Chapter 173 Control
Aleshia skimmed through the chapter titles in the book, looking for anything related to curses or poisons. Lucia joined her in the search, often commenting on how varied and disorganized the chapters were. After a while, Aleshia began to feel discouraged as the difficulty of reading the words increased. She turned to Lucia and asked, "The titles of the chapters are getting harder for me to read. Are you finding it more difficult, too?"
"Huh? Why do you ask?" After a moment of thought, Lucia replied, "I suppose the words are becoming more complicated and diverse, but why are you so concerned about it?"
"I don't think I'll be much help finding the spells by the names anymore, so I'll leave that to you," Aleshia said dejectedly.
"Alright," Lucia said, still confused as she returned to reading through the lists.
While Lucia was skimming through the pages, she noticed that Aleshia had dozed off. When Lucia realized what was happening, she tentatively took control of Aleshia's body. She sat up straight and flipped through the pages while Aleshia was napping. After a while and many more pages flipped through, Lucia made a sound that woke Aleshia from her snooze.
Regaining her senses, Aleshia realized that someone else was controlling her body. She couldn't move but felt reassured by this presence, so she focused her eyes on the page. She tried to understand what had piqued Lucia's interest, but the words on the page were long and complex, and she couldn't decipher them. Unable to read the text, she asked Lucia which line had caught her attention.
"It's this chapter right here," Lucia said, unconsciously moving Aleshia's body. It suddenly dawned on her that she was controlling Aleshia's body. "Sorry, I shouldn't be doing this so often," Lucia apologized for her behavior.
"It's alright; we're sharing this body, right? We both have the same goals, so you shouldn't worry about this at all," Aleshia said, trying to comfort the distressed Lucia. "The fact that you can control this body is a good thing. It means one less thing for me to worry about. If I ever go to sleep or am not awake for any reason, I'll know you'll be able to get me out of dangerous situations." Aleshia continued, understanding why Lucia had apologized.
Lucia felt hesitant but recognized that Aleshia's words were to comfort her. She pushed aside her self-reproach and pointed to the line of text that had caught her interest, accepting Aleshia's encouragement.