Side story 6: Malediction
Edited by: Bunny, Arthur300000, deathbricks, and ArchmageNaoki
"Tell me what you think of my proposal." In front of me was Ms. Bluebell, superstar and the CEO of Bluebell Corp. I never thought that one day a bigshot superstar like her would be sitting on my old sofa. Because she appeared unannounced I had to hide the stain on it with the cushion flip technique and hope that it would be alright.
Yesterday, my friends invited themselves over to my house and organized a party without my consent. Well, because of me and my big mouth, I had already told them about my successful sale, so I couldn’t really say no. Because of that, and too much beer, it couldn't be helped that my house was a mess in the morning. Yet, who would have thought that the next morning a CEO would drop by my house?
It seemed too good to be true when that girl waltzed into my store one day with a huge sale and no strings attached. Normally adventurers of that level would already have a contract in place in regards to the monster parts. Now, a celebrity came and asked me to be that girl’s manager, offering triple of my current salary. I couldn’t help but think that it was too fishy somehow. Maybe I should try to get out now and just be content with a whole year of salary from that commission I got? Just to be safe
"Ms. Nyatalee, are you with me?" Ms. Bluebell pulled me back from my reveries.
"Yes! Yes! Nya? Oh, uhm, it’s not that I don't like it or anything, but can I ask you the reason?" I couldn't help but be extra careful.
"Didn't you see the news yesterday?" Ms. Bluebell asked. I'm sorry, yesterday I was too busy with the party, so I didn't watch news, but I had a feeling about what it was.
"Ms. Velvori blew her cover, huh?" I took a wild guess and she nodded... When I understood what had happened, I facepalmed in my mind.
Right, that girl who caused me a sleepless night to keep her transaction secret blew her cover just a few days later. If that was the case, why did I even have to try so hard in the first place!?
"Yeah, but why me? Nya?" She didn't tell me the most important reason yet, and that made me suspicious about her contract. She should have hundreds of managers under her command, and any one of them could do a better job in assisting her than a saleswoman like me.
"It's my hunch that you would get along well with her." Ms. Bluebell offhandedly told me while sipping a cup of instant coffee that I prepared for her. I'm sorry, I didn't have anything better at the moment, please don't knit your eyebrows like that.
"Get along well... Nya?" I tried to distract her from the coffee.
"Yes, from the CCTV footage, she seems to be fond of you." ... How did she have access to my workplace CCTV!? Anyways, what she said made sense. I didn't even have to use my secret purr purr technique on her at all, and she already seemed to fawn all over me.
"You want me to manipulate her. Nya?" I asked about the nature of my job.
"I will deny any further comment about that. Just get her to follow the schedule and coordinate things. Make sure that her daily life doesn't interfere with her work." She put the coffee cup back down. I still didn't understand why doing 'just' that was worth hiring me with triple of my salary.
"So, will you work for me or not?" Ms. Bluebell asked imperially. Her posture was as if she was giving an ultimatum. For some reason, it felt like I couldn't miss this chance.
"I do, I do, nya! Just sign here right?" I signed my name and put my cat paw stamp next to it. I heard Ms. Bluebell chuckle, well my friend also laughed at the stamp. It was a present from my boyfriend... ex-boyfriend actually. The one who fell head over heels with that fox tramp. Even with that, I still didn't want to throw it away. There were too many good memories for me to toss it out.
Speaking of fox harlots, the one following Ms. Velvori is also from a fox clan. I hope I won't have to deal with that.
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"♪ Vroom, vroom, vroom, vroom, Kuro has a girly room ♪" For some reason, I had a catchy tune stuck in my head while I vacuumed Kuro's, my employer, room with the BFV 9000.
The BFV 9000 a.k.a. Big Fucking Vacuum 9000, is a vacuum cleaner plated with black and green metal with a monster core holder shaped like a tube in the middle that glows green. It could detect any dirt, dust, trash, and even stains which then it absorbs via telekinesis. The telekinesis field looks green and is connected to the BFV 9000 via a green beam. To sum it up: it was an overpowered vacuum cleaner.
Anyways, judging from Kuro's antics and abilities, I thought that her house would be some kind of hellish military camp or martial art dojo. It turned out to be more normal than I thought, with so much pink, frills and dolls scattered around it. Well, she’s an Outsider. She might’ve grown up in that kind of environment I imagined in her own world.
