The Return of Lilietta - Chapter 3

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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 3

“What the hell, when did you get here? You don’t even have stealth skills like Ethan, so why do you always appear without any presence?”

Startled Rita retorted as she stood up and reached for the gun that had been taken from her.

“Give me back my gun!”

“Where did the output limiter on this go? Oli, was this your doing?”

He glared at the bespectacled woman while frowning his perfectly drawn eyebrows with all his might. The woman crossed her arms and gestured toward Rita with her chin.

“If I didn’t remove it, that girl would blow up her own body instead of using the gun. What should I do? Sister Sera, who examined Rita, said it would be better to just remove the restriction at this point.”

“…This is really driving me crazy.”

The man who let out a deep sigh returned the gun to Rita while speaking ominously.

“Rita, you know that every time you go wild, I feel like my lifespan is being shortened, right? Please take care of your body.”

“You don’t take care of your own body either, charging in recklessly and then getting saved thanks to me, so what are you saying?”

“That’s not called charging in recklessly, it’s called a strategic breakthrough.”

“So would Captain Gid Pascal, who was executing the strategic breakthrough operation, have lived or died if I hadn’t gone wild?”

Rita asked back with a grin as she holstered the returned magic gun at her waist. The man called Gid answered while gritting his teeth.

“Ha, fine. I did survive thanks to you going crazy and wild.”

“If you know that, then plan operations instead of worrying about me.”

Rita pulled him away, distancing themselves from the other ‘Pascals’.

Heading into the relatively intact tower within the ruined fortress, she lowered her voice and asked.

“Has Senior Is returned from reconnaissance?”

“He returned a little while ago. That’s why I came looking for you.”

“Good news or bad news?”

Gid silently held up three fingers on his right hand. Rita let out a hollow laugh.

“Only three pieces of bad news? Damn, what is it?”

“Let’s discuss the details inside.”

He opened the tower door for her like a gentleman and continued speaking.

“These are things that would be difficult to handle without you. We need your opinion.”

“Isn’t our captain relying on me too much? What would you do without me?”

“Don’t you know that yet, Rita?”

At her joke-like remark, he smiled slightly and added.

“I can’t live without you.”

* * *

She dreamed of the day before her death.

Rita opened her eyes.

The moment she woke from the dream, she bolted upright and tensed her entire body. A strange place where she couldn’t sense any presence of her familiar comrades.

She couldn’t believe she had slept so comfortably in such a place. She felt around her waist while staying alert to her surroundings.

The magic gun that had been as familiar as her own body wasn’t there. Instead, what her fingertips caught was smooth, long hair.

Rita brought it before her eyes to examine it. The hair caught the morning sunlight streaming through the window and sparkled like golden thread.

“…”

It wasn’t the reddish-brown color familiar to her, but amazingly vivid golden hair.

‘This isn’t my body.’

She got out of bed while maintaining her tension. For her, who was used to sleeping on dirt floors or places even worse than dirt floors, the bed was awkwardly soft.

She was drawn to approach the sunlit window.

Flowers were in full bloom in the well-maintained garden. Beyond the fence entwined with rose vines bearing buds, she could see a birch forest full of white trees dressed in light green.

For her, who had lived in a gray world where it was hard to see even a single sprout, this was the fresh spring scenery she had only seen in pictures.

Moreover, what stretched endlessly above that scenery was a crystal clear blue sky. Not hazy or murky, and not covered with unpleasantly colored clouds.

‘Such a clear sky.’

Rita opened the window as if enchanted. Instead of unpleasant, stuffy air, refreshing air mixed with flower fragrance penetrated her nostrils. The chirping of birds pierced her ears.

The moment she saw a brilliant sun hanging in the sky, so dazzling she couldn’t even look directly at it, instead of the barely flickering ember of an ashen sun, Rita realized anew.

‘What I saw yesterday wasn’t a mistake. This isn’t where I used to live. It’s a completely different world.’

Yesterday’s memories slowly came back.

She thought she had died, but opened her eyes underwater and met a man who suddenly claimed she was his younger sister who had gone missing ten years ago.

‘I clearly told him I wasn’t his sister but someone else… but he didn’t seem to believe me very well.’

She was inwardly greatly flustered when he casually showed her his back.

