Chapter 14
The moonlight felt especially cold that night.
The familiar walking beside me spoke up from my side. "Master."
"What is it?"
"Where are we going?"
What was he even talking about? I glanced back, annoyed.
"You've been walking the whole time. You still haven't said where we're headed or what the target is."
"What are you talking about? I said just a minute ago..."
Huh.
"Did I not say it?"
"You did not."
Right. I'd been so full of thoughts about Lee Seo-ah that I'd completely forgotten.
"We're going to make money."
"Goreuk? Make money? You, Master?"
The familiar blinked his yellow eyes in open surprise, as if he'd just heard the most unexpected thing in the world.
"Why are you so shocked, bastard?"
"It is hard to believe that Master would take part in economic activity."
"And why shouldn't I?"
"After the Demon King Army was disbanded, did you not say you hated working and moved into the house of that eccentric pure-blood noble?"
"When did I say I hated working? I said I hated the shitty jobs they kept giving me."
"Even so, for a duke to freeload in someone else's house for years on end is not normal."
"You little shit. Hey, do you even understand how I feel?"
I scowled and growled at him, and the familiar answered with a proud nod.
"No."
"Then shut the hell up."
"Kuek!"
I kicked him hard, venting my irritation.
"Hmph!"
I left him flying a good distance away and started walking again.
Who in the world would choose to become a duke on purpose?
This was the head of a demon noble house I'd ended up carrying only because I'd become pure-blooded.
He had no idea how much trouble that one title had caused me.
The bastard had absolutely no sense of tact.
"Goreuk. So what made Master suddenly decide on such a grand resolve?"
The familiar asked, appearing naturally through the half-collapsed convenience store door.
Grand resolve, my ass. What the hell did this bastard think I was?
"Stop saying weird things. Food, clothes, shelter, you idiot. It takes money to eat, sleep, and dress yourself. You've been training all day every day and forgot even something that basic?"
"It is Master who is saying strange things."
"What did you say? You want to get beaten to death?"
"Why would Master need such things? You do not eat, sleep, or wear clothes, after all."
Tsk. He wasn't wrong, but hearing it put that way still left a foul taste in my mouth.
"Kuhk!"
"Not me, bastard. If we're going to raise our future daughter, we'll need money. That's why I'm heading out to hunt something."
As I stepped on him over and over, the familiar lifted his head in confusion.
"So, you are on your way to catch prey in order to make money?"
"Yeah."
"Goreuk. Gobra is puzzled. Why go through such a troublesome process?"
"What's troublesome?"
"Did Master not say after summoning Gobra earlier that you caught a rich sucker? Through that person, would food, clothes, and shelter not be easily secured without the need to make money?"
The familiar looked at me with a baffled expression.
I met his gaze like he had just asked something obvious and said, "Would I drag someone else into taking care of my precious daughter? There's meaning in raising her with money I earned myself through blood and sweat. You don't understand commitment, do you?"
This was what I was putting up with all that hassle for.
"I don't know about the sweat, but it looks like you'll spill a lot of blood."
"You little bastard. Are you going to keep saying things that are right in a way that's annoying?"
"Goreuk. In any case, I understand that Master wants to be aboveboard with that child. You are still conscientious in matters like this