༺ S2. Resentment Wished Upon The Stars – 1 ༻
When you open your eyes, you find yourself in a shabby back alley at night.
Despite the moon clearly hanging in the sky, the shadows cast were so thick it was hard to distinguish objects. This was due to the haphazardly built buildings and obstacles blocking the moonlight.
Looking up, you saw dirty clothes hung on laundry lines stretched between buildings. The windows of the surrounding buildings were either shattered or boarded up with wooden planks. Puddles of filthy water lay on the ground and rats curried about.
It was a substandard environment.
If one were to live in such a place, what would happen? Even without direct experience, if you just had enough observation── It was not too difficult to figure out the answer to such a question.
The occasional glimpse of vomit stuck to the asphalt, rolling bottles of alcohol, someone’s broken molar, and dried, blackened bloodstains in the moonlight. There were clear signs of violence. Most likely, from looting.
The impoverished ripped the meager flesh off the bones of their equally impoverished peers to feed themselves. One died for another to live. As they chewed on a foul piece of meat that didn’t even have much to chew, their whole mouth would end up reeking of it.
That was how such people quickly turned into mere beasts.
You. Bennett knew this way of the world, this structure of the world, all too well. The shape of the buildings might differ, but the damp smell of despair was the same here as it was anywhere else. He wrinkled his nose, hiding his gloomy thoughts.
“……Is this…another world?”
Upon starting such a conversation, the two people who had been blankly surveying their surroundings each dropped a remark.
“There’s less of a……side effect than I thought. I even prepared Divine Magic in case I had motion sickness.”
[it is a somewhat eerie place.]
It wasn’t just eerie, however. Beyond the windows covered with wooden planks, an all too easy, approachable, and honest nightmare might be growing.
Feeling a dramatic sentiment that he alone seemed to feel, Bennett idly fiddled with his sword handle. It seemed Tara and Niolle had never lived in the gutters such as this place.
You have already accessed information about this world through a report.
However, the feeling of your skin, the gloomy air you breathe in, gives a sense of reality that you couldn’t feel through written words. After all, it was hard to imagine the sensation of stepping on phlegm or the smell of rot through writing.
Between the world described in written lines and reality laid a huge blank space. A blank space you all must fill in as you go forward.
Bennett took the first step beyond that blank space.
He picked up a broken molar from the ground as he looked around.
“Seeing the dried blood, it doesn’t seem to be something that just happened. However, it does appear like violence occurs often here. We need to get out of this area.”
[But where should we go?]
“You read the report, right? There is a base set up by the investigator. Let’s head there.”
Niolle nodded vigorously at the reasonable suggestion. In this strange, new world where everything was unfamiliar and they had achieved nothing, the contents of the report were the only beacon they could rely on.
201 Carter Street, East Shopping Mall, 2nd Floor.
As Saintess Tara roughly guessed the direction and was about to stride off confidently, Bennett raised his hand to stop her.
“…..What?”
“There is something we need to resolve urgently.”
[Did you perhaps spot someone suspicious……?]
Niolle quickly scanned the surroundings, wondering if a goblin was hiding somewhere. Bennett gestured that wasn’t the case and pointed his finger at Saintess Tara.
The Saintess had a dumbfounded expression.
“Me?”
“Your attire. Were you really planning to walk around looking like that?”
A shock like a lightning bolt ran through her. Because she was so accustomed to her fashion, Saintess Tara, who had completely forgotten about her outfit, widened her eyes. Come to think of it, that’s true.
Even when putting it nicely, walking down the street in such a provocative outfit would attract attention, mostly in a bad way. She got angry out of embarrassment.
“S-Shut up! It’s none of your business how I dress!”
“I am sure you know that could put us all in danger, though……”
[It is a bit too revealing…….]
“I-I get it, okay?!”
The trio’s first goal in the strange world was to get Tara some decent clothes.
===============================================================
Since you couldn’t walk around crowded places with a scantily clad Saintess, you had to think of a way to obtain clothes nearby.
Bennett suggested subduing a vagrant to take their clothes.
Saintess Tara scolded him for even daring to think of putting on a vagrant’s clothes, but when Niolle softly pointed out [Even the clothes of an impoverished person would cover more than the Saintess’s current attire] from the side, she fell silent.
Niolle then made a suggestion. What about taking the dirty clothes hung up above and patching something together was what she asked. Tara looked utterly displeased by the idea.
But fortunately, you found a better way to acquire clothes.
