Parallel Memory

Chapter 756: The Mistake

Zero returned to the capital before sunrise.

He didn’t go to Tech Genesis.

He didn’t go to the War Council.

He didn’t tell anyone what had happened in the valley.

He simply returned to his room, closed the door, and sat beside the window.

The city was beginning to wake.

Merchants opened their shops.

Adventurers gathered around guild entrances.

People walked through the streets without knowing that another version of Zero had stood only a few hours away.

Zero remained silent.

His mind kept returning to the same conversation.

I’m correcting my mistakes.

You.

Your peace.

He had fought devils.

He had fought the Emperor of Destruction.

He had stood against Aamon.

He had watched entire battlefields collapse around him.

But none of those enemies had disturbed him the way the other Zero did.

Because there was something he couldn’t understand.

Earth Zero wasn’t destroying Edolas because he hated it.

He wasn’t seeking power.

He wasn’t trying to rule.

He genuinely believed he was preventing something worse.

That made him more dangerous.

Zero leaned back.

"If I want to stop him..."

He closed his eyes.

"...I need to understand him."

Not defeat him.

Not yet.

Understand him.

The problem was that the only person who knew what had happened to Earth Zero...

was Earth Zero himself.

And he wasn’t going to explain.

So Zero had to find another way.

*******************************************

The first person Zero visited was Aidan.

Tech Genesis was already busy when he arrived.

Employees moved between departments carrying documents and mana crystals. Several engineers were testing communication devices while others worked on new applications.

Aidan was standing inside his office, reading several reports.

He looked up when Zero entered.

"You came early."

Zero closed the door behind him.

"I need information."

Aidan immediately noticed his expression.

"What kind?"

"Everything we know about Earth."

Aidan stared at him.

For several seconds, neither spoke.

Then Aidan placed the document in his hands on the desk.

"Earth?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

Zero walked toward the window.

"Because the person behind the attacks isn’t from Edolas."

Aidan’s expression changed.

"You found him?"

"Yes."

"Who is he?"

Zero turned around.

"Myself."

Silence.

Aidan slowly lowered the document.

"...What?"

"He’s another version of me."

Aidan stared at Zero as though trying to determine whether he was serious.

Zero’s expression didn’t change.

"I fought him."

"And?"

"I couldn’t hit him."

That answer disturbed Aidan more than anything else.

He knew Zero’s strength.

He knew what Zero had accomplished.

Aidan had seen him fight opponents far stronger than himself and still find a way to win.

Yet this time...

Zero hadn’t landed a single attack.

"What does he want?"

"To destroy the peace treaty."

Aidan’s expression became serious.

"Why?"

"He believes peace is a mistake."

"Did he explain?"

"Not enough."

Zero walked to the desk.

"That’s what I need to find out."

Aidan thought for a moment.

"Then we need information about Earth."

"Yes."

Aidan hesitated.

"How?"

Zero looked at the shelves behind him.

"Technology."

Aidan understood.

"You’re thinking about your own memories."

"Some of the technology I introduced here..."

Zero paused.

"...came from Earth."

Aidan nodded slowly.

"So you’re hoping those ideas might lead us to something."

"Not just ideas."

Zero’s eyes narrowed.

"Records."

***********************************

For the next several hours, Zero searched.

Tech Genesis possessed thousands of documents concerning technology, communication systems, energy research and mechanical engineering.

Most of them were related to Edolas.

But Zero wasn’t looking for Edolas.

He was looking for similarities.

He examined designs.

Communication systems.

Energy storage.

Computer architecture.

Artificial intelligence concepts.

Transportation systems.

Anything that might tell him what Earth Zero had been like.

Nothing.

Then he found something.

A small document buried within one of the earliest Tech Genesis development archives.

It was a technical explanation Zero himself had written years earlier.

Aidan had preserved it because it had become the foundation for several of Tech Genesis’s systems.

Zero read it carefully.

The explanation contained concepts that were far beyond what Edolas scholars had previously understood.

He knew all of them.

Not because he had learned them.

Because they felt natural.

Zero stared at the pages.

Then he noticed something.

One section contained a method of organizing information.

He remembered writing it.

But he didn’t remember learning it.

That was the problem.

His memories of Earth weren’t complete.

Pieces were appearing.

Technology.

Computers.

Programming.

Cities.

But not the events.

Not the reason he had left Earth.

Not the reason another version of him had become what he was.

Zero closed the document.

"There’s nothing here."

Aidan remained quiet.

"Then where do we look?"

Zero stood.

"The beginning."

**********************************************

The next place Zero visited was the Royal Academy.

He entered the academy archives without attracting attention.

The elves possessed records that stretched back much farther than the human kingdoms.

But Zero wasn’t searching for ancient history.

He was searching for something much simpler.

Dimensional research.

The elves had studied unusual spatial phenomena for generations.

If someone from another world had crossed into Edolas, there should have been traces.

Zero spent hours reading.

Most of the records were useless.

Natural spatial distortions.

Mana storms.

Teleportation experiments.

Failed dimensional spells.

Nothing.

Then he found a report.

Zero stopped reading.

The document described an unexplained spatial phenomenon that had appeared years earlier.

A small distortion.

No known origin.

No known destination.

It had remained stable for only several seconds.

The report classified it as insignificant.

Zero read the date.

His expression changed.

It was close to the period when his own memories began.

He continued reading.

There was very little information.

The phenomenon had appeared near the border of the human domain.

No person had been found.

No object had been recovered.

The distortion disappeared.

Zero closed the document.

"Could that have been..."

He stopped.

He didn’t know.

But it was the first lead he had found.

He copied the location.

Then he continued searching.

