Chapter 6
Penelope slowly awoke.
Her body felt heavy and drained, as if she’d worked all day while sick.
“Ugh…”
When she managed to shift her body with a groan, someone immediately grabbed her hand.
“My lady! Lady Penelope!”
“A… Anna?”
“You’re awake!”
When she opened her eyes, she saw Anna’s anxious face. Beside her stood the physician she had met during her last health check.
“…Did something happen?”
“Don’t you remember? While I stepped out for just a moment, you collapsed.”
Anna had found Penelope unconscious and rushed to fetch the physician. But the physician couldn’t find anything physically wrong with her.
“…You were out cold for half a day.”
Though Anna’s face was usually expressionless, worry and relief flickered across it.
“I shouldn’t have left you alone. This is my fault.”
“No, Anna. You only went to get a book for me because you were thinking of me.”
With Anna’s help, Penelope sat up, resting her back against the headboard.
“This is the first time I’ve ever fainted. I’m not even sick…”
“No one collapses for no reason.”
“Miss Anna is correct,” the physician added, before asking Penelope a series of questions.
Had she felt any warning signs before losing consciousness? Did she often experience dizziness? Did she remember hitting herself when she collapsed?
Penelope thought back carefully and answered each question as best she could.
“That day, my chest—around my heart—hurt.”
“What kind of pain was it?”
“It felt like… something was squeezing it.”
“Hm. You’ve always been healthy… We’ll have to re-examine your heart. I’ll return tomorrow with a mage.”
The physician scrawled several lines onto a sheet of paper and said he would be back the next day before taking his leave.
“Anna, I’m fine. You should go get some rest too.”
Once the physician left, Penelope urged Anna to rest as well. After worrying for half a day, Anna’s complexion was nearly ashen.
“But…”
“I’m going to sleep again now. I really am fine, okay? And please have the others keep away too. I want real peace and quiet tonight.”
Anna reluctantly gave in to Penelope’s stubbornness.
“Alright. But only after I watch you fall asleep.”
“Sure. That’s fine.”
Anna sat at Penelope’s bedside and softly hummed a lullaby.
Before long, Penelope’s small back rose and fell in a steady rhythm.
“Then, sweet dreams.”
Anna placed a light kiss on Penelope’s cheek before quietly leaving the room.
And then…
“Phew. I almost actually fell asleep.”
Penelope sat up in bed, her cheeks faintly flushed.
“Honestly, Anna…”
She rubbed the cheek Anna’s lips had touched.
Would it have felt like this if I’d had a sister?
It was the first time anyone had ever given her a goodnight kiss, and it left her feeling oddly ticklish inside.
She lingered for a moment in the warmth of it before shaking her head.
“No, no, this isn’t the time!”
There was a reason she had gone so far as to pretend to be asleep just to send Anna away and clear the area.
While answering the physician’s questions earlier, she had remembered what happened right before she fainted.
Someone called to me. They told me to come to them if I wanted to live. And they knew I’d come back from the past.
And the owner of that voice was most likely…
The demon sword, Demonia!
She had heard it once before—on her first day at the ducal estate, when she’d gotten lost and the voice had tried to lure her in.
Over the past month, Penelope had gone back and forth to the main building so often that she could now reach the room containing the demon sword Demonia without ever losing her way.
Phew. Thank goodness I didn’t run into anyone.
Fortunately, the corridor leading to the Chamber of Demon-Sealing—where the sword was kept—was restricted, and everyone avoided going near it, so there was little chance of meeting another servant.
Penelope looked up at the massive black door. She had been told it helped block some of the sinister aura seeping from Demonia.
If anything, it looks even more ominous than what it’s supposed to be sealing.
She muttered her brief impression before pushing the heavy door open.
Inside the dim room stood a heavy wooden pedestal, upon which lay a single black sword radiating a languid, eerie energy.
Penelope strode straight toward it.
In truth, she wasn’t entirely unafraid of Demonia, who spoke like some ghost-possessed relic.
But dying is even scarier. This time, I want to live a long, happy life!
The words the sword had spoken before she fainted weighed on her mind.
Penelope. Child from the future. If you wish to live, come to me.
The sword knew her true identity. That meant its next words were likely true as well.
Penelope clenched her fists and spoke.
“You called me, didn’t you? I came here just like you wanted. Now it’s your turn to talk. Why did my heart hurt? Why did I suddenly collapse?”
Her voice rang sharply in the empty chamber.
