31
Chapter 31
The statement of declaration, completed after much agonizing.
The last thing I had to do in the Black Market was finally finished.
There were a lot of concerns about whether this would work and how Black Fang would react to the statement, but for now, all my tasks were done.
Now, all I had to do was return to Miss Rubia's mansion, which had somehow become our hideout....
'I never thought I'd get stuck on something like this.'
A very realistic problem had struck me.
Going back was fine and all, but the question was how on earth we were supposed to get there.
'There are too many people.'
With the slaves we rescued this time and the four of us, we numbered well over thirty.
Of course, taking the train back was out of the question.
It was obvious.
Everyone else had fled in terror because of the terrorist attack, but we were going to leisurely board a train after shopping for dozens of slaves?
That was practically an advertisement telling them we were suspicious and should be arrested and interrogated.
But walking back wasn't feasible either, as the distance was too great.
Plus, moving as a group of dozens of people.
There was a high chance we'd stand out needlessly and get tailed.
And if the Empire caught on,
Or worse than just catching on, if they made the ridiculous mistake of assuming we were Black Fang.
'I have to prevent that at all costs.'
I had to avoid that outcome no matter what.
So, to summarize the current situation—it was simple.
We couldn't take the train, and we couldn't walk.
But we had to get out of here fast and head to the mansion.
'......This is driving me crazy, seriously.'
My head was spinning.
The Holy Sword that had been corrupted and sliced in two, the sudden terrorist attack, the desperate struggle with Asel...
I had resolved all those countless unexpected incidents without breaking a sweat.
Yet I was completely stumped by the bizarre question of how to get home.
This is what happens when a game becomes reality. Normally, I could just click fast travel on the map and be done with it.
But without a feature like that, these were the kinds of problems that arose.......
'...Wait a minute.'
Fast travel... was it really impossible to use right now?
Of course, this damn Status Window was just flashing its usual message about resetting the Destiny Path.
Still, it wasn't like there was absolutely nothing to replace fast travel.
"Ciel... can you use something like Teleportation Magic?"
I asked Ciel.
Ciel pondered for a moment... then nodded.
I couldn't help but reassess Ciel's skills once again.
To think she could use a high-difficulty spell like Teleportation. What kind of insane talent was this?
'The companions in this installment are seriously way too competent.'
In my previous work, all my companions started from the bottom, but here, they were all total powerhouses.
Going purely by their stats, I'd even say they were closer to boss characters than companions.
"I can only send those people."
Ciel said.
Meaning she could only teleport the thirty slaves, excluding us.
However, this was completely understandable.
The difficulty of Teleportation Magic increased exponentially depending on the target.
If you could just casually use Teleportation Magic on a formidable enemy from the start, you could simply teleport them 500 kilometers into the sky and let them fall to their death.
Actually, there wasn't even a need to teleport them somewhere high to kill them via falling.
You could just cancel the spell mid-teleport and bisect them along with the space around them.
It wasn't for nothing that I'd tried to conserve the amulet Ciel gave me.
Sure, there were risks: you could only teleport to where my shadow was, and it took a long time and all sorts of materials to make.
But being able to instantly teleport someone on the level of Rien or Ciel was truly absurd.
'Maybe the Demon Ciel contracted with is actually quite useful when it comes to utility.'
The price of half her soul was definitely a bitter pill to swallow, but it seemed to be paying for itself in its own way.
Thanks to that, things became easier than expected.
'I can just take the train back like a normal person.'
Walking would take at least ten days.
Ten days was by no means a short amount of time.
We didn't know when or how the apocalypse would arrive, nor did we know what we needed to stop to prevent it.
We couldn't afford to waste time.
So, I planned to take the train again on the way back.
'......For some reason, I've got a weird feeling that a terrorist might end up riding with us again, which makes me a bit anxious.'
It was surely just my imagination.
My brain was just too deep into web novel tropes.
It was common for a terrorist episode to pop up when it came to trains, but this was reality.
