Exordium

“Ad astra per aspera”

The City,

An urban complex of unparalleled scale, maintaining a population of seven billion. Despite the advancement of Wings and the refinement of their Singularities, the coefficient of human misery remains at its peak.

It was a bastion that had functioned as the definitive habitat for humanity for decades, governed by the cold logic of progress and preservation.

Ruled by 26 Megacorporations whose intent is to simply keep their district from burning out.

Managed by ‘The Head’ that facilitates and governs the ethics of The City.

Even though laws have been enacted.

Death was still prevalent.

Yet humanity chose to live in this place.

A grand gathering of ‘humans’ and only for them as a whole.

There have been dozens of tales spun upon this place.

Each with their single motif that highlights the life they yield.

Whether you're an unnamed light scattered among the rest.

A star that proliferates a part of it.

No matter the cost, at the end of the day.

It is nothing more than a well-versed symphony that runs across The City.

To struggle today, to face tomorrow.

To acknowledge the past and accept the present.

The City wasn't just a place to ‘live’.

But a place to embrace survival among the rest.

And, if you are to ask me,

What is the most important thing to keep in mind in The City?

That would be one's ‘Time’.

…

“So this is where you are, Ms. Lestrade. Your sly face hasn't changed that much from the posters.”

In the 102nd floor of a rundown apartment near the gutters of one of The City's districts.

There was a cluttered room filled with papers left unread, a mess dusting the room with its sheets.

As I sat upon an office chair, my eyes loomed past the documents as they met someone else.

A woman with extravagant attire visited me.

Red, sharpened eyes with hidden desires. A tan skin and long, wavy brown hair.

She was someone whose standing would never allow her to be here.

Yet, she chose to pursue me.

Glossing over my body as she held both of her hands in her purse.

Although we haven't met, the ambition residing in her sight was something I wouldn't wish to confide in.

“...Diaz, I assume?”

“Indeed~ I've come personally seeking you after I've found out you've retired from your office. Mhm... Though I'd say it must be a pain to stay around this boring apartment.”

Diaz gave a heart-welcoming smile as she gazed around and judged my superficial, small room that barely houses an individual.

“Not sure about that, this room provides me with all the necessities that I need. Therefore, proving your words as meaningless.”

“Hey, hey now~ that's quite harsh. I gave quite a lot in that review.”

Despite the smile she showed, the malice hidden in her thick veiled skin was still exposed.

“So, why are you after me?”

“Oh, why the need for a rush? Can't we spend some time having a chit-chat first? We haven't officially met one another, have we? Only through papers and documents, whose reports simply catch each other's remarks, did we recognize one another.”

“...What a lousy lie.”

I spoke subtly, but then I watched in horror as Diaz opened my fridge.

Ah, the nerve of this woman.

Isn't she from a noble family?

Why the need to steal from the poor?

“Oh~ you do have liquor here! I was craving for one. How did you even get to afford this? Could it be… You stored it here before you retired?”

“Yes, I did. So, can you please get your hands off my precious beverage?”

“Nah, I want to have a drink~ if you want to stop me, you'll have to force me. Besides, you're using U Corp's product, aren't you? This box preserves your food. What a fascinating ‘singularity' they've used for a commodity.”

Singularity.

The treasured egg of a corporation.

It is a piece of technology with absurd capabilities that functions as the schematics for their product, which they made commercially available to keep their corporation standing.

Those technologies are patented and serve as their motto and brand.

For this instance, my fridge was a product that held the “Self-sustaining” mechanism of U Corp's singularity.

“Just get to the point and be done with this needless bickering.”

I stood my ground as I interjected her.

“Oh, I knew you were blunt and someone tricky to deal with, but to confront me so openly. You might want to tone down your way of expression before you start displeasing me~.”

With a snarky comment, Diaz chuckled like a vixen she was.

—Thud

—Thud

—Thud

—Thud

Then, I heard dozens of footsteps manifesting left and right, above and below, front and back.

Noises filled with killing intent surrounded me, trapping me like cattle in a slaughterhouse.

“...For what reason are you seeking me?”

“I'm glad you asked, to keep things simple. I want to request a short assistance from you.”

“...And for what purpose?”

“Ho, you're interested! Well, it's simple. To join my newly reinstated company, I've founded.”

“...”

A company?

With the experience I've accumulated, even before my merits, I never once thought of making a company nor joining one.

As a ‘mere’ contractor of my own leisure, I had made my office under the guidance of the Zwei and Seven association.

What are ‘Associations’ you may ask?

Think of them as nothing more than departments that officiate the city. They are a collection of ragtag mercenaries, whom the people of the city refer to as ‘Fixers’.

