Chapter 107

Chapter 107

“Don’t you want to know your fate? If you could see the future, preparing for it would become much easier.”

The woman in red kept speaking, calm and steady. The mysterious aura that had clung to her had already faded. Or maybe it had never been there at all. Either way, once I cleared away that fog of misjudgment, she looked like nothing more than an ordinary street vendor.

“So! You’re telling me to use necromancy to ask a ghost, aren’t you?”

“That’s right. They will tell you.”

So it was necromancy after all. Honestly, if you wanted to ask a ghost something, you could just ask them yourself. I could see them, so it wasn’t exactly hard for me. As a result, my interest in the woman before me cooled considerably. Of course. Contrary to what I’d hoped, it seemed there was nothing useful I could get from her. And if that was the case, there was no reason to stick around.

“Let’s go, young marquis.”

I tugged at the young marquis’s sleeve and whispered to him. He glanced back at the woman in red, spat out a short “Right,” and started to quicken his pace, leading me along.

“My shop’s down that alley. Come find me whenever you have a problem that needs solving.”

The woman’s voice cut right between us. She seemed tenacious, determined to snag me as a customer. And for a moment, a single question lodged itself in my mind.

“Hey. You don’t sell that stuff to kids, do you?”

“……”

“……Do you?”

But she didn’t answer. That kicked something like a sense of justice—or maybe just meddling—into gear. Before I knew it, I’d stepped up to her stall and slapped my hands on the tabletop twice, hard. Then I stared straight at her as she tried to avoid my eyes.

“What’s your deal? If you’re not buying, move along.”

She flapped a hand at me, annoyed. Her voice, sharp with the sting of a failed sale, had a near-hostile edge to it.

Honestly. Prickly.

“I’m obviously not buying. But if you sell this to kids…”

I narrowed my brow, ready to tack on another point. Here’s why: necromancy was genuinely dangerous. It wasn’t just about summoning ghosts—it was a vicious sorcery that could let another soul possess your body. And there was no guarantee that the soul doing the possessing would be an ordinary one. In other words, it could just as easily be an evil spirit taking root inside you.

Hadn’t I, an adult, nearly died for good when a possessing soul turned into an evil spirit? Honestly, I barely remembered any of it, but people all said the same thing. Even my lady-in-waiting friends had sobbed their hearts out worrying over me.

If a child were to playfully perform such a spell and end up possessed by an evil spirit, it would be a disaster. The child’s body couldn’t withstand the evil spirit; they might actually die. That worry struck me anew.

“Honestly……. Stop talking nonsense and go. Don’t disturb my business…….”

But she only half-listened to me, flailing both arms to shoo me away. So I decided to drop the matter and began to rise, intending to really leave. But just then—suddenly, a single eyeball bobbed up from the stall counter. It rolled its pupil around, then began scanning the surroundings left and right.

Gasp……! What the hell is this?!?

It was a soul with a grotesque appearance, the kind you could never see in the capital. For a moment, I felt like my heart was about to stop. I was so startled that I couldn’t even manage a proper scream.

“Aaagh!”

So that scream hadn’t been mine. It belonged to someone else—like the woman standing right in front of me.

Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang—

She kept shrieking like that, pounding her fist against the stall counter. The Single-Eye Ghost took the beating without any resistance. Of course, since it was a ghost, physical blows couldn’t really land. More like her fist passed straight through it, a phantom punch that did nothing but look the part.

“Whoa. Holy shit. You scared the hell out of me.”

She took a breath to steady herself, then muttered under her breath, words tumbling out like gravel. The ghost—still nursing its single, trembling eye from the sudden barrage of punches and curses—just wobbled that eyeball in utter disbelief. Then, with a flicker of bewilderment, its pupil shook wildly before it vanished into thin air.

I could only stand there, dumbfounded, watching the whole scene unfold. Aggressive as it was, her meaning was clear. Enough that I was almost certain.

“You… can see those too, can’t you?”

“…I thought I heard something strange, but it seems you can see it too.”

At my words, she scratched her head once with one hand and muttered as if talking to herself.

“Well. I get what you’re worried about… but don’t fret—I don’t sell the real stuff to kids. Just enough to keep myself fed, that’s all.”

