Chapter 221 Melting Night -4
Chapter 221 Melting Night -4
Alex clapped his hands lightly.
"Impressive. No wonder you devoured Kamain!"
"Thanks for the compliment. Now, what's the reason I shouldn't devour you too?"
In that brief exchange, Jiha had already pieced together a great deal.
Kamain, Heinrich, and Alex were all members of the same organization.
And Alex was their superior, ranked higher within the group.
"Because I'm here to make you an offer."
"Are you talking about giving me the position you promised Kamain? Turning me into a Unique?"
Kamain had spat out those words as he died. At the time, Jiha dismissed it as nonsense.
Then Pairan, a former Super Rare, returned as a Unique.
As Alex merely offered a gentle smile, Jiha cut to the point.
"You people are trying to completely overturn the entire domination system established by Mana."
"......You truly are impressive."
Alex blinked, genuine admiration on his face.
The blond prince, who had worn only a smile as soft as a spring breeze, soon shook his head.
"I assumed you had simply devoured Kamain, but I was wrong. You possess an exceptionally sharp mind and a savage streak. Perhaps it comes from scraping by as a Common? That ruthless selfishness that seeks to consume others, the uncontrollable rage and hunting instinct... excellent. Truly excellent. You are exactly the kind of talent I desire!"
"......."
Instead of answering, Jiha spat on the floor.
Alex's subordinate, a leopard beastman, frowned, but Jiha paid him no mind.
"Join our organization, Jiha. I promise you will be well-treated."
"Name your terms."
He wasn't actually planning to join; he was simply goading Alex into talking.
This man knew more about the string of recent events and what was really happening behind the scenes than anyone else Jiha had met.
"We'll give you one of the five highest seats in Ouroboros, the seat of a King."
"Four more idiots like you? The world really has gone to hell."
He threw out the remark to gauge Alex's standing within the organization.
"Three. Many are burning with ambition to seize the one remaining seat. The Kamain you subdued, the Lungtao you fought, and the Heinrich you met all coveted that position."
He was spilling information freely.
From the way he talked, most of it was likely true.
'He has no intention of letting me live if I refuse, so he doesn't bother lying.'
As Jiha organized his thoughts, Alex spoke with a smile.
"On the day we rule this world, you will share in the glory. You can dominate the worthless masses and take any arrogant woman you please."
"I'm already doing that. Your offer is pretty weak."
"......Is that a refusal?"
Alex looked genuinely baffled.
It wasn't a pretense; he truly couldn't understand what Jiha was banking on or how he thought he could survive a refusal.
"You know you have no choice but to obey if you don't want to die."
"What was Lungtao to you?"
Jiha spoke calmly.
"Why did you kill him?"
"Because he turned his back on us. He was a man of considerable worth, so I took no pleasure in it...... but he had to be dealt with. He was using Mana, and he would have been an obstacle to handling Narsha Russellarms."
Jiha closed his eyes for a moment.
"You people forced Lungtao to hand Narsha over to you."
"Yes. I can't understand it. He would have been the closest to becoming the fifth King if he'd just earned that recognition. Why did he have to be executed for shielding a mere thing like her?"
"You'll never understand."
Jiha spoke curtly and opened his eyes.
"The most crucial factor separating a Rare Grade from a Unique is infinite Mana. You've been using that as bait to swell your ranks: promising Mana to those who have none, promising to turn them into Uniques."
"You really are brilliant. Amazing. I've never met anyone as sharp as me before."
Alex was sincerely impressed.
"Then with that sharp mind, you must understand. You have to accept this offer, don't you? If you accept and shed blood and sweat for our great cause, you'll be rewarded immensely one day. And of course, you can obtain infinite Mana for yourself as well."
"You talk a lot of shit."
Jiha laughed bitterly.
'It's true that a Unique's greatest advantage is infinite Mana. But the fact that they're trying to experiment by feeding aphrodisiacs to Uniques means... that process is still imperfect, an experimental stage. Lungtao's case proves it too. In other words, that bastard is putting on a grand show, but it's false advertising.'
When Jiha combined the intel he'd gathered with Alex's boasts, the truth was clear.
Alex's smile remained intact despite Jiha's foul language.
It was the smile of absolute confidence, a certainty that Jiha would be forced to obey him anyway.
"Given how you've constantly interfered with our work, you must know the extent of our power. And you must see how foolish it is to oppose us......."
"What are the conditions? I join and you instantly make me a diamond-tier member? Even pyramid schemes don't promise that these days."
"I don't know what that means...... but naturally, you would have to show proof of loyalty."
Alex clapped his hands softly.
"You've likely heard that a drug called Beugrara has been developed. You'll need to administer it to the Uniques around you so we can observe the effects. We want data on every species, so all of them."
"Yeah, go fuck yourself."
The instant response erased Alex's smile.
He finally realized that Jiha was genuinely refusing.
Jiha spat out a cold rebuke.
"If you're looking to line up as a guest dick, go peddle it somewhere else. What makes you think you can eye someone else's meat?"
"......Meat?"
