I Finished Saving the World, But Then I Picked Up a Girl With Amnesia - Chapter 3

I picked up a girl. She has a name, but thanks to the ridiculously inconvenient curse I’m under, I can’t hear it. Oh, and she has amnesia.

“I’m sorry to keep asking, but just to confirm again—aside from your name, you really don’t remember anything?”

“Yes, that’s correct.”

She nodded while taking a bite of bread.

“I see…”

Hmm, no good. No matter how many times I confirm it, this is bad. Really bad. About as bad as when both Knight-chan and Sage-chan were simultaneously taken hostage by one of the Four Heavenly Kings.

“Red Hair Amnesiac-chan” is too long, so let’s just call her Red Hair-chan for now. She only remembers her name and has nowhere to go, so after sending the kids back home, I decided to bring her to my place. She looked cold, so I quickly heated up a bath for her, gave her some spare clothes to wear, and fed her some Hero-cooked food to fill her stomach. Perfect. Sure, the whole thing felt like I had picked up a stray cat, but it was a perfect act of hospitality nonetheless.

“Um.”

“Yeah?”

“This might be a rude question, but…”

“Not at all. Ask me anything.”

“Is it really true that you can’t recognize people’s names?”

“Ah, that.”

As Red Hair-chan gazed at me with a genuinely puzzled expression while chewing on a tomato, I couldn’t help but scratch my head. How should I explain this? By the way, this girl sure eats a lot.

“Uh, so, first of all, I used to be a Hero who went on adventures.”

“Okay.”

“There was this really evil being called the Demon King, basically the source of all the world’s problems.”

“The Demon King.”

“So, with my companions, I worked super hard and managed to defeat it.”

“That’s amazing.”

“But right before I delivered the final blow, I got hit with a curse.”

“A curse that made it so you couldn’t recognize people’s names?”

“Exactly.”

Mm-hmm. Nodding thoughtfully, Red Hair-chan rested her chin on her hand while popping a piece of chicken into her mouth. Does she have a bottomless stomach?

Still, at least she’s quick to understand. Even though she claims to have memory loss, her ability to grasp things suggests she probably has a sharp mind.

“Another question, if I may?”

“Sure, go ahead. Ask away.”

“When you say you can’t recognize names, what do you mean exactly?”

“Well, it’s hard to explain, but it’s like… people’s names just don’t stick in my head. I can’t process them at all. It’s like there’s static or noise whenever someone says their name.”

Whenever I try to hear a name, it’s as if interference scrambles the sound, or a blank space replaces it entirely. In any case, I can’t perceive names at all.

“So, does that mean you don’t even know your own name?”

“That’s right. When I got hit with the curse, all the names—mine and my companions’—were wiped from my memory.”

Honestly, at this point, I’m worse off than some old man with dementia. That damned Demon King really left behind one nasty parting gift.

“I see.”

Red Hair-chan stood up, glanced around the room, and picked up a piece of paper and a pen. Her pen moved smoothly across the page as she began writing.

“How about this?”

“Ah, sorry. I can’t do written names either. I can’t read it.”

Red Hair-chan had probably written down her name for me, but I couldn’t make sense of it. To be precise, the area where her name was written appeared to me as if it were blacked out.

“A curse that affects not only auditory perception but also visual recognition… That means it’s not just targeting sensory organs but might be acting directly on the soul…”

“Red Hair-chan?”

“…Ah, sorry.”

“No, it’s fine, really.”

After observing her for a short while since picking her up, I’ve realized a few things about her.

First, she has a decent vocabulary. Her understanding of the world is likely beyond that of the average child in a rural village. She uses utensils properly, knows what she’s eating—for example, bread or eggs—and understands that a pen is a tool for writing and can actually use it to write her name. At the very least, she seems capable of functioning in daily life without much issue.

And most notably, she understands what a curse is.

“Hero-san?”

“Huh? Oh, sorry—what were we talking about?”

“Um, I was wondering… may I have some more?”

“Ah, sure.”

As I went to serve her another helping of soup, I noticed something. The special soup I’d made in advance and stored from yesterday was completely gone.

“Red Hair-chan, you… eat an awful lot, huh?”

“I-I’m sorry! I just, um… haven’t eaten much recently…”

“No, it’s fine, really. Eat as much as you want. I’ll make more.”

Her blushing face, partially hidden behind her empty bowl, was undeniably cute. Honestly, I prefer someone who eats heartily over someone who eats like a bird.

I still don’t know much about her.

But for now, one thing is clear—she eats with genuine enjoyment. That, at least, is a valuable discovery. As I rummaged through what vegetables I had left, I spoke.

“Well, as they say, strike while the iron is hot. Once your stomach is full, let’s go meet my party members.”

“Party members…? You mean your companions, Hero-san?”

“Yep.”

There are things I don’t understand, but perhaps the rest of my party might have the answers.

“First, let’s go see Sage-chan.”