Chapter 3
“When did you get here?”
Rita jumped in surprise and shot him an annoyed look.
“You don’t even have Ethan’s stealth skills, so why do you always show up without making a sound?”
She sprang to her feet and reached for the gun he had taken.
“Give me back my gun!”
“What happened to its output limiter?”
The man frowned deeply, glaring at the bespectacled woman.
“Ollie. Was this your doing?”
Crossing her arms, she jerked her chin toward Rita.
“What else was I supposed to do? If I hadn’t removed it, she’d have blown up her own body instead of the gun.”
“After Sera examined Rita, she said it’d be better to remove the limiter altogether.”
“…Honestly.”
The man let out a long sigh before returning the magic pistol to Rita.
His voice turned grim.
“Rita, do you realize that every time you throw yourself into danger, it feels like my lifespan gets shorter?”
“So please, take better care of yourself.”
“And what are you talking about?”
“You charged headfirst into enemy lines without caring about your own life. You only survived because I bailed you out.”
“That wasn’t reckless charging.”
“It was a strategic breakthrough.”
“Oh really?”
Rita slipped the pistol back into the holster at her waist and flashed him a teasing smile.
“So if I hadn’t gone crazy and rescued you during Captain Gide Pascal’s so-called strategic breakthrough, would you be alive right now?”
Or dead?”
Grinding his teeth, the man named Gide answered,
“…Fine.”
“I survived because you went completely insane.”
“Then stop worrying about me and go plan the next operation.”
Pulling him by the arm, Rita led him away from the other Pascals.
As they headed toward the only relatively intact tower within the ruined fortress, she lowered her voice.
“Has Senior Is returned from reconnaissance?”
“He got back a little while ago.”
“That’s why I came looking for you.”
“Good news or bad news?”
Without speaking, Gide silently held up three fingers.
Rita let out a hollow laugh.
“Three pieces of bad news?”
“Damn.”
“What is it?”
“We’ll discuss the details inside.”
Holding the tower door open for her like a gentleman, he continued,
“There are things only you can handle.”
“I need your opinion.”
“Our captain depends on me a little too much, don’t you think?”
“What are you going to do if I’m gone?”
Gide chuckled softly at her joking remark.
“Don’t you know by now, Rita?”
“I can’t live without you.”
She dreamed of the day before she died.
Rita opened her eyes.
The moment she awoke, she shot upright, every muscle tensing.
An unfamiliar place.
None of the familiar presences of her comrades.
She couldn’t believe she had slept so soundly somewhere like this.
Remaining on guard, she instinctively reached toward her waist.
Her magic pistolā
the weapon that had become as familiar to her as her own bodyā
wasn’t there.
Instead, her fingers caught smooth, impossibly long hair.
She brought it before her eyes.
Golden strands sparkled in the morning sunlight streaming through the window like threads of spun gold.
“…”
It wasn’t the reddish-brown hair she had always known.
It was a vivid, almost unreal shade of gold.
This isn’t my body.
Without lowering her guard, she climbed out of bed.
The mattress was absurdly soft.
She was accustomed to sleeping on bare earthāor places even worse.
Almost unconsciously, she walked toward the sunlit window.
Outside stretched a carefully tended garden overflowing with flowers.
Beyond a fence wrapped in budding rose vines lay a birch forest, its white trunks adorned with fresh green leaves.
To someone who had lived in a gray world where even a single sprout was a rarity, it looked like a scene from a painting.
Above it all spread a brilliantly blue sky.
Not hazy.
Not murky.
Not hidden behind clouds stained unnatural colors.
A sky this clear…
As though entranced, Rita opened the window.
Instead of stale, unpleasant air, a refreshing breeze carrying the scent of flowers filled her lungs.
Birdsong rang in her ears.
When she saw the dazzling sun hanging high overheadā
not the dying ember that barely remained in her own worldā
she finally accepted the truth once more.
What I saw yesterday wasn’t an illusion.
This isn’t the world I lived in.
It’s a completely different world.
Yesterday’s memories slowly resurfaced.
She had believed she was dead.
Instead, she had awakened underwater.
Then she had met a man who insisted she was his younger sister, who had disappeared ten years earlier.
I clearly told him I wasn’t his sister.
He didn’t seem convinced.
She remembered how calmly he had turned his back toward her.
