Chapter 44 - A Difference in Perspective

Ferda safely returned to Valdrova Castle.

Arwen watched them enter through the castle gates and immediately returned to Count Concillus's territory.

At the main gate, Luri welcomed Ferda and his party.

"How was your journey?"

It was a businesslike question, and Ferda gave a businesslike reply.

"It was comfortable. There were no attacks, and with an escort attached, it wasn't boring."

"I see. But it seems you have one more person than when you left?"

When they departed from the castle, it was just Zed, Ferda, and the coachman, but now a man heavily laden with luggage had tagged along.

"Regent! I've loaded my things onto the cart. Should I load your luggage now as well?"

Malcolm, who had been unpacking his own luggage onto the cart, noticed Luri a step late.

"Eek! You're that intruder from before!?"

Malcolm freaked out and trembled in fear.

It wasn't because he was exposed to something like dragon fear.

Even if she had been exuding it, he had already put on a resistance ring before arriving at Valdrova Castle.

He was just a coward.

"The number of pathetic fools has increased."

Luri let out a sigh through her nose.

"He's certainly a pathetic fool, but he's also an excellent specimen."

"What kind of specimen?"

"What else is there besides a specimen to use for experiments?"

"... Are you researching dark magic or something?"

"I do need to research it, but not for that."

Ferda said that and tried to step inside the castle.

At that, Luri blocked Ferda's path.

"What is it?"

"What is it, you ask? Are you really asking because you don't know?"

Luri's gaze rolled over and stopped on Ferda's right hand.

"Don't you think it's a felony to step into the castle carrying that stench?"

"..."

Ferda felt a strange sense of dread from those words.

Ferda's gaze reflexively swept over her entire body, and he spotted an item slipping slightly out of her pocket.

It was a rough towel dyed green.

If that towel touches you, it will literally peel away the grime-covered skin.

Of course, the flesh-scraping pain is unavoidable.

POP! POP!

Small white explosions popped from the towel as it moved in Luri's hand.

Ah.

Had she been waiting just for this moment...

Luri had a justification.

The fact that Ferda's hand carried another woman's scent could cause Grand Duchess Valdrova to misunderstand.

Such misunderstandings had to be eliminated in advance.

Though he understood that much, Ferda had not forgotten the screams of the knights.

The screams they let out like children facing a demon.

Ferda didn't think he could endure what they hadn't been able to.

Ferda's eyes subtly glanced at Luri once more.

Contrary to Ferda's apprehension, her face was filled with anticipation.

"Could I ask one favor?"

"Speak."

"I'd like it if you at least did this inside that space-isolating magic."

He spoke like the final words of a death row inmate facing execution, and Luri solemnly nodded.

"Of course. After all, we can't go around broadcasting Lord Ferda's masochistic tastes to the whole neighborhood."

"... Right."

He lacked the energy to offer any sort of retort.

Ferda followed Luri inside.

What happened in the bathhouse that day became a secret shared only between Luri and Ferda.

* * *

Scrubbed until his body was shiny, Ferda barely managed to throw his clothes on.

Every time his sensitive skin touched the fabric, it stung.

'I have to endure it.'

From here on, Ferda had to concentrate.

He looked down at the book resting on his desk.

Barbatos's Shadow Art.

The demon of schemes preferred moving stealthily, and this was a magic specialized in catching opponents off guard by controlling shadows like limbs.

As a grimoire that emphasized stealth, it was a tricky object to seal.

Because if it wasn't bound by silver chains treated with shape-fixing magic, its form would melt away and it would move to another location.

Barbatos's Shadow Art emphasized one thing.

'The shadow must become me, and I must become the shadow.'

Just as one had to treat the Shadow Hand like a third hand when wielding it, failing to keep this in mind would result in suffering from severe phantom pain.

'But there are things I need.'

The greatest merit was that no magic circle was required to use the Shadow Art.

And it wouldn't just be used as a hand made of magic, but could be utilized like an actual limb.

That meant Ferda could manifest another spell through the Shadow Hand.

'It doesn't exert much power in terms of firepower.'

True to the nature of Barbatos, the demon of schemes and stealth, it operated on a different track from the shadow circles of other dark magic.

'Instead, it can catch the opponent off guard.'

While weak in a head-on clash, it possessed endless possibilities in a battle of wits.

