Chapter 145: Residents of the Mansion (3)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 145: Residents of the Mansion (3)
The basement I followed the slave trader into was just as dark and damp as before.
—Skreeee!
The distant cry of some beast echoed through the halls.
"This place is the same as ever."
"It has to be. Change isn't always a good thing, you know."
I agreed with him. There’s nothing more tragic than a famous restaurant losing its flavor after a change in management. Change isn't inherently positive.
"So, what about the new slaves?"
"I have a few. Some quite peculiar ones. What are you looking for? Someone to take into the Labyrinth? Or a domestic helper?"
"Let's see."
I decided to browse the new arrivals while following the slave trader.
What I wanted right now was one slave to serve as a housekeeper, one intelligent slave to live with Rien in the annex, and one slave knowledgeable about plants to manage the greenhouse.
I hoped all three would be women. To be honest, I wasn't keen on men. Aside from Roy, my mansion was filled with women; bringing a man in might lead to unwanted romances, which wouldn't be pleasant to deal with.
Regardless, after hearing my requirements, the slave trader brought out three handpicked slaves.
"Here. These three are the ones that best fit your criteria."
"Oh..."
One slave lay listlessly on a bed.
Another crouched in a corner, sobbing quietly.
And the third stood blankly, staring into thin air.
"There are three of them."
"They were originally from the East. But the East was cleared out recently, wasn't it? It seems they were driven out."
"Ah. They're from the East?"
A transfer stone connected to the Underground City had been discovered in the sewers beneath the eastern district of the Labyrinth City.
To secure it, the city had sent Moira to completely raze the eastern area.
Lafnel's hole-in-the-wall shop had been caught in the crossfire back then, which was a real headache. I suppose these three lost their homes at the same time.
"Let's start by talking to the one standing there blankly."
"It won't be easy to have a conversation with her. Communication doesn't work well."
"Wait, if communication is difficult, there's no reason for me to pay for her. Isn't the merchandise defective?"
"No, no. She's exactly the talent you're looking for."
"Hmm. In what way?"
"She might look like that, but she's afflicted by some very peculiar curses."
"Peculiar curses?"
"Yes. Three of them, in total."
"Three? Who on earth gets hit with three curses? Isn't this a defective product? Are you trying to pull a fast one on me to clear out bad inventory?"
"I am not! It's because she has three that she's better!"
"Huh? What does that even mean?"
"Just listen. If you look at the curses individually, they're just trash. But they're intricately interlocked, I tell you."
"Intricately interlocked curses?"
She looked like an ordinary human to me. She didn't seem to be suffering from the Curse of Transformation.
In what way could they be "exquisitely interlocked"?
"First, the first curse: the Curse of Over-recognition."
"The Curse of Over-recognition?"
"Yes. She's cursed to receive an excessive amount of information from her surroundings."
"How is that a curse?"
"Information that exceeds the brain's capacity causes dizziness and eventually saps one's willpower. And not all the information she acquires is useful. Since she can't filter it and just absorbs everything, she lives with chronic headaches."
"Chronic headaches... That's definitely a curse."
"Exactly. That's why she prefers staying indoors rather than going outside. You could say she's relatively normal when information is limited."
It meant she was perfect for being tucked away somewhere to work.
"I understand the first curse. What's next?"
"The second is a curse called Dreamer's Delusion."
"Dreamer's Delusion? The name itself sounds ominous."
"It's a strange one. Most people afflicted by Dreamer's Delusion fall into madness along with a mana backflow, babble nonsense, and eventually commit suicide."
"Wait, what...?"
That's just the worst, isn't it?
And he's trying to sell this for money? Has this man lost his mind?
"Just listen to the next curse."
"What's the last one?"
"The final curse she has is the Curse of Magic Decomposition."
"The Curse of Magic Decomposition?"
"Yes. It's a curse—and a sort of disease—where the mana generated within the body simply evaporates. She can't use magic, and even simple physical reinforcement becomes impossible. It's virtually impossible for her to live as an adventurer."
The Curse of Over-recognition, Dreamer's Delusion, and the Curse of Magic Decomposition.
What kind of synergy could these three curses possibly have? Looking at them one by one, it's a lineup that suggests she'll go mad and kill herself any moment.
Her mind isn't sound, and she can't even use mana for physical reinforcement. It's a total dead end.
"The thing is... I found this out while asking her various questions after I took her in."
"Yes? What is it?"
"It seems her mind... is in contact with another world."
"What?"
In contact with another world? What kind of nonsense is that?
"First, you need to properly understand the curse called Dreamer's Delusion. It's a curse that causes mental instability, right?"
"That's what you said. You said they babble nonsense and eventually commit suicide."
"Right. But if it only caused mental instability, they would have just given it a simple name like 'Curse of Insanity.' But the name of this curse is a bit strange, don't you think?"
"I suppose. Why is it called that?"
"The things people afflicted by this curse mutter about are usually specific, peculiar objects, systems, or structures."
"Peculiar objects?"
"Yes. Like carriages that fly in the sky. Or a spiderweb that connects minds. Have you ever heard of something called a 'telephone'? It seems to be a tool that allows people to talk over long distances. Do you think that's possible without magic? People with this curse mutter about such strange delusions."
"..."
I couldn't say a word in response to the slave trader's explanation.
A telephone. A word that didn't fit this world at all.
And flying carriages? Isn't that a helicopter? A spiderweb connecting minds? That's literally a network.
"I did some research on people who had Dreamer's Delusion while I was bringing her here. Every single one of them muttered about peculiar things. Things never before seen or heard of."
"Like... the telephone you just mentioned?"