"Those women are mine."
Jiha bared his teeth savagely.
If another male coveted his claimed prey, the only answer was to kill him.
Wasn't that the most primal of male instincts?
Kill the enemy and take the women!
"Even without those kinds of terms...... I have no intention of leaving scum like you alive. What? Become one of the five? Swear loyalty to the snake-head above you?"
There had been no prior mention of this; he was probing based on the nuance.
Alex retorted with considerable displeasure.
"......It's not a snake. It's a dragon."
"Whatever kind of reptile it is, I have no intention of letting anyone sit above me."
Jiha was aiming to stand at the top, above all others.
He had started this to change this infuriating world by his own will, without minding anyone else's opinion.
So join a suspicious organization, suck up to his superiors, and leave rivals who were supposedly his equals alive?
"Your pride is strong. But won't that very pride strangle you?"
"You're not a real male, are you."
"......Excuse me?"
"You're a eunuch, aren't you?"
Alex's face hardened.
It was the one spot guaranteed to enrage any man. Jiha pressed the attack with vicious glee.
"Isn't it more insane for a guy with a dick to obediently agree to hand over his own women?"
No real man could fail to understand Jiha's reaction.
He'd thrown that jab at Alex to test his strange demeanor, and it seemed to have hit the mark.
"Or what, are you a virgin who's never even slept with a woman? Maybe your brain hasn't installed the concept of 'my woman' yet?"
"......That's enough."
"Ah, I see. That's it. You're a bachelor who's never laid a woman. That explains why you can spout such bullshit."
Jiha shook his head mockingly.
Alex's clenched fist betrayed that he was deeply shaken.
Jiha struck the final, most vulnerable nerve.
"I bet you offered your own sister up to the organization to get in. Did you drug Gashiel and throw her to some other guy?"
"You......."
"You probably got off watching your beautiful sister get trampled and violated by other bastards, didn't you? Did you jerk off peeking through the door crack? Do you still think about it now, comforting yourself alone?"
"......You son of a bitch!"
As Alex shouted, Jiha let out a snicker.
The tables had completely turned.
"I'm a human being. It's a real problem how many people keep getting that mixed up."
"......Dagal, kill him."
Glaring fiercely at Jiha, Alex gave the order to his subordinate.
As the leopard beastman descended, loosening his fists, Jiha gauged his skill and finalized his thoughts.
'I have to assume that Gashiel Remaker, the celestial Unique, suddenly left Waris because of Alex.......'
He had roughly figured out what was in Alex's gut.
The outline of the organization behind this bastard was becoming visible too.
The leopard beastman, Dagal, bared his white teeth and lunged swiftly.
A Mana-infused one-two, which Jiha deflected with a weave, followed by a Brazilian kick that flew in naturally.
"Hmm......."
As Jiha stepped back to avoid it, Dagal twisted his body in mid-air and launched another kick.
It was superhuman martial arts, an attack made possible by adding Mana to the leopard beastman's unique agility and flexibility.
Even though Jiha blocked with his arm, the impact packed with Mana pushed him back.
"Kill him quickly, Dagal!"
At his master's urging, Dagal channeled Mana into his claws and lashed out.
A single scratch would be fatal, but Jiha had already finished his calculations.
After focusing purely on evasion and defense, Jiha lightly extended his fist. Dagal swayed his body slightly to slip it...... and in that instant, Jiha coiled the Wind Blade around his arm.
CRACK!
He had known that wrapping his arm with the Wind Blade beforehand would be too obvious a warning, so he deliberately activated his Special Ability one beat late.
"Gah, urgh......."
Dagal, his throat half-severed, looked down at his neck in disbelief, trying to press the wound with his hands.
He'd been fighting well enough, but Alex's urging made him focus too heavily on the offensive and try to dodge too casually, resulting in a fatal wound in an instant.
"Done."
Jiha spoke curtly and swept his hand horizontally.
With a sickening sound, Dagal's head shot upward, and his body staggered before collapsing with a thud.
The headless corpse leaked blood onto the expensive carpet, staining it.
"Wh-what......."
The moment Dagal fell so easily, Alex's face filled with shock.
Of course, Jiha had aimed for this exact effect, deliberately using the Wind Blade to subdue him instantly.
He'd used it twice, so with Jiha's Mana reserves, he had only one shot left. Meanwhile, an eagle beastman still stood beside Alex.
The way this one merely frowned at Dagal's death suggested he was far more skilled.
'But Alex doesn't know the exact limits of my Mana.'
He wasn't counting on the enemy falling for a bluff.
This was about definitively seizing the psychological high ground here.
'Right now, I pin him down...... but keep him alive. Let him struggle, build him up, and then devour him completely later.'
If Jiha went all-out here, using every means at his disposal, he could probably take Alex's head.
But he couldn't do that.
Jiha intended to use this situation as a justification to officially raise the banner of independence.
"Are you next?"
This bastard had lost his composure the moment Jiha mentioned Gashiel.
Jiha would rattle him, make him thrash, suck out every drop of value, and then dispose of him.