### Chapter 63: Memory Lapse
When the lush pine branches above suddenly became sparse, and the vibrant green receded to the peripheries of my vision, warm sunlight streamed down from the azure sky in the west, illuminating the rolling hills that abruptly appeared in the distance.
Wow, that’s bright…
Under the dazzling spring sun, I stood at the end of the southern forest path—where the pines gave way to an open field—and gazed out into the vastness ahead, instinctively lifting my hand to shield my eyes.
Several miles away, nestled at the base of a large hill, that old, majestic white castle from my memories made a striking appearance, quietly sitting in the center of the field. Not far away, at the foot of the hills, there was a clear lake, its surface shimmering with rippling light, creating a scene that still looked like a breathtaking fairy tale.
I stopped to take in the view.
In my foggy mind, it felt like I heard a song once more.
[Silver moonlight… hanging over the blue lake… warm coal fire, comforting the cold tea… ]
The melody was like a knights’ uneven chorus, yet it also resembled a young woman gracefully reciting verses on a balcony at night. The blurry sounds mixed with the chilling cries of women lingered in my mind for a few seconds.
“…Danger.”
It wasn’t until the low voice of the female swordsman pulled me back from the ethereal song and memories that I snapped out of it.
“Something feels off…”
I turned my head and saw Anacelis approaching, a bundle of deer hides strapped to her back. She stared intently at the castle in the distance and murmured, “It feels stronger than before… like we’re being watched.”
“Hmm…”
I nodded thoughtfully.
Ugh, my head hurts…
It seemed that long-forgotten headache surged back just as the female swordsman spoke.
Even though it was just a fleeting moment…
I couldn’t help but rub my forehead.
I didn’t understand exactly what feeling she was referring to, but the bizarre atmosphere was palpable…
After collecting my thoughts, I turned my gaze back toward the castle.
From here, I could vaguely make out the familiar outer walls. In my memory, the blue and white flags fluttering in the wind on those walls had now disappeared without a trace.
In their place was the Holy Church’s cross flag. There were quite a few gold-and-white banners standing tall, but several had fallen, and the battlements looked empty—no signs of life at all. It looked nothing like Rect had described, a heavily guarded place where even the birds dared not fly.
This was clearly not right…
Moreover, it was strange all around the castle as well.
I remembered that this area used to be an open field, surrounded by our circular pine forest with nothing else there. But now, a chaotic cluster of makeshift barracks spread around the castle in the grassland, with various tents haphazardly pitched. It looked like a mad scramble to create a temporary encampment centered around the castle.
With such a large campsite, there should have been plenty of people gathered there…
Yet, at this time, it was eerily silent.
The city and the surroundings were both dead quiet.
I…
I honestly didn’t see a single person.
“Hey, Sword Demon.”
I quietly called the female swordsman beside me, a strange, ominous feeling swelling up inside me.
“…Hmm.”
“When did you come here last?”
“About half a month ago…”
The female swordsman frowned, as if struggling to think hard, but confusion gradually appeared in her eyes. After two seconds, she turned to me, her face puzzled: “It was probably… half a month ago, or maybe… a month ago? I don’t really know, but it seems like I can’t quite remember…”
“……”
I stared at her, opening my mouth.
I wanted to yell at her, but nothing came out.
How can you forget something like this?
What kind of head do you have…
I was really losing my patience: “You surely remember what the area around the castle looked like when you got here, right? It wouldn’t have been as dead and quiet as it is now, would it?”
“……”
The female swordsman looked back at the castle again.
It seemed she was still pondering something. After a moment, she answered, “Back then, there were still plenty of people in the outlying settlement… those clerics, and the victims of disasters… Sometimes I’d run into a knight patrol coming out of the fortress. Although… there was this indescribable atmosphere that always made me feel something was wrong… but they were all still there.”
“Are you sure?” I narrowed my eyes.
“Yeah, I remember…”
The female swordsman nodded confidently.
However, soon after, her expression filled with doubt again, looking like she wanted to say something but wasn’t sure how.
“If you have something to say, just spill it.” I scratched my face, growing impatient.
“…Oh.”
After hesitating for a moment, she finally admitted, “I just realized, I can’t quite remember the places I stayed before…”
“What do you mean?” I furrowed my brow.
“I mean… I can’t remember where I temporarily stayed outside the fortress.” The female swordsman’s face looked quite odd; her childlike features were squeezed by confusion, almost becoming a dumpling, “So many things, now when I try to recall, it feels like they’re all fuzzy… almost unreal… like a dream…”
?
Her words made me feel muddled too: “Are you saying you can’t remember how you spent your time outside the fortress? Or can’t remember where you stayed in the camp? East of the fortress? West?”
“Both…”
The female swordsman seemed to plunge into extreme confusion, her dim brain struggling to keep up. She answered absentmindedly and then started almost muttering to herself: “I should have stayed in some old man’s tent… he was a wrinkly, smiley disaster victim… came alone… his kids died on the road to the Northern Region, and since I didn’t have a tent, he let me crash with him… then…”
“What happened next… Oh right, one night that old man brought out his only bottle of wine, saying I reminded him of his granddaughter… he also mentioned seeing a deity manifesting on the walls of the Silent Fortress… I originally wanted to check out the city, but realized I couldn’t get in… How many days did I stay outside the fortress? When did I leave…”
“That old man told me his name, but what was it again…”
She spoke, anxiety and fear flickering in her eyes: “I honestly can’t remember…”
As I listened to the female swordsman’s murmurs, my annoyance quickly dissipated, replaced by a chilling feeling that crawled up my spine and seized my brain in that instant.
I realized something.
It wasn’t because of confusion, nor was it due to stupidity; the Sword Demon’s memory had genuinely slipped…
She had forgotten a lot about what happened outside the fortress, including when she arrived, when she left, who she interacted with, and how long she stayed. Many experiences that a normal person would never easily forget, now just a month, or even half a month later…
She couldn’t recall any of it.
Clearly, the Sword Demon had suffered a memory lapse…
But she wasn’t crazy.
Despite her somewhat clumsy demeanor, preference for silence, and lack of social skills, she didn’t seem like someone who would suffer from amnesia.
The Sword Demon was a normal person.
Normal people don’t forget so much that recently happened.
Unless…
Unless something had tampered with her memory, erasing it to some degree, leading her to completely forget those events.
In some unknown, imperceptible way…
And right here.
