TRL 08

Chapter 8

‘Come to think of it, none of us remembered our parents.’

Among Pascal’s children, not a single one could recall their parents or the hometown they were born and raised in.

It was strange how they all knew absolutely nothing. Everyone avoided recalling their lives before becoming “Pascal.” They all said it was nothing but horrific memories.

‘There were so many orphans like that in the world, it didn’t seem strange at the time.’

The harsh environment they faced left little room for deeper thoughts—survival was the only priority.

Had Pascal purposely selected children who couldn’t remember their parents? Or, could it be…

Rita was startled by her own suspicion. At the same time, it repulsed her.

After all, she had lived over ten years as Rita Pascal, with reddish-brown hair and freckles—without ever doubting her identity.

‘If I’m really Lillietta… then does that mean that body belonged to someone else? That makes no sense.’

She had lived her entire life with that body. She never felt anything out of place.

‘…Out of place?’

She suddenly remembered Sera Pascal, the healer in the Beacon Squad, scolding her during a check-up.

“All Pascals tend to have some kind of paralysis symptoms, but our Maple Candy here is especially bad. You know that, right? You creak like a loose screw. Even Odd can only cover so much, so please take care of yourself, little fox.”

Her body experienced paralysis more frequently than her comrades.

What if that “creaking” was the sense of displacement?

Doubt snowballed. Her lifelong belief in her identity began to crack.

Her head throbbed. She felt disoriented and confused, without a single certainty. She shook her head furiously.

‘Damn it. Stop thinking about it.’

Rita shut the matchbox with a snap and placed it on the desk in the corner of the room. That’s when she noticed the stationery and quill set.

‘Forget the unanswerable questions for now. Focus on what I can do.’

Considering the incident just earlier, the most urgent thing for her now was to awaken her Odd.

Staying powerless would only make her more sensitive and volatile. She might end up threatening someone again.

‘First, an Odd compatibility test.’

Odd—the primal natural force that composes the world.

According to her knowledge, any world with gravity, air, and lightning must contain Odd.

People either resonate well with Odd or repel it—it depended on one’s constitution.

Rita picked up the quill, pricked her fingertip lightly, and soaked the pen in her blood. Then she drew a simple magic circle on the paper, opened the window wide, placed a cup over the paper, and waited.

‘Odd-collecting magic circle. It’s not a full test, but this should be enough for a basic check.’

The afternoon sunlight and a refreshing spring breeze entered through the open window.

Soon, a faint shimmer formed in the cup. A sign that Odd was gathering and thickening.

‘It’s gathering well. So even in another world, the fundamentals are the same. This place isn’t completely absurd, like water flowing upward or fire being cold.’

Rita carefully dipped her bleeding fingertip into the shimmering Odd inside the cup.

‘Good. I’m not repelled. There’s no sting or discomfort either. That means no side effects. My compatibility…’

The drop of blood from her fingertip blended gently into the shimmer in the cup.

Instead of separating like oil and water, it spread like ink in water, tinting the shimmer a soft crimson.

Rita gaped at the now red-tinted cup.

‘What’s with this body? The Odd compatibility is insane!’

Rita Pascal’s original body didn’t react this well. Her previous test had shown her blood floating in the shimmer like red beads.

‘No way. This is… like Gide’s level.’

Gide Pascal had the highest Odd compatibility in the Beacon Squad.

Thanks to his incredible affinity, he could wield vast amounts of Odd and create a domain on the battlefield. Those who witnessed it called him “Emperor.”

‘And this body’s reaction is even faster than his? If I used magic gun techniques with this body, I could pull off way more skills.’

Recalling the techniques she had only dreamed of made her forget the confusion. She admired the shimmering red cup with wide-eyed wonder.

‘Wow… At this level, I might even be able to complete that technique I’d only imagined. Fantastic. In my original body, I had to be cautious or I’d suffer seizures or paralysis.’

She found herself wishing—if only this was truly her body.

The thought startled her.

‘…Don’t get greedy, Rita Pascal. What if you’re wrong? What if the real Lillietta returns someday…?’

She thought of the four-leaf clover in the matchbox.

Leonhardt must have hoped it would trigger some memory. But it hadn’t.

Maybe Pascal had tampered with her memory, or maybe all of this was just coincidence.

Getting your hopes up only made disappointment hurt worse.

She had seen how other Pascal children met their end. She knew what happened to one who once mistakenly thought they had found their family.

Pascal’s children were living weapons. They existed only to fight beasts.

They didn’t have things like family. And even if they did, those people wouldn’t accept a Pascal. Only another Pascal could understand a Pascal.

That was the truth Rita had come to understand after living more than ten years as one of them.

‘Don’t hope. Don’t fool yourself. I’m a Pascal, and I’ll return to the Beacon Squad. I’m just borrowing someone else’s body. That’s all.’

Steeling her heart, Rita set aside the magic circle and cup and stood by the window.

There were no side effect worries anymore. It was time to awaken.

She looked up at the bright blue sky and took a deep breath of fresh air.

‘It’s a beautiful world. There might not be any beasts here, but still…’

She cut her fingertip a bit more with the quill, drew a sigil of vow in her palm with the blood, and placed her hand over her throat.

“〈Odd, I vow.〉”

Her voice rang with a strange resonance. At the same time, the wind—or rather, the Odd—began to swirl around her.

“〈To slay every beast I see.〉”

Odd seeped into her body, and her form began to shimmer. Her blonde hair blew wildly, and light filled her violet eyes.

With that eerie voice, Rita finished the vow, her hand still on her throat.

“〈In the name of Rita Pascal, I swear.〉”

Fssshhh—a sound like air deflating came from somewhere. The Odd vanished rapidly.

“…Huh?”

Rita let out a surprised sound. The vow hadn’t been fulfilled.

The Odd had to accept the vow to awaken her abilities. But it had simply dispersed mid-vow.

“Why didn’t it work?”

Just moments ago, all the signs of a proper awakening had been there. The wind stirred with gathering Odd.

“Why was it suddenly rejected?”

Rita looked around in confusion and touched her throat again, remembering a similar incident.

‘Someone once tried to volunteer at the final defense line using a fake name—and the vow was rejected just like this.’

Even if everything else is done properly, a false name would make the Odd reject the vow.

Her procedure and content were flawless. It was a vow she had lived by for ages.

‘It’s not because this world has no beasts. Odd still gathered while I recited the vow.’

It was only canceled after the final phrase. So then—could it be?

Rita hesitated but placed her hand on her throat again. She repeated the vow exactly the same way, except for the final words.

“〈In the name of Lillietta del Nysa Laskail, I swear.〉”

The Odd rushed into her body in an instant. Her hair whipped in the wind, her eyes sparkled like stars.

Odd surged in like a waterfall—ceaselessly, until her body’s capacity reached its limit.

Once the storm of power passed, Rita slowly opened and closed her eyes.

“…Ha.”

She was stunned by how much Odd her body now contained—far more than when she was Rita Pascal, even after years of training.

And also by the vow that had succeeded.

‘Why did it work with Lillietta’s name? Because this body belongs to her?’

The body is just a vessel. The soul is what makes the vow, right? Or… was the body more important?

Or…

“You think I wouldn’t recognize my one and only sister just because she’s different inside? If your essence changed, I’d know instantly.”

“Just… consider the possibility. That you might be the real one.”

“…No way.”

Leonhardt’s words resurfaced.

Her barely steady heart wavered again. In her daze, Rita mumbled once more—

“…No way…”