The Extra's Regressor Wives

Lathel shook his head.

Pandora was silent for a moment, seemingly not ready to give up. "Even if I give you more time to think? Even if you could become a mage without needing incantations?"

The second question made Lathel hesitate.

Not needing incantations was genuinely appealing. For someone who couldn’t speak, this was practically the only way to use magic like a normal mage. But Pandora had only said that each time he used the power, she would take "something he had," and refused to explain what exactly that meant.

Lathel shook his head in the end.

A sigh drifted out of the box.

"Fine. A person who’s poor, weak, can’t chant, and is still this hard to tempt. I honestly don’t know whether to praise your caution or pity you."

Lathel ignored the jab.

Immediately after, a click sounded from behind. The door that had refused to budge swung open on its own, letting in a sliver of light from the alley along with the sound of carriages and voices from the main street.

"Go on." Pandora spoke very calmly.

Lathel turned to look at the box.

He had expected Pandora to keep trying to persuade him, or worse, to force him into a deal. He hadn’t thought she would actually open the door after being refused.

’At least she has some principles.’

He walked toward the door, and his hand had just landed on the handle when Pandora called out again.

"Wait."

Lathel turned his head slowly. The look in his eyes made the box on the counter go silent for two seconds before the female voice inside spoke with clear displeasure.

"Don’t look at me like that. I said no deal means no deal. I just need a small favor before you go."

Lathel remained by the door.

"Very small." Pandora emphasized. "No charge, and I won’t take your life either."

His expression immediately grew more guarded.

Pandora sounded annoyed. "Why does the more I explain, the more your face looks like I’m about to murder you?"

Because a normal person wouldn’t need to proactively bring up the whole "not taking your life" part.

Lathel couldn’t speak, but the expression on his face was clear enough that Pandora clicked her tongue.

"I want to leave this shop. The space here has its own rules. I can open the door for customers, but I can’t cross the boundary myself."

Lathel looked at the box, then used two fingers to mime walking legs.

Pandora understood at once.

"You’re telling me to walk out on my own?"

He nodded.

"Do I look like I have legs?"

Lathel unconsciously glanced down at the bottom of the box.

"Don’t look!"

He immediately raised his head.

Pandora was clearly even more annoyed. "I’m a box, not a four-legged magic beast. If I could walk out on my own, why would I still be sitting here talking to you?"

Lathel pointed at himself.

"Yes, you carry me out. No deal, no contract, and after that we go our separate ways. You go back to finding your stable-hand job with free lodging, and I go do my own thing."

He still didn’t move.

Pandora waited a while, then sighed with tremendous drama. "Are you really going to leave a weak, pitiful little box locked in here for another few hundred years?"

Lathel looked at the candles burning on their own along the walls, then at the rows of shelves stretching far beyond the shop’s actual dimensions.

Finally he looked back at Pandora.

Weak.

Pitiful.

Neither word had anything to do with her.

"What’s that look for?"

Lathel turned toward the door.

"Wait!"

His steps stopped.

Pandora was quiet for a moment, then suddenly changed her mind. "Fine, you don’t need to carry me out anymore. I just remembered another way."

Lathel turned back to look at her.

"Sleeping too long and forgetting a few things, what’s so strange about that?"

The look in Lathel’s eyes said he found this very strange indeed.

Pandora spoke up quickly before he could express anything more: "I just need to borrow a bit of your aura. You place your hand on me, and I’ll use your aura as an anchor point to try crossing the shop’s boundary. If it doesn’t work, then forget it."

Lathel looked at his hand.

Then at Pandora.

"Scared?"

He nodded immediately.

The box fell silent.

"You could at least hesitate a little before nodding."

Lathel didn’t understand why he needed to pretend.

Pandora sighed again. "I just opened the door for you. If I wanted to hurt you, why would I go through all this trouble? Just one touch. After that you can go wherever you want."

The reasoning sounded fairly logical.

On the surface, at least.

Lathel thought a while longer, then walked back to the counter. The red-violet patterns on Pandora glowed faintly as he drew near, but only for an instant before returning to normal.

He raised both hands, wanting to ask how exactly he should touch.

Pandora watched in silence, then said with utmost seriousness: "You’re asking when we begin our plan for world domination after the connection is made?"

Lathel immediately pulled his hands back.

"Wait! I was joking." Pandora burst out laughing. "Just place your palm on the lid."

Lathel looked at her for a long time.

"I truly don’t understand sign language."

He didn’t believe a single word of that.

But Lathel didn’t want to keep arguing either. He slowly extended his hand, and when his palm was only a short distance from the surface of the box, the mana channels in his body transmitted a faint warmth.

Lathel stopped.

Pandora immediately said: "It’s just mana resonance. You were able to sense me from the street because of this."

He looked at the red-violet patterns for a few more seconds, then finally placed his palm on the lid.

The instant skin met the cold surface...

BOOM!

The mana channels inside Lathel’s body shuddered violently.

He tried to pull his hand away at once, but an invisible force held his palm firmly against Pandora. The red-violet patterns lit up in unison, light racing across the box’s surface before climbing along his wrist.

"Wait!"

Pandora’s voice changed abruptly.

The laziness vanished, replaced by astonishment so clear that if Lathel hadn’t known her beforehand, he might actually have believed it.

"What’s happening? I only meant to borrow some aura!"

