The Return Of a Memory

Phew, another day, another patient, another work. And that was the last patient, I felt good that he felt better, but still, the poor old man couldn't differentiate between the blue pill and the red pill. The clinic closed up right after that old man left. I'd be lying if I said I didn't feel exhausted.

"Hey, you're going home?" A friend asked me right when she changed to her white coat.

"Yeah, your shift now, I assume?" I changed back into my regular shirt and pants.

"Jeez, when will you change into something more feminine? You looked like someone that had been through the military or something."

"What? What's wrong with wearing flannel and cargo?"

"What's wrong with former volunteer like you? You need to be more aware on how you look," she said.

"Whatever. Are you here just to nag with me?"

"Yeah, by the way, are you still playing with that game of yours?" She said, grabbing the stethoscope from the locker.

"The RPG one? Yeah, I still played with it. Why do you ask? Do you want to discuss the ending or something? Or do you want to derail me to a bad ending, again?" I squinted my eyes. The only reason I hadn't finished the game yet was that this person kept giving me the bad ending route, again and again.

"C'mon, it's fun, isn't it?" She smiled.

"Right…"

The bad ending was fine on its own, but how the bad ending was gotten was rather disturbing. I wasn't talking about the ending being either killed or banished. That was something rather expected in an action RPG dating simulation game like that. The thing was, the way that the main character died was rather gruesome.

I remembered that the first bad ending was the main character murdered, but the whole town found it as suicide. Yes, at the ending slide, the game showed the image of the heroine hanged herself in her room. Yup, I got fooled on that one. I shouldn't have fallen for it.

The worst so far was how the heroine got beheaded. Yup, it also detailed how the heroine got to the chopping board. So far, every single permutation of the ending only led to banishment or death. Yup, I hadn't finished the game yet. The advice that she gave me only led to a bad ending.

I picked up my car key from my bag in the locker, "Anyway, see you in the morning. Do you want me to wish you good luck, or something?" I closed the locker.

"Nah, thank you. See you later."

I parked my car in front of the clinic. I wonder when I would replace this old Camry father gave me when I graduated. I swore I'd stick with this car ever since I was in high school. Anyhow, that wasn't important. I just wanted a replacement.

I wished I could make a car poof out of nowhere. Then again, I was just a doctor, I had the ability to make your disease disappear, but I didn't have any ability to make a car appear out of nowhere.

I drove out of the parking lot. I looked left, and the road seemed to be clear. It was midnight. There wasn't any light from the right direction either. I pressed the pedal slowly and moved the car slowly to the road.

BANG.

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"Gaaah," I woke up from my bed as if it was a bad dream.

Then, a strong headache hit me. My whole head felt as if it was pushing against my whole head, goddamn it. Where was my medicine? Where's the call the nurse button? I looked around my bed for the button, but there wasn't any.

There wasn't any railing on that bed either, and that bed was large, like really large. The pillow was also large, with material that only could be described as something a hospital wouldn't provide. It might be made from something, what was it, birds feather?

The headache lingered again. I held my head with my hands. Bandages? Did I get inside of the car crash or something? It must be it, but how long have I been here? And whose puny hands were this?

No, no, this was my bed. But wait, this wound on my head was not because of a car crash. What was it then? Hmm, I was going downstairs this morning, and I went for breakfast. So no, I didn't think I fell off the stairs.

After that, I played with the other children. We went for the usual hill and… Ah yes, I fell off the hill. I hit the ground, headfirst and into the stone. Bam, and the next thing I knew, I was here in my bed with bandages wrapped around my head.

Cathleen De Carre was this body's name, or rather, my name. I was nine at the time, but it was only now that I could connect one event to another. Cathleen was a familiar name, and it was only now that I could connect the dots. Wait, Cathleen? The protagonist of that RPG? The person that always ended up dead or banished. Oh no.

I swear, I only had gotten through the early section of the game, and there might be more than 50 dead flags for this girl. Like, she had death flags every single encounter. And, holy shit, I'd be lying if I say this person doesn't have some degree of luck to escape those death flags.

Not to mention that the developer of this game created too much permutation just for a basic RPG. Do A, and you can do B, C, D, and E to reach F. So far, I really didn't know whether the dating simulator was a dating simulator or a death simulator. Jeez, what a mess for reincarnation.

"SIS!" A boy barged from the large white door to the left of me. He had white hairs, kinda cute, I thought? Then I realized that my hair was also gray, the signature of Cathleen herself. "I'm glad you're okay."

What was the boy's name? Ah, Lobaev. He was the fourth child of the family, born right after me. Still, judging from the background story of the heroine, this didn't make too much sense.

I was supposed to be a thrown-out daughter from a major noble family, yet this was my brother. Wasn't he supposed to be the one that was thrown out since he was the last son, but well, I really didn't know. And yet, here I was, still here in the noble house.

"Lobaev, hey, I'm fine now." I didn't speak in English, but rather another language. It felt as if I was speaking English though, it might be what people call a dual mother tongue. It just came out natural.

"Thank God," He said.

The pressure hit my head again. "Gosh, I wish I had Advil or Motrin."

"Ad… what?"

"Nothing."

The headache continued for several nights alongside a high fever. I swore, at that point, I thought I would die from infections or further complications from this wound on the back of my head.

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A month later, after being bedridden for so long, I finally got the chance to venture outside. The wound left quite a large scar on the back of my head, but it was easily hidden by my long gray hair. Overall, appearance-wise, nothing had changed.

Some nobles were approaching my parents, expressing their concerns. One of them was one of the dukes. This person caught my interest, in particular, his child. His child was named Leupold. Yes, quite wordy, but then again, my brother's name was Lobaev.

Leupold, or Leu, was one of the potential companions in the academy. There were several ways of capturing him. One was through kindness, boring. The other was through curing his blood disease that requires you to go to the mountain to search for the medicine itself. Yeah, it was an immediate, almost cheat way to capture a boyfriend.

"Cathleen, it's nice to see you not in bed." He shook my hand while holding it firmly. He was a brown-haired boy, with green eyes and quite a sharp chin, in other words, handsome as heck with that royalty-style outfit. One thing, though, he had this smug look on him.

"The pleasure is mine, Leupold," I gave my introduction.

"I see. It's been quiet without your abhorrent behavior."

"I beg your pardon?"

"You never greet anyone, much less showing good manner. I guess a little smack to the head really fix the little brain of yours, huh?"

Yup, arrogant and smug. That was the real Leupold from that dating simulator game. Although, he had too many fans in the future. It was mainly because of his hard to get nature and his look later in the academy.

I hummed, "Maybe?" I really didn't want to get into this childish fight with this smug little boy. I remember giving him alcohol would lead to one of the death flags if the main protagonist doesn't have enough strength or vitality. He would stab me in the knife while drunk.

Leupold giggled, "Heh, I knew your little brain wouldn't be able to make any decision. Anyway, where's your little brother?"

"In the back, as usual."

He walked to the backyard to meet with my younger brother. I didn't get it. How come both of them become so close? I meant they played together and all, but it still seemed that my memories were all over the place. Well, an arrogant noble and a somehow protective brother. What a life.