Chapter 55
#055
1.
I've known Isis for quite a while.
Every loop, every week.
Because I came to treat Arbel and pick up medicine, after all.
While I was being treated, making small talk, and using the Joker, I've learned a lot more about her than Isis thinks.
Her full name is Isis Yozora.
A beauty with an oddly decadent air, yet with an intellectual edge.
Dark green eyes and dark green hair. Her hair is slightly wavy.
She always wears a rumpled white lab coat, and prefers turtleneck sweaters that flatter her figure.
She's a freelance mage with no affiliation, which is rare in this city.
'Never divulge patient information' is a creed she lives by.
Her personality is basically dry pragmatism.
I've tried the deadly-handsome routine every time, but it never once worked.
She doesn't seem like the type to splurge on luxuries, but she's ridiculously money-minded.
But there seems to have been a side to her I hadn't anticipated.
For example, the part where Isis immediately figured out Sion's identity.
'This is that Jinjo doll, right? It should've been kept at Geumriga. Why do you have it?'
'Uh....'
No, she knows that much?
I was really shocked.
Her very first reaction suggested she knew something, but....
I never thought she'd know details to that degree.
Even Yiming had gotten it wrong, not realizing Geumriga was keeping the fake Jinjo.
How did a no-name hack doctor like Isis know that?
What is it?
Is Isis a key figure in the scenario too?
Was there no notification because she was someone I already knew?
Haa... this is going to mess up my plan.
Just as my thoughts were getting tangled.
Sion shrieked from beside me.
'Even knowing this concubine's identity, you still hold your head high. Can't you offer tea and snacks?'
In that instant, I saw it.
Isis's face twist in an instant.
'Oh dear, I must have taught her wrong. I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Hey! You apologize too!'
'S-sorry.'
I quickly grabbed Sion by the hair and forced her to bow and apologize over and over.
But the only thing that came back was silence.
'......'
When I carefully lifted my head, Isis was crossing her arms with a complicated expression.
'...You still haven't answered me. Why are you with the doll?'
'Well, I did rescue her first. They had her locked up at Geumriga.'
'......'
Isis stayed silent for a long time.
Huh?
What's this?
This wasn't my original plan.
First, have Isis examine Sion.
Use the 'oath' to guarantee absolute secrecy and reveal the current situation.
If that happened, Isis would probably try to kick me out.
From there, I'd planned to improvise.
A petty pardon slip, the Exhumation Monocle, or a mysterious contract stamp like the one I used with Ceres, and so on.
I was planning to use the Joker without holding back and drag her deep into this.
If even that didn't work, I was ready to sell out Ceres and Yiming, the whole lot, and threaten her with, 'If I get caught, I'll say you told me to smuggle the fake Jinjo away!!!'
But....
Isis's reaction wasn't ordinary.
Without a word, she turned around and walked to the door.
-clack clack clack
Isis locked several more layers of locks.
Wait, that wasn't the door fully locked?
That made me a little tense.
I've seen this in movies.
Manners make the man, they say.
I was always ready to raise my mana and prepare for an emergency.
Isis looked at me with a 'What are you doing?' expression and said,
'Come over here. It's better if no one sees. Bring that one too.'
'......?'
Maybe it was just my imagination, but.
Isis looked a little depressed.
2.
As you could tell from the fact that she stayed here even outside business hours, Isis's clinic doubled as her workshop and home.
'Excuse me.'
Including repeated loops, this was probably my tenth visit.
This was the first time I'd set foot in Isis's private living quarters.
Heh heh, what would the room of our gloomy, busty lady doctor noona be like?
I stepped inside with my heart fluttering a little....
'Hm, it's messy.'
Sion was right.
Isis noona, you're not the type who keeps things tidy, huh.
My bride score: -3 points.
Her room had the same low lighting as the clinic.
Even through that dim light, the untidiness that hadn't been properly sorted stood out.
On the desk lay medical charts and books of unknown origin.
On the bed were pajamas she'd carelessly tossed aside, and even underwear was strewn about.
And yet it somehow felt cozy.
Maybe because the smell of disinfectant was mixed with a faint coffee aroma?
'...Of all times....'
Isis, who always wore that deadpan expression, was messing up her hair and muttering to herself.
I couldn't hear the details clearly, but one thing was certain.
Isis's reaction was not normal.
'Cedric, do you know what you're carrying?'
'Yes, looks like you know quite a lot about it too, Lady Isis.'
I shot back, pressing her for answers.
Suddenly, Isis shut her mouth tight and frowned.
Just that reaction alone was weird.
The fake Jinjo project was in the confidential documents Yiming had gotten hold of.
It was classified, just like Project Z.
But before I could even explain the situation, Isis called Sion a 'Jinjo doll.'
And even though she knew it was tied to Geumriga, she let Sion and me in so readily.
I suddenly got a little uneasy.
When Cedric's life goes this smoothly, it means some bullshit is definitely waiting to screw me over.
What is it?
Could Isis actually be a collaborator with Geumriga?
Probably not.
While living as Yiming's lackey, I'd heard quite a bit about Geumriga's internal affairs.
The name Isis Yozora had never once been mentioned within the organization.
'So why did you bring it to me?'
Isis asked, staring intently at me.
Should I use it now? The monocle?
No.
I only had one use left.
I could still take a more cautious approach.