Though I had long since left that field, I had now pondered between districts, looking for a place to resolve my only burden.

“No reaction? Or perhaps… you're really thinking it through? What a surprise!”

“Unfortunately, I was merely left speechless due to my inability to sense what had transpired.”

“Ah, I forgot. That is something I should have considered. Especially knowing your memories are gnawing by themselves.”

Memory Omission.

A chronic disease caused by the accumulated misuse of temporal products made by TimeTrack Corporation.

Similar to dementia, its side effects are notably the lack of awareness, forgetfulness, and the erasure of one's emotions.

Heavily influenced by the fact that the more a person grows older, causing them to lose more and more of themselves every day.

Solving it with other singularities, such as ‘Moonlight stones’, is possible, but the expense it would incur.

It was something I could not dare afford.

“So, what do you say?”

While thinking about my own dreams, Diaz repeated her words.

This time, I've comprehended the gist of what she wants.

“Record management in your company?”

“That's right, I aim to achieve my goals through this company I'm building. I had planned some things here and there, but first of all. I need you specifically to do a job for me.”

“And what do I get in return?”

“Your memories back, I can offer some moonlight stones to clear the temporal illusion occurring in your mind. That is, if you sign this contract.”

Then, in hindsight, she brought a clean stack of paper in gold and black right in front of me.

“A Non-Disclosure Agreement… I would love to read all of this to see what loopholes it might impose. But I judge my memory wouldn't allow me to process my judgment.”

Memory omission isn't just an illness that stops your mind from remembering.

But a disease that is stricken to the very heart of one's cerebral core that wipes details now and then.

More specifically, memories I've gathered after getting this disease.

That's why, no matter what I do to escape my past.

I would always recall it,

Over and over again.

To that dastardly smoke that razes the battlefield.

Oh, wait.

What was I saying again?

“...I forgot what most of this agreement was. But anyways.”

As I signed the document, Diaz gave a smile as she tossed me a Moonlight stone.

A jade-like pebble bounced around the ground as I picked it up.

A moonlight stone.

Singularity bought from M. Corp.

Judging from its weight and shimmer, its cost might’ve been around 440,000 Ahn.

It gleamed a dullish glow as I put it near my forehead.

Then a singular thought formed.

[Distinguish]

The word that carried the weight of my name.

One of the few sentiments I wouldn't dare forget, as it marks my life.

Then, as I recall my memories.

The stone that once glowed was now left colourless as it ceased to exist.

“Now that you have your cherished memories back temporarily, I'd like to express my sincere welcome to the company as the chief executive officer of ‘Limbus Company’.”

Now that I can properly distinguish the strings and chains hanging from my heart.

My eyes peered through Diaz.

“Quite bold of you to help recover my insight.”

Slowly, and noticeably, I assembled the rings from my desk into my left hand.

“Even if my memory fades to oblivion. My plight against the ones who caused the war will never cease to exist.”

A forgotten hatred of mine arose as the past and the present intertwined.

“So, what can you say, Ms. Instigator? Have your eyes finally caught upon the embers of this dwindling flame?”

As I spout those words.

Diaz's brows knotted together as a cold gaze swept across me.

Then, dozens of individuals clad in gold and black emerged from the shadows.

The Udjat.

A private military department heralded by none other than Diaz.

Despite being forbidden to have a personal army.

By being the sole client of the ‘Udjat’ office.

Diaz was able to bend the taboo of The City, causing her to amass what could practically be her legion.

They wore the same prestigious clothing as her, but rather than shimmering like a diamond.

It instead polishes itself to be sharper than it is.

Their blades soon reached out towards me; however, my body that once lost its prestige never became rusted as I held a sundial in my hands.

The shadow caused by an intangible light began spinning rapidly in the sundial as the trail began to blur out of sight.

—Clang!

“Relapse, and bind yourself anew.”

As they approached me, their blades made to cut through my body stopped—No, they were moving, but the more they tried to close the gap.

The further they were from the exact destination.

“...A modified sundial of T Corp. But that technology embedded in it wasn't that G Corp's product as well?”

Diaz muttered.

“...Who knows?”

Albeit my fighting prowess has deteriorated from when I used to be a fixer.

My skills and knowledge still surpass Diaz's military unit.

As I made my way across the Udjat members, they slowly fell one by one as time wound back to their present action.

“Time alienation, huh. No wonder you were afflicted by such a terrible illness. How much did you pay that you had lost your way?”

“I don't know either. If I lost it, there would be no point in remembering it.”

“...What a pitiful person.”

Diaz looked at me with apathy.

She might have thought that I was wasting my time doing this since I had already signed her contract.

But, even then. Was the ‘I’ the one who signed that contract?

