The Return of Lilietta - Chapter 30

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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 30

“Close the door.”

Even as she said this, Rita expected he wouldn’t listen to her. That’s why she quickly aimed her gun.

She shot at Gid. He reflexively closed the door and ducked down. The bullet was blocked by the basement’s iron door as expected.

At the same time, she processed the Star’s Aurora held in her other hand. She changed it all to have properties similar to gunpowder. The strange magical power transformed as she guided it. It was easier than she had prepared for.

An enormous amount of power surged in her grasp. Her hand was already tearing and bursting. Rita was satisfied.

With this level of explosion, all the demon beasts on the surface would die. The squad members who had gone underground would survive.

‘The star doesn’t have to reach the sun. Even if that fails, everyone can survive this way.’

She aimed her bleeding hand toward the sky, toward the sun that had turned to ash and scattered dull light. The softly rippling aurora swirled around her raised hand like a flag fluttering in the wind.

The star was the bullet. The aurora was the gunpowder. Her Oath was the trigger. Her body was the barrel.

The recoil from this firing would completely sweep away this entire area.

She saw Gid, who had briefly closed the door to block the bullet, immediately opening it again.

“Don’t do it, damn it, don’t do such a thing!”

She heard his anguished voice as he realized the ‘optimal strategy.’

Before the door could fully open, before it was too late, she fired toward the sun.

“Rita! Please!”

With Gid Pascal’s despairing face as the last thing she saw, light exploded.

Flames covered her entire field of vision. All the demon beasts around her burned white-hot. She felt as if her limbs were being torn apart. She saw a star shooting toward the sky from her fingertips. The surging light headed toward the ash-covered sun.

‘It’s a success.’

She had that intuition. She felt proud and thought she smiled.

That was her last memory.

* * *

When she opened her eyes again after that, she was submerged in a lake in an unfamiliar body.

That’s how she returned to this world, back in Lillieta’s body.

Rita didn’t tell them everything about her past life.

Even though she condensed it as much as possible and omitted detailed content and personal impressions, it still became a long story since it covered twelve years of her life.

‘I hope everyone is safe.’

Thinking of that last moment made her worry about her comrades. She believed it must have succeeded, but she hadn’t actually seen the results.

What if it failed and everyone was in danger…

‘No, even if the star didn’t reach the sun, all the demon beasts would definitely have died. It was an explosion of that magnitude. Everyone must have survived safely and returned to the Last Line of Defense.’

By now, Beacon might have become a beacon of hope announcing the end of war, true to its name. All of humanity might be working together to find and recover the fallen star, devising strategies to end the war.

‘Even if I can’t see that…’

She had expected to die, but she returned to this peaceful world, to her homeland, so she was lucky.

Though she might never see her comrades again.

‘I wish they could all come here instead.’

That thought occurred to her without thinking.

Everyone would love this place.

Oli would be delighted by all the books lying around everywhere, and Sera would be amazed by the various clothes and accessories.

Is, who loved plants, would be absorbed in flower viewing, and Luca, the big eater, would be distracted by the abundant food.

‘I’m not sure about Ethan, he’s crazy in many ways.’

Still, he’d probably like that there are many stars in the sky. He was the guy who would climb onto rooftops whenever he couldn’t see any and stare at the pitch-black night sky with barely one or two visible stars.

‘And Gid is…’

“Look at this, Rita. It’s a cookbook from the old era. It’s mostly desserts.”

“What’s the point of looking at that? It just makes me hungrier.”

“We might be able to recreate some of these if we do well. Which one looks most delicious to you?”

“…This one? I’m curious what it would taste like.”

“Cream puff?”

“It looks like a biscuit but it says it’s soft and sweet. Biscuits feel like they’d break your teeth.”

“That’s true.”

“Why are you tearing out that page?”

“I want to try making it someday when I can get the ingredients.”

…He was strangely interested in desserts. If Gid came to this abundant world, he might learn confectionery.

‘Wow, but that really doesn’t suit him. That guy making pastries.’

Still, she wanted to see it.

Gid, Oli, Sera, Is, Ethan, the youngest.

Everyone who fought back-to-back with her and slept with shoulders touching. Those who were with her like breath even in blood and mud.

‘…But it’s okay if I can’t see them. There’s no guarantee that dying there would bring them all back here like me… It’s much better for them to be safe there.’

Everyone must be surviving and writing new history.

Rita decided to believe that. Otherwise, she felt she wouldn’t be able to maintain her sanity.

She set down her empty coffee cup at her feet. Then she looked around at her family sitting in the drawing room.

The Countess looked like she might faint. The Duke sat with his mouth firmly shut, chin resting on his hand.

Leonhardt was frozen with a pale face. Richard blinked several times as if wanting to hide his wavering eyes, then stammered out words.

“So, Lillieta. You… started training in that world from age 10… enlisted at just 12, experienced such… terrible things, constantly fought monsters called demon beasts, lived only on battlefields and in ruins… then died by self-destruction at 22? And then you woke up here?”

“Yeah. Good summary, Richard.”

“This is insane.”

Richard spat out curses while roughly running his hands through his hair. Curses like “crazy bastards” and “go to hell” mumbled around in his mouth.

Rita looked around at her family again. They all looked very shocked.

‘Of course they would be. It’s a common life in that world, but unimaginable here.’

Even the frontline soldiers here, or mercenaries who wander around hunting monsters, don’t live like she did. Peace is so natural they probably don’t even feel it’s precious. Just like people in the world she lived in didn’t even know what peace was.

‘Even I, who experienced both worlds, feel confused and alienated, so how must people who only knew this place feel.’

Pascal’s end, betrayed by family, and memories of being loved as Lillieta clashed in her head. She opened her mouth calmly without revealing her tangled feelings.

“Does it feel strange?”

“What does?”

Leonhardt asked back with a bloodless face. Lillieta gave a bitter smile.

“Me.”

“What do you mean.”

“I’m not the Lillieta you knew.”

Leonhardt’s face contorted. Before he could say anything, Rita quickly spoke first.

“But this is who I am now. I was Lillieta of Birch Tree Castle, but I’m also Rita Pascal of Beacon Squad. I can’t deny the time I lived as Rita, nor do I want to.”

She lowered her eyes. Looking down at the empty cup with dried coffee stains instead of her family’s faces, she continued.

“Even if it’s strange and unfamiliar, it can’t be helped. Ten years have passed. I can’t come back as the same ‘Lillieta’ from those days, as if nothing happened.”

She had told them everything about how many people she had killed besides demon beasts and how bizarre the environment she lived in was. Things that were daily life for Rita were utterly grotesque from Lillieta’s perspective. Naturally, they would sound the same to her family.

A world where people dying and disappearing was so natural it wasn’t even a problem, and a world where someone’s death becomes a major incident. A world where people ate people, and a world where people could raise livestock to eat.

How would Pascal’s child, who was called a monster and ostracized even in that world, appear in this one.

‘It wouldn’t be strange if they found me unfamiliar. Not being able to treat me like before… would be natural too.’

I’m no longer that Lillieta, so how could I be loved like that Lillieta was.

Rita imagined how her family would treat her now.

They would be confused and keep their distance, or find her awkward. At least they wouldn’t use her like a weapon or betray and abandon her. Fortunately, the family she loved weren’t those kinds of people. There would be no betrayal.

…Even if that happened by any chance, it would be okay. Since this was family she never even expected to regain, she wouldn’t be hurt even if it came to that. She had learned countless times how foolish it was to trust and expect things from people.

She continued to steel her heart. To keep from breaking.

“Lillieta.”

Finally, the Duke called her name.

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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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