Chapter 139

Chapter 139: Do You Like Thrilling Things Too?

The Water Sage, Helus Povidas.
A sage renowned for possessing outstanding ability, yet belonging nowhere and living in a small village.
It was said the reason was to maintain his humility, but the truth was that it stemmed from greed and survival instinct.
The wellspring of knowledge that allowed him to be called a sage was none other than a little blonde girl.
That girl, now called Mori—without her wisdom, Helus was nothing more than a middle-aged man with a belly.
His source of knowledge had been stolen from him, and he attempted to reclaim it.
However, the result was miserable.
Instead, he was abducted by Ferda, had a Witch’s Mark engraved on the back of his hand, and now harbored a secret he could not speak of even in death.
What happened after that?
Nothing.
Surprisingly, absolutely nothing happened.
After filling the position of the maid he had killed with another person, he received the exact same support, and with that support he enjoyed delicious food, alcohol, and women.
“Ugh… my head is killing me.”
Even so, Helus suffered from thirst.
He was managing his life as a sage by borrowing Mori’s wisdom, but the limit of only three questions in total irritated him.
He wasted all three on useless inquiries, and when a genuinely important question arose, he had to wait until the next day.
Was that all?
While waiting like that, questions piled up and dragged on, leaving him with a three-month backlog of questions.
He only needed to filter the necessary ones, but Helus lacked the eye to discern them and had no intention of learning.
Thus, he had no choice but to foolishly process them one by one in order.
‘It’s all because of that damn Regent bastard.’
Helus resented Ferda.
Not content with stealing what was originally his, the bastard said he would let him use it freely, but then imposed a limit on the number of questions.
Irritation welled up.
Helus reflexively took a cookie from the plate and stuffed it into his mouth.
He relieved stress by eating, and in the meantime, his weight had increased considerably.
Thanks to the sticky sugar coursing through his blood vessels, he felt considerably better.
‘Still, he wouldn’t know I attempted a takeover…’
Since he had made a terrifying contract with a witch, he wouldn’t dare do anything so reckless as to let his liver jump out of his body.
Using that very notion in reverse was the wisdom Helus had crafted.
‘There is no way that crazy Regent would have let me escape.’
He believed it was wisdom he had created himself, and that he was growing.
Praising himself, he busily ate his fill.
‘Even so, I can’t remain like this.’
He had to take Mori back.
Life itself was no different than before, but he could not tolerate the anxiety of not knowing what might happen, gnawing away at his nerves.
How could he steal that guy back?
‘Should I think about it tomorrow?’
Drowsiness washed over him from eating his fill.
Thinking he would sleep on it and decide later, he tried to lie down in bed.
That was when it happened.
Kiiik—.
The door opened without warning.
“What the hell? Who opens a door without even knocking?”
As he snapped, someone revealed themselves.
Blonde hair, blue eyes.
When Helus saw that face, his complexion brightened.
“Olivia. What are you doing here?”
It was not the real Olivia.
It was a prostitute who had taken the Princess’s name.
If a blonde was even minimally pretty, every dog and cow used the stage name Olivia.
That prostitute only poked her head through the door, looking at him expressionlessly.
Helus sensed something was off, but before that, his lower body reacted first.
“Why? Do you want to spend some wild time with me today? I’ll make sure to satisfy you this very day!”
“…..”
“Darling? Are you really okay? Why aren’t you saying anything?”
The door opened a little wider.
At the same time, Olivia’s head fell to the floor with a dull thud.
Literally, like a ball.
Thud.
Deogureureu—.
A cleanly severed cross-section entered Helus’s view.
“Uh, uh?!”
Helus, who had been lying on the bed, let out a dazed sound before belatedly comprehending the situation.
“Ugh, uheoeok!”
He pulled up the blanket and released an unpleasant shriek.
While he panicked, someone walked into the room.
“Why that face, darling? I like wild times too.”
He spoke seductively, but could not hide a harsh masculine voice.
Black skin, black sclera with red pupils.
Sharp, pointed teeth visible within a mocking mouth.
He smiled.
