Chapter 76
Chapter 76
Ch. 76 .｡.:✧ The Clockwork City (3) ✧:.｡.
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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
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“Linda. Go make an omelette. I’m feeling peckish.”
[Command confirmed. I will make Recipe 2. Omelette.]
“This time, don’t spill the eggs into some random container and flail about in the air!”
[Unrecognized command.]
“Hey!”
As Linda left the room, and Cern’s shouts echoed,
‘Yerina came and went…?’
I was lost in serious contemplation.
I was screwed.
Severely screwed.
If you asked if I had never been screwed before, that wasn’t the case.
But this time I was screwed on a different level.
If Jill or Yulia had caught my trail, I could have accepted it.
I could have said the difficulty of running away had just increased a bit.
But if Yerina had caught on, it was a different story.
Yerina would chase me to the ends of the earth, to the depths of hell.
Constant tailing and surveillance were just the basics.
She would search for traces of me using investigative techniques unimaginable to ordinary people.
She could recognize and follow my footprints in snow or dirt paths.
She could even track me by sensing my faint scent that only beast-folk could detect.
Somehow, in 12 rounds, new methods kept popping up every time.
She was a woman with onion-like charm – peel off one layer and there’s always another beneath.
‘Could there be surveillance planted here too?’
Suddenly feeling chills and goosebumps, I hurriedly checked outside the window.
It was just dark outside, with no one visible.
But I couldn’t relax.
Earlier, when we were coming here.
I recalled a beast-folk we had encountered in an alley.
Could that beast-folk have been Yerina’s underling?
“Hah…”
When a person is gripped by fear, all sorts of suspicions arise.
I closed the curtains and turned around.
The milk was already spilled.
Yerina coming here wasn’t a future event, but a past one.
What mattered was from now on.
It meant I had to leave minimal traces in the Clockwork City.
“That woman. She wore rustic clothes as if trying to hide her identity, but she couldn’t conceal her noble aura. Living in the northern continent, it’s impossible not to recognize her face. It was definitely the Frost Duchess of Palana.”
“…”
Cern, who had taken out a cigar from a drawer and put it in his mouth, drove the final nail in.
Any attempt to run a happy circuit thinking it might have been some woman other than Yerina was blocked.
“You’ve earned the enmity of the Frost Duchess, eh?”
“Let’s put it that way.”
“Seems like a complicated situation. When I told the Frost Duchess I hadn’t seen such a man, she withdrew quietly. But she asked me to contact her if that man came.”
“It would be better not to contact her.”
“Kekeke. No need to glare so fiercely. At this point, with my mind coming and going, what wealth or glory would I seek by being an informant? Unless you’re some vicious serial killer.”
“It’s not like that…”
It was fortunate that Cern had no relations.
At this point, waiting only for his death, there was nothing to gain from getting on the Frost Duchess’s good side anyway.
Cern wouldn’t covet wealth or status.
“If not, then fine. You woke me up, so I should repay the favor. I’ll make you a magic tool, and accept a commission for the first time in a long time. And then go senile again while adjusting Linda.”
“Are you waiting for something?”
“Waiting? Me? Hah… No way. Suicide is a sin, so I’m just living because I can’t die. I’d rather just die in my sleep. Ah, don’t worry. Even if I die, I’ll definitely repay the favor before I go.”
“…”
Something felt off.
Cern had lost all of his family and quit making clockwork machines, living alone.
At first glance, he seemed to have no lingering attachment to life.
If so, there was no reason for him to feel grateful to me for curing his dementia.
There was no reason for him to repay the favor.
Could there be some circumstance requiring him to maintain his clear mind?
“I understand. The commission is for a magic tool. Here’s the blueprint…”
But such circumstances were none of my business.
After making one magic tool, I would likely never see Cern again.
Not wanting to waste time unnecessarily, I took out the crumpled blueprint from my pocket and handed it to Cern.
Though my drawing skills were crude, I could draw decent blueprints using a ruler.
It wasn’t difficult since I wasn’t creating something new, just reproducing something I had already seen.
“This is…?! Isn’t this magic that intervenes in the fabric of space-time?”
Cern’s eyes widened as he carefully examined the blueprint.
As expected of a genius technician, he seemed to have guessed what kind of magic tool it was just by looking at the blueprint.
As Cern suspected, this was a magic tool for opening holes in space-time.
It was an essential tool for going to defeat the final boss in the other world.
Originally in the story, it was a magic tool that several magicians and magical engineers barely managed to create in the very late stages.
It was one of the essential items for challenging the final boss.
In other words, it was technology far ahead of its time.
Cern had immediately identified technology that didn’t even exist at this point in time.
It was a cheatingly genius level of intellect, befitting the severe nerf of dementia he had received.
But what if you woke up Cern, who should have been babbling nonsense in a corner due to dementia, through an Easter egg?
‘I can save a huge amount of time by creating the final item in advance.’
We could skip all the touching stories about gathering the knowledge and strength of people from all over the world in one place!
