Chapter 6 (Part 2)

While tearing and eating the flowers for a while, Grace suddenly felt something strange.  

“What? Why isn’t he appearing?”  

By now, Leonardo should have appeared and rushed at her like a dog in heat.  

Yet, despite the passage of time, no one appeared. Strangely, that scared Grace more.  

Growing anxious, Grace bit her lip and laughed.  

“How foolish, Grace Lowell.”  

Being scared because things in her dream didn’t go as expected.  

Anyway, all of this would disappear like a mirage once she woke up.  

[Who said it’s just a dream?]  

Startled by the voice that came from nowhere like the wind, Grace opened her eyes wide.  

Quickly getting up, she sharply scanned her surroundings. But she sensed no presence.  

She was alone here.  

‘I’m going crazy. Truly crazy.’  

The fear that something unknown was happening made her skin crawl.  

Cold sweat trickled down her back.  

[Don’t be so tense. We’re just here to make it fun.]  

“We? Who?”  

[Us.]  

The voice said and burst into laughter.  

Grace’s face twisted, and she roughly grabbed and tore the flowers, shouting,  

“What the hell are you!”  

Grace, who had shouted, ‘bolted’ upright.  

Her whole body was drenched in cold sweat. As she panted, she couldn’t immediately understand why she had woken up shouting.  

“Ah, you’re awake.”  

Just then, the door opened, and Leonardo entered.  

Seeing the sweat on Grace’s forehead, he slightly furrowed his brow.

“Did you perhaps feel hot?”  

Although it was unlikely, Leonardo asked just in case, and Grace shook her head.  

This place had a magic circle installed to maintain the optimal temperature. No matter the weather, it was always comfortable here.  

So it wouldn’t have been hot. Unless it was for another reason.  

‘Like a dream.’  

As he expected, Grace mumbled while staring into space with an unusually frightened expression.  

“No, no. It was something, a dream, no, the dream was…”  

As Grace, who had just woken up, mumbled incoherently and couldn’t continue, Leonardo approached and sat on the edge of the bed.  

Then he looked into her eyes and asked,  

“Now, please tell me. What kind of dream are you having?”  

At Leonardo’s words, Grace remained silent.  

No matter what, she couldn’t tell Leonardo about the embarrassing dreams she had been having.  

When she stayed silent, Leonardo sighed and said,  

“If you don’t want to tell me until the end, I won’t ask anymore. But we need to know exactly what state you’re in so we can also come up with a countermeasure.”  

Saying so, Leonardo handed her a cup he had brought.  

“Have a drink of water at least. If you wish to wash up, there’s a bathroom to the left.”  

Without telling her not to wash alone this time, Leonardo left the room.  

Grace stared blankly at the closed door before lying back on the bed. Although she was sticky with sweat from sleeping, it wasn’t as bothersome as the dream she couldn’t remember.  

‘Why do I feel so uneasy?’  

It felt like she had forgotten something very important, leaving her anxious and restless.  

Grace tried to recall what it was several times, but in the end, she couldn’t remember anything and had to close her eyes.  

‘Really, you’re no help at all, Grace Lowell.’  

All she knew how to do was hunt monsters with her sword, and hunt again.  

But in this situation, the sword that Grace Lowell was so proud of was of no help at all.  

“Thinking foolish thoughts, really.”  

It was the swordsmanship she had been proud of all her life.  

Not that she wasn’t proud of it now or regretted learning it, but the situation kept gnawing at her.  

‘Stop talking nonsense, Grace Lowell.’  

The sword was everything in her life. Why was she having such foolish thoughts now?  

Grace muttered as she covered her eyes with her arm.  

“I hope this gets resolved soon.”  

Having barely managed to calm her emotions a bit, Grace got up from the bed. After all, sitting idly wouldn’t help.  

When she went outside, she saw Leonardo reviewing documents in the same position as when she had fallen asleep. Somehow, his face seemed a bit unfamiliar.  

“Did I sleep long?”  

Grace deliberately closed the door loudly and asked, making Leonardo put down the documents he was reading. Then he naturally looked out the window.  

Grace also turned her head to follow his gaze.  

Beyond the window, the sky was already painted with a red sunset. When they had arrived, the sun was brightly shining on the ground.  

“You slept quite a while. I was thinking of heading back now, what do you think?”  

Understanding that he was asking if they would switch bodies, Grace took the potion he handed her from the desk.  

When she took it, he said,  

“Tomorrow, I plan to draw some of your blood, Sir Lowell.”  

“Blood? Is there something to examine?”  

