Mysteries: Arcana Wars

"Who is Megan? I didn't say Megan, I was saying Melissa."

Klein paused. He took a few steps forward and spoke to Leonard blankly.

"Melissa is my sister. You should have met her at my funeral. And Benson, that's my brother, you should have met him!"

Leonard, who had experienced thousands of years of wind and rain, looked as solemn as a statue in the square. He immediately realized that something was wrong, wiped his hands, and walked quickly from the kitchen to Klein.

"I never heard you have a sister named Megan, nor did I hear you say you have a brother named Bandari."

Black smoke rose in Klein's mind again, and the crying Melissa in the illusion flashed in Klein's memory. He suddenly felt an indescribable chill and fear creeping all over his body, and the sense of disharmony spread like mildew, corroding all his beautiful dreams.

"In my memory, you have a younger brother, Machi, who loves machinery and is very handsome. Many people mistake him for a girl. You also have an older sister, Bella, who dropped out of school early to work and support you and your brother's schooling. Later, she passed the first batch of government employees in the Kingdom of Loen..."

"But I'm sure that in my memory you have no sister or brother."

Leonard's every word was like a sharp knife, scraping away the hope that Klein had just grasped.

"I don't know who you're talking about, but if... you want to know what happened to them, to your family..."

Leonard, who was standing opposite Klein, suddenly became at a loss. He rubbed his fingers, scratched his nose, and tried hard to find the right words. Finally, he scratched his hair and said desperately.

"The eldest sister Bella got married and started a family very early, and later had a lovely little son. My younger brother, March, was disliked by girls for a while because he looked like a girl, and he still didn't find a girlfriend in the last few years of the Fifth Epoch."

"...They all failed to survive the end of the Fifth Epoch, and failed to see the Silver Moon of the Sixth Epoch..."

"I'm very sorry……"

"...But she said, she said, she said that I would have my own family in the Sixth Epoch...We would walk together to the end of the world..."

Klein tried to maintain his last bit of composure, but his voice was already trembling. He felt something grabbing his feet and dragging him into the abyss.

Leonard lowered his eyes, unable to bear to look at Klein's agitated and struggling eyes. These words were too cruel, and just saying them made Leonard feel like a knife cutting his vocal cords.

"...The 'Morretti Family' did indeed continue into the Sixth Epoch, accompanying you through a new millennium, but those 'family members' were all your puppets. You gave them dark eyes and black gloves, and their lives all came from your script..."

Klein fell onto the chair like a tower that had its foundations torn down. The bright nebula in his eyes disappeared completely, and he just stared blankly ahead. The noise of the summer night and the light of the moonlit night suddenly became so distant and unreachable.

...Klein, my dear brother...

Klein...

"Klein, calm down."

You have no right to panic.

“Klein!”

There was a voice in his head trying to awaken his reason, but it still couldn't light up his eyes.

"Klein, calm down!" Leonard's voice came from far away, "Who is the 'she' you just mentioned?"

……wrong!

At this moment, Klein suddenly pulled back his spreading thoughts, quickly regained his sanity, and suddenly sat up and responded to Leonard seriously.

"No, there is a big problem in our conversation!"

He grasped at this mistake like a life-saving straw. Only then did Klein realize that the bugs escaping from his face were struggling to get back to their original positions—he was on the verge of losing control.

"First of all, the 'she' I just mentioned is my sister Melissa."

"But you don't have a sister named Megan..." Leonard pondered, "I think there is a cognitive error between us, which makes you think your brother is your sister."

"Perhaps you mistook your sister for your brother," Klein retorted, "but that's not what I care about most. The most important and most discordant point is—"

Klein pursed his lips and adjusted his sitting posture to be more serious. He was even a little afraid of the results of this experiment. However, his strong desire for knowledge and his raging longings were like thousands of cold hands, pushing and squeezing him against the broken reality, pressing his head, prying open his mouth, and digging out those difficult words from his vocal cords made of insects.

"Leonard, I realize we have a serious communication problem. Now please repeat the sentence or name I said."

Seeing Leonard nod in agreement, Klein drank another glass of cold water and began the first sentence of the conversation.

"Melissa Moretti."

"Megan Marshall."

"My sister is Melissa Moretti."

"My brother is Marchi Moretti."

"The owner of the bakery across the street is Melissa Black."

"The owner of the bakery across the street is Melissa Black."

"My sister has the same name as the bakery manager."

"My brother has the same last name as the bakery manager."

"Melissa Moretti."

"Marilyn Wood."

……

The longer these completely different conversations went on, the more solid evidence Klein's most terrifying guess became, and the colder his heart became.

He had thought about it many times, how to come up with a plan, forge a sharp razor, and shave everything of himself from Melissa's beautiful and fragile life, so that the suffering and darkness that clung to him forever would not climb up the rope of memory and blood. He hoped so much to leave a pure and clear destiny for the girl.

The Melissa who cried and shouted to bless him, the Melissa who even reminded him about the midnight snack, the Melissa who learned Rosel language for him and turned into black smoke and disappeared for him!

Klein stood up and grabbed a piece of gray mist paper from the air. He quickly wrote Melissa's full name and took three steps to get in front of Leonard.

“Read it!”

"…Murphy Kuchi…"

Klein found that he was simply unable to accurately express the concept of "my sister Melissa Moretti". Whenever he pointed to his sister in his mind and tried to make a roundabout way of expressing it, Leonard would always receive misplaced information, as if the concept of "Melissa Moretti, sister of the Lord of Mysteries Klein Moretti" did not exist in this world.

He looked at Leonard in disbelief, and eagerly took out the weathered pocket watch and stuffed it into Leonard's arms: "So, what about this pocket watch! This is obviously Melissa's pocket watch! Do you remember who gave it to me?"

"This is what your brother March left for you." Leonard lowered his head and stroked the pocket watch and said softly. He didn't understand what obstacles and dislocations had occurred, but he still didn't have the heart to burst any of Klein's thoughts. "It's a relic of your grandfather or grandfather, but March has been helping you repair it."

"Klein, are you hallucinating? Who is that 'she' you just mentioned?"

Klein could only feel his mind frantically giving him that horrible answer. He felt his throat dry and his legs weak, and he instinctively wanted to resist the correct answer.

A name that cannot be spoken, a life that has been replaced and disappeared, a concept that does not exist at all in the past and the future, only a vague and unidentified "she" remains.

But the girl's heart-wrenching words still echo in his mind, and those black words stained with blood and tears still flash before his eyes, mixed with the heart-wrenching cries wailing out her thoughts and worries, as well as the sincere but powerless blessings.

Klein completely understood this illusion. His feet were still standing firmly. As a mythical creature, he had logic and calmness in his heart. However, a part of his heart was like a pile of fallen firewood, which scattered all over the ground.

Melissa and Benson completely disappeared from this world.