The Return of Lilietta - Chapter 7

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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 7

Leonhardt’s movements, which had been restlessly stroking her face, suddenly froze and stiffened.

He looked down at Lillieta’s sharply tense expression, then noticed that she was trembling faintly.

Lillieta was afraid of him.

At the same time, she was tensing her entire body to be ready to attack him at any moment.

What kind of life had this child lived?

Leonhardt removed his hands from Lillieta and stepped back slightly. Her shoulders, which had been tightly tensed, finally relaxed.

‘Even if I tell her we’re family and she can feel safe… it wouldn’t mean anything right now.’

He judged carefully and opened his mouth cautiously.

“Rita, first… let’s go back to your room. Can you stand up? Should I help you?”

“I can stand up by myself.”

Rita answered stubbornly despite her pale face, pressing against the wall to get up.

Her slender arms trembled. Leonhardt suppressed his desire to carry his staggering younger sister and walked ahead silently. Deliberately slowly.

After returning to the guest room, Rita sat on the sofa. Leonhardt told her to wait and went out, then returned with a tea set prepared.

He poured warm tea from the teapot into two cups, let Rita choose one, then drank from the remaining cup first to show her.

Rita, realizing why he had served the tea this way, let out a soft sigh and said.

“You don’t need to be so considerate. I know well enough that you people wouldn’t feed poison or anything like that to this body… to Lillieta’s body.”

“Knowing something with your head and accepting it with your body are different things. Right now, everything must feel unfamiliar and make you wary.”

Leonhardt, who had taken a sip of tea, added calmly.

“So I hoped this might help you relax a little.”

“…”

Rita was flustered by his unexpected reaction. She had mistaken an innocent person for a demon and attacked them, so it wouldn’t be strange if she were immediately imprisoned somewhere.

She stared blankly down at the teacup, then slowly drank it. As the warm, bitter liquid went down her throat, her tense body definitely relaxed somewhat.

Leonhardt didn’t press her. He waited quietly without opening his mouth.

Rita, who had finished her tea, was fixing her disheveled bangs damp with cold sweat when she spoke first.

“Um, that maid… how is Hanna? Is she safe?”

“She’s fine. She was startled but not hurt. I sent her to the physician, so don’t worry.”

“…Aren’t you going to interrogate me? After I just did something like that.”

“You had your reasons, didn’t you?”

“Huh?”

“You didn’t do it on purpose.”

“That’s true, but.”

“Then that’s enough.”

He checked his wristwatch and put down his empty teacup.

“Rita, I have some unfinished business, so I should go now. I’ll come in the evening, so rest for now. If you need anything, pull that cord over there.”

Seeing Leonhardt about to get up, she asked in confusion.

“You’re really not going to ask? Why I did that?”

“If I ask, can you answer?”

“…It’s not a simple story.”

“It can be long. Actually, the more detailed the better.”

“But you said you were busy?”

“Work isn’t more important than you.”

He, who had been about to get up, sat back down. Rita gaped in bewilderment before barely managing to say.

“Um, Leonhardt… you do know that I’m not really your younger sister, right?”

Leonhardt thought for a moment.

He had intended to pretend not to know until she realized it herself, but the incident that had just occurred made him feel something anew.

That Lillieta had grown up in an extremely abnormal situation.

‘I had some idea from when I first saw her, but… it seems worse than I expected.’

It was probably an environment where she could only survive by suspiciously questioning everything and reacting aggressively to even minor threats.

‘Then in this situation, rather than pretending not to know.’

He wanted to reassure her somehow.

After stroking his mouth with his hand for a while, he slowly spoke.

“Rita, to be honest.”

“…”

“I think you’re the real Lillieta.”

“I told you I’m not.”

“Right, since you say you’re not, I decided I should believe that.”

Leonhardt smiled bitterly.

“But to me, you only look like Lillieta who has lost her memory. What can I do about that?”

“That’s because of this body. Don’t be mistaken.”

“Rita.”

Eyes similar to hers gazed at her quietly.

“What’s your earliest memory?”

“I told you I was wandering as an orphan.”

“When was that? What kind of memory is it?”

