Lynn speculated that if he truly wanted to repair Azik's fractured soul, he would either have to act in the Fifth Epoch or wait until the point in the original story where the God of Death splits Azik's soul. Ensuring that event doesn't occur would directly affect Azik's future state.
Just as in the Fourth Epoch, Artisan, who had followed Lynn for a while, was still the God of Steam and Machinery in this era. With Lynn by his side, it was theoretically impossible for Bethel to be captured by an Outer God and turned into a puppet. Bethel was still drifting in outer space.
Although Lynn's changes to these individuals would directly affect them, they were limited to direct alterations, such as granting or removing a Characteristic. These changes would manifest across time and space on the person themselves. However, changes like altering someone's fate prematurely, causing a butterfly effect, wouldn't directly change the fate of the individuals in the future.
'But when you think about it, it's not surprising. If butterfly effects were to happen constantly, the timeline would be filled with endless anomalies based on the things I've done. Instead, these minor, direct changes that erase butterfly effects might actually stabilize the overall structure. At least, only the parts I've changed are altered, avoiding significant bugs,' Lynn muttered to himself, further understanding his peculiar time-related abilities.
Lynn had a vague feeling that the powers he inherited from his True Self were mainly reflected in time and history. He might have other abilities too, possibly including the miraculous time-related powers he could use by borrowing strength from his True Self. But... he'd forgotten the manual.
This was frustrating. Without a manual, he could only rely on his abilities passively!
'The key issue is whether there even is a manual. Did the entity really remember to give me one?' Lynn fell into deep thought. It wasn't the first time he'd had this doubt.
Otherwise, why hadn't he found even a trace of the manual?
"Never mind..." Azik wasn't aware of how far Lynn's thoughts had wandered in such a short time.
Azik simply shook his head, his expression still gentle. He looked at Lynn, the young and somewhat shy detective in front of him, while images of a young angel who took him to Trunsoest, captured Amon, beat up the Eternal Blazing Sun, and helped him "fake his death" to escape a life like being in a cage, flashed through his mind.
Their appearances were undoubtedly similar, though there were subtle differences, likely due to the age gap. The detective before him looked older.
But the feelings they gave Azik were completely different. The young angel was too flamboyant and unrestrained. In his life dictionary, there were clearly no words like retreat or setback. He lived as intensely and brilliantly as the sun.
Lynn Sotos, on the other hand, seemed much weaker. He didn't have the young angel's flamboyance or recklessness. He would bring Klein along as a bodyguard out of fear of danger and carry a bunch of scrolls to prevent accidents.
Yet, Azik didn't believe they were two different people. Although their personalities differed, their essence was incredibly similar.
"I've remembered a lot of things, about you, about me, about the past..." Azik began slowly, his voice calm but tinged with some melancholy and nostalgia.
"It seems you have a lot to tell me..." Lynn immediately looked at him with curiosity. Even though he had been pondering the issue of the manual a moment ago, he quickly shifted into character, fully engaged in the present moment.
Regarding acting—Lynn was a professional.
Klein naturally recalled the original purpose of his visit with Mr. Azik to find Lynn and also looked at Azik with curiosity.
Because they had arrived in a hurry, Azik hadn't had time to tell Klein what exactly he had remembered. Thus, Mr. Fool only knew that Mr. Azik seemed to have recalled many important things, but not exactly what they were.
However, before Azik could begin his narration, Lynn seemed to think of something and stepped aside, saying, "Hey, don't just stand at the door, come in and talk. I'll pour you some tea. Do you want coffee or tea? Sherlock, you don't need to answer. I know you drink coffee."
"Tea will be fine." Azik's carefully prepared emotions were interrupted, leaving him somewhat amused, but he also felt a growing sense of familiarity with the young detective.
In those recently recovered memories, which to him were no different from actual experiences, the young angel was also like this—passionate and with a subtle touch of everyday life. He would seriously ask him and Mr. Door what they wanted to drink while discussing important matters, complain about Mr. Door's terrible cooking, and he even tried to feed Tiny Amon with grains and leaves like a hamster... Ahem, maybe not the last one.
But the mini Amon really did look like a hamster when fed!
Azik worked hard to steer his memories away from the strange direction they were heading. After entering the room, he followed Klein into the living room. Klein, familiar with the place, invited him to sit on the sofa and instinctively pulled out a newspaper from under the coffee table. After glancing at it, he seemed to realize something and quickly stuffed the newspaper back.
"If you want to read, just read it. It's not like it's the first time you've read a newspaper at my place. After all, we've gotten used to visiting each other's places..." Lynn said as he poured tea or coffee for all three of them, finally sitting down comfortably opposite Klein.
"Ahem, it's just that we're about to discuss serious matters..." Klein cleared his throat lightly and muttered softly, "It was just muscle memory."
After that, Mr. Fool took a sip of his coffee and waited for Mr. Azik to speak.
Lynn also looked at Azik.
"I haven't recovered many memories, and they're somewhat chaotic. Some of the memories are in conflict, or perhaps not exactly in conflict. It might just be that I haven't recovered enough..." Azik began to narrate slowly, not disappointing them.
After listening to his description, Lynn understood that Azik's current memory state was akin to a mess. The memories he had lost and were now recovering were intertwined with the new memories created by the changes Lynn had made to history.
In simple terms, Azik was receiving a set of memories from the altered history every so often. Meanwhile, he was also constantly recovering his true past memories, which led to a mixture of the two sets of memories.
Although these two sets of memories had differences, for someone with amnesia like Azik, it was evidently difficult to distinguish them. This caused the memories he had recently recovered to be somewhat chaotic, which had left him a bit disoriented and delayed his visit to Lynn.
After hearing Azik's explanation, Lynn couldn't help but feel a genuine sense of pity for the amnesiac in front of him.
Gaining memories from altered history might be just an extra life for others, at most influenced by the emotions attached to those memories, or, like Ouroboros, they might simply accept them as part of their life without any confusion. But for someone like Azik, who had amnesia and was continually recovering his memories, this was clearly a torment.
Especially when these memories conflicted with each other, Lynn figured Azik must have been thoroughly bewildered.
How pitiful!
(End of Chapter)
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