Jeonyul Mansion - Successful Conquest
After sending Jack and Mei Ling into the mirror, I hurled myself after them.
Normally I wouldn't gamble on leaping into some unknown device, but after being hounded by automatons for an entire day, all I wanted was to get out of there as fast as possible.
Whoosh...
Once I emerged on the other side, I could finally see the lord's chamber in its entirety. The mirror had only reflected a tiny portion of it. The room was enormous and in complete disarray.
"So this is... the lord's chamber. No lord here? Jack, was anyone around?"
"No... it was empty."
"Huh..."
I scanned the surroundings. Aside from us, there wasn't a single sign of life. I'd expected some kind of boss monster or the lord himself, but apparently not.
Let's look around first.
I wandered through the space that could have been either a workshop or a lord's chamber. Scrolls and complicated blueprints lay scattered across a wooden table, along with various tools, sparkling gemstones, and hundreds of dolls hanging along one entire wall. At the far end were broken, failed creations that looked as though a potter had smashed them in a fit of rage.
Looking at the dolls on the wall, I felt a strange sense of déjà vu.
They look exactly like the gem merchant...
The faces of the dolls were disturbingly similar to the gem merchant's. Hundreds of them, all bearing the same face, lined up in rows. The same obsessive madness I'd felt when I saw the clones in the future was present here as well—the madness of some nameless monster who had lost his humanity chasing an impossible dream.
First, let's grab the ring.
I rifled through the lord's desk, which was piled high with documents. It had three drawers on each side. I easily found the Seal Ring in the second drawer on the right. Thanks to the hellish difficulty, it seemed no other players had reached this far. That meant we were the first to claim it.
A rose pattern...
With this, I'd obtained the quest item I absolutely needed. Now I just had to gather whatever else I could and return to the present. We didn't even need to find the grandfather clock. I already had the double-helix pocket watch. Once we jumped back to the present, I could finish off Nick with the drug and the magic tome, then head home in a good mood.
Thanks to the peddler, things are moving along nicely...
I was genuinely grateful. The compass, Universal Key, and pocket watch had saved me a ton of time. I should thank him properly later.
Before we leave, let's take everything we can.
The items in the lord's chamber looked like research materials that might help Hellers. I swept every scroll, unidentified book, and complex blueprint on the table into my large-capacity magic bag.
The bag could hold up to a ton without issue, so everything in the room that was supposedly a lord's chamber but functioned as a workshop disappeared inside without trouble.
"Hey! Jack! Stop standing around and start sweeping stuff in here too."
"Ah, right!"
Jack's tentacle arm twitched as he followed my orders, helping me stuff everything from the chamber into the bag.
Stealing an entire lifetime of research without any effort felt incredibly satisfying. This was the pure joy of freeloading.
Anything you can take without working for it tastes the best.
I'd always wanted an easy life like this. But whenever I looked back, all I remembered was suffering. Nothing had ever gone smoothly.
Every time I tried to get ahead, something weird would happen or someone would block my path. At least looting the lord's chamber was going smoothly...
"Um..."
While I was happily pocketing some unknown tool, Mei Ling tugged lightly at my wrist. I answered gruffly.
"What?"
"Over there... something's there..."
A wave of disgust hit me. If Mei Ling had been a stunningly beautiful woman, I would've already been plotting how to make her mine. But since he was still male, every single thing he did irritated me. That timid, feminine behavior made me want to gag.
I wanted to force the TS whiskey down his throat right now, but I'd saved it for 777. I figured Bai Yu should keep living as a woman and experience the pain of having to live as a man.
"What is it?"
"It looks like... a living woman."
"Huh?"
I'd been about to tell him to shut up and get lost if it wasn't important, but the mention of a living woman made me hand the looting over to Jack and follow Mei Ling immediately.
Mei Ling somehow found a hidden space behind a bookshelf and crawled inside. There lay a doll that looked no different from a real person.
That's not a doll. That's a corpse.
It was unmistakably human, yet not breathing. What Mei Ling had found was a body resting on a glowing stone inscribed with shining characters.
"What the hell is this... It's not a doll. This looks like a corpse."
"Well... it isn't breathing, but when I touched it, it was still warm..."
"Hey, didn't I tell you not to touch random things? Are you crazy?"
"Ah... sorry... I'm sorry..."
After scolding Mei Ling, I gently touched the woman's cheek as she lay on the table. Just as Mei Ling said, the body wasn't cold. It still held a faint warmth.
Did she die recently...? Or is some method preserving her exactly at the moment of death...? More importantly, her face looks exactly like...
The woman on the glowing stone bore an extremely close resemblance to the dolls hanging on the wall. No, she was probably the original that had inspired all those dolls.
The reason the mansion lord became obsessed with making dolls... I heard it was because he wanted to bring back his dead daughter... So this woman must be the one.
Touching this didn't seem like it would lead to anything good, so we decided to leave the hidden space and return to the lord's chamber.
That was when Jack screamed.
"Aaaagh!!"
"Shit!!"
When Mei Ling and I rushed out, Jack was caught in the grip of a hunched, gnarled old man who looked like a withered tree. The man was tearing off Jack's tentacle arm with ease.
Even while hunched over and appearing half-dead, the old man toyed with Jack effortlessly.
"Aaaagh!!"
"Th-this...!!"
I quickly used Tentacle Ejection to yank the bag Jack had dropped. We'd have to leave him behind.
"See you later!! Jack!!!"
"Wait!!! Don't leave me behind!!!!"
