The Return of Lilietta - Chapter 47

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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 47

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Lillieta stared intently at the Crown Prince’s retreating figure as he disappeared among the nobles.

Jet-black hair. His tall height and broad shoulders. Even seeing him from the front was shocking, but his turned back looked even more similar. Remarkably so.

‘No way, that can’t be…’

When they first faced each other, she momentarily stopped breathing.

Because Crown Prince Gideon el Redert Kairam resembled her only comrade far too much.

‘I almost mistook him.’

She didn’t know how she managed to greet him and start dancing. She moved her body habitually while her mind was blank. Her reason gradually returned as she began to notice the differences from Gid.

‘His eyes, his right eye is there.’

Gid Pascal lost his right eye at age 14 because of that damn Squad Leader.

If he had received healing magic immediately, even if the lost eye couldn’t be restored, at least no scar would have remained, but he deserted right away and wandered the ruins without properly treating the wound.

‘Back then, Gid’s eye just wouldn’t stop bleeding… Oli finally had to cauterize it with flame magic to stop it.’

That was the best a young mage who knew nothing about healing magic could do at the time. Oli set fire to Gid’s eye while crying.

Without proper painkillers, the boy endured the terrible agony of having his wound cauterized with fire, letting out scream-like groans while clenching his teeth until they bled.

Rita, with her burst eardrum, was blankly listening to Gid’s pained groans when she let him bite her hand.

It was an unconscious action. If left alone, his teeth would be damaged. His eye had become like this because of her. She couldn’t let him suffer alone.

When Gid woke up after fainting from the pain, he saw Rita’s mangled hand that he had bitten and flew into a rage, saying she had done something stupid.

Rita obediently apologized. She could have torn off a piece of cloth and bundled it for him to bite, she had certainly done something foolish. She didn’t know why that thought hadn’t occurred to her in that moment.

When she apologized like that, Gid couldn’t stay angry anymore. He just looked at her with a strange expression for a long time before turning his head away.

The large burn scar around Gid’s eye and the bite mark scar on her left hand were left untreated for quite a long time. Because they were wanderers who couldn’t meet doctors or healers, nor obtain medicine.

Sera Pascal, whom they met later in Fair Squad, was horrified and treated their wounds.

Thanks to her efforts, the scar on Rita’s hand completely disappeared, but she couldn’t fully heal Gid’s eye scar. Though it had shrunk considerably, enough remained to protrude beyond his eyepatch.

The eyepatch covering his right eye and the surrounding scars. That was the most prominent feature of Gid Pascal’s appearance.

In contrast, Crown Prince Gideon had both eyes intact. Despite having a face identical to Gid’s, his right eye was there.

Rita found this so fascinating and strangely bitter that she kept staring into those eyes throughout their dance.

‘If Gid hadn’t lost his eye back then, would he have grown up like this?’

As she did so, she noticed the differences.

‘The iris color is slightly different.’

Gid’s eyes were a pale ochre color. When light caught them, they would sometimes glint like gold, but usually they were a comfortable color like well-dried earth or sand.

The Crown Prince’s eyes were a vivid golden color. Those eyes, which mysteriously held light even in shadow, gleamed as if amber stones had been embedded in them.

‘His features too… feel slightly more refined. How should I put it, um, like he was raised preciously.’

Objectively, the Crown Prince was more handsome than Gid Pascal. She could make that judgment easily enough. But Rita thought the Crown Prince’s face was too perfect, lacking humanity.

‘He’s like a sculpture, not appealing. He should be more human-like with a crooked mouth, a slightly bent nose, darker and rougher skin… Ah, right, then he’d just be Gid Pascal.’

She let out a hollow laugh and almost stepped on the Crown Prince’s foot. After narrowly avoiding his foot, Rita summarized her feelings.

‘I miss Gid.’

It had been well over a month since she came to this world.

Rita Pascal had never been separated from him for such a long period. From their training days through various squads and countless battlefields, they had stuck together for a full 12 years.

Being apart for two or three days on different missions didn’t feel particularly strange. A week apart was rare but not unheard of, so she didn’t mind it.

But after more than a month, her comrade’s absence felt increasingly large.

Probably this emptiness would grow with time… If she couldn’t return to Beacon like this, if such a long time passed, it would gradually fade as she forgot him.

