“Get in.”
“Bang—!”
The door slammed shut behind her.
Short and to the point.
The impact made Lin Ling stumble forward, nearly tripping.
“Ow! That wasn't gentle at all, you mean woman!”
She rubbed her forehead and turned to look at the door.
It was shut tight, and she even heard the distinct “click” of a lock from the outside.
“...”
She stood there in silence for three seconds.
Then, she slowly spoke.
“I’m being kept as a pet?”
After the meeting ended, she had been naturally escorted to this room.
It was as if they were simply processing a “temporarily useful object.”
Lin Ling sighed.
“...Oh well.”
She shrugged.
“As long as I’m alive.”
Her adaptability was bordering on the absurd.
Only now did she have the chance to look around.
The room was the same one she had woken up in that morning—or was it morning? The sky in the Demon Realm was pitch black, much like most other worlds.
However, there was soft carpeting, a tidy bed, and faint, flowing dark patterns on the walls.
“Isn't this pet treatment a bit too good?”
She walked to the edge of the bed and gave it a firm press.
“This springiness... it’s way too comfortable.”
A second later, she dove onto it.
“Waaah—!!!”
She sank completely into the duvet.
She rolled once.
Then she rolled again.
And then—
“...Wait.”
She sat up abruptly.
“Am I being a bit too relaxed?!”
She clutched her head.
“If I disappear like this, won't Bishop Karl get suspicious?! Do demons always do things so directly?!”
Mid-rant, she stopped.
She slowly lowered her head and looked at her hands.
“...Then again.”
She narrowed her eyes.
Her status panel was exactly the same as the game she used to play. Back then, she had even sacrificed her HP just to get that hidden skill. Dammit! Thinking about it made her want to cry; what on earth was her past self doing?
“But since the character was transferred over completely, why didn't the skills from the game come with me? Hmm...”
The more Lin Ling thought about it, the more something felt off.
No one had taught her.
There were no instructions.
But her mind had already begun to reason it out automatically.
“Damn it, where is my Super Brain? When you don't have super strength, shouldn't you be using your Super Brain! Think hard, what would an isekai protagonist do in this situation!”
At that moment, knowledge about isekai magic suddenly surfaced in Lin Ling's mind. So-called magic circuits were essentially constructing a magic circle within the mind, which would then communicate with the magic particles in the air to release magic. Or was it like in Uncle from Another World, where you talk to elemental spirits and release magic through them?
She slowly raised her hand.
Her eyes began to sparkle.
“Then... could I give it a try too?”
She sat up straight and extended her hand, pointing it forward.
“The most classic one... should be this.”
“Fireball.”
She closed her eyes.
She began to visualize.
Fire being born in her palm.
Compressing, gathering, becoming white-hot.
Then, flying out.
Three seconds passed.
Nothing happened.
“...”
She opened one eye.
“A failure?”
She frowned.
“Was my visualization not clear enough?”
She closed her eyes again.
This time, she deliberately tried to “refine” it.
The color of the fire, the temperature, the sensation of the flow—she even desperately tried to construct the image of the air being heated up.
“Come out.”
In the next instant.
“Poof.”
A tiny spark of flame danced in her palm.
“Whoa?!”
Lin Ling was startled, and her hand jerked.
The spark fell to the floor.
“Snap.”
It went out.
“...”
She looked down at the floor.
Then back at her hand.
The air was silent for two seconds.
And then—
“I succeeded?!!”
She jumped up suddenly.
“It actually works?!!”
Her eyes were shining, and her entire body was instantly filled with excitement.
“And I didn't even have to chant?!”
“Doesn't this make me—super amazing?!”
Lin Ling immediately opened her panel and found that her MP hadn't even decreased. This meant that as long as she could visualize and understand a spell, she could even cast more powerful magic without any chanting.
She fell silent for a moment.
She looked down at herself.
And then—
She rubbed her stomach.
“Gurgle~”
The signal from her stomach sounded exceptionally loud in the empty room.
“Hmm... has it been a while? What about my pet food? Have I been forgotten?”
Waking up from the joy of her successful magic experiment, Lin Ling looked toward the door, looking quite pathetic.
Since being teleported here yesterday, she had only eaten a bit of the food originally prepared for the Hero. Normally, summoning a powerful Hero would be announced to the people of the Empire to serve as a deterrent, but because Lin Ling's stats were so low, the church had announced to the public that the Hero summoning had failed.
Meanwhile—
In the human capital.
“The Hero's reaction... has vanished?”
A knight's voice was tense.
“Yes. No trace of the Hero's aura was detected in the room where the former Hero was staying, but we found traces of demon teleportation magic.”
The hall fell into a deathly silence.
“The demons...”
Someone whispered.
“Have they already made their move?”
After a long silence.
“Send people to investigate immediately.”
“Dead or alive—we must confirm the Hero's whereabouts. Even if her Hero Contract has been dissolved, as an otherworlder summoned as a Hero, she must possess some incredible abilities. If she is utilized by the demons, she could become a key combat asset for their side.”
What they didn't know was...
That the existence they currently viewed as a “key combat asset”—
“Ah, I’m so hungry, so lonely. The world seems to have forgotten me. Aliviel-chan, if you don't feed me soon, it looks like Miss Saint is going to turn into Miss Ghost Saint...”
Lin Ling was currently sprawled on the oversized bed, looking as if she were on the brink of death.
Rate on N.U.
