Remember · Forget / Human · Inhuman

However, he had no recollection of anything related to this vast amount of information, even though a large portion of it contained his own. It was as if he were looking at someone else's records, giving him a sense of unreal dislocation.

"Forest".

Does this simple name belong to him? Or to the soldier recorded as having "sacrificed his life for righteousness"?

The sea breeze ruffled the man's slightly long black hair. He couldn't feel these sensations. According to the records, he lost most of his senses after a failed Hypervariable Surgery. Only through this personal experience could the man resonate with Lin in the records.

"Brother Lin, if you're out having fun, try to have some fun! How about buying some of my new stuff? This is some treasure I just got from Sister Vill-V, and these are gifts from Sister Eden after she had a few drinks..."

"..."

It took the man a long time for his pupils under his bangs to react. Realizing that she was talking to him, he turned his head and saw a girl with cat ears and a cat tail, smiling with heterochromatic eyes. Even though she tried her best to control her smile, it still looked very forced.

The man thought for a moment, then shook his head and said, "No need, Pardofelis."

"..."

The cat-eared girl's smile froze completely, as if it had been stuffed into a refrigerator. Her lips twitched, and deep in her eyes, an emotion welled up as if she were about to cry.

The man sensed this emotion; only at times like this did he feel a sense of unease, not towards others, but towards himself. "What's wrong?"

The brown-haired, cat-eared girl's ears trembled slightly. "Brother Lin, you used to call me Pardo..."

"... Excuse me, if you need, I can call you Pardo."

"..."

The man watched the girl walk away, his heart skipped a beat, but he didn't know what it meant. He just watched expressionlessly as another person walked over and leaned against the railing next to him, her snow-white hair fluttering slightly in the wind.

There was a chilling aura surrounding this person... that's what others said, but the man couldn't feel it.

"Don't you understand?" Kevin... the name he used when introducing himself, his somber expression always reminded men of ice sculptures.

The man answered truthfully, "Yes."

"It's okay. No one is born omniscient and omnipotent." Kevin's expression was calm, and men didn't feel much pressure when they were with him. "Before taking on power, take on responsibility. Sometimes you don't need to know who you are, just see the road ahead clearly."

The man seemed lost in thought, while Kevin turned to look intently at his longtime friend, observing the confusion in his expression. Finally, he sighed softly, "Enjoy this vacation to the fullest. Elysia has been preparing for a long time. She proposed the 'Thirteen Heroes' project. Although some of us disagreed, we all still participated in this... team building activity."

"She said you always eat noodles when you organize team building activities."

"... Is that not allowed?"

"No," the man said seriously, "I think noodles are fine... Could we change our plans and eat noodles together instead?"

"..."

Ships laden with the past and the future drift on the endless sea toward unknown directions.

Chapter Two: Remember or Not

Are you on vacation?

How can you talk about vacationing if you haven't even experienced work?

Lin—he accepted the name, albeit temporarily—put down the terminal. He had essentially taken in the so-called "past," but it was hard to say whether he would have any "sense of identification" with it.

Most of the opinions were from other people. Some thought he was a dangerous individual, some thought he was a cold-blooded and unpredictable machine, and others thought he was dedicated to fighting for humanity. But he himself didn't think he was anything special.

In particular, one of the points mentioned that the Eleventh Herrscher, Herrscher has caused the greatest damage to humanity to date, looks exactly like him, which has led many people to be hostile towards him as the "instigator". It is said that some people have even submitted petitions to have him imprisoned.

Lin himself doesn't care, and he's not sure if he can still harm humanity. In this situation, it's probably better to keep a close watch on Sumeragi.

But in the end, he wasn't arrested and tied to the bed in a straitjacket. He guessed that it was probably due to opposition from some people, and that it was likely like the "Thirteen Heroes" proposal, which was opposed but then implemented on its own.

So, is this the reason you're on vacation?

In order to allow him to avoid those people...

"Lin, what are you doing here?"