“Well, I don’t know exactly how old I was. I was thinking I’d starve to death at this rate… when I met someone. That person proposed that I become their child, and I was hungry so I accepted. That’s my oldest memory.”

That person was the great mage Pascal.

Rita became Pascal’s child and received harsh training together with other children.

Memories before that meeting are vague.

When she tried to recall them, only the gnawing hunger in her stomach, suffocating stench, chilling fear, and bone-cutting pain came to mind, so she didn’t delve too deeply.

‘Compared to my orphan days, even that terrible training felt manageable. At least I didn’t starve after becoming Pascal’s child.’

So she wished he would stop asking. She didn’t want to recall childhood memories anymore.

“See? I was just a common orphan. I don’t have a single good memory from those days, so don’t ask anymore.”

Even though she clearly showed she didn’t want to remember, Leonhardt didn’t back down.

“What about before that?”

“What?”

“Before you became an orphan? A baby couldn’t have survived alone. Don’t you have any memories of the family who raised you or the place where you grew up? Only memories of wandering?”

“What are you hoping for? Leonhardt, I’m really not Lillieta. I have no memories of living in a splendid castle like this and I don’t recognize you. But I clearly remember being hungry and searching through garbage piles.”

Suddenly, moments of envying other children who were protected by their families came to mind.

The stench emanating from her whole body and demon entrails stuck to her skin. Bloody, slippery wounds on her hands. The heavy gun she had lifted with difficulty in her small hands.

When she saw a cleanly dressed child of her age who whined to their mother, calling her dirty and scary.

When that ‘mother’ embraced the child and tried to protect them from her holding the gun.

A very old memory of staring blankly for a long time because she was so envious.

Rita’s voice rose with emotion.

“Family? I don’t know about such things! Why should I remember people who abandoned me?”

Leonhardt showed a momentarily sad expression, then quickly became calm and replied composedly.

“I understand that you don’t want to recall difficult times. But if you can’t remember your family at all… if you were an orphan from the beginning, then I’d like you to consider the possibility that you lost your memory.”

“What?”

“What if it’s not a coincidence that you returned from another world specifically in Lillieta’s body? Maybe the family you forgot is us. You might have regained your original body when you returned to your hometown.”

He took something from his chest and placed it on the table as he continued.

“Rita, I don’t know how it was where you were, but in this world, having a soul possess someone else’s body isn’t easy. There are rumors of such things among black magic… but if that were the case, you’d feel some kind of discomfort.”

What Leonhardt had placed on the table was a matchbox the size of a palm. A flat brown box with gold leaf patterns carved around the edges. Old and worn as if it had weathered long years.

“A different person inside? Rita, I don’t think I wouldn’t recognize my one and only younger sister. If your essence had changed, I definitely would have noticed.”

He pushed the matchbox slightly toward Lillieta and stood up.

“Just think about it once. The possibility that you’re real.”

“…!”

Rita remained frozen until Leonhardt completely left the room.

The possibility that she was real.

She had never considered it from the beginning. Well, it was a completely different body after all.

‘What on earth is he looking at…’

She hesitated, then carefully picked up the old matchbox and opened it. Inside was a small card with a dried four-leaf clover attached to it.

I found it! Big brother Leon, you must pass the exam!

Around the faded and cracked four-leaf clover, round childish handwriting was pressed firmly into the card. It smelled of time and memories.

Had Lillieta given this to Leonhardt as a gift? Had he been carrying this all along? For over 10 years?

“…”

Rita stared down at it blankly for a long time.

Somehow she felt incredibly nostalgic. A tender, warm, and familiar feeling. Like unfolding an old letter.

Something stirred faintly inside her heart.

However, no specific memories came to mind. It felt strangely suffocating, like fog had settled in.

“You are ‘Rita’. You’re an orphan I took in, and you have no parents or family.”

Instead, what suddenly came to mind was what the hooded great mage Pascal had said while placing his hand on her head.

“Now, you’ll vividly remember how hungry and difficult your life was all this time. Be grateful to me for taking you in.”

Looking back on it, those words had a… strangely subtle nuance to them.

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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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