c15

He opened his eyes, feeling like he’d heard someone’s voice.
It was dark. Nighttime, maybe? But not pitch black. There were lights.
Looking up, there were small candles affixed to the wall. Not just one, but many, spaced evenly, continuing as far as he could see.
Where could this place be?
It was kind of hard to breathe. He tried touching the wall, and it was hard and rocky. Little wonder his back was sore. This was no wall. It was just bare rock.
Maybe he was in a cave... A cave? Why would he be in a cave...?
He didn’t know. He had absolutely no idea.
Those candles were pretty high up. He might just barely be able to reach one if he stood; that was how high they were. Moreover, they didn’t even give off enough light for him to see his hands and feet well.
He perked up his ears. What was this he was hearing? It was faint. People breathing, maybe?
“Is anyone there?”
“Uh... yeah.”
There was a response.
“...Yes.”
“Where is this place?”
“Nyaa...”
More than just one.
“Erm, I... I’m here.”
“Wh-Wh-What, wha.... What’s going on here? Someone help me...” “I’ve gotta be hung over or somethin’. I feel like shit...”
“Would you stay away from me? You stink.”
How many were there in total? Not just two or three. There were more. Men, and women.
“Hold on...” He decided to take his chances and ask, “Where... is this? Does... anybody know?”
The big guy who was nearby said, “Nah...” shaking his head.
Had his eyes adapted to the darkness? He could see a lot better now.
“I... dunno. I mean... Um, I’m... Uhh... What was it again...?”
“Huh... What?”
“I’m probably... Kuzaku.”
“Ohh. Your name?”
“Yeah, but... I don’t remember. I can’t recall.”
“Recall what? Ah...!”
He clutched at his chest, as if trying to claw something off of it. He couldn’t remember.
He couldn’t recall.
Was this what the big guy was talking about?
“...I’m the same,” he said at last. “Haruhiro... That’s my name, but that’s all I know.”
How long had he been here? What was he doing in this place? It was himself he was thinking about. There was no reason he shouldn’t have known. He thought about it, trying to recall.
Something began to tug at the back of his mind.
Suddenly, whatever it was vanished.
There was no way he shouldn’t remember.
Despite that, he was at a complete loss.
“What is this...?”
“Whoa, hold up.” A woman spoke. “You don’t remember?” She sounded highly dubious. “How far? How far back do you not remember?”
“How far back? What do you mean...?”
Haruhiro groaned as he thought about it. His head felt heavy. There was a dull throbbing deep inside it. It was a weird pain.
Were there even pain receptors in the brain?
There weren’t, were there? In that case, did that mean this pain was fake?
As he sat there, unable to answer the woman’s question, “No, I already told you,” the big guy said, “I don’t know anything but my name.”
“No way...” The woman was speechless.
“Yeah, weird, isn’t it? I think so, too...” The big guy sniffled, then cocked his head to the side as he groaned in thought.
“The point is, we can’t recall.”
“You too, Haru? Not just Kuzaku?”
When the woman called him Haru, and he reflexively replied, “Yeah,” it didn’t immediately seem weird to him.
The sense that something was off came after a little delay.
It was almost as if she knew who he was. That was the way she was talking, at least.
“Um, would you happen... to know me? Maybe?”
“Know you? It’s more than that, I—”
“Eek!” That scream wasn’t from her. It was another woman.
His eyes shot over to her. That woman was looking down, and wrapping her arms around her own body.
Haruhiro hurriedly looked away. The woman wasn’t wearing any clothes. She was bare naked for some reason.
“Whoa, awesome...!”
Kuzaku was staring intently at the woman, but then, “Nah, I shouldn’t be looking,” he covered his eyes and looked away. It seemed Kuzaku hadn’t been ogling her deliberately, but had ended up doing so because it was inevitable. “S-Sorry! I’m seriously sorry!” He gave her a full apology.
It would be best if there were something she could wear, but as Haruhiro debated whether he should take off some of his clothes and offer them to her, someone threw the woman a dark-colored cloak.
“There ya go, wear that.”
“Th-Thank you...”
Once the woman put the cloak on, she seemed to regain some measure of composure.
Why had she been nude? From the way she was acting, she hadn’t gotten naked of her own volition. Though it had been an unfortunate accident, this place wasn’t bright enough for him to have been able to see everything. He considered telling her that, but it was questionable whether that fact would be any consolation, so he decided against it.
“For now... why don’t we try and sort out what we know?”
