"Don't ask, okay?"

"What should I not ask? You mean not to ask about this little stone of theirs?"

A dazzling font, like fireworks, flashed through Merka's mind and quickly disappeared.

Merka knew that this phenomenon must have been triggered by a communication spell. This magic could send messages directly to your brain without the need for visual observation.

It only required a certain trigger, like when Merka glanced at the newspaper just now.

"Someone wants to convey this information to me..."

"Could it be Theresa? But Theresa didn't notice that I hid the stone."

"Oedipus doesn't need to be so circuitous to deal with me..."

"Could it be Mammon? But why?"

Another crisp and short knock on the door. Merka was hesitating whether to hide and observe the situation again, but the door had already opened.

Something appeared at the door that Merka could swear they had never seen in their life.

It was difficult to describe it as beautiful or ugly, vibrant or lifeless.

It was a shadow that blossomed from a corner of the night cut by the setting sun.

It was a maggot that grew squeakingly out of a floating corpse million miles away.

"You are excellent," said the humanoid shadow.

"With courage matching Turing and intelligence rivaling Maria."

"Let me give you a hint, someone like you deserves it."

The shadow walked towards Merka, causing them to step back several times in fear.

In the blink of an eye, the shadow suddenly appeared by Merka's side, grabbing their hand.

"The thing in your hand is a terrifying monster that devours angels."

The shadow forced Merka to raise their hand, gripping the black block.

Its terrible strength almost rendered Merka completely powerless.

"Just one look, and it will bring eternal dread to angels."

"Can you guess how it achieves that?"

The shadow held onto Merka with a grip as solid as mountains, forcibly trying to make them let go of their fist.

"It..."

Just as Merka was about to reach their limit, the shadow suddenly dissipated like a phantom. Before Merka's eyes appeared a perplexed Samael.

"What are you staring at? Do you want to show me something?"

Samael looked at Merka's raised hand and tilted her head in confusion.

Samael happened to be curious about what was hidden in Merka's clenched palm, reaching out to take it.

"No, no!" Frightened by the shadow's words, Merka quickly hid the black block in their pants pocket.

"What's with you, so stingy." Samael snorted carelessly and casually found a chair in the room, sitting down nonchalantly.

Mammon, who was following her, seemed preoccupied and remained silent as she sat down next to Samael.

"What happened just now? We knocked on the door twice and no one answered. We thought there was no one in the room." Samael asked.

"When we finally came in and found you lost in thought."

Merka shook their head, trying to push the strange scene out of their mind.

"I was just about to mention you guys..."

"How did you suddenly disappear while having morning tea earlier?"

Merka asked, and Samael quickly became evasive, unable to give a coherent answer.

"Um...we were also wondering about that. I snapped out of it and found myself in the courtyard...um."

"Could it be that a magician took us away without us realizing it? Ahaha..." Samael didn't think too much about it, and laughed it off.

"Is there a magician here besides Oedipus who is even more powerful than you?" Samael looked at Mammon, saying with lingering fear.

Mammon shook her head solemnly, her expression becoming more serious.

"It can't be, right?"

"Could someone have sneaked in while Merka was reading the newspaper?"

"And moved us before we could react?"

"Even Oedipus can't do that, right?"

Samael was a little afraid and unconsciously used magic to ward off the cold that was constantly attacking her limbs, and even inadvertently made the whole room hot.

"What did you say, while you were reading the newspaper?" Mammon frowned, sensing something from Samael's words.

"Merka had clearly finished reading at that time, and then we were suddenly moved."

"I even gave Merka a necklace, remember?" Mammon pointed to Merka's neck, where the beautiful crystal claimed to be the core.

"I came after Merka finished reading the newspaper, at that time, I don't think she was reading the newspaper anymore..."

"Oh, that's not right. Since I hadn't arrived at that time, how could I have memories of what Merka was doing before?"

Mammon seemed unsure of what she was saying.

"Ah? That's true!"

"My memory seems a bit strange too."

Samael rubbed her head in amazement.

"But... how could this happen?"

Merka looked at the two people in front of her whose thoughts and language were both confused, and fell into deep thought.

It had to be said that Merka believed that the hint given by the shadow just now might actually be a very important clue.

But there was still one decisive piece of evidence missing before reaching a final conclusion.

"Miss Mammon." Merka suddenly spoke up, interrupting the two arguing individuals.

"You said that aside from using tools, you can use aside to view and manipulate memories, but because you're not proficient, it's easy to confuse other people's memories, right?"

Mammon looked at Merka in confusion and nodded.

"Then, please tell me the first three headlines in this newspaper, okay?"

Merka picked up the newspaper and folded it in front of her chest.

"I'm quite certain that you haven't seen this newspaper at all."

"So you just need to give a general idea."

Upon hearing Merka's strange words, Samael immediately wanted to retort, "Merka, how is that possible?"

"If you know she hasn't read the newspaper, how can you say what's in it?"

"Diana's tour, the fireworks at the local company's rush task fireworks festival, the firearm bill enactment..."

To Samael's surprise, Mammon spoke with her melodious voice without hesitation.

Samael looked at Mammon in almost horror and asked, "How...? Did you secretly read the newspaper using magic?"

"How is that possible? I have no reason to do such a thing," Mammon replied.

"Well, this reveals the truth," Samael said.

"There are discrepancies in your memories, and somehow Miss Mammon has gained a part of Miss Samael's memories," a voice explained.

"There is only one possibility that comes to mind," Samael said.

"Both of you saw something terrifying, and in a hurry, you ran away. Hiding in some unknown corner, Miss Mammon used aside to delete your own memories."

"And Miss Mammon unintentionally saw a part of Samael's memories while deleting them and took them as her own."

"But due to Miss Mammon's unfamiliarity with using aside, both of your memories are a bit fragmented."

"As for why you did this, the reason must be related to this terrifying thing."

"It is here with me."

Merka reached into her pocket, and Mammon suddenly remembered something. Her face turned pale, as if facing a formidable enemy.

Samael, on the other hand, still couldn't figure out what was happening and even felt a bit annoyed by the two's cryptic conversation.

Merka laughed heartily and took her hand out of her pocket. "I'm relieved to see your reaction."

"I guess its mechanism is similar to that of a virus."

"When it appears in the eyes of you angels."

"It implants itself into the information world of your memories and can ultimately even kill you."

"So, without even saying a word to me, both of you ran away, fearing that before eliminating this virus, you would acquire many new memories about it."

"Resulting in it becoming difficult to eradicate from your minds."

Hearing Merka's words, Mammon finally showed her surprise for the first time in front of Merka.