MEMELAND

The wagon creaked as it rolled across the endless plains.

Morning sunlight stretched across the road.

Behind the wagon—

Twenty-three unconscious bandits lay tied together like sacks of grain.

Kai looked at them.

"...I still don't know how they all fit inside that wagon."

Andrew glanced over.

"I stopped asking questions after the fifteenth one."

Kai nodded.

"...Fair."

The former prisoners climbed into the driver's seat after Kai untied them.

One elderly man adjusted the reins.

"We can drive."

Kai smiled.

"Thanks."

The old man laughed.

"You're the one who got captured."

"I don't think you're in any position to thank us."

Kai scratched his cheek.

"...Fair point."

Andrew tossed another coil of rope into the wagon.

"Double-knot them."

Kai obeyed.

One by one—

He secured every bandit.

Even Helford.

Especially Inoy.

Andrew watched with folded arms.

"Good."

"If any of them wake up..."

He casually rested his hand on the enormous pistol at his hip.

"...they'll go back to sleep."

Nobody doubted him.

Not even the unconscious bandits.

The wagon continued toward Muscle City.

Andrew stretched.

Then yawned.

"I'm sleeping."

Kai looked over.

"...Now?"

Andrew shrugged.

"If they try anything..."

He tapped the side of his head.

"...I'll wake up."

"...How?"

"I just do."

Kai stared for several seconds.

"...Alright."

Andrew immediately lay across several crates.

Within moments—

He was asleep.

Kai wasn't convinced someone could sleep that quickly.

Then again...

This was the same man who casually defeated an entire bandit camp.

Maybe it wasn't worth questioning.

The rhythmic sound of wooden wheels filled the silence.

Kai leaned against the side of the wagon.

His thoughts drifted.

Back...

To the orb.

The Memory Hub.

"..."

Something bothered him.

If the orb truly stored memories...

Then...

"...Did every version of me reach it?"

He frowned.

That couldn't be right.

The variants he had met...

They all remembered the orb.

But...

Not all of them could have survived long enough to reach it.

Some had clearly died much earlier.

"...Unless..."

He looked toward the horizon.

"...the orb isn't storing the memories of people who reached it."

"...It's storing the memories that eventually reached it."

He immediately frowned.

"...No."

"That doesn't explain anything."

The theory fell apart almost instantly.

He sighed.

"...Too many questions."

His eyes drifted toward the sleeping Andrew.

The memory surfaced again.

The duel.

The gunshot.

The tattoo.

The hatred.

Cult Kai.

Current Kai quietly touched his own wrist.

Nothing.

No mark.

Just skin.

"...That me..."

"...didn't have magic circuits."

He was certain.

He would've noticed.

Which made everything worse.

Because...

The Cult Kai beneath Oheyo—

The one searching for the Archive—

Clearly possessed magic circuits.

Kai slowly pieced together the fragments.

"...Maybe..."

He spoke so quietly only he could hear.

"...that version of me came here first."

"To Muscle City."

He remembered the duel.

The betrayal.

The gunshot.

The death.

"...Then he remembered."

He looked toward the endless road ahead.

"...Went to Oheyo."

"...Met the doctor."

"...Received the surgery."

"...Found the orb."

His own theory sounded believable.

And yet—

It felt...

Incomplete.

There was something missing.

One enormous piece.

He quietly whispered,

"...How did I even join the Cult?"

Silence answered him.

Another thought followed.

"If that version remembered..."

"...why don't I?"

The orb had shown him fragments.

Dreams.

Snippets.

Emotions.

Never complete answers.

Almost...

As if something was deliberately preventing them.

Kai rubbed his forehead.

"My theories just keep making more questions."

He leaned his head against the wagon.

Outside—

The plains rolled endlessly toward the distant skyline.

Somewhere ahead...

Muscle City waited.

Somewhere behind...

Answers remained buried beneath the sands of Oheyo.

Kai slowly closed his eyes.

"...One step at a time."

For now...

That would have to be enough.

And before long—

Sleep finally claimed him.

The wagon continued onward.

Toward the next piece of the puzzle.