My ‘collection’ of souls is quite large at this point. According to Nara, I gain the souls of those I kill according to approximately the same rules as THE System decides who killed what and in which capacity someone is responsible for a kill.

  Curiously–Not that curiously, actually–That aspect of the system is one that can differ from person to person due to certain system-interactive traits or something of the sort. In any case, the system decides who kills what and calculates the degree of involvement to distribute experience.

  Since a soul can’t really be split between several parties, and most people can’t just collect souls all willy-nilly, I am given the soul even if my involvement was minuscule and even if I was frankly unaware that I had anything to provoke it.

  Of course, there is a limit to how small my involvement can be, but it’s still quite handy, as it caused many of the collateral deaths in the forest back then to count as my kills. What is weird with this soul is that it came accompanied by a whole lot of negative emotion as well. That’s not typical in the least.

  Said negative emotions included fear, terror, anxiety, suspicion, mistrust, paranoia, dread, panic… And in rather dangerous quantities, to come from a single person, they must have been in a very poor state.

  Why did these negative emotions even get to me in the first place? Were they directed at me? If so, why didn’t I get them continuously as they were created, like normal?

  It is a matter of distance. The victim was too far away for a link to be properly established, so the emotions simply stuck together with his soul. Having a bundle of negative emotions hanging out with your soul is harmless, though

  I suppose this means that this is someone you left a deep impression on when you were in a different location…

  And it caused a strong tingling sensation as well… But I don’t see any new form listed, so it had to do with one that is already present… Mmh…

  Heh. Enough theorising, let’s just check the soul directly. If it’s someone I scared enough for their death to be given to me, then it had to be someone I remembered.

  I entered my mind palace. Due to being in my knightly form, the furnace was currently inoperable, but I could still check out the various souls I had in my stock. I had been responsible for lots of murders and slaughters.

  The time part of a city had collapsed after my little squabble with who turned out to be my brother’s woman, for example. Quite a few people had lost their lives because of that, and the rewards had all been for me.

  There was a high number of animals, though. I had slain many, and I rarely used them outside of experiments, so they had accumulated here… But that was not to say that I didn’t have good stocks of people's souls.

  Huh… This place is as disorganised as ever.

  I may seem a bit chaotic at times, but I much prefer stuff to be orderly. As such, the state of my soul reserve was a bit appalling. The souls just went wherever they wanted. They didn’t organise by type or the time they got here, they just plopped down in a random place.

  If I weren’t the overlord of this place and couldn’t just will what I wanted to show up, I would have lost my mind already.

  My little sisters showed up to see what I was doing as well. I could just tell that they were hoping for a new sister already. Their minds were on expanding the family for some reason. It was quite surprising how quickly the quintet had accepted and befriended Ophelie, to be honest.

  I would have expected a little period of adaptation. Them getting to know each other… But apparently no. When I say there is a new sister, there just is, and everyone gets along instantly.

  It was quite handy, but I felt that I was missing out on some cute bonding moments that Nara and I could have watched and commented on. Though admittedly, watching Gigi give Ophelie a big hug every time the latter gives a cute plush as a present was better. They were both so short and small, their little arms were so adorable!

  Ah… Unfortunately, I don’t think I would just run into another good candidate like Ophelie to be a part of the gang. Cuteness was a requirement, but a big portion was about personality as well–Cute personality, that is.

  A soul was flung past the rest, pulled right in front of me and my girls.

  It was… Abnormal. Souls usually just look like wisps of blue. Of soul blue, to be exact, that was a real colour alongside mana blue.

  This soul was not a wisp. It already looked like a ghost, so I didn’t even need to do anything to actually know what the person had looked like, although it seemed like the physical appearance had been somewhat distorted.

  The tormented soul resembled a young man with elongated limbs, not in a monstrous way, but as if he had been put through the ‘rack’. As in, the execution method. So he looked much taller–Perhaps longer was the right term–Than his youthful face implied.

  His fingers were bloodied with seemingly self-inflicted bites, his nose looked like it had been scratched off, and his lips had been torn away, revealing bloodied teeth in all their glory… Surprisingly, his eyes had not been gouged out, but his ears had suffered an amount of damage.

  Speaking of ears… They were round. Round, fluffy, and brown. He was a kind of bearfolk. He even had a little tail. A shame, he might have looked cute had he been a girl. I am looking for little sisters, not little brothers. Not only do those have a bad track record for me, but I only find cuteness in girls to begin with.

  But these features do tell me exactly who this is supposed to be, and… He certainly doesn’t look very similar to what he used to be. It hasn’t even been that long since I left Tolten. Is it because he is a soul? I don’t think others were twisted in such a manner, and what is the reason for him to appear like he is already a spirit that has come out of the furnace?

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  Nara, what can I know about this guy? I don’t use it often, but I can see a few things about the souls, right?

  Sure thing, let me compile the information into a system window…

  ___

  Name: Faelan

  Cause of death: Sleep deprivation/Madness

  Classification: Tormented Soul

  Traumatised by a monster of steel, the beastfolk began having nightmares and struggling to sleep even after the monster’s disappearance.