How many people were there here? How many of them only knew their own names, and how many of them had memories? They couldn’t even get started until they figured that much out. Or maybe they could, he didn’t know, but it might give them some clue. Hopefully. If possible, he wanted it to.
“I’m Haruhiro. I know I’m repeating myself, but I only know my own name.”
“Ohhh. I’m Kuzaku. I’m the same as Haruhiro, I guess.”
“...Shihoru. Me, too... I only know my name. Why was I naked...?”
“Setora. That’s all I can recall as well.”
“I’m Io, and other than that... Yeah, I don’t know, either.”
“Gomi. That’s all I know. I’ve got a name that literally means trash? Aw, come on...”
“Tasukete... It’s scary that that’s all I remember. Is that even a name? Tasukete. Or am I just crying out for help...?”
“IIIII’m Hiyo. That’s all I can say for now, I guess?”
“Nyaa.”
There was an animal that clearly wasn’t human — it looked similar to a cat, but it wasn’t — mixed in with them. The creature seemed used to humans. Or it was attached to Setora, at least.
“The little guy’s all over you.”
Like Kuzaku said, the creature wouldn’t move away from Setora.
“I wouldn’t say I find that particularly disagreeable...”
Setora had her head cocked to the side. She didn’t seem to know why. But she was petting the animal like a pro.
Setting aside the animal, which no doubt did not understand human speech, there were eight of them who only knew their own names: Haruhiro, Kuzaku, Shihoru, Setora, Io, Gomi, Tasukete, and Hiyo.
There was just one exception.
“I am... Merry.”
She was the only one who remembered more than her name.
It was eight-to-one, so people who only knew their own name were in the overwhelming majority here.
Maybe that was just how things were. Merry was the exception, and people generally went through life not knowing anything but their own name.
No, obviously not.
This was clearly an abnormal situation. Even without his memories, Haruhiro could tell that much.
Merry pointed to Haruhiro, Kuzaku, Shihoru, and Setora in turn.
“I know you. We were comrades.”
In addition, she explained that the animal was what was called a nyaa, and that Setora had been the one keeping him, as might have been expected. His name was apparently Kiichi.
“What about me?” Io asked.
“You,” Merry answered, “were pretty well known, so I’d heard rumors.”
“I was well known. Famous enough people had heard of me...”
Io covered her mouth with both hands. Was she surprised? She looked like she was trying to stifle a smile, too. Was she pleased? Did that fact make her happy?
“Whaddaya know about me?”
“A-A-And me?”
According to Merry, Gomi and Tasukete were Io’s comrades.
However, she didn’t know them, and had just heard their names.
“...My comrades?” Io shook her head repeatedly in disbelief. “These two, of all people...?”
“I’m sorry...” Tasukete said, his voice becoming very small. He might well have been crying.
“Real nice way of saying it...” Gomi muttered to himself, but he seemed less like he was angry, and more like he felt crushed.
Incidentally, Io and her group weren’t completely unrelated to
Haruhiro and the others. There were these large groups called “clans,” apparently, and both of their groups belonged to the same clan. But because they’d never met directly, they had very little sense of camaraderie or fellowship.
According to Merry, she had been working together with Haruhiro, Kuzaku, Shihoru, Setora, and Kiichi as comrades. They had wandered into an unfamiliar place, gotten into a lot of danger, and were unfortunately separated.
“That’s as far as I remember. I’m sure a lot happened after that, though.”
And the next thing she knew, here she was.
“I see,” Haruhiro mumbled to himself, then immediately questioned it. What, exactly, did he see?
None of this made any sense.
With no memories, he had nothing he could use to make sense of it, so there was no way he could be satisfied with the explanation.
Despite that, Kuzaku seemed to buy it completely.
“Comrades, huh? Comrades. We’re comrades.” Kuzaku repeatedly nodded to himself. “Now that you say it, I get the feeling we are. It feels right to me, you know?”
It does? Really? Uhh, how?
Haruhiro would have liked to interrogate him on that point, but it was also a fact that he himself hadn’t felt all that surprised when Merry revealed they were comrades. Though it might just have been that he couldn’t be surprised. He wasn’t simply going to accept it and think, Oh, okay. We were comrades, huh? I guess that means we’re comrades now.
“So, what about Hiyo?” Hiyo asked.
“You’re...” Merry started to say something, then shook her head.
“I don’t know. Not me.”
