Chapter 50 - The Hero and Shuria, Raise the Curtain
This chapter is updated by wuxiaworld.eu
We looked through every nook and cranny of the mansion, all to no avail as to Soriâs whereabouts. She wasnât even in her specially granted personal room.
Servants normally had shared rooms, but using her status as a minor noble, Iâd gotten her her own room that made it easier to engage in some of our private rendezvous.
No one in the mansion had a clue as to when exactly Sori had disappeared.
(No, calm yourself, Yumis. Think back, we slept together in the same bed just last night. I distinctly remember Sori succumbing to exhaustion first and falling asleep before myselfâŚ)
â⌠⌠My only clue is that damnable letterâ
I still had that sealed envelop in hand.
The red dyeing the paper put off an awfully sinister impression.
But it might be my only lead in finding dear Sori.
Expecting the worst, I opened the letter.
Inside, there was my homeâs specialty light blue paper.
It was an audio letter.
âHello, my dear Yumis nee-sama. The show starts tonight, the stage is set right after sundown. If you desire Soriâs return, I highly suggest you come prepared. I shall have an escort waiting by the road out the eastern gate. Yours trulyâ
That jovial tone was undoubtedly that of Shuriaâs.
That natural intonation was dissimilar to the fraudulent mother and sister Iâd made, it was of a living, breathing person.
This instantly proved that Shuria was alive, and that those dreams werenât merely dreams.
â! WHY, why, is she aliveâŚ!â
I had a feeling about this. But my logical mind had denied it every time.
Impossible. How in the world could that frail little girl survive after losing all her magic?
Perhaps that demon, it aided her in this and⌠⌠No.
There are many conditions needed before one could form a demonic contract. Even if the demon found itself wanting to, Shuria couldnât have forged a contract as she was.
And a demon is unable to do anything for anyone unless stipulated through such a contract. Conclusion: the demon wasnât helping her.
Which implied that the demon wouldnât have not taken her soul.
But the reality was that Shuria was alive, and had even had the gall to challenge me.
(No, that doesnât matter right now. I need to find Sori first and⌠!!)
â⌠Call in Ronbertâ
After a short while, a large man with a rather vulgar feel to him appeared before me.
âYou called, Miss?â
Among our landâs military, I had 50 people under my direct control. A Special Forces unit, if you will, that took care of the dirty work.
These men were chosen from amongst retired mercenaries and adventurers who had previous experience in warfare, and were all adept to a certain degree and all convenient tools for narrow situations.
I used them to eliminate people whoâd prove bothersome for my research, and also those who snooped into my affairs. I had also used them to take Shuriaâs old village off the map.
They worked well enough, granted I provide the gold, and were especially useful for emergencies like today.
âRonbert, I have a job for youâ
âAye aye, and about the payâŚâ
âYou neednât worry, I have 1 gold for every man you have. Now quickly, go get all of themâ
âAll ofâem?â
Ronbertâs eyes shot open in surprise.
Most dirty work didnât require gathering everyone, assassination jobs needed 5, 6 of them at most. All other times, they were employed as my intelligence network.
But despite me knowing that my actions could be described as overkill, I wasnât in a state to consider bothering.
âIndeed, all of them. This job wonât be your usual assassination. Soriâs been kidnapped, we need to get her backâ
âWhy us then? Canât you get the guard corps to help with that?â
âIf I did, I couldnât kill those miscreants right then and there, now could I? I would fucking tear them limb from limb right now if I couldâ
I replied in a narrow eyed glare, dense mana exuding from me as if spurred by my fury.
âJust ready the strongest team possible. By tonightâ
âRoger that, Missâ
Ronbert, who now showed prime example of the phrase, âsilence is golden,â exited the room.
Now alone, I thought on my objectives.
â⌠⌠âŚâ
I didnât know too much.
Why was Shuria alive. What were those dreams.
No doubt the two were related, but Sori had acted perfectly normal even yesterday. I even made sure there werenât any signs of the supposed torture.
Outside, it was yet noon.
Various feelings gnawing at me, I carefully prepared to slaughter Soriâs captor, who Iâm led to believe is Shuria, and anyone affiliated with her.
â
Fully geared and ready for action, I, along with my special forces were gathered on the road outside the eastern gate.
The cover story would be that we were conducting a military exercise in the forest further east. As there had been reports of Redcaps appearing in the area, in addition to a number of mutilated monster corpses, there were already talks that a powerful irregular mightâve spawned.
Since we would be facing such a level of unknown danger, no one should find fault in me having every member of the subjugation corps equipped with the strongest full plate armor available.
Some time after, a certain thing approached our location.