According to her common sense, showing one’s back so defensively to a stranger was impossible.

So she decided to trust him for now.

While being carried on his back, she looked around. The birch forest and the lake bathed in sunset glow were so unbelievably beautiful and vivid that she seemed to have admired them unconsciously.

After that, they arrived at a huge and splendid cream-colored castle she had never seen before, and then…

She had no memory.

She lost consciousness in such an unfamiliar place?

‘I didn’t faint. Looking at my current physical condition, I wasn’t hit anywhere or affected by drugs. Don’t tell me I just fell asleep?’

Fell asleep defensively? Rita Pascal? Without any comrades around?

She had let her guard down.

‘My clothes changed too. Someone changed my clothes and I couldn’t stay conscious and just slept? This is crazy. Just how many hours was I defenseless?’

While goosebumps ran down her spine, she suddenly heard a knocking sound.

Rita was more surprised by the fact that she hadn’t noticed someone’s presence until they could approach close enough to knock than by the sound itself.

‘My senses have become incredibly dull. Is it because this is someone else’s body?’

It was a body that hadn’t undergone any training. She couldn’t even sense the Od that she had used as naturally as breathing.

She couldn’t face an intruder’s invasion in such a powerless state. No matter how peaceful the outside scenery was and how surprisingly luxurious the room was, she couldn’t let her guard down again.

She reflexively looked for something that could serve as a weapon.

“Haven’t you woken up yet? I’m coming in, Miss.”

When there was no response from inside the room despite waiting, the maid who carefully entered was startled.

The bed was empty, and no one was visible inside.

Miss Lillieta, who had returned after ten years, had disappeared again!

“Oh no, this is terri-, mmph.”

The maid’s mouth was immediately blocked as she was about to scream and alert people.

“Be quiet.”

Along with a whispered voice from behind, a sharply broken mirror fragment was thrust before her eyes like a blade.

“If you make a sound, I’ll kill you. Nod if you understand.”

The maid trembled and nodded her head. Rita slowly removed her hand. While doing so, she suddenly noticed the maid’s hair.

‘Reddish-brown.’

It was the same color as her original hair. Though the color of her eyes when she turned around and her facial features were different.

Rita interrogated the frightened maid while holding the mirror fragment toward her.

“Where is this place?”

“The, the, the Raskail Ducal Mansion, Miss…”

“Where is that located?”

“Huh? It’s in the ducal territory… Don’t, don’t, don’t you remember?”

“I don’t know. Explain the location more specifically.”

“The, the Raskail Manor is, in the Kornul Plain in the Northern Region of the Kairam Empire, at Birch Tree Castle in the center of the ducal territory that extends along the Hi, Hinder River…”

As expected, these were all place names she was hearing for the first time. Rita swallowed a sigh and asked something else.

“Who are you?”

“I’m, I’m a maid of the ducal house, and from to, today I’m assigned to serve you, Miss. My, my, my name is Hanna…”

“A maid? Were you the one who changed my clothes?”

She was wearing new pajamas that were much more frilly and reached her ankles, instead of the torn and wet clothes she had worn yesterday.

“Yes, yes! I, I changed your clothes last night, Miss…”

Hanna trembled and nodded frantically. Rita asked with a glimmer of hope.

“When you changed my clothes, did you happen to see any of my belongings?”

“Par, pardon?”

“A dagger or identification tag, a belt with small pouches, a necklace or compass, things like that.”

“Ah, ah, there was nothing at all….”

As expected.

I already knew from the moment I woke up that I had no possessions, but I couldn’t give up hope and had to confirm it.

Rita bit her lips and opened her mouth again.

“Then, about what happened last night—”

“I’ll answer that.”

A man’s voice suddenly interrupted.

Rita was startled once again. How could she not notice someone approaching this close?

She turned around warily to see the blonde man who had carried her yesterday standing at the doorway.

Come to think of it, that man had almost the exact same blonde hair as her current self. The eye color she had confirmed again while breaking the mirror earlier was similar too, and their faces resembled each other undeniably.

Even when I first saw my reflection in the lake, I thought so….

‘They’re definitely siblings. With this body.’

He slowly entered the room and said.

“Let’s talk, Rita. Let the innocent maid go now.”

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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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