Chapter 37: 3-0 Recap + 3-1 C1: Dear Diary, Today I Died.

3-0 Arc 1&2 Recap

Stahlia, Second Month of 948

Eleven years ago, I was born. It was my second time experiencing the phenomenon, though I don’t actually remember the first time. My name is Stahlia von Ris, I am the daughter of Baron Ris, the appointed lord of Ris village, a large-sized frontier village at the foot of the Ris mountain range. Growing up in a village like that, I was able to lead a comparatively simple life. Things have only been getting worse and worse for me recently though.

I have a mother, who though she has a weak constitution loves me very much. My father is strict with his idea of “Noblesse Oblige”, but I can tell he loves me in his own way. I also have a little brother, Rosin, but I left home for the Royal Academy when he was only two, so I don’t know him very well. I had a little sister as well, but Rosial was kidnapped by this world’s version of the CIA when she was three, to be raised as an agent.

Oh, did I not mention that? This is the second time I was born, and it was into another world. My first life was on a planet called “Earth”. I was a university student named George. Yea, George is a male’s name. See, I was a dude before I died. Remember to always read the fine print on those terms of service agreements, you never know what you’re signing up for!

Still, being a girl now isn’t all that bad. Sure, it has its inconveniences, but once you get past those it’s not so different from being a male. Then again, the fact that my body has started reacting to guys is a bit frustrating. I also haven’t started periods yet, so I can’t comment on that... though I’m not exactly looking forward to the experience… Then there’s the fact that this world is in a sort of weird Middle Ages, so I don’t have much say in who I’m going to marry… ok yea, I really don’t know how I feel about being a girl now that I put everything out there like that.

Speaking of marriage, I’ve got my fiancée already, despite being only eleven years old. Dominic is two years older than me, as well as one noble rank higher. He seems to have developed a strong infatuation towards me if his actions are anything to go by. From anyone else’s perspective, this would be a dream marriage. But not for me, see, I’m apparently something called “The Champion of Winter” one of four heroes representing the gods.

One of the perks of my position lets me see mana, and Dominic’s mana is disgusting. Seriously, he looks like some sort of putrid diseased creature when I look at him with my divine eyes. He also seems to have some sort of power that influences women around him into a feeling of attraction or compels them to listen to him. Thankfully, it doesn’t seem to be affecting me… though that means the way I get all blushy around him is presumably the result of naturally budding romance… not sure how I should feel about that…

From everything I’ve said so far, my new life must sound kind of wild huh? Noble Status, Sister getting kidnapped by a government shadow agency, magic and mana, hero of the gods, gods, an arranged marriage with a surface level perfect catch? Well, what if I told you that was just the cliff notes?

My maid is an assassin for the order that kidnapped my sister, but she betrayed them to work for me, and we’re planning to bring down the government if we have to in a bid to get my sister back. I’m regarded as a prodigy who has revolutionized Alchemy and Mathematics, I can use a very rare form of magic called “Blood Magic” that lets me manipulate mana directly, had a face-to-face chat with death, and made a deal with a Succubus that likely lead to the resurrection of one of the Nine Hell Kings. All in only eleven years.

Still, it’s not all crazy. I do some normal things as well; like hanging out with my girlfriends. Sana is an apprentice priestess who comes from the same village as me. Sarala is a talented mage in her own right, and we often practice our magic together. Edith is Sarala’s patron. Her full name is Edith von Claurence, and she’s even higher ranked than Dominic! What do you mean my friends are a little out there? My life has some normal stuff in it! Wait, what was that, Jacqueline? A letter from Edith? Give it here! Hmm… What!? Edith is engaged!? To the Third Prince!?

3-1 C1: Dear Diary, today I Died.

Claire Dayson, 26 Years Old, Sometime in the 2020s

The light from the computer was blinding. I watched Franklin get up and run to the door. Of course, it was locked. There was no way they would be letting us out, whoever “they” were. Not after we had come so far along in the process. I could vaguely hear my husband’s voice calling out from the other side of the door. I’ll probably never see him again… The thought brought tears to my eyes, but there wasn’t anything I could do about it. Be strong Claire.

