Reincarnated in the Same World for the Nth Time - Chapter 6

Surprisingly, Shen’s words weren’t a lie.

He had wondered why there were no people in the long hallway, but as he got closer to the kitchen, he could hear a very busy noise.

“Huk…!”

One of the servants carrying dishes was startled when they found Aquila.

It was exactly the same reaction as encountering a monster lurking in a field.

Aquila felt more suspicious at that attitude.

“…Please take that over there. And let the others know that we’ll be borrowing one side of the kitchen.”

But before Aquila could say anything, Shen stepped in front, cutting him off.

Just moments ago, Shen had looked flustered and hesitant, but Shen spoke clearly and pointed to the right with a resolute manner that didn’t allow any disagreement.

The pale-faced servant quickly bowed their head and ran away in small steps.

“…Is something going on?”

Yuzelia, who had been observing them from the start, quietly whispered.

Even from Yuzelia’s point of view, it must have seemed strange to see Shen, who had always been cheerful and bright, behaving like that.

But he was just as clueless about the reason.

‘If they were plotting something, they’d all be too obvious.’

As Aquila silently looked at Shen, Yuzelia’s gaze also turned in that direction.

‘It’s clear that something is going on with this body.’

If that was the case, he needed to approach it carefully.

Even though he might be exposed eventually, it would be difficult for him right now if they were to find out that another person was in his body.

He had learned the hard way, in earlier loops, to avoid careless slips that led to restarting a timeline.

“Shall we prepare the tea now?”

Despite saying that he would only borrow one side, Shen cleared out half of the fairly large kitchen and set up a place there.

The displaced servants were still busy cutting, slicing, and boiling something on the other side, and each person was silently continuing the task that they were assigned.

They would sometimes whisper among themselves, but their voices were so small that they couldn’t be heard.

Sometimes, they whispered to each other, but their voices were so faint that they were inaudible.

It seemed that everyone was being careful about their words because Aquila was there.

He looked around and decided to focus on the task at hand for now.

Once the curse was lifted, he would be able to investigate more freely.

“I’ll do the brewing—”

“What? What are you talking about when you’ve never even boiled water before?”

Shen shook his head, completely horrified.

And then he placed the chair that he had somehow brought over and made Aquila sit on it.

“I’ll do it.”

Yuzelia stepped up confidently.

Her eyes were still shining brightly, although the areas under her eyes were dark from not having slept.

“Ah, would you? If I touch the flower, the golden glow might disappear…”

Shen mumbled with an anxious look.

It seemed that he had decided that it would be better to leave it to Yuzelia, who was a priestess, since it was the first time he saw a flower glowing yellow.

Of course, unless the divine power contained in the flower was removed or used, a flower that had been imbued with divine power once would not return to its original state.

Unless a priestess absorbed the divine power from that flower.

“Do we only use the petals?”

“No. We have to use all of it.”

Since the entire flower had been offered to the god, every part had to be consumed to fulfill its purpose.

Yuzelia nodded at Aquila’s answer, rolled up the sleeves of her robe, and began to carefully dig into the soil and pull out the flower.

Her face remained tense, but when she completely laid the flower down, and the yellow light didn’t disappear, her expression finally relaxed.

“…Shen is hiding something, isn’t he?”

Yuzelia whispered, just loud enough for Aquila to hear, while glancing around.

It seemed that she could also tell that he was being very obvious.

Indeed, he was so obviously expressing, ‘I’m hiding something!’ that if someone didn’t realize it, they would truly have no sense.

Right now, he was stealing glances at the servants like a restless puppy.

“I’ve been told that I wear my emotions on my sleeve, but I think Shen’s even worse.”

Yuzelia muttered while cleaning the flower with the water she had prepared.

Only a day had passed, but the possibility of lifting the curse seemed to have lightened her mood considerably.

Since it was the Reshenhardt family, it wouldn’t be unusual if she found it difficult or awkward to speak to him first, but she didn’t show any of that.

Perhaps it was her naturally friendly nature, or maybe the nature of the situation had dissolved any such barriers.

