Crimson clouds streaked across the sky. As if racing toward the end of the day, the sunset bathed the entire city in a fiery glow, setting the Blue Palace ablaze with a vivid red light.
“Lord Melinus, may I come in for a moment?”
A reddish hue also settled over the grand library beneath the spiral staircase. Melinus, who was leisurely reading records as usual after finishing his work, blinked and lifted his head.
“Come in.”
With the sound of footsteps, a dark shadow fell beneath the shaded railing of the sunset. A tall young man descended the stairs and bowed politely. Melinus’s eyes lit up with surprise.
“Well, well, who do we have here? Sir Ryan Winters himself.”
“Apologies for the late visit,” said the handsome young man known as Ryan Winters, his voice courteous. Unusually, his hair was pure white—reminiscent of snow—flowing down like a lion’s mane, softly covering his neck. A gentle smile spread across Melinus’s lips as he watched Winters approach.
“Nonsense. When the Lion Knight, the finest of the Round Table, comes calling, I’m the one who should feel honored.”
“Ha ha. Could you please stop calling me that?”
Winters smiled wryly, and Melinus shrugged.
“Why not? I quite like that title myself.”
“It’s just too embarrassing. Winters will do just fine.”
“And what if I refuse?”
“Then I’ll do the same. Lord Melinus, I suppose you’re the one who chases the stars…”
Winters teased, and Melinus raised both hands in mock surrender. They shared a light laugh.
Winters settled comfortably into the chair Melinus gestured toward. Melinus closed the record on his desk and spoke.
“So, what brings you here?”
“I imagine you already have an idea.”
“Hmm.” Melinus exhaled sharply, his expression darkening slightly.
“I’m not one for riddles, but let’s see if I can guess. Is this about the recent expedition?”
“That, and something else… Eldora has seemed strangely drained lately.”
Winters spoke calmly.
“At first, I thought it was just disappointment from not finding the scabbard on the last expedition…”
He trailed off, as if hesitant to continue. Melinus chuckled lightly.
“I suppose you want me to say that’s the case.”
Winters looked sheepish, as if caught off guard.
Melinus stroked his beard thoughtfully and nodded slightly.
“Well, go on.”
After a brief pause, Winters looked down at the floor and resumed speaking quietly.
“The atmosphere has definitely changed. It feels… subdued.”
“On the surface, nothing seems wrong. But it’s different. Something’s off. I can’t quite put my finger on it…”
Winters paused, then suddenly met Melinus’s gaze.
“You’ve seen the woman, haven’t you?”
“If you mean the woman brought back from the recent expedition, yes. I saw her again today.”
“What do you make of her?”
“Well… she still hasn’t awakened.”
Winters shook his head quietly, as if to say that wasn’t the issue. Then he fell silent for a moment.
“What I mean is…”
Finally, Winters spoke with difficulty.
“When I look at her… I feel an inexplicable unease.”
Though twilight had deepened to its richest red, the room was filled with an unsettling chill and a heavy gloom. It wasn’t just cold—it was as if the very air in this room was thick with darkness and desolation.
Eldora stared at the bed where soft breaths escaped in various colors. The woman lying there was covered with a white blanket up to her chest, but even from the curves visible beneath, her frail frame was clear.
She barely stood over 150 centimeters tall, yet somehow didn’t seem childish. Her slender jaw looked slightly gaunt, not fragile but parched and dry. Her delicate eyebrows and narrow shoulders gave off a strange, almost dangerous allure—an unsettling mix of vulnerability and something provocatively raw.
In other words, even seeing her up close, everything about her felt vague and unclear. But Eldora’s tension wasn’t because of her appearance.
The main reason was a sense of alienation—an emotion Eldora herself struggled to define.
Objectively, there was no obvious problem. Yet, looking at the woman’s jet-black hair shimmering faintly and her ghostly face, she didn’t feel human. There was no familiar human scent.
Eldora even reached out, wondering if she might be a doll. But feeling the warmth of her skin only deepened the contradictory feelings.
As these conflicting emotions churned inside her, Eldora closed her eyes quietly.
“Thank you.”
That was the first word she heard after the stone door opened. Since returning to Ragnarok, no other words had been spoken. The woman had remained asleep ever since she collapsed against Eldora’s shoulder.
In the end, the expedition was neither a success nor a failure. The objective was achieved, but the hoped-for scabbard was nowhere to be found. In truth, it was a complete waste of effort.
Ordinarily, Eldora would have let it go. But strangely, she couldn’t. She spent the entire return journey drowning in regret and an unexplainable guilt.
If only she knew the cause, she might feel relief. But without answers, she suffered in silence, like a mute with a broken heart. And the unease born of this contradiction only grew stronger whenever she was near the woman—just like now.
Then—
“…?”
A faint creak broke the silence as the door slowly opened. Soft footsteps approached and stopped just behind Eldora. She glanced back, blinking her golden eyes in surprise.
“Erwin?”
The one who entered was the fairy Erwin. She wore her usual clothes woven from leaves, but today she carried a bulky leather bag over her shoulder and a bow on her back, dressed as if about to embark on a long journey.
“I wanted to say goodbye before I left… and here you are.”
Erwin’s words made Eldora inwardly exclaim in surprise.
“You’re returning to the Fairy Forest today… I completely forgot.”