No, it wasn't.

Because the past ‘self’, present ‘self’, and future ‘self’ of mine will never intersect.

Thereby, making my contract null and void of any promises.

However—

“To contradict yourself and selfishly detach your awareness of time. Is this how you were able to wield that terrifying singularity of yours?”

“Perhaps it is, perhaps it is not.”

“As much as I love riddles. I'm more fond of doing it than being asked that way.”

Then, my memory began to scatter once again as the sundial I held lost its function.

My cogito shook as I collapsed to the ground,

Several Udjat came into my position as they held me to the ground.

With a flick of her hand, I was immediately compromised.

“...So that's why.”

“Oh, you're not angry?”

“Why would I? I failed to realize what happened at the moment, and I just paid the price. Nothing more, nothing less.”

“Pfft— Hahahahaha, what a positive way of thinking. Knowing for a fact that you cast yourself, believing you were at fault for a war that the corporations made upon one another.”

“Yet, you were the one who scattered those ‘rumours’ that started it all, haven't you?”

“That's right~ But to reach one's goal. Sacrifices are inevitable.”

“Even… if it costs you, your fellow men?”

“They wouldn't hesitate as long as they help fulfill my dream, their lives won't be wasted.”

Diaz kneeled as she watched me from above, domineering but flawed.

“Y'know, Lestrade, the moment your figure dazzles on the battlefield. Withdrawing the morality you've withheld, that ‘Star’ that shook a sector of the war. How was it to be the one people revolved around, even if it was temporary?”

“It… wasn't my desire to trample on the lives of both the innocent and the guilty. Now, the repercussions it gave were tremendous, yet I understood the reason why.”

“There are no innocents in war, Lestrade. I, you, and everybody else back then were all caught up in the turmoil of our surroundings. The choice you made inevitably might have saved others by slaughtering the others yourself.”

“A choice? There wasn't any. I acknowledge that it is my regret to have sinned. But I couldn't shake that feeling of others' blood gathering in my hand.”

That putrid sight of where I stood alone in a valley where humans, pests, and smoke coincided upon another.

It was…

Gruelling.

I, a mere grade 4 fixer who had been sanctioned to this war despite my refusal of participation.

Ah,

The only thing I regretted was…

Peering into your sight, Holmes.

“...Even if I lose my mind here as a whole, it's better to fight what I strive for rather than be bound by it all together.”

—Tang!

I broke free from the bindings of The Udjat as I held my weapon.

Nix Sundial.

A mixture of dozens of T-Corp products made from the same singularity merged into one.

It was a keepsake I embedded ever since I started working as a Fixer.

However, as I was dragged along to the smoke war.

I had it modified by the newly reinstated G. Corp to have a wider variety of actions.

And one of them, at the cost of one's cognitive experience and emotions.

You are able to enter the state of “Saucha”.

An ascended form where the time and space continuum ceases to exist, only a figure of the present was moving.

The shedding of any lingering ‘notion’.

By overclocking in this state,

I would be able to surpass my body's crumbling state for a mere second.

—Zoom!

I dashed towards Diaz as the five rings in my left hand sprang and unleashed in all directions, forming small chains with a sharp-edged blade at the end of their tails.

It was a weapon made for the execution of hundreds of personnel.

But with my mind focused on one person.

They all converged to form a twisted ensemble of a lance.

Pursuing their target no matter the cost.

“So that's how you were able to prevent yourself from being consumed by the time loom and entangled by the temporal flow. You detached your attachments to life to chase that distant clue.”

Diaz raised her hand and then suddenly,

—Vwoom!

An oddity ran across the room.

My body became heavy as my senses began to fade.

“...This. a singularity!?”

“I had doubts about how to persuade you. But, consider this my first warning, Lestrade.”

With my mind thinking it would burst into two, my eyes stared towards Diaz as she held a grin far more sinister than the ones I've witnessed during the war.

“Do you know the reason why you fell despite having the capacity to become larger than a star?”

“...”

“It's because of your hesitation. You were capable of so much more than you could've possibly hoped for. Yet, now you stain your hands with a needless emotion that has long been severed out of your self.”

“But I still remember that emotion, don't I? As long as it isn't fading to obscurity. I will treasure it even till my last breath.”

“What a futile belief.”

Diaz mocked my view as I plummeted to the ground with my body severely broken due to the rebound of overclocking.

“You could've done more if you had stepped into the skirmish against the ‘Famed’ hounds of The Thumb. Then again, your rule of ‘non-killing’ came and bit you in the back.”

“...It was my own volition to never kill that brought me despair during that incident. However, that experience made me open my eyes before the war.”

It was the moment that made me unconsciously participate in the smoke war, thinking I could redeem my sins.

