".... of course..."
Naeva smiled faintly.
"My wounds... don't regenerate."
"This body doesn't carry my immortality. If I kill myself now... I can finally leave this damn life behind."
"........"
Naeva stared at her reflection in her new body's long silver sword. After a few seconds, she sheathed the sword again.
"....Well, I wanna die. But not now. Not in this body."
"I was born as Fuyu Yukina, so I should die as Fuyu Yukina too," she mused.
"More importantly--"
Naeva turned to stare into the distance.
"-- it will be a big problem if my body is misused."
Naeva began to walk from her original position to a random place.
"Ophelia and others intend to gather in capital as soon as possible and work together to find their real bodies."
At that moment, Naeva just said yes. But in her heart, she had no intention of doing that at all. Because...
"In the worst case scenario where whoever occupied my body doesn't want to return it. Even if we work together. My original body cannot be defeated that easily."
"It's better to reduce casualties as much as possible. And just pray my body is not misused."
Naeva might have looked calm and collected. But ever since she heard that the 4th floor ascension exam was going to swap her body, she got upset. She wasn't worried that the person wearing it would do bad things like kill or other bad things. What worried her was if her appearance was exposed because of it. Even though people would know that the person who did it was not the original owner of the body, still, impact of whatever it was was bound to make her very eye-catching.
Naeva really hoped from the bottom of her heart that nothing troublesome would happen after this.
Wasting no time, she immediately searched here and there for her body. Sneaking here and there to listen to any kind of rumors. Unfortunately she still hadn't found her. Thankfully, if it was easy to find, it meant that her body was doing something conspicuous.
Instead, Naeva heard rumors about her friends' bodies. Like, a Lady Calliope apparently took this exam and wandered all over the library to read books.
"The role she plays must be 'bookworm' or 'scholarly'. What a Calliope."
About the Anubis girl who is very polite, formal, rich and always followed by Japanese servants here and there. As well as never getting out of the floating palanquin enveloped in Youkai energy.
"..... The one who plays Bere must have gotten role of 'Princess'... No mistake... Bere is indeed the Princess Ptolemaios. But this..."
"......."
Naeva chose to ignore the entourage of fake princesses that passed by her as she snacked on dango 🍡 by the roadside.
"I didn't see anything."
About the boy who always slept anywhere on his floating pillow.
"Obviously Ruka."
Or about those perverted guys who like to flirt with girls here and there.
"........."
Such rumors Naeva had heard in the days since Conquerors swapped bodies. It felt good to take a leisurely walk without such a burden of thoughts (?). Since there were no rumors about her, it meant that her body was at ease. Naeva didn't need to worry too much. She could relax and search while traveling. Of course, she still took it seriously, because her body might change its mind from a calm and relaxed life.
BUUKKKKKK
Because he didn't see the road, a drunk man hit Naeva. Normally Naeva wouldn't have fallen just because of that, but since she was acting as an 11-year-old, she pretended to fall backwards.
"Tsk, look around when you're walking!!!" the man was angry.
Totality.
That's one word that describes Naeva's acting. That girl once she's acting, she'll take her role seriously.
"Ittai..."
Her eyes watered a little. Her face wanted to cry, which made people who saw that scene immediately go into panic mode.
The women around her immediately approached little Naeva and tried to prevent her from crying.
"Are you okay?" asked one of the worried women.
"Unn... otay!"
Little Naeva nodded, after wiping away her tears, she smiled a sweet smile that instantly pierced the hearts of those who saw her.
KYUUUUUNN
The women felt a strange tremor like motherly instinct at the sight of Naeva.
"Kawaiii!!!!" they screamed as they hugged Naeva tightly.
Before long, they were also glaring angrily at the drunk man who hit her.
"Wh-what?!" scared the man.
"You bastard! How dare you bully a child!!!"
"How could anyone dare to hurt such a cute child?!!!!"
"People like you deserve to die, damn it...."
"Cruel! Heartless...."
The man was immediately stunned.
"Wha-!? This child maybe not a real child!"
"So what!?"
"Yeah, yeah! She's a kid now!"
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
"You've already knocked this cute kid down, why are you still trying to defend yourself!!! No heart!"
"All guys are same!"
Seeing the man being ganged up on by women to protect her made Naeva feel a little amused. She wanted to watch it longer, because it was quite an interesting spectacle for her. But before things got bigger, it was better to leave now.
"......."
Naeva looked over to where the man and woman were from afar.
"This is troublesome. Although this body is quite good for its generation and I can also still use all my techniques (because the most important thing in magic and martial arts is the knowledge of them), but this body will not be strong and does not have enough Nova to do so."
"Fighting a bastard who little stronger than her alone will take a long time. It's really not time efficient."
"I need something that can be a median and a battery," Naeva said to herself.
"Zodiack would be best choice, but--"
Naeva looked at the back of her hand. Normally there would be a circle with 12 Zodiack symbols on it. But her small hand was smooth now.
"--Zodiack can't be taken out now, huh."
Yep, this exam wasn't going to be that easy.
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****OOO****
Character Information
[ERROR]
Artist: [ERROR]
Name: Naeva Winter
Nova: [ERROR]
Race: [ ERROR ]
Age: [ ERROR ]
Status: [ ERROR ]
Affiliation: None
****OOO****
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Meanwhile, Naeva's body...
