A Fortune-telling Princess

It was because they knew very well what kind of relationship Tia and Camilla had shared that they had tried to stop Camilla from coming along this time.

He had personally watched Camilla being mistreated from the time she was little, and hadn’t the Duke of Sorpel also roughly grasped the situation from the tearful things shrunken Camilla had babbled while half delirious?

“......”

And then there was Ludville.

Ravi cast a sidelong glance at his older brother, whose expression was a little more complicated than usual.

As the first person to notice the complicated relationship between mother and daughter, Ludville, too, was plainly unwilling to have Camilla come with them.

‘There can’t be any good memories here worth dragging back up.’

He was worried about what thoughts, what memories, Camilla might recall after coming to their mother’s grave.

And so the three of them had wanted to stop her from coming here. Looking at the dazed expression on her face ever since a little while ago, he regretted not forcing her to stay home.

‘Her memorial day.’

But unlike the concerns of those three men, Camilla was lost in an entirely different train of thought.

In truth, the one who had been mistreated by Mother here was not her, but Isia, who had originally lived in this body.

From the start, there was no way any anger or resentment toward the mother here could remain in her.

‘Still...’

But because it was the day their mother died, something suddenly came to mind.

‘Shouldn’t I go at least once after all?’

There was something she had been thinking over for a while now, and after coming here, the hesitation in her heart had begun to tip more and more decisively in one direction.

Slide.

“Hm?”

A moment later, a warm hand brushed through the cold air and touched her head. When she turned, Ludville was gazing down at her quietly.

“Let’s go.”

Drawn along by the careful touch that naturally patted her shoulder and guided her away, Camilla slowly stepped out of that place.

‘Right.’

Let’s go at least once.

As she looked back one last time at her mother’s grave, Camilla made up her mind once again.

*****

“Exactly fifteen days.”

“Got it.”

“If it goes past fifteen days, people will start distancing themselves from you again.”

“How many times are you going to repeat yourself? I said I got it.”

Even after saying it and saying it again, Dorman still seemed unable to settle his mind, and he kept letting out sigh after sigh.

“Do you really have to go?”

“Yeah.”

“You’re really going?”

“Why do you keep making me repeat the same thing over and over?”

The place where Camilla and Dorman stood was an underground chamber. It was the lowest floor prepared beneath the Ghost Company, a place only occasionally used when secret meetings or sensitive work had to be carried out.

‘Right now, no one is allowed in here at all.’

Camilla herself had given that order some time ago. All because of that.

‘The magic circle.’

She looked quietly at the enormous magic circle covering the entire floor, and at the top-grade mana stones laid out so densely across it.

“Dimension-travel magic, of all things.”

Dorman still shook his head as though he disliked the whole situation.

This dimension-travel magic... no, this dimension-travel magic circle, was something Jishua had installed for her as thanks for finding the grimoire.

[I wanted to give you something too.]

‘You already gave me something last time.’

The payment he had mentioned, the thing he had already given her when he handed over the mine, was this very magic circle.

‘Just in case.’

Was it because she had always carried around a vague sense of unease? The moment she learned that dimension travel was possible, she could not just let it slide.

A strong feeling that she absolutely had to go to that world at least once. Hadn’t she left that place far too suddenly?

So she had asked Jishua. She had asked him to make it possible for {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} her to use a dimension-travel magic circle that could take her to another world.

[If there is someone there whose wavelength matches yours, then it’s possible.]

‘Don’t worry about that.’

Not just a matching wavelength. There was someone there whose fate was tangled up with hers.

[You know someone in another world? Does that even make sense? How could—!]

‘It just sort of happened that way.’

[No, that’s not something you explain with “it just sort of happened.” Logically, this is—]

‘And seeing the dead is logical?’

[...Fair point.]

At the words that there was someone in another world with whom she had a connection, Jishua had looked at her with an utterly disbelieving, bewildered expression.

But because Camilla clearly had no intention of explaining any further, he did not press her for more.

[Then that’s good. If there’s someone you’re connected to, the transfer will be easier. If we add this formula to the magic circle here...]

