Ella had no strength, and her mind wasn't especially clear either.
She felt about herself, and when her fingers found the smooth jade she let out a breath.
She paid no attention to what Elos was saying. In fact Ella didn't much care for jade herself; she only treated the pendant as something to pin her hopes on.
It was the emblem of her being the protagonist. Probably, on the day the cheat code inside it finally came out, she would throw the thing away.
"Hey. Are you listening to me?"
"I'm listening."
Ella answered flatly. She could hardly have any warm feeling toward Elos.
Her gaze rested a moment on the feet propped at the edge of the bed, and Ella shifted—and then gave up.
Too tired. She didn't want to move at all.
Without even turning over, Ella closed her eyes.
Elos couldn't be bothered with her either, until dinner, when she crammed a loaf into her at random.
"Cough, cough... cough, cough..."
Her mouth stuffed full of food, Ella coughed. She was being fed, so why did it feel like being murdered?
Damned bastard milady.
As for that bastard milady... having fed Ella her dinner, she was standing at the window, troubled. How was she going to get Ella back to her own room?
This was her own room. She didn't want anyone else touching Ella, but... she didn't want to carry her while she was awake either.
"This is so annoying! Tell me, why are you this weak? Why do you get sick this easily? I didn't even use any force."
She stood in front of Ella and slammed a fist into her chest.
"Ngh!"
Ella grunted, gave her a flat look, then turned her head away without a word and declined to answer.
The evening sky outside the window was beautiful, though neither Ella nor Elos had any intention of appreciating it.
Elos glanced at her own canopy bed.
The bed was soft and it was large, but thinking about the picture of herself and Ella sleeping in it, she came out in gooseflesh.
"Hey. Those books. Read them yourself, get some idea of what magic is. Bathe in the morning, then go and wait for me at the training ground."
Elos left.
Out of the sickroom, her whole bearing changed considerably, closer to the way she had been at that first meeting in the corridor.
"Katherine."
"Milady."
Katherine appeared out of the shadows and bowed slightly to her.
"Have a new room made up for me. Mm... and my staff is still at the training ground. Send someone to bring it back."
Elos gave the orders.
Her father should be up in the Empire's northern territory at present, putting down a magic beast surge. With him away, she was the highest authority in the domain.
***
After Elos left the room went quiet, and Ella lay holding the soft down quilt, looking up at the chandelier.
It was summer, and yet the temperature in here was unexpectedly pleasant.
The quilt in her hands and the mattress under her were absurdly soft. If she remembered right, this was Elos's room.
She had gone out, and left Ella to stay in her room?
Honestly, Ella found it hard to believe that was her decision.
"How odd. Shouldn't she have thrown me out and made me crawl back to my own room, or just left me in the corridor for the night?"
Ella closed her eyes. How exactly did Elos see her?
She had tricked her, and clearly disliked her, and then suddenly wanted to actually teach her magic? There is something wrong with her head, Ella thought.
"Cough, cough... cough... hoo..."
Coughing, Ella took the book from the bedside and ran a hand gently over the cover.
Setting aside Elos's motives and aims for the moment: even if tomorrow turned out to be another lie, it hardly mattered.
"I'm the protagonist. It's fine. Sooner or later I'll get out of this."
She would awaken. She would get strong. Ella believed that day was not far off.
"Speaking of which, I wonder whether Mother's illness has been treated, whether Sephone got home, and what Father makes of the life I'm living now. Will he regret it?"
Ella opened the book, and read, and reflected as she read.
"He won't. Your father will only regret not selling you at a higher price. A son turned into a daughter, a whole new face. He won't even acknowledge that you're related to him. His title and his land will go to someone else. He'll have another son. Perhaps two."
Elos's detestable voice came through the door and cut Ella's thoughts off.
Could it be true? Ella didn't know. Something pressed tight in her chest. Would she be cut off like that?
This life's father was a rigid man, and appearances mattered to him. Selling off his own son was hardly something to be proud of.
Might her father really forget her?
The tightness in her chest grew, and outside the door there was no more sound. Elos had probably walked away.
Ella read the book Elos had brought in silence. It covered magic's concepts, its principles, and its origins.
None of it interested her. Ella skimmed a few lines and then went back to staring into space.
"Should I be working out an escape plan in advance? At this rate she'll start in on me again before this illness has even cleared."
Ella brooded over it.
And then she thought of the nightmare again, of herself praying at the side of the street.
When it came down to it, how much better off was she now than a beggar?
Thinking and thinking, Ella sank into sleep.
The night passed without dreams. When she came round she was slumped over the open book, the faintly yellowed pages creased under her. Her shoulder still hurt and her body still had no strength in it, but at least Ella's head no longer ached.
Elos's words from the night before were still in her mind. Ella got out of bed and put on her shoes and socks, and without troubling about breakfast or washing, went straight to the training ground.
The sky had only just lightened and it was still dim, and the weeds at the edge of the training ground were beaded with dew.
There was nobody here. Ella leaned against the fruit tree to wait, and looked up. Unripe fruit of a kind she couldn't name hung above her.
By the time it was fully light, Elos finally arrived.
"Coming out this early. Is there something wrong with your head?"
Frowning, opening with a scolding. Elos genuinely believed there was a problem with Ella's brain. All that talk about protagonists—did she think reality was a story?
"You said last night you'd teach me magic. Was that a lie? Because if it was, I'm going back to rest."
"Take it."
Elos threw her a hot egg and a loaf.
"Did you read the books?"
"..."
Ella's face stiffened. She had fallen asleep last night while reading.
"I read some of it... mm. The principles of magic and so on, I know all that."
Ella brazened it out. Mana and elements, wasn't it? As if anybody didn't know that.
One look at her face and Elos knew Ella hadn't read a word properly, and her brow furrowed.
"Tsk. In any case, let's get you awakened first."
"Awakened?"
Ella went blank. The first things that came to mind were certain concepts out of the books of her past life: martial soul awakening, spirit root awakening, that sort of thing.
"Magic requires mana, and mana comes from an organ inside the body—the magic circuit. That organ does not sit on the same plane as ordinary organs. You have to sense it before you can move mana and use magic. We call the process of sensing the magic circuit awakening."
Elos explained with what patience she had.
Ella still had the look of someone half following. She knew the magic circuit existed, but nobody had ever taught her, and she had no idea how to sense it.
"You—! Stupid beyond belief. Eat first. I'll help you once you've had breakfast."
Elos stamped her foot.
"Oh."
Ella gnawed at the bread in her hand. She still couldn't read this milady at all. Kind one moment and vile the next. Split personality?