The Return of Lilietta

Episode 6

The chances that the named demons eating people inside wouldn’t notice them outside? Zero.

The chances of two people with no special abilities escaping from the demons and calling for help? That’s zero.

If she skipped the aptitude test and forcibly awakened Odd right now, regardless of whether her body was experiencing any side effects or rejection reactions, what would be the odds that she, the Musketeer, would win a fight against a named demon with her bare hands and no gun?

‘It depends on what type of demon it is, but it’s not zero.’

It only takes 3 seconds to make this decision.

After her forced awakening, Rita decided to fight the demon.

‘If this body doesn’t have the aptitude for Odd, it’s over if it has a seizure. Or maybe this is a different world and it won’t awaken in the first place… … .’

But you have to try anyway. Otherwise, there’s no chance of survival.

In an instant, a cold sweat breaks out all over my body.

‘Damn, there’s no magic here!’

The moment he tried to wake Odd up by spitting out curses at Leonhard.

“What’s wrong, miss? Is there a rat?”

Hannah, who had popped out from behind, poked her head into the dressing room.

“… … !”

If it had been the trained body of Rita Pascal, she would not have missed the civilian like this, but the delicate body of Lilietta was no match for Hannah, who had been trained as a maid.

That means Hannah went into the dressing room before she could even react.

“It seems like there’s nothing… … .”

“no!”

Rita warned urgently.

“It stinks! It stinks! Get back! Get back!”

“Smell?”

Hannah, who looked like she would be torn to pieces by the devil at any moment, put her healthy face out of the dressing room and showed me a small pouch.

“Are you talking about this smell?”

A thick, sweet scent emanated from the small pouch. It was the smell of the named demon digesting a person.

‘What is that?’

Rita didn’t understand the situation for a moment.

While she stood there pale and frozen, Hannah opened the sachet and showed me the dried leaves inside.

“It’s patchouli. It’s a scented sachet that I hang in my dressing room because it’s said to repel bugs… … .”

“… … Patchouli?”

She blinked blankly and asked again.

“A sachet? Not a magic wand?”

“Huh? What is a demon?”

“… … .”

Rita approached Hannah cautiously, still keeping her guard up. She took the sachet from her and searched inside thoroughly.

The pretty pouch, decorated with colored thread, was filled with only dry leaves.

I picked one up and sniffed it, and my spine instinctively tightened. I felt like pulling out my gun, even though it wasn’t even close.

I barely managed to make a judgment, suppressing my instincts that were frantically sounding the alarm.

‘Is this a patchouli leaf?’

Even in the world she lived in, this scent was described as the scent of patchouli. There was a plant called patchouli there too.

No one uses it because the smell is so similar to the smell of a named demon eating a person, and it brings back terrible memories.

‘This is truly a different world. They put this creepy stuff in a sachet and use it.’

Rita picked up the leaves with her fingertips as little as possible, put them back into the sachet, and then handed them back to Hannah, again using only her fingertips.

I didn’t want to touch it because the smell made me feel like I was putting my hand into the demon’s intestines. All sorts of horrible incidents kept coming to mind.

She spoke with difficulty.

“Put this… … far away. So it doesn’t stink.”

Hannah took the bag with a puzzled look on her face and asked again.

“Miss, do you not like this scent?”

“Yeah, no. I don’t want to do it again.”

“It’s a popular and expensive scent… … . The trend these days is to hang it in the dressing room to keep bugs away and let the scent permeate your clothes. Wait a minute, there’s more inside.”

“There’s more to it?”

“When you get to Laskail, you have to hang a lot of it. Patchouli is not easy to get because it has to be imported from a faraway country. You don’t like it… … It’s a shame.”

Hannah sighed and went into the dressing room, leaving Rita to wait.

As she came out holding several of the same sachets, the scent of patchouli grew stronger. It was so strong that even a normal person would find the smell offensive.

“… … !”

Rita, who was reacting to the scent, couldn’t calm down for a moment.

‘It smells so… … Isn’t that a demon in human skin? Are you really a human? This is a different world. There are no demons here… … Are you sure? Really?’

I tried to sense the oddness as if it were a habit. The oddness inside my body didn’t move. No, there was no reaction at all. She was in a state of tactile sensation.

