“Misha! Hurry up and open the door for me!”
A young girl wearing a pink dress and a delicate little crown stood at the door, hands on her hips, looking fierce and imposing.
“Maybe she hasn’t come back yet?”
Hearing no response from inside for a long time, Lola Bell timidly called out to the girl standing with her hands on her hips.
“Impossible, do you think I don’t know what she’s like?”
“If she ever stays out for more than fifteen minutes, I’ll wear this crown upside down from now on!”
Beep!!
“Fourteen minutes and fifty-seven seconds, well done, Azalea…”
Just as Lola Bell was wondering how much longer they’d have to wait, a lazy voice suddenly sounded from behind them.
The two turned around and saw a girl standing behind them, though they had no idea when she had appeared.
The girl wore a white lab coat, her gray hair a mess like an exploded mop—or perhaps a little animal with disheveled fur. If you saw her only from behind, probably only the long, drooping ahoge atop her head would let you recognize her as human.
When Lola Bell turned her head, she met the girl’s pale blue eyes, heavy with dark circles. She glanced at the princess with an expression that seemed to say she’d just spotted a huge headache, then looked at Lola Bell as if to ask why she had brought such trouble with her.
“Oi, my dearest Misha!”
The princess opened her fragrant arms wide, ready to pull Misha into a hug.
But before she could get close, Misha sidestepped out of her embrace.
“Alright, alright, I really don’t want to smell that sickly sweet perfume on you.”
“Eh~ I especially mixed this perfume just for you, you know.”
Seeing that the princess still wanted to get close, Misha simply reached out and pushed her aside.
“So, what do you want from me?”
“Can’t we come see you even if there’s nothing going on?” the princess blinked her big eyes and said.
“Move. If it’s nothing, I have things to do.”
Misha walked past the two of them, opened the door, and went inside.
“Actually, it’s me. I wanted to ask you for help.”
Misha paused in the doorway, turned her head slightly, and glanced at Lola Bell, replying coolly, “If it’s just girl talk, I’m not getting involved.”
“No, it’s not that!”
Seeing her misunderstanding, Lola Bell blushed and quickly said, “I’ll explain the details in a bit. Can we go inside first?”
Misha’s gaze flicked toward the princess. She knew that even if she refused, the princess would just forcibly remove the Space Magic on the door and enter anyway, she’d done it more than once or twice before.
After a moment’s pause, she sighed in resignation. “Fine, but don’t go rummaging through my things. Especially you, Azalea!”
At those words, the princess immediately puffed out her cheeks and protested, “Just watch me! I’ll rummage all I want!”
“…Just don’t make a mess.”
Honestly, she really had no way to deal with this little troublemaker. Rubbing her aching head, she walked into the room.
“Come in.”
The two followed her inside, and as soon as they reached the doorway, a pungent medicinal smell mixed with rot and heavy perfume assaulted their noses.
Inside, the odor grew even stronger. The redwood cabinet was piled high with all sorts of materials—ranging from monster and animal corpses to bottles of potions in various colors, and some unknown plants. It was clear that the stench was coming from these things.
The place seemed even messier, even more appalling, than when Lola Bell had last visited.
“Ugh~ It still smells so awful in here,” the princess complained, pinching her nose as soon as she entered.
“If you didn’t spray all that weird perfume around here, it would probably smell a lot better.”
“Those are my specially made deodorizing perfumes!”
“Deodorizing perfumes? The corpses I brought didn’t rot for half a month after coming into contact with your perfume. I thought you mixed in preservatives or something.”
“Well, maybe just a little, hehe.”
She rubbed her forehead again, then sat down on a chair, sighing helplessly. “Just tell me what you want. The sooner we’re done, the sooner you can take her away.”
Lola Bell, who’d been curiously inspecting the oddities around the room, came forward when she heard this. “Anyway, just let me explain first.”
After a while, Lola Bell finished telling her problem, embellishing the story a bit.
“In short, please help me, Misha! The voices in my ears are getting more and more frequent, I can’t even concentrate anymore.”
“Ah… That sounds pretty bad.”
