ďźHmmm⌠A part of me wants to say that I just forgot how she looked because of how long itâs been, but another part of me is sure that her eyes were green back when I first met her.ďź
Not all people with red eyes had the Scarlet Eyes skill, but the opposite was true. Scarlet Eyes was an innate ability, everyone that had it was born with it. In other words, it was impossible for anyone that had it to have green eyes.
I very clearly remembered the events thatâd taken place here during my first time through. This city was the one in which I fought my first battle against a group of enemies that numbered far more than just 10 or 20. Yumisâ little sister had left an especially deep impression because of her elf-like appearance, and thus, I felt like I could really get behind the idea that, back then, her eyes had been green. I wouldâve been able to confirm my suspicions if I had been able to appraise her the first time I met her, as I wouldâve been able to double check my notes on her. But unfortunately, I hadnât unlocked theăEight Eyed Bookblade of Transparencyăuntil I was about halfway through my journey, meaning there was no data for me to check in the first place.
ďźIt doesnât look like sheâs planning on kicking up a fuss, at least not right away.ďź
My first instinct was to immediately flee, but I managed to stop myself after realizing that there was no real need for me to do so.
I instead began contemplating the fact that I had just discovered one of Yumisâ secrets. I arrived at the conclusion that I had finally found a side of Yumis Iâd yet to see, half through intuition, and half through logical deduction.
ďźThe only problem is that Iâm not really sure what Iâm supposed to do nextâŚďź
ăI want to say something like, âdonât worry, Iâm not anyone suspicious,â but I doubt youâd actually believe me.ă
I altered my form to give it substance. Specifically, I created a sort of pseudo-body so I could speak. It went without saying that my actual body was still laying in bed back at the inn, I hadnât teleported myself or anything. The form I had just created was one composed entirely of magical energy, so it was a good bit weaker than even the average person.
My appearance hadnât actually changed. Not even she would see me any differently than she had before even with her Scarlet Eyes.
The reason I had called out to her was because I was confident that she wouldnât feel as creeped out if I spoke to her instead of just silently standing around before finally leaving. I needed to buy enough time for me to investigate the room so I could determine both what its purpose and the reason for which she was here.
ăYou⌠donât seem to be a ghost. Does that mean youâre a spirit?ă
ăHuh? Uh, wait, hold up, calm down.ă
I seemed to have somehow set the girl off, as she stood up from her chair and immediately approached me. Her expression hadnât changed much, but she radiated an aura that seemed to indicate she was interested in me.
ăIâve lived in the forest for almost all my life, but this is my first time ever seeing a real spirit.ă
I could see stars in her eyes; the look on her face was like that of an elementary schooler as they stared straight at someone they looked up to.
ăThere are so many things I want to ask you! Where do spirits normally live? Do you guys live in the forests just outside town? What do you eat?ă
ăUhhh, I think you might be misunderstanding something. Iâm not a spirit.ă
ďźWhat the hell is going on? I donât remember her being anything like this. Is my memory really just that bad?ďź
Shuria was, at least in my memories, a quiet girl whose expression wouldnât really change regardless of how she was addressed. Her answers had always been short, and, for the most part, consisted only of yeses and nos. We spoke on multiple occasions, but sheâd never been the one to initiate any of our interactions. Iâd always thought that she might as well have just been a doll.
That was why I was so surprised by her as she was now. That said, she did still bear a bit of a resemblance to how she was during my first run through. Namely, her voice was quiet, her tone was flat, and her emotions couldnât really be discerned from her expression. She was a bit weirder now than she was then. The gap between her distinct lack of emotion and the ideas she seemed to be trying to express led to a sense of dissonance.
I couldnât deny the possibility that I was jumping to conclusions, as it could very well just be that she happened to really like spirits.
ăOh, uhmmâŚ. then⌠uhâŚă
ăHow about you try calming down before you keep talkiâă
ăHyah!ă
The overexcited young lady accidentally grabbed my arm and tore it off.
My body hadnât been any stronger than one made of styrofoam to begin with, and my lack of concentration had caused it to become even weaker, so the result didnât come to me as a surprise.
ăPI⌠pa⌠pyuâŚă
ăHey uh, you okay?ă
I asked the girl a question.
