Chapter 324
Chapter: 324
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>Translator: penny
>Chapter: 324
>Chapter Title: Workshop (4)
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>“You think you’re in a position to strut around in front of an elder like that? You’re the world’s biggest pushover Master!”
“Look, you’re climbing all over me again without permission! When your senior’s worrying about you, just listen like a good little brother!”
“Senior, my ass! Who’s got any right to say that? You’re still 640 years too green, you brat!”
“Hey, Seongjin! Let go right now!?”
Seongjin and Logan took turns locking each other in headlocks, trading some rough banter amid the scuffle—a few hitches along the way.
But the situation soon settled down, and the two got right back to diligently investigating the workshop as if nothing had happened.
“……!?”
Only No. 19, utterly shocked in the process, stood frozen in place with a dumbfounded look for quite a while.
*There’s no way my prince could be this childish!?
That raw emotion was plain on his pale face.
No. 19 had just witnessed the unbelievable side of the refined master he’d proudly served for years. How could he not be stunned!
“Hm? Is something wrong? I can heal you right now, so speak freely.”
“…N-no, Your Highness…….”
Poor No. 19 replied in a trembling voice, then slunk awkwardly into a corner of the barn.
“Hm…….”
A rickety old table and a few empty baskets. Shattered odds and ends, with a few dried, twisted leaves scattered here and there.
The “workshop” didn’t seem particularly special at first glance.
“Looks like they’ve cleared everything out. Well, no surprise—they wouldn’t leave evidence behind…….”
As Seongjin muttered in disappointment, Logan picked up a few intact leaves and asked,
“No. 19. Any idea what plant this is? Something commonly grown on farms, maybe?”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
No. 19 took the leaves and sniffed them briefly, but soon grimaced faintly. The entire barn reeked of Bellinda’s blood, dulling his sense of smell.
“It seems like some kind of herb, but the scent is extremely faint. Doesn’t match any common varieties from Delcross, at least. I’ll take it back and investigate separately.”
By then, quite some time had passed, and faint dawn light began breaking in one corner of the dark sky. It was more than enough time for the three to thoroughly search the cramped barn.
“Nothing special here, Your Highness. How about we head back to the palace now?”
But Logan thought otherwise. He calmly scanned the surroundings, pushing his senses to the limit.
“No. Something related to [Demonic Beasts] definitely happened here. That unique aura, different from demonic energy—it’s still faintly lingering in the air.”
“Really? Maybe it’s just your imagination?”
Seongjin was skeptical.
Even he, who prided himself on his sensitivity to demonic beast essence, hadn’t sensed anything unusual yet.
It was right then. Seongjin’s eyes caught a shard of broken pottery.
Seized by a strange premonition, he picked it up as if entranced.
And in that instant—
“……!?”
Seongjin felt it too. Faint traces of demonic beast essence clinging to that tiny shard.
“Ah, there it is! It was so faint, I couldn’t pinpoint the location.”
Logan approached with a brightened expression.
“What’s this?”
“Looks like a shard from a container. Hard to say for sure from just this piece.”
Brushing the shard’s surface revealed a bit of powdery dust. Just as Seongjin suspected, it had to be demonic beast—no, Loperum egg powder.
This must be the item the prisoner who testified about the workshop had received from Milo the merchant and brought here.
“Either way, no doubt this is Milo Trading Company’s ‘workshop.’”
“Yeah, Logan. Once day breaks, even if it’s just procedural, we should launch an official investigation.”
Seongjin replied, then called out to the Demon King in his mind.
*What do you think, Demon King? Is this powder from Loperum eggs?*
The Demon King pondered for a moment before answering uncertainly.
[Hm. Focusing on it, I can sense a bit of demonic beast essence? But I can’t tell if it’s really Loperum eggs or just traces from some other beast. The amount left is so minimal.]
No wonder. It was just a speck of dust—how could anyone identify the beast type from that?
If they were going to detect demonic beast traces here, might as well check my…
Seongjin jolted!
Struck by a sudden uneasy realization, he whipped his head toward Logan with a foreboding hunch.
“What’s wrong, Seongjin?”
Logan blinked in confusion.
“Uh… Logan. Just to be sure, you know how you…….”
“Yeah?”
“You can detect this tiny amount of powder, right? So if there were more [Demonic Beast] traces nearby, you’d probably notice them even easier?”
“Hm? Oh, that.”
Logan flashed a wry smile at the tense Seongjin.
“You mean that stuff you always carry? I already know about your herbal tea. The demonic beast’s foul aura is pretty clear.”
“What……!”
Gasp, for real!?
Seongjin instinctively stepped back, fumbling for the item in his pocket. Just as Logan said—a small pouch of herbal tea powder.
After confiscating loads of the tea in Sigismund Territory, Seongjin had pocketed some to carry around.
Simple reason. This tea was his ultimate fallback for emergencies.
Hadn’t his father said as much before?
