Black Swan wasn't particularly surprised to find herself targeted by a Masked Fool.
It was normal for a follower of Elation to be interested in anyone.
In the eyes of an ordinary person, the Masked Fools were dangerous and unpredictable, but in Black Swan's eyes, Sparkle was nothing more than a mischievous child.
So, even hearing Sparkle's vicious words, she wasn't too concerned.
They had met once before, and Black Swan already had a certain understanding of her. She knew that aside from a few friends, this Masked Fool had no one she would call "dear."
If that was the case, how had Sparkle become so infatuated with a stranger in just a few short days? So infatuated that even Black Swan herself, her most coveted target, was now just a gift to be packaged and sent off.
With a sense of patronizing care and a dash of curiosity, Black Swan confidently touched Sparkle's memories, immediately searching for the person she had spoken of.
"Hmm... it started with someone giving this girl a mission through her phone?"
While tracing back the memories, Black Swan encountered a rare burst of static. The memory, which should have been crystal clear, was impossibly blurred. There was no way to discern who had given Sparkle the order.
"Who is it?"
Black Swan's curiosity was fully ignited, and she prepared to probe with all her might. At that very moment, a powerful wave of dizziness washed over her mind.
A strange, joyful laugh echoed, and she was violently ejected from the memory of the mission.
"What happened?" Black Swan's gaze was blank. She had been bested, a rare occurrence.
She knew that the memories of intelligent life were like a vast labyrinth, and a single misstep could release the monsters lurking beneath the ice.
But she had never encountered a situation so bizarre. A mere laugh was enough to send a chill down her spine, making her unwilling to dwell on it.
Before she could recover, she heard Sparkle's voice.
"My dear! I'm back!"
Hearing these words, Black Swan realized she had entered another memory.
Based on the direction she had been forcefully ejected, this should be the target she was looking for. The "dear" Sparkle spoke of was right in front of her.
Realizing this, Black Swan immediately looked up. The moment she saw the clear edge of his clothes, she breathed a sigh of relief.
Thank goodness, it wasn't static like before. It seemed this wouldn't be as strange as a "meme" monster.
Just as she had this thought, Su Mo's voice rang out. "Is this how you're 'packaging' her and bringing her back?"
At these words, Black Swan's body went rigid, as if struck by lightning.
What does that mean?
That sentence clearly corresponded to what Sparkle had said earlier. But wasn't this memory supposed to have taken place in the past?
A cold dread washed over Black Swan. She was keenly aware of two gazes.
One was from Sparkle. The other seemed to come from the entire world, all-encompassing, from top to bottom. But neither of these gazes should exist within a memory. She was supposed to be the sole observer!
"Look up! Playing dead won't work now!" Seeing Black Swan's stiff posture, Sparkle walked up to her, crouched down, and poked her veil with a mischievous smile. "In front of my dear, even the techniques of the Garden of Recollection are a bit too crude."
Being prodded like this, Black Swan couldn't feign ignorance any longer. With a sigh, she stood up and looked at the two before her, a trace of disbelief still lingering in her eyes.
"If I'm not mistaken, I'm still within Miss Sparkle's memory. How are you able to speak to me?"
"Me?" Sparkle pointed to her own cheek. "It's all Lord Su Mo's doing! But I can feel that this body is a construct of my mind. After all, this is my own memory. Isn't it normal for me to appear here?"
Actually, it wasn't normal at all. Most people couldn't traverse their own memories in this way. However, for a Memokeeper skilled in manipulating Memoria, it was theoretically sound.
Just as Sparkle's real body wasn't in the hotel but in her own room in reality, as long as it didn't violate the principle of a singular consciousness, Sparkle could indeed appear in her own memories.
The problem wasn't her, but Su Mo.
"I can understand how Miss Sparkle appeared... but you, my dear sir, you don't seem to be a mental construct like her, but... a genuine memory?" Even as she said it, Black Swan found it hard to believe.
But her senses told her it was true. If Sparkle was just a body her mind had created to enter this space, then Su Mo was purely a memory. But how could a memory speak?
"What?" Even Sparkle was just learning this. "My dear, how did you do that?" she immediately asked, like a curious child.
"All that is spoken shall be known," Su Mo glanced at them. "Those who seek to probe me shall be probed by me. Those who wish to peer into my secrets must first present their own."
At these words, Sparkle immediately clapped. "Ooh! As expected of my dear!" She didn't really understand, she was just hyping him up.
