Chương 4: Home, Sweet Home

Alright, very well… I spent an entire day doing nothing but listening to the rambling of a disembodied voice and the absurd shouting of random people who seem incapable of speaking in a normal tone. This was the worst day of my life, tied with my first day at Harvey's and just behind when I got my entire body squeezed into juice. I dislike having bad days. I normally make sure that every day is a good day for me. As everybody knows, nothing is by chance. All is earned through blood and sweat.

It is only up to me to ensure that I do not have crappy days. But my current circumstances are making things difficult. I doubt I'll be warmly received anywhere. I have no other choice but to wait for the cover of night, and right now, sunlight is dimming, the bright, awful star is setting over the horizon. I have been sitting in this squalid place for hours precisely for this moment.

Being in a hurry was a recipe for disaster, like that time that a very famous general was in a hurry to crush an enemy army and instead fell into a trap… If I remember correctly, he had to accept a political marriage to earn his freedom back- Ironic, freedom in exchange for abandoning all freedom? Ludicrous. Ah… I can't hear anything anymore. It's a shame that neither of the two abilities I have can help me right now, but I know the drill already, even without any shiny skills to rely on…

I creep out of the alley, step by step, following the wall to my right using my hand. Which turns out to be annoying as my metallic fingers scrape against the stone, making a most odious noise that forces me to be extra careful with that as well. Alright, as I peek my head out of the alley, I see no light of dark silhouettes anywhere. It looks pretty clear to me. I step out into the street, preparing to resume my trip.

Immediately, the door closest to me to my right opens, and a figure holding a lantern steps outside, waddling their way down a few steps whilst making some random singing noises. I stand still in the darkness, my glowing eyes should be concealed by the clothes wrapped around my head, so not moving might just let me go unnoticed-"Hello? Are you lost?" … Why is that thing speaking to me? I believe that 'thing' is a human child, Miss Nebulo Can you be quiet for a moment? I know what children look like! Damnit…

Why would an overgrown dump come out after nightfall anyway? What is there to do at this hour for someone with such pitifully small limbs, apart from getting kidnapped and sold into slavery? I look left and right, holding just a smidge of hope that he isn't actually talking to me, but there is no such thing as hope. I have no choice but to act.

"HEllo-lO… I-I-I-I-I am not LOST" My damned, unreliable voice instantly gives away that I am not normal at all, but since I am speaking to one of the most idiotic creatures to ever walk this world, the little fellow seems not to see any problem with it. No survival instinct whatsoever. If they weren't mass-produced, those things would definitely be extinct. The light from the lantern is illuminating me completely now. He is still not shocked, though.

"Oh, then excuse me, Miss, but you wouldn't happen to have seen a cat? An orange cat with stripes!"

"I-I DID n- O-O-O-On SEconD Thought… I REMEMBER Some-Something""Where?" I point to the alley I just came from.

"Let me show you" My voice came through without problem on those last four words, and the boy suddenly seems to come to his senses and realise that maybe- Just maybe, conversing with the odd stranger at night, outside his house might not be the wisest idea.

"Huh…" he was hesitating.

"Let me show you""I KNOW WHERE IT IS, I saw-saw IT h-h-h-h-unting RATS over HERE""Follow… Me… Follow… WhAt? Do you–Do you–Do you NOT WaNT to Find IT?" I take a step forward, and with a lunge-"BOO!" The child ran off into the house crying. That was hilarious, but let's move before his parents show up. I laugh internally like a maniac. It had been a while since I had a good laugh like this one. I think I understand why you did not enjoy working at that family restaurant…

I ignored the system's remark and just kept moving, but as I stepped forward and arrived at a rare area that was illuminated at night–A mark that the lord's dogs patrolled the place–I noticed that while the street was the same as I remembered, the structures all over the place were no longer the same. The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. It seemed less and less likely that what I desired was the truth. I let out a garbled sigh.

System, how long have I been stuck inside of that suit exactly? I was only awakened after you yourself woke up, but if I had to give an estimate… I would say that you were crushed by the automaton around twenty years ago, on a lower estimate Crap… So what? I don't even need to eat and drink anymore to live? As a Living Curse and Vengeful Spirit, you do not require sustenance This is awful! What if my brother has already died?!

I do not follow What I mean is that if he is already dead, I won't be able to ask him for some explanations as to why he didn't bother to come looking for me! Was it really hard to ask some people to comb the damned building and find my corpse rotting inside a suit? That bastard better be alive, I'll break his left leg so he truly never has a chance to walk again!

