"We repeatedly sent Lee Sia and Camilla back in time to give them time to recognize each other. We wanted them to get a taste of the world they would be living in and familiarize themselves with it."
"…"
Lee Sia.
It was clearly her name, but now it sounds unfamiliar.
"But does it normally take this long to recognize each other?"
"I didn't think it would take this long either, but I don't have that much control over it…"
Donna let out a long sigh.
"Fortunately, Camilla, who was here, was able to recognize Lee Sia from the other world at the last minute, and was able to end the long struggle."
Did she recognize her at the end?
"Ah!"
She had a flashback.
The day she made eye contact with Camilla, who was decapitated.
She herself was in an accident that day. No, she died.
The chandelier fell— wait.
"Then that ghost…"
A ghost who looked exactly like her, hanging by the chandelier.
"…that was the real Lee Sia."
"If you mean the last time you saw the soul you saw that day, then yes."
As if guessing what Camilla was thinking, Donna nodded and continued.
"If we had missed that timing, you two would still be living a life of repetition. That moment when you recognized each other perfectly! There was a perfect opening between the worlds, and we were finally able to bring you two back to your rightful places."
Watching Donna's face light up with pride as if she had just accomplished something extraordinary made her reach for her shoes with renewed vigor.
"Is that something to be proud of?"
Just because she's back doesn't mean that what she's been through will go away!
"This is just… haa!"
She sighed as she watched Donna flinch, shielding her face with her arms.
"Because you're small…"
Donna is petite for a woman. If she were bigger, she'd be able to hit her!
"You're not happy that I'm small?"
Hearing Camilla's monologue, Donna rubbed her hands together and smiled.
At that moment, her body blurred.
"What?"
After a while, another person appeared in front of Camilla.
Little Donna was gone, and a tall, burly man stood before her.
He wore his long mauve hair in a tight bun and wore glasses, and he bowed his head with a wry smile.
"Formal greetings. I'm Dorman."
"Doorman?"
"No, Dorman…"
"…"
"This is who I really am."
"You're Donna?"
"Yes."
"…But you're actually a man?"
"For beings like me, gender doesn't matter, but it does if you ask me."
"Why did you change into a woman?"
"We thought a woman would be a better fit than a man to follow Camilla more closely.
"…Didn't you take me a bath?"
"I'll say it again, gender doesn't really matter to beings like me—"
"Shut it."
"Okay."
She couldn't help but laugh out loud at the absurdity of it all.
Donna— no, Dorman interrupted her.
"Anyway, I got fired for putting the soul in the wrong body, and I lost a lot of my powers, so now I can't even see them anymore."
His expression grew grim.
"Is it possible that I'm seeing ghosts because my soul has been switched?"
"No. Originally, that's your prowess."
"Man."
She was going to vent about that, too.
Dorman breathed a small sigh of relief as Camilla resumed her mouthful with a wistful look.
"If you two make it through life with the life span you've been given, I'll be reinstated to my old job, so please take care…"
Dorman's voice faded away as the atmosphere became more somber.
He thinks he'll be reinstated.
"After all, you're the reason we went through all that crap, the reason we kept dying."
"Well, technically, yes, but—"
"Call them."
"Pardon?"
"Call your boss."
"Wh-Why all of a sudden…?"
"It's the way things are supposed to be, when the employees screw up, the boss takes responsibility!"
Doesn't he know basic common sense?
"W-Well, we've been trying to be responsible—"
"What responsibility? What effort? What did you do?"
The more he spoke, the more heated she became.
"Sending your souls back to the past every time you die wasn't the right thing to do. But we wanted you to recognize each other with as little damage to your respective worlds as possible…!"
"That's none of my business."
"Lee— Lee Sia was born with great things: brilliant mind, great acting skills, and beautiful looks! All we could offer her was a little luck."
"Luck?"
"Everything would go well for you—"
The dramas and movies she chose were all big hits.
Was it because of the luck they gave her? Not because of the information she got from the ghosts?
"And what about Camilla?"
Let's say Lee Sia in the other world.
And her? The one that's here now?
She's looked and looked, but there are no benefits.
"Me."
"What?"
"I'm sticking around to assist you, aren't I?"
