The Bizarre Cash Shop (4)
The academy grounds.
A full day had passed since Ian Darkest and Roella Amelia vanished.
The shock and terror of the Eclipse still pressed down on the entire campus like a lead weight, yet even beneath that crushing dread the survivors moved with frantic purpose.
From early morning the great hall had begun to throng with people.
"Come, come! Your attention, please! Bertrand Trading Company promises every knight and mage cadet we recruit a full set of top-tier custom equipment, a private manor within our territory, and an annual pension of fifty thousand rené!"
"You call that a recruitment offer? House Rosenheim will grant an immediate baronial title and the vice-captaincy of our personal knight order! For a mage, we'll even build you a private research facility!"
Temporary booths had been thrown up inside the hall, and students from the Territory Management Department were circling like fighting dogs with fire in their eyes, hurling outrageous terms at promising cadets from other departments — especially the standouts of the Swordsmanship and Magic Departments.
They called it the Emergency Talent Recruitment Fair.
A hastily assembled academy event, thrown together to match the upheaval that had followed the Eclipse.
From a corner of the hall, a handful of guild scouts on assignment watched the spectacle with bitter faces.
"Hah… Look at that. The top student of the Evans Knight Department already has offers from three separate count houses. His salary's already clearing a hundred thousand rené."
"Lilian from the Magic Department is even worse. The Magic Towers were already after her, and now there's a fief lord offering her a stake in his territory. Have they all gone mad?"
"One Eclipse changed everything. Those brats' market value shot through the roof overnight… What's a professional scout like us supposed to eat now?"
They sighed.
The unprecedented catastrophe of the Eclipse had shaken the empire's balance of power to its foundations, and the aftershock was slamming into the academy's talent market as well.
Then —
One of the scouts let out a cry that was nearly a scream of pure shock.
"Th-there!"
Where he pointed, Linea Judith was walking toward them.
"Linea Judith? What's she doing here…?"
"Don't tell me the Magic Tower is trying to poach talent too?"
"Heh heh…"
Despair settled over their faces.
And why wouldn't it? If the Magic Towers entered the bidding war, securing talent would become all but impossible.
The value of proven knights and mages had skyrocketed, and fief lords were staking their houses' very survival on locking down recruits.
And now the Magic Towers on top of that!
But then —
"W-wait. Why is she going over there?"
The place Linea Judith stopped was not among the employers.
It was on the side of those receiving offers.
Confusion rippled outward with Linea Judith at its center.
Meanwhile, amid that chaotic crowd, Cassian Leonhardt was scanning her surroundings with growing agitation.
Her eyes were searching for one person only: Ian Darkest.
Where in the world did you disappear to, Ian Darkest…!
After her territory was half-destroyed and her family lost, Cassian had begun thinking of Ian almost by reflex.
Unlike her, who had ignored his warning, he had foreseen the disaster and prepared for it — and had even fought and survived against those unknown aberrations.
He clearly knew something the rest of them did not.
But Ian was nowhere to be seen. From the moment the emergency council ended the day before, he had simply vanished.
To not even show up at a talent recruitment event this critical…
In a situation like this, he has no interest in recruiting talent…?
Cassian could not understand it.
At the same time, anxiety closed in on her.
With a territory the size of hers, she could not afford the elite students whose prices were currently rocketing through the ceiling. Already several powerful houses were sweeping up talent with outrageous terms — massive salaries, land ownership within their fiefs, even rights of succession to family titles.
What am I supposed to do? Focus the budget on reconstruction, or force a recruitment even if it means overreaching?
Lost in deep deliberation, Cassian continued to wander the hall, still searching the crowd for any sign of Ian. If he were here, he would have some advice — any advice at all.
Her territory was not large. Even reconstruction alone was already overwhelming; taking on cadets whose value had exploded carried real risk. And yet she could not simply sit and wait for the next disaster with no preparations at all.
What should I do…?
What would Ian have done?
Was his absence itself some kind of hint?
She could find no footing, and could only stare blankly into the throng, still hunting for Ian's face.
"Not buying? Not buying? Not buying?"
Like a broken record, James's voice rang out with a mad edge.
His hollow eyes had turned a dark, bloody red, and the torn corners of his mouth stretched even wider into something grotesque.
Damn it.
I wanted to run that second, but I couldn't.
The market's rules.
You must never refuse or ignore a "staff member's" sales pitch.
Do that, and… you might end up as this shop's newest "employee," just like James.
"W-wait just a moment…"
Roella suddenly started rummaging through her clothes.
Then she pulled out jewels, gold ornaments, and a heavy magic stone.
Just how good was that magic stone?
Wasn't it way too heavy to be carrying around?
"C-can we do something with these?"
She looked at me, eyes brimming with tears.
I stared back at her, a little impressed.
Even under this level of terror, her reason was still functioning properly.
She had identified the things she believed held value, and was checking them with me — the one who looked like he had experience.
Honestly, it was almost admirable.
Most ordinary people would have had their minds snap and either bolted or started thrashing around at random.
"I-it's not like I'm sorry or anything…! I-it just seems like it was my fault!"
And look at that — she was still maintaining her prim young-lady character on top of everything.