“Have you been like this from before?”

However, Aquila was at a loss for an answer at Yuzelia’s question.

After all, he had only been ‘Aquila Reshenhardt’ for what felt like a single day.

Aquila glanced over at Shen.

If there was one thing he had learned through dozens of loops, it was that appearances weren’t everything.

That servant might look harmless and clumsy, but he was likely still carrying a dagger right now.

“Well…”

“Shall we start brewing if you’re done preparing?”

As soon as Aquila trailed off, Shen, who had organized the tools, approached at perfect timing and asked.

“Ah, yes! Here you go.”

Yuzelia held out the flower that she had cleaned.

Shen received the flower with both hands and checked it to make sure there were no damaged parts.

“Don’t we have to dry it?”

“Yeah. Even though I said tea, you can just put it whole into the water and boil it. Just enough to make the light from the flower disappear.”

“Yes! I’ll prepare it right away!”

As soon as he finished speaking, Shen moved.

This servant was quiet and efficient when he worked, but now, he was acting as if he wanted to finish this task and get out of there as soon as possible.

Was he trying to hide something, or was he begging for someone to ask?

Aquila, instead of reacting, showed a puzzled expression at his obviously hasty behavior.

‘…Could this be some kind of psychological tactic?’

Such thoughts crossed his mind.

Even Yuzelia seemed to share the sentiment, as she occasionally sent odd glances toward Shen, who kept bumping into things in his haste.

Aquila sighed.

“Shen. Haven’t I told you before that you’re terrible at hiding things?”

The question was abrupt and impulsive, but Shen visibly flinched, turning around with gloomy expression.

He was clearly making a face that showed he had heard that before.

“What are you hiding?”

After saying that, Aquila closed his mouth and stared intently at Shen.

A blank expression without saying anything was cold even when simply looking at it, and his face alone gave off a strange sense of pressure.

Shen quickly lowered his head.

“I wasn’t planning on hiding it forever… I was waiting for a better time to tell you, considering your condition…”

Shen added an excuse while looking at Yuzelia’s reaction.

‘Is this something that they wouldn’t want an outsider to know?’

Besides, judging by how worried he was about Aquila’s body, it seemed that the content was more serious than he expected.

Realizing this, Yuzelia took a step back, but before she could say anything, Shen closed his eyes tightly as if he had made a decision.

“Lady Celsia… has collapsed.”

‘Celsia?’

Aquila frowned without even realizing it.

It was an unfamiliar name for him.

Judging by the honorific that Shen was using, it seemed that she was someone with a rather high status, but considering that he couldn’t recall her right away, it seemed that she didn’t appear in the main scenario.

Judging by the honorific that Shen was using, it seemed that she was someone with a rather high position, but considering that he couldn’t recall her right away, it seemed that she didn’t appear in the main scenario.

‘…But why does it feel so unsettling?’

What was strange was the way his body reacted to hearing the name—his chest tightened, and a wave of unease swept through him.

He had occasionally experienced such a phenomenon every time a forced possession took place, and there were only two main reason of this.

It was either the most cherished person of the body’s original owner or the person who caused fear.

In this case, ‘Celsia’ seemed to be the latter.

The moment he heard that name, shivers ran down his spine and he felt a strange churning in his gut.

It was not a good sign.

“If it is Lady Celsia…”

Yuzelia quickly looked around and lowered her voice to whisper.

“Yes. The lady of the house collapsed this morning. I’d heard she hadn’t been well recently, but this is the first time she’s actually fainted…”

Shen nodded and continued with his explanation.

Even as he spoke, Shen seemed more preoccupied with gauging Aquila’s reaction than expressing concern for Celsia, which only deepened Aquila’s suspicions.

A very bad situation.

‘…Right, I remember now. Celsia Reshenhardt, the second lady of the Reshenhardt household.’

As soon as he heard the title ‘Lady of the House,’ he easily recalled the memory.

Of course, not because she was famous, but because of the first mistress.

