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「Anyway, let’s leave the details for another time and get some food.」
Soul Howl decided to change topics there and focused on making dinner. He gathered the cooking utensils in the room and turned his back to Mira. It was obvious he was trying to hide his true feelings.
「In that case I have something even better!」
Mira also felt like there was no need to keep pressing him for answers, so she cleared her mind and stood up triumphantly.
「I already told you I don’t want the red fruit.」
He replied with a cold gaze. Mira shook her head with a nuh-uh before grinning teasingly.
「It’s not something to eat. I’m talking about equipment.」
Mira grinned even more as she quickly summoned the spirit mansion next to them.
A small building appeared. Soul Howl said a quick 「Oh?」 and looked at it with curiosity.
「Now this is interesting. Is it a new summon?」
「Yes, I got it from a mansion’s Man-Made Spirit. I’ve only had it for a few days, but it’s proven its use plenty of times already.」
Mira acted all arrogant with it, but Soul Howl acted like he could not see her and instead reached for the mansion’s doorknob.
「Hm? It won’t open.」
He frowned, the door would not open, no matter whether he turned the knob in one direction or the other, or he pulled or pushed.
「What do you mean? It should be working.」
Mira ran up to the door and pulled on the doorknob, easily opening it.
「Maybe it’ll only open for the owner then?」
「I never tested that, but that’s probably it.」
After that exchange, the two were filled with curiosity to figure out the intricacies of the spirit mansion. In the end they concluded that the door, as well as all devices within the mansion could only be operated by Mira, or people with explicit permission from Mira.
「This mansion is really loyal to its owner, huh. Anyway, give me permission to shower then.」
Wanting to take a refreshing shower was part of human nature. Once they were done experimenting, Soul Howl began undressing in front of the shower room while asking Mira for permission.
「I guess I can. You have permission to shower.」
A sense of superiority was starting to take root in Mira’s heart as she allowed him to shower. He replied with a quick 「Thank you, thank you,」 and vanished inside the shower room.
(Now, dinner… he can make it!)
Mira placed her special sleeping bag on the floor and reclined on it. She was hungry but did not touch anything related to food. There was a reason for that, Soul Howl’s secret talent was cooking.
She did not feel like there was a large difference between cooking for one person or two, so she decided she would let him use her kitchen under the condition he cooked for both of them.
(I can just take a shower while he cooks, and everything will work out perfectly!)
She started snickering just thinking about what wonderful meal would await her at the end of a refreshing shower. At the same time she tried to recall what dishes Soul Howl excelled at.
But something interrupted those fantasies.
『Ooookay Lord Sym, am I connected now then? Mira, Miraaaa, can you hear meeee?』
A voice rang inside of Mira’s head.
『What?! Wait that voice… is that you Martel?』
Mira had started getting used to the Spirit King’s voice appearing out of nowhere. But she was shocked hearing a different voice appear in a similar manner. It was Martel, the Originator Spirit. Mira could tell from her mannerisms and voice.
The response produced an excited response from Martel, 『Ah, Mira! This is so incredible! We’re actually talking to each other!』
『My apologies, Mira. She kept nagging at me telling me it was not fair that only I got to talk to you.』
After Martel’s excited response, the Spirit King also spoke. Apparently he had been experiencing Mira’s adventure through her senses like always when Martel started talking to him and distracting him. In a way he regretted missing parts of Mira’s adventure now.
But while they were talking, they started to discuss how Martel could also talk to Mira, and not just the Spirit King. The main point was that Martel could talk to Mira whenever the Spirit King was also talking to her, so basically the only way was for her to join their conversation.
『Isn’t that good though? Maybe your insight can be useful sometime as well.』
This meant she had two consultants with ancient knowledge at her disposal. She was already looking forward to learning new things from them, but also was slightly worried they could get noisy.
『By the way, I think there’s someone else with you? Did we interrupt something?』
『Wait, is that so? I’m really sorry Mira.』
The Spirit King heard the sound of water coming from the shower and understood there was someone else there with Mira.
