Voice: Gee! What took you so long this time!?
Azhure: I got swamped with work and my thesis, but here is the last post chapter.
Voice: Hooray!
Bell Conglomerate. Celes’ parents often purchased products from them as they were very well made. She had always thought they were just a big merchant company that had always existed in the background. The shop in the otome game was just the student-operated academy store, and the devs never mentioned any shops outside of that. Now, her assessment had changed with the girl in front of her.
She really does look like Maria, Celes thought, now that she had a good look at her.
Sitting nicely in the chair, Alicia was literally the heroine, but with long red hair like fire, Maria had shorter blonde hair. Claiming to be Maria’s aunt’s daughter, the resemblance could not be denied, and Celes had no reason to doubt her when floating beside her was the water spirit Layla vouching for her. Being the heiress of the largest merchant company also wasn’t too far-fetched; her entire aura screamed that way. But there was one thing about her that made Celes uneasy, and that was…
“You’re what!?”
“A Court Wizard,” Alicia repeated with a smile. “I am sure you can tell I am not a spirit arts user.”
“That doesn’t answer my question!” Celes retorted exasperatedly.
“Yeah, it does!” the little fairy, Voice of all names, retorted back. Celes had no idea what this creature was, only that she popped out of Alicia’s chest and started being annoying as hell, but that wasn’t important.
“I suppose I should start from the beginning,” Alicia lightly clapped, clearly enjoying this. “I come from another world like you do.”
“You’re from what!?” Celes exclaimed, jaw hanging at the sudden declaration coming out of nowhere.
“Sorry, never had the opportunity to do this for a while,” Alicia chuckled. “But I am serious, I came from another world and there are many others like me in an organisation called the Otherworldly Court.”
“Let me get this straight,” Celes palmed her head in frustration after the lengthy explanation. “You guys are world-hopping wizards running around being interdimensional cops, and Aquarius is one of you, too?”
“That’s lady Aquarius to you!” Layla chided Celes’ uncaring attitude.
“Not quite,” Alicia chuckled, her smirk getting ever bigger. “But more or less.”
Celes had still been half-expecting Alicia to be reincarnated into this world like her up until her explanation, and it was so out of left field. An entire organization of wizards that can travel to multiple worlds was not something a sane person could come up with. That the greater water spirit was a member of this group was even more inconceivable.
“And you guys kidnapped Van!?” Celes then asked exasperatedly.
“Senior or junior!?” the little fairy chimed, though the answer should be obvious.
“More or less,” Alicia replied with a smile.
“More or less!?” Celes explained, popping a vein. “Why did you even kidnap him?”
“We needed someone to replace the previous king of Kirash,” Alicia explained as if it were the most normal topic in the world. “And the otome game shows him inheriting the throne, anyway.”
“Huh?” Celes blinked. “You know this is an otome game world?”
“Well, only a couple of months ago when Maria showed it to us,” Alicia admitted.
“The heroine is playing the otome game about herself?” Celes muttered, staring at the other girl with the water spirit beside her, nodding in confirmation.
“Yeah, pretty weird seeing yourself on a moving picture,” Layla remarked.
“I- Wha- How?”
“Let me explain.” Alicia simply smiled. “It all started when my father and my friend’s father entered this world…”
“So everything’s been changed before any of us are born…” Celes muttered, hanging her head low.
“More or less,” Alicia said again, much to Celes’ chagrin.
“It’s way better than whatever that otome game is telling us,” Layla interjected.
“Yeah!” the little fairy added.
For the next few minutes, which felt like hours, Alicia proceeded to explain how her father and her friend’s father came to this world decades ago to protect the Illyers from the assassinations of the future king Van. Because they were very effective at doing, in the end, Van got rid of them by burning down the Illyer mansion as Celes was told many years ago. They managed to save most of the household, and they had been living on an Earth different from hers (she still can’t wrap her head around that) ever since.
That was not the end, however. Because the great sea that Aquarius erected to separate Kirash from Fichs was their idea. The greater water spirit had actually intended to murder the royal family outright. That’s not to mention how she became one of the leaders of this Otherworldly Court that Celes did not want to think about any further.
“Wait, how did you even find out I reincarnated?” Celes then asked, and the chaos of all the revelations before made her almost forget about it.
