Chapter 166: Creating an Opportunity - 7
Chapter 166: Creating an Opportunity - 7
Dwarves.
A short-statured race primarily aligned with Purple, known for their exceptional manual dexterity. They specialized in mining and were said to extract most of Warsland's magic stones.
"Miners and established arms dealers. They're on bad terms with Blue Seal's Dirga. If the Dirga handcraft their weapons, the dwarves mass-produce them. And unlike Dirga weapons, you can buy them as long as you have the money, so Dwarven weapons are generally preferred for military supplies."
"So they get along well with the elves?"
"Historically, terrible. Because of the magic stone issue, the dwarves have been in constant conflict with other races since the Thousand-Year War."
Leticia continued her explanation.
"Also, they're an all-male race, like gnolls. Unlike gnolls, how dwarves continue their lineage is one of Warsland's mysteries... In ancient times, they were said to be wise and thoughtful, but supposedly they suffered some accident that wrecked their heads. Even the dwarves find him troublesome, but since he's a prince they can't do anything about him, and the other races just avoid him. For one thing, he's the Dwarf Prince."
"You kicked him."
"...I can get away with it. I'm an elf."
"Is there some divine privilege that lets elves beat up dwarves?"
Yura, who had been watching, spoke carefully.
"He's badly hurt... Will he be alright?"
"Ah, he's fine. Dwarf stamina and durability are famous. Taigirl is also Rare Grade, so his internal organs wouldn't be damaged."
As if sensing he was being talked about, Taigirl opened his eyes wide and sprang to his feet.
"I think I just saw some absolutely stunning tits. A succubus was jiggling. Was that a dream?"
The bearded dwarf, face caked in blood, stared at Yura with glittering eyes. His face was so full of greed he looked ready to pounce, and Yura instinctively stepped back. Any woman would flinch if a blood-soaked dwarf ogled her with that kind of heat.
"Wait for me, world's greatest tits! Small body, big cock! Taigirl Imphal is advancing!"
As Taigirl charged on his short legs, Jiha used Shadow Hand and seized him tightly by the throat.
"Ghk?! Wh-what the! The shadow..."
"Hey, Jiha..."
Leticia tried to stop him, but Jiha cut her off.
"Stay still."
"...No, that won't work. He won't talk just because you choke him."
Suspended in the air by Shadow Hand with his throat constricted, Taigirl looked at Jiha with bloodshot eyes and asked.
"C-can you make a woman with the shadow too! A woman you can touch!"
"..."
It wasn't bluster. The genuine longing in his eyes left Jiha speechless.
This guy's the real deal.
Jiha released him and asked Leticia.
"How do I get through to this bastard?"
"I don't talk to men."
Even with shards of glass embedded all over his face and blood streaming down, Taigirl snorted.
Leticia spoke calmly.
"Taigirl, do you remember me? Leticia Yor..."
"I don't talk to women who won't let me touch them."
"So it's an automatic vow of silence."
They say even a merchant gives up before a beating, but that only works if they're sane. Violence was meaningless against a broken lunatic.
Jiha looked at Leticia and asked.
"Is this the only kind of guy you know?"
"...He may not look it, but he's the hidden number one in Warsland's pharmaceutical world. Everyone hates mentioning him, so very few people know about him."
That explained why he never showed up in Jiha's information network. He was such a madman that people avoided even mentioning him—a bizarre figure.
Yura stepped forward, placed her hands on her knees, and bent down slightly to match Taigirl's height as she spoke.
"Excuse me, Sir Taigirl. Could you please listen to a little of what Sir Jiha has to say?"
"..."
Taigirl grinned stupidly.
"Since a woman is asking while shaking her chest, I'll listen."
"Ah..."
Bending forward had unintentionally made Yura's chest sway. When she belatedly felt embarrassed and covered her chest with her arms, Leticia looked annoyed.
"Wait, mine aren't that small either, so why..."
"Dwarves don't talk to elves."
"He's just spouting whatever nonsense comes to mind. Ignore him."
Jiha summarized the situation and posed a question.
