Chapter 45: Full Moon Bazaar ⑤
The woman wandered leisurely around the shop, examining the various OOPArts and Legendary items on the tables. Occasionally she picked something up, only to set it back down.
“Impressive selection.”
“Oh? You can tell, huh?”
“Yes, I’ve rarely seen anything like this.”
“Hehe, I’m glad to hear that.”
A smug witch.
Well, technically all of these items were scavenged from Haizen’s junkyards. And most of the blue-glowing items were missing, leaving mostly yellow-glowing ones.
The woman looked at the witch.
“Excuse me… I’m actually looking for a sword.”
“Hmm… a sword, you say? There’s one over there.”
“I’m looking for a white sword.”
“A white sword, you say?”
I instinctively reacted. A white sword… that had to be it.
The woman turned to look at me. Huh? There’s something… odd about her.
“Doesn’t that person resemble someone?”
Mineha-san seemed to notice it too. But who?
The woman chuckled softly.
“Yes. A mysterious white sword. It is definitely in this room.”
She spoke with complete certainty. Then her gaze shifted to the black coffin placed in the center of the room.
“Oh-ho, an excellent eye! That’s a product I just acquired a moment ago.”
“So it really is merchandise…”
“What kind of item is it?”
“How much does it cost?”
“Very, very cheap—just 10 billion Oro.”
“…Huh?”
“10 billion!?”
“What kind of cheapness is that…?”
“Cheapness… what’s that?”
“…?”
No, no, 10 billion Oro is outrageous. What’s inside? And why does the witch look so proud? What on earth is happening?
“…I feel that the sword I’m searching for is inside that coffin.”
The woman’s expression shifted. The atmosphere changed subtly. The witch crossed her arms and laughed with delight.
“Oh my, oh my… how curious. Indeed, there is a sword in that coffin—a completely white, mysterious, mystical sword. How did you know?”
Wait… what does that mean?
The woman’s gaze sharpened—not with murderous intent, but with hostility.
“I can only say that I feel it. Yoi only wants that sword.”
“That sword… could it be the daughter of the Sword Goddess?”
The instant I asked, murderous intent surged from the woman.
At that moment… four octopus-like tentacles emerged from beneath the coffin. Wait, what? Why?
“Damn, from a different sea!?”
The coffin shattered, revealing a corpse inside—bloody and corpulent.
More importantly, the sword the corpse clutched… that white sword was the daughter of the Sword Goddess herself!
And the tentacles swallowed it.
“Jumi!”
The woman’s hood fell off as she screamed. That face…!
“Megadia!? But the voice—”
No. Not Megadia… though she looked very similar, her stature and facial features seemed more mature.
I suddenly remembered something she had said before.
“Haiyaan…”
I whispered it, and the woman’s eyes widened in utter surprise.
“Why do you know that name—ugh, not now.”
She pulled something from her pocket.
A bad feeling rose, so I activated [Blue Saint].
Everything slowed, allowing me to approach her.
She threw what she was holding—a teleportation stone—forcefully to the ground.
It shattered, emitting a white-green light, and she vanished with it.
“She escaped!?”
“Goodness, what a terrifying woman. Hmm? Where is Wof boy?”
“Not here—desu.”
“…?”
“Could it be that he—!?”
I was flung into the void, rolling and taking the fall.
Painfully standing up, I realized I was outside.
“Where is this…?”
“Ugh… some extra baggage came along.”
Some distance away, the woman was on all fours. Apparently, she had been caught in the teleportation too.
I didn’t want her to escape there. I mustn’t let her go. That’s what I felt.
I asked:
“Is this really Haiyaan’s body?”
“…Yes. Stolen Haiyaan Megalopolis. This is her body.”
She slowly stood, turning to face me.
So this is the one who put Haiyaan into a rabbit.
“But thousands of years have passed since then.”
“It’s a talisman’s eternal egg.”
Ah, that explains it. She drew her sword—a white-and-black blade.
From pommel to guard, it shone pure white; the blade itself writhed in pure black, like shadow.
