The Return of Lilietta - Chapter 24

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 24

The family members sat in their comfortable spots, each holding cups filled with coffee or tea. The Countess by the window, the Duke beside her, Leonhardt by the door, Richard near the wall close to the fireplace.

Lillieta sat in front of the fireplace. The gazes of the family members gathered around her focused on her.

The whole family had assembled. Now it was time to reveal what had happened during the lost years.

She savored a sip of coffee, which had been precious and hard to drink in the world of ashes, then slowly began to speak.

“That night… I had a strange dream.”

Lillieta unfolded her story while drinking the warm, bitter beverage. The life she had lived from that night when her entire existence changed completely until now.

* * *

Lillieta, who had become ‘Rita’, lived in a strange building.

There was a large room lined with beds carved with magic circles. More than ten orphaned children around her age, between 10 and 14 years old, lived together in that room.

The children spent most of their days sleeping. When the bell rang, they lay down on their beds, and once they lay down, sleep poured over them like madness. Various knowledge was crammed into their sleeping minds.

Then when they heard the bell again and woke up, their heads hurt as if they would split. Some vomited, and a very few among them spat blood. Children who coughed up blood were taken away by Pascal and never returned.

For several months, except for eating, washing, and brief exercise time, they spent their days sleeping like that. At some point, the sleeping hours decreased.

“It’s time to make vows.”

Pascal called the children one by one, conducted strange examinations, then awakened their Od. He personally decided the content of the vows, but no one knew by what criteria he made these decisions.

“You… were an exceptional case.”

When it was Rita’s turn, Pascal remained silent for a while.

“…Just vow to eliminate all conspicuous magical beasts. That’s the safest option.”

Rita and the other children all became oath-bound individuals who had awakened their Od.

Then full-scale training began. Now when the bell rang, instead of lying down on beds, they had to go down the stairs to the underground.

Underground, there were many small rooms like a honeycomb. These rooms were called ‘training rooms.’

Inside the training rooms, different magical beasts appeared each time in various environments. They were all fakes created by magic, but they were as vivid as real ones, and if you were injured by them, you felt pain as if it were real.

Pascal gave each child different weapons, then sent them into the training rooms one by one.

The children didn’t know by what criteria he distributed the weapons. However, they all perfectly matched their aptitudes. Except for Rita.

What Rita received was a dagger. The knowledge that came to mind was assassination techniques for throwing daggers and skills for stealth attacks.

She didn’t know it at the time, but none of it matched her aptitude at all.

The children said that when they stood before magical beasts, they naturally knew what to do. How to handle their weapons, how to use Od, how to fight magical beasts – they already knew it all in their heads.

However, knowing something in your head was different from actually doing it with your body.

At first, everyone came out dead. It was fake death from illusions, but the pain was real. Most couldn’t eat, and some fainted from shock and couldn’t even get up. There were children who screamed in terror and tried to run away.

Regardless, when the bell rang, the children had to go underground and enter the training rooms. Even children who wet themselves and fainted, even those who ran away and hid under beds – there were no exceptions.

Under the gaze of Pascal wearing his hood, something invisible dragged all the children out and shoved them into the training rooms. The doors wouldn’t open until either the magical beast died or the child died in the illusion.

This kind of life continued endlessly.

At some point, the children began talking during meal times about what magical beasts they fought and where. They shared their combat methods and trained voluntarily during free time. They also sparred with each other.

They quickly became familiar with the knowledge in their heads and their weapons. Their skills improved rapidly, as if they were relearning something they already knew.

Those kids now casually entered the training rooms daily, killed magical beasts, came out, and while tearing bread talked about how they cut off a beast’s leg today or finally succeeded in bursting a beast’s eyeball.

Rita was confused.

Unlike the other children, she still came out dead from magical beasts every day. The dagger didn’t suit her hands at all, and the knowledge in her head and her hands worked separately.

