SIDE STORY 7
“Young master, please wake up.”
Cordelia slowly opened her eyes at the gentle voice calling her.
Her eyes would usually be blurry and sleepy when she just woke up, but it did not happen for some strange reason.
The moment she opened her eyes, she immediately woke up.
“Maja?”
“Yes, I am young master’s Maja. Please get up now. It’s been a while since you overslept.”
When Maja gently smiled as if she was reminiscing a bit, Cordelia blinked and looked surprised.
‘Young master’s Maja?’
Or rather, was Maja the kind of person who could have such a gentle smile?
She often met Maja when she visited Jude at the Bayer mansion, but the expression of Maja was always calm and cold like ice.
‘I’ve heard that she often smiles when she’s with Dahlia.’
But what is this?
It feels a little different from what I’ve heard.
Maja’s smile right now is really warm, gentle, and friendly. It’s also nice to see.
‘Anyway, what I meant is that it’s pretty.’
She smiles like that in front of Jude.
‘Huh?’
In front of Jude?
The intuition of Cordelia to derive results without a process remained the same.
And with the amazing computational ability of Jude added to this, the process was immediately inferred after getting the result.
‘Maja is right in front of me. She called me young master and told me to get up without acting weirdly. She also said that it’s been a while since I overslept.’
That’s what happened.
In short, I have become Jude in Maja’s eyes.
Then why?
There are two possibilities.
One is that Maja is under a psychic magic, or to be exact, an illusion, so she mistook me for Jude. The other is that I have become Jude.
‘Either my appearance changed with polymorph magic or our souls switched.’
The former is highly, but the latter possibility can’t be ignored too.
If it’s the former, someone had to swap my sleeping self with Jude, which is physically hard.
‘Because there’s no way that I will not notice it.’
Aside from me, even Jude can sense such a movement.
Moreover, this is the Bayer mansion.
It’s possible if Count Bayer and Gaël had left the mansion for reasons such as going to an expedition, but that’s difficult to do now that they are both present at home.
‘In short, it’s most likely that the souls of Jude and I have switched.’
Cordelia quickly deduced all of these and was a bit surprised, but immediately accepted it too.
Because if she really switched bodies with Jude, the brain she had now also belonged to Jude.
The essence of one’s existence was in the soul, so Cordelia was able to maintain her own self and memory, but the existence of the body could not be ignored either.
Cordelia immediately understood her situation.
When it came to the performance of the brain itself, the body of Cordelia was more superior.
But the brain of Jude was well-trained.
To the extent that the thoughts of Cordelia were naturally guided in a way similar to that of Jude.
In comparison, the brain of Cordelia was a monstrous car that only specialized in running.
On the other hand, the brain of Jude was more of an all-around supercar that could handle everything.
One could say that Cordelia was faster in speed, but Jude was superior in his versatility in coping with various situations.
And there was one more thing.
Cordelia usually did not think much, saying that it was fine to leave the thinking to Jude, but her foundations were excellent.
Her reasoning and thinking skills were excellent once she began to think.
So instead of screaming or being startled, Cordelia smoothly responded.
“Yes, thank you.”
Because Jude often spoke casually to Maja.
Rather than talking down to her, he spoke to her in a friendly manner like talking to an older sister.
In any case, the response of Cordelia rea.s.sured Maja instead of surprising her, so Maja paused for a moment before quickly nodding her head and leaving the room.
“Hmm, I’m really Jude.”
Cordelia got up from bed and looked at herself.
In the days when he suffered from Gueumjulmaek, Jude was smaller than Cordelia, so he was in the early 160’s, but it was different now.
He was in a state of belated growth because he was treating his Gueumjulmaek with the Sun’s Necklace and the Sunflower, and had exploded the potential of his body by learning the Ninth Heaven’s Nine Doors.
He was probably in his late 170’s now.
“Oh, his body is good.”
She felt a strange sensation every time she touched it.
A hard yet soft feel.
It was completely different from the body of Cordelia.
Perhaps it was the difference between the bodies of a man and a woman.
Jude had good skin, but it was still different from the skin of Cordelia.
But what was also different was the body structure.
Cordelia was able to control her entire body like a trained warrior.
What this meant was that Cordelia could move her body as she thought.
She thought that this was normal, but it was not.
Because only experts could move their bodies as they thought.
Most people could not move their bodies according to their thoughts. Or rather, it was difficult to properly control one’s body in the first place.
Therefore, those who learned martial arts tended to learn how to control their own bodies.
