Chapter 13: A world within the soul (1)
Estelle had never given Benjamin a green light to see her elder sisters.
That said, he knew where they were since he had his duties to uphold. Now that Estelle was sleeping from overheating and implored him to save her older sisters, Benjamin could slide the door open and take a glance into the entire system of talismans keeping these two women alive as well as the appearances of Estelle's sisters.
These two were lying next to each other on soft mattresses. Resting though they may have been, their twisted faces, drenched in their sweat, said more than enough about their pain and struggles.
One of them, the woman with a lighter shade of silver hair, appeared to be in much worse condition. She was ashen, her cheeks were dotted with purple bruises, and her breathing was erratic.
Though nourished by Estelle's talismans, her body was clearly emaciated. A lot of her bones could have been seen as her skin sank into them.
Speaking of Estelle's talismans, she had done splendid work leveraging them to aid her sisters. The room was warm for the ill, as even with the windows closed and shades down, a nice breeze was constantly going across the room. Estelle had also thought about the future in which she wouldn't be able to attend to her sisters.
Many talismans were glued to the ground, waiting for their turn to nourish and keep these two alive. Because talismans needed mana and someone to activate them, Estelle thought up a system that would solve those two issues.
First, she had drawn talismans to store her mana, then cleverly strewn around candles, each pacing differently to the finish line.
Once a candle was no longer on fire, it'd trigger both mana talisman and tied to it supportive talisman, which would help Moon and Sun in Estelle's place.
Two of the candles were already extinguished, and the writings on their talismans were gone, meaning that Estelle had restocked the system before fighting the phantom. The amount of candles littering the room also shown that she had taken a failure into consideration.
Benjamin made a few arrangements in the room, the main one being his switching the places of Moon and Estelle. He gently put Estelle on the mattress and confirmed she was connected to her makeshift healing system.
Once he was sure of it, he picked up weak Moon and took her to the summoning circle.
However much he was fluent in the ancient language due to his subclass, Benjamin couldn't really use their power well without proper arrangements. In this case, to bring out the other existences within those shrine protagonists, Benjamin had to rely on the summoning circle, Estelle's writing, and their roles as protagonists.
Only people with such important roles could twist their fates in their favor. It was their presence that also could change the futures of others.
Benjamin, however, deemed himself a different kind of a side character.
"Let's see what kind of an existence you are," Benjamin pulled a [Liberation] talisman from his pocket and poured his mana into it, expecting to see the woman open her eyes.
Alas, what happened went beyond his expectations.
His soul was sucked into Moon instead.
-
Benjamin found himself in a dilapidated city of demi-humans.
He could tell this much from the decapitated bodies perched erect across the thoroughfare. Although those were seemingly frozen in time, their heads were still rolling, and one of them struck Benjamin's bare feet.
It was the head of a fox woman.
He kicked the head away, stuck his hands in his shorts pockets, and went for a stroll. An eerie silence, the stench of blood, and coldness didn't make his walk pleasant, just like the bodies waiting for their turn to drop flat onto the ground.
Benjamin weaved around them without touching their skin or animal parts, checking on their clothes and the architecture of the town.
People of various races were wearing kimonos woven to match their race. All houses had sliding doors just like Estelle's shrine, slates going down in an eastern theme, and wooden perches circling the periphery of houses, the same kind that Benjamin recently cleaned up.
"So, this is Estelle's hometown," Benjamin inferred. It would have been cool to go around the town and see what it had to offer just so that he could talk about it with her once he returned to his body.
As much as Benjamin had taken a liking to Estelle, he knew he would have to give up on her should their paths go astray and her ambition fail to match his, just like his previous relationships.
It didn't mean he wouldn't go for some fun, as relationships for Benjamin were simple and primarily meant to fulfill their human desires and just to have fun. They were nothing of the sort he had read in the romance books he liked.
Just as he started thinking about the wolf priestess, a characteristic whistle rang in his ear.
Benjamin recognized it.
It was a whistle of a sword.
It was quickly followed by another one.
A strain of whistles in a clear harmony filled Benjamin's mind, prompting him to check it. That was the only sound he had heard in this unique world, so he grew confident that Moon was there.
Going through the broken gate of an unknown mansion, then through the scarred sidewalk, Benjamin soon found himself before a vast building that probably housed the wealthy family and the whole personnel to attend them.
It was open, so he casually stepped inside.
Once he was in, Benjamin was struck by the scene akin to a horror movie.
A woman with long silver hair of a light shade tied into a long ponytail stood proud with her wolf ears erect, holding two katanas in her little hands from which blood dripped down. Her black kimono with violet accents was tightly tied at her waist by a thick silver belt while the rest flared out, revealing her long legs and bare shoulders.
She had her naked feet in seemingly a lake of blood in which heads of the same man were rolling around.
The man in question had his eyes wide and lips parted in shock.
A second later, an army of clones flanked the silver-haired woman. There were at least twenty clones of the male wolf screaming curses and death wishes at her.
The woman, however, was not appalled by them. Instead, she was waiting for them to enter her range. Once they did, her body jerked, and she slipped into a beautiful dance of two twin swords without making any sound. Her steps were silent, just like the world around her.
Only her twin swords whistled as she spun around, beheading the men with clear precision and hatred.
All heads drowning in the lake, the wolf woman returned to her initial position and was now facing Benjamin.
In those violet eyes clouded by a thick killing intent, Benjamin saw a charming ambition. Since he recognized this woman and saw her in a healthy state, he also allowed himself to take a glance at her thighs.
Which were toned and beautifully sculpted from years of training.
A beautiful wolf woman, who was clearly a protagonist, stood before him.
The only problem was that she was drowned in her own hatred, which was scratching down her consciousness. The more she killed, the worse her condition was.
Now, she was on the verge of losing herself.
"Is that man your stepbrother?" Benjamin asked with a smile, "Don't you want to kill him for real?"
Moon didn't reply to him, essentially ignoring him.
When another wave of the same cloned man appeared in the mansion, she turned around and prepared her blades to kill them all again.
Benjamin sighed and took his hands from his pockets, "It seems like I'm going to propel the protagonists in the hard way."
Only beating the crap out of this woman could bring her back to her senses, or so it seemed.