Chapter 72
“There’s nothing distinctive about it. It sounds more like Pascal’s wishful thinking than your actual oath.”
“What do you mean, ‘distinctive’?”
“Normally, oath-takers define their own vows, but all of ours were decided by that damn Pascal, remember? I figured out what his criteria were by studying the experiment records and that book.”
Olivia jerked her chin at the History of Pascal placed in front of Rita and continued.
“That history book—its section on heroes—records everything about how we lived. Pascal used that to decide what our oaths would be. The more an oath aligns with someone’s nature or beliefs, the more effective it becomes.”
“Hah, so there’s a reason mine is ‘Obey your master’? In that damn history book, I ignored orders, did everything my way, ruined everything, and died. So basically, I can’t be trusted to make my own decisions.”
“Well, if you ask me, Ethan, Pascal made your oath like that because if he let you loose, you’d probably have slit your comrades’ throats during training and gone after him too. I mean, it’s right there in the hero section—you wiped out the entire assassin organization that raised you.”
“Yeah, but I only killed them because they were still walking around breathing when they should’ve been six feet under. I was just taking out the trash. It’s not like I would’ve killed Pascal’s poor little recruits too, right?”
“So, what did you do to the people who trained with you in that assassin group?”
“They deserved to die too, okay?”
“So you did kill all your fellow assassin trainees! Can you imagine what Pascal must’ve thought reading that? ‘If this lunatic doesn’t have a leash, he’ll go berserk.’ That’s probably why he slapped that oath on you, you snot jar!”
“Hey, but if all I have in my head is snot, doesn’t that just prove how badly I need a master to think and make decisions for me?”
“…Now that you say it, that actually kind of makes sense.”
After that back-and-forth with Ethan, Olivia turned to Rita, who was sitting blankly, looking oddly exhausted.
“Anyway, Rita, all our oaths are based on our pasts or personalities from that hero record. That idiot Ethan’s oath too. Mine is ‘Never stop learning for life.’”
“What’s different about mine then?”
“Well, say, hypothetically, that in Pascal’s history you lost someone precious to a beast and lived for revenge afterward. Then a vow like yours wouldn’t be weird. But that’s not the case.”
Olivia sighed and added,
“Your oath doesn’t match the life or character of the Rita from the history book. That’s why it’s strange.”
“My life in Pascal’s history…”
She had already been curious. Just what kind of life had her future—no, past self lived to be summoned by Pascal?
Rita glanced at the titleless book bound in leather. Olivia, following her gaze, sighed again.
“Rita, that book? The original history was hundreds of volumes. I had to comb through them—an absolute nightmare. That one is just my own abridged version with only what’s relevant to us.”
“That came from hundreds of volumes?”
Rita’s jaw dropped, and Olivia made a face like just thinking about it made her want to throw up.
“Exactly 387 volumes. I couldn’t memorize them all, so I created a memory spell to implant the contents in my head. Anyway, once I realized your identity after your return, I dug through all of them again to find everything I could on ‘Lillietta del Nysa Lascaille’… and it was kind of surprising.”
Olivia paused to find the right words. Ethan, more impatient than Rita, jumped in.
“Why’d you stop there? What kind of life did she live?”
“…She died young. Before she even turned twenty.”
“What?”
“Huh?”
Ethan and Rita both responded at the same time. Olivia massaged her temple like she had a headache and recited:
“December 1766. Lady Lillietta of House Lascaille died of sudden pneumonia at the age of sixteen. As a result, the arranged engagement with the crown prince was naturally annulled… That’s the final entry on Lillietta in the historical records.”
Ethan’s eyes widened. Rita blinked and said in a stunned voice:
“I died at sixteen? But I’m twenty now… and very much alive…”
“Well, that’s because this is the history as it would have been if Pascal hadn’t summoned us. Since we returned, everything’s already changed. If you hadn’t been kidnapped by Pascal at ten and had grown up normally, you would’ve died of pneumonia at sixteen.”
“No, what the hell—she’s a noble lady. Didn’t she have royal physicians or priests? How does a duke’s daughter die of pneumonia?”
Ethan snapped, grinding his teeth. Olivia stared at Rita—or rather, at Lillietta’s body—and replied,
“That damn body’s the problem. She was notorious for being sickly. Partly because she was born weak, but also because of her unusual constitution.”
“I have an unusual constitution? And how do you know that?”
Rita asked, clearly hearing it for the first time. Olivia pushed up invisible glasses with her fingers, clicked her tongue, and folded her arms.
“Who do you think examined your body after you passed out from taking a magic bullet from the kraken? You think Gide would hand you over to the imperial physicians who don’t even know what an ‘Ode’ is? Serah’s off in the Shadeya Theocracy, so I was the closest. I did it. That’s how I found out.”
Olive-green eyes locked with Rita’s.
“Rita, you know your Ode aptitude has gone up since returning, right?”
“Well… I did take a simple test right before making my vow.”
“Simple test. I did something more thorough. And honestly, I still don’t quite believe the results. Rita, your aptitude… is unmeasurable.”
“Unmeasurable Ode aptitude? What kind of BS is that?”
Ethan asked, flabbergasted. Olivia shrugged and began explaining.
“The standard measurement method for Ode aptitude is injecting a condensed Ode serum and observing the body’s response. If it causes dangerous side effects like seizures, that’s an F. The fewer side effects, the higher the grade. Mild fever or itching is B. No side effects at all is A. And if your condition actually improves, that’s S.”
“Everyone knows that. We’re all A-grade, and Gide’s an S. Pascal’s little pet Rita here was a C, right? Gets fevers and pukes from too much Ode, but pushes output with insane stunts. Watching her made me feel normal.”
Ethan grumbled. Olivia winced as if recalling a bad memory, then resumed.
“Yeah, that’s how it was. But do you know what happened when we injected condensed Ode into Rita’s body now?”
“Wait, the command used that crude method on her and Gide just let it slide? No way.”
“Of course we took every safety measure, you damn eyeball ornament! Do you think I’d mess around with Rita’s body? Shut up already!”
Olivia threw a sofa cushion at Ethan, then turned back to Lillietta.
“Her bruises and cuts healed.”
“…What?”
“You had some small bruises and scrapes on your knees and feet from running around barefoot on deck. Nothing serious, so I was going to treat it after the test… but when we injected the Ode, everything healed. Even your sore muscles relaxed. Like we dumped a healing potion on you.”
Rita and Ethan silently gaped in shock.
That substance is considered lucky if it’s not poisonous to ordinary people. At best, it’s like a nutrient booster. But her body absorbed it like a universal cure.
As an oath-taker, this was an incredible gift.
“You’re beyond what our current grading system can handle. But it’s not all good news… For starters, sure, your capacity is insanely high thanks to your aptitude, but if you go beyond your limit, you’ll still suffer consequences. You’ve seen Gide go berserk—you understand that, right?”
“Of course.”
Even with an S-grade aptitude, Gide Pascal had gone berserk from overusing Ode. High aptitude meant high threshold, not limitless power.
Rita nodded, and Olivia pointed at her chest.
“But your body, while highly receptive to raw Ode, is extremely weak against modified forms—like magic, divine power, or aura. You react worse than regular people.”
“Which means…”
“You’re allergic to healing magic and divine power. What’s good for others actually drains your energy. So to heal you properly, they’d need to use Ode directly. But if you’re already in an overused Ode state—or the problem itself was caused by overuse… things will get very bad.”
Oooh. Interesting.