『Ciel, what would you like to do from now on?』
Now that I"m able to converse with the girl — Cielmer — I asked her about our future plans.
Puzzled, Ciel tilts her head and asked me back 「What do you mean by that?」
『If you wish to, I"ve been thinking about finding a way to escape this mansion.』
「Oh, that"s right. Of course I"d like to escape. Would you lend me a hand, Ain?」
『If it"s for you, naturally.』
I suspect that, depending on how I use my magic, just getting out for this mansion isn"t impossible.
After all, with detection we can move unnoticed and even if they could find us, I can protect her with my barrier. I"ve hidden the existence of these two as much as possible, so even that man probably wouldn"t notice.
In addition, with Ciel being as young as she is, her small build is likely the best for moving unseen.
However, the problem is if he sends out pursuers after we escape. Both Ciel and I are too ignorant of the world to continue the runaway.
If the other party only had the influence of a common household, then it may be possible for us to live in hiding even on just the neighboring town. However, that man is definitely some sort of n.o.bility. At the very least, he has enough finances to keep Ciel locked away.
Even after that, we have no guarantee that outside the mansion is safe. We live in a world with magic after all so there might be monsters as well, and expecting the roads to be paved like in modern j.a.pan might be too optimistic.
If we ever encounter monsters, with only my defense and no means for us to defeat them, it"ll be an uphill battle.
The most ideal scenario would probably be for that man himself to cast Ciel away. Considering our current state, I think the best course of action is probably to make him lose enough interest on Ciel for him to abandon her.
Another one I"ve thought is to feign her death. However it"s difficult to do so inside this mansion and even outside if we don"t prepare a corpse to take her place it would be hard to make it convincing.
Be it we run or play dead, we still need more information about the world.
『With that said, I would us like to make our escape as soon as possible but I feel that it"s dangerous to go unprepared.』
「It certainly seems so.
But you know what, Ain? I really do think that planning out our escape is important. But for now, we should start off by learning about each other, alright?」
『But we don"t know how long we can stay safe in here. If that man ever changes his mind, we could even be disposed of right now.
Well, it is hard to call our current lifestyle safe, but…』
「In that case, we"ll be fine. At the very least, until I become 10 years old, our current lifestyle should continue as is.」
『Why can you be so sure about that?』
With Ciel being so confident, I was confused.
After an adorable 「Hmm」 to herself, Ciel mutters 「Right」 and began her explanation.
「Ain, do you know what that that man"s current goal is?」
『I don"t know. He was aiming for your blood before, right?』
「That"s right. Specifically, my virgin blood it seems. And then, the part where it didn"t work out should be familiar.
That"s why this time he"s planning to have me to be a sorcery-related "princess". So that when he starts another new experiment, he"ll have a useful helper.」
『Um, may I ask …… what do you mean by princess?』
The word princess just came up naturally in the conversation, but I don"t think becoming a princess is something that you can just be.
In Ciel"s case, with how that man seems to be, I really do feel like she could be actually one in reality. Still, I do understand that"s not what she meant by that.
Also, a bit of topic but, it seems that what I thought of as magic until now is called sorcery here.
Ciel seemed to be surprised with my question but she immediately continued.
「Ain, do you know what jobs are?」
And at the start of her explanation was, as expected, another unknown term.
Just taking the meaning of the word job at face value, it refers to teachers, office workers, firefighters and the like.
You can probably see "princess" as a type of job, too.
Still, based on my experience so far, I can somewhat guess what it means. After all, I did somewhat enjoy playing games back in j.a.pan.
However, if I play know it all now and it turns out to be different in reality, the one who get into trouble would be me and, as an extension, Ciel. So I honestly replied 『I don"t know.』
「Jobs are something that G.o.d bestows to people on the age of 10 and depending what it is, it"s said that it defines what you"re good at. For example, it seems that having "** swordsman" as a job would make it easier to learn swordsmanship.」
『Is princess among those jobs?』
「The princess is, a bit different. Maybe it"s easier to put it this way; even in the same jobs, there are different ranks.」
『So that means that there are high grade swordsmen as well as low grade swordsmen. So does that mean that a princess is particularly high-ranking job?』
「Yes! Exactly!」
Ciel clapped her hands in delight. The joy of being understood after explaining something difficult is quite similar to the satisfaction felt when solving complicated riddles and it seems Ciel is feeling an emotion similar to that.
So it seems that currently the man is thinking of having Ciel take a sorcery-related job to have her be useful. Even with how he"s treated her, he had likely spent a considerable amount of money on Ciel. Seeing that he"s trying to somehow make use of her, it"s clearly his last resort.
