Mushoku Tensei: Reincarnated as a Beast Race

Nina regained her senses abruptly.

And, when she did, she saw Ghislaine sitting in front of her, a few meters away. She was dressed casually, and the red blade of Hiramune rested on her lap as she stared at her expressionlessly.

Nina was very confused at first, until she remembered what she had been doing not long ago, and said:

"Huh... Ghislaine? What are you doing here?"

She stood up — or at least tried to — but at that moment she felt a dull pain at the side of her head, and fell back down into a seated position.

"Ugh!"

She groaned in pain as she brought a hand to her head.

Then she noticed something else, she was once again dressed in her training clothes, which implied that someone had dressed her at some point.

Nina was already confused enough by the situation, and then Ghislaine hammered in the last nail:

"I am watching over a potential spy of the Kingdom, it has been pleasant because of the sound of the waterfall."

Nina looked at her doubtfully.

She felt a viscous liquid on her head, exactly where it hurt, and when she pulled her hand away, she realized there was blood.

"Huh...?"

Some memories began to return at that moment.

She had been at the waterfall, taking a bath after training, and then... Aisha attacked her with Magic?

She vaguely remembered very strange memories in her mind.

A white desert.

A cave full of Trolls.

And mountains with dozens of Red Dragons.

Those did not seem to be her memories. They mixed together in a chaotic and uncontrolled way, as if she were watching multiple screens at the same time. It was very strange.

But she also noticed one detail.

While she could see those memories, she also felt that her memories could also be seen.

Nina was very perceptive when she needed to be. She quickly connected Ghislaine’s words, Aisha’s presence, her memories, spy of the Kingdom.

She murmured as she caressed her temple and tried to rationalize the situation:

"I am the spy?"

A dull pain assaulted her mind again, and she made a pained expression, but heard Ghislaine reply:

"The one who will say that is Aisha, I am only here to watch."

She switched her crossed leg and looked distractedly toward the waterfall nearby, then ran her hand through the lake that formed below it.

Despite being on guard, she did not seem especially cautious.

Of course, Nina knew she did not need to be. Ghislaine was a Beast Emperor.

Nina knew from experience that anyone who had reached that level in the Beast God Style would have supernatural reaction and tracking abilities, and beyond that, she was a Sword Emperor, which gave her the best reaction speed, and the best execution weapon.

Not that she was planning to run away, of course.

Nina looked around, trying to understand more about her current situation. Even with her memories returning, she still did not understand some things.

She saw that Aisha was outside, saying goodbye to someone. She focused to hear the conversation.

"I’m sorry for not being more useful, Miss Aisha."

"Don’t worry about that, Jasmine, it was good enough, be careful on the way back!"

Nina recognized the girl as Jasmine, the Memory Miko.

After saying that, the blonde-haired girl left, while Aisha came bouncing back into the cave.

She was wearing the long robe of Star Rise Academy, and headed toward Nina with a smile.

"Oh! You’re awake! How are you? I was in such a hurry that I even forgot to heal that on your head..."

Aisha approached and placed her hand on Nina’s aching head, while Nina only looked on in silence, seeming to have a guilty expression.

A green light shone, and the pain that had been there until then vanished as if it had never existed.

Aisha then waved her hand and a stone bench rose up from the ground, until it became a comfortable chair.

She looked at Ghislaine sitting on the stone, who shook her head no, and then looked at Nina, who had her head lowered and looked dejected.

Aisha asked:

"Hm, why are you making that face?"

Nina looked up.

Aisha was staring at her innocently, but Nina had lived with her long enough to see her eyes differently.

Her eyes were staring at her very coldly, as if weighing her worth on a scale, it was somewhat intimidating to look at.

But she still answered:

"I am in trouble, aren’t I...?"

Aisha seemed to realize that Nina was looking into her eyes, because her gaze changed in the very next instant.

"Haha! Why do you think that? Everyone makes mistakes! Let’s see what really happened, well, what do you know about your situation?"

Aisha was acting very casually, but Nina glanced toward Ghislaine, who was now observing her. It was clear that she was there to identify truths and lies.

Nina sighed.

She had no intention of lying at all, but knew that in her situation that would not be a very reliable thing to say.

She began:

"Well, from what I understood... this place seems to be some kind of trap... to gather information about Rygar and the Kingdom of Gaia."

She looked toward the waterfall, and the memory of a tiny dark blue viscous being coming out through her eyes returned to her mind.

She shivered before continuing:

"And I was the person revealing that information, even though I didn’t know it."

Aisha nodded.

"Well, I believe that was more or less it. We even captured the little guy, is he familiar?"

Aisha pulled a small blue flask from her robe.

Inside it, there was a small blue slime, writhing and trying to find a way out.

