Another two hours passed.
So far, only one customer had entered the convenience store, and at first glance, they had seemed perfectly ordinary. Unfortunately, their choice of purchases had left me feeling rather uncomfortable.
Who the hell walks into a convenience store, buys a kitchen knife, a coil of rope, a bottle of industrial-strength bleach, and a box of heavy-duty trash bags, then smiles at the cashier as though they were buying a bag of potato chips?
I hadn’t said anything, of course.
I simply watched the customer leave and tried very hard not to imagine what they intended to do with those items.
Seriously, couldn’t they at least have bought some snacks to make the whole thing less suspicious?
I glanced at Nica, who was still doing her best to avoid eye contact with me, and quietly activated [Augury].
Two colors appeared above her forehead.
Blue and purple.
Blue represented turmoil, which made sense given the situation she was in. Purple, on the other hand, represented supernatural influence.
I assumed the latter was caused by the supernatural space itself, which had forced her into the role of a convenience store worker.
Fortunately, there didn’t seem to be any other unusual conditions affecting her.
Or at least, that’s what I’d hoped... Damn me and my jinxing thoughts.
As I continued observing her, another color gradually appeared above her head.
Red... a color that indicated misfortune.
My expression stiffened.
I immediately began trying to figure out what it meant.
Was something about to happen to her? Had the supernatural space imposed another condition on her? Or was there some danger approaching that I hadn’t noticed yet?
I considered the possibilities, but only one explanation seemed reasonable.
The next customer...!
"Nica, don’t serve the next customer who comes in."
She flinched.
From the corner of my eye, I could see her trembling as she turned slightly toward me.
After all, this strange man who had been standing beside her for the past two hours had suddenly addressed her by name.
Worse, I’d barely spoken a word during that entire time.
I didn’t bother explaining myself. Instead, I continued watching the entrance, leaving Nica to wonder what the hell I was talking about.
Ding!
The convenience store’s entrance chimed.
A young woman who looked perfectly normal walked inside.
She had long black hair, wore a loose sweater and jeans, and carried a small shoulder bag.
After entering, she casually browsed through the shelves before picking out several packets of chips and a bottle of soda.
Eventually, she approached the counter.
Nica watched her with unusual intensity and anxiety. After all, the strange man standing beside her had specifically warned her not to serve the next customer who entered. This chapter is updated first at novelping.com.
Yet the girl looked completely normal...?
There did not seem to be any extra limbs, bizarre facial features, and nothing obviously wrong with her appearance.
"Um, excuse me..."
The woman said, rummaging through her pockets.
"I only have cash on me. Is that okay?"
Nica looked at her but she hesitated to respond.
’She looks normal...’
The woman had an ordinary face, an ordinary voice, and an ordinary manner of speaking. There was nothing visibly strange about her. If anything, she seemed like the most normal customer Nica had encountered since her shift began.
’Should I just serve her? If I refuse to serve an ordinary customer, I might break the rules... Is this man beside me trying to trick me into getting myself killed?’
Her suspicion toward me grew with every passing second.
From her perspective, I was a complete stranger who’d appeared out of nowhere, claimed I could help her escape, and was now telling her to disobey the very rules keeping her alive.
Naturally, she had every reason to doubt me.
However, just as she was about to respond, she remembered something.
The fourth rule.
[Please be advised that not all dangerous customers can be identified through physical observation alone. For this reason, the convenience store has provided a special pair of glasses that allows its employees to see beyond physical appearances.]
Nica’s expression stiffened, but she didn’t make it obvious.
Without another word, she crouched down and opened the drawer beneath the cash register.
Her trembling fingers searched through its contents until they found the special glasses mentioned in the rules.
She put them on...
And immediately, the blood drained from her face.
The woman standing in front of the counter was facing backward.
No, that wasn’t quite right...
Her body was facing Nica, but her head was turned completely around, as though her neck had been twisted until she was looking in the opposite direction.
Despite this, the woman continued speaking in a perfectly ordinary voice, as if nothing about her appearance was unusual.
Nica’s entire body went cold.
Confused and horrified, Nica cautiously lowered the glasses.
Through her ordinary vision, the girl appeared completely normal, facing the counter as any customer would.
She raised the glasses again...
The girl was facing backward.
...What the hell?
The customer was speaking to her, looking directly at her, yet according to the glasses, she wasn’t even facing the right direction. It was as though the thing standing before her was merely pretending to be a person, and the glasses had revealed a glimpse of what it really was. This chapter is updated first at novelping . com.
With trembling hands, Nica slowly removed the glasses and returned them to the drawer. She then lowered her gaze and pretended not to hear the customer.
"I’m sorry, are you deaf? I asked if you accepted cash!"
The woman said, her voice growing slightly impatient.
Nica remained silent.
"Hey! I’m talking to you!"
The girl slammed her hand against the counter.
Neither Nica nor I responded. We simply stared at her, desperately pretending that nothing was wrong.
But beneath our outward silence, we were both terrified.
"I said, answer me!"
The girl’s voice grew louder.
"Answer me. Answer me. Answer me. Answer me. Answer me. Answer me. Answer me. Answer me. Answer me. Answer me. Answer me. Answer me. Answer me!"
Her words began to overlap, repeating with increasing speed until they sounded like several voices speaking through the same mouth.
"I’ll rip your heart out, you whore. I’ll untangle your intestines and use them to hang you from the ceiling. I’ll break off every single one of your fingernails and feed them to you until your insides are covered in wounds."
"Hehehehehehehehehe..."
The woman began to laugh.
It was a strange, shrill sound that seemed to go on far longer than it should have. Her shoulders trembled, but the rest of her body remained unnaturally still.
Then, just as suddenly as she had begun, the laughter stopped.
Nica and I didn’t move, and we watched as the girl slowly began moving toward the entrance.
Except she wasn’t walking forward... she was walking backward.
Her feet moved in reverse, carrying her toward the door while her body remained unnaturally oriented toward the counter.
The glass doors slid open by themselves as she reached them, allowing her to disappear into the darkness outside.
A moment later, the doors closed.
Silence returned to the convenience store and neither of us said a word.
’Motherfucker.’
’What in the actual fuck was that?’
I had read about this place, and I knew what kind of horror it contained.
I had even prepared myself for the possibility of encountering something that would make my skin crawl.
But knowing about a monster and watching one stand right in front of you were two entirely different things.
I wanted to leave.
No, scratch that.
I wanted to leave the universe of [Arcana] entirely.
Fuck this place. Seriously.