Chapter 26
“Flowers? You need seeds, not seedlings? Lots of people buy flowers now that the weather’s warm, but it’s been ages since I’ve had someone buy seeds. Here… pick a picture that suits your taste from this album, miss. I’ll give you the seeds for that flower.”
The name of the first flower I’d ever planted in my life came back to me, one I’d pretended to forget.
“You’ve chosen this one? It’s perfect for spring. It looks so luscious and pretty, doesn’t it?”
“No, the name.”
“The name?”
“I like the name.”
“…Ah, it is pretty. ‘Daizy.’”
The flower’s name was Daizy.
I planted Daizy.
Daizy planted Daizy, so how could the flowerpot hold no meaning?
Ah, now I finally realize.
I thought I hadn’t poured any affection into the name ‘Daizy,’ but that wasn’t true.
A name doesn’t define me. What forms me is the layers of moments stacking up one by one.
The me who chooses, the dual-sided me, the me who regrets—all of it is me, without a single exception.
The more moments accumulate, the more solid I become.
Tomorrow’s me will be truer to myself than today’s me. So today’s ‘me’ is the best ‘me’ that the current me can comprehend.
‘Control of one’s life begins with knowing oneself.’
I know myself.
Therefore, I have seized control of my life!
.
.
.
It was as if power was settling into my cracked soul.
.
.
.
I opened my eyes, not knowing when I had closed them.
“Just now…”
While I calmly caught my breath without panicking, a large warmth touched the top of my head.
“You did well.”
Lu suddenly said that and gently stroked my hair. His unusually tender gaze closely observed my condition.
I, too, quietly examined my body. My palms were soaked with cold sweat.
It wasn’t just my palms.
Sweat dripping from my chin had pooled between my knees. My clothes were damp, as if I’d been playing in a river.
But what mattered was something else.
‘My soul, which felt so fragile it might shatter… it’s become much more solid.’
My predicted lifespan of three years had roughly doubled.
‘How on earth?’
I understood that I’d just gained a tremendous realization. If this were the me from my past life as a knight, it was the kind of insight I’d have shouted in joy over.
But realizations heal the body, not the soul.
Souls were hard to break, and once broken, impossible to heal. At least, as far as I knew.
Lu removed his hand from my head and said,
“Your eyes look confused. Is this your first time experiencing the Mind-Body Unity realm?”
“…Mind-Body Unity?”
“To put it simply, it’s the process of ascending to Demigod. You’ve just reached the first of its four stages.”
What? Demigod? I was so shocked I nearly choked swallowing my breath.
Demigod.
The supreme realm that the great mage Mephisto and the healer Dian Ket had attained.
Those who reached the Demigod realm were countable on one hand throughout history.
Even the great mage who was the founding emperor of the Pen Rota Empire, and all the countless Sword Masters hailed as heroes, never earned the epithet of god.
I’d heard there were only two in the current era, including the pontiff of the North Continent United Theocracy who was revered as a god there.
Raphaelo hadn’t reached it. Nor had the Sword Saint.
“Why me?”
At my question, Lu’s brows furrowed neatly.
But the gaze that seemed about to scold me soon regained its composure.
“Miss Daizy. Your body seems to have reached a fairly usable realm. Didn’t your master teach you about Mind-Body Unity on the way there?”
I bristled a bit at the phrase “fairly usable realm,” but since he was sharing important information, I let it slide.
“I don’t have one of those.”
“You don’t?”
“Yeah. I don’t have a master.”
Truthfully, it wasn’t that I didn’t have one so much as they were scattered everywhere. Anyone who’d given me even a single piece of advice could be considered my master, if I thought about it.
“That’s ridiculous. So Miss Daizy trained her sword without a master and survived the battlefield with that swordsmanship?”
Letting out a hollow laugh, Lu slowly rubbed his chin.
He looked at me with eyes full of amusement, but I, the subject, found none of it funny.
“…How did you know I’m a knight?”
I’d never told him I used a sword.
When I glared at him warily, Lu lightly flicked the tip of my nose as if telling me not to be ridiculous.