"Do you know anything about an extremely powerful drug in Waris, called Bugra?"
"..."
Taigirl stared up at him. For a madman, his eyes were unnervingly clear.
"I know. I made it."
"If I kill this guy, shouldn't the dwarves give me a medal or something? I'd be doing them a favor by eliminating a disgrace to their race."
The confession was so shamelessly confident that Jiha was dumbfounded. But uncharacteristically for a lunatic, Taigirl laid out a plausible argument.
"Miners dig up minerals, merchants sell goods, pharmacists make medicine. How it's used afterward is a separate matter. From that point, it's consumer responsibility."
"So you're saying you only made it, and whatever happened after is not your concern? Is professional ethics not a thing in Warsland?"
Jiha gauged the reactions of Leticia and Yura. Their expressions were also grim—confirming that Taigirl's behavior was off even by Warsland standards.
"Taigirl, did you really make it?"
"Who else but me, elf with the nice legs."
"...Don't call people that."
Leticia was so exasperated she shook her head.
"It's true that Taigirl is a skilled pharmacist. My grandmother also acknowledged him as superior to herself."
"Grandmother?"
"My grandmother, the greatest pharmacist among the elves. I didn't learn pharmacy because I became a Unique, but I heard her praise him more than once."
If the prideful elves acknowledged him, it meant Taigirl's skill was truly unrivaled in Warsland. As Jiha looked at him again, Taigirl declared unabashedly.
"I don't discriminate against grandmothers either."
"..."
Jiha kicked him before he knew it. Taigirl, apparently accustomed to such treatment, curled his body into a ball to minimize the impact while getting hit, then sprang back to his feet.
"No, are you saying this bastard doesn't consider grandmothers as sexual targets? That's age discrimination!"
"...This guy's a violence magnet."
It was absurd—and seeing him spew nonsense even while getting beaten, clearly incurable until death.
"If you keep wasting time with your bullshit, I'll make you a eunuch."
"Kyak?!"
The dwarf was so shocked he covered his lower half with both hands. A dwarf with a thick beard and a dignified face reacting like that was visually painful.
"So, you made it. Who did you sell it to? No, why did you make it? Did you need money?"
"It's not an aphrodisiac. There are just bastards who use it that way."
Taigirl looked straight at Jiha and spoke.
"The originally intended effect was to disrupt the Mana wavelength."
"To make someone unable to use Mana?"
Taigirl nodded.
"It tangles the flow of blood and nerves. The Yogwi call that ki-blood. Anyway, it turns the immune system and bodily state upside down so that you can't use Mana for a short time. Inducing a state of sexual arousal was an unintended side effect."
Taigirl, who had been spouting nothing but crazy talk, became dignified and calm when discussing his specialty.
"There were just bastards who abused it. Blue Seal's cambion. Who was it?"
"Kamain Batalion?"
"I don't remember a man's name."
"I'll make you a eunuch."
"That name is correct. I'm certain."
So I've found a way to control him.
Taigirl, who had briefly groveled, quickly resumed his dignified demeanor.
"That cambion asked me to teach him the manufacturing technique, so I taught him a bit."
"He's Blue Seal."
"If left alone, he would have killed the consumer. I had the technique, so I taught him the correct dosage combination."
"Strangely humanitarian..."
"I don't leave women to die. Because someday, they might fuck me!"
Taigirl spoke with complete sincerity the entire time.
"So ultimately Kamain learned pharmacology from you. How do you make it?"
"I don't tell my secrets to men with lots of women."
Taigirl glared at Jiha and the women on either side of him—Yura and Leticia.
"Once you're done talking to me, you'll go back and have a wild time. I won't tell a bastard like that!"
"Shall I cut it off?"
"Cut it off! I'll attach a new big one!"
Taigirl screamed, making Jiha frown. What he said was completely insane, but... he was an information source.
'If I actually cut it off, torture probably wouldn't work on him either.'
Weren't dwarves supposed to be about guts, stubbornness, and stamina?
As Jiha briefly pondered, Yura suddenly wrapped her arms around his. Pressing Jiha's arm with her voluptuous chest, she smiled seductively at Taigirl.
