Chapter 207: A Remarkable Feat
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 207: A Remarkable Feat
To remove Iris’s curse skill, I headed to the inn to find Ravi, the only appraiser I knew.
Even though the inn wasn't exactly Ravi’s permanent residence, she had been spending so much time there lately that it was the first place I checked.
“Is Ravi here?”
“Ueeh? Did you call for me?”
Sure enough, she was there. Seeing as the innkeeper didn't even bat an eye when I called for her, it seemed Ravi had officially become a fixture of the Mounted Goat Inn.
“You’re always at the inn these days.”
“Ehehe… The inn is just so much more comfortable…”
“What about money?”
“I-I do some work here and there… and sometimes I pay for my meals… since I got my bonus and all?”
“I see.”
“Besides, I get way more customers at the inn than at the appraisal office!”
Well, that made sense. The Sateria Appraisal Office was located in such a remote spot that even a Lotteria wouldn't bother opening a branch there. Most people visiting the inn were explorers anyway.
Even if they hadn't acquired any particularly new skills, people tended to want to get an appraisal and check their status just because an appraiser happened to be nearby.
“Ravi, I have some work for you. Can you come with me for a moment?”
“Huh? What kind of work?”
“Appraiser work, obviously.”
“Gasp! Am I finally famous enough to get designated requests?! Has the day I finally see the light truly come?!”
“It’s nothing like that. I just wanted to ask if you could remove a skill for me.”
“Hmph, fine! I’ll get ready and be right there!”
I wondered what she needed to "get ready," but appraisers usually used staves to remove skills. It was like a painter grabbing their brushes; you could paint with your fingers, but a fine, delicate brush always yielded better results.
“So, who is this person and where do they live? It’s fine if the customer comes here, you know.”
“You’ve probably seen her once before, Ravi. You know, that white-haired woman who came to the inn.”
“Aha! That person… I don’t remember her name.”
“You probably never heard it. Just feel free to call her Iris.”
“She looked like an older sister to me… Is it really okay for you to decide that, Yoo Eon?”
“She’ll be happy about it. Probably.”
“Mmm…”
Regardless, I took Ravi and headed toward the Northeast District. When I told her we were going quite a distance—not even to the Southwest—Ravi looked a bit surprised. It was understandable, since she didn't know Iris was running a magic item shop.
“Why would someone who opened a magic item shop in the Northeast specifically ask for me…?”
“Well, I’ll explain everything once we get there.”
She had a point. Land prices in the Northeast were exorbitant, and opening a magic item shop wasn't a cheap venture. At a blacksmith’s, you could start a basic business with about fifty silver coins just by lining up weapons made of cheap iron on the shelves.
But a magic item shop? That meant you had to have actual magic items to display. Those things were incredibly expensive. You’d have to be an idiot to open a shop with only one or two items in hand.
In that case, you’d be better off as a traveling peddler.
“Whoa, I didn't know a place like this existed… I mean, has this always been here?”
“Do you come to the Northeast often?”
“I used to stop by occasionally a long time ago, but I’ve really never seen this place before…”
It seemed Iris’s magic item shop was under some kind of perception inhibition magic. I had struggled to find it at first too, only succeeding by following a magical paper airplane Iris had sent out.
Now, I could find it without any help.
Creeeeak—
“Iris?”
When I opened the door and stepped inside, Iris was nowhere to be seen. She was definitely here just a moment ago. Had she suddenly gone out in the few dozen minutes it took me to go to the Southwest and back?
“Wait a second. Ravi, stay right here.”
“Huh? Oh, okay.”
After leading Ravi back out to the main street, I opened the shop door again.
“Iris. What kind of device is it this time?”
“I only let in the people I want.”
“Do something about it.”
“Okay.”
I had a feeling. When I entered the shop alone without Ravi, Iris was sitting comfortably in her chair. I figured there was some magical trick involved, but I didn't know it could do this.
“Ravi, you can come in now.”
“Pardon…? Did you cast some kind of spell? There’s no way someone who wasn't there suddenly appeared….”
Looking at me with half-doubt and half-suspicion, Ravi stepped through the door. This time, Iris was there.
“She is here… How did that happen?! Am I seeing an illusion right now?!”
“This is reality. What you saw before was the illusion.”
“Gasp, I see.”
In any case, Ravi Sateria marched into the magic item shop with confident strides. Standing before Iris Albresto, who was essentially a stranger, I wondered what Ravi’s reaction would be.
“H-hello…?”
“Hi.”
“Ah… yes! Hello….”
Iris’s social skills were in the top 100th percentile—meaning she was at the absolute bottom. And while Ravi was talkative, she wasn't the type to chatter away in front of someone she didn't know.
To a first-timer, Iris’s expressionless face gave off a slightly cold impression. Of course, from my perspective, I knew she just wasn't thinking about much of anything.
“This is Iris Albresto. She’s the owner of this magic item shop and, well… an acquaintance of mine.”
“I-I see….”