“What do you think it is, Misha? A curse? Possession?”
“I’ve never heard of a curse or ghost that could cling to a Saint Knight blessed by the Blessing of the Goddess. That leaves only one possibility, magic. To be precise, it’s either dark magic or forbidden magic.”
“Magic…”
As she spoke, Misha stood up from her chair, a faint smile on her face. “Well, I suppose this could be interesting.”
She moved her chair aside, clearing a small space on the floor.
“Ohh, looks like Misha’s going to help you,” the princess teased.
“Pipe down.”
“You two, move aside—stand back.”
The room was so crowded and messy that there wasn’t really anywhere else to stand, so the two had no choice but to retreat to the doorway.
Misha picked up a glass bottle filled with fluorescent powder from the redwood cabinet and began sprinkling it on the empty space, using it to draw a Magic Circle.
“What kind of magic is this?” the princess asked curiously.
“I once saw this kind of magic in the First Kingdom’s library. Supposedly, it was learned from a traveling witch.”
“It can split a person’s personality into two parts—one part is hidden away forever, while the other becomes the main personality.”
The princess then asked, “So what does that have to do with her symptoms?”
“I’ve experimented with this magic—on a death row convict.”
“Eh, that’s scary.”
“It failed, but the results were still interesting. Your symptoms are very similar to that convict’s.”
“You lost a part of your memory, didn’t you? I think what happened is that the hidden personality emerged and suppressed your original main personality.”
“So the question is, when did she get hit with this magic? Judging by your drawing, it looks like a pretty complex spell, right?”
“Who knows?”
Clap clap.
While talking, Misha had already finished drawing the Magic Circle. She clapped the fluorescent powder from her hands, then placed the chair in the center of the red Magic Circle.
“Sit on it.”
“Oh, okay.”
Lola Bell obediently sat down.
“Hey, Misha, are you sure this won’t go wrong? Didn’t your previous experiment fail?” the princess asked worriedly.
“It did fail, but I managed to fix the convict afterward.”
At least, that’s what she believed, since the convict’s personality stopped switching after she treated him. Of course, he was executed the next day, so she never got to do further research on a corpse.
“If it hurts, let me know.”
“Got it.”
Misha stood by the Magic Circle, stretching out her hand and channeling her own mana along the lines of fluorescent powder on the ground.
The fluorescent powder’s main purpose was to ensure there would be no mistakes while drawing the Magic Circle, helping the caster outline a complex Magic Circle more accurately.
After about ten minutes, her incantation still ongoing, the Magic Circle on the floor began to glow faint blue.
At the center of the Magic Circle, Lola Bell felt only a little dizzy, but nothing else out of the ordinary.
Still, there was an effect—the whispering in her ears grew less frequent and quieter. She felt as if the voices were about to disappear.
Just as a hint of happiness blossomed in her heart, in the next moment, her pupils suddenly contracted.
When she recovered, her right red eye seemed a little dimmer than before.
“Huff… It’s done.”
After a long while, she let out a breath, beads of sweat forming on her forehead.
“Is it over?”
The princess wiped the sweat from her forehead with a handkerchief, then looked at Lola Bell with concern.
“Do you feel any better?”
Sitting at the center of the Magic Circle, Lola Bell remained silent for a long time. Just as the two began to worry, she suddenly spoke: “Yes, I feel much better now.”
“Really? That’s great! As expected of my dearest Misha, hehe.”
The princess glanced at Misha’s eyes, but suddenly noticed something was off.
“What’s wrong, Misha?”
Misha didn’t answer her, instead turning to Lola Bell and asking, “You’re sure you don’t feel anything unusual?”
“No, I feel… really good now.”
“Is that so?”
“Then let me ask you a question!” The princess suddenly interjected.
She cleared her throat and continued, “Tell me—your family, your friends, your kingdom—who would you rather give your life for?”
Lola Bell still answered without the slightest hesitation…
“Of course—it’s my sister, Aurora Eve. I’m willing to give everything for her.
“That includes my friends, my kingdom, and—my other family members.”
Premium Chapter
Login to buy access to this Chapter.