I channeled the spirit of the Fertility Goddess, Ai-chan. Right, one of my students is coming with me, and another of my students is presumably waiting on the other side. I locked eyes with Franklin, there wasn’t likely to be a lot of time left, “Franklin, this is super important. Don’t tell anyone you’re from another world. If they ask you to fight a demon lord say no. If there’s an adventurer’s guild, sign up for it; you can usually make good money that way. Try and find me if you can, I’ll do my best to find you. If you meet a god or goddess on the way over be careful and watch out fo-” The room filled completely with light, and then everything went dark.

“-r offers… that sound too good to be true…” I was in some kind of black space. Huh? Isn’t this the part where a hot goddess, or in my case a hunk, comes out and begs me to save the world? I “looked” around, but it was pitch black, I couldn’t even see my hands in front of my face. I opened my mouth to try calling out for someone’s attention, but no sound seemed to come out.

Well, this isn’t how things are supposed to go… At this point, I was simply confused. Did I not get Isekai’d? Did Franklin and I just simply die? No. That was too trope-like to not be an isekai. Maybe it was just Franklin who got Isekai’d, and I got stuck in the space between worlds! The last thought made me shiver nervously.

I tried walking in a direction in the darkness for what seemed like hours, or it might have been only a few minutes. I couldn’t tell time after all, not without anything to see to gauge its passage. Then again, I also couldn’t tell if I was even walking in a straight line. For all I knew, I could be going in circles. There were no visible landmarks. Well, there’s no visible anything really.

I could tell I was moving through space though. Like how you can sense your hands and feet even if you can’t see them. I could still do that much. Eventually, even if I was going in circles, I would have to run into something. At least, the thought of that eventuality, the hope, was what was keeping me going.

I walked for an incredibly long time. Eventually, I began to grow tired, and before I knew it, I was dozing off. I only knew I was dozing because I was suddenly dreaming. At least, I thought I was dreaming. I still couldn’t see anything. But my other senses were working. I was able to smell incredibly well. The world was full of amazing scents, though it was honestly also a bit overwhelming. Was that like a sort of limbo while my soul was loading or something? Did I get reincarnated as a species that can only see with its nose…? That would be annoying.

Honestly, a lot of the newer stories were starting to run with the idea of a non-human protagonist. It even got to the point where people might harass the author for making their main characters human… I didn’t ever do stuff like that, but it did happen. Still, if I can only see via smell, this is going to be tough. I obviously don’t know what my students smell like… though they would smell differently now, wouldn’t they? Reincarnation and all that.

I tried opening my mouth, but it refused to obey me properly. Instead, it started crying. The crying was loud incredibly so. So, my hearing is pretty good as well… I wish I could stop crying. It looks like this is a setting where you start out as an infant… those are the worst! It always takes so long to get anywhere with the plot! Thankfully, I stopped crying as a new scent approached. It smelled safe and affectionate. I never expected I would be attributing those adjectives to a scent, but that was what it smelled like. After a moment, I smelled something I could recognize, although it was a lot more pungent than I remembered…

Milk? So, this “safe and affectionate” thing must be “mom”. That confirms I’m at least some sort of mammalian. I was pretty sure babies could see fairly early on, at least in terms of simple light versus dark. That made me wonder if maybe I was blind. Well, if worse comes to worst, I’ll just have to learn to deal with it. Not like I can do anything else. My mouth latched onto the offered, presumably, nipple without me telling it to do so. I also can’t seem to get this body to do what I want it to do. Then again, it is a baby still, hopefully control comes with time… I resigned myself to a long bout of boredom until I was able to figure out how to move about on my own.

