A Zoologist’s Guide to Surviving Magical Creatures

The projection continued to play, and the tension in the room coiled tighter.

"You're telling me we have a Fragment Bearer?" One of the members shot up, his voice crackling with excitement. "That changes everything! We should aim higher—disrupt other realms. With a Fragment Bearer on our side, we'd be unstoppable!"

A wave of eager murmurs spread like wildfire. But then, Theo No. 1 raised a hand. The noise died instantly.

"Calm yourselves," he said smoothly. "Before we start fantasizing about conquest, let's not forget—our Fragment Bearer is just a child. We erased his memories. To him, the Suis are his family now. He won't remember anything else."

Then, my father spoke. "There's… something else," he said cautiously. "Sometimes, he dreams of his past life. Normal hypnotism doesn't work. We need magic—something powerful enough to wipe everything clean."

Theo No. 1 nodded. "I'll handle it. In the meantime, raise him well. Send him to school or something. He's already six. Might as well make him useful."

A pause. Then, my father hesitated. "His name. Should we strip that from him too?"

My name?

Theo No. 1 tilted his head in thought. "No. Keep it. Let him have that familiarity. Names are difficult to erase for a being like him. His name is already bound to the Fragment."

I exhaled sharply, but my pulse roared in my ears.

So my name was real. But… was that all?

At least one thing in my life was true. Carl.

The scene flickered, then abruptly cut out, like a faulty signal. A glitch.

Baku exhaled sharply. "That's all I've got on the cult. Someone erased the last part—either manually or with a failsafe spell, in case the memory was ever accessed."

A suffocating silence settled over the room. No one dared to speak.

I was the first to break it. "Is there anything—anything at all—about my real parents?" My voice wavered, but I forced myself to go on. "I mean… what am I? What does being a Fragment Bearer even mean? Am I mortal or not?" The questions tumbled out, faster than I could stop them.

"Whoa, easy there, kid." Fenrir raised a hand. "I get it. You're frustrated, confused—hell, probably pissed. But let's take this one step at a time, yeah?"

I turned to him sharply. There was something in his tone—too measured, too careful. My gut twisted.

I narrowed my eyes. "You know something, don't you?"

Fenrir didn't answer right away.

I took a step closer. "You have your networks. You always know things. So tell me—what aren't you saying?"

Fenrir hesitated. His gaze flicked to Naga.

I followed his line of sight—and my stomach dropped.

"No way," I blurted. "Naga? You too? Is that why you creepily stalk me at the cafeteria?"

Agnos, mid-sip, choked on his tea, nearly spilling it all over himself. Even Jiuge, normally unreadable, went rigid. Her lips parted, as if to say something—then snapped shut.

"You stalked him?" Agnos smirked, eyebrows raised.

Naga shot him a steely glare. The smirk vanished instantly.

"I wasn't stalking you, Carl," Naga said, his voice far too even to be convincing. "I was simply… observing. Making sure you were safe."

I crossed my arms. "Observing? Making sure I'm safe? Then why didn't you step in when Sparkles stole my lunch every single time?"

Naga's lips twitched, as if suppressing a laugh. Then, realizing his mistake, he cleared his throat.

"It was… a test. To see your perseverance." He nodded, as if trying to convince himself. "Not everyone from your world lasts long in the MECCP. But you—" his eyes glimmered with amusement "—you're entertaining to watch."

I scowled. "You mean I'm easy, is that it?"

Naga didn't answer. But the way his mouth twitched upward said everything.

These Unknown Gods—always finding new ways to mess with me.

I waved a hand dismissively. "That's it. Enough of this. Tell me now. I need to know." My voice came out raw, teetering between demand and desperation. "I've lived as Carl Suis for as long as I can remember. And now, I find out the only real thing about me is my name? Carl. Just Carl. If you—"

I stopped.

Something cracked open in my mind.

A vision.

A woman—strikingly beautiful—gazing at me with warmth in her eyes. Her voice, soft and distant, like an echo carried by the wind.

My son.

My breath caught.

Wait.

This memory… I've seen this before. When I absorbed one of Agnos' fragments.

The room, the murmurs, the weight of countless stares—all of it blurred. I stood frozen, locked in place, as if the world had hit pause on me.

A beat of silence stretched. Then—

"Is he okay?" Jiuge whispered.

Agnos took a slow sip of his tea, watching me with the casual interest of someone observing a street performer botch a magic trick. "Not sure. His reaction seems familiar. Like I've seen it before…" He trailed off, then nodded. "Ah. Right. A déjà vu moment, as he would call it."

Jiuge's ears twitched. "A déjà vu moment?" she echoed, intrigued. "So, did he just… remember something?"

Agnos shrugged.

Fenrir, less patient than the rest, waved a hand over my face. "You good, kid?" His sharp eyes studied me, his tone gruff but not unkind. "You look like you just saw a ghost."

I finally sucked in a breath, but my chest felt tight, like I had just surfaced from deep underwater.

A ghost?

No.

Something unexpected.

"I think I just saw my mother… in a memory." My voice came out unsteady, still dazed. "At least, I think she's my mother." I swallowed hard. "I don't know who she is—just that she called me her son."

Agnos hummed in thought. "You said the same thing before, remember? When you absorbed one of my fragments."

I blinked. "I did?" The realization hit me like a cold wave. "Why don't I remember that?"

"You saw your mother?" Fenrir asked, his usual sharpness giving way to surprise. Even Naga looked momentarily caught off guard.

Jiuge leaned in, intrigued. "What did she look like?"

I shook my head. "That's the thing… it's already fading. I just remember that she was beautiful."

Agnos exhaled through his nose, almost amused. "You said that last time too."

"Wow, Carl. What a vivid description of your mother," Jiuge deadpanned. "I can practically see her now—just a blur with the label beautiful slapped on top."

I shot Jiuge a look. "Oh, I'm sorry, would you like a full portrait sketch? Excuse me for having my memory scrambled like an old TV signal right now."

"I think that's just a side effect of memory erasure," Baku finally spoke up after staying silent through the whole ordeal. "Some memories can't be completely wiped by magic. Instead of being erased, they get blurred—distant, like an old dream. Hard to recall, easy to forget."

Agnos' expression turned serious. "Can you retrieve his memories, Baku?"