"Put them away. No matter how much gold you've got, it's worthless here."
Unfortunately, the newbie's efforts went up in smoke just like that.
Soothing the earnest newbie, I desperately spun the gears in my head.
I have to buy something. Anything.
That was the most basic and essential condition for escape.
The problem was that I had already burned through every item an aberration would consider valuable.
In this place's transactions, the values that held in human society meant nothing.
You had to think from an aberration's point of view.
From an aberration's point of view.
Usually it's a human body or soul.
L-let's exclude those. Those ones.
If those were the common currency among aberrations, then conversely there were also cases where each aberration wanted something different.
Like how some aberrations would accept Chaos Crystals in barter from time to time.
Then —
A thought suddenly flickered through my mind.
This guy. Wasn't he human until just a little while ago?
James.
The bastard had been human until moments ago. Even if he had now become a horrific aberration, at his core there should still be remnants of the James who had once been human.
Payment… payment… What does this guy want most right now?
In that case, what he craved most might not be some bizarre market good at all, but something thoroughly human.
Something that could stimulate the last remaining scrap of his humanity.
In that instant, one idea flashed through my head.
"Ah — wait."
I dug into my coat and pulled out a single item. Something I had brought along to mask the scent of the human world.
"This. I'll buy with this."
"……Ciga… rettes?"
The looping question from "what had been James" cut off cold.
His empty eyes locked onto the cigarette pack.
"How about it? Don't you want a smoke? Look at your boss over there. If you're going to work with something like that from now on, you're definitely going to need cigarettes."
Across that twisted face, something very faint — an expression from when he had been human, longing and rapture — seemed to flicker past. Drool dripped from his mouth onto the floor.
…Got him.
I cheered inwardly. As expected, no matter how much you turn into an aberration, you can't fake the fundamentals.
"Right. I'll give you this, so hand over one item that matches its value."
I spoke as casually as I could manage.
But "James" shook his head. No — more precisely, he bent his neck at a grotesque angle.
"The… rules… are… the customer… chooses… first…"
Damn it. Of course.
I had sensed it from the moment James got swallowed.
This stall was the absolute worst kind — the kind that hit customers with a "you pick first" policy.
I have to think this through as carefully as possible.
If I picked something more expensive than the cigarettes, my body would get torn apart on the spot.
Cigarettes.
In the human world they were nothing but a cheap vice, but to what had been James they carried the scarcity of "something I want to smoke right this second."
But how high that value actually sat was impossible to predict. If I chose something too expensive…
I swept my gaze quickly across the stall.
Flashy, powerful-looking relics.
Jewelry that looked like it was steeped in curses…
Honestly, every single one of them looked like it would have broken performance, but I forced my eyes away.
I had to play it safe. Something as shabby and worthless-looking as possible.
And that way, James will undervalue it too.
The bastard was a rookie who had only just become an aberration.
There was a high chance his human-era standards of judgment were still intact. James had never had a good eye for goods to begin with.
My gaze stopped on a single old sword in the corner of the stall, thick with dust.
A rusted blade and a chipped grip. Anyone could see it was junk that belonged in a scrap heap.
…That one.
I pointed at the sword.
"I'll take that sword."
"…Keh-keh-keh."
"James" let out a grotesque laugh, as if sneering, You picked something like that?
He obediently picked up the dust-caked sword and held it out to me.
In that instant —
From the darkness behind the stall, I felt the presence of the shop's true owner — an aberration with countless arms — stirring.
Damn. Was it more expensive than I thought?
Every kind of thought flooded my head.
Should I back out and take something else?
But there was no guarantee the owner wouldn't come out in the meantime.
And if cigarettes held no value for that thing?
Then we'd just be adding one more new employee.
I practically threw the cigarettes into what-had-been-James's arms and snatched the sword from his hand.
…Got it.
The moment you receive it, the deal is sealed.
The shop owner could demand a refund depending on the case.
So I just have to run before it speaks to us!
I grabbed Roella's wrist.
"Run, Roella!"
Without looking back, we sprinted for the black market's exit.
— "Gheheheheheheheek!"
Behind us, James's scream tore free at the same time as the true owner's enraged roar erupted from behind the stall.
KRRRRRMMMM!
Something like a massive shadow tentacle shot toward us!
"Kyaaah!"
Roella screamed, but I half-dragged her as I ran. I hadn't broken the rules. I had chosen an item, paid the price (cigarettes), and the transaction was complete.
So we should be able to leave this place!
"Run!"
The exit came into view. The same rippling seam in space we had entered through.
— Thud!
I threw myself and Roella through it, tumbling hard.
— KRRAAAAAAASH!
The massive shadow tentacle chased us right to our backs, but struck the boundary of the exit and bounced away.
At the same time —
The sensation of the world twisting.
And then…
"Gahk! Cough, cough!"
I spilled out onto cold, damp stone.
It was behind the academy's western annex, in front of the old fountain.
Roella had collapsed beside me as well, gasping for breath.
— "Guoooooh ghehehehehk…!"
Far off, the scream of what had been James rose — then cut off with a dull snap.
The black water inside the fountain was gone without a trace. Ordinary water glimmered faintly under the moonlight.
I muttered blankly.
"W-we made it."