The Extra's Regressor Wives

Lathel had no idea that the plan he had not even begun yet had already become suspicious in the eyes of the three people following behind him.

He simply kept walking, quietly memorizing the shops he could return to and ask about later.

Lathel did not need a good job.

He only needed one that paid enough to live.

Being unable to speak was certainly a problem, but he had lived this way for far too long to despair over it anymore. If one shopkeeper refused him, he would simply try another. If he could not do work that required talking to customers, he could carry goods, tend horses, copy books, or work in a warehouse.

The city was enormous.

There had to be somewhere that needed an extra pair of hands.

Lathel was still thinking about it when he suddenly stopped after taking a few more steps.

A strange sensation had brushed across his chest.

He frowned.

It did not hurt.

Nor did it feel like the mana he had only recently begun to sense.

It was more like an invisible thread somewhere had gently tugged him in a certain direction.

Standing amid the flow of pedestrians, Lathel instinctively placed a hand over his chest.

The maid immediately stepped closer.

"Young Master, are you feeling unwell?"

He shook his head.

The sensation had already disappeared.

Lathel was about to continue walking when it came again.

This time, it was clearer.

The newly opened mana pathway inside his body trembled slightly. A faint warmth flowed from his chest down his arm before gathering at his fingertips.

Lathel slowly turned his head.

Across the street, squeezed between a tailor and a crystal shop, was a narrow alley.

Compared to the crowded avenue outside, there was hardly anyone inside. Sunlight reached only the entrance, while the deeper sections disappeared into shadow.

Lathel stared into it.

The faint pull in his chest returned.

’Is there something in there?’

He hesitated for a few seconds before crossing the street.

The two knights immediately followed. The maid glanced toward the alley but did not stop him.

The alley was shorter than it looked.

After walking only a few dozen meters, Lathel stopped in front of a small shop near the very end.

There were no goods displayed outside.

No customers.

Even the window was covered in a thin layer of dust, leaving only vague shadows visible through the glass.

The wooden sign hanging above the entrance was so old that most of the lettering had worn away. Lathel stared at it for a moment before barely making out the last two words.

Antique Shop.

The warmth inside his chest stirred again.

This was the place.

One of the knights behind him also studied the sign, confusion appearing on his face.

"I patrol this district often. Was there always a shop here?"

The maid frowned, looked around, then shook her head.

"I don’t remember it either."

Both of them had lived in this city for years, yet neither had any memory of the shop in front of them.

Hearing that, Lathel’s hand paused halfway toward the door.

’Strange.’

He had only come out to look for work.

An antique shop hidden in an empty alley obviously had nothing to do with his original goal.

Yet the sensation in his chest continued urging him to enter.

Lathel stared at the handle for another moment before finally placing his hand on it.

’Just a quick look.’

He pushed the door open.

Chime...

The small bell hanging above the entrance gave a soft ring.

A wave of warm air immediately spilled out, completely different from the faint chill in the alley outside.

Lathel stepped inside and stopped to look around.

The shop was not large, but almost every bit of space had been occupied by wooden shelves and cabinets. Numerous candles sat inside brass lamps along the walls, their golden light falling over hundreds of strange objects.

A clock that had stopped long ago.

A dagger covered in rust.

Several porcelain vases, none of them matching.

Masks, rings, old books, and countless objects whose purposes Lathel could not even guess.

There was even a tiny suit of armor in one corner. He stared at it for several seconds and still could not decide whether it had been made for a child or for some race much shorter than humans.

The shelves near the front were arranged neatly enough, but the deeper he looked, the more crowded they became, until the rear of the shop seemed to disappear entirely into darkness.

Lathel walked past the first cabinet.

The smell of old wood, candle wax, and some faint fragrance he could not identify mingled in the air.

There was no shopkeeper.

He could not hear anyone either.

The maid entered last, looked around, and called out.

"Is anyone here?"

No answer came.

One of the knights immediately frowned. His hand settled on the hilt of his sword as he stared toward the back of the shop.

"Young Master Lathel, there is something strange about this place. I think we should—"

BANG!

The door behind them slammed shut.

Lathel flinched and spun around.

The maid immediately looked toward the entrance as well.

"What happened?"

The knight nearest the door stepped forward, but just as his hand reached for the handle, every candle flame in the room flickered.

Only for an instant.

Lathel blinked.

The space behind him was empty.

The two knights were gone.

So was the maid.

There had been no footsteps.

No cries.

The three people who had been standing only a few steps away had vanished as though they had never entered the shop at all.