I woke back up without the ability to smell or hear in minute detail. Everything was still dark to the eye. Well, so much for that. My brain must just be hyperactive. And dreamed up a reincarnation for me while I slept… I was honestly really saddened by that. Without anything further to do, I started walking. I walked for what felt like several more hours. Thankfully, it didn’t seem like I would get hungry or thirsty in this place, which, seeing as I was dead probably made sense. Maybe I’m actually just in a coma at the hospital, and I’ll wake up any moment now… hahaha…

I kept walking. Endlessly walking. I started recounting the plots of all of the Light Novels and Anime I had watched, at least the ones I could remember. It was a way to pass the time and retain my sanity. Two days, and I was already wishing for oblivion. Eventually, I began to grow tired. Sighing to myself, though no sound actually came out, I pushed onwards until I collapsed from exhaustion.

Again, I started dreaming. This time, however, in addition to the keen sense of smell and sharp hearing, I was also surrounded by indistinct lights and vague floating shapes. I could see. I wandered around, examining some of the shapes. They were all amorphous, sort of like a thin foam or a thick mist. They would billow and contort. Occasionally, one of them would take a more definitive shape, like the outline of a person or some mundane object. But just as quickly, they would fade back into indistinction.

As I walked about, I noticed a few more things. Firstly, the smells and sounds were omnipresent. It didn’t matter where I was, or what angle I faced, I could smell and hear just as well. Of course, they did seem to fade or lose detail, just not based on anything I was doing. The second thing I noticed, was that this space was vast. The true size I could only guess at, but it was seemingly massive. I was able to estimate the size, because as I walked around examining the various “mist shapes”, I found an edge. Beyond this edge, there were no more mist shapes forming, only a thick inky blackness.

Right, even for a dream, this is all so surreal... what the hell is going on? Curious and confused, I made my way over to one of the mist shapes that was currently in the form of an amorphous cloud. As I got closer to it, the shape began to take on a more defined form. Curious, as this had never happened when I was nearby, I leaned in. The form was that of a person, though still indistinct.

As the shape took form, A part of it happened to envelop my head. I jolted back, but not before a stream of vague information entered my head. This is… my older brother? Wait, have I reincarnated after all? Curious, I approached another of the mist shapes. This one also took a bit of a shape as I walked over to inspect it. Are they responding to my intentions? I tried it out by approaching a few more mist shapes, and as I did, each began to morph as I got close.

Ok, so now I know how to “trigger” the mist, but what exactly does it do? What is it for? I wandered until I found the one that was “my brother”. It didn’t seem like he had a name or anything, at least not based on the information I had gotten when I stuck my head into the mist. Speaking of which… I leaned forward, far enough for my head to pass just inside the surface of the mist figure. This time, I spent more time analyzing the information.

Hmm… it’s not really all that specific… These seem like the random thoughts of a three-year-old actually. It has that sort of rambling, lacking information spew of words my sister’s kid spouts off. If I had to organize it, I would say that I can pull three things out of this mess. First, this is apparently “my older brother”. Second, “He’s nice”. Most importantly, third; based on the descriptions of how he looks, I would have to guess that he’s a nekomimi, usagimimi, or kitsunemimi. Something with pointy ears and a noticeable tail.

I stopped to think for a moment. If “my brother” is a nekomimi, doesn’t that mean I’m one too? I felt my heart flutter a bit. Dying and never seeing my husband again is awful… but at least my new life is looking up… My thoughts of my husband killed all my prior excitement over the idea of becoming a nekomimi girl.

After a bit of time to get over the sudden pangs of sadness, I cracked my knuckles while looking at the “my brother” mist figure. Well, I can’t keep calling you “my brother”. Going to need a name. Also going to need to figure out how to actually call you it, but I can do that at my leisure. If I had to guess, my issues are stemming from this body just being too young for my adult mind. It should get better as I age.

I thought for a bit, but couldn’t think of a good name for him. Especially after I realized that he already most likely had a name, and my new body just hadn’t heard it yet, or hadn’t realized the significance of it, thus not tying the name to the information in the mist figure. Well, for lack of a better term right now, I’m going to be the adorable nekomimi girl imouto-kun! I hereby dub thee, Onii-chan! Thankfully, there was nobody present to witness my cringe-inducing pose, complete with an upturned chin and pointing finger. I was twenty-five a few days ago… Oh well, I’m less than one now! Cute girls do cute things! Except when they slam their head against a knife!

