"Sarah…" Alex spoke softly, letting the words roll in his mouth
The word sent a hint of an impression passing through his mind, one that brought up a face that seemed to match somewhat to the face he was looking at right now. Only the woman in front of him seemed far better looking than the one in his memories.
He saw flashes of the woman on a couch, at a dinner table, laughing happily next to a young Hannah and… Emily? Was that what he was seeing?
He realized that the memories he was seeing did not belong to him, but rather his clone. And the clarity in them was as good as the old him could remember by the time he had gained those memories.
The older the memory was, the worse he remembered it. It was even worse than the memories he got through the Inheritance of the Undying Physique and that was only so good anyway. The most clear thing he remembered from those memories was the face of the most beautiful woman he had ever seen before.
Sarah looked at him with a hint of a frown, wondering why he was staring at her so absentmindedly. Was he somehow entranced with her?
'That cannot be,' the girl thought. 'He's a king. But… then again, he's also a man.'
She had to do something. "Your Majesty, are you alright?" she called out loud enough to grab Alex's attention.
Alex's thoughts cleared up and he finally looked at her. "Oh, I'm sorry. I was thinking about something," he said.
"About what?" the girl couldn't help but want to ask.
"I think we used to live together," Alex said. "Back around the time when the game was getting big."
The girl seemed appalled by the mere idea of what he had said. Her face hid no frown and lay it clear for Alex to see. "That is impossible. There are no circumstances where I would live with a man. I'm flattered you think of me that way, Your Majesty. But I'll have to let you know that—"
"You like women, not men," Alex said, a smile tugging on his lips. "I remember that. It's weird that I do."
Sarah's face went blank in horror. "How… how do you know that?" she asked him. "Who told you that? No one should—"
"No one told me," Alex said quickly. "I just remembered it. You told me long ago. Or wait, your clone told me. Wait no, your clone told my clone back in the Central continent. Our clone used to live together."
Alex saw the girl's face switch to disbelief and quickly added. "Not just you and me. We lived with my sister, Hannah, and your friend, Emily. She's my clone's wife now."
"Emily…" Sarah said with a hint of remembrance of something long forgotten. "Emily… she was my friend. I forgot."
There was a tinge of melancholy to her expression, one that was there for what she forgot rather than what she remembered. "I remember a sweet little girl by that name. Maybe what you said is true," the girl said, looking back at Alex with a wide smile.
"Thank you for reminding me what I had forgotten, Your Majesty," she said. "There are few things of the past that I remember now. Having any to remember is a good thing for me."
"I'm happy to be of help," Alex said. "If you have forgotten what you've remembered, you might want to go to the Northern Continent sometime in the future. There is a group of well in the east there that can return you memories of… your… past."
Alex got distracted all of a sudden, his head slowly moving to the left where he sensed multiple people approaching in his direction. It only took a moment for him to sense their cultivation bases, and every single one of them was in the upper half of Saint Soul realm.
Surprisingly, not a single one of them had a Saint Transformation realm cultivation base. Perhaps that was why most of them didn't know about the rules that bound the Saint Transformation realm cultivators in the secret realm.
The group that approached were 7 people, all young men and women, not a single person that looked older than late 20s. There was no doubt in Alex's mind that all of them were players.
Surprisingly, he recognized the person at the front. Well, he had to. There was no way of mistaking a girl with a golden fox mask on her face covering her beautiful features, her braided hair whipping in the wind, shining the many golden ornaments he had on her hair.
It was Ren Wujin, from the Ren Family, from Snowthorn Valley, of the Gold Kingdom.
Also known as The Golden Fox of the North.
Alex had talked to her once, back before the Trials had opened. She had been one of the queen candidates he had to meet. That had been the only time he had seen her.
They landed and everyone hesitated. Ren Wujin pulled out her golden mask, placing it to the side of her face. "Greetings, Your Majesty," she said in a placid tone.
"Greetings, Lady Ren." Alex looked at the others that were gathered there. Of the 3 men and 3 women, he recognized 3 more from when they fought him for pills. 2 were men, 1 woman. He had never seen the remaining 3 before this.
"Your Majesty," they greeted him as soon as recognized or found out who he was as well.
Alex greeted them back as well.
"Sister Hongxi, are you alright?" Ren Wujin asked Sarah, walking close to her. "We sensed something rather violent and had to rush here to check if you were alright. I know you made us stay back, but we couldn't when you could be—"
"I'm alright," Sarah answered, cutting off the girl from speaking too much. "They tried to disturb my breakthrough, or well my Leader did, but His Majesty protected me."
The others gasped, not because Alex had saved her, but because she had been attacked in the first place.
"What sort of monster attacks a person in the middle of a breakthrough," one of the girls with flowing light brown hair asked with unhidden fury in her words. "Sister Hongxi, you should report this to the army. They will definitely punish him."
"They would," Sarah mused before shaking her head. "No need for that. I will defeat him sooner or later, and then the battalion will be mine."
Alex could see the conviction in her face, hear it in those words. "Why do you want to be a Battalion leader so badly?" he couldn't help but ask her.
"I have my reasons," the girl said, not elaborating on it further. She turned to the group that had arrived and quickly said, "Let us return. My cultivation base still needs to stabilize and those people might just return."
The few people nodded and turned toward Alex, wondering. Sarah turned toward Alex as well.
"I'm sorry, Your Majesty," she said with a small bow. "I will have to leave now. We can talk properly when we meet once again."
With a nod, she flew away with the group, none giving him a second look.
Alex couldn't help but be slightly taken aback.
"Did they just leave me here alone?"
