Chapter 67

Chapter 67 : The Edge of Truth (9)

After examining every part of the clocktower’s clock—and no, we did not actually take it apart—Murel confirmed that nothing was wrong with it and concluded that an external factor, in other words, Black Mist, was the beginning and end of this situation.

Though he could not determine by what mechanism the Black Mist had stopped the hands.

The most we could roughly judge was that the strange entanglement between the oddly thin phantasmal energy and the Black Mist might have caused the problem.

[Fame Value: 99]

So my irritation was piling up neatly at the fact that this sluggishly rising number had completely stopped.

That had been the value when Humil showed up yesterday, so it had been frozen for a full day.

Lying sprawled in a suitable space inside the clocktower, I thought of something while watching the Fame Value rise one by one.

Either it was doing that on purpose because this was the Fame System I had extorted through threats, or it was rising this frustratingly because it had been forcefully fitted into a grade that did not suit it.

Whatever the case, it was not a welcome situation.

Aside from the advantage that I would gain points eventually if I sat around killing time, there was nothing good about it. The fact that it was a point supply filled solely by others, making it impossible for me to gauge on my own, also bothered me.

When there was still no sign of it rising after I lay there for another half a day, I got up.

Rather than relying on Fame, it would be better to bump into something around here or ask Murel to really hit me once and raise an Achievement that way.

“Are you going out?”

I stared at Murel, who looked up at me with hollow eyes, then shook my head.

Even so, I could not risk my life.

“I am going to get some food from Herton.”

“You are going yourself? It will be brought here soon.”

“This one needs some fresh air.”

I answered, jerking my chin toward Fluffnix, who was dozing on my shoulder.

“You should catch your breath too. You look like that because you have been holed up in this gloomy place.”

“Ahaha, compared to the old Lord Iwon, this is nothing.”

What was my past self like?

When I narrowed my eyes and looked at him, Murel quietly turned his head away. He needlessly examined the internal structure of the clocktower again, even though he had already looked over all of it and finished reconstructing it.

“You come too. Do not make me do the work twice for no reason. Sitting here and staring at it will not bring out anything more.”

“That is…… true, but I am uneasy. The gears feel familiar, so I feel as though something is about to happen.”

“Familiar?”

“That, the smell unique to the Underworld.”

“The one you said was like the smell of oil?”

“Rather than that…… since you have lost your memories, you will understand once we go back someday. It smells like something submerged in water.”

I wondered if he meant a fishy smell, but I did not think that was it. If it were that, he would have called it the smell of the sea.

What on earth was a smell submerged in water?

I was puzzled, but it was truly the sort of thing I could not get a sense of, so I shrugged and went outside the clocktower.

Faint mist wrapped thickly around the alley, and even though it was still far from dusk, the street was already lightly lit.

What Ochel had said before came to mind for no reason, and I rubbed my arms.

I knew mist was only a weather phenomenon created by temperature differences, not something that gathered because ghosts had attached themselves to it, yet I swept my gaze around through the hazy visibility with discomfort.

At that moment, goosebumps rose sharply from the nape of my neck down my spine.

Startled, I turned around, but there was no one in the empty alley.

Flicker, flicker.

The sign light of the pub standing at the corner over there flickered two or three times, stopped, then repeated.

“Ah, haha, ha.”

Heeheeheehee.

I forced out a hollow laugh to try to lighten the mood, but that familiar laughter followed.

How could my expectations not be wrong by even an inch?

I had thought the atmosphere strangely resembled the office that day. It had not been my imagination.

Heehoohoohooheeheeheek.

Grotesque voices crossed the dreary twilight.

At that moment, the creature perched on my shoulder flapped its wings and rose into the air. Sparks scattered lightly from the head-feather that had brightened in an instant, and a rain of faint light sprinkled through the space stirred by its brightly burning wings.

My eyes widened in surprise, because this was the first time it had flown since we entered Mist’s Domain.

