“Hey you. Is that Kali?”
“Uung?”
“That’s right! Don’t play dumb! You think I won’t see through that short tongue of yours with that face of yours!”
“Ueeeee…”
“Ch-chevalier Michael Jackson! Calm down!”
Stretching the heat, I pulled the girl’s cheek, but I was stopped by the holy knights.
At first, I was unsure, but now I’m certain.
That brat is Kali.
“Where exactly did you find this?”
“Halfway through the path leading to the rainwater tunnel, among the remains of a dismembered woman.”
“……..”
Just as I thought.
There’s no mistaking it; this brat is Kali.
She was resurrected with the 10th level magic, Resurrection, and was in ‘perfect condition’.
I don’t know how being engulfed by the emotions and egotism from the moment of death can be called ‘perfect’, but borrowing Luna’s words, I’ll call it ‘perfect condition’ anyway.
In that state, Kali cannot die.
No matter how much she is cut and hurt, her body endlessly regenerates.
When I separated the woman’s upper body from her spider form, it split into two and regenerated.
I thought that the little piece I turned into dust with Iron Blood Storm Slash wouldn’t have had enough energy to regenerate.
But it seems that small piece had enough energy to come back as this childlike appearance.
“Do you know this child?”
“Yeah. I know her well. She’s just acting right now. Normally, she talks well and is not this dumb. I’ll take her with me.”
“Hmmm… understood… but please fill out some documentation. It’s just to record that this event happened, so please don’t take it too unpleasantly.”
“……..”
Looking back and forth between me and Mi Jeong, the holy knights clicked their tongues with suspicious expressions.
It seems like they are misunderstanding something weird.
Nevertheless, after finishing the document, I was finally able to take Kali into custody.
“Uuu?”
But even when she came out, she continued to play dumb.
In the end, as I held her hand and brought her out, she kept looking up at me with a confused expression, making it feel like I was abducting an innocent child.
“Here, wear this.”
I threw any random clothes that Mi Jeong wore, and they fit well enough since the sizes were similar.
But the problem was…
“Uung?”
“Hey… how long are you going to keep that up…”
Even in the hotel room where we were the only ones there, she continued to act clueless.
The only thing coming out of her mouth was uung sounds.
She kept tilting her head as if she couldn’t understand a word I said.
The clothes I threw at her just fluttered around as she played with them.
Did her intelligence drop a bit?
“Hmmm…”
As I gently placed my hand on her head to check, I felt no demonic energy at all.
I mean, it’s there but only a minuscule amount that a normal person would have.
Kali’s overwhelming demonic energy was completely absent.
There was no special ability or aura felt either.
Just in case, I decided to examine her physical condition a bit more.
“Hey. Say ‘ah’.”
“Ah…”
“Spit out some web.”
“Uung…?”
“Can’t do that? Then make your hand shape like this. Bend your middle and ring fingers. You know, like spider webs would come out of your wrist?”
“Uuuu…”
“Seems like that’s a no.”
I checked her body here and there, but nope, it was certainly correct.
This is a human woman’s body.
A complete human body with not a single trace of spider monster traits.
That made it even more confusing.
Is it proper to see this as Kali?
Or should I see it as a completely different existence from her?
“Is it a side effect of Resurrection…?”
One thing is clear; this brat currently has a fully intact human body.
And she’s in a state of having lost all cognitive abilities, including the ability to speak, and all Kali’s memories.
Also, it’s certain she has lost all her traits and abilities.
At this rate, she’s not that different from an ordinary girl.
“………Yoo Jin, what are we going to do?”
“Right? I’m losing my mind.”
“………We can’t use her, right?”
“What? Where would I even use her?”
“………Nothing, never mind.”
Mi Jeong turned her head and looked away from me.
It seems even Mi Jeong has no idea how to handle this.
It’s definitely a byproduct of Kali, but without her memories and abilities, treating her as the same person is tricky.
We can’t hold Kali responsible for any of her crimes.
And I can’t think of a way to utilize her either.
Of all things, she’s reset to the level of an idiot that can’t even speak properly…
If she had just a bit more intelligence, I could send her to work somewhere to earn money.
“What if I leave her to Cornelia? Nah, too dangerous.”
Just for a moment, I thought of throwing her onto Cornelia but decided against it.
What crime is Cornelia guilty of?
It’s like suddenly dumping an unmarried child onto her.
Plus, it wasn’t established that this brat is still in a safe condition.
There’s a small chance I could miss it, but Kali’s persona might still exist, albeit faintly within her.
So it’s too risky to leave her to Cornelia.
“I guess I’ll have to take her with me.”
“………Yoo Jin.”
“What? What is it?”
“………Nothing, never mind.”
“Why do you keep acting that way?”
Am I really supposed to take her with me?
I can’t just throw her on the ground because it’s bothersome.
Killing her would be even more uncomfortable.
“Yu… Jin…”
“………Oh.”
“Huh?”
At that moment, the girl trembled her lips and spoke.
Calling my name.
She wasn’t just mumbling a random word.
She clearly recognized that ‘Yoo Jin’ is my name and said it.
“She seems to be picking up language pretty quickly. Is her intelligence considerable?”
“Intelli… gence…? High.”
“Whoa. She might be useful. Who knows, she might have talent in magic or curses.”
You never know.
She might just have the talent of a great mage or a top-tier curse caster.
After all, she was born with the body of Kali, who was once one of the Four Heavenly Kings, so it’s a plausible story.
