Chapter 32

Chapter 32: Allow Me to Make You a Proposal

Nameless Rural Village.
Inside a mansion that was luxurious in a way that contrasted with him, a man smiled with satisfaction.
— By this time, the Assassination Squad must have already arrived.
Helus was in a good mood.
He knew what kind of bastards those in the Assassination Squad were.
Unpleasant bastards to whom it was better to give a little money and dispatch them than to try to get rid of them.
Having such connections was a blessing.
— Once I recover that brat… it would be better to join my fate to the Empire’s side.
The only reason he had maintained neutrality was because there was a risk that his identity would be exposed.
If that child was kidnapped once more, it would be a disaster.
«Come to think of it, does that bastard named Ferda Valdrova know what that child is?»
There was no way to discover that child’s identity.
For that child, the rules were absolute.
She had been made not to listen to anyone other than the words of Helus Povidas, so she was nothing more than an idiot who could not even understand speech.
If she returned safe and sound, it meant that he did not know the child’s usefulness.
«Phew, everything will turn out well.»
He opened the whiskey and poured it into a crystal glass.
At that moment, a carriage came to a stop.
He casually lifted the curtain and looked outside.
It was a very welcome face.
«Lord Karl!»
Helus ran out barefoot to greet him.
— Welcome, Lord Karl!
— …
— Hahaha, to think that you would visit us at such late hours. How did the mission go?
— …
— Why is this person saying nothing? Eh? Since you came all the way here, let us at least have a drink. How is the child?
— Get in.
— Get in? Ah, yes, of course.
Helus climbed into the carriage.
No one was in the luxurious and plush carriage.
Karl climbed in and closed the door.
— …Depart.
The carriage set in motion.
Helus’s eyes opened wide.
— Lord Karl, where are we going?
— …
— Say something! T-this is a kidnapping, isn’t it?!
Helus agitated violently.
But Karl only sat there without saying a word.
— So this is how things are?! Fine, do whatever you want! In any case, I will never go to the Empire, so know that!
— …Haa.
Karl, who had been sitting in silence, exhaled a deep sigh.
Karl lifted his head and, at the same time, raised his hand.
Smack!
His calloused palm was no different from a club.
— Ouch!
— Shut up, you pig bastard.
— T-this is… what are you doing, Lord Karl?
— What do you mean what am I doing?
Smack!
— Can’t you understand the situation? It’s because of that girl you told me to bring that things ended up like this, you know?
— The child? You said you would use that child for a good cause—.
— As if I gave a fuck!
Smack!
— I!
Smack!
— I came here for that shit, you son of a bitch!
It was nothing more than violence to vent his anger, but the logic was enough for Helus to become docile.
Helus’s mouth was torn and blood was dripping from his nose.
— In any case, thanks to you giving me the composite sketch of that girl, you are in a situation from which you cannot back out either, so just come quietly.
Karl exhaled a sigh toward the sky.
«Shit, why am I doing this?»
Karl swallowed his lament and leaned his body against the backrest.
Helus was dragged along, sitting with a worldly meekness.
Questions were piling up inside him, but Helus decided not to worry.
In any case, there was no way he would escape this situation.
Because he was not a Sage.
After moving aimlessly, the carriage stopped.
His body was lifted like luggage and moved somewhere.
The place to which he was dragged was an audience hall of an old castle.
A red carpet connected the floor, and banners with the seal of the red dragon hung from the walls.
Beneath that banner stood a single young man, radiant with youth.
— Do you know who I am?
Helus was seeing him for the first time today.
But this situation right now, or the aura he gave off, moved his lips on their own.
— Fe, Ferda Valdrova…
— That is informal language.
— I… Greet the Regent of Valdrova.
Was he not an 18-year-old brat Regent?
But he was completely different from what he had heard.
This moment of looking up at him felt like facing a giant.
He had been a brat who even resisted Karl, but he could not even dare to breathe in front of Ferda.
Next to him was a girl he had seen once before.
His precious young maid whom he had treasured.
The source of knowledge he had worked so hard to find.
«Was she such a beautiful girl?»
When he had left her with that fat woman, he had not known at all.
With her hair neatly styled and dressed in proper clothes, she was nothing less than a young noble lady.
— You are the Water Sage, right?
— Water Sage my ass… I am just a Magic Worker no better than an old hermit in a back room.
