The Return of Lilietta

Episode 3

“What, when did you come here? Why do you always show up out of nowhere when you don’t have any hiding skills like Ethan?”

A surprised Rita got up and reached for the gun she had taken from her.

“Give me my gun!”

“Where’s the output limit? Ollie, is this your doing?”

He glared at the bespectacled woman, his eyebrows furrowed as if he had drawn her. The woman crossed her arms and gestured toward Rita.

“If we don’t release it, he’ll blow up his own body instead of the gun. What are we going to do? Sister Sarah, who examined Rita, said that in that case, it would be better to just release the restriction.”

“… … Anyway, I guess I’ll go back.”

The man sighed deeply and handed the gun back to Rita, speaking ominously.

“Rita, you know that every time you go wild, it feels like my life is being cut short. Please take care of yourself.”

“You didn’t even take care of yourself and just kept pushing in, and now you’re alive thanks to me, so what are you talking about?”

“That’s not a push, that’s a strategic breakthrough.”

“So, would Captain Guy Pascal, who was executing the strategic breakthrough operation, have lived or died if I hadn’t gone wild?”

Rita returned the returned gun and put it in the holster on her waist, and asked back with a smirk. The man called Gid answered while gritting his teeth.

“Ha, yeah. I survived thanks to you going crazy.”

“If you knew, you could plan a plan instead of worrying about me.”

Rita pulled him away from the other ‘Pascals’.

She asked in a low voice as she headed toward the last remaining spire in the ruined citadel.

“Senior Is, did you come back from your reconnaissance?”

“I came back a little while ago. That’s why I came looking for you.”

“Good news, bad news?”

Gid silently raised three fingers of his right hand. Rita let out a hollow laugh.

“Three bad news stories? What the hell?”

“Let’s discuss the details inside.”

He opened the spire door for her like a gentleman and continued speaking.

“Because these are difficult stories to tell without you. I need your opinion.”

“Our captain, aren’t you relying on me too much? What are you going to do without me?”

“Don’t you know that yet, Rita?”

He laughed slightly at the joke and added:

“I can’t live without you.”

* * *

I had a dream the day before I died.

Rita opened her eyes.

As soon as I woke up from my dream, I jumped up and tensed up my whole body. I was in an unfamiliar place, and I couldn’t feel any sign of my familiar colleagues.

She couldn’t believe she was sleeping so comfortably in a place like this. She felt her waist, wary of the four pillars.

The magic gun that was as familiar as my body was not touched. Instead, what caught my fingertips was smooth, long hair.

Rita brought it up to her eyes and looked at it. The hair, bathed in the morning sunlight streaming through the window, glistened like a skein of gold thread.

“… … .”

It was a strangely vivid golden hair, not the familiar reddish brown.

‘It’s not my body.’

She got out of bed, still tense. It was an awkwardly soft bed for her, who was used to sleeping on dirt or worse.

I felt drawn towards the sunny window.

The well-kept garden was in full bloom. Beyond the hedge, entwined with rose buds, was a birch forest full of white trees adorned with pink.

For her, who had lived in a gray world where it was difficult to see even a single sprout, it was a refreshing spring scene that she had only seen in paintings.

Even stretching far above the landscape is a clear blue sky. It is neither cloudy nor murky, nor covered with unpleasant colored clouds.

‘What a clear sky.’

Rita opened the window as if in a trance. Instead of the unpleasant, stuffy air, a refreshing air mixed with the scent of flowers pierced her nostrils. The chirping of birds pierced her ears.

The moment she saw the sun in the sky so bright that she couldn’t even look straight at it instead of the embers of the sun that had barely extinguished, Rita realized something new.

‘What I saw yesterday wasn’t a mistake. This isn’t where I used to live. It’s a completely different world.’

Memories of yesterday slowly came back to me.

She thought she was dead, but when she opened her eyes in the water, she met a man who said he was her sister who had gone missing 10 years ago.

‘I clearly said I was not your sister, but someone else… … but you didn’t seem to believe me.’

I was secretly very embarrassed because he turned his back so nonchalantly.