  Faelan was actually the first victim of the ‘Nightmare Trials’, but at the time, they were not yet properly formed and also, the monster was too far away to engage the final portion of the trial…

  Greatly weakened by months of improper sleep, he began experiencing hallucinations in the day and engaging in maniacal acts upon himself without realising it, beginning to resemble a corpse before his passing.

  Due to being so weakened, he was incapable of achieving victory in any Nightmare Trial, and having suffered from them when they weren’t yet complete, and also due to never being granted mercy by the monster. He experienced the nightmares for far longer than was normal.

  The repeated deaths were false, but not harmless. Past a certain point, they began causing harm to the soul, mind, spirit, and anything non-physical about him.

  He was held together for a long time despite it all, but in the end, it was the rather mundane lack of sleep that claimed his life, causing his accumulated negative emotions and twisted, damaged soul to go to their rightful owner.

  Due to the special conditions of his torment before death, his soul manifested as a powerful Vengeful Spirit, albeit one largely incapable of refined thoughts. Due to his compromised soul, however, he cannot be deployed.

  The furnace cannot mend him. Another way must be found.

  ___

  …Damn, I can get this much information?

  Most of it is thanks to you growing stronger and unlocking new things. It made me stronger as well

  Can I get detailed panels like this for my cute little ghosts with their abilities and all that?

  The panels I can make for them will be a bit more bare. They are considered completely different from the souls, and it seems like information about them is considered ‘higher-ranked’. This makes sense since they are a part of your abilities in a sense, so detailed intel is harder to furnish

  I see… But this Faelan must be quite strong for you to say that he is already a powerful Vengeful Spirit, and he can’t think properly? This is perfect. He is basically a stronger lesser servant. I guess that what I need to repair him is some other machine that I will unlock in my mindscape, right?

  I am not allowed to say yes or no, but logically speaking, that is what makes the most sense indeed, considering the space left in the furnace room

  Ah… If only I were in the residence of some ghost-obsessed noble instead, eating a bunch of spectres and such, I might have been able to acquire a new tool for making spirits…

  Well anyway. I can’t do anything with this guy for now, so let’s ignore him.

  Now that the unexpected soul was dealt with, I went into a state of dormancy for a short while to speed up the night, and was thus soon back to getting blasted with curses, much to my pleasure.

  The initial absorption of curses caused blissful pain and was followed by a nice cool sensation every single time. Not that anyone but me knew this, from Heltna’s perspective, getting cursed did absolutely nothing to me whatsoever.

  The only thing that was a bit of a shame was that since I was treating the curses as food, I wasn’t training my ‘Energy Resistance’ at all. Which made sense when I thought about it. Why would I gain resistance to something that wasn’t a threat to me?

  It would be like being able to become immune to something by eating candy. Nonsensical.

  I might just be able to get several more upgrades out of this venture by the end of it! Will she try to throw a curse at me the same size as Argantis did? It had allowed me to evolve last time. Though I wouldn’t want to be given the option to evolve just yet, I hadn’t devoured enough items aligning with my Vengeful Spirit side compared to my Steel-Bound Curse side.

  It was important that my evolution was the best possible one I could get. I was Mara Nebulo, I wouldn’t settle for less than I was worth.

  Where was I going to find large amounts of spirits to eat, though? I guess I would have to raid a bunch of crusty graveyards… And also, this is a country with a rich history. Surely there have been a good number of massacres, which meant that there had been piles upon piles of slaughtered people who had been buried in the same hole, or burned like trash.

  Such things should definitely result in a whole lot of angry spirits bound to the earth, right?

  A necromancer might be a good equivalent to a curse slinger for me in this regard, perhaps… Unlike curse slingers, though, they weren’t appreciated at all and tended to get hunted down and burned at the stake.

  “Miss Maya. Do you really not sense any change within you?”

  I was wondering whether I should make up something or not. If nothing was happening, Heltna might lose interest and stop throwing curses at me, but if it started to seem like I was taking advantage of her in some way, I might get the boot before I could raid their cursed pantry.

  Mmh… Let’s try this, I suppose.

  I simply wrote down that I believed that it might be making my senses a slight bit stronger, but that it was hard to tell for sure.

  This gave a sliver of hope to the noble girl that there was something to be discovered, but also totally underplayed how much I was gaining from this.

  Not only was my affinity for curses growing, but it was giving me free experience as well. Also… It was a source of great pleasure, but that one would be especially weird to explain, especially if I went into details. If I did that… Either Heltna would be mortified, or I would discover that her father’s assessment of her preferences was correct.

  I did not want either outcome, even if the latter might benefit me in terms of curse acquisition.

  “Papa, are you going somewhere again?”

  I didn’t know why, but I followed Heltna all over the place, even when she wasn’t experimenting on me, so I got to witness her interaction with her father and the servants.

  “I am just going to check the surrounding villages. Our peasants and serfs have been reporting a strange creature walking around and producing a strange red light. I find it quite intriguing, so I am going to check it out–Do take good care of my daughter, Lady Maya”

  He winked at me, thrice in case I didn’t get the implication.

  …This guy really is weird as hell.