How often do you actually run into a terrorist organization in real life?
My intuition must be broken or something.
I was definitely confident in my intuition, at least. But lately, I kept missing the mark.
"Should I prepare it right now?"
Ciel asked. If I gave the word, she would ready the Teleportation Magic immediately.
However, I shook my head.
The reason was quite simple.
'I need to lay the groundwork for my business.'
How could I miss such a golden opportunity?
Right now, I could take as many materials as I wanted.
On top of that, I had a workforce of thirty people.
If we were going to teleport them anyway, it was more efficient to load them up with all sorts of things to send along with them.
Well, the whole theft thing did bother me a little.
But the Black Market was already half-destroyed anyway, and the merchants had either been caught in the explosions or fled. If we just left it all alone, the Empire would simply take it.
It was better for us to put it to good use.
Actually, this was retaliation against the Empire.
Since we were diverting goods that would have gone into the Empire's national treasury, this could definitely be considered a perfect act of a Righteous Thief.
I instructed the rescued people to bring me various items.
It was time to lay the foundation for my business for free.
*****
The kids were much more capable than I expected.
Maybe it was because they had miraculously survived the brink of death, but they had more passion and skill than I thought.
A blind girl took command to sense the locations of the items, while the others went and fetched them.
The efficiency of this systematic division of labor was remarkable.
It felt like it took less than an hour for them to gather all the materials I requested.
Now we had truly taken everything we could from here.
The Holy Sword, Artifacts, materials, and even manpower. We had practically stripped the place clean down to the floorboards.
All that was left was to send the Slaves away with Teleportation Magic and for us to return to the mansion by train.
'Did she say it would take about two hours?'
It was Teleportation Magic, and one targeting a large number of people at that, so it required quite a bit more time than expected.
In other words, we had some time to spare.
I could spend that time sitting in a chair, blankly watching Ciel draw the magic circle.......
'But that would be such a waste.'
As a Korean who valued efficiency above all else, I couldn't tolerate such a waste of time.
If there was something I could do, it was better to do it.
That was why I was currently walking through the streets of the Black Market.
Most of the customers and merchants had already fled.
Still, that didn't mean there was absolutely nothing left to gain here.
'No matter what, it's just a shame to give up here.'
It might be an obsession, but since I'd come this far, I wanted to take at least one heroic character back with me as a companion.
I had rescued most of the abandoned Slaves, but nothing in this world is ever 100%.
Who knows?
Maybe there was still a heroic character waiting to be rescued right here.
'...Well, I know the chances of that are slim.'
But there's no harm in trying, right?
I had spare time anyway.
Since I had the time, I might as well put it to good use.
Even if I couldn't find a heroic character, just wandering around and finding a single useful item to take would make it worth my while.
Besides, how should I put it?
I had a strange hunch.
A feeling that I'd be lucky enough to run into a main character from the original work.
'I mean, my gut feeling has been pretty off lately, but...'
A baseless intuition filled my mind, telling me that this time, it was real.
With that in mind, I wandered around the streets of the Black Market, looking around everywhere.
Unfortunately, there was no sign of any convenient coincidences.
I ended up just taking a meaningless stroll.
Almost two hours had passed now. I couldn't afford to spend any more time here.
Eventually, I let out a sigh and headed back to where Ciel was.
......No, I *tried* to head back.
"Is... someone there?"
A voice suddenly rang out.
I turned my head to pinpoint the source of the sound.
And... my face instantly stiffened.
A blue ponytail.
A Knight with black eyes.
Everything about her appearance matched the descriptions I had read in spoiler posts.
However, no smile formed on my lips. It couldn't.
Of course not.
The person standing before me right now was the Empire's worst psychopath.
She looked like a kind and upright Knight... but she was actually human scum who committed all sorts of filthy crimes, feeling ecstasy from torturing and killing people.
In other words,
I was face-to-face with a named Villain for the first time since I possessed this body.