That applied to Jude and Count Bayer.
But Cordelia had never practiced anything like that.
However, she could do it.
That was one of her innate talents.
“It’s really different.”
The muscle ma.s.s was different, the body structure itself was different, and what it could and could not do were also different.
“Wow, that’s why he was showing off.”
He often boasted that he was good at everything he did with his body.
With this body, I feel like I can really do all sorts of stellar things.
“Ooooh.”
Cordelia lightly punched the air and was in admiration.
Because it was possible to do a seriously quick jab.
“His body is also flexible.”
He also had ripped legs.
Though it was obviously harder and tougher than the body of Cordelia, it showed amazing elasticity and flexibility. The range of motion of the joints was also great.
“And the abs.”
Cordelia smiled and touched her stomach, or rather, Jude’s stomach.
It was a seriously strange feeling.
She wondered how a human body could become like this.
And one more thing.
A place that had been giving Cordelia a great sense of incongruity.
But Cordelia stood in front of the mirror and did not immediately satisfy her curiosity.
There was no full body mirror like the one in her own room, but there was a fairly large mirror where she could see ‘her’ face.
“That man, he looks like this?”
She normally could not observe the face of Jude this closely and for a long time.
‘It was embarra.s.sing.’
Because Jude who was uselessly smart would always notice her gaze.
“Hihi, you’re handsome.”
He’s truly an absolutely handsome boy.
Is this why Jude and Cordelia are called the incomparable couple in Legend of Heroes?
Cordelia observed the body of Jude with a smile before coughing and looking around. After she made sure that no one else was present, she sneakily put her hand on the middle of the waist.
And moved it down.
“Oh. It’s the same.”
It’s the same color as his hair.
And.
And.
“Ahem, ahem, ahem.”
The blushing Cordelia coughed a few times and began observing again, but that did not last long.
“Uh… umm… umm…”
She blushed because of the body of Jude, but her reason was still intact.
So Cordelia felt even more ashamed, and shook her head instead of doing it again.
“Anyway, I’ve become Jude.”
Considering the circ.u.mstances, Jude is probably Cordelia now.
‘Then he’ll probably send me a letter soon.’
Because he had to meet Cordelia and check this and that.
‘Then should I wait for now?’
Until Jude comes.
And as for the rest of the time…
A rather evil expression appeared on ‘her’ face.
***
Around the afternoon.
Jude visited the Bayer mansion and had a grumpy expression while Cordelia greeted him with a bright smile.
“Lady Cordelia, thank you very much for visiting.”
“Yes, thank you for welcoming me.”
When they exchanged greetings, Dahlia and Maja glanced at each other before sneakily leaving the room. Thus, Jude and Cordelia were the only ones left in the room.
Jude then shouted.
“Hey! What did you do!”
“Huh? What do you mean?”
Cordelia nonchalantly asked with the face of Jude, and Jude with the face of Cordelia cried out with a red face.
“The maids are acting strangely! So is Maja!”
It was true.
It was different from usual.
The maids were blushing or embarra.s.sed when they saw Jude, and Maja also had a slightly different expression than usual.
She seemed to be embarra.s.sed yet also found it interesting.
Even when Jude entered the body of Cordelia, his observation ability did not disappear, and on the contrary, he was able to detect even more subtle differences than before due to the unique senses of Cordelia.
“I mean, well… I was just nicer to them than usual?”
She just approached with the body of Jude and talked to them kindly, helped with this and that, gave small gifts, and put on a gentle smile with the face of Jude.
“You look really handsome. I think everyone liked it?”
“HEY!”
In short, she had mercilessly seduced the maids in the Bayer mansion.
“What do you mean by seduce? I just hit on them a bit. I wanted to try it once.”
In fact, Cordelia would have never been able to do this.
She was quite shy and had a lot of common sense.
But she was now in the body of someone, the body of Jude to be exact.
So a slight deviation was possible for her.
“Hey, have you forgotten that I’m your fiancé?”
“Yes, I know.”
Cordelia slyly smiled and Jude was overwhelmed with the urge to slap ‘her’ face.
‘Wow, this is making me angry.’
He did not realize that such a smile while feigning ignorance would make him so angry.
He was even more angry because of the handsome face.
And at this moment, Cordelia had a similar but different thought.
‘So this is why he teased me so much.’
The red-faced Cordelia when she was angry was so cute.
You could say that it was adorable.
“Haa. Anyway, we have to deal with this situation.”
