Lord of Perverted Ladies

The entire city went dark.

Not the ordinary kind of darkness that came with a power outage.

This darkness felt alive.

It swallowed the streets, the buildings, even the stars above us.

For several seconds, I couldn’t see my own hands.

Then—

click.

A tiny sound came from somewhere ahead.

One wooden wheel rolled across the pavement.

Then another.

Then another.

Soon, hundreds of little wooden cars were rolling through the darkness.

Their wheels scraped against the road.

Click.

Click.

Click.

The sound became unbearable.

Ryan whispered,

"Tell me those aren’t all coming toward us."

"They are," Noah replied.

"Fantastic."

I couldn’t take my eyes off the figure standing at the end of the street.

It still had my face.

My eyes.

My smile.

But something about it was wrong.

It looked like me without actually being me.

The creature raised one hand.

Every wooden car stopped.

Then it spoke.

"You don’t remember them."

I frowned.

"Remember who?"

The figure smiled.

"Exactly."

The darkness behind it moved.

Shapes began appearing.

People.

Thousands of them.

Men.

Women.

Children.

Old people.

Soldiers.

Scientists.

Farmers.

Kings.

Beggers.

People wearing clothes from different eras.

Some looked human.

Others didn’t.

But they all had one thing in common.

They were staring at me.

And every single one of them held a wooden toy car.

My father stepped forward.

"Who are these people?"

The figure answered without looking at him.

"The forgotten."

I felt a chill.

"The people you erased."

"I never erased anyone."

The figure laughed.

"That’s what makes it worse."

One of the people stepped forward.

A young woman.

She looked exhausted.

She held the toy car tightly against her chest.

"You created my world."

I said nothing.

"You watched it."

Still nothing.

"You decided it wasn’t important."

I shook my head.

"I don’t remember you."

She smiled sadly.

"That’s why I’m here."

She touched the toy car.

"You don’t need to remember us."

Her eyes turned black.

"We remember you."

The street shook.

My mother grabbed my arm.

"Adrian, don’t listen to them."

"Why?"

"Because memories can lie."

The figure laughed.

"Your mother is right."

It looked toward her.

"Memories can lie."

Then it looked back at me.

"But forgotten memories can also tell the truth."

I stared at it.

"What do you want?"

"Nothing."

"Then why are you here?"

"Because you have something we don’t."

"What?"

"A future."

The figure raised its hand.

The thousands of forgotten people moved forward.

My father raised his weapon.

"Stay back!"

The crowd stopped.

Nobody attacked.

Instead, they all began speaking.

"I remember."

"I remember."

"I remember."

Their voices overlapped.

The city trembled.

"I remember the first day."

"I remember the first death."

"I remember the first lie."

"I remember the first time you watched."

"I remember when you turned away."

"I remember when you forgot us."

I covered my ears.

"Stop!"

They stopped immediately.

Silence.

The figure smiled.

"Now you understand."

I lowered my hands.

"Understand what?"

"You don’t need to remember someone for them to have existed."

The words hit me.

The Memory War wasn’t about killing me.

It wasn’t even about fighting me.

It was about forcing me to acknowledge the lives I had forgotten.

The figure stepped closer.

"You wanted to become human."

"Yes."

"Humans remember."

"Yes."

"They carry their dead."

"Yes."

"They carry their mistakes."

"Yes."

"They carry their regrets."

I looked at the crowd.

"Yes."

"Then carry us."

I didn’t answer.

The figure extended its hand.

A wooden car appeared in its palm.

"This was the first thing you ever gave anyone."

I stared at it.

"No."

"Yes."

"I gave it to myself."

The figure smiled.

"That’s what you remember."

It turned the car over.

Written underneath it was a name.

ELIA.

I froze.

That name felt familiar.

Not as a memory.

As a wound.

"Who is Elia?"

A woman in the crowd stepped forward.

She looked exactly like the woman from the memory.

The woman I’d seen in the white room.

The one who had spoken to the child version of me.

She smiled.

"Me."

My breathing stopped.

"You..."

She nodded.

"I was there before your mother."

My mother stepped forward.

"That’s impossible."

Elia looked at her.

"You came later."

My mother went pale.

I stared between them.

"What happened?"

Elia looked at me.

"You were alone."

"Where?"

"In the silence."

"Before reality?"

"Yes."

"And you found me?"

"No."

She smiled.

"You found me."

The memory returned.

A small child.

A wooden car.

A woman sitting beside him.

But I had misunderstood what I’d seen.

She hadn’t been giving me the car.

I had given it to her.

I had created her.

Before the Origin.

Before the first civilization.

Before the first world.

Elia was my first creation.

Not reality.

Not existence.

A person.

A companion.

Someone I created because I was lonely.

I whispered,

"I remember."

Elia smiled.

"Finally."

The figure behind her remained silent.

I looked at it.

"Why did I forget her?"

"Because you couldn’t take her with you."

"Why?"

"Because you decided she belonged to the silence."

I stared.

"What does that mean?"

"You thought anything created before reality couldn’t exist inside it."

Elia laughed softly.

"So you left me behind."

I felt sick.

"I didn’t mean to."

"I know."

"Then why are you angry?"

"I’m not."

She looked around at the thousands of forgotten people.

"They are."

One by one, the crowd stepped forward.

They didn’t attack.

They simply held out their wooden cars.

Each had a name written underneath.

I saw thousands.

Then millions.

