Chapter 588: Urban Legends: The Phantom Stall

We were now back in Kiarazen again.

We were told that Lovren was here.

It was close to other countries, and the legend of the Lakeside Maiden was popular here. It was a place that shouldn’t be missed when investigating the strange occurrences in the lake.

Besides, we’d like to visit Rhyn’s stall again.

But her stall was not in the same place as before. We looked around the town to see if she had moved locations, but she was nowhere to be found.

In the end, we even went to the merchant association that organizes the stalls in this town to ask them about it. But they replied that there was no such merchant by that name.

They didn’t lie as their answer was not a lame response. After all, we even mentioned Weena Rhyn’s name and showed them Fran’s adventurer card. In addition, I also used my doppelganger to accompany her as her guardian this time.

This was also meant to be a test to see if this skill would be effective in keeping my soul as a person. I wanted to try having a conversation with someone in this state and see what happens.

In addition to the big shots, we also met with the high-ranking adventurers. The person in charge of arranging the stalls in town was even shaking with a blue face. I felt a little sorry for him when I saw him going over the list of names again and again.

The chairman of the trading company, who could not stand to see the situation, even took over the handling of the situation, but his investigation did not change the results.

However, he remembered something in his mind.

「There is an urban legend in this town」

「An urban legend?」

「It’s a story that people are very uncertain about whether it’s true or false」

Apparently, there is a rumor among the merchants that there was a phantom stall that could not be normally encountered, although they do not know when it all started.

They never knew when or where it would appear, but there were stories of travelers who had encountered strange food stalls and had been sold amazingly delicious food.

「The vendor of the stall is said to be a mysterious looking girl with black cloth covering her eyes」

「Nn. Without a doubt, she’s the one I’m talking about」

「Could it be, the rumor was true…? But then, we have no more information to go on. I’ve heard that some people have tried to find it before, but they couldn’t find it」

「I see…」

「But it could be the Lakeside Maiden disguised as a girl to watch human activity, or a demon taking human form」

So, in the end, we didn’t get many results. But it seemed that no one had ever been able to find it. They couldn’t even get a clue.

Rhyn must have some kind of status disguising ability that was at the level at which even my appraisal is completely fooled.

Well, from what Weena Rhyn had told us before, she was originally a high-ranking spirit that was fused with the huge magic beast. In addition, she was in a contract with Weena Rhyn. She’s probably overwhelmingly superior being to us. Even if nothing was done to her, there was a high possibility that she could not be appraised. There was nothing we could do if her disguise skills were added on top of that.

Also, does she possess the ability to block perception? She was a spirit, so she should be invisible to normal humans, but that alone didn’t explain why they couldn’t find her stall. Maybe she could also use it for anything besides herself.

『Well, it can’t be helped that we can’t find her. Let’s go to Lovren for now』

「How is it? Has anything changed?」

『Hmm? Oh, you’re talking about my body』

「Nn」

Fran tilted her head and looked at my doppelganger.

『Umm, I don’t know…』

「Nothing changed?」

In the first place, my main body was a sword, but at the same time, my doppelganger was moving, so it was not as if I had completely gone back to a human body. Besides, my doppelganger had weak senses, so it was hard to feel that it was a human body at all.

It felt like controlling a full dive avatar in a VR game, maybe? Anyway, I was feeling a strong sense of wrongness. In fact, I felt that pretending to be a person reminded me more that I was a sword.

Also, Fran seemed to be slightly uncomfortable with it. To Fran, I’m a sword. That was the way it should be, and she felt uncomfortable seeing my doppelganger for the first time in a long time.

『Well, it’s not exactly the goal I’m aiming for, and I’m not sure I’d use this skill often enough』

「I see」

But Fran seemed to be a little happy while saying that. After all, she didn’t really like the idea of me using my doppelganger’s body.

From now on, I would use it from time to time, but I wouldn’t use it all the time.

Then I erased my doppelganger and urged Fran to move

『Well, let’s go to the harbor~』

「Oo~」

According to our information, Lovren had been at the harbor until about an hour ago.

He was a very famous person in this area, so when we asked the merchants, they immediately knew where he was.

We headed to the place we were told to go to, but there we ran into someone we didn’t expect.

「It is… Err…」

『It’s Sierra』

There was Sierra, the boy with the killing intent.

He was holding a somewhat sinister-looking sword with a jet-black blade in his right hand, and for some reason, he was dipping the tip of the sword into the lake. I wonder what he was doing?

「――I guess」

「――maybe?」

He was mumbling something in a low voice, but I couldn’t hear him clearly. It seemed as if he was talking to someone, but there was no one around. Did he have a habit of mumbling to himself?

As we approached the boy, he turned around and looked at her.

「…!」

「…」

Sierra and Fran stared at each other for a while.

In contrast to Fran’s curious look, Sierra’s gaze toward Fran was filled with killing intent.