「To be exact, the princess is the highest female rank in common jobs. The male equivalent would be the king.」
『Are jobs something that you can chose for yourself?』
「To be honest, it"s not really clear. It"s said that when you reach 10 years old, G.o.ds randomly decide what your job will be.
Still, it seems like there were many cases where a person"s job was related to something they were good at to begin with.
Somewhere in this room, there was a thesis that found out that a child that practiced swordsmanship everyday had a better chance of having a job related to swords than someone that didn"t practice at all. 」
『In other words, that medicine that causes magic power run berserk is there to better the chances of Ciel getting a sorcery-related job even just a bit.』
If that"s the case, most of the books in this room are likely to be sorcery-related.
If everything that Ciel needs to be his a.s.sistant is written on the books in here, that knowledge should be able to help us in our escape. In that case, it"s really a waste that I can"t read like Ciel. I can talk, but I"m not good with letters.
I can"t really ask her to read each book out loud, so there"s no choice but to depend on Ciel"s memory.
「That man wanted me to be a princess, but you know, in reality just being a princess doesn"t mean you"re the best.」
『Why is that?』
「I read once that there was once a sword king that lost to a swordsman.
That"s why in the end, effort and persistent is important, it said. That"s why I think that no matter what job I"ll have, it"ll still probably be useful for our escape.」
『That"s right. Moreover, even though it would be useful, it might be best that you don"t get a sorcery-related job. 』
「Back to topic. What that man wants from me is my job, so I need to stay and study sorcery in this room until I reach 10 years old.」
On the other hand, this means that until Ciel turns 10 years old and her job is known, he won"t get rid of Ciel that easily.
Certainly, it might be best that we don"t hurry ourselves in thinking of an escape right now.
「Now that we"re sure that we have time, I want to us to talk about ourselves but… can we?」
『Right. Being impatient right now does seem to be more dangerous. But what should we start with?』
“First, there"s something I really wanted to ask you. Ain, you"re a G.o.d aren"t you?」
『No, but what made you think that I"m a G.o.d?』
「That man"s first goal was to have a G.o.d dwell into a baby, me, and make a G.o.d.
But if you aren"t a G.o.d, then he really did fail.」
As the scale of our discussion suddenly increased in magnitude, I instantly froze. with Ceil said it so causally, the gap just made me lose my words.
In j.a.pan I haven"t really thought much about G.o.ds, but in this world where the G.o.ds are close enough to grant the people jobs, you can definitely feel their presence. Maybe that"s also why crazy ideas like creating a G.o.d are born.
Still, that doesn"t explain why anyone would use their daughter as test subject. At worst, Ciel"s consciousness might have been taken over and might even disappear. No, he"s exactly the kind of man that would be fine with his "daughter"dying.
『So that means that when we were at that cell when I saw that man taking care of you and rejoicing your safety, it was because he thought there was a G.o.d inside you.
The many attacks too, were to confirm a G.o.d"s existence. He probably thought that a G.o.d wouldn"t die from that much. If you died, it would"ve been likely that he just concludes that the experiment was a failure and there was no G.o.d in the first place.
Considering all of this, I can understand that man"s joy at that time.』
「He didn"t actually say it, but that was probably so.
The reason he didn"t give us food too might have been because he was afraid that giving human food would make me stop being a G.o.d. Though he didn"t actually have any basis for that one.」
『That means that his goal wasn"t actually Ciel"s virgin blood, it was a G.o.d"s virgin blood.』
I gaze at Ciel nodding in agreement with mixed feelings. With a G.o.d"s blood, it"s obvious that there would be some tremendous power within. More if it"s blood that could be only shed once, it won"t be strange for it to be capable of miracles such as reviving the dead.
That man might have had wanted something enough to push him this far. It might even be something like exchanging even some last words with a beloved.
Still, it absolutely doesn"t pardon him for how he had treated Ciel.
If you ask me if learning enough about the situation to imagine this much quelled my anger, it doesn"t.
Up until now I was distracted by an indescribable disgust at the eeriness of the situation. But now that the mystery is cleared, my anger just boils even more instead.
『And then on that day, he noticed that I wasn"t a G.o.d and took me to this room.
That time he told me read all the books here until I become 10 years old. After that, you already know, right Ain?』
Ciel said nothing about it but the reason that she was wrapped in bandages was probably from that man venting out his frustration after realizing that she wasn"t a G.o.d.
Really, in world where G.o.ds are so close I"m amazed that you could think of doing that. Now if only he"d get hit by divine judgment.
