SIDE STORY 6

Around half a month after they saved the wild lands and returned home.

Something strange happened.

***

Jude slowly opened his eyes.

But he did not see properly. Because he had closed his eyes again.

His head felt heavy, he was sleepy, and well, he was really sleepy.

It was a feeling that he had not felt in a long time.

He had never slept so deeply since he learned the Ninth Heaven’s Nine Doors.

And in fact, he had no time to think about these sensations.

Because he had already fallen half asleep again.

“Miss! You must wake up! Miss!”

He was awakened by the rather sharp voice and barely opened his eyes as he let out a strange groan.

But miss?

Amidst his heavy and confused thoughts, he continued to hear the voice.

“Miss, please wake up. Now is the time to really get up.”

It was a familiar voice.

He did not hear it very often, but anyway, it was a voice that he remembered.

‘Dahlia?’

The escort knight of Cordelia.

A person close enough to Cordelia as if they were sisters.

And…

His brain did not work well.

He also felt like Cordelia’s favorite JudeWiki had stopped working.

Why?

Why is my mind so blurry?

Anyway, when he opened his eyes, he saw the face of Dahlia.

“Are you awake now?”

Dahlia sighed and said.

Although she looked a bit annoyed, it was not that bad since her gaze expressed her deep affection for Cordelia.

“Ah.”

After he let out a dazed voice, Dahlia spoke again.

“I think it will better to take a bath. I’ll tell them to get ready, so go and wash your hands. Don’t fall asleep again, okay?”

“Eh?”

Before he could speak, Dahlia turned around and went outside.

She was an escort knight, but completely like a nanny judging from the way she acted.

Is this the reason why she became very close to Cordelia?

“Huh?”

Wait.

Why is Dahlia in my house?

And why is Dahlia calling me Miss?

The sleepiness that had been weighing down his head gradually disappeared, and his mind began to clear.

And logical contradictions began to catch his eyes one by one.

“This is… Cordelia’s room?”

A room he had seen several times in Legend of Heroes 2.

But it was a room he had not yet seen in person in Pleaides.

“This is Cordelia’s room.”

A large princess bed with a canopy, and a big teddy bear in the corner.

It was definitely the room of Cordelia.

And it was Dahlia who had just come in.

Jude himself was lying down in the room of Cordelia, but it was impossible for Dahlia to react like that.

Moreover, Dahlia urged him to quickly get up instead of shouting.

‘She called me… Miss?!’

He lowered his head reflexively.

It was not flat.

Or rather, uh…

Rather than that, his vision was blocked by a certain nearby body part.

“W-What is this?”

He knew what it was.

So he raised his head and reflexively touched his thick and heavy hair.

Red hair that was close to pink.

Hair that was so long that it almost touched the waist.

Jude took a deep breath.

Instead of screaming in surprise, he deeply inhaled and looked at himself after regaining his composure.

“I’m Cordelia.”

He was Cordelia. He was definitely Cordelia.

Still, a final check was needed.

Rather than relying on JudeWiki which was not properly working, Jude found what he wanted by turning his head left and right.

A full body mirror.

Cordelia was a daughter of the Chase family, one of the 12 northern families, so naturally, there was a large mirror in that huge room that could reflect her entire body.

“Eh?”

Jude stumbled and nearly fell after he stood from the bed and tried to run to the mirror.

The reason was simple.

‘My body’s too light.’

Furthermore, even his stride length had changed due to all the changes in body size.

If it was the body of Jude who had Cheonmujiche, he would have immediately adapted to this change, but he could not with this current body.

‘T-This is Cordelia’s body?’

Back when Jude was always sick, he was short and weighed less, but the feeling he had now was different from that time.

Because there were fundamental differences in body structure between men and women, regardless of height or weight.

‘Is she… really strong?’

Her wrists were too thin.

Her ankles were so thin that he was worried that it would break if he applied a little force on it.