Satisfied, I began moving about the mist shapes, coming up with nicknames for each one. “my mother” became “Kaasan”, “my sister” became “Nee-San”, and “my father”, “Tousan”. All in all, I probably named over fifty of these mist shapes, simply trying to pass the time. Eventually, I would probably wind up back in that all-black space, so I was going to make use of these mist shapes for some stimulation while I could.

It did not take long, and seemingly just as I blinked, I was back in the black space. I sighed and picked a direction to start walking. I walked and walked, then just to mix things up, I walked some more. I swear I have to be going in circles. Either that or every time I wake up here, I get reset back to the start… I’ll have to try and come up with a way to mark where I wake up… or not. I don’t exactly have anything I could drop, and wouldn’t be able to see it even if I did. Honestly, at this point, I had more or less given up on finding anything here and was walking just in case it made me fall asleep faster, so I could go back to my mist shapes.

After passing the point where I was fed up with walking, I finally began to feel tired again. Gratefully, I lay myself down and closed my eyes. When I woke up, I was back in the mist shape place. Or, at least I should be. I was seemingly looking through my actual eyes, and smelling with my actual nose. Hearing with my actual ears as well. I was Ecstatic!

I turned my head around looking for a mirror. Or, at least I tried to. My head refused to obey what I telling it to do. Why can’t I control my body!? I tried a few more things, but no matter what I tried doing, nothing moved. My body, though I was starting to doubt that, seemed to be content to simply lie on its back and stare at the ceiling while kicking its legs off the side of what was presumably a bed. I wasn’t sure what it was doing.

I seemed to be in some kind of hut or cabin, based on my limited field of view, and according to the smells and sounds that I was still passively registering the environment was likely rural. I felt my ears twitch, which took a second or two for me to realize that’s what had happened. This confirmed my early suspicions that I was some kind of beast-kin. Oh, I hope it’s a nekomimi! An okamimimi would be good too, but if I had to pick, I would say a nekomimi for sure! kitsunemimi girls are amazing, but those tails just seem like they would be so impractical to actually care for.

My inane ramblings aside, the cause of my ears twitching soon made itself known as my body sat up and turned itself to face the source of the noise. “Kaasan! Okaeri!” The adult nekomimi glanced at me with exasperated eyes.

You are reading story Tricked Into A NewLife, God Must Be Screwing With Me! at novel35.com

“Felicity, how many times has mother told you? It’s ‘Mom’ and ‘Welcome back’.” I felt a wave of confusion wash over me, or thinking about it, probably not me, but rather the nekomimi girl Felicity I was presently spectating. The confusion seemed to stem from believing that what she had in fact said, was “mom” and “welcome back”. It seems like I might have screwed up… were those mist things like formative memories or something? Was I walking around in some poor little girl’s head and imprinting anime culture into her mind before it was even fully developed…? That’s just plain fucked.

I wasn’t going to address the fact that I could seemingly understand what the mother was saying; presumably, it was something simple, like the fact that I was in Felicity’s head allowed me to draw on her own knowledge of the words’ meanings. Before Felicity could voice her confusion, there was a horn that sounded off in the distance. Given how keen these nekomimi’s ears were, for it to be so faint it must have been quite the distance indeed.

Through Felicity’s eyes, I saw our mother stiffen, while from Felicity herself I experienced a wave of fear and apprehension. So whatever that horn is, it probably isn’t good. It must be particularly bad if Felicity is able to understand it despite being a toddler. My worries were confirmed when Felicity’s mother grabbed her hand and pulled her up and into her arms before turning and bolting out the door.

Emerging out onto the street, I took the opportunity to memorize as much of the fleeting detail as I could. Unfortunately, it wasn’t much. Felicity obviously wasn’t cooperating and looking all over the place, she instead kept her gaze fixed firmly on mother. It was an admirable showing of trust from someone so young, but it was a bit frustrating for me.

