The Merchant's Path
The girl was briefly confused.
Minel's demeanor had shifted too drastically. Moments ago, his gaze alone had seemed capable of killing a person. Now, for some inexplicable reason, she felt strangely at ease.
She squeezed her eyes shut, shook her head vigorously, and answered coldly.
"I don't know exactly. Some say you turn into a monster if you kill too many people. Others say it's from starving or thirsting too much. And some just say staying too long in the Backrooms is enough."
"......"
Minel fell silent for a moment, thinking.
So which is it, really?
Better to avoid all of them for now.
His silence made the girl uneasy, and she quickly added more.
"But are you really a newbie?"
"It hasn't even been a day yet."
He wasn't sure exactly how long he had wandered, but he was certain it hadn't been more than a day.
The girl stared at him in disbelief.
"And you're this calm? What kind of world did you come from to stay so composed even in this hell?"
"What kind of world?"
Minel echoed the words lightly, but she answered quietly.
"People from all sorts of worlds end up in the Backrooms. They seem similar at first, but once you talk to them, you can tell."
Then how do we even understand each other?
Some kind of parallel worlds?
Or another world entirely?
It seemed there was a great deal he could still learn from her.
Minel decided to get closer.
"How did you meet that party?"
The mere memory seemed to sicken her; she gave a slight shiver. Her eyes, flickering with anger, fixed on the leopard-print woman's corpse lying cold on the floor.
"I first arrived in the Backrooms about a month ago. I ran into that woman right at the start, and we've been together ever since. That's all there is to it."
A faint undercurrent of rage colored her words.
That was why she had shown no emotion at the leopard-print woman's death.
"You said it was because of her?"
"Because of what?"
"That you'd been fine until now."
The man with the gun had said he hadn't dared lay a hand on the girl because of the leopard-print woman.
Wasn't she her benefactor, then?
The girl shook her head roughly, as if the idea were absurd.
"Being another woman, she did keep that sort of thing from happening. But she was always looking for a chance to sell me off whenever it suited her."
"Is that so?"
"Yes. So I don't feel the slightest pity. I've watched her torture and kill perfectly healthy people more than five times."
Having survived a full month in the Backrooms, she certainly knew a great deal. And the way she saw straight through people's minds and emotions suggested they would communicate well enough.
"What's your name?"
"Hina."
Somehow the name felt familiar.
He wondered if she knew anything about Earth, but it was still too early to bring that up.
Should he ask about weapons? Or about a way to escape?
"Tell me everything you know about the Backrooms."
"Then will you spare me?"
Minel looked at her as if the question were ridiculous.
"Leave if you want."
Hina exhaled in sudden relief and carefully pressed a hand to her chest. The wariness in her eyes had softened considerably.
"I knew you were a good person after all. All that earlier was just an act, right? I was still half-doubtful until the end."
A world where simply not wanting to kill someone earns you the label of a good person.
The Backrooms truly is a mad place.
"If you're not going to give me information, then forget it."
"Ah—I'll tell you."
Hina poured out everything she knew in a steady stream. Once her guard dropped, the words seemed to unlock as well; she kept going without pause.
Nothing put her more at ease than an attitude that said she was free to leave whenever she wished. Her heart opened wide.
Minel, however, was not especially pleased.
Most of the information was of little use.
That the Backrooms was an enormous sealed space. That countless floors lay above if you climbed. That people from other worlds occasionally drifted in. That monsters roamed inside. And so on.
Just as listening was becoming tedious, something new finally appeared.
"Types of skills?"
"Yes. There are combat skills, support combat skills, and non-combat skills. Each person can only learn one of the three types, apparently."
A word he had heard before suddenly surfaced.
The word the man had shouted upon seeing Minel holding a Blood Crystal.
"What does 'combat personnel' mean?"
"Ah—people who learn each type of skill are called combat personnel, support combat personnel, and non-combat personnel. There's also common skills that anyone can learn."
He recalled the writing on the drink labels.
Cold Injection had been a combat skill; Bullet Immunity had been a common skill.
Combat. Support combat. Non-combat.
Since they couldn't learn one another's skills, it was like class skills in a game.
What other skills were there?
"For example?"
"The party leader had a skill for locating vending machines. He said it was a non-combat skill."
So that was how he had known several vending machine locations.
They simply hadn't had Blood Crystals to buy the drinks.
"Have you learned any skills yourself?"
Hina shook her head.
"No. They wouldn't waste something that precious on me. I was just property to that woman."
The end of her sentence trembled faintly.
An entire month of suffering was embedded in her voice.
Even the fact that she had been protected from the men had probably been for the sake of blackmail. Threaten to abandon her at any moment, instill fear, and work her however they pleased.
"All right. I understand. Go."
Minel intended to send her away and check the truth of her words against the Backrooms Compendium.
But Hina simply stood there, unmoving.
She hesitated, then finally spoke in a low voice.
"Um... where to?"
