Chapter 30: The Akashic Records

Melorin looked at the head maid in confusion.

Her voice trembled slightly.

“Lilith… I want… the records from before I was converted into a demon.

The real, the most original ones… the records of who I truly was.”

Lilith looked at her quietly.

A trace of something subtle flickered through her eyes.

She pointed at the dossier that had fallen to the floor and spoke softly.

“Isn’t it all here?

It’s much more concise, but nothing essential is missing.”

“No.”

Melorin bent down sharply and picked up the stack of papers.

Her fingers turned white from gripping them too hard.

“This isn’t everything.

I want to see earlier records.

Before I became a succubus.

I want to see the real me.”

She lifted her head, staring straight at Lilith with burning eyes.

“Lilith, I used to be male.

I was a man.

Everyone said I was a hero, a male warrior summoned by the Empire.

How can you say… that I was always a woman?

That’s impossible.”

Lilith did not retreat.

She simply smiled gently.

“Melorin… you’re too tired.”

She stepped forward and touched the trembling girl’s cheek.

“I know those days of disguising yourself as a man put too much on you.

You had to fake your voice, suppress your emotions, hide your body…

Every step was like walking on the edge of a blade.

But now it’s different.

You don’t have to force yourself anymore.

You don’t have to pretend anymore.

You can be your true self.”

“My true self?!”

Melorin flung her hand away violently.

Her voice rose sharply, torn with fury.

“No, that’s not it.

Why?

Why did you rewrite my past?

Why did you make it so I can’t even tell who I am anymore?!”

She staggered backward and crashed into the towering piles of documents.

Several volumes slipped free and fell to the floor with dull thuds.

“This record… it’s fake, right?”

She muttered to herself, her gaze unfocused.

“It has to be fake…

Morganna did this to brainwash me.

To make me submit completely.

So she fabricated all of this…

She changed my memories, changed my identity, and even…

Even my gender?”

Lilith watched her on the brink of collapse and crouched down, meeting her eyes.

She reached out and gently cupped Melorin’s face.

“What’s wrong, Melorin?

Did you remember some unpleasant things from before?

Is that why you’re in so much pain?”

“It’s not that they were unpleasant.”

Melorin suddenly laughed.

The laughter was broken and miserable.

“They never existed at all.

You erased everything…

You even changed my name.”

Her laughter stopped.

She stared straight at Lilith.

Her voice was full of pleading.

“Lilith… can you tell me…

What was my name before?”

The air seemed to freeze for a moment.

Lilith’s expression faltered slightly, then returned to calm.

She looked at Melorin.

There was no avoidance, no panic in her eyes, as if she had expected this question all along.

She was silent for a few seconds before speaking slowly.

“Melorin…

Hasn’t your name always been Melorin?”

Melorin’s whole body jolted.

It felt like an invisible hammer had slammed into her chest.

“What did you say?!”

Her voice shot up sharply.

She grabbed Lilith’s collar.

Tears welled in her eyes, mixed with rage and despair.

“I’m not asking about now.

I’m asking about before.

When I was still human.

Before I was turned into a succubus—

What was my name?!”

Her voice began to shake, tinged with sobbing.

“Say it.

Tell me.

Who was I?!”

Lilith continued to look at her calmly.

“Your name…

From the day you were summoned into this world,

has always been Melorin.”

Hearing this, Melorin turned and ran straight out the door.

Inside her mind, she screamed wildly.

“Impossible.

Impossible.

That’s not my name.

That’s not my identity.

I clearly was…

I clearly was…”

But when the words reached her lips, she couldn’t say them.

She couldn’t remember.

She truly couldn’t remember what she originally looked like.

“How could this happen…”

She trembled as she ran.

“I clearly remember…

I was summoned as a hero, a man.

I existed to defeat the Demon King.

So why…

Why does even Lilith say…

That I was always Melorin?”

She didn’t want to believe it.

She couldn’t believe it.

If she accepted it, then she would truly have nothing left—

No past, no identity, even her lifelong conviction would become a lie.

“No.

This isn’t real.”

She roared, her voice echoing through the empty corridor.

“This is Morganna’s scheme.

It has to be her.

She changed something.

She rewrote everything about me.”

Ignoring her weakened body and the searing pain in her legs,

she ran like a puppet driven by obsession through the corridors.

Turn after turn.

Her heart pounded like thunder.

Cold sweat soaked her clothes.

Her lungs burned as if on fire.

Finally—

Her legs gave out.

Her knees slammed into the icy stone floor, and she pitched forward.

“Cough… cough…”

She knelt there, hands braced on the ground, gasping violently.

Her vision blurred.

A ringing filled her ears.

Just then—

“Hahahaha—”

A bright, cheerful laugh rang out from ahead.

Melorin lifted her head with difficulty.

At the end of the corridor stood a fiery red figure.

Golden eyes were filled with laughter.

“What’s wrong?

Isn’t this Melorin?”

Kathy stood with her hands on her hips, tilting her head with a grin.

“Why are you running so fast?

You even tripped yourself.”

Melorin glared at her, breathing ragged.

Her voice was hoarse.

“You… who are you?”

“My name’s Kathy.”

She walked over smiling and squatted down, her tone teasing.

“Hero, how did you even forget my name?”

“Kathy…”

Melorin murmured the name.

A moment of dazed recognition flickered in her eyes.

She remembered that face.

The weapons master who once fought beside her.

Calm, decisive, never giving up.

Suddenly, as if grabbing onto her last lifeline,

she seized Kathy’s sleeve.

Her voice was urgent and trembling.

“Kathy… can you tell me…

Is there any way to completely change a person’s information in this world?

Like… their name, their gender, their identity…

Even… making everyone believe in a fake past?”

Kathy froze for a moment, then burst out laughing.

“What’s wrong with you?

Did the Demon King mess you up that badly?”

But seeing Melorin still staring blankly at her, eyes hollow and without humor,

Kathy finally dropped her joking expression.

She lightly hooked Melorin’s chin up with her toe and smiled.

“What’s wrong?

You look completely lost, Hero.”

“Don’t call me a hero.”

Melorin grabbed her ankle suddenly.

The force surprised even herself.

“I just want an answer.

One answer is enough.”

Seeing her on the verge of collapse,

Kathy finally became serious.

She gently pulled her foot back and sighed.

“If someone really could do what you’re describing…”

She tilted her head, thinking for a moment, then replied.

“Then maybe… only the Akashic Records.”

“The Akashic Records?”

“Yeah.”

Kathy nodded.

“Legend says that every possibility in this world,

every second that ever happens,

is recorded in the Akasha.

It’s the root memory of the world,

an absolute truth that cannot be falsified.”

She paused, her gaze settling on Melorin’s trembling face, and added softly.

“…But if someone truly could touch it,

and rewrite it,

then they could completely reshape a person

at the level of existence itself.”