From what I could gather as we ran through the village, it seemed to be made up entirely of nekomimi like Felicity and her mother. The homes were poor, appearing to be cobbled together from whatever was at hand, rather than constructed based on any sort of plan. It was located in what was likely some kind of forest, based on the surrounding thick trees, and all the people who lived here were most likely related. At least they all had similar hair and eye colors.

So mimi-kin, or at least nekomimi in this world seem to be of the tribal variety, at least I hope it’s that, and not a case of inbreeding. I couldn’t tell where Felicity was being carried to, due to her looking in the opposite direction from where her mom was running, but I could see the villagers beginning to prepare for something, a lot of the men and even the majority of the woman were running past Felicity in the opposite direction, all of them carrying spears or swords. Some had bows strapped to their back.

From what I could tell, it seemed that other than a handful of armed nekomimi, only the children, extremely old, and mothers of younger children were going with us. It’s an evacuation then? What on earth is coming after this village? In the distance, I could now hear the faint sound of horse hoofs beating the dirt. Or rather, Felicity could hear them, and because I was in her head I was aware of them as well. The sound caused a new wave of fear to rush over her, and I felt the odd sensation of ears being pressed flat against the top of my head for the first time.

I could feel our mother’s heart beating furiously through Felicity’s chest. I could also smell something in the air, emanating from all of the people running away from the village. It was fear. Before long, the distant screams started. There was also a sound that I vaguely recognized as the clashing of metal, though that sound seemed to trigger a fear of an unknown threat in Felicity, indicating she had no experience with combat.

Part of me was also afraid, after all, I seemingly shared Felicity’s senses of sight, smell, and hearing. Although had no experience with it, I could imagine that our link extended to other senses, like taste and pain. On the other hand, I also felt disconnected in a way. After all, I was basically watching a movie, I had very little if any control over what Felicity would do. I could give some input if I was back in the Mist room like previously. Though now that I realized that those mist shapes had been the establishing consciousness of a little nekomimi girl, I really had no interest in poking at them further, I had done enough damage already.

I pushed back at the feeling of trepidation, it was a trick I had learned standing in front of classrooms. I wish there was something I could do to help though… It just went against my character to stand by and do nothing when a child was in trouble. Unfortunatally, all of my knowledge regarding fleeing, fighting, and survival came from anime and light novels. Felicity’s mother would be much better at this than I would, if I could even do anything at all.

As they continued running, the screams eventually faded along with the clashing sounds of metal. It wasn’t due to us getting far away from them, rather it was because the battle was resolving. Based on the now intermittent and rapidly approaching horse hooves. I could feel Felicity’s building fear, and even caught a few flashes of movement in the distance.

Suddenly, a cry. Felicity’s ears snapped to face the sound followed quickly by her head. Bearing down on them was a horse, with a man wearing metal armor riding it. I couldn’t tell what race he was, owing to his body being almost entirely covered, but my gut was telling me he was human. It would just fit the trope after all…

The rider bore down on Felicity and her mother, swinging down with some sort of club that looked padded. So it’s exactly that, slavers. The club struck Felicity’s mother and knocked her off her feet. Felicity went sailing through the air and into a tree. I felt the impact and the world went dark.

I sat up, back in the black space. Looking around to confirm my lack of surroundings, I hurriedly got to my feet and started running. I have to get back. It seems like each time I go away from her, a year or two pass for Felicity. I need to get back and find some way to communicate with her! I might not have a lot of knowledge about how this world works, but I do have meta-knowledge of the genre… though this isn’t exactly fiction, it’s reality so I have to be careful. Either way, what I know can probably help her, at least a bit.

I ran, with the desire to help Felicity firmly lodged in my heart. That was probably why I ran into a wall, literally. I had finally reached the edge of this black space, after what was probably multiple days of just running. If it wasn’t for the temporary breaks when I got to take a peek at Felicity’s world, I likely would have gone insane. I pushed a hand against the wall, testing its strength. Well, there’s no way to know if this showed up because I actually reached the edge, or if it’s like those mist shapes, and is responding to my desire to reach Felicity.

