Indeed…
After hearing all this, Reliel frowned and pondered deeply.
Her mind had indeed been completely consumed by their current mission—the so-called “Mission of the Disappearances Under the Moon”…
Yet she had overlooked some of the most basic common sense.
It was like looking for something clearly on the table right in front of her, but instead searching the entire room.
Really… a bit foolish.
Thinking this, Reliel rubbed her forehead, and when she inadvertently glanced at Ileya, her face flushed slightly.
For some reason, she felt… a bit embarrassed.
“Hmm… is that so~” Ileya raised an eyebrow, but her gaze was fixed straight ahead…
On the old apothecary’s fragmented corpse, the Long-faced Woman had finally achieved her wish—grasping the old apothecary’s soul by the neck, she used that unnaturally long, black-hole-like mouth to slowly devour his screaming soul bit by bit.
Though no one knew what this woman had been through, it was safe to say she had gotten what she wanted.
At first, Ileya had only made a simple deduction based on how excessively clean the hands were washed and the white cloth in the wooden bucket.
This was actually very straightforward logic, ignoring the Mission of the Disappearances Under the Moon, disregarding the fact that the person was a town resident, and not even considering that he was the victim’s master.
Setting those filters aside…
It was easy to spot the “Shadow” under the lamp.
Coupled with the excessively cleansed palms and the apothecary’s profession, Ileya concluded that he must have touched something unholy, hence the compulsive handwashing.
And the ghost woman demanding his soul further proved that this guy was no good…
Of course, even all these factors combined were just conjecture.
The real reason Ileya dared to decisively search was ultimately because she was a young lady of means… and she could afford to pay for any damages~
Actually, she hadn’t expected that a casual smash would uncover the truth.
But… for now, Ileya didn’t want to dwell on that.
What truly concerned her was… that girl who had conjured the Holy Sword out of thin air and Veil’s reaction just now.
That was an unexpected gain.
Yet, clearly, this was not the time to discuss it… Ileya turned her head toward Amisa.
“How is her sister… right now?”
“Miss, she’s probably been drugged… both hands are bound, with obvious external injuries, but mostly superficial wounds.”
The girl spoke, growing redder in the face as she did, and by the end… she even looked at her young lady with a somewhat expectant gaze.
Ileya was a little baffled… What’s wrong with this one?
Unable to understand Amisa’s thoughts, the young lady ordered her to clean Elu up a bit.
Otherwise, this “Holy Sword Bearer” girl would lose her mind again once she woke.
As for Mein… Ileya had not killed him for now, only having Insmaus Tela restrain him.
Meanwhile, Reliel was frowning as she stared at her broken slender sword.
This sword was not cheap; within the entire mercenary group, it ranked among the top five.
And yet… it had been cut through like tofu by the longsword Holly had just drawn.
So… what now? Is there a blacksmith shop in town?
By the way, can a sword that’s been cut in half even be repaired? The break looked… surprisingly neat.
While Reliel frowned, examining the break on her slender sword, Ileya had already led Veil into a room in the backyard.
The room smelled strongly of herbs, lined with large clay jars arranged neatly… it was clearly the storage room for medicinal ingredients.
“Tell me… what’s going on here?”
Ileya sat sideways on one of the large clay jars, legs crossed, and pointed back toward the herbal shop’s front hall.
Clearly, she was asking about Holly’s Holy Sword.
“Well… I don’t know the specifics either… but there’s an eighty percent chance that Miss Holly…”
Veil pursed her lips, considering her words carefully before looking at Ileya.
“…is like you, an Otherworlder beyond fate.”
Like me…
Awakened to her past-life memory… or bluntly put, a Transmigrator?
“Then the Holy Sword… did you give it to her?”
Ileya raised an eyebrow, wondering if this person had awakened earlier than herself.
“No no no!” Veil shook her head slowly.
“There was no such artifact on my side before. She probably wasn’t reincarnated into this world by me.”
“Huh?”
The young lady was slightly taken aback.
“Are there different ‘departments’ for reincarnation?”
“Of course~ Well… only a handful of souls can enter the Chamber of Judgment, and I, the Goddess of the Dead, determine where you should go based on what you did in your previous life… what kind of world awaits you.”
Veil’s voice grew softer and softer as she spoke, her innocent eyes blinking as she looked at the young lady.
Seeming to catch Ileya’s unease, Ileya waved her hand.
“No worries, this world is very good~ Even if I have to face Hell later… I am confident I can protect my Treasured Ones there.”
Her current mindset was clearly very different from when she had just awakened.
This “hellish” world Veil spoke of had given her many things—things she had never possessed in her past life, her Treasured Ones.
So… she didn’t regret coming here, and if given the chance to choose her reincarnation destination again, she would definitely still choose here.
Because Ileya couldn’t bear those things… losing her existence and quietly… silently disappearing.
Thinking of this, a sudden flash of insight struck Ileya’s mind as she seemed to connect some other thoughts.
Hearing the words of this cunning woman before her, Veil also opened her mouth in slight confusion.
Did those Treasured Ones… include me as well?
At that thought, Miss Goddess Veil’s ears flushed a little.
In truth… though titled the “Goddess of the Dead,” a goddess was merely one who, from the moment of consciousness, stood on the Goddess Throne high above Heaven.
To come this close to experiencing “emotion” was something even an eternal existence could never achieve.
And this feeling of being cherished was something Veil had never imagined before.
“So… besides your Chamber of Judgment, what’s the other place that can reincarnate souls into other worlds called?” Ileya asked with raised eyebrows.
“That’s the Flawless Scales. It’s known as the Judgment of Absolute Fairness. Souls with blemishes can’t reach that realm… with almost no evil souls, how is there any judgment?”
Veil spoke while disdainfully curling her lips, clearly looking down on this so-called scales.
Hah… so even gods play word games with each other?
“So that means… that Holly was sent to this world from the Flawless Scales?”
“More accurately…” Veil mimicked Ileya’s thoughtful pose, stroking her chin.
“…she probably chose to come to this world herself, but the Scales would have told her… this world is dangerous and terrifying. So why did she still choose here?”
This formed a seemingly unsolvable puzzle in Miss Goddess’s mind.
But for Ileya, who thought like a human, it was no difficult question.
“Simple… Purpose.”
“Huh?”
Miss Goddess looked at the crafty woman before her in some confusion, still not quite understanding.
“Like I just said, if I had to do it again… I would still choose here, to protect my Treasured Ones. That is Purpose.”
Ileya’s crimson eyes shone with profound light as she slowly turned her head…
As if through the door and walls, she saw the unconscious Holy Sword Bearer girl.
“And she… is not the kind of madwoman seeking thrills and death. And since she’s from the same place as me, her Purpose… should already be obvious, right?”