I Reincarnated to Another World as a Woman-Chapter 277: A Quiet Suspicion

After lunch, Liam drags Julian to enter HB with him.

"We’re going to clear dungeons soon, Julian. We need to make sure we are back in shape. And when I say we, I mean you, Jules. You’ve been sitting in that lab of yours for hours. I’ve never seen you exercise. Let’s go."

And he drags Julian away, ignoring his protests and curses.

Theo tells Alicia that he’ll check her resonance. Alicia is so excited she can barely sit still.

"How are you going to do it? What should I do? Should I be standing or sitting down?"

Theo laughs and puts a hand on her shoulder.

"Sit down. You just recovered. You’ll hurt yourself."

Alicia immediately sits down.

"Okay, I’m sitting. Now what?"

Theo smiles.

"Just sit still."

He then closes his eyes.

Alicia doesn’t dare to move. She even holds her breath.

Seeing this, Arthur is slightly taken aback.

Am I wrong then? Teacher Theo doesn’t need this long to check resonance. I’ve seen him do it in an instant.

So... he’s not inside Thea?

Maeve is already clearing up the table.

Arthur wakes from his daydreaming and starts helping her.

Theo opens his eyes again, frowning slightly.

He then looks at Alicia.

"What? I don’t have magic resonance?" Disappointment is evident in her voice.

"No, not that," Theo replies.

Alicia’s sour expression immediately changes into a smile.

"I do have resonance? I can learn magic then?" She’s very excited.

"Yes, you can. No doubt about it," Theo says. "It’s just..."

"Just what? Is my resonance very low?" She looks slightly disappointed, but only for a split second before she brightens again. "It’s okay. I’m still a Sentinel. I’ll treat my Light magic as another weapon in my arsenal."

Theo laughs.

"No, that’s not it. I haven’t finished my explanation. You’re already jumping to conclusions. Let me finish."

"I was going to say, you do have magic resonance, and it’s quite high too. But it’s not Light. That was why I frowned. Your brother, Alex, had an extremely high resonance with Light. By logic, you should too. Maybe not as high as him, but still Light."

He sighs.

"But yours is Wind."

Alicia looks at him, lost.

"Is it that weird? I mean, siblings with the same parents can have different talents and tastes. It’s not like that with magic resonance?"

Theo faintly nods. He’s thinking out loud while replying to Alicia at the same time.

"You’re right. Siblings with the same parents can have different talents and tastes. But magic resonance is slightly different. It has a lot to do with bloodline. One family usually shares the same magic resonance, and the difference would be in how high or low it is. Unless..."

He stops, thinking.

"Unless what?" Alicia asks.

Theo looks at her.

"Unless your parents come from two different magic resonances."

Alicia takes a deep breath.

"Well, we can’t really check on that now, can we?"

Theo nods.

"Yeah, you’re right."

Alicia straightens in her chair, excitement returning almost immediately.

"Now that we know I have Wind, what’s next? What should I— Oh my God!"

Alicia says it so suddenly that Arthur and Theo instantly move into a fighting stance.

"What? What is it, Alicia?" Theo asks, alert.

"I’m such a horrible, horrible person," Alicia panics.

"What? What is it?" Arthur asks as he comes out of the kitchen.

Maeve follows right behind him.

All of them turn their attention to Alicia.

"I forgot to ask about Chambers. He fainted here too, didn’t he?"

The other three immediately exhale in relief.

Arthur drops his shoulders.

Maeve presses a hand to her chest.

Theo even lets out a small laugh.

For a moment there, they had all thought something far worse had happened.

Alicia looks stunned. "What? Why are you all exhaling like that?"

"We thought something worse had happened," Theo answers.

"And yes, Captain Chambers did faint here, before you did. He woke up this morning and already went home. He wanted to rest at home and didn’t want to disturb us anymore," Theo explains.

"So he’s okay?" Alicia asks. "No memory loss?"

Theo continues talking to Alicia about Captain Chambers’ condition. He reassures her that the captain is completely fine and that there are no lingering effects.

He then suggests that Alicia should go back and rest, which she refuses at first.

Theo then promises to give her the first lesson in magic if she heads to the bedroom with him.

Alicia says yes without hesitation.

Maeve laughs when she hears it.

She is putting the dirty dishes into the washing machine.

"Look at her. She’s clearly the oldest among us, but she acts like she’s in her late teens." Maeve shakes her head, amused.

