The Return of Lilietta - Chapter 11

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Chapter 11

The guest room she was currently staying in was on the third floor. But if she obediently went down the stairs, she would lose track of the Countess.

Rita climbed over the windowsill, placed her index and middle fingers on her throat, and let Od flow through.

“〈I desire.〉”

A strangely resonating voice emerged.

“〈Wind to prevent my fall.〉”

She chanted the spell and immediately jumped down.

One of the basic spells that even she, a magic gunner, could use. Wind gathered and gently supported her falling body.

Landing softly in the garden like a feather, she ran down the birch forest path, chasing after the Countess who had already disappeared from sight.

“Huff, gasp…”

She quickly became out of breath. Her feet, wearing only bedroom slippers, hurt too.

She had been thinking about it for the past few days, but this body was truly as fragile as it looked. The frame itself was so delicate that even training probably wouldn’t have much effect.

‘The Od aptitude is insanely good, but the body is really weak. Found her!’

The Countess’s figure was visible between the white birch trees.

Rita reflexively almost called out to her but quickly covered her mouth. The fact that she wasn’t Lillieta but was occupying Lillieta’s body came to mind again.

‘Something to cover my face…’

The moon was too bright.

While she pondered what to do, the Countess was pacing around the lakeside. She kept looking around restlessly as if searching for something, bending down to rummage through the ground and bushes.

What she was looking for was obvious. Rita watched the scene with mixed feelings of pity and guilt.

Soon a thin voice could be heard.

“Lili, Lili…”

The Countess burst into tears.

With a gaunt face and disheveled hair, she sobbed while desperately calling her daughter’s name. Tears fell onto the water surface like moonlight.

“Where are you? Lili, my daughter… Where are you crying? Mommy will definitely find you, okay? Don’t cry…”

Rita bit her lips tightly. Once again, she felt sorry for not being the real Lillieta.

‘Why did I have to enter this body of all bodies. If I had been an orphan with no family looking for me like myself, I wouldn’t feel this way.’

Suddenly the Countess whipped her head around.

“Lili, are you here? Are you crying alone in this cold place? Mommy’s coming, wait, Mommy will save you…”

She rambled incoherently as she stepped into the lake. She quickly headed toward the deep part. Her thin, long negligee fluttered in the water like a jellyfish.

“…!”

Rita, who had been standing in the tree shade, was startled and ran out. In a situation where something terrible was about to happen, it didn’t matter that she would be seen as Lillieta.

“Madam!”

She jumped into the lake without thinking. Since it was early spring and the middle of the night, the water that was more than cool—it was cold—assaulted her entire body, making her teeth chatter involuntarily.

Regardless, she waded through the water.

“Countess! Stop! Stop! It’s dangerous!”

Rita swam into the increasingly deep lake and barely managed to grab the Countess’s shoulder.

“I said stop!”

“Lili, Lili is…”

The Countess didn’t even look back at her and struggled to go deeper. Rita hugged her from behind, pulled her back, and shouted.

“What are you talking about! Your daughter isn’t there!”

“She is!”

The Countess screamed like a shriek.

“She’s there! Lili is here! She’s calling for mommy so desperately! Let go—!”

She twisted her entire body as if having a seizure. Violent ripples spread across the surface of the quiet lake.

“No! She’s not there! Your daughter, Lillieta is—”

Holding back the rampaging Countess with Lillieta’s frail body in water up to her waist wasn’t easy.

Rita’s foot stepped somewhere wrong as she tried to drag her out somehow.

A point where the water depth suddenly increased and the bottom disappeared.

Her foot slipped along the slope. They fell into the water together. Splash, water sprayed up.

‘Mmph!’

Bubbles erupted like a volcano and for a moment nothing was visible. Soon after, red hair could be glimpsed fluttering and sinking downward in the dark lake.

Rita held her breath and desperately reached out her hand. At the same time, she moved the Od within her body.

‘I’m a processing type so I’m not good at physical enhancement, but right now somehow…!’

She drew up Od and wrapped it around her entire body. Golden light spread like a mirage in the black underwater.

Her arm, which had gained strength by crudely forcing Od into it since she lacked the abilities of a strengthening-type contractor, glowed with a subtle light as it grabbed the Countess’s arm.

