March 7th was completely burned out, looking as if she had just downed a cup of Himeko's coffee.
She was sprawled out on the train's sofa, her eyes vacant. To an outsider, she looked like she had just been horribly mistreated.
"What's wrong with her?" Noldrei couldn't help but ask.
"She had a bit of a shock," Stelle replied, then asked, "Is Dan Heng's matter resolved?"
Dan Heng nodded. "It's resolved. Just a small thing."
He then looked at Noldrei. "What about you? Did you say goodbye to your friends?"
Noldrei was silent for a moment before answering, "I said it on my phone."
"Huh? Was it a difficult farewell?" Dan Heng hadn't expected Noldrei to have such a sentimental side.
Noldrei shook his head. "I was afraid I'd get into a fight with them, so I just chatted with them on my phone."
"…"
Mr. Yang and Himeko were at a loss for words.
Mr. Yang cleared his throat. "In that case, what trouble did little March run into?"
Hearing her name, March 7th let out a wail. "Don't mention it! Please don't mention it! I'm begging you, don't make me remember!"
Seeing that she didn't want to talk, Stelle explained, "We ran into some trouble. To put it simply, March didn't succeed in getting her memories back, and she even lost some of her bone marrow."
"Bone marrow?" Mr. Yang asked, shocked. "Why bone marrow?!"
Stelle briefly explained the conditions for using the Matrix of Prescience. It required something related to the past, and March 7th's bone marrow was the most reliable option.
But the result was disappointing. During the process of retrieving her memories, they were constantly interrupted by another presence.
There was nothing March 7th could do; she had wasted her bone marrow for nothing.
"It's related to someone from the Garden of Recollection. She looked like a girl, but her head was a giant gemstone. I don't know if she was wearing a mask or if that's just what she really looks like."
"Anyway, she kept stopping March from getting her memories back…"
Stelle glanced at the corner of the car. The "Messenger" was even waving at her from there.
That damn freeloader, hanging around the train without a ticket!
In Stelle's eyes, it seemed unlikely that March 7th would be able to get her memories back anytime soon.
"She said that getting my memories back would be painful," March 7th lamented. "I've had enough. What does my pain have to do with her? It's so annoying!"
Noldrei knew about the Aeon of Remembrance. Fuli, to put it simply, was just a worker bee doing cloud backups for the universe. The Aeon of Remembrance rarely interfered in other matters.
So what kind of situation would prompt an Emanator of such an Aeon to stop March 7th from retrieving her memories?
No one in the group was an idiot. They quickly understood what March 7th was up against.
"So Fu Xuan advised her to focus on improving her strength first," Stelle continued. "Otherwise, even if she finds her memories, they'll just be taken away by the people from the Garden of Recollection. Whether it's for March's own good or not, the final outcome won't change."
"As long as March gets stronger, it'll be fine. If it really is for her own good, then once she's strong enough to bear the pain, the memories will naturally return. If it's not for her good, then her getting stronger has even more purpose and meaning. One day, she'll have to take her memories back."
"It all comes back to the same thing: get stronger, March!"
March 7th let out another mournful sigh and slumped further down on the sofa.
Mr. Yang and Himeko thought so too. "Stelle is right," he agreed. "That really is the best course of action for you right now, March."
"Alright, alright, I know… You're all right…"
March 7th clutched her head in frustration. The mere thought of the difficult days ahead completely drained her of any motivation to get stronger.
Himeko didn't have any good solutions either, but at least they now had a small lead on the matter of her memories.
She clapped her hands. "Alright, let's get down to business. Here, this is an invitation from the Family of Penacony. It's also our next destination."
Himeko spread the "invitation" out for everyone to see.
The so-called invitation wasn't a simple letter, but a music box.
Winding it up would produce a harmonious melody.
[We cordially invite the esteemed guests of The Family to Penacony to join us and other guests in a grand festival.]
Along with the invitation were the names of the esteemed guests:
Welt, Himeko, Dan Heng, and March 7th.
Four people.
"So, theoretically, Stelle and Noldrei might have to stay on the train," Himeko explained.
Only then did March 7th remember that when they received the invitation, the latter two hadn't even boarded the train yet.
"Huh? You're right… That is a bit of a problem."
Mr. Yang didn't say that he was actually breathing a sigh of relief. He was hoping this part of the journey would be a little more stable.
Unfortunately, Himeko didn't give him that chance.
She crossed her arms, looking helpless. "If that were all, it wouldn't be a big deal. The important part is in another section."
"Behold the impossible in the dream, seek the legacy of Penacony's father, the 'Clockmaker,' and then answer: why does life slumber?"
"There's a cipher?" Mr. Yang asked, surprised.
Himeko nodded. "There's an inharmonious frequency mixed into the background music. It perfectly matches the train's gravitational wave frequency. Using the train engine's spatial curvature as a key, I was able to decipher that message."
Mr. Yang was already getting a headache. He had thought this would be a normal trip.
"Are there many people who know the train that well?" Noldrei suddenly interjected.
"Well..." Himeko hesitated. "I'm not sure. It's not exactly top-secret information, but generally, only someone very familiar with the train would use such a key."
Noldrei raised an eyebrow. "So you're saying the person who sent you the invitation could be a former Nameless?"
Mr. Yang pondered for a moment. "It's not impossible. There have been Nameless who disembarked at Penacony in the past."
Dan Heng remembered something. "I recall Conductor Pom-Pom mentioning that he wants us to look for the history of past Nameless in Penacony."
March 7th and Stelle looked at the music box on the table curiously. Neither of them had noticed any inharmonious sounds. After all, it was the first time any of them had heard it. Who could say if the background music was the original version or a later edit?
"In that case," Noldrei said with certainty, "the key to cracking the secret must lie in the phrase 'why does life slumber.'"