Chapter 39: Sigils

Chapter 39: Sigils

‘Holy shit— a hundred pounds right out of the gate—why don’t you just go rob me while at it?!’

In the basement of Saint Amanda School, Dorothy couldn’t help but curse inwardly as she listened to Aldrich name his price. She was nowhere near having that much money.

‘Anything related to the occult is insanely expensive. One hundred pounds is almost enough for Gregor to outright buy the apartment he’s currently renting. Where the hell am I supposed to get that kind of money right now?!’

Dorothy pressed a hand to her forehead as she thought this. At that moment, she looked at Aldrich’s kindly smiling face and found that the more she looked, the more it resembled the smile of a profiteering merchant.

“Um… Mr. Aldrich, could you maybe make it a bit cheaper? I really don’t have that much money right now…” Dorothy said to him. She did her best to take advantage of her cute appearance, deliberately making herself look pitiful and endearing—but unfortunately, Aldrich didn’t buy it at all.

“Hehe~ I already told you, Miss Mayschoss—I’m a man who strictly follows the rules. Prices are rules as well. Once I’ve set a price, it won’t change even if the sky falls. If you don’t have enough money, you can go back and save up slowly. Come back whenever you’ve gathered enough—I can afford to wait five or even eight years,” Aldrich replied with a continued chuckle.

Hearing this, Dorothy’s face darkened. She pouted, spread her hands, and gave up pretending altogether.

She was genuinely stuck now. At the moment, she only had a little over twenty pounds in cash. As for mystical items—there weren’t many options either. The Corpse Marionette Ring was her main piece of equipment and absolutely couldn’t be sold. She only had one finger left containing Chalice spirituality, and that was reserved as a “battery” for the ring.

So… was there anything left that she could trade?

As Dorothy worried over this, she turned her head and caught sight of several corpses beside her, covered with white cloths—the Eucharist lackeys she had dealt with earlier.

Looking at those bodies, a new thought suddenly occurred to her.

“Mr. Aldrich, may I ask—now that these Eucharist foot soldiers are dead, who do the items on their bodies belong to?”

Turning back, Dorothy asked Aldrich. 

He answered casually, “According to hunting rules, whoever makes the kill gets the loot.”

Hearing this, Dorothy immediately felt a wave of relief. It seemed Aldrich truly did follow principles—under the current circumstances, even if he claimed everything for himself, Dorothy wouldn’t have been able to do much about it.

“So that means, aside from the last one who was killed by you, everything on the others belongs to me, right?”

Dorothy continued. Aldrich silently nodded in response.

Seeing his reaction, Dorothy was delighted. She immediately lifted the white clothes and started looting without hesitation.

These lackeys didn’t seem to be Beyonders, yet at the very end they had burst out with astonishing, inhuman physical abilities. For ordinary people who weren’t Beyonders to achieve that, it was highly likely they had relied on some kind of external aid.

In other words, there might be Beyonder items issued by the Eucharist on their bodies!

Dorothy lifted the white clothes from the corpses one by one. But when she uncovered one of them and saw the body beneath, she froze slightly in place.

Under the white cloth lay a withered corpse—skin stretched tightly over bone, mouth gaping wide, eyes bulging, the body almost completely desiccated. Judging by the clothes, this was one of the two coachmen who had previously displayed terrifying physical strength, nearly forcing Dorothy to use Dragon Shout.

‘D-dried corpse? How did it suddenly turn into a mummy? This guy should’ve been shot dead by the corpse marionette I was controlling. Getting shot doesn’t turn someone into a dried corpse, does it?!’

Frowning, Dorothy stared at the scene before her. She then lifted the white cloths from the other bodies in turn—and discovered that the other coachman’s corpse had also become a desiccated husk.

Something was definitely wrong.

Seeing this, Dorothy crouched down and began to carefully search the bodies. After looting all four corpses, she laid the spoils out on the ground and slowly took inventory.

Four six-shot revolvers. One hundred and twenty-four rounds of ammunition. Two pocket watches. Eight cigarettes. Cash: four pounds and fifty-seven millibees. And finally…

Seven palm-sized sheets of rough paper. Red, arcane-looking patterns were drawn on them, with an abstract chalice depicted in the center.

Dorothy had found one such sheet on the coachman she personally killed, and two more on each of the other three bodies. It was clear that this was standard equipment for them.

‘This has to be it…’

Looking at the papers in her hand, Dorothy thought to herself. This was the only thing that truly resembled a cult artifact.

“Mr. Aldrich, do you know what this is?”

Holding up one of the papers, Dorothy asked Aldrich, who was drinking tea nearby. Aldrich glanced at it and immediately replied,

“I do. Identification fee: ten pounds.”

‘Damn it… what a profiteer…’

Dorothy cursed inwardly at his words. Still, after hesitating for a moment, she opened her bag and took out six pounds in cash, then added the four pounds she had just looted, scraping together a total of ten pounds and handing it over to Aldrich. She now had only fourteen pounds left on her.

Unhurried, Aldrich smiled as he accepted the money. He then glanced again at the paper in Dorothy’s hand and spoke calmly.

“This is a sigil. It originates from the Flesh-Eating Sigils of the Afterbirth Cult. Nowadays, virtually any ‘Chalice’ society knows how to make them. Sigils are single-use items.”

“Once activated, this kind of sigil enhances the user’s physical abilities by devouring the ‘Chalice’ within their body. For ordinary people, using it once will more or less consume all of the ‘Chalice’ in their system—after which they’ll end up looking like that.”

He paused briefly, then added,

“So… if you don’t have enough ‘Chalice,’ it’s best not to use it.”

As Aldrich spoke, he pointed toward the two dried corpses lying on the ground nearby. Hearing his words, Dorothy’s heart skipped slightly.

‘Consuming the ‘Chalice’ spirituality within the body to enhance physical abilities? So that’s what this thing does. But if someone hasn’t accumulated any extra ‘Chalice,’ then it will burn through the ‘Chalice’ everyone is born with—the kind used to sustain life itself. At that point, it’s literally trading lifespan for power… No wonder those two guys ended up as dried corpses. That’s the consequence of losing the very last of their ‘Chalice.’

Thinking this through, Dorothy couldn’t help but feel that the Eucharist must have invested heavily in this operation. These people were clearly expendable—true suicide soldiers.

“Then, Mr. Aldrich, could you give me a price for these sigils as well?” Dorothy asked further.

After a brief moment of consideration, Aldrich answered directly,

“Flesh-Eating Sigils aren’t particularly advanced techniques, but making them still costs something. How about this—I’ll give you thirty pounds per piece. What do you say?”

Hearing that, Dorothy immediately handed him four of the sigils and said,

“Deal. You can tell me the ritual now. Oh, and don’t forget—you still owe me twenty pounds in change.”

“Hehe~~ no problem. Wait here for a moment.”

As he spoke, Aldrich slowly walked toward a door in the basement. A short while later, he came back out, holding an envelope and several banknotes.

“Here you go, Miss Mayschoss. Everything you want to know is in here. That said, I should still remind you—although it’s minimal, there is some toxic corruption involved. You’d best make preparations before reading it.”

Looking at the envelope Aldrich handed her, Dorothy’s eyes lit up. At last—her advancement finally had a clear path forward.

Right now, all she wanted was to hurry home and tear the letter open to read its contents.

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