Chapter 13: Hallucination.

“First… take off your top.”

Unlike Yukomis, who forced those words out,
Signo in front of her didn’t seem particularly moved by the instruction.

“I thought you were just going to check my pulse…”
“Just do it.”

Signo didn’t hesitate much and started unbuttoning his shirt.

One, two, three, slowly. His hands didn’t seem to move as well as he wanted; it took him a while to undo just five buttons.

Signo took off his shirt, revealing he wasn’t wearing any underwear underneath.

Of course, he wouldn’t have women’s underwear in his luggage, and Yukomis’ spare underwear was too big for him to wear.

‘If my sister was around fourteen, maybe she would have fit my size.’

In terms of development, her sister was much better than her.

When she was younger, she vaguely thought that since they were sisters, she would grow as much as her sister when she got older, but after her coming-of-age ceremony, she had to let go of that hope when she saw her height stuck there.

Lost in complex thoughts, Yukomis pointed to a chair in front of the full-length mirror prepared next to the desk.

A mirror large enough to reflect Yukomis and even a full-grown man.

There were only a few workshops in the Empire that could make such a large and smooth glass mirror.

Even if it was only in the best VIP rooms, the fact that such an expensive mirror was brought in showed that the chairman of the ‘Three Lights’ merchant association had very luxurious tastes.

If she checked the back of the mirror, she would surely find the names of famous artisans written there.

Signo, who jumped onto the chair, awkwardly stared at his reflection in the mirror.

He didn’t seem to have much shame.

…Is he still a boy at heart? Or does he think it doesn’t matter since it’s between girls?

Contrasted with her own nervousness, Yukomis thought this was a bit unfair.

“Close your eyes.”
“…Doo I haf to crose my eyes?”
“It’s necessary.”

No. Actually, it wasn’t necessary.

“Once you close them, don’t open them no matter what.”
“OK…”

That was just to prevent Signo from seeing her expression.

To hide the fact that her fingertips were trembling uncontrollably.

Even after confirming several times that Signo had really closed his eyes, she hesitated for a while.

‘Please, please don’t recognize me…’

Yukomis gently placed her hand on the crown of Signo’s head.

From the moment Signo entered the room, she had to do her best to manage her expression.

She was forcing herself to appear calm, but she didn’t know what kind of expression she would make if she relaxed even for a moment.

‘Hair…’

A child’s hair. A smooth and soft texture like silk threads before weaving.

The high temperature rose through the hair and warmed Yukomis’ pale hand.

‘Ah…’

She clearly remembered her twelve-year-old sister’s appearance.

But even she didn’t know what her sister looked like at nine. She was only three years old at the time.

…So this version of her sister was something even she was seeing for the first time.

Knowing very well that every moment she spent with her sister, she had only plunged a dagger into her heart,
she didn’t know whether to be happy or sad that her memories didn’t extend that far.

‘Sister also had a nine-year-old self.’

‘Yes. Sister was once a girl.’

‘There was a time when sister didn’t know the ways of the world.’

Yukomis didn’t know what would happen to magical talent if a noble’s gender changed.

There had never been such a case.

But as she kept her palm on Signo’s head, she slowly felt the pulsating flow of magical power from Signo’s body.

She didn’t tell him, but his condition was definitely strange.

She knew where the most prominent magical power came from.

It was definitely not Signo’s.

It must be Manya’s. She had forcibly converted Signo’s gender through this magical power. This was an understandable part.

But there was another magical power swirling inside his body. This was the strange thing.

Could this be the magical talent that Signo, ‘who became a woman,’ gained?

‘No. That can’t be.’

Basically, most of the magical power that a magician uses is drawn from outside, not from within the magician’s body.

Usually, it was common to draw it from the earth rather than from the air, which was scarce in magical power.

If Signo really had gained magical talent,
this magical power should circulate through the external environment in contact with the body.

However, Signo’s body was, so to speak, a magically closed system.

The magical power only roughly circulated inside the body and did not communicate with the outside at all.

Only someone with a precise sense like Yukomis could faintly feel that there was another magical power that interfered with the flow of magical power that Manya had injected.

And Yukomis was sure.

When she saw Manya’s research journals and diaries, if she had such a strong obsession with her sister…

‘She would have wanted to reproduce even the fact that my sister could barely use magic.’

Then where did this magical power come from? Not Manya’s magical power, this unidentified, faint… why is this other magical power inside Signo’s body?

‘Did Katie co-cast with that magician?’

Maybe.

Yukomis slowly brought her faintly trembling hand down.

Whether it was a side effect of the magic, the hair that had grown to about shoulder length split softly at the fingertips.

Neckline.

Shoulders.

Back.

As her fingertips touched the thin skin, the trembling grew more and more.

Don’t notice.

