Chapter 47
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 47
Chapter Title: Fun Pastime (2)
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The moon hung high in the night sky.
After finishing my shift at the meat restaurant, I was waiting for someone in the pond forest behind the old building.
My smartphone clock read 11:59:58... 59... 00.
Rustle-
Right at the stroke of midnight, footsteps approached.
I turned around and was slightly startled. There stood a suspicious figure dressed in rags.
It was Soliet.
"...Ah, you scared me."
She glanced around before pulling off the ragged hood. Her clear skin, jewel-like eyes, and red hair came into view one after another.
Red hair was fairly common on the continent, but Soliet and the Arkne family were different. Theirs was far more vivid and sparkling.
"We'll use this for contact from now on."
She held something out to me. It looked like an ordinary notebook, but—
"Shared notebook."
"...Shared, but this?"
"Shared notebook."
"It's a shared diary from the artifact shop."
Shared diary. Exactly as the name implied—a shared diary, but with a touch of magic.
Write in one, and the exact same content appears in the other. They were linked together.
"Shared notebook."
But Soliet was adamant.
The cover had originally read [Shared Diary], but it looked like she'd scratched out "diary" and rewritten it as "notebook."
"...Fine. Shared notebook. Sit down first."
I jerked my chin toward the stone bench across from me. I'd made the furniture myself for today's special guest. Call it customer service.
Soliet sat and asked,
"Did you bring the evidence?"
"Yeah."
I pulled out the file envelope. Soliet's eyes locked onto it.
"The file on that death in the underworld."
"Incident file... Please explain in detail."
"Hmm, it's simple. I figured if Nightmare hasn't died yet, a killing fiend like that would take at least one more life while kicking around."
I planned to throw her pre-regression words right back at the current Soliet.
"So I combed through every death and murder case from July 2011, when Nightmare was caught, up to now. The underworld alone had a ton."
That insane slog of personally cross-checking, analyzing, and scrutinizing those hundreds of thousands of cases? In her past life, Soliet had done it all alone.
She'd given up on college entrance exams, secluded herself, and spent nearly a year holed up in a room to uncover it.
"...Crazy. You investigated all of that by yourself?"
Soliet echoed in disbelief. I couldn't help but chuckle.
Even you think what you pulled off sounds insane.
"Yeah. And among them, I found the incident file that looks like Nightmare's handiwork."
Soliet swallowed hard. Her hand shot out before she even spoke.
"Is that it?"
"Yep. Take a look."
I handed her the envelope. She snatched it open eagerly and pulled out the file to read.
"Total of 73 stab wounds... What does that mean?"
"Nightmare's Spectrum is metallic mana—specifically, only 'sword.' You know that, right?"
"Yes."
Soliet nodded too.
Nightmare wielded a sword. But he had no foundation. No systematic swordsmanship.
That much was fairly well-known.
"The guy doesn't even need a sword. He just compresses his mana into something sharp, and boom—sword."
His mana was a blade in itself. That was Nightmare's Spectrum, a truly unique mana attribute even on the continent.
"The victim in that incident file had 73 stab wounds. But every single one was a different type. Like they'd been shredded by 73 distinct weapons. And no murder weapon was found at the scene."
"...Ah!"
Soliet let out a loud exclamation. Uncharacteristically vehement agreement from her.
"Exactly. He just dumped his mana out. No swinging, no slashing—just hurled it like throwing objects."
Nightmare had unleashed his mana. Seventy-three bundles of metallic mana had rained down like a hail of arrows from thin air, skewering the victim like a kebab.
A unique way to die.
With only one suspected culprit on the entire continent.
"Well?"
I looked at Soliet.
"..."
She said nothing. But moonlight filled her large eyes, and a deep blush rose on her face.
I leaned in close and could hear her heartbeat faintly in the quiet forest.
Thump. Thump.
I smiled faintly.
"Evidence. Solid, right?"
Soliet repeated blankly.
"...You really found this all by yourself?"
"Yeah. All alone."
Not a lie.
You did it alone.
"...Yes. Evidence received and confirmed."
She tucked the file under her arm.
"Don't tell anyone yet."
"Obviously. Do I look like a moron...?"
Somehow it felt lacking, so she hugged the evidence file like a newborn baby with both arms.
