Chapter 54. The Northwestern Forest

‘If you return again? The original owner of the body?’

Iella froze completely. She showed no reaction—neither extreme surprise nor composure. In her petrified mind, the old woman’s words repeated slowly.

Meanwhile, the woman who had uttered those words calmly scooped her portion of stew and sat across from her.

“Eat quickly. Before, the Miss wouldn’t even touch food like this, which was quite troublesome at first.”

The old woman asked while taking a spoonful of stew. Though her tone was natural, the content delivered another shock to Iella. It was like hammering in a final nail.

The old woman knew everything—that Ailexia had been in her body, that she had now returned to normal, and that the two would switch again.

So precisely that it couldn’t be denied.

“……How do you know all this?”

Iella clenched her hands, which were becoming damp with tension. Not wanting to appear shaken and be looked down upon, she kept her voice as steady as possible.

Perhaps reading her wariness, the old woman put down her spoon.

“When you’ve lived as long as I have, you begin to see what was once invisible and know what was once unknown. Keenly observing people’s small habits and attitudes is no difficult task.”

“That’s not all, is it?”

At first glance, it sounded plausible. The countless traces of years on her face revealed the old woman’s deep experience, making it seem entirely possible.

But Iella wasn’t fooled. The truth the old woman knew couldn’t be explained by that reason alone. If that were all, the old woman should only know that she had become someone different.

“Did the previous Miss tell you? Did she explain who she was?”

Iella questioned the old woman almost interrogatively. Yet she carefully phrased her words to avoid revealing all her cards. She made it seem as if she didn’t know who had been in her body.

Whether the old woman saw through this immediately or misunderstood as Iella intended didn’t matter. Iella’s aim was to get more detailed information from the old woman’s mouth.

“Oh, so this one has this kind of personality.”

The old woman muttered with interest as she observed Iella staring at her intently. Anticipating a long conversation, she took a sip of the warm tea she had already poured into a cup. Iella quietly watched as the old woman moistened her throat.

Eventually, the old woman put down her cup and stood up. When Iella looked at her with puzzled eyes, she gestured for her to follow. Reluctantly following her out, Iella found the old woman already outside, holding the walking stick she had left by the door.

Iella hesitated briefly before stepping outside.

Beyond the fenced yard, she could see they were completely surrounded by a dense forest. The view from this wide perspective was different from what she had seen through the second-floor window. Fresh air filled her lungs deeply with each breath.

Looking around, Iella saw the old woman stop in front of the fence and halted a short distance behind her.

“That’s where I first met you.”

The old woman pointed between the dense trees beyond the fence gate. The vegetation was so thick that unlike the sunlit yard, it was extremely dark there.

“I couldn’t leave someone about to collapse alone, so I brought you here. There were also some concerning aspects.”

“Concerning aspects?”

“Yes. You were exuding a heterogeneous energy.”

“Heterogeneous… energy?”

As Iella pondered the old woman’s words, she soon realized what it might be. Perhaps it was felt because a foreign soul was in a body that didn’t belong to it.

Whether her guess was correct, the old woman stroked her chin.

“When body and soul don’t match and are misaligned, such energy inevitably emanates. When I asked about it, the previous Miss told me! That she was currently in a body that wasn’t her own.”

“Did she say that directly?”

“She even explained who she was. Ailexia, right?”

“……!”

Iella couldn’t hide her surprise, not expecting that she would have revealed her name. But at the same time, she wondered.

Why had Ailexia revealed her name and the whole truth to the old woman?

‘She’s not the type to easily tell someone just because they asked… wait a moment.’

As Iella pondered the reason, she suddenly felt something strange.

‘How could Ailexia have told the truth?’

Who she really was, what was happening now. Could she have confided in someone else without any problems, something Iella could only tell Vanessa, the original author?

Iella scrutinized the old woman before her. But that wouldn’t provide the answer. She bit her lip hard before releasing it and gripped the hem of her dress tightly.

“How did you recognize all this? And what made you believe the claim about body switching? Most people would find it hard to accept at face value…”

“……”

“What exactly are you?”

The old woman slowly turned around, using her walking stick. Though quiet, the atmosphere wasn’t fearfully heart-pounding. The old woman’s composure, chuckling while looking at Iella’s pink eyes filled with deep wariness, made it so.

