A narrow alley with nowhere to park.
There was so little room to stop that I cursed myself for bringing the car, and I had already circled the neighborhood more than three times.
"Sorry, but there's nowhere to park, so I'd like you to come out front."
In the end, I called Eden and had him come out. It was a three-day break I had worked hard to get, but when I opened my eyes in the morning, there was an insane pile of messages and missed calls. I had no choice but to head out.
I had used an item to pass on the nightmare, but I hadn't known that the price would be having to look after that bastard Eden myself.
'He really seems to have called me out over something pointless. Should I just head back now?'
[Shall I kill him?]
I had only thought it, but a dark shadow under my feet in the car grinned and spoke to me.
"Don't do anything."
After giving the shadow a stern warning, I looked ahead and saw Eden shambling toward me. He looked like a homeless man. Never mind his flashy, glittering clothes, he was dressed shabbily, and his 8:2 pomade hairdo had turned into something like a drowned rat. The man as a whole looked dried out and feeble.
"Hey. Buy me some items from the shop."
For a moment, I was at a loss for words. And here was Eden, begging like a zombie on the verge of death.
The guy from the beginning who lived and died by appearances was nowhere to be seen.
"Lately... I keep getting sleep paralysis. I can't sleep, and those things keep buzzing in my head."
"Ah. Yes. If you give me the money, I'll buy them for you. Is there an item you want?"
I had thought he had been strangely quiet lately, but I had only been glad he wasn't stirring up trouble and hadn't thought about it deeply.
"Buy them with your money for now. I'll pay you back when I make my comeback."
A hollow laugh escaped me. He must have blown all the money he had turned into cash in the market and didn't have a penny left now, because Eden looked utterly pitiful.
"I'm sorry, but I've spent nearly all my points on the Colosseum too, so I don't have any money."
"Hey! How can you spend points so carelessly?! You've got to think before you spend!"
I didn't know who was scolding whom, but he must not have given up his pride, because Eden was cocky as ever. Or he might just be an idiot who couldn't grasp reality. I hoped I would never see him again after today.
At the sight of him, who seemed to have been tormented hard by nightmares for a while, a sense of satisfaction washed over me. I hadn't known he would suffer this badly, but considering everything he had put me through, I wasn't sorry at all.
'Is he just being a crybaby?'
Moaning like he was dying over being tormented by nightmares a little: Eden might simply be a big crybaby. And I had no idea when I would ever get money back from a penniless beggar if I bought items for him. I had no intention of doing that whatsoever.
"Let's go to the market for now. I have an idea."
If he had no money, I could make him some, then charge a commission to make the purchase for him.
"Right. Right. To buy items, we have to go to the market first, so let's go."
I hadn't said a single word about buying them for free, but I didn't bother correcting his misunderstanding. It was a hassle.
***
When we got to the market, I passed the shopping street without looking back. Dragging along a bewildered Eden, I headed straight for the auction street.
"Hey! Where are you going?"
When I didn't answer, distracted for a moment, Eden suddenly grabbed me by the scruff of my neck and forced me to turn toward him.
"You bastard! You think what I say is a joke?"
"......."
Getting grabbed by the back of the neck was so absurd and ridiculous that I just stood there, and he seemed to think I was ignoring him, because he was raging. It was ridiculous enough to be looking after a guy like this now, and having to go through the trouble of explaining things at his level made it the worst day ever.
"Have you decided which item to buy?"
"Huh? No, how would I know what items the shop has?!"
As expected, he had just been whining for me to get him an item to escape his nightmares without even knowing what items there were. Without even knowing what the items cost, either.
"Is your goal to escape the nightmares? Or to buy an item?"
"What? Are you playing word games with me? Obviously...."
"Then trading your fear is more effective than buying an item."
It was pathetic that Eden couldn't even properly work out what I meant, but I didn't show it. If his pride got hurt and he threw another tantrum, it would be a problem. Leading Eden, who had calmed down a little from before, I hurried to the auction house.
"I'm here to trade this gentleman's emotions."
"It's his first trade. He won't trade anything else?"
"Hey! I never said I'd do it!"
What a shame. If he had stayed dazed a little longer, I could have wrapped up the registration in a flash, but he had come to his senses halfway through, so I had to go back into teacher mode.
"You're afraid because of the nightmares, aren't you?"
"What? No, it's not that I'm scared...."
"Then selling it and turning it into money is far more profitable."
At the word "money," Eden stopped spitting out complaints and his eyes lit up. That aside, I was the one who had taken the request to plant the nightmare, so I was a little worried whether it would be all right to make him sell the fear it caused.
'A penalty or something? I won't get something like that, will I?'
"Ahem. Hey! How much money do they give?"
"I've only traded once myself, but they gave me quite a lot."
I didn't know whether Eden's shallow fear could really trade at a high price. But if I took even that hope away, he would bother me again, so I raised his expectations as high as I could.
"Let's use the money from the trade to buy items. You'll definitely get a lot."
"From now on, report to me before you do anything."
To the very end, Eden refused to give up his swagger and acted tough, and against all expectations, his fear sold for a fairly high price. He hadn't just been crying wolf, apparently; I had thought he wouldn't even get 10 points, but it traded for a whole 50 points.
Once the sale was complete, the ghost who had bought the fear, Eden, and I sat facing each other in the reception room behind the auction house.
