Chapter 14: Let’s go home (4)

“Where are you talking from?!”

A clear voice tickling inside my mind echoed.
It was the voice of the pure-white goddess I had been hearing continuously for nearly a month, the original owner of this body, Lilac.

I seemed to have spoken with her briefly the moment I awoke in this body, but perhaps because so many chaotic things had happened, I had completely forgotten that moment.

“W-what is it?! Why are you suddenly acting like that?!”

Father hurriedly rose from his chair in confusion.

“Ah, no, it’s just…”

I tapped my temple with my index finger.

“Her voice suddenly started coming from inside my head…”
“That goddess?”

I nodded.

At my nod, Father stroked his chin and sat back down.
He cleared his throat a few times before lowering his voice.

“The coachman might hear us, so let’s speak as quietly as possible.
Is that all right?”

I nodded slightly.

“Good, then…
What is that goddess saying right now?”
“Well… it’s…”

[Talking is all well and good, but eat the chocolate while you talk!]

“She says I should eat the chocolate.”
“…Huh?”

No, don’t make that face.
I’m just as dumbfounded as you are right now.

I scratched my cheek as I watched Father tilt his head.

‘The evil goddess who turned the Divine Realm upside down wakes up and the first thing she says is to eat chocolate.’

If I were in his position, I would probably think, ‘Is he making this up?’

‘But what can I do?
It’s true.’

Father tilted his head with a bewildered expression.

“Is there anything else?”
“Well…”

[Cain, who is this human?
He certainly seems very strong.]

“…She says you look very strong, Father.”

A thought suddenly occurred to me, so I pinched my cheek hard.

Pinch.

[It hurts!
Why are you suddenly pinching your cheek?!]
“It hurts?”

So that’s how it is…

For some reason, I felt as though Lilac was sharing everything I was experiencing.
She could taste the chocolate, see the same things I saw, and even feel the sensations coming from my body.

“Haa…”

I had absolutely no idea where to begin unraveling this mess.
Feeling a headache gnawing at my mind, I gently pressed my temple.

“Father, and Lilac.”
“?”
[Hmm?]

Haa…

“Let’s talk one at a time…”

“So, what you’re saying is that my soul has become a demigod?”
[Yes.
There was no other way to save you.]
“Hmm…”

At the moment I died, my soul had apparently already been partially lost.

To fill the void left by the missing portions, she filtered my soul through her own.
As a result, my soul became mixed with Lilac’s, turning me into what was commonly known as a demigod.

‘My soul and Lilac’s soul became mixed together.
So…’

No wonder…

‘This body feels so much like my own.’

I gently curled my small hand.

This tiny hand felt incredibly familiar.
Even though everything about my physical body had changed, I could still feel that this body was completely mine.

What I felt was an incredibly natural sense of relief.

My lowered field of vision.
My changed taste buds.
My smaller body.
My changed sex.

Rather than being confused by my suddenly changed body, I had even forgotten that my body had changed at all.

‘Except…’

I glanced down at my prominently developed chest.

‘This is a little awkward, isn’t it?’

I lightly patted my heated cheeks.
Even though our souls had become mixed together, whenever I became conscious of the fact that this body was female, I felt strangely embarrassed.

Apparently, my identity as a man hadn’t disappeared.

“Then what happens to me now?
Since I’m mixed with you, will my personality gradually change too?”
[No.
That is not the case.]

Lilac denied my question.

[The mind and the soul are separate things.
Of course, your soul changing will inevitably have some influence, but your mind itself will not change.]
“That’s a relief.”

I had been worried about what would happen if my personality disappeared.
It had been an unnecessary concern.

More importantly…

“Are you really okay with this?”
[Hmm?
With what?]
“No, I mean…”

According to Lilac’s explanation, in order to accept my soul into her body, she had drastically lowered her own divine status.

‘She lowered her power as far as it could possibly go, almost descending into the realm of a created being…’

I had asked whether it really had to be that way and whether it was necessary.

[It is like putting a cup of water into a vast ocean.
There was no other choice if I wanted to prevent your soul from being overwhelmed.]

Her answer made it impossible for me not to feel grateful toward her once again.

“Sigh…
You really are the type to go out of your way to suffer losses.”
[Do not worry about it so much.
I would have ceased to exist anyway if things had remained as they were.
I managed to live like this, so isn’t that enough?]
“Even so…”

She had spent two thousand years bound deep underground, unable to do anything, and even after being freed, she had ended up in a similar state again.

‘And she ended up like this because she was trying to save me.’

I had wanted to free her, yet now I had become the one who bound her instead.

‘This feels complicated…’

With an unpleasant feeling lingering in my chest, I gently lowered my head.
Seeing me like that, Lilac spoke in a playful voice.

[I can easily imagine what you’re thinking, but I want to tell you that you’re mistaken.]
“What?”
[Come now, I’ve been the one doing all the moving around so far, haven’t I?
This time, it’s my turn to move.]

Whoosh!

[What?!]

The moment she finished speaking, I lost control of my body.

My consciousness drifted away.
But I wasn’t dizzy.

