The Return of Lilietta - Chapter 6
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————
Chapter 6
The probability that the named demon beast inside devouring people hadn’t noticed them outside? Zero.
The probability that two people with no special abilities could escape from a demon beast without being caught and call for support? That was also zero.
The probability of skipping aptitude tests and forcibly awakening Od right now regardless of whether her body would suffer side effects or rejection, then fighting and winning against a named demon beast barehanded without a gun despite being a magic gunner?
‘It depends on what type that demon beast is, but that’s not zero.’
This judgment took exactly 3 seconds.
Rita decided to fight the demon beast after forced awakening.
‘If this body has no Od aptitude and I have a seizure, it’s over. Or maybe awakening won’t work at all since this is a different world…’
Still, she had to try. There was no other possibility of survival.
Cold sweat instantly covered her entire body.
‘Damn it, you said there were no demon beasts here!’
Just as she was about to curse at Leonhardt and try to awaken Od.
“What’s wrong, Miss? Is there a mouse or something?”
Hanna popped out from behind her and poked her head into the dressroom.
“…!”
If it had been Rita Pascal’s trained body, she wouldn’t have missed a civilian like this, but frail Lillieta’s body was inferior even to Hanna who had been strengthened by maid work.
This meant Hanna had entered the dressroom before she could react.
“There doesn’t seem to be anything…”
“No!”
Rita urgently warned her.
“The smell! Can’t you smell it! Get back! Get back!”
“Smell?”
Hanna, who seemed about to be torn apart by the demon beast any moment, poked her intact face out of the dressroom and showed a small pouch.
“Do you mean this smell?”
A thick, acrid scent poured out from the small pouch. The smell of a named demon beast digesting humans.
‘What is that?’
Rita couldn’t understand the situation for a moment.
While she stood frozen pale, Hanna opened the scent pouch and showed the dried leaves inside.
“It’s Patchouli. It’s a scent pouch I hung in the dressroom because it’s said to repel insects…”
“…Patchouli?”
She blinked blankly and asked back.
“A scent pouch? Not a demon beast?”
“Huh? What’s a demon beast?”
“…”
Rita cautiously approached Hanna while maintaining her guard. She took the scent pouch from her and searched through it thoroughly.
The pretty pouch decorated with colored thread was only filled with dried leaves.
When she picked one up and smelled it, her spine reflexively tensed. The urge to draw a gun that wasn’t even at her side surged up.
Suppressing the instinct that was frantically sounding alarms, she barely managed to judge.
‘Are these patchouli leaves?’
In the world she had lived in, they also described this scent as patchouli fragrance. There was a plant called patchouli there too.
It was just that nobody used it because it was too similar to the smell when named demon beasts devoured humans, evoking terrible memories.
‘This really is a different world. To think they’d put this creepy thing in scent pouches and use it.’
Rita put the leaf back into the scent pouch, touching it only with her fingertips to avoid contact as much as possible, then held it only by the tips and returned it to Hanna.
The smell made her feel like she was sticking her hand into a demon beast’s entrails, so she didn’t want to touch it. All sorts of horrific incidents kept coming to mind too.
She said with difficulty.
“Take this… put it far away. So it doesn’t smell.”
Hanna took the pouch with a confused face and asked back.
“Miss, do you dislike this fragrance?”
“Yes, I hate it. I never want to smell it again.”
“But it’s a popular and precious fragrance… It’s trendy nowadays to hang it in dressrooms to repel insects and let clothes absorb this scent. Wait a moment, there are more inside.”
“There are more of those things inside?”
“Since we’re the Raskails, we have plenty hung up. Patchouli has to be imported from distant countries, so it’s not easy to obtain. To think you’d dislike it… what a shame.”
Hanna sighed and made Rita wait while she went into the dressroom.
When she came out holding several of the same scent pouches, the patchouli scent grew thicker. Thick enough that even ordinary people would find the smell sharp.
“…!”
Rita reacting to that scent momentarily couldn’t calm down.
‘The smell is too… isn’t that a demon beast wearing human skin? It’s really human, right? This is a different world. There are no demon beasts here… are you sure? Really?’
She tried to sense with Od out of habit. The Od in her body didn’t move. No, there was no reaction at all. She was in an unawakened state.