And there was a weight on his shoulders.

To be honest, it was because his chest felt heavy.

“F-First of all, the mirror.”

Jude carefully walked again and stood in front of the mirror.

And he unconsciously let out a voice in admiration.

“Beautiful.”

He had known for a long time that Cordelia was beautiful, but realized it once again.

Beautiful.

She was seriously so beautiful.

Her white face, smooth jawline, clear facial features, and dazzling blue eyes.

Jude blankly stared in the mirror at her, that is, the face of Cordelia, and quickly shook his head.

She was so cute that he was almost in a daze, but he took a deep breath again.

Perhaps because he was in the body of Cordelia, he found it strangely difficult to think like usual.

“I’m really Cordelia.”

After saying it one more time as if to confirm it, he looked in the mirror.

Then he lowered his gaze again and unconsciously touched it.

“Wow.”

Wow, wow, wow.

Woah.

Wow.

How many minutes did he spend rubbing and admiring it like a fool?

Jude eventually came to his senses and turned red.

Because he was so embarrassed to see himself reflected in the full body mirror, rubbing and touching a specific body part.

‘C-Calm down, Jude.’

And he looked at other places again.

Her skin was ridiculously soft.

Her skin was so soft that he was afraid to touch it with force again.

Her waist was slender too.

She had small shoulders.

As he touched and checked here and there, he suddenly felt guilty.

It also bothered him that he was touching the body of Cordelia without consent, but he also recalled his past actions.

‘Did I ask this kid to carry me?’

To put on the armor and stand as the vanguard?

He felt like his past self was trash.

Or rather, Jude’s own body at that time was definitely weaker than Cordelia because of his illness, but he felt like he had done something that a human being should not do.

Moreover, the present Cordelia was physically superior as she leveled up a lot.

So what about the past Cordelia?

What was she like when she first started carrying out various operations with Jude himself?

‘I’m seriously trash.’

I’ll have to cook something delicious for Cordelia in the future.

After a moment of guilt, Jude looked up again and stared in the mirror.

‘Anyway, what happened?’

This was the body of Cordelia.

In short, Jude himself had become Cordelia.

The situation was very unusual, but was unexpectedly not that confusing.

‘Because magic exists in this world.’

In addition, Jude himself had already experienced the most absurd thing – reincarnation.

He could somehow imagine that their souls switched bodies.

‘Then, is Cordelia in my body now?’

Because it was like that in this kind of situation.

The situation would clearly be different if a third person was involved though.

They would have changed bodies by pushing each other away.

‘I need to meet Cordelia first.’

The presence of a third party would make things complicated.

He needed to find out whether a third party existed or not, and if not, why this happened.

Both problems could only be understood once he met Cordelia.

“But she’s really beautiful.”

Jude unknowingly spoke and slightly raised the skirt of the loose-fitting nightwear as he turned around.

As expected, she’s pretty.

Cordelia is seriously beautiful.

She’s really pretty.

She looks like a real angel.

‘That’s right, she’s really an angel.’

Although the body had changed, his love filter remained the same.

Anyway, Jude who admired the beauty of Cordelia again then shook his head to regain his senses.

Perhaps because this was the body of Cordelia, he was strangely a bit careless, so other thoughts had immediately come to his mind.

‘Let’s focus.’

Let’s wash up, write a letter, make an appointment, and meet Cordelia.

‘If it’s between us now, it won’t be a problem to just go out and meet in the same day.’

Because they had already run away at night because of ‘love’ several times.

Yes, yes, that’s good.

Everything is as planned.

Because it’s already an irreversible fact.

Anyway, that’s not what matters now.

Something else.

The situation right in front of me.

‘I can do it.’

The situation was definitely embarrassing, but he had to stay calm in times like this.

Looking back, weren’t there one or two sudden and embarrassing problems?

Let’s be calm.

All I have to do is solve one by one the problems in front of me.

But it was at that time.

“Miss?”

