A Zoologist’s Guide to Surviving Magical Creatures Chapter 164: ʕ•̫•ʔ---My Name is Carl… Right?

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

"You're telling we have a Fragnt Bearer?" One of the mbers shot up, his voice crackling with excitent. "That changes everything! We should aim higher—disrupt other realms. With a Fragnt 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 Fragnt Bearer is just a child. We erased his mories. To him, the Suis are his family now. He won't rember anything else."

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

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

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

My na?

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

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

So my na 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. Soone erased the last part—either manually or with a failsafe spell, in case the mory 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 an… what am I? What does being a Fragnt Bearer even an? 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 ti, yeah?" Check latest chapters at NoveI★Fire

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

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

Fenrir didn't answer right away.

I took a step closer. "You have your networks. You always know things. So tell —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 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 sothing—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 ti?"

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 CCP. But you—" his eyes glimred with amusent "—you're entertaining to watch."

I scowled. "You an 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 ss with .

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

I stopped.

Sothing cracked open in my mind.

A vision.

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

My son.

My breath caught.

Wait.

This mory… I've seen this before. When I absorbed one of Agnos' fragnts.

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 .

A beat of silence stretched. Then—

"Is he okay?" Jiuge whispered.

Agnos took a slow sip of his tea, watching with the casual interest of soone observing a street perforr 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 mont, as he would call it."

Jiuge's ears twitched. "A déjà vu mont?" she echoed, intrigued. "So, did he just… rember sothing?"

Agnos shrugged.

Fenrir, less patient than the rest, waved a hand over my face. "You good, kid?" His sharp eyes studied , 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.

Sothing unexpected.

"I think I just saw my mother… in a mory." My voice ca 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 her son."

Agnos humd in thought. "You said the sa thing before, rember? When you absorbed one of my fragnts."

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

"You saw your mother?" Fenrir asked, his usual sharpness giving way to surprise. Even Naga looked montarily 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 rember that she was beautiful."

Agnos exhaled through his nose, almost amused. "You said that last ti 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 for having my mory scrambled like an old TV signal right now."

"I think that's just a side effect of mory erasure," Baku finally spoke up after staying silent through the whole ordeal. "So mories 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 mories, Baku?"