The hoot of an owl mingled with the chirping of insects, echoing on the road from the abandoned castle to the town. Azik looked ahead, silent for a few seconds, then said:
"Although not completely certain, I do have some thoughts."
"Perhaps, perhaps I am a person who has lived for a very, very long time."
Mr. Azik, you really should seriously consider whether you are still within the scope of "human" ... Klein replied in his heart, but did not dare to say it aloud.
In this desolate wilderness, in the dead of night, it always makes one feel weak...
"I must have paid some price to gain such a long life, surviving from the end of the Fourth Epoch to the present day, like a ghost wandering through the continents..." Azik's voice was low, as if suppressing his inner emotions. "I don't remember the past; I have forgotten the people and events I vowed to remember..."
Klein thoughtfully used his cane to part the weeds in front of him and said:
"Mr. Azik, I have a conjecture about your condition."
"What conjecture?" Azik turned his head to look at his companion.
"I think your forgetting is cyclical. Perhaps you die once every few decades, clearing your previous memories, and then after a certain time, you wake up from dark slumber and begin a new life. Only this can explain your different dreams—they are things you encountered in your different lives." Klein described his speculation.
Azik's footsteps suddenly slowed, as if pulled by the darkness. He stared ahead gloomily, then said:
"That matches some memories that were just stimulated and awakened."
Awakened some memories from that stimulation? Klein's heart stirred, and he blurted out:
"Mr. Azik, perhaps you don't need to leave Tingen to pursue your lost past; you will slowly remember it!"
"Why?" Azik turned his head in surprise.
Klein smiled slightly:
"Your memories are not completely lost. The partial awakening from today's stimulation is proof."
"Also, do you remember that when you woke up in Backlund, you found that you had forgotten the past?"
Azik nodded solemnly: "This is a nightmare that has always plagued me."
Klein tapped the silver-inlaid black cane and explained in detail:
"Before today, I didn't think there was anything wrong with this, but combined with your description and my own guess, it seems a bit strange. When you woke up bewildered from a dream, you had new identification and enough money, and a way to appear that wouldn't scare others... Everything seemed prearranged, allowing you to quickly integrate into society."
"And who arranged it?"
"The answer is only one: your past self!"
"Your past self recovered its memories, knowing that a new life was about to begin, so it arranged everything afterward to avoid arousing suspicion."
Azik stopped, looking at the sparse dim lights of the distant town, and fell into a long silence again.
"Perhaps the 'parents' I have been searching for are my past self..." he sighed tacitly, admitting that Klein's reasoning was convincing.
"So, you don't need to do anything; just wait patiently, and you will slowly recover your memories." Klein concluded, comforting him.
Azik waved his cane unconsciously, and then his whole body seemed to turn into a marble statue.
After a long time, he replied profoundly:
"Perhaps, perhaps only when the old life comes to an end will I fully recover my memories. I don't want to wait that long; I want to have ample time to figure out and escape this fate. So, I must actively seek the past, stimulate myself bit by bit, and complete the awakening you predicted in advance. Waiting would only let me repeat the previous cycle."
"This is indeed the most anticipated choice." Klein did not try to dissuade him further, and instead said, "Mr. Azik, besides helping each other to find the criminal who disrupted my fate and took your child's skull, can I ask you for a favor, a trivial favor?"
Azik nodded slightly: "What do you need me to do?"
Klein organized his words and said: "I hope that next week, or the week after, you go to a small town around Tingen, one that takes more than two hours but less than five hours by carriage, and create some supernatural events, events that don't harm people. Hmm, I saw from how you traced the criminal through bloodline connection that you should be very skilled in certain aspects of the necromantic domain."
"No problem." Azik agreed without hesitation, not asking why he wanted that.
At the same time, he tacitly accepted Klein's guess about his abilities.