Chapter 16
Chapter 16
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Vine
Chapter: 15
Chapter Title: The Information Merchants
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Rachel opened her eyes. An unfamiliar ceiling came into view, and she pondered for a moment where she was before recalling the answer. This was an unknown place.
"Ah, I got stabbed by a knife."
She had died in various ways over the rounds, but getting stabbed by a person was a first.
Click. The door opened, and a pink-haired woman entered carrying a tray.
"You're awake?"
"You!"
Without her glasses, Rachel hadn't recognized her at first, but the voice made it clear—this was the woman who had stabbed her in the chest. She tried to grab the woman's collar but felt something off as she sat up.
"Huh?"
Her clothes had been changed, and there was no wound.
In disbelief, Rachel felt around the spot where she had been stabbed.
"Sorry about that. But I used a Healing Potion right away to heal you, you know?"
The woman said as she set the tray down on the bedside table.
Priests had the ability to heal wounds, but their numbers were limited. For that reason, the temple infused holy water with healing Divine Power and sold it as Healing Potions for those who couldn't summon a priest. The effect was reliable, but they were extremely expensive.
The woman was saying she had used one. Rachel replied cynically, however.
"Isn't it only natural to patch up the hole you poked in someone's chest?"
"You're not buying it, huh."
The pink-haired woman rubbed the back of her neck awkwardly.
"It's hard to gloss over with words like this, but we had our reasons."
"So you poke a hole in someone's body first to see if they're suspicious?"
"An assassin sent by Baron Paris Emporus?"
The woman ventured tentatively. Rachel's brows furrowed instinctively.
She recalled the words she had faintly heard before passing out. The "that bastard" they had referred to was apparently Paris Emporus.
'They've been enemies for a while, it seems.'
And not just a one-off encounter, by the looks of it.
In the previous round, Paris Emporus had complained in front of Rachel about Abyss getting in his way. Now it appeared they were at the point of sending assassins at each other.
'No, how often do you have to send them for her to suspect even a kid like me of being one?'
Rachel sighed wearily, and the woman continued.
"Hmm, a dead person couldn't send an assassin, though."
At her words, Rachel blinked.
"Who's dead right now?"
"Paris Emporus. I just heard. Apparently, he was murdered?"
She should have felt relieved to hear he was dead, but an ominous premonition gripped Rachel instead.
He was dead, yet the Danger Level hadn't budged from 72%. So where was that Danger Level coming from?
"By whom?"
"Evelyn Emporus. His brother's wife, apparently? So now they're saying Henri, the younger brother, schemed with his wife to kill him for the baron's title... Why the long face?"
Noble assassination in this country was punishable by death. Why else would there be assassins? To hide the killer's identity.
But the fact that her own mother had killed the baron had come to light. It was shocking news for Rachel.
"Was she alone? No one else there?"
"I don't know the details. I just heard Sari Emporus reported it urgently."
Peace the priestess and Enoch had been there too, but only her mother had become the criminal—there was no mention of those two.
If they testified about the Black Sorcerer, it would have been fine.
"What went wrong?"
Rachel muttered, biting her nails.
The woman placed a hand on Rachel's shoulder and asked.
"What's wrong?"
"My mother killed the baron."
This woman had tried to harm her, but right now, Rachel had nowhere else to turn for help.
She had come seeking Abyss to deal with Paris Emporus, but he was dead, and Evelyn was about to be too. Rachel needed assistance.
Hearing this, the woman blinked. She rubbed her chin, tilting her head this way and that as she observed Rachel closely.
"So you're Rachel?"
Rachel hesitated to answer. The woman knew her. She hadn't recognized her face, but Rachel needed to figure out why she knew about her.
"Yes."
Sensing Rachel's wariness, the woman spread her palms forward reassuringly and explained.
"No need to be so guarded. I learned about it while investigating people around Paris Emporus."
Even so, Rachel kept her lips pressed tight, so the woman added a few more words.
"We wouldn't waste an expensive Healing Potion on someone we meant to kill, right? We just want to know the truth."
The word "truth" made Rachel's fingers twitch involuntarily. She had meant to hide the regressions, but the woman had immediately sensed she was concealing something.
"From what we've investigated, Evelyn isn't the type to harm others recklessly. Even if she killed Paris, the title wouldn't go to your father."
Rachel nodded at that. But then she straightened up, realizing the woman had given her information.
"You're not aware since you've been here, but this case is fishy. It's like someone's deliberately trying to get Evelyn killed—the judgment is proceeding way too fast."
Her words shook Rachel. She had no other place to seek help now. She couldn't just keep her guard up against them forever.
"My mother killed the baron because he was a Pseudo-Contractor of the demon! The priestess was with them too."
"That guy was a demon's... Yeah, that tracks."
Unlike the anxious Rachel, the woman muttered nonchalantly. She even looked relieved now that she knew the truth.
Meanwhile, Rachel could only thump her chest in frustration.
Just then, a navy-haired young man entered the room. The pink-haired woman turned to him.
"You're back? What'd they say?"
"Death sentence. He's connected higher up than we thought."
Rachel realized the "death sentence" was for her mother.
'I need to gather information before regressing.'
"Who exactly?"
But the man she presumed was Abyss ignored Rachel's question and spoke only to the woman.
"And apparently, this little one is her daughter."
"Yeah, I just found out too."
Excluded from their conversation, Rachel stepped in front of him.
"Don't ignore me. I came to ally with you against the baron! Sure, you attacked me out of nowhere so I couldn't do anything, but I deserve to hear about my mother and the baron too."