And so Jishua had drawn the magic circle in the underground chamber.

Of course, because Camilla had no mana at all, it once again required an absurd amount of mana stones. A truly absurd amount...

And on top of that, every single one had to be top-grade mana stones. That alone showed that dimension-travel magic was no easy spell.

“You really confirmed it with Isia?”

“Yes.”

There was one thing she had asked Dorman to do as well. She had asked him to get Isia’s opinion over there.

‘Can you contact Isia, by any chance? Last time it looked like you were giving rewards and keeping an eye on how she was doing.’

‘Why are you asking that all of a sudden?’

‘Can you or not?’

‘If we use the system, it’s possible. But why? Is there something you’re curious about regarding Lady Isia?’

‘Ask her whether she has any intention of coming over to this world once.’

‘What?’

If he brought her here without a word, the way Jishua had done, she would naturally be shocked. So Camilla had told him to ask her directly.

‘If Isia said no, I was planning to drop the whole thing right away.’

If the other party didn’t want it, she had no intention of forcing it through. Even if there were matters on that side she still needed to resolve.

‘...She says she’d like to.’

‘Really?’

‘Yes. Lady Isia also chose to return here for a while.’

But Isia, too, had given permission to return here more easily than expected.

‘Maybe she was curious too.’

About what this world looked like after she left it.

‘Or maybe, like me, she had something sitting uneasily in her heart.’

Hadn’t the parting been far too sudden?

Without any time to prepare themselves, each of them had left the place they had lived in for so long. Without properly putting anything in order around them.

There wasn’t really much for Camilla to put in order, but still, if the chance came, she wanted to wrap up that world properly at least once. She didn’t know about Isia, but that was how Camilla felt.

“Exactly fifteen days.”

“I said I got it.”

The length of time Dorman kept emphasizing was the period before other people started to feel a sense of wrongness from the changed souls again. 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

“Say, if the souls switch back again, will people start turning away from me all over again right away?”

“That will not happen. There are feelings that have built up over time. But that period also has its limit. You must not go past fifteen days.”

She had wondered whether the moment the souls changed again, people might start rejecting and mistreating her all over again, but apparently that was not the case.

The memories and emotions that had been built up would keep things stable for a certain period of time.

“Please go carefully.”

“Got it.”

“You absolutely must come back.”

“You said yourself that even if I don’t want to come back, the magic circle will activate once enough time passes. So don’t worry.”

“Yes...”

Onto the dimension-travel magic circle... no, the soul-swap magic circle, Camilla carefully stepped forward.

“When Isia gets here, take good care of her.”

“Yes.”

As though telling her not to worry about that, Dorman nodded hard.

“Then I’m going.”

The moment she finished speaking, Camilla threw the mana stone she had been holding onto the floor.

FWAAASH!

The mana stone shattered instantly, and from that spot the magic circle began to blaze with light.

The moment that light spread through the entire circle, a brilliance far stronger than the first time filled the underground chamber.

Rummmmble...

As the light faded, a strange vibration and hum took its place.

“......”

Dorman, who had shut his eyes tightly without realizing it, slowly opened them once the light had died down enough.

“Lady Camilla.”

No, should he be saying Lady Isia?

Finding Camilla collapsed in the center of the magic circle, he hurried over to her.

*****

“Ugh... mm...”

The first thing she felt the moment consciousness returned was pain. Her head throbbed as though it were about to split open.

Even when she opened her eyes with a groan, her blurry vision kept her from seeing anything properly. Only after a long while did a stark white ceiling come into view.

“This is...”

Rubbing her eyes quickly to clear her sight, Camilla hurriedly looked around. And then she understood where she was.

“A hospital?”

Yes, it was definitely a hospital. That peculiar cold smell one could never possibly mistake in that other world.

“Ha...”

Did I really come back?

Camilla hurriedly looked for a mirror. Entering the bathroom, she came face to face with a familiar reflection.

‘Isia.’

Wow... it’s really been a long time since I saw this face.

Black hair and black eyes. A sharp gaze that made her look proud and aloof.

Isia, whom she had not seen in so long, stood there wearing a strange expression.