There was no way to confirm whether the other party was human or demon beast.
She felt like an ant with severed antennae. Or a dog with a paralyzed nose, a blind person with open eyes.
She couldn’t tell what was in front of her.
She felt like she was going insane.
Wasn’t this civilian actually a named demon beast mimicking humans?
Blood, screams, roars, the sharp patchouli scent, cries of agony, fleeing people, the sound of a child wailing.
The squad member who had just gone to investigate beyond the wall returns. Suddenly an unfamiliar patchouli scent wafts from that body.
A familiar face. A known person. But that smell comes from them. The demon beast’s smell.
As the squad member approaches, the patchouli scent grows thicker. Rita knows what happened next.
The friend beside her approaches to greet the returning squad member. Why did you come back with the demon beast’s smell? The squad member reeking of patchouli smiles.
Smiling until their mouth tears, the mouth that splits to reach their ears instantly devours the friend.
Tearing apart the squad member’s skin they had worn, a demon beast bursts out.
Codename, Mimic.
The demon beast that bit the friend’s head like candy turns to look at her. That sharp smell grows even thicker, enough to cause dizziness…
No.
“Kyaaaah! Kheuk! Please save me! I’m sorry! Please save…”
“Lillieta! Stop!”
At the breathless woman’s scream and the startled man’s voice, her reason barely returned.
Instead of a world filled with the smell of blood and patchouli, she saw the manor’s corridor bathed in warm sunlight.
Someone forcefully grabbed her wrist and pulled it away.
Rita realized she had almost broken Hanna’s neck. If it had been Rita Pascal’s body instead of frail Lillieta’s, she might have really killed her.
‘Damn it, get it together, Rita Pascal. Get it together…’
The demon beast’s smell had disappeared. It disappeared, it didn’t disappear. The demon beast opens its mouth. Inside that mouth, her friend’s head rolls around…
“…Take it away.”
“What?”
“Take that away! Right now!”
Rita grabbed her face with both hands and screamed.
“What? Take what away? What’s wrong, Rita?”
A confused man’s voice. It was Leonhardt. Hanna gasped and urgently told him.
“Pa, pa, patchouli, I think it’s because of the patchouli, because of this!”
Bustling noises could be heard. A low questioning voice, a sobbing voice, and finally that smell moved away.
Rita sat down in a corner of the corridor with her face covered. Her shoulders heaved as if she had sprinted at full speed. She held her body and breathed heavily.
“Rita. Shh, it’s okay.”
“The demon beasts are gone now. We’re all safe.”
“You killed it. You won. So you don’t have to be afraid anymore.”
The voice of a colleague who used to comfort her came to mind.
“Can you try taking a deep breath? And slowly exhale… good, well done.”
Taking deep breaths in and out, she gradually calmed down.
As her rationality returned, anger at herself surged up. Rita gritted her teeth while holding her forehead.
‘Damn it. What kind of mess is this, Rita Pascal.’
Her mind, having regained composure, immediately made a judgment.
The problem was her aura.
If she had been sensing her surroundings with aura as usual, she wouldn’t have lost her mind like this no matter how much it reeked of demonic beasts.
Pascal’s Children, who had fought deadly battles on battlefields from a young age, all had mental issues.
Since the Pascals understood each other, they would let it slide when someone reacted unusually to trivial matters or did strange things, but it often became a big problem when they were among other people.
This was one of the reasons why Beacon Squad consisted only of Pascal’s Children.
Rita thought while wiping her face drenched in cold sweat.
‘Forget mapping the manor’s layout or whatever, I need to try awakening my aura first.’
“Lillieta.”
When she slowly raised her head, Leonhardt had returned at some point and was looking down at her with a hardened expression.
“Are you… okay?”
He was about to say something, but upon seeing her face, he swallowed his words and asked worriedly. Then he quickly bent down to meet her eye level.
“What’s wrong? Are you hurt somewhere? Your face is pale. Tell your brother what happened, okay?”
He asked urgently while brushing away the hair that had stuck to her face with sweat.
Rita tried to reflexively swat his hand away, but having lost all her strength, she could only respond weakly.
“Do I have to keep up this ‘Lillieta’ act even in a situation like this? Just confront me. Ask what kind of crazy thing I’m doing.”
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————