Celica looks at me wistfully.

"Ais' tasty tender meat..."

Why everything she says sounds at least vaguely sexual?

"...suffocated~ by all that boring bread! Whyyy~?!"

She's criticizing my hamburger. That pagan!

Right after I got my memories in order, I decided to symbolize it by recreating the pinnacle of modern world, something these dirty fantasy peasants have no knowledge of. After spending disproportionate time scouring the capital's markets for just the right ingredients, and pestering a street food vendor to cook it, I finally ended up with something approximating a cheese burger.

"Mmm-mmm. This sure is good."

On a whim I decided to start a culinary-revolution by showcasing my creation by eating it in as conspicuous fashion as possible in the busiest area in the market district. As amusing as it would have been to see whether introducing concept of trash food to this world could have yielded me demonic essence of gluttony, I may have to call this experiment quits. Sure, I did get more than enough attention... but my prototype burger didn't. All of it is intercepted by succubus glamor, it seems, and the gathering crowd's hungry gazes get directed everywhere but on the item I was trying to advertise. Come on, my hamburger is up here!

Amongst the men of the city, an especially heavy pressure comes from one elven woman dressed like an adventurer. ...She's basically drooling at me by now - I’m not kidding there! Come to think of it, every female elf I've ever met has been either killed by me shortly or gone to deep end of the love-crazy pool. Seriously, what is that about? Is my secret succubus power making elves go yandere!? I wolf down the rest of my meal and make scarce before I get attacked, one way or another...

I randomly pick a street with Celica - I have no objective in mind so I'm content with wandering around. Celica seems to recall something though.

"Oh, right~, those old geezers wanted to meet about some thingie~."

I'm so glad to see Celica is handling the ambassador duties I gave her with such professionalism.

"Did my coming back come up in the previous meeting?"

"Nope~. They were too~ busy to talk after Celica~ did her special~ trick~!"

Too busy to talk? Celica's special trick? ...I don't want to know. Celica heads to the castle and I follow. I decided to stay here in capital, at least for now.

I intend to return to 'become better succubus'-project sooner or later, but it seems less important now that I'm steadily anchored by my returned memory. My previous attempt had... let's say 'mixed results'. It was supposed to be a seduction of a dark elven man, but somehow it changed into me trying to convince contractor's daughter that falling in love is stupid by ripping off her clothes, and ended up with her falling for me...

Something else is vaguely bothering me though. There is of course the matter of druid tampering. Just when did they do that? But frankly the thing that concerns me more is still my memory. Some confusion is to be expected of course - I had been quite some time without my memories. I did get it all back neatly. Too neatly, the pessimist inside me keeps saying. I also still am unsure why I lost them in the first place. Was it simply side-effect of being too low on essence, or did druids cause it? And the memories themselves somehow feel somehow... disconnected. That imitation hamburger can't exorcise this feeling.

The exact reason eludes me, leaving me only the vague unease... like the feeling you forgot a toaster on when the airplane is just about to carry you off far away. Except I'm the toaster that may or may not be about to burst in flames and... and this analogy makes no sense. Still--

Something flashes at the corner of my field of vision! I leap backwards, and something big and fast misses me by hair's breadth.

"Whoa!"

I almost got hit by a heavy carriage just now.

"Ais~! Stop thinking too much~, thinking is bad~."

Okay, I know I wouldn't have died from that, and even if I did, I'd reform in hell. But still, that managed to scare me more than mortal combat with that tentacle monster during Dwarven war did! I actually feel hazy for a moment. ...It is somehow oddly familiar feeling. When did I feel like this before? Ummm... It was just before I suddenly became a succubus! I felt this right then. Maybe it is the contrast to going on without those memories, or the near-near death experience, but right now it feels more clear than ever before. And there is something... weird there.

I concentrate on my last minute in the old world. I'm looking at the screen, reading about amusing historical facts, something about Australia... No, contents of that aren't important, it's something else... I'm leaning forward, and my posture is rather bad, with my back and curved--

Wait a minute...

I remember my own neck? You usually don't see your own neck. Not without a mirror arrangement, or really serious medical problems... But in that memory I'm watching myself from the outside at the same time I remembered watching the screen itself. And that...

"Fucking hell."

This was what the haze back then was: a memory of seeing myself from outside, previously overridden by the memories of me watching the screen. Wait, wait... It could be a false memory? Or I'm mixing it up with something else? ...No. The image consists only of a short moment, but it feels increasingly real. These memories are from same time but from separate perspectives!

I have a sinking feeling, like the ground is falling. It might as well be falling though - if this is what I think it is, that's pretty much what happened just now, figuratively speaking. I turn to Celica, who has been politely silent so far.

"THESE AREN'T MY MEMORIES!?"