But instead, the opposite occurred.

“Because of you… that war you wage, the rules I abided by have been defiled. ‘You’, whose avarice exceeds even The Head of The City.”

—Splurt!

An Udjat member came behind me as my tendons in my lower body were punctured by a sharp blade.

Blood came gushing out as I was left without legs.

Diaz then ushered forward again as she led the conversation onwards.

“Heed my second warning, Lestrade. You have ‘officially’ made a contract not to me but to the company itself.”

“What does that correlate when it wasn't ‘me’ that did it?”

“But, the ‘you' who did. Signed the contract for your entire body, including your mind and every iteration of yourselves into it.”

“Hah… so that's what the contract was. No wonder it felt long yet convoluted enough to make me forget it the moment I finish my analysis.”

Diaz didn't hand me a normal Non-Disclosure Agreement. It was a long document that functions as a way to stall out my mind until my memory omission struck.

What a drag…

“So this is how you'll put your leash on me?”

I should have taken proper caution.

Alas, this is just an ill fortune that cost me my life.

After all, the conclusion was imminent.

“So, what do you say?”

As I watched Diaz take hold of my life.

I was left to ponder.

What memory of mine would be omitted for this part?

…

Several weeks later, I was tasked by an Udjat to enter a strange warehouse.

Most of the injuries I sustained were healed off as I was given several prosthetics to heal my broken limbs.

Though I was slightly frustrated, it is no use garnering spite for a forgotten memoir.

As I entered the door, I was greeted by a singularity that transported me to a strange corridor.

There were dozens of employees chatting around as if this were their daily life.

Myriads of people have a nice conversation as if it were the norm.

For me,

It was strange, yet this peaceful atmosphere felt like it had been ages since I've found such respite.

Then, from the corner of my eye, something attracted my gaze.

“Hello, Ms. Lestrade. My name is Marton, and I shall be your guide, our dear guest.”

A tan skin with dark blue haired man approached me with solemn amber eyes.

He wore a strange outfit that seemed to try to induce me into its allure.

As I observed him, I realized he must be the assistant Diaz assigned to me.

“So, where should I go?”

“Come and follow, we'll be visiting your office shortly.”

As I followed his steps, we came across a steel door.

A door that has separate locks and keys, as if those inside would be deterred from the outside world.

In other words, a time vault.

“Rather than an office… isn't this a sophisticated way to say a prison? She does have a sense of humour—One that I wouldn't find amusing.”

“Mhm… I don't know who you are referring to, Ms. Lestrade. But I shall be guiding you into your work and the guidelines, as well as the procedures of this task.”

“Just hand me the handbook, besides…”

As we made our way in, I noticed several shelves filled with documents that held far greater details than the one I used to keep at my apartment.

It was a warehouse of records.

“And here, you shall be seated here as you transcribed the entire recordings piled up here.”

“...No wonder.”

The job she gave me wasn't surprising.

A desk job whose entire work was to transcribe all the documents in a facility that mimics that of a laboratory.

Alone and isolated from time, it is a pain-enduring task no ordinary folk would be able to accomplish.

And that's why she put me up on the task.

As someone who withstood T Corp's side effects, the twisted recognition of time some of us had inherited.

Made someone like me the prime candidate for this position.

“Hah… What a pain.”

“Hmm… is something wrong, Ms. Lestrade?”

“Nothing, though, young man. What's the year today?”

“Huh? It's 893.”

“I see, I'll keep that in mind.”

As I set the clock in a pocket watch gifted to me, I sat in the office chair and began checking the documents.

“Ms. Lestrade, is there anything else you might need?”

“Nothing.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah… Besides, you already know the procedure, don't you?”

“...So you were aware?”

“Indeed.”

The man, whose name was Marton, hesitated as I watched him go outside.

Before he closed the door.

I spoke to him for the last time.

“Live your life profoundly with a meaningful purpose. It might not be today or yesterday. But somewhere in the future, you will find yourself burdened by a decision. But once that time comes, keep your wits in mind, young man.”

Those words may seem meaningless, but as the visage of time I'll experience will soon be rendered null.

I, at the very least of my expense, wished to be able to gain another memory before I turn myself into a living book.

Imparting wisdom to a young mind from a person whose time has long since withered since the war.

“Sure… I'll keep that in mind.”

Marton gave a solemn look as he closed the door firmly shut.

—Thump

As the door of this time-restricted chamber closed, I was left isolated away from the outside world.

With nothing but myself and the hundreds of records whose tales I'll be reciting.

I gazed towards the first page,

My eyes focused upon the stories of ‘nobodies’ whom I'll be understanding their lives…

As well as their,

‘Sins’.