What's a 'Lottery?'

Made of panic, I end up moving too quickly and causing a wave of weakness to overwhelm me. I am forced to lie back and catch my breath, and David ensures the pillow is fixed beneath my head.

"Maybe I'm just imagining things," I hear him mutter.

Immediately taking advantage of that, I say, "What are you saying, Papa? I'm Rachel. Rachel Vahn, your daughter."

David looks me deep in the eyes, and I know that he is desperate to believe it.

Stories of reincarnations shouldn't be this well known, but for some reason he suspected me of being a reincarnation, which is what I am. I cannot bother to think of a reason why he might suspect me, as I now have to work as quickly as I can in order to convince him that I am not what he thinks I am.

"Don't you remember the day we went to see the circus? We had to wait in line all day, and you were worried I would faint. So, you put me up on your shoulder. You kept asking me if I was feeling sick, but I was so excited I couldn't even feel sick! Do you remember, Papa?"

I see the trace of doubt set in, and it allows me some breathing room. I consider the possible consequences of him finding out the truth of my situation. In the worst case scenario, I will be considered an anomaly and David will refuse to continue treating me as his daughter.

That, in turn, will lead to me possibly being put out and left to fend for myself.

I cannot afford to risk it right now. I need to rest and recuperate, which means I will need all the food I can get- even if it is worse than horseshit. Until then, I cannot risk David finding out the truth about me. I must convince him that I am the same Rachel I've always been. At least until I fix my body and can properly use magic.

It took a bit of effort- and a very quick-witted usage of Rachel's memories- but I am able to convince David that my weirdness was just because of how I felt.

I was excited about feeling better, so I wanted to try the porridge. I felt so moved and thankful for his care, that I just decided to call him 'Father' out of the blue.

Perhaps it is due to that 'soft spot' that parents have for their progeny. I've heard mention of it before, but I've never seen it up close. A few seconds before duping David, I would never have thought that he would be so easily manipulated by me.

Then again, I am in his daughter's body and possess half her soul, so.

David rubs his eyes and sighs, "I need to get some sleep. I'm starting to lose it."

I pour all of my facial muscles into the warmest smile I can manage, and David smiles back before giving my face a final touch.

When I see him preparing to lie down on the floor, I instinctively toss one of my pillows to him. When he sees me do this, he turns to look at me with what I can only describe as a relieved expression.

"Rachel... thank you."

"You're welcome, Papa."

If it weren't for the fact that a part of Rachel still inhabits this body, I would have completely overlooked the fact that Rachel never failed to do this for David.

She didn't want him sleeping on the floor, but he insisted every time.

I lie in bed and begin to think about the near future. I did not inhabit a demon's body, so I cannot easily regain the height of my power.

As for why I reincarnated in the body of a human, I do not know. It can only be that my knowledge of the Tome of Life and Death was too shallow.

My best bet for now is to rest, fix my body, and begin preparing to see the world.

Rachel has not seen much of today's human realm- in fact, she's only seen the slums. I infer that, perhaps, the demons have succeeded in subjugating the entire world.

Of course, for now, I cannot know.

I spend a while just lost in thought, and eventually drift off into deep sleep.

Time passes, with David bending over backwards for me, and me doing my best to act completely natural. I throw in a few of 'Rachel's greatest hits' so I can convince him that I am his daughter, and he never suspects a thing.

After two days, I am feeling completely fine. I look to be the picture of health, except my skin has remained abnormally pale.

David has taken the liberty of brushing my long raven hair, but I am unable to properly appreciate it without a mirror.

He thinks it looks fantastic though, so I trust him.

On the third day, I wake up early in the morning; it is still dark out when I decide to get to work on fixing my body.

Gathering all of my recovered mental energy, I prepare to attack the seal of one of my demonic astral spaces.

I discover that, without much pressure at all, the walls of the astral space collapse and the black mana spills out into my body.

I am surprised by this, and almost forget to gather up the mana.

Then, it hits me and I palm myself in the face. Of course it wouldn't require much effort; this may be Rachel's body, but it houses half of Razalith's soul.

Naturally, the astral space recognizes me and does not consider me a foreign entity, so it allows itself to be opened.

I laugh bitterly in lament for the days I have wasted. At least I was able to recover naturally and not by forcing my mana to heal me.

With the demonic energy I have gathered from the astral space, I move my consciousness toward my magic well.

Without mana pouring into it, it has retained a constant size and location, so I am easily able to find it.

Once I do, I thrust all of the black mana into it, sending it straight into the bottomless well. This should have been enough to instantly strengthen me, but it has no noticeable effect.

Realizing this, Razalith's smirk creeps onto my face. I bust open another astral space and send that mana into the well, but it also has no effect on my body overall.

Now, I am excited.

I crack open astral spaces, one after the other, and direct all that mana into my magic well. As more and more of it enters the well, I slowly start to feel an odd chill spreading within me. I starts from the pit of my stomach, and moves to each and every limb.

Then, it reaches my head and my vision blurs for a moment. As soon as I get that sensation in my head, I stop breaking open astral spaces and instead try to direct my consciousness into one of them.

This time, the astral space does not keep me from looking into it. It seems that the issue before was due to the fact that my consciousness was too human.

With this added demonic mana, the demonic aspect has leaked into every part of this human body, including the mind. My soul might have been the only thing that was 50% percent Razalith, but now every other part of me was steadily becoming like that was well.

The adaptability of Rachel's body is at an insane level! Just what kind of human is she!?

I disregard my amazement and continue opening astral spaces. It does not take long before my body begins to affect the temperature of the world around me, and I can sense David shivering on the floor.

I instantly expend extra focus to keep the magical aura from seeping out of me. My body remains cold, but it should not affect the outside world anymore.

I open the rest, and finally feel as if my body has reached a perfected state.

All of the mana that Razalith crossed over into the next life with has been absorbed by me, and I have arrived at the peak of my base state.

Rachel's excitement spills over into Razalith's solemn focus; both sides of my soul make me smirk and giggle.

I realize for myself that, in this new life, me and Rachel are each other's first and only friends. A strange circumstance led to my forced reincarnation failing, allowing both souls to blend instead of one dominating and replacing the other.

Sadly, since we are both one, I cannot truly have a conversation with her beyond talking to myself. Even so, I find it comforting to speak to myself. The singularity of my being has faded somewhat, and it is only then that I understand how lonely both Rachel and Razalith have felt all their lives.

In deep thought, I spend a lot of time just staring at the emptiness of my soul space. It now houses a single astral space, which has come to life with the addition of the demonic mana.

Now, with a thought, I am able to alter the size of my magic well. I immediately cause it to grow until it reaches the borders of the desert world. Finally, I resume my body's autonomic absorption of mana from the outside world.

With that, my work is complete.

When I open my eyes, the sun is rising. I look down at David and see him sleeping soundly while hugging the pillow I have given him. I smile, then I notice a strip of hard paper that has fallen out of his pocket.

I lean off the side of the bed and reach for it, and once I have it I climb back up onto the bed.

It reads: Lottery, Lottery! Scratch It, Win It, Spend It! Grand Prize: 10,000,000 crystals!

"What's a lottery?"

I frown in confusion and take a closer look. I check the back as well, seeing some simple instructions.

"So is that it? They rely on something so fickle? Don't they know that with a simple spell, this entire system can be rendered pointless?"

I smirk as the idea comes to me, and I place a finger on the lottery paper.

Never would I have thought that it would be this simple to give back to the man that toiled ceaselessly to make sure I was okay.