Chapter 32: I will make a Proposal

A nameless rural village.

Inside a luxurious mansion that contrasted with its surroundings, a man smiled in satisfaction.

“At this point, the Extermination Squad should have already arrived.”

Helus was in a good mood.

He knew well what kind of people that squad was.

Bastards with whom it was better to pay a little and get rid of them than to try to face them.

Having connections with that kind of people was a blessing.

“If I recover that girl, it will be better to side with the Empire.”

He had maintained neutrality only because of the risk of his identity being discovered.

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

‘By the way, will that Perda Valdrova know what that girl is?’

There was no way to discover the girl’s identity.

For her, the rules were absolute.

She only obeyed the words of Helus Povidas, so she was nothing more than an idiot incapable of understanding anything.

If they returned her without problems, it meant they did not know what she was for.

‘Huff… everything will go well.’

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

At that moment, a carriage stopped.

He slightly lifted the curtain and looked outside.

It was someone very welcome.

‘Sir Karl!’

Helus ran out barefoot to receive him.

“Welcome! Sir Karl!”

“……”

“Haha, I didn’t expect you to come so late. How did the mission go?”

“……”

“Why aren’t you saying anything? Since you’re here, let’s have a drink. And the girl?”

“Get in.”

“Get in? Ah… yes, of course.”

Helus got into the carriage.

Inside, the luxurious cabin was completely empty.

Karl got in as well and closed the door.

“……Move.”

The carriage began to move.

Helus opened his eyes in surprise.

“Sir Karl, where are we going?”

“……”

“Answer me! Are you kidnapping me?”

Helus shouted angrily.

But Karl remained silent.

“So it’s going to be like this? Do whatever you want! Know that I will never return to the Empire!”

“……Ha.”

Karl, who had been sitting silently, let out a sigh.

He raised his head and also his hand.

Smack!

His hand, thick like a club, struck hard.

“Ah!”

“Shut up, you filthy pig.”

“W-what does this mean, Sir Karl?”

“What does it mean?”

Smack!

“Don’t you understand the situation? All of this is because of that girl you told me to bring!”

“The girl? You said you would use her as a pretext—”

“And what do I care!”

Smack!

“I!”

Smack!

“Am here because of that shit, damn it!”

It was just violence to vent, but it was enough to silence Helus.

His mouth was wrecked and blood ran from his nose.

“Anyway, thanks to the portrait of that girl, you can’t back out now, so behave and come.”

Karl sighed while looking at the sky.

Damn it, why am I doing this?

He slumped against the backrest.

Helus, completely docile, was dragged along without resistance.

Doubts piled up in his mind, but he decided to ignore them.

He had no way to escape this situation.

Because he was not a sage.

After moving aimlessly, the carriage stopped.

His body was lifted like a sack and taken somewhere.

The destination was the audience hall of an old castle.

A red carpet ran across the floor and on the walls hung banners with the emblem of a red dragon.

Beneath them, a young man with an still youthful face stood.

“Do you know who I am?”

Helus was seeing him for the first time.

But the situation and the aura he emitted made his lips move on their own.

“P-Perda Valdrova…”

“That was informal.”

“T-the regent Valdrova… it is an honor.”

Didn’t they say he was an 18-year-old regent?

But he had nothing to do with what he had heard.

In front of him, it felt as if he were facing a giant.

Although he had challenged Karl, with Perda he did not even dare.

At his side was a girl he had seen before.

His young servant.

The source of knowledge he had sought so much.

‘Was she this beautiful?’

When she was unkempt, he had not noticed.

But now, well dressed, she looked like a noble.

“Are you the sage of water?”

“Sage of water? No… I am nothing more than an old man locked in his room, a simple Magic Walker.”

“You are not as stupid as I thought. You are more intelligent than I believed.”

Perda spoke with genuine admiration.

“Did your servant die?”

“…Yes.”

“Of course. No one can forgive having something valuable taken from them. Not even I am easy to forgive, right?”

“There is nothing to forgive. The sin is of this fool.”

“What sin?”

“……”

“You say you sinned, but you do not know which. I do not like lies.”

Helus forced himself to say what he did not want to.

“I used that girl to pretend that I was a sage. That is my sin.”

Helus lowered his head.

“Please… spare my life.”

He surrendered with total respect.

But in Perda’s eyes there was no interest at all.

It was as if he did not care whether he lived or died.

“You have lived pretending to be a sage, but you are intelligent. So you surely understand this.”

Perda whispered near his ear.

“Do you think you can leave here alive?”

“……”

“Those who taste power cannot forget it. That is why power struggles are the dirtiest. How much power have you tasted?”

“……”

“You are respected in your village, even the Empire desires you. Will you be able to leave that behind?”

“N-no, I can’t—”

“No. If I let you go, you will seek power again. Not because you are stupid, but because you are human.”

His entire body trembled.

Sweat fell like rain.

Ah I am going to die here.

“That is why I will make you a proposal that you cannot refuse.”

All the fear disappeared.

A light appeared.

Helus raised his head.

“Don’t you want to live as a sage?”

“What… do you mean?”

Perda took out an object and placed it on the ground.

It was a crystal sphere.

“It is a communication sphere. It contains the essence of the eternal ice of the northern mountains. It is superior to those of the Empire. No one will be able to intercept it or track it.”

He tapped the sphere lightly.

“What is connected here is Morida’s mind.”