“Awww. Hiyo’s the only one you don’t knooow? Isn’t that kiiiinda unfair?”
“I don’t know that it’s a matter of it being fair or not...” Haruhiro interjected despite himself.
“But, buuuut. It’s no faaaair. No fair at all. Hiyo’s the only one who
doesn’t know anything. But, hold on, is just sitting here forever gonna do us any good? Hmmm?”
“That’s, uh...”
If you were to ask Haruhiro, “Do you want to stay here forever?” he would have had to say, “No, not really.”
This seemed to be a tunnel-like cave. He had no reason to think this, but he felt like if they followed the candles, they’d find something.
“Well, let’s go, then.”
As he tried to get going, Io stopped him.
“Hold it. Why are you acting like you’re in charge? Are you trying to make me do as you say?”
“I wasn’t trying anything. Why don’t you decide, then?”
“Oh, if I must.” Io let out a deliberate-sounding sigh. “If you insist, I’ll make the decision.”
He didn’t really insist, but if he pointed that out, they’d probably end up squabbling over it.
“So, what are we going to do?”
“Let’s go.”
So we’re going, after all.
Haruhiro only thought that. He didn’t say it. Io seemed like a pain in the butt to deal with, and he wanted as little conflict as possible.
That’s why he stayed sitting, trying to give off an air of, Okay, would you please go now? But what was this? Io showed no sign of moving.
After all of that, Io pestered Haruhiro.
“What are you doing?”
“What do you mean, what?” Haruhiro was dazed for a moment. “...Huh?”
“Hurry up and go,” Io said, gesturing in the direction of the candles with her chin.
It took another moment for that to register with Haruhiro.
“...Me?”
“Yes, you,” Io continued. “It could be dangerous, right? Someone has to take the risk, but it’s not going to be me. You agree, don’t you?”
Io was grinning. If he looked closely, no, even without looking that closely, everyone would have agreed she was beautiful and had a charming smile, but he could sense her intent to weaponize those two facts. Or was that too far-fetched?
But Haruhiro had been trying to take the lead to begin with. He could just look at this as things having gone all the way around back around to where they started.
Besides, it felt natural, somehow, for him to be taking point. It was just a vague sense he had, but it was strange, considering he also got the feeling that he wasn’t an outgoing, social, or proactive kind of person.
“Honestly, none of this makes sense...”
When Haruhiro started walking, Kuzaku chased after him. Merry, Shihoru, Setora, and Kiichi followed, while Io, Gomi, Tasukete, and Hiyo trailed behind them.
There was no telling how far the line of candles went.
It was a bizarre situation. And yet, Haruhiro wasn’t that fazed by it.
Had he lost his sense of reality? Or was he just unflappable to begin with?
Though on that note, the rest of them didn’t particularly complain, or seem that uneasy, either. Even when they saw what looked like an iron grate up ahead, everyone remained calm, and no one panicked.
“Is that an exit?”
The iron grate looked like it could be opened and closed, like a door. No, not like a door, it was a door.
Once the door was open, a narrow corridor that reeked of mold stretched past it. It was unlit.
Haruhiro and the others continued down the corridor single file.
He knew this wasn’t a dead end. There were stairs at the end of the hall, and light was shining down from above.
Huh? Haruhiro thought, and he almost stopped walking.
He didn’t stop, though. Suddenly, he got the sense he had been here before. But it was just a vague sense, and not like his memories were returning.
When he climbed the stairs, there was another iron bar door there. Beyond it was a room made of stone.
Haruhiro put his hand on the door, which was slightly ajar. He pushed it lightly, and it opened further with a creak.
There were stairs leading upwards in that room. He didn’t see a table, or chairs, or any other kind of furniture, but there were shelves lining the walls, and two lit lamps.
Speaking of the wall, what was that blackish handle-like thing sticking out of it? Was it for hanging tools of some sort on? It might be a lever for operating something, too.
Haruhiro investigated it closely, being careful not to touch the handle. No one told him to do it; he found himself doing so without even intending to.
When he looked over, Tasukete was checking the shelves and tapping on the wall.
His eyes met with Tasukete’s.
There was an eerie light that shone in the eyes he glimpsed through Tasukete’s awfully long bangs.
It felt kind of awkward. Haruhiro looked away.
“Tasukete-san’s a thief, too?” Merry suddenly said.
“Ohh.” Kuzaku clapped his hands, then cocked his head to the side.
