Advent

Wandering Castle

As usual, Ariane was conducting her research in one of the rooms of her castle. Needless to say, her long life had rendered certain things meaningless.

As a vampire, she could not die of natural causes, and her memory was nearly impossible to damage. Because of this, she used modules to store excess information, and when a module became full, she stored it here. One could say this place was her memory.

Useless and unwanted memories, everything was stored here. This room was difficult to access, which is why she jumped in surprise when she saw her.

The Ruler of Pandemonium was wandering around. Ariane had no idea how she had entered this place, nor did she even realize she was inside the wandering castle.

"You... lazy as always! How, how did you get in here? I mean, when did you even arrive?!" Ariane yelled, her voice sharp with urgency.

"If you keep hysterically playing with your memories, you were bound to forget eventually," the Ruler of Pandemonium stated. Ariane flinched at those words, as if something deep inside her had been struck.

"Don't try to confuse me! Either way, what are you doing here? I don't want the people chasing you barging in here again."

The Ruler of Pandemonium sighed.

"Last time was a special case. It should be impossible for them to find the wandering castle now... theoretically."

"You should be happy to see me, really! Anyway, where is what I entrusted to you?" The Ruler of Pandemonium pulled out a chair and sat down, watching Ariane carefully.

"I don't remember you entrusting me with anything. So lazy... But fine, look, you'll be surprised."

With a snap of her fingers, a mist appeared near Ariane. From within it, she pulled out a cradle and placed it between herself and the Ruler of Pandemonium.

The Ruler of Pandemonium was visibly surprised. What had once been just an egg had hatched into a newborn and now had the appearance of a one- or two-year-old child. That kind of rapid growth…

She frowned.

"What did you do to him?"

Ariane shrugged her shoulders and waved her hands childishly, as if to prove her innocence. "I didn't do anything! I only used a secondary device to read some of the data from the module you gave him."

"Better and better," the Ruler of Pandemonium muttered. She wasn't exactly skeptical rather, she was beginning to find the situation more amusing.

"And the tests you were supposed to run on him? What are the results?"

Beads of sweat formed on Ariane's forehead. She had no real way to explain that she had spent so much time playing around that she had forgotten her priorities. She knew what was coming next.

The Ruler of Pandemonium watched as Ariane averted her gaze, immediately understanding.

"You, don't tell me you forgot because you were playing?"

"Pff… Kukuku…!"

Ariane gritted her teeth. Being treated like a child was truly irritating.

"No… That's not it! I wasn't playing. Look, I was analyzing the data I collected from his terminal!"

"Oh yes, of course. Kukuku..."

"And it was so fascinating that you forgot the other tests. But one could argue that digging through his memory is a form of testing, so you weren't only playing."

"Yes, exactly! I wasn't just playing. The data is unreadable for now, but working on it is part of the testing process."

"Kukuku..."

"Stop that, or you'll regret it!" Ariane shot back, her face flushed with embarrassment.

The Ruler of Pandemonium smirked, crossing her arms as she watched Ariane with amusement.

"Fine, fine, let's say you're working. But is he growing normally?" she asked, nodding toward the child in the cradle.

Ariane sighed, regaining some composure.

"Yes… Well, his growth follows an irregular pattern. Sometimes he grows all at once, sometimes he stagnates. It's as if certain pieces of information in his module are affecting his development or maybe it's something else entirely, but I don't know what."

The Ruler of Pandemonium leaned in closer, scrutinizing the sleeping child.

"And have you analyzed any of them yet?"

Ariane made a face. "Not yet... I tried to decode part of it, but it's locked behind complex security measures. Or worse, it's encoded in a format I don't recognize. I could push further, but that might cause unpredictable reactions."

"Like an even more rapid growth spurt?" The Ruler of Pandemonium lightly touched the child's forehead. In response, he scrunched his nose slightly.

What is this?

"Or worse," Ariane said with a shrug.

"A cognitive overload, a complete neural collapse, a full regression... With the Scarlet Lineage, I'd rather avoid disasters."

The Ruler of Pandemonium chuckled. "You? Avoiding disasters? Since when?"

"Since I have to take care of this," Ariane shot back, gesturing to the child.

"And besides, I have enough trouble with my own memories."

The Ruler of Pandemonium glanced around the room this vast repository where Ariane stored everything she no longer wanted to remember.

"This could be dangerous, you know that, right?"

Ariane narrowed her eyes. "What do you mean?"

"You spend all your time storing memories here, playing with your modules. What if one day you forget something essential? Like the reason this child is here? Or worse... who you really are?"

A shiver ran down Ariane's spine. She wanted to argue, to say that was ridiculous, but a part of her knew the Ruler of Pandemonium was right.

She turned away, pretending to study a module on a shelf.

"Don't be absurd," she muttered. "I have everything under control."

"Kukuku... We'll see."

The Ruler of Pandemonium stood up, stretching lazily before giving the child one last glance, avoiding Ariane's gaze.

"Be careful, Ariane. Playing with memory is playing with time. It's true that beings like you have all the time in the world... but be cautious. Some things, once lost, can never be recovered."

With that, she turned away, ready to leave the wandering castle.

But something stopped her.

A voice.

And it wasn't Ariane's.

"Ariane! Béatrice, Chreois, Gedrick, Ruler of pandemonium, Kanazuki... etc."

She recognized the voice.

And unlike last time, she understood.

It was a list of names, recited one after the other in an endless sequence.