I immediately activated the pocket watch. At that moment, the old man—who I assumed was the lord—threw Jack into the bookshelf and instantly drew a complex magic circle in the air before chanting a spell.
Whoosh...
The pocket watch made a strange noise and stopped working.
"Fuck!! It's malfunctioning again!!"
It hadn't worked in the future because of the clones, and now some unknown magic had shut it down. Was this thing defective? I might have to complain to the peddler...
"You two... who are you...?"
While Mei Ling and I prepared for battle, the gnarled old man—the lord—spoke to us.
I didn't answer. Instead, I tried to use Abyssal Maw right away.
But the lord simply waved his hand once, and the skill was canceled. This was the first time that had ever happened. My mana had been interfered with before I could even activate it...
Shit, shit...
Cold sweat poured down my back. Mei Ling's skill had also been nullified.
Should I summon Kysyria...?
I'd probably be annihilated before the summoning finished...
"Petty tricks... won't work... Do you even know who I am... to dare..."
I didn't know who he was, but he had clearly reached the pinnacle of magic.
"This is your last chance... Who... are you...?"
"W-we're..."
What was I supposed to say? Intruders? Research thieves? Industrial spies? Dragon slayer buddies??
No answer would work.
"You can't even answer... You thieves... You'll become... my research materials..."
Should I draw my sword?
No. This guy had instantly broken the time-travel device and sealed our skills. He was a monster who used magic as naturally as breathing. Against someone like that, my power probably wouldn't amount to anything...
I felt a different kind of helplessness than when I'd faced Zik the dragon slayer. As the lord prepared to cast a spell, I stopped him.
"Wait!!"
"Hmm...?"
"L-let's make a deal!!"
"Oh...? An experimental rat... wants to... deal with me...?"
"Yeah!! A deal!!"
I had no idea what kind of deal to offer. I just blurted it out because staying still meant death.
Think. Use your head.
My head wasn't particularly brilliant, but my memory was decent. I had to find a way out of this situation.
The countless dolls, the broken failures, and the woman's corpse still holding warmth through some kind of preservation...
There had to be a way out. Right—the Soul Extractor...!
The event creator wouldn't have added the future section of Jeonyul Mansion just to waste time. There must be a reason...
The Soul Extractor we could obtain in the future. That was probably the hidden piece that would let us escape Jeonyul Mansion safely. Maybe that was why we'd been sent to different time periods in sequence.
I had my answer. I shouted at the lord.
"I'll transfer your daughter's soul into a doll!!"
"Hmm...?"
This guy had clearly created the vessel but gone insane because he couldn't transfer the soul. Judging by his reaction, I was right.
"That's... possible...?"
The lord's response wasn't bad. My offer had worked.
"Y-yeah! I'll show you, so... give me any doll."
"Fine... If this is a lie... you'll be dissected while still alive..."
Fortunately, the lord accepted my proposal as if he had nothing to lose. He took one of the older-looking dolls from the wall and tossed it in front of me.
Without hesitation, I pulled the Soul Extractor from my bag.
"There's a woman's soul inside this thing! I'll put it into this doll."
"Hmm... A syringe-shaped device... Interesting... Very interesting... Continue."
The lord stroked his beard-covered chin and watched me with interest. He quietly waited for the soul to be injected into the doll.
Please... let it work properly...
I inserted the needle into the doll and injected all the blue ectoplasm from the Soul Extractor.
The ectoplasm flowed in without resistance. Soon the doll glowed brightly with blue light.
"Ooooh...!!!"
"Whoa!!"
When the light faded, the doll twitched.
"Ah... ahhh... uwaaah...!!"
The doll screamed. It was a husky female voice.
"＠*$Ú±úÁü#*^%*...(Wh-what... this body...?)"
The woman looked down at her own palms and muttered in a language I couldn't understand. She seemed extremely confused about being inside the doll's body.
"Indeed... It's real..."
The lord grabbed the doll's head with both hands as it babbled incoherently and crushed it. The doll that had been talking to itself went limp, headless.
"Don't speak... in my daughter's form..."
The lord tossed the destroyed doll onto the pile of failed creations. The nameless woman's end was... utterly hollow.
"If you... properly settle my daughter... into a doll's body... I'll let you go..."
"Of course...!"
At least I'd earned the lord's trust. I let out a sigh of relief. Following the lord, I returned to the hidden space where the corpse was.
Before entering, I glanced back. Jack was already dead. His neck was twisted at an unnatural angle and he wasn't moving.
It was unfortunate, but Jack's journey ended here.
"Alright, then..."
I inserted the syringe into the arm of the woman lying on the stone. A little blood flowed out, followed by blue ectoplasm being drawn into the device.
"That's... my daughter's... soul..."
"Yeah. We need to put it in while it's fresh... Bring the doll we'll use as the vessel."
"Ah... of course..."
The lord carefully selected one of the dolls from the wall and handed it to me. It looked the most like the dead woman.
"The one... I put the most effort into... my life's... masterpiece..."
"Got it. Just a moment..."
I injected the ectoplasm into the doll. It soon began to glow and came to life just like the previous woman. The lord immediately approached the doll with trembling hands.
"Ah... Aria... my little star... ah..."
"D-daddy...?"
"Yes... I'm your father... my beloved... daughter..."
A touching father-daughter reunion.
The lord embraced the doll that had taken his daughter's form, murmuring and shedding tears. The doll in his arms neither smiled nor cried—she simply accepted her father's embrace in silence. As a doll, she had no way to express emotion.
"Now's our chance... Let's get out of here."
"Yeah...!"
Before the psychopathic lord could regain his senses, I hurriedly activated the pocket watch.