I woke up surrounded by freshly undered sheets and pillows that smelled faintly of antiseptic.

  My body ached like I had been worked to the bone, and I really did not want to get out of bed. I rolled over onto my stomach, and then noticed that there were bandages wrapped around my legs. I could feel a certain amount of numbness — and there was a foggy sensation in my head simir to the effect of waking up from sedation.

  There was a gss of painkillers right next to the bed.

  I recognized the curtains. They were flimsy portable dividers that were used to separate impromptu sleeping cots into individual treatment rooms. They had a rge number of these dividers stored away in the pace infirmary in case there was a sudden surge in capacity, such as a natural disaster or an enemy invasion of the capital. If the temporary beds were use, it surely meant that there were a lot of people who were injured.

  —But from what?

  It took me a few a minutes to even process where I was.

  I didn't know the date or the time.

  Clearly, there was a massive hole in my memories.

  + + +

  I recalled shortly after this that Hong Baiye had done something to me. I couldn't remember everything, but I remembered that she had the power to manipute minds, erase memories, and that she openly said that she wanted to use me like a puppet. The ice queen had ordered my colleague, Miss Nelle, to jump out of the window, and she said something about making me forget certain things about Kang Jiesu.

  Kang Jiesu — my childhood friend and the guy who 'almost' became my boyfriend in middle school.

  For that matter, I didn't understand why she would make specific instructions about that unlikable guy in particur.

  I didn't feel like I was missing any memories about him.

  But was there even a way to verify if you forgot anything?

  Was it possible to know if your memories were altered or if you were forbidden to think something?

  It wasn't like I possessed a Remembrall from Harry Potter, and it was virtually impossible to prove a negative.

  All I could say was that it didn't really feel like my feelings towards Kang Jiesu had changed, and I could distinctively remember a few occasions in our distant childhood when we were genuinely happy together. I almost wanted to say that Hong Baiye's mental magic was ineffective, but her magic certainly worked in the sense that I really couldn't remember anything else that happened in the recent hours/days.

  I could only assume that I was waking up after Hong Baiye had used my body like a marionette.

  + + +

  Gingerly, I sat up at the edge of the infirmary bed.

  It didn't seem like anyone was around.

  I slipped off until my bandaged feet touched the floor, but I immediately winced.

  For reasons that I didn't understand, my legs felt tender and totally raw.

  Choosing to brave the pain, I hesitantly tried to transfer my weight to my feet, as if I was standing atop a floor made out of sharp rocks and hot coals. My sense of bance was completely off, but I could (somewhat) stand if I leaned onto something for support. Limping like a wounded invalid, I pushed the curtain aside and was greeting by an empty corridor.

  Evidently, so many overflow beds had been needed that the infirmary was pcing patients in the hallway.

  Outside of the window, I could see that the sun was deep in the sky — some time in the te afternoon.

  There was at least a sixteen hour gap in my memories.

  I immediately pulled open the curtains to the bed that was adjacent to mine.

  There was a man in the bed with charred, burnt bck skin. He was delirious, babbling something in another nguage that I didn't understand. The injuries were severe and grotesque, and I recoiled almost instinctively.

  + + +

  Limping further, my heart swelled with relief when I found Nene — who was practically running through the corridors with her arms full of bandages and a bucket of hot water. The short little munchkin was clearly extremely busy with patients in the infirmary, and she definitely did not have time to stop for a leisurely chat.

  I called out to her anyways.

  "Hana?" Nene looked surprised. "You shouldn't be out of bed."

  "What happened?" I asked.

  "You don't remember?"

  "No..." I answered honestly.

  My friend had a troubled expression on her face.

  "If that's the case, you're probably the ninth or tenth person who has some form of amnesia."

  "What happened?" I repeated.

  "Fire." Nene answered matter-of-factly. "The entire East Wing was abze. We couldn't couldn't put it out, and then the magic crystal stock in the pace armory exploded."

  The East Wing was the section of the Royal Pace where a majority of the VIP guest rooms were located. The Emerald Room was also in the same area, which meant that Kang Jiesu's room was certainly destroyed at this point. Magic crystals, incidentally, were as fmmable as gunpowder, and a rge supply of them were needed in order to power virtually all of the magical appliances in Galuterican society.

  It was probably a massive architectural oversight to pce a stockpile of explosives several floors below the VIP rooms. This was an obvious disaster waiting to happen, although it was always easier to be critical when reflecting on an incident in retrospect. Even in a fantasy universe, the Swiss cheese model of multi-system failure was a ubiquitous phenomenon.

  "The Prince of Xandu is in critical condition," Nene continued.

  "Oh..."

  It would likely be a diplomatic disaster if a member of foreign royalty was killed while visiting the Kingdom of Galuterica.

  Moreover, what about my cssmates? Were any of them injured?

  "Is anyone else...?"

  "I think it was just you," Nene said, inferring that I was referring to our friend group of maids. "Lisa is fine. So is Stel. They weren't in the vicinity when the explosion happened, so they were really lucky. The Otherworlders seem to be mostly okay too. At least, they have a healer among them. Many of the other pace staff weren't so fortunate. There's been a number of fatalities already..."

  A thought flickered across my mind.

  "What about Miss Nelle?" I asked.

  Nene tilted her head, slightly surprised by the specific inquiry about a random colleague who ordinarily never interacted with us, but she didn't seem to question it.

  "She's in bed fourteen," she answered after searching her mental map for a brief moment.

  She didn't say anything about Nelle's clinical status. Given that she had told me where she was, this seemed to imply that Nelle was alive and it would be okay if I visited her. However, there was a certain degree of hesitancy at the bottom of my heart. Even though I had full control myself right now, I could only assume that Hong Baiye could hijack my consciousness at any moment. I was afraid to see the final outcome of the girl who had been my cssmate's victim before me.

  Was this entire catastrophe caused by Hong Baiye?

  It seemed pusible, and I couldn't think of anyone else who might try such a disastrous thing.

  However, the motive didn't quite make sense.

  "We think it was arson," Nene told me. "They're still looking for the culprit."

  ?