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As the battle came to a stop, Lyell and Maria looked my way, their eyes filled with shock from seeing something unbelievable.

That was only natural. You might think that someone else could use the same technique as me, but these two had seen my techniques with their own eyes for a long time.

Lyell and Maria would never mistake my techniques for others.

“Impossible…that was Reid’s…but then, Nicole…could it be…”
“Are you…really…Reid…?”

The two were dumbfounded, even forgetting the situation. That was a fatal opening against these Devils.

And as expected, they didn’t overlook it and mercilessly attacked.

But Gadius, having finally caught up, used his greatshield and battleaxe and repelled them all.

After repelling their attacks, he shouted toward Lyell and Maria.

“Lyell! Maria! Instead of that, focus on these fellows first!”
“R-Right!”
“Alright… Nicole, we’ll talk later.”
“…Okay.”

I was feeling reluctant, but I had no other choice but to talk. And that talk would be happening quite soon.

With Lyell, Maria, Gadius, and me here, five Devils could be handled.

Gadius pulled two of them away, Lyell pulled the other two, while I used my threads to obstruct the remaining one.

Gadius used his shield and battleaxe, and skillfully sealed the enemy’s attacks.

Lyell drove an attack even stronger than the Devil’s into its sword, breaking its posture and then counterattacking.

I also stood before Maria, and engaged in a frontal battle with the Devil while strengthening myself internally.

This place was on the way to the mountain, so there were many hooking spots around, making it ideal to display my power.

I twined a thread around the Devil’s leg as it stepped toward me, then slipped through its sword slash and dashed by its side, arriving behind it.

Then I pulled on the thread with all my strength, breaking its posture and dropping it on the ground.

“Grah?!”

It seemed pissed that I threw it down and groaned in reaction. It ran out of luck when it underestimated a young girl and ignored the thread.

Now that I was manipulating my body internally, I wouldn’t lose out to Lyell in strength despite appearances.

And this was a chance I couldn’t overlook. It couldn’t avoid using one hand to get off the ground. If it was me I could use centrifugal force to get up, but this giant Devil couldn’t use such an acrobatic move.

Using one hand for something else meant it couldn’t use one of the swords, and it also revealed its back to me.

Hating the idea, the Devil swung its sword at me even as it lay fallen. I slipped through it and slashed at its legs.

I wouldn’t be able to wound it with my usual strength, but this time, my attack surpassed even Lyell’s.

It tore through its skin and flesh, making it shriek in pain.

“Gugyaagh?!”

It counterattacked while falling, believing in its thick skin, but it ended up backfiring completely.

It tried to do a somersault and take distance from me, but I had tied the thread that was coiled around its foot to a tree, so it failed to accomplish it.

It couldn’t flee even if it tried, and it couldn’t catch me in my strengthened state even if it chose to counterattack.

Thus, the Devil was one-sidedly cut up by me and died without managing to counterattack at all.

Then, as I looked around, Lyell had just defeated his own enemies and was running toward Gadius.

He managed to defeat two in the time it took me to defeat one. I thought I had caught up to him in strength, but I guess he still was beyond me when it came to sword fights.

That reality vexed me a little.

The remaining two Devils were easily defeated by the three of us as we joined forces.

Once the Devils were defeated, the villagers returned in confusion.

They were suddenly forced to evacuate, but then told to come back in a few hours, so their confusion was natural.

Normally, it wasn’t rare for the pioneer villagers of the frontiers to evacuate during such emergencies.

That happened frequently in other villages, but this village had Lyell as its combat power as a permanent resident, so it was something rare.

Once the grumbling villagers came back and the soldiers were told to strengthen the fences, we returned to Lyell’s mansion.

And now, I was made to sit before Maria, who was on the verge of tears, and bewildered Cortina, who was slammed with the truth right as she came back.

We were in the dining hall, and Gadius and I were sitting side by side, encamped by Maria and Cortina.

Gadius couldn’t handle this atmosphere, so he became even less talkative than he usually was.

“Umm, listen Cortina… Um, nevermind.”

Gadius tried to mediate things, but a glare from Cortina shut him up.

Meanwhile, I couldn’t even say a word in this heavy atmosphere.

My only saving grace was that the maid had evacuated Fina to a different room after sensing the atmosphere.

This state continued for half an hour, and then Lyell returned.

He didn’t eat or take a bath, and just came right into the dining hall where the rest of us were.

He sat on the chair next to Maria, then gave me a glance and spoke seriously.

“So, It’s safe to assume that…you are Reid, right?”
“…Yeah.”

He spoke in pauses, as if to emphasize it. It felt like he hoped that I would deny it.

But it would be pointless to do that in this situation.

Any verbal denial would easily be contradicted by reality. Even if I denied it as a stopgap, the fact remained that I used threads and fought like Reid.

Lyell and others would realize it was a lie and only serve to worsen the situation.

But Cortina just couldn’t accept it.

“Why! How…”

She slammed the table and stood up at my answer, but her words stopped at that.

With tears in her eyes, emotions I couldn’t even imagine, she once again sat down powerlessly.

“Are you really Reid? It’s not some curse, or the usual disguise or anything?”
“Maria, sorry, but it’s true. I’m—”
“That can’t be… Just wait, Nicole. I’ll remove the curse right away.”
“No, listen…”

Maria thought my condition was some kind of curse, denying reality.

She actually used a high-level dispel magic on me.

She continued using Dispel, Remove Curse, and other various spells I didn’t know.

My body did have God of Destruction’s curse-like charming eye power, but that couldn’t be removed by Maria’s magic.

But my body was under the Scroll’s time limit, so I felt that they worked on that.

“I can’t remove it… why…”
“Well, this has been my body since I was born, so…”
“Reid, have you been deceiving us…?”
“That wasn’t my intention… But how could I say it!?”

I stood up like Cortina and insisted. Even I felt like crying now.

“I couldn’t say it when I saw how happily you two lived. Your daughter is actually Reid—were you in my position, could you have come out and said that?”
“That’s…”
“I…couldn’t.”

Maria and Cortina held their words at my claim.

“Then, are you saying that my daughter…Nicole had never existed?”
“That isn’t correct either. While I certainly was Reid in my past life, I am also Nicole. I am also your daughter without a doubt. That’s a fact.”
“I see…”
“I… did rebel against you, but I do consider you my father now. I wish you would believe that at least. The same goes for Maria.”
“I got it. Reid—”

Then Lyell glared at me sharply.

Taking that gaze, I resolved myself that he wouldn’t forgive me.

“What?”
“Step outside. We’re duking it out.”
“Huuh?!”

Leaving those words behind, Lyell headed to the backyard.