The bloody scene slowly faded, but I couldn't shake the memory of that room from my mind. Once again, total darkness surrounded us; only Senna and I remained in the endless silence. Senna sat collapsed on the ground, her shoulders trembling, visibly shattered by the sight of her own past.

  “After that, I had nowhere to go,” she spoke softly, her voice echoing hollowly in the dark. “I lived on the streets. For weeks, maybe months... after a while, I stopped counting the days. I only felt the hunger and the cold that pierced through to my bones. I still clearly remember the way people looked at me... none of them tried to help.”

  Senna looked up at me; her eyes were still tearful, but a faint light shimmered within them.

  “Then, one day, someone reached out a helping hand.”

  As she said it, the darkness was suddenly torn apart by a blinding light once more. A new memory formed before us: we were in a narrow, damp alleyway where a young Senna sat on a dirty cardboard box, knees pressed to her chest. She was shivering from the cold, her clothes were in rags, and her face was sunken from hunger.

  Then, the sound of footsteps came from the entrance of the alley. A woman’s shadow fell upon the wall, then she stopped in front of the little girl. She knelt down and looked at Senna with a smile so angelic and pure that even the sunlight paled beside it.

  Senna spoke beside me.

  “I thought an angel itself had appeared before me.” She laughed with relief, her eyes beginning to sparkle again, and I noticed a faint smile appearing on my own face as well. “When she took my hand, it was like seeing my mother.”

  Tears began to escape Senna’s eyes, which she immediately started to wipe away. I didn't know if they were from sadness, happiness, or perhaps both.

  “How cold your hands are... come, let’s find you a warm place.” The woman slowly helped Senna up.

  As they started out of the alley, two small children ran toward them; they looked to be about the same age as little Senna. As I looked at them, a strange, icy shiver ran down my spine. I recognized my own features in the little boy, while the little girl bore a haunting resemblance to Scarlett.

  The woman gently placed her hands on them and smiled at Senna.

  “This is my daughter, Scarlett, and this boy is Narihu,” she said, then turned curiously toward little Senna. “And what is your name, dear?”

  We both froze. I heard Senna’s breath hitch. I just stared at my childhood self in that sunlit memory, unable to understand how this was possible.

  “But I’ve lived in Presporok my whole life... how is this possible?” I whispered to myself, barely able to catch my breath from the shock.

  Senna unexpectedly stepped toward me, bunched the fabric of my clothes into her fist at my neck, and pulled me close.

  “Please, tell me! What happened to the Queen?” Her grip was strong, yet I felt no threat in it. It was as if she were clinging to me like the last shred of hope at the bottom of a dark pit.

  I didn't know what to say to her; so many thoughts were racing through my mind. My eyes narrowed with pain, knowing that what I was about to say would break her into pieces.

  “I don't know... I don't remember anything,” I whispered.

  Senna’s grip slackened, and after a few moments, she let go completely. I saw the rising disappointment struggle across her face. I didn't feel it was right to keep suppressing the truth, so I made up my mind: I would tell her what I was feeling. I turned away from her, knowing that if I looked into her eyes, I wouldn't have the strength to say it.

  Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  “Since I’ve been with you all, I’ve started to realize that what I believed to be reality my whole life might never have existed. The King and Scarlett treat me as if they’ve known me for a thousand years... yet I have no memory of them. Just like I have none of this woman.”

  I turned back toward Senna and slowly stepped closer. I saw that she was completely lost in her own thoughts. She remained silent for a long time, her gaze still fixed on nothingness, but the tension in her posture visibly eased. Finally, she spoke with a sad sense of understanding.

  “I wish my memories were false too... then I wouldn't have to brood over the past every single night,” she whispered, then looked at me. “I want to forget everything. I can't bear to live with this guilt.”

  I wanted to step toward her, but the darkness around us suddenly shuddered. Hair-thin cracks appeared in the black void, from which a blinding, bluish light leaked. Senna’s subconscious world was beginning to fall apart. Her face went pale, and beads of sweat appeared on her forehead.

  “Narihu... my strength is gone,” she groaned, and I saw her form slowly starting to fade.

  “Senna!” I shouted and reached for her, but my hand only swept through the empty air.

  “We’ll meet in reality.” As she said it, she vanished, and I was left alone in the darkness.

  I stood there in the darkness by myself, but nothing happened; only the mute emptiness remained. Then, after a while, the silence was replaced by choking smoke and the metallic scent of blood. Suddenly, I found myself in the middle of a battlefield where a massacre must have just ended.

  I started walking among the corpses. Hundreds of motionless bodies covered the ground; crows were already feasting on some of them. A torturous feeling nagged at me, as if I had forgotten something vital, but then a sharp, lightning-like pain lashed into my skull. It was so intense that I instinctively clutched my head.