The wall was hard and at least taller than I could reach by jumping as high as I could. I briefly toyed with the idea of running left or right with my hand on the wall, but tossed the plan right out; I had no way of knowing if there even was a gate or doorway. If there was, I also didn’t know if it was left or right. Running further would at best be a fifty/fifty and at worse be pointless. Let’s operate on the assumption that I’m a free consciousness right now. So far the tropes tend to line up with that idea. In that case, I should be able to interact with this wall and send something through it. Presumably, if we follow the tropes, Felicity’s mindscape is on the other side.

I remembered how it had worked with the mist shapes and tentatively pressed my forehead against the wall. Then, I thought about how I wanted to check up on Felicity. To my surprise and relief, I was able to get a sense of her. The surprise and relief were immediately met with sadness and despair, once I realized the condition she was in.

It wasn’t as distinct as when I was physically present in her mind, instead, I got a rough impression of what she was feeling, and a few mere snippets of input from her senses. If I had to compare it to something, I would say it was like the difference between talking to someone in person and video calling over a dial-up connection; rather than a video feed, I was getting a slideshow, and the slides were less than 144p.

Still, it was something. From what I could tell, Felicity was dead to the world. She was in a cage in a darkly lit room, surrounded by the smell of death and disease. Her mother was nowhere to be found, but there was an older nekomimi girl, probably fourteen to sixteen years old that was caring for Felicity the best she could.

The older girl was seemingly doing a decent job, as while she was covered in bruises and small cuts from what I would assume were beatings, Felicity was relatively unharmed if a bit hungry. I pulled back from the wall, sickened. I had grown up in a first-world country, and as such was only tangentially aware of things like this being confronted by it firsthand would be emotionally devastating for any normal person. I grabbed at my mouth, forcing down the vomit that threatened to spill. Well, I don’t know if anything would actually come out, but I feel like it would, and that’s something I would rather not test.

After taking several breaths to calm myself, I pressed my head back against the wall. This time, I tried to force through something, instead of pulling something out. I selected a happy memory, one of a slice of life anime I had watched and thought about it as hard as I could while willing my thoughts to penetrate. Of course, Felicity would only get some tangential feelings and images, assuming her connection was as poor as mine was to her. It seemed to work, as when I checked again, she was a bit less dead to the world and perhaps a tiny bit happy. Almost like when someone wakes up from a pleasant dream.

Still, sending just that one thought had been incredibly tiring and I felt my eyelids drooping. I guess I’m going over the wall now. I hope things are easier on that side, like when I was interacting with the mist shapes. When my consciousness returned I was, predictably, inside of Felicity’s head. The room smelled absolutely foul this close. There was also a cold smell that made my nonexistent spine crawl. It seemed to be coming off of the older nekomimi girl that was in the cage with Felicity. I don’t really want this confirmed, but that’s probably what death smells like…

Felicity was watching two human kids, a boy and a girl, who were arguing about a price for Felicity. Apparently, Felicity looked vaguely reminiscent of the girl’s dead sister. This is a good opportunity for Felicity to get out of here… I don’t know if this is a good idea, but it can’t be worse than staying in this cage and dying. I imagined myself pressing my head against the wall, and felt the world around me sharpen slightly. The difference was almost imperceptible, like going from a 720p video to 1080p but not changing the window size. Still, it implied I had formed a connection link.

I sent a general impression to Felicity that she should “go with the girl”. I was very careful to avoid imprinting anything permanent, though given that I had zero experience with this sort of thing, there was no way I could be sure I had succeeded. The feelings being transmitted to me by Felicity seemed to be a developed mild interest in the girl, and she shifted her gaze to look at the girl.

When she did, my heart sank as the girl gave a start, and then adopted a much colder demeanor. I fucked up… This thought was further reinforced when the sale was finalized. The boy, whose name turned out to be Dominic, gestured at the girl, “This is Stahlia, she's your owner now. What is your name?”

Felicity nodded and responded simply enough, “Pet's name is Pet.” The boy grimaced almost imperceptibly, but the girl seemed nonplussed. Fuck! What did I sign this poor mimi-kin up for!?

