20 Blind Yet Sees

The mistress that the imp so adores still awaits their guest to enter. The guest's mana's fluctuation give way his unease and hesitation to enter the shabby house.

"Come in and rest. It looks like you can use it." The mistress urges the guest to enter.

'That same feeling I had with Ashmodai. She knows something.... I hate it.' the reincarnate's thoughts becoming more hateful as he feels himself being read like a book. He summons some darkness and strengthens his body using blood magic whilst looking at the mistress.

"Is something wrong, sir?" The returned Randyl asks as he sees that the man he brought has not yet entered.

"No, I'm fine… I was just thinking." The reincarnate responds as he enters the house, not dispelling his mana. Prepared to attack at the slightest inconvenience.

The house as expected was small. The main room had one table and some chairs with no decorations whilst boasting no significant size and the other attached rooms at first glance seemed even smaller than the main one. The only thing truly noteworthy were the pointed ears kept in a jar nearby.

"Are you okay, great sir? You were a lot more confident before." Randly asks as he follows the reincarnate closely. The voice somehow sounding more truly worried than mischievous for once.

"Randyl." The mistress calls the imp with her soft voice. "Could this wanderer and I speak for a moment? Alone."

"Of course mistress! Randyl will start making food for the mistress!!" The imp yells as if a kid allowed to go out and play before he runs toward the another small room attached to the main one and closing the door behind him. The creaking of the door sounding like a desperate cry.

"I'm quite lucky to have Randyl in this house. He is always so eager to help." The mistress says as she drinks something resembling murky water. neither visual or smell making it anymore appealing.

"That doesn't look appetizing." The reincarnate says unsure what to do at this point.

"It isn't... But it helps me sleep." The mistress says before putting the glass next to the jar with the point ears. The hood she wears only revealing the long orange hair. "You came here to ask me questions, did you not?"

"Randyl told me you know things. I'm in need of any knowledge at the moment." The reincarnate admits, lowering his arcana as the uneasy feeling slowly subsides.

"There is so much knowledge to be found. I can tell you everything. About this city, the dangers it holds. Even how to increase your might or how to achieve gifts you did not even imagine." The mistress mumbles as if she truly knows everything. As if it's all trivial, so easy.

"..." The reincarnate struggles to respond as he didn't truly expect it to be this easy. Yet somehow it bothers him. Why was it this easy? Why wasn't he happy about it?

"But are those truly the thing you wish for?" She asks speaking the words he didn't dare to think of anymore. He just wanted to get out of the darkness, nothing else mattered. To get to a city but was this truly it?

'This is different. This isn't like Ashmodai managing to get a read from me.' The reincarnate thinks that subtle disappearing feeling of unease now replaced by the sense of danger. The dark mana around his body running wildly as it resembles the reincarnates feelings.

"A wanderer on a journey. But to embark there must be a goal. What is it? What holds your future?" The mistress asks, pressing her guest into answering.

"I don't think many know what their future will hold, miss."

"Not many.... Let's approach it from a different angle, then. How do you feel about Lucille's light, wanderer?"

"I don't understand what you are asking." The reincarnate responds certain that she already knows. It's as if she's trying to make him come to a specific answer. But why? Why would she?

"You adapt, yet it's impossible to ever call it home."

"...."

"Living in a place you can't call home. What a sad existence that is."

The reincarnate grips the chair tightly, trying to hide it even if she wears a blindfold. it didn't seem to matter however as she continues to speak. Fueling the thoughts that disappeared along with the rest in that consuming darkness.

"From moving laughter to still light and now a moving darkness."

'Why is she talking about this? Why, Why? NO!!! Why did this happen to me! What do I want? I..... I..... I don't know... Where am I going?' His thoughts resemble the panick of a young boy. A confused young boy cursing his given fate as the mistress continues to speak.

"How much do you remember? The sounds? The smell? The atmosphere? Do you even know their faces any longer? Should I remind you of your sibling's name, Edwi..." The mistress continues to reveal how much she exactly knows. Even tryint to utter his name before a boy like scream interupts her.

"STOP!!!" The reincarnate yells whilst clasping his head in his hand. he had to hold it, it was as if something was squirming insides his brain. Trying to force its way out.The blindfolded woman does not react in the slightest. leaving the sense of shame hanging in the silence that followed.

"I apologize, it seems I have crossed a line. You seek strength for your journey, wanderer. Yet you have no Goal. Why do you wish to get stronger? Why come here? Make your fate your own making." The mistress says in that same soft voice. However now, it seemed more alluring. Almost as if a mother soothing a confused child. The sense of unease is replaced by an expected comfort. One he didn't expect to ever receive again as a memory flashes by.

A vague figure embracing a young child with green eyes as he lies in a bed. The memory as swift as it was vague, disappears but the emotions continue to linger on the shade demon's mind.

'What do I want? What is my goal?' He asks himself, trying his best to recollect the feelings he felt during those vague memories. Those memories where he now knows only the concept of.

Only the distant humming of the cooking Imp slightly intervened in the given silent as neither speaks.

"First, I need to be strong enough to forge my own fate." the reincarnate mutters, remembering the two times he felt despair. Once vague and one still too clear.

"What will you do once you have that power?" The mistress asks.

"To achieve my goal."

"What is the goal, Edwin Gwayne?"

"I'ill find a place that I can truly call home."