"Men who talk well are popular. Look at Sir Jiha. I also fell head over heels for him because he's so good with words."
"Hey, come on."
That was such childish bait. Jiha was dumbfounded, but even more dumbfounding was that Taigirl immediately opened his mouth.
"It takes various ingredients to make, but the core is a special kind of blood."
"What kind of blood?"
"Blood that possesses magical properties in and of itself. In that cambion's case, his blood was half incubus, so he supplied it himself."
"I see..."
Sirel's explanation had been correct. Even while imprisoned, Kamain had secretly made the drug using his own blood.
"How powerful is the Bugra you made?"
"I haven't taken it myself, so I don't know. What would a man with no women do after taking an aphrodisiac? Probably just soak his underwear!"
Despite his words, a subtle sense of pride could be felt; the effect was likely above average.
"What kind of blood did you use?"
Taigirl didn't answer right away. His wrinkled face wasn't showing the same air of talking nonsense as before.
"If you hear that, you'll die."
"You'll kill us?"
"..."
Taigirl silently shook his head.
'He didn't just make this because he was bored, after all. He's afraid of something.'
Taigirl spoke quietly.
"Men can die, but women can't. If you're going to keep talking, send them out."
"Leticia, Yura. Go wait outside."
"...Are you okay? Taigirl always rambles nonsense anyway. I don't think you need to hear it."
Leticia was worried, but Jiha shook his head.
The women left, leaving only Jiha, and Taigirl ground his teeth audibly.
"To be on a first-name basis with them, damn it. You probably call them that in bed too!"
"Thinking nightwork only happens in bed is a fool's delusion."
"What? I can't get an erection unless I'm in bed!"
"..."
This conversation lacks all dignity.
"You know Leticia is a Unique, right?"
"The succubus beside you also had the tits of a Unique. I never forget breasts I've seen once. That fullness, the swelling curves you can't tear your eyes from, the jaw-dropping cleavage was definitely the rack of Yura Hairedeu."
A simple kick.
As the sent-flying Taigirl sprang back up, Jiha asked coldly.
"If even a Unique shouldn't hear it, who's involved? Who told you to make this? A Legend?"
When Jiha hit the mark directly, Taigirl looked quite surprised. But he didn't answer right away and instead said something else.
"The aphrodisiac is a foreign substance in the body. It's no different from a blood transfusion adverse reaction or poisoning by venom. If regular poison or drugs attack the blood vessels or organs, the aphrodisiac I developed attacks the Mana itself, preventing you from using Mana to expel the bodily abnormality. The more you try to expel it, the stronger the effect becomes."
"..."
Anyone bitten directly by Jiha couldn't rouse their Mana. The phenomenon was similar.
"It's possible because it's made by solidifying blood with special properties. And this kind of special blood isn't very common. The remaining races with it are even fewer now."
"Long preamble. So, who's the client? Is it Cheonho?"
"I won't say."
Taigirl held up both hands.
"Solve this problem for me, and I'll tell you."
"Problem?"
"If you use my drug on a Unique, it will probably work. Once it's over, if the Unique is still alive, they'll try to track down the maker and kill them. Or the satisfied bastard will kill me or force me to keep making it. Either way, I'll just be used continuously and then die."
"That would happen."
The target the escort guards are aiming for with the drug must be Narsha. After she falls victim to the aphrodisiac, the woman who was whipping Lungtao—what would she do once she came to her senses? She'd turn everything upside down.
"But I would have died if I hadn't made it either. I had no choice. Someone will come looking for me before long, and I have to hand it over to those bastards."
Taigirl was in a position where he had been threatened by someone to make it and hand it over.
"So, what's your point?"
"Protect me safely. Help me, and I'll tell you everything I know."
"Why should I help you? When they come, just hand it over."
Taigirl's eyes went wide.
At his genuinely shocked face, Jiha spoke calmly.
"As you said, the user should bear the secondary responsibility. Why should I step in and stop it? I hate unpaid volunteer work."
He would watch the situation unfold and only take the fruit when it ripened.