This House Has A Delicious Restaurant - Chapter 5 - The Hunters (2) - Part 3

“Even though it might be dangerous, you’ll come along?”

“I promised to help you.”

I smiled at him.

If there were any other items with special powers, it would be beneficial for me. My ability was useless, so having something helpful would be great.

But I couldn’t go in alone.

The person in front of me, Obella, was the one I needed. Pretending to be concerned for him, I smiled innocently.

Soon, Obella made up his mind and decided to go in. As I followed him, I quietly smiled.

* * *

As Obella had said, there was no sign of life.

I stuck close behind him, looking around, and didn’t forget to hold onto his clothes lightly with one hand.

He glanced at me for a moment, but I ignored it and moved even closer. He sighed softly, unable to tell me to back off.

The door was locked.

Well, that’s normal. It’s not like the door would be open if no one was inside.

“What should we do?”

“Hmm. More importantly, can you identify which accessories have special powers?”

Obella answered my worry about the locked door with a nonchalant question. I wondered why he was so calm when we might not be able to get inside.

There was a crackling sound and a flash of light from Obella’s hand on the doorknob. Then, a smell of something burning, and the doorknob crumbled effortlessly.

Not broken or cracked, but crumbled like sand… The remains of the doorknob fell to the floor.

“I can’t tell, but I’ll try using my woman’s intuition.”

I moved a bit closer to him, an instinctive effort for safety.

As I walked demurely and gently by his side, the bird looked at me with an exasperated gaze.

That bird is starting to annoy me.

The small bird, whose color was somewhere between white and gray, watched me like a person whenever I spoke or did something.

Sensing its gaze wasn’t friendly made me uncomfortable, but I couldn’t do anything about the animal.

I had no choice but to ignore the bird’s gaze and follow Obella inside the building.

As soon as we entered, the bird on Obella’s shoulder took off. It flew around Obella’s head twice and then flew down towards the basement.

Obella briefly glanced in the bird’s direction, then looked around the first floor.

“There are indeed many accessories, but I can’t tell which ones are special. I don’t sense any particular power.”

“Wait a moment, I’ll take a look too.”

I hadn’t felt any special power from the earrings I had worn, so I hadn’t resisted when Zerdan came to collect them himself.

It seemed difficult to distinguish with the naked eye.

Inside the glass cabinet, there were various accessories displayed—necklaces, earrings, rings, brooches—all vibrant and in different colors.

But just as Obella had mentioned, nothing felt particularly unusual or noteworthy.

‘Even if I don’t achieve any special gains here, Obella probably won’t hold it against me, but I wanted to gain something helpful while I’m at it. Or should I just steal everything here? Even without any special powers, selling everything would probably fetch quite a bit of money.’

But if that happens, I’d lose Obella’s trust and probably hit rock bottom in terms of favorability, right? It’s regrettable, but I guess I’ll have to give up.

“I came in thinking I might find something special, but it seems like we’ve entered with unnecessary risk.”

“Well, we had to come in at least once. Delaying might mean missing something we could discover.”

He was certainly cool, just like a main character. If I were in Obella’s shoes, I probably wouldn’t have reacted as calmly.

He asked me to wait for a moment. He seemed to be waiting for the bird that had flown down to the basement, as his gaze was fixed towards the stairs.

Meanwhile, I scanned the surroundings again. Besides the jewelry, there were small uncut gems displayed.

Among them, a small gem no larger than a chick’s claw caught my attention with its clarity, shining more brightly than the others.

A small gem with a golden sheen, resembling Zerdan and Obella’s eyes.

As I stood over it, looking down, a shadow fell over it. The sparkle was obscured by the shadow, making it less visible. I stepped aside to get a clearer view, but the shadow remained still.

It was an odd situation, to say the least.

Before I could call Obella, I noticed my own shadow slowly changing shape.

Transforming into a hand-like form, my shadow mimicked pointing towards the gem I had been observing. As if indicating that gem.

“…You suggested it, so this isn’t stealing, right?”

Murmuring to myself, I took out the golden-shining gem. Luckily, Obella didn’t seem to pay much attention to me.

With no pockets in my dress, I wondered where to keep it when I noticed a necklace that caught my eye.

A floral-shaped pendant in shades of pumpkin. It was easy to remove the round gem from its center and replace it with the golden-shining one.

There wasn’t a significant difference in color or sparkle compared to the original unless one was exceptionally observant.

“Bella, I think it’s about time we started heading out.”

“Yeah.”

Obella, who had been looking towards the basement stairs, nodded in response to my call. Shortly after, he glanced back briefly and approached me.

Was that bird one Obella raised?

I was about to ask when the bird seemed to sense my concern and revealed itself.

The bird that swiftly ascended to the first floor flew straight towards us. Then it shouted, ‘Run, leader! This is a trap!’ And it shouted… huh?

I was startled at the moment I heard a boy’s voice from the bird. Soon after, I stepped back at the sound of several footsteps approaching. It wasn’t just one or two pairs of footsteps.

The figures that emerged were not human. Well, they appeared human, but their eyes were blank, and their limbs lacked precise coordination, like marionettes being manipulated on strings.

Obella frowned at the group of over ten people coming up the stairs.

“Darn it, they didn’t feel like corpses.”

“Corpses…?”

Oh my goodness, all those people?

If that’s the case, Zerdan’s actions were undoubtedly wrong. Obella approached and pulled me close to his waist. He lifted me.

Afraid I might fall, I reflexively hugged his neck. Even in this situation, I felt a strange sensation from his high body temperature and sturdy physique.

“I’m holding you so you don’t fall and get hurt.”

“Got it…”

The hands of the corpses-turned-marionettes held sharp glass or knives. I thought Obella’s warning was about handling the corpses carefully, but I soon realized it meant something else entirely.

As Obella waved his hand, despite being indoors, lightning struck with a thunderous sound, illuminating the first-floor interior. Simultaneously, four corpses collapsed to the floor, charred.

“I said I could handle at least one, so I have to keep my promise.”

Wow, if I fall from Obella, I won’t just end up as a corpse but also get struck by lightning. I guess that was the warning.

I put more strength into the arm holding Obella.

Main character indeed! Sorry for underestimating you!

“I told you I had a bad feeling about this. Don’t just let that woman’s words drain your strength.”

The bird circling Obella grumbled while looking at me. Its tone was familiar, so I briefly stared dumbfounded before recalling a boy.

“Could it be Terisier?”

“Don’t call my name so casually, it annoys me.”

That’s right, that rude way of speaking. It wasn’t an ordinary bird.

No wonder Obella paid so much attention to that bird.

Now that I finally realized it, I regretted how disorganized I was. Most of the corpses were lying on the ground.

The only one standing was a single corpse.

With closed eyes and relaxed limbs, the woman’s corpse extended its arms. There was no weapon in her hands.

Obella briefly halted his attack at the strange behavior, and the corpse opened its mouth and spoke.