Chapter 522: Connected, But Not to Her

Everyone’s gaze followed Hughes’s hand, slowly moving upward to Nora’s neck.

Hughes only hesitated for a moment before gritting his teeth and pressing down on that slender, severed neck.

Then—

“Uh… it seems nothing happened?”

Hughes lifted his hand and pressed again. Aside from a slightly strange texture, it felt no different from ordinary flesh and blood.

He reached out, lifted Nora’s head, touched it to the neck again—still no change.

“Any difference?”

“None,” Nora replied expressionlessly.

Hughes tried several other methods—joining Nora’s head and body carefully, putting his hand between the severed parts, and so on—but still, nothing happened.

“Now that I think about it, my power seems only to purify pollution, and Nora’s problem isn’t pollution at all…”

He turned to look at Monica. The small banshee was rubbing her chin with six hands, her head almost smoking from thinking so hard.

“Wait—cut a slit, pour some blood in. I remember that blood has a special meaning in the Silent Sanctum.”

“How come I’ve never heard of that?” Nora rolled her eyes.

“What do you know about the Silent Sanctum!?” Monica placed her hands on her hips and glared at Nora. “Do you realize, my lady, that the lord’s blood can restrain pollution? And you, having your neck severed without a drop of blood—doesn’t that strike you as strange?”

Hughes sighed, not arguing. He looked around, borrowed a scalpel from Richard, and gritted his teeth as he cut a long gash into his palm.

Truth be told, the scalpel was quite sharp—it barely hurt.

Blood streamed down freely. The power of the Symbiotic Contract immediately poured vitality into the wound, so Hughes quickly shoved his hand into Nora’s neck stump—otherwise, the contract would heal it too soon.

The moment the blood touched flesh, both Noras and Hughes shuddered.

A strange feeling connected the three—well, two—of them into one link.

Nora’s eyes widened. She had never felt anything like this before. It was as if she had suddenly gained more organs—more eyes, more ears, hands, and feet.

Hughes, on the other hand, found the sensation oddly familiar. He had felt it once before—the night after he signed the Symbiotic Contract, when he fainted and later awoke at midnight to dive into the sea.

In the ocean, when he tried to see with senses beyond vision—it was exactly this feeling.

“Could it be that I just signed a Symbiotic Contract with her? The Burier plus the Symbiotic Contract—wouldn’t that make me invincible?” he thought to himself.

『What a marvelous sensation… it’s as if I’ve not only regained my body, but gained more senses as well.』 Nora marveled inwardly.

【…】From Nora’s body came a wave of emotion—shock, awe, confusion.

All three fell silent.

“N–Nora?”

『…I’m here.』

“Little Nora—wait, if we’re talking size—Big Nora?”

【…】A clear mix of fear and surprise rippled through the minds of Nora and Hughes alike.

『Wh–what is this?』

“Ahem, honestly… this feeling is kind of familiar.”

Nora strained to roll her eyes toward Hughes.

“It’s a lot like Mind Link! You know, how I communicate with the banshees mentally—you’ve heard of that, right?”

『…I’ve heard rumors.』

“When I talk with the banshees through the Mind Link, it’s just like this. You take your thoughts, form them clearly and steadily into words in your mind, and then send them. The other person receives them—that’s how Mind Link works.”

『So, you’re saying we’ve formed something similar to a Mind Link? Through your blood? That’s quite miraculous.』

【…】Nora’s body expressed agreement.

“Mm. The severed part between you and the other Nora has flesh but no blood—perhaps, in mystic terms, it’s incomplete. That’s why it failed to link. But with my blood connecting it, the three of us have become one—I mean, a complete whole.”

『Then that means, if we separate from you—』

Hughes withdrew his hand. Nora stared at him wide-eyed. Nothing—no sensation—passed between them.

He cut open the healed wound again and shoved his hand back into Nora’s neck.

“See? We have to stay in contact for the link to work.”

『But what good is this link? To whisper secrets? It doesn’t let me control this body again—even if I wanted to stand up, I—』

Big Nora suddenly stood.

Everyone jumped.

“What happened, my lord?” Several nearby banshees panicked, pressing Nora back down with extra force.

“It’s fine, it’s fine—Nora’s trying to control her body. Let her go,” Hughes said excitedly, waving them away. Then, through the link, he urged:

“Try again!”

【!】

Nora’s face lit up. She carefully issued commands:

『Stand up. Raise left leg. Take two steps forward. Spin around. Kick Monica.』

Nora’s body executed each order flawlessly.

Now complete, Nora (Full Version) looked down at her own fingers in ecstatic delight, flexing them before turning to Hughes:

“I did—it.”

She forgot that her head was merely resting atop her neck, unfixed. As she turned, it promptly fell off, rolling to Monica’s feet. The latter caught it with her tail tip, smacked it a few times on the ground, then tossed it back.

“Seems it worked—but with limitations,” Hughes said, casually putting Nora’s head back on. His hand was still stuck inside her neck.

“First, you have to stay in contact with me to maintain control. Second, your control doesn’t mean the other Nora disappears—right, Big Nora?”

【√】

“And I can’t shake the feeling,” Hughes rubbed his chin with his other hand, “that your control works through me—as if I’m a relay.”

『Relay? What do you mean?』

“Like this.”

He lifted Nora’s head in one hand and tossed it to Monica, while keeping the other hand pressed on Nora’s neck stump. Nora, held in Monica’s arms, looked at him in confusion.

The next moment, her eyes widened sharply.

Nora’s body slowly crouched, then stood, walked two steps, spun, and kicked Monica.

Everyone’s eyes snapped toward Nora.

“I—I didn’t control her!” Nora gasped.

A moment later, realization dawned, and she looked at Hughes in shock. “My body—wait, that’s my body! Why—”

Hughes wagged his finger. “Sorry, but technically speaking, it’s my body now. Still… I can rent it back to you.”