âThatâs theâŚâ
It was the very same stuffed animal thatâd disappeared from my home as suddenly as it left that ominous letter. It arrived at a walking pace from the road due north-east that led to the aforementioned forest.
âKhshishiâ
It stopped a ways away, and mockingly beckoned us over with a finger, before dashing off.
âChase itâ
âAyeâ
We so ran after the accursed doll.
I felt the air prickling like needles on the skin of my face. But this was less the weather and more my utter lack of calm that mustâve been clearly reflected on my face and expression.
We hadnât a clue on the enemyâs strength, and further had an important hostage held against us. On top of that, there suddenly appeared a self-moving doll that may or may not be some new breed of monster.
My dealings with the underworld had taught me that death was closely linked to the amount of information one had, and thus Iâd cautioned the troops to be on guard for a surprise attack from anywhere.
Weâd reached the forest, and walked further deep for another 1 hour. There, we saw them.
âGood evening, Yumis nee-sama. And also the rest of you gentlemen, one and all, welcome to this wonderous showâ
A voice, clear as a bell.
Like how the horizon separated land and sky, the forest suddenly gave way to a large circular plane, itâs surface bearing neither grass nor weed, as if proclaiming its designation as the field of battle.
At the center of this arena, there was a withered tree devoid of any leaves and upon a thick branch of that tree sat 3 individuals.
One of those 3 was a little girl. Her silver hair swayed in the night wind and she had on something like a black one-piece dress. It was that sinisterly smiling girl thatâd spoken.
âShuria⌠Are you Shuria?â
âThat I am, Yumis nee-sama. It appears I hadnât quite died, and have been reborn wonderfully as you can seeâ
âkusukusu,â laughed the little girl exceedingly unlike the one Iâd known.
Her cherubic expression and the distinct air around her made her seem a complete stranger.
Her facial features and voice had seemed familiar before, but as I now saw her in person, I could tell that those too had changed ever so slightly.
The way she looked under this moonlit night, with a finger on her lips to emphasize her words, she appeared to exude a charm like that of a succubus.
She had not a speck of her previous bright innocence in those eyes.
âSuch a clear blue moon we have tonight. But let us end the intermission here, we can enjoy the moon on another occasion. But I must admit, the red of blood will go splendidly with tonightâs cobalt skyâ
I felt a severe chill as if a tongue of ice licked up the back of my neck.
Shuria jumped down, and the other two followed.
And right as they did, the already withered tree crumbled back into the earth as if its time had been accelerated many fold.
âKhshishiâ
âThank you so much for guiding them, Teddyâ
Itâs duty complete, the teddy bear who seemed to recognize Shuria as master trotted off to her. My supposed half-sister then proceeded to gently stroke the dollâs head.
âThe other two, I thought you looked familiar, youâre the same people I met outside town, the ones in battle with that Blackorc, are you not?â
âOh? So you remember us. Here I thought you wouldnât botherâ
âI thought her intelligence was that of a bagworm, but her memory is a tad bit better it seemsâ
â⌠⌠Fucking trash, it appears conversing is pointless. Return Sori to me, nowâ
The black haired boy and the beastkin girl were laughing.
They mustâve been the fools who had come to Shuriaâs aid. Previously, they had the look of warriors and were taking on a Blackorc just the two of them. The changed Shuria aside, I mustnât make light of them. I now possessed magic so superior, I couldnât see a way I could lose.
âOh, of course. Iâll have her brought here immediately. Kitty, you can come nowâ
Upon two sharp claps of her hand, what appeared out of the forest on the other side was the cat plushy Iâd once bought for Shuria. The knife and fork were no longer in its hands but affixed to its side, and its small hand now pulled on a chain.
âNishishishishiâ
âUrk, ahh!!â
âSORI!!â
My dear Sori crawled on all fours behind the feline doll. Her clothes were torn all over and her limbs bound in thick metal shackles.
She had a leather collar, like those used on untrained animals, on her neck which linked back to the chain held by the cat plush.
âKitty, you can let her goâ
âNishishâ
âAiee!?â
After letting go of her collar chain, the cat then used its knife to cut away the chains on Soriâs limb-binding shackles.
âGo on to your master now, baitâ
âEh, ahâ
As if compelled by Shuriaâs command, the hesitating Sori slowly walked to me.
And after a moment, as if she couldnât bear her emotions, Sori now came running, tears around her eyes.
âYumis-sama, Yumis-samaaa!!â
âSoriii!!â
I received my worn out, ragged, Sori in my arms as gently as I could.
âAh, ahh, Sori, youâve grown so thinâââ
No, this wasnât my Sori!!