“And this is Ravi Sateria. She’s an appraiser.”
“Right.”
Even after the brief introductions, silence hung between the two for a long time. Eventually, it was Ravi, unable to bear the awkwardness that Iris seemed completely oblivious to, who spoke first.
“H-how should I address you?!”
“How do you want to address me?”
“W-well… maybe Unnie?”
“I am old. ‘Grandmother’ would be more appropriate.”
“Huh…?”
Ravi looked up at me with an expression that said she’d just encountered a crazy person. It was technically true, but humans are heavily influenced by appearances. After all, wasn't Ravi already acting like a close friend with my father, who was over forty?
“Just call her Unnie.”
“Then I’ll call you Unnie… You can just call me Ravi, okay…?”
“Sure.”
“Anyway, the reason I called Ravi here is to ask her to remove a curse skill from Iris.”
“Is Iris Unnie an explorer?”
“No.”
Ravi looked like she was about to go crazy from the short, blunt answers of the anti-social monster that was Iris. It looked like I’d have to explain everything myself, but to do that, I needed Ravi’s oath and Iris’s consent.
“Iris. Is it okay if I tell her?”
“Hmm.”
“Actually, let me ask Ravi first. Ravi, can you keep everything we talk about here a complete secret?”
“A secret? Is it… a huge secret?”
“It’s incredibly huge. I’m only telling you, Ravi.”
“R-really?!”
When I explained it like that, Ravi’s face lit up with excitement. I guess she was still at an age where the word 'secret' made her heart flutter. Wait, wasn't she an adult?
“Ahem! My lips are very heavy, you know!”
“Why only your lips?”
“No, that’s not what I meant… I meant I’m good at keeping secrets….”
“So she says. Iris, would that be okay?”
“..Can’t be helped, I suppose.”
I obtained Iris’s consent. To be honest, Ravi tended to be quite the chatterbox when she was with people she was close to, so I was a bit skeptical.
“Listen carefully, Ravi. The truth is, Iris isn't human.”
“..Huh?”
* * *
“U-uhhh….”
“Do you understand now?”
“S-so….”
Ravi, who had been sitting in her chair listening to the truth about Iris’s identity, seemed to have her brain go numb for a moment before her eyes lost focus and she started drooling.
I didn't feel like stopping the explanation, so I just kept going, but it seemed her mind had completely collapsed.
“So Iris Unnie is actually a Succubus Queen… and she fused with a Vampire…. and seven hundred years have passed….”
“It’s the other way around.”
“Ah, the other way. Right… Then a Vampire Queen….”
Ravi clutched her head and muttered something to herself for a moment, then suddenly looked at Iris with sparkling eyes.
“To summarize! You want me to remove the skill!”
“You understood perfectly.”
“She’s smart.”
Iris chimed in from the side, agreeing. What was the point of knowing all that anyway? The bottom line was that she wanted the skill removed and the secret kept, and Ravi had reached the correct conclusion through her surprisingly quick mental processing.
“Understood! It’s a racial skill, so it’s probably on your back… Is there somewhere you can lie face down?”
“Hmm.”
“Ah.”
Looking around, there wasn't really a place to lie face down. If it were just lying on her back, she could just sprawl out on the floor, but lying face down meant her face would be against the ground.
And Iris didn't clean. The floor was so filthy that lying face down was out of the question, and the only table was covered in a mountain of unidentified objects.
“Let’s go to the Southwest.”
* * *
It had been a while since I visited the Sateria Appraisal Office. Iris, whose daily walking quota was limited to about thirty steps, was wrapped in a dark robe and carried there in my arms.
“It’s been a while. The appraisal office.”
“How can you say it’s been a while when it’s your own office?”
“I-I’ve lived here a long time, so I know where everything is, okay?!”
It was the first time in a long while that the bed in the Sateria Appraisal Office was being used. It was a crude bed made of a few thin cushions laid over a metal frame, but after dusting it off a bit, it was a much better place to lie down than Iris’s magic item shop.
Thump, thump!
I threw open the front door and the tiny window, shaking out the dust. I could see the dust motes dancing in the shafts of light coming through the small window.
“It’s similar to my place.”
“I agree.”
“I-I’m sorry, okay?!”
After airing out the room, Iris finally lay down on the bed.
“I’ll begin now!”
Ravi transformed into her cat form, took her staff in her mouth, and jumped onto the bed. She gently placed her tiny body onto Iris’s curvaceous backside.
CRASH!!
“Ah.”
The metal bed, unable to withstand the combined weight of Iris and Cat Ravi, snapped, sending the prone Iris face-first into the floor.
To make matters worse, Iris tumbled across the floor that hadn't exactly been cleaned, kicking up a thick cloud of dust.
“Um… Iris?”
“U-unnie..?”
“….”
A remarkable feat.
An achievement no one else had ever accomplished.
‘She looks angry.’
Ravi Sateria had managed to make the perpetually emotionless Iris Albresto angry.