Chapter 194
Chapter 194
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 193
Chapter Title: Robbery, Dog, and Cat
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There was so much I wanted to say.
Starting with how they knew about the first timeline.
How they had obtained the soul from the first timeline.
And how they had pinpointed it as Kim Shin-woo, not Deus.
Just who this unidentified being in front of me was, and what kind of power they possessed.
There were so many questions, but first.
“You're saying... you'll sell this?”
As Aria cautiously asked, for some reason, it felt like the presence in the darkness had smirked slyly.
“Yes. I specially prepared it as the item you'd most desire.”
The item I'd most desire.
Every word choice rubbed her the wrong way, but even so, Aria tried her best to feign composure as she asked.
“How much?”
She subtly placed her money pouch on the counter. The heavy weight produced a satisfying clink of coins.
It was an amount that would make any merchant's eyes flicker, even briefly. Yet the shopkeeper gripped the soul of first-timeline Kim Shin-woo without the slightest twitch.
“You can't pay with money. What I want from you, Lady Aria, isn't something like that.”
“......”
“What I want from you is just two things. Fulfill one, and this is yours.”
One of two?
Aria nodded for him to continue, and the figure, now shifted to male form, gleamed golden eyes from the darkness.
“One is your destiny as the hero.”
“......!”
“Sell me your fate—the one where you must save the world.”
Such a thing was possible?
A flurry of confused thoughts raced through her mind, but the man pressed on.
“The other is your memories.”
“Me, memories?”
“Give me the memories you hold of a world different from this one.”
Memories of a world different from this one?
“You mean the first timeline?”
As Aria asked carefully, the man paused dramatically before replying with flair.
“Exactly.”
A sudden silence fell, leaving Aria puzzled. But her gaze remained fixed on the soul Kim Shin-woo clutched in the man's hand.
What should she do with this?
Her destiny as the hero, or the memories of the first timeline.
If she had to give one, which would it be? She weighed them in her heart for an instant.
“I'm not buying.”
The answer came out surprisingly straightforward.
“Hmm.”
The man's eyes, glowing alone in the darkness, held a calm emotion.
Seeming quite surprised, he let out a low hum and asked in the same tone as before.
“You're really not buying? It's the one thing you need most.”
“I've already buried those memories in my heart.”
Of course, they still ached every time she thought of them. But that didn't mean she could sell off what made her who she was now.
Besides.
“Both of the things you asked for... someone I know already took them from me.”
Second-timeline Kim Shin-woo, who had accepted and denied the first-timeline memories without rejection.
And he had taken on her hero's destiny in her stead as well.
In truth, Aria had no choice left.
“......”
For the first time, the shopkeeper clamped his mouth shut. Watching him, Aria turned without retrieving her pouch and headed for the door.
“First time anyone's left my shop without buying anything.”
The owner, about to clap as if applauding Aria's resolute departure.
Click.
Reaching the entrance, Aria locked the door and turned back toward the shopkeeper.
“Sorry, but I'm not a customer anymore.”
Flames lit the darkness.
“I'm a robber, you bastard.”
Mana flames erupted from Aria's entire body, spreading through the shop and devouring the space itself.
“How dare you.”
The shopkeeper's darkness lifted.
Across from the counter sat a man with long white hair. Seeing his vertically slit pupils, Aria realized he was a demon.
“Take Professor as a hostage in front of me?”
Reaching out, Aria tried to summon the greatsword Duatain she favored in the second timeline.
But her palm grasped nothing. Only scattering mana slipped futilely between her fingers.
To such an Aria, the man smiled faintly and replied.
“Quite the special place, isn't it? Not even a god could find us here.”
In other words, nothing could be called in from outside the shop.
“Ah, I see.”
But Aria scoffed at such a minor restriction, clenching her fists and stepping forward.
The fierce mana flames unfurling behind her reflected her current emotions.
“Then I'll beat you to death.”
* * *
“Woof.”
A dog's bark echoed in the lab.
Not a real dog barking, but someone who broke a promise turned into one.
“Woof woof.”
“Bark moderately.”
I snapped at Pindenai, who for some reason had dog ears and had been barking beside me all day.
“Woof woof woof.”
“......”
Pindenai just kept barking, offering no response.
One could say she was faithfully upholding her own words from when she got drunk next time and claimed to be a dog.
But she hadn't started like this from the beginning today.
Hungover and craving something spicy, she made a fuss about boiling hangover stew with the lab's alcohol lamp.