The man fixed his iris-like purple eyes on Rachel.
He smirked as if finding the situation amusing.
"So, self-proclaimed prophet. What happens next?"
He was mocking her. Rachel caught on and clenched her teeth for a moment.
With things as they were, she had nothing left to lose.
"If my mother lives, there's a future. If she turns to morning dew on the execution ground, I'll regress!"
"Uh, um. Miss Rachel, are you insane? I'm scared of dealing with crazy people."
The pink-haired woman shrugged awkwardly. Her attitude only angered Rachel more.
But the navy-haired man narrowed his eyes and spoke.
"If you do regress, will you visit this place again?"
"Yes. You're the only force that can check the baron."
"The baron's already dead?"
"He'll be alive again after I regress."
The man continued the conversation as if intrigued. But his condescending gaze remained.
"And don't just ask one-sidedly. We take turns with questions and answers!"
"Fine. What do you want to ask?"
"Who are the higher-ups trying to kill my mother? The baron was a Black Sorcerer. My mother wouldn't have stayed silent about that."
Black Sorcerers were special criminals. With clear evidence, you could kill them first and report it later.
There had to be a reason Evelyn killed him. Maybe she discovered his ties to demons.
'And yet they're ignoring her claim and trying to execute her... meaning those higher-ups are connected to the Black Sorcerer too...'
"The reason she gave? She claimed she was treated to a meal by him, the priests collapsed, so she attacked. That's what she told the knights who caught her."
Hearing that, Rachel realized immediately.
'Poison!'
The baron had used poison to eliminate the obstructing priests. Before the poison, Enoch could have purified it, but since Rachel hadn't mentioned poison this time, Peace the priestess, Enoch, and her mother had all ingested it.
"But Sari Emporus gave contrary testimony. He said Evelyn Emporus was a witch who poisoned the priests first and then tried to kill her brother-in-law and him. The higher-ups, bribed by Sari, took his side."
Rachel couldn't stop the sigh escaping her lips. The enemies weren't just one. Sari Emporus—her second uncle—was an enemy too.
She was furious at herself for not even knowing who her enemies were by the 16th round.
"Damn it!"
It would have been one thing if they were distant, but they were both close to her.
"Now it's my turn? Are we meeting for the first time?"
"Yes."
At Rachel's curt reply, the man shrugged.
"Figured as much. You said earlier we're the only force that can check the baron? Looks like our efforts weren't in vain."
His smug, relaxed face irritated her, so Rachel raised her voice.
"No, totally meaningless—the baron went bankrupt right after becoming count!"
At her shout, the man's eyebrow twitched. His cold demeanor, usually curled in a sneer, now betrayed clear displeasure, making him look menacing.
Who would think that face belonged to a merchant? Rachel shut her mouth and grumbled inwardly.
"Abyss, boss?"
The pink-haired woman called to the man. Abyss held up his palm to silence her.
"So, the regressor will ditch us the moment she thinks we're no help?"
"This question's mine. What's your deal?"
The more she talked with Abyss and the pink-haired woman, the less they seemed like ordinary merchants.
They gathered information fast. In a world without radio or internet, they knew too much about events in Harpa Castle and her mother.
'Unless I was unconscious for a long time.'
But her body felt perfectly normal, so it couldn't have been that long.
"You're sharp for a regressor; not clueless at all."
Moreover, this Abyss guy seemed to believe she was a regressor. The pink-haired woman stared at him, utterly baffled by his thinking.
"Just us?"
"Revealing only our info is a loss, but for that first step of trust, we'll be honest. Think 'information merchant' rings a bell?"
It clicked. The baron had only called Abyss a "merchant," so Rachel had assumed he led a huge trading company. But that was a prejudice.
He was an information merchant who bought and sold intel.
"You're accepting a non-existent concept quick. Are information merchants common in your future?"
"No."
Rachel knew the value of information because she came from a modernized Earth.
People here got info through social circles or guilds—they had no concept of buying it from an information merchant for money or favors.
"Now my turn. Same question as before."
"If it's the same question, well."
At Rachel's unhesitating answer, the man leaned against the wall and crossed his arms.
"Too straightforward a reaction?"
"This timeline's doomed anyway. If my mother dies, I regress."
"So regression isn't something you control at will?"
"Don't sneak in extra questions?"
"Not working, huh."
"If I come here next time after regressing, how do I do it?"
Next time—in the next round—what should she do so they wouldn't attack?
Abyss turned to the pink-haired woman. Naturally, Rachel's gaze followed.
"See, from our perspective, you looked super suspicious, Miss Rachel. We disguise as an adult toy shop on the surface, you know."
Rachel was taken aback by the woman's words. She hadn't known. No goods were visible.
"I didn't know!"
"Of course—it's a place only those in the know visit. The merchandise is on the second floor. Doesn't a non-adult lady approach with lies in a place like that? Super suspicious, right?"
Even Rachel thought she had been plenty suspicious.
"Plus, we know some of the baron's secrets, so we've been heavily targeted by him."
"Assassins came too."
Abyss added to the woman's words.
"I thought the baron sent you because you're my type."
The woman wiggled her ten fingers as she spoke. She looked like such a pervert that Rachel shrugged her shoulders.
"This sister's not dangerous. So don't be scared."
"After stabbing me with a knife."
"Ugh!"
At Rachel's retort, the woman, who had been grinning slyly, pretended to be struck.
Rachel snorted and looked back at Abyss.