Lathel gritted his teeth and used his free hand to pull at his wrist, but it wouldn’t budge.

He looked at Pandora.

"Don’t look at me!" she said at once. "I don’t know why it turned out like this either!"

The look in Lathel’s eyes showed he didn’t believe her at all.

But very quickly, he no longer had the energy to doubt.

Power from Pandora was surging through the newly opened mana channels in his body. At first it was just a burning sensation in his arm, then it rapidly spread to his shoulder and chest, making Lathel double over in pain.

"Don’t try to force your hand free."

Pandora warned urgently. "Your channels only just formed. If you sever the connection now, I can’t guarantee they’ll stay intact."

Lathel stopped at once.

Not because he fully trusted her, but because he didn’t want to test whether the warning was real.

Yet only a few seconds later, he realized the flow of power was no longer traveling through mana.

The sensation of having a body vanished abruptly.

The shop, the candles, and the rows of antique shelves all sank into darkness. Lathel felt himself standing in an infinite void, with nothing ahead but a single tiny violet spark.

The spark trembled.

Then shot straight toward him.

Lathel’s consciousness lurched.

The shop reappeared at once.

He was breathing hard, his hand still pinned to Pandora, but the box before him had begun to change.

The red-violet patterns slowly peeled away from the surface, transforming into countless thin threads of light that wound around Lathel’s wrist before burrowing into his body. At the same time, the box itself was gradually turning transparent.

Lathel’s eyes went wide and he immediately tried to yank his hand free.

"Don’t!"

Pandora shouted.

He stopped.

"If you cut the connection now, what gets damaged might not just be the mana channels." Pandora paused for a beat, then added in a very serious voice: "I mean it."

Lathel was still looking at her.

"...This time I really mean it."

That last line didn’t make her any more believable.

But he no longer had a choice.

Pandora’s body began dissolving into tiny violet motes of light. They drifted free of the box, hovered in midair, then one by one sank into Lathel’s palm.

The pain disappeared.

In its place came a cool, gentle current running along his arm, through his chest, past even the mana core.

Into his soul.

Within a few short seconds, most of the box had vanished.

Pandora suddenly murmured, very quietly.

"...The connection still feels just like..."

She stopped herself at once.

Lathel frowned.

Pandora quickly corrected herself: "What I mean is... this doesn’t feel like a normal mana connection."

He didn’t have the energy to think any deeper.

The last piece of the box dissolved into light.

Clack.

The lock dropped onto the counter.

Pandora had vanished completely.

Lathel stood motionless, staring at the solitary lock before him, then slowly checked his hand and chest. No wounds, no symbols, no abnormal signs of any kind.

Right then, Pandora’s voice rang directly inside his head.

"Oh."

Lathel flinched and spun around.

No one was there.

"Can you hear me?"

He looked around the shop one more time.

"Seems like you can."

This time Lathel was certain the sound wasn’t coming through his ears.

He immediately pointed at his own chest and signed a question asking where she was.

Pandora was quiet for a moment.

"You’re asking when we begin our plan for world domination again?"

Lathel closed his eyes.

"All right, all right." She laughed. "It seems I’m currently inside you. More precisely... probably inside your soul."

Lathel opened his eyes and slowly looked down at his chest.

"Don’t look at me like that. I don’t understand it either."

He didn’t believe her.

"It might be because of your mana channels."

Lathel remained silent.

"Or maybe your soul has something special about it."

He frowned.

Pandora paused briefly.

"Or the issue is with me."

This time she coughed awkwardly on her own.

"That last possibility seems slightly more likely."

Lathel immediately mimed pulling something out of his chest.

"You want me to come out?"

He nodded emphatically.

"I’d like to try too."

Lathel waited.

Pandora answered very quickly:

"Can’t."

The corner of his eye twitched.

"Don’t look at me. I really did try." Pandora’s voice sounded utterly innocent. "It seems I’ve found a nesting spot inside your soul. Getting separated will require a different method."

Lathel raised a hand to cover his forehead.

He had only wanted to find a job.

He had no idea how, but a trip to look for work had somehow ended with a strange box taking up residence directly inside his soul.

Pandora tried to console him:

"Look on the bright side. I don’t take up luggage space, I don’t need to eat, and I don’t charge rent."

Lathel slowly lowered his hand.

"Feel better?"

He shook his head.

"...Picky."

The moment Pandora finished speaking, a wave of fierce exhaustion crashed over him. Lathel had to brace his hand against the counter to keep his balance, but his vision was already blurring fast.

"Wait, don’t try to stay standing." Pandora noticed his condition at once. "Your soul just took in another presence. The body needs time to adjust."

Lathel still tried to walk toward the door.

He managed two steps before his knees gave way.

His body pitched forward.

Just before his forehead struck the edge of the counter, an invisible force caught his shoulders and slowly lowered him to the floor.

Pandora clicked her tongue.

"So weak."

Lathel was still conscious enough to frown.

"Fine, I’ll stop talking."

Her voice dropped lower.

"Sleep for a bit."

Lathel didn’t want to, but his consciousness was already sinking. Just before awareness left him entirely, he heard Pandora speak very quietly inside his head.

"Relax."

She paused for a beat.

"I haven’t taken anything from you."

Lathel no longer reacted.

Pandora added:

"This time I mean it."

After that, his consciousness slipped completely into darkness.

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