“Yes, sorry. Something critical has come up for my people. I have to be there.”
“Hm. I heard things have been quite chaotic with the queen’s election.”
“That’s right. We haven’t had a queen for a long time. The topic’s been around for quite a while.”
Erwin nodded lightly but didn’t look happy. A subtle shadow of worry darkened her face. Noticing this, Eldora tilted her head.
“But didn’t a queen appear a few years ago? I’m pretty sure I remember hearing that.”
Eldora asked, feigning uncertainty, but she remembered clearly. That day, Erwin had been unusually lively, running around all day in joy—a rare sight.
“Yes… that’s true.”
Erwin’s voice faltered, and she gave a bitter smile.
“The flower of Yggdrasil has bloomed… but that’s all.”
She turned away, unwilling to say more. Eldora decided not to press further. Everyone has their own troubles.
“I see. Well then…”
Eldora was about to tell her to rest well on the journey, but stopped herself.
Erwin’s fresh, dewy presence now seemed noticeably gaunt and sickly compared to before. Since joining the Fairy Forest five years ago, she had always been healthy, so it seemed sudden to blame it on homesickness.
More importantly, she had visibly withered right after the recent expedition.
But thinking that way…
“…”
Something about it felt wrong.
Whatever the reason, Eldora decided to believe that Erwin was simply worried about the queen’s election.
“…Eldora?”
“I’ll see you off.”
Eldora quickly offered.
“No, it’s fine. I prefer to go alone.”
“No, we won’t see each other for a while. I want to talk on the way. Please.”
Unable to refuse the repeated request, Erwin smiled lightly.
With a soft click, the door closed gently behind them as the two women left the room. Their footsteps echoed down the hall, gradually fading until silence returned.
Only the woman remained lying there.
The room sank once more into endless quiet.
Ian stared at the towering piles of records filling one side of the archive. Night had fallen, and the surroundings were dim, but Ian sifted through the documents with practiced hands.
How much time had passed?
After flipping through and reshelving records repeatedly, Ian suddenly threw down the one in his hand and slammed his fist on the desk.
Thud!
“Damn it, all these records are useless.”
It was a sight that would have shocked even one of the Knights of the Round Table—because everyone knew just how much Ian treasured and loved the records of this world.
When Ragnarok was discovered, it wasn’t the gear or the potions that excited Ian the most, but the chance to read new records. After work, he would always head to the Grand Library and bury himself in the archives late into the night.
It was precisely because of his vast knowledge of ancient lore—so extensive that even the prophet Melinus had to concede—that Ian, a non-combatant user, was allowed into the Knights of the Round Table.
So, the behavior he’d just shown was undeniably awkward and out of character.
“Who on earth did I wake? Why won’t they wake up?”
He bit his lip anxiously, then suddenly started striding forward. Ian’s footsteps led him straight to the bedroom where the woman lay asleep.
After telling the servant guarding the room to take a break, Ian pressed himself close to the bed and looked down at her. There was still no sign she was waking.
He stared at her for a long while, then suddenly spoke, sounding frustrated.
“Who exactly are you?”
Of course, there was no answer. The woman remained expressionless, eyes closed, breathing steadily.
Ian’s face, as he looked at her, mirrored Eldora’s—clouded with some unfathomable regret or self-reproach. Though only Ian himself could know what those feelings truly meant.
He carefully examined her body, even touched her gently, but there was no way to uncover her identity that way. Finally, with a deep sigh, he turned away in haste.
“This won’t do. I need to… contact Bel… Melinus.”
Ian stumbled over the name as he cautiously flung open the door. He glanced left and right, then was about to leave the room when a quiet, clear voice suddenly grabbed his collar.
“Wait.”
Startled, Ian froze like a robot running out of batteries. He looked around the room, but nothing had changed. The woman still lay there, eyes closed, unmoving.
The only difference was a faint smile playing at the corner of her lips.
“Curious about who’s taken over this body?”
The moment those small, delicate lips parted, Ian’s eyes widened as if they might burst, and his mouth fell open. But he swallowed hard, quietly closed the door, and turned away.
At that very moment, the woman’s eyes finally opened—piercing black irises locking onto Ian’s gaze with crystal clarity.
A moment later.
“And it’s not Belinus, but Melinus, right? You must have confused him with Belial, but that was a pretty clever guess.”
Hearing those words, Ian suddenly sank to his knees.
“Ah…”
With trembling eyes and a quivering voice, he barely managed to speak, his expression a mix of disbelief and joy.
“…Satan?”
---------------------------= Author’s Note =---------------------------
Satan: Now, tell me why you turned me into a girl.
Royujin: Haha.
…Ah, sorry about that.
I’ve been going to bed at 10 PM for the past few days, and I must have dozed off without realizing it.
Woke up to see it was 2 AM and totally freaked out… ^^;
Some readers asked if the seal was broken too easily in the last chapter.
I think that’s a perfectly reasonable question at this point.
But that mystery won’t be fully resolved until Episode 2, so I’ll reveal the answer in the text then.
For now, I’ll try to keep my sleep schedule steady.
Wishing all the readers a peaceful night.
P.S. Episode 6 begins now. Also, the episode numbers are intentionally going in reverse order. That means Episode 0 will be the finale of Memorize.