"Okay. Then."
I held out my hand to her.
She blinked at my hand.
"..."
She stared for a bit—no, quite a while—lost in thought, then shook her head coldly.
"No."
She said, sounding a little angry.
I furrowed my brow.
"What."
"Forgot the contract already?"
"Like hell."
"Then why pull this idiot move? If the contract mentions 'private conversation' and you think it's limited to just talking, you're dead wrong."
"Money."
"'Actions' too... What?"
"Pay up."
"..."
"Fork over the 20,000 ren salary."
Soliet's mouth snapped shut. She'd probably mistaken it for a handshake.
"Ahem—"
She cleared her throat awkwardly, fiddling with the back of her neck in embarrassment, but still didn't hand over the money.
I narrowed my eyes.
"No way you didn't bring it?"
"...Just give me a little time."
"What, no trust at all? Hand that back."
I reached for the evidence envelope. Soliet hurriedly hid it behind her back.
"I'm still a student. You think it's easy scraping together 20,000 ren in cash?"
"Who cares? You agreed to it. Who held a knife to your throat?"
"..."
"Free ride last time, huh? Habitual offender."
"Argh, damn it, that was..."
Soliet chewed her lip. Unable to find words, she sighed, her face slightly flushed.
"Give me just one more day."
"Pfft."
The laughter I'd held back burst out. Soliet shot me a sideways glare.
"Fine. Exactly 48 hours. Bring the 20,000 ren."
20,000 ren a month would be tough even for her. She wasn't getting any family support anyway. Nor did she plan to.
I knew that full well, but I wasn't going to go easy. I'd wring her down to the bone.
"If not in 48 hours, I'm suing."
She needed to learn how to work for a living.
To value life and money.
"...So stingy. Fine."
Soliet nodded with a pout and stood up.
Step step—
I watched her retreating back without turning around, and even after she'd vanished from the scene, for a good while longer.
A dark dwelling with not a single light on. Back in Frezium, Soliet tapped away at her laptop to check her account.
[3,132,015ℓ]
Three million ren.
Enough money, but withdrawing from this account would surely draw family interference.
That couldn't happen. To her family, she had to be the Soliet "focusing on the College Board." Sion Askal couldn't be discovered by them.
"...Ah."
Suddenly, as she pressed her temples in intense deliberation—
Crackle!
Static sparked in her mind.
She glanced around.
The dressing room stood wide open, filled with fluttering luxury items.
She'd bought only a handful herself. Most had been delivered unasked, with pleas to "wear it just once."
"Solution."
Sell them used at a shop. Just three would do it—even at half off half again, it'd be over 30,000 ren.
The answer had been right there nearby. Soliet let out a sigh of relief.
"Whew..."
But Soliet's worries didn't end there.
Her gaze fell on the incident file atop her desk.
[UNON-2012-19281]
Sion Askal. He'd investigated every murder file from nearly two years back. Including the underworld, that had to be hundreds of thousands of cases.
He'd analyzed them all alone and pinpointed one highly likely to be Nightmare's doing.
A method Soliet herself could never have imagined.
Sion Askal's determination was that formidable.
But Soliet's question wasn't "how."
"...Why?"
It was "why."
Money alone didn't add up. It demanded far too much time and effort.
So there was only one reason she'd accept.
"Sion Askal's been hunting Nightmare this whole time too..."
Did that mean he held a grudge against Nightmare as well?
Like her two years ago, had he lost someone precious to that monster?
"..."
Soliet gazed silently out the window. The scene from Fog Mountain last week lingered in the night sky.
Sion Askal, grabbing her hand at the cliff.
His sleeve had been missing a button.
The "683 cm" record still buzzing in the community forums was probably his.
And yet, he hid himself. Avoided the spotlight.
"Hmm..."
Soliet closed her eyes tightly. She severed the budding thoughts.
She shouldn't dig too deep. He was just her hired attendant, and she his client.
Just as he shouldn't pry into her past, she had no right to speculate on his.
That was the client-attendant relationship.
With her mind settled, Soliet opened her eyes and logged into the community site on her laptop.
Soon, the quiet room filled with the soft click-click of the mouse and the rapid tap-tap-tap of the keyboard.