“Eh? Yes.”

He smiled a little awkwardly as he turned around and saw Dahlia.

And Jude faced another ordeal.

“Come here now that the bath has been prepared.”

A private bathroom next to the bedroom of Cordelia.

It was not the time to admire the luxurious room arrangement of the Chase family though.

‘W-Wait. A bath?’

It’s not just washing my face or hair, but taking a bath?

I have to t-ta-take it off?

C-Can I do that?

Eh?

Is that okay?

But the embarrassment of Jude did not end there.

Because a bigger problem was waiting.

“I’ll take a bath too. I just wash up a bit in the late morning anyway.”

Dahlia is telling me that we’ll go in together.

A lady and her escort taking a bath together.

As I thought, they’re close like real sisters, hahaha…

‘…Now’s not the time to be laughing!’

I mean, it’s a problem that I’m taking a bath with Cordelia’s body, and now there’s even Dahlia?

If his old colleague, Bertrand, was here, he would have said something like ‘Woohoo~! Lucky~!’, but that was unlike Jude.

He could not do such shameless behavior.

“Uh… Dahlia?”

“Miss?”

“Uh, can I… use a blindfold?”

“Excuse me?”

“I mean, take a bath with a blindfold…”

He knew best what he was talking about.

That it was an incredibly awkward and weird thing to say.

And as expected, the expression of Dahlia said it all.

“Miss?”

“N-No. Nothing. It’s nothing.”

I just have to close my eyes.

Jude, you can do it. You can do it.

Didn’t you cross the desert while fully armed?

So you can do it!

“Anyway, come quickly.”

Dahlia headed into the bathroom first, and Jude deeply inhaled.

He started the seriously hard challenge of keeping his eyes closed while taking a bath.

***

‘Sob, sob, I’m trash.’

Jude failed the challenge, and was disappointed with himself.

But at the same time, he enjoyed the supreme joy.

‘I’m seriously trash.’

Jude was disappointed again at himself for thinking ‘Wasn’t it good?’ as his shoulders sank.

His shoulders hurt.

To be exact, it was from the weight.

‘Cordelia is seriously amazing.’

One thing that surprised him was the shoes.

The heels were so high that it was difficult to walk.

‘But Cordelia ran with these on, right?’

Is she a real superhuman?

Maybe Cordelia has Cheonmujiche?

‘Ah… this is strange. The soul is mine, but the body is… including the brain, it all belongs to Cordelia.’

Even though he thought that it was strange, he felt like he would suddenly exclaim something.

‘But she has a better brain than I thought?’

In terms of simple performance, it seemed to be not lacking when compared to Jude.

Or rather, he thought that it was even better.

‘Well, Cordelia was quite smart in the first place.’

She thought simple, but was still smart.

In gaming terms, her INT was high but her WIS was low.

‘Anyway, she’s amazing.’

Even the clothes he was wearing now was very uncomfortable.

The waist part was very tight, the chest part was stuffy, and the skirt was too wide and heavy.

‘You mean she moved around so freely while hiding a lot of things in this skirt? She even carried me.’

She’s seriously amazing.

Is Cordelia a superhuman?

‘Anyway, let’s go meet her.’

Regardless of how close the two were, they could not visit each other’s place without a notice.

‘It’s still morning, so I’ll send her a letter now and go in the afternoon.’

Having made up his mind, Jude began writing a letter with the hand of Cordelia.

Perhaps because of the habit left in the body of Cordelia, his handwriting on the paper was rounder and prettier than usual.

‘Okay, let’s send this and meet her.’

To the Cordelia who entered the body of Jude.

But he suddenly became worried about one thing.

‘Surely… she didn’t cause any trouble, right?’

Cordelia had entered his body.

As ‘his’ shoulders sank at the sudden anxiety, Jude quickly sealed the letter.

And a few hours later.

At the Bayer mansion.

Unfortunately, the wish of Jude did not come true.