“Oh, right! That is important for you to know.” Alicia lightly clapped, still donning that smile of hers. “We have computers that can track anyone who travels to another world, incarnations included.”
“And why have you only found me now?” Celes continued, never mind the weird term she used to describe her, or how they actually trace her reincarnation from another world.
“That was because you incarnated around the same time that mister Joshua fell into Spiri Raia,” Alicia explained simply. “The operators were fully busy finding him and did not notice you. It is only after we beat Typhon that they checked the logs and realized you were there.”
“Well, it didn’t help lady Aquarius kept it all quiet,” Layla added sheepishly.
“…I think you missed the context,” Celes pointed out, but after the lengthy conversation with the girl, she had a feeling of what came next.
“Oh, no worries,” Alicia replied with a smile, a face telling her she was not done yet. “We are getting to that.”
“…and after the dust settles, the operators looked through the logs on Spiri Raia for the past eight years to see what Aqua had been hiding and found out that you incarnated,” Alicia finished. “And since I am the most suitable person to break the news to you, here we are today.”
“…So Aq- lady Aquarius had been hiding from you guys that your friend’s dad was here the entire time while he starts a rebellion?” Celes summarized blankly. “And that’s why you only found out about me after the fact? Did I get that right?”
The plot got even more complicated and divergent than Celes expected. Not only was the greater water spirit suddenly one of the leaders of the so-called Court Wizards, but she also started some political machinations. While the otome game didn’t explore much about Aquarius, the game did say that she and the greater light spirit Luxion were responsible for starting the rebellion against the cursed dragons, which may loosely be correlated to the actions here.
Aquarius, being one of the people responsible for the cursed dragons’ demise, was one of the reasons Typhon picked her territory as his base of operations. That, along with the fragile political situation in Kirash, and the geographic location of the kingdom that allowed for the easier spread of the cursed spirits.
“Precisely!” Alicia smiled. “Truthfully, if you had been incarnated since birth, we would have detected you sooner.”
“Huh?” Celes blinked. “What does that mean?”
“It is how you incarnated into this world,” Alicia explained. “You see, when you come to this world, your soul merges with the Celestine of this world, which is the moment you ‘remembered’ your past life. You still have your memories from before then, right?”
“Our souls merge?” Celes muttered. “But yes, I still have my memories before I recovered my past life’s memories.”
“Then your souls merged,” Alicia concluded. “If you had transmigrated and replaced Celestine’s soul, you would not have remembered them. Otherwise, if you had been completely reborn, you would either already remember as a baby or have your memories locked for a while.”
“Now that you mentioned it, I can tell her soul is a near-perfect blend of two souls. I’d have to squint to be able to tell,” Layla muttered, literally boring deep into Celes’ soul. “Definitely better than what you Court Wizards have for souls.”
“Huh, okay…” Celes muttered, not even sure what the spirit was talking about. Regardless, all the ways someone could reincarnate into another world from the many light novels she had read were apparently true. “It must be quite a coincidence that your… Earth has the same otome game as mine does. Or that this world is like it.”
“It is not quite a coincidence as you think,” Alicia rebutted. “And it is the otome game that is like this world, not the other way around.”
“…What do you mean?” Celes had a feeling another exposition was about to happen again.
“He is called the Storykeeper,” Alicia said. “Let me explain.”
Celes called it.
“So all he does is give authors ideas for stories based on other worlds?” Celes asked skeptically. “That’s it? No catch?”
“Nothing as far as we are aware. Just the wish of letting people’s stories be known,” Alicia nodded absolutely. “We are not complaining, the ‘fictions’ he helped create have been very helpful to us in our operations, as you can attest to.”
It was another storm of revelations. A cosmic being watching every world for interesting things happening, possibly including this very conversation, and then nudging authors from other worlds to write stories about them. And he did this out of his own desire to ensure they were not forgotten? Celes supposed it made sense, how else could this world be so similar to the otome game?
“Hardly, not when your parents changed the story from the start!” Celes pouted, burying her face in her hands in frustration. “I thought we’re all doomed when Maria didn’t show up in the academy.”
“Well, you do not have to worry about that anymore,” Alicia waved dismissively. “We have defeated Typhon, so the ‘ultimate bad ending’ will no longer happen.”
