TWLSV~07

Chapter 7

{Honestly, it wasn’t even really a prayer. I just desperately begged the heavens to save you, unnie. The only thing I could think of back then were all those web novels I used to read.}

“Oh, those transmigration novels?”

{Yeah. Suddenly it felt like my body was floating, then I blacked out. When I woke up, I was in this fat new body.}

The spirit child bobbed his head back and forth like a pigeon, apparently still unable to adapt to the body of a bird.

“Wow. You seriously begged for me to live? That’s kinda touching.”

[Hmph. Your body was the vessel I was most comfortable with. I didn’t want another shaman.]

“Aww, what the heck…”

With a touched expression, Elisia hugged the spirit child. All her life, she had only carried him inside her body; this was the first time she could actually hold him physically, and it felt strange.

“But why didn’t you possess a human body? Why an owl…?”

{Who knows? Maybe I collided with a flying bird while falling into this world. The important thing is, I can’t get out of this body.}

“You actually suit it pretty well, though. Maybe you should just keep living like that.”

{You little—! I saved your life and this is how you treat me?!}

“Aaagh…!”

The spirit child suddenly leapt up, flapping his wings wildly as he pecked at Elisia’s arm. While waving her hands around in surrender and apologizing, Elisia grabbed him and placed him back onto the cushion before speaking.

“But Spirit Child-nim, I think I messed up.”

{Why?}

“You know the owner of this mansion, Duke Cedric? He’s being followed around by his mother’s spirit. Not even in human form anymore—just a pitch-black mass of resentment.”

{She was murdered?}

Stretching his wings upward like someone doing a morning stretch, the spirit child asked casually.

“Yeah.”

{Don’t tell me you promised to find the killer, unnie?}

“Unnie!”

The spirit child screeched loudly. In his agitation, he even forgot he was injured and jumped up.

[Did you forget what happened before? The sibling murder case!!]

Back when Elisia—no, Sodan—had only recently received her spiritual powers, a male student had come to her asking for help, saying he believed his older brother had been murdered. Feeling sorry for him, Sodan had overstepped and followed the dead brother’s spirit to where it guided her.

The spirit child had desperately tried to stop her, but at the time Sodan had been consumed by a sense of duty, believing that as someone who worked in saving lives, she had to help people.

Unfortunately, the murderer had still been hiding in the mountain where the brother was supposedly killed, and Sodan had nearly died a dog’s death.

Because there had been two killers.

“Well… I didn’t know there was an accomplice…”

{And what if this time’s the same?!}

“As long as I don’t blindly follow anyone, it’ll be fine. I’m not planning to get deeply involved. I’ll just figure out who the culprit is and quietly let the duke know.”

[(Shh, someone’s coming.)}

Just as the spirit child was about to say more, Betty carefully opened the door and stepped inside.

“Betty. What is it?”

“My lady, hello. But… what’s with that fat bird?”

Betty hurried over and pointed at the spirit child lying on a cushion atop the bed. At the word “fat,” the spirit child narrowed his round eyes sharply, while Betty tilted her head back and forth curiously.

She seemed to really like animals.

“Oh my goodness, it’s an owl? So cute! I’ve never seen such a chubby owl before!”

“Kuhp, really?”

Elisia barely suppressed the laughter threatening to burst out of her mouth. She could feel the spirit child glaring daggers at her.

“Vincent? He gave him to me.”

“Uh… Young Master Vincent? He’s always liked hunting. This owl must’ve been caught during one of his hunts. Poor thing…”

When Betty reached out her hand, the spirit child sharply turned his head away, clearly displeased.

“Oh, right! My lady… Lady Hestie sent for you.”

Betty spoke cautiously while gauging Elisia’s reaction.

“Hestie? Ah…”

Elisia recalled the name Vincent had mentioned earlier.

Hestie Albrecht. The youngest member of the family.

‘Didn’t he say she and Elisia didn’t get along…? Why is she calling for me?’

As Elisia sank into thought, Betty carefully spoke up after watching her expression.

“Um… if it makes you uncomfortable, I can go decline for you.”

Elisia secretly smiled at Betty’s oddly changed attitude ever since her not-quite-a-threat earlier.

