Chapter 175
Chapter 175
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 175
Chapter Title: Ghost City (10)
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The crow had returned.
Blackie had a thin, round glass vial tied to its new ankle. I had expected a letter, but what was this? I removed the vial from Blackie's ankle and filled its food bowl generously. Blackie quenched its thirst and filled its belly before promptly perching on the roost and dozing off with its head bobbing.
The vial was half-filled with purple powder. Unable to identify it, I turned the vial this way and that.
Lloyd, who had been watching, extended his hand.
“Do you know what this is?”
“A little.”
Lloyd replied in a reluctant tone and lit the candlestick on the desk.
“It’s best kept away.”
With that, he slowly sprinkled the purple powder over the candle flame.
-Pop, pop!
The purple powder began to sparkle and burn in the candle flame. The warm, soft orange light of the candle soon flared into a fist-sized blaze, eventually becoming a purple fireball the size of a human face.
“......”
“K-Khalid...?”
The purple fireball resembled Khalid’s head, though it was hard to make out clearly amid the flames. As I stared in a daze, the crackling purple fireball suddenly blinked open its eyes, as if a connection had been established.
-Theodore.
It was Khalid’s voice.
‘...Couldn’t you have just sent a normal reply?’
Awkwardly smiling, I looked at the fireball—no, Khalid’s head.
“Long time no see. How have you—”
-Legion?
“He’s sleeping.”
-I want to observe the molting myself and judge when it’ll happen.
“I can keep you well informed. Anyway, what I asked was...”
-Dawson. Why are you curious about those idiots?
“There’s a manor belonging to that couple in the village where I am now, and something strange is happening there.”
-Strange things? Ha! Those two aren’t clever enough to cause ‘strange things.’ Oh, Maria Dawson might at least know how to memorize spells?
“Of course, they weren’t mages as brilliant as you, Sir Khalid, but something definitely happened in that couple’s manor.”
I briefly explained the events at the manor to Khalid. He burst into loud laughter and began speaking in a snarky tone.
-Dawson. Those idiots were obsessed with worthless alchemy. But with their skills, all they could produce was brass. That’s the level of trash they were.
“......”
-From the start, only vulgar money-grubbers dabble in alchemy.
Alchemy...
El and the villagers talking about gold, and the chief’s suspicious demeanor.
“Is there no chance the Dawson couple succeeded in their alchemy?”
-Well, unless they made a pact with a devil.
I recalled the hellfire I had seen in the manor’s basement. Khalid had mentioned a pact with a devil as a joke, but considering the hellfire in the basement, it might not have been just a joke.
-I heard Maria Dawson gave birth to a child, and then the two left Solen. They must have been trying to make a fortune with alchemy in the Empire.
A child.
I thought of the child in the painting on the wall. Wasn’t it just the Dawson couple who died in the fire? But the chief’s story hadn’t mentioned any child.
“...Thank you. I think I’ve got a lead.”
-Theo... timing... I, direct...
“Yes?”
Crackle, crackle. The flames flickered, and Khalid’s voice began to cut out. Khalid’s face also blurred back into a hazy fireball.
-Damn it... connection... properly... mana... interference...
“Sir Khalid, I can’t hear you properly.”
Like a call with bad reception, Khalid’s image and voice grew increasingly fragmented. Crackle, crackle! The flames suddenly blazed fiercely.
-Theo... that place... danger...
-Whoosh!!
Before Khalid could finish, the purple flames surged high as if to devour us and vanished in a puff of black smoke.
“What the...”
Mana... interference? Just like the eerie events before we arrived in this village, was something at work again? Damn it. If Khalid were here, we might have learned more. I stared at the empty vial and let out a deep sigh.
‘At any rate, I’ve learned the Dawson couple specialized in alchemy and had a child.’
Overly mundane clues, but combining them with what I knew could form an astonishing hypothesis.
An alchemist couple, impoverished villagers, and rumors of ‘gold’ haunting the village.
I gazed at the sharp roof of the distant manor visible through the window.
‘The villagers... approached the alchemist couple because of the gold...’
* * *
‘I could have devoured those three...’
The massive green serpent filling the basement writhed in agony from deep hunger. Each twist caused green flames to leak from beneath its scales.
It had occasionally caught and eaten one or two of the foolish villagers who intruded into this manor... but that wasn’t enough. What Ronan had originally been promised wasn’t one or two people, but the entire village.