That was why Ferda had chosen Barbatos's Shadow Art out of all the dark magic available.

'To read it, I need to undo these silver chains.'

To undo the silver chains, he had to undo the magic, and to undo the magic, he needed to decode the runes.

That was why Ferda went to find Echidna.

"I want you to undo these chains. Do you think you can do it?"

"O-Of course. I should do it for you right away, hehe."

Echidna grinned foolishly as she looked at Ferda.

Her expression existed somewhere between a young girl deeply smitten with a prince and a witch harboring gloomy, wicked fantasies.

"Thank you. What would you like as compensation?"

"C-Compensation? I don't really need anything??"

"If you handle a job for me, shouldn't I pay the corresponding price?"

Paying the corresponding price for a job done.

That was the best way to work with a witch without any future complications.

"Compensation, huh..."

Echidna's eyes rolled around.

The blonde girl standing next to Ferda.

It was Mori.

"T-Then, could you let me sleep together with Mori for one night?"

Sharing a bed with Mori.

If thought of as just two girls spending the night together, it didn't seem particularly strange.

However, the other party was a witch through and through.

And a witch drooling with gloomy intentions at that.

"Will you be okay with that?"

Ferda asked, looking at Mori.

Mori answered with a note she brought out.

-Judging by Echidna's behavioral patterns, sleeping with her is predicted to result in a 30% decrease in my work efficiency.

30% was too massive.

He wondered what kind of behavioral patterns she had shown for the efficiency to drop by a whole 30%.

"I cannot accept that."

"Eh, then it can't be helped..."

'I shouldn't have even brought it up...'

Echidna muttered just like that.

Ferda decided to propose something he had in mind to the disappointed Echidna.

"How about I give you time to spend with Zed?"

"Lord Zed?!"

Echidna's face flushed bright red.

Too excited to contain herself, she snorted out air from her nose and nodded continuously.

"S-So, a-about how much time...?!"

"Let's make it this much."

Ferda held up three fingers.

She was vastly satisfied.

"As much as 30 minutes! Mmhmm...! That's good too! Let's go with that! Deal!"

"... Understood."

Ferda holding up three fingers had meant three hours.

Yet she had slashed it to a sixth on her own and was perfectly happy with it.

'If I had said three hours, it might have actually backfired.'

Too much of anything always leads to problems.

Now that he could set the first compensation as a baseline, Ferda thought he should adjust future payments based on this.

"Then shall we take a look?"

With an excited face, Echidna placed the Shadow Art grimoire onto the workbench.

She put on thick-lensed glasses and observed the tome.

She observed the elements comprising the book to the fullest, using not just its outward appearance but all her senses.

"Hmm, the material isn't hard, more soft like mud, the smell is... *Sniff~*. Haa, the smell of sulfur rising from hell is certainly special. You know that rank smell? That strange scent like it's coming from an armpit—."

"Enough."

"Ah, yes. Hehe..."

He stopped her before she could get sidetracked with dirty talk and made her focus on the original task.

Having finished assessing the book, she moved on to the silver chains next.

When she lightly injected magic power into the chains, blue letters sprang up from them.

They were runes.

"Mmm..."

Echidna's gaze grew quite serious.

It was hard to believe she was the same woman who went around chasing after men.

'She's cut from the same cloth as Burnel.'

Taking on a grave demeanor when focusing on her work, she began decoding the runes.

'If you can make runes, you can also interpret runes.'

What Echidna was doing was akin to identifying and dismantling a set trap.

By decoding the runes, one could understand how the magic operated and also identify the side effects that would occur upon forced dispelling.

"They even placed a trap magic on the shape-fixing magic that strikes the dispeller if forcefully undone. An ordinary mage would die, you know? And this signature here... looks like it's from the Order of Altes."

"Can you undo it?"

At that, Echidna beamed.

"I don't think I need to undo it~."

"Why is that?"

"If I undo the shape-fixing magic, who knows when this book might run away? Do you plan to just read this book once and be done with it, Regent?"

Ferda shook his head.

Even if he obtained all the magic within, it would be troublesome if this book was unleashed somewhere else.

"So let's try loosening the conditions a bit."

"How so?"

"By relaxing the conditions of the shape-fixing magic. Not just strictly sealing this book exactly as it is, but more like allowing its form to change to a certain degree? Loosening it just enough to reach a readable state."

