Preparation

The group of three arrived at Knottori village and introduced themselves to the patrons of the inn. Earnest addressed his sudden departure with the excuse that he forgot to make an urgent report to his commander, Roland.

“You all know how it is with those heavy handed commanders right? I forgot to send the regular report, but you wouldn't think that would be such a big deal right? Not with Roland! If I waited a day more he would’ve sent the whole squad to find me! Can’t have that, so I had to leave in a hurry, but what can you do when you’re under such a hardass right?”

The villagers seemed to buy this, as many of them laughed. Apparently Roland’s reputation had reached far and wide, even to this remote part of the nation. Alesia and Coltia introduced themselves as traveling with Earnest out of chance and convenience. Alesia claimed that she was planning on visiting the villagers of Knottori, asking about their problems, and selling her potions to them in hopes of getting more customers. She showed off the contents of her bag as proof, and even ended her introduction with an advertisement for her store in Lindow. Coltia repeated her background of being a traveling apprentice sent to see the world by her master. Both of these also went down well with the villagers, who were excited at all the recent activity in their normally tranquil village.

The group all took separate rooms in the inn and settled down. The first step in their plans had gone about as well as it could. During their meals and rests, they had extensively discussed strategies and tactics for how to save Rosalind. It was three versus three, with one caught right in the middle of both sides. Whichever side took the Rosalind would be at an advantage. Ideally, Earnest’s group would separate Rosalind from the misfit boys while only her mind was in her head, and take the dark magic journal too. Then they would only have to deal with the misfit boys as they were.

However, if Rosalind was possessed by one of the boys, particularly Ricard, then the tides would be in their favor. They would have Rosalind, but also Barnabas and Thomlin. Earnest’s group wouldn’t be able to contest them. For one, Alesia had never raised a hand against anyone, and didn’t plan to either. For another, Coltia’s master had forbidden her from using her dark magic to hurt others during her travels unless in **** self defense.

“Why yes, it’s so vexing isn’t it? My lovely master, in all her wisdom and forethought, made me promise that I wouldn’t hurt a soul. Master didn’t want the people to fear me, nor dark magic, so she only instructed me to help as I could. And I will certainly help you, but there are restrictions that you will need to consider~”

So with that, it became clear that Rosalind had to be secured first and foremost, before any direct confrontation. Given what Earnest knew about the Misfit Boys’ turn system, there should be regular periods where Rosalind was free of their spell. That would be the time to confront her, and take her away from them. Once she was safe, they would begin the recovery process. This would fall to Alesia and Coltia, as they were tasked with healing any physical or mental damage that they could.

As it stood, Rosalind didn’t seem to be in much physical danger, so Alesia’s responsibilities hopefully wouldn’t be much more than a physical exam and light medicine. It was the mental changes that the group was most concerned with. The more that the misfit boys **** themselves into her head, the more distorted her mind became. After what was likely months of rotations between three people, her personality was certain to have been warped and perverted to a dangerous degree.

This was Coltia’s task, to heal and reverse as much of this damage as possible. Coltia had many different methods, but none of them were perfect. The most complete, but most destructive method would be to wipe her memories starting from her first possession. However, memory is not such a simple thing. Memories of people, objects, and events are stored all around the mind, spread into the deepest and most remote corners. Removing these tainted memories would risk damaging original memories as well. Coltia herself recommended against this, but let the group know that it was an option if needed.

On the opposite end, the group could do nothing invasive, and just talk to Rosalind as she was. They could show her the contents of the notebook, and let her know exactly what had happened to her. However, this would leave all the burden on Rosalind to sort through her memories and determine what was motivated by her, and what was motivated by her possessor. It was highly likely that Rosalind would be traumatized just by reading the book, so this was also a poor option. It also wouldn’t remove the subconscious habits and behaviors that she had inherited.

Coltia discussed middle options such as hypnotism or dream diving, but the method that they settled upon was to use artificial mind slimes. When she posed this option to the group, Coltia had to provide an additional history lesson. Slimes are a common monster that are known for their incredible adaptability to their environments. In the past, experiments on these slimes yielded new variations with certain abilities. Some of the more… unethical experiments resulted in the creation of mind slimes.

Mind slimes were a category of slimes that contained quite a variety of the little blobs. As experiments continued, more and more were created with different uses. The size of the slime had been experimented with and was found to correlate with the headspace they could inhabit. A small mind slime could only successfully influence small creatures, while a large mind slime needed a larger creature to fit into. They were also bred and adapted to have different utilities. For example, the red berserker mind slime could enter a creature and send it into a rabid fit of violent rage. Some of these slimes possessed alarmingly high intelligence on their own too.