A lively voice interrupted Lin's thoughts; a girl with two distinctive hair colors, one light and one dark, had appeared behind him without him noticing.

The wind rustled the lace trim of her swimsuit, gently lifting the distinctive pirate captain-style hat on her head. Her delicate, jade-like hands rested on her hips, her pretty face beaming with smiles.

"...nothing."

"Oh? Want to see my swimsuit? Hehe, no problem, go ahead and look." Vill-V generously displayed her sexy figure, wagging her finger. "Eden's swimsuit design is indeed quite nice."

Surprisingly, Vill-V seemed completely unconcerned about Lin's amnesia. She chatted excitedly with him about her vacation, mentioning the weapon she made in the Eleventh Honkai War, modeled after the Key of Blankness, which unfortunately wasn't very useful, as well as the future research direction of the Divine Key. Finally, she said with a strange smile, "Eat more pineapple," and went back to her room contentedly.

Then a boy with devil horns on his head came. He exchanged a few simple pleasantries, but it was clear that he wasn't very good at organizing his words. Several times he seemed to want to say something but then stopped himself. In the end, he frowned and went back to his room.

Lin didn't really like this feeling.

Everyone knew him, but he didn't know these people who seemed to know him well.

At the same time, Lin also noticed that there was a problem with his face. He couldn't make any expressions at all. His muscles were like they were glued on and he couldn't control them. He couldn't even pull up the corners of his mouth.

Fortunately, no one else noticed this.

"Brother Lin."

Among these people, one of the few Lin could get along with without feeling awkward was the little blue-haired girl in front of him.

She was the youngest of them all; everyone else was at least an adult, while she was still a child.

Her name is Griseo, her father's name is Hen, and her mother's name is Bianca; they are all friends of Lin.

Griseo changed into her swimsuit, and her delicate, fair body under the transparent tulle looked rather frail on the deck. Her bare feet on the cold floor as dusk approached were also a little worrying. Lin took off his coat and draped it over Griseo, then patted her head.

"Don't walk barefoot, you'll catch a cold," Lin Xinping said to the girl gently.

He felt that he must have been someone who really liked children, and whenever he saw Griseo, he would suppress his unease and feel an irresistible urge to take care of her.

But he also felt a faint sense of guilt deep inside him. When he first saw the child's flawless face, he felt a tingling, heart-pounding unease.

"Kosma said that wearing shoes would dirty the canvas, and also when sleeping..."

"..."

Children speak without thinking, and Lin could imagine that Kosma must be having a bit of a headache taking care of Griseo. However, Lin didn't intend to say anything to Griseo. He simply said, "If you don't want to wear it, then don't wear it."

She'll understand later.

... Even though I don't understand anything myself.

"Brother Lin, Grandma Mobius is very angry."

"..."

Mobius?

Lin's biggest headache was that girl who looked about the same age as Griseo. After her initial shock, she glared at him fiercely, as if Lin had offended her. If Sue hadn't been standing nearby to mediate, she probably would have pounced on him and strangled him.

After that, Lin deliberately avoided her, not wanting to provoke her, but it seemed that doing so made her even angrier.

So why are you angry this time?

"Brother Lin's color hasn't changed at all, so why is everyone so confused?"

Lin also wanted to know.

He tidied Griseo's hair and casually asked, "What color is it?"

"... It's for drawing."

What color am I?

"Have no idea."

"..."

Lin wasn't surprised. Children's cognitive abilities are relatively low, so it's normal for them to not recognize colors. But Griseo stared at the sunset over the sea outside the railing and said softly, "The color of the sea, the color of the seashells, the color of the sunset... so many colors, but none of them are Brother Lin's colors."

"..."

"This is for Brother Lin, it's a return gift from last time."

Last time?

Lin was used to this way of speaking: before, before that, last time, last time... Of course, he had no memory of the corresponding phrases, but... as long as that's what they thought, that was fine.

Griseo had been holding a painting in her hand from the beginning, and now she handed it to Lin, who picked it up and glanced at it.