I myself was doing perfectly fine. I didnât feel any real pain, and fixing the arm thatâd been snapped was something I could easily do at a momentâs notice. She, however, didnât really seem to be doing too well. Her soul almost seemed to be slowly leaving her body through her mouth.
I fixed my arm and waved it in front of her to demonstrate that I was fine, but she didnât recover regardless.
ăPoâŚă
ăWell, that didnât work.ă
I sighed before resigning myself to waiting until the girl somehow managed to mend her mind.
â
It took her a few minutes to finally regain her sanity.
She took a seat once she did. This time, sheâd chosen to sit at the table in the roomâs centre as opposed to returning to the windowsill. I had done the same; the two of us more or less found ourselves across from each other.
ăThat⌠was embarrassing. Iâm sorry I panicked, Iâm feeling much better now. My name is Shuria. Is your arm okay?ă
ăYeah, Iâm fine. As Iâm sure you can see, my bodyâs basically composed entirely of magical energy.ă
ăWow⌠Spirits sure are amazing.ă
ăI told you, Iâm n-, ah screw it. Nevermind.ă
It seemed like it would be easier for me to get Shuria to talk if I just left things as is and had her think of me as a sort of spirit. To that end, I decided to try imitating a speech pattern belonging to one of the priests I knew back before I was transported to another world.
ăSo umm⌠Why are you here, Mr. Spirit? Are you running some sort of errand?ă
ăI believe your name wasâŚă
ăShuria, please call me Shuiria.ă
ăRight⌠Shuria, I happened to have something I wanted ask of you. Have you eyes allowed you to discern that the magic cast upon this room is one that acts upon you?ă
Iâd focused quite a bit of my magical energy in order to appraise the magic circle within this room during the time Shuria had spent staring off into space.
The result of that appraisal was an interesting one.
__________
ăSix Coloured Magic Circle of Time-Based Transitionă
This magic circle allows its target to grant their proficiencies and aptitudes in fire, water, wind, earth, light, and darkness magic to its secondary target through the act of remaining within the magic circleâs confines.
The targetâs soul must be as compatible with the secondary targetâs soul as that of a blood relativeâs. The transfer will begin to occur once this spell progresses past the 50% point.
Target: Shuria
Secondary Target: Yumis Erumia
ăCurrent Progressă 96% (7 additional days required for 100% completion)
__________
The magic circleâs effect was a pretty nasty one. It took both oneâs skill levels and affinities, so it wasnât actually possible for the person whoâs stats had been taken to ever regain their lost power.
In other words, it basically made it so its target would never be able to use magic ever again.
I once again used appraisal, and this time, examined Shuria in more detail. She shouldâve had high magical affinities given that she had elven blood, but her all six of her elemental ones were basically moot. The few remaining magic-related skills listed on her page clearly shouldâve been higher leveled given her the rest of her stats.
The spellâs ability to steal oneâs skills and affinities meant it had to be capable of operating on the soul, which in turn meant it was something that needed time, and lots of it. Shuria clearly hadnât left her room for quite the extended duration.
ăThe magic circle is helping me give my sister my magical talents. I was really surprised to learn that something like this could actually exist!ă
ďźWell yeah, no sh*t. Itâs something only demons are supposed to be capable of using and not something that a normal personâs supposed to be aware of.ďź
Her having Scarlet Eyes meant that she mustâve been able to see her magical powers slowly drain from her body.
I was able to see it as well because of the passive ability my ghost blade gave me, and honestly, all I had to say was that it really wasnât much of a pretty sight at all. It wasnât something I wanted to watch happen.
ăSo why exactly did you want to give her your magical talents?ă
ăShelmy, my younger sister, caught a disease that couldnât be treated without an expensive elixir. I couldnât afford it, so I struck a deal with Yumis, my elder sister, and gave her my magical powers in exchange for the cure.ă
ďźHer younger sister? They had another sister?ďź
ăOhhh. Wait, why would you have to pay? Yumis and Shelmy are sisters, arenât they? Shouldnât Yumis have just bought her the cure?ă
ăShelmy and I are only Yumisâ half sisters. Weâd lived our entire lives apart from one another, so I couldnât just go ask her for money just because we were all related.ă
ăDid you consider it a fair trade?ă
ăYup. Iâm a bit dissapointed that Iâll lose my ability to use magic, but, Yumis promised to give my family enough money to live out the rest of their days. Magic had never been anything more than just a means to earn money so we could get by in the first place.ă
Shuria paused for a bit before continuing.
