🔊 TTS Settings
Chapter 11
The room she was staying in was on the third floor. But if she calmly went down the stairs, she would likely miss the Duchess.
Rita swung herself over the windowsill, pressed her index and middle fingers to her throat, and let her Od flow.
“⟨I desire.⟩”
A strangely resonant voice rang out.
“⟨A wind that will stop my fall.⟩”
She recited the spell and jumped immediately.
It was one of the basic spells even she, a magic gunner, could use. A rush of wind gathered and buoyantly caught her falling body.
Landing lightly in the garden like a feather, she chased after the Duchess—who had already disappeared—running along the narrow path through the birch grove.
“Hah… huff…”
Her breath quickly grew ragged. Her feet hurt too, clad only in bedroom slippers.
She’d been thinking it for days now, but this body was truly fragile, just as it looked. The frame itself was slender; even with training, it didn’t seem like it would amount to much.
“Od aptitude is insanely high, but the body is really weak—found her!”
Between the white birches, she spotted the Duchess.
Rita instinctively almost called out to her, then hurriedly clamped a hand over her mouth. The fact that she wasn’t Lilieta—yet was occupying Lilieta’s body—came back to her again.
“I need something to hide my face…”
The moon was painfully bright.
While she hesitated over what to do, the Duchess wandered along the lakeshore. She looked around incessantly as if searching for something, bending down to rummage through the ground and the bushes.
It was obvious what she was looking for. Rita watched the scene with a mixture of pity and guilt.
Soon, a thin voice reached her ears.
“Liri… Liri…”
The Duchess broke into tears.
With a gaunt face and disheveled hair, she sobbed as she desperately called her daughter’s name. Tears fell onto the water’s surface like moonlight.
“Where are you? Liri, my daughter… where are you crying? Mommy will find you, okay? Don’t cry…”
Rita bit her lip gently. Once again, she felt sorry for not being the real Lilieta.
“Why did I have to end up in this body? If I were an orphan like me, with no family searching for me, I wouldn’t feel like this.”
Suddenly, the Duchess whipped her head around.
“Liri, are you here? Are you crying alone in this cold place? Mommy’s coming—wait, Mommy will save you…”
Muttering incoherently, she stepped into the lake. In an instant, she headed toward deeper water. Her thin, long negligee fluttered in the water like a jellyfish.
“…!”
Rita, who had been standing in the shadow of the trees, jumped in alarm and ran out. With disaster looming, it didn’t matter anymore whether she’d be seen as Lilieta.
“Milady!”
She leapt into the lake without a second thought. It was early spring and the dead of night; the water, colder than merely cool, surged over her entire body, making her teeth chatter.
She didn’t care and forced her way through the water.
“Duchess! Stop! Stop—this is dangerous!”
Wading almost like swimming as the water grew deeper, Rita barely managed to grab the Duchess by the shoulder.
“I said stop!”
“Liri… Liri is…”
The Duchess didn’t even look back at her, thrashing as she tried to go farther into the depths. Rita hugged her from behind, dragging her back as she shouted.
“What are you talking about! Your daughter isn’t there!”
“She is!”
The Duchess screamed, as if shrieking.
“She is! Liri is here! She’s calling for her mother so desperately! Let go—!”
She twisted violently, and fierce ripples spread across the once-still surface of the lake.
“No! She’s not there! Your daughter—Lilieta—is—”
It wasn’t easy to restrain the flailing Duchess in waist-deep water with Lilieta’s frail body.
As Rita struggled to drag her out somehow, her foot slipped on something.
The depth dropped sharply; the bottom vanished.
Her foot slid down the slope, and they toppled together into the water. Splash—spray shot up.
“Ugh!”
Bubbles erupted like a volcano, blotting out everything for an instant. Then, in the dark lake, she glimpsed red hair wavering as it sank downward.
Holding her breath, Rita desperately reached out. At the same time, she stirred the Od within her body.
“I’m a processing type, so I’m bad at physical enhancement—but right now, somehow…!”
She drew up the Od and wrapped it around her whole body. In the black water, a golden shimmer spread like heat haze.
Lacking the abilities of an enhancement-type contractor, she crudely slammed Od into her arms to boost their strength. Faintly glowing, her strengthened arm seized the Duchess’s arm.