Shironeko Sakaya
BRAAKK
The girl with long silvery white hair who had been drinking sake put down her glass rudely.
"Why..."
Her body was trembling and her somewhat crazy behavior made people think she was already drunk.
"Why..."
"WHY DIDN'T ANYONE CALL ME BEAUTIFUL!!!???" she screamed inwardly, not accepting it.
"I'm actually this beautiful! I've been in awe of this face for days!!! I've never seen anyone this beautiful! But how come no one is surprised and mesmerized by my beauty!!?"
To some people, her words might sound narcissistic. But since it was her, her complaint made sense.
"People are blind, aren't they!!?"
"Or does this body have a curse that makes her unable to be seen as beautiful by others!!!?"
The girl really didn't accept it. Ever since she got her new body, she had been going around showing it off. But instead of being mesmerized, people just ignored her as if she was just a passing fancy.
"I thought I got such an amazing body... My role is 'free' again... What the hell is this body..." She complained again as she took another sip of her refilled sake.
"And also... Why..."
Again, the sake was consumed with ease. This was already her 8th pot of sake. The people who saw her were amazed that she was still drinking.
But they all didn't know. It wasn't that the girl had great alcohol resistance or anything like that. Rather...
"Why can't this body get drunk!!!?"
"I'm drinking sake!!! Why do I feel like drinking normal water!???" she cried.
The reason why she continued drinking was because she couldn't feel drunk at all. At first, the girl thought that her new body was just strong enough to drink. But it was more than that. Her new body instantly neutralized any harmful substances such as toxins, and alcohol was one of them.
The role she got was 'free'. She can interpret that however she wants. Because basically, 'free' allows her to do whatever she wants. Unfortunately, she hasn't fully realized that freedom. Because the owner of her original body had done everything possible to restrict her movements as much as possible before the exam started.
Do you think Naeva didn't prepare anything when she heard that the next exam would swap her body?
From the moment Naeva heard that information from Ruka while still on the 3rd Floor, she had made various preparations, although not many. For one, she added hidden disguise items into small jewelry. Which would buy her some time. She also sealed the Zodiack doors and warned them not to listen to whoever occupied her body later, as well as asking them to regularly absorb her nova to limit amount nova she could release.
Because if that person was allowed to use Nova X Platinum just like that, even if she only used a little magic, it would definitely be more than enough to destroy one floor easily.
Another thing she limited was her Inventory. Naeva put 99% of her treasures into Zodiack Dimension and had them guard it. So the only treasure in her Inventory now was the money she got on 3rd Floor. Since there were no low-level weapons in her stash, she did not leave any weapons in her Inventory.
At least Naeva could do that much so the worst could be avoided. Now the rest depended on how she reclaimed her body. Although Naeva really hoped that the body was handed over to her properly. But she was 100% sure that if the person occupying her body had experienced what it was like to be her, that person would never let go of the opportunity.
Currently, it had only been about 4 days. The girl occupying Naeva's body still hadn't realized how amazing her body was aside from its beauty.
"....!"
A young man with long red hair sitting not far from her realized something.
"That girl..."
He walked over to the table that girl was at, then tapped her on the shoulder.
That girl, "?"
"Hahahahaha! I thought it was the faint white figure who drank so strongly that people called her a drinking ghost. It turned out to be you!" laughed the man.
The girl looked uncomfortable, she brushed off the man's hand roughly.
"Tsk, who are you?"
The man just realized he had been rude.
"Ohh, sorry, sorry. That's right. You don't know me, huh."
"My name is Hamer! The separty partner of person whose body you're occupying," he replied with a smile.
The girl raised one eye.
"This girl's partner?"
"Yes," nodded Hamer who was currently in another body.
"That girl's name is Naeva Winter, right?"
Hamer tried to confirm.
And he was right, the information Tower had given during the exam also told the girl that the body was named Naeva Winter.
".... Really her friend, huh."
The girl was actually unhappy with existence of man who claimed to be her body's friend. But on the other hand, she also felt that this was a good opportunity.
"...... Nee, if you're her friend, can you tell me some information about her? Like... who she really is and how to use her powers."
Hamer shook his head as he smiled kindly.
"Are, are, aree... No, you can't. That's her privacy."
"Tsk... useless," the girl cried.
Hamer couldn't see the girl's expression clearly because Naeva's form had always looked vaguely white from the beginning. But he was sure the girl was upset right now.
"...... You... What's your name?"
"Why should I tell you? You didn't even answer my question," the girl was annoyed.
"I'll answer if you don't ask about Naeva's privacy," Hamer smiled back.
Not asking for privacy... That meant there were some things Hamer could answer. The girl thought back to what she most needed to know right now.
"..... Kalila."
Hamer, "?"
The girl gave him an annoyed look.
"My name is Kalila. Satisfied?"
Hamer rounded his eyes slightly before he finally laughed.
"Oh, hahahaha. Kalila, huh? That's a pretty name."
"From your name, you're from Ptolemaios Sultanate, right?"
"Ahh... I really want to say that my party partner is also Princess Ptolemaios, hahahaha."
Kalila, "Hmm 💢"
"How old are you? What's your body like? I'll help you find it, so return my friend's body, okay?" Hamer cheered.
"Stop asking me questions. It's my turn now," he cut in.
Hamer fell silent and smiled faintly after a while, ".... Okay. As long as I can answer."