The sword let out a low, resonating hum.
The sight and sound were eerie enough to raise goosebumps.
“…Good. Penelope. You’ve finally stepped inside the door. Now we can have something resembling a real conversation.”
The demon sword Demonia began to speak.
“Child who twists the past and forges her own fate.”
Though his tone was grand, it had no effect on Penelope.
“Skip the cryptic nonsense and answer my question. I’m in a hurry.”
At her cold interruption, Demonia grumbled.
“…Tch. You’re impatient, aren’t you? I just wanted to savor the moment for once. You’re no fun.”
“I collapsed earlier today! And you told me I was going to die! Of course I’m in a hurry!”
“Alright, alright. You have a point.”
“So, what do I do to survive? Actually—before that—why am I even dying? In my last life, I died in an accident, not from illness! Sure, I was small from not eating enough, but I was perfectly sturdy! What’s wrong with me?”
She fired off her questions in rapid succession.
Do you know how hard I worked to start over? I finally have a chance to live well!
Growing desperate, she even grabbed the sword by the blade and shook it violently.
“Hurry up and explain!”
“Oi, oi—stop that! You’re bending my edge!”
“If you don’t want me to swing you around again, then talk!”
“Alright, alright! I’ll explain, so calm down.”
The sword vibrated with another low hum.
“First off, the reason your heart hurts is because your balance is broken.”
“Why? I’ve been eating better and resting more than before.”
“I’m not talking about physical balance. It’s more complicated than that. Simply put… you used up too much magia to turn back time. Your energy reserves are completely drained.”
Penelope frowned at the unfamiliar explanation.
“You’re saying I’m like this because I used power to turn back time? How do you even know I turned back time?”
“Your soul is twenty years old, but your body’s a child. The resonance between your body and soul matches perfectly, so it’s not possession—it’s time reversal.”
Her mouth fell open. There were far too many terms she didn’t understand—soul resonance, body resonance, magia…
“Then what is ‘magia’?”
“The power of demons.”
“The… power of demons?”
Penelope frowned slightly. Did that mean she was some sort of demon herself if she had it?
As if answering her thought, Demonia continued:
“I’m talking about what’s lying dormant inside you—magia. Demons are, by nature, beings that grant desires. If you focus a strong wish upon pure magia, your wish will come true. Every human has some, but those with enough to actually make wishes come true are rare.”
Then he added:
“The Calix bloodline tends to have stronger magia. Still, I’ve never seen a human with a vessel as large as yours since the first head of the family.”
Penelope tilted her head.
“If I had that kind of power, shouldn’t I be invincible? Then why was my life such garbage?”
She thought of all the times she’d longed desperately for even a scrap of bread on an empty stomach, or for the faintest warmth during a winter so cold her fingers felt like they would fall off.
If she’d had the power of demons, why hadn’t those wishes been granted?
But the answer was anticlimactic.
“How should I know? All I can read is the trace of magia left in your body—the remnant of a powerful burst. If a vast vessel like yours is now completely empty, I can only guess you used up all the water it once held.”
He further explained that magia should naturally recover over time, like stamina—but she had used far more than she could recover from naturally, making that impossible.
In the end, the conversation circled back to the starting point.
“So if I can’t recover this ‘magia,’ what happens?”
“Your vessel is completely empty… so you’ll dry up and die. And if you keep going around doing mindless good deeds, it’ll hurt even more.”
“What? Then how long do I have?”
“You won’t drop dead right away. You could fumble along for… about a year.”
It was a perfect death sentence. Penelope’s face turned pale.
“No! I came back to the past—at least let me live past twenty!”
She pressed Demonia for a solution. At this point, she didn’t care that she was talking to a notorious demon sword.
“Of course there’s a way! Why do you think I called for you so desperately?”
Her ears perked up.
“What do I have to do? I want to live a long time. Life is important.”
“First, there’s a condition. Once every ten days, you have to come here and talk to me. It’s been 400 years since I’ve had a proper conversation partner—the first head of the family was the last. I’ve been bored.”
It was an easy condition. Penelope agreed without hesitation.
“Fine! No problem!”
The sword’s tone brightened immediately.
“Really? It’s a promise? You’re staking your magia on this promise?”
“I promise on the tiny scrap of magia I have left! Now tell me the way!”
She was ready to burst with impatience.
Demonia cleared his throat—somehow—despite being a sword.
Then he revealed the method.
“The way is… stop being so nice, and start doing bad things!”
