Chapter 113

Chapter 113
“First, have a seat.”

“Thank you.”

He gave a slight nod and sat down opposite her. Siyan smiled, as if she had been anticipating this, and held out a sweet potato to him.
“Have this.”

“Ah, of course.”

Even though he had eaten one just the day before, he couldn’t refuse an offering made directly by the queen. He accepted it dutifully.

‘But, why sweet potatoes again…?’

He was genuinely curious.

‘They aren’t very pleasant when they’re cold.’

“Well then, I’ll eat.”
Yet, at her persistent encouragement, he began to eat.

He still couldn’t really taste the sweet potato.

Who could possibly eat at ease in the presence of a monarch?

Furthermore.

‘Wait, why am I the only one eating…?’

He was the sole person partaking of the sweet potatoes.

Had others been eating with him, he might have managed to eat while being a little self-conscious.

But she was simply watching him intently as he ate.

‘It’s as if she’s staring a hole through my face.’

He felt the pressure, but he couldn’t very well ask her to stop.

*Munch, munch-*

“…”

*Munch, munch-*

Under the gaze of the smiling queen, Alon forced himself to finish the entire sweet potato.

“You have a good appetite.”

“……Thank you for saying so.”

‘Should I feel pleased about being complimented on how I eat?’

As he stayed quiet for a moment with that brief thought, Siyan gave a nod, looking satisfied.

“Good. Now that you’ve eaten, we can talk.”
She leaned forward slightly, as if ready to begin the main conversation.

“What did you discover in the ruins?”

“I found the Dragon’s Egg.”

“What is that?”

“……To be honest, aside from its name, I know very little… But, may I ask you something?”

“Go ahead.”

“Your Majesty, are you not familiar with the Dragon’s Egg?”

That would be the natural assumption.

There must have been a purpose behind sending Alon there.

But.

“Of course, I don’t know what it is.”

Siyan nodded as if it were the most obvious thing.

“?? Then, why did you command me to investigate the ruins…?”

Alon’s confusion only grew.

She seemed to collect her thoughts for a moment before fixing her eyes on Alon.

“Marquis Palatio, are you knowledgeable about our Cretinia royal family, or more specifically, about the Golden Historian’s Eye?”

Alon nodded.

“Yes, I am aware of it.”

“Do you know its power?”

“It is a power inherited through the royal bloodline, one that gathers strength over time.”

Siyan nodded in agreement.

“Yes, exactly as you say. This Golden Historian’s Eye, passed down in our Cretinia royal family, inherits power. It is essentially the same as inheriting the past.”

She raised her index finger slightly.

*Whoosh-!*

A small flame ignited on her fingertip.

“What do you think?”

“……It’s magic.”

“I never formally studied magic. Isn’t that surprising?”

“Is it an inherited power?”

“Correct. It is a power granted by the second-generation monarch, who was a 7th-level wizard. But that isn’t all. Swordsmanship, alchemy, engineering, strategy— I have inherited many other things.”

She tapped her eyes with her other hand.

“With these eyes.”

Leaving behind a comment that it might seem unfair, Cretinia’s Siyan extinguished the flame while Alon remained silent.

To be honest, Alon couldn’t quite understand what point she was trying to make.

Siyan went on speaking.

“Although it may look a certain way to outsiders, this power carries a side effect. Do you know what it is?”

“……I’m afraid I don’t-“

Alon answered, but he was skeptical internally. To his knowledge, no records in Psychedelia mentioned any side effects of the Golden Historian’s Eye.

“It’s the memories.”

“Memories?”

“Yes. The Golden Historian’s Eye passes on not only power to the next generation, but their memories as well.”

“……This is my first time hearing of this.”

“Naturally, this fact is known only to the monarchs who have inherited the Golden Historian’s Eye.”

“So, you inherit all of their memories?”

“No, it doesn’t work like that. It’s more selective; primarily intense memories and cherished recollections surface and gradually come back to me.”

Siyan stared directly at Alon’s face.

“Marquis Palatio, you must be wondering why I sent you to the ruins of Malacca, correct?”

“To be honest, yes.”

Siyan responded promptly to Alon’s nod.

“It’s because you appear in the memories I have inherited through the Golden Historian’s Eye.”

She revealed this fact.

“Marquis Palatio, you…”

Marquis Palatio—or rather, Alon’s face showed no emotion, but his mind was racing with questions.

“I am present in the inherited memories of the Golden Historian’s Eye?”

“Yes.”

“Truly?”

It made no sense.

The Golden Historian’s Eye is meant to inherit ‘the past,’ just as she had described.

“Why would I lie? It is an indisputable fact, without any falsehood.”

“……Is there a chance you might be mistaken?”

“No, there is no such possibility. I am not driven mad by the multitude of predecessors’ memories I hold because I can recognize that, even though I inherit them, they are the memories of others. And-“

“-This is definitely an inherited memory.” Siyan stated with conviction, and Alon asked,

“……Can you tell from which era this memory was inherited?”

“No, unfortunately, that is not possible. As I said, inherited memories only contain intense or cherished recollections; they don’t allow for further deduction.”

They are merely passed down, with no additional context. Information about when, from whom, or why they were inherited is absent.

“That is what is so intriguing, Marquis Palatio. What exactly are you?”

“……What you are describing is very unfamiliar to me…”

“And yet, you don’t appear particularly surprised or troubled.”

