Chapter 244
Chapter 244
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 244
Chapter Title: I Want to Reconcile. (3)
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The head of the Batori Family, Mother Batori.
Her real name was Erzsebet Batori.
These days, she was a powerful black mage who based her craft on blood magic and stood in opposition to the Human Flesh Chef, but originally, she hadn't been a black mage at all.
Hard to believe, but it was the unvarnished truth.
Erzsebet Batori had started out as a mage.
Not just any mage, either—she was the heir to a mage family of some note in the central continent.
Though her family wasn't famous, thanks to the geopolitical quirks of the central continent and the catastrophic existence known as the Pied Piper,
setting aside their low profile, the Batori Family could be called remarkably prescient even by today's standards.
They had recognized the connection between magic and black magic—fields no one even discussed together back then—and were the first to grasp the immense potential rewards of mastering that link.
Sure, in the process, their reputation suffered as they gathered and studied black magic knowledge, but their research had undeniably progressed in a positive direction.
Had her family continued their work smoothly and borne fruit, they might have gone down in history. Or perhaps they could have migrated to 'Galos' or 'Landa' and ushered in a new era of glory.
But none of that happened.
All because of the Human Flesh Chef... and Batori's love for that Human Flesh Chef.
No one but the parties involved truly knew how the Human Flesh Chef had approached her or how Batori had fallen for him, but
one thing was certain: Batori had loved him so deeply that she'd been deceived, and in the process, she—and her entire family—had been dragged into disgraceful ruin.
Though Batori herself had survived.
And so, Batori had sworn never to forget.
The rage she'd felt back then.
The humiliation.
The sorrow.
The sense of betrayal.
Batori had used the scraps of family knowledge she'd barely managed to salvage to miraculously revive her dying body.
And with nothing but revenge in her dreams, she'd cast aside her identity as a mage and survived in the underworld.
Even making deals with demons and abandoning her humanity in the process.
It had been an excruciatingly lonely and harsh time, but Batori had never flinched. Ever since resolving on revenge, there had been nothing left to fear.
...That had certainly been true. There had been nothing to fear. But in this moment, Batori suddenly remembered the fear she'd long forgotten.
"D-don't come any closer!!"
Her four limbs severed, Batori crawled like a bug and screamed.
It was an ugly sight, but in the face of death's terror, such things meant nothing.
She tried to reattach her limbs, but they wouldn't stick.
The blade Dave had swung seemed cursed; it allowed no regeneration, no recovery.
She couldn't even analyze the cause.
Except for one thing.
'As long as that guy's alive, I'll never recover.'
Plunged into panic, Batori looked up at Dave.
A young man in his early twenties, barely making a name for himself.
"Mother Batori. After severing the limbs... what comes next?"
Batori felt terror at the sight, followed by a crushing wave of humiliation.
As if her tragic past, her rage, hatred, efforts—all of it—had been denied.
So Batori tried to suppress her fear and kill the thing before her. To prove her life's worth.
"Gr... graaaah!! Die!!"
Though her limbs were gone, she could still control blood.
Reacting to her will, the blood around her coalesced into a massive blade and flew at Dave. He raised the black light blade in his hand to counter it.
He clearly had no sword experience, just standing there blankly swinging it, but astonishingly, it traced a beautiful arc and effortlessly sliced the blood blade apart.
Far too effortlessly.
"........."
The blood blade crumbled powerlessly.
Batori could say nothing at the sight.
It was too unreal.
For her lifelong research in blood magic to be nullified by a pathetic blade fueled by a mere handful of emotions and the slightest 'irritation' from a shaman... it wasn't right. It was utterly absurd.
"Mother Batori?"
Dave called to her again, and Batori looked up.
Perhaps from terror, his form distorted, resembling something inhuman.
"After severing the limbs... what comes next?"
"Ur... uuur... uwaaaaaah!!!"
Driven by fear, Batori let out a monstrous screech, and the blood responded. From the hole-riddled ceiling and walls poured the commander's blood, assaulting Dave.
Transforming into dozens of blades and spears, bullets, bombs, flames, frost, lightning, poison.
Dave countered each with subtle swings using only his shoulder, elbow, and wrist, rendering every blood-formed attack futile.
Blades crumbled, spears snapped, bullets and bombs disintegrated, flames and frost and lightning and poison fell silent.
She couldn't accept it. Couldn't possibly accept it. Wasn't this too unfair? Just 'genius'? That commonplace label?
Faced with this overwhelming absurdity, Batori mustered her last strength and summoned a 'Blood Balloon' using the scant blood she had left.
Her blood creature that preserved vast amounts of blood fresh.
The massive, boil-like blood balloon shuddered violently—then burst with a pop!, spewing forth a torrent of blood.
Whoosh! Splash!!
Batori used that blood to summon another 'Blood Balloon,' repeating the process several times.
Until the space was filled to the brim with blood.
At this scale, she might land a solid hit while avoiding that blade...
"...Huh?"
Batori blurted out in a dumbfounded expression.
She had meant to form spears and blades from all sides to impale the enemy before her, but the blood lay still, unresponsive.