Unlike the other children who had adapted to combat, she couldn’t get used to fighting at all, so she still vomited when coming out of the training rooms.

She wasn’t even at the level of a poor student. Having never once come out of the training room alive, she was closer to a failing student, or defective goods.

The children didn’t bully her, but they didn’t try to be friendly either. Because there was nothing to gain from her.

Pascal didn’t teach or discipline the children. He just put them to sleep, fed them, and pushed them into training rooms like a factory according to a set schedule.

During the time when she couldn’t get along with anyone and was alone, drowning in self-loathing.

The only person who extended a hand to her then was Gid.

“You still haven’t killed a single magical beast, have you?”

Gid was a boy who stood out remarkably among the children. He killed magical beasts fastest every day and came out of the training rooms, and he was handsome, clever, and kind.

Many children consulted Gid about the magical beasts they encountered that day and received advice about combat methods from him. At some point, almost all the children were relying on Gid.

“Should I help you?”

Such a person extended his hand to her, the last remaining, most behind and isolated one.

However, instead of gratefully taking that hand, Rita said calmly.

“It’s fine, you don’t really like this kind of thing anyway.”

“What?”

“You don’t need to force yourself to help me too. You actually find it annoying and dislike it when kids ask for help, right? Since Pascal doesn’t interfere with whatever we do, you don’t need to try so hard to look good. You can just leave a failing student like me alone.”

Because she was isolated among the children, there were things she could see better.

The slight wrinkles that formed on the boy’s brow whenever he faced children clinging to him asking for help, sparring, or teaching. The expectant look in his eyes whenever he looked at Pascal.

Rita was the only child who noticed that Gid was leading and teaching the children reluctantly to gain Pascal’s recognition.

Hearing Rita’s response, Gid froze, speechless. She left the frozen boy behind and went elsewhere.

The next day, Gid approached Rita again as she was vomiting after dying in the training room.

“Isn’t it hard dying every time?”

“Of course it’s hard.”

“Should I help you?”

“I told you, you don’t need to force yourself.”

“It’s not forcing. I also want to get help from you with something.”

“From me? You?”

“You seem to have good eyes. And you don’t try to read Pascal’s mood.”

Gid asked her to watch him fight magical beasts in the training room tomorrow, saying he would just avoid the beasts and wait until she came out. He said something kept bothering him during combat but he didn’t know what.

“Then I’ll help you too. We’ll help each other.”

The girl accepted the boy’s request.

The next day, after watching Gid’s training, she told him.

“Aren’t you left-handed? But why do you use your sword with your right hand?”

“I’m left-handed?”

“Didn’t you know? No matter how I look at it, your left hand seems more skilled.”

Gid looked down at his left hand as if it were extremely disgusting. Rita asked puzzledly.

“Do you dislike using your left hand?”

“It looks ugly. Strange and deficient.”

“It doesn’t look that way to me.”

“…You might think so, but the other kids don’t.”

“What does other people’s opinions matter? What suits you well is what’s important.”

The boy looked at the girl as if seeing something unfamiliar. He hesitated then added.

“There are also sayings that left-handed people are ominous.”

“There are such things? I’m hearing this for the first time.”

“Because the left hand is the negative hand. Bad things, wrong things are called left, and good things, right things are called right.”

Rita looked at him quietly, then extended her left hand.

“Then from now on, let’s decide differently between us.”

“What?”

“Between us, the left hand means good things, the right hand means bad things. When good things happen, we’ll extend left fingers, and when bad things happen, we’ll extend right fingers. How about it?”

The boy stared blankly at Rita’s extended left hand for a long time, then slowly extended his own left hand to clasp it.

“Good.”

From that day on, Gid and she exchanged hand signals whenever they met.

On days they caught magical beasts, they extended left fingers, and on days they died to magical beasts, they extended right fingers. When white bread appeared in the meal, they extended their left hands, and on days when terrible food came out, they extended their right hands.

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