Chapter 84 – The Unchanging (1)
Even after hearing the conversation between the two of us, Richard’s face was lingering.
Can I really beat my brother? The expression of the doubt that was revealed without filtering, it even looked stupid in the eyes of others.
It was not a face suitable for a forty-year-old man.
“What are you so surprised about? You are stronger than Edwin. That Iris and I can only guarantee that fact.”
I spoke to Richard in a nonchalant tone, as if it were very natural.
It was as if Iris and I thought, of course, that Richard would win.
In fact, even in my eyes, it didn’t look like Richard would lose to Edwin.
Richard doesn’t know, but Iris and I can see it.
That Richard had already reached a considerable level.
Of course, let alone a master, even the stage of forming an aura, albeit vaguely, is nothing more than half-punished.
Even so, the swordsmanship he had accumulated over forty years was not something that a pot-bellied man who hadn’t wielded a sword for twenty years could deal with.
At least among the children of Claudius II, except for Iris, there was no one who could deal with Richard purely with swordsmanship.
The only variable would be that Richard, who was afraid of Edwin, became weak from the psychological burden of dealing with Edwin.
I believed that Richard would overcome even that.
Perhaps not only I, but also Iris believed in Richard.
“…”
Richard’s confused eyes wavered. He seemed to have a lot of thoughts, so I sent him out to take a day off and organize his thoughts.
As I was being pushed out of the room, when I thought of Richard’s dazed face as he left the room on both feet without answering, it seemed that his mind was very complicated.
Anyway.
After sending Richard like that, Iris and I were left alone in the room.
“Iris. Can I talk to the goddess?”
“Ah, with the goddess?”
Just as she was about to ask Iris to speak with her goddess, she decided to take some time to ask.
At my request, Iris touched her wrist for a moment, and a group of pale lights shimmered softly on her wrist.
“Please speak.”
“I want to talk about how to retrieve my memories.”
The other day, through Iris, I had told the goddess the same thing.
Please tell me how to get my memory back.
At that time, the goddess expressed disapproval of my request. It’s not the time yet, please wait a little bit. Iris’ expression was very serious when she said that, so she decided to listen to her explanation of the situation later and promised the next time.
Quite a bit of time has passed since then.
Now she had to get a proper explanation from the goddess.
According to the setting I remember, there is still a lot of time left until Baal’s descent, and the situation is better than that because I fatally wounded Baal before I actually lost my memory.
Conversely, too many changes have made the time series my sister and I remember obsolete.
In a situation where you don’t know how it will change, you can’t lose your memories forever.
As if my determination had been conveyed, Iris shut her mouth for a moment. As if the goddess was conveying her words, a group of light spread softly from her Iris wrist.
After a while, Iris’s mouth opened.
“… Currently, the Goddess and other deities of the celestial world say that Baal, the demon lord, is restricting most of the means to intervene on earth.”
What Iris brought out was the power structure of the Heavens and the Demons, which had been tightly hidden until now. Iris, who conveys the goddess’s intentions, was also hearing this for the first time, and her voice trembled in the middle of her words.
“Even if you want to tell me the reason, you say that you want to ask for my understanding because the causal rate consumed each time you transmit one piece of information from the heavens to the earth is considerable… Oh, she says it’s okay for simple conversations or information that her brother already knows.”
Perhaps she had considerable wear and tear while conveying the information that ‘there is also a limit to conveying information’.
With this information, I hope you will understand even if there is an unsatisfactory explanation in the future.
After making a rough decision in my head, I asked again.
“How do I retrieve my memories?”
“… Mmm. Usually, memory loss due to a curse comes back with the cure of the curse, but in my brother’s case, it was a curse that was close to power. , They say that in this case, we need to use a completely new method.”
New case?
As if answering my question, Iris continued her words.
“The holy relic located in the Time Temple will collect fragments of your brother’s memories. After collecting the fragments…”
“What next?”
