Chapter 444: Proof of Existence (32)

0% The silence that had settled over the chamber didn’t last long. It was broken when the girl slowly began to rise to her feet.

A solitary ghost began to dance.

Clad in a pristine white dress, the young woman moved with delicate steps. Before I realized it, the girl, having risen to her feet, lifted the hem of her skirt and placed a hand over her chest, as if she were a dancer on a stage.

She looked defenseless–yet perilous.

Logically, I should have drawn my sword immediately.

She was full of openings. The moment I recognized her as an enemy, there should have been no room for mercy.

And yet, I couldn’t bring myself to move.

It wasn’t just me. Yuren, Celine, and Senior Elsie were all frozen in place as well.

My hands were trembling uncontrollably.

A bead of sweat trickled down my forehead. My instincts were constantly screaming warnings to me.

If I made a single reckless move, I would die.

In a matter of seconds, the black-haired girl had seized complete control of the entire room.

Her body spun again and again, tapping the ground lightly with her toes.

All the while, she hummed a playful tune.

“Ah. I’ve been found out, I’ve been found out… How did I get discovered?”

Twirl, Twirl. As the girl danced, faceless assaillants shrieked along in a grotesque chorus.

KRRGH… KEEEK… KE-HEEEK!

It was an unpleasant, grating noise, as if their vocal cords were being scratched, and yet it carried a strange sense of pitch and rhythm, making it all the more bizarre.

The ghostly dance finally came to a halt beneath the blood-red sun.

With a slithering sound, tendrils slithered down from the sun and formed themselves into the shape of a chair. Without hesitation, the woman perched atop it, propping her chin in her hand and flashing a bored smile.

Behind her, the faceless assailants paraded in a formation as sharp as blades.

Above, blood-red cocoons dangled from the sky; behind her, dozens of soldiers with distorted skin stood in ranks. In the midst of this bizarre tableau, only the girl’s beauty remained untainted.

Her golden eyes turned to me, shimmering with a strange light.

“How did you figure it out? I thought I’d done a flawless job… Here, look. I even got the mole on the collarbone just right.”

With that, she slowly slipped down one of her shoulder straps, revealing her pale collarbone.

It was around that time that I was finally freed from the suffocating sense of oppression surrounding me. Or, to be more precise, I had finally grown accustomed to it.

The heavy air, the chilling atmosphere–it all made it feel as if something could happen at any moment.

But I couldn’t let myself stay intimidated forever.

Doing my best to sound calm, I finally spoke up.

“Where’s my younger sister?”

My voice trembled a little as I forced the words out.

The reason I’d gone so far as to beg the Saintess and come all the way here was to find out the whereabouts of my younger sister. I needed to get my precious missing family member back–without rashly provoking the person in front of me.

In other words, the girl standing before me wasn’t really Ria.

She was just someone pretending to be her.

Ever since I figured that out, I’d spent every night tormented by worry. Was Ria hurt somewhere, or was she out there somewhere crying alone?

That’s why my question came out so desperate.

But instead of answering, the girl just let out a soft chuckle.

“…Your younger sister?”

“Right. My younger sister… I’m talking about Ria.”

Grinding my teeth, I forced the words out again.

The girl couldn’t hold it in anymore and burst out laughing. She tried to bite down on her lips trying to suppress it, but she still couldn’t stifle the giggles that kept slipping out.

With my heart pounding, I took a step forward.

Honestly, what I really wanted was to draw my sword. But if I did, I knew the consequences would almost certainly fall on Ria–or the girl trapped in that blood-red cocoon.

That’s why I had to hold back.

So, as I bit my lip hard enough to draw blood, the girl finally burst out into an uncontrollable laughter.

“Y-Your sister? Pfft, hehehe, ahahahahahaha! Alright, fine! I’ll tell you. Of course I should, right?”

Bang, bang–every time the girl slammed her hand on the armrest of the blood-red chair, it sent shockwaves through the air.

With every echo, the bodies of faceless assailants trembled in unison. It was painfully obvious this entire space was under her control.

When her laughter finally died down, a sinister smile curled on the girl’s lips.

“But you know, it wouldn’t be fair if I’m the only one who shares something. Let’s make a deal. Right… a contract.”

And with that, she slammed her hand down hard on the chair’s armrest.

A blood-red coin appeared out of nowhere, spinning through the air before landing neatly in her pale white palm.

I wasn’t the only one who felt a sense of foreboding.

“……Master.”

“I know.”

Even so, I had to put Senior Elsie’s worries to rest, at least for now. There was nothing else I could do.

From the moment a hostage was taken, I had to accept I was at a disadvantage.

Keeping my tone serious, I continued asking,

“A contract? What do you mean by that?”

“Don’t be so wary. I’m completely fair, you know? I just want us to make a promise—-one that can’t be broken, not unless both sides agree. That way, everything stays fair… Alright, how about this for our first contract?”

As if she never intended to listen to my opinion in the first place, the girl flicked the blood-red coin into the air with her thumb.

At that, a blood-red scale appeared in the air, and the coin was drawn into one side.

With a sharp clack, the scale began to tip.

“We’ll exchange how Party A’s identity was exposed for the whereabouts of Party B’s ‘younger sister.'”

A blood-red mist began to gather in front of me, slowly taking the shape of a coin. And when I reached out to it without thinking, it gently settled onto my palm.

Was this a trap?

I wasn’t sure, but I had no other options. Meanwhile, the girl continued pressing me, her tone still casual.

