Her room was on the third floor. Taking the stairs would mean losing sight of the Duchess entirely.
Rita vaulted onto the windowsill. Pressing her index and middle fingers to the side of her neck, she unspooled her Od and whispered:
“I will it—”
Her voice stirred the night air with an eerie resonance.
“—a wind to break my fall.”
The incantation complete, she kicked off into the open air.
It was one of the elementary spells even a magic-gun user could easily cast. A sudden gust billowed beneath her, cradling her descent until she touched down as softly as a feather.
The Duchess had already slipped from sight, sending Rita sprinting down the birch-lined path.
“Haa… hah…”
Every ragged breath burned, and the thin bedroom slippers offered zero cushion against the frozen dirt. She had lamented it a dozen times over the past few days, but this body truly was as frail as glass. No amount of training could wholly make up for such brittle bones.
‘Her Od aptitude is absurd, yet the vessel itself is hopelessly weak.’
There she was.
Rita caught sight of the woman through the pale birch trunks. She instinctively parted her lips to call out, only to choke the sound back into her throat.
She had to remember: she wasn’t Lilietta. She was an intruder wearing Lilietta’s skin.
‘I need to hide my face.’ The moonlight was far too bright.
While Rita hesitated, the Duchess paced frantically along the lake’s edge. Her head darted back and forth without pause, scouring every shadow as she bent low to dig through dead leaves and bushes.
There was no doubt about what she was seeking. Rita watched, her chest tightening with an agonizing mix of pity and guilt.
Then, a thin, wavering voice broke the stillness.
“…Lili… Lili…”
The Duchess broke down weeping. Tangled hair clung to her hollow, exhausted face as she cried out for her lost daughter, her tears falling into the water where the moon hung reflected.
“Where did you go, Lili? My sweet baby… are you crying? Don’t cry, darling. Mother is here. I’m coming to find you, I promise…”
Rita bit her lip hard. Once again, the bitter sting of knowing she was an impostor twisted in her gut.
‘Why did I have to wake up in this body? If only I’d ended up as an orphan like before, with no one left to look for me, I wouldn’t feel this awful…’
The Duchess whipped around without warning.
“Lili? Is that you? Are you out there all alone in the freezing dark? Mother is coming. Wait for me, sweetheart. I’ll pull you out…”
Muttering senseless broken words, the Duchess stepped straight into the freezing lake. She waded deeper with terrifying speed, her long nightgown spreading around her like the pale bell of a jellyfish.
“—!”
Lurking in the shadows of the trees, Rita froze before breaking into a mad dash. There was no time to weigh options. Even if the woman mistook her for her dead daughter, none of that mattered right now.
“Your Grace!”
Without hesitation, Rita leaped straight into the water. In the dead of an early spring night, the icy current hit her like needles, rattling her teeth before she could even draw breath.
She drove through the chill anyway, tearing through the heavy water.
“Duchess! Stop! Please, stop! It’s too deep!”
The bottom dropped off, forcing Rita to swim the last stretch. She lunged forward, barely managing to clamp both hands onto the Duchess’s shoulders.
“I said stop!”
“Lili… my sweet Lili…”
The Duchess didn’t spare her a single glance. She thrashed violently, clawing onward toward the drop-off. Rita threw her arms around the woman from behind, hauling her back with all her might.
“Get a hold of yourself! She isn’t out there!”
“She is!”
The Duchess let out a curdling shriek.
“She’s right here! Lili is here! She’s crying out for her mother! Let go of me—!”
She convulsed as if seized by madness, sending fierce waves rolling across the once-mirror-still lake.
“She isn’t! Your daughter Lilietta… she’s—”
Subduing a hysterical adult while submerged to the chest was near impossible for Lilietta’s frail limbs. As Rita wrestled to turn the woman back toward shore, her foot lost purchase. The underwater shelf dropped away completely beneath them, dragging both straight under.
A huge splash shattered the silence.
Water surged over their heads.
‘—Mmph!’
A curtain of bubbles blinded her like a white veil. In the murky gloom beneath the surface, she saw crimson hair spilling out, drifting downward into the abyss.
The Duchess.
Rita held her breath, thrusting an arm out as she plunged deeper. At the same moment, she stirred the Od slumbering within her veins.
‘I’m a Processor-type, completely unsuited for bodily enhancement. But just this once—!’
Forcing the spiritual current upward, she coated every inch of her body in raw Od. Golden light bloomed through the dark depths like shimmering waves of desert heat. Lacking the refined precision of an Enchantment-type, she simply rammed raw power directly through her muscle fibers.
Her glowing hand locked tight around the Duchess’s arm. Only then did the drowning woman turn. Through the veil of drifting crimson locks, her hollow eyes looked upon the figure holding her.
