nChapter 41: The First Time Forging a Memory

nTranslator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

nBenjamin found that it was too easy to be caught in his own hubris.

nDivine intervention? I must have been thinking too much! From the first day since he teleported until now, the heavens has never helped him, in fact, they must hate him so much that it wants him dead. If the heavens really wanted to help him, it would have never given him this unlucky host.

nHe had forgotten that

"I can fight back

" is one of the big three illusions in life.

nSo angry...

nHe had been anticipating Michelle’s appearance, and she did eventually turn up. But the problem was that before she did, the curse was triggered first, causing Benjamin to lay on the bed, too weak to even hold up a gun to take aim at Michelle, much less fight her.

nHow insidious!

n

"I had hoped that our meeting wouldn’t be this unpleasant, but you left me with no choice. After all, you now have the power to kill me,

" Michelle said quietly, like she was narrating a bedtime story,

"I just want to remind you, I’m a mage, you’re a mage, the Church is our true enemy. You’ll regret it eventually if you side with the Church just to deal with me.

"

nBenjamin wanted to say a few words, but, the pain of the curse made him unable to do so.

n

"Don’t worry, the pain will end faster this time, this is all just to remind you.

" Michelle obviously knew that Benjamin was unable to speak, and continued,

"Once you find the way to open up the treasury, I will remove the curse. If I really had the intent to ruin you, I would have taken away your gun and bullets so you have no power to resist at all.

"

nSaying this, she walked to the side of the bed, and picked up the handgun on the floor.

nBenjamin, who was struggling in pain, instinctively reached for that silver handgun in Michelle’s hands, like a traveler who was about to die from thirst in a desert staring at an oasis that was not too far away.

nSeeing this, Michelle chuckled, and put the handgun into Benjamin’s hands. Benjamin put all his effort into trying to grasp the handgun, but his trembling hands did not listen to his command, and the handgun fell to the floor once more.

nHe only heard Michelle continue on:

"I won’t take these away from you, other than the things in the treasury, I won’t take away anything that belongs to you. This is my token of sincerity for this trade, I hope you can trust me.

"

nLike hell I would believe you! Benjamin was unable to say it out, but his heart screamed these words.

nAt this moment, he felt his whole body loosen up, the pain of the curse has stopped. In a moment, he jumped up, took up the gun, and was ready to fire away.

nBut at the moment when he lifted his head to take aim, he found that Michelle was gone.

nThe room was empty, the corners were empty; he was the only one there, it was almost as if Michelle never even appeared.

nBenjamin continued holding up the handgun, not saying a word.

nBut the at the end, he put his hand down and sighed.

nThe same old trick.

nHe threw himself onto the bed, and stared at the ceiling blankly, feeling a sense of hopelessness. Every time, he thought the trauma Michelle brought upon him would be the last, but Michelle would prove him wrong.

nDid she install some sort of surveillance camera in his room? Did she plant a bug on him?

nIf not, how would she know everything?

nShe is a powerful person, why won’t she just kidnap Claude directly and make him hand over all the treasures instead?

nWhy not just destroy Saint Peter’s cathedral instead? Would it only satisfy her if she stripped the bishop and all of his followers naked, hung them by the city gates and used a whip to flay them slowly?

nDamn...

nAfter hurling tons of curses at Michelle in his heart, Benjamin finally managed to calm down.

nHe could not afford to be manipulated by Michelle, he felt hopeless, angry, and this was all part of Michelle’s plan. He had to calm down and think properly. He had to analyse her properly, then only can he defeat her.

nTo think...

nWhy did Michelle appear today?

nBenjamin was sure she was here to demonstrate her power.

nWhy would she come here to do that?

nBecause she was afraid.

nAfter he managed to calm down, Benjamin’s thoughts became clearer.

nShe was afraid the next time she appeared, he would not say a word and shoot her straight away. Because of this, she had to appear this time to scare him and make him fearful of shooting her. But why did he have to be afraid of her? The mage he almost shot to death was many times more powerful than she’ll ever be!