'No... it's not unresponsive... it's been stolen!'
Batori shifted her gaze from the silent sea of blood to Dave.
A small droplet of blood danced in Dave's hand.
"...So that's how you control it."
Watching the tiny droplet move with exquisite precision, Batori was struck speechless once more.
One shocking event after another—her brain couldn't process it.
"How...?"
"Pardon? Ah... my blood got mixed in too."
Dave showed the blood trickling from his wounds.
"So I figured I'd give it a try... and it worked?"
Dave flicked his finger. The blood sea between him and Batori parted like the Red Sea, forming a path.
Step by step, Dave—no, the unknown entity—approached. Batori stared blankly, breathing raggedly.
Overwhelmed by dread, the rage, humiliation, sorrow, and betrayal she'd vowed never to forget faded into obscurity. Only the primal urge to survive against this being dominated her mind.
"Rec... reconci—"
Slash.
Dave swung his arm, and Batori's gaze suddenly tilted sideways, her head rolling away.
With it, her viewpoint dropped, and she saw her own body.
Her headless body.
"...Hm."
About ten seconds after decapitating Batori, Oliver scratched his chin and let out a groan.
Now that it was done, a twinge of regret washed over him.
Come to think of it, there had been so much he could have asked.
About blood magic, the Human Flesh Chef, or even the School of Life...
"Or about the Clock Doomsday Theory... Hmm..."
Oliver sighed again. Why hadn't he thought of that? He felt foolish.
He hadn't even needed that final blow...
But what was done was done. Oliver set aside his regrets for the moment and focused on what he could do now.
First, he looked around for the quarterstaff he'd dropped.
Luckily, it was nearby. Oliver retrieved it and extracted the emotions and mana from the pooled blood on the floor. Then, using the blood puddle, he ascended to the lab above.
The place he'd first reached via the blood puddle: the secret lab. Oliver opened the magic pouch at his waist and pulled out a large leather case.
A leather case containing Bigmouth. Oliver took out the folded Bigmouth and set it on the floor.
Bigmouth swelled like rising dough, its many eyes blinking open as it croaked at Oliver like a toad.
"Croak? Croak croak?"
"Not a new home—this is just a business trip. No time to waste, so could you get right to work?"
With so much to do this time, Oliver pulled a 100,000 Landa bill from his wallet.
Bigmouth, rarely seeing such high denomination, nodded eagerly in delight.
After swallowing the 100,000 Landa bill, Bigmouth followed Oliver's orders and devoured every corpse in the secret lab.
The female black mage from Batori Family with her head smashed, the pig-headed homunculus-C03, and the various other test subjects.
There were fewer than ten usable female black mages, and only about a dozen School of Life test subjects, so it didn't take as long as expected.
It felt like all the useless ones had been discarded.
"Still, better take what I can."
Thinking of future utility, Oliver kept gathering.
After a while, Bigmouth stopped and addressed Oliver.
"Croooak... croak. Croak."
Its belly was full; it couldn't eat much more, Bigmouth said.
Oliver was a bit surprised, but on second thought, it wasn't so strange.
From the early days of his fixer work until now, he'd fed every trophy to Bigmouth, so the accumulated volume was immense.
No matter how big Bigmouth was or how much it could hold relative to its size, it wasn't infinite.
Oliver pondered, then asked,
"Could you maybe squeeze in ten potion bottles this size and one more body?"
"Croooaaak......"
Bigmouth hesitated, looking strained. Oliver persuaded it.
"I'll give you another 100,000 Landa bill."
"Croak!"
Bigmouth readily agreed.
Sploosh!
Using the blood puddle with Bigmouth in tow, Oliver descended to the lowest floor of the chimera lab.
He wiped the blood from his face, then levitated the sack over his shoulder with mana, opened a flask, and filled it with Batori's blood.
The flask filled in an instant.
As pre-instructed, Bigmouth swallowed the flask brimming with blood, then regurgitated something.
It was a massive hammer wrapped in bandages—a trophy from his past fight with the Human Flesh Chef's disciples.
Oliver unwound the bandages, revealing a hammer of white bone overlaid with vivid crimson flesh.
Out after so long, the crimson hammer wriggled happily, and worm-like mouths sprouted across its surface.
Sniff. Sniff. Sniff. Sniff. Sniff. Sniff. Sniff. Sniff. Sniff. Sniff. Sniff. Sniff. Sniff. Sniff. Sniff. Sniff. Sniff. Sniff. Sniff. Sniff. Sniff.
The hammer parted its new mouths greedily, inhaling the scent of blood, then conveyed its thirst to drink.
It couldn't speak, but Oliver felt it through his grip.
"Want to drink?"
The wriggling served as affirmation. Oliver whispered,
"I'll let you. Can you do me one favor later?"
The crimson hammer agreed readily.
Oliver tossed it into the sea of blood, and the hammer drank frantically, like a wanderer finding an oasis in the desert.
Endlessly.
Slowly but surely, the blood filling the floor receded, and Oliver spotted Batori's corpse—four limbs and head severed.
"Ah, gotta take this one too."
So saying, Oliver called to Bigmouth.