Chapter 193
Chapter 193
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 192
Chapter Title: Clair's General Store
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What the criterion was, in the end.
I couldn't find out clearly.
But if I had to guess, it seemed like the execution began when Ophelia herself truly believed she loved someone and then judged that her love had faded.
In the end, creating a situation where Ophelia discarded her narcissism, even if just for a moment.
That was exactly the method I used to summon her daughter, and it worked perfectly.
The daughter said nothing.
She simply approached her mother slowly, a pitch-black shadowy figure with only red glowing eyes flickering.
"S-Spare me! Please spare meee!"
Ophelia screamed at the approaching daughter.
I was tempted to just let it happen, but the reason I summoned her daughter wasn't to kill Ophelia.
"Do you know anything about Clair's General Store?"
I asked flatly behind the daughter's head. But the daughter showed no reaction.
"Hoo."
I didn't want to do this to the victim, her daughter.
Black iron chains erupted from the floor and table, binding the daughter's wrists.
It was a technique called the Necromancer's Chains, often used to handle evil spirits.
[.......]
The daughter's neck slowly turned.
Only after rotating 180 degrees did the girl finally look at me from behind.
It was hard to even call her a girl.
Just a pitch-black form with bloodshot red eyes.
As I'd said before, the form a soul takes stems from the mind and will.
For example, Stella—who had lost an eye, her left hand, and her lower body—was intact in soul form.
If you could fully maintain your sanity, you didn't have to carry physical wounds into your soul.
But most people carried the wounds they'd suffered in life straight into their soul state.
The opposite held true as well, of course.
"I'm sorry."
I couldn't help but apologize as I looked at the girl carrying wounds into her soul that she hadn't even suffered in life.
How much pain and suffering must she have endured to distort her own soul beyond recognition?
Did she hear my apology?
The girl's fidgeting to break the chains stopped.
Her already shattered soul gradually calmed, waiting for my words.
"Can you answer the questions I ask from now on?"
[...Why?]
The voice scraped like fingernails on a chalkboard, chilling to the bone. It was like what a throat burned to ashes might sound like.
I knew the questions ahead would dredge up painful memories for this little girl, so I asked carefully but firmly.
"To prevent others from becoming victims like you. And..."
[.......]
"To avenge you."
Her red eyes trembled briefly, then she clenched her fists and nodded courageously.
With permission granted, I started with the most foundational question.
"Clair's General Store. Do you know it?"
[...Yes.]
Just recalling it made her body shudder in fear.
At the same time, the clanking of the chains binding her wrists echoed.
I reached out, dissolving the chains back into mana to free her, then continued.
"Who owned that place?"
The Clair I knew was a lively man of small stature, almost childlike at a glance.
His distinguishing feature was his large nose.
[A tall man.]
'As expected.'
It was someone different from the Clair I knew, but the answer didn't end there.
[A scary woman.]
'Two?'
[A small child.]
"......"
[A old man with a strange voice, a man with twisted hands, a woman missing one eye, a frightening-looking man, a burly man.......]
The answers kept pouring out.
I wondered if some unspeakable curse bound her tongue regarding the store, but no, that wasn't it.
The girl was simply listing all the store owners she'd seen.
"That's enough."
[.......]
Logically, it was unlikely so many people were running the store.
'They're probably changing faces.'
A common trick.
A way to hide their true identity.
"What did that owner do to you?"
[Ah.]
At my words, the girl stiffened as if struck, crouched down, and began trembling violently.
It wasn't that she didn't want to say it—she was tormented just by remembering.
That's when I realized why her soul had twisted like this.
'They inflicted such mental agony that it warped even her soul's form.'
Or perhaps they used necromancy or something similar to damage her soul directly.
"I'm sorry. Forget that question."
I placed a hand on the girl's shoulder, trying to soothe her.
But the moment I did, threads comprising her being flowed toward me.
They crept up my arm, coiled around my hand, then snapped off cleanly.
"This."
The thin thread detached from her core tried to return to the girl.
And that's when I realized this was her way of guiding me to Clair's General Store.
Her soul itself had been sold and bound to the store, so if she returned, the thread in my hand would lead the way.
"Thank you."
I couldn't grant her repose right now. Nor could I leave her out here forever.
To save her, I needed to return to the store.
And for that...
My gaze settled calmly on Ophelia.
At the same time, the girl's neck twisted back to face her.
"G-Get out! Get out, you monster!"
I didn't bother asking the girl's feelings. After all, she'd been sold to Clair's General Store and had a mission to complete.
"At least that's fortunate."
"W-What?!"
I answered Ophelia's question flatly.
"If this girl returns to Clair's General Store, I'll track it down and save her."
"T-Then tell her to go back now!"
"But she can't return without taking your life."
The contract hadn't been fulfilled yet.
I ignored Ophelia, now pale as a ghost, and pulled out one of the liquor bottles within reach.
