint memory.

Everything I see feels distant.

A hand that doesn’t seem like my own moves on its own accord, and a self that doesn’t feel like me wields a sword.

I swing.

People die.

Watching this tragedy unfold, ‘Felix’ feels as though he’s dreaming.

A nightmare.

A terrible nightmare.

To escape it, he closes his eyes, runs away from reality, sinking deep into his subconscious.

Refusing to acknowledge the nightmare that has become one with him…

Her sword clashed against his. Sparks flew from the blade. The high heat of magic touched the armor.

Felix saw her.

Clang—!

Her face looks completely different now, but Felix can see her red hair. Her clear eyes come to mind. The smile that was once pure and childlike spreads across her face.

It was because of this person.

It was because of her that Felix resolved to fight. He decided not to lose.

For her, who was suffering even more than himself.

He resisted thousands of times a day, and eventually, he overcame part of the nightmare.

‘My death will be your death.’

Knightmare threatened, but Felix was already prepared to die. He was ready to perish willingly.

Clang-

A clear metallic sound rings out. The sparks that burst from the sword strikes slowly turn into a thick flame.

It’s Arkne’s sword.

Much more mature than before, Arkne’s sword is purely refined.

Felix also swung his sword. There was no mercy in his grip. This act itself was Knightmare’s survival instinct.

Shriiiing—!

Knightmare’s magic is a sword in itself, but Soliette’s fiery magic burns it to nothing. It devours the metal.

As sword meets sword, and the red magic wraps around Knightmare’s armor with each collision, the creature inside him screams. It cries out for him to run.

That he cannot win, that she is an opponent he cannot defeat.

Felix rejects the creature’s survival.

Instead, he swings his sword with a smile on his face.

Boom-

A loud noise erupts. A massive rupture bends Knightmare’s sword. His armor starts to melt away in disarray. Half of his helmet dissolves, revealing his ghastly pale complexion.

A face that’s no different from a corpse.

Soliette grits her teeth as she looks at him, but her swordplay does not stop.

where the swords exchange blows, stars scatter In the trajectory like sparks.

It was tears.

Were they his?

Or were they hers?

Swoosh.

The hot blade of the sword pierced through his armor.

This is the end.

Felix found himself smiling unwittingly.

Soliette looked up at him.

“I’m sorry. I came too late.”

Too late.

To the words that needed no apology, Felix simply gazed at her.

“You’ll be okay now.”

A burning sensation seared his heart. The soul of Knightmare, burning with him in pain.

Clearly, it was because of Soliette’s Flame Sword embedded in him like a nail.

I’ve been okay for a long time.

Felix said that.

There’s no need to worry about someone who’s already dead, like himself.

However, he was worried about her.

—Are you.

Okay?

Before he could ask, Soliette smiled.

“I am now.”

She seemed to be thinking of someone else who was precious to her.

“There’s someone who supports my reality.”

She nodded as if to affirm she was truly okay.

If that were the case, he is relieved.

Felix looked at her and took a step back. Then another. He knelt, a sword still lodged in his heart.

“Nowrest easy.”

Soliette said to him.

“I used to like you.”

Ha.

At the same time, Knightmare’s helmet cracked and split. The skin of his body lost its vitality.

She quietly looked up at the ceiling, struggling to hold back tears that seemed ready to flow.

It’s a good thing.

She had helped him find release, so there was absolutely no need to cry—

“Meow.”

“Ah!”

A cat suddenly flew onto her head. The cat covered her face with its entire body.

“Shi, Shion, what are you doing.

“Just wait a moment.”

After rubbing its paws a few times, the cat moved to her shoulder.

.What is it, Shion.”

It was supposed to be a solemn moment.

“Oh. That’s good.”

Shion looked at her and smirked.

“What’s good?

“Your face.”

“My face.

Infimian.

Though Soliette in her current state of consciousness transition wasn’t the Soliette that Shion remembered, Shion had overlaid the image of Soliette he remembered onto her with Infimian.

So that Jared could recognize her.

“Enough of that. Look over there.”

