A young woman with her face hidden behind a wooden mask was sleeping in front of me. Her clothes were grimy and her hair was soiled enough that I couldn't make out their original color.
Her most striking feature, however, were her ears.
The top half of her ears were missing. If one was to recreate an image of her ears in their mind, given their angular shape, the result would not be human ears, but rather long and pointy ears.
"Stop acting. I know you are awake." I called out to her.
She didn't budge, laying still like a corpse.
The silence continued.
However, I didn't move either and stared down at her.
And eventually, she moved. "What do you want?"
Her voice was bewitching, yet melodic. The mask was hiding her face, but I felt that it was the most beautiful face one could ever have. My mind was urging me to remove the obstruction hiding her face.
I could feel my sanity slipping away after hearing her voice once.
'This is dangerous. I better hurry.'
Thud—!
I threw the bag that I brought onto the ground and took out the two shovels from inside it.
Passing one shovel to her, I commanded. "Dig."
Then, without waiting for her response, I picked the other shovel and started digging.
—
Slave Trade & Co
The enormous building was built over a cemetery. It was thanks to that, if one digs at its basement, they would find tons of corpses.
I was searching for one such corpse that carried the 'Crown of Massacre'. The novel only said, 'Lumine was lucky enough to find a corpse with the crown beneath her cellar when Coalescence began.'. So, I had to struggle to locate it in reality.
An hour and three wrong pits later, our labor bore result.
Ting—!
The tip of my shovel struck a hard surface, which was vastly different from the skeletons that we had unearthed since the start.
We pulled the coffin out and placed it on the cellar floor a few minutes later.
Lumine, who had yet to speak another word, then stood at the side. I didn't pay attention to her and stared at the lock placed on the coffin.
Clang!
The lock broke when I struck it with my blade. Thereafter, I hid the blade back inside my robe and opened the coffin.
'There it is!'
Resting on top of the black skeleton was a blood red crown.
Taking a closer look, I could hear voices coming from the crown, voices that were asking for carnage and mayhem.
I muttered a useless sentence to throw them – the ones watching me – off guard, "The information wasn't wrong."
Making sure the crown didn't touch my bare skin, I wrapped it thickly with cloth and pocketed it.
The crown needed to be purified before bonding with it. Or, I would slowly go insane from blood-thirst like its previous owner, the black skeleton. After all, unlike Lumine, I didn't have the power of charm to cancel out the crown's blood-thirst.
Purifying the crown wasn't difficult. It required me to kill a few monsters and using the Coins — the currency of Tower of Babel — earned from doing so, purchase the 'Grace Dew' from the [Shop].
With one of the two pieces achieved, I turned to my 2nd piece and spoke out aloud.
"I know you are watching. Come out."
A few minutes passed, but the shop owner didn't reveal himself. Sighing, I faced Lumine, who was standing still like a doll.
"Will you call out to him? I don't think he is going to listen to me."
Rustle—!
At my words, a shadow at the corner of the basement moved.
"I didn't think Sir would catch me. First, I would like to apologize for having misunderstood Sir's intention." The owner smiled while looking at my robes. "But what did Sir dig out of the ground?"
"You don't need to know."
Throwing three pouches of money at him — and crying internally because of my bleeding wallet — I pointed at Lumine.
"Deduct her price from it. I'm buying her."
"S...sir, you should reconsi–" His voice shook but before he could complete his sentence a third voice cut him off.
"Fatty, don't bother. He knows about me. The earlier farce was to distract us and mask his intentions before he came out with his actual objective." Lumine ordered.
The owner nodded and silently went back to the corner of the basement. Lumine then shook her head and faced me.
"You are here for me, aren't you? Your earlier actions almost had me fooled, but then you tried to buy me in the end and spoiled your actual goal of coming here."
'It seems that they think I was faking the digging. Well, that works in my favor.' I didn't respond.
She added, "But I'll ask for the sake of it, why did you come here?"
Listening to her, the feeling of lightheadedness intensified. The air I was inhaling felt different. I could feel my consciousness blurring.
I swiftly bit my tongue.
The pain brought the much needed clarity and allowed me to think straight.
It made me realize that she had been using her charm since the beginning. I was a fool to think that the mesmerizing voice at the beginning wasn't intentional. It was done intentionally.
My hand crept toward the Crown of Massacre. 'If something goes wrong, I'll use the crown. The madness effect should be able to resist her charm. But let's not turn to extreme measures too early. I doubt she is trying to harm me.'
Lumine asked again, "Someone must have told you about me. I want to know about that person and I won't do anything to you."
I didn't answer.
Since I regained my memories, this was the first time I felt thankful for my prideful trait. It was helping me not to say anything against my will.
I bit my tongue harder.
Watching my motionless stature, Lumine spoke in a hesitant and worried tone. "You must have wanted to see my face. It should be why you came here, didn't you? Don't. It will make you a mindless puppet. I'm hiding here because I don't want that to happen to anyone else again. So, please tell me who told you about my location."
I finally spoke after sorting my thoughts. "Name: Lumine Von Stargaze, Race: Elf. Persecuted by her fellow Elven villagers for destroying peace and serenity of the village. Currently, she is living in hiding among humans."
Lumine shook slightly. It was a miniscule reaction, but it didn't go unnoticed by me thanks to my attribute.
As if a flip had been switched, her demeanor changed entirely.
"You aren't here on someone else's behalf, huh?" Her voice wasn't worried, hesitant, shocked, cold, or enraged, just… empty. "Since you seem like you are here with an objective in mind, tell me. Why are you here?"
This was the real Lumine.
She might have been abused repeatedly and tragedies filled her life, but she wasn't the one to cower. Her motto was to face problems head-on.
With her true self bare, I removed my robe, revealing my hair and face.
Black hair!|
...black …hair!|
The owner and Lumine's thoughts were clear in that instant. It was surprising because, since the beginning, I hadn't been able to read Lumine's thoughts.
"I'm Sol Lionel, the 3rd heir of Lionel Dukedom." I declared. "I want your aid in assassinating my family."