"I once heard humans say that when the small animals they raised died, they would feel sad and bury them with their own hands."
The Snow Woman's expression remained indifferent as she continued brewing the Soul Soup, which carried endless resentment. Her movements did not slow in the slightest because of Uesugi Tetsu's arrival.
"What I'm doing now is equivalent to that."
The Snow Woman said, "Here, only when obsession or resentment has been completely erased will true death arrive."
"Otherwise, they'll only become those mindless, senseless Empty Souls that wander aimlessly, forever tasting the unwillingness and pain they suffered while alive. You must have seen them before as well, Lord Tetsu."
An Imp.
The "Empty Souls" the Snow Woman referred to were undoubtedly Imps.
So... what she was doing now was equivalent to helping these resentful souls pass on?
Uesugi Tetsu could see the Snow Woman slowly sigh. Her icy Spiritual Power rippled faintly.
"If I don't gather them together and simply let them die, they'll be terribly noisy... It's better to settle them in one place. They'll be easier to deal with after death, and before death, they can at least relieve some of the boredom from my dull life."
[The Snow Woman's true purpose has been revealed. Current progress: 70%.]
A prompt appeared before Uesugi Tetsu, proving that the Snow Woman's words were true.
But the progress had only reached seventy percent, which meant that the Snow Woman had not revealed something even more important...
Whoosh.
An icy wind suddenly rose.
The ghostly blue flames went out.
The bubbling of the Soul Soup ceased, and the basement instantly sank into deep darkness.
A profound chill, together with the spreading resentment, wrapped around Uesugi Tetsu's body.
In the darkness, only those ice-blue eyes remained bright, their indifference unchanged.