The surroundings morphed once more, transitioning us from the office to a mid-high cliff behind a large iron building. Emon was seen standing before a masked man and… Phineas?

“Wait, what?” I said, prompting older ‘me’ to answer.

“That is indeed Phineas Leander of Luria. His background is shrouded in mystery, as well as his relations with the masked man you see standing before Father.”

“What is happening here?” I asked, my eyes widening. Father seemed to be in a tense situation. He was aiming his handgun towards him but lowered his gun as soon as he saw Phineas standing just steps away from him.

Before I was able to question this further… I witnessed Father being impaled by a sword by a man who seemed to appear out of thin air.

“…Is this how he died?” I asked.

“No, it is not,” older ‘me’ responded, as younger ‘me’ and ‘Emon’ watched the tragedy unfold with expressionless faces. “After this, Emon awakens inside of that building alongside the two final victims. The ‘stabbing’ you see here was an act to wipe his recent memories. The blade was infused with the Zealot of Mist.”

Right as he said this, the entire world clicked into a bedroom, where we saw Father waking up from what seemed to be a bad dream. Understandably, after being struck with such a Potion…

However, the sequences of events happened too fast for something that dire. I turned towards the older ‘me’, and asked with a curious tone,

“Who was that masked man?”

He took a few moments before answering. As we saw Father sitting on the edge of his bed, he finally answered.

“That masked man was the actual perpetrator of the ACM case. He was the one who wrote Father that letter, and lured him here.”

He was… lured here?

Wait, but… Mother had never told me this…

…Of course, she hadn’t. She wasn’t here to witness it all unfold! From her perspective, all she knew was Father receiving a letter from that masked man, and heading towards that place to ‘uncover the truth’. After all of this, she hadn’t even met up with Father, not only because he secluded himself from everyone around him, but also because she felt heartbroken after learning that he had been with another wife!

But, she always said that she had spent many years trying to search for him. Would that be after his death, or before? If it’s before, would it mean that Emon resided in a place even Mother was not aware of?

It was getting too much for me.

I fell on my knees, right in front of Father, hands placed on the ground which I gazed upon. Right at that moment, the door behind us opened, revealing a middle-aged woman strolling inside with a plate full of nourishment.

If I can see Father’s memories, then I should be able to see Mother’s memories, right?

Yes, I should be able to! I’ll just ask older ‘me’ after we’re done with all of this. For now, I have to continue to witness Father’s memories. I can’t be filling my head with too many things now.

Setting the questions regarding Mother aside, I began contemplating Father’s prior situation.

Who was that masked man? Why did he reveal himself to Father this seamlessly? Did he play a role in his death? What about Phineas? And the brown-haired man who stabbed him? They must have betrayed Father or something, right?

And then, older ‘me’ spoke to me.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

“You may be thinking what was happening at that time. But most of your questions will be answered after we’ve witnessed the full extent of Father’s recent memories from this time.”

“…Okay.”

Following that middle-aged woman, a third figure appeared; A more robust man who guided the way towards the neighbouring room, where the two final victims were supposedly being held safe. We followed their steps, and by that, I mean me and my other two versions, as well as ‘Emon’, who, for the entire time, was watching and walking along as if he was a puppet attached to strings.

We stood before the ‘real’ three people from Father’s memories; Him, and the couple. The robust man then slowly swung the door open…

…Revealing the two ladies within the bedroom, facing each other on adjacent beds.

“I met her before,” I muttered to older ‘me’, who did not answer, but watched the scene unfold in complete silence.

For the record, we could not ‘hear’ them. The events we’d seen until now were like still images, or better said, akin to when a child would play with a group of puppets and continuously change their posture to convey their messages. Because these were not my own memories, I assumed that to be the reason; Memories foreign to mine being subject to some form of obscurity. In this case, their animation and dialogue.

Also, is Father, at this point in time, enamoured with his wife?

This question crossed my mind. For some reason, as soon as I looked at the eyes of Avani, a sense of familiarity washed over me… It could have been because I had already met her, but something was off. Something was really off. Not only about this whole situation, but about her, as well.

…And my suspicions were soon confirmed.

Soon after viewing this scene, the world clicked once more, and it flashed into a large bedroom. A lot more… polished and perhaps ‘expensive’ than the former.

I gulped and quickly covered my eyes. Only a quick glance was enough for me to know what was going on.

However, older ‘me’ patted my shoulder, and urged me to look. To see the ‘person’ who was laying under Father.

I slowly opened my eyes…

…and saw Avani lying right beneath him.

“…What?! Th… is… is she…”

What was… going on?!

It couldn’t be, right? She could never be my ‘Mother’, right?!

I turned towards older ‘me’, grasped his attire, and repeatedly asked for clarification. I wanted to know whether or not she really was my ‘Mother’!

“It is the truth, Caelum. Or, should I say, a truth disguised as a lie?”

“Wh…at do you mean…”

“The person you see right there is ‘Her’. The woman of the dark castle.”

…Everything started to make sense, but also not. It felt as if I had finally broken a large stone boulder, only to find a smaller, tougher boulder within.

When I encountered Avani within that tavern, I already felt some familiarity. A connection between her and, well, that lady in the dark castle.

…But I couldn’t accept it. I just couldn’t. Father’s wife was killed. Or else, never to be seen again. Only Vaelen and I remained as the final members of the Moreau family. That was it. The woman we met in that tavern was ‘Avani’, the person Emon saved. The lady in the castle was…

She was… just a weird lady. Yes, that is what she was! A weird ghost who was summoned into being by that stupid Grimoire. It was just…

But, who gave birth to me? It could only be Avani then, right? But, no! That’s impossible! Why would ‘Avani’ acknowledge Vaelen and I as ‘the sons of Emon’? Or at least react to us in a manner akin to that sentence? Why would she talk as though she was ‘only’ the person who was saved, and not the person who was saved, and then fell in love with Father?

Hell, who falls in love with someone that fast?! Not only that but to have sex with the other person? After such a traumatic experience? That doesn’t make any sense!

…The scene changed once more.

It seemed that they had done ‘the deed’, and Avani was on her way walking towards the front door. This was strange to see, but we couldn’t ‘hear’ what was going on, so I assumed someone had rung the doorbell, and Father wouldn’t wake up. As weird and inconvenient as that sounded, it was the only reasonable explanation I could come up with.

As we followed her inanimate steps, she eventually reached for the door and opened it. Only to reveal nobody standing at the threshold. I wanted to ask older ‘me’ about what was going on, but he didn’t seem to want to explain everything by himself. I already had the sense that he wanted me to simply ‘experience’ the message he sought to portray… So I trusted him and followed Avani’s trail alongside the others.

She took a turn to the left, and then shifted towards the left once more, as if outlining the structure of the house. However, this didn’t seem to be her intention. She was walking towards the seaside cliff…

…where the masked man, alongside the brown-haired man, stood at the edge of the cliff, as though anticipating her arrival.