The cat pointed to the right.

Soliette turned to look in that direction.

“Where…”

Her words halted abruptly. Her eyes moistened with a strange sadness.

It was because of Jared.

Thud,thud.

He was approaching her.

Soliette stared at him blankly and then uttered a single phrase.

“It’s over.”

“Yeah.”

Jared responded.

“You did well, Soliette.”

Calling her by her name, Soliette’s name.

“…Yes?”

Her heart skipped a beat at that moment

“You’ve grown up a lot. Even your cheeks have slimmed down. Oh, is that because you’ve been through a lot?”

A strange feeling welled up inside her. She took a step back. Jared caught her wrist.

“Of course, I’m not the real thing. I’m not your real brother.”

He spoke as if he was somewhat relieved.

“Even so, if I were the real Jared, I would have praised you. I would have been thankful.”

Soliette looked at the detonator in his hand.

“…Jared.”

“Yeah?”

Soliette silently gazed at his detonator.

Continued to look at it

A peculiar sensation brushed against her back.

A scene that seemed familiar, as if she had seen it somewhere before, a moment that felt as if she had experienced it.

Deja vu.

And then…

—Hand over the detonator. Don’t move.

A voice that was completely different from her own flowed into her ears.

It was a voice too foreign, too full of despair, even for her own thoughts.

“Ugh.”

Soliette pressed her temples.

Echoes of certain moments reverberated through the piercing pain.

—Jared, you don’t need to die. So please, hurry…

Herself, desperately begging for the detonator.

Jared, with a much sterner expression than now.

Despite her pleas.

-No!

He presses the detonator.

And I scream.

A me that is not me cries out to him with a heart vomiting blood.

“…Soliette?”

Jared called her name.

Soliette snapped back to reality belatedly.

“Ah… Yes.”

“What are you doing?

“Nothing… Something strange… Yes. No. Anyway.”

She shook her head vigorously.

Jared smiled faintly and extended the detonator to her.

A situation completely opposite to the strange deja vu she had just experienced.

“Why are you giving this to me…”

“Because this is a fake world. I’m fake too. You have to make the decision.”

At Jared’s words, Soliette slightly furrowed her brows.

“Whether it’s real or fake, it’s exhausting to distinguish between such things. Let’s just live as we are, as is. The Jared who remembers me is real, isn’t he?”

With that, she took the detonator from him.

“Thank you for everything. It was so good to travel with you.”

“…So, you’re not going to press it? Want to travel a bit more?”

Jared asked with a mischievous tone.

Soliette looked at Jared. Jared also looked at Soliette. The siblings quietly locked eyes.

“Jared.”

“Yeah?”

Soliette’s lips and tongue quivered as she prepared to say something.

It might be too cheesy for siblings, too embarrassing to actually say.

“I love you.”

With those words of love, she grasped his hand. Then, she placed the detonator on the connected part of their palms.

“Let’s press it together.”

“…Well, that’s nice.”

Jared smiled.

They extended their fingers. And then, with a push.

They pressed the button on the detonator.

A silent explosion.

A great blast surged from the bottom of this bottle, liberating the souls trapped within.

Soliette looked at Jared. She ran to him, who was smiling at her, and hugged him tightly.

“…I love you.”

Once again, those words of love.

“Stop being so cheesy… I love you too, okay?”

The time when he was scratching his nape, embarrassed.

Jared’s eyes widened. Soliette also turned to look behind her.

Rumble!

A strange soul was released from Felix’s armor. It was Knightmare. It screamed and charged at Soliette.

To seize her consciousness, to make her the new host for the Knightmare…

“Nyaah!”

Shion on her shoulder sprang into action. He dashed forward, blocking the soul of the Knightmare with his entire body.

“…No!”

Soliette almost cried out in despair as she reached out to him, but it was too late.

The Knightmare’s soul brutally slashed the cat.

Thump.

Immediately after, the explosion was complete.

The gravity inside the bottle disappeared, and all space was dyed pure white.

In the dark room.