“...Thief? Like a burglar? And, ‘too’...? So Haruhiro’s a thief, too? Huh? Is he a robber?”
“No, that’s not it...”
According to Merry, Haruhiro and the rest were volunteer soldiers for some country called Arabakia. But there were different kinds of volunteer soldiers. Since they were called volunteer soldiers, was that like there being different types of troops or something?
Thieves were one type. They did reconnaissance, opened locked doors, and searched for dangerous traps. They weren’t actually burglars, but they made use of a similar skill set and served a support role in combat.
“So I was a thief. Volunteer soldiers...”
It was hard to believe he had been a volunteer soldier, or any kind of soldier at all.
But when he thought about it, Haruhiro had two short, knife-like blades hanging at his waist. Kuzaku and Gomi had much larger swords, and they wore what looked like armor, too, so from an objective perspective Haruhiro and the others made for a dangerous looking group.
Kuzaku was what they called a paladin, while Shihoru was a mage, and Merry was a priest. Io was apparently a priest, too.
Setora was not a volunteer soldier at all, but a comrade who had joined them along the way.
She didn’t know what Gomi and Tasukete were. In Merry’s estimation, Gomi was a warrior, or perhaps a dread knight.
Tasukete was probably a thief like Haruhiro.
Haruhiro got the sense that being a thief suited him better than being a warrior or a mage.
Tasukete wasn’t super tall like Kuzaku, or like Gomi with his strangely grim face and stocky build. If anything, he was closer to Haruhiro.
Io glanced at Hiyo.
“And her?”
“Hmm!” Hiyo pointed to herself. “You mean Hiyo?” Merry gave Hiyo a sideways glance.
“As for her—”
It seemed like there might be some hidden meaning in the way she looked at her.
“...As for her,” Merry began to say again, “Whether she’s a volunteer soldier or not is... hard for me to say.” Hiyo chuckled.
“Hiyo’s not so sure about that, eiiiither.”
Was she just joking around? Or perhaps, judging by the way Merry was acting like something was up, she was trying to dodge the issue.
If he thought about it again, wasn’t her hairstyle, with her hair tied off to both sides, and her impractically over-decorated outfit kind of out of place?
“By the way,” Hiyo said, pointing to the stairs that led up. “It looks like we can go up there. Now, what are we going to doooo?”


1. The Nightmare Continues

Haruhiro decided to climb the stairs with Tasukete. Everyone else would wait in this room. It would be easier that way. That was the sense he got.
When he took one of the lamps off the shelves and climbed the stairs, there was another room up there.
It had a number of shelves, all of them packed with assorted things.
There were wooden boxes and barrels stuffed in between the shelves. Large jars, too.
A large table sat in the middle of the room. Several barrels placed around it looked like they would have worked just right as chairs.
There was an unlit lamp on the table, with what looked like sheaves of old paper, a piece of parchment or something, wooden cups, a pitcher for water, and various other sundry items lying scattered around.
In one corner of the room, there were stairs leading even further up. Why hadn’t he immediately noticed the person sitting about halfway up them?
Haruhiro backed away, pulling out one of his daggers at the same time. He was clearly right-handed, but had been holding the lamp in his left hand without realizing why.
Glancing over, he saw Tasukete had lowered his posture and was bracing himself. If he’d been carrying a weapon, Tasukete would likely have drawn it like Haruhiro had.
The man on the stairs turned to face them.
It was a man.
He didn’t look young, but it was hard to place his age. He wore a helmet and armor, with a sword at his hip.
The man on the stairs didn’t move anymore. He was silent, staring at Haruhiro and Tasukete.
“What is this? He’s scary...” Tasukete said in a quiet voice.
Haruhiro agreed. The man on the stairs had definitely moved, so he was alive. From all outward appearances, he was human. But was he really? Haruhiro couldn’t be sure.
Haruhiro made up his mind. “Hey...” he called out to the man.
The man on the stairs didn’t move a muscle. Though, looking closely, Haruhiro could see his shoulders rising and falling slightly. This might seem like an obvious thing, but he was breathing.
Haruhiro didn’t take his eyes off the man on the stairs as he called, “Tasukete-san,” in a whisper.
“...Huh? Yes?”
“I’m going to test something.”
“Test something? Huh? What...?”
“If anything happens, please tell the others.”
“You really shouldn’t...” Tasukete warned him in a weak voice.
Yeah, maybe I shouldn’t, Haruhiro thought, but he fully meant to do it. Was he actually pretty bold? Or just reckless? That wasn’t the sense he got. If anything, he thought he might be cautious. Not that he remembered.