-Arf! Arf arf!
Barking echoed from outside. That damned dog was driving away another potential meal approaching the manor. What a tiresome beast.
Dogs were pointlessly loyal creatures. Just look at how even in death, it followed its master’s will. Ronan flicked out its black, forked tongue and glared upward. Whether the ghost dog had chased away the human or not, the enticing scent of a person faded into the distance.
‘If I had eaten those three...’
Those three had smelled utterly delicious. From the still-young one to the aged, strong one, and even the exotic rarity that didn’t belong to this world. Devouring them would have brought greater satisfaction than consuming the whole village. And it would have restored its ‘power.’
‘At this rate, I can’t even make contact with the Crows.’
Right now, Ronan could barely maintain its form. If that collapsed, it would return to its original place—that is, ‘hell.’ It couldn’t squander this hard-won chance to descend so meaninglessly.
The Dawson couple had been fools. That was precisely why the great Ronan, Duke of Green Scales, had let its guard down.
‘To be exact, it was that child...’
Damn it all. Green flames burst from between Ronan’s scales. As if sensing the scent, fierce barking erupted from outside again.
The reason the Crows had chosen the Dawson couple and this village was simple. A small, poor village like this wouldn’t draw anyone’s attention if it suddenly vanished. The village was the sacrifice to summon the great demon Ronan, and the Dawson couple were the conduit. Though the couple themselves hadn’t known that.
Rosalyn Dawson, the daughter of the Dawson couple, was a child whose very survival was a miracle. She could have died at birth—or been born dead—and it wouldn’t have been surprising. Her body and soul were far too frail. Yet somehow, Rosalyn Dawson lived for six years. Though she limped on one leg, she could even walk the garden leaning on the hunting dog raised in the same cradle. Yes. As the couple had clung to their lips, it was a ‘miracle.’
But ‘miracles’ cost a fortune.
The medical bills for Rosalyn Dawson were beyond what the couple’s earnings could cover. So they threw themselves into alchemy. If they could produce gold, they could afford all sorts of near-miraculous treatments from the capital. But all the couple could make was brass.
There were alchemists who passed off brass as gold and sold it. But the Dawson couple were far too naive for such deceptions.
That made them perfect prey.
The most crucial element in summoning a demon is the ‘conduit’ that calls it forth. A single point connecting hell and the world. That was what the Crows needed. Like Ravata’s cultists or Dihid’s lord. The conduit chosen to summon Ronan was the Dawson couple.
The Crows made the couple a very sweet offer. Stop relying on the gods’ ‘miracles’ and borrow the ‘wisdom’ of darkness, and their daughter would gain true freedom. Rosalyn Dawson running through the garden without leaning on the hunting dog or limping! The Crows’ promise was temptation enough for the couple.
At the same time, the Crows spread a subtle yet deadly rumor through the village. ‘The mage couple’s house holds enough gold to buy the whole village five times over.’ A rumor that this immense fortune was being lavished solely on Rosalyn Dawson. It was rumor enough to stir the impoverished, starving villagers.
‘If we had that gold, we could...’
Ronan recalled the taste of hatred spreading throughout the village and licked its lips. Swallowing that hellfire-hot rage and desire in one bite would grant Ronan power as immense here as in hell.
And then, ‘that day’ arrived.
As the Crows proposed, the Dawson couple resolved to borrow the darkness’s ‘wisdom.’ By offering half of each of their souls, they prepared to bring Ronan down. When the two slit their wrists before the altar in the basement, not blood but gold flowed out. The power to create gold! It was one of Ronan’s many abilities—the very thing the couple had desperately wished for their whole lives.
-Arf! Arf arf!!
While the Dawson couple were entranced by Ronan’s power, a horrific event unfolded upstairs. The villagers, driven mad by irrational fury, stormed the manor and found not gold, but...
-Kyaaaaaaa!!!!
Rosalyn Dawson, the daughter of the Dawson couple.
-Where’s the gold, where’s the gold!
-Where did you hide it all?
-There’s none here!
-Then...
The eyes of the villagers, gleaming with desire, turned to the young girl. Her longtime friend, the hunting dog, blocked their path, but it couldn’t withstand the onslaught of clubs.
-The gold must be in that wench’s belly.
A pickaxe raised high glinted coldly.
-Thud!!