Chapter 8
Come to think of it… not a single one of us remembered our parents.
Among Pascal’s children, there wasn’t a single person who remembered their parents or the place where they had been born.
It was almost uncanny.
None of them knew anything about their pasts.
And they all shared one thing in common—they hated talking about their lives before becoming “Pascals.”
Every one of them claimed they remembered nothing but horrible memories.
There were so many orphans in that world that none of us thought it was strange.
Their circumstances had been far too harsh.
Survival alone demanded everything they had.
There had never been time to question it.
Did Pascal deliberately gather children who couldn’t remember their parents?
Or… could it be…?
Rita startled herself with the thought.
At the same time, she instinctively rejected it.
For more than ten years, she had lived as Rita Pascal—
A girl with reddish-brown hair and freckles.
She had never once questioned who she was.
If I really were Lilietta…
Then was that body someone else’s all along?
That’s impossible.
As far back as she could remember, she had always lived in that body.
It had never felt foreign.
…Foreign?
Suddenly, she remembered something Serra Pascal, Beacon Squad’s healer, had once told her while examining her.
“All Pascals suffer from similar paralysis symptoms, but our little Maple Candy has it worse than most.”
“You know that, don’t you?”
“It’s like your body’s screws were put together wrong—it always feels just a little out of alignment.”
“Even Od can only compensate so much, so please stop pushing yourself so hard, little fox.”
She had suffered paralysis far more often than her teammates.
What if… that had been because the body wasn’t truly mine?
The suspicion snowballed.
The identity she had believed in her entire life began to crumble.
Her head throbbed.
She was confused.
Dizzy.
Unable to be certain of anything.
She shook her head violently.
Damn it.
Stop thinking.
With a sharp snap, Rita closed the matchbox and placed it on the desk in the corner of the guest room.
As she did, she noticed a stack of writing paper and a quill pen.
Forget the questions I can’t answer.
Focus on what I can do right now.
After what had happened earlier, her highest priority was awakening her Od.
The longer she remained powerless…
The more unstable and hypersensitive she’d become.
At this rate, she might attack another innocent person.
First… an Od aptitude test.
Od was the primordial natural force that formed the foundation of the world.
According to everything she knew, any world with gravity, air, and lightning had to contain Od.
People simply differed in whether their bodies naturally accepted it…
Or rejected it.
Rita picked up the quill and lightly pricked her fingertip.
Using the blood that welled up, she drew a simple magic circle on a sheet of paper.
She then opened the window wide, placed the paper on the windowsill, set an empty cup on top of it, and waited.
An Od-collection magic circle.
It isn’t a proper aptitude test, but it’s more than enough for a quick examination.
Warm afternoon sunlight and the cool spring breeze drifted through the open window.
Before long…
A faint shimmering haze appeared inside the cup.
It was what happened when Od gathered and became sufficiently concentrated.
It’s collecting nicely.
Even if this is another world, the fundamentals are the same.
It’s not some absurd place where rivers flow upward or fire is cold.
Carefully, Rita dipped her still-bleeding finger into the hazy Od.
Good.
It didn’t repel me.
No tingling. No discomfort.
So this body doesn’t suffer from Od rejection.
Now… its aptitude…
A drop of blood slipped from her fingertip into the shimmering haze.
Instead of remaining separate like oil floating on water…
It spread smoothly through the Od…
Like a drop of ink blooming inside clear water.
The entire cup slowly turned a soft crimson.
Rita stared at it with her mouth hanging open.
What is this body?
Its Od aptitude is insane!
Rita Pascal’s original body hadn’t suffered severe rejection…
But its Od affinity had been terrible.
When she had performed this same test in the past, her blood had floated inside the haze as a tiny red bead instead of mixing.
No way.
This is… Gide’s level.
Only Gide Pascal—the member of Beacon Squad with the greatest Od affinity—had ever produced results like this.
His incredible aptitude allowed him to manipulate enormous quantities of Od and establish his own domain across the battlefield.
Those who witnessed it had nicknamed him—
The Emperor.
Actually…
This is mixing even faster than Gide’s blood did.
If I used Magi-Gunslinger techniques with this body…
I could perform techniques I only dreamed about before.
The thought erased every complicated emotion from her mind.
She admired the crimson haze swirling inside the cup with sparkling eyes.
Wow… seriously…
With this level of aptitude…
I might even be able to complete that technique I’ve only theorized about.
This is incredible.
With my original body, trying a new technique usually ended with paralysis or convulsions.