Heeheeeeeekeeeeekkii—ee!

A mischievous child’s laughter twisted more and more grotesquely, then let out a scream.

The sharp scream that scraped my eardrums passed, and the remaining echo left my ears muffled.

Fluffnix circled the area once, burped lightly, then landed on my shoulder again.

Its dry wings were now glossy, and it had clearly eaten something.

Probably the existence of something that had been echoing through empty air.

Even without seeing it with my eyes, the system confirmed it again.

Ding!

[Achievement 〈What You See Is Not Everything〉 achieved.]

[You gain points +1P.]

I had filled the 20 points not through the Fame Value that had stopped at 99, but by achieving an Achievement.

My reason, saying I had to view the Original Work quickly, pulled me back into reality, but the fact that this invisible existence was not a simple illusion, but something real, made my mouth dry up.

‘Is the mist really ghosts or what?’

I hurried toward Herton’s house while stroking Fluffnix, which had feasted grandly and gone limp.

“You will get sick if you pick up and eat anything.”

[“It is a delicacy.”]

The creature, which had kept its mouth shut the entire time after we entered Mist’s Domain, answered obediently. Seeing that the creature, which had been groaning and drooping, had returned to normal meant that thing had restored it.

“……What did you eat?”

[“Stray ghosts.”]

“……?”

[“……Snacks?”]

“……?”

[“They are safe to eat. Master told me to eat them long ago.”]

What on earth did Sek feed this creature?

Come to think of it, the crow-tit had also readily picked up and eaten broken fragments of Phantasmal Species.

In the former Sky’s Domain, it had even overeaten because of that and had been passed out asleep the whole time before waking again.

Though it seemed to help with recovery this time, I still narrowed my eyes and glared at it for no reason, wondering if it might truly get sick doing that someday.

[“Delicious.”]

“Yes, yes. Eat plenty.”

I accepted the creature’s appetite and stopped interrogating it.

More than that, I was more concerned about those things it called stray ghosts.

---

「(Excerpt omitted)……“I did not expect to be given an opportunity to use the Nonaggression Pact so soon.”

Karon gave Retu a comfortable smile as he looked at her stiff expression. Retu’s face rotted as she looked at him, but he did not mind.

It was enough profit for this matter to establish a line to Mist’s Domain.

Retu had no choice. In the end, even the warning Sek had left long ago had indicated that this was something she would have to call the Underfolk for.

“You said you know the cause?”

“I have an expectation. The expansion of the Boundary of Death is not something we welcome either, so we could not help keeping a close watch on it.”

One of Retu’s eyebrows twitched. She was not ignorant of what those words meant.

“……You speak well for someone openly admitting you sent spies.”

“Are we not in the same position? Until now, they were hidden because we were enemies, but from now on, using them in a better direction does not seem bad either.”

“I cannot stand by and watch your things rummage through my land.”

“Ahaha, you are indeed Mol Retu, the Ruler of the Mist.”

Retu was troubled by the fact that she had no choice but to leave that face full of schemes alone, and she waved a hand.

“You had better repair the clocktower properly.”

“Mm…… If I repair that, what will you give me?”

Karon set down the flower growing in the Underworld that he had brought as a gift and stared quietly at Retu.

If Karon, who controlled all Underfolk, refused, the Underfolk would never repair the clocktower.

Karon stood in that superior position, pressing down on Retu’s shoulders.

As if asking whether it was not about time for her to lower her head.

“Do you not know that if the Boundary of Death expands, it will devour your Underworld first?”

“I know. Because I know, I must make things more certain.”

“What do you want?”

“If I repair the clocktower, later, grant me one thing I desire.”

“Hah, absurd.”

“I hear you have chosen a successor. It would be even better if I were introduced as well.”

It was an open threat.

Karon leisurely waited for Retu’s answer.

……(Middle omitted)……

Karon stroked his chin as he looked at the stopped gears.

