“Huh? No wound??” Rebecca froze for a moment inside, then reached out and touched Anna’s fair, smooth skin.

Rebecca could swear to the heavens that she had absolutely no other thoughts right now. She was doing this purely for science! Medicine! And magic... probably!

Rebecca had been in this world for many years. Most of that time, she’d been thinking about how to go back, then studying the Alchemy Codex, and figuring out how to break her father’s Binding Spell. Even so, she’d learned from books that this world’s healing magic was incredibly powerful. For many external injuries, the kind that didn’t require too much of Earth’s modern surgical or internal medicine knowledge, it was basically an instant cure. It didn’t even leave scars.

But if the injury or illness was more complicated, this world’s backward science and medical knowledge left healing mages helpless. They didn’t know the cause, so they didn’t know how to treat it. At that point, even powerful healing magic lost its target and couldn’t prescribe the right cure. Even doctors on Earth needed rich diagnostic experience. In some cases, they also needed precise modern equipment before they could treat a patient properly. Otherwise, no matter how good the medicine was, if you didn’t know the cause, how were you supposed to use it? That was exactly the problem healing magic faced in this world. They had powerful recovery methods, but no accurate diagnostic ability.

Rebecca knew a little about all this. She just hadn’t focused on it before. But she had studied medicine, after all. So when she saw Anna’s completely uninjured skin, she was still a little surprised.

After sixteen years in this world, Rebecca had come to understand how wondrous magic could be. But most of what she’d seen was on the destructive side. Now that she’d seen magic pull off healing this miraculous, something almost on par with the cell and tissue regeneration from sci-fi novels, she was amazed.

So she kept touching it, and touching it...

“Re-Rebecca...?” Anna said, her cheeks bright red as she held up the hem of her silk underdress.

“Uh...” Rebecca blanked out for a second. Then she straightened up, only now realizing how suggestive their position was.

Anna timidly held up her clothes. Rebecca was bent over so far that her head was practically buried under Anna’s dress. Sure, they were both girls, but the pose was still incredibly embarrassing. And because Rebecca was so close, her warm breath brushed against Anna’s waist. It was damp, hot, and ticklish, leaving Anna utterly restless.

“Ahem... healing... magic...?” Rebecca coughed dryly a few times, shook off the awkwardness, then let Anna’s clothes fall and calmly pointed at her waist as if nothing had happened.

Anna nodded.

“Does it hurt?”

Anna shook her head.

“Fever... any...?”

Anna kept shaking her head.

Good. No inflammation. It looked like healing magic really was extremely effective for this kind of injury.

After that, Rebecca looked Anna over. She seemed no different from a normal person at all. Rebecca thought for a moment. She needed to go read the Alchemy Codex, and things had just gotten awkward too, so she simply said goodbye.

Anna, meanwhile, seemed lost in space, as if she were thinking about something else entirely. The bizarre fact that she had suddenly gained a younger sister had made her forget to ask more questions. She was nowhere near as attentive as Carina. She just sat there in a daze and let Rebecca leave.

“Rebecca, I’ve gotta go to school. I’ll come play with you tonight when I get back~” After telling her older sister Anna to get some proper rest, Carina also ran out. And this airheaded girl seemed completely oblivious to the strange, suggestive atmosphere that had filled the room earlier. Maybe this silly girl had never even considered that something like that could exist between girls? Thankfully, this idiot was off to school now. Rebecca had just been wondering how to shake her off so she could go read.

Carina left for school with several servants and a coachman. Rebecca glanced at Anna’s room and started to walk away. But before she’d taken more than two steps, her maid Selena called out to her.

“Third Miss, His Grace is asking for you~”

Will this ever end?! Rebecca really wanted to turn around and walk off right now. But after thinking it over, she had finally managed to blend into human society, and she’d even entered a powerful household, so she’d better endure it. It was troublesome now, sure, but the Duke’s household was something she could make good use of. With the vast resources of the Ruta Family, finding the Alchemy Codex in the human world should be much easier, right? Fine. Fine.

Rebecca helplessly set aside the thought of reading for now and followed Selena to the back courtyard.

It was summer. Early summer, but the weather was already getting a little hot. Yet Duke Ruta seemed completely unaffected by the heat. He wore simple casual clothes and stood in the yard tending flowers and plants. Around him stood a circle of servants holding scissors, watering cans, and other tools. People really did seem to love raising flowers and plants once they got older.

“Rebecca~ You’re here~” Duke Ruta greeted her simply, then waved her over and signaled for the two of them to sit somewhere off to the side.

Rebecca obediently followed and sat down with Duke Ruta beneath a parasol.

“Rebecca, I think going to study at Hobi Academy would be a pretty good choice. What do you think?” Duke Ruta spoke gently, without any of the stern, uncompromising harshness he showed the others at home. He seemed especially biased toward Rebecca. Even sending her to the academy, he was still asking for her opinion. More than that, Rebecca never called him Grandpa, and Duke Ruta didn’t even know who had given his precious “granddaughter” the name Rebecca, yet he had no intention of changing it. All this favoritism was probably because of his son, who had died unexpectedly... and Rebecca was that son’s only “daughter.”

Rebecca wasn’t an idiot, nor was she really a sixteen-year-old girl. She could feel the doting affection in the old man’s voice, along with that trace of suppressed sorrow and the trembling fear of losing someone again after getting them back. Rebecca couldn’t bear to hurt this pitiful old man. Even though becoming his granddaughter had happened entirely by accident, things had already come to this. Rebecca wasn’t bad at heart, and when she saw the hope in the old man’s eyes, she found herself unable to refuse.

She knew her unclear speech had hurt him. In his eyes, this granddaughter of his had been stranded among the Demon Race at a young age, to the point that she couldn’t even speak human language properly. It was all too easy to imagine a lonely little girl, with no one to talk to, surviving in fear among the terrifying Demon Race.

But Rebecca’s goal was the Alchemy Codex. She couldn’t let a little sympathy ruin something this important. Then again, if she looked at it from another angle, if she acted like an obedient good girl, wouldn’t she be able to gain access to more of the Ruta Family’s resources? After all, the Ruta Family’s true power was still in the hands of this old man, even after all his years in retirement. Winning his favor meant she could use more of the Ruta Family’s strength to help her search for the Alchemy Codex.

With that thought, Rebecca nodded.