Then she shrugged once and continued. In that moment, I felt a flicker of interest in her. A small gladness, too, at finding someone else who could see.

“…It’s been a long time since I met someone who can see.”

“Oh? First time for me… Anyway, I’ve got business to run, so don’t block the way. If you’re not buying, I’ll be on my way.”

But unlike me, she looked utterly indifferent. Apparently, to her, we were just uninvited guests disrupting her business. There was nothing more to be done. I rose and told the young marquis we should head back. Then, taking his arm, I closed my eyes without a fuss. He guided me like that and began leading us out of the marketplace.

“You can see the dead, can you?”

The young marquis asked in a slow stride. I just focused on walking and gave him a vague answer.

“Mm… yeah. I yelled back there, didn’t I? That was because I saw a ghost and got startled.”

“Is that so? Then what about necromancy? Do people who naturally see spirits usually know about that?”

“No, not really. The Duke probably doesn’t know a thing about it, right? That person just learned it to make a living, and I only looked into it out of curiosity since I can see ghosts. Besides, I heard necromancy is pretty dangerous, so I’ve never tried it.”

“What part of it is dangerous?”

“They say you can get possessed if you do it wrong. And an evil spirit might end up inside your body.”

“……Now that I hear it, isn’t that exactly what Laura has been doing lately?”

At that, I was struck speechless for a moment. Come to think of it, the situation was a bit odd—me, who’d been possessed left and right, avoiding necromancy as dangerous. So I had no choice but to bite my lip awkwardly and mutter something sulkily.

“……I won’t do it anymore. Really. It’s just… everyone worries, you know…”

“Alright. I’ll believe you.”

A hint of laughter crept into the young marquis’s voice. He let out a low chuckle, then led me onward. But at some point, he stopped, tapping the back of my hand.

“Laura. We’ve reached the street. You can open your eyes now.”

At that, I blinked my eyes open to see a quiet street laid out before me. It seemed we’d already slipped far from the noisy, crowded marketplace. The murmuring crowd had faded behind us too.

“How is it? Is that soul still following us?”

The young marquis asked me again. I snapped back to attention and glanced around. Stone buildings bathed in dim moonlight, the pitch-black street, and a crooked alley—there was no sign of the ghost that had been chasing us. It looked like we’d shaken it off in the marketplace, just as he’d predicted.

“No. It’s gone. I think we lost it for good.”

I let out a sigh of relief as I answered. He seemed to mimic me, glancing around once before meeting my eyes again.

“I can’t see it myself, so I wouldn’t know, but it’s a relief they shut you out. Anyway, the street’s too dark, so I’ll walk you home.”

“Yes, thank you. But we should hurry. My younger sibling worries too much. They can see as well, and when they were little, they witnessed me being possessed by an evil spirit, so they’re extra cautious.”

After that, we walked side by side along the dark road toward my house. And in the process, we naturally fell into a few more exchanges.

“By the way, your sibling can see too? There seem to be quite a few people who can perceive the dead.”

The young marquis was the first to speak. I nodded quickly in response. What he mentioned struck me as curious, too—because when we were children, I used to think only us siblings could see such things. Back then, we were each other’s whole world, so I took it for granted.

“That’s true. When I found out the Duke could see them too, I was genuinely amazed… And that woman earlier? She can see them as well — it’s astounding.”

“I find it strange too. I’ve seen the dead, but I’ve never been able to feel their souls.”

“Still, there’s no need for you to be curious about that. Honestly, even if you could see them, it’s just terrifying.”

“Is that so? Hmm… Since Laura is afraid of them, this topic might feel uncomfortable. But still, I wanted to create a connection with Laura. Just sharing something in common makes me happy… Ah. But saying it out loud, I realize how childish that sounds.”

“…….”

A thin laugh slipped through his lips. He seemed perfectly at ease, but I couldn’t help feeling flustered.

Right. The young marquis had practically confessed to me! He didn’t even bother hiding it… But today was so much fun playing together that I completely forgot…

Confusion seized me in a cold grip. My eyes felt like they were spinning in their sockets as I scrambled for what to say to him. But somehow, before an awkward silence could settle between us, I had to answer. In the end, this was what I chose.

“Lots of things in common!” I blurted.