He smeared the blood from his hand onto his lips.
“G-guards! Guuaards!”
He screamed at the top of his lungs.
Normally, his servants would come running at his voice, but there was no sign of them.
It was only natural.
Since they had brought Olivia’s head all the way here, there was no way anyone in the mansion was still alive.
Helus’s face turned deathly pale.
“Y-you… who are you…?”
“My, my, asking so naively even after seeing this.”
The demon man winked like a woman.
Sharp claws gleamed ominously.
“What I hate most are men who pretend to know nothing.”
“Forgive me! My Lord!”
Helus instinctively surrendered and screamed.
“I will give you whatever you want! If you want treasure, go to the basement! If you want this land, I’ll give you this house too! So please, just my life…!”
The demon man’s face wrinkled.
“Hmm… something is strange…”
The man looked at Helus with eyes that held only black sclera and tilted his head.
“A man called the Water Sage shouldn’t be so pathetic… Lord Gokma said you would be threatening enough to at least enter the 2nd Legion…”
The man sensed something was wrong.
He grabbed Helus by the neck and lifted him up.
“Tell me, who are you?”
“H-Helus Povidas…”
“The Water Sage, the supreme wisdom that created a breakthrough—there’s no way someone like you would crawl like this. No wisdom, no nothing… hmm… then you are…”
The demon smiled as if realizing something.
“Hmm, it must be that. You are Povidas’s body double, right?”
“T-that’s not true…”
“It’s fine. So what if you’re a double? Tell me, where is the main body? Find that guy and I’ll spare you, how about that?”
Helus could not open his mouth easily.
He could simply say the main body was far away and then flee.
That would be the best improvisation he could make right now.
Yet Helus did not utter those words.
His survival instinct warned him as though he had read the future.
He had the strong conviction that the moment he denied it, he would be killed.
“I-I am Helus. P-please forgive me…”
He revealed his identity again, but the man did not believe him.
“Ah, insisting boringly like that is no fun. Then…”
Helus’s hair scattered.
He felt his ear turn cold from the passing gust.
A sharp pain surged.
And liquid ran down his cheek.
Helus realized.
He had just attacked, and his ear had been sliced off.
“Ugh, uwaaaaah!”
Helus screamed in terror.
“Tell me. You’re a double, right? Right? If you admit it now, I will kill you cleanly. Just tell me the location.”
“Hwaaak! I am Helus Povidas! I am! Please believe me!”
The man threatened to extract the truth, and Helus shouted while pouring out the truth.
In this absurdity where not even sincerity could get through, Helus shed tears.
“Forgive me! If there is anyone out there, please save me!”
Naturally, however, no one could come to save him.
Boredom settled on the demon man’s face.
Helus Povidas is not here.
Having judged so, just as he was about to end the double’s life,
Kwajak!
With the sound of a wall being pierced, a beam of light interposed itself between Helus and the demon.
Aiming precisely at the hand holding Helus, it pierced through it, and the hoisted Helus was thrown to the ground.
“Uheoeoeok!”
Helus did not waste that moment and scrambled backward in a hurry.
Instead of cutting off the demon’s breath, the man looked at the hole punched in the wall and exhaled.
“Hmm, what rat bastard interrupted my happy moment?”
Kwang!
Young men burst through the door.
They held drawn swords pointed at the demon.
“Put down the Sage, you filthy thing!”
Five handsome faces.
Brimming with the spirit of rookies, but that was all.
None of them knew how to use magic.
Then who?
The master of that magic revealed himself belatedly.
Gray hair, blue eyes.
An impressively calm demeanor, hard to believe for a young man full of vitality.
The man knew who he was.
“I wondered who it was, turns out it’s the handsome Regent oppa who fired, right?”
The demon man said with an eye smile, and Ferda displayed disgust.
“A grown man talking like a little girl—aren’t you ashamed?”
“Aing, don’t say that. Shouldn’t one know how to respect a taste like this?”
“Sure, with tastes like that, no wonder you turned into a demon.”
Ferda kept mocking him, prodding the demon.
The demon man merely laughed, seeming to enjoy it.