“So? What’s your choice? You’re free to accept or refuse. But just know once the contract is made, it’s absolute. There’s no tricking your way out of it.”

Free to choose, she says when she’s got a hostage….

What a joke. I exchanged a quick, subtle glance with Senior Elsie.

If we couldn’t predict our opponent’s next move, we had to be ready ourselves.

The moment we got the information we needed–or realized we’d been tricked–we’d have to strike without hesitation.

This silent agreement passed between all of us.

Caught in that strangely tense atmosphere, I flicked the blood-red coin into the air.

The coin spun through the air and landed neatly on the other side of the scale, as if it belonged there.

Then, with a heavy thunk, the scale balanced.

“Alright, I accept–argh!”

Suddenly, a sharp pain shot through me, and my hand instinctively clutched my chest. Startled, my companions moved forward in alarm.

The girl, looking completely unconcerned, casually explained.

“Contract’s sealed. From now on, no backing out, alright? Because we have to carry out the contract from here on out… Oh, and even saying anything unrelated to the contract is also off-limits.”

It was quite a coercive contract.

Judging by the way my heart was throbbing, I could already guess what might happen if I broke it.

I could sense the anxiety from my companions behind me. If I left things as they were, a fight could break out before we were even ready, so I hurried to speak.

“To be honest, things felt off from the start.”

‘Ho?~’ the girl exclaimed as her eyes narrowed with interest.

She tilted her chin at me, as if to say, “Go on.” Pretending to get worked up, I subtly took a step closer.

I had to close the distance, little by little.

And I needed to find out exactly when and where my sister had disappeared.

It was time to address that part first.

“Why did the demonic beasts attack the camp that day? And why did those faceless assailants only go after Ria?”

“She’s the Dark Order’s property, isn’t she?”

It was such a blunt retort that it left a bad taste in my mouth.

Hearing her talk about Ria like she was just an object made my anger flare up.

“Of course they’d want to retrieve her. I mean, that fake–she’s supposed to be a valuable replica, isn’t she? Some kind of special item apparently…”

“Then why was Ria left unharmed?”

At that, the girl finally closed her mouth with a thoughtful hum.

I pressed on with my reasoning, even more forcefully.

“Ria has no combat ability. When I got there, She was just sitting there, trembling quietly.”

Meanwhile, my group was quietly reorganizing their positions. Thankfully, the girl didn’t seem to notice or care.

Afraid she might glance their way, I kept up my line of argument.

“And the second thing that struck me as odd was when you subdued Sir Reynold.”

“Oh, that. That really felt great… There’s nothing more satisfying than smacking an annoying old man in the back of the head.”

Saying that, she gave me a playful wink, as if expecting me to agree.

Of course, I didn’t respond. I simply kept pressing on with my reasoning.

“Even if it was in the middle of a battle, are you telling me that someone who’s reached the level of Archmage couldn’t notice someone sneaking up on him?”

“Aha! Got it! So you’d already figured out that ‘we’ have an unusually faint presence?”

With a burst of applause, the girl started laughing, and all the faceless assaillants joined in with their own grotesque cackling.

EKHEK, KUGH, KEKEKEKE!

That hideous sight made me grimace, but the girl only offered me a bright, innocent smile.

“I guess I wasn’t very considerate–my bad!”

I wanted to point out that ‘considerate’ is a word used when thinking of others, but I held back on purpose.

Either way, as soon as this conversation was over, we’d be at each other’s throats.

There was no reason to waste time.

“And another thing–you’re way too fearless.”

“Hmm?”

The girl tilted her head, looking genuinely surprised.

Taking another step closer, I went on.

I could sense the others exchanging glances, as if they were sending secret signals even to me.

“Ria’s always been timid. She nearly died, but the very next day she was all excited about money, like she’d forgotten everything… One day she was clinging to me in tears, and the next, she was out in the downtown, laughing and chatting like nothing ever happened.”

‘Hmmm.’ The girl’s gaze flickered briefly to the side.

It looked like she was retracing my steps in her mind. It didn’t take long for a smile to creep back onto her lips.

“Aha, I guess I was a little too hasty, huh?”

I didn’t bother to ask what she meant by ‘hasty.’

I just took another step, closing the gap between me and her.

“But that doesn’t exactly count as solid proof, does it? People can be fickle, and maybe that old man just let his guard down. Besides, for all we know, you might’ve shown up right before the kidnapping during the attack.”

Her barrage of counterarguments made me falter for a moment.

She had a point.

Maybe I was just imagining things. If I’d been sure, I wouldn’t have needed the Saintess’s help in the first place.

I wouldn’t have gone through this whole process of checking, either.

It was only after seeing her casually following Perry that I became certain–this girl wasn’t my sister.

Even so, there was another reason I’d instinctively doubted her….

Out of sheer embarrassment, I tried to keep quiet–only for a sharp pain to stab through my chest.

When I winced, the girl just smiled sweetly, as if to say it was pointless to resist.

“It’s no use trying to hide it–we made a contract, remember? You have to be honest.”

I cursed her silently in my head.

So that’s what she was after. There was nothing I could do about it.

In the end, I finally let out a sigh-like confession.

“…the scent.”

A heavy silence fell at my sudden words.

I could feel not only the girl’s eyes, but even those of my companions–who had been quietly preparing to carry out our secret plan–turning toward me.

My face became flushed.

“Your scent was different. And, well, Ria prefers kissing me on the lips instead of the cheek…”

And silence descended once again.