Haruhiro approached the table, eyes still on the man on the stairs.
The man on the stairs was still not moving. No, his eyes were following Haruhiro.
Haruhiro laid the lamp down on the table. He tried picking up the parchment. It was apparently a map.
The man on the stairs continued scrutinizing Haruhiro.
Haruhiro took a deep breath. It took some courage, but he sheathed his dagger.
The man on the stairs showed no reaction.
Then how about this? Haruhiro rolled up the parchment map with both hands.
The man on the stairs still didn’t move.
“I’ll be borrowing this,” Haruhiro tried saying.
There was no response.
“I’m borrowing it,” he repeated, backing away with the map in his right hand and the lamp in his left.
Haruhiro passed the map to Tasukete.
“Could you hold this for me?”
“...Yeah, sure. You’ve got guts, man...”
“No, I don’t. Not really.”
Haruhiro drew his dagger again. He figured he was a coward.
This time he walked all the way around the table once. On the way, he got awfully close to the stairs, which naturally meant approaching the man, too, but nothing happened.
He took a quick look at the shelves. There was rope, something that looked like a musical instrument, dried plants, the hide of some small animal, what looked like animal parts, some kind of liquid in a bottle, a small jar, a little box, and some written materials. It looked like similar things had been sorted together, so these things weren’t just placed here at random; they were organized.
It wasn’t clear what was inside the barrels, but it was a liquid, likely alcohol, or oil, or something along those lines. That was the sort of smell they gave off. The ones being used in place of chairs were empty.
The wooden boxes were nailed shut. It wouldn’t have been impossible to open them if he tried, but Haruhiro decided against it for now.
The large jars were stuffed full of meat, fish, or pickled vegetables.
He hadn’t thought much of it before now, but the ceiling in this room was pretty high. There were poles stretching across the room at a height that he couldn’t reach, and there were sausages hanging from them, as well as smoked fish.
“Is this a warehouse or something?” Haruhiro said to himself. “You could live for a while with all of this...”
The man on the stairs remained unmoving, the same as ever. He just watched Haruhiro intently.
Haruhiro went back to where Tasukete was.
“...It looks like there’s more yet,” Tasukete said. “I wonder what’s here...”
“Who knows?” Haruhiro shook his head. “Let’s head back downstairs for now.”
Descending the stairs, they told everyone about what was on the upper floor.
As he spoke, Haruhiro sort of kept an eye on Hiyo’s reactions.
She would go “Wow,” and “Hmm,” and “Oh, hoh,” widening her eyes, pursing her lips, and puffing up her cheeks, busily changing her expression. She touched her hair, face, neck, and chest; she shook her head, she blinked repeatedly, she walked around, and she jumped up and down a little. Her gestures were frequent, and all of them were exaggerated.
That seemed suspicious to Haruhiro, but maybe his preconceived notions were just making it look more so.
Haruhiro was pretty suspicious of Hiyo, but it was hard to put those suspicions into clear words. He wasn’t sure if this was related or not, but he also had the sense that it would not be very good if she learned he had any suspicions about her.
In a word, this was a “hunch.”
“What should we do?” Haruhiro asked, looking to Kuzaku first.
“Me?” Kuzaku’s eyes widened. “...Nah, I dunno. Hmmm. What should we do...?”
He might not remember Kuzaku, but Haruhiro had figured that was about all he could expect from him.
Actually, it might not be the case that I don’t remember anything at all, Haruhiro was starting to think.
For instance, it looked like Shihoru was keeping her head down because she didn’t want to be asked for her opinion, but that probably wasn’t it; she was desperately trying to think through all this in her own way.
Setora seemed focused on the handle on the wall. She was sharp. Even if he didn’t remember that, he felt like he knew it.
“Well...” Merry said, lowering her eyes, then a moment later looking over to Hiyo.
Merry was suspicious of Hiyo, like he thought.
Though, there was one problem.
Merry was the only one who claimed to have memories right now.
If Merry said things were one way or another, Haruhiro and the rest, lacking memories, could only accept that was the way things were.
No one could contradict her and say, “That’s not right.” What if Merry was lying to them?
Haruhiro felt like Kuzaku, Shihoru, Setora, Kiichi, and Merry might have been his comrades.
But he had no definitive proof of that.