『Don’t worry about it. He’s taking a shower right now, and I doubt he’ll be coming out any time soon.』
Mira knew Soul Howl enjoyed taking long baths, so even his showers would be lengthy.
『You talk like you know him quite well. Is that the person you were looking for then? You found him just while I was distracted…』
From the information the Spirit King had gleaned so far, he understood that Mira was searching for a good friend of hers. He had been looking forward to seeing them reunite, but Martel had distracted him and he missed that moment.
『Oh, so you were searching for someone this entire time?』
Martel’s voice followed right after, almost like she was trying to drown out the Spirit King’s.
『Yes, he’s trying to build the Brilliant Chalice of Divine Decree. I’ve been following his steps and finally caught him here.』
『Ohh! Making that chalice is a really challenging task to attempt.』
Martel raised her voice in shock hearing Mira’s brief explanation. She knew what that item was, being an Originator Spirit. She even knew all the steps of the recipe, and how tricky they were to accomplish. Hearing that someone had gotten this far on his own was impressive.
『I find it impressive he even considered making that in the first place. I feel like all of your friends are rather strange personages.』
Even the Spirit King was impressed. All the steps necessary for the chalice were considered complex even for him.
Hearing that gave Mira a different idea. Both the Spirit King and Martel seemed familiar with the Brilliant Chalice of Divine Decree, so maybe they also knew whether it actually had the power to nullify the devil’s carved seal.
So far that had only been posed as a theory, but had never been verified. Soul Howl had proceeded without knowing whether it would really work. Though then again, there was nothing else with a chance of working.
『By the way, can I ask something?』
Was the plan going to work? Or… Mira braced herself as both the Spirit King and Martel told her to ask ahead. Still, she kept hoping that Soul Howl’s efforts would be rewarded.
So she asked whether the Brilliant Chalice of Divine Decree could nullify the devil’s carved seal.
『The devil’s carved seal, you say…』
The Spirit King sounded pensive. Hearing that made Mira begin to think he was about to give her terrible news, so she braced herself even more. But those worries were dissipated almost instantly.
『What is this devil’s carved seal you’re talking about?』
『I’ve never heard about it either.』
Both of them had never heard about it.
『What…』
Both of them had lived for nearly the same time as this world existed, but somehow they were ignorant about the devil’s carved seal. Mira’s shock at that realization was immeasurable.
『You know… it’s that mark, I think they also call it the curse of hades or the devil’s blessing… that carved seal.』
Mira tried to explain a bit more, but neither of them had a clue what she was referring to.
But then she realized what was going wrong, both the curse of hades and the devil’s blessing were names coined by former players. The devil’s carved seal was also a name former players used for convenience; they had never figured out what its proper in-universe name was.
So Mira decided it was best to describe it in as much detail as she could. The seal would suddenly appear one day, carved into the skin of the victim. It looked like a star with six points, surrounded by various glyphs and shapes, while the characters XV appeared in the center. Anyone with that mark suffered an unnatural death after a short time, and there was always the shadow of a devil nearby.
After Mira relayed all the knowledge she had about the previous appearances of the carved seal, she also mentioned why Soul Howl was trying to get the Brilliant Chalice of Divine Decree, and the frozen woman at the bottom of the Ancient Temple Nevrapolis.
That was followed by a moment of silence before the Spirit King gave an unexpected reply.
『Isn’t that Stigmata then?』
Stigmata was a name given to strange scars of unknown origin that appeared on immensely devout people. That did not seem like the right word used for something related to the devils of old, and even less for the current ones. But Martel also seemed to agree with the Spirit King’s conclusion.
Most people associated that term with something holy, something that brought to mind angels every time and never devils. That applied to Mira as well.
『Stigmata..? I thought that was supposed to be some holy mark…』
Mira had completed various events in the game days, and every time the devil’s carved seal appeared there was never a semblance of divine presence nearby. Still, the Spirit King and Martel agreed that all the features Mira described were those of Stigmata.
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