Ch.192192. Claire’s General Store

In the end, I couldn’t clearly determine what the criteria had been.

If I had to guess, I suspected that the execution began when Ophelia herself decided she had truly loved someone and then judged that her love had cooled.

Ultimately, creating a situation where Ophelia would momentarily abandon her self-love—that was precisely the method I had devised to summon her daughter, and it worked perfectly.

The daughter didn’t say anything. In the form of a pitch-black figure, with only red eyes gleaming, she slowly approached her mother.

“S-save me! Save meee!”

Ophelia screamed at her approaching daughter.

I felt the urge to leave them be, but I hadn’t summoned her daughter to kill Ophelia.

“Do you know anything about Claire’s General Store?”

I asked calmly, speaking to the back of the daughter’s head. But the daughter showed no reaction.

“Sigh.”

I didn’t want to do this to the daughter, who was the victim, but…

Black iron chains shot up from the floor and table, binding both of the daughter’s hands.

It was a technique called the Spiritmaster’s Chains, often used when handling evil spirits.

[…..]

The daughter’s neck gradually turned. After rotating 180 degrees, she finally looked at me behind her.

She was barely recognizable as a girl. She was simply a black-painted form with bloodshot red eyes.

As I’ve mentioned before, the form a soul takes ultimately stems from its mind and will.

For example, just as Stella, who had lost her eye, left hand, and lower body, appeared intact in her soul state.

If one can maintain mental integrity, one doesn’t necessarily carry physical wounds into the soul.

But most people carried the wounds they suffered in life into their soul state.

The opposite situation naturally applies as well.

“I’m sorry.”

Looking at the girl who carried wounds in her soul state that she hadn’t suffered in life, I couldn’t help but apologize.

How much pain and suffering must she have endured to damage her soul beyond recognition like this?

Did she hear my apology?

The girl, who had been fidgeting to free herself from the chains, suddenly stopped moving.

The girl’s soul, already damaged beyond repair, gradually calmed and waited for my words.

“Can you answer the questions I’m about to ask?”

[…Why?]

A sound like nails on a chalkboard, making my skin crawl just hearing it. I imagined this was what a voice would sound like after a throat had been burned.

Knowing that the questions I was about to ask would recall painful memories for the little girl, I carefully but firmly made my request.

“To prevent others from becoming victims like you. And…”

[…..]

“To avenge you.”

The red eyes trembled briefly, then the girl clenched her fists and bravely nodded.

Having received permission, I started with the most fundamental question.

“Claire’s General Store. Do you know it?”

[…Yes.]

The girl’s body trembled, as if just recalling it frightened her.

At the same time, I heard the clanking of the chains binding her hands.

I reached out and sent the chains back into mana, freeing her, then continued my questions.

“Who was the owner there?”

The Claire I knew was a lively man with a small stature who could almost be mistaken for a child. His notable feature was his large nose.

[A tall man.]

‘As I thought.’

I figured it was someone different from the Claire I knew, but her answer wasn’t finished.

[A scary woman.]

‘Two?’

[A small child.]

“……”

[An old man with a strange voice, a man with twisted hands, a woman missing one eye, a scary-looking man, a large man……]

The answers kept pouring out.

I wondered if there might be some spell preventing her from speaking about the shop, but upon checking, that wasn’t the case.

The girl was truly listing all the shop owners she had seen.

“That’s enough.”

[…..]

Simply thinking about it, there couldn’t really be that many people acting as the shop’s owner.

‘It seems they’re changing their appearance.’

A common tactic. It’s their way of concealing their identity.

“What did the owner do to you?”

[Ah.]

At my words, the girl stiffened as if struck, then crouched down and began trembling violently.

It wasn’t that she didn’t want to speak—she was suffering from the mere act of remembering. Seeing this, I could understand why this child’s soul had transformed this way.

‘They inflicted enough mental pain to damage even the soul’s appearance.’

Or perhaps they used something like spirit magic to directly harm the soul.

“I’m sorry, please forget that question.”

I placed my hand on the child’s shoulder, trying to comfort her.

But the moment I touched her, the threads constituting the child began flowing toward me. They crept up and wound around my hand, then suddenly snapped off.

“This is…”

The thin thread that had separated from the main body was trying to return to the child.

And I realized this was the method the child had given me to reach Claire’s General Store.

Since her soul had been sold and belonged to Claire’s General Store, if she were to return, this thin thread in my hand would guide the way.

“Thank you.”

I couldn’t give her peace immediately. But I couldn’t leave this child outside like this either.

To save her, I needed to return to the general store.

And for that…

My eyes calmly settled on Ophelia.

At the same time, the child’s head turned back to its original position and glared at her.

“G-go away! Go away, you monster!”

I didn’t bother asking how the child felt. In any case, she had been sold to Claire’s General Store and needed to complete her assigned task.

“I suppose that’s fortunate in a way.”

“W-what?!”

I calmly answered Ophelia, who asked me what was fortunate.

“When this child returns to Claire’s General Store, I will find that place and save her.”

“T-then tell her to go back quickly!”

“But the child cannot return unless she takes your life.”

Because the contract hasn’t been fulfilled yet.

Ignoring Ophelia, who had turned pale, I took out one of the bottles of alcohol within reach.

The bottle was cold from being kept in ice. As I poured the drink, a faint mist rose from it, and I filled my glass.

I felt I needed alcohol to wet my tongue to make this bitter scene less painful to watch.

A parent who sold her daughter without hesitation…

Would die at the hands of her child, who showed equal lack of hesitation.

“Nooooo!”

Swoosh!