「It looks like I"m already finished my story」Ciel mutters to herself. We"ve been together practically from the day she was born, so even though she still wants to talk, she likely doesn"t have anything more she can tell.
「Next, I want to know about you, Ain.」
『Well then. First of all, I myself don"t know why I"m with you.
I suspect that I might have been caught in something that was used to have a G.o.d dwell into you. It"s absolutely unrelated to me, but it"s quite convincing.』
「Then it means that Ain isn"t the lightly shining person, right?」
『Hmm, let"s see. I think that it"s probably my soul. It"s strange to me that I can exist just as a soul so perhaps it"s best to think that your body houses both of our souls. Since it does seem that I"m bound to your body,』
「If that"s the case, then it means that my body is yours too, right? I"m sorry. For getting you injured a lot.」
It was somewhat for me hard to explain, I ended up being quite vague. Still, Ciel somehow understood and apologized with a downcast gaze.
If Ciel dies, I think it"s likely that I"ll die too, so it"s not wrong to say that it"s my body too.
Still, I"ve already died once and Ciel"s body is hers, so I"ll be happy if she lives her life. How do I describe it? It"s like I just borrow it sometimes.
『Please don"t mind, I"m really just borrowing your body.
After all, I"m someone that"s already dead.』
「Ain is dead?」
『I don"t know how best to explain it, but I"ve definitely died once.
I clearly remember how I"ve died as well, so I"m certain about it.
My guess is that after dying and becoming just a soul, I was pulled into your body by the said experiment. In other words, the body is yours, Ciel, and I"m just someone that came after.』
「Alright, I"ll just leave at that.
You said that you"re just borrowing my body, so does that mean that you can also move my body?」
『I"ve borrowed it while you were asleep before. When taking the medicine, I"ve also a.s.sisted a bit.
However, I don"t know if I can move while you"re awake. Would you like to test it?』
「Fufu, I"ll leave my body to you.」
No longer feeling down, Ciel energetically flashes me a smile. It looks like she found a compromise for herself, which really helps since it"s difficult for me to explain.
Besides, she"s probably also interested in experiencing the bizarre feeling of her body moving outside her control.
It might be necessary for us in the future as well, so there"s really no harm in trying it.
First, I call out to her and try to move like I usually do when she"s asleep.
The whole body feels weirdly tensed up, it doesn"t seem to budge.
『Ciel, could you try closing your eyes and relaxing?』
「Understood.」
Following my instructions, Ciel closed her eyes and relaxed her body.
This time there isn"t as much resistance as before and now I can move Ciel"s body to my will.
However, the body feels heavy and I can"t move it very smoothly.
At present it"s not really useless, but it"s probably better to test it out more. After testing with some light movement, I return the body to Ciel.
「It felt very bizarre. But it felt pleasant to feel your existence, Ain.」
『Did anything feel uncomfortable?』
「Nope, it was fun. So you always protected me like this, right?
Thank you, Ain.」
『It was only natural to do.』
Specifically, I only used sorcery but the fact that I borrowed her body doesn"t change.
It was embarra.s.sing to hear her thanks so frankly, I ended up replying a bit curtly. But the fact that I can now accept her thanks might be a sign that we"ve gotten a bit closer.
Up until now I"ve made a lot of mistakes, but as long as Ciel doesn"t reject me, I want to keep protecting her.
For that, until Ciel reaches the age of 10 we need to do everything we can one by one. So for now, we"ll start with learning about jobs.
『For our plans, I think we should first study about jobs.
Knowing what kind of jobs there are, which one of them are valued the most and the least and, if possible, finding a way to get a specific job should raise our chances of escaping this mansion.』
「So we should prioritize reading books about jobs, right?
Still, I do plan to finish reading all the books in here in the first place.」
『That"s true. Then shall we continue on as usual?』
「Are you perhaps going to sing?」
『Do you dislike it?』
「Nope, I"m looking forward to it.」
With her face filled with antic.i.p.ation, Ciel began searching for books about jobs.
Heya! More world building and happy happy time!
So this chapter I actually have some context to explain! Some may ask, “Why princess, shouldn"t it be queen?” and to that there might be a lot of historical blah blah blah, but it"s most likely because of simple fact that princess and king are written with a single character while queen is written in two (characters ‘female" and ‘king"). Maybe it"s also the fact that the author just likes princesses, so that"s that. Also ‘Fufufu" is just giggling. Also search up the main character"s name.
Well as per usual, please feel free to comment any typos, constructive criticism, nonconstructive criticism if you"re feeling spicy, general opinions, theory crafting even, edit fixes needed and any suggestions. Thank you for waiting and see you soon.
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