The Trio Odyssey

Part I: Soul to Soul

Chapter 15: The Princess of Insanity

Souht inhales heavily.

“Let’s wait until you’re older, okay?”

“Okay…, Dad…”

Out of the blue, Raeké starts accusing Lisole and Randar while her lips curl downward.

“Dad, Brother Lisole and Brother Randar verbally bullied me at the Ceremonial Hall 2 days ago!”

Souht shakes his head and starts smiling. Then, he glares at Lisole and Randar, while their mother lets go of them.

Lisole starts screaming out his words, like begging for mercy. 

“No Father—, we were acting! If we look like we’re protecting Raeké, then the other States are going to doubt that we’re competing over Raeké too!”

Randar connects the dots. 

“What if a new war within the Federation were to spark?”

Souht stands up, moving closer to them terrifyingly.

“Are you lying?”

“It was just acting! I told you, Father, it was an act!”

“Oh—, why won’t you just tell Raeké earlier, then?” 

Lisole and Randar look into each other’s faces, holding back their words. And, that triggers their father’s understanding of them truly lying. 

For an hour or two, Souht already sent them flying onto the Field within the zone of the Heto Palace to run around it under the direct, scorching sunlight of Nulhym, the host star, Julaera. 

Her father’s punishment is brutal, looking at them getting yelled at to run forcibly. 

“Lisole, don’t slack off!”

“Randar, run faster!”

Maia observes them from behind the windows. And, she gets all shivering as she comments from within.

‘So, this is what Kinasa and Rouseht went through back in Harda…’

‘Huh—… Scary…’

The evening sinks and the night floats, Raeké just finished having dinner with her family members and strangely, she didn’t even see her mother around, day and night.

And so, she asks about it, to her father, while they’re in the Family Dining Room.

“Where’s Mom, Dad?”

“She said she went to Yotalis Palace.”

Frustration drives Raeké to shout.

“That’s not fair! Why did Mom only tell Dad and why didn’t she tell Ké!?”

“Raeké, Mom suddenly said she was busy.”

Raeké pouts her face. 

“Hmph—”

“Take some rest, Raeké.”

Raeké unpouts her face, responding to her father while still looking upset.

“Okay…, Dad.”

“Don’t be sad, Mom will come back soon.”

Raeké’s expression shifts like the flip side of a coin, turning happier than ever.

“Okay~, Dad!”

Her father accompanies her back to her room, pushing the same oak doors and lighting up the same Crystalline.

But this time, Souht’s Chimeric has a whole different look: its body consists of large, pitch black shadows, almost unseen, and it's hiding inside the darkness of the Princess’s room. 

Until the Crystalline glows, the Chimeric disappears before Raeké can even look, knowing how horrifying it is.

Raeké strides and jumps on her bed the same way as she always does.

This time, her father is the one who looks after her.

The wall clock shows 12MT; it’s the same as yesterday. 

Maia murmurs deeply. 

‘So, again, with this… Nulhym’s 12MT… is around Earth’s 9:00 p.m.’

‘Raeké, you sleep early every single day, I didn’t even get to sleep early though.’

Souht reminds her daughter to sleep well in the sound of his breath with a broad smile, pulling the blanket on her collar neck.

“Have a good night, sweetie.”

After that, Raeké’s eyelid feels too heavy to hold on, yawning and replying. 

“Have a goohd nihght too—h(Have a good night too), Dad~”

Maia wonders internally as her eyes seal off.

‘Will it happen again? The dreams about my Earth memories? I want to, but that will be at the cost of another strangling, I think? Now that I think about that… I don’t want to. But I still want to.’

Souht repeats the same thing that Raesha does, shutting the oak doors slowly and silently. 

Hours later, Raeké wakes up, but peacefully. 

She mumbles about this unusual moment. 

‘Damn… It all felt too wrong… I don’t even remember what I dreamt about… I think that was just a normal sleep and a normal dream.’

She looks up to the wall clock, it’s nearly showing 8ST. 

‘8ST… 6:00 a.m… Well, at least I’m still getting the hang of reading the clock in this world. It would at least help me with something… Something important in the future. Yeah, maybe.’

She pulls her blanket away, walking down from her bed and exiting her room. 

Just like yesterday, she walks through the corridor alone, while the same maid finds and greets her. 

“Your Highness, up early?”

Raeké yawns while closing her mouth using her fingers, narrowing her eyes and blinking slowly.  

Shortly after that, she responds to the maid while yawning, lifting her arms upward.

“Awwh—, umm—, yes. Lead me to the ba—hroohm pwease—(Lead me to the bathroom please).”

“Yes, Ma’am.”

A few hours later, Raeké’s done with the things she wants to do during the dawn. 

She’s running around, travelling across the corridors of Heto Palace, again. 

However, neither her mother nor her daughter are to be seen. 

She runs around again, taking a tour back to her room.

