"Eh?"
Cyrene wasn't surprised by the answer, but the strange sensation on her hand was unexpected.
She looked down at the wide palm pressed tightly against hers. Compared to his, her own hand was much smaller, making a truly seamless fit impossible.
"Mr. Ranger, you..."
Cyrene paused, unsure how to describe her current feelings.
"Are you a real person?"
Question: What do you do when your imaginary friend turns out to be real?
Answer: This young maiden's imagination is quite something.
"If I'm not a real person, am I a dead one?"
Leon just found it a bit baffling.
"I've been telling you I'm real all along."
"So we really are just in different times and spaces..."
Cyrene murmured to herself, a little lost in thought.
So that's how it is. It was all real. Mr. Ranger wasn't a figment of her imagination... How wonderful.
Cyrene thought so from the bottom of her heart, and the corners of her mouth turned up involuntarily. The smile that had vanished in her daze returned to her face.
"Is there a point to us holding hands like this?"
Seeing that she had no intention of letting go, Leon asked with a complete lack of charm.
"Nope."
Cyrene shook her head with a smile.
"But..."
Her cool, soft skin pressed against his. Cyrene's fingers quietly pried open the gaps between his and, catching him off guard, slipped inside quite slyly.
"For a cute girl, the ritual of a promise is also a very important part~"
Cyrene said, her fingers locking tightly over the back of his hand.
"Ritual, huh."
Leon had no objection.
It was normal for someone strong to have their own little quirks. He understood completely.
High stats are king, let me tell you! The strong get to utterly humiliate the weak—especially the stubborn weak!
"Speaking of which, can you get out of this Memory Bubble, or this place? Like those Memokeepers?"
Leon felt he had found a better partner than the big goose mascot. Although he didn't know how a person from the past inside a Memory Bubble could move around freely. But if Polka could do it, there was no reason others couldn't.
"If you can get out, want to come with me? I can take you to find your lost memories, and that... Amphoreus place?"
Leon made a suggestion, but the moment the words left his mouth, he felt something vanish from his hand.
Cyrene was gone, her departure as unannounced as her arrival. His consciousness had also returned to reality at some point.
Leon felt it was a bit of a shame.
"Cyrene had a big nightmare."
She, this after-sales service, missed the chance to connect with the character with the best stats. Going from a dedicated support to a generalist one, we're practically strangers now!
"What in the world did you just do?!"
Seeing he was back, Phantylia approached and asked, a look of terror on her face.
"What's wrong?" Leon glanced at her.
"What's wrong? You just drew in the Memosia from the entire Garden! What on earth is in that Memory Bubble?"
This was the first time Phantylia had ever seen such a spectacular display of 'memory.' That a quantity of Memosia of this magnitude didn't just drive him insane was simply unheard of!
Hearing this question, Leon ignored her. Instead, he immediately chose to send his consciousness back into the Memory Bubble in his hand.
As expected, he was once again met with a pitch-black scene. He tried calling out a few times, but unlike before, he received no response from Cyrene.
"Is it because it's lacking Memosia?"
Returning to reality, Leon recalled Phantylia's words and came to a conclusion about why the Memory Bubble was acting strangely.
"Forget it, doesn't matter."
Leon chose to keep the Memory Bubble for himself.
Thinking wasn't something a person who was truly confident in their own stats should be doing. Anyway, all the mysteries were at Amphoreus. Once he got there, he believed an answer to everything would be found.
"Keep up."
Leon beckoned for Phantylia to follow, then tensed his core and smashed a fist into the floor!
The floor cracked on impact, and he jumped down through the hole. Too lazy to find the proper path, he decided to rely on instinct and forge his own way to regroup with Black Swan.
Ordinarily, without using the power of a Path, it would be impossible to destroy creations within the Garden so easily. They were protected by Memosia as armor, but he had just used up the entire Garden's Memosia to activate the bubble in a daze. As a result, the current Garden was just a facade, incredibly fragile on the inside. It shattered with a touch, which made things much more convenient for him.
...
...
The Garden of Recollection.
"Heavens be praised, we finally found it!"
After Boothill shot a few meddling Memokeepers, he saw Black Swan nod in approval at the Memory Bubbles arranged in the room and exclaimed with excitement.
"You sure it's Holstein's?"
Boothill confirmed again and again.
"Yes, I've just examined it."
Black Swan said as she collected this Memory Bubble along with the others in the room.
"OK, once we meet up with my buddy, we'll blow this damn Garden to kingdom come!"
Boothill grinned, feeling ecstatic.
"Going to blow it up after collecting all the Memory Bubbles in the entire Garden?"
A voice rang out as the ceiling collapsed, and a familiar figure appeared before the two.
"Yo, buddy! You ain't hurt, are ya?"
Seeing the newcomer, Boothill laughed and went over to slap him on the shoulder.
"You're really something else. Not only did you find a Memokeeper to work with... you also held off the Emanator of Remembrance all by yourself. How strong was that Emanator?"
"Super weak. Didn't even let me go all out."
Leon told the truth.
"I feel like even using a support on her was overestimating her. For that, I apologize."
"Well, I'll be damned. You're just ridiculously strong!"
Boothill clicked his tongue.
He truly envied his strength. But envy was just envy; he felt no jealousy at all.
Without a doubt, Leon's actions were worthy of his power. It was perfectly understandable that the Reignbow Arbiter would recognize him!
"Have all the Memory Bubbles been collected?"
Leon asked.
"If they're all collected, let's pull out. I'll blow up this Garden afterward, and this mission will be a complete success."
"They've all been collected."
Black Swan nodded.
"Quick work."
Good, it seemed the two of them hadn't been idle while he was fighting Oblivion.
"By the way, did you find your own Memory Bubble?"
Leon remembered something and looked at Black Swan.
"No."
Black Swan shook her head, also a bit puzzled.
"It's strange. Logically, we've turned this Garden upside down, so there shouldn't be anything missed."
Black Swan felt something was off.
"But to this day, I still haven't found the Memory Bubble I lost."
"Honestly, I'm starting to wonder if I made a mistake?"
"But I performed a divination for this before I came. According to the meaning held by the cards, I'm certain that Memory Bubble is right here, right now."
"The bubble you're looking for... is it this one?"
Leon thought for a moment, then took out the Memory Bubble he had picked up from Oblivion.
"Yes, that's the one!"
Black Swan was startled, speaking with surprise.
_____
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