“Could anyone miss that our cute Miss Daizy reeks of being a knight?”
“Don’t brush it off as a joke. No one else knows but you.”
Shrugging lightly, Lu replied,
“Those who’ve wielded a sword for a long time inevitably carry those habits into daily life. Like pulling your right shoulder back into a drawing stance when going on guard.”
Then he playfully tapped the back of my left hand.
“Or habitually patting your right hip to check your sword.”
I had no reply.
His observations were spot-on, and he’d precisely pinpointed that I was a left-handed knight.
“When you shut your mouth in a disadvantageous situation, your expression…”
“…”
“You look like a kid. It’s funny.”
“Ahem. Hm.”
I solemnly composed my mind and body and lifted my head.
In Lu’s eyes, as he propped his chin and stared at me, a rare emotion swirled—one I’d never sensed from him before.
Compassion.
Mercy shone in his eyes!
For whatever reason, the current Lu was in an extremely merciful state. This was a rare chance. Seizing the moment, I earnestly parted my lips.
“Lu, I have a question. It’s serious, so please answer without joking.”
“Don’t wanna.”
“You said Mind-Body Unity has four stages.”
“You’re not even listening to my refusal.”
“I’ve heard that when you become a Demigod, your body undergoes great changes—erasing all illnesses and scars, and making you impervious to most weapons.”
Fortunately, Lu listened to me.
“…Does it work on the soul too?”
If the body is reborn as a vessel for godhood, wouldn’t the soul need to be reborn as a god’s soul to match?
Lu’s ominous gaze darkened further.
“Curious?”
“Yeah.”
“If you’re curious, kneel and say, ‘Please tell me, Master.’”
If you thought I couldn’t do it, you’d be wrong.
I immediately knelt and gritted my teeth as I said,
“Please tell me, Master. You rascal.”
With a deflated expression, he answered,
“It’s possible.”
Then, with a leisurely gaze, he continued,
“But becoming a Demigod is impossible. At least probabilistically speaking. Why? Does our Miss Daizy want to become one? Do you have some defective soul or something?”
His voice, sharp as could be, shot an arrow into my heart.
“Cross the first wall by accident, and now the remaining three feel easy? You think if you just muddle through like now, you’ll naturally ascend? That you’ll stumble into the Demigod realm as a gift and become the world’s luckiest maid, enjoying longevity in body and soul?”
Annoying bastard.
‘I can’t even argue back.’
But separate from my wounded pride, his mockery was spot-on a hundred times over.
The realization I’d gained so unexpectedly had felt too sweet.
‘If the four stages were that easy to pass… the world would overflow with Demigods.’
On top of that, my lifespan was short. Even if I had some unique potential others didn’t, I didn’t have the time to complete Mind-Body Unity.
‘I nearly turned to false hope.’
Lu’s words were harsh and grating, but never wrong. That made him even more infuriating.
Brushing myself off, I stood and met his eyes.
“Thanks to you, I’ve realized a lot, Lu. I’ll head back now. Thanks for helping today, and good night.”
As I walked toward the door, Lu called me back.
“Miss Daizy.”
I stopped with the bedroom door open.
You’re softer-hearted than I thought. You’re about to apologize for being harsh, right? With such warm thoughts, I turned to Lu, but…
“The sun’s up.”
“…”
“We’re late. Because of you.”
Liar.
I returned to my room at the fastest speed since regaining my body.
At the entrance stood the Head Maid, impeccably dressed from head to toe, waiting with a chilling smile.
“Miss Daizy? That makes two tardies. Pay cut.”
And I got docked pay.
Damn!
But today’s misfortune didn’t end with the pay cut.
Lu’s lie had spawned another hell.
“Starting today, you’ll have 20-minute short training sessions daily. To live among people in the city, you need ordinariness, not specialness. I’ll cultivate the social skills and ethics you lack.”
And so I lost my 20-minute noon break.
Damn it!
This isn’t a life with control. I hate the Head Maid.
Time flew by after that, and morning arrived on the day we departed for the capital.
