What exactly is the principle behind reincarnation?
In fact, if you delve scientifically into it, there would be more than a few points to critique.
If one defines the imaginary concept of ‘soul’ that lightly jumps through space and time, everything would be neatly solved, but that thought is no different from the convenient notion that the sun revolves around the earth.
Moreover, dragons, which are actually known to traverse dimensions, strongly deny the existence of souls.
Ultimately, the more I pondered this, the more I found myself mired in neuroscience theories.
Reproducing a human brain exactly is nearly impossible, so is it even feasible to integrate different synapses without them colliding?
Then, when does this integration take place?
From the moment the placenta separates? Or during implantation? Or even from the germ cell stage?
Thus, reincarnation is an unscientific concept. This was the best conclusion I could reach.
“This way.”
An elderly woman with a hunched back at the memorial hall’s reception desk guided us to the columbarium.
Contrary to expectations that it would be a bit crowded, there wasn’t a soul in sight at the memorial hall.
“Lisianthus, tulip, dahlia. Am I right?”
She spoke as she looked at the bouquet in my arms. It seemed she was quite knowledgeable about various flowers aside from chrysanthemums.
“That’s right. Isn’t it pretty? I’m giving it to my mom.”
The elderly woman nodded slowly, then turned back to retrace the path we came.
[Sulah: 2022. 2. 21 ~ 2045. 6. 11]
I stood in front of the urn containing Seol-a’s ashes and took a deep breath.
The fourth space from the bottom.
I placed the bouquet I brought in the empty spot and made sure to set the group photo taken at the hospital beside it.
Life began to swirl in the stark space. My heart felt heavy, yet a small smile crept onto my face.
Thank you, really…
I won’t disturb you anymore.
Have a good time with my mother. This is me.
[IWC Schaffhausen – Reminiscence]
[Log output: 7]
I took out the portable mana crafting tool I received as a birthday gift from my pocket.
I didn’t need the bittersweet memories of the distant past or the faint recollections right now.
I thought that fully facing it as Seol-a’s daughter was the only way to express my deepest respect for her.
[2nd Circle Incantation: Cerebral Cortex Reconstruction]
[4th Circle Incantation: Activation of the Lateral Septum]
[Encoding: Neuropeptide Y Receptor 1]
[Constraints: Episodic Memory]
[Previous Incantation: Esteria Ryu 2nd Style – Schadenfreude]
“Mom, mom!”
“Do you know, mom?
It’s me, you know.
Actually, I have memories from my past life?
I can’t remember much right now, but I was an incredibly strong, beautiful, and kind princess.
So, you see, everyone keeps calling me a genius?
When I solve difficult problems in one second, everyone looks surprised, and when I cast difficult magic, they applaud and everything.
Actually, it’s not that I’m smart; it’s just that I have memories from my past life.
But still, hearing compliments made me so happy.
Did you get mad since I came back after four months?
What should I tell you next, mom?
Oh right! Last time I saw you, Professor Cheon told me to try going to the academy.
So I went for an interview and got accepted on the first try!
In the middle, some guy was rude, so I punished him with magic. I did well, right?
I also made some really good friends at the academy.
My seatmate is a boy named Si-Hoo, and it seems like his parents make him study really hard. He’s super smart and mature, unlike me who has memories from my past life.
If you look closely, it seems Si-Hoo has a crush on Yuna? So he teases her all the time, and honestly, it’s so fun that I can’t stop. What if they end up dating for real? But I still want to keep teasing him.
Yuna is a girl who’s a bit taller than Si-Hoo and has the unusual hair color of red. They say if you undergo Aura Heart transplant surgery, the melanin pigment changes like that.
Actually, Yuna is a nice girl too, but she often gets disliked by her friends, which made things difficult for her at first.
Later, I found out that her mother was really sick. Yuna worked really hard to get a scholarship because of that.
Thinking about how her mother was unwell always reminded me of my own mom, so I healed her with the Akashic Record!
I was a bit scared that my Aura Heart might break, but thankfully, it turned out fine since it was a chemical formula I had often used in the past. If mom had known, she would have worried a lot, right?
But if I used magic, I obviously would have to pay for it, you know? So I bravely decided to earn some money and streamed for a long time!
I created an avatar that looked exactly like my past life, and when people praised me for being so pretty, I felt good yet a little jealous.
Will I be able to grow up like that someday? But I’m the smallest in our academy…
No! My mom is the prettiest in the world, so I’m sure I’ll be far prettier than that princess!