"Exactly! Things like 'automatic calculators' and whatnot. They would spill out delusions about incredibly strange and unique objects. Whether it's a delusion or knowledge from another world, they vomit it all out until their mana circuits burn up and they die. To be precise, they commit suicide."
Mental instability and the explosion of mana circuits. Death as a result. It was the price for obtaining excessive information.
"Most don't last a year before the pain of their mana circuits burning drives them to suicide. But this girl has the Curse of Magic Decomposition."
"Ah...! So she won't die because of mana."
"Exactly. It means she can endure Dreamer's Delusion without dying. From what I've heard, she's already lived with the curse for three years. Considering most die within a year, this is extremely rare. She'll never be able to handle mana in her body again, but she won't die from Dreamer's Delusion."
If the slave trader's words were true, this was a monumental discovery.
Her value would skyrocket, much like Olivia, whose true worth the slave trader hadn't recognized.
"Then what role does the Curse of Over-recognition play?"
"It's the Curse of Over-recognition, not information overload. Anyway, it seems to keep her from going insane. While Dreamer's Delusion strips away reality and drives a person mad in exchange for glimpses of another world, the Curse of Over-recognition forcibly holds her back. It constantly reminds her that this is the true reality through the sheer volume of sensory input."
In the end, the most important curse was Dreamer's Delusion, the Curse of Over-recognition kept her from going mad, and the Curse of Magic Decomposition provided physical stability.
These three curses were complementing each other. The result was a knowledge vending machine that spat out information from another dimension.
What would happen if the Magic Tower got wind of her? They would buy her up instantly. The slave trader probably didn't have the credentials to enter the Magic Tower, so he was trying to sell her to me instead. Whatever the internal circumstances, I had to buy her first.
"How much?"
"I'll need at least 100 gold. What do you think?"
100 gold?
Is this guy crazy? 100 gold is a bit much, no matter what... Actually, I should buy her even if it costs 100 gold, but I wanted to avoid such a large expenditure.
I had to drive the price down.
"Why on earth are you asking for 100 gold? You're killing me."
"Hey! I told you, she has knowledge from another dimension!"
"It might be knowledge from another dimension. It's not confirmed. And we don't even know if that knowledge can be put to practical use yet. Why are you asking for 100 gold already? If she knew how to use that information, she would have joined the Magic Tower as a researcher long ago."
"...Tch. Fine, just give me 40 gold."
40 gold seemed reasonable.
If things aligned perfectly and we actually managed to create something, it would be a technological revolution.
Being able to use a telephone? That alone would provide a massive advantage. Adventurers could split into teams to tackle the Labyrinth while maintaining strategic communication.
And if I could introduce radio functionality to my golem army? That would be a straight-up revolution.
"Alright, I'll take her. What's her name?"
"The thing is, no one knows her real name. She told me to call her A2."
"A2?"
"Yeah. She wouldn't tell me what it meant."
Does it mean A2?
I decided to put her in my "shopping cart" for now.
If I bought A2, wouldn't it be best to send her to the annex to live with Rien?
Rien might be able to pull this girl's knowledge into the realm of practical application. Furthermore, I had Helena.
If I put Helena and Rien together with her, couldn't they actually create something? They could establish the field of Magic Engineering.
"I'll reserve her for now. Who's next?"
"That one over there is a girl who turned into a Dryad subspecies. I haven't quite figured out her specific abilities yet. I haven't been able to look after her properly because I was busy with A2, but I thought she'd be a good fit for your greenhouse."
The girl crouching in the corner was a humanoid plant with hair made of leaves. No, was she a plant-like human?
Anyway, seeing her teary-eyed, she seemed quite heartbroken over losing her home.
—A Dryad subspecies? No. That is an Alraune.
'An Alraune?'
—Yes. They appear on the 7th Floor. I think you should buy her. We don't know what abilities she might possess.
Since Helena suggested buying her, I decided to claim her as well.
"Actually, her value is high enough that I could sell her to the Alchemist Guild, so I'd like at least 35 gold."
"Wow, starting with a low price so I can't haggle, are we?"
"Exactly. If you have a conscience, you won't try to cut it any further."
"Sigh... What's her name?"
"She said it's Ali."
"Ali. Got it."
Following Helena's advice to get her no matter what, I added her to the cart. 35 gold was cheap.
So, that took care of the slaves for the greenhouse and the annex. The last one was a slave to help Marin clean and manage the main house.
A listless 'beastman' lying on the bed.
Yes. The final candidate was a furry... wait, is that even a furry?
"That's a lizard, right?"
"Yes. Her name is Telun. She doesn't shed fur, and she can clean while sticking to the walls—the ultimate worker. She'll even eat all the cockroaches and mice in the house. She's basically a one-woman extermination service."
"How much?"
"30 gold. How about it? Since she's a lizard type, she'll have a long lifespan as long as she molts properly. She doesn't get sick easily, either. Poison and food poisoning don't affect her. And her physical abilities are quite high, so if you train her well, you might even be able to take her back into the Labyrinth. Though she gets a bit sluggish in the cold... I'm not sure if she can handle the Labyrinth's chill."
Marin who eats dust and Telun who exterminates pests? Isn't this the ultimate combo?
And I'm getting three slaves for a total of 105 gold?
This was actually a bargain. To buy an ordinary human slave, I would have had to pay at least 50 gold for just one.
Because they were cursed, a discount was automatically applied. Still... I wanted to shave off a bit more.
"Drop the extra five."
"Damn it. Fine, 100 gold."
Since I got them for 5 gold cheaper, it was definitely a win.