Chapter 52: The City’s Earth-Bound Spirit

“I’m sorry for my unseemly behavior. I’ve been feeling a bit lonely lately.”

“You’ve lived alone for about a thousand years. Are you still lonely?”

“For intelligent beings, the feeling of loneliness never disappears until death comes. And stop mentioning my age. Do I look old to you? Do you want to get hit?”

Well, if you’re a thousand years old, aren’t you old?

I had such doubts, but I didn’t voice them out loud.

If I teased her more, I felt like I’d really get a knock on the head.

“Anyway, Raphanel, please do something about that ring. I can’t use it properly in its current state.”

“Yes, yes. I understand. I’ll fix it and adjust it again. And as compensation for this incident, I’ll give you a half-price discount coupon.”

“A half-price discount coupon?”

“Yes. You can buy any item in this shop at half price. Here, take it. You’re the only one in this city who has this discount coupon.”

“Ooh!!!”

A coupon that allows me to buy anything in Raphanel’s atelier at half price.

This can be considered really amazing.

‘Half price. If I can buy anything at half price, I should buy the most expensive item here.’

What would be good? Most of the displayed items were potions.

Unless it’s an elixir, I didn’t want to use this coupon on a single-use potion.

‘The best would be accessories.’

Raphanel mainly deals in potions and accessories.

Among these, there are quite a few with outrageous effects.

But if you look carefully, there might be items close to artifacts that you absolutely can’t find on the market.

‘I want to ask Olivia what’s good, but…’

Even Olivia, who could be considered the labyrinth strategy guide itself, didn’t know much about Raphanel’s atelier.

No, she seemed to have almost no knowledge about anything other than the labyrinth. Whether she forgot or really didn’t know.

‘The game Olivia played was probably a game focused on the labyrinth.’

She knew almost everything about the labyrinth, down to the types of monsters by version, but had almost no information about the storyline or the labyrinth city.

It felt like she just focused on game strategy and completely skipped the story.

Anyway, since I couldn’t expect information about Raphanel’s atelier, I had to look for good items myself.

“What’s the most expensive thing here?”

“Hmm. The most expensive thing. Right, there’s the dragon pearl.”

“What?”

Dragon pearl?

No, why is there a dragon pearl here?

“Don’t you know about dragon pearls? If you’re from the East, you should know? It’s similar to a dragon’s mana heart. Don’t you know? It’s like a dragon’s core.”

“No, I know what a dragon pearl is. I’m asking why it’s here.”

The dragon pearl is that thing, right?

The round jewel that dragons hold in their mouths.

“I received it as a gift from a dragon when I was traveling long ago. It was before I settled in the labyrinth city. Quite an old memory. I should have firmly grasped that fellow before it ascended. Sigh.”

“No, you’re talking about grasping a dragon? Were you indiscriminate about race? There must be quite a size difference.”

“No, what are you saying! Size difference? Huh. You rascal.”

Raphanel tries to knock me on the head.

I quickly stepped back and covered my head.

“As long as they look similar to me, that’s fine. Isn’t it enough if we can have children?”

“Can dragons polymorph too?”

“Polymorph is like a privilege of higher life forms. Most long-lived spiritual beings can do it, right?”

“Ah.”

It’s one surprise after another.

Talking with this person makes me realize that the world I’ve fallen into is much broader than I thought.

“Anyway, that’s the most expensive thing among the items I have. The price would be about 13,000 platinum coins. By the way, half price is 13,000 platinum coins.”

“That sounds like an amount larger than the empire’s 10-year budget.”

“That’s right. It’s that precious of an item.”

It’s amazing that even such a precious item can have a price tag.

To begin with, platinum coins are currency that ordinary people can’t even see.

While gold coins are commonly used, when you get to the realm of platinum coins, it becomes too big for an individual to handle.

It’s a unit used by large merchant guilds, nobles, or those of equivalent status when measuring budgets.

“Isn’t there anything else? Among items that can be bought in gold coin units?”

“Hmm. Among expensive items in gold coin units, there’s the magic pouch. But you already have a spatial pocket, so that would be meaningless.”

Raphanel thought for a while and then brought out something.

“How about this?”

“A finger?”

“It’s an item called the monkey’s paw.”

“Ah, no. I’ll pass on that.”

The monkey’s paw that grants wishes.

I already know about this old and worn-out urban legend.

I’ve never seen anything good come from using that.

It’s better not to touch such things at all.

“You recognize the danger of this item. Is it the power of spirit vision?”

“No. I just roughly know what it is.”

“I see, as expected of someone from the mysterious East. You have a lot of knowledge.”

Raphanel grinned.

She probably deliberately offered it to check if I knew about the monkey’s paw or not.

“Well, these are about the expensive items. I think the ones you can buy with the money you have now will mostly be of ambiguous performance.”

If you go all the way to platinum coin units and get really expensive, there might be no side effects.

But moderately expensive items come with side effects.

To solve these side effects, you need to use other items to counteract them.

I didn’t have that kind of money right now.

Above all, I haven’t even received all the rescue compensation from the young lady yet.

I heard the family’s retainers will enter the labyrinth city with the compensation within this month, so I have to wait until then.

“I understand for now. It doesn’t seem like the right time to use the discount coupon yet.”