"Go ahead."

"Understood!"

Echidna tapped the runes with the tip of her pen and chanted a spell.

A moment later, a circular magic circle unfurled in front of her.

A magic circle that appeared to be at least 5th-tier magic.

She brought her finger to the magic circle and began manipulating this and that.

'Manipulating a magic circle...'

It wasn't something Ferda hadn't considered during his days as a Great Mage.

But destroying the magic and writing it anew to bind it was much easier and more common.

'Rune Makers seem to be different.'

They could tamper with the magic itself and understood its flow.

Thus, that led to the idea of loosening the conditions rather than breaking them.

"If I do this here... Done!"

When she gave the rune a light tap with her pen, the magic circle retracted back into the rune.

At the same time, the tightly bound silver chains were seen smoothly loosening under Echidna's power.

"Would it be alright if I read it here for a bit?"

"Yes! Of course!"

"Bring me a few thick books."

"Books, you say? J-Just a moment!"

CLATTER!

RUMMAGE.

Just as he asked, she held up several thick dictionaries.

"But why?"

"Because I need to match her sitting height."

"Sitting height?"

Ferda placed about three volumes on the chair.

He was adjusting the height to match Mori's sitting height.

"Will this height be okay?"

Mori nodded.

"Then let's get to w—."

"W-Wait a moment!!"

Just as they were about to begin, Echidna cut in and wrapped her arms around Mori.

"Don't tell me our Mori was the one you intended to have read the book? Subjecting a child to something harsher than death?"

"Then why else would I have brought her?"

"I thought it was because Mori missed me so, so much. Isn't that right?"

Echidna grinned goofily as she looked at Mori, and Mori wrote on a note.

-That is incorrect.

"Eeehk... I thought we had definitely g-gotten closer... Was I the only one who was sincere??"

-That is correct.

Mori, drawing a firm line.

Echidna sniffled in tears at the confirmation that felt like a bolt from the blue.

"This is a task that only this child can do."

"But coming into contact with demon tongue written by a demon is..."

"Yes, it makes a person slowly go mad."

"You're making her do it even knowing that? Isn't that too cruel!?"

Echidna hugged Mori and rubbed her cheek against Mori's head.

He thought he understood why her work efficiency would drop.

"It doesn't matter. It's impossible to corrupt this child anyway."

"I-Is that true?"

Echidna asked, and Mori nodded.

"If that's the case..."

Filled with anxiety, she stroked Mori's hair right up until the very last moment.

"Begin."

At Ferda's command, Mori opened the book.

At that moment, something harbored within the book began to radiate.

A pungent scent of sulfur wafted out, and it felt as if something filthy was sweeping over their entire bodies.

That was what it meant for demon tongue to be written by a demon.

Just looking at it was blasphemy, and merely capturing it in one's eyes left a brand.

RUMBLE.

Ferda and Echidna averted their eyes from those characters.

Demon tongue was something created in Hell itself.

A person who came into contact with demon tongue written by a demon would see a fragment of Hell.

The person who came in contact with a fragment of Hell would hear the whispers of demons for the rest of their lives, as if they had been branded.

It was a trial that would not end for their entire lifetime.

If one failed to overcome that never-ending trial, they would either become a Demon Follower or turn into a madman.

In doing so, they would become mediums for the demons to enter this world, granting them a foothold toward domination.

'The same applies to me.'

Because demon tongue originated from the very essence of its letters, blocking it beforehand was impossible.

Ferda had also encountered demon tongue before in order to learn dark magic.

In fact, the reason he had been able to master the Shadow Art's Shadow Hand was because he had learned demon tongue.

'Though I erased it entirely from my mind once I learned it all.'

The best method was to completely erase the demon tongue from one's mind after mastering the magic and finishing the translation.

That was the reason Ferda had not been swayed by them despite knowing the magics of Hell.

'Now, I have no need to learn demon tongue.'

There was someone who had learned it, and someone who could interpret it in his stead.

The Slave Sage, Mori.

She would become Ferda's transcriber.

Mori stared clearly at the demon tongue.

Deep crimson flames ignited in her eyes.

It was attempting to use her eyes as a window to peer into Mori.

However, there was no way it could shake Mori.

It wasn't because Mori was flawless.

Demons were beings capable of shaking even the flawless if they weren't careful.

She simply had no sense of self.