Because it would have been impossible for her to expose her back to a stranger so defenselessly.

So I decided to trust him for now.

As I was carried on his back, I looked around. The birch forest and the lake with the sunset were so incredibly beautiful and vivid that I couldn’t help but be amazed.

Then we arrived at a huge, gorgeous, cream-colored castle, the most magnificent I’d ever seen in my life, and then… … .

I don’t remember.

You lost consciousness in such an unfamiliar place?

‘He didn’t faint. Looking at his current state, he didn’t get hit or take any drugs. Could it be that he just fell asleep?’

You fell asleep defenselessly? Rita Pascal? And you didn’t even have any colleagues around you?

I let my guard down.

‘Your clothes have changed too. Are you saying that I fell asleep without coming to my senses even though someone changed my clothes? You’re crazy. How many hours have I been defenseless?’

As goosebumps ran down my spine, suddenly a knock was heard.

Rita was more surprised by the fact that she hadn’t noticed the noise until someone got close enough to knock.

‘My senses have become incredibly dull. Is it because I’m in someone else’s body?’

It was a body that had not been trained at all. I couldn’t even feel the Od that I used naturally, like breathing.

I shouldn’t be in such a helpless state when a stranger invades. No matter how peaceful the outside scenery was or how amazingly luxurious the inside of the room was, I couldn’t let my guard down again.

She instinctively looked for something that could be used as a weapon.

“You’re not up yet? I’m going in, miss.”

When she waited but received no response from inside the room, the maid cautiously entered and was startled.

The bed is empty and there is no one inside.

Miss Lilietta, who returned after ten years, has disappeared again!

“Ugh, we’re in trouble, ugh.”

The maid’s mouth was immediately covered as she tried to scream and alert the people.

“quietly.”

A sharp piece of broken mirror was thrust like a blade into my eyes, along with a voice whispering behind me.

“If you make a sound, I’ll kill you. Nod if you understand.”

The maid nodded, shivering. Rita slowly withdrew her hand. Then, she suddenly looked at the maid’s hair.

‘maroon.’

It was originally the same color as her hair. The color of her eyes and the shape of her face were different, though.

Rita interrogated the frightened maid while holding up a shard of mirror to her.

“Where is this place?”

“La, la, this is the Duke of Laskail’s mansion, my lady… … .”

“Where is it?

“Yes? It’s in the Duke’s territory… … . Don’t you, don’t you remember?”

“I don’t know. Can you be more specific about the location?”

“La, Duke Laskail, I live in the birch castle at the center of the ducal territory that runs along the Hinder River in the Cornu Plain in the northern region of the Kairam Empire… … .”

I had expected it, but these were all new names. Rita swallowed a sigh and asked something else.

“Who are you?”

“Oh, I am the Duke’s maid, and from today on, I will be serving you, ha, ha, my name is Hanna… … .”

“Maid? You changed my clothes?”

She was wearing a new nightgown, much more draped than the torn and wet one she had been wearing yesterday, and which reached down to her ankles.

“Yes, yes! I, I changed your clothes last night… … .”

Hannah nodded her head wildly, shivering. Rita asked with a glimmer of hope.

“When you were changing, did you happen to see my belongings?”

“yes yes?”

“Something like a dagger, a dog tag, a belt with a small pocket, a necklace, or a compass.”

“Ah, ah, you didn’t have anything… … .”

I see.

From the moment I woke up, I already knew that I had nothing, but I couldn’t let go of my foolish desire and went to check.

Rita pursed her lips and opened her mouth again.

“So, what happened last night―”

“I won’t answer that.”

Suddenly a man’s voice interrupted.

Rita was surprised again. How could she not notice someone getting this close?

When she turned around, she saw the blond man who had carried her yesterday standing at the door.

Now that I think about it, that man has almost the same blond hair as her now. The eye color that I checked again when I broke the mirror earlier is similar, and their faces are undeniably similar.

I thought the same thing when I first saw my face reflected in the lake… … .

‘You are definitely siblings. With this body.’

He said as he slowly entered the room.

“Come talk to me, Rita. Leave the innocent maid alone.”