Chilled in ice, the bottle radiated cold as I poured. Faint vapor rose, filling a glass.
At least the liquor on my tongue would make the bitter scene less heartbreaking.
Parents who sold their daughter without hesitation.
Died by their daughter's unhesitating hand.
"Nooooo!"
Swooooosh!
The daughter's form unraveled like threads, pouring into Ophelia's eyes, nose, and mouth.
It then ripped out Ophelia's soul and absorbed it into itself.
That must have been how souls vanished without external wounds.
Probably some ruled as accidents, though unfortunate circumstances like limp bodies post-mortem gave it away.
It wasn't a pleasant sight.
Whether willed or not.
Even if revenge, a daughter taking her mother's soul.
But at least...
"Be satisfied that your death became the trigger for your daughter's repose."
Whether you'd be content with me rescuing the girl's soul from Clair's General Store, I couldn't say.
That was the only thing I could do for mother and daughter.
Crash!
Then the door splintered as waiters burst in. Such places saw endless incidents, so burly men followed store owner Poton in a rush.
"W-What happened?"
Seeing me sober and standing, Ophelia sprawled alone on the floor, they asked in confusion.
Without hesitation, I replied.
"She collapsed suddenly. Heart attack."
You probably responded just as flatly to the deaths you dealt.
It wasn't a pleasant mood.
* * *
"Kwaaaang!"
In the chilly cold still called winter, Aria roared like a sulk after chopping firewood.
Back in her hometown village after nearly a year.
She helped her parents, of course, and piled firewood high for the village elders.
They kept trying to give her rewards for her kindness, but she stubbornly refused.
"Why are you yelling? You offered to help."
Aria's mother scolded her, and Aria pouted.
"It's not that. I just want to get back to the academy."
"Hmm? Don't kids usually prefer breaks?"
"Not me."
After stacking the dropped logs, Aria stretched.
"Fweeeh! What's for dinner?"
"Stew. Good-for-you stew with lots of broccoli."
"...Should've caught that wild boar earlier."
Winter shortages drove boars to attack humans, but they fled from Aria.
Animals instinctively knew not to charge her. Sometimes beasts seemed wiser than people.
"I'll heat the stew, so cover the central pile with the tarp before the snow soaks the wood."
"Got it."
She draped a large tarp over the village-center pile for people to take as needed, then headed home.
How long since she'd spent break like a normal schoolgirl?
Humming those thoughts, Aria approached home.
"Hm?"
The small cabin housing her family.
Beside the entrance door hung another, stark and alone.
"What's this?"
It hadn't been there this morning.
A luxurious purple door with a sign dangling in front.
- Clair's General Store.
"Clair's General Store?"
It rang a bell, so Aria puzzled over it before clapping.
"Aha! Secret shop!"
A store run by Clair, the merchant traveling the continent.
First-years usually encountered it, but in her first playthrough, Aria knew nothing and passed it by, never meeting again.
Second playthrough, she was too busy elsewhere.
"First playthrough was bad luck."
Even Dayus in the first playthrough had told her what to do if she saw it, but luck kept her away.
"Tsk, but opening a shop next to someone's house door like this?"
She'd heard the owner was good-hearted but spineless—could use that in negotiations.
She grabbed the heavy pouch of adventure savings from under her bed and entered Clair's General Store.
Creaaaak.
"...Hm?"
The interior was dim, discomfort hitting the moment she stepped in.
Was it always like this?
Doubts aside, she ventured deeper.
The deeper she went, the more convinced Aria became that something was off.
'The energy feels murky.'
She couldn't explain precisely, but dozens of eyes in the store's darkness stared at her chillingly.
Shelves meant for goods were bare, dust thick upon them.
At the end.
A man at the counter.
Face shrouded in shadow, but his white-gloved hand stood out vividly.
"Welcome to Clair's General Store."
"......"
Suspicious, but challenging blindly as an ignorant outsider was unwise.
Aria glanced around subtly and asked.
"No goods at all?"
"Out of stock."
"......"
Too long empty for that, she almost said, then pivoted.
"So what do you sell?"
As Aria tilted her head, she felt the lips in the darkness stretch unnaturally wide.
A woman?
No—a man becoming a woman.
Strange energy whispered into her ear; Aria focused her mind.
Unnoticed, the man turned woman, then old man.
But the pure white-gloved hand remained, pulling out an item.
"I've prepared something custom for you, customer."
Knowing who I am.
Amid the old man's hearty chuckle, Aria suppressed irritation and checked his hand.
"...Huh?"
In his grasp was a small 'soul.'
One shaped like someone she knew very well.
Her lips trembled unwittingly. A hero's countless experiences, yet this grotesque terror was new.
Pins pricked her soles; breath constricted.
Emotions she'd buried sprouted anew in her heart.
"L-Liar."
The instant she saw the soul, Aria instinctively knew who it was.
But the shopkeeper named the merchandise.
"The soul of Kim Shin-woo from the first playthrough."