12. Asilly’s Visit  

“Ah, it tickles! It tickles!”  

“Lie down comfortably. I’ll clean you…… ugh.”  

As she thrashed about, Judy unknowingly kicked Theo’s shoulder very hard. He thumped backward and sat down, and Judy immediately thought, ‘Oh no’. Theo looked up at her, unable to hide his shock, eyes widening as if he had not expected that force at all, and Judy felt deeply embarrassed.  

“I think this body’s feet are weak. It’s so ticklish I can’t stand it.”  

Seeing Judy touching her own damp feet, not knowing what to do, Theo got back up. Sitting beside her, Theo quietly looked down at her feet.  

“They don’t look weak at all.”  

“……No. They are. Because it tickles, I did that without realizing.”  

“Fine. Since they’re weak, like you said, that’s why I’m loosening them up with warm water.”  

“It’s not that kind of weakness. When someone touches them, my body goes limp and feels strange. Maybe it’s just this body… Anyway, I’ll wash myself!”

Since it did not seem necessary to explain in detail, Judy quickly cut the conversation off. But cutting it off immediately brought silence between them, and Theo’s eyes deepened as if he were thinking hard about something.  

“Ahh. That kind of thing…….”  

And not long after, he muttered with a sigh, as if he had realized something big.  

“What do you mean, ‘that kind of thing’ again?”  

“……I should remember this.”  

At the barely audible voice, Judy leaned closer.  

“What did you just say?”  

“Is there anywhere else you’re sensitive?”

“Anywhere else?”

“No, I’ll have to find out myself later…”

Muttering again in words Judy could not fully make out, Theo stood up, and Judy stared at him with her face scrunched up.  

“You’ve been muttering things since earlier. I can’t hear any of it.”  

“Rest.”  

He still did not answer to the end, and left the room. It was absurd, but Judy did not have the energy to follow, so she simply threw herself back onto the bed.  

“I really should wash…”

She recalled her father’s face, looking at Wesley as if he loathed him, speaking with firm finality. Her father had always been so blunt that she assumed he did not care whether she was unhappy or happy. But seeing him coldly state his will today made her realize she had been living under a major misunderstanding all this time.  

‘As if I’d ever let my daughter marry someone like that unless I lost my mind.’  

Suddenly, memories of her father when she was young and her mother was alive came flooding back. Her father would walk in the garden full of blooming roses, holding her mother’s hand in one and Judy in the other, smiling brightly.

Back then, her father had smelled so very good.  

“Father, your daughter is here. I miss you so much…….”  

Once again, emotions surged up, and she buried her face in her pillow, trying somehow to swallow her tears. But in the end, she failed.  

***

“Who came to see me?”  

The next morning.  

“Miss Judy of the Grant Marquisate has come to see you.”  

Asilly—who had not shown even the tip of her nose no matter how much Judy wanted to meet her—had come on her own two feet. She must have been quite impatient. Judy briefly thought, Should she make her wait and ‘teach her a lesson’?, but if Asilly, fickle as she was, simply left, it would ultimately be Judy’s loss, so she ordered them to let her in.  

Not long after, Asilly came in, guided by a servant.  

“No tea. Everyone, clear out and give us space.”  

Thinking there was no need to treat her with care as if she were anything special, Judy gave the order to the servants. After they all left and only the two of them remained, Asilly smiled brightly like someone out of her mind and slowly swept her gaze around the room.  

“The room’s big and nice. Looks like you put a lot of effort into the interior.”  

“Did you come to look around? Because you want to steal this room too?”  

“Is that even possible? If it is, then yes.”  

Judy snorted and curled one side of her lips upward with an openly displeased look.  

“Do you think you can?”

“Too bad. I thought that since I became Judy, I thought being with Young Duke Crawford might be possible too.”  

But why has she been grinning like that this whole time? This isn’t a situation to be laughing in. What kind of scheme is she hiding that she can be so relaxed? 

Judy grew uneasy. And that unease hit the mark exactly.  

“Young Duke Crawford knows, doesn’t he?”

“Are you happy that Theo knows?”