I could no longer move my body according to my own will.
Yet I didn’t feel restricted.

I felt Father’s hand coming to rest on my shoulder.

“Cain, are you all right?
Why are you suddenly—”
“I’m not Cain.”
“What?”

Brushing aside the long white hair cascading down, the smooth corners of my lips lifted slightly.

The body I could no longer control lowered its hood.
The hand moving on its own opened wide and gave a small wave.

Then she spoke.

“Nice to meet you.”

With a pure-white smile.

“I am Lilac, the goddess who saved your son.”
[Huh?
Uh…?]
“I look forward to getting along with you.”

An open field under the blazing sunlight.
Perhaps because of its location near the shopping district, the benches were crowded with people carrying food.

“Cardrin’s daughter is coming to our school?”

A heavily muscular man gulped down the coffee he was holding.
The dry powder scraped against his throat, leaving a bitter and unpleasant taste on his tongue.
The man tossed the cup into a trash can.

Clang!

Long golden hair that fell like a mane glittered in the sunlight.
A tied bundle of hair cascading over his chest tickled his abdomen.

The man’s name was Bell.
A warrior from the Far North, and the former chieftain of the Vikings, Rasha Bell.

Bell pulled out a crumpled sheet of paper from his pocket.

“What the hell is that crazy old man plotting by pulling this sht?”

The man known throughout the world as the Sword Demon, Cardrin Chen Meglai.
In Bell’s memories, he was the very embodiment of an overprotective father who treasured his daughter beyond anything else.

His protectiveness was so extreme that, aside from Cardrin himself, hardly anyone had even seen her face.

Bell crumpled the paper and sighed.

“This is a disaster.”

The moment Cardrin’s daughter submitted her application, Bell’s workload had doubled in an instant.

Regnolia, the knight-training academy of the Leoni Kingdom.

Bell, the principal of Regnolia, had barely slept for the past several days.

—Kane de Redlon, the Black Holy Knight, has submitted an application to transfer his adopted son, Khan de Redlon.
—The border’s old knight Henrel On Budvian has submitted an application to transfer his adopted son, Hodrick On Budvian.
—The kingdom’s direct-line knight commanders have requested a tour of Regnolia.

The moment word spread that Cardrin’s daughter was enrolling, the paperwork on his desk had doubled in an instant.

The former heroes who had grown old while raising successors on the frontiers were now moving quickly to associate their successors with Cardrin’s daughter.

“…….”

What concerned Bell wasn’t Cardrin’s daughter herself.
What worried him was the educational philosophy of Regnolia’s teaching staff.

It was extremely rare for a knight of exceptional ability to join a school’s teaching staff.

If you had the ability, you could simply remain on the front lines.
If you retired from the front lines, you could take an officer’s position.
And if you retired from that position, you could adopt a successor and devote yourself to preparing them to carry on your legacy.

The kingdom would never willingly let such a talent go in the first place, and what kind of superhuman would willingly become a schoolteacher when the job brought neither money nor achievements?

‘Surd tried to move into education, at least…’

But the king had refused, so nothing came of it.

“Haa…”

It wasn’t that Bell looked down on the teachers’ abilities.
They were all knights capable of teaching others.

The problem was that the person they had to teach was Cardrin’s daughter.

‘What kind of monster did that crazy old man create?’

Bell closed his eyes and recalled the contents of the letter he had received from Cardrin.

Sender: Cardrin Chen Meglai.

「Enroll my daughter no matter what, Bell.
You haven’t forgotten the favor I did for you last time, have you?
If you have, I suppose I’ll have no choice but to come find you myself…
Well, I suppose I can only trust that you haven’t forgotten.
Anyway, I’m counting on you.」

P.S. My daughter is a genius among geniuses whom I personally raised.
Make sure you assign an educator who is worthy of her.

Just thinking about the contents of the letter made Bell’s stomach churn again.

“You son of a btch.
That’s not an enrollment application.
It’s a threat.”

A prodigy whose talent had been acknowledged by the Sword Demon.
A masterfully forged blade crafted by Cardrin himself.

One wrong strike with an unsuitable hammer could leave a scratch on that beautiful blade.

“Haa…”

There was no whetstone in Regnolia capable of honing her anymore.
The thought was so frustrating and suffocating that Bell had begun taking walks in the park three days ago.
His worries had not become any lighter.

Bell covered his face with both hands.

‘Isn’t there anyone?
Someone useful?’

He didn’t need material to add more flesh to the blade.
He needed a filter capable of removing the impurities hidden within it.

Judging from Cardrin’s words, his daughter was already complete.
That fussy and stingy old man had acknowledged her as a once-in-a-generation genius, so there was no room for doubt.

There was only one thing she needed.

‘To learn how to wield herself.’

There was nothing else to teach her.

“…….”

Bell held his head in both hands.

“So…”

His thick shoulders drooped.

“Where the hell am I supposed to find someone capable of teaching a talent like that…?”

As the arrival of the genius drew closer, Bell’s worries only grew.
He took out the stomach medicine from his pocket and swallowed it before trudging back toward Regnolia.