Lathel immediately strode toward the door, grabbed the handle, and pulled hard.

It did not move.

He switched hands and used more strength.

Still nothing.

Lathel released the handle and slowly stepped back.

’What is going on?’

His hands instinctively rose to sign a question, only to stop halfway.

There was no one left to see it.

Lathel turned around.

This time, his expression changed immediately.

It was still the same shop.

Yet somehow, it was no longer quite the same.

The aisle between the shelves seemed longer than before. The cabinets that had originally ended around the middle of the room now continued endlessly into the darkness, their farthest edges no longer visible.

The candle nearest Lathel flickered.

One flame.

Then another.

Then every flame in the shop leaned in the same direction at once.

Toward the depths of the store.

Lathel followed them with his eyes.

The gentle pull in his chest had disappeared. In its place, the mana pathway inside his body was trembling faintly, as though whatever had called him here was now very close.

He did not run.

The door would not open, and panicking would accomplish nothing.

Lathel remained where he was, carefully surveying his surroundings. Then he slowly reached out and touched one of the nearby wooden shelves, confirming that, at the very least, the objects around him were real.

Just then, a quiet laugh came from somewhere deep inside the shop.

"Ha..."

Lathel immediately turned toward the sound.

It was a woman’s voice.

A rather young one.

There was none of the oppressive majesty or menace he had expected. If anything, her voice sounded lazy, with an irritating trace of amusement—as though she had been sitting somewhere in the darkness, watching him struggle with the door the entire time.

"Why don’t you pull it two more times? Maybe on the fourth try, the poor door will be so moved by your persistence that it’ll open itself."

Lathel: "..."

He slowly removed his hand from the door handle.

Another soft giggle echoed from deeper inside.

"Oh? Giving up already? What a shame. I was about to start cheering for you."

Lathel stared into the depths of the shop, his brows drawing together slightly.

He still could not see anyone.

The voice came again, this time a little closer.

"Stop looking. With those eyes of yours right now, you could stare holes through every shelf in here and still wouldn’t find me."

Lathel remained silent.

He raised his hands, instinctively preparing to use sign language.

"Wait."

Lathel stopped.

The woman sounded genuinely puzzled.

"Are you seriously planning to talk to me with those two hands?"

He looked toward the direction of the voice.

Two seconds of silence passed.

Then the woman let out an exaggerated sigh.

"What a pain."

Lathel frowned slightly.

"I don’t understand."

His hands froze.

The woman continued, "So stop waving them around at the speed of a dying turtle. I may be young, but my patience died a long time ago."

Lathel: "..."

For some reason, the tension that had just begun building inside him suddenly eased a little.

At least whatever was speaking to him did not seem particularly eager to kill him.

However...

Her mouth was rather unpleasant.

Lathel raised both hands and slowly signed,

"Who are you?"

The voice in the darkness went silent for several seconds.

"You’re saying my voice is very beautiful?"

Lathel froze.

He immediately shook his head.

"No?" The woman sounded a little disappointed. "Then you’re asking whether I’m beautiful?"

Lathel: "..."

He shook his head again, more firmly this time.

A quiet giggle drifted through the shop.

"All right, all right. I don’t understand those strange hand movements of yours. Stop trying."

Lathel stared toward the source of the voice, beginning to suspect that she understood him perfectly well and was simply messing with him.

At that moment, a candle at the far end of the aisle suddenly lit up.

Then another.

Then a third.

One after another, warm lights appeared deeper inside the shop, forming a path through the darkness as though deliberately showing him the way.

"Come inside."

Lathel did not move.

The voice waited a few seconds before asking,

"What? Afraid I’ll eat you?"

Lathel honestly nodded.

This time, it was the woman’s turn to fall silent.

Then she burst out laughing.

"Good. At least you have enough sense to be afraid. I was starting to think that head of yours contained nothing except plans to groom horses in exchange for a place to sleep."

Lathel stiffened.

His expression immediately became guarded.

He had never told anyone that he was looking for work. Even the maid and two knights following him had only seen him standing in front of a hiring notice. They had no way of knowing what he had been considering.

The woman seemed to notice his suspicion and immediately added,

"Don’t look at me like I’m some pervert who’s been stalking you. You stood in front of a sign that said, ’Stable Hand Wanted. Lodging Included,’ for so long that the only thing you didn’t do was walk inside and ask if you could start tomorrow. Was that really so difficult to guess?"

Lathel fell silent.

That did make sense.

But it was still extremely suspicious.

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