“Morida…?”

“That is this girl’s name.”

Perda gently touched the girl’s shoulder.

She reacted.

That name now belonged to her.

“You desire her knowledge, don’t you? Then live as a sage. You can enjoy yourself at night and give false teachings during the day.”

He was offering him the same life he had always desired.

But he could not accept it so easily.

Sweet rewards always have a deadly price.

“What must I give in return?”

“Your soul.”

Everything.

“Become my dog.”

Helus hated dealing with people.

Because sooner or later they would discover his lie.

But there was something he hated even more.

Losing his money.

Losing his reputation.

All of that was sustained by power.

To lose power was to lose everything.

Perda was right.

He already longed for the power he had tasted.

He was already a dog of power.

And he would do anything for it.

Even make a pact with a demon.

That is why Helus bowed his head again.

“I will become your loyal dog.”

***

Perda went down to the basement of the castle.

Echidna’s laboratory was in the deepest part.

Upon opening the door, an unsettling atmosphere typical of a witch came out like a dark mist.

The difference was that there was no smell of herbs or boiling cauldrons, only the smell of ink and stone dust.

“Welcome, regent!”

Echidna greeted him with a silly smile, running toward him like a big dog greeting its owner.

The difference was that even Perda shuddered at the dark aura emanating from her.

“How did the contract turn out?”

“Ah, of course it turned out well! I perfectly put on the dog collar you told me! Ehehe, at first when you said a big dog with silver armor I didn’t understand, but I never thought it would be a knight!”

Echidna laughed like a fool.

In fact, when he asked her for a collar to tie up a dog with armor, she brought an actual dog collar.

Since then, Perda stopped using metaphors when speaking to her.

“Where is the contract?”

“H-here it is!”

Echidna took out the stored document and showed it to him.

Perda looked it over briefly and asked.

“Do you understand what this says?”

“Hehe… there’s a lot written, but I don’t understand any of it at all.”

Echidna scratched her head in embarrassment.

When it came to contract magic, the best were demons and witches.

But there were always exceptions.

From the beginning, Echidna had not been able to get a boyfriend because she did not know how to draft complex clauses or inescapable procedures.

‘Since that was difficult, she created an unprecedented learning golem…’

She chose a more difficult path because the simple one was complicated for her, but that path ended up being the right one.

Even now, it was absurd to think about.

Although Echidna executed the contract, the one who drafted its contents was Mori.

Inside his mind was the universal library.

There were also copies of contracts written by demons there.

Perda ordered him to base it on that, and Mori managed to draft it in three hours.

‘The real dog collar is complete.’

Thus he obtained two dogs.

One infiltrated in the Empire and another surprisingly intelligent and stupid at the same time.

Perda, satisfied, placed the contract on Echidna’s desk.

“How is the golem manufacturing going?”

“Well… there’s still quite a bit left…”

The golem assisting her could barely react when seeing Echidna’s face.

If there was any visible progress, it was that its face had gone from being a crude drawing to something more defined.

It was still unclear, but it was definitely starting to resemble Zed Swallow.

Perda observed it in silence and askedl

“You’re not getting distracted just sculpting the face, are you?”

“N-no! Of course not! I only touch the appearance when I can’t think of anything else!”

Her nervousness made her suspicious, but Perda did not press her.

‘Compressing formulas into runes is a difficult process, and she is capable of doing it.’

It was not something that yielded immediate results, so he did not criticize her.

“Keep up the good work.”

“Yes, understood. But, regent…”

As he was about to leave, she stopped him.

“What is it?”

“You… have already reached the third circle, right? Your aura is stronger than before.”

“That’s right.”

“Then… don’t you want to try to find your affinity?”

Echidna took a crystal stone from the desk and showed it to him.

Finding affinity.

He had not heard that in a long time.

“You mean discovering my attributes?”

“Now that you are third circle, you should also define your magical path. All mages do it.”

Third circle, Magic Walker.

From that point on, magic becomes real, allowing control and transformation of elements.

At that point, one begins to search for affinity.

Perda had already done it before.

Normally, it was something trivial.

For those who had the Blue Circle, it only indicated a slight inclination.

But for those with the Red Circle, it was different.

Their mana, based on emotions, was everything.

“Let’s try.”

“Then I’ll prepare it!”

Echidna moved her fingers in the air and recited a spell.

Mana flowed, forming a magic circle that was then compressed and took shape.

A rune was created.

Something that would normally take a month, she did it instantly.

She truly was a rune creator.

She inserted the rune into the stone.

“Here you go.”

“Thank you.”

Perda took the stone.

He knew how to use it.

If his mana reacted, a color and shape would appear inside the crystal.

‘Before, it was darkness and electricity…’

Two attributes born from hatred.

Darkness had great destructive power.

Electricity, speed and penetration.

The combination of both made his magic unstoppable.

‘Now it will be different.’

His mentality had changed.

As proof, his power could now restrain Valdrova.

Surely his attributes would have changed as well.

Perda observed as his mana reacted.

Inside the crystal, a reaction occurred.

Fire would show flames.

Water, blue droplets.

But what appeared was not that.

The crystal turned completely black.

A black that seemed to devour everything.

For Perda, it was something familiar.

‘Darkness…’

And within it, small blue sparks.

“Wow, you also have electricity.”

It had not changed.

Or rather.

‘Was it this dark…?’

The inside of the crystal was even darker than before.