Rita looked up at the Crown Prince again carefully. Even while dancing together, his gaze was directed elsewhere, not at her.

‘…Fear not death. Your deaths shall become seeds of hope.’

She recited Pascal’s maxim again. Based on this maxim, based on her own case, what she had speculated.

‘If other Pascal’s Children also return to their original world after dying like I did…’

But even if that were the case by any chance, the Beacon Squad members wouldn’t have died. They would be alive and well, so there would be no reason for them to return.

With what feelings had she fired that star, and if even her comrades had all died there… She didn’t want to imagine such a thing.

But still, just maybe.

‘Looking at my case and Hanna’s… the similar person is a stranger. Rather, there’s more possibility with those around them.’

Could there be missing persons around the Crown Prince?

Rita couldn’t suppress the question that suddenly occurred to her.

“Your Highness the Crown Prince.”

So she unconsciously opened her mouth, then swallowed her words.

As Rita Pascal, she wanted to ask directly, consequences be damned.

Have you ever kidnapped someone while possessed by something? Do you have memories of stuffing people into coffins with strange magic circles drawn on them? Isn’t there someone around you who’s been missing for a long time?

But as Noblewoman Lillieta of Raskail, she couldn’t ask the Crown Prince such insane questions.

‘A family that’s already been in seclusion for the past 10 years. Duke Adickl, the Crown Prince’s enemy, might be behind my kidnapping, and even brother Leon has to marry sister Anne, who’s Adickl’s cousin… In this situation, I can’t fall out of the Crown Prince’s favor.’

Raskail needed to give trust to the Crown Prince. Or support him firmly.

‘Rather than asking the Crown Prince strange questions for no reason, couldn’t I investigate separately? Long-term missing persons should be surprisingly easy to find.’

Thinking this and closing her mouth, the Crown Prince suddenly asked.

“Do you have something to say to me, Noblewoman?”

Having swallowed her intended words, she had nothing immediate to say. Rita continued the waltz while pondering what to say, then suddenly thought.

‘Come to think of it, even though this person is within touching distance, I hardly feel any wariness.’

She didn’t need to endure or make an effort. Before she knew it, she was dancing naturally and comfortably with him.

Was it because he resembled Gid so much?

‘But he can’t be Gid. Someone who resembles him this much would be like Hanna’s case. Like Hanna, the Crown Prince is probably also a body that Pascal used as a means of possession…’

But could she be certain?

Could she hastily generalize that all Pascal’s Children were cases like hers?

‘Each Pascal could be different.’

What if the Crown Prince really was the returned Gid?

Her head spun.

“What do you think of patchouli scent?”

That question just popped out.

“I don’t particularly like it.”

“…Me neither.”

She wanted to test him a little more. But the Crown Prince didn’t seem to want to talk with her much.

“I see.”

He answered briefly and averted his gaze as if annoyed. Rita was about to say something more but just closed her mouth. It was strange to see a face like Gid’s turning away from her.

‘Fine, it’s not like I won’t have opportunities to see the Crown Prince after today… Let me first investigate whether there are any missing persons around the Crown Prince.’

Making up her mind, she focused only on the waltz after that. Even so, she couldn’t help but glance at him unconsciously because he resembled Gid so much.

Especially her gaze kept going to his intact eyes.

‘If only I could have healed Gid’s eye like that too.’

Since it was an eye lost practically because of her.

Then when the Crown Prince bowed and turned away, Lillieta unconsciously stiffened.

When looking at his front, the differences were more noticeable, but when he turned around, he was just Gid Pascal.

She almost unconsciously called out “Gid.” She bit her tongue and held back.

‘…He can’t be Gid.’

Even if he had died in the Ashen World, which was impossible, and even if he had been incredibly lucky to return to the same world as her hometown, to this place, the chances were high that it wouldn’t be in that body.

After all, she herself had returned as Lillieta, not Hanna.

‘No, it could be different. I can’t generalize from just my one case… Damn, my head feels like it’s going to explode. I’m going crazy, really.’

Her feelings were so terribly complicated that she just stood there in a daze.

Leonhardt had approached closely to block the young noble gentlemen who were sneakily trying to get near her to ask for a dance, when he called out to her with a puzzled expression.

“Rita? What’s wrong?”

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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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