When Jude sighed and said, Cordelia tilted her head.
“Why?”
“Huh?”
“I mean, why do we need to?”
At the words of Cordelia, Jude blinked his eyes before he immediately stood up and shouted.
“Hey! You want to live like this?!”
“Isn’t this fine?”
As Cordelia played innocent again, Jude trembled and Cordelia giggled – no, she burst out laughing.
“Cute.”
The appearance of Cordelia shaking in anger.
Jude and Cordelia, who had little feelings for the ‘Jude of Legend of Heroes 2,’ were different.
For Cordelia, the ‘Cordelia of Legend of Heroes 2’ was her favorite character.
‘A life-size Cordelia is right in front of me.’
On top of that, she was moving, feeling embarra.s.sed, and tired from grumbling and complaining.
It was a situation where she felt like she could suddenly laugh out like a villain.
“W-What? What’s with that dangerous look?”
Jude unknowingly moved away and covered ‘his’ chest with both hands, and Cordelia snickered.
“Hey, you look like a pervert.”
“Yes, Jude is a pervert.”
Cordelia spoke as she blamed someone else, and the face of Jude began to heat up, though he endured it for the time being.
Because the more he talked, the more he felt like he was shooting his own foot.
“Anyway, we have to overcome this situation. Do you understand? We have to resolve this.”
“Then let’s tell our fathers.”
“Huh? Hey! What do you-”
It was at that time.
The eyes of Jude widened, and Cordelia grinned and continued to speak.
“This is Pleiades. It’s a world where magic exists. If we say that we swapped bodies in Earth, we’ll be called crazy, but not here. In addition, it’s also possible for us two to be tested and verified here. So there’s no reason to keep it a secret from the people in our family that we had swapped bodies.”
She was correct.
They had no reason to hide it.
“N-No way. I’m becoming like Cordelia.”
Jude unknowingly said that.
And he got gooseb.u.mps because he did not think of that simple yet natural fact.
“Hey, what do you mean? My body is also amazing, right? I know because I took your body. I think I’m faster at calculating than you now?”
“On the contrary, you’re terribly simple.”
“Hey!”
Their usual conversation only went on for a short while.
Jude took a deep breath and said.
“So if I tell my fa- I mean, Count Chase, will this situation be resolved?”
“Perhaps? Because my father is an archwizard. We also need to find out why this happened… It may take some time, but it will be resolved somehow, I think?”
Count Chase was no ordinary wizard.
He led a magic tower and was one of the top wizards in the Sälen Kingdom.
His natural connections were also amazing, so he could find a solution somehow.
“Haa, that’s a relief then.”
Jude sighed as ‘his’ shoulders drooped, and Cordelia was startled at the sight and swallowed hard.
“By the way, Jude.”
“Yes?”
“Anyway, that means it will take some time before we go back to normal, right?”
“I guess so?”
“Well then…”
The words of Cordelia trailed off as she smiled and stood up, walking towards Jude. She then stared at Jude, or to be exact, at the face of Cordelia and said with a happy expression.
“It’s really Cordelia.”
Because it was like there was a living 1:1 life-size figure in front of her.
“Can I touch you a bit? No, I don’t even need permission. Isn’t that my body?”
“E-Excuse me?”
By the time he spoke, the hands of Cordelia had already touched the cheeks of Jude.
“Wow, it’s really soft. So squishy.”
“Hey, ishtop?”
His p.r.o.nunciation became weird because ‘his’ cheeks were pulled, but the meaning was clearly conveyed.
But Cordelia did not stop and began to touch every inch of the body of Jude – no, of Cordelia.
“Hey! Hey!”
“Don’t play hard to get…”
The one who snickered looked like a perverted old man.
And the fact that this face originally belonged to Jude made him feel terrible.
“Jude, can I kiss your cheek? You’re my fiancé, anyway.”
“W-What did you say?”
He even spoke respectfully in his embarra.s.sment, but Cordelia was not listening to him from the very beginning.
She grabbed the arms of ‘Cordelia’ and brought ‘her’ face closer.
Frankly, the thought of kissing Cordelia on the cheek was something he had thought of for some time, but not in this kind of situation.
Because…
‘It’s my face that’s approaching!’
It’s like being kissed by myself in the mirror!
“I-I will scream, okay?”
“Fufufu… Have you forgotten that this body is yours?”
“Eueueue…”
She was right.
It was Cordelia who was moving, but from the eyes of a third party, it would look like Jude was the one doing something strange.
