Unnamed Memories - Chapter 1.1

Translator: Lizz

Proofreader: Xemul

There was a witch who lived in the Blue Tower.

There was a royal who had been cursed.

If you could rewind time, what would you wish for?

Everything was a story that could be rewritten. 

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“You can no longer sire a child. And it’s the same for your son. Your blood will bite and tear up women’s wombs… The Farsas Royal Family will die out with you!!”

He didn’t remember that curse.

The only thing remained in his memory was the shadow of the witch, casted on the window by the moonlight, and his father’s trembling arms holding him.

“Can’t sire a child…”

The 5-years-old him hadn’t understood the significance of those words. He had just vaguely thought that something bad had happened by the pallor of his father’s face.

He was the King’s only son.

The matter, which directly connected to the Royal Family’s existence, was covered up and known to only few people. Several brilliant magicians and scholars had devoted their time to finding a way to break the curse.

At the same time, he had become an intelligent and courageous boy who had pursued knowledge of both the sword and the pen. With his excellent skills and good looks, he was expected to be a King remembered for generations to come by those who didn’t know about the curse.

Once he understood the weight of that curse, he himself began looking for a cure. But no matter how many documents he inspected, how much he polished his skills with the sword or how many places with a possible leads he visited, he couldn’t obtain even a clue.

Fifteen years had passed since that night.

With Farsas’s royals’ striking blue eyes, brown hair so dark it was almost black and good features, he was a prince fit to spend his days inside the Royal Palace.

However, with his immaculate armor and sharp sword, he gave off the impression of a young conqueror on the battlefront.

The near-future King had crossed the border and went West with only one attendant, and was now standing in front of the Blue Tower, where a witch lived.

“Your Highness, let’s give up…”

“Stop calling me ‘Your Highness’. What’s with you, getting all nervous here?”

He turned around and looked at his attendant, who had completely lost his nerves, with an exasperated expression. Then he dismounted.

“It’s dangerous. What if she gives you more curses?!”

“Let’s worry about that when it comes. There’s already no other lead.”

“Still, there must be some other methods.”

Taking the sword hanging by his saddle and putting it on his back, he sighed.

“Nothing has been found in fifteen years. I can’t expect it.”

“That’s why this…”

“First of all, let’s meet the Blue Moon Witch and ask for a cure. If it doesn’t work, let’s go to the place of the one who started this curse, the Silent Witch, and have it broken. Isn’t it perfect?”

“It’s not perfect at all.”

His attendant, who looked to be two or three years younger than him, finally dismounted while crying. He was lanky and didn’t look like the type for manual labor at all. He wasn’t carrying any weapons, probably because they had departed in a hurry.

“We haven’t contacted the witches in these fifteen years because the danger is too great! The Silent Witch can’t be found, and no one could climb this tower to reach the Blue Moon Witch!”

“It’s surely too high to walk up.”

What kind of materials was the tower made from? Its bluish, crystal-like walls reached high up to the sky. He looked up at its barely visible top.

“Well, what to do.”

“Nothing! It’s probably full of traps! If anything happens to you, how can I return to the Royal Palace?”

“If you make such a gloomy face, just go back.”

He shrugged lightly and carelessly walked towards the tower’s entrance.

“Please wait. I’m going too.”

Seeing that, his attendant hurriedly tied the two horses to a tree and went after him.

“There seems to be challengers after such a long time, Master.”

A childlike voice spoke in a chamber on the top floor of the tower.

The one called Master couldn’t be seen, but the reply came immediately:

“Oh, is that so? Well, start up the devices.”

“Of course.”

The presence of the voice disappeared, probably because the speaker had gone to work on the devices. The witch, still floating upside down on the ceiling, tilted her head.

“Well, should I make tea?”

It was already quite high up when he looked down into the atrium in the center of the tower. The scenery was enough to make people feel faint, but the man looked on with no fear and mused out loud:

“We’ll die if we fall.”

“Please don’t get that close to the edge!!”

“Razar, it’ll be better if you just wait below…”

Turning around, he looked at this attendant, who was walking fearfully while sticking close to the wall. It would take the guy forever to reach the top floor if he kept on like that.

“I can’t let Your Highness die alone!”

“Who’s dying?”

He slightly swung his drawn sword and answered.

Up until now, there had been several devices and beasts protecting different chambers, and what seemed to be demons. But he had easily passed through them and come up to the middle of the tower.

“Height” had been his number one concern at the beginning, but it turned out that the devices automatically transferred him to the next floor once he had solved them, so his legs hadn’t had to suffer much. Solving the devices required stamina, physical strength, good judgement and overall, brain power. It was clear that he was being tested.

“Is this meant for several people to climb together, I wonder?”

“No one has the strange taste to climb it in a group of just two people…”

“The last one who climbed to the top was my great-grandfather, wasn’t it?”

“According to the records, there were ten people climbing together that time, but only His Majesty reached the top.”

“Hm…”

He touched his chin with his free hand and pondered.

About seventy years ago, his great-grandfather, who had been Farsas King at that time, had climbed this tower and gained the witch’s assistance as the “champion”. However, it seemed like there had been a price for that. Nowadays, it was only talked about as a nursery tale for children.

“It’s been an easy win for now.”

“Let’s go back!”

“You go back alone. You’re no help at all.”

Razar wept sorrowfully at being told off so flatly.

As they talked, the next door came into view.

He opened it with no hesitation. There were two stone gargoyles in the center of the room, each was twice as big as a human.

Razar screamed once he saw the scene.

“Looks like they’ll move if we get close.”

“They definitely will! They’ll move! Let’s go back!!”

“You go wait outside…”

As he held his breath and readied his sword, the gargoyles’ skin fascinatingly turned from stony to black, and their eyes lit up almost simultaneously.

They soundlessly spread their wings and rose to the air.

He felt Razar retreating back to the wall.

The first to dive down was the gargoyle on the left. Like a raptor coming for its prey, it swooped down straight at him. Just as its sharp claws were about to tear his body up, he quickly jumped to the left.

But the other gargoyle turned and cut in right before him, as if it had expected his movement.

“Oops.”

He fended off their extended claws with his sword while slipping in between the two and got behind them.

He casually cut off one wing of the first gargoyle’s with great strength. It shrieked an ear-splitting scream.

Everything happened in just a moment.

“Master, the challengers have reached the gargoyles room.”

The childlike voice once again spoke in the chamber. The witch, who was boiling water, smiled lightly as a response.

“That’s amazing. How many are there?”

“Two… Actually, just one.”

She raised one eyebrow, as it was quite a surprising fact.

In these past decades, no one had been able to go that far even with more people in the group. But it was impossible to handle the gargoyles with just one person. The hot water was wasted, she thought to herself and asked:

“Should we give him a prize for his fighting spirit?”

“He seems to have passed through without much trouble.”

“…Eh?”