Chapter 32 - I Will Make You an Offer

A nameless country village.

Inside a mansion lavish enough to feel out of place there, a man was smiling in satisfaction.

“The Purge Squad should have arrived by now.”

Hellus was in a good mood.

He knew what sort of bastards the Purge Squad were.

A vicious breed, the kind it was better to send away with a little money than to try to shake off.

Having connections like that was a blessing.

“Once I get that bitch back... I would be better off throwing my lot in with the Empire.”

He had only maintained neutrality because there was a risk his true identity might be exposed.

If that girl were kidnapped once more, it would be a disaster.

'By the way, does that man called Ferda Valdrova know what that child is?'

There was no way to discover that girl’s true nature.

Rules were absolute to that girl.

He had made it so she listened to no one but Hellus Phobidas, so to anyone else she was nothing but an idiot who could not understand a word.

If she was returned safely, it meant they did not know how to use her.

'Whew, it should work out.'

He opened a bottle of whiskey and poured it into a crystal glass.

At that moment, a carriage stopped.

He slightly lifted the curtain and looked outside.

It was a very welcome person.

'Sir Karl!'

Hellus rushed out barefoot to greet him.

“Welcome! Sir Karl!”

“...”

“Ha ha, I never thought you would come at such a late hour. How did the mission go?”

“...”

“Why so silent? Hm? Since you have come all this way, have a drink at least. Yes. What happened to the child?”

“Get in.”

“Get in? Ah, yes, I will.”

Hellus climbed into the carriage.

There was no one inside the plush, high-class carriage.

Karl climbed in and shut the door.

“... Set off.”

The carriage began to move.

Hellus’s eyes went wide.

“Sir Karl, where are we going?”

“...”

“Answer me! W-Wait, is this not a kidnapping?”

Hellus flew into a rage.

But Karl merely sat there without saying a word.

“So that is how you are going to act!? Do as you like! You will never have any business with the Empire again, so know that!”

“... Haa.”

Karl, who had been sitting still, let out a deep sigh.

Karl raised his head, and at the same time, raised his hand.

SLAP!

His flabby palm was no different from a club.

“Argh!”

“Shut up, you pig bastard.”

“W-What... are you doing, Sir Karl?”

“What am I doing?”

SLAP!

“Do you not understand the situation? We ended up like this because of that little girl you told us to bring, didn’t we?”

“The brat? You said you would use that brat as a good pretext—”

“Why the fuck should I care!”

SLAP!

“I!”

SLAP!

“Came all the way here because of that, damn it!”

It was violence that amounted to nothing more than venting his anger, but as logic to make Hellus behave, it was more than enough.

Hellus’s mouth was torn up, and blood streamed from his nose.

“Anyway, thanks to you giving us that little brat’s sketch, you are in a situation where you cannot back out either, so follow quietly.”

Karl heaved a sigh toward the sky.

'Fuck, why am I doing this?'

Karl swallowed his lament and threw himself back against the seat.

Hellus sat with the meekest posture in the world and was dragged along.

Questions piled up inside him, but Hellus decided not to care.

After all, there was no way for him to escape this situation.

Because he was no sage.

After moving aimlessly for a while, the carriage came to a stop.

His body was lifted like a piece of luggage and carried somewhere.

The place he was dragged to was the audience hall of an old castle.

A red carpet stretched across the floor, and banners bearing the seal of a red dragon hung on the walls.

Beneath those banners stood one youth, terribly young.

“Do you know who I am?”

Hellus was seeing him for the first time today.

But the current situation and the aura he gave off moved Hellus’s lips on their own.

“F-Ferda Valdrova...”

“That is informal.”

“I... greet you, Lord Regent Valdrova.”

Had they not said he was an eighteen-year-old brat of a Regent?

But he was completely different from what Hellus had heard.

In this moment, looking up at him felt like facing a giant.

Hellus had been childish enough to resist even Karl, but before Ferda, he did not dare even think of it.

Beside him stood the girl Hellus had once seen.

His own young maidservant, whom he had treasured so dearly.

The source of knowledge he had searched so desperately for.

'Was she always such a beautiful girl?'

He had not known at all when he left her in the care of that fat woman.

With her hair neatly combed and proper clothes on, she looked every inch a young lady of noble birth.

“You are the Sage of Water, are you not?”

“Sage of Water, you say... I am merely a Magic Walker, no different from an old man shut away in a back room.”

“I thought you were only stupid, but you are smarter than I expected.”

