T/N: Huge thank you for Stiven Inoa and EbonyRuby for supporting me, I really appreciate it, thank you.
Chapter 31
Ruan Mei stepped into the folding space Tomomu Kanzaki had left behind. It was effortless for her.
The mechanical doll operated on the basis of his memories, which meant there had to be related records stored somewhere.
Unless her student had taken the risk of losing his own memories by performing an irregular operation, transferring memory data would always require a backup.
Since the doll's database contained no related memories, she would find them herself.
"Formatted, were they…"
It didn't matter. This was no obstacle for her.
Ruan Mei forcefully suppressed the chaotic thoughts in her heart, focused her mind, and placed her slender fingers on the control console.
Time ticked by second after second as streams of data flashed across the screen.
After an unknown length of time, Ruan Mei tapped the final key and successfully restored all the deleted data — including Tomomu Kanzaki's digitized memory backups.
For her, this only required time. There was no difficulty.
After all, almost everything in Tomomu Kanzaki's mind had come from her teachings.
She selected the period from the final year of his life and immediately began reviewing it.
Then she discovered an unavoidable problem.
Digitized memories could only be viewed. Apart from the events themselves, everything was silent.
There was no sound of his voice, no trace of his thoughts.
It was like watching a long, silent film of an entire life — no voice acting, no dialogue subtitles.
To give these memories sound and thought, she would need either the original owner or a suitable carrier medium.
Although Ruan Mei could use these memories to trace the process of Tomomu Kanzaki building the mechanical doll before his death, she still could not read why he had done so.
He owed her nothing. All emotional ties should have been severed with his death. So why had he left behind a doll to maintain the thread connecting them?
Was it simply because she was his teacher — the one who had pulled him back from the brink of death?
Ruan Mei could not understand.
Was it respect and love for his teacher?
The teacher who had taught her knowledge when she was small — she could not even remember the face, let alone the name.
All respect and love, once the connection was severed, became fixed forever in the past.
The love a student felt for a teacher was fundamentally incomparable to the love between family members.
Ruan Mei believed she had long understood love.
Her life from childhood onward had been inseparable from love, so she could sense the subtle differences in love and its distinct scents.
She was not Tomomu Kanzaki's family. The love he felt for her should have been the same as the love she once felt for her own teacher.
Ruan Mei gradually fell into confusion.
Tomomu Kanzaki's actions had once again been completely unexpected and difficult to comprehend.
It was exactly the same as the time when he was eighteen and suddenly touched her foot.
She had no similar experience, so she could only attribute it to the instinctive desire of a living being toward the opposite sex. Although such behavior was inappropriate given their relationship, it was still a mistake.
There should be no such desire between student and teacher.
So after brief consideration, she had corrected it.
After confining A-Kan for a few days, he never did it again. He was a satisfactory, rule-abiding student.
Until that later incident, when A-Kan deleted her data without permission and tried to persuade her to stop the so-called forbidden research.
But that incident, at its root, was simply life's cautious instinct toward something unknown.
It was concern — a form of a student's love for his teacher.
It did not count as a mistake, so she had not punished A-Kan.
Their ideals did not align, and his aptitude and comprehension were unable to grasp more complex knowledge. Forcing him to stay would have been bad for both of them.
With the knowledge he already possessed, he could live a colorful life in the vast majority of civilized worlds.
To devote herself fully to her research, she had let him complete his apprenticeship and leave.
Lost in confusion, Ruan Mei looked at the screen and the control console.
With the original owner dead, the only remaining option was to find a carrier medium.
Ruan Mei's first thought was the mechanical doll.
Implanting the memories into the doll's core would be an indirect way of finding a carrier. After making some adjustments to the program, it could be used for viewing.
There were drawbacks — the process would be very slow.
A Memokeeper from the Garden of Recollection might have more efficient methods, or perhaps some curios could be used.
Using the doll as a carrier was not satisfactory, so only one choice remained —
She would become the carrier herself.
Ruan Mei acted on the thought immediately.
For anyone who was not from the Path of Remembrance, carrying another person's memories was no small matter. The difficulty was high, and the risk even higher.
If handled improperly, at best the mind would become confused and one would no longer know who they truly were.
Remembrance Path incinerators had the ability to forge memories and implant them into a target's brain, turning the person into someone else based on false memories.
The concept was similar.
At worst, the memories would become chaotic, risking damage to the brain's neural network.
Fortunately, her research direction already involved memory. Reviving her parents made this step indispensable.
Her fingers danced rapidly across the control console keys as Ruan Mei quickly compiled the transfer program.
She then located the equipment and placed the electrodes against her temples.
Without any hesitation, she pressed the start button.
She did not fall asleep. She remained fully conscious during the operation.
A piercing pain surged through her brain.
"Is the transfer speed too fast…?"
Ruan Mei realized she had been too impatient. Wanting to receive Tomomu Kanzaki's entire lifetime of memories in five minutes was basically impossible.
She had to temporarily adjust the program, changing the time to twenty minutes.
…It still hurt.
After an hour, the discomfort eased a little. She could endure it.
Now she only needed to wait.
Ruan Mei began browsing Tomomu Kanzaki's memories, starting from the year he became her student.
After all, even after receiving everything, she would still have to go through this process. It was like reading a new book — without turning the page, she could not access the next one.
Skipping pages would mean missing key information from earlier. She had to proceed step by step.
...
That year, Tomomu Kanzaki was eleven years old. The illness inside his body had been mostly cured.
At such a young age, he had already lost his family and his homeworld had turned to space dust.
He had nowhere to go.
"I can take you as my student. Are you willing?"
"I am."
Hearing this, Ruan Mei gave a light nod and took Tomomu Kanzaki's hand.
"Then come with me."
"Where are we going, Sister?"
"To a world where there are only the two of us. This place is not suitable for conducting research. Also, from now on, call me Teacher."
"Oh… then what about Teacher's house? If no one takes care of it, it will be covered in dust."
"I don't have the migration curio with me right now, so I can't move it for the time being. I'll retrieve it later and move it then."
"I understand… Then when the time comes, let me help Teacher bring the house to that world where it's just the two of us."
The boy looked up at her with a clean, pure smile.
"A home is very important. I no longer has one. Teacher cannot end up the same as me."
Ruan Mei was momentarily dazed. It felt as if something had gently tugged at her heart.
She had long since forgotten most of this memory.
She had even… forgotten where the house was.
Combined with Tomomu Kanzaki's memories, those long-forgotten scenes slowly became clear again.
Later, Tomomu Kanzaki had never returned to move her house.
It was not that he didn't want to. She herself had said there was no need.
The company sold all kinds of products, including portable mobile manors for living. As long as one had enough credits, any size was possible. There was no need to make her student run back and forth several times.
At the time, he had said:
"When I graduate in the future, I'll go back and help Teacher look after the house."
And she had replied:
"Do as you please."
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Bonus chapters
200 Stones - 1 chapter
400 Stones - 2 chapter
600 Stones - 3 chapters
And so on
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