Be careful, you flaring up with negative emotions might cause your presence to be sensed by the guards Oh, great, I have a presence to take care of as well? What are you going to tell me next, that I have a damned aura as well? I don't have time to waste, screw the guards, they are all fat sacks who rely on the lord's authority to get anything done anyway! I was familiar with the guards. These pests had annoyed me on plenty of occasions under the pretext that assaulting people was against the law! Well, sorry!

But I think I do not give a shit! I just waltzed through the lit area, walking directly to my location. Perhaps because I was clothed properly enough to somewhat look normal from a distance, or maybe it was due to the guards not caring, but no one stopped or called out to me. My determined steps must have made me look like a local who knew what they were doing.

I didn't care much for that, however, I simply marched forward until I reached a neighbourhood of a higher class than where I was before, not nearly a place of living for nobles. Even the small, inconsequential ones would deem it beneath them to have a residence in such a place. This was where successful merchants and their families would typically settle down. I knew as much, since I was part of one of such families.

And a rather successful one, at least in the past, as we even had a family name, unlike peasants who had none of that. Though even back when I was still a human, the prestige had been slowly falling apart, my mother died from some disease, and my weak-willed father couldn't bear it, and he let himself waste away until he died from sheer sadness. This had left the household with only me and my twin brother.

But unlike me, who was blessed with good looks and athleticism, he was born with a limp and a frail body, forcing him to stay home most of the time. He definitely had a brilliant mind, though, and it is precisely the ideas that appeared inside that skull of his that led to my current state.

'The metal used in the automatons is precious' he said.

'This could be a revolutionary breakthrough!' he said.

'The Nebulo name will be praised even by the crown!' he said. That cripple bastard said a lot of things, and being a good sister, I listened to him and helped free of charge, even going as far as working at that damned family diner to help him acquire the automatons. How was I repaid for my kindness and familial piety? Nothing. That limping snob left his sister to rot in some backroom. You little worm better have a good explanation for this!

Rather than knocking at the door, I just kicked it in, and to my satisfaction, the whole door was sent flying off its hinges, slamming into a table and nearly shattering into two pieces. Why is this place dusty? I didn't need long to understand that no one lived here anymore, and it looked like it had been a while since anyone had set foot in here. … Let's remain calm. I plunged my fist through the door and table at once, throwing them both across the room. You'd better hope that you are dead…

"You'd–better–be–DEEEEEEEEEEEAD!" My speech was barely comprehensible as the words came out in rapid succession, pretty much stacked atop one another like I had multiple mouths, each speaking a single word. I sighed, looking down at the mess I had made. I tried sitting down on a chair, but I was too heavy and it just broke under my weight. This is miserable. I never did anything wrong, so why was this happening to me? I was the goodest of good girls… Fuck this. System, I gain XP by killing things, right?

Affirmative Then let's get to killing right now. I need to calm my nerves with something. Before doing that, however, I headed up to my former room, and most appallingly, I found it exactly how I left, only dustier and with cobwebs all over the place. The rat bastard hadn't even kept my stuff whilst his room was empty! He clearly wasn't dead. I am certain that he did send someone to the diner, but only to retrieve the steel and that he managed to achieve what he was aiming for this entire time!

If so, he was either not even in town anymore or he now lived amidst the nobles, absolutely disgusting. But at least, it meant that I had some of my own clothes to wear. It was a bit of a challenge to put anything on with my oversized hands and feet, but after a bitter struggle, I was able to dress myself up with more appropriate clothing, namely, something that would better conceal the fact that I was half automaton, half flesh.

There were no shoes or gloves that could go on me, though, so I couldn't just go out during the day all willy-nilly. That, or I would be convincing people that I was a sapient, steel golem that just so happened to be incredibly humanoid and who had a bizarre voice. That sounded like a hassle that was unlikely to work.

In any case, wrapped in clothes, and more prominently, a long dark coat that I once used to wear open to reveal my magnificent abdominals, but now, it was completely buttoned up, and the hood was worn as tightly as possible. The result was that I still looked like a suspicious prowler, but at least not like a monster. That was better. Even if just slightly. Before leaving the house, I picked up another door to replace that had been torn apart, namely the one to my room.

Since the key for it had been left on the nightstand, it meant that I would be able to return here and lock the place up if necessary. My bear-trap-like jaw opened and closed as I tried to get used to moving it. Now, where should I get my XP from?