I swallowed my nonexistent spit and tried to send Felicity a mental impression to “just do what they say”. I would have to see if I could somehow extend my limited influence in a way that allowed me to break the slave magic, and do that without harming Felicity. And I don’t even know how magic works in this world. I’m going to have to bullshit protagonist my way through this and learn on my own. If I can even use magic in the first place…

While I was ignoring Felicity’s surroundings, she was dressed in some simple clothes, and left in the custody of Stahlia and Dominic. As soon as we got out of the slave market and into the street, I saw Stahlia grow incredibly pale and swallow several times. She directed a look at Felicity before shifting her feet uncomfortably and looking away. Oh? Maybe it’s not as bad as I thought?

As if she could hear me and was trying to prove my words correct, Stahlia arranged a proper meal for Felicity, directing some nothings at Dominic about some sort of monster she apparently already had. Felicity was radiating emotions of shock and surprise at the food that was placed in front of her, however, she was too afraid to start eating.

I felt a bit warm and fuzzy as I was confronted with Felicity’s inner turmoil. She’s probably never seen food this nice, her village didn’t look very prosperous from the few glimpses I saw when her mother was fleeing, and then she was a slave… I was starting to feel exhausted, so I would probably only be able to send Felicity one more thought before I was kicked back to the black space. I imagined pressing my forehead against a wall again, and sent her the image that “everything will be ok, eat.”

Felicity seemed to pick up on my thought, and began eating the food. As she took the first bite, I felt a wave of jealous envy wash over her, and she began eating as quickly as possible. After a moment, the jealousy abated and she continued eating while occasionally shooting a look at Stahlia. I thought I heard a brief chiming noise, like a notification, but I didn’t have much time left to investigate; as I predicted, sending that thought took the rest of my energy and I faded back into the black space.

I sat up and reached around, quickly finding the wall. I thought about immediately sending Felicity another few thoughts so as to tire myself and regain my more direct connection, but until I knew more about the side effects of direct contact like that, I would probably be better served simply watching and observing, only directly reaching out when it was an emergency. Though that notification-sounding noise had been a tad concerning, given the tropes associated with something like that, I didn’t think it was worthy of risking causing potential damage to myself or Felicity by forcing a connection so rapidly just to investigate.

I pressed my head against the wall and was met by the same grainy information feed. If I was interpreting it correctly, Felicity and Stahlia were likely in the Latter’s room. Stahlia was standing over Felicity, speaking to her, “…and none of that. When it’s only the people who are here now, call me however you want, not ‘master’ or ‘mistress’.”

Felicity paused for a moment, and I got the general idea that she was struggling to determine how she felt about Stahlia before calling her anything. After a moment’s thought, she spoke up in a cheerful voice, “Pet understands, Stahlia Nee-San!”

So she’s decided to think of this Stahlia as a sort of older sister, that should work… wait, Stahlia, excuse me Stahlia? Why are you making that face!? Indeed, Stahlia had let out a surprised “Huwa?!” cry, and even spit out her tea when she heard “Nee-San”. Despite the fact that the word had been said in Japanese. Idly, I noted a maid in the room who didn’t react to Stahlia at all, and merely began cleaning up the tea that had landed everywhere.

As if to solidify my suspicions, Stahlia then grimaced as if she was aware of how cringy randomly inserting Japanese into sentences was. Stahlia is definitely a reincarnated person or at least she has knowledge of them. I think I might have really messed up! The first rule of an Isekai, if there are other Reincarnations not from your class, they are often more dangerous to you than the nobles or monsters!

Next chapter will see Claire's perspective of EvilGod creating a "doorway" in the soul wall, and have a fair bit of dialogue between Pet and Claire, working things out and doing some experiments with their new connection.

And a final announcement the story is about to hit 100k total views, isn't that exciting? I'm going to be "cleaning up" Tricked over the course of this week. Essentially, I've got a bit of extra time so I'm going to go through all the oldest chapters and updating their formatting to match what I currently do. I am also going to reevaluate the Genres and Tags I have set, based on how the story has developed, and update the synopsis. If you have any remarks or suggestions please share them in the comments.

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