While gaming, I met an NPC named Adella, and there’s something strange about her no matter how I look at it.
Every time I meet her, my heart races, and I feel like I can’t leave her alone, so I tried to save her.
Why did I have that thought back then?
I’m not sure, hehe.
So, Adella must be playing around in my private room now after escaping from the game safely.
However, during the rescue process, I saw the laboratory where my mom and I were.
Did we really get used in an experiment to create artificial intelligence?
If the day comes when I know the whole truth, I’ll definitely take revenge on those bad people who trapped my mom. I’m not scared at all.
But no matter how much I think about it, I can’t find anyone around me to help. Moreover, I gathered evidence after working hard, but they wouldn’t even look at it…
So I decided to enter the game competition!
I thought if I become super famous, everything would be resolved.
Why a game competition, you ask? Because it’s just fun…!
I’m really good at games… and magic isn’t something I achieved myself anyway.
Actually, this is a real secret… I think the biggest reason I wanted to be praised by everyone in the chat was that it looked so nice.
There have been so many things happening, and every single one is something I want to do with my mom.
On the day I had a pajama party with Yuna and Haru, and the day I went to the amusement park with Adella and my older sister Kariri, how wonderful it would have been if my mom had been there for all those moments.
I feel like I’m enjoying happiness beyond measure,
With kind older brothers and sisters, and friends loving me so much,
It may be a selfish thought, but… I just… want to see my mom.
I want to play with my mom, and I want to sleep beside her.
I wish mom could come to the parent-teacher conference, and I hope I can impress her by doing well on my exams.
Just as mom said, I worked hard and survived. I’m doing my best to live for her too.
But without my mom…
This pain in my heart…
Why did mom have to sacrifice herself…
I’m sure mom was scared of dying as well.
How could she decide to give up her life just because she’s my mother…
If only I had done a little better, would mom be by my side right now?
Even the smart older sister says she doesn’t know that.
Anyway, I’m sorry, mom…
I promised to only show happy faces today, but I keep saying things like this.
This is the photo I took today. The room is packed, isn’t it?
So please don’t worry too much, mom…
I’ve really worked hard for the past four months, and I made so many friends like this!
Actually, in my past life… oh, in my past life…
That’s right. In my past life, I didn’t have that many friends.
If we set aside my personality, I was rather bad-natured.
I think that if I could meet such good people, it’s all thanks to Seol-a.
I may still be stoic, but compared to before, I think my personality has changed a lot in a positive way.
I’m grateful to be born as your daughter, mom.
I’m the proudest to be your daughter in the world, and this feeling will never change.
Please keep watching over me.
I’ll visit often, even when it’s not my birthday.
I love you…
It’s precious, so I’ll make sure to cherish it.
I sincerely love you.
“Why are you out already? Where’s Nam-e?”
The person sluggishly walking towards me from the end of the hallway was Eborum.
While Professor Cheon and Eborum were waiting in the reception room, Nam-e had gone ahead to the columbarium with a flower bouquet.
And Eborum followed after Nam-e with a bit of a time lag, but her complexion didn’t look good at all.
“Ah… I thought I’d be a disturbance if I stayed there.”
Boreum could only mumble as her thoughts came to mind in response to Professor Cheon’s question.
The girl who seemed like she wouldn’t bleed even if pricked with a needle was quietly weeping, sounding just like a child her age.
Seeing that scene shocked Boreum quite a bit, and she left without looking back.
She nodded her head in thanks to Professor Cheon, who offered her an Americano.
“Thank you… But sir, are you perhaps…?”
“Hmm?”
Eborum tilted her head slightly.
“Aren’t you a bit famous in our country…?”
Professor Cheon, sipping his coffee, frowned at her words.
Worried that she might have gotten the wrong idea, Boreum hastily searched on her phone.
Then she searched something on VTube and showed him a video with 3,500 views.
“Isn’t it you in this video…?”
[(Re-upload – 2013) 4th National Martial Arts Competition High School Semi-finals: Hameochong vs Cheon Byeong-ho]
Seeing the title, Professor Cheon narrowed his eyes.
“No? It can’t be, right…?”
Nam-e had just arrived at that moment.
“I’m sorry to keep you waiting. Shall we go have dinner? I barely ate lunch and I’m starving. Eborum unnie, are you going too?”
“Nam-e says she’s hungry. Let’s go quickly.”
“Yes, let’s go!”