"♪ Oh, her desk is too high up. Let's climb on a portable stool ♪" Well, it’s just a normal stool but thanks to the oversized storage device that Kuro bought for me I could carry it everywhere with ease.
"Yosh, up it is... Whoa!" Because Kuro left a dagger lying around without its sheath, pointy end up, I almost damaged the shiny new BFV 9000. I’d have to sternly warn her later, as it was a dangerously bad habit to have. For now I decided to keep it safe for her.
"Hmm, isn't it what she tried to make yesterday?" I tried a few practice swings with it. Surprisingly, it felt better than anything I tried before. Its weight and grip felt so perfect. I wanted to try it out! Alright, let's hurry up and finish the chores quickly.
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I wished to finish the chores quickly but in the end, there were so many things to do. It was already well past afternoon when I asked Kuro's mom if I could go play outside. She sent me off with a beautiful smile and told me to come back in time for dinner. I promised her and ran off to explore the neighborhood.
It was freezing out here, but with the gambeson and Kuro's custom-made jacket, the temperature was tolerable without the need for the stuffy personal climate control device. Her town seemed to be colder than my birthplace. Just the amount of snow here is a lot more than what we got during the peak of winter in my country.
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
I walked around trying to find a place well away from the populated areas. Along the way, a lot of humans mistook me for a child and told me to watch my step. I knew that there was a lot of ice on the footpath, but it really was unnecessary to help me walk around while holding my hand. It took me quite a while and effort to ditch the too compassionate girl politely.
Along the way, I noticed that most of the vacant lots were buried by snow. There were small igloos and snowmen decorating the city almost everywhere I looked, they cut in contrast with the beware of perverts and child molesters signs. Around an hour later, I found a perfect place to test a weapon.
The place was an abandoned construction site which needed only a short wade through the snow to reach. It was only thirty minutes walk from the house, and its surroundings were well devoid of people. The area was half constructed, and it already had a roof covering it, so it was clear enough to perform any kind of experiment.
I began to organize the place to begin my review, there were only a few stacks of bricks to move to get enough light for the high-speed photography. With the help of my storage device, it wasn't that labor intensive. While doing it, I realized that I missed Nina, the Catkin adventurer who always helped me with my reviews. I couldn't contact her anymore. Deep down I still wished that she had escaped the town when the monsters attacked.
I set the SX-3310 to self-video mode and put it in my pocket. This new device was easy to use. I didn't require a stand or selfie stick to record myself anymore, just put it in my pocket, and the device could take video from any angle I set beforehand. If that wasn't convenient, I didn't know what was.
The SX-3310 was the communication device that Kuro let me choose from her huge pile of spoils of war. There was also a better model as a handheld computing device, but when talking about camera function, this one was unparalleled. The best thing it had is the high-speed camera function which was capable of recording at 1000 fps. Today however, I would only use its video function.
Even though I didn't plan to upload this video, I still recorded this review because it had become a habit. Without it, I felt like I might lose my focus somehow.
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"- it's clearly a dagger with a symmetrical blade and a double edge. At first glance, it looks very normal. No text nor any markings on it. As for the material, it was supposed to be made of normal iron, but what I felt here was otherworldly different. I don't know what she did to it to achieve this kind of hardness and bendability." I flexed its blade a few times. At first, I was very careful not to break it because the blade was on the thinnest side of a dagger's scale. But after a while, it felt that it was somehow indestructible. No matter how hard I tried to bend it, it always flexed back to its original position without even being slightly bent out of shape.
"Let's test its enchanted functionality next." I put my energy into it and it began to glow. It took half of my energy pool to reach its full brightness and it began to blink... What did she think when enchanting it? Did it really take this absurd amount of energy just for the blade to flash randomly?
"Its failed enchantment aside, let's test how sharp- Whoa!" The dagger passed through the testing paper without resistance.
"In all my reviews, I’ve never test something as sharp as this. Not even a razor. Look at this." I plucked one of my hairs out and dropped it on its edge. It fell through without any resistance and split in two.
After that, one thing led to another. I tried a branch, a can, and because of its wonder, I tried something that I didn't normally test on; a block of concrete that was left lying around. All of them were cut through easily… These blocks are discarded right? Yes, this was supposedly an abandoned construction site so no harm done.
"This is crazy. If a blade can go through anything, what's the point of armor?" Usually, armor is very effective in stopping this kind of weapon. With properly forged plate armor, there is no chance in hell that even the sharpest sword would go through it. All you could do was to aim at the gaps in the armor. I doubt the same would hold true to this dagger.