Originally, it was a gimmick created for users doing speedruns…
Unfortunately, the game was ruined before anyone could do a speedrun.
Instead, I ended up using it conveniently while doing my own speedrun.
“This won’t be able to operate. I’m not very skilled with time-related magic, but I can tell just by looking at the blueprint. It’s defective.”
“I know. Please make it according to the blueprint without modifications.”
“Hah… If that’s what you want, I’ll do it that way. How strange.”
Cern looked at the blueprint again with a puzzled expression.
Cern was right.
This was a blueprint that couldn’t operate normally.
At least, not now.
To operate this magic tool, one more part needed to be collected…
I should be able to get it later at St. Francesco Fortress.
Even if not for the part, it was a place I had to visit eventually, so I could stop by there later at my leisure.
“I can get the other materials quickly… But procuring the mana stone to use as the core will be difficult. It needs to be highly pure and quite large.”
“I’ll obtain that myself.”
I knew he would get stuck there.
There was a Black Star Dungeon near the Clockwork City, so I could get a mana stone from there.
The dungeon core there was quite large and beautiful.
Perfect for use as the central core.
For a magic tool’s central core, as long as certain conditions were met, the performance wouldn’t change.
So there was no need to bother Tay, I could just have any artisan here process it.
I would plunge into the dungeon tonight to obtain the mana stone.
If I entrusted the processing early tomorrow morning, the finished mana stone should be ready by tomorrow evening.
I should be able to deliver the processed mana stone to Cern by tomorrow.
“Then I’ll proceed with the production except for the central core. It should take about three days. You need to bring the mana stone within that time. Keep in mind that I might go senile again if it takes more than a week. The last time I regained my senses, I lasted about a week, so this time might be even shorter.”
“That’s enough time.”
Last time it was a week.
How long would it be this time?
It seemed Cern didn’t have many days left to live in his right mind.
Having entrusted him with the commission, I bowed slightly to Cern and left the room.
“…”
As I was passing through the corridor after leaving the room, I noticed Linda walking down the corridor carrying an empty plate.
The clockwork doll with an expressionless face seemed soulless.
Its level of completion was truly amazing every time I saw it.
Unless examined closely, it could be mistaken for a human.
In fact, even upon close inspection, if it kept its mouth shut, it looked human.
‘It feels slightly familiar somehow. Is it just my imagination?’
Linda passed by.
I could see the messily intertwined gears moving inside her back under the maid uniform apron.
That sight made something feel like it was about to come to mind, but it quickly faded away.
Deciding not to dwell on it, I hurried my steps.
[I have completed the Omelette.]
“You fool! It’s an empty plate again! Where did you spill the eggs this time!”
Leaving Cern’s angry shouts behind, we left Cern’s house.
“I’m free now, right? That’s right, isn’t it? Huh? I can go, right? You won’t chase after me, right? Huh? Huh?”
“…”
All the way to our next destination.
It was very noisy with her chattering beside me.
If she was so curious, she could just try running away.
I wondered if her liver had jumped out of her body, as the centipede nun followed my steps diligently with her short legs, wearing a disgruntled expression.
“No. There’s still something you need to help with. I need one more favor.”
“Again?!”
The centipede nun’s shoulders slumped as she made a despairing expression.
It was such a satisfying reaction that I felt the urge to tease her more.
“You said you’d let me go if I woke up that senile old man! This isn’t right! You should let me go now! This is a breach of contract!”
“Just one more time and it’ll really be over.”
“Really?”
“Yes. Really.”
Really. Truly.
These were two words that no longer worked on the main heroine trio.
It wasn’t the first or second time I had used those two words and then lied.
Fortunately, the centipede nun seemed to be falling for it.
Of course, even after this task was over, I didn’t know if I would actually release her.
Curse casters were such a rare human resource…
Moreover, I could use her freely as I wished.
A curse caster who was a monster and thus had no human rights?
She was quite valuable.
“So what is it this time? Let’s get it over with quickly.”
“There. Do you see that door?”
“That’s… a dungeon, isn’t it?”
After leaving the city and traveling for a while, we arrived at a mountain path.
A huge stone door was embedded in a steep cliff.
Like any dungeon, it was located in a completely random place.
And in front of the dungeon were countless signposts, fences, and barbed wire.
‘Black Star Dungeon’, ‘Turn Back’, ‘No Entry’, ‘Death at Your Own Risk’ and other brutal phrases were written along with terrifying pictures.
It was a familiar sight.
I roughly cut through the barbed wire with my sword and broke through the fences as we advanced.
“Can you place a curse on this dungeon?”
“A curse on the dungeon?”
The centipede nun tilted her head in confusion.
Well, the concept of cursing a dungeon itself must be unfamiliar.
I had never done it before either.
Just as she had placed a curse on the entire train, I wondered if it was possible to place a curse on the entire dungeon to apply a debuff.
That was the idea I started with.
Of course, if this method was abused, one could also strengthen monsters by placing curses on dungeons…
“There’s no way that’s possible!”
“Just try it.”
No one in their right mind would do such a thing.
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