ch321-ch340 · 336-ch336
Chapter 336: Do I Wear the Same Face, Even Without My Memories?
"I've done a lot of digging, and it turns out buffs of different types can be stacked on top of each other, apparently."
Today, as ever: exam study.
I stopped by Mia-san's shop on the way home, and Shiraishi-san—the staffer who's a little scary—started talking with Watanabe-san.
(Maybe I'll go look at the weapons.)
The strength-control training is completely mastered now. No more cracking eggs, of course—and now, behold, I can lift a utility pole...... no, wait, the 'Giant's Spear.'
Heeeavy......
(Only lifting it, though.)
It's been almost a month since the day I apparently lost my memory, and there's still not the slightest sign of it coming back.
December has arrived and it's gotten properly cold.
Sounds like it's already snowing up in Hokkaido.
Recently I got permission to use some of my skills and I've been practicing, but I can't manage them well.
The thing is, I'm forbidden from using the starting-point skills of the Charge line—【Charge・Spear】, 【Charge・Shield】, 【Charge・Armor】—so the only things I can actually use are the scout-type skills.
【Night Vision】 seems to be running constantly, so that leaves 【Presence Concealment】, 【Presence Detection】, and 【Scouting】—and 【Scouting】 costs MP.
【Presence Concealment】 is useless dead weight for adventurers who move as a party anyway.
Honestly I think 【Presence Detection】 alone would be plenty, but THAT one is surprisingly hard.
I can't tell people apart from monsters.
I'll be hunting goblins, think I've found one, and it turns out to be a person—happens all the time.
Atsushi-san said that with practice you can tell individuals apart not just from monsters but by the size of their presence, or something......
(I wonder if Atsushi-san is doing okay?)
Right after Yukiya-san went back to 'Blue Ocean,' now Atsushi-san has stopped coming to the shrine too.
I figured he felt awkward coming alone, but no—apparently he's missing. Or rather, unreachable.
Just before that, he'd said he'd found work out of the prefecture, so it seems he moved away.
They say there was nothing left behind in his apartment, either.
What bothers me is that he left without telling Miko-san anything.
Come to think of it, I learned this after he disappeared—that man was, of all things, a murderer.
Apparently I knew him from before, but did the old me know Atsushi-san was a murderer?
Going by the news coverage and people's reactions, he got treated less like a criminal and more like some kind of dark hero.
Even so—he killed nine people......
Maybe this is why Hiramatsu-san was so cold to Atsushi-san.
As a potential match for his little sister, the man was far too dangerous.
"Oh, Haruki. Got weapon enhancement working yet?"
Miyako-chan calls out to me.
No—Miyako-san, I suppose.
This kid...... this person, looks hardly any older than Mimiko-chan, but apparently she's older than me.
Unbelievably, she's allowed into the dungeon, so legally she must be eighteen or over.
"Weapon enhancement is still beyond me. In my case it seems I can't use it without 【Charge・Spear】, and that's still forbidden."
"Ahh, that's right...... Hmm. Well, any spear I made could take down an ogre without weapon enhancement, I figure. Golems, though—that'd be beyond it."
"Ore"!
Come to think of it, I might be a boy's...... no, this one might be a boy, actually.
Not Miyako-chan, not Miyako-san—should I be calling her Miyako-kun?
Still, lately I've gotten used to hearing "the old you could do this, you know."
Apparently the old me was a tremendous grinder, growing at a speed that made even Hiramatsu-san whistle—talent or no talent.
(Isn't that exactly what talent IS?)
Well, no—I clearly didn't have any, hence all my suffering now.
I'm practicing the Hiramatsu-ryu basic thrust so I can deliver it equally well from a right-handed or left-handed stance, and I just can't get it right—Mimiko-chan, no, Mimiko-shishou, is always scolding me.
When the two of us practice side by side, we look like a pair of perfectly symmetrical trees—so they call it the Grove Kata.
Apparently the old me had this one down and had moved on to the next, the Wind Kata.
By the way, I hear that if I master all four basic katas, Mimiko-chan will make me her husband.
Miko-san was desperately trying to teach the katas to Atsushi-san, too.
"But 【Healer】 buffs all only apply to the caster themselves, don't they? You were using both the 【Healer】's and the 【Saint】's buffs. Adding more people wouldn't change the result, would it?"
"Of all the 【Saint】's skills, 【Miracle】 is the only one you cast on a patient."
The 【Saint】, huh.
So Ai-san was a 【Saint】.
A person that amazing treated me, and my memories still haven't come back......
They've stopped the memory treatment entirely lately, so maybe I should just give up on my old memories?
I sneak a glance at Watanabe-san's face.
(She's so very kind to me.)
In the dungeon, Watanabe-san never tries to leave my side, and even during study she sits next to me, awfully close.
And sometimes she just stares at my face.
Do I wear the same face, even without my memories?
When she notices me noticing, I end up smiling awkwardly—but apparently that isn't the face of the me she knows, and she looks terribly sad about it.
There's no doubt Watanabe-san treasures me—no, treasures the person I used to be.
(Then what about me?)
Did I ever answer her feelings properly?
Without giving another girl so much as a glance—thinking only of her......
"You mean casting with BOTH Saints? But as you said yourself just now, buffs of the same skill shouldn't stack. It might be worth trying, I suppose...... Or does the 【Healing King】 have a buff that works on anyone besides yourself?"
"There IS! Not the 【Healing King】—but there's a job out there that will never, ever lose to some 【Saint】! A paired job like that is sure to have come with matching skills! So......"
Come to think of it, besides these past six months, there's one more memory of mine that's gone......