Chapter 563: Vanessa - Markets and Multiverses

After entering the next screen of light, we were teleported again. This time, we reached a rather unusual place. It appeared to be an almost perfect replica of the mansion we had entered when we originally arrived in this place. However, unlike the mansion that we had originally seen, this mansion was bustling with life. I briefly checked it with my soul sight, and frowned.

I said. The souls were all silver-white orbs, which made them appear surprisingly human. I couldn’t see inside of the mansion, so I had no idea whether the souls actually belonged to humans, or whether they were just similarly shaped and colored.

My companions nodded, and Sallia drew her blade. Valeksi sent a wave of wooden birds to soar towards the mansion, before his gaze turned quite peculiar.

he said. He shared his vision with us, and I also rubbed my forehead in confusion. Standing just inside of the bird’s line of sight was a woman in a decorative black and white dress, humming as she swept a hardwood floor just inside.

The sight was completely out of place in the middle of the desolate, ruined Market. Especially since the woman’s soul looked like a totally ordinary human soul. Human souls in the Market seemed to degrade over time, meaning that if this woman had been here for a long period of time, she should have gradually withered away into dust. On the other hand, if she was a new transmigrator, I had no idea why she would just randomly decide to start cleaning up a mansion in the middle of a dangerous, trapped mansion.

said Felix.

I considered the thought. It made some amount of sense. This place provided easy access to Abilities, which would be useful for transmigrators, and monsters clearly existed somewhere in the mansion. I could see a group setting up here, assuming they possessed a certain minimum level of strength. The maid only seemed to have around Grade 6 life force, which meant she should theoretically struggle to exist here - but if her abilities were unusually powerful, or she had some kind of massive stat imbalance, it was plausible. Odd, certainly, but it could happen. The maid dress was pretty strange in that case, but it could be some kind of Item from the Market. My own dress looked pretty absurd, but it allowed me to ignore most weaker physical attacks and most spells that didn’t involve more esoteric kinds of magic.

I said, after some hesitation. There was no reason to assume the other group would be hostile - all transmigrators eventually needed to work together to buy more lives. If this group was in the same situation as us, perhaps we could come to an agreement, as we had with the two brothers.

I walked up to the front door, and knocked on it. I saw a soul scurry towards the front door right after I knocked, before a maid opened the door. She smiled at us.

“Guest Name! You’ve arrived! And I see that Guest Name, Guest Name, Guest Name, Guest Name, and Guest Name have also arrived! Lady Vanessa is already waiting for your arrival!” Said the maid, before she gave us a prim, proper curtsy.

I turned towards my companions. They looked just as confused as I felt.

Guest Name? Why was this maid calling me ‘Guest Name?’ Why did she act like our arrival was expected?

said Felix.

I nodded in agreement. Unless this was some kind of Ability with an absurdly specific set of requirements, I couldn’t think of why a transmigrator would act like this. In other words, this maid was probably somehow linked to the mansion’s trials, instead. She was an ‘npc’ that was meant to facilitate whatever test existed in this room.

I shared my speculation with my companions.

said Sallia.

The maid led us into a grand reception hall, which was lavishly decorated with gold, paintings, and plush carpets. She led us up a staircase, and then through another two hallways, before we arrived at a room filled with sofas. Inside, there were exactly six plush, comfortable looking empty chairs, and a seventh chair. Once I saw the occupant of the seventh chair, I confirmed that the humans here were parts of the setting, rather than normal people.

That was because the person sitting in the seventh chair looked exactly like the ‘corpse’ we had found in the first room. Every detail, from the hair bow she was wearing to her face, were replicated with eerie proficiency. However, unlike the mannequin-esque corpse we had seen in the first room, this girl was very much alive, and wasn’t missing any limbs. She looked like a normal, lively little girl.

She enthusiastically waved at us as we entered the room, before she blushed. She cleared her throat.

“Sorry, I forgot my etiquette for a second,” she said. She stood up from her chair, and instead gave us a prim, proper curtsy.

“Aunt Guest Name! You came! And you brought Aunt Guest Name, Aunt Guest Name, Uncle Guest Name, Uncle Guest Name, and Uncle Guest Name, too! I’ve been looking forward to seeing all six of you! I’m so glad all of you made it!”

My eye twitched. The fact that this little girl, just like the maid, referred to us as ‘Guest Name’ was incredibly jarring. It was obvious that the people here were probably supposed to know our names. However, they didn’t. This was probably because there was some kind of ‘registration’ we were meant to finish before entering this training ground. However, since the Market had fallen, nobody was left behind to teach us how we were supposed to register our identities here… or collect our Achievement. I just hoped that the rest of this training ground didn’t run into any major errors due to the fact that it hadn’t been maintained in centuries.

I decided to play along for now.

“Yeah, all six of us are really excited to be here!” I said. I paused for a moment. I wasn’t sure what our role was in this place. She said she was excited to see us, and she referred to us as ‘aunt’ and ‘uncle,’ so she was probably related to us, at least according to the backstory for this place. I had no idea why we were here though, or what we were supposed to do. “It has been a long time since I last saw you. How have you been, Vanessa?” The maid had referred to the little girl as ‘Vanessa’ earlier.

“I’m really excited, aunt Guest Name. Now that I’m turning twelve, I can finally take up some of my parent’s old duties.” The girl looked more than a little bit sad when she mentioned her parents, and I quickly realized that her parents were dead according to the backstory for this place. I was starting to get an idea what our role in this mansion was - we were probably here to celebrate her birthday.

Now for the real question - what were we supposed to do here? We had seen a copy of her corpse in the first room, which was probably a hint about the ‘plotline’ for this adventure. Were we supposed to investigate her death? Prevent it? Help kill her? I had no idea what our purpose here was, and it was impossible to guess since any introductory materials for this instance had been lost.

“Did you bring me any gifts for my birthday?” she asked. She gave me a mischievous look, just like a mischievous brat, and for a moment I felt the urge to pinch her cheeks and give her a hug. I shook it off. I still didn’t know enough about the situation to make any impulsive actions.

“We’ll show them to you later,” I said. I had no idea what gifts we could possibly have for the little girl, but I hoped that wasn’t a vital component for our progression here.

said Felix.

I relaxed. Felix had the solution!

“That’s fine, the birthday party starts tomorrow,” said Vanessa. “How about we have dinner instead? Aunt Jamira and Uncle Morton are already here, and I don’t think anyone else will make it.”

“Umm… sure,” said Anise. “Dinner sounds nice.”

“Wonderful! The chefs are already almost done preparing the meal,” said Vanessa, before she got up from her seat and led us to another dining table. I still had no idea what we were supposed to do here, but I didn’t want to stand out too much. For now, the six of us got up, and followed her deeper into the mansion.

Author’s Note:

Post-surgery pains have faded considerably this week. Not quite gone yet, but much better. I see my surgeon for my next follow-up appointment this Friday. Hopefully I can get a few of the stitches out - some of them are poking the inside of my cheek in a way that is rather uncomfortable. Apparently, this particular kind of stitch has the best statistical outcome for people who do this surgery, so I can put up with it… but it’s still annoying!

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