— I thought you were just stupid, but you are smarter than I thought.
At that response, Ferda let out a genuine exclamation of admiration.
— Is your maid dead?
— …Yes.
— Right. Anyone would find it unforgivable to have something precious taken away from them. Even I would find it hard to forgive, would I not?
— What is there to forgive? The sin was committed by this fool.
— What sin?
— …
— Saying you committed a sin but not knowing that sin is giving false testimony, is it not? I hate empty words.
He forcefully spat out words he never wanted to utter with his own mouth.
— My sin is that I used a child to pretend I was a Sage and talked too much.
Helus bowed his head.
— So… please, just spare my life.
He observes etiquette politely and submits.
But what is reflected in Ferda’s eyes is indifference.
A face that feels no value whatsoever, whether he lives or dies.
— You have lived pretending to be a Sage, but you are still intelligent. So I think you will also know this well.
Ferda asked into his ear.
— Do you think you can survive here?
— …
— Those who have tasted power never forget that taste. That is why power struggles are the most vicious and dirty. How great was the power you tasted?
— …
— You are respected in the town, and even the Empire wants you. Do you think you can turn your back on that and walk away?
— I, I can forgi—.
— No, if I let you go like this, you will move to seek power. Not because you are stupid, but because you are human.
His whole body trembled.
Even in the cold weather, sweat fell like rain.
«Ah, I am going to die here.»
— So I will make you a proposal you cannot refuse.
All the fear vanished and a single ray of light fell.
Helus raised his head.
— Do you not want to live as a Sage?
— W-what… do you mean?
Ferda placed an object he had kept in his chest on the floor.
It was a crystal sphere.
— It is a Communication Crystal. A high-quality crystal sphere containing the Perennial Ice Essence from the deepest part of the Northern Snowy Mountains. A material better than the Empire’s. Of course, amateur things cannot even dream of interceptions or tracking, and not even Imperial magicians can do it.
He tapped the crystal sphere and continued.
— What is connected inside is Mori’s Spirit.
— Mori, you say…?
— It is the name of this young lady you had with you.
Ferda gave a light touch to Mori’s shoulder.
The girl reacted to that voice.
It really had become her name.
— You want this child’s knowledge. So live as a Sage as you wish. You can drown in pleasure at night and hand out wisdom that does not even work during the day.
What he proposed was a life not very different from usual.
It was what he had wanted so much, but he did not dare bite into it greedily.
Because a sweet reward comes with a fatal price.
— What do I have to give?
— Your soul.
Everything.
— Become my dog.
Helus hated getting entangled with people.
Because it was obvious that his true colors would be revealed immediately.
But there was something he hated even more.
Losing his money.
Losing his reputation.
What sustained all that was power.
Losing power meant losing everything.
Ferda’s words were correct.
He already yearned for the power he had enjoyed.
He was already the dog of power, and that was why he would do anything.
Even if it were a demon or whatever.
That is why Helus bowed his head once more.
— I will become your loyal dog.
Ferda went down to the castle basement.
Echidna’s laboratory was on the castle floor.
Upon opening the door, the witch’s gloom flows like an ominous mist.
The difference is that there is no smell of a witch’s herb room or bubbling cauldrons, only the smell of ink and stone dust filling the place.
— Welcome, Regent-nim!
Echidna receives him with a goofy smile.
She runs toward him like a big dog greeting its owner.
The difference is that she emits a gloomy aura that makes even Ferda flinch.
— How did the contract go?
— Ah, of course it went well! I put the dog collar on him just as you said, Regent-nim! Hehehe, at first you said you needed a collar to tie up a big dog in silver armor, so I wondered what it would be, but I never knew it was a knight!
Echidna laughing foolishly like an idiot.
In fact, when he said he needed a ‘collar to tie up a dog in armor’, she had brought an actual dog collar.
From then on, Ferda stopped using metaphors when talking to Echidna.
— Where is the contract?
— H-here it is!
Echidna pulled out the stored contract and showed it to Ferda.
Ferda took a look at the content and then asked Echidna.
— Do you understand these contents?
— Hehe, there’s a lot written, but I don’t understand a single thing of what it says~.
Echidna scratching her head shyly.
If you had to choose things that handle nasty contract magic well, it’s demons and witches, after all.
But there is an exception to everything.
