Luka Walters was 17 when her life started heading downhill. It was early December and they were beginning the semester finals at her school. She blamed her ever-increasing fatigue on the cold weather. After finishing the first test of the day when she tried to stand up she was hit with a sudden bout of dizziness that led to her passing out. When she woke up she was hit with devastating news. She had leukemia and it was getting increasingly severe. As time passed, the amount of time she spent in the hospital increased as she got sicker to the point where she could no longer leave.
When she couldn't leave the bed on her own anymore and the time spent staring at the wall grew unbearable she fell in love with stories. Stories where a hero slays monsters and completes treacherous trials. Stories where a prince and a commoner fell in love. Stories of love, adventure, magic, sci-fi, and so many more. She fell in love with the feeling of living another life through the main character. She spent many hours playing games and reading all kinds of books. She couldn't leave her hospital bed anyway, so why not spend time doing something she loved? She ended up reading books, not just about stories, but about a multitude of different things like architecture, dendrology, and anthropology.
One game that stuck with her was 'Sweet Love: I Will Become the Saint'. Contrary to its name it was an enormous otome game with hellish game mechanics and a morbidly dark storyline. It not only had a colossal 1432 total endings, but it had 1256 bad endings! Of course, the bad endings were dark, but they were nothing compared to the 72 'DREAD ENDINGS'. With only 104 good endings out of 1432 total endings, it was one of the most challenging games Luka had ever played. Luka with her spectacular memory managed to complete it before she died at 28.
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Slowly the fog cleared from Luka's mind and with it, her sense of touch returned. She could feel soft sheets brush against her skin, the subtle rise and fall of her chest. The next sense to return was her sense of hearing. The cheerful chirping of birds greeted her ears. Luka’s fingers twitched as strength filled her body, an amount of strength she hadn't felt in a long time. Slowly she willed her eyes to open and the first thing that greeted her was the bright light that almost blinded her. Once her eyes adjusted to the light what she saw was not her white dreary hospital room but a beautifully ornate ceiling. Luka’s eyes roamed around the room as she slowly pushed her body up into a sitting position. The beautifully furnished bedroom had a royal blue, silver, black and white color theme. Her eyes wandered to the vanity against the wall with a mirror to the left of the bed. She squinted at the mirror but what she saw in the mirror didn’t change. The mirror showed a beautiful girl sitting on a bed. The bed she sat on had blue sheets and a black elegantly carved wooden frame, the same bed Luka was now sitting on. Luka’s eyes shot to her own body and the last of the fog cleared from her mind. Her body looked smaller than she remembered and her pale skin was unblemished.
'What... This has to be a dream...' Before she can gather her bearings, the room's ornate doors slam open. A young maid barrels through the doors and lands on her side. The maid looks to be about 14 or 15 years old. She had soft brown hair down to her midback tied into a neat ponytail. In the course of slowly getting up, the maid notices Luka, and her ocean-blue eyes are fixed on Luka as she gets up. Before Luka can greet her, the maid starts spewing out words quickly as if she is in a rap battle.
"My lady! You're awake! I was so worried! You were asleep for a week! Even the doctors didn't know what was wrong! The Duke hired so many doctors! He even went to the church of Zelaph! Ah... I must inform the Duke."
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"The Duke?" For the first time in so long, Luka spoke without any pain. Although her mouth felt dry, she did not experience any discomfort as a result of it.
"The Duke, your father, the duke of Luthyia?" The maid tilts her head as she pauses mid-step inside the doorway.
'Luthyia...... No, it can't be.....' Her hair now had become quite long, so she pulled it up in front of her face and was greeted by beautiful silver hair. Luka slowly turned to the maid once more. "Say...... What is my full name?"
The maid seemed to stumble as she stammered out a reply. "My lady? I...... your name? It's Saeria Cecil Luthyia....." There was a look of panic on the maid's face as she quickly left the room.
'That's.... the name of the main villainess in Sweet Love!' Luka could feel the color drain from her face from the sudden realization and a headache started to form. At that moment there was a sudden voice that spoke softly and with no emotion at all. Along with the voice, a translucent screen appeared in Luka's vision.
Restarting the system Ai......
1%........ 23%....... 61%.... 77%....... 98%..... Complete
Ai (N/A) is now online…..
‘What the… Who?’ Luka let out a yelp as nervousness filled her body.
Ai (N/A) awaits the host’s commands….
‘Host…… Commands? Wait, who is speaking?’
(N/A) is the Ai of the Atheneum……
‘Ai….. you got to be joking. Doesn’t something like this usually happen to the typical Isekai protagonist or something? I must have read so many Isekai stories that I started to dream about it.’ Before Luka could think about it any further, the soft voice spoke again, this time with a bit of mirth in it.
Ai (N/A) assures the host that this is not a dream.
‘How do you know that? Wait… you can hear my thoughts?’
Ai (N/A) confirms that it can hear the host’s thoughts.
‘Host? Wait….. you mean me?’ A sharp pain interrupts Luka's thoughts and images start to flicker through her vision like an old film reel.
Ai (N/A) has detected damage to the host’s mind which has resulted in the loss of a large portion of memories ….
‘What… Damage?’ Luka was getting bewildered by this Ai the more it talked.
Ai (N/A) suggests in order to recover their memory that they use the backup stored in the system.
‘Recover memory…. Backup….. So…You have a backup of my memory?!’
Ai (N/A) confirms that a copy of all of the host’s memories is automatically saved in the system database.
‘So my memories are saved in the database.......... What would happen if I use the backup’ As the conversation dragged on Luka could feel her headache getting worse and her vision blur.
If the host were to restore their memory using the backup stored in the database, they would be able to remember everything from their earliest memories as Luka Walters to the current moment with remarkable clarity.
The pain was slowly becoming unbearable for Luka. ‘Damn….. Does this headache have something to do with my memory? Will it go away if I restore my memory?’
Ai (N/A) confirms that the current situation of the host’s memory is linked to the headache the host is experiencing. Ai (N/A) confirms that the host would no longer have a headache if their memory is restored.
‘Fine…. Restore my memory…. But I prefer if you called me by my name instead of host.’ Luka could feel her consciousness fade as she heard the Ai’s voice one last time.
Memory restoration commencing….
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