“You’re cute even when you’re angry.”
“Euah, please.”
Jude was against it, but Cordelia did not listen again.
The face literally came closer.
“Gasp!”
Jude opened his eyes.
He roughly breathed and finally realized it.
“A dream?”
That was what it was.
It was a dream.
In the first place, more than a year had pa.s.sed since they had gone to the wild lands.
They had defeated Auriel in the imperial capital, invaded h.e.l.l, killed Asmodeus, finally returned to Pleiades, and he even married Cordelia.
“Haa…”
After another sigh of relief, Jude covered his face with both hands.
It felt so incredibly real for a dream.
He vividly remembered it too.
‘It’s been a while since I had a dream.’
After seriously learning the Ninth Heaven’s Nine Doors, his sleep time had drastically decreased.
He dreamed from time to time, but not to the point that it lingered in his memory.
‘Anyway, I’m glad.’
Thank goodness.
After exhaling a breath of relief, Jude turned to the side. And he was surprised and unconsciously moved away.
“Cordelia?”
On a bed wide enough for them to wrestle.
The Cordelia who had been soundly sleeping was awake.
She opened her eyes and said as she stared at Jude.
“I had a dream.”
“Eh?”
“A dream. I dreamt of you and I switching bodies. I think it was right after we returned from the wild lands?”
Jude was surprised at the words of Cordelia.
And because this was Jude’s own body, he was able to quickly draw a conclusion.
“Did we two have the same dream? Were we in an illusion?”
“Maybe? Perhaps it’s the influence of the dream demon we met in h.e.l.l. Do you remember?”
“Yeah, I can’t forget them.”
One of the few demons they had a friendly relationship with in h.e.l.l.
“Anyway… Does that mean that we had the same dream?”
“Yes, as if we were connected to an online game together?”
Jude tilted his head for a moment at the metaphor of Cordelia, but soon admired it a bit.
Because it was a perfect metaphor.
“By the way, Jude.”
“Yes?”
“I really want to try it.”
“Eh?”
What do you mean?
You really want to try it? Try what?
“Don’t you think it will be fun?”
A mischievous smile spread across the face of Cordelia, and Jude felt a chill going down his spine in an instant.
What Cordelia was thinking right now.
“Why don’t we really swap our bodies once?”
Cordelia said and sat up, and Jude broke into a cold sweat.
Because the current Cordelia had the ability to do just about anything.
‘Because she’s a G.o.ddess!’
The archangel Cordelia Chase.
Compared to a real archangel, she was still lacking in power and ability in using her divine powers all day long, but she could use her divine powers for a few hours a day.
Just as how Jude himself could temporarily become the guardian G.o.d of Pleiades by opening the ninth door of the Ninth Heaven’s Nine Doors.
“Jude, let’s do it, okay?”
“Hey, you’re already casting it.”
“Hehehe.”
She was indeed casting it.
Cordelia had already activated her magic spell.
Jude quickly opened the ninth door to resist, but the movements of Cordelia were a bit faster.
And bam.
When Jude opened his eyes again, he realized that his body had changed.
Because Jude was in front of him.
“Woah, you’re much bigger than what I dreamed of. You’ve grown, my Jude.”
‘Jude’ spoke as he pulled the waistline of his pants forward and peeked inside. Or rather, it was Cordelia who did.
“Hey!”
He blushed and shouted, but it had the opposite effect.
The triggered Cordelia immediately drew closer to Jude and stretched out ‘her’ hand.
“Cute.”
“E-Excuse me?”
And Jude was astounded.
‘I-I have grown this much?’
The hand was big.
Their difference in physique was more than he imagined.
It was a little – no, it was just plain frightening.
Wide shoulders.
A slim waistline that completed a perfect inverted triangle.
Firm muscles all over the body.
It was hard and huge.
Hands that were so big that it could cover the entire face.
“You’re cute. Cordelia is cute.”
It was bad.
Cordelia had already begun to go wild.
Without giving Jude a chance to do anything, Cordelia knocked down Jude at once with ‘her’ big hand.
“You said you’d punish me every day, right? Now it’s time for Jude to be punished.”
Cordelia said as she licked her lips, and Jude gulped.
He felt his heart beating as though it was about to burst, and had an odd thought.
‘I-I’m handsome.’
Is this a kind of narcissism?
Or is this what comes to my mind because I’m in Cordelia’s body?
Either way, Jude could no longer continue his questions.