Disconnected [Snippets!]

Chapter 26-30: Ruptured Respite

[The Brokers were a mischievous bunch. They didn't care for the well-being of their customers at all...

Not like they actually needed to.

They'd actually feel more accomplished if they were able to harvest these poor souls that from the way one had talked to her, previously, Serein felt like souls were some sort of exchangeable values in their own realm.

This was one of the first pieces of knowledge of this world that she paid the utmost attention to.] 

.・。.・゜✫・.・✫・゜・。.

[—Cheerful it might sound, but there's something more going on behind the screen, and that something is heavily manipulative.

Hypnotism is probably the closest term there is since the brokers couldn't do as far as brainwashing someone. That being said, they are able to pull back someone's memory and replayed it in their target's mind as a 'reminder' and a motive for these people to buy more items from them.

Serein wasn't aware of this trait on their first interaction and ended up buying some health potions– which ended up being a cheaper side of the purchase, but it cost way more than it should have had she bought it at normal shops.

Basically, she was robbed.] 

.・。.・゜✫・.・✫・゜・。.

["What the–?"

Almost being yanked, Serein pulled her hands back with much force and barely held herself back from reaching for her new weapons to teach this person a lesson the hard way.

'Just what's with people and touching me today—!?'

"There you are, little punk."

"Huh?"

Serein's annoyed face slowly turned into recognition, and she was glad that she did not do what she had initially thought of doing.

Normally, she would have body-slammed whoever it was as she could feel the ill intentions coming from her ambusher. However, she had never expected to see that half-blood standing before her instead.]

.・。.・゜✫・.・✫・゜・。.

["Are you not going to buy something for yourself, sire? In my personal opinion, it would bring shame to the young master if his escort dressed like—" looking up then down to Serein, the manager smiled with disdain, "This"

Serein smiled back with the same type of smile, 'How petty.'

The man was throwing it back at her for insulting his business.

Though, at the same time, he's actually not all that wrong and that's why she decided to play along.

"I suppose you are correct."

—Glancing at her sleeves as she moved her arms for a bit, she actually revealed the torn bits of her clothes under the robe.

"It was a rough trip. But now that I've found my young master, I can't dress like this. Although-" her smile turned cold and menacing.

"If I end up failing my young master because of your duds, however. Well, let's just pray that it would never happen for both of our sake, yeah~?"]

.・。.・゜✫・.・✫・゜・。.

[At this point, some common folks began to suspect the royal family as cannibals actually, seeing that the official always bring the bodies of their enemies to the castle.

Like... what are they for, right?

Then again, they tried not to talk about it as much as they spread the tale of the brokers. After all–

["Rumors are a made-up story. It was the people who gave it the strength to manifest."]

Serein forgot who had said it in the original draft. But whoever it was, those words hold a lot of power in the story, and definitely something worth always be kept in mind.]