There is no way to determine whether the opponent is human or a demon.

I feel like an ant with its antenna cut off. Or a dog with a paralyzed nose, or a blind person with open eyes.

I don’t know what’s in front of me.

I think I’m going crazy.

Could this civilian actually be a named demon impersonating a human?

Blood, screams, roars, the pungent scent of patchouli, screams, people running away, the sound of a child crying.

A squad member who had just gone to investigate beyond the wall returns. Suddenly, an unfamiliar scent of patchouli wafts from his body.

A familiar face. A familiar person. But it smells. The smell of a demon.

As the squad approaches, the scent of patchouli grows stronger. Rita knows what happens next.

The friend next to him approaches to greet the returning squad member. Why did you come back with the smell of a demon? The squad member who smells like patchouli smiles.

He laughed until his mouth split open, his mouth wide enough to reach his ears, and in an instant, he swallowed up his friend.

The devil leaps out, tearing at the skin of the squad member who had been turned over.

Codename: Mimic.

The demon who had bitten her friend’s head like a candy looked back at her. The stench that was piercing her nose became stronger and stronger, to the point of making her dizzy…

no.

“Gyaaaaah! Keuk! Please save me! I’m sorry! Please save me… … .”

“Lilietta! Stop!”

I barely regained my senses at the sound of the woman’s suffocating scream and the man’s terrified voice.

Instead of a world filled with the smell of blood and patchouli, you see a hallway of a mansion bathed in warm sunlight.

Someone grabbed her wrist forcefully and pulled it away.

Rita knew that she had just nearly broken Hannah’s neck. If it had been Rita Pascal’s body instead of the frail Lilietta’s, she might have killed her.

‘Come to your senses, Rita Pascal. Come to your senses… … .’

The smell of the demon was gone. Gone, not gone. The demon opened its mouth. Inside its mouth, my friend’s head rolled around…

“… …Put it away.”

“what?”

“Put that away! Now!”

Rita screamed, clutching her face with both hands.

“What? What do you want me to clean up? Why, Rita?”

A panicked man’s voice. It was Leonhard. Hannah spoke to him urgently, panting.

“Because of the waves, waves, patchouli, patchouli, I think it’s because of this!”

A loud, thudding noise is heard. A low, questioning voice, a sobbing voice, and the smell is barely fading away.

Rita sat down in the corner of the hallway, her face covered. Her shoulders shook as if she had been sprinting. She held herself and took a deep breath.

“Rita. Easy, it’s okay.”

“The devil is gone now. We are all safe.”

“You killed it. You won. So you don’t have to be afraid anymore.”

The voice of her classmate who had been encouraging her comes to mind.

“Take a deep breath? And then exhale slowly… … Okay, good job.”

Taking deep breaths, she slowly calmed down.

As her senses returned, anger at herself began to build up. Rita rested her hand on her forehead and ground her teeth.

‘Damn it. What the hell is this, Rita Pascal.’

My head, having regained its composure, made an immediate judgment.

The problem is odd.

If I had been aware of my surroundings like usual, I wouldn’t have gone crazy like this, no matter how much I smelled the smell of evil.

All of Pascal’s children, who fought on the battlefield from a young age, have mental problems.

Pascals understand each other so they can let it go if they react unusually or do strange things over trivial matters, but when they are with other people, things tend to get bigger.

That’s one of the reasons why Beacon Squad is made up entirely of Pascal’s children.

Rita thought, rubbing her face, which was drenched in cold sweat.

‘I need to figure out the structure of the mansion and start with awakening Odd.’

“Lilietta.”

When she slowly raised her head, Leonhard, who had returned without her knowing, was looking down at her with a stern face.

“You… … are you okay?”

He was about to say something, but as soon as he saw her face, he swallowed what he was going to say and asked worriedly. Then he quickly bent down to be at her level.

“What’s wrong? Where does it hurt? Your face is blue. Tell me what’s wrong, okay?”

He asked impatiently, brushing back her hair that was stuck to her face with sweat.

Rita tried to reflexively slap the hand away, but was too exhausted to do so, so she weakly replied.

“Do I have to role-play as ‘Lilietta’ in this situation? Just ask me. What kind of crazy thing is this?”