Boreum glanced at Nam-e, who was holding Professor Cheon’s hand.
Though her expression was not much different when they entered and exited the memorial hall, her eyes were slightly moist.
“Is there something you want to eat?”
“I’m fine with anything!”
“I’m not in the mood to be picky either.”
“Then shall we look for something to eat while walking?”
“Yeah!”
The two girls nodded vigorously.
The car remained parked in front of the memorial hall as the three entered the food alley.
Boreum couldn’t shake off the fact that Nam-e had cried earlier.
She kept asking if Nam-e was okay, which began to annoy her a little.
“I’m really okay, so let’s just think together about what we want to eat. It’s hard for me to walk for a long time.”
“If you’re tired, do you want me to carry you?”
“No way, how old do you think I am, professor?”
“Today, you turned eight.”
“Oh, that’s why it’s eight… Even if I’m eight, that’s a little…”
Since there were no decent restaurants to be found in the first area they scouted, they decided to move to the adjacent alley.
The sun was gradually setting, casting a crimson glow that slanted through the corners of the buildings.
Young men and women enjoying dinner and drinks gradually stepped out onto the street to smoke.
Laughter from the crowds and songs from the pubs created a noisy atmosphere.
In the midst of the ordinary downtown area, a small incident occurred.
A man with a pleasant expression raised his arms high and shouted.
“…Im!”
The eyes of those huddled in groups talking to one another turned toward him.
“Unspecified Gender!”
The person who pushed through the crowd to reach Nam-e’s group was someone they were more familiar with from VTube than in reality.
“Who…?”
Professor Cheon stepped in front of Nam-e and spoke.
The well-groomed young man immediately bent at a 90-degree angle to greet them.
“Yes, I’m Han Yong-cheol, the Twish streamer!”
“Streamer…?”
To Professor Cheon, who had a poor impression of internet broadcasters, Nam-e stepped out to explain.
“Oh! He’s someone from the team we competed with in the game tournament. Nice to see you here.”
“Yes, exactly! I’m not some weird person! But, what brings you here…?”
“We just came out for dinner.”
“Really? What a coincidence! Wow, that’s amazing!”
Han Yong-cheol seemed unaware of why he was so surprised.
Boreum, with her experienced managerial background, had a guess about this.
“Could it be… are you having the after-party for the Twish tournament here?”
Having a wealth of experience as a long-time manager, she had worked with other streamers for a long time, so such events were familiar to her.
“Yes! It’s right in front! How serendipitous! By the way, Nam-e, would you like to join? Everything is free!”
“But I thought it was a pub.”
“Pub? Ah, it’s not really that! I mean, it looks like a pub on the outside! We don’t drink alcohol at all! Hang on…!”
Quickly, Yong-cheol began contacting someone urgently.
He then came back with a bright smile and persuaded Nam-e.
“There are a lot of good things to eat there!”
“Oh, there’s no end to it! From Korean, Japanese, Chinese, and Western food to fancy steaks and sweet desserts!”
“Sweet desserts?”
“Oh, you like sweet things! They have this giant chocolate fountain fondue machine and macarons, brownies, tiramisu, waffles, gelato… What else was there…?”
“Professor Cheon, let’s go. It’s free, right?”
Before long, Nam-e, who had been beside Professor Cheon, had moved closer to Yong-cheol.
The decision was made really quickly.
*
[>>2051-1 Twish & LetterBox After-Party Chat Room<< (132 members)]
[Han Yong-cheol: Attention everyone looking at your phones right now!]
[Han Yong-cheol: Immediately remove and throw away all the alcohol!]
[Delete: ?]
[Han Yong-cheol: Hurry, hurry, hurry, hurry.]
[Insert: Wait, you have to give some explanation. Just saying to throw it away is...]
[DalTori: Why? Is something wrong?]
[Han Yong-cheol: Unspecified Gender is coming!]
[Delete: Seriously? Are they actually coming here?]
[Han Yong-cheol: Yep.]
[BoredMan: When are they coming?]
[Han Yong-cheol: 10.]
[Delete: 10 minutes? Didn’t you say you went out to smoke? When did you get all the way there?]
[Han Yong-cheol: 9.]
[Han Yong-cheol: 8.]
[Han Yong-cheol: I’m right in front of the store now.]
[HyeBam: Kyaaaaa!!!]
"Is Unspecified Gender coming?"
Upon hearing the news, over a hundred streamers hurriedly took out their phones and started broadcasting.
They were all people with strong professional spirits.
