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Chapter 49. Rewriting Fate – Round 2

"You're leaving?"

"Yeah. I need to give them a report. In person."

Necro told us that he would be going back to the Haze Republic at the entrance of our next destination, the [Stair Village]. The time was 6AM. It was an early morning, but there were still quite a lot of people running around, trying to prepare for a…

[──────]

Something was wrong. I couldn't quite put my finger on it, but something felt strange. My thought process stopped for a second due to the peculiar feeling in my head. Why? Why did I just think that something was off? No matter how much I thought about it, I couldn't tell why.

"What? Are you getting sad?"

Necro misunderstood my silence and tried making fun of me. I just ignored him and observed the town with the floating eye.

The color of the sky made it seem like it had almost frosted over. The lone mountain in the background seemed to have been dyed with tones of red and brown. The town atop of this mountain that could be accessed by a giant staircase was Stair Village, our current location.

Like the Arachne, our next destination, [Sky Island] wasn't a place Demonic Walker could take us to. It was impossible to access this floating island without jumping off the top of this "half" mountain.

Right. That's why we came here. In order to take down our next enemy, the Summoner.

The people preparing for the festival frantically made their way to their destinations on the main road, which had brick houses lined up on its sides. It didn't look like much. Again, I felt the strange feeling in my head and became confused.

This was the first time I had ever come to this town. I've never seen it in a picture, nor have I ever gone to a place that looked like it before. I must be mistaken…

"How long would it take?"

"Just two days, I think?"

"And here I thought I'd finally be free…"

After saying my farewells to Necro, I took out a house from the vault. I should use this time to do something useful. I'll clean up the vault and plan out how to destroy my next enemy.

"Where's my room? Please take me to the bestest and the biggest one in the house!"

The saint followed me inside like a little cat, pulling on my robe. I should have kicked her out at the entrance… Well, she let me have her share of the money, so I guess I can at least let this go.

"How about this room? It has a clean marble floor and running water. Look, it even has a giant mirror."

I was almost exorcised by the saint after leading her to the bathroom. Did she hate it that much? By now, she had completely ignored the house owner's attempts to stop her and began to search the rooms herself.

…I guess I can let her play by herself.

I walked up to the library at the second floor and activated the Heart of Gold. I organized the vault that had turned into a mess from taking out the Thief and began to check on the money that I had acquired.

Total balance: 31,537,076,503.60 dollars.

The abilities that I gained this time were Service and Employment. They offered…

[Service] – Delivery: Chinese, Japanese, Fried Chicken…

– Business Trip: Massages, Thigh Pillows…

– Vacation: Sauna, Onsen…

– Lodge: Motel, Villa, Hotel…

– Entertainment: Karaoke, Amusement Park, Casino…

– Sports: Health Club, Swimming Pool, Ski Resort…

– Medicine: Pharmacy, Plastic Surgery, General Hospital…

– Transportation: Taxi, Cruise Ship, Airplane…

Business trip… Do I get to call someone here? Like summoning a person from a different world? I returned to the library and selected "ear cleaning" from the business trip section.

I didn't choose it for any special reason, if anything. I was just curious. After a bit of a pause, a screen with a list of available individuals popped up. I suppose I can just choose whatever. 100,250 dollars disappeared from my account when I chose someone.

Why is it so expensive…? Is it because dimensional travel costs a lot?

A bright light flashed before me as I was thinking, and a cat-eared girl in maid clothes appeared before me. It didn't seem like she was cosplaying. Her cat ears twitched every once in awhile in a lifelike fashion, even her tailed looked like it was alive. Well, apart from her cat features, she seemed completely human. The girl did a spin as soon as she was summoned and struck a cute pose.

"Thank you for using our services! We're the mobile ear cleaners, the Ear Clea-nyas!"

The language that had been translated by xenoglossy was something that I had never heard before in my life. It… Didn't seem particularly special though. Other than the fact that her cat ears and tail were real.

She's definitely not from earth. And based on her facial expressions, she didn't seem very surprised at the fact that she had been summoned.

"The service lasts a minimum of thirty minutes. It costs extra to hire us for any longer, so please make sure of that, master."

I wonder what would happen if I killed her? Would she be unsummoned before then? Or would I not be able to harm her? Is there a penalty? Why isn't she surprised that she's in a different world?

A message box appeared below me, which I checked immediately.

[The service becomes cancelled the moment you attempt to harm the person. Any small talk and physical contact other than what is required to fulfill the service is forbidden, and breaking this rule will result in a penalty in using the services at a later time.]

Is that so… So I can only take what they give me. The cat girl kneeled down on the floor, and motioned me to lie down.

Is there something special involved? Or does she really just clean my ears? There's no way I just paid a hundred thousand dollars just to get my ears cleaned… Right? I took off my helmet and lay down on the girl's knees. I carefully observed the girl's cat tail that waved back and forth as my ears got cleaned. A mix between a cat and human… Maybe she was a robot. I don't feel any mana inside her.

"Can I ask you something?"

Crackle, crish. The girl didn't respond, and just dug at my ears as much as she could. She said a few incoherent things about crepes and TV programs while she did so. I thought of attacking her for a second, then remembered the warning that Heart of Gold gave me. To think my money would be wasted on something like this…

After thirty minutes.

The girl had finished her business with me and disappeared after saying a generic thank you.

I feel cheated.

The time was now 11:30AM. I sat back down on the chair, then lifted my head when I heard someone run up the stairs.

"Mr. Murderer~ Are you there? Ah, you must have finished with your business in the vault."

The saint peeked into the room, paused, then began to smell with her eyes closed.

"A female… I smell a female."

Was she a dog…? Did she smell the perfume or something? The saint scanned my body carefully. She seemed to have a small frown on her face.

"Could it be…"

"Nope, not what you're thinking."

"Ah! I was planning on buying a few things at the town… I was wondering if you'd want to join me."

"To do what, carry the baggage?"

The saint nodded vigorously, and I waved her away with a similar amount of energy.

"You can go alone. I'm busy."

The saint drooped her shoulders once again when she heard my rejection, and…

…Once again?

The saint making a sad face didn't seem unfamiliar to me. Did she make the face when we were at the shelter? Or when I took down Romeo Smith? When I took down the Thief? The saint uttered a small "sorry" under her breath, then quietly left the room.

Mm… It's probably nothing.

It's probably just my imagination. I must be imagining that the 'day is repeating'.

No way that's the case, right?

Ah. Maybe I should have just offered to [deliver] the food for her? I feel like I could have eaten with her if I used the devourer ring. I imagined me eating a meal with her together at a table, causing me to smirk.

Why'd I think of doing something like that? It was meaningless. There was no worth in doing something like that. What was important to me right now was to check the extent of my power, and think of ways to use the money I had acquired.

Right now, each and every minute was worth tens of thousands of dollars to me. If I invested using this money, every minute would be worth hundreds of thousands. Using such precious time with the saint?

Useless. Inefficient. Illogical.

I activated Heart of Gold as I crossed my legs. As I did so, I tried to ignore the saint appearing at the edge of my thoughts as much as I could.

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