Chapter 62: One life
Night had already fallen when Kiyome left the auction house in a carriage bearing no crest or identifying mark.
She did not bring any guards with her.
At least, not openly.
Two members of the fox demon race still followed from a great distance, but when the carriage was still some distance from the location written in the letter, Kiyome ordered it to stop and told them to remain behind.
She continued alone along an old stone road and eventually stopped in front of an abandoned estate bordering the eastern forest.
There were no lights outside.
The main gate was only half-closed, as though the owner of the place had no concern that strangers might enter.
Kiyome pushed the door open and stepped inside.
A single magic lamp cast weak light across the main hall.
The tables and chairs were covered in dust, and the curtains had long since rotted away.
Yet in the middle of the room, one chair had been cleaned completely.
A man was sitting there.
The moment Kiyome saw his face, she recognized him.
Aldric.
His appearance was truly outside her expectations, because the letter had contained nothing that connected the sender to him.
Even so, Kiyome paused for only the briefest moment before continuing forward, her expression still carrying the guarded indifference of someone meeting a stranger for the first time.
Aldric looked at her.
The corner of his lips slowly rose.
"Kiyome."
Her steps stopped.
Kiyome narrowed her eyes and deliberately asked in a cold tone,
"You know me?"
Aldric laughed.
"Knowing your name isn’t particularly surprising."
"Then who are you?"
Aldric studied her for several seconds before tilting his head slightly.
"If you insist on having a name, you can call me Aldric."
Kiyome’s expression did not change, as though she had only just heard the name for the first time.
"Aldric?"
"That’s right."
"You sent the letter?"
"I thought that became obvious the moment you walked in."
Kiyome did not answer.
She simply stared at him for a long time.
Across from her, Aldric was also quietly observing her reaction.
Of course he knew exactly who Kiyome was.
In the story Aldric remembered, the fox demon before him was one of the four Saintess candidates.
More importantly, she possessed an obsession strong enough to be exploited.
Her dead tribe.
Her desire to bring back the people she had lost.
The research into souls that Kiyome had secretly collected.
Aldric had known all of it for a long time.
But he had no intention of revealing where that information came from.
The less Kiyome understood about how he knew these things, the harder it would be for her to judge the limits of what he possessed.
Aldric liked that feeling.
Kiyome took several more steps into the room but still kept more than five meters between them.
"You wrote that you could help the dead return."
"Yes."
"Prove it."
Aldric raised an eyebrow slightly.
"You’re not going to ask how I knew you wanted that?"
"If I ask, will you answer?"
"Maybe."
Kiyome laughed coldly.
"Then how do you know?"
Aldric rested his chin on one hand.
He deliberately remained silent for several seconds before answering,
"I know many things I shouldn’t know."
It was practically the same as giving no answer at all.
And that was precisely what made it so difficult to determine how many secrets he actually held.
Kiyome did not continue asking.
She knew perfectly well what kind of person Aldric was.
Her memories from the previous life were more than enough to understand that trusting him had been one of the stupidest mistakes she had ever made.
But right now, she was pretending not to know him.
And even knowing how dangerous he was, Kiyome still needed to confirm whether what he possessed was real.
"Show me."
Aldric smiled faintly.
"You’re very direct."
"I didn’t come here to listen to nonsense."
"All right."
Aldric took an extremely old scroll of hide from inside his clothes and placed it on the table in front of him.
"Come closer."
Kiyome did not move.
Aldric looked at the distance between them and laughed.
"Afraid of me?"
"I simply don’t make a habit of standing too close to someone who lured me into an abandoned house with an anonymous letter."
The explanation was so reasonable that Aldric could find no flaw in it.
He shrugged.
"Being cautious is good."
Only then did Kiyome approach, though she remained on the opposite side of the table as she opened the scroll herself.
The moment she saw the first symbols, the coldness on her face immediately changed.
One ring.
Two rings.
Nine layers of magical formations overlapped one another, each using ancient symbols completely different from the modern magical system.
Kiyome had never seen most of them.
But several structures around the center immediately reminded her of principles she had spent years searching for.
"Soul Guidance..."
She murmured unconsciously.
Aldric rested his chin on one hand and smiled at her reaction.
"Looks like I don’t need to explain too much."
Kiyome did not answer.
Her fingertip slowly followed the lines of the formation.
Gathering a dispersed soul.
Identifying a life anchor.
Rebuilding the connection between soul and body.
The first three layers alone were enough to prove that this was not some fake ritual drawn to deceive her.
The materials Kiyome had gathered over many years had mentioned similar principles before, but all of them existed only as incomplete fragments.
What lay before her was almost complete.
Almost.
Kiyome looked up.
"The final section is missing."
Aldric smiled.
"Of course."
"You have it?"
"Yes."
"Where?"
"In my head."
Kiyome stared at him.
Aldric leaned comfortably against the back of his chair.