'I'm planning to use Sion to turn Arbel into a vampire.'
I chose my words carefully as I spoke.
'As you probably already know, this one's fake. To make a thrall, you need life force, but it would just die.'
'Makes sense. So?'
'I need a way to make thrall conversion happen without dying.'
Sion suddenly cut in.
It looked like she just wanted to chime in since her own life was on the line.
Total nuisance.
'Tch! Adults are talking here.'
I'm already feeling like I'm walking on thin ice!
'...Ngh... don't touch my head.'
When I pressed her head down and sat her on my lap, Sion whined.
Isis brushed the corner of her lips and continued.
'If it's for Arbel, there's no need to make it complicated. I already said I'd reconstruct the circuit if you paid me. There's no need to go through thrall conversion.'
A perfectly reasonable rebuttal came back.
And that's the really infuriating part.
No, even if I explained it properly, would people even believe me?
I get genre conventions and all, but is it really right that even revealing the fact that I regressed is blocked?
'I can't explain the details either. I trust your skill, Lady Isis. But due to the circumstances, it absolutely has to go through thrall conversion. I can't just kill them, can I?'
'Th, th-that's right! Hurry up and come up with some kind of plan!'
Again, after thinking for quite a while, Isis asked,
'No matter what?'
'No matter what.'
Isis looked like she couldn't understand it.
Well.
It would be hard to accept.
Then this time was finally the Joker's turn to shine!
Just as I was thinking that.
Isis parted her lips.
3.
On the way back from Isis's clinic to my rented room.
The night in C-Sector was as smoky and raucous as ever.
Overhead was damp green smog.
Between it hung red lanterns like drops of blood.
The stink of cheap spices and sewers.
And even the sweet purple smoke of opium rising from deep within the alleyways.
This damp scenery, which I'd once looked at with wonder, was now somewhat familiar.
Well, I am a C-Sector resident now, after all.
But this city, seriously.
'What is it?'
I can't make sense of it from start to finish.
'Seriously, what is it?'
I'd even been saying I'd somehow clear this run by slipping through without getting tangled up with Geumriga and those whales, but....
Still, I hadn't even expected to coast through a second loop.
'Does Necropolis look like a joke to you?'
The moment you try to take it easy, norovirus, salmonella, Vibrio, sepsis, liver flukes, and whale worms are waiting for you.
Just persuading Isis right now was a hurdle.
No, look.
The oath only guarantees 'silence'.
Logically, there's no reason for Isis to help me so readily.
That's why I steeled myself and came to see Isis.
But....
'10 Omnifiers.'
'Huh?'
'Or 125 million Bios. Bring them to me, and I'll make you a "Hongok."'
'Huh?'
She accepted way too easily.
In fact, her answer itself was suspicious.
How did Isis even know about 'Hongok'?
And how could she make the 'Hongok' that even Twilight Resource Development had given up on?
There were far too many things I couldn't understand.
'...You're not planning to take the money and run, are you?'
Up to that point, I still doubted Isis's true intentions.
Because doubting others in Necropolis was only natural.
But Isis then put on one outrageous move after another.
'Take this. Make sure the doll always wears it. You wear it too.'
'What is it?'
'A necklace with a perception-suppressing spell on it. It'll let you escape Taksuo's surveillance.'
'......?'
First, she gave me a way to get out from under the surveillance I was most worried about.
'Be careful of Geumriga's Honggon, Li Cheng.'
'?????'
She even reminded me of Li Cheng, the final boss from the previous loop.
'If you need blood, buy it from me.'
'Why?'
'If you buy it through another route, you might get tracked.'
'Who are you! You're not Isis!'
She even told me the precautions.
No matter how I looked at it, it was the kind of high-quality information only an insider could give.
'I'm really, really, really grateful, but why?'
'...You don't need to know.'
It was truly a brisk, refreshing development.
The frustrating part was that she still wouldn't tell me why she was helping.
'Tch, there's definitely something going on here. You know anything?'
I asked Sion, who was walking beside me.
No answer came.
What the hell? Where the hell did she go!
Panicking, I looked around, and there, off in the distance.
I saw Sion standing blankly in front of a rice-cake shop.
'Dammit, this girl.'
Her sparkling gaze was fixed on the glutinous rice cakes.
I strode over and smacked the back of her head.
'I told you to stick right next to me, didn't I?'
'Eek!'
Sion flinched, but she still couldn't take her eyes off the glutinous rice cakes.
'Th, th-that rice cake looks really delicious....'
'And?'
'Do you not intend to offer tribute to this concubine?'
I remembered Sion from the previous loop.
The way she'd thrown a complete fit demanding glutinous rice cakes.
'Want to die?'
Sion gripped my sleeve tightly.
'Th-this is your last chance. Do you really not intend to offer tribute?'
'Cut the crap. I'll really kill you.'
Honestly, if people act obedient, they think you're easy.
Look at this girl.
Just because I treated her a little gently in front of Isis, she was already trying to get cocky.
Still, well....
'Three rice cakes, please.'
I should build up her favor a bit so she doesn't cause trouble at the end.
'That'll be 5,000 Bios.'
Fuck.
Still ridiculously expensive.
notes":"Normalized the split-part chapter title to match the series format. Kept neutral wording where the thrall target is not explicitly gendered in English."}]}