“They say you can achieve anything you want if you go to the Temple of the Moon.”
It’s an ambiguous word.
Even if it’s not necessarily getting my memories back, there’s something I want.
But now that the goddess has no reason to lie to me, I should believe it.
“It’s a temple of time.”
It is a place known only by setting.
Even if it is only mentioned in the game, the story progresses, and all sorts of chaos takes place on the continent, in the end, the temple of time does not appear until the end.
I remember my sister complaining that even in the setting book, the location was left unclear.
It’s ironic that it was actually a set of game settings made by that older sister.
In the end, it must mean that my sister didn’t properly hear about the settings of the time temple from the original author while making the game.
Perhaps the identity of the original author.
…
Now this is not important.
“Where is the location?”
“Beyond the Dragon Mountains in the Far East of the Continent… Come on.”
It is the dragon mountain range.
I’ll even meet a dragon.
“Okay. For now, this is enough. Thank you.”
This was quite satisfactory information. I stroked the hair of Iris, who worked hard in between.
“Shall we go together… ?”
Iris, who lowered her head and accepted my touch, spoke cautiously. Looking at my eyes, I blur the end of my words. I stopped my hand for a moment at the unexpected words, then smiled softly.
“What are you doing when you are away?”
Attending the academy and crossing the Dragon Mountains located in the far eastern part of the continent were really different levels of problems.
Iris, the leader of the next succession, would be the only one who welcomed the idea of going to such a place, but only her competitor, Edwin.
So I couldn’t take Iris with me.
Iris would know that too. I lowered my head and met Iris’s eyes.
The trembling blue eyes caught my gaze.
“What are you anxious about?”
“… Because I’m worried.”
What.
At my whispered question, Iris averted her eyes.
She purses her lips, and then rests her forehead on my chest.
“You’ve already lost a lot, brother.”
Memories, even the mighty power that I had built up over the years.
Iris’s voice was locked in resentment.
I decided to listen in silence.
Because it was an opportunity to hear her inner thoughts that she hadn’t shown before.
To be honest, I was a little surprised.
Of course, it is true that she lost her memory thanks to Baal’s tricks, and she also lost most of her stats that she would have built up through countless talents and self-training.
But to put it a little harshly, isn’t that my job, not Iris’s?
The fact that she cared more than me, the person in charge of her, felt strange.
Had Richard felt like this before?
At that time.
Iris muttered in a wet voice.
“… What if my older brother who has regained his memories doesn’t need me anymore…”
Ah.
It wasn’t until I heard that that I could see why Iris was worried about her.
Iris only knows me who lost her memory. She wasn’t the Sangvis duke who had lived for over a hundred years and ripped off my parents’ necks, but me who had just woken up a few months ago.
Even I fear what my personality will be like after I regained my memories, and whether my current self will be weighed down by the bloat of a hundred years.
Even so, everyone was determined to recover their memories in order to have a happy ending and to prevent the downfall of my sister and I.
However, the princess Iris, who admired the iron-blooded duke, instead embraced and loved me, who had lost her memory, in place of her feelings of respect.
“Scary…”
Iris’ shoulders trembled. I was afraid that the man I had fallen in love with would turn into a completely different person.
But even so, in a corner of my heart, I had to help that man regain his memory, even that feeling.
The values of Iris as a woman who fell in love with a man and the good and upright hero Iris collided fiercely.
Iris looked up at me. She had the face of a weak woman who was distorted with tears and did not know what to do.
“Yes.”
I hugged Iris. Trembling body. Iris’s body, which felt as if it had become even smaller, was held in my arms.
“… Sorry. I didn’t mean to talk about this.”
It was a weak voice.
Unable to look at her, I wrapped my iris around the back of her neck, grabbed her chin, and lifted it slightly.
“Brother? … Town.”
Her mouth was blocked as she called me curiously. A soft, moist texture and a sweet scent that emanates from the air.
Iris’s body froze as she opened her eyes.
