A moment earlier, after Layla departed, leaving Arthur to ponder at the mystery and the weight of her words, Arthur had been trying to piece together the tips of what she had said.
Trying to find if maybe he could remember something from the Cursed Lord's past.
Unfortunately, Arthur didn't remember anything except for the supper he had a while ago. He had just woken up in this body, so whatever she said was like a riddle that passed through his ear, leaving an unsettling feeling.
Even without knowing what she meant, he had this nagging feeling that it was about what had happened in the past of the Cursed Lord.
'I thought every reincarnated soul has the memory of the previous soul right?' he asked as he knew that his lack of memory of the Cursed Lord was starting to get to him.
He had seen from the webtoon he watched that they inherit the memory, so why doesn't he?
'Of course I should have memory' he knew it was the necessary ritual of being reincarnated or your covers would be blown..
As though he hated the Cursed Lord, he wanted nothing to do with his past or whatever, but it was important, as it was the key for him to live like him without being suspected.
He couldn't bear to think what would happen if Layla found out how strangely he had been acting, he had only gotten lucky this night.
And he didn't expect it to happen again, so he decided to try to regain the lost memory.
To do that he had to find it, so he sat and concentrated on anything. From the webtoon and drama he had watched, the reincarnated always put shards' memories together by closing their eyes, like meditating and whoever is behind it would provide him with the memory.
'I just hope it works' he sighed as he very much wished the process was the same with real life, and something reassured him that since reincarnation is real then it should be.
After settling, he closed his eyes and imagined putting shards of glass together. Though he didn't know how he was doing, he just kept going.
'Was getting a memory this hard?' he groaned frustration visible on his face.
However, he failed to piece anything together. Then after a while of sitting and waiting he started to see images in particles, forming in his head and glowing. It was slow at first but then the Images flashed and intertwined in his head, flashing before his eyes at great speed at what his brain capacity could carry.
They were blurry, yet he caught sight of a mountain, blood, a face of a different kind, some laughing down at him, but he didn't make use of them before they flashed away. He could feel his heartbeats racing, his head roaring wildly as if telling him to stop what he was doing, but he wasn't in charge anymore as different figures hovered in his head.
The memory wasn't stopping; it was like it had been recorded for thousands of years and though his body and mind couldn't comprehend.
An intense pain shot through his head like the one he first encountered when he was waking up, but this one was more violent, shattering his brain cells and then rearranging them. It was like his brain could explode any moment as the blurry memory only came and went in a flash, overlapping with his thoughts.
He cried out loud in defiance, but the sound only vibrated in the room, the sound waves floating back to him.
Then it dawned on him that the sound couldn't get out, as the room itself was soundproof.
'Curse you!'
He yelped and kicked as his body was thrown back into the bed. The pain was flooding in through his brain nonstop.
"What— the—hell!?" He groaned, gripping his head, and for a moment he wished he had never tried to go on with this process, but it was already done, and he just had to take the pain.
He gritted his teeth, inhaling through the chaos. "Stop!---- I-- don't want it- anymore!!"
He yelled.
FWAP!!
The pain subsided, replaced with a warm gesture. "Cough!!" He breathed as he held his head like it was the only thing that mattered to him right now, and he wasn't letting it go. He rolled his eyes, gasping for breath.
His heart was racing nonstop. He tried steadying it, but it wouldn't listen. It seemed to have a will of its own, so he left it as he was still fighting to get air into his mouth. Slowly, his breath returned.
It slowed until he was breathing normally. Then he sat up in bed, curiosity spanning his eyes.
For a moment Arthur just looked into the
darkness. Then after a second, he spoke as if addressing the darkness in the room as if they were the ones who let him go through that pain: "What kind of memory is that?, And why isn't it making any sense,?"
He couldn't help but think about the memory and the pain it had caused him. His brain was overloaded with information. His brain tingled at the thought, still wavering from the memory overload.
This wasn't something he should take lightly; these were things he hadn't seen in his life before, things he shouldn't see, and maybe things that could put him in danger.
He was sure about that and as if the system followed his thought, it brought a message.
[You can't assess the Cursed Lord's memory]
Arthur seeing the sentence, rolled his eyes weakly at it; even after experiencing that much pain, he had known well he couldn't.
But as the system brought it up, he wanted to curse at it for not telling him and letting him go on with it. Just as he was about to lash out, a new message materialized.
[You can't assess Cursed Lord's memory in this state as you are weak, and your vessel could not contain it; your brain isn't trained enough to house the knowledge and memory of decades]
The system spilled.
Arthur glared at the message, taking in the information. It was now clear why the memory rejected him.
His body wasn't strong enough to house thousands of memories filled with knowledge. That was why it caused great pain he hadn't felt before, and that was why it had been blurry. He just saw flashes; he couldn't make the memories out.
As if he were right, the system went on:
[The Cursed Lord has memories from different timelines, realms, universes, and decades. Which resulted in overwhelming the host. Each memory carries the weight of a million energies that could crush normal humans and even make them insane enough to kill themselves. Many have tried to acquire this knowledge, but many fall, perish as they are not worthy of the Cursed Lord's knowledge.]
Arthur's eyes rolled as he read the message. "What the f*ck?"
'So what this system is trying to say is that if I were in my human body and tried to acquire this knowledge, which is not quite possible, I might die, or I might run mad only because of a memory!' he didn't know when he yelped at his thoughts.
Fear crept through him, thinking about how many have died when trying to take this knowledge.
How come the Cursed Lord's house has too many memories from different dimensions and timelines even decades?
Nothing could add up as he tried to think, questions with no answers and no clarity.
'I might have to ask Layla,' he thought, but he stopped himself. He can't trust her yet, not now.
And if he made any attempt to ask her it would only blow his cover which he was trying desperately to cover.
So he dismissed the idea.
[To assess the Cursed Lord's memory, you must ascend.]
Ascend?
[The Cursed Lord's memory is divided into three tiers; to regain the former Cursed Lord's memory, you must complete specific tasks to level up.]
[Each segment would be unlocked upon ascension]
[Reach 1st Ascension to regain the primary part of the Cursed Lord's memory]
[Reach 2nd Ascension to regain the secondary part of the memory]
[Reach 3rd Ascension to regain the final memory]
[To begin the Ancesion, you must complete the pathway to Ancesion]
Arthur looked at the message. Ascension to regain the memory of the Cursed Lord.
Of course, this is crazy, but he had no choice since his survival depended on it.
"What is the pathway?" he asked, his face now clearing of its horror, but somewhere inside, he was still shivering.
The screen brought forth the final message: [summon the Cursed armies]