I Became a Genius Mechanic at the Academy

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“Enya might be peering into your memories.”

Before Enya regained consciousness.

Ed spoke to Isabella while looking at her.

Isabella nodded with a forced smile.

“Then she’ll know everything. My pathetic self.”

“……”

Isabella, with a somewhat self-deprecating remark, smiled bitterly.

Ed took her hand and said, “It’s okay. That’s just part of going back to being us. Friends share their ugly and pathetic sides, after all.”

As he said that, he asked if his former self was perfect in her memories.

Isabella recalled Ed awkwardly picking up his suit before the automatic fitting feature was added.

But to Isabella, that version of Ed was just adorable.

“I just… find it nice that you’re human. Cute… too.”

Still unable to master the awkward words, Isabella’s ears turned bright red.

Ed chuckled softly and replied, “Enya will feel the same. Still, there’s no one who knows each other like you two.”

Although Isabella’s relationship had twisted as she accepted her family’s fate, she and Enya knew each other better than anyone else.

Isabella nodded.

She vowed to be honest with those who stayed by her side and contemplated how to live moving forward.

But then.

“Let’s deal with Lilith first when we return.”

Upon hearing the continuation, Isabella’s pupils widened significantly.

She turned to Ed and said, “The Lord of Hell in the North…?”

“Yeah.”

“……”

Isabella’s expression hardened.

If it was Lilith, she was one of the Lords of Hell who cursed her family, a monster that even several Swordmasters couldn’t kill.

She worried that Ed might be overextending himself because of her.

“It’s fine. It’s just a possibility I threw out there. Currently, Lilith is sealed, and I have a weapon to kill her.”

Recently, Ed had fully charged the Crucible while pretending to be the Lord of Hell.

With that level of hell energy, he could deal a fatal blow to Lilith.

Of course, the moment Lilith dies, her mind control would break, and monsters from the North would pour out en masse, but…

“We just need to form an alliance.”

If several nations banded together to create a defensive area, they could stop it.

Ed had the Dwarf Alliance Kingdom and the Clendor Kingdom, and as Count Cromwell, he had the power to mobilize significant forces within the Republic dominated by the Craybell Revolutionaries.

Furthermore, as a favored Count of the Emperor, Fix had the strength to gather many troops.

“Isabella, there’s no need for that expression. As long as there’s a risk like Lilith within the Empire’s territory, we must eliminate her. There’ll be no opportunity after the demon invasion fully unfolds.”

Even though she was sealed, at any moment she could release her whims and unleash monsters.

Thus, Ed decided to take this chance to eliminate her.

Now was the right time before the demon invasion became fully active.

“Ugh…”

While he was expressing his resolve regarding the Northern campaign.

Enya began to wake up, holding her head.

She had reviewed all of Ed and Isabella’s memories and was regaining consciousness.

“First, let’s deal with what’s right in front of us.”

Putting the discussion of the Northern campaign aside for now, Ed surveyed the waking cadets, including Enya.

It seemed there were almost no cadets left who hadn’t regained consciousness.

Everyone was looking at him, waiting for the next command.

“It seems everyone has resonated. Let’s go.”

So, Ed decided to handle the task at hand.

He would eliminate the evil memories that lurked within the World Tree’s immense consciousness.

*

“Resonance Ritual”

This ritual involves sharing memories to strengthen bonds.

By performing this ritual, those who share memories form a deep connection, enabling them to withstand the pressure of memories floating throughout the World Tree.

In other words, it can be seen as defending against external memories through their bond.

– Whoosh!

Thus armed with a memory barrier, Ed and his party drifted across various places of the World Tree.

They navigated through the vast system of consciousness to uproot the evil dwelling somewhere within the World Tree.

However, amid all this─.

“Wait! Stop!”

Suddenly, Clarice halted everyone and pointed forward.

A massive light was shining where her finger pointed.

“It’s Mom’s memory…!”

Mom’s memory?

That meant Clarice’s mother’s spirit, who was half out of her mind, was right here.

Spirits are nothing less than a concentration of memories and emotions.

“…What happened? Your mother is certainly alive.”

Yet that was a contradiction.

A body without a spirit must die, yet wasn’t Clarice’s mother still alive?

So Ed decided to pause his exploration briefly to look into the memory of Clarice’s mother present here.

For some reason, he felt there might be a clue within this memory.

[Human? How did you get in here?]

The beginning of this memory was when Clarice’s mother discovered her father, Count Benen.

At that time, Count Benen was traveling the world and had sustained a serious injury from a monster attack as soon as he reached the Elf Forest.

Clarice’s mother couldn’t bear to leave Count Benen behind and decided to treat him before sending him off.

[Hehe. You’re an interesting one.]

However, as Clarice’s mother began to care for Count Benen, they grew very close.

Clarice’s mother, ‘Enlir’, who had lived her whole life trapped in the forest, yearned for the outside world and thus took a great liking to the world-traveling Count Benen.

[Do you think the King will allow us?]

[I’ll convince him. Don’t worry; my brother is weak against me.]

However, allowing outsiders into the Elf royal palace with the World Tree was strictly prohibited.

No matter how much they loved each other, they couldn’t officially unite without the approval of Enlir’s brother, King Gideon, the Elf King.

[No. Absolutely not.]

And, as expected, King Gideon vehemently opposed their relationship.

He couldn’t bear to see his beloved sister tied to a mere human, using every method to drive Count Benen away.

[There’s a child.]

But by that point, Clarice was already in Enlir’s womb.

With no other choice, King Gideon reluctantly accepted Count Benen.

[Clarice! How many times have I told you not to go outside the barrier?]

[Ugh… There’s nothing special out there anyway.]

[Haha. Don’t be too harsh. I was watching everything.]