ăAnother reason I donât mind handing over my magical abilities is because Yumis said that sheâd be using my magical talents in order to fulfill her dream. Iâm glad I can be of help to her.ă
ăI guess that must mean you really like your big sister?ă
ăMhm! I love her! Yumis is an amazing person. She works super hard and is capable of carrying out the fuedal lordâs duties even though sheâs only just a few years older than meâŚă
An ever so slight smile appeared on Shuriaâs face as she attempted to describe just how much she loved Yumis, the first real change in expression that sheâd displayed ever since initiating conversation.
I smiled back at her as I got myself lost in thought. The overly cold calculations I had going through my mind functioned to shut all her words out; everything she said went in one ear and out the other.
ďźShe stole the magical talents her younger sister inhereted from her ancestors in order to move her own research forward? And in exchange, she cured another one of their sisters and handed their family enough cash to get byâŚ?ďź
That explained why Yumisâ magical affinities had been so much higher than those of the average human.
Knowing the source of Yumisâ talents wasnât really going to help me in any which way seeing as how the curse Shuria was currently afflicted with was near completion. Moreover, her actions hadnât really been particularly notable, as she had seemingly engaged in a fair exchange.
Or at least that was how things seemed before you really started to think about them. A multitude of questions began flowing through my mind the moment I looked even the slightest bit deeper.
How exactly did Yumis learn about this magic circle, and how did she activate it? Why was the Shuria I had in front of me so obviously different from the Shuria Iâd met during my first run through?
It was possible that I merely had the wrong impression of Shuria, but I didnât believe that to be the case. Something about this whole thing just felt too off for that to be true. Shuria, in her current form, didnât quite seem capable of expressing herself, but sheâd clearly demonstrated her ability to feel strong emotions. The Shuria I remembered had almost seemed dead on the inside. Her emotions hadnât run nearly as deep.
I couldnât help but feel bothered by the strange sense of discontinuity that continued to assault me. Something was wrong, but I couldnât put my finger on it.
ăăHow have you been doing lately, Shuria?ăă
ăWait, is thatâŚ?ă
I suddenly heard a voice right as I found myself stuck at a sort of critical junction.
ďźHmmm⌠It looks like one.ďź
I looked over at the windowsill in order to find the soundâs source, a letter situated atop a desk. Its state seemed to indicate that I happened to enter the room right as Shuria broke its seal.
The water blue sheet stamped with the Erumia family seal was a device that would play the voice preloaded onto it whenever one ran anything across its surface.
ăOops. It looks like one of the flowers fell.ă
One of the purple and yellow petaled flowers disconnected from its stem, fell onto the letter, and caused it to start playing the voice file it contained.
ăăThe village is looking wonderful again this year. Your Sunset Flowers have bloomed, the flowerbed is looking really great. Shelmy started taking care of them after she recovered, so theyâve turned out really well.ăă
ďźSomething about this just makes me feel⌠wrong.ďź
ăIs that your mom?ă
The female voice I heard coming from the letter was one that I couldnât help but feel to be strangely familiar.
ăYup! And this is my sister, Shelmy.ă
ăăHey, how have you been doing lately? Are you sick? Have you been sleeping without anything covering your stomach? Me, Iâm feeling a lot better. You always say youâre doing fine, but I still canât help but worry. Youâre really bad at talking to people, so I can never be too sure youâre actually fitting in. Iâve been spending a bit of my time taking care of your garden. I heard weâll be able to see each other again soon! I canât wait!ăă
ăâŚShelmy always makes fun of me even though Iâm older than her.ă
ăAhaha, she sounds like a pretty interesting person to have around.ă
I couldnât help but think about my own little sister as I watched an ever so slight expression of embarrassment show up on Shuriaâs face. Unlike me, my sister always had her sh*t together. She would always admonish me much in the same manner Shuriaâs younger sister did to her.
Several strong emotions surged within me, but, in spite of that, I couldnât help but feel that something was just⌠off.
The second voice was higher pitched than the first, but it still gave off that sense of incongruity.