The romantic tale of how the current head of the Reshenhardt family overcame class differences to marry his first wife was so well-known that even commoners were familiar with it.

The first lady, the heroine of that love story, had passed away, and her successor was none other than Celsia.

As Aquila was the son of the first lady, Celsia was his stepmother.

But if his personal servant was giving off such a look of concern just by bringing up the topic of Celcia, he couldn’t even imagine how bad his relationship with his stepmother was.

‘More importantly, the timing is suspicious. Could Celsia Reshenhardt be the one who cast the curse?’

Aquila had been cursed with deadly poison, and now Celsia had suddenly collapsed.

The backlash of casting such a potent curse would inevitably affect the caster’s body.

That was a price that the god had arranged, and that no one could avoid.

So, it was only natural to suspect Celsia when her collapse coincided so neatly with the curse.

The circumstances fit together too perfectly, which was suspicious in itself, but now, since the method to remove the curse hasn’t been made public yet and the method to cast it hasn’t been spread, she might not have been suspected just for being sick.

So, it was possible that it had been brushed aside without any issue in all twenty-nine of his previous lives before he reincarnated into this body…

As Aquila watched the steam rise from the kettle, his brows knitted together.

“It’s boiling.”

“Oh, yes!”

Shen, startled by Aquila’s remark, quickly snapped out of his thoughts and got to work.

When he opened the lid of the kettle, the fresh flower had withered and shrunk into a dark state, and the boiling water was dimly shimmering with a faint color.

Shen carefully took out the flower according to Aquila’s instructions and poured the contents of the kettle into a fairly large cup.

Shen and Yuzelia let out small exclamations at the sight of the rippling surface of the water in the cup.

The water infused with divine power was sparkling like sunlit waves.

“If I drink this, will the curse really be lifted?”

“Absolutely.”

Shen seemed ready to taste the tea himself, perhaps to ensure its safety, but Aquila shook his head.

Every drop was too precious to share.

‘I will know for sure when I meet her. Whether it is good or bad, the information window will pop up.’

Aquila stopped thinking and, without hesitating any longer, he picked up the cup.

Strictly speaking, as soon as Aquila drank the ‘water made by boiling the moonflower infused with divine power,’ his expression twisted slightly.

“Are you okay? Is something wrong…?”

At Shen’s words, Yuzelia’s face turned pale.

Aquila, without even looking at the anxious two, replied.

“It tastes bad.”

“Huh?”

‘This… blandness. This indescribable taste is still the same.’

Salty, sour, bitter, sweet… A taste that he didn’t know what it was at all, but he did feel that it was an unpleasant taste.

That was a taste that was no different from the tea he had drunk in the past rounds to remove the Curse of Deadly Poison.

That meant.

Ting!

【The Sun God Rasphallara extends his benevolent hand to you!】

【Starting the removal of the Curse of Deadly Poison!】

The window that Aquila had been waiting for appeared.

If he just finished emptying the teacup like this, he would be able to lift the curse as long as there wasn’t any other issue.

Aquila tried not to focus on the taste and silently finished the teacup.

Although the taste was bad, the same warm energy as when Yuzelia’s divine power flowed in spread throughout his body.

A warm and full energy that was different from cold mana.

Just as Aquila swallowed the remaining contents as if taking medicine all at once, and put down the cup, a notification rang.

Ting!

【The Curse of Deadly Poison has been completely removed!】

【Status: Normal】

Aquila immediately summoned the status window.

The Blessing of the Sun God was still flickering, but the words, ‘Curse of Deadly Poison’, had already disappeared.

He had finally escaped the threat of the curse that could kill him at any moment.

But it didn’t end there, several notifications rang and windows appeared one after another.

Ting!

【First Cure Achievement of Removing ‘Curse of Deadly Poison’!】

【As an achievement reward, you have obtained the title ‘The One Who Removed the God’s First Shadow’!】

【The Sun God Rasphallara is greatly pleased to receive a sacrifice with a high purity of divine power!】

【The earnest prayer contained within the moonflower spreads deep into your body!】

【Your health has increased slightly!】

“…Huh?”