I’d always had to be careful.
…I wish this really were my body.
The thought slipped into her mind before she caught herself.
She froze.
…Don’t get greedy, Rita Pascal.
What if you’re wrong?
What if the real Lilietta comes back…?
She remembered the dried four-leaf clover inside the matchbox.
Leonhardt had hoped it would awaken some forgotten memory.
But she hadn’t remembered anything.
Perhaps Pascal had tampered with her memories somehow.
Or perhaps…
Everything was merely coincidence.
Expecting something…
Only made the disappointment hurt more.
Rita had seen what happened to Pascal children who starved for affection.
She even knew what had become of one Pascal who mistakenly believed they had found their real family.
Pascal’s children were living weapons.
They existed solely to fight monsters.
Pascals had no families.
Even if they did…
Ordinary families could never truly accept someone as alien as a Pascal.
Only another Pascal could understand one.
That was the truth she had learned over more than ten years.
Don’t expect anything.
Don’t fool yourself.
I’m a Pascal.
I’ll return to Beacon Squad eventually.
So just think of this as borrowing someone else’s body.
That’s easier.
Having steeled herself once more, Rita set aside the magic circle and cup before walking to the open window.
Now that she no longer needed to fear side effects…
It was time.
She looked up at the brilliant blue sky and took a deep breath of fresh air.
It’s such a beautiful world.
Even if monsters will probably never appear here…
She deepened the cut on her fingertip with the quill.
Using the fresh blood, she drew the mark of an oath upon her palm.
Then she pressed that hand against her throat.
“〈Od… I swear this oath.〉”
Her voice resonated with an uncanny power.
At the same moment, the breeze blowing through the window—
No.
The Od itself—
Began swirling around her body.
“〈I swear to destroy every monster that comes before my eyes.〉”
The Od seeped into her body.
A shimmering haze danced around her.
Her golden hair whipped wildly through the air.
Light gathered within her violet eyes.
Still gripping her throat, Rita completed the oath in that strange, echoing voice.
“〈In the name of Rita Pascal, I swear it.〉”
Psshhh…
Somewhere nearby came the sound of air escaping.
The gathered Od abruptly dispersed.
“Huh?”
Confusion escaped her lips.
The oath…
Hadn’t been accepted.
Normally, Od acknowledged the vow, completed the contract, and awakened the user’s abilities.
Instead…
It had simply disappeared halfway through.
“Why didn’t it work?”
Everything up until that moment had been perfect.
The Od had sensed her oath.
It had gathered around her.
Even the wind had risen.
“So why was I suddenly rejected?”
Bewildered, Rita looked around before absentmindedly touching her own throat.
Then…
She remembered seeing something similar once before.
There was someone who volunteered for the Final Defensive Line…
They tried to swear an oath using a false name.
Od rejected them exactly like this.
Even when every procedure was correct…
Even when the oath itself was flawless…
Od would never accept a false name.
There had been nothing wrong with her ritual.
Nor with the oath itself.
She had upheld that very vow for many years.
If the oath failed simply because monsters don’t exist in this world…
Then why did the Od continue gathering until the very last sentence?
No.
It had only vanished after the final words.
Then…
Half convinced and half doubtful, Rita placed her hand against her throat once more.
She repeated the exact same oath.
Only the final line changed.
“〈In the name of Lilietta del Nisa Laskail… I swear it.〉”
Instantly—
The surrounding Od rushed into her body.
Her hair danced wildly in the roaring wind.
Her eyes shone like stars.
An endless torrent of Od poured into her.
Without stopping.
Until it reached the absolute limit her current body could contain.
Then…
The storm ceased.
Silence returned.
Rita slowly opened her eyes.
“…Ha…”
She stared in shock.
Not only was the amount of Od inside her incomparably greater than anything she had possessed as the thoroughly trained Rita Pascal—
But…
The oath had actually been accepted.
Why…?
Why was the oath accepted under Lilietta’s name?
Because this body belongs to Lilietta?
Wasn’t the soul supposed to be the one making the oath?
Could the body—the vessel that actually contains the Od—matter more than the soul…?
Or…
“A different person inside?”
“Rita, I don’t believe I’d fail to recognize my only little sister.”
“If your very essence had changed, I would have noticed.”
“Just consider it once.”
“The possibility that you’re the real one.”
“No way…”
Leonhardt’s words resurfaced in her mind.
The resolve she had only just managed to rebuild began to waver.
Still hopelessly confused, Rita whispered again,
“…There’s no way.”