Black Swan, however, stared with wide, shocked eyes. It was precisely because she understood that she knew just how terrifying Su Mo's words were.
It meant that regardless of intent, any contact with information related to Su Mo would be perceived by him. This was a causal-level trait, something that completely surpassed Emanators and even reached the realm of Aeons.
She began to doubt Su Mo's identity. Was this some Aeon who had descended to the mortal realm to play a trick on her?
"You don't even know Lord Su Mo? How do you expect to get by in this galaxy?" Sparkle shook her head and gave Black Swan a speechless look. She had thought this Memokeeper would be interesting, but it seemed she was nothing special.
"L-Lord Su Mo?!" Hearing the name, Black Swan's eyes widened. It seemed she did recognize it. "No wonder you can do that... Lord Su Mo, I am an envoy of the Garden of Recollection. I have an important matter to report!"
Understanding Su Mo's identity, she immediately stated her position, seemingly preparing to say something. But Su Mo had already spoken.
"We'll talk about the details when we meet in person. Sparkle, bring her to me."
"Yes, sir!" Sparkle immediately accepted the order.
Then, Su Mo's figure vanished like ink, and the Memoria-scape constructed from Sparkle's memory dissipated.
A gentle force pushed both their minds out of the threefold memory-scape and back into the dreamscape of Penacony.
Inside the private room on the top floor of the hotel, it was still just Sparkle and Black Swan. But now, their auras were completely different.
Black Swan's previous cat-and-mouse confidence was gone, replaced by a dazed shock. Sparkle, who had been lost in a daze, now wore a triumphant smile.
"How was that? My 'luring the enemy into a trap' move was pretty good, right?" she boasted.
"Indeed, it was." Black Swan gave her a deep look and nodded. "Of course, that's only because Lord Su Mo intervened. Otherwise, you would have no way to counter a Memokeeper's techniques."
Thinking back, Sparkle's previous actions had been entirely deliberate. She had basically run right up to Black Swan and gotten herself caught.
"Hehe! Of course! My dear is the biggest thigh I have to hug right now. Who else would I hug?" As if oblivious to Black Swan's sarcasm, Sparkle spoke with pride.
Then, she looked at Black Swan warily. "By the way, even though my dear isn't here right now, you can't run away! With his methods, catching a fleeing black swan wouldn't be hard!"
It was embarrassing to admit, but Sparkle was indeed helpless against Black Swan. Otherwise, she wouldn't have needed to ask for Su Mo's help.
Hearing her words and seeing her cautious gaze, Black Swan gave a helpless shake of her head. "Miss Sparkle, if you had just said Lord Su Mo's name earlier, none of this would have been necessary. I would have gone to pay my respects myself. I would never have run away!"
Hearing this, Sparkle was a bit curious. "Oh? Since you know of Lord Su Mo's reputation, why didn't you recognize him just now?"
By now, Su Mo's name and likeness had spread throughout the galaxy. It was strange that Black Swan hadn't recognized him on the spot.
"I've been investigating Penacony and a certain uninvited guest recently. I know very little about the outside world," Black Swan shook her head. "Of course, even so, I have learned of Lord Su Mo's existence through the Garden of Recollection's network. A colleague even came here specifically to relay a mission to me regarding him."
"However, the mission information did not include a memory-phantom of Lord Su Mo. I thought it was an oversight by my colleague at the time, but now I know... it was because they were incapable of leaving behind a memory-phantom of him."
Communication between Memokeepers relied purely on the exchange of information via Memoria, often in the form of memory-phantoms.
But this method was ineffective against Su Mo, which was why she hadn't recognized him at first. When it came to information about Su Mo, the more mystical the method, the less effective it was.
Basic text records, on the other hand, worked just fine.
"I see. So you guys are just too weak," Sparkle nodded with a partial understanding, offering her conclusion.
"No." Black Swan gave the girl a speechless look. She had no intention of being competitive or showing off the power of the Garden of Recollection. But one thing needed to be made clear.
"This phenomenon is extremely rare, even among the Aeons. Besides the Aeons of Mystery who specialize in this domain, a similar situation only occurs when dealing with the Aeon of Nihility."
Speaking gravely, Black Swan looked at Sparkle with utmost seriousness.
"No wonder he has Fuli's gaze... Masked Fool, this Lord Su Mo... is he truly not an Aeon?"