Chapter 22: Memories That Lasted Only One Day
Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations
Editor: Karai
“Look.”
Since they had already been watching the whole situation unfold, the Demon King figured reading one more book wouldn’t hurt. After going through the entire thing, the Demon King reached out and, nodding, saw the Hero’s dating guidebook, If Love Had a Language. Then—
What is this thing? Flipping through the pages, the Demon King stared at the Hero in shock.
Beside him, the Hero smiled warmly, taking a step backward as if moving forward, his face glowing like spring flowers. “How does it feel? Interesting?”
The Hero asked, beaming, as the Demon King looked on, stunned. The Demon King glanced again at the book in his hands and said, “…Not really. Boring. Disagree with the opinions.”
He rejected it with a firm triple no, and when the Hero looked puzzled and a little hurt as he took the book back, the Demon King asked, “Wait, do you actually think what this book says makes sense?”
The Hero naturally nodded, still smiling. Thinking of his misunderstood self, the Demon King’s heart clenched after reading the book. He understood everything in an instant and boiled all his turmoil down to one word: “…Idiot.”
Then, looking down at the Hero’s shocked face, he added, “I really think you either have something missing or too much in your brain. Should we see a doctor, Hero?”
The Hero replied to this greeting with a grin, “Maybe we should just go claim the bounty first?”
***
A large chunk of memory was missing. Apparently, the Hero who still remembered the princess’s interpretation of the little book took out a map and asked the Demon King to take him to the guild. After hesitating, the Demon King accepted the map. Seeing the destination wasn’t far, he recalled how the Hero had once gotten lost right at the village entrance and asked,
“So, where exactly did your courage come from to run around everywhere without even knowing the way, all while saying you wanted to ‘save me’?” He questioned the Hero’s constant losing of his way. After a moment, the Hero gave a carefree answer: “If you have a path in your heart, you can find your way even after getting lost. Once you find direction, you’ll reach your goal naturally.”
Hearing that, the Demon King rolled his eyes and almost shoved the map back at him. The Hero smiled and continued, “Alright, actually it’s like this: I’ve been getting lost since I was a kid, so I’m used to asking others for directions after I lose my way. I’m also used to sticking around after getting lost until someone finds or sees me. And when I need to go somewhere, I find someone heading the same way and follow them. So, even if I don’t know the way or the direction, as long as I meet others, I can figure out where I am and where I should be from their behavior or words. Overall, it doesn’t really affect my life.”
He frowned slightly, thought for a moment, then added, “Shouldn’t be too much trouble, right? After all, I’m always going out anyway.”
The Hero made a helpless gesture but smiled. The Demon King said, “…Oh.”
Alright, that actually fit the Hero’s behavior. He folded the map and nodded. The Hero nodded back, and then the Demon King took him straight to claim the bounty. After happily receiving the money, the Hero was surprised to find himself brought to a pharmacy. He asked, “Joshua, were you serious before? You weren’t joking about seeing a doctor, were you?”
The Demon King nodded, “Yes.”
The shocked Hero was then dragged into the pharmacy. Despite feeling perfectly fine in his head, he heard the Demon King explain to the doctor, “He seems to have some brain issues, and his memory doesn’t quite add up. Can you check and treat that?”
If the so-called amnesia was just a casual lie, after being dragged through all this nonsense and following the Demon King around half the day, the Demon King felt he could finally demonstrate how to defeat the Hero empty-handed.
As the Demon King plotted his ruthless move to expose the Hero’s fake memory loss, the Hero calmly sat down, smiled at the doctor across from him, and glanced up at the Demon King pinning him to the chair. Was seeing a doctor really necessary over a joke? He followed the steps and sat quietly, still a little bewildered. The doctor nodded, “Of course, we can.”
After the examination, the doctor’s expression remained unchanged as he told the Hero, “There’s nothing wrong with your body, and your brain is fine too.”
The Demon King: … He felt a complicated mix of emotions. But the Hero was satisfied with the result, since he had never thought his brain was faulty. Looking up at the Demon King, the Hero noticed his dark, grim expression. The Demon King chuckled dryly, “Heh.”
The Hero blinked, confused.
…
The Demon King, full of a whole arsenal of eighteen ways to kill the Hero, was about to head out when the doctor pulled him aside to prescribe medicine.
The Demon King was a bit reluctant.
After all, if even the big dumb Hero could lie, then all the Demon King’s doubts and hesitations along the way felt pretty embarrassing. But the doctor’s hard sell was too strong to resist. After a vigorous and enthusiastic pitch, the Demon King snatched the Hero’s bounty money and planned to use it to fight off the doctor’s relentless salesmanship.