A strange feeling arose in Nina when she saw the source of her problems. She could barely believe she had been controlled by such an insignificant little being.

Aisha had used a strange Magic to force its expulsion from Nina’s body, and she remembered the process well; it was what made the slime resist and cause internal damage in her head.

Nina nodded, and Aisha put the flask away.

"Fortunately, you didn’t know we were coming, so we managed to catch it by surprise, the main body cannot connect to or cut off contact with this little one while it is sealed with my Barrier Magic, so it is a victory at least, this will be very useful in the future..."

She looked at Ghislaine, and then back at Nina again.

"But we had some problems with it as well, Jasmine was unable to access the little slime’s memories, I don’t know if it is because of its singular race or some special ability it has, but she couldn’t."

Nina asked, a little nervously:

"Huh, just one question, what exactly was that thing? And why was it in that waterfall in the middle of nowhere?"

Aisha looked at her doubtfully, then sighed.

"Well, that explains why you were caught so easily, you don’t even know the abilities of one of your main opponents... this is Vita, the Nether King, one of his abilities is dividing his body and parasitizing multiple targets at the same time, didn’t you read about Hitogami’s apostles? I even made a booklet..."

Aisha was looking at Nina judgmentally, and Nina was embarrassed.

"I did read it... but it’s been a while... they went so long without appearing that I thought it wouldn’t be that important for now."

Ghislaine, standing in the back, commented:

"Honestly, I thought the same. I probably would have been caught even more easily if I weren’t married to Rygar."

Aisha looked at the two women and shook her head.

"That is not the point right now. In any case, Nina, Jasmine couldn’t read the memories of Vita’s fragment, I am not going to risk removing the Magic Seals to test it, he will be more useful alive, so you need to tell me everything you know about this, did you see any strange or seemingly disconnected memory? Jasmine found nothing while looking through your memories, but Vita is a singular case, it will be very useful if you remember something..."

Nina raised an eyebrow.

"She didn’t see anything? Actually I do have some strange memories, but I thought Jasmine had already seen everything."

Aisha became excited, and Ghislaine seemed more interested.

Aisha continued:

"Right... it must not be accessible in the usual way. In any case, remember as much as possible with accuracy, don’t let anything slip by."

Nina, who thought she was in a terrible situation, finally saw hope.

By then, she had already understood more or less what had happened.

Due to the fact that she had hidden this place and come here secretly, there was no way to measure how much information had leaked and the potential damage. That being the case, all they could do was hope for the best.

But the fact was that, even if unconsciously, Nina had leaked information about the Kingdom of Gaia.

And potentially...

She had even leaked information about Rygar’s current whereabouts.

The danger that represented could not even be measured.

And, regardless of whether or not she had been controlled by the enemy, the fact was that Nina’s actions caused the information to leak.

The consequences of that information leaking were still yet to be seen, but Nina would bear a great share of the blame if things went wrong.

Who could say what Hitogami could do knowing that Rygar had gone to the Dragon God’s Hole accompanied only by Eris? Or knowing that the Kingdom no longer had his presence?

Nina was grateful that Aisha was keeping the Kingdom’s latest operations secret from her. The fact that she knew nothing meant that Vita could know nothing.

Outside her knowledge, Aisha was also relieved to be hiding from Nina the fact that Jino had gone to Begaritt.

That would be a great advantage if used well.

Nina was only the third person Aisha investigated. In the first two, she did not find anything significant, until she finally found this place after asking Jino whether Nina had any secret.

She put the pieces together and followed Nina after making up her mind, and was glad she had made that decision.

Nina began to narrate all the memories she remembered.

Many of them Aisha identified as having descriptions similar to what her subordinates had reported about the Ever-White Labyrinth.

The memories were blurry, and there was only some relevant information every now and then, and they certainly were not complete at all, but they confirmed one thing for Aisha.

Hitogami’s apostles had some kind of base in the depths of the Ever-White Labyrinth.

The most important piece of information, however, was none of that.

The most important piece of information was memories of vast mountain ranges, with hundreds of Red Dragons...

And an enormous crater stretching for kilometers.

Aisha’s expression darkened the moment she heard that.

Until then, she had been beginning to plan how she could use this Slime fragment to pass false information to the Nether King, but after hearing about that, she stood up in a hurry.

Then she spoke to Nina one last time:

"Nina, we are in a complicated period for the Kingdom... and we may need all the strength we have at our disposal. So I am granting you temporary amnesty until this turbulent period comes to an end."

Nina’s face lit up, but Aisha finished:

"But don’t think this is forever. When Master returns, and when this is over, you will still have to face this one way or another, Jino will not be able to protect you from punishment... so make this amnesty count, and contribute as much as possible."

Ghislaine stood up when she saw it was finished, and Aisha concluded:

"You’d better pray that nothing happens to Master... Nina."

----

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