Unlike Griseo's usual paintings, even though Lin couldn't see the colors, the painting's oppressive style made her feel uncomfortable just by looking at it from afar.

A person hanging upside down...

Like countless hands reaching out to a person entangled in a spider's web.

"Also, Elysia asked me to call you to your room to play games."

Elysia... is her younger sister?

Lin nodded helplessly at Griseo's little head, wondering what that quirky girl had instilled in Griseo.

"Okay, let's go."

Lin doesn't reject being with these people; perhaps it's a voice deep inside him that makes him easily accept them, even though he can't accept himself.

As he approached the largest cabin, he heard conversations inside.

Is there really no other way?

"... It's not simple amnesia. There's no way to recover the memories through conventional means because those memories aren't still deep in some area of his brain; they've simply disappeared."

"..."

"And the only thing he remembered was that of the Herrscher of Binding..."

Lin's pupils were unfocused. As he listened to those powerless words, he recalled the only image that had appeared in his mind when he woke up.

Fire fell from the sky, and Red Ice cracked the flames and the earth.

And at these times, tears would stream down my face like pearls from a broken string.

Chapter Three: Humans and Non-humans

Upon entering the room, almost everyone was there, each with a complex expression in their eyes.

Others might see him as having a tragic fate... but Lin doesn't think so.

He doesn't know his past self before he lost his memory, but he believes that the decisions he made back then would never make him regret them, even knowing the outcome.

Lin may not be able to accept it calmly yet, but she will probably get used to it gradually in the future.

Didn't I also take things one step at a time in the past?

"Hehe, is everyone here?"

The pink-haired girl in the very center was as always... Could Lin use that word? He only felt that the pink-haired girl's smile was familiar to him, so he probably smiled as enthusiastically as ever and said, "Oh dear~ it seems like we're still missing one person."

Lin counted the number of people present; including himself, there were fifteen people in total.

But there were indeed sixteen of them when they traveled.

"Then this task is yours, Lin. Go and bring her here." The girl named Elysia pointed at Lin, who was standing motionless at the door. "Don't scare her, okay? After all, she hasn't been out for several years."

"..."

Several years...

This statement reassured Lin somewhat. Since it was someone who hadn't been out for several years, even if they were familiar with each other, they would drift apart. It wasn't appropriate for him to be with people he was very close to right now.

Lin Mo nodded silently, pretending not to have heard the conversation that came from inside the door when she was standing outside.

Not only could he not accept it, but others couldn't either; it would take time for both of them to process it.

After asking for the room number, Lin went out and finally arrived at the room in the very middle of all the rooms.

Before he reached out and knocked on the door, the person inside responded and heard him, but the other person waited until he knocked on the door with his finger before slowly opening the door.

A gray-haired girl with slightly curled ends opened the door from the inside. Her pretty face shone brightly in the silvery moonlight. When she saw Lin, she gave him a complicated look that gave him a headache.

That's how everyone sees him.

If Lin has the chance, she must ask her former self, before she lost her memory, what she did to wrong them, or what they did to wrong her.

However, what made her better than others was that she quickly concealed her gaze and put on a nonchalant smile.

Unlike Elysia, her smile was more of a performance, and she almost subconsciously used it to conceal her true feelings.

"Oh dear, I'm sorry, I haven't had a proper night's sleep in so long, and I slept for half the day without realizing it." The gray-haired girl walked out of the room, closed her door behind her, and then waved as she walked past Lin. "Don't worry, I didn't run away. I don't even have Herrscher Authority, so I can't escape even if I wanted to."

This girl, whose registration code is L08-02 and whose name is Qianqi, is an incomplete Herrscher, possessing Herrscher Core and being the Herrscher's true form.

Captured along with the consciousness of Herrscher L08-01, collectively known as Herrscher of Reason L08, they are the only living Herrscher captured by humanity. Since their capture, they have been imprisoned deep within headquarters for various live experiments.