"If I gave you everything right now, what would I have left to guarantee that we continued cooperating?"
"I could capture you and force it out of you."
Aldric laughed.
"You can try."
The two stared at each other for several seconds.
Eventually, Kiyome rolled the hide back up.
"Your condition."
Aldric did not waste any more time.
"I need you to deal with someone."
Kiyome looked at him.
"Rhea?"
"No."
"Elaria?"
"No."
"Phea?"
Aldric shook his head again.
Among the four Saintess candidates, all three names had reasons to become targets for someone trying to interfere with the Church.
If it was none of them—
a face immediately appeared in Kiyome’s mind.
She still pretended to think for several more seconds before asking,
"Lathel?"
Aldric’s smile widened.
"Smart."
Kiyome showed no reaction.
"You want him dead?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"He irritates me."
"I don’t believe you."
Aldric was silent for a moment before laughing.
"You really aren’t easy to fool."
Kiyome stared at him coldly.
"Then don’t try."
"All right."
Aldric sat upright.
"Lathel is a variable."
He raised one finger.
"He should have disappeared from most major events very early. Yet he’s still here."
A second finger.
"People who should have had almost nothing to do with him are beginning to gather around him."
A third.
"Most importantly, many things that should have followed a fixed direction have kept changing ever since he started interfering."
Aldric had deliberately altered the way he spoke.
He could not openly say that he knew the "plot," nor did he want Kiyome to realize that he understood the exact roles people were supposed to play.
It was enough to make her believe he possessed some method of observing fate or some secret source of information.
Kiyome listened while immediately recalling the notifications from earlier that day.
The Blessed One.
Lucky Star Halo.
Dark Curse.
She allowed none of that to show on her face.
"So?"
"I have a way to determine how much deviation a person is creating."
Aldric narrowed his eyes slightly.
"Lathel is very special. Special enough that if I deal with him, many of my current problems can be resolved."
"What does that have to do with the ritual?"
The smile on Aldric’s face gradually disappeared.
He tapped the hide scroll with one finger.
"You’ve seen the structure. A soul that has left this world for too long cannot simply be called back with mana. Even if you gather enough fragments of the soul, the laws of the world will still drag it back toward death."
Kiyome knew that.
It was also why almost every piece of research she had ever found had ended in failure.
"If you want to forcibly bring the dead back, you need something powerful enough to oppose that law."
Aldric looked at her.
"Something capable of making an outcome that should not exist become reality."
Kiyome asked,
"What?"
"Fate."
The room immediately fell silent.
Kiyome stared at him.
"You want to use Lathel’s fate?"
"Not only want to."
Aldric spoke slowly.
"I’m certain he possesses what I need."
The notifications from earlier appeared in Kiyome’s mind again.
She wanted to ask whether Aldric knew exactly what Lathel possessed.
But the moment the thought began turning into words, that invisible law immediately silenced her throat.
Aldric frowned.
"What is it?"
"Nothing."
Kiyome quickly dismissed the thought.
If Aldric still did not fully understand the mechanism surrounding Lathel, she had even less reason to help him figure it out.
"Suppose you obtain what you need."
Kiyome looked at the scroll.
"What is the ritual’s success rate?"
"Impossible to guarantee."
"How much?"
"At present, about thirty percent."
Kiyome’s expression immediately turned cold.
Aldric laughed.
"Don’t be disappointed so quickly. Thirty percent is without counting the amount of fate I can take from Lathel."
"And afterward?"
"At least seventy percent."
Kiyome’s hand slowly clenched beneath her cloak.
Seventy percent.
A number large enough to shake anyone who had chased one hope for too long.
But she still asked,
"What happens to Lathel?"
Aldric looked at her for several seconds.
"You care?"
"I need to know the price."
Aldric answered calmly.
"Death."
Only one word.
Without even the slightest hesitation.
Kiyome showed no reaction.
Aldric continued as though explaining the price of an ingredient.
"Fate isn’t like mana. If you want to completely remove something bound to a person, you have to destroy the connection between it and the soul. Even if the body remains intact, the soul can no longer continue existing."
Without warning, Kiyome remembered what had happened earlier that day.
Lathel had clearly found her annoying enough that he repeatedly tried to leave.
Yet when Kiyome suddenly failed to speak, his first reaction had still been to hold up his board and ask,
Are you feeling unwell?
Kiyome remained silent.
Aldric observed her reaction.
"Can’t bear it?"
She looked up.
"I’m calculating."
"What is there to calculate?"
Aldric laughed and tapped the scroll with the tip of his finger.
"One life in exchange for the people you want to bring back."
Kiyome’s golden eyes instantly turned cold.
"Don’t speak about them in that tone."
Aldric paused slightly and raised both hands.
"All right. My apologies."
There was not a trace of sincerity in it.
Kiyome knew that perfectly well.
But she had not come here because she wanted Aldric to become a good person.
Nor did she need to trust him.