Just by looking, I could tell it was on a completely different level than the other daughters of the goddess.
I instantly realized this was her true form.
I asked:
“Who… exactly are you?”
I could tell she was the daughter of the Sword Goddess. But she used Haiyaan’s original body as a vessel. This was different from the three others.
“—I am Yoi, Laada. Laada of ‘Demonic Nature.’ And you, boy?”
“I’m Wof.”
The different-sea knives clattered.
But I prepared [Wood Flash], and the knives quieted.
They obeyed… thankfully.
Dagaa isn’t here. I wonder what he’s doing. Oh well.
I had no idea where we were. Looking around, countless stars glittered blue-purple in the sky, with a full moon and satellites hovering above.
The starlight revealed the ground was grass. Some kind of meadow. Uncertainty about where we had teleported made me uneasy.
“Probably… we’re going to fight now, right?”
“Yes. It seems impossible to let you live.”
She gave a wry smile. A fight was unavoidable.
“…Then, can you explain what’s happening? I don’t want to fight blindly. Consider it a souvenir from the afterlife. Fair?”
Laada laughed at my words.
“Interesting way of thinking. Very well. I’ll tell you what I know since Yoi came to Heizen. A few months ago, Yoi arrived in Heizen, met a red-masked man acquaintance, and was introduced to the Jinryuu family, one of the Three Great Houses. By the way, the red-masked man brought the daughters of the Sword Goddess from the City of Death, sold them at the bazaar, and left Haizen to attend to other matters. Where he is now is unknown.”
Whoa… the red-masked man… the root cause of everything. What a nuisance.
“City of Death?”
“It’s a ruin where death itself is sealed.”
“Ah, I see.”
The City of Death… the ruins where Death Abstract was sealed. The daughters of the Sword Goddess were taken by the red-masked man.
He must have been part of a bandit gang. Now it’s destroyed anyway.
“After being received as a guest of the Jinryuu family, Yoi met a young man, Barrow Jinryuu—the third son, called a failure. Surrounded by a heroic father and brilliant older brothers, he always cowered in fear. So I tried to bring out his hidden desires using Yoi’s [Demonic Nature] relic. But what happened… was shocking.”
“Shocking?”
“Barrow’s heart was vile. He killed his father, his brothers, kidnapped women, cursed them, and played as he pleased. Eventually, this spiraled out of control—he even abducted women related to the Zensera and Gouro families. Recently, he tried to touch a girl named Ruma.”
Ruma!?
“He made enemies of Zensera and Gouro. Yoi knew the Jinryuu family was doomed, so she didn’t reveal any information about Zenzera and Gouro’s movements. In doing so, he triggered an even bigger problem. The women he kidnapped with Ruma were daughters of the Tasan family. No matter how you look at it, it was over. Barrow’s death at the Full Moon Bazaar was inevitable anyway.”
She chuckled softly.
“You talk like it’s someone else’s problem, but you’re the root cause.”
Yes. Everything was her fault. Laada closed her eyes and nodded slightly.
“I don’t deny it.”
“Don’t you feel guilty?”
“Would you feel bad if water flowed into an anthill?”
“Humans aren’t ants.”
“To Yoi, it’s the same. Ants or humans… unfortunate, yes. Just unlucky. There were many times opening hearts led to good outcomes. This time… just bad luck.”
“…That’s all?”
“Yes. That’s all. And to ensure Barrow was assassinated, she used him as a vessel. And as planned, he was killed. Happy ending. Understand? Does this serve as your souvenir from the afterlife?”
A vessel… so the corpse in the coffin must have been Barrow.
And she… really spoke as if it were someone else’s problem. No sense of responsibility at all.
I understood. A daughter of the Sword Goddess, but clearly different from Giza.
She doesn’t see others as the same as herself.
That’s why it doesn’t matter to her what happens to people.
“You must not be allowed to live. Surely you will repeat the same things over and over.”
“Yes, I have always done so, and I will continue. What a coincidence—you think the same. You will die here.”
This woman, Laada, must be defeated here and now.