“Yes. Since everything seems so intricately intertwined, it seems we have to try everything we can.”  

If it were simply about breaking the magic, blood wouldn’t be necessary. A skilled priest would suffice.  

But they were caught in a much more complicated situation.  

“Then, are you going home?”  

“Yes, for now. I want to see my mother too.”  

At her words, Leonardo opened the potion cap and handed it to Grace, saying,  

“Then let’s meet tomorrow morning as promised.”  

Although it felt awkward to make an appointment to meet Leonardo the next day, Grace nodded and clinked the potion bottle.  

She immediately drank the potion, let out a long breath, and tightly closed her eyes.  

As she felt the heart-wrenching pain, Grace’s knees buckled, and she sat on the floor, chuckling,  

“I should’ve, drunk, moderately.”  

Leonardo, realizing she was referring to the potion she drank right after they first swapped bodies, smiled bitterly.  

Regretting not stopping her even though he knew it would turn out like this.  

He, too, opened his eyes in his body after the pain passed.  

‘My heart aches.’

Even Leonardo could feel that the intensity of the pain was increasing, albeit slightly, as time passed.  

If they didn’t resolve this soon, his body would start experiencing abnormalities.  

‘I can’t afford to suffer from heart disease.’  

Leonardo approached Grace, who was slowly opening her eyes, and helped her up.  

“Are you taking a carriage?”  

“Ugh, yes. My head is strangely throbbing.”  

Grace frowned with a headache, holding onto his arm.  

For a moment, Leonardo seemed to flinch, but Grace dismissed it, thinking she had seen wrong, and exhaled deeply.  

“Sir Lowell, you should seek a priest’s help.”  

Leonardo thought of the troublesome yet prideful person at the Ducal residence, and his face involuntarily twisted with displeasure.  

When he frowned, Grace thought it was because of her and said,  

“I won’t trouble you, Sir Leonardo.”

Mumbling that it wasn’t something to get angry about since she was the one in pain, Leonardo explained,  

“No, it’s just that I thought of my sister at home.”  

“Sister?”  

When Grace tilted her head as if hearing it for the first time, Leonardo answered with a sigh,  

“Yes. I have a sister who is a priest.”  

At his words, Grace recalled someone belatedly.  

Delia H. Fernandez. A talented individual who proudly received a unique name given only to high-ranking priests at a young age.  

“I could get help, right?”

Though it seemed like she heard a grinding sound, Grace thought she misheard.  

Nodding, she smiled and said,  

“That would be nice.”  

Leonardo also smiled back at Grace’s smile.  

Thinking about receiving Delia’s help made his teeth grind involuntarily, but in any case, family was most useful at times like this.  

As Grace stepped outside with Leonardo, she looked back and preemptively said,  

“I can ride a horse back. So it’s better if we part ways here.”  

Leonardo, who stepped back without resistance, bowed his head and smiled.  

Thinking it was the first time she had greeted him properly without teasing, Grace also bowed her head.  

Then she cautiously looked around and quickly ran away.  

Leonardo, who stood until her small figure disappeared, snapped his fingers.  

“You’re back now?”  

As Leonardo teleported to the Ducal garden, he heard the voice of someone he didn’t want to meet.  

Turning his head slowly, he saw Delia with red hair leaning against a tree.  

“Since when did you care about such things, sister?”  

At Leonardo’s cold words, Delia slightly lifted the corners of her mouth and shrugged her shoulders.  

“Because Mother wishes it?”  

“Even you can’t help it, huh.”  

Everyone in this family was weak to Charlotte Fernandez, the Duchess.  

And Leonardo was no exception.  

Sighing, he turned his body, and Delia, who had been quietly watching, spoke up.  

“If you keep carrying around such strange things, you’ll soon be in trouble.”  

At her words, Leonardo stopped walking.  

“It’s amazing that you’re still intact.”

Delia laughed, stretching her red lips.  

Normally, Leonardo would have ignored Delia’s words and walked past, but he couldn’t do that now.  

He stopped and turned his body to face her directly. Then Delia exaggeratedly shrugged her shoulders and said,  

“Oh my, how scary.”  

Teasingly saying that she wouldn’t run away, Delia provoked Leonardo, who retorted in a cold voice.  

“How can you be so sure, sister?”  

At her brother’s words, Delia laughed incredulously. Then she placed her hand on her chest and said,  

“I’m Delia H. Fernandez.”  

“…”  

“If I can’t do it, no one can.”

Though her confident words were annoying, Leonardo knew Delia’s skills well.  

She was one of the few high-ranking priests in the empire.