*-Don’t you get it, Mores? With your channel activated now, you’re no different from a full oracle. You’d find all the answers just by questioning things, even without me telling you.*
Right. The tea was currently the only way to turn Seongjin into a complete oracle.
If some insurmountable crisis hit via normal means, and he couldn’t rely on his father unexpectedly…
*This tea will surely be my final tool to show the right path.*
Judging its value like that, his father hadn’t forbidden him from touching it—merely cautioned against using it carelessly.
“Uh, Logan. See, this is…….”
As Seongjin floundered for an explanation, Logan gave a faint smile.
“No need to explain now…….”
“Huh?”
“You’ve been leaking that ‘unique aura’ plenty of times before.”
“……!”
In that moment, Seongjin instantly realized why Logan had abruptly changed his words on the way to the workshop.
*-As you know, I never miss even the smallest demonic energy…….*
*-Logan?*
*-…Yeah. I never miss any suspicious aura, no matter how faint.*
Ah, right. This guy had been sensing a certain amount of demonic energy from Seongjin all along!
Hadn’t he warned Seongjin before Sisley did? That he felt foul energy nearby, so be extra careful around high priests.
Back then, thinking himself possessed by an evil spirit, Seongjin had brushed it off. He’d just been amused, thinking, *They let demonic energy slide? The Holy Emperor’s kids aren’t as devout as I thought.*
*But…….*
Now his position was entirely different. After all, Seongjin was Mores, prince of the Holy Empire Delcross.
So a strong sense of duty compelled him to explain this somehow convincingly.
“Uh, Logan. So, like, this demonic energy is…….”
…But how? What do I even say?
As Seongjin’s mind went blank and he stammered,
“Haha, don’t worry about it. You’ve always been like this.”
…Always?
Seongjin stared at Logan in shock.
*What does that mean? Since when?*
Flustered by the unexpected reply, Logan narrowed his eyes in a gentle smile toward him.
“Seongjin, you’ve always been special in all sorts of ways since you were little.”
It was a smile so pure it seemed fragile, as if it might vanish into the dawn air at any moment.
* * *
>The outskirts of the imperial capital. A small cabin midway up a mountain.
In a pitch-black basement without even a single flickering torch, three rare-to-gather figures huddled, grunting in frustration.
“Nope. Nothing came to me.”
An old man in tattered priest robes furrowed his brow as he spoke, and a petite blonde girl shook her head slightly too.
“No new souls in my domain either. Romaine, are you sure you checked properly?”
Their identities: the great archdemons revered by all demons—[Sowing] and [Greed].
Though their pathetic squat on the dirt floor showed not a shred of dignity.
“No way. I confirmed the target’s life had ended.”
And before them, Romaine in his half-mask sweated bullets fiddling with a large crystal orb.
“That thing even working right?”
“Yes, Lady Sowing. I’ve used it several times before.”
“Maybe it’s busted? Should we give it a whack?”
“No, Lady Greed. It’s not broken, and hitting it won’t fix anything. It’s just a lower-realm device, so it’s tricky to apply in the upper realm.”
They were struggling to operate an ancient Ionian relic: the “Temporary Portal Generator.” A rare item Romaine had swiped from the Puppeteer long ago.
“Why test on a human in the capital? Confirming success or failure is such a hassle.”
“Please be patient, Lady Sowing. Isn’t our ultimate target—the one this machine needs to move—right in the palace?”
Romaine’s final target: the palace rose, Princess Amelia.
He needed a way to snatch her clean away. Even if her bond with Prince Leonard formed, the Holy Emperor wouldn’t just sit idly by.
“Why not just bring it into the capital and test right next to the target?”
“Ah, Lady Greed. Do that in the capital, and Delcross’s guardian would spot us instantly. He’d rage and smash this precious machine in one go.”
Replying thus, Romaine bowed to meticulously check the device again.
He reviewed the portal’s origin point, the target’s movement log, and confirmed its life had naturally ended.
Hm, everything seems fine. What’s going on?
“Why pick a Heresy Tribunal prisoner, of all things?”
As things stalled, Sowing raised an objection with a dissatisfied face.
“Who else would accept a sudden ‘I’ll relocate you’ offer without hesitation besides them?”
Fair point.
The Heresy Tribunal prisoners, in worse straits than death, would flee even to hell gladly.
“And in the upper realm, you can pinpoint the portal’s start but not the endpoint easily.”
So Romaine had to use a cumbersome method.
Relocate the target first, confirm stabilization, then summon only its soul to kill it naturally.
This realm’s souls become archdemon property upon death, so the demons hijack it to check where it died.
No reason not to pick disposable prisoners for initial tests.
“Please look closely, great demon lords. Records show the target died naturally shortly after translocation. Its soul must be lingering somewhere.”
Sowing scowled and snapped irritably,
“Don’t make me laugh. No freshly dead soul came to our domains.”
“Is that so? That’s truly odd…….”
Romaine peered gravely into the crystal orb in his hand.
“I thought this was the only way to abduct the princess without the Holy Emperor knowing, but the results are disappointing. Might need another approach.”