“There will definitely come a moment when you’ll use it. Everything becomes useful if you keep it long enough. Then you can use it when that time comes.”

“Yes. I’ll use it when there’s something good next time.”

Since there’s no need to use it right away, I decided to put it in my inventory for now.

It’s not a coupon with a set expiration date, so if I keep it, there will surely be a use for it someday.

“Ah, right. I should have told you about the side effects of the ring too.”

“That’s right. We didn’t talk about the side effects. Yes, what kind of side effects were there?”

“Well, I saw about three strange female ghosts.”

“Female ghosts? Three? Huh. Keep talking.”

I talked about the three color ghosts I saw when I was confined after being mistaken for a monster-possessed person in the empty lot that day.

“An ash-colored woman with her eyes covered by a bandage, a black woman with her eyes covered by her hair. Lastly, a dark red woman with eyes dyed completely black.”

“Do you know about them? They even mentioned Raphanel’s name.”

“Those are… the Three Villainesses.”

Raphanel started speaking with a serious expression.

Three villainesses passed down like legends of the labyrinth city.

Beings similar to the bogeyman that, along with the labyrinth master, keep the children of the labyrinth city awake at night.

“They’re closer to spirits than color ghosts. They’re ambiguous beings that are neither gods nor ghosts called Loa. It’s difficult to explain, so you can just roughly think of them as earth-bound spirits of the city.”

Earth-bound spirits of the labyrinth city.

Semi-divine beings called Loa.

“They go around looking for fun things and play mischief. You know, things like no matter how much you search the house, you can’t find one sock. Or something you definitely put away carefully has disappeared. Things like that.”

“All of that is their doing?”

“That’s how it was believed in the old days. Whenever something inexplicable happened in the labyrinth city, all blame was put on those three villainesses.”

“Huh..”

“It seems the side effect of the ring is drawing their attention.”

“No, isn’t this side effect too severe? I thought it would just have some sexual side effects. To think that famous villainesses of the labyrinth city are showing interest in me.”

“The side effect I expected was just ghost touch. It seems your spirit vision and the ring’s side effect have caused some unknown interaction.”

Raphanel’s expression became very serious.

To think I’ve been marked by famous earth-bound spirits of the labyrinth city.

I thought they were just insignificant color ghosts, but when told they’re named earth-bound spirits, I started to tremble a bit too.

“Hmm. They spoke to you about 3 days ago?”

“Yes. I haven’t seen them even once since then.”

“Did you feel fear from them?”

“Well, rather than fear, I felt more like I was screwed. I thought something was going to happen because strange things appeared…”

“Then you weren’t scared of them themselves?”

“Huh? Well. Hmm.”

Let me recall the memory of that time.

Right, those earth-bound spirits didn’t feel frightening.

“Yes. I don’t think I was particularly afraid of them themselves.”

“I see. Yes. Huh. How strange. Could it be that your wavelengths matched…”

Raphanel was surprised.

What, were they supposed to be scary?

I only thought their bodies were sexy.

I thought they were color ghosts because their attire was provocative and their words were too perverted.

“For the three sisters to just tease you and leave. That’s quite strange. They didn’t break your mind. They didn’t take anything. They just showed their genitals and talked dirty. How curious.”

“Is that good?”

“That’s still unknown. But it means there’s something to your spirit vision. Did they appear when you were alone at night too?”

“Ah. Well, I haven’t slept alone even once in the past two days…”

“What? You… you’ve been going around seducing women. Just because you look a bit cute, you’re going around seducing women.. Why don’t you touch me..?”

“No! What do you mean seducing women! It had nothing to do with my will!”

“That’s the excuse of Casanovas. Damn it. I’m always stuck in this room… Sigh. Enough. Wait a moment.”

Raphanel took out some paper, wrote something, and then handed it to me.

“What is this? An amulet?”

“It’s like a letter of recommendation. Take that and go to the black market.”

“Where in the black market should I go?”

“Find the voodoo specialty shop in the black market. The owner there is a voodoo practitioner from the South. If you show that to him… you’ll probably be able to join.”

“No, wait. What do you mean voodoo? Isn’t that dangerous?”

“Voodoo practitioners are also the ones who understand Loa the best. He’ll understand your situation better than I do.”

My situation.

Even I don’t know what kind of situation I’m in.

I trembled a bit at the thought that I might find out if I go see a voodoo practitioner who’s an expert on Loa.

“I understand for now. Then I’ll be going now.”

“Alright. Come back to receive the etherealization ring in about two weeks. By then, I should be able to improve almost all the problems and side effects.”

“Okay. I’ll come back around then.”

“Ah, and don’t be alone at night before you meet the voodoo practitioner. Understand?”

“Yes, I understand.”

I left the shop.

I intended to just extract some compensation, but I unintentionally realized I’ve gotten involved with strange things.

Of course, there were no particular problems for the past 2 days.

According to Raphanel’s thinking, it’s because I slept with someone.

She said there’s a very high possibility that the Loa will appear again the moment I’m alone.

‘I guess I’ll have to sleep hugging Yuria tonight too.’

This can’t be helped.

I’ve got a good excuse to sleep hugging Yuria.

I returned to Yuria’s apartment with a happy heart.