Chapter 50
“Gasp….”
My eyes flew open. I instinctively shot upright.
“What... is this?”
Everything came rushing back to me with perfect clarity: going to the clothing store with Kairos, hearing his bizarre confession, and fleeing into the fitting room when a demon suddenly appeared.
But what I could see before me now was... a secluded path through a forest?
Large conifers stood densely along both sides of the unpaved dirt path, with lush green weeds growing beneath them.
‘Teleportation magic?’
I quietly lowered my head and inspected my body. A light-colored top and a skirt that reached my knees. I was still unmistakably Rene.
“Ouch.”
Even the cheek I pinched, just in case, felt painfully real.
So this really wasn't a dream. I let out a small sigh, then cautiously looked around.
“Lady Rene.”
“Kya?!”
A voice came from directly behind me. I turned around with the sensation that my heart had stopped, and saw a girl with a robe pulled low over her head.
Her pale pink lips stood out clearly beneath the old robe.
‘Wait, this girl...?’
She had a face I'd seen somewhere before.
That's right. She was the little girl who had spoken to me downtown.
“You're that... girl from before.”
“Lady Rene, you need to wake up soon.”
“Huh?”
What was she suddenly talking about?
Of course, it was a huge improvement over the day she had shouted the incomprehensible incantation ‘Manifestare Nexum Animae Imediatum!’, but it was still just as impossible to understand.
When I could only stare at her blankly, the girl suddenly took my hand.
“We don't have much time, so I'll keep this brief. Lady Rene, no matter what happens, you mustn't trust that man named Kairos.”
“What?”
“I know this must be confusing, but you have to believe me. Kairos is dangerous. He's trying to use you to accomplish his own goal.”
“No, what on earth are you talking about...?”
She had appeared out of nowhere and was telling me not to trust Kairos.
“Before that, explain what's going on right now. Where are we? And what happened to me?”
I raised my voice as I pulled my hand away from the little girl.
The girl lifted her head, and a pair of red eyes stared straight at me from beneath the shadow of her robe.
“Lady Rene's body is still inside that shop. Right now, you're speaking with me through your soul.”
“Y-your soul?”
“Yes. Kairos is always watching your body, after all.”
The little girl said it as though it were the most obvious thing in the world.
“W-wait a minute... Are you saying you deliberately caused the magical rampage so you could talk to me?”
It wasn't impossible. It was true that the connection between body and soul grew looser during a magical rampage.
A sudden throbbing pain began in my head.
But the little girl firmly shook her head.
“No. It was your original will that caused the magical rampage.”
“What?”
“That means the ‘true will’ inside your body called out to me. If things continue like this, Lady Rene, you will become completely assimilated into your current personality and lose the self-awareness you sealed away.”
“W-wait. Explain everything from the beginning, slowly. I don't understand a single thing.”
To summarize what the little girl had said, the ‘true’ Rene's will somewhere inside my body had deliberately caused a magical rampage, and this girl had used that opportunity to speak with me.
‘And this girl... doesn't seem to know at all that I'm Evan.’
I understood the situation a little better.
Whoever she was, since this girl was a mage, she probably couldn't even imagine that something as absurd as ‘soul transference’ had taken place.
She clearly believed that the ‘true Rene’ had hidden herself to evade Kairos's eyes, while the ‘current Rene’ standing before her was merely the lingering echo of the personality left behind.
“All right, let's start with this ‘waking up’ you mentioned. So you're saying I need to awaken the true will I sealed away to evade Kairos's eyes, right?”
“That's right.”
“Do you happen to know how?”
“……?”
“Tell me how. Then I'll wake up the ‘true’ me right away.”
Waking the true Rene's will was something I wanted as well.
If I awakened her will, I could learn how my soul had been transferred. And if I learned that, I might be able to find a way back.
“If... if you ask me that...,”
That was a much more human reaction than I had expected.
The little girl mumbled, her eyes shifting, then cautiously looked at me and asked in return.
“Lady Rene, you really don't know who I am at all, do you?”
“No.”
“You don't remember who you really are, or what plans you made, either.”
“That's right.”
“Then... you don't remember why you sealed yourself away, either.”
The little girl lowered her head with a sigh.
She seemed to ponder something deeply, then suddenly flung back the robe covering her head.
“My name is Asta. I run a small antiquarian bookshop in Aachen, the imperial capital.”
She had brown hair that reached her shoulders and snow-white skin. Apart from her blood-red eyes, she looked like an otherwise unremarkable child.
I tilted my head and asked,
“You run an antiquarian bookshop? What about your parents?”
She plainly looked three or four years younger than Rene.
Asta continued without hesitation.
“My age isn't important right now. What's important is that we meet in person.”
“Whaaat?”