“No. If you do that, you might get in trouble instead. Besides, I should probably meet more people in this mansion if I want to recover my memories.”

Betty looked strangely touched by what sounded like concern for her.

As Elisia rose from her seat while rubbing her stiff lower back, her legs tingled painfully from crouching too long.

“Betty, besides Hestie, is there anyone else in this mansion who dislikes me?”

Betty’s eyes darted to the side, avoiding Elisia’s gaze.

“Everyone…?”

At her timid answer, Elisia nodded.

Everyone? It probably would’ve been faster to ask if there was even a single person who liked her.

“Why? What was I like before I lost my memories?”

Though she already had a rough idea of the body owner’s personality from her fortune reading, Elisia asked casually, as if testing the waters.

“Uh… well… My lady was…”

[Is this really the kind of dress the duke likes? He didn’t even glance at me during the whole banquet!]

Betty recalled Elisia sobbing while throwing dresses around. She would throw tantrums over the smallest things and become overly sensitive whenever she was upset.

Especially when it involved Cedric.

The reason the head maid had begun tormenting her in the first place was because resentment from those incidents had piled up. Elisia had resisted at first, but once she realized Cedric paid her no attention, she eventually stopped fighting back altogether.

“I think… you were always very sensitive. And quick to anger. Though now… you seem like a completely different person.”

Elisia tapped the floor with the tip of her slipper.

It was an old habit of hers—something she did whenever she had too much to think about, or when she wanted to think about nothing at all.

“Just for that? Feels like there should’ve been another reason besides my personality.”

“Yes. The Seymour family and the Albrecht family are the two noble houses with the worst relationship in the entire Eskilia Empire. Though it wasn’t always like that—it started two generations ago.”

Betty explained calmly while gently stroking the spirit child’s chin with one hand. She had clearly been dying to pet the plump owl this whole time.

According to her explanation:

The previous Duke of the Seymour family—Posaken Seymour, Elisia’s grandfather—and Cedric’s grandfather, Revrium Albrecht, had fought in the same war and achieved a great victory. As rewards, the Seymours were granted fertile wheat fields, while the Albrechts received silver mines.

Soon afterward, a currency shortage struck the empire, causing silver prices to skyrocket, and House Albrecht entered the greatest golden age in its history.

The problem was Posaken Seymour’s inferiority complex.

For generations, whenever people spoke of the empire’s greatest ducal house, the answer had always been Seymour. But after the rise of House Albrecht, everyone began naming them instead.

The two men already had opposing personalities, and their relationship finally shattered when Posaken Seymour officially accused the imperial family and House Albrecht of colluding—claiming they must have known silver prices would soar before rewards were distributed.

The emperor flew into a rage and began openly restraining the Seymour family. And the more that happened, the deeper the emotional rift between the two houses became.

Their duchesses often competed fiercely against each other in high society as well.

“They remained enemies all the way until the current emperor ascended the throne and sided with House Seymour. That’s when the current Duke Seymour proposed the marriage between you and Duke Cedric. House Albrecht had no proper reason to refuse, so they reluctantly accepted. Then shortly afterward, the duchess was murdered…”

Betty trailed off.

Elisia crossed her arms and quietly swallowed a sigh.

If that was the situation, then it made sense why Cedric believed the Seymour family had killed Duchess Diana.

After Duke Winston Albrecht died from illness, only Duchess Diana and her three children remained. With her death, the family that stood to gain the most politically was House Seymour.

As someone practically gifted with a politician’s intuition, Elisia could immediately see how the pieces fit together.

‘But House Seymour probably didn’t kill her. If they had, Duchess Diana’s spirit wouldn’t have stayed calm after seeing me. She would’ve attacked me immediately.’

“But it’s okay, my lady. You’re not Elisia Seymour anymore. You’re Elisia Albrecht now.”

“My, my. We’ve only gotten a little closer and you’re already flattering me?”

“P-Pardon?!”

“I’m kidding.”

Elisia laughed teasingly before stretching both arms high.

‘I should definitely keep Betty close. She talks too much—it makes gathering information easy!’

To survive in this body, she would have to go through countless trials and errors from now on.

And if she wanted to find the person who murdered Duchess Diana, every little piece of information from the family mattered.

“Let’s get ready. I’ve got to go meet my sister-in-law.”