Celica looks at me with indescribable expression... from completely different direction. Meanwhile the dwarf who just appeared in front of me with a raised hand-axe is stopped half-swing and is looking at me, very startled by suddenly being shouted at.

"Gaaah!! What in helvata?!"

Why is there a dirty dwarf in front of me? More of them are climbing from sewer, clad in sleeveless leather vests and carrying weird rune-covered kegs. I notice that I had already arrived right in front of the castle. There are now dozen dwarves, and the imperial guards usually present at the castle entrance lie with their throats slit. Dwarves + kegs + castle = ...

"What are you doing!? Kill her already!"

Ahahah... They had to choose this moment to go all Guy Hawkes on the empire?

"QUIT BOTHERING ME, I'M TRYING TO HAVE AN EPIPHANY HERE!"

Since I had left my weapon at home, the first thing that came to mind was to kick the approaching dwarf. Powered by demonic strength and annoyance it sends him right back before he can land a hit on me, complete with comical O-face as the impact empties his lungs.

"Helvata! Humans aren't supposed to be that strong!"

I can see why they rely on traps, monsters, and bombs. It's simply matter of physics: no matter how brawny, a dwarf-sized runt is always at disadvantage in melee combat. Not that I'm one to talk about physics... as a supernatural being I probably break dozen laws of nature just by standing here.

"Kill her now! We must not be stopped here!"

The dwarf I punted painfully rises up.

"Ngggghhh... Let me. I'll show that mölökerö!"

Celica, who has been inconspicuously spectating behind me, whistles.

"Oh~! They're veteran kamikaze~ dwarves! You rarely see them~!"

"Veteran kamikaze-- What the hell?"

How someone can be veteran kamikaze... Oh shit! Distracted by Celica, the dwarf had already started running at me with a lit keg, trailing pretty greenish-yellow sparks!

"VOE TOKKIINSA! MIEPÄ POSSAUTANNII SIUT!"

He screams a Dwarvish battle cry while I try to furiously unfurl my wings and fly out of his reach, but I hid them bit too well - he's already too close...! Damn it! He'll freaking blow up on my face! ...Not. I toss a huge ball of hellrime at the charging dwarf, instantly turning him and the keg into ice. They use liquid hydrogen to defuse bombs after all, a tidbit I didn't really expect to ever find useful in this world.

A cloud of fog explodes from the extreme coldness and the iced dwarf falls down and shatters into thousands of pieces.

"Ha ha haa. Ais'd!"

Other dwarves were already moving into the castle inner yard with their kegs, but icy dwarf chunks sliding every which way on the pavement give them a pause. I make a gun motion with my fingers and shout at them.

"Freeze!"

Just kidding. I blast another shot of hellrime at them immediately, but the dwarves dodge and my precious essence hits the stone wall futilely.

"Group B, continue to the priority targets! Group A, kill the warlock!"

Damn it! They are about to spread out. And I can't waste hellrime unless it's certain to hit, but close enough to hit is close enough for them to blow up. Where the hell are the guards anyway?!

I preparing an experimental buckshot of hellrime - a group of tiny dots of my cold power - to try and take as many of them out as I can, when a ball of crimson flame hits the middle dwarf from the sky. His keg explodes in a green fiery and forceful blast, igniting the others as well. The whole Dwarven excursion goes in chain of deafening explosions that rattle the gatehouse.

"Tehe~. That's how you do it~!"

As little pieces of burning dwarf begin raining down, Celica, who is holding another ball of hellfire ready while flying above the inner yard, smiles ferociously. For someone who claims thinking is bad she can be rather cunning at times.

***

Apparently the Dwarven Alliance had tried to cripple the empire by taking out its highest leadership. If they hadn't have the tough luck of running into two demons on the way, they'd have crashed the generals' meeting and blown the whole place to hell with magic-bombs. No further aftermath came after that, the whole incident was covered up from the public - I think they explained it as magic experiment gone wrong. The generals themselves were obviously very thankful to us. Not thankful enough to give any rewards though. I resolve to give the next would-be assassins encountered directions straight to their meeting room accompanied by thumbs up...

Since she killed eleven dwarves with one hit while I managed to off only one, Celica has been practically floating since then. I had returned to my house, and currently attempt to ignore her annoyingly smug tehe~s in attempt to catch the thought I had just before being interrupted by Dwarven suicide bombers.

Let's see... I remember seeing myself from outside for a few moments just before appearing in hell as a demon. Were this a case of reincarnation that memory would have no business existing, clearly. Also, since I never was run over by truck (truck-sama is the god of reincarnation!), this all would point out that...

Yes, there is no way out of it... I merely received 'my' memories - I am not real 'me'! That is a special kind of fucked up realization; I can't even begin to decide how to feel about that. That also raises more questions than it answers.

First and foremost being... who the hell am I then?