Please don’t notice…

Even while thinking that, in the middle of Yukomis’ mind, she was calmly figuring out how this flow was continuing and where it was being resisted.

‘The two magical powers colliding in one body are making Manya’s ‘forced conversion formula’ extremely unstable.’

‘That’s why he’s particularly sensitive to external magical power.’

‘…That’s strange. If no additional magical power is injected, the collision should decrease over time… but there’s no sign of that at all. What’s the problem?’

Her hand continued to go down.

Shoulder blades.

Lower back.

Further down. Further down. Further…

Twitch. When Yukomis’ hand went down to the lumbar region, the other person’s body, which had been unresponsive, twitched slightly for the first time.

It was only a very slight tremor, but she was so startled that she brought her hand back as if burned.

‘Oops. Was I too hasty?’

But even when she looked at the mirror, Signo was still quietly closing his eyes.

There was no particular change in expression.

Yukomis was a little relieved and reached out her hand again.

‘…Clean…’

It was indeed clean skin.

This time, Yukomis gently lifted the bangs and pointed to the eyes.

‘It’s not there.’

There was no burn.

The burn that had haunted her sister for her entire life, that she must have been so tired of, was gone.

When she thought about it, it was only natural, but her sister’s face, with not a speck of dust, was…

It felt too unfamiliar.

The sister she remembered always grew one side of her hair long to cover her right eye.

Covering one eye would have been a fatal limitation as an investigator.

But her sister didn’t do it because she was afraid someone would make fun of her for being ugly. It was because of consideration.

Because she was afraid that someone would be surprised to see it, or think it was disgusting.

It was consideration for others, not herself.

She had never complained about the burn.

She had never severely punished the employee who caused the burn.

Whenever she heard the insensitive questions from herself and those around her about whether she was thinking of getting married,
her sister would have thought of the scar that would bother her spouse for the rest of her life first.

‘But…’

She never flaunted that.

No, she even made jokes about it sometimes.

The burn was said to have occurred when Yukomis was in the capital.

At that time, she was not a healing magic user either.

Such magic didn’t even exist in the world yet. Of course. That’s because I created it.

A scar that had healed on its own for a long time… the body recognized that state as ‘complete and better’.

It was impossible for Yukomis to erase old scars. Her sister had to live with that burn forever.

When she thought about it, the scars on her sister were not just the burn on her eye.

Her sister’s entire body was full of terrible scars.

Her hands began to stroke the places where there would have been scars, or where they would have formed.

As her thoughts deepened, Yukomis felt as if she was not looking at Signo’s body,
but at her sister’s past itself.

‘Right deltoid.’

The skin was permanently discolored black after being hit by a poisonous arrow.

‘Below the left clavicle.’

It had been burned so badly that the bone was exposed after being hit by the breath of a fire dragon spewing adhesive fuel and flames.

The skin after recovery was horribly tangled.

‘Again, the right iliac bone.’

It was smashed to pieces after being beaten during torture as a prisoner.

The bones were regenerated, but the angle of the protrusions on the left and right were slightly different.

‘Those scars… are not yet on this body…’

Even with her magic, which Yukomis prided herself on as being close to a miracle, it was impossible to completely erase those traces.

Sometimes it was too severe, sometimes it was too late.

Whenever there was even a small party, whenever there was even a victory celebration, her sister always wore lightly armed armor instead of an evening dress.

In places where it was impossible to do so, she wore stockings and long gloves even in the middle of summer… and didn’t show even a bit of skin.

What about you? What about you, Yukomis?

Me.

Yukomis looked down at her hands.

I have no wounds like this, no scars,

not even a trace…

Only sister…

Only sister… was so hurt.

She had to be so hurt.

“Are you fond of finding fault in other’s body?”
“…Huh?”

Something broke the silence.

When Yukomis turned her head, she met Signo’s eyes, who had already opened them.

“…Signo?”
“Signo? Who is that?”

Signo was smiling.

“I’m hurt. Did you forget my name just because time has passed?”
“…Oh… no…”

The frivolous atmosphere from just now, where she was complaining that her tongue was burned, was completely different.

Yukomis unconsciously used honorifics.

“Huh…?”

Signo, no, it was her sister.

The appearance in the mirror hadn’t changed at all, but the eerie atmosphere and tone of voice were not those of Signo, who had been waiting with his eyes closed until just now.

And that…

Her smiling sister was looking at Yukomis through the mirror.

You memorized the magic book entirely, but was Thermis a name not worth remembering?”
“
“Sister…?”
“That’s right. Long time no see?”
“No, this is… why? I was clearly examining Signo…”

Yukomis unconsciously stepped back.

“That’s strange? But you were clearly caressing my body, weren’t you?”

What’s going on? Until just now, I was just Signo…

Signo…

Signo with sister’s body…

Sister…

Sister’s body…

Examining sister…?

