Avoiding Death in an Otome Game

Chapter 73: Chapter - 73: Memory Backtrack

There was no point in endlessly worrying about something that I could only understand after actually meeting Albert and Clara again.

So instead of dwelling on it further, I reached into my storage magic tool and retrieved the thin grey book Albert had given me earlier.

I placed it on my lap and looked at its cover. There was nothing particularly remarkable about it.

No title, no decorative markings, no special insignia, and nothing that would suggest that the few pages inside contained something that could potentially solve one of the biggest problems I had been dealing with since coming to this world.

I opened the book and several large letters written on the very top of the first page immediately caught my attention.

**Memory Backtrack.**

I stared at the name for a moment before reading the short explanation written beneath it.

According to this description, the spell does not directly increase the user’s memory capacity, nor did it simply make the brain better at remembering things, as I had initially imagined when I began searching for memory related magic.

Instead, Memory Backtrack created a separate section within the user’s mental sea where memories could be stored and preserved, allowing the caster to return to those memories whenever they wished and experience them again with an extraordinary level of detail, almost as though the event had occurred only moments ago.

I slowly turned the page.

*So that is how it works.*

The description itself was surprisingly simple, but the principles behind the spell were considerably more complicated.

The following pages explained how the memory section was constructed within the mental sea, how memories were converted into mental information suitable for storage, how the caster could retrieve a specific memory without disturbing other memories, and how the spell prevented the stored information from gradually becoming distorted through the natural process of forgetting.

There is even feature of recovering a long time back memory that I partially remember into a completely clear one.

The more I read, the more convinced I became that this spell was almost perfectly suited for me.

I had spent years trying to preserve everything I remembered from the game, and even after writing down the information in my notebook, I still had to constantly update it whenever I remembered another detail because I could not trust my own memory to preserve everything indefinitely.

There were characters whose names I could remember but whose exact roles had become vague, events whose general outcomes I knew but whose smaller details had already begun to disappear, and entire portions of the original storyline that I knew existed somewhere in my memories but could no longer recall clearly enough to make use of them.

Even the memories from my previous life were not immune to this problem.

I could remember important things, but I could not simply assume that I would retain every piece of information forever.

*If I could preserve everything properly...*

I lowered my eyes toward the page. Then the possibilities became much greater.

I could preserve every detail of the game’s storyline that I still remembered, including small events that seemed irrelevant at the moment but could become important later, and I could even store memories from my previous life that I considered useful instead of relying on my mind to preserve them indefinitely.

More importantly, if I could access those memories with the same clarity with which I had experienced them originally, then the amount of information available to me would increase considerably.

I continued reading. Not just once but again and again.

The first reading gave me a general understanding of the spell, but the second exposed several details that I had overlooked, while the third made me realize that I had misunderstood some of the principles entirely.

*This is not a simple memory enhancement spell at all.*

The spell required the caster to manipulate the mental sea with extreme precision, separating memories from the normal flow of consciousness and establishing a stable connection between the stored information and the caster’s present awareness.

It was not something that could simply be memorized from a book and immediately activated. Understanding the theory was one thing. Actually performing it was another.

I rested my elbow against the desk and supported my head with one hand as I stared at the same paragraph for several minutes.

*Teacher Albert really was not exaggerating when he said I needed to understand it before he would teach me.*

The spell itself was far more complicated than the brief description on the first page had suggested.

I was so absorbed in it that I barely noticed when the door opened and Ian had returned. He looked toward my side of the room and then toward the book in my hands.

”You are reading again?”

I glanced at him briefly ”Yes.”

He seemed ready to make another comment, but after looking at my expression for a moment, he apparently decided against it.

”Right...” Ian quietly walked toward his side of the partition instead.

I continued reading. The room gradually became silent again, with only the faint sound of pages turning occasionally breaking the quiet.

Time passed without me paying attention to it as I tried to understand the underlying structure of the spell rather than simply memorizing its explanation, because Albert had specifically told me to understand the content, and the more I thought about it, the more I realized that attempting to memorize the theory without understanding the actual principles would probably make the eventual casting considerably more difficult.

At some point, my eyes began to feel heavy so I looked toward the window.

The academy grounds outside were almost completely dark. Only a few lights remained visible across the distant buildings.

I frowned slightly before glancing toward the clock.

*Already midnight?*

I had not realized that I had spent so many hours reading, I closed the book reluctantly and placed it beside me.

*I will continue tomorrow.*

There was no point forcing myself to keep studying when my concentration was already beginning to decline, especially since I would have to attend classes normally tomorrow and then return to Albert’s office afterward.

I stored the grey book inside my storage magic tool and finally lay down on the bed. As I closed my eyes, the complicated structure of Memory Backtrack still lingered in my mind.

The moment I closed my eyes, the exhaustion that had been building throughout the day finally caught up with me, and my consciousness gradually slipped away from the physical world without me even realizing when the transition happened.

....

”Where am I?”

I found myself standing in a strange, empty space where there was no floor beneath my feet and no ceiling above me, yet I did not feel as though I was falling, because everything around me remained completely still, covered in a faint silver haze that seemed to stretch endlessly in every direction.

There was no sound, but somewhere within that silence, something was moving.

I turned my head and saw countless threads of light floating through the darkness, each one resembling a thin strand of mana, except they were not flowing randomly; they were connecting and separating according to an intricate pattern that seemed strangely familiar.

I stared at them.

*What is this?*

One of the strands suddenly moved toward me, and as it approached, the entire structure surrounding it became clearer, revealing something that looked almost like the inside of my mental sea.

A circular region gradually formed in the center of that space.

The threads of light began gathering around it, weaving themselves together while maintaining a precise distance from one another, and then something inside the circle began to separate from the surrounding flow.

A memory.

I somehow understood that without anyone explaining it.

The memory was not being copied like words onto a page, nor was it being removed from the mind entirely; instead, the spell seemed to be creating a separate pathway through which the memory could be isolated, preserved, and accessed without disturbing the normal flow of consciousness.

*So this is the mechanism...*

I watched carefully as the structure continued to develop, and the more I observed it, the more familiar it became.

The principles I had struggled to understand throughout the night suddenly seemed considerably clearer when I could see them operating instead of merely reading about them.

The stored memory remained connected to the mental sea through a thin strand, almost like a bridge, while the surrounding structure prevented the information from slowly deteriorating.

Then the entire scene suddenly shifted.

The threads collapsed inward, the circular structure disappeared, and I felt myself being pulled away from the strange space.

My eyes opened.

For several seconds, I remained completely still in my bed, staring at the ceiling while trying to remember what I had just seen.

*Was that a dream?*

I could still remember the structure with surprising clarity, although I could not explain why.

More importantly, I understood something about the spell that I had not completely grasped from the book.

I immediately sat up and reached for the grey book, but after staring at it for a moment, I stopped.

*I will think about it later.*

I have classes to attend.

....