Hunting: Memories (I Transmigrated as a Memory Hunter)

Arc 3 Devica Part 1

Devica PART 1

The familiar pulling feeling enveloped Nephrite’s whole body. The soft electric current traveled through his veins as he got sucked into the void of endless time and space. A torrent took him into the unknown.

It took a while before the chaotic sensation slowly diminished.

As things finally settled down, the noise surrounding him became clearer. The voices calling someone’s name like a broken record sank into his ears.

“Raven! Raven! The f*ck, what happened to you?!”

Nephrite squinted his eyes upon the sudden exposure to light. It did not take long to adjust and unfamiliar faces greeted him. Did the vessel faint?

“Oh, thank goodness, you’re okay!” A girl hugged him all of a sudden

“Hey, don’t abuse Raven just because he’s weak right now and can’t shake you off.”

“How dare you! I’m concerned, too!”

Nephrite groaned because of the sudden headache and arm. Trying to ignore the pain, he smiled at those two who were still bickering. “Enough. I’m fine, thank you, guys.”

The two people in front of him paused, then stared at him, wide-eyed, their faces in clear disbelief.

“R-Raven… Y-You…” the boy stuttered.

Before the boy could even continue, the girl squealed, “O-M-G! Did you just smile at me?

“It’s ‘Us’ you know?”

“Who cares about you?” The girl rolled her eyes, “Come now, Raven. Stand up now. Why did you even faint? Did you overwork yourself again?”

The boy also helped him, “Yeah. You know it’s our graduation today. Good thing you did not hit your head when you fainted.”

Graduation? “I’m sorry for the trouble. Do we still have enough time?”

The two stopped dead once again, “D-Did you actually hit your head?” the boy peered behind Nephrite’s head.

The girl slapped the boy on the shoulder, “Dumb Vio!”

The boy, Vio, flinched and glared at the girl, “You don’t need to be violent, Lady Camilla.” Rubbing the burning shoulder, he turned to Nephrite, “Sorry for being rude.”

Nephrite, still not getting the situation, only smiled. “It’s alright, thanks for taking care of me while I’m out of it. If you guys want, you can go ahead.”

“Will you be okay?” Camilla's eyes laced with worry. Both of these people were without a doubt concerned about him. Nephrite assured them, “I will be. I’ll see you guys later.”

After the two left, Nephrite wore the white graduation robes. He was the only one left in the locker room. After he dressed up, he checked the vessel’s backstory.

He looked at the familiar prompt in front of him. As Nephrite scanned the contents, he frowned.

This time, the vessel’s name was Raven Moonfield. And for the rest of the vessel’s backstory, he could describe it as one word: pitiable.

The child lost his mother in a car accident when he was only six. His father worked hard to raise him until he was fifteen when his father passed away. After that, his mother’s brother took him in.

His uncle’s house was an old one-story bungalow inherited from Raven’s grandparents. At first, his uncle treated him well and equally like his cousins. Or so he thought. Raven was not aware that his father arranged for his uncle to receive the death pension in case his father passed away while Raven was still a minor. Because his father specified that a lawyer and a staff from the social security should check Raven’s welfare yearly, his uncle took him in.

However, before graduation, the trusted lawyer appeared once again and told them about the trust fund his father left him. Aside from the money which Raven could decide how he wanted to take, he also inherited a house and a share of stocks from a real estate company. Apart from that, Raven could now arrange to get the pension himself.

The original vessel was a good student but after his father’s death, he lost the desire to study.

Raven always did his best for his father, always worked harder to make his father happy. So when his father suddenly passed away, he lost his sense of purpose. Though he passed his senior year in high school, he had no plans in continuing to study further.

Raven then had a series of wrong decisions since then.

Even after knowing about the pension, Raven trusted his uncle and did not change anything regarding it.

Without second thought, he withdrew his inheritance in a lump sum. Following his uncle’s idea, they split it in half, with his uncle's promise to invest in a much more profitable business. Aside from that, he asked the lawyer to transfer the ownership of stocks to his uncle as a sign of loyalty.

At that time, the vessel was working part-time in a convenience store. But unlike what Camilla thought, he did not pass out because of overworking himself but due to spending his money in a bar.

Raven was outrageously attractive. Nephrite glanced at the mirror inside his locker. The vessel had rare strawberry blonde hair and rare green eyes. His features were very handsome even more than Chraen’s prince-look.

Even so, he was always bullied. He dressed poorly because he always wore worn-out hand-me-down clothes. Aside from that, the vessel became extremely quiet after his father’s death and for some reason, students took his attitude as snobbish.

So when he fainted, aside from Camilla and Vio, no one cared about him. And unlike how Nephrite treated those two earlier, Raven scolded them in his past life, thinking the two were taking advantage of him. Since then, he lost the chance to have any friends.

So, that’s why they looked too surprised. I acted too *OOC, Nephrite pondered as he continued reading.

(A/N: OOC = Out of Character)

Raven’s uncle, pretending to be understanding and all, let him use his money until it ran out around half a year later. After that, Raven felt embarrassed. However, his uncle gave him 10,000, saying his money-wasting did not matter. Believing his uncle was a good person, Raven was very thankful. He decided to get back on track. But the next day, his uncle told him something happened in their investments, and more money was needed to help save those businesses. Once again, he stupidly believed his uncle. He gave the title of his house as collateral for a loan.

After that event, the vessel’s life went downhill. And even if he realized how his uncle tricked him in many ways for him to believe in the other’s lies, it was already too late. He already lost everything and he did not know how his name was used by his uncle to take money from loan sharks. To pay for it, he tried everything until he had to sell even his body to repay the debts.

As for his uncle and his family? One after another, they left the old house, giving excuses. Just like that, they all fooled Nephrite and vanished into thin air.

After reading everything, Nephrite can’t help but curse out loud. What the fudge is that cliche and ridiculous drama?! Nephrite groaned. Back in his real world, he hated this type of TV series and stories. Even so, he did not have a choice but to accept this vessel’s fate. After all, this was not a script made but a real-life experience of someone.

Nephrite needed to settle everything right after the ceremony. He did not know how much the vessel already spent on his money nor if the stock transfer could still be canceled.

Though he wanted to scold the original vessel, he could not blame him. He was a child who went through pain and felt lost. People have different psychological reactions when they get hurt and some will become illogical. In the vessel’s case, those people left to “love” him even misled him. Illogical + misled = one could just imagine the life’s outcome after that.

Nephrite wanted to grind that family enough for them to remember until their next life. He could even feel his blood rising from his chest out of anger.

After he took a few deep breaths, Nephrite closed the virtual panel and walked uncomfortably with his head and arm pain to the auditorium.