The Hero, confident he had no problem, sat rigidly smiling as the doctor enthusiastically recommended a bunch of medicines. Meanwhile, after being dragged off to get the prescription, the Demon King was asked, “Are you Owen’s friend or family?”
…
The doctor explained that the Hero had been here for over ten days.
Every day, the Hero felt like it was his first day at the place. Every day, he forgot everything that happened the day before.
Sometimes, when the Hero felt something was wrong with him, he’d come to the pharmacy for a checkup — only to forget about the visit the very next day. So the doctor had gotten used to temporarily treating the Hero as a perfectly healthy ordinary person for that one day’s memory span.
The doctor said the Hero had only been here for half a month, but because of his good personality and willingness to help out, combined with the sympathy people had for his various brain issues, everyone looked after him quite well.
When asked indirectly about his background, family, or destination, the Hero always habitually said he was on a mission to rescue someone, and naturally claimed to be the Hero. But the doctor admitted, “Could someone like Owen, who has so many issues, really be the Hero? People have their doubts.”
So the doctor asked again, “Are you Owen’s friend or family?”
The Demon King, who had never directly answered any of these questions through all the chatter, was pressed for information and finally answered: “Oh…”
Suppressing his eighteen ways to kill for the moment, the Demon King borrowed from the doctor’s wording and said, “I’m just an ordinary person who feels very sorry for Owen, who has a lot of brain problems.”
In other words, “Not a friend or family.”
After expressing sympathy for the Hero, the Demon King surprised the doctor by pulling the Hero out of the pharmacy. After roughly confirming the facts, he waved a hand and said, “Hey?”
The Hero replied, “Here.”
The Hero was a little confused by the Demon King’s strange behavior, but since their last argument had led to tragedy and they’d promised not to fight anymore that day, he didn’t get mad. He just looked at the Demon King a little longer in puzzlement.
Then he noticed the Demon King’s right hand reaching toward him for the second time. The first time had been when he handed over the book: “Don’t you think there’s something wrong with my hand?”
The Hero: “Not really. Just the scar’s gone.”
The Demon King: “What do you mean, just?”
The Hero added, “It’s late. How about we get some food? Or find a place to stay?”
After a whole day of dealing with the Hero’s confirmed memory loss — and the fact that the loss was a weird mutation — the Demon King accepted the invitation.
***
After being dragged to dinner, the Demon King was taken to some random inn. During the evening, the Demon King reached out his hand four or five times. The Hero ignored the difference twice, grabbed the hand three times, then pulled him along for a while and asked about directions. They talked about the Demon King’s clothes and sudden appearances four times, but somehow the conversation always circled back to where to go next. Finally, the Demon King confessed, “I’ll just say it straight. Although… Hero, something seems a bit off about you everywhere right now.”
He stared at his once-injured right hand, now fully healed. Looking at it long enough, he almost remembered the pain of the needle that had pierced his skin. The Hero looked too, toward the fair, slender right hand that had been stretched toward him so many times today.
The Demon King said bluntly, “I am the Demon King.”
The Hero burst out laughing. The Demon King: …
…
After finally clearing the air, the Demon King saw a shocked and saddened Hero again at midnight. Exhausted, he decided to fix the Hero once and for all to solve all his troubles. Then the Hero suddenly collapsed on the spot. The Demon King froze, stunned. The next morning, he was greeted by a Hero who had forgotten everything from the day before.
The Hero called out, “Joshua?!”
The Demon King sighed, “…I’m so tired.”
…
The magic vine said that the Hero had been here. The magic vine said the Hero built fences around the area. The magic vine said that after building the fences, the Hero spent a long time inside, brooding over the rabbits. The magic vine admitted it had no feelings, so it didn’t understand what exactly troubled the Hero. But it knew for sure that the Hero had imposed heavy restrictions on its own life and that of the rabbits. The magic vine said: it did not like the Hero.
The Demon King said: I don’t like the Hero either.
Especially after being asked, “Then what about me?”
At that time, the Demon King clearly stated the facts and made it clear in every possible way that the Hero didn’t need to come into the demon realm to save anyone. Then, just as the Hero was about to collapse, he frowned deeply, eyes red, as if the Demon King had been bullying him. The Demon King said: So, I don’t like the Hero. Who bullied him? This is giving me a headache. A headache! Aaaahhhh!!
Author’s note:
I made up two character stat cards for fun:
The Demon King
Name: Francis
Former Name: Joshua
Physical Attack: 30
Magic Attack: 100
Special Skill: Attacks come with a [Critical Strike] buff, doubling damage
Alertness: 100
The Hero
Name: Owen
Former Name: None
Physical Attack: 90
Magic Attack: 90
Special Skill: Attacks come with a [Repentance] buff, halving damage
Alertness: 10
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