Underwater, the Duchess finally turned to look at her. Caught in the current, with red hair floating up around her, her pale face gazed at the one holding her.
At her daughter’s face, revealed in the dark water and wrapped in golden light.
Rita realized how to save this pitiful mother. She moved her lips and spoke silently.
Look. Your daughter—she’s right here.
The Duchess’s blue eyes went wide. She opened her mouth, bubbles bursting forth like tears.
“Liri! Liri!”
Hands as thin as branches cupped Rita’s cheeks. Holding the woman who clung to her, Rita tried to swim up to the surface—then hesitated.
“What is that?”
In the suddenly deepened place, at the distant bottom of the lake, something was glowing with a golden light. It seemed to be responding to the Od she’d forced out around her while enhancing her body.
“What on earth… no, first I need to save the Duchess…”
She surged up to the surface. The moment her head broke the water, the Duchess erupted into violent coughing.
“Kh—cough—hack—cough, cough…”
Rita dragged her to the lakeshore. Only after they were completely out of the water did she let go and collapse, gasping for breath.
“Hah… huff… ugh…”
Her vision spun, and she retched. It was the result of overexerting herself—imitating an enhancement-type contractor despite being a processing type.
“Idiot friend of mine, why do you think there are contractor types, huh? Do you think they just categorized them to look cool? Are you really going to keep handling Od like this? Just because you can doesn’t mean you should—how many times have I told you!”
“Urgent, my ass! If it’s urgent, use magic! Don’t stupidly compensate with your body! I taught you those rapid-cast spells for a reason!”
The scolding of her bespectacled mage friend echoed naturally in her ears. Rita stopped retching, let out a hollow laugh, and wiped her face—water or cold sweat, she couldn’t tell.
“Still, this is actually pretty good. Maybe it’s because my aptitude is high.”
As her breathing finally steadied, a trembling voice came from beside her.
“Liri…?”
She turned her head to see the Duchess, soaked to the bone and shivering, reaching out to her.
“Liri, is it you? Lilieta?”
Rita hesitated for a split second, then took her hand and offered an awkward smile.
“Yes.”
“Oh, my daughter! My daughter has returned—at last! Ah, Liri, Liri…”
The Duchess pulled her into a tight embrace, sobbing. Rita accepted it briefly, then gently eased herself free.
“Du—um, excuse me, just a moment.”
She hated the feeling of deceiving someone this desperate, felt burdened by pretending to be Lilieta, and above all, the golden light she’d glimpsed at the bottom of the lake nagged at her.
“Come to think of it, when I first woke up in this body, I was in that lake. Is there something in there?”
Leonhardt had searched the lake bottom several times and reported finding nothing.
“If it reacts to pure Od, the people of this world might not be able to find it. They use magic, but they don’t seem to know what Od actually is.”
Over the past three days, wandering the birch castle and talking with many servants hadn’t only taught her about Lilieta.
Rita had also come to understand, to some extent, what was similar and what was different between this world and the one she’d lived in.
“These people can’t use pure Od before it transforms into mana or aura. They just haven’t discovered it yet. So if whatever’s in the lake is related to Od…”
When Rita stood up, the Duchess panicked and grabbed her.
“W-where are you going, Liri? Leaving Mommy behind—”
“I’m sorry, just for a moment…”
Rita gently disentangled herself and pressed a hand to her throat.
“⟨I desire. A wall for safety.⟩”
With the eerie, resonant voice, Od moved as she wished. Earth surged up from the ground, forming a fairly high wall around the Duchess. This, too, was a spell her friend had taught her.
“Liri? Liri?”
“Please wait inside there for a moment. I’ll be right back.”
Leaving the Duchess pounding frantically on the earthen wall, Rita hurried away. She reentered the lake, touching her throat again.
“⟨I desire. Free breath, anywhere.⟩”
Wind gathered around her face. In that state, she dove into the lake. The air drawn in by magic wrapped around her head like a bubble, allowing her to breathe.
Swimming deeper, Rita scattered her Od around her as before. A golden haze spread softly from her center.
Before long, something at the deep bottom flickered in response. She headed straight for it. As she drew closer, a gradually brightening shape emerged from the pitch-black water.