“What a waste, what a waste. That energetic personality is exactly what I like, but if only the body were a little fatter…”
The demon man looked at Helus and smiled.
Ferda looked at that gaze and said with a fed-up expression.
“I’ve seen many men who like men, but your taste is truly horrific.”
“Horrific? This is the gourmet realm! There’s a taste you wouldn’t know. That damp smell of grease—that’s a delicacy only fat men can produce.”
Helus’s face drained of color as if all the blood had left his body.
“Don’t be too disappointed. It’s not that I only want to kill fat men. But killing itself is pleasurable.”
“Dirty demon bastard! Do you think I’ll allow that?!”
A young master cut in, his arrogant noble nature surfacing.
“Your atrocities will vanish like dew on this blade!”
Ferda had no time to stop him.
The demon raised a finger, and a flash of light was seen.
“Eh?”
No sensation below the neck.
What he sees in his field of vision is his own body.
His body lunges bravely forward, while his vision plunges downward.
He realized.
He had paid the price for his arrogance.
Deogureureu.
Plaf!
“L-Lord Dmitri!”
“H-his head…!”
The expressions of the young masters, once full of spirit, instantly turned to despair.
They could not track it with their eyes, wearing expressions of not understanding what had happened, glancing back and forth between the two.
“Hasty men are useless.”
That petulant action made it even more chilling.
The young masters gripped their swords tightly.
First time facing a demon.
First time facing an overwhelming force.
They felt keenly once more that this war was not a game, but a place where slaughter reigned.
“As expected, our Regent is no ordinary man. Seeing this, most would be trembling like those boys.”
“I’ve seen many of those petty tricks, so it’s not surprising.”
He said that, but Ferda was just as unsettled as the young masters.
‘This is a headache.’
He had never underestimated a demon’s ability, so there was nothing to be surprised about.
The problem was the attitude of the young masters.
Who would have known they would commit suicide by getting carried away by their own momentum?
If it became a question of responsibility, it would be a troublesome matter.
“By the way, I didn’t expect you to come so quickly. I thought you would arrive after having a bit more fun.”
“You talk as if you knew I was coming.”
“Demons have good information too. Many ears to listen with?”
The demon tapped his ear.
He knew there were demon worshippers among the nobles.
Was there such a bastard among those participating in this Spring Festival?
‘They say there isn’t a single person in the world you can trust.’
He snorted as he said that.
When did I ever trust humans that much?
Ferda decided to use that intention.
“Hey, filthy bastard.”
“Why are you calling me, darling?”
“Let’s skip the boring hostage game, and do you want to face me for real for once?”
One of the demon man’s eyebrows raised.
“Uung? What do you mean?”
“What you’re after is me, isn’t it? So I’ll give you a chance.”
“What chance?”
“A chance to kill me.”
The demon man sneered at those words.
“I don’t know why you’re so cute. Did I hear you’ve made many women cry?”
“I’ve seen them cry. It wasn’t pleasant.”
“My, my, that’s not what I meant. He sighed, that’s why stubborn men are…”
He clicked his tongue but still smiled with his eyes.
“All right. I’ll let the small fry go. Killing them would be fun, but you’re walking into your own grave, so only I benefit.”
Ferda glanced at the young masters mid-conversation.
Having witnessed Dmitri’s death, they had already lost all fighting spirit.
It seemed they wanted nothing more than to leave this place immediately.
Men who had lost their will to fight were not only useless, but would only get in the way.
“You guys.”
“Y-yes!”
“Take the Sage and get out.”
“B-but we’re outnumbered…?”
“Can’t you understand? I’m telling you to get lost because you’re in the way.”
Ferda ordered them with murderous intent.
Deterred by that energy, the young masters chose to retreat just as he said.
These were not the ones to be entrusted with Ferda’s back.
Helus, the closest to the demon, burned with anxiety over how to escape.
“You go too. I don’t need a duplicate.”
“Y-yes!!”
Helus rolled his heavy body and ran toward the young masters, and they left the room together.
The sound of footsteps descending the stairs was heard.
Only this bastard and himself remained.