“I had to recognize it. How could I not notice something so thickly attached?”

Then suddenly, the old woman lightly struck the ground with her walking stick. The moment the tip touched the ground, a pattern appeared beneath their feet with a bright light.

Iella stepped back with a startled expression.

“In my younger days, I was quite a capable sorceress.”

With the old woman’s confession, the light leaking from the pattern grew brighter and then burst. Iella instinctively shielded herself from the light pouring over her.

Just after feeling dismayed at her carelessness, something suddenly brushed past her face. Iella opened her narrowed eyes. Her pupils grew round.

‘Birds…?’

Small skylarks made of transparent light were all soaring up into the sky. It was like a magical scene.

“Now I can only perform such trivial tricks.”

A voice mixed with regret and transcendence came from in front of her. Shifting her gaze from the birds to the old woman, Iella saw her staring at the sky as if lost in memories.

It suddenly occurred to her that perhaps Ailexia could speak the truth not because Vanessa was the original author, but because she was a sorceress.

But she couldn’t be certain.

* * *

The two returned inside and back to the table. The old woman had abruptly moved first, saying she was hungry now and would explain while eating, leaving Iella with no real choice.

But feeling the old woman wanted to change the mood that had sunk into sentimentality, Iella followed without complaint.

Taking her seat first and picking up her spoon, the old woman gestured for Iella to sit down and ate a few spoonfuls of stew. Iella sat opposite her and waited for her to finish, but after a sharp scolding about why she wasn’t eating, she reluctantly took a spoonful.

After eating, her collapsed body realized its forgotten hunger and cried out. The harmonious blend of diverse ingredients stimulated her appetite, and by the time she came to her senses, the bowl was empty.

Feeling embarrassed, Iella quickly put down her spoon, and the old woman, who had already finished her portion and was watching, heartily praised her for doing well.

Thanks to this, Iella’s embarrassment doubled, and she hastily changed the subject.

“Since you seem to know everything, I’ll ask you directly. Where exactly is this place? Do you know why Ailexia came here? You know the bodies switch again—do you know why?”

“Ask one by one, slowly.”

The old woman cut off Iella’s rapid-fire questions with a gesture. Then, after taking a sip of her now half-cold tea, she answered step by step.

“This forest is located between north and west. It’s also called the boundary.”

“The northwestern forest……”

Pondering the old woman’s words that somehow sounded familiar, Iella’s eyes suddenly widened. The northwest—that was where the sorceress village was located.

“Is this the sorceress village?”

Iella stood up abruptly, leaning forward with both hands on the table. So Ailexia had been working hard to return to her original body too! With that thought, hope rose within her at the feeling that the answer was right before her eyes.

“No, it’s not. Can’t you tell just by looking? There’s only me here.”

“Ah……”

But her hope deflated rapidly like a punctured balloon. Indeed, the surroundings were all forest, and this was the only house—hardly a village.

As Iella sat back down weakly, the old woman offered comforting words.

“Don’t be disappointed. You were half right.”

“What?”

“This forest is very large. It’s not called the northwestern boundary for nothing.”

“……You mean it’s within this forest?”

“Yes. Unfortunately, it’s on the opposite side from here.”

The old woman explained that while her house was closer to the west, the sorceress village was closer to the north, more toward the center, then took another sip of tea.

Only then could Iella guess about Ailexia’s meeting with the old woman and why she had revealed the whole truth.

‘She must have gotten lost and met her. She revealed the truth to get help.’

From everything she’d heard so far, Iella could tell that Ailexia’s meeting with the old woman had happened before Iella returned to her original body.

But earlier, the old woman had said: wandering around the forest like that would only drain her strength. And not to collapse again and trouble her.

When she first heard those words upon waking, she thought her body had collapsed when her soul left during the return to normal. She thought the old woman had brought the collapsed body and cared for it. But thinking about it now, that wasn’t it.

“Did I collapse right before returning to my original body?”

“No, that’s not it. I saw you going up to the room. When you didn’t come down the next day, I went up and remembered mentioning the body switch. Well, by the afternoon, you came down changed like this.”

As expected. After meeting the old woman, Ailexia had gone into the forest many times but always returned here.

‘But why?’

Why did Ailexia keep coming back? Iella was engulfed in a new question.