“Come find me in the capital. There, I'll properly explain who you are and what plans you had.”
“W-wait! You can't just tell me to come all the way to the capital... ngh.”
Suddenly, my heart gave a hard thump, and my head began to ache as though it might burst.
Asta's expression hardened, and she took my hand again.
“Lady Rene, you'll be waking up soon. Once you open your eyes, Kairos, who has already driven off the demon, will be by your side.”
“Wait... how do you know a demon appeared?”
“How could I not know what's happening around you, Lady Rene?”
Asta's expression grew even more serious.
“Until then, remember only this: Kairos is Lady Rene's enemy. He will surely try to win your heart, but that is all an act meant to bring you under his influence. The moment you truly open your heart to him, Lady Rene, you will completely lose your original self and never be able to return to how you were before.”
“W-wait... What do you mean, I won't be able to return to how I was?”
“I mean exactly what I said. The moment the current Lady Rene opens her heart to Kairos, he will realize that the ‘true you’ whom you sealed away exists.”
In other words, did that mean Kairos would erase the personality of the ‘true Rene’ sleeping somewhere inside my body?
‘That can't happen... Not until I find a way back.’
The true Rene was very likely the only one who knew the secret of soul transference.
If she disappeared, the means of returning to my own body might disappear forever as well.
“Remember this, Lady Rene. My name is Asta. I am your loyal servant and your only ally. When the time comes, evade Kairos's eyes, come to the capital, and find ‘Asta's Antiquarian Bookshop.’”
Asta gripped my hand tightly and met my eyes.
Soon, the headache became unbearable, and my body crumpled.
“……May the Father bless you.”
Through my fading vision, Asta clasped her hands and prayed, her expression strangely sorrowful.
※※
“Gasp….”
My eyes flew open. I instinctively shot upright.
Thud!
“Ngh….”
But before I could properly sit up, a dull impact sent stars flashing before my eyes.
“Ouch….”
I clutched my forehead and sank back to the floor, and heard Kairos groan in pain.
Through tear-filled eyes, I saw Kairos rubbing his forehead and staring at me with an awkward smile.
“You're awake?”
Only then did the surroundings come into view beyond Kairos's face.
Hard wooden walls and a large mirror. I was inside the very same fitting room he'd led me into earlier.
“Ugh... my head.”
I clutched my throbbing head and carefully got to my feet.
Then I frowned and glared at him.
“What on earth were you doing, sticking your head in there?”
“R-Rene, you suddenly started muttering something. I lowered my head so I could listen more closely.”
“What did I supposedly mutter?”
Could he have heard my entire conversation with Asta?
“Yeah, though I couldn't make it out clearly.”
Kairos scratched his head awkwardly and lowered his head.
“Really?”
Fortunately, he didn't seem to have heard the conversation.
Well, Kairos couldn't possibly have faked an expression like that.
“What about the demon?”
Feeling a little reassured, I changed the subject, pretending I didn't know.
Kairos nodded vigorously.
“I took care of it.”
‘Just as Asta said...’
It felt strange. Of course, I had believed that Kairos would be able to defeat a demon, but still.
“Good work.”
Naturally, just because Asta had said those things, I had no intention of blindly trusting her and treating Kairos as an enemy.
To be honest, if we were talking about who was more suspicious, Asta—who had appeared out of nowhere by exploiting my magical rampage—was a hundred times more suspicious.
“What are you thanking me for? I told you. I'll protect you with my own hands.”
Kairos stood up first and held out his hand to me.
I silently took his hand and got to my feet.
Through the slightly open door, I caught a glimpse of the shop, now bustling with customers as though nothing had happened.
I quietly closed the door, then looked up at Kairos again.
“Rene?”
Kairos tilted his head, looking more confused than anything else.
“You know...,”
I met his eyes even more intently.
Taking in every scrap of information I could verify—the minute tremor in his eyes, the rise and fall of his breathing, even how often he swallowed—I asked casually,
“Kairos, did you really say you liked me purely because you liked me as a person, with absolutely no ulterior motive?”
“U-ulterior motive?”
Kairos's shoulders jerked as though he'd been startled. He hesitated for a moment, his face plainly flustered.
After quite some time, he composed himself and continued in a serious tone.
“Yes. I said it because I like you as a person.”
“……I see.”
For now, that was enough.
I silently nodded, then slowly turned away.
As I opened the fitting-room door, Kairos's voice came from behind me.
“Why did you suddenly ask that?”
Obviously, I had asked to verify Asta's warning.
And judging from what I'd observed, there was over a 99 percent chance that he had just lied to me.
“Nothing in particular.”
I stepped out of the fitting room and looked back at him.
Then I answered with a smirk bordering on derision.
“I just wanted to drive home once again that I'll never, ever, ever be conquered by someone like you.”