The Black Mist had worked properly. He did not like using another person’s hands, but Mist’s Domain was not a place one could easily approach.

Though all of the Surface World was like that, Mist tended to react with particular sensitivity.

It was all because of Retu, its ruler. One who stood over the dead. Since unseen things were her helpers, it could only be difficult to find an opening.

“It is time to take that power as well.”

Karon reached out his hand.

From the point where his fingertips barely touched the end of the black gear, the space rippled greatly as though distorting.

The change began there.

The Black Mist that had seeped into each part of the clock and hidden itself moved easily at Karon’s gesture. The faintly wavering Black Mist lingered at Karon’s fingertips for a moment, then spread throughout the clocktower.

It happened in an instant.

Pitch-black darkness wrapped around the inside of the clocktower, and when it vanished, only Karon stood there in solitude.

GRRRT—CLACK!

The clocktower’s hands began moving again for the first time in a year.……(Excerpt omitted)」

Invisible things.

Things that existed nonetheless.

Mist formed from those things gathered together.

The Underworld Lord who handled it.

According to Murel, Black Mist was the power of the lord, and it was something that could make a choice.

Through the Original Work, I had seen Karon, the current Underworld Lord, handling those things, and if it was certain he had been chosen, then what about me?

The Black Mist should have seeped between the clock parts before my eyes.

It had not revealed itself even in the process of completely disassembling and reexamining the clock, so it was in an invisible state.

Since it had revealed itself again at Karon’s command, it existed, one way or another.

Whether it was Black Mist, or the stray ghosts Fluffnix had called a delicacy and swallowed, it was mist formed from those things gathered together.

Karon, the current Underworld Lord, who handled that invisible mist whose very existence was doubtful.

“Murel.”

“Yes, Lord Iwon.”

“In your eyes, do I look so much like Sek that there is not even room for doubt?”

“……In Lord Iwon’s eyes, do I look like Murel?”

“I was the one asking the question.”

“My answer is that it is the same. From the beginning, you looked like My Lord in my eyes. Of course, My Lord told me not to doubt, and there are subtle differences in your appearance! But my instinct tells me.”

Murel opened his eyes wide and intense while Fluffnix perched on his head, reciting his answer quite seriously.

“Lord Iwon is clearly still the Underworld Lord. Is that not enough, seeing as that child called Karon cannot rashly step forward? I just had goosebumps, you know?”

It was an obvious answer, given the openly blind attitude he had shown.

I pulled up the corner of my mouth and stared hard at the place where the clock parts were tangled together.

As expected, I could not see it.

Black Mist fears the Power of Phantasm.

Fluffnix ate stray ghosts.

Phantasmal Species mutated when eroded by Black Mist.

Would Fluffnix be all right?

“Woldeer.”

[“It feels strange when you call me that. Whatever it is, I am not doing it.”]

“I did not say anything.”

[“I recommend looking back on the past, Master.”]

I shrugged and reached toward the clock parts, just as Karon had done.

While drawing in as much of the phantasmal energy fluttering in my vision as possible, I guided the Black Mist to emerge through that opposition.

I had already suffered once during the Black Forest incident because I could not handle Black Mist. With the Phantasm Domain I had gained back then, all I could do was push the mist away and guide it.

The Power of Phantasm, gathered thickly together, poked the spot my finger pointed at. More precisely, on top of the very first part Karon had indicated.

Before long, the Black Mist began to respond, creeping out. Like a curtain in the area shaking, the pitch-black mist peeled away in one layer.

I shouted toward Murel, whose expression was startled beside me.

“Woldeer, it is yum-yum time.”

[“Are you insane?”]

“Sadly, I have never been sane.”

[“……I cannot deny that. Since this is something you brought upon yourself, overdo it for just a moment, Master.”]

After scattering sparks once, Fluffnix took Woldeer’s form in an instant.