The Countess finally looked back at her underwater. The pale face revealed between the red hair swirling in the current looked at the one holding her.

Her daughter’s face revealed in the dark water, wrapped in golden light.

Rita realized how to save this pitiful mother. She moved her lips and spoke soundlessly.

Look. Your daughter is right here.

The Countess opened her blue eyes wide. She opened her mouth. Bubbles burst out like tears.

Lili! Lili!

Hands as dry as tree branches grabbed both of Rita’s cheeks. Rita hesitated as she tried to swim to the surface while holding the Countess who was clinging to her.

‘What is that?’

In the suddenly deepened area, at the distant bottom of the lake, something was glowing golden. As if responding to her Od that had leaked out around her while forcibly strengthening her body.

‘What on earth… No, first I need to save the Countess…’

She shot up to the surface for now. As soon as she stuck her head out of the water, the Countess coughed loudly.

“Cough, hack, cough, cough…”

Rita dragged the Countess to the lakeside. Only after completely getting out of the lake did she let go of the Countess and collapse, gasping for breath.

“Huff, gasp, ugh…”

Her vision spun and she felt nauseous. It was because she had overexerted herself trying to imitate a strengthening-type contractor while being a processing type.

“My idiot friend, why do you think contractor types exist? Huh? Do you think they’re classified just to look cool? Are you really going to keep operating Od like this? I’ve told you countless times that just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should!”

“Urgent my ass! If it’s urgent, use magic! Don’t stupidly compensate with your body! That’s why I taught you rapid spells!”

The nagging of her bespectacled mage friend naturally echoed in her ears. Rita stopped retching, let out a hollow laugh, and wiped what might have been water or cold sweat from her face.

‘Still, this is pretty good condition. Maybe it’s because of the good aptitude.’

As she finally stabilized her breathing, a trembling voice was heard beside her.

“Lili…?”

When she turned her head, the Countess was shivering in her soaked state, reaching out her hand toward her.

“Lili, is it Lili? Lillieta?”

Rita hesitated for a moment, then took that hand and smiled awkwardly.

“Yes.”

“Ah, my daughter! My daughter has returned, finally, ah, Lili, Lili…”

The Countess pulled her into an embrace and wailed. Rita accepted her embrace for a moment, then carefully pulled away.

“Ma… um, excuse me, wait a moment.”

She didn’t like the feeling of deceiving such a desperate person, pretending to be Lillieta was burdensome, and most of all, the golden light she had glimpsed at the bottom of the lake was very concerning.

‘From the beginning, when I opened my eyes in this body, I was in that lake. Is there something inside it?’

She had been told that Leonhardt had searched the lake bottom several times but found nothing.

‘If it responds to pure Od, people from this world might not be able to find it. The people here seemed to use magic without knowing what Od is.’

During the past three days of wandering around Birch Tree Castle and talking with many servants, she hadn’t only learned things related to Lillieta.

Rita had somewhat figured out what was similar and what was different between this world and where she used to live.

‘People in this world don’t know how to utilize pure Od before it transforms into mana or aura. They haven’t discovered it yet. So if something in the lake is related to Od…’

When Rita stood up, the Countess grabbed her in panic.

“Wh, wh, where are you going, Lili? Where are you going, leaving mommy…”

“I’m sorry, just for a moment…”

Rita carefully pulled her away and placed one hand on her throat.

“〈I desire. A wall for safety.〉”

With the strangely resonating voice, Od moved according to her will. Earth that shot up from the ground formed a fairly high wall surrounding the Countess. This was also magic her friend had taught her.

“Lili? Lili?”

“Please wait inside there for a moment. I’ll be back soon.”

Rita left the Countess pounding frantically on the earthen wall and hurried away. She entered the lake again, pressing her fingers to her throat.

“〈I desire it. Free breath wherever I may be.〉”

Wind gathered around her face. In that state, she dove into the lake. The air drawn by magic surrounded her head like bubbles, allowing her to breathe.

Rita swam deeper while scattering her Od around her surroundings as she had done before. Golden shimmer spread softly outward with her at the center.

Before long, something glittered in response from the deep bottom. She immediately headed toward it. As she drew closer, a gradually glowing form emerged from the pitch-black water.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————