Oh ye gods.
I have an appointment with a goddess. Back then, my appointments and interviews were with thirty and up above something office managers with stern expression and authoritarian voice.
Now, I am about the meet with a super model-like figure of authority. Thank ye gods for this unique other-world opportunity.
Hopefully, she’s easy to approach and witty like Aeriasus but I suspect that she is more mischievous and carefree than Aeriasus judging with that scene where she and Aeriasus were reunited.
After my usual beat up by Vefal or morning training, I was standing near the portal, waiting for the guard to open it but it was still early. I guess I’m a little bit enthusiastic about this. Actually who wouldn’t?
The feathered armoured guard was staring at me like he was afraid or something? Are we terrifying figures to them? Curious, I walked close towards him.
Seeing me approaching him, he was visibly trembling. Relax; I’m not the type who gets flipping angry for no reasons. Now that I was seeing him up close, I never had seen him before. I was quite familiar with the usual guard as I was always saluting him every time we come in and out of the portal. He is new huh.
“Yo, morning, is everything okay?”
He looked petrified, like a mouse been glared by a viper when I greeted him.
“… Y-yes, e-everything is-is f-fine.”
That’s quite the stuttering.
I coughed. I tried to remember a method to approach a terrified kitten. Wait; can that be applied to a human? Wait, is he even human?
“Be at ease, you looked nervous enough, you might explode you know.”
“!!!”
He jolted, jumped back and he was on all four as he incessantly bows. Oh, that was a poor choice of words.
“Please forgive me, please forgive me, please forgive me!!”
“Uh, I’m not gonna make you explode. Please, don’t make a scene; I don’t want to get questioned!”
Phew, that calmed him down. He still looked warily at me as he got up.
“Anyway, I’ll guess I get straight to the point. Are you afraid of us?”
His face turned even more fearful mixed with awe and reverence.
“The summoned are legendary figures. Most of us would never even dream of talking with or even interacted with them. The guard before me told that if I misspoke or I insulted them, they have to right to have me dispose or worse.”
You make us sound like some sort of overrated, cult-figure of dictators.
“You know, the guard that you replaced was just pulling your leg. We don’t do that and… maybe someone would but I doubt we have to right to have anyone dispose. So relax, you can interact with me just fine. To begin with, my name is Ruigne. What is your?”
He looked at me with baffled expression.
“… My name is N-Nytar…”
“Nice to meet you Nytar, please treat us well.”
I extended my right hand for a handshake. This made him even more baffled.
Five seconds, please take my hand, oh look he’s progressing as he lifted his right arm!
After ten seconds of awkwardly trying to reach my hand, we clasped and in a rigid motion of up and down, a handshake were made!
“See, I’m just like you. We may be beings on a different term when I have some advantage in terms of abilities… but you see, both you and I have dreams, feelings and aspirations that every living sentient beings have. We’re no different in general.”
His expression lightened and he was relief as he lets out a smile. We unclasped our hands and stood face to face as the atmosphere lost all of its tension.
“I’m honoured that you have given your name, summoned one.”
“Just call me Ruigne.”
“Yes, sir Ruigne.”
I guess that’s good enough.
He then perked his ear as though he has heard something.
“It is time for your appointment, sir Ruigne.”
“How do you know that?”
“Hmm? Do you not hear the sound of Ethka?”
Ethka? What the hell is that?
“No I don’t.”
“Well, that’s the sound that signal what time it is.”
But I didn’t hear anything. Seeing that I was stumped, he was thinking on how to say it as his eyes looked upward.
“It’s a deep, sonorous sound with a distinct tone of a sort.”
That’s quite vague but come to think of it, I something feels that there is some vibration in the air in interval timing. Is that the sound?
“I think you’ll be late at your appointment if you continue on idling here.”
Oh!
Luckily, he already activated the portal. I wonder how they activate the portal.
“Well, see you again, Nytar!”
