What Konrad didn't expect was—Brigida telling him everything right away.
Although no. The word 'telling' wasn't exactly accurate here.
Using her telepathy, the girl flooded his mind with a flurry of images, often in no particular order. And—if not for his parallel brain, he never would've strung them into sensible memories.
Which, given they were about ten years' worth of events compressed into stills—
Yeah. It still took them a long while to process.
And with no actual reference points to go by?
Too many times, the best they could do was guess.
Like, when did these fragmented memories even start?
One day, Brigida was practicing magic in the vast garden of their countryside estate. She felt something strange, saw flashes, heard noises, and by the time she ran back to the building—
Soap and Roach were there, fighting off Lucifer's extradimensional forces.
'Guess it couldn't have been that long,' Paula noted, trying to make sense of the info dump she received. 'Makes me wonder if these guys even keep track of when and where they fight?'
Yeah. Konrad never thought about it, either.
Sure, people from other worlds tried to open gates into Kasserlane on Lucifer's orders.
But he never considered where, how, or who else they might have caught up in their fights.
He thought it was something more abstract.
Like, fighting in a vacuum. In dimensional pockets, like heaven was, but—
No. As these messy memories proved, people did, in fact, become involved.
His people. On his lands. Without him even knowing about it.
With nothing he could do, either, while lying low.
In this instance, albeit Lucifer's two former puppets got there within minutes—
The invaders had already sent through an advance party and kidnapped Brigida's parents.
And as every sensible child who saw the immense danger—
She ignored everything and ran straight through the portal to rescue her mom and dad.
Then, finding herself in a strange new world—
Whether she could make sense of it back then, Konrad didn't know.
But through those fragmented memories, he sure as hell could not.
What was happening? Who was she facing?
How did that world even operate?
No idea. The only important part was that her magic caught the alien monsters off guard.
So at first, yes, she rescued her parents, but—
Konrad's allies had closed the portal on Kasserlane's side, leaving her no way to return.
'Hold on,' he thought while following the bishop on autopilot. 'But her parents were here. I've met them during one of my inspections earlier, and they didn't look ten years older.'
In fact, he was sure that if they remembered something like this, they would have told him.
'She squeezed ten years' worth of fragments into these visions,' Paula scoffed. 'And we only have started. Give it some time, and—don't bother me while I'm trying to organise the images.'
To make it worse, Brigida also seemed to skip forward often, making it even harder to follow.
One moment she rescued her parents, realising she was stuck, and—
In the next, she was hiding alone on the same world, and a long time must have passed.
'I lost my parents along the way,' Brigida claimed via telepathy. 'The only thing I could do was tie their souls to their personal belongings with my spirit's help and run.'
'Oh. Now she's attaching commentary,' the parallel brain moaned.
But Konrad got a cold chill running down his spine.
Then who the hell did he meet earlier?
Or did she slip through that portal even after that? Like, three days ago?
'Please, for the love of your spirits, focus, or it will all fall apart,' Paula pleaded as they left the temple. 'So she has been hiding on that world for about two years, carrying her parents' souls.'
Ugh. And Konrad thought he had a difficult childhood.
But Brigida didn't give up.
Her magic was strong, and while she couldn't hope to fight an entire planet—
She survived, kept observing, and planned her escape.
On Lucifer's orders, those aliens kept opening their portals.
And one time, finally, she could slip through one undetected, but—
She didn't end up on Kasserlane. The best way Konrad could describe that place was Hell.
And there, she met Lucifer himself, too, and found herself in a corner when—
A little ginger girl appeared out of nowhere and fought the fallen angel off like it was nothing.
"Lily?!" Konrad yelped in surprise, only to realise nobody else had seen what he did.
"I'm here, Konny boy, what's up?" the demoness asked with a smirk, rubbing her chest against his arm. "So are we going to Haiten, too, or would you rather spend some time with me alone?"
"N-no, never mind. It was—I'm talking to Paula right now," he stuttered in a whisper.
And where the hell were they?!
Like, not in the real world. That he knew.
They left the rebuilt temple and followed bishop Benedictus to his carriage.
His own—well, Gabrielle's—cart was there, too, meaning they'd go with the Church's men to Haiten. But yeah. Even that fancy thing looked like a simple wagon next to the bishop's carriage.
The only problem was that, per Benedictus' orders, Brigida was to stay.
'It's all right, Konrad,' she said, as if reading her mind.
Wait, was she?! With Paula so preoccupied—
'My telepathy has no arbitrary distance limits,' the girl said. 'I can reach you at the other end of this planet, too. Or find you in another world, if it's not too far in another dimension.'
Yep. She must have become almost as overpowered as his wives now.
'T-then I'd better follow your boss,' Konrad stuttered, even within his mind. 'But please, tell me. H-how did you run into my Lily back there?! And why didn't she tell me about it?'
'Oh. That. Yes, first I thought it was your wife, too,' Brigida noted.
Well, yeah. Who else?
A little ginger with the power to solo a fallen angel?!
Not using tricks or unique abilities to seal or banish him, but fight him head-on, and all.
'And while we did, actually, meet before, I realised she wasn't Lady Lilith yet.'
What was that now?
Konrad almost missed a step climbing into their carriage, trying to make sense of it all.
'You've met, but wasn't Lily yet?' he repeated, and—
The puzzle pieces finally clicked together in his head.
'They did? How?' Paula moaned. 'I'm a high-capacity brain, and I'm still baffled by this thing.'
'After she fought Lucifer and rescued me, she opened another portal, and we were off,' Brigida explained. 'I was crying like a baby, thanking her, saying Lady Lilith is the best, but—'
Yeah. His wife, Lily, might have remembered this too, but only as an old, faded memory.
Or, even scrambled by all the time traveling she did.
'She told me I might've known her as Maple, but that she'd use the name Kaede now.'
And Konrad finally knew what happened after his butchered portal spell in Tokyo.
Or at least—he caught a glimpse of the former dragon, not yet a demoness.
The young Lily, lost in time and space, but far from acting like a lost little girl herself.