"Anywhere."
For a moment Hina's lips trembled.
If Minel had been an ordinary man, she would have left without a second thought. Facing monsters in the dark was preferable to being alone with a strange man.
But—
This man felt strangely safe.
Even Hina could not fully understand her own feelings. Her sharp sense for reading people, however, insisted that Minel was someone she could trust.
She watched his expression carefully, then spoke in a quiet voice.
"Since you're combat personnel, you can't learn support combat or non-combat skills. But if you're going to survive in the Backrooms from now on, you'll need other skills as well."
"......"
"I can help you. In exchange..."
"You want to form a party?"
Hina nodded.
"I can tell what kind of person you are. I won't be a nuisance."
Minel sank into quiet thought.
If she already had skills, it might be different. Was there any real need to keep someone without skills at his side from this point on?
He had no weapons either; taking on dead weight that offered no practical help was premature. Investing in the future could wait until he had built enough strength of his own.
"Right now even looking after myself is a burden. I'll pass."
Despair washed over Hina's face.
Minel turned his head as if uninterested and scanned the surroundings.
Then, all at once, her eyes lit up brightly. Her entire face brightened, and she spoke quickly.
"Do you have a weapon? You don't, do you?"
Is she reading my mind?
Minel simply looked at her in silence.
Taking his silence as confirmation of her guess, Hina swiftly added more.
"You seemed to have plenty of Blood Crystals earlier. I know a way to get good weapons."
Weapons were what Minel needed most desperately right now.
The situation flipped in an instant.
"How did you know I don't have a weapon?"
"Because you didn't threaten anyone with one. If you'd had a gun, you would have used it, wouldn't you?"
Earlier, everyone had assumed he was strong enough not to need a weapon at all. But now that Hina knew he was a true newbie, she had reasoned even that far.
Minel asked,
"Is there a weapon vending machine?"
"Vending machines only give skills. For weapons, you have to meet a Merchant."
"A Merchant?"
"That's where we bought the bullets. There were weapons displayed in the back as well. It's always in the same place, so I remember it."
How much of this can I trust?
Is she just saying anything to survive?
If that were the case, she would have spun a more plausible lie. She wouldn't have gone so far as to invent an entirely new concept like a "Merchant."
"Lead the way. Keep your distance the whole time."
"This far?"
"Yeah."
"...That's pretty far."
The distance Minel set was roughly three meters—the minimum that would still let him react if she suddenly turned into a monster.
Hina felt complicated.
She had always hated closeness and pushed people away. Now that she herself was being kept at arm's length, it somehow didn't feel entirely good.
Still—
Among everyone she had met in the Backrooms, Minel was the first to treat her like an actual person.
"It's about an hour's walk from here. Let's go right away."
Just as she started to move, a single fact suddenly lodged itself in Minel's mind.
"They know about that place too, don't they?"
Hina nodded.
"That's right. We bought bullets there about once a week."
"......"
"Don't worry. We stopped by two days ago, so they probably won't come again for a while."
Is Hina trying to lure me into a trap? No. She was the one who hid the fact that I was a newbie. And I was the one who told them to leave her behind in the first place.
Whatever else is uncertain, her hostility toward that party is reliable. There's no chance she's colluding with them.
"Take the lead."
"Understood. But if what I said turns out to be true, you'll party with me from then on, right?"
"We'll see when we get there."
Hina looked briefly disappointed, then offered a small smile and quietly turned to start walking.
How much time passed?
In the silence, Hina spoke first.
"Even if a party is too much, can you at least tell me your name? I told you mine."
This, too, was a first.
Asking a man for his name first.
Minel watched her back for a moment, then tossed the answer out casually.
Giving a name cost nothing.
"Minel."
Hina stopped walking without realizing it.
For the first time she could feel that Minel had begun to trust her, even a little.
"Thank you for earlier, Minel."
"......"
"I know the way for certain, so just trust me and follow."
The entire walk, Hina talked a great deal about herself. Even though Minel barely responded, she never stopped speaking.
She found her own talkativeness unfamiliar. She had never been particularly chatty, and after arriving in the Backrooms she had hardly spoken at all.
After a full month of sealing her heart completely shut, was it because she had finally met someone who still felt human?
Strangely, around Minel the words just seemed to come out.
Minel offered none of his own stories and simply listened to hers.
Her claim of coming from another world appeared true; she seemed to have come from a place somewhat different from the Earth he had lived on. If they had shared the same Earth, there would have been far more common ground to discuss. Still, their living standards and culture were similar enough that he could empathize to some degree.
Hina never stated it outright, but she clearly missed her own world desperately. That meant she wanted just as badly to escape the Backrooms and return.
Listening to her stories, the hour passed quickly.
Hina rounded a corner ahead and called out loudly.
"We're here. It's still right where it was."
What does a Merchant even look like?
Following her around the corner, Minel found himself facing a sight no ordinary office could ever have produced.