“Right, how did you even beat Typhon?” Celes then asked, still reeling from all of the revelations. “How did you purify all the spirits he’s cursed? Did you bring Maria with you?”
“Goodness, no! I am the one who purified them,” Alicia explained with a chuckle. “I am an Illyer too, remember?”
“Oh yeah, I guess you can also do that,” Celes realized. The entire family can purify cursed spirits, not just one person in the blessed family. The same applies to every family blessed by greater spirits. It’s just that Maria was the only one in the Illyer who could fight, which certainly wasn’t the case here. “Wait, I heard from the student council that Typhon was as large as the castle. What’s up with that?”
In the otome game, the Typhon boss battle took place in the throne room, with the rotting corpse of king Van still on the throne. The battle started with the first phase, where Typhon was in his decrepit, human form. It was a very short phase, however, as dealing a relatively small amount of damage was enough to enter the second phase, where he turned into his draconic form. His dragon form, however, was still in the confines of the throne room, not big enough to wrap itself around the Kirash palace.
“We were not sure either,” Alicia admitted. “The leading theory is that ever since Aqua created the great sea, Typhon second-guessed himself and realized just cursing spirits may not be enough.”
“So he also made sure to be bigger, too?” Celes guessed from what she was going at.
“Yes,” Alicia nodded. “And he was just as powerful, too.”
“Still beat him!” the little fairy exclaimed, all proud of herself for some reason.
“I am not going to even ask how you did it,” Celes grumbled with her head hung depressively. “So, I just go through school and live the rest of my new life like normal now that Typhon is dead?” she then asked in nervous concern, wondering if the Court Wizard was pulling her leg again.
“You can,” Alicia flashed the same smile she had that started to grow on Celes, and she was not sure if it was good or bad. “But we will be checking on you regularly.”
“Right, makes sense,” Celes muttered. It was natural that they would actively monitor a reincarnator like her since it’s their job description.
“Anyway, you can expect the staff delivering supplies from the Bell Branch to report on your well-being if they are able to,” Alicia then explained with a clap. “Otherwise, I will be seeing you myself every couple of months or so.”
“Huh? That’s it?” Celes blinked. “That seems… very lax.” She was told that Bell Conglomerate was a big part of the Court Wizards’ operations and that the people working there at the top knew about it. However, Alicia’s wording implied that they wouldn’t try too hard to be on the lookout for her whereabouts. Her other remark about seeing her in person seemed low effort for her part.
“Well, we have many worlds to watch over and I equally have many Bell Branches to supervise,” Alicia replied without a concern before flashing a concerning threatening smile. “Besides, I am sure you would not do anything bad, right?”
“O-Of course not,” Celes stammered, unnerved by her sudden change in expression.
Based on her random remark earlier, Celes had a feeling she was bearing the full brunt of someone who had long been out of her normal environment and was finally able to act as her actual usual self, like in anime where the rich daughter had to exhaustingly pretend to be all ladylike in front of a crowd and then let loose in private which Alicia seemed to be. That said, Celes had another feeling that it was probably a bit different than that, given the whole Court Wizard thing.
“You better!” The little fairy remarked more out of amusement, if anything.
“I am sure you will,” Alicia added. “Anyway, it is getting late, so we will end it here.”
Looking at the window, Celes saw that the day was getting late and it would be time for dinner. While she had no more classes for the day, her subordinates might barge into her room if she didn’t come out anytime soon. She did tell them to leave her alone, but even they would be worried if she were still in her room for this long.
“Okay, then,” Celes muttered, standing up. “I guess I’ll see you around some day?”
“You bet!” the fairy exclaimed before looping around and disappearing into Alicia’s chest.
“I will be going now, bye,” Alicia waved before vaulting over the window.
“Bye!” Layla said before following suit, both girl and spirit vanished from Celes’ sight. Celes was not going to question how Alicia even got past everyone.
With that, Celes collapsed into the bed, all of her energy leaving her body as it was over quite literally. Not just this meeting, but everything she had been preparing for had ended before she even started.
“Hah…” she sighed, uncaring of her last remaining dignity. “What am I going to do now?”
Azhure: So, what do you all think of this part? Is it good? Are there any problems with it? Any reviews or feedback are appreciated as long as they’re not plain insults meant to blow off your stress.
Voice: Don’t do that to people! Not even on the internet!
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