“As if. Would I be happy? I’m just disappointed. It would’ve been even better if I could’ve fooled Young Duke Crawford too.”  

“Then you’re happy about the broken engagement with Earl Wesley?”  

“It’s not a bad thing.”  

In that instant, a prickling sensation swept the back of Judy’s neck and seemed to pierce through to the top of her head. What was she missing? Judy thought hard, but she could not guess at anything.  

“I’m none other than the Marquis’s only daughter—Judy Grant.”  

“Don’t tell me you have a man from some family you want?”  

“Thinking about it, I do. The highest-ranking noble house in the Dabans Empire is the Crawford Dukedom, and after that comes the Grant Marquisate.”  

“…….”  

“Wouldn’t nobles line up, wanting to become in-laws with the Grant Marquisiate? Men far more gentlemanly than Earl Wesley, with wealth and power.”  

It was not wrong. More than dozens of marriage proposals had come in, and each time, Judy had rejected them solely because of Earl Wesley. She truly had been completely out of her mind. But there was one thing Asilly was overlooking.  

“Sorry, but I turned away all those nobles who were lining up.”  

Back then, Judy had rejected them quite firmly, saying she would protect her love for Wesley, and more than a few nobles had their pride wounded in the process. Some of them had even said, “I won’t even turn my body toward anywhere the Grant Marquisiate is,” in anger.  

She remembered how they had gone back and spread strange rumors, and for a while, she had been busy running around making excuses at the social gatherings she attended with other young ladies. Asilly must not have known, because she had not been at those gatherings.  

“I can seduce them again.”  

“You’re really diligent.”  

“What do you mean?”  

At Judy’s heavily sarcastic tone, Asilly’s face stiffened in an instant, irritation plainly showing.  

“What do you think I mean? Seducing men is the kind of thing that should be annoying, yet you’re declaring you’ll do it.”  

“Hey, you’re not one to talk. You’re the one who seduced Earl Wesley when he was minding his own business.”  

“I didn’t seduce him. I loved him.”  

Seducing someone and loving someone were clearly different realms. Asilly, living without even distinguishing that, looked vulgar and pitiful. After Judy’s last words, Asilly became tight-lipped as if someone had smeared honey on her mouth, then flicked the hair that had fallen over her shoulder back behind her.  

“That was too much pointless wordplay. I came to see you today to tell you this.”  

“Say it.”  

“First, thanks for getting my engagement with Earl Wesley broken off. And it’ll be harder for you to see me from now on.”  

“What?”  

“I figured out what hurts you the most.”  

Asilly took a step back, widening the distance between them.  

“That’s me not appearing in front of you easily.”

It was not something Judy could plainly affirm or deny. If she denied it, Asilly would not believe her anyway, and if she affirmed it, it would mean acknowledging Asilly’s words—so Judy did not want to get entangled. Seeing Judy maintain her composure, Asilly gave an uncomfortable smile.  

“Then I’ll be going. Try living well, Asilly Leroni.”  

Asilly smiled and headed for the door, but she was stopped from leaving completely in an instant—because Theo shoved his way inside.  

The moment Theo came in, he roughly grabbed Asilly’s wrist and glared at her sharply like a savage beast.  

“If you do anything funny in Judy’s body, I won’t let it go.”  

“Have you ever considered that you’re making me want to do something funny?”  

She tried to shake off his grip, but his strength was too great, and she could not. Irritation and fluster showed plainly on Asilly’s face.  

“Let go.”  

“Do you know? About what was happening at the moment the souls switched. Judy was in quite a bit of pain. What do you think that means?”  

(T/N: Theo is basically warning Asilly Leroni that Judy being in pain with the soul switching suggests it might have been triggered by harm, he’s connecting the switching to possible wrongdoing of Asilly.)

Asilly froze, as if thinking about what his words implied. Afraid her turbulent feelings might spill out, Asilly forced herself to hold a stiff smile, then smiled brightly.  

“…I’ll remember that warning very, very deeply.”

“You’d better.”  

Theo still wore fierce eyes as he stared Asilly down.  

“I have no mercy for you.”