“Why are you stepping back?”
“…No…”

Yukomis, whose head was filled with confusion, trailed off.

“Do you hate seeing my face that much? Is it still like that?”
“No, it’s not that…”

Two steps, three steps.

Yukomis’ heel, who kept stepping back, bumped into the desk leg, and she fell on the spot.

“What were you doing? Were you looking for scars?”
“No. I was just… palpation… examining…”
“Examination?”

Hahaha. Her sister laughed with her sister’s body, just like her sister.

“An interesting joke, Yukomis. Does a dead person need an examination?”

With that one word, Yukomis’ breath stopped.

“Were you looking for my wounds?”

Without even caring about that, her sister questioned her again.

“…Ah… sob…”
“…Ah… no…”

Were you trying to write a report? To find out what the direct cause of death was?”
“
“The arm I put in the beast’s mouth, the broken femur, the crushed back of the hand, the burned lungs, the necrotic skin – which one were you trying to find as the cause?”
“
“Ah…heok… heok…!”

Yukomis’ breathing was completely breaking down.

Gasping like a person on the verge of suffocation, she tore at her chest as if her heart was hurting.

But she couldn’t take her eyes off her sister in the mirror, who was piercing her.
“I think it’s better to write something else than those things.”

You know, shouldn’t you also write down the words you said?”
“
“…Ah… heok, no… please…”

Yukomis looked at the mirror with a pleading face, but her sister continued to push her without mercy.

“Listen. How about ‘disowned child’ or ‘dropout’?”
“…Sister, please…”

“Sister? Are you calling the ‘failure of the ducal family’ sister instead of calling me that?”

It felt as if she had been hit in the chest with an iron club.

Yukomis couldn’t think of anything because of the throbbing pain that was pounding her heart.
“No, no, that’s not it.”
“
“That’s not it? Those are all words you said?”

“I was wrong, I was wrong, sister. Please…”
“
“If you think it’s awkward to write such words…”

The sister, who had been sitting back and staring only at the mirror until now, jumped off the chair.

And finally faced Yukomis.

Her sister’s upper body, barely covering her chest, was not wearing a single thread.

Below her face, which was making a tearful laugh…

There were countless scars that had been sustained through dozens of desperate battles.

Incisions. Lacerations. Burns. Slits. Bites. Bruises. Punctures.

Awls, longswords, dragon’s breath, maces, beasts, iron shields and rocks, magic bullets…

“…No, no. That’s still a nine-year-old body. Still nothing…”

Yukomis barely managed to say, gasping for breath.

Her voice was so small that almost no one except her could hear it.

“Nothing?”

But the other person immediately tilted her head and asked back.

The blood smeared all over her body dripped onto the floor through her tangled hair.

“There’s no way… there’s no way…”
“But I remember everything.”

She finally removed the hand that was covering her chest.

“I remember everything even with this body.”

There, there was…

There, there was…

A huge hole with melting flesh dripping down.

The terrible hole that Yukomis could never forget until the last moment.
“Stop this magic. Yukomis.”
“Ah… aaaaa…”

“Stop this regeneration, Yukomis…”

She took a small step forward.

“I’m… I’m so sorry…”

“It hurts. It hurts so much…”

“I was wrong…”

She took two more steps.

“At least when I die… couldn’t you have made me comfortable?”

“Sister, please, I’m sorry. I was wrong… I’ll never do it again. I was wrong…”

She took three more steps.

The bloody sister leaned her head in front of her who had fallen.

She didn’t want to see it. She couldn’t see it.

She couldn’t mentally endure the sight of a torn, holed, and bloody nine-year-old girl.

But she couldn’t close her eyes.

Because her sister hadn’t allowed it yet.

Because she hadn’t allowed her to escape even for a moment from what she had done, from the nightmares she had created.

“I won’t do it again. I won’t do it again. I was wrong. Please forgive me. I’ll never… I’ll never do it again…”

Only a cracked, wind-like voice barely came out.

Again? There was no such thing as again. Because it was all over.

Because there would never be another chance.

“It’s all your fault.”

She couldn’t breathe. It felt like all the air in this room had disappeared.

“Look at me straight, Yukomis.”

Her sister, bleeding from both eyes, said quietly.

The light and sound were shaken, and only her sister’s bloody face was full in her eyes.

That alone filled Yukomis’ vision, brain, and mind, and then… drove away everything.

Signo, Karat, the ducal family, a few gold coins, Manya, kidnapping, the baron family, business trip, the princess, the letter of recommendation given to the emperor, it was all unnecessary.

She erased everything.

Finally, only the two of them remained in this world.

There was no breath here. There was no time. This room didn’t even exist in the first place. Only.

“You have to remember.”

Sister.

Sister and me.

The sister I killed.

The sister I killed…

I killed…

Yukomis lost consciousness.