“Your words are harsh, but your heart is warm? A man with that kind of contrast… you give me butterflies.”
“I don’t know what kind of nonsense that is. I just need a witness.”
“Witness? What witness?”
“Five young masters went in, one bravely committed suicide. Who would believe that?”
“Haha! That’s true!”
The demon burst into laughter.
The only ones who could testify to this absurd situation were those four and Helus.
“Besides, I don’t have the leisure to play around with a bastard like you.”
“Is oppa too confident? Even though you’re only a 4th Circle mage.”
The opponent was a Knight-grade demon, Butcher type optimized for speed.
To contain him, the standard approach was binding or area-slowing magic.
For that, he needed a frontline to block the front.
However, the four young masters who could have served as that frontline were gone, so Ferda was practically defenseless.
“I wonder how long that proud expression will last.”
“Who knows.”
He added those words.
“At least from now on, you won’t know anything.”
Ferda sneered and pulled something from inside his robe.
It was not a magic tool as expected.
It was a magic circle.
‘He stored a magic circle in his robe?’
Impossible.
At least to his knowledge, no mage could do that.
Yet if it wasn’t that, it was impossible.
A complex magic circle requiring a long chant simply appearing in Ferda’s hand and manifesting instantly… made no sense.
“What a cowardly trick…!”
He tried to say he was speechless, but even that left him at a loss for words.
Pajijik!
What formed in his hand was lightning.
Its color was neither blue nor bright light, however; it was red.
Even without knowing it was Reverse Lightning, one could tell it was a color not created by the natural order.
Magic that does not follow the natural order is powerful without exception.
Ferda looked at the man whose complexion had shifted and asked.
“Do you like thrilling things too?”

Meanwhile, outside the mansion, in front of the village.
“Monsters approaching!”
“Form the battle formation! Few enemies! We can do this without the Regent!”
The number of beast-type monsters was only 10, fewer than at the first point.
Being few, they shouldn’t be a threat.
Curiously, however, it was difficult.
He tried to figure out what the difference was.
‘Is it because 5 people from the frontline are missing?’
He guessed, but dismissed the idea as foolish.
‘Those guys are just a nuisance.’
Born at the top, only looking down.
Using them as combat power is only a hindrance because their status is too high.
‘As expected, it’s because Regent Ferda isn’t here.’
He used a strategy on a different level compared to other mages.
Instead of having the 3rd Circle mages draw magic circles, he had them create mana spheres and throw them to him, and Ferda assisted by launching those spheres.
Practically only one mage was moving, yet that one controlled everything.
Even against 20, there was no sense of difficulty, but now, fighting against 10, the reverse sensation was far too severe.
He could only hope Ferda would finish quickly and come out.
“The young masters are coming out!”
The rearguard watching the situation shouted.
Turning his head, he saw the young masters emerging from the gate just as had been said.
One of them was Helus, so indeed 2 were missing.
“T-that… Dmitri died…”
“D-died? Then what about the Regent?”
“The Regent is fighting the demon! There was a demon inside!”
“A demon!”
It was understandable that they were so frightened.
In the current era, they are practically mythical creatures, rarely seen.
But that is not the issue.
“So the Regent is fighting him right now?”
“Y-yes…”
He was dumbfounded.
They should be joining forces to fight that demon, yet the 4 young masters came out and left the Regent fighting alone.
‘The monster subjugation… is a manageable situation.’
Should he go support Regent Ferda right now?
Political calculations and the overall situation were giving him a headache.
While he was thinking like that,
A red light flickered in the window of the mansion he was watching.
That ominous color gradually grew smaller.
Kureureureung…!!
The light was weakening, but the ground trembled with increasing violence.
It wasn’t weakening.
Right, it was compressing.
To create an explosion too massive to handle.
Kwaaang!!
A tremendous explosive sound struck their eardrums.
The formation shook from the released shockwave, and the attacking wolf monsters hesitated as well.
The building at the epicenter of the blast could not withstand the impact and collapsed completely.
“My…!”
Helus shouted as he looked at the place engulfed in light.
“My house…!!”