Her memories from the previous life were already enough to understand that trusting this man was the most foolish thing she had ever done.
This time, she only needed the ritual.
The method.
Proof that the possibility truly existed.
After everything was finished—
Aldric could die.
Kiyome looked at the scroll again.
"Is there another source?"
Aldric laughed.
"Of course."
She looked up.
"Thousands, perhaps tens of thousands of ordinary people."
Aldric spoke as naturally as if discussing quantities of grain.
"As long as enough fate is gathered, the exact number doesn’t matter."
A trace of disgust flashed through Kiyome’s eyes.
"Or Lathel," Aldric continued.
"One person."
He tilted his head slightly.
"Which option do you prefer?"
Kiyome did not answer immediately.
Aldric did not rush her.
Night wind slipped through the broken window, lightly stirring the edge of the scroll on the table.
The room remained silent for a long time.
Eventually, Kiyome placed one hand on the hide.
"I want the complete version."
"After Lathel dies."
"I need to inspect the rest before I hand him over."
"No."
"Then we don’t need to cooperate."
Kiyome immediately turned away.
Aldric watched her back for several seconds before speaking.
"Half of the remaining section."
Kiyome stopped.
"After you bring Lathel to me, I’ll give you half of what’s missing. Once the ritual begins, you’ll be allowed to see the whole thing."
Kiyome turned back.
"I will personally inspect the ritual."
"Fine."
"You are not allowed to take anything beyond what we agreed upon."
"Fine."
"If you touch anyone else belonging to me..."
She did not need to finish.
Aldric understood.
"I’m not interested."
Kiyome stared at him for a long time before asking,
"Do you want Lathel alive or dead when I bring him?"
"Alive."
Aldric placed both hands on the table.
"Fate extracted from a living person is more complete."
Kiyome nodded slightly.
"How long?"
"The sooner, the better."
"I need time."
"How much?"
"I don’t know."
Aldric frowned.
Kiyome replied coldly,
"He is with Catrina Veyr. If you want to storm into the middle of the Black Rose and take him yourself, go ahead."
Aldric immediately fell silent.
Of course he did not want that.
Especially after being beaten nearly to death by whatever existed inside Lathel.
"Then what’s your plan?"
Kiyome opened her fan.
Her familiar smile returned.
"First, I make him stop being wary of me."
Aldric looked at her.
"And then?"
"That’s my concern."
"I only want to make sure you won’t suddenly become softhearted."
Kiyome paused almost imperceptibly.
The words Lathel had written earlier appeared in her mind again.
Are you feeling unwell?
The image remained for only a moment before she forced it back down.
Kiyome’s voice turned cold.
"You called me here to negotiate, not to teach me what choices I should make."
Aldric laughed.
"Then your answer?"
Kiyome closed her fan.
Click.
The small sound echoed through the room.
"I’ll bring Lathel to you."
Aldric watched her for several seconds.
Then smiled.
"A smart choice."
Kiyome turned toward the door.
"Don’t misunderstand."
She stopped without looking back.
"I’m not cooperating because I trust you."
"I know."
"I also don’t care what grudge exists between you and Lathel."
"Of course."
Kiyome tightened her grip around the fan.
"I only need what you promised."
With that, she walked outside.
The old door closed behind her.
Aldric remained seated at the table, watching the fox demon disappear from sight before letting out a quiet laugh.
In the original story, Kiyome had always been the kind of person capable of going very far for the sake of her obsession with her tribe.
Aldric only needed to place exactly what she wanted in front of her and allow her to make the choice herself.
"Just as I thought."
Deep inside the ring on his hand, Morgana had remained silent from beginning to end.
Only now did she finally speak.
"Can you truly bring the dead back to life?"
Aldric lowered his gaze toward the scroll.
The corner of his mouth slowly curved upward.
"Yes."
"Then do you intend to help her?"
Aldric did not answer immediately.
He rolled the hide back up and slipped it inside his clothes.
Only after a while did he say calmly,
"We’ll see when the time comes."
...
Outside the estate, Kiyome stepped into the carriage.
Her subordinate immediately asked,
"My Lady, should we return to the auction house?"
"Yes."
The carriage began moving.
Kiyome sat alone inside, staring through the window at the darkness passing outside.
One life.
The two words Aldric had spoken continued echoing in her mind.
She slowly closed her eyes.
When she opened them again, the hesitation from before had already been completely suppressed.
"Speed up the investigation into Lathel."
The subordinate outside immediately answered,
"Yes."
Kiyome leaned back against the seat.
If she wanted to separate Lathel from Catrina, she first needed to make him trust her.
If she wanted him to trust her, she had to erase his current negative attitude and make the Dark Curse disappear.
Not because she cared what Lathel thought of her.
At least for now, that was still what Kiyome told herself.
Everything was only a necessary step toward reclaiming what she had lost.
And if the end of that road truly required one life—
Kiyome slowly closed her eyes.
She had already chosen.