Coltia explained that she had learned rituals to summon or create a few types of mind slimes. The two that she explained to Earnest and Alesia were the clear mind slime and the black mind slime. The clear mind slime was transparent in appearance and fit into two hands cupped together. It was essentially mindless, doing nothing once it entered its host. While this would usually be useless, in this case it would prevent any other intruders from entering, since it would take up all the available space in Rosalind’s head.

The black mind slime had a more complex use. It was capable of copying personalities and memories. It was originally developed by researchers that wished to use the slime for a type of immortality by copying the mind into new hosts. The owner of the original mind would have the black slime enter their head and read their personality and memories, storing it within their slimy form. The slime would then exit their head and enter the recipient body. It would emulate the original mind in the new body, covering the host’s mind just like the possession spell.

Coltia’s plan was to use these slimes to return Rosalind to her original self. These black mind slimes were fairly intelligent, so Coltia could command one to enter Earnest’s head, and instead of copying Earnest’s personality and memories, copy Earnest’s memories of Rosalind and construct an approximation of Rosalind’s mind. This would only be possible since Earnest and Rosalind grew up together, spending a huge amount of time alongside one another. The process would take some time, but after the slime completed this, the black slime could be moved into Rosalind’s head. She would essentially be possessed by an approximation of her past self. Her own original habits and behaviors would leak back into herself, just as the misfit boys’ had, and would hopefully return her to normal. Once this was done, the black slime would leave her good as new.

Coltia made it clear that this plan was not without flaws and risks. For one, the process of the black mind slime extracting an approximation of Rosalind from Earnest’s memories took some time, perhaps a week to complete. For another, the approximation would be based on what Earnest knew of Rosalind, so it wasn’t a complete story of her life, so some things might be missing or inaccurate. However, even with these issues, Coltia still maintained that this was likely the best way to heal Rosalind’s mind. After some discussion and some questions, Earnest agreed that this would be their plan.

Coltia immediately performed the ritual to summon the black mind slime. She then explained that the black mind slime would usually only be able to receive instructions by entering the caster’s head, but thankfully Coltia had the ability to transmit her thoughts through touch. She spent some time communicating with the slime in silence, as it wiggled in her hands.

“Well~ I think it understands. Get over here now Earnest, it’s time~ Just let me know if it starts nibbling at you~ It’s one of the more feisty ones that I’ve met~”

Earnest eyed the black mass, and even though it lacked eyes, it seemed to look right back at him.

“Uh, okay, hi there partner. This won’t hurt will it?”

Coltia smirked, and promised him that he wouldn’t feel a thing. She brought the slime to his forehead and it extended a tendril to make contact. At first, it didn’t look like it was doing anything, but in an observation that sent shivers down Earnest’s spine, he noticed that the main body of the slime was decreasing in size. It was slowly moving itself into his head through the tendril. He fought the urge to yank his head away, and tried to keep himself calm throughout the process. After a few minutes, the main body of the slime had all but disappeared, and the black tendril withdrew into Earnest’s forehead, not even leaving a mark.

Alesia leaned in and looked closely at Earnest’s forehead as he checked it with his hand, and let him know that it looked totally normal. After finishing her inspection, she looked down, making eye contact with Earnest. She realized how close their faces were, and she pulled back in embarrassment, turning away in shyness. Coltia thankfully broke the awkwardness by giving Earnest more instructions.

“The black mind slime can search through all your memories, even those that you can’t remember on your own. Magnificent isn’t it? But the process is slow as I told you before. However, memory is an interesting thing. It’s not stored in a nice and organized fashion, but interconnected with related information. That’s why memory wipes can be so troublesome~ So if you recall your memories of Rosalind, it will help the slime along. Think of your times together, everything you can recall, it will all help.”

Well, Earnest had somewhat been avoiding that since leaving Knottori. He realized that filling his head with thoughts of Rosalind made him overly emotional, and prone to bad decisions and mistakes. During his travels to Lindow and back to Knottori, he tried to keep his cool by controlling himself. However, now he was being asked to fill his head with thoughts of Rosalind. Well, it would be a bit emotional, but it was a necessary step in saving her.

While the group was still making its way from Lindow to Knottori, Earnest spent his time combing through his memories, going through his childhood all the way to the present, remembering even the smallest details about Rosalind. And it hurt everytime he remembered that she was in trouble, being violated by a group of awful disgusting brats. By the time the group arrived at Knottori, Coltia let Earnest know that the black slime would only need a few more days to finish its work. He was glad to hear this, and intended on removing Rosalind from the grasps of the misfit boys as soon as possible, then the long process of recovery could begin. The plan would begin tomorrow with Earnest tailing Rosalind to find a time when she was unpossessed.