Names I didn’t recognize.

People I had created.

People I’d forgotten.

Worlds I’d abandoned.

Stories I’d stopped watching.

Lives that had continued without me.

The figure whispered,

"This is the Memory War."

I looked at him.

"What happens now?"

"You have two choices."

"Of course."

"You can remember everything."

"Everything?"

"Every life."

"Every death."

"Every forgotten world."

"Every version."

"Every possibility."

"Every mistake."

"Every person who ever called your name."

I swallowed.

"And the other choice?"

"Forget them again."

I looked at the crowd.

The easy choice was obvious.

I could walk away.

Become Adrian.

Live normally.

Let the past remain buried.

But I remembered what I’d said during the trial.

If I created them again, I’d make the same mistakes.

Because existence didn’t need to be perfect to be worth having.

And if I truly believed that...

Then I couldn’t abandon them simply because remembering them hurt.

I stepped forward.

"I’ll remember."

My father immediately said,

"Adrian, don’t."

"I have to."

"No human mind can contain that."

"I’m not trying to contain it."

The figure tilted its head.

"Then what?"

I looked at the crowd.

"I’ll carry it."

The figure smiled.

"Even if it destroys you?"

"Yes."

"Even if you can never sleep again?"

"Yes."

"Even if every death becomes your responsibility?"

I hesitated.

Then answered.

"No."

The figure frowned.

"No?"

"I won’t take responsibility for every choice they made."

I looked at Elia.

"But I’ll remember that they made those choices."

The figure stared at me.

"You refuse the burden?"

"I refuse the lie."

"What lie?"

"That remembering someone means owning them."

Silence.

I stepped closer.

"They lived."

"They chose."

"They suffered."

"They loved."

"They made mistakes."

"They died."

"I don’t own any of that."

I picked up the wooden car.

"But I can remember."

The figure’s smile disappeared.

For the first time, it looked uncertain.

"You have learned."

"What?"

"The difference between memory and possession."

Elia stepped forward.

She touched my forehead.

The world exploded.

Memories entered my mind.

Not one.

Thousands.

Millions.

I saw worlds.

I saw oceans covering entire planets.

I saw civilizations rising and falling.

I saw children growing old.

I saw lovers meeting.

I saw enemies becoming friends.

I saw people making terrible choices.

I saw people making beautiful ones.

I saw every forgotten face.

Every forgotten name.

Every wooden car.

Pain flooded through me.

I screamed.

My knees hit the ground.

Noah grabbed me.

"Adrian!"

"I can’t—"

The memories kept coming.

My mother was crying.

My father shouted something.

Ryan was holding my shoulders.

The Guardian stood frozen.

Then Elia shouted,

"Enough!"

Everything stopped.

I collapsed onto the pavement.

Silence returned.

My breathing was ragged.

Noah crouched beside me.

"You okay?"

I stared at him.

"I remember."

"How much?"

I looked at the crowd.

"Enough."

Elia smiled.

The figure walked toward me.

"You passed."

I frowned.

"Passed what?"

"The Memory War."

"That’s it?"

"No."

It looked toward the sky.

"You were never meant to defeat us."

"Then what was the point?"

"To see whether you would remember without trying to control."

I slowly stood.

"And now?"

"Now the forgotten have a place."

"Where?"

The figure pointed toward my chest.

I looked down.

A faint symbol had appeared over my heart.

A wooden car.

But beneath it was a single word.

REMEMBER.

The figure began disappearing.

I reached toward it.

"Wait."

It stopped.

"Who are you?"

It smiled.

"You already know."

"No."

"You will."

Then it vanished.

The darkness disappeared.

The stars returned.

The city lights turned on.

The people around us returned to normal.

Nobody seemed to remember what had happened.

Nobody except us.

I looked at Elia.

She was still standing there.

"You’re staying?"

She nodded.

"I have nowhere else to go."

I smiled.

"Then stay."

My mother walked toward her.

For a moment, neither spoke.

Then my mother hugged her.

Elia froze.

Slowly, she hugged her back.

"I’ve heard so much about you."

My mother whispered,

"I’ve been waiting a very long time."

I looked away.

For some reason, my eyes were burning.

Then my phone vibrated.

I pulled it out.

The screen was black.

A single message appeared.

MEMORY RESTORED: 1 / ∞

I stared at it.

"One?"

Noah looked over my shoulder.

"How many are there?"

The number changed.

2 / ∞

Then:

3 / ∞

Then:

4 / ∞

It kept increasing.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

I stared in horror.

"This isn’t over."

The Guardian looked at the screen.

"No."

"What now?"

She looked toward the sky.

A single wooden car floated above Alisster.

Then another.

Then thousands.

Then millions.

Each one carried a different name.

The Guardian whispered,

"The memories are coming back."

I watched the sky fill with wooden cars.

And somewhere beyond the stars...

a voice laughed.

Not the voice of the Creator.

Not the Origin.

Not the Unasked.

Something new.

Something that had been born from memory itself.

"Let’s see what happens when nobody is forgotten anymore."

I looked at the endless names.

Then at my mother.

My father.

Noah.

Ryan.

The Guardian.

Elia.

I tightened my grip around the first wooden car.

Whatever came next...

I wouldn’t run from it.

Because this time, I remembered.

And somewhere among those millions of names...

I saw one that made my blood freeze.

ADRIAN CROSS.

There were seven versions of my name.

And none of them were mine.

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!