*****************************************

By evening, Zero had accumulated six possible incidents.

Six unexplained spatial phenomena.

Six locations.

But only one had occurred during the period relevant to his memories.

He went there.

The location was now an empty stretch of forest.

Nothing remained.

Zero stood beneath the trees while examining the surrounding area.

He released a small amount of mana.

Nothing.

He activated his senses.

Nothing.

He almost left.

Then he noticed something.

A tree.

Its bark was damaged.

Not by a weapon.

Not by magic.

There was a smooth circular mark embedded in the trunk.

Zero touched it.

A strange sensation passed through his fingers.

A memory surfaced.

A street.

Rain.

A bright sign.

Someone shouting his name.

Then it disappeared.

Zero immediately pulled his hand away.

He stared at the tree.

That wasn’t an Edolas memory.

It was Earth.

And it wasn’t his memory.

At least...

not completely.

Zero remained still.

"How?"

The answer didn’t come.

But the discovery confirmed one thing.

The connection between Earth and Edolas wasn’t imaginary.

Something had happened here.

And Earth Zero knew about it.

***********************************

That night, Zero returned to the capital.

He didn’t sleep.

Instead, he began constructing a timeline.

He wrote everything he knew.

Earth Zero.

The attacks.

The peace treaty.

The strange spatial phenomena.

His own fragmented Earth memories.

Then one sentence went in the center.

What happened to Earth Zero?

Under it, Zero wrote three possibilities.

He failed to protect someone.

He failed to stop a conflict.

He created something that caused disaster.

He stared at the list.

The other Zero had called himself a person correcting mistakes.

That meant there had been mistakes.

Real ones.

Not an ideology.

Something had happened.

Something terrible enough that Earth Zero had changed his entire understanding of peace.

Zero leaned back.

Then he remembered the vision.

The one Earth Zero had shown him during their confrontation.

Cities.

Conflict.

People turning against each other.

Families separated.

Governments collapsing.

But there had been something else.

Something Zero had noticed only now.

Earth Zero hadn’t shown him a war.

He had shown him the aftermath.

The consequences.

Zero’s eyes narrowed.

"Why show me the aftermath?"

Because perhaps the event itself wasn’t the important part.

Perhaps what mattered was what Earth Zero had done before it.

Zero stood.

"He thinks he caused it."

That possibility changed everything.

Earth Zero might not have simply witnessed Earth’s suffering.

He might believe that his own decisions had contributed to it.

And if that was true...

Then his hatred of peace wasn’t really hatred.

It was guilt.

***************************************************

The following morning, Zero went to the place where he had first met Earth Zero.

The abandoned valley remained covered in ice.

He stood in the center of the battlefield.

The damage from their confrontation had barely begun to recover.

Zero looked at the spot where the other Zero had stood.

"You said I was your mistake."

The wind answered him.

"You said you were correcting what you did."

Zero closed his eyes.

"What did you do?"

Nothing.

Then a voice came from behind him.

"You won’t find the answer here."

Zero opened his eyes.

He didn’t turn immediately.

He recognized the voice.

Earth Zero.

"You came back."

"Of course."

Zero turned.

The other Zero stood at the edge of the valley.

His expression was calm.

But this time Zero noticed something different.

His eyes.

They weren’t cold.

They were tired.

"You knew I’d investigate."

"Yes."

"Then you knew I’d eventually find out."

"I knew you’d try."

Zero stepped forward.

"Tell me what happened."

"No."

"Why?"

"Because knowing won’t change anything."

"It changes my understanding of you."

Earth Zero looked at him.

"Understanding me won’t stop what I’m doing."

"Maybe it will."

A faint smile appeared.

"You still believe that."

"I do."

The other Zero looked toward the ruined mountains.

"I used to."

Zero’s expression hardened.

"Then tell me what changed."

Earth Zero remained silent.

For the first time, Zero saw hesitation.

It lasted only a moment.

But it was there.

Zero noticed.

"You don’t actually believe peace is the problem."

The other Zero’s eyes shifted toward him.

Zero continued.

"You believe something happened because of a decision you made."

No answer.

"You believe you could have prevented it."

Still nothing.

"And now you’re trying to make sure I don’t repeat it."

Earth Zero’s expression became unreadable.

Zero took another step.

"Am I right?"

The other Zero finally spoke.

"You’ve always been stubborn."

Zero didn’t react.

"That isn’t an answer."

"No."

Earth Zero looked at him.

"It’s not."

He turned away.

"But you’re closer than you realize."

Zero’s eyes narrowed.

"Then tell me."

The other Zero stopped.

"You want to know what happened to me?"

"Yes."

"Then don’t ask me."

Zero frowned.

"Ask Earth."

The other Zero disappeared.

Zero remained standing alone.

His expression became serious.

He looked toward the sky.

"Ask Earth..."

Those words stayed in his mind.

Earth Zero had finally given him a direction.

Not an answer.

A direction.

Zero looked down at the frozen ground.

If he wanted to understand his counterpart, he would have to uncover the truth of the other world.

The world where that version of him had lived.

The world where his mistakes had been made.

The world that had turned him into someone who believed peace itself could become dangerous.

Zero slowly clenched his fist.

"Then I’ll find out."

He turned toward the capital.

"I’ll find out what happened to you."

His voice became quieter.

"And when I do..."

He looked toward the distant horizon.

"...I’ll prove you wrong."

For the first time, Zero wasn’t investigating Earth Zero because he wanted to defeat him.

He wanted to understand him.

Because somewhere beneath the opposing beliefs, the two versions of Zero were still connected by one thing.

Both wanted to protect the world.

They simply disagreed on what the world needed to survive.