âMiss! get away from âer!!â
In that instant, I could see Ronbert whoâd been beside me draw his sword.
As the word Trap surfaced to my mind, I immediately made to push away this thing that pretended to be Sori, but I was a moment too late.
âKhshishishi!!â
That fake Sori had taken out a small multicolored dagger with the symbol 8 carved on it, and had furthermore stabbed it into me, as it sneered at me, twisting Soriâs beautiful face into a crude grin.
That laugh sounded oddly similar to the one from that teddy bear creature.
âUkh!!â
Once Iâd jumped backwards, away from the fake which showed no more reaction, Ronbert chopped off its arm.
âRoar O spirit of wind, Lightning!!â
âKhshishishijjijii!!â
I finished the doppelganger with my green lightning that resulted in the creature bursting into mist, leaving not even a corpse.
âAh, so you did see through the guise, only the appearance was the same after allâ
Shuria said non-chalantly as she put on another warped smile.
âKusukusu, okey, are we all ready for the main event? Iâm not the only one whoâll be performing tonightâ
I subdued the pure rage boiling inside me from the fact that theyâd used Soriâs appearance as a means to deceive me, and pulled out the dagger stabbing into me.
That small sword too disappeared into mist.
âWhat did yâââ ââ
What had they done to me, I couldnât finish asking.
âUgh, Aa AAHH!! My, head⌠â
A tremendous volume of foreign memories were seared into my brain. It felt as if something was directly flowing inside my head. No, it wasnât my head that was being tampered with, it was my very soul. Things were becoming an unorganized mess inside me, as I felt what seemed to be a part of my soul being overwritten.
â
Letâs see. Did it work?
I was trying something completely new and untested, and honestly didnât even know if it was possible. I just happened to have an idea and went with it, and if it didnât work, thatâd be fine too.
If I got this idea a bit earlier, I couldâve used it on Barkus and his goons, missed a fine opportunity there.
âHey Miss! Fucking bastards, whatâd you do to âer!!â
The big guy who seemed to be the boss of Yumisâ personal army yelled.
âMeh, just got her to remember some stuffâ
Iâd had Yumis stabbed with an ăEight Eyed Bookblade of Transparencyă that I pre-filled with as much mana as I could shove inside.
The ăEight Eyed Bookblade of Transparencyăhad the ability to read the targetâs status and log it.
So what was this âstatusâ?
Whereâs this sword pulling all this info out from?
Itâs definitely not the body, if the status came from the body, it wouldnât have the targetâs name on there. You could make an argument for the brain being the source, but then even newborns had their own status including a name.
That meant that it got this information from the soul.
The thing called a soul definitely did exist in this world. For example, wraiths, a type of undead that were soul only, were real creatures.
Now, if the soul stored all this data, then what the ăEight Eyed Bookblade of Transparencyăwas doing was copying that data inside. Then, couldnât it be possible to copy the data on Yumis I had from my 1st run directly into the current her?
No look, I realized that this interpretation of its power is way too liberal. But if it worked, sheâd remember what she did to me in the 1st run. If it didnât, whatever.
The mission objective wouldnât change no matter the outcome. It was a matter of feeling. If she remembered, then sheâd scream her pain knowing what she did.
And by the looks of it, the trick worked.
âHaah, haah, what, did you, do to me, my, memoriesâŚâ
âWhy donât you answer that yourself? you should knowâ
â⌠⌠Ukei Kaito, the hero from another world, youâre supposed toâve been executed, wait, past tense? But arenât these myâ
Her mutters told it all, she recognized me as me.
â⌠⌠⌠Hahaâ
I suddenly felt joy, so much, extraordinary joy.
âAHAHA, AHAHAHAHA!! Aa, ⌠Aa, ahh, AHH!! Iâm so happy, sooo damn HAPPY to see you, you know that, Yumis? Last time it was when I was killed, and now we can finally do that second waltz. Raise the curtains, raise them high, HIGH!! The foolish Hero once again enters the stage!! And the Mage joins in, whether she likes it or NOT!!â
Were the memories all overwritten, or were they saved under a different name?
Who cares, I sure didnât. It was all the same to me.
She was back. That was all that mattered.
â⌠Iâd like you to refrain from speaking complete gibberish, but as I see it, your objective is counter to my dream, is it not?â
âIT IS!! And Iâll make due on my vow, right now!! Iâll kill you! Iâll kill you all!! Starting with YOU, Yumiss!! Iâll send you to the pits of despair, desolation and derangement, Iâll make sure you DIE, painfully!!â
Liked it? Take a second to support Novels on Patreon!