At the boundary between the slums and the outside, a facility that collected garbage sorted by type was discovered. Paper, plastic, food waste, etc. And ever so kindly, a large green bing was labeled as follows.
[There are plenty of clothes here!]
“The condition is quite good.”
“…..Do I really have to wear clothes that someone else has thrown away?”
The Saintess grumbled, but it was at least better than wearing a vagrant’s clothes, so she quietly joined in rummaging through the clothing bin. The trio searching for garments looked rather pitiful.
Bennett picked up a green one-piece dress as he spoke.
“We need to set a goal.”
[Weren’t we supposed to be looking for a jewel?]
“That is the final goal, you see. But we need to decide how to live here and how we should behave. We need to plan ahead. First of all…… We need to investigate the Order of the Silver Twilight. According to the information we have, they are the most threatening force here, after all.”
The Saintess picked up a hat as she responded. She was about to try it on because she liked the pretty ribbon, but then saw someone’s hair tangled inside, thus throwing it away with a shiver.
“Isn’t that too dangerous? I really don’t want to deal with fanatics.”
“Isn’t that quite an ironic thing for a Saintess to say?”
“I can’t help what I don’t like.”
[Ah, Saintess. How about this?]
Thump thump. Niolle tapped the whiteboard to draw attention and then lifted a garment with both hands. It was a black full-body tights made of a strange material.
“……Are you serious? Weren’t we rummaging through trash because I shouldn’t be wearing something lewd?”
“That outfit seems fine, though. It seems to have quite the ample room.”
“What is that supposed to mean?”
As Tara glared fiercely, Bennett averted his gaze. After all, he thought a fight might start if he said that it looked like it could be worn quite loosely, especially around the chest area. Wisely, he chose to keep silent.
Click.
Just as they were picking out suitable clothes, suddenly, a bright light was shone upon them. A cone-shaped beam surrounded the thieves of the clothing bin.
“⋯⋯⋯⋯.”
“⋯⋯⋯⋯.”
The three froze on the spot. Tara because she was caught rummaging through trash, Niolle out of surprise, and Bennett because he thought it might be a hostile force.
Bennett looked beyond the light. His eyes, accustomed to the dark, were dazzled by the sudden brightness, but…….it seemed to be a person. Thinking it might not be good if it were guards, he was considering fleeing when…
Niolle quickly wrote on the whiteboard.
[It’s a 180 cm, male, white-haired grandpa, who seems to exercise but is not trained in combat. It looks like he has reading glasses. Perhaps he has poor vision due to aging. And he appears to be a white-collar worker. He is not impoverished. He is dressed modestly, but seems to eat quite well.]
“Are you some walking, breathing Scan Magic…….?”
At the Saintess’s praise, Niolle smiled shyly. Based on her information, Bennett lowered his vigilance by three levels.
The elderly man, too, seemed to have frozen at the sight of the trio rummaging through the trash at night. After a long pause, he finally spoke.
“Have you been robbed?”
“…….Excuse me?”
“The small lady and the gentleman over there are dressed decently. The fabric isn’t cheap and the design is sophisticated. But the outfit of the big lady………seems like some vile robber has molested you. To think someone would cut it up like that. How horrible.”
“⋯⋯⋯⋯.”
The corner of Bennett’s lips twitched slightly up and then down. Tara, seeing his reaction, was about to quibble in anger but stopped herself, feeling like it would only make her sadder if she did so.
The elderly man, looking at Tara’s face which had turned the color of a ripe apple from embarrassment, wore a somewhat nostalgic expression for a moment, before coughing a few times and bowing his head slightly.
“Young ones, it seems like you’ve encountered some trouble. Would you like to spend the night at my house? I have clothes that would fit the tall lady. I have a daughter, you see.”
“⋯⋯⋯⋯.”
Unexpected kindness, huh? Bennett racked his brain. The target was not difficult to subdue. If Niolle’s analysis was correct, it was unclear if he was wealthy, but he was not poor. What they should do here was…….
[He said he’ll help us!]
Niolle smiled broadly and bowed at a 90-degree angle to the elderly man. Bennett wanted to immediately imprint on that tiny head the importance of being wary of unfamiliar individuals, but…
“Then we shall be in your debt, Elder!”
Preferring to wear freshly laundered clothes rather than those found in a trash bin, even the Saintess followed along, thus tipping the scales. Bennett sighed deeply and followed the two.