The daughter’s form unraveled like a ball of thread and poured into Ophelia’s eyes, nose, and mouth.

Then it seized Ophelia’s soul and pulled it into itself.

So that’s why there were no external wounds, only the soul disappeared.

Those ruled as accidental deaths probably happened the same way, but unfortunately, the body went limp or something similar happened afterward.

It wasn’t a pleasant sight to witness.

Whether wanted or not.

Even if it was revenge, a daughter had taken her mother’s soul.

But at least…

“Let your death be the opportunity to find peace for your daughter.”

I don’t know if you’ll be satisfied with me finding Claire’s General Store and saving your daughter’s soul that was sold there.

But that was the only thing I could do for this mother and daughter.

Bang!

At that moment, the door burst open and waiters rushed in. Since incidents were common in places like this, several tough-looking men poured in behind Porten, the shop owner.

“W-what happened?”

They asked in confusion after entering, seeing me standing there sober while Ophelia lay sprawled on the floor.

Without much thought, I answered.

“She suddenly collapsed. Heart attack.”

You probably would have answered just as nonchalantly about the deaths you caused.

It wasn’t a particularly pleasant feeling.

* * *

“Arghhhh!”

Aria, who had been chopping firewood in the still wintry cold, roared as if complaining.

Back in her hometown village after nearly a year.

She had stacked plenty of firewood, not only to help her parents but also for the elderly villagers.

For some reason, they kept trying to reward her for her kindness, but she stubbornly refused.

“Why are you shouting? You said you wanted to help.”

When Aria’s mother scolded her, Aria pouted.

“It’s not because of this. I just want to get back to the Academy quickly.”

“Hmm? Don’t most people prefer vacation?”

“Not me.”

After picking up the few logs that had fallen while putting them down, Aria stretched.

“Hmmmm! What’s for dinner tonight?”

“Stew. A healthy stew with lots of broccoli.”

“…I should have hunted that wild boar I saw earlier.”

Though winter made food-scarce wild boars prone to attacking humans, they instead fled desperately upon seeing Aria.

They must have sensed with their animal instincts that attacking would be unwise. Sometimes animals seemed wiser than humans.

“I’ll go ahead and heat up the stew. Cover the firewood with the tarp and come back. Don’t let it get wet from snow.”

“Got it.”

After covering the firewood in the village center with a large tarp so people could take what they needed, Aria headed back home.

How long had it been since she spent a vacation as an ordinary schoolgirl like this?

Thinking such thoughts, Aria hummed as she headed home, but…

“Huh?”

Next to the entrance door of the small cabin where she lived with her family, there was another door standing alone.

“What’s this?”

It was definitely a door that hadn’t been there this morning.

It had an elegant purple appearance, and a nameplate hung loosely in front.

– Claire’s General Store.

“Claire’s General Store?”

Feeling like she’d heard of it somewhere before, Aria tilted her head in thought for a moment before clapping her hands.

“Ah! It’s the secret shop!”

A shop run by a merchant named Claire who travels throughout the continent.

Normally, first-year students would definitely encounter it once, but Aria in her first life knew nothing and just passed by, never meeting it again afterward.

In her second life, she was too busy to visit.

“I had bad luck in my first life.”

Deus from her first life had even explained how to handle Claire’s General Store, but she was unlucky and never encountered the shop.

“Tsk, but is it okay to set up a shop next to someone else’s house like this?”

She’d heard the shop owner was nice but timid, so this could be used as a negotiation card.

She went into the house, retrieved the heavy money pouch containing her adventure funds hidden under the bed, and headed straight to Claire’s General Store.

Creeeeak.

“…Hmm?”

The interior was so dark that it gave an unpleasant feeling from the moment she stepped inside.

Was it supposed to be like this?

Such doubts arose, but she continued inward.

However, the further she went, the more Aria became convinced something was wrong with this place.

‘The energy feels creepy?’

She couldn’t explain it precisely, but she felt the eerie sensation of dozens of eyes watching her from the darkness of the shop.

Additionally, the display counters that should have held merchandise were empty, with only dust piled high.

At the end…

A man sitting at the counter.

His face was hidden in darkness, but his hands wearing white gloves stood out clearly.

“Welcome to Claire’s General Store.”

“……”

Suspicious as it was, rashly confronting in this unknown situation would be unwise.

Aria glanced around subtly and asked:

“There’s not a single item here?”

“We’re out of stock.”

“……”

She was about to say the counters seemed to have been empty for too long, but changed the direction of her words.

“So what do you sell?”

As Aria asked with a tilt of her head, she somehow felt the corners of the woman’s mouth in the darkness stretching into a long grin.

‘Woman?’

No, a man who had become a woman.

Focusing her mind on the strange energy secretly flowing into her ears, Aria concentrated.

Without her noticing, the man had become a woman, the woman an old person, but…

The hands in pure white gloves remained in the same place, taking out an item.

“I’ve prepared something specially for you, customer.”

Knowing who I am…

With a chuckle mixed in the old person’s words, Aria suppressed her irritation and checked what was in those hands.

“…Huh?”

What they held was a small ‘soul’.

And it had the appearance of someone she knew very well.

Aria felt her lips trembling involuntarily. Though she had lived as a hero and experienced countless things, this was her first encounter with something so bizarre and frightening.

It stung like a thumbtack in her sole, and she felt so constricted she could barely breathe.

Emotions she thought she had buried well were sprouting like seedlings in her heart again.

“N-no way.”

Aria instinctively recognized who the soul belonged to the moment she saw it, but…

The shop owner deliberately stated the product name.

“This is the soul of Shinwoo Kim from the first timeline.”