Hearing that answer, Ferda let out a sincere note of admiration.

“Is your servant dead?”

“... Yes.”

“Yes, anyone would be unable to forgive someone who takes away something precious from them. In that sense, would it not be difficult to forgive me as well?”

“What is there to forgive? This foolish man is the one who sinned.”

“What sin?”

“...”

“You say you sinned, yet if you do not know what that sin is, then you are speaking falsely. I dislike empty words.”

He forced out the words he never wanted to say with his own mouth.

“My sin was using a child and running my mouth as if I were a sage.”

Hellus bowed his head.

“So... please, spare only my life.”

He surrendered with formal courtesy.

But what was reflected in Ferda’s eyes was indifference.

It was the face of a man who felt no value in whether he lived or died.

“You have lived pretending to be a sage, but you are still clever. So I trust you understand this as well.”

Ferda asked into his ear.

“Do you think you can live if you leave here?”

“...”

“Those who have tasted power cannot forget that taste. That is why struggles for power are the most vicious and filthy of all. How great was the power you tasted?”

“...”

“You are respected in your village, and even the Empire wants you. Could you let that go and go back?”

“I can f-forget—”

“No, if I send you away like this, you will move to seek power. That is not because you are stupid, but because you are human.”

His whole body trembled.

Though the weather was chilly, sweat poured down him like rain.

Ah, I am going to die here.

“So I shall make you an offer you cannot refuse.”

All his fear vanished, and a single ray of light fell.

Hellus raised his head.

“Do you not want to live as a sage?”

“What... do you mean?”

Ferda placed the object he had kept in his coat on the floor.

It was a crystal ball.

“This is a communication crystal ball. A high-class crystal ball containing the essence of ten-thousand-year ice from the deepest part of the northern snowy mountains. Its materials are superior to the Empire’s. Of course, third-rate fools could not, but even imperial mages would not dare eavesdrop on it or trace it.”

He tapped the crystal ball and continued speaking.

“What is connected inside this is Mori’s mind.”

“Mori means...?”

“It is the name of this young lady you used to keep with you.”

Ferda lightly patted Mori’s shoulder.

The girl reacted to that voice.

It had truly become her name.

“You desire this child’s knowledge. So live as a sage, just as you wish. At night, you may drown yourself in pleasure, and during the day, you may dispense worthless wisdom all you like.”

What he was offering was a life no different from the one he had always lived.

It was exactly what he had longed for, but he could not dare bite down on it rashly.

Sweet rewards always came with a fatal price.

“What must I give you?”

“Your soul.”

Everything.

“Become my dog.”

Hellus disliked getting involved with people.

Because it was obvious that the limits of what he truly possessed would soon be exposed.

But there was something he hated even more than that.

Losing his money.

Losing his reputation.

What had sustained all of that was power.

Losing power meant losing everything.

Ferda was right.

He was already in the midst of craving the power he had enjoyed.

He was already a dog of power, and for that power, he would do anything.

Even if it meant serving a devil or whatever else.

That was why Hellus bowed his head once more.

“I will become your faithful dog.”

* * *

Ferda went down to the castle’s basement.

Echidna’s laboratory was at the bottom of the castle.

When he opened the door, the gloominess of a witch flowed out like an ominous fog.

The difference was that there was no herb-room smell peculiar to witches and no bubbling cauldron, only the smell of ink and stone dust filled the air.

“Welcome, Lord Regent!”

Echidna greeted him with a foolish grin.

She ran over like a large dog welcoming its master.

The difference was that she gave off a gloomy aura that made even Ferda flinch.

“How did the contract go?”

“Ah, of course, it was settled nicely! I put the dog collar you mentioned on properly, Lord Regent! Ehehe, at first you said it was a big dog in silver armor, so I wondered what you meant, but I never imagined it would be a knight!”

Echidna smiled foolishly.

In fact, when he had said he needed “a collar to bind a dog wearing armor,” she had brought him an actual dog collar.

From then on, Ferda stopped using metaphors when speaking with Echidna.

“Where is the contract?”

“H-Here it is!”

Echidna took out the contract she had stored away and showed it to Ferda.

Ferda glanced over its contents, then asked Echidna.

“Do you understand these terms?”

“Hehe, there is a whole lot written here, but I do not understand a single thing it means.”

Echidna scratched her head as if embarrassed.

If one were to name those skilled at malicious contract magic, demons and witches naturally came to mind.

However, there were exceptions to everything.

In the first place, the reason Echidna had not been able to get a boyfriend was that she could not create the subtle wording and inescapable procedures of such contracts.