They needed to use one's ego as a handle to shake them, but without a handle, there was no way they could grab onto Mori.

She gripped the pen and began writing down on the paper.

Even with the window to Hell wide open, she maintained ultimate rationality and continued her translation.

Having swiftly finished the translation up to the last page while completely ignoring the demonic whispers, Mori closed the book just like that.

In Mori's right hand was the original text,

and in her left hand was the translated copy.

"Have you finished everything?"

When Ferda asked to confirm, Mori nodded.

Ferda issued his final command.

"Then make sure you forget everything you saw."

In that moment, her eyes, which had reflected the crimson flames, returned to their original color.

With a single command, she had truly forgotten everything.

An instruction that would be impossible with just a single phrase if she were an ordinary human.

It was something only possible for Mori, the Slave Sage.

A moment later, Mori's body began to sway.

She was barely keeping her heavy eyelids lifted.

It was because she had exhausted too much energy for the translation.

"Go to sleep early today."

As soon as Ferda gave his permission, the struggling Mori leaned against the backrest and closed her eyes right then and there.

"Echidna, will you take Mori to her room?"

"Of course!"

Echidna was watching her with a lecherous gaze.

"Ehehe, ehehehe, ehehehehe...!"

As if that wasn't enough, she began to drool.

He felt he understood a little bit why her efficiency would drop by 30%.

Ferda added a condition.

"Lay her down in the room and come right out. I won't allow any further physical contact. Understood?"

"O-Of course! I definitely didn't have any ulterior motives!? Absolutely not!?"

She said that, but seeing her smack her lips in overwhelming regret made it hard to believe her.

Ferda picked up the completed translation she had made.

He started by reading the section on the Shadow Hand that he was familiar with from Barbatos's Shadow Art.

'It's written exactly as I understood it.'

With that, he judged there would be no issue in understanding the magic just by reading the translated copy.

Ferda flipped back to the beginning.

'The reason I had to obtain this grimoire.'

It was precisely for the mana cultivation method.

One of the methods to reach the 4th Circle from the 3rd Circle.

'Shape of Shadow.'

That page entered Ferda's sight.

Even though he was reading a grimoire from Hell—and a work by a Great Demon at that—there were zero side effects.

'How long did it normally take to reach the 4th Circle again?'

The 4th Circle was the stage where one received the title of a true mage.

It was that difficult, an undertaking that required even talented individuals to pour in years of effort.

It wasn't much different for the Red Circle either.

'If anything, it was actually more dangerous.'

In the first place, as the stages of the Red Circle grew higher, its madness and danger increased, making it quite a high-risk path.

'Was I the kind of person to care about that?'

He had grown stronger for the sake of his hatred, and Ferda was the one who had braved any challenge to become stronger.

If there was anything different from before, it was that now it was for Valdrova's sake.

Ferda decided to proceed with the cultivation method right away.

As each cultivation method had its own effect, the method of performing it was simple.

Light up a completely sealed room, devoid of any light, with a single candle.

Then, by shining that one candle from behind his head, create a long, dark shadow.

It begins with staring into that shadow.

At first, it was only magic utilizing the shadow, but later on, one could become the shadow itself or even become someone else's shadow.

Seeking freedom beyond common sense and wielding it—that was exactly what was desired.

'The shadow becomes me, and I soon become the shadow.'

Keeping that in mind, he quietly looked down at the shadow shimmering from the movement of the candle flame.

It was at that moment.

Ferda felt the sensation of his body instantly flattening against the floor.

As if trapped in a wall, he moved only in two dimensions within a narrow, suffocating space.

He entered a state of complete concentration on the shadow.

'I close my eyes like this.'

Carrying that sensation exactly as it was, Ferda directed it toward the circle spinning in his mana core.

He concentrated like that for about an hour.

He needed to draw mana down into the shadow to create a spinning rotation.

'I feel nothing.'

Ferda's state was far too calm.

For the Red Circle, calmness was no different from a braking mechanism.

'It's impossible for now.'

If it seemed unlikely to work, he gave up without any lingering regrets.

Ferda was still young, and he still had much work left to do.

He left the darkroom and stepped outside.

It was a night with a setting moon.

Since it had dropped toward the west, it must have been well past midnight.

He couldn't tell how many days had passed.

Only the hungry rumbling from his stomach screamed out that a long time had passed.