The reason Echidna could not get a boyfriend in the first place was because she could not create clever contract clauses or inescapable procedures.
“Since that was difficult, she created an unprecedented Learning Golem… huh.”
The kind of person who took the hard road because the easy one was complicated, and that road turned out to be the answer.
Even thinking about it now, it was something absurd.
In any case, Echidna carried out the contract itself, but Mori took care of drafting the contract’s contents.
The Universal Library inside her head.
Inside were copies of contracts written by demons.
Ferda instructed her to create clauses based on that, and Mori managed to create it in more than 3 hours.
“A true dog collar is complete.”
Thus he gained two dogs.
A dog infiltrated into the Empire, and a dog smarter and more stupid than expected.
Ferda placed the contract on Echidna’s desk with a satisfied face.
— How is the Golem’s production going?
— That is… should I say there’s still a bit missing…?
Looking at the Golem assisting her, it had still not progressed beyond the level of observing Echidna’s face and serving tea.
If there was any visible development, it was that the face shape was changing from a rough drawing little by little.
It was still not clear, but that, without a doubt, was turning into Jed Swallow.
Ferda observed it in silence and asked naturally.
— You are not obsessed only with sculpting the face, right?
— Eeeek! I-i-it’s not that! The exterior is something I touch every time I think ‘oh, this doesn’t come to mind~’?!
Her state of nervousness was terribly suspicious, but Ferda did not press her at that moment.
“The process of compressing sentences into Runes itself is an arduous job, and she is a witch who can pull it off.”
It was a job that could not produce immediate results, so Ferda did not have the particular intention of blaming her for slacking off.
— Keep up the good work from now on as well.
— Yes, I understand. But, Regent-nim?
She stopped him when he was trying to leave after finishing the matter.
— Why?
— Uhm, you have reached the Third Circle, right? Because the energy I see now is stronger than before.
— That is correct.
— Then, how about trying Attribute Detection once?
Echidna proposed, picking up the Magic Crystal from her desk.
Attribute Detection, huh.
It was something he had not heard in a long time.
— By Attribute Detection, do you mean finding the attribute I possess?
— Now that you have reached the Third Circle, it is also to find your magical path. All magicians do it once, right?
Third Circle, Magic Walker.
Full-fledged magic, like magic, pours out, and the process of substituting magic to command and transform elements begins.
From there, they begin Attribute Detection, and Ferda had also measured it once around that time.
Attribute Detection is treated as something close to a hobby.
For Blue Circle holders, it simply ends with a slight discovery of ‘oh, this attribute is slightly higher’.
Because the nature of mana itself is uniform.
But Red Circle holders are different.
Emotion-based mana has almost everything as its attribute.
— Let me try.
— Ah, then I’ll prepare it!
Echidna waved her fingers in the air and chanted a spell.
The mana flowing from her fingers draws a magic circle in the air.
And that magic circle gradually shrinks, shines brightly, and transforms into a fixed shape.
A Rune was created.
Even something as simple as this would take a month of work, but this woman created it on the spot.
Truly a Rune Crafter.
Echidna embedded that Rune into the Magic Crystal.
— Here it is!
— Thank you.
Ferda picked up the Magic Crystal.
He knew how to use it.
When Ferda’s mana reacts to the Rune, it will take color and shape inside the crystal through the Rune.
“Was it Darkness and Electricity back then?”
Two attributes formed based on hatred.
Darkness has high destructive power.
Electricity is magic with high speed and penetration.
Ferda’s magic, which combined those two strengths, could not be blocked by anyone.
“Now it will be different.”
My heart back then and now are different.
As proof, Ferda’s magical power can suppress Valdrova now, right?
Surely the attribute also changed compared to before, so the path will also be different.
Ferda watched how his mana reacted.
Mana reacts to the Rune, causing a chemical reaction inside the crystal.
If you wield fire, you see flames surging.
If you wield water, blue water droplets form, rippling.
What appeared before Ferda’s eyes were not those things.
The interior of the crystal was dyed a deep black.
A color that seemed to devour everything in existence.
It was terribly familiar to Ferda.
“Darkness…”
And within that, faint blue sparks bouncing.
— Oh, wow, you have Electricity too?
Nothing had changed.
No, if I had to say what changed.
“Was it… this dark before?”
The interior of the Magic Crystal was even darker than what he had seen back then.