  “Arthur...” The name left my mouth of its own accord.

  I began to run through the bodies, frantically searching for him, praying with every fiber of my being that I wouldn't find him. As my eyes searched every corpse on the ground, my gaze stopped at a single point. My legs froze instantly. As slowly as I could, I walked over and stopped before the lifeless body.

  I fell to my knees and spoke in a trembling voice:

  “Arthur... brother... I remember everything now.” A flood of tears broke from me as I buried my face in my palms. “You saved me... like you always did...”

  Two soldiers stepped toward me through the smoke. They stopped in front of me, removed their helmets, and bowed deeply.

  “We wish to express our condolences, Commander Narihu,” one of them said softly. “We have received orders to immediately recover the body of Commander Arthur Mizuhara.”

  “I understand...” I whispered, unable to take my eyes off my brother’s lifeless body.

  The soldiers slowly lifted him and carried him away. I remained there in the mud, staring at the empty spot where my brother had been lying just moments before. I tried to process the memories crashing down on me, but only one thought hammered in my head: he died because of me. It was my fault.

  Then, someone grabbed my shoulder from behind. I looked back, and my eyes widened in shock: Arthur and Lisa were standing there.

  “Take my hand, I’ll help you up.” Arthur said, then pulled me up from the mud with a firm motion. “You finally remember me; it was about time.” he added, patting me on the shoulder.

  “We want to talk to you,” said Lisa, her voice ringing softly through the chaos in my head.

  “About what?” I asked, still dazed.

  “About you,” Arthur replied, looking around the field filled with corpses. “Let’s go somewhere else instead; it’s too depressing here.”

  Arthur snapped his fingers, and in the next moment, the bloody battlefield vanished. A blinding, pure whiteness flooded everything around us.

  “How did you do that?” I asked, mouth agape.

  “We’re in your head, little brother,” Arthur grinned. “Anything is possible here.”

  As he finished, Arthur took a deep breath, and his face, which had held that characteristic playful half-smile until now, suddenly turned solemn.

  "Narihu... I know my death had a profound impact on you," Arthur began. As he spoke, an image began to take shape in the white void; the outlines of two young children emerged. The smaller one was me, having just tripped over, and the larger one was Arthur, helping me up with a laugh. "From the moment I left, something changed in you for good. You lost your smile. You became far more protective, and a kind of seriousness settled in your eyes that I never wanted to see in my brother."

  Lisa nodded and stepped closer. As she reached my side, the memory shifted: now I saw Lisa, as the life slowly drained out of her, while I held her in my arms.

  "And then, what happened to me, Narihu," Lisa continued, her voice soft yet sharp as a confrontation. "You blamed yourself for Arthur's death, and later for mine too. That toxic thought lived inside you—that you could have done more. That it shouldn't have been us staying behind on that battlefield, but you."

  At their words, the white space around us began to darken, and my guilt spread across the floor like a black shadow. I felt myself sinking to my knees again under its weight.

  "Do you think we’d be happy if you spent your whole life mourning because of what happened?" Arthur knelt before me and forced me to look him in the eye. "Our sacrifice wasn't so you could build a prison around yourself and live in self-blame."

  "What we did, we did because we loved you, so you must forgive yourself, Narihu," Lisa added, and I felt the warmth of her hand on my shoulder. "You can only move on and protect those who are important to you now if you let us go."

  The pain throbbed in my throat, and my tears flowed no longer from guilt, but from realization. I knew that what Arthur and Lisa were saying was the truth: it was time to forgive myself.

  "I’ll try..." I whispered, and my voice finally stopped trembling so much. "I promise I won't let what you did for me go to waste. I promise I will look forward."

  Arthur smiled—with that typical, confident half-smile that always signaled everything would be alright. He stood up and helped me to my feet.

  "Once you've made a name for yourself, don't forget to mention that you had an impressive brother. I love you, little bro."

  Lisa stepped up to me and gave me a tight hug. Her embrace was warm and soothing, as if she were a person of flesh and blood.

  "Take care of your companions," she said softly. "They can be to you what we were to each other. Help them if they are in trouble, because they are your family now."

  As Lisa stepped back, the black shadows beneath my feet evaporated. The whiteness that had been mere background until now suddenly began to fade. Arthur and Lisa’s forms started to dissolve into the light, but I could still see them waving one last time.

  "I love you both!" I shouted, but the light had already swallowed them.

  The blinding whiteness ceased, and darkness surrounded me once more. I felt an invisible force pulling me upward; I knew that this time, I was returning to reality.