ďźâŚThatâs it! The voices seem⌠forced. They lack emotion.ďź
They werenât monotone, and it didnât seem like someone was reading them off a script, but they failed to carry the intonations natural speech tended to contain.
Their voices were too patterned, regular, and mechanical.
It was like they sounded exactly like the Shuria Iâd known in the past.
Everything clicked and fell into place to form a single hypothesis the moment that exact thought passed through my mind.
ďźAhaha⌠Is that whatâs going on here? If so, itâd totally make sense for her to have not realized. Yumis couldâve just told her that thatâs just how those letters are.ďź
Shuria wouldnât have suspected a thing even if she thought something was off, so long as Yumis, her âkind sister,â told her told her she wasnât experiencing anything outside the norm.
ďźThe thing with contractual curses is⌠Yeah, she mustâve either used that or had them come from a demon thatâd devoured their magical energies⌠The cost is definitely⌠Yeah, everything makes sense if you just take what Yumis does in the future into account.ďź
My imagination birthed an overarching plot so horrid that even just thinking about it made me feel all dizzy.
ďźUgh⌠Not this sh*t againâŚďź
The world began to spin.
Her situation was too similar to my own. I couldnât help but want to empathize. The dark emotions I always tried to hold back began flaring up with me.
ăMind if I ask you something?ă
ăâŚ?ă
I gently called out to Shuria sometime after the letter finished playing the sound it contained.
ăIs the flower that just fell onto the letter the same type as the ones you have growing in your garden?ă
ăYup. Theyâre a type of plant capable of growing under almost any sort of condition. They grow really well, but they donât seem to be able to multiply.ă
ăThey look really pretty.ă
I stood up from the table as I spoke.
ăI have to go. Could you please keep everything about me a secret? The truth is, I wasnât actually supposed to talk to you.ă
ăR-Really? O-Okay! I wonât say a thing!ă
Shuria balled up one of her hands into a fist and squeezed down on it as she made me a promise. I was confident that she wouldnât tell anyone about me, not even Yumis, because the look on her face was pretty much identical to how itâd been when she first ran up to me earlier.
ăUm, could you tell me your name before you go, Mr. Spirit?ă
ăSure, why not? My nameâs Kaito.ă
ăKaito⌠Okay! Do you think weâll ever meet again?ă
ăYeah, Iâm sure we will.ă
I transformed my body back into that of a ghostâs and dispersed the effect brought about by theăHeart Flame Ghost Bladeăin order to return to my body.
â
ăHaah⌠The world sure is full of scum, isnât it?ă
I returned to my body after experiencing a strange floaty sensation not too different from the kind I felt when I teleported.
I was currently the only one present, Minnalis had yet to come home.
ăAlright, I guess I should get going.ă
I felt my anger flare up again as I reflected on what I had just discovered. I felt like it had come time for me to vent all the rage I had built up. The original plan was for me to grab Minnalis in two or three days so we could have her experience fighting a horde of enemies while also farming exp, but, I felt like I had to change it. My encounter with Shuria had come off to me as a twist of fate.
Iâd been planning to test out my trump card some time soon anyway. I needed to know just how effective it would be against Yumis with my stats as they currently were before actually putting it into practice.
Moreover was the fact that I simply couldnât stand what was happening.
I decided to stop trying to justify myself. I was fully aware that my drive came not from reason, but instead from emotion.
I wanted to just go on a rampage and destroy everything around me. I felt like a ball of flame thatâd escaped its container and no longer had anywhere to direct itself.
ăGulp gulp gulp.ă
I drank a potion to replenish the mana that becoming a ghost had drained before leaving the inn and heading out the eastern gate.
I detached myself from the crowd and headed down the path that lead into the forest all by myself.
Logically, I understood that what I was just wasting my time, and that I shouldâve instead focused on conducting additional investigations. I knew that I shouldâve been focusing on verifying my hypothesis, but I just couldnât.
I didnât want to see Yumisâ face. I didnât feel like I would be able to hold back any longer if I did.
ăOh sweet, there they are, the perfect things for me to use to both blow off all my stress and test out my trump card.ă
There were many more monsters here now than there were back when we killed Barkas and his companions. It came to me as no surprise that my current impression was that the place would soon be overrun.