“The problem is that it’s extremely troublesome…”
What’s troublesome is how to take her around.
With just Mi Jeong and me being stateless, we’re often questioned wherever we go.
This brat is stateless and unable to speak properly, so the possibility of being suspected of abduction is very high.
“It can’t be helped. I should reveal your identity to the church and leave your handling to the Holy Kingdom.”
I have no other options.
If I disclose that this brat is something detached from the Four Heavenly King, Kali, the church would take care of it.
They would definitely keep a watchful eye, so even if she suddenly shows her true colors, I wouldn’t have to worry about people getting hurt.
“Come on, let’s go.”
“Uuuh…”
“I said let’s go, right?”
“Uuuhu…”
As I pulled her hand to drag her, she shook her head in resistance.
Up until now, she had followed me well, but… it seemed like she caught on to where I was trying to take her.
“Uuuh!”
She ultimately squatted down and clung to my pant leg.
This is bad.
I’m sure this will be a major distraction during dungeon exploration or battles.
In the end, it was when I slipped my hand under her armpit to lift her up.
“You can’t throw a tantrum. Let’s go.”
“Uhh… A-Cheew!”
Suddenly, she sneezed hard and vanished.
All that remained in my hand was the discarded clothes.
Just as I was getting flustered about where she went…
“U?”
“………?”
“………?”
On the back of my hand, something cute made a sound.
I looked at what was wriggling black and realized.
A tiny little spider, no bigger than the joint of my finger, was looking up at me.
This little brat…
I thought she was a pure human, but it turns out she’s a monster that can transform into a spider.
I guess it makes sense if she’s a byproduct of Kali.
“That’s a pass. Carrying you around in this form should be fine.”
“U!”
If she’s in the form of a tiny spider, I can easily carry her around.
She seemed delighted and wriggled about happily while Mi Jeong, for some reason, pouted a bit.
“………What’s her name?”
“Name? I didn’t really decide on one.”
A name, huh?
It’s probably best to give her a name if she’s gonna be tagging along.
“………Then, can I name her?”
“Do whatever you want.”
“………Mi Jeong, No. 2.”
“Hey hey hey. I’ll name her myself.”
I forgot Mi Jeong’s catastrophic naming sense for a moment.
I have no idea how many names she would’ve ruined if I left it to her.
Longinus’ Spear, Iron Blood Storm Slash, Magic Sword…
Oh. Longinus’ Spear was my creation, wasn’t it?
Looking back, that’s a pretty cool name.
“Nameless. Let’s call her Nameless.”
“………Ugh. Lame.”
“You can’t say that.”
Nameless (無名).
She has no name.
I decided not to give this newly separated being from the great druid Kali a proper name.
“It’s about time to leave Cologne. With this much commotion, the attention will be all on us…”
It’s time to wrap things up.
.
.
.
“Huh?!”
Suddenly, Jill shot up, clutching her chest with a dizzying sensation.
It was the 24th hour since she fainted due to mana exhaustion surpassing the limits.
“Priestess! It’s a relief you are safe. But let me conduct some basic checks—”
“Enough! More importantly, where’s Yoo… sigh. Where’s that man who caused this chaos?”
“You mean Sir Michael Jackson? He has already left Cologne.”
“………”
Her heart sank.
How could he disappear again?
She contacted him just now, and yet when she opened her eyes, he was gone.
She simply couldn’t believe it, and with a crazed look, Jill dashed out of the hospital.
Visiting the cathedral, meeting the archbishop, and asking the leader of the Sacred Knights yielded the same answer.
Yoo Jin had left Cologne more than six hours ago.
“Ah…”
Yoo Jin suddenly left, just as he said.
She had hoped he might change his mind, but…
That expectation was shattered; Yoo Jin was as resolute as a guillotine.
“I thought maybe I could stop him…”
She thought she had steeled herself.
Although she might be hated by Yoo Jin, she had resolved to grab any opportunity that came by.
But that was merely Jill’s illusion.
In reality, there had been numerous chances.
When Yoo Jin fell into mana exhaustion and was passed out, she could have restored him with her mana while chaining him.
She could have bound Yoo Jin with the mana used to revive Zenon.
Yet Jill could not do that.
The fear of being despised by Yoo Jin was more terrifying than she could express.
Having already been abandoned once, being left behind again felt like a nightmare.
Thus, she let him go.
This time, she broke her stubbornness.
She let Yoo Jin leave her.
“Will he not come back…?”
Yoo Jin seemed to be incredibly busy.
But even when that work was done, she held no confidence he would return to her.
She thought he wouldn’t want to come back to such a bothersome woman.
Jill returned to the Briam mansion, sobbing uncontrollably.
Cornelia was nowhere to be found, having left her seat.
With red-rimmed eyes, Jill hurried to his room to pack her things.
She had already caused too much trouble for Cornelia while in Cologne.
It was time to go back to Hameln.
Thinking this, Jill opened a drawer and her eyes widened.
“Huh? My dagger!”
The dagger was missing.
The ceremonial dagger.
The one she gifted to Yoo Jin in her previous life was gone.
Panicking as she searched for the dagger, Jill’s movement paused.
A note lying on the desk caught her eye.
She approached it as if possessed, unfolded the note, and her hands shook.
– I am borrowing the dagger.
Borrowing.
That meant he would come back to return it someday.
It was a word that promised the next time.
Yoo Jin hadn’t truly left for good.
He would return at some point.
To respond to her confession…
