At first, the curtains twitched, each twitch let the light hit the irises. Eventually, finding their courage, the lids opened wide to the world outside.
The image remained a blurry mess for a few seconds before finding its sharpness. A high ceiling flew into view.
Adorned on the wall, was a clock that ticked slowly. Cale could faintly read the time being close to 8:40.
'How?'
He asked himself, genuinely astonished by how much time passed without his knowing.
Turning to his side, he saw his mother put something resembling a pill into the glass cup of water.
"Here, wait for a little and drink it"
Shoving the cup closer to him.
As the pill sizzled.
Cale's mother continued.
"I'm thinking of putting you in therapy"
Normally, Cale would burst out in confusion, but his current state didn't allow him to do so.
'I am way too tired to ask why'
Lately, each time he asked out of curiosity, he'd get rejected hard.
'It's probably because of the doppelganger anyway'
He felt confident that the fault lay entirely on the thing whose actions he could not control.
"No, I feel more than fine"
Groaning, Cale massaged his temples.
"The thermometer says otherwise"
She flexed the thermometer in her hand.
'Then why should I go to therapy if it is just a little fever?'
Remembering what happened last, Cale asked his mind away.
"Where is Catrina?"
Falling unconscious on her, she obviously was the one who either brought him in, or just waited until someone came and opened the door for her.
"She left half an hour ago after getting a call from her mother"
Grasping onto the glass of water. Cale gulped it slowly.
"Watch today how fine I will be"
Setting the empty cup down to the table, legs crossed.
"I quite doubt it, you said the same thing multiple times before"
'Correction, my doppelganger was the one who said it'
A vast difference.
"If I am not fine the next day, I will do whatever you ask of me"
Getting up, a hand grasped him as he walked to his room.
"..?"
Tilting a head in confusion, he was about to ask, but thought against it when his mother slithered out refusal.
"Don't care, you are staying home tomorrow"
The commanding tone made him freeze in place slightly.
"O-Okay"
Softening her grip. She let Cale go.
"Haa"
She sighed, got up.
Clack!
Clack!
And started washing the dishes, each motion crisp and efficient.
Afterwards, she cleaned the floor and forced the newly arrived Nephyl to take out the trash.
Meanwhile.
Cale, was
"I feel like I am dying"
Fighting the demons that came with the high fever.
*
*
*
Dong~
Dong~
The bells tolled in the distance, they resounded deeply in the feverish Cale's mind.
He tried ignoring it at first, but just couldn't sleep well doing so.
'Wait'
At that moment, he realized a key moment the morning sun gave.
'This is the first time I skipped school, right?'
There wasn't any other time where he ever skipped it aside from this.
'What will happen?'
What will occur now that he will refuse going to school? Will he get punished? Or will they just let it go?
The tolling bells stopped their banging. A pressure, unlike any other pressed from the walls the moment realization of something hit.
Silence chirped, and the curtains filtered the light out, growing the darkness in the room.
All of sudden, his throat burned as if something missing reentered in a different form. A gentle throb suggested to him, suggested seductively to close his eyes.
And, without even noticing, he closed them just like that.
Off in the distance, he could hear metal clacking together.
It drew closer, and it—
Ripppp—!
Ripped through his skin, Cale wanted to resist, but soon found out.
He was not in control of his body.
The location of the rip was his throat.
He felt a worm squirm around his skin, not knowing what it was, he felt dread.
'W-What the hell'
The metal soon left him, and control over his body soon returned.
Bursting open his eyes, he immediately looked at the cloaked figure in front of him.
It brought a mirror, a mirror that showed him his throat.
Small stitches closed the wound up, but the residue remained.
"Cale...right?"
A young woman's voice rang out, brushing the hood off revealed a head full of silver mane.
"Since I already applied the Dwon in advance. I guess the next thing would be the 'core'"
The words 'Dwon' made him realize instantly where he was.
'Gardenia?'
Even though he slept, he still got sent there.
"What....Is....This?"
A voice slurred out. More monotone than his own.
"My workshop"
She answered, before setting down the metal from her gloves hands to a tray.
"Millenia ago, people would call me the 'Mercator' but in these modern days, 'The Merchant' is all you need to identify me as"
Surprised as he was, he didn't show it.
"Why am I here?"
As if his body was adapting in real time to the Dwon, his monotonous voice came more comprehensible to the ear.
"Because I brought you here?"
"....."
From her cloak, she revealed a black sphere. Cracked and on the verge of breaking.
"What's that?"
Cale asked. The merchant only turned around and didn't answer his question.
"Wait outside"
Creakkkkk
In the darkness, a door creaked open. Cale, didn't move towards it.
He wanted to stay and see what the woman would do.
The woman stopped abruptly, she didn't look behind, but he felt it.