That alone had startled her.
In her world, no one exposed their back to a complete stranger.
So…
She had decided to trust him, at least for the moment.
While riding on his back, she had looked around.
The birch forest.
The lake glowing beneath the sunset.
Everything had been so vivid and beautiful that she had found herself admiring it.
Afterward they arrived at an enormous cream-colored castle unlike anything she had ever seen.
And then…
Nothing.
Her memory ended there.
I lost consciousness in a place like this?
No…
I didn’t faint.
Judging by how her body felt now, she hadn’t been struck or drugged.
Did I actually fall asleep?
I… Rita Pascal… fell asleep?
Without comrades nearby?
She had let her guard down.
Even my clothes are different.
Someone changed them while I slept… and I never even woke up?
Have I gone insane?
How many hours was I completely defenseless?
A chill ran down her spine.
Thenā
Knock. Knock.
Someone knocked at the door.
What shocked Rita wasn’t the sound itself.
It was the fact that someone had approached close enough to knock before she noticed their presence.
My senses have become incredibly dull.
Because this isn’t my body?
This body had never been trained.
She couldn’t even feel Od, the life energy she had once used as naturally as breathing.
She couldn’t afford to greet an unknown visitor in such a powerless state.
No matter how peaceful the scenery outside looked…
No matter how luxurious the room was…
She refused to let her guard down again.
Instinctively, she searched for something that could serve as a weapon.
“…Are you awake yet, Miss?”
“I’ll come in.”
Receiving no answer, the maid cautiously entered.
Then she froze.
The bed was empty.
The room appeared deserted.
Miss Lilietta… who had finally returned after ten years… had disappeared again!
“S-Something’s wrāmmph!”
Before she could scream for help, a hand clamped over her mouth.
“Quiet.”
A whisper came from behind.
At the same moment, a jagged shard of broken mirror was pressed against her throat like a knife.
“Make a sound and I’ll kill you.”
“If you understand, nod.”
Shaking violently, the maid nodded.
Only then did Rita slowly remove her hand.
Her eyes drifted to the maid’s hair.
Auburn.
The same color Rita’s own hair had originally been.
The maid’s face and eyes were different…
But the hair reminded her painfully of herself.
Keeping the mirror shard at the maid’s throat, Rita questioned her.
“Where am I?”
“I-It’s… the Laskail ducal estate… M-Miss…”
“The Laskail estate?”
“Where is that?”
“…Pardon?”
“It’s inside Duke Laskail’s territory…”
“D-Don’t you remember?”
“I don’t.”
“Be more specific.”
“The L-Laskail estate is located in Birch Castle… at the center of the Duke’s domain… along the Hinder River… on the Cornu Plains… in the northern region of the Kairam Empire…”
Just as she’d expected.
Every single place name was unfamiliar.
Suppressing a sigh, Rita asked another question.
“Who are you?”
“I-I’m Hannah…”
“A maid of House Laskail…”
“I-I’ve been assigned to serve you starting today…”
“A maid?”
“Were you the one who changed my clothes?”
She was no longer wearing the torn, soaked nightgown from yesterday.
Instead, she now wore an even more elaborate nightdress that reached all the way to her ankles.
“Y-Yes!”
“I changed your clothes last night, Miss!”
Hannah nodded frantically.
Holding onto a sliver of hope, Rita asked,
“When you changed me…”
“Did you happen to find any of my belongings?”
“…Pardon?”
“A dagger.”
“Dog tags.”
“A belt with small pouches.”
“A necklace.”
“A compass.”
“Anything.”
“N-No…”
“There wasn’t anything…”
I figured as much.
She had already known she possessed nothing when she woke.
Still…
She had hoped.
Biting her lip, Rita spoke again.
“Then tell me what happened last nā”
“I’ll answer that.”
A man’s voice suddenly interrupted.
Rita was startled once more.
Again.
Someone had approached without her noticing.
Turning cautiously, she found the blond man who had carried her the previous day standing in the doorway.
Now that she looked closely…
His golden hair was almost identical to hers.
So were his eyes.
Even their facial features bore an unmistakable resemblance.
She had thought the same thing when she’d first seen her reflection in the lake.
This body really is his sister’s.
Slowly entering the room, he spoke calmly.
“Let’s talk, Rita.”
“And let the innocent maid go.”