"Ugh. I really want to test it out on real metal." A tin can didn't really prove much. Then my eyesight drifted to a street sign by the road. It looked like it was made of steel.
Looking back, I normally I wouldn't do this kind of thing. Damaging public property I mean. However, this dagger’s sharpness was way beyond belief. I wanted to test its limit so bad. A few scratches on its pole wouldn't harm anything right?
I walked to the street sign, looked left and right to make sure that there was no one around, and placed the blade on the pole, gently. "Holy mother of a mini duck! Look at this! It went thro-"
"Oi! Kiddo, what are you doing!" The serious yelling behind my back caused my hand to jerk in panic and cut the pole in half. The street sign fell down with a loud clunk, causing the snow that had accumulated on the ground and the sign to fly up mid-air. Luckily, the road was empty, so no one was injured.
I was sure that there was no one nearby. How could someone suddenly appear behind my back? The question suddenly answered itself quickly when I peeked behind me.
"STOP right there! Drop your weapon, and get on the ground! ... Center, we got a 962 here, the subject is armed and dangerous." A blurry shape of a man suddenly focused together, becoming a solidly built police officer standing behind me.
[Why would a cop have to hide!?] I didn't know if it was my second tail or myself that complained, but I was in no mood to entertain that line of thought. This was only my second day in the human country, yet, I was already in trouble for destroying public property with a (stolen) sharp object in my hand. I wondered how I could I explain myself to Kuro and her family.
I obediently got down on the frozen concrete sidewalk , without dropping my precious dagger. I thought that I might get yelled at again, but suddenly, the front door of the building across the road burst open, then a man ran out.
"STOP!" The policeman yelled. "You! Stay there!" He ordered me and ran after the fleeing man. While I was deciding whether it was prudent to also run away, all hell broke loose.
"Careful captain!" The disembodied voice came out of nowhere. Then followed by a rain of spells that filled the sky. In panic, I covered my head and laid down flat on the ground.
It felt like a hail storm raining down on my body, and I was sent flying uncontrollably through the air. It hurt, but strangely, I felt alright. Several seconds later, I hit the floor and rolled on the ground for a good nine yards, into a pile of snow somewhere. Surprisingly, my body was still intact.
[That's what armor is for, baby!] I heard my second tail triumphantly yelled in my mind. In a life and death situation he was more lively than usual.
I struggled out from the snow pile and tried to make a run for it. While doing that, I saw about ten police officers appearing out of thin air. Half of them were heavily injured, but all of them seemed to be alive and began their retaliation. Well, it’s none of my business anyway, let's get myself to safety first-
"Hold it right there, otherwise, this kid gets it." I had been hoisted up mid-air again. This time, a big man grabbed me by the back of my cloak. Before he could point anything nasty at me, my body quickly spun into action with the flimsy HEMA knowledge from my second tail.
I kicked behind my back and used the twisting momentum to plant the dagger into my kidnapper's heart in an icepick grip fashion. However, my dagger met resistance for the first time. It was an invisible wall that stopped it, on the edge of the blade there was some blue particles scattering around furiously. I knew what it was. It was an advanced kind of protective field.
At that time, I believed that my attack had failed and gritted my teeth to prepare for the repercussion. Yet, my dread didn't come true. A fraction of a second later, the blade miraculously slipped past, through the barrier which was supposed to stop even a truck in its track, and planted itself into my abductor's heart. ‘Maybe the spell’s advertisement overstated its effectiveness.’ Is what I thought at that moment.
His face went pale and surprise was plastered on his face. Then he went limp and released me in the process. My hand still gripped the dagger tightly. I didn't feel any resistance while pulling the dagger out, but there was a lot of blood that followed the blade out like a fountain.
"You!" While I was still in shock, some of his friends reacted and shoot some spells at me. Surprisingly, the spells bounced back at them after it hit me and wounded some of them in the process.
"HAAAA!" I held the dagger above my head, trying to threaten them. Those guys jolted back in terror. It seemed like they didn't know what to do with me. With that much time I bought, the police quickly got the situation under their control and apprehended these bad people.
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"Thanks, kiddo, but can you put away that dagger?" After everything went back to normal, the captain approached me.
"Oh... ok." I stored the dagger into my storage device.
"Thank you." He smiled and grabbed my hand, then he put handcuffs on me... Why!?