A soul that sparked hope (P.4) - Chapter 7

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After entering the town, Aya, and Hiroki, who was inside her body, continued walking towards the guild in order to bring back all of the stuff that they had brought back from the forest.

Even though many people were walking past the girl, what none knew was that there was a ghost inside her. No one would expect that a girl with a small body like hers would in fact have the power of an unexplainable entity that could possess anyone.

Aya continued walking in one direction until she came to a halt right near a group of other humans that seemed to have been lined up.

Those humans, however, had something different from the rest of the town. And that was the fact that they had chains on their wrists and necks that prevented them from running away.

~Is something wrong?~

Hiroki asked telepathically, like usual, at the girl who was staring at the group of slaves that were walking slowly.

"N-no, its nothin–"

"If it isn't Miss Aya. Did you bring back the money you promised?"

Aya tried to respond to Hiroki's question, only to be interrupted by the voice of a man who walked up in front of her. In front of Aya was a smirking merchant, a fat looking guy with a stylish beard.

"No, I still haven't. But I promise to bring them thi…"

"Now, now, miss Aya. This isn't what you promised to me."

Aya tried giving an excuse, but the merchant looking man didn't seem to be that interested in that.

"I am a man of my word, and I really keep my word unless my clients prove me otherwise. And you, Miss Aya, don't want to be part of the clients that face my bad side, do you?" The fat merchant looked down on the girl, who had a forlorn expression.

"W-wait, I already have some gold right here!"

Aya then pulled from her back a bag with the loot that Hiroki had gathered from the assassins.

The bag was indeed full of gold coins, which surprised the fat merchant, who had widened his eyes.

"This may not be enough, but they can buy me some more time! Right?!" Aya stated as she attempted to hand over the bag of gold coins to the merchant.

"That is indeed kind of you, Miss Aya. This will buy you some time. But you should know that I'm not a patient person." The fat merchant slowly moved his arm to get the bag of coins with a slight smirk on his face.

However, the moment he tried holding the bag of coins in his hand, he quickly realized that Aya wasn't letting go of the bag.

"....what do you think you're doing?"

The fat man asked with a perplexed look on his face, realizing that she had grabbed the bag tightly.

"I… no, that's not…"

Aya looked at her own hand, which wasn't flinching, before her entire expression changed as if it weren't hers anymore.

But before she could understand the reason behind such changes, Aya's expression and tone immediately changed while looking up at the fat man.

"You'll be getting your full payment tomorrow at the same time as today. In the meantime, I will be having this in case you try and think of something funny."

A vein popped on the merchant's head as he was looking at the girl in front of him, who had a confident look on her face. However, the fat man returned to his casual expression before showing his usual smile.

"...that's quite the confident statement you just made there."

"I've found a quest that will pay handsomely to me as an adventurer. Which is why I will keep these coins as further investments before fully returning to you what you own. If I don't have the agreed amount by tomorrow, then you may turn me into a slave as well."

The fat man looked down on the girl with a stern look.

"....Very well, I will be waiting for you tomorrow right here, at the same time."

And as the merchant turned his back, he gave a glare at Aya.

"However, if you don't have the money by that time, you'll know what will happen."

Once the merchant was gone, Aya's legs finally gave out as she was watching the fat man walk away.