“Tell me your name. Surely you remember that much?” Angor asked.
“Tell me your name. Surely you remember that much,” the man repeated joyfully and waited for Angor to praise him.
“Stop copying me! Did you really forget everything or are you playing dumb?”
“Stop copying me! Did you really forget everything or are you playing dumb?”
The coffin man repeated those words very smoothly.
Angor facepalmed. Jon taught him both western and eastern medicine, but most of the modern knowledge he learned was about dealing with external wounds or simple diseases. He knew about amnesia too. Many such cases were caused by mental trauma, or sometimes, it could be caused by brain damage. Apart from physical damage, passive amnesia was usually due to the brain’s self-protection which helped the victim to actively forget about the memories that caused them harm.
Angor had nothing to look into the coffin man’s brain at the moment, and it was not like he knew how to diagnose his condition. Angor might have learned a lot of theories, yet he had nearly zero practical experience.
Angor assumed that the coffin man’s brain decided to discard the memory of witnessing everyone inside Pocratee getting killed. But he couldn’t be sure of it yet.
For now, he had to find out whether the coffin man had lost all of his memories or only a part of them.
He placed some meat over the campfire and tried to strike a topic with the man.
“How are you feeling now?” Angor wanted to see if the coffin man could get ahold of his own condition.
“How are you feeling now?”
“Do you know Pocratee?” Angor tried another one. Maybe he could use something related to the man’s past to trigger whatever was buried in his brain.
The coffin man still looked at him proudly. “Do you know Pocratee?”
Angor planned to ask the 3rd “question of life” which was “where are you going?”. However, he decided not to since it probably wouldn’t work either.
He thought for a moment and snapped his fingers.
Pah!
The coffin man’s vision changed. When he could see again, Angor was no longer there. He was standing in a snowfield with more snow coming down from the sky.
And he was completely naked.
He looked around hysterically as if he was looking for someone.
The snow grew heavier, and the man was trembling badly. Following his instinct, he returned into the hunter hut, which didn’t provide much warmth. But at least there was no snow here.
The man saw a mink coat on the bed and was puzzled for a moment. But again, his instinct reacted faster than his brain, and his body was already moving to get the coat.
The coldness wasn’t a problem now. He rushed outside again and looked around with unfocused eyes.
The scenery faded out once again. When he came to, the snow, as well as his coat, were gone.
A powerful gale started to blow over from the forest.
Rotten leaves and dust got into his eyes. The man tried to cover his face.
Dark cloud approached from the sky. Without any warning, a flash of lightning struck the trees and caused a spreading wildfire.
The coffin man looked at the flames in fear.
Then it was heavy rain. The man searched around again without finding the hunter hut or the boy who just talked to him.
The only thing within his reach was an umbrella. He didn’t take it though. The man walked under a tree and sat down.
Angor showed up.
The man’s eyes brimmed with happiness. He rushed back into the rain and joined Angor.
He opened his mouth without making any sound—he didn’t know what he was going to say.
Angor sighed and picked up the umbrella off the ground.
The man accepted the item and remained still, confused.
Angor shook head and snapped his fingers again.
The rain, forest fire, and the umbrella all vanished. They were now staying on the bright open ground outside the hut again.
Angor was still roasting meat in his previous position, while Toby searched the sky happily as if everything were a dream.
The coffin man looked at Angor while smiling in the same silly manner.
The bad weathers were caused by Angor’s illusions. With them, Angor mostly ascertained that the man’s memory was damaged.
This guy couldn’t remember his past. He tried to avoid cold or rain due to human instinct. Yet he didn’t know how to use an umbrella… which meant he had forgotten common senses.
The man had to know about umbrellas before since Angor saw many of such items in Pocratee. However, Angor didn’t understand why people needed umbrellas underground.
Procedural memory loss.
Also, it seemed that the man could remember how to use words. However, he couldn’t talk normally.
“It’s not really amnesia… I’m afraid you’ve become an idiot.”
“Idiot” was something Angor used to show his discontent. What he meant was that the man had become “empty in the brain”, like a newborn child.
Maybe the man could pick up human knowledge again by undergoing proper educations and become anew. In that case, it would be another philosophical debate about whether the man would still be his “old self”.
…
Thankfully, the man still knew how to satisfy his basic needs like eating and dumping. He would eat anything Angor gave him, and if he were still hungry, he would stare at Angor with puppy eyes.
With both of their stomachs fed, Angor prepared to resume his travel.
As for the coffin man…
Angor considered and decided to take him along. A man in such a condition would meet a quick death in this deep forest on his own.
…
Angor kept groaning in distress along the way. Previously, he hoped that this coffin man could answer his questions. Now he got himself a huge burden instead.
He silently decided that he would drop the man somewhere as soon as he found civilization.
Angor kept trying to trigger the man’s memory while walking. He even used the extreme approach of presenting Pocratee’s destruction in front of the coffin man’s eyes in the most brutal way.
And it didn’t work well. Angor didn’t really see how Pocratee was ruined, and he mostly based his illusion on what happened in Twilight Well.
Until he placed the parasites and rainbow dragonflies in the illusion.
The coffin man then began to hesitate. While Angor waited for a result eagerly, the man collapsed.
When the coffin man woke up again, he had forgotten everything he saw. And when Angor brought up the dragonflies again, the man didn’t react at all.
“I overdid it and caused the opposite result?” Angor rubbed his temples and gave up on the “violent” means of restoring one’s memory. Actually, all the books he read about strongly suggested against using such a method.
Angor had lost interest in looking into the coffin man’s past. It wasn’t important anyway. Forgetting painful events was probably the better choice.
Angor began to talk about random daily topics with the man, even if the respondent only repeated his words. The coffin man probably needed practice.
It was dull, but it was welcomed during the boring journey.
Also, Angor gradually grew interested in the coffin man’s special accent.
The man’s voice sounded clear and gentle, but every end of his pronunciation was upturned slightly.
It seemed to be the accent from a remote village. Angor felt that he might have heard something similar before. But he didn’t remember where. Maybe he only heard it from a random passerby by chance?
At least Angor was sure that the man used the universal language as his mother tongue before. Otherwise, there was no way the man could mimic his words so fluently.
Angor took a test by speaking Mandarin, but the coffin man twisted his tongue badly and did a poor job at it.
This meant the coffin man had to have originated from the wizarding world.
As for the exact location… Angor needed to get to civilization to find out.
…
With the coffin man still in his memory loss condition, Angor kept walking along the riverbank.
They walked for two days and nights.
The river ended at a large lake. Or… sea?
Angor couldn’t see the edge of the water, and they didn’t have another way to go. Their sides were blocked by the extending mountain range.
They could either walk around the mountains or climb them, or they could go into the water too.
The first option seemed too far. Traveling by water seemed to be a good choice… if Angor didn’t have to consider the “idiot” that tagged along with him.
He chose to climb the mountains. Something told him that there were people behind.