“You too, sir Ruigne.”
He bowed as I ran into the portal.
--
No one was here. I was standing at the portal entrance of the Inheritors hall but only silence reign.
Only the sound of my footsteps walking broke that silence.
I stood what seems to be the centre of the hall.
There, I waited for oh so long.
It was then I heard the sound of something up above.
Bam!
She fell on the ground with a reverberating force but not to the point of damaging herself.
I stared in silence at the sight of a pair of wings that was attached on a damsel.
The damsel golden hair was dishevelled and her clothing looked hastily put. The cleavage was dangerously exposing and my eyes were glue as though the source gravity was there.
She was rubbing at the back of her head with a hurtful expression.
After she had got up, she brushed her cloth and smiled politely at me. She looks fine even after falling down, I think.
“Sorry for the sudden and abrupt entrance, teehee!”
“Yeah…”
“I woke up late and I just realized that I had an appointment so I rushed everything and here I am!”
With a bubbly face, she got close to me as she explained. It smells really nice here.
“Huh, so let’s talk about my condition.”
“Oh certainly but first!-”
She snapped her fingers and the portal fizzled again and few people were bringing foods. That must be the breakfast.
“Follow me!”
With a light steps, I let her lead me.
There was a door at the end of the other side of the hall. We entered through the door and it was certainly like a room where they would receive a guest.
“Let’s take a seat! Uwah, a breakfast date with a young man, I still got it!”
The latter was a muttering to herself about her obviously sex appeal of a charm. We went to the centre of the room where there was a table.
The table was round and small and there were only two chairs facing each other. She happily took one of the seats without hesitating as I take the other one.
Well, okay, let’s just enjoy the pace.
The food was prepared in front us.
“Dig in, we can discuss while enjoying the fine meal.”
I nodded. The food that was prepared was like usual but in a more luxurious way. The foods consist of boiled eggs similar to a chicken egg, some brown bread and a soup of a graphite grey colour. There were other foods but it’s hard to describe them because it was something unlike I seen before.
“When did you lose your memory?”
“It was between the period when I was summoned and on the night when I tried to name myself.”
“Was there anything else going on that time?”
“I remembered I felt no pain at all, it was like everything was normal until I swallowed the Special Pill.”
Then a brief respite, as we enjoy the flavour of the foods.
“I see, did you lose them in sequence or it was selective?”
“Selective, it seems that only memories that I considered important are blank to me. Between my earliest childhood memories and when I was thirteen.”
“I see, I see.”
After a while, we ate in silence as though Tiphaniae was thinking on my answers and was formulating a solution.
It went about ten minutes and we had finished both of our breakfast.
“…We actually have records of summoned losing their memories. It sometimes happens to those who came from a world without any magical energies or a species that can’t harnessed magical energies, so when they are summoned, the sudden exposure to something akin to a magic spell caused the summoned to exchange their memories as compensation as memories are something considered magical in a way. It’s also why they don’t feel any pain upon being summoned. Thomas was one as such. He had experience memories losses. We have a name for this; it’s called ‘Other World Syndrome’.”
Thomas was one of the Inheritors and by the looks of it; he seems to be from earth too.
……
If I was a lesser being of a plebeian intelligence, I would have accepted the explanation while being bedazzled by her splendour of a beauty but unfortunately, I’m not. I realized there are some inconsistencies with her explanation.
First, why were my memories wiped out in a systematic manner? If it were something like using my mana, then it wouldn’t matter which memory was wiped out right?
Second, she said there were records of memory losses but that also means that they know of it and how to stop the memory wipe. If that was the case, then they would have asked us at that time not only about the pain but also is anyone having memory losses but they didn’t.
Lastly, I remembered what Ghrukka the Uhzelak had said. Something sentient was eating my memories. It was not a mana exchange or draining but something alive was wiping them in an orderly manner.
Stolen novel; please report.
It was then I suspected, they were hiding something from us.