After that, Count Benen and Princess Enlir appeared to be happy.

Although they were initially shunned by the Elves, Count Benen’s efforts allowed them to become part of their community and create a stable home with Clarice.

[Enlir. Let’s go pay our respects to our ancestors.]

Then one day.

King Gideon, pulling Enlir to pay respects to their ancestors at the World Tree.

Since this was an Elf’s long-standing tradition to connect with their ancestors, Enlir followed King Gideon without much thought.

But it was at the moment they connected with the World Tree.

[You… who on earth are you?]

The spirit that emerged from King Gideon’s body was not his.

A spirit with a completely unfamiliar appearance escaped from King Gideon’s body.

[Hehe. You don’t need to know. You just have to provide that wonderful body for my wife.]

However, the unfamiliar spirit began to pressure Enlir’s spirit.

It aimed to flood her with its memories and shatter her identity.

[Th-this is…!]

And the history of those memories was incredibly vast.

It traveled back through generations to the very moment the Elf Kingdom was founded.

[First King Elleborn!]

Overwhelmed by the vast historical memory, Enlir came to know that the entity trying to shatter her identity was none other than the First King, ‘Elleborn’.

He had been living on by shattering the souls of his descendants and swapping them into new bodies.

[You’re holding up pretty well. As expected, you’re a valuable asset I’ve long desired. But it should fit perfectly for my wife.]

Alongside him, another entity who had repeated a history of crime was Elleborn’s only wife, ‘Nilia’.

And Nilia had long coveted the body of Clarice’s mother, ‘Enlir’.

[Ugh!]

However, Enlir had exceptional spiritual abilities since childhood.

Even as Elleborn’s memories troubled her own, she withstood the invasive memories with a steel-like will.

[Huh!]

Finally, Enlir even fled.

Surprised by the unexpected situation, Elleborn hurriedly chased after Enlir’s spirit, thinking it would be simple to shatter her identity.

[Damn it!]

But by that point, Enlir’s spirit was already halfway to returning.

With no other option, Elleborn sealed the remaining spirit within the World Tree to prevent it from returning and hurriedly returned to his body.

“This crazy woman!”

But even with just half a spirit entering her body, Enlir was able to move.

She immediately ran to where Count Benen and Clarice were, recounting her experiences to them.

The spirit that had taken residence in her body, that is, the memories she had consumed, were handed over to Count Benen.

“……Honey!”

“Run… Run… Run…”

“W-what is this… what’s happening…?”

“Run… Run… Run…”

Thus, Enlir became a shell, with only fragments of her memories left.

In an instant, her beloved had turned into a puppet.

“Clarice…”

However, Count Benen had no time to mourn his wife’s death.

He knew that if he didn’t hide now, both he and his daughter would be killed by Elleborn, who had taken over King Gideon’s body.

“Clarice! Wake up! Quick!”

So Count Benen immediately woke his daughter and fled the Elf Kingdom.

As an experienced explorer, he used all the knowledge he had to hide and successfully escape the forest.

“……Ah.”

After seeing all these memories, Clarice was in tears.

Only after looking at all these memories did she realize why her father forbade them from going to the Elf Kingdom, and why he tried to prevent her despite insulting her mother.

“Quite impressive for a human.”

But then.

Along with a cryptic line, a colossal spirit appeared before everyone.

Elleborn.

The mastermind behind all of this had finally revealed himself.

“Honestly, I’m surprised. I thought at least half of your identities would disappear, yet you’re all safe.”

Elleborn looked around at Ed and his group with an expression of admiration.

Ed glared at him and said, “So it was you. The malicious will that destroyed the Eldar Kingdom.”

The Eldar Kingdom was said to have been destroyed by the corruption of an ancient god turned demon.

However, upon seeing Elleborn’s spirit appear here, Ed instinctively felt that he was the mastermind behind the destruction of the Eldar Kingdom.

His spirit was filled with traces of demons that had never been there before.

“You’re as quick-witted as expected. Yes, the kingdom I establish will be reborn by ‘them’.”

“…You’ve been in contact with the Lord of Hell. Do you think they’ll grant your wish?”

“Of course. This world will soon be under their control. And the Eldar Kingdom I founded will be reborn as the most prosperous kingdom under their protection. In that glorious kingdom, we will be able to enjoy immortality without passing through the World Tree.”

Exceeding just claiming the souls of descendants, Elleborn now aspired to sacrifice the entire kingdom and demonify all of its citizens.

He declared flamboyantly, “So you all should die here! As the one who killed you, I will become the absolute monarch favored by them!”

Elleborn shouted that while unleashing the memories he had accumulated up until now.

His memories, entwined with the World Tree, were like an ocean amassed over thousands of years, and the lives of the cadets, who were barely 18 years old, were merely drops in that ocean.

In other words, the cadets’ identities would be diluted and broken by his memories.

“HAHAHA! Resistance is pointless! This body is the Eldar Kingdom itself that has grown alongside the World Tree! A mere insignificant human can’t withstand my memories!”

As he said, Elleborn is a living witness of millennia of history.

Ordinary humans will inevitably collapse under the weight of his overwhelming memories.

“How cute.”

However, he had chosen the wrong opponent.

That’s because Ed’s ‘true form’ is a mythical being, a Heavenly Being, one of the ancient figures that led human civilization.

Moreover, he was someone who had experienced this world nearly a thousand times over, going beyond what could be measured in mere years and surpassing thousands of years.

To try to intimidate Ed with ‘thousands of years’ was like a cat posing proudly before a lion.

“I’ll show you some lousy memories.”

Thus, Ed left the fainted cadets behind and unleashed his own memories upon him.

Elleborn’s pupils widened significantly.