My lips curved up into a smile. The more things I had to hit for no real reason, the better.
I walked into the forest with casual gait, only to be attacked by a pair of goblins before even taking ten steps. I cut down through both, bones and all, asI summoned theăSoulblade of Originăin my right and theăEmerald Crystal Bladeăin my right.
ăăGugyarah!?ăă
ăSorry, I donât particularly have anything against either of you. You just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.ă
I used a decorative string to mount theăEmerald Crystal Bladeăto my hip drawingăHoly Blade of Vengeanceăin my left as if to replace it.
ăThis isnât going anywhere. I canât seem to calm down. I must look really pathetic right now, I should make sure I never let Minnalis, my accomplice, see me like this.ă
I went on a killing spree; I annihilated all the monsters that approached me, and went around rushing down the ones that didnât. Their dying cries filled my ears, there wasnât a moment in which I didnât hear at least one monster scream in pain.
ăAgain, Iâm really sorry.ă
It only took me a few minutes to more or less completely exterminate all the monsters located within the forestâs shallower part, so I moved towards a clearing that happened to have a huge swarm within it.
The clearing was about as large as a gym, and had so many monsters present that it almost seemed to resemble a sort of camping ground.
There were all sorts of monsters, namely red caps, green boars, hobgoblins, sword goblins, grey garms, orcs, and trolls. At a glance, it seemed to me that there were actually enough monsters here for me to fight to my heartâs content. Many of the 100-odd individuals had already began putting on a display of either fear or hostility.
ăGulp gulp gulp.ă
I downed an entire MP potion in a single swig and chucked its container skywards.
ăGugya!?ăăGugyu!!ăăGogyaa!!ă
I didnât really think about my approach and instead just dove straight in. My first target was a group of three goblins that happened to be just a bit cut off from all the other monsters. I impaled them all spilled their blood all over as I extracted my blades from their corpses.
ăIâm going to have all of you die so I can vent my stress.ă
I shifted gears, honed my focus, removed my bodyâs limiters, and went an entire step beyond just using the full extent of my strength.
â
ăKuhaaaaah! Ahahahahahahahaha!!ă
Heads flew and hearts stopped as my blades engaged in a merciless act of violence.
ăDie! Man, this feels amazing! I canât get enough of it!ă
The blood thatâd risen to my head impaired my ability to think. Iâd almost felt like Iâd downed a hard couple shots of liquor; my thoughts were drowned in both intoxication and exhilitartion. My instincts drove me to kill and think about nothing but the act of murder.
I was glad that there existed something I could kill for fun.
ăKuhaaaaah! Ahahahahahahahaha!!ă
A seemingly insane laugh continued to leave my throat despite the fact that I hadnât intended on it.
I continued to move and trample anything in my path.
I didnât bother attempting to kill my enemies in the most efficient manner possible. I didnât go for vital points or aim for weak spots. I simply used the strength Iâd obtained from removing my limiters to bash my weapons into them the moment I saw them.
It only took me five minutes to finish my rampage and pile the monstersâ corpses into a sort of hill. The blood that drained from their bodies soaked into the ground and turned into a sort of crimson mud. The only thing left alive in the midst of all that chaos was me.
ăHah⌠Hah⌠Whew.ă
I sighed deeply after making sure there were no more living things in the surrounding area. Iâd finished venting. I was still a bit pissed off, but the flames of hatred within me had already been reduced to mere embers. The only thing I was really still feeling was a sense of emptiness.
ăHow come I can never figure anything out until itâs already too late for me to do anything about it?ă
Words began to leak out of me, one by one.
ďźYou were right, Retishia. This world is⌠as real as can be. There are good parts to it, but its filled with all sorts of scum.ďź
My nails dug into my palms; I squeezed my hands so hard I began to bleed.
I felt like trash. I knew that I would choose the course of action that worked best for the purposes of my revenge regardless of what ultimately ended up happening to Shuria. I only sympathized her and selfishly vented my anger because I knew she wouldnât be able to get in the way of my revenge
ăâŚWhy canât things ever just be undone?ă
I gave voice to a complaint thatâd been swirling around inside of me. I knew, but didnât want to acknowledge that it was just a pretext, something I was saying because I was throwing a child-like tantrum.
