831 You have died long ago (2/2)

Koutarou tried for quite a while but failed to find his relatives. In fact, he began to feel a headache. He felt like his head was buzzing, with some chaotic scenes and voices occasionally flashing through.

He then suddenly felt a violent pain as some clear images appeared in his mind. This caused Koutarou to shout out loudly!

”What happened!?” Seiji immediately rushed over upon seeing this.

”Ahhhh! It hurts… save me…” Koutarou collapsed on the ground, and rolled around in pain as red mist poured out from his body!

”I'm right here, I'll help you!” Although Seiji didn't know whether it would be effective or not, he tried to cast healing magic on Koutarou.

The coal seller finally calmed down after quite a while. He panted while clutching at his head. The red mist emanating from his body gradually lessened, and then stopped.

”What happened, Koutarou?”

”I… saw a really scary demon…”

”What type of demon?”

”It was white… it was gigantic… really long… its head… was really strange…” Koutarou furrowed his eyebrows tightly. He couldn't find adequate words to describe what he saw.

”Was it a white dragon?” Seiji asked.

”Dragon… I think I heard someone calling it that…” Koutarou muttered. ”What exactly was that?”

Seiji fell silent for a moment before he replied, ”I think that might be what truly killed you.”

”Eh?”

”Listen to me, Koutarou…” Seiji looked directly at him. ”Maybe this will be difficult for you to accept, but everything I'm telling you is the truth. Actually, you have died long ago…”

...

Koutarou was stunned after hearing Harano's explanation.

It was difficult for him to accept what he had just heard. He mentally resisted against it. However, Harano's sincere attitude and gentle tone made Koutarou feel like he had been telling the complete truth.

Koutarou fell into inner conflict, and remained silent for a long while.

Suddenly, his head started hurting again.

Koutarou shouted loudly, and rolled around on the ground again as he saw even more chaotic images… and then he suddenly understood.

These were his memories.

These were his real memories, from his original life as a human, not as the coal seller Koutarou!

Everything that Harano said… had indeed been true!

”Wuuuuaaaaahhhhhh!!!” Koutarou felt so much pain that he felt like he was dying.

'Just… who am I?

'Who exactly am I!?'

'My younger sister… my mom… my younger brother… were they all fake!?

'My relatives were fake! That town was fake!!! Was everything fake!?

'No… NOOOOOO!!!'

Koutarou loudly shouted furiously as red mist poured out from his body once again. The red mist soon turned crimson, and then dark red. The mist twirled all around his body… no, wait! His entire body was beginning to transform into black mist!!

”Koutarou! Calm down!” Seiji shouted.

Seiji sensed danger. He could only force himself to prepare for battle. Natsuya, who had been silently observing, also prepared for battle.

Just as it seemed like the distorting coal seller was about to transform into some type of demon, the dense mist in the Soul Room started moving, and transformed into an almost corporeal silver light that covered the black mist, enveloping it completely!

At the same time, Seiji received a system notification.

[A soul has gone berserk within the Soul Room. The Soul Room's automatic suppression function has now been activated. This will cost Inner World Crystals that are stored within your warehouse.]

It was nice that the Soul Room came with an automatic suppression function… but it wasn't so nice that it would also automatically use up some of his Inner World Crystals.

Seiji and Natsuya witnessed the silver light compressing the black mist and returning it to an orb form.

As this happened, flickering lights kept appearing from within the silver light as if the black mist inside was struggling violently in an attempt to break free. However, it was unable to defeat the system's automatic suppression function.

When the black mist completely returned to being an orb, the system sent Seiji another notification that the suppression was now complete, along with an invoice summing up how many Inner World Crystals had been used up.

Seiji felt slightly pained at this unexpected expenditure.