A gaze was directed straight at him.
"..."
Cale was reminded of just how easily he could truly die at this moment, so, with hesitant movements.
He walked out.
The scent of old mahogany wood hit him with surprise.
Scanning the area, there was a counter and high shelves, strange chemicals at random places. But overall, it looked more like a shop if anything.
'She did say she was a merchant'
There didn't seem to be any exit, and walking back into the room whose doors were shut tightly closed, sent the message of 'do not come in' pretty clearly to him.
So instead of wasting time sitting in a corner, he went and searched around the area.
Within the shop. Many strange items laid on the spacious shelves. One was a coat with silver symbols adorning it, another one was a strange black bow, there was an orb that glowed and gleamed white, with its opposite sitting beside it.
Below the items were descriptions and names of each item.
「 Coat of The Idiyele 」
| This coat has been passed down generations through the Idiyele, the last to ever grab hold of this coat was the last head of the Idiyele. It alters the perception of others, allowing detection to be left as mere suggestion |
'So it makes me harder to look at?'
Before moving to the next description. Cale glanced at the end of the paragraph.
It was blocked off with a metal lid.
He tried to remove it, but it wouldn't budge.
Seeing it as nothing more than that. He finally looked at the item opposite the coat.
It was the black bow.
「 Black Warbow of Asphalt 」
| The Warbow was used centuries ago by Asphalt the visionary hunt, only those blessed by the God of Hunt may be allowed to use this. The farther the user is from the target, the faster and stronger the arrow shot from the bow will get, but penalties may change depending on the distance |
'Can't use a bow, so this one would be quite the trash for me'
Cale didn't even know if the merchant even put these up for sale, but it was better than not seeing them at all.
'Wait a minute'
Turning swiftly around, eyes peeked at the item.
'Idiyele?'
Remembering the name from within the trial, he turned around to look at it in more detail than before.
'Iye Idiyele, it must be that woman I first saw'
The one who had paid some sort of price for resurrecting him, even now. Cale didn't know why she had done that.
What did matter though was that he was still alive and well.
"Haa, I guess I should look around"
Who knows when he would get another chance like this after all.
Walking towards the gleaming white ball. A glance at the name was stolen.
「 Soul Slavery Contract 」
"...."
Immediately, the name raised a lot of ethical strings.
| Created by the joint efforts of a Priest of Krizantemë and a Priest of Natura. Forge a contract with a soul of the past that Gardenia records to make them your obedient gladiator, that is, if you can kill them |
It didn't say anything more than that. But next to it, a black sphere whispered curses swirled with silhouettes of spirits inside it.
On every other item, there was no protection like a glass box encasing them, they were only propped onto something and the merchant called it a day.
But this one did have one, a glass, small box encased it, even the glass below was sealed away with another pane of glass.
In the description, read only this.
「 Unknown 」
That was all it said, the rest were just question marks.
Knowing that trying to pry open the unknown was a no-go. Cale turned the other way and looked at the rest of the items.
They weren't as special as he hoped it to be, but it was enough to empower him for sure.
One item that caught his explicit interest was an umbrella, a black umbrella with its red metal inside stretching like a spider web.
「 See Me Once, Gone The Twice 」
The description was as literal as the name.
It allowed one to disappear entirely from the 'world' when someone tried to look at them twice.
An utter awe to have in the roster.
'Too bad I can't have it'
There didn't seem to be any way for Cale to buy it, it seemed they truly were not for sale.
Whooosh
Air rushed in from a spot, noticing it, Cale looked to the once closed door.
Creaking itself open, a figure came out huffing out breaths, holding onto a newly fixed black sphere.
"Here..."
Walking towards him with sagged breaths, the woman gave the sphere that was the size of a human heart to him.
"So, what is....Huh?"
As he was about to ask what this sphere was, it took a peek downwards for him to realize it had long melted in his hands.
The merchant looked aimlessly at his hands.
"Ah, I'm sorry?"
He didn't know what the sphere was, but it seemed important.
"Why are you sorry?"
"....?"
However, seeing how the merchant held no emotion toward the sudden melting made Cale deduce that the 'melting' was apart of the process.
"The doppelganger is fixed, your voice is back, though, even I can't do much about the side effects of the ego shard. You will have to live with the personality and body change"
"???"
Each time she opened her mouth, more words rushed out to confuse Cale even further beyond than he already was.
"Ah right, by the way, within this shop, pick any one item you'd like"
She motioned to the shelves.
"Iye Idiyele will pay for the item's cost, and after that"
Ignoring the already crazy things she was saying. She decided to launch an airstrike straight at Cale.
"Get ready for the 'Winter Blood Exam' it will commence in a few minutes"
"?!!!?!"
'Get ready for what?!'