âŚWhy did I have to be taken back to the moment I was summoned?
It was too late.
Iâd already lost everything by then.
Why couldnât time be pushed even further back?
ăAhaha⌠How pathetic of me.ă
The fact that I was given a chance to enact my revenge was already, in and of itself, a miracle.
I knew that the world didnât exist for my sake. Time would continue to tick regardless of how I felt. Iâd been given a second chance, but that unbreakable rule still did apply. Iâd sworn vengeance, but that didnât mean Iâd actually wanted a second chance.
But again, my feelings were utterly irrelevant. I ended up going back in time regardless because that was what some Goddess had dictated would happen upon my death.
I knew that I didnât have any say in it, and that it was something that wouldâve happened regardless, but, I still wanted to pathetically lament just how unreasonable my circumstances were.
That was the real reason why Iâd thrown a fit of rage, the real reason for which Iâd needed to vent. Seeing Shuria and coming to understand her situation had been the same as a blow to the nuts. It hit me right where I was weakest.
ăOh man, Iâm being really lame right now. I have to make sure no one ever sees me like this.ă
I wanted to take back everything Iâd lost.
My lingering affections for the past, for everything that Iâd held dear prior to my summoning, caused me to break down, almost into tears â a sight I didnât want anyone to see.
Because that wasnât how an avenger was supposed to be.
ăIâll kill them. Iâll murder every single last one of them in cold blood, and trample over their emotions for my own enjoyment.ă
I honed my thoughts and concentrated them on my bloodlust.
Iâd already made my choice, all I needed to do now was abide by it.
I cleansed my heart of any remaining weakness and focused the entirety of my being on enacting my revenge. I burnt away all the impurities I had within me and left nothing but the a filthy, cold vengeful flame.
I renewed my vow to kill every single last one of the bastards thatâd betrayed me.
There was no point in wasting time being sentimental when my prey was right before my eyes.
âŚI was going to torture and torment her in every which way before finally killing her as she wallowed in despair.
Revenge was a twisted, jealous mistress. I needed to focus on it and nothing else as enacted it.
ăHaah⌠Okay, looks like Iâve finally managed to calm down a bit.ă
Spitting out all my excess emotions had allowed me to immerse my entire mind in displeasure and rage.
ăAhaha⌠Aw crap. This⌠isnât really a laughing matter, is it?ă
I only just realized that my body was covered from head to toe in monster blood. I hadnât noticed it when I was running about swinging my sword around, but now that I had, I realized I was extremely uncomfortable.
I still had about 30% of my mana left, I was feeling really mana drunk because of how high my rate of consumption had been. I normally hated the feeling, but today, I kinda seemed to like it. It felt like it was warming me up.
ďźIt took me longer to wipe them out than Iâd been expecting even though I used my trump card. I guess Iâm still far, far off from what I used to be.ďź
I decided, after entertaining the thought, that I wanted to clean myself off immediately, so I pulled out a barrel I normally used to store water I could drink in an emergency and raised it overhead so I could wash myself clean.
And as I did, I recalled a bit of the conversation I had with Shuria.
ăSo um, Kaito⌠Do you think weâll ever meet again?ă
ăYeah, Iâm sure we will.ă
I decided, there and then, that, if she so desired, I would lead her down my heretical path, much as would a demon in fairytale.
ăOkayâŚă
I shook myself dry and stretched after washing myself off before allowing my shoulders to drop back to their usual positions.
ăMan, Iâm starving, tired, and I feeling kinda sluggish.ă
I rubbed my stomach as I voiced a few complaints.
It was about 3 in the afternoon. I knew I already had lunch, but for some odd reason, I was feeling as hungry as I wouldâve had I not eaten all day.
The method I had employed to wipe out all my enemies not only made it easy for me to get mana drunk, but also made me hella hungry.
I ignored the bloody landscape around me and immediately grabbed a piece of dried meat within my round pouch and immediately chowed down. I knew I couldnât just leave all these corpses here, so I had Slucky devour them. He wasnât able to get rid of the scent of blood that filled the area, but that wasnât really something I could do much of anything about.
I didnât really have any reason to stay around, so I left the area so I would no longer have to smell the scent of blood as I continued to chew on a chunk of jerky.
Liked it? Take a second to support Novels on Patreon!