The auctioneer extracted Eden's fear, and the trade was just about to go through smoothly.
KABOOM!
The auction house door was smashed and went flying into the wall behind. If I hadn't ducked my head on reflex, the door would have hit me square on.
"That fear is mine!"
FLINCH.
The ghost who had requested the nightmare. The Fire Demon had arrived. I had a guilty conscience, so I couldn't meet its eyes and hurriedly turned my head. The ghost who had already paid the trade price flew into a rage and started fighting with the ghost insisting the fear was its own. Uproar broke out in the auction house, and it turned into bedlam.
The Fire Demon, which had done a great many evil deeds in the world, ranked upper-middle even among ghost levels, and the heat pouring off the angry Fire Demon filled the reception room.
'Should I slip out about now?'
Eden sat there in a daze, unable to grasp what was going on. If I was going to get out, now was the only chance.
"You there! How dare a mere human!"
The ghost that had made the request spotted me, set its whole body on fire, and charged at me in a rage. I turned to dodge, but it was a dead end. If that fire brushed my body even for a moment, it looked like my whole body would burn away without leaving a single bone fragment.
"W-wait a moment!"
Even at my shout, the ghost didn't wait. Seeing the ghost charge, I gripped my bracelet tight and ducked my head.
[Oh my? A commotion at the auction house, no less.]
The flickering flames died down, and Darkness appeared between the ghost, the auctioneer, and me. His eyes were smiling, but with a considerably angry air, he put a finger to his lips and looked at the auctioneer.
[Auctioneer. Is there some problem with the auction?]
"N-no, there isn't, Lord Darkness. There seems to have been some misunderstanding with a customer."
Even the auctioneer, who held the highest position at the auction house, couldn't so much as move before Darkness.
"Hey. What's going on here? What about my points?"
Please, get a clue for once.
Even in the middle of this, Eden, that blockhead who still hadn't grasped the situation, was looking back and forth between Darkness and the auctioneer, going on about his points. At the sight, Darkness's eyes narrowed more and more. The auctioneer was sweating bullets watching it, too.
[For now, it would be best for the parties to the misunderstanding to talk among themselves.]
"Yes! Then for now, I'll show the traders to another place to wait."
I was about to follow the auctioneer's guidance and move to a separate room.
[Experienced Investor No. 3029 must stay, of course.]
Darkness's chilling voice rang out.
FREEZE—
I stopped in my tracks and, with a straight face, pointed a finger at myself to check that he really meant me, but for the first time, Darkness opened his mouth. When the mouth he had kept shut tight under the mask the whole time opened, black, grotesque things and a sticky liquid flowed out, and at the speed of light he was standing beside the auctioneer. Before that mouth opened any wider, I changed tack. Whatever it was, I judged that rubbing Darkness the wrong way right now would do me no good.
"Hey?"
"Go on ahead. As an Experienced Investor, I'll clean up this situation before I leave."
It wasn't a lie. If I couldn't clean up this situation, I might die, so I had to clean it up somehow. Eden disappeared, and a three-way face-off took place, with Darkness and the auctioneer in between.
The only one whose face I needed to watch right now wasn't the ghost that had given me the request, nor the ghost that had bought the fear, but the general manager of this Ghost Story Market: Darkness.
Pretending as innocently as possible that I really hadn't known, I went on explaining politely, and when Darkness had heard the whole story, he spun his hat and began looking around the reception room.
[Hmm.]
"Double dealing. That's unacceptable. That human jerk needs to be torn limb from limb and killed."
The Fire Demon that had requested the nightmare flashed and pressed in on me, kicking up blue flames with a whoosh. Sweat dripped from under my chin because of the hot flames. The fire crept closer and closer to me, but Darkness didn't decide easily; he just kept spinning in place.
'Damn it. At this rate, I'll be the one to die first.'
"I really didn't know. In that case, how about we do it this way?"
[Oho. It seems you have a good solution in my place.]
Darkness smiled.
"If it's nonsense, I'll burn you until not even your bone dust is left."
At the threat from the furious Fire Demon, the hair on my head stood on end. All I could rely on right now was my own head and my silver tongue.
"You enjoy human pain, Lord Fire Demon, don't you? And the new trader only bought the fear?"
As far as I knew, the Fire Demon couldn't go out into the human world anymore. That was why it had made the request to open the path of nightmares, to absorb painful emotions through nightmares. In that case, it could eat the rest of the emotions, pain, anxiety, frustration and so on, besides the fear, and just give the fear to the trader.
That is, if the Fire Demon wasn't too greedy.
"...So how about you split it this way?"
"I only need to trade the fear I originally meant to buy."
For now, the trader didn't seem very interested in anything besides the fear.
"If the manager permits it, I can do that too."
At the Fire Demon's words, I looked at Darkness. It was the first I had heard that even sharing emotions required Darkness's permission. It didn't seem to have been that way before; something about the mood was strange.
[Hmm. A good plan. Of course, that human will become a vegetable.]
CLAP CLAP CLAP.
Darkness, who clapped lightly, seemed to like my wise solution quite a lot. That aside, I had no idea what he meant by becoming a vegetable, so I kept looking at Darkness.
[When humans have every emotion taken from them, they become vegetables. We call them living dolls.]
"But that human mustn't die outside, so it would be best to detain him in the market."
At the Fire Demon's words, the auctioneer nodded and disappeared into the room where Eden was.