There, haloed in golden light beneath the dark water, was the face of her lost daughter.
In that heartbeat, Rita finally knew how to save this broken mother.
Soundless beneath the tide, Rita formed the words with deliberate care, letting her lips do the talking:
‘Look. Your daughter is right here.’
The Duchess’s eyes blew wide. Her mouth opened in a silent, stunned gasp, releasing a stream of bubbles like crystal tears.
‘Lili! Lili!’
Gaunt, trembling hands reached out to cradle Rita’s cheeks. Rita drew her in tight and kicked upward toward the surface—only to suddenly freeze.
‘What in the world…?’
Far beneath them, buried in the darkest reaches of the lakebed, a faint golden light pulsed, seemingly answering the Od radiating from her body.
‘What is that? No… getting the Duchess out comes first.’
Pushing the mystery aside, she kicked vigorously toward the air above. The instant they breached the surface, the Duchess doubled over, coughing violently.
“Kh-hhk… cough, cough! Haaah…”
Rita dragged the woman up the muddy shore. Once they were clear of the water, she collapsed onto her hands and knees, chest heaving desperately for air.
“Haa… hah…!”
Her vision tilted and nausea clawed at her throat—the violent recoil of forcing her body to mimic an Enchantment-type’s arts.
‘You brainless brute! Why do you think classifications exist in the first place? You think scholars drew those lines for fun? How many times do I have to drill this into your thick skull? Just because you can force it doesn’t mean you should!’
‘An emergency? My ass! If it’s an emergency, rely on your magic! Don’t just throw your fleshy body at every problem like an absolute moron! Why do you think I shoved all those fast-cast formulas down your throat in the first place?!’
Her bespectacled mage friend’s furious scolding echoed in her mind. Rita let out a breathless, dry chuckle between raw heaves, scrubbing a wet hand over her face—unable to tell if it was lake water or cold sweat.
‘Still, I got off easy. Must be thanks to this body’s ridiculous aptitude.’
As her ragged panting began to quiet, a trembling whisper reached her ear.
“Lili…?”
Rita looked up. Soaked through and shaking like a leaf, the Duchess was reaching out toward her.
“Lili… is it truly you? My Lilietta…?”
After a brief hesitation, Rita grasped the shivering hand and forced an awkward smile.
“…Yes.”
“Oh, my baby… my precious girl! You’ve returned! You’ve finally come home to me… Lili, my Lili…”
The Duchess collapsed into sobs, pulling Rita into a desperate, crushing hug. Rita endured the embrace for a moment before gently, carefully peeling herself away.
“Uh… please, wait just a moment…”
Deceiving a woman so thoroughly shattered made her stomach churn. Masquerading as Lilietta had already weighed heavy on her conscience.
Yet above all that—
She couldn’t tear her mind away from that golden flicker at the bottom of the lake.
‘That lake… it’s where I first opened my eyes in this body. There has to be something buried down there.’
Leonhart had said the knights swept the lakebed repeatedly without uncovering a single trace.
‘If that glow only answers to raw Od, it makes total sense they missed it. People in this world use magic, yet none of them seem to know Od even exists.’
Over the past three days of roaming Birch Castle and speaking with the retainers, she had gathered far more than just Lilietta’s background. She had pieced together what mirrored her old world and what differed entirely.
‘They command magic and aura, yet they have no idea how to channel pure Od before it transforms into mana. They haven’t grasped it yet. Which means if there’s something under this lake that responds to raw Od…’
As Rita rose to her feet, the Duchess seized her hand in sheer panic.
“Wh-where are you going, Lili? Don’t leave me…!”
“I’m sorry, just one moment…”
She gently slipped her fingers from the woman’s grasp and placed them against her throat.
“I will it—a wall to keep safe.”
Her voice echoed softly as the Od shaped reality around her. The earth groaned and rose, forming a solid barricade around the Duchess. It was another useful trick her friend had drilled into her.
“Lili? Lili!”
“Please stay inside just a short while. I’ll be right back.”
Leaving the Duchess pounding frantically on the earthen barrier, Rita hurried her pace. Back at the edge of the water, she pressed her fingers against her throat once more.
“I will it—to breathe freely wherever I tread.”
A pocket of wind gathered instantly, and she dove back into the deep. A sphere of magically sustained air enveloped her head like a bubble, keeping her breath steady.
Diving deeper into the dark, she let her Od bleed out freely, trailing golden ripples across the murky water. Before long, a soft luminescence stirred in answer, winking from the silt below. Rita kicked toward it.
As she drew near, the glowing outline slowly emerged from the pitch-black depths.