nBenjamin could not be fearful of her, this was a psychological warfare, who ever gave in first to the pressure would lose.

nBut he still had a question, why did Michelle not rob him of all his belongings?

nBecause she was bluffing, pretending as if she was not afraid at all, just to scare Benjamin, but in reality...

nWait, that is not right…...why would she need to bluff?

nIf she took away all of his things, he would have no ability to retaliate, and it would be unnecessary to threaten him. Her leaving behind the gun would bring her more trouble in the future. It could be that she would die in one shot if she played her cards wrongly next time.

nWhy was she doing this? Other than being foolish there was no other purpose, or was she setting up another trap?

n

"Why? Why did she not take away the gun and the bullets?

nBenjamin’s train of thoughts was stuck once again.

n

"Did she not say? That was a sign of sincerity, you’re really terrible, treating other’s goodwill as something bad.

"At this moment, the System appeared, using a tone as if it had seen through everything to say this.

n

"...

" Benjamin was lazy to reply.

nIf it was really what the System said, then he still had something to look forward to!

nThis so-called trade was built on the fact that both of them were equal. But if Michelle still had to ability to take his life any moment, then they could not be considered equal, it would be an unfair trade.

nHe could help Michelle get what she wanted, but after that? If Michelle did not remove the seal and continued to threaten him with it, what would Benjamin do? Continue to be her servant? Might as well just die then.

nMaybe he could bank on Michelle’s humanity and trust that she would remove the seal after receiving the treasury. But in reality, it was too foolish and naïve to believe that.

nTherefore, Benjamin could only try to prolong this, make this battle longer, wait for Michelle to stumble and then get rid of her. Or he could rely on his own method and continue to find a way to remove the curse.

nThis still has to go on...

nBenjamin felt tired.

nAfter only a few days of relaxation, the problems piled up again, making him unable to breathe. He had to battle Michelle here, and on the other hand, he had to be careful of the Church. He felt like a bomb. One wrong move, and he would explode.

nIn addition, with the military training that Claude imposed on him, he would have no energy left to practice magic.

nRight, the Church...

nOh no, the Church!

nSuddenly, Benjamin seemed to have remember something important and sat up immediately.

n

"Uh…..didn’t you say, when the Church came to rescue me, they took my memory.

" Benjamin sounded rather serious and asked the System this,

"Can you hurry and create a memory that demonstrates that when I returned to the Lithur family, most of what happened would be real except for the parts related to Michelle and magic, a memory that would not let the Church not have any suspicions.

"

nEverything that had anything to deal with magic, the Church would be strict on it. He worried that after what happened tonight and what the paladins would report, the bishop would be unhappy and would send people to come and extract his memory, so he had to make preparations for that.

nIn his memory, there were things that the Church could not find out.

nIt was luck that he was able to escape the last time. If they were to come again, he would be done for!

n

"Oh no, I have no ability to do this, you’re just giving me trouble!

" The System sounded shocked at Benjamin’s request and did not hesitate to reply.

n

"How is this hard? Just create a copy of Benjamin’s previous memory, create a new folder, and throw this fake memory into it. Once the Church people come to collect my memory, just show them this. That is all you need to do!

" Benjamin tried his best to explain on how to perform this task

nHe had no other way to deal with this other than relying on the System. Therefore, even if the System was unreliable, Benjamin had to force it to create a memory.

n

"Ah…..after hearing your explanation, I think I can actually do it.

" Luckily, after some thought, the System finally said this.

n

"Then hurry up, I worry that right after the paladins are done reporting, the Church would come find me tonight.

" Benjamin tried to rush the System. After realizing this, he had a terrible feeling of what was going to happen.

nHe had to make preparations when dealing with these, the earlier the better.

nHe had to jinx it, a moment ago he was still thinking about

"He had to battle Michelle here, and on the other hand he had to be careful of the Church,

" and now it seems that he really was caught between a rock and a hard place.

nIn a while, he found that his ability to jinx himself was far from this.

nBecause just within three hours, the people from the Church really came.

n