Dorman smiled and gestured to himself.
"It's you?"
"Yes."
"You're saying my benefit is you?"
"That's right."
"…"
Should she really kill him?
* * *
"Phew."
When Dorman offered to help, she threw her shoe at him and kicked him out.
Camilla let out a long sigh as she changed out of her wet clothes on her own.
Her breath felt a little hot, as if her body temperature had dropped significantly.
'So that means he was spying on me.'
Realizing that she had jumped into the lake, Donna immediately rushed to the Academy, or rather, to the Spirit Lake.
She was able to do that because she was watching her.
When school started, she watched her for a while but stopped when she seemed to be doing well. But after the conflict with Jude and his group, she started to monitor her again.
He explained that he saw her jump into the water and thought she was trying to kill herself, so he jumped in to save her.
'Oh, I'm grateful alright.'
She's gnashing her teeth with gratitude.
"Shit."
She jumped in to save her but she's not grateful at all.
He jumped in the water and has been taking care of her so far, only because he wants to be reinstated.
If Donna hadn't shown up at the lake in the first place, she would have gotten out of the lake without any problems.
She was so freaked out that her breathing was disrupted.
"Phew."
It's refreshing to have the mystery of why she's in this world solved—
"It's a dirty feeling."
Maybe because of the dirty feeling, her body is getting droopy.
Camilla glanced at the Divine Beast's egg, which she had set off to one side, thankful that at least she managed to get it out safely.
"Well, shall we go?"
Camilla took the Divine Beast's egg.
There's no point in keeping something like that around for long. It will only cause misunderstandings.
Creak!
Camilla left the room immediately, keeping the Divine Beast's egg tucked away in her pocket.
However…
"Dorman, hold this for me!"
"Yes, sir."
"Dorman, come back for a snack later."
"I'll be there for sure."
…What the? What's with the atmosphere?
Upon stepping outside, Camilla was stunned by what she saw.
The Duke's people were talking to him so casually, as if Dorman was his true self, not Donna.
"Oh! Miss Camilla!"
Dorman spotted Camilla and rushed over to her.
"What's this?"
"Pardon?"
"Why is everyone unaffected?"
"Oh…"
Sensing Camilla's puzzlement, Dorman smiled.
"It's what's left of my abilities."
"Abilities?"
"I can show up out of nowhere and people seem to take my presence in stride. I can confuse people's memories as if we've known each other for years. It's a skill I need to stay close to Camilla, and I'm lucky they didn't take it away from me."
"You're not going to stick around, are you?"
"Pardon?"
"It's not like I'll die if you're not next to me."
What was the point of sticking around? Sticking up for her at the end? Crying harder than anyone else when she died?
'That's right!'
Was he also crying because he didn't get reinstated that time?
"If you were going to do that, you could have just told me up front."
If he had told Camilla beforehand that this is how things are because of the soul switch, that she needs to behave, and that she's going to die again, would she have died like that every time?
"If you had, I would have lived my life with at least a small hope that if I changed my soul, I would be okay."
"That's not my purview—"
Dorman had his reasons, he says.
"It's a dangerous thing to tell a soul the truth before it's righted. An unstable soul can be easily shattered by the slightest shock."
"So."
"Pardon?"
"What have you done to help?"
"…Would you like a cup of tea?"
"…"
"C-Clean your room? I'll do it right away!"
"…"
"The laundry…!"
"Useless."
"Y-You're mean…"
Sensing that further conversation was pointless, Camilla started walking.
"Oh?"
As she approached the Duke of Sorpel's office, Camilla saw the butler, Rube, preparing tea and about to enter.
Rube's hand stopped short of knocking at her entrance.
"Miss Camilla."
"Is Father inside?"
"Yes, he's talking to a guest."
"Guest?"
"The Duke of Jévillon is here."
"Oh."
She headed straight to her room earlier and didn't realize there was a guest.
"Are you alright?"
Butler Rube ran his eyes over Camilla's hair, which was still slightly damp.
He had already been told that she came back drenched, and that she had ordered no one to come into her room.
However, due to the presence of his guest, Duke Jévillon, he was unable to report to Duke Sorpel.