The return seemed much higher compared to the risk. With the help of a local, they could learn details that were not apparent in the report as well. After all, the old man didn’t seem to have any combat abilities.
If things went wrong, a blade could be used. That was what Bennett thought.
On the way to the old man’s house.
Niolle wrote various questions on the whiteboard and Tara read them out loud, interjecting and engaging in quite a conversation.
They learned that the old man’s name was Abraham. That he lived in a mansion on top of the hill, was an astronomer, and had a daughter with whom he was on bad terms with.
They also learned that Abraham was a professor at Miskatonic University1throwback! Lovecraft!.
===============================================================
“……The inside is cleaner than I thought, huh?”
Just as Tara said, Abraham’s mansion was large, spacious, and clean. It must not have been easy for the old man to keep such a large residence tidy, though. Upon hearing such words, Abraham smiled lightly and spoke.
“I clean the visible areas daily in preparation for guests.”
[That’s impressive!]
“Tidiness is fundamental, isn’t it?”
“⋯⋯⋯⋯.”
The mansion was simply decorated. Wood burned in the fireplace and by it, there was a poker and a rocking chair. On the wall, there was a mounted deer head.
No other luxuries were apparent. The mansion had two floors and the height of each stair was very short, making it easy for the old man to climb.
Abraham smiled kindly beneath his bushy beard.
“It is lively to have guests. Especially since this house only had an old man living alone before. Do not feel burdened and have a comfortable stay. The guest room is not cleaned, so……Use that one.”
The room the old man pointed to had the name Isaac2Clearly, a reference to Abrahamic religions where Isaac is the son of Abraham and such. In this case, it seems to be the daughter tho on the door.
“Is it your daughter’s room?”
“That’s right. It seems she won’t be showing her face this year either, so feel free to use it to your heart’s content. A room only has meaning when someone is staying in it, after all.”
Tara quietly nodded, opened Isaac’s door, and went inside. Niolle scurried in after her and finally, Bennett…….
“Wait a minute. Why are you coming in?”
“……Do I really have to talk about the possibility of an attack and the importance of staying close to each other?”
“But still, this isn’t right. It’s okay for Niolle to come since she’s a woman, but who knows if you have ulterior motives or indecent desires?”
“⋯⋯⋯⋯.”
Bennett did have ulterior motives, but not of those kinds. Especially not indecent desires. He pressed his furrowing brow with his thumb, trying desperately to stay patient. And then, he organized his thoughts.
Yeah, even if something happens, an emergency return would occur, so my life won’t be in danger. It’s regrettable that the Human Detector, Niolle, is not by my side, but the Saintess is another story. Even if something happens, it’s none of my concern──.
“If anything happens, at least scream.”
“Yeah, sure. You scream too if something’s urgent.”
Bennett slammed the door as he left.
===============================================================
“Mmmmhmmm, hmhmm.”
While Saintess Tara was raiding the wardrobe and humming to herself, Niolle carefully observed the surroundings. The room where Abraham’s daughter, Isaac, had lived. There were traces of someone in every corner.
By observing the size of the bed and the degree to which the springs were pressed, she could estimate the approximate body shape and weight. Press press. As such, she pressed down on the bed with her hands to check the spring’s tension. And then she made her assumptions. The weight was around 50 kg. The build was more on the slender side.
Smell. There was nothing particularly noticeable.
Cleanliness. It seemed like Abraham was maintaining it daily. The dust-free floor reflected the old man’s sincere heart that was waiting for his daughter.
Bookshelf. The bookshelf was a very important clue. After all, one could peek into a person’s character through the types of books they possessed.
About 70% were related to astronomy and about 30% were occult-related books dealing with magic and devils. Judging by the placement and height of the books, she guessed that Isaac might be around 170 cm tall. And while making such estimates…
A particularly well-worn book caught Niolle’s eyes, so she briefly opened it.
Because it was bound, she thought it was a book, but it turned out to be a diary. Since she knew it was rude to snoop through someone else’s diary, Niolle quickly closed it.
“⋯⋯⋯⋯.”
However, a glimpse of a drawing lingered strangely in her mind. A father and daughter looking through a telescope together. And, in some dark place, a few round soap bubbles were drawn. A drawing with an unclear meaning……
What made it even more unforgettable was the strange sensation. It was an absurd thought── After all, it was definitely Niolle who was looking at the drawing. But, for some reason, it felt as if the drawing was looking back at her.
