Unwanted Undead Adventurer - Episode 30

“…Wait a minute. I think there’s a mirror around here,” Lorraine says and starts to look around for it.

She may be too careless in some ways, but she’s still a woman, and she at least has a mirror.

“Here, take a look… Well, maybe it hasn’t exactly moved…”

I look in the mirror that Lorraine is holding out in front of me, and sure enough, my face is reflected in it, with the mask in a different position. No, it isn’t just the position of the mask that changed.

The shape of the mask has changed.

The mask that used to cover my entire face now covers only the top half, with my mouth exposed. In addition…

“…It’s… my skin…” I say vacantly, and Lorraine nods.

“Oh, yeah. There’s a lot of things that I didn’t mention… Rent, you look different,” she says.

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Afterwards, I check things over and find that my appearance has changed quite a bit. Of course, it isn’t just the shape of my mask that has changed. When I take off my robe and look at my body, I can see that some parts of it are still withered, but other parts are starting to look healthy. I guess you could say it looks like a withered, worm-eaten living body.

This way, when I show my body to people, they might just think I have many old wounds. Well, maybe they’ll think the scars are too big for that, but they won’t immediately say that I’m a ghoul.

As for my face, the lower half, where the mask is gone, is the same as my body. Even so, it looks more monstrous than my body, more like a ghoul. There are parts that look healthy, but the most important part, the area around my mouth, is pretty bad. The gums are bare… or it looks skeletal. I think I need to cover this up… I wonder if there is anything I can do about it.

As I’m thinking this, Lorraine shouts, “Oh, hey!”

Wondering what’s going on, I look in the mirror, and the mask that’s been covering the top half of my face starts shifting as if it’s melting, now covering my entire face. It’s the same as usual, a skeleton mask.

…What’s going on?

“…Rent, that mask doesn’t seem like it’s cursed, does it?” Lorraine says with a curious look in her eyes.

A mask that moves in such a strange way certainly isn’t a normal mask. Well, it doesn’t seem like it’s just a cursed mask, either.

“…Just now, when that mask changed shape, did you do anything?” Lorraine asks while observing the mask.

I tell her that I thought it seemed like a bad idea for my gums to be showing, and I wondered if I could do something about it.

Then, she says, “Hmm. Does that mean it changed according to your will? …A sentient tool. That’s rare.”

A sentient tool is a very unique inanimate object such as a magic sword that chooses its own owner, for example. They are often found in labyrinths, and are said to be difficult to make in modern times. Lorraine is saying that the mask I’m wearing could be one of these.

But this was bought for a few coppers, according to Rina. Isn’t that too cheap for a sentient tool?

I tell that to Lorraine.

“It was cursed. There’s a good chance it was priced that way because they wanted to get rid of it quickly. Or it could be that… that mask has the power to manipulate people’s consciousness…” she says creepily.

There’s nothing I can do about it being cursed so that I can’t take it off, but I can’t afford to have my consciousness be manipulated as well. I’ve already become a strange enough as it is. At the very least, I want to be able to move of my own accord. However, if you ask me if all of my actions from the time I put this on until now have been of my own will… I’d say it’s pretty doubtful. I attacked Lorraine, after all.

Lorraine continues to observe the mask.

“…It just occurred to me that you changed its shape according to your will. Maybe you’d be able to make it come off?” she says, as if she just thought of it.

I think to myself, “I see,” and I try thinking of taking it off again. But the mask doesn’t seem to come off.

“Can I try to pull it off?”

“Ah…”

Just as Lorraine declared she would, she grabs the mask on both sides and pulls on it, but it still won’t come off, as if it’s stuck. I don’t think that Lorraine is weak. It’s true that she’s not as strong as a man, but she’s still an adventurer. She has more strength than most. In other words, the mask is still stuck to me and won’t come off.

“It’s no good. Could you try telling it to change shape again?”

I nod and try to picture the shape of the mask in my head. Then, the mask changes to cover only the upper half of my face once again.

“What about other shapes?”

After being prompted to, I try a bunch of different things and it becomes clear that the mask can be changed into about three shapes. One that covers the entire face, one that covers the upper half of the face, and one that covers the lower half. Other changes are also possible, but it seems that, except for changing the decorations and patterns, basically nothing else can be done.

“You can change the shape… but you can’t get it off. The results aren’t that great. Well, it’s not so bad, is it? After all, your face still looks more like an undead,” Lorraine nods.

In fact, she’s right that it would be difficult to expose the lower half of my face to people. They’d think it was strange that I could move if I showed them my whole body. After all, there are parts of my body that aren’t just wounds, but gashes with clearly visible bones. It would be strange if no blood came out. However, if I could hide those parts, it would be much better than before, since they look human enough at a glance. Also…

“Isn’t my voice… strange?”

“Well, you’re becoming much more fluent… It does seem a little strange sometimes, but maybe it’s just a matter of getting used to it?”

“I don’t know, but… I’m certainly getting better at speaking.”

I’m very grateful for that. But then I suddenly wonder why… and then I think, ah.

“Did I… evolve?” I mumble to myself about my current situation, and Lorraine nods.

“That’s probably what happened. Maybe it’s because you’ve been fighting monsters in the labyrinth.”

I mentioned to Lorraine that I was going to the Labyrinth of the Moon’s Reflection. She’s guessing that’s why. However, I tilt my head at this.

“I don’t know about that… It’s true that I fought monsters, but when I… evolved into a ghoul, that was… right after defeating a monster…”

“…Compared to that, you evolved after you came back to this house at the earliest, so you’re saying that it’s not the same as before… Did you evolve because you beat me or something?”

“No, no, no, I didn’t… beat you.”

“Yes, you did. Or rather, you might as well have defeated me. And after that… Oh, you ate my blood and flesh. Maybe that was it, huh?” Lorraine utters a startling theory.

I widen my eyes at her.

“No, it’s not that far-fetched. The way you look right now… You look more like a thrall than a ghoul, and thralls are considered to be vampires’ underlings. They’re monsters that are even lower than lesser vampires…”