“My face isn’t very expressive by nature.”

Siyan hummed and shrugged, seeming a little disappointed.

“I thought speaking with you might provide some answers, but it seems not.”

“……May I ask about the content of those inherited memories?”

Siyan paused, recalling.

“……So far, two memories have surfaced. One is of a person who looks like you having a private audience with a king who possessed the inherited memories, stating that something of great importance was located in the ruins of Malacca.”

That was her reason for sending Alon to the ruins of Malacca.

“And another is of you in full court dress saving the kingdom from a disaster and being honored.”

Hearing this, he still couldn’t find any clear connections.

“……Does the face match mine exactly?”

“Do you think I wouldn’t be able to recognize that much?”

“……My apologies for the careless question.”

Siyan then let out a soft exclamation.

“Ah, and in the inherited memories, you had very expressive facial features.”

“……You mean I showed a lot of expression?”

“Yes, for instance.”

She tapped Alon’s lips with her index finger and then gently lifted the corners into a smile.

“Like this.”

“You mean I smiled frequently?”

“You were grinning constantly.”

As if recalling something amusing, Siyan began to laugh as well.

Alon considered this quietly.

“May I ask what my rank was in those inherited memories?”

“I don’t know.”

“Is that so?”

“There is a memory of a conversation, but only your words are remembered; the actual words spoken by the owner of the memory are not heard.”

After that, Alon asked her several more questions, but he couldn’t determine which generation the inherited memory originated from.

After some further discussion,

“In any case, the reason I sent you to the ruins of Malacca was because of that inherited memory.”

“……Thank you for your grace.”

“Grace? Consider it an investment.”

“An investment?”

“Yes, the version of you in the inherited memories saved the kingdom, so I thought you might be able to help this time as well.”

“That may not have been me.”

“……Is that so?”

Siyan rested her chin on her hand and smiled faintly.

“In the end, we haven’t learned anything new about these strangely inherited memories.”

“I apologize.”

“No need. It was quite interesting. I will summon you again if anything else comes to mind.”

“……Do the memories appear gradually?”

“For the most part, yes. Since the inheritance, they come to me suddenly, or sometimes when a powerful stimulus similar to the past occurs. Anyway~”

“We’ll talk another time; I’m feeling sleepy now.”

With those words, she dismissed him, and Alon gave a slight bow before leaving her office.

A few days later,

“Marquis?”

“What is it?”

“You’ve been lost in thought ever since you came back from the castle. What happened?”

Evan asked from where he was driving the carriage, and Alon shook his head.

“It’s nothing important.”

“……If it’s not important, why have you been thinking so deeply for days?”

“To be precise, I’m not thinking deeply; it’s more that I’ve been spacing out for a few days.”

Evan’s listless voice faded as Alon once again gazed out at the forest passing by.

What occupied his mind were the memories inherited through the Golden Historian’s Eye that the queen had told him about a few days prior.

‘……It doesn’t add up, no matter how much I consider it.’

As he had thought many times, the Golden Historian’s Eye is a power that inherits the past.

It does not have the ability to foresee the future.

If such a power existed, Siyan would not have died protecting a collapsing kingdom, and Alon should have been aware of that narrative detail.

Therefore, the memories inherited through the Golden Historian’s Eye must be from the past.

What he couldn’t comprehend was.

‘…….Someone with a face and voice identical to mine…’

Except for the expressiveness, the man in the memories looked just like him.

‘……An ancestor?’

The idea that he might be a descendant of the Palatio family crossed his mind, but even so, it was peculiar.

‘……The ruins of Malacca haven’t been known for very long.’

To his knowledge, the ruins of Malacca were a relatively recent discovery at this point in time, with only a year remaining until the original story began.

Meaning, it couldn’t be a memory from the distant past.

‘……A jungle was destroyed 100 years ago, and all the research documents were lost. It’s possible the ruins of Malacca were found before that, and memories from that time were inherited. But it still doesn’t fit.’

Despite these thoughts, there were too many unresolved questions, and Alon pondered.

“Huh-“

He let out a soft sigh and ceased his contemplation.

The memories provided by the Golden Historian’s Eye were too limited, making speculation nearly futile.

Instead, Alon returned to his final question.

A question that had remained with him since his audience with Cretinia Siyan.

‘……Why is she being so kind to me?’

Logically, the memories of the Golden Historian’s Eye should reflect the past.

That meant the man in court dress in the inherited memory was not Alon, but someone who resembled him, a conclusion she should have logically reached as well.

Yet, she showed him kindness because he resembled the man who had saved the nation.

That meant she must be convinced that the man in the inherited memories is Alon.

‘……And there was no obligation for her to tell me to go to the ruins of Malacca.’

Therefore.

‘What is the reason?’

Alon was left to ponder the possibility that the queen might be concealing something.

***

Meanwhile,

In the office of Asteria Castle.

“……You have seemed very thoughtful lately, Your Majesty.”

Siyan, who had been gazing absently out the window, turned at her secretary’s remark.

“Do I?”

“Yes. It seems especially pronounced since your meeting with Marquis Palatio. May I ask the reason?”

“Do not concern yourself. It is not a serious matter at all. In fact, it is a rather interesting one.”

“……Interesting, you say?”

Siyan nodded slightly.

“Yes, very interesting. In many respects.”

A faint smile touched her lips as she spoke these cryptic words.