I told her to cut it out, kid.
Just that one word, and she's been like this since.
‘She must really hate being called a kid.’
A form of protest directed at me.
An absurd threat that she'd be annoying if I called her a kid.
“Woof woof.”
“Sigh.”
Even if I chase her out, she comes back. Lock the door, and she picks the spare key to get in and do this right beside me.
“I get it now, so stop.”
It was my declaration of surrender, but Pindenai glanced at me slyly and replied.
“You think a dog stops barking just because its owner asks?”
“......”
“Woof woof.”
Should I just seal her mouth with magic?
As I pondered that, Erika entered after opening the door.
She had been here moments ago but left upon seeing Pindenai with the dog ears.
She entered hesitantly, holding cat ears in her hand.
“......”
“No, uh... These were left in the warehouse from the festival.”
As she tried to slyly put them on her head, I warned her.
“Don't.”
“Pindenai said you like stuff like this?”
Erika glanced at Pindenai, demanding an explanation. Pindenai immediately responded.
“Iluania told me she did a lot of that play with you.”
“You know that wasn't me anymore, right?”
“Who cares if I know. Same body. I was wondering why she sucked my ass, but it was 'cause she dressed you up as a dog bastard? Did the owner dress up too?”
Then she jammed the dog headband right onto my head.
[Pfft!]
[Oh my, you look cuter now.]
Whoosh.
I immediately burned the headband on my forehead with mana. Glaring at the black necromancer and Stella.
[R-Run!]
[Hehe, let's go together, senpai.]
The two fled straight through the wall.
I shot up, twisting to fling open the window behind my chair.
“Well, yeah, dog bastards lick each other's asses, so of course you'd dress up as dogs if...”
Muttering to herself as if she'd figured it out, Pindenai went flying out the window via wind magic.
Pindenai soared without even screaming. The drop was several stories, but she landed cleanly below without a scratch, her temper intact.
“Whew.”
My anger hadn't fully dissipated, but the quiet was at least satisfying.
I refocused, planning the trip to the misc shop via the thread left by Ophelia's daughter.
“......”
Then Erika crept closer slyly.
Owen had left for street performances in the park, and Professor Per was catching a rare full night's sleep, so it was just us.
Whoosh.
She donned the cat headband and climbed onto my desk on all fours.
“Hey, meow?”
“......”
“Can't you at least react?”
Erika's face flushed with embarrassment. I realized it wasn't my imagination that the once cold and sharp Erika had been oddly changing around me lately.
“It's annoying, get down.”
“I just tried on a whim.”
As she whimpered pointlessly, avoiding my gaze while trying to get off the desk.
Screeech!
A harsh door-opening sound tore through the lab's air.
“......!”
The thread reacted instantly, and I unwittingly snapped my head up. A purple door yawned open on the lab ceiling.
The door to Claire's Misc Shop, seen countless times in the game.
I couldn't understand why it was on the ceiling, but I gathered mana to leap anyway.
Instead, a black-haired girl burst out from within, cursing.
“You bastard!”
Aria landed on the lab floor, enveloped in her own mana.
The mana took the shape of flames, cushioning her fall. She then used them as footholds to rocket upward again.
“Aria?”
Erika's bewildered voice made Aria's gaze snap over.
And in that moment.
Screeech.
Thud!
The door shut and vanished.
Just over a second.
Caught off guard by the sudden event, Erika and I could only stare. Aria emerged from outside the door, grinding her teeth as she glared at the spot on the ceiling where the door had disappeared, reining in her mana.
Slowly withdrawing her mana, Aria took a deep breath and looked our way.
“......You two do that kind of play too?”
She eyed the cat ear headband on Erika's head, her expression subtle.
“Th-this is...!”
Erika frantically removed the headband and hid it behind her.
“Claire's Misc Shop?”
Brushing past flustered Erika, I asked. Aria nodded vigorously and shouted.
“Yeah, Professor! But something was off!”
“What were they selling?”
I'd heard the basics from Ophelia, but more info was always better.
I asked Aria on a hunch they hadn't offered her the same thing as Ophelia.
Aria pulled something from her bosom with a serious yet subtly proud expression and whispered.
“They were selling first-timeline Professor's soul.”
“......”
“But they demanded something ridiculous as payment? So I robbed it!”
She proudly presented it, having failed to kill the owner but snatched the soul.
“Huh?”
It was just a lump of mud wetting her hand.