Soliette glared at the flickering light bulb, then with a snap of her fingers—

Red mana spread, illuminating the interior.

It was the bathroom.

And there was a mirror.

Soliette looked at her reflection.

Something was off.

There was a small scar under her eye.

One that the current her didn’t have…

‘She’, no ‘I’, no ‘she’ sighed and disinfected a wound on her shoulder.

It was an odd memory for Soliette.

An experience she never had, yet a vague sense of deja vu surfaced.

Drrrring—

The sound of a cellphone ringtone.

Soliette roughly answered the call.

—Yes, this is Soliette.

Her voice was deep.

Much darker, much heavier, much more muffled than her current self.

—…Don’t worry. I’ve already dealt with the Knightmare.

Who was Soliette talking to now?

As she wondered,

—So, Shion.

She called Shion’s name and continued.

—Take care of yourself first If you keep moving like that, you won’t last another 3 years and 7 months. I’m telling you to pay more attention to your health than I do.

…Health?

Soliette abruptly opened her eyes. She sat up quickly.

“…What was that?”

She was dazed.

The unidentifiable deja vu, no, it was too vivid to be just deja vu, moments that felt like forgotten memories…

No, more importantly.

“Ah!”

Soliette belatedly recalled the previous situation.

The scene where the Knightmare was slashing Shion Ascal.

“No, no, no, no!!!!”

Crash!

As she screamed, the space around her shook.

“Kyaaak!”

It was a woman’s scream. Soliette looked in that direction. There was a nurse.

“What’s going on? Where am I?”

“Where else. You’re in a hospital.”

From the other side, a too familiar voice was heard.

Soliette quickly turned her head to look.

“…Shion?”

It was Shion.

He lay in the hospital bed, looking too unscathed to imagine that he had been killed by the Knightmare or had become its new host

“Are you okay, are you alright?

“Yeah. Are you okay? We got forcibly logged out”

“Forcibly logged out… No, more importantly.”

Soliette’s head hurt.

It was clear that Shion had been attacked by the Knightmare, yet he was unscathed, and just moments ago, she was haunted by bizarre deja vu-like memories, what in the-

“How are you unharmed? I clearly saw you being slashed by the Knightmare.”

“Ah, that?”

Shion chuckled. Then he lifted up the Bethune CD key. Soliette’s eyes widened as she read it

“Premium… special edition?”

“Yeah. I’m a Bethune golden spoon. Got a permanent blessing when I started.”

Namely— ‘Wieder’s Blessing.’

I didn’t know what the effect was, but thanks to the Knightmare, I found out

When inflicted with a fatal wound that could lead to death, it would, just once, defend against all damage without limit

Because Knightmare attacked me within the game, the game system defended me.

“Ah… really.”

Soliette bit her lip. Shion kept chuckling at her, but then his expression turned slightly surprised.

“What’s wrong?

“…What do you mean?”

“Are you crying?

Tears had formed at the corners of Soliette’s eyes. She hastily wiped them with her sleeve and shook her head.

I’m not crying.”

“Come on. You just cried, didn’t you?”

“I did not cry!’

Soliette got up pretending to be angry.

“Before you worry about others, take better care of yourself, Shion. You gave me quite a scare.”

“As long as I’m not dead, what’s the problem?”

Shion also stood up beside her.

Then, for some reason.

Soliette suddenly remembered the words she had said in the deja vu.

“…You should take care of yourself first, Shion.”

“You should take care of yourself—”

“If you keep moving like that, you won’t last another 3 years and 7 months. I’m telling you to pay more attention to your health than I do.”

Shion’s face froze, speechless for a moment. He looked at Soliette with a shockingly impacted expression.

“What’s wrong?

His reaction was excessively intense, so Soliette tilted her head in confusion.

“Huh? Oh… no.”

He seemed to feel a strange dizziness, placing his palm on his forehead. In that state, he let out a bizarre, hollow laugh.

“It’s nothing.”

A wavering voice claiming it was nothing.

Shion was still remembering.

3 years and 7 months.

It was the life expectancy he had told Soliette before his regression, at some point in the past.