'Because that was too hard, she created an unprecedented learning-type golem... is that it?'

She was the type to choose a difficult path because the simple thing was hard, only for that path to turn out to be the right answer.

Even thinking about it now, it was absurd.

In any case, the one who executed the contract itself was Echidna, but Mori was in charge of writing its contents.

The library of all things inside her head.

Within it were copies of contracts written by demons as well.

Ferda had instructed her to create clauses based on those, and Mori had succeeded in producing them over three hours.

'The true dog collar is complete.'

With that, he had obtained two dogs.

A dog that had infiltrated the Empire, and a dog that was smarter and stupider than expected.

With a satisfied face, Ferda placed the contract on Echidna’s desk.

“How is the golem production going?”

“Well. Should I say there is still quite a long way to go...?”

Looking at the golem assisting her, it was still only at the level of recognizing Echidna’s face and making tea for her.

If there was any visible progress, it was that the shape of its face was gradually changing from a sloppy drawing.

He could not tell clearly yet, but it was surely in the middle of coming to resemble Zed Swallow.

Ferda watched it silently, then asked in passing.

“You have not become distracted by carving only the face, have you?”

“Uh, uh, uh! O-O-O-Of course not! The exterior is something I always touch up whenever I think, I have no idea what to do!”

Her flustered reaction could not have been more suspicious, but Ferda did not urge her on right away.

'The process of compressing sentences into runes is difficult in itself, and she is a witch capable of doing that.'

Since it was a task where producing results immediately would be difficult, Ferda had no particular intention of criticizing her for growing lax.

“I will be counting on you going forward as well.”

“Yes, understood. But, Lord Regent?”

She stopped him as he was about to turn away after finishing his business.

“What is it?”

“Um, you have reached the 3rd Circle, right? From the aura I can roughly see now, you are stronger than when I saw you before.”

“That is right.”

“In that case, would you perhaps like to try finding your aptitude?”

Echidna made the suggestion while lifting a crystal stone from the desk.

Finding my aptitude, is it.

It had been a long time since he had heard that.

“By finding my aptitude, do you mean finding the attributes I possess?”

“Now that you have reached the 3rd Circle, I mean you can find a magical career path too. Mages all do it at least once, don’t they?”

The 3rd Circle, Magic Walker.

As spells that could truly be called magic began pouring out in earnest, the process of converting magic to command and transform elements began.

Starting there, mages began to find their own aptitudes, and Ferda had also measured his once around that period.

Finding one’s aptitude was treated as little more than a way to pass the time.

In the case of a Blue Circle possessor, it merely ended with learning lightly that one’s aptitude was a little higher.

Because the nature of mana itself was uniform.

But Red Circle possessors were different.

For mana based on emotion, aptitude was almost everything.

“Let us try it.”

“Ah, then I will prepare it for you!”

Echidna stirred her finger through the air and recited a spell.

Mana flowed from her finger and drew a magic circle in the air.

Then that magic circle gradually shrank, shone intensely, and transformed into a fixed shape.

A rune had been created.

Even something this simple would normally take a month of work, but this woman made it on the spot.

A Rune Maker indeed.

Echidna embedded that rune into the crystal stone.

“Here you are!”

“Thank you.”

Ferda picked up the crystal stone.

He knew how to use it.

If Ferda’s mana reacted to the rune, it would take on color and form inside the crystal through the rune.

'Back then, I had darkness and lightning, did I?'

Two attributes formed on the basis of hatred.

Darkness had high destructive power.

Lightning was magic with great speed and penetrating force.

No one had been able to stop Ferda’s magic after he combined the strengths of those two.

'It should be different now.'

His feelings then and his feelings now were different.

As proof of that, was Ferda’s mana not now capable of suppressing Valdrova?

His attributes must certainly have changed from before as well, so that path would change too.

Ferda watched his mana respond.

His mana reacted to the rune and caused a chemical reaction inside the crystal stone.

If one handled fire, wavering flames would appear.

If one handled water, a blue, rippling droplet would form.

What appeared before Ferda’s eyes was not any of those.

The inside of the crystal was dyed pitch-black.

It was a color that seemed to swallow up everything that existed.

To Ferda, it was all too familiar.

'Darkness...'

And within it, a faint blue spark leaped.

“Oh my, you have lightning too?”

Nothing had changed.

No, if something had changed,

'Was it... this dark?'

It was that the inside of the crystal stone was even darker than what he had seen back then.