"Maeve," Arthur calls.

"Hm?" She turns to Arthur.

"Your magic is Light, right?"

Maeve nods.

"And one of your abilities is being able to see what others can’t, right?" Arthur asks further.

She nods again while straightening up. "What is it?"

Arthur takes a deep breath.

He doesn’t know how to ask.

But if he doesn’t ask, he knows he’ll keep thinking about it.

"I... I’m just wondering... if you see anything... on Thea. In her, to be exact."

Maeve is stunned.

She pales.

It is fortunate that the sunlight coming in from the window behind her hides the sudden change in her expression.

"What... what... what... do you mean?" Maeve stammers.

Arthur mistakes her stammer for shock.

He immediately tries to calm her down.

"No, please. Don’t read anything into it yet. I have to be honest, I’m not really sure myself. I only have my suspicions. And I don’t know who else to ask. Please, let me explain."

Maeve calms down a little upon hearing it.

She takes a quiet breath and tries hard to steady herself further.

Arthur then shares all of his suspicions with Maeve.

All the little clues he has picked up.

Every small detail that once seemed insignificant but now suddenly feels connected.

Each clue stings Maeve’s heart.

She keeps facepalming inwardly.

Damn it, Theo! she mutters in her mind.

"If it’s about regular people, I have plenty of ways to investigate, and I’ve done so before. But this is about... something else. I can’t even believe I’m actually talking about the possibility of another living person living inside a living person out loud with another living person."

He chuckles awkwardly.

"Listen to what I just said. I don’t think it makes any sense."

He looks at Maeve.

"That’s why I’m asking you. I’m hoping you can shed some light. Pun intended."

He faintly smiles.

Silence falls between them.

Maeve clears her throat.

"You do sound a little rambling," she says carefully. "But I completely understand what you’re trying to say."

She pauses, choosing her words.

"And I guess that would make me a little weird too. I’ve been learning magic since I was in my teens. Even until today, I don’t fully grasp the theory behind many things."

"Thea does sound slightly like Theo, doesn’t she?" Maeve continues.

"But I think it’s normal when he’s the only one teaching her. No one else. So all of her knowledge comes from Theo. She has no choice but to sound similar."

"And as for how Theo communicates with Thea, and when... I really don’t know."

She takes a slow breath.

"Theo is extremely powerful. We don’t know how powerful he truly is. I’m sure he also has many ways to communicate with Thea that we can even fathom."

She goes quiet.

I hope that’s enough to throw him off.

I need to tell Theo.

She looks at Arthur, trying to get some clues from his expression.

"You really don’t see anything unusual?" Arthur asks.

Maeve shakes her head.

"Regardless of how we summon elemental magic, Light doesn’t work like that. And it requires a great deal of mana. To tell you the truth, my mana is not that much. Out here, I almost never use Light. It’s too demanding for me."

Arthur sighs.

"Everything you’ve said makes sense. I guess it is true that students are bound to sound similar to their teachers. In this case, there’s only one teacher."

"But, Maeve..." Arthur looks at her again.

"I sometimes feel Thea’s personality has changed. Ever since she woke up, I mean. She was childish before, and now... most of the time, I feel like she’s the adult and I’m the child."

"She’s supposed to be my youngest sister. I’m her oldest brother. I’m supposed to be the one protecting her. Not the other way around."

Arthur slowly takes a seat on one of the stools.

He looks defeated.

Maeve closes the dishwasher and turns it on.

The soft hum of the machine fills the kitchen.

"Arthur, are you sure this is about Theo being inside Thea? And not about how you feel about her in general?"

Arthur doesn’t answer. He only turns his head to look at her.

"There are a lot of stories, theories, and I don’t know what else, that say people who wake up from a coma sometimes have different personalities, right? Maybe Thea saw something or experienced something that changed her."

Arthur looks thoughtful.

"Yeah, you’re probably right. I wasn’t close to her before. I was too busy working. I should be grateful that she’s healthy, that she’s close to us now... and that she really knows how to take care of herself."

He pauses.

"Sometimes too well."

Arthur gets down from the stool and turns toward the living room.

"I have some CEO things I need to do. I’ll see you at dinner."

He smiles softly.

"Thanks, Maeve."

He’s only a few steps away when he suddenly hears Maeve’s voice behind him.

"Let’s say it is true that Theo is inside Thea... what would you do?"