In an instant, she pulls the drawer where she stores the two cards that she drew about the figures from Sanaje Coast. 

She grabs both of them, jumps onto her bed, lying flat and bouncing a few times on top of it and looks at the cards once more.

‘I wonder what these figures even mean…’

She takes a peek at her wall clock: it's been 2 hours since she ran around, murmuring about the time. 

‘1 hour left before 11ST… before the class again.’

Several repetitive murmurs come from Raeké.

‘Forget about the unimportant Earth… The a.m. and p.m.’

‘Erase those insignificant Earthly times… Erase those insignificant Earthly times…’

Those thoughts drive Maia to rant. 

‘Tsk—, I don’t know why Raeké's brain keeps telling me to ‘erase those insignificant Earthly times.’ Oh—, shut up, Raeké!’

Maia looks back into the cards, thinking over and over again.

‘What even is going on? Huh—?’

She gets away from her bed, standing up and hearing toward the mirror inside her room.

As she looks into herself in the mirror inside her room, one thought lingers in her head: the clues about how she first got into Raeké’s body. 

She widens her eyes and grips her teeth, promptly placing the cards back into the drawer. 

‘Don’t tell me… it’s the knife that—… caused me to get here in the first place…’

She wants to obtain and examine the knife herself. And yet, she recalls it. 

‘No—, I think, the knife is gone already. And even if I go back to Sanaje Coast, I can’t guarantee my own safety and getting the knife.’

‘Then, what do I do? Just sitting here doing nothing?’

She quickly turns nervous, concerned about what will happen next.

She shuffles inside her room, overthinking and moving around here and there. 

‘If I can speak internally at the same time with Raeké, which is when it’s first done at Sanaje Coast, then do we share the same body?’

‘That point is sort of erroneous. I think that, more precisely, I got into Raeké’s body via the mysterious influence from the knife, and I lost my body afterward.’

‘I’m still stuck within her body, still able to control it like I own it too. And, I gotta know how weirdly my soul agrees to follow Raeké’s will.’

‘Yeah—, like: when Raeké decided to hug Souht’s legs at that time, somehow I decided to hug too… But, when I wanna do something, I think she agrees with it too… this is a very strange kind of situation.’

After she reads the wall clock, it’s been almost half an hour. And so, she reaches a conclusion.

‘You know what, I think that my soul is mixed with hers.’

‘That makes us a soul merger, doesn't it?’

Raeké starts shaking her head and dancing, remembering about her class and exiting her room. 

“It’s time for class~! Professor Tacha is coming~!”

Maia murmurs again about the previous topic.

‘My personality is weirdly separated from her or what? Nah—, I think that’s my personality!’

She realizes that while her soul is merged, her personality also becomes as childish as Raeké’s, despite being a full fledged adult in her past life. 

She falls on her knees right in front of the oak doors, saddening her face. 

‘I’ll admit it… I am a kid… I think it’s like a rebirth for me…’

She wakes up, pushes the oak doors and heads directly toward the Tutor Room.

The Princess rushes toward the Professor. 

“Professor Tacha~! Morning~!”

The Professor is also in a good mood by the day.

“Your Highness, good morning~!”

The Princess blurts out.

“Will we continue with yesterday’s study; ‘Nulhym World Map Floor II’, Professor?”

“That’s correct!”

“Okay, Professor~!”

The Professor brings out the same huge, physical, paper scroll of the map. 

“So, let’s recap about why there are four human civilizations in total in the Nulhym World Map Floor II.”

The Princess enthusiastically raises her hand and asks.

“Professor! What civilization are we, Ivadans, in?”

The Professor answers. 

“Like I told you yesterday, the Civilization of Mountains, Nulhime.”

Then, the Princess states, with her eyes opening wide.

“So, that explains why the Heto Palace is actually tall, because it’s built around mountains!”

Afterward, the Professor approves the Princess’s point.

“Yes, that’s true!”

The Professor points her finger toward the map.

“Okay—, now back to the topic. Nulhym World Map Floor II has four civilizations; Seulru II, Ganta, Ticou, and Nulhime.”

The Princess’s hand jumps high again in curiosity, interrupting the Professor’s recap.

“Professor! What’s the difference between Nulhym and Nulhime?”

The Professor subtly smiles, replying with the same energy.

“Nulhym is the world, while Nulhime is the human civilization residing on Nulhym!”

The Princess gives more questions, leaning forward and holding her fists in front of her chest.

“So His Majesty, Movre Dais, who came from the Ancient Eastern Kingdoms, is also from Nulhime?”

“Yes, He was!”

“Professor! Why are there two Seulrus? Seulru I and Seulru II?”

“Seulru is the Civilization of Waters; there is one on the surface, and there is one underwater. So, Seulru is both in Nulhym World Map Floor I and Nulhym World Map Floor II!”

“That’s amazing!”

And so, their conversation proceeds for a long time.