Merry said they were volunteer soldiers, Setora was not, but was their comrade, and she didn’t even know whether Hiyo was a volunteer soldier or not. Haruhiro was starting to believe all of that.
But was it actually the truth?
Haruhiro thought Hiyo was dubious. But when it came to only remembering their own names, Haruhiro and the rest were no different from her.
Merry was the only one with memories.
Using those memories, she could provide information, telling Haruhiro and the others, “You are this type of person.”
Out of all of them, Merry was the only one who could do that.
It wasn’t impossible to imagine that maybe Merry was the suspicious one here.
However, Merry seemed aware of her position. If she set her mind to it, she could weaponize her memories and use them to induce
Haruhiro and the rest into doing anything, but she wasn’t trying to.
Merry’s memories were a double-edged sword. They made a powerful weapon, but if she used them too freely she would make them all distrust her, and that would lead to her own downfall.
“I’m...” Suddenly, Io crouched down. “Hungry.”
“Yeah...” Kuzaku held his own stomach. “Me, too...”
There was an incredible grumble. That was Gomi’s stomach, apparently.
“Yeah. Seriously. I’m starvin’ here...”
“Well, yeeeeaaaah,” Hiyo said with a guffaw. “That happens when you’re alive. Your belly emptying, and empty bellies are inevitable. There’s food upstairs, riiiight?”
Come to think of it, Hiyo was the one who suggested they could go up those stairs in the first place, wasn’t she? Was she trying to lead Haruhiro and the others? He couldn’t decide. It was a subtle line. “There’s someone there, though,” Haruhiro said.
“But, buuut.” Hiyo looked at them. “There’s soooo many of us. If they attack us, can’t we just beat the stuffing out of them? Eek! Oh, gosh, Hiyomuuu, you’re so violent!”
Shihoru cocked her head to the side.
“...Hiyomu?”
“Mew?” Hiyo blinked her eyes.
“Did I just say that? Did Hiyo just call herself Hiyomu? I wonder why. Is that a nickname? A moniker? A pseudonym? Those are all the same, or close enough, huh? Is that what it is? It could be. Hmmm...?”
The way she was talking a mile a minute suggested she was not, in fact, mystified by this, but trying to cover her mistake.
Merry looked down, her brow furrowing slightly.
“I don’t care what your name is.” Io stood up. “Food! We need food!
It’s like the old saying, ‘You can’t wage war on an empty stomach!’” Were they going to wage war? They were called volunteer soldiers, so did they have to fight? Even as he thought he wasn’t so sure about all of that, Haruhiro climbed the stairs once more. This time, it wasn’t just Tasukete. Everyone came with him.
“Huh?”
The room hadn’t changed from before, but the man on the stairs had vanished.
“Nobody’s here!” Io said in an accusatory tone.
“No, there was before. Really. ...There was, right?”
When Haruhiro looked to him for agreement, Tasukete shook his head diagonally, seemingly unsure.
“...I feel like there was. Or maybe... there wasn’t...” “Maybe he went upstairs?” Merry offered helpfully.
Haruhiro nodded.
“That’s it.”
Yeah, he really couldn’t doubt Merry.
“Well, whatever the case,” Kuzaku said in a reassuring tone, “Isn’t it better not having some weirdo around? It looks like there’s stuff to eat here, too.”
They spread the map out on the table and looked through the sheaves of paper as they all chewed on sausages and dried fish.
They tried opening a barrel, and at least one of them was alcohol. They poured it into cups, and everyone who wanted to drink some did. Haruhiro tried just a sip, but it was strong stuff, and he’d get drunk off it in no time, so he left it at that.
“This is...” Merry said as she looked at the map. “A map of Grimgar, maybe?”
“Grimgar?”
It sounded like he had heard that name, or maybe not, but it sounded not entirely unfamiliar.
“This is Alterna,” Merry said, pointing to the lower part of the map. “North of here is the Quickwind Plains. Then there’s the Shadow Forest where the elves live... and far to the east, there’s the sea. Here. This is where the free city of Vele is.”
“Alterna... Elves... Vele... Free city...”
He didn’t know any of these words. Yet, at the same time, he felt like he’d heard them before.
If they were people, he might see them from behind and think he knew them. But he couldn’t see their faces, so he couldn’t be absolutely sure they were people he knew.
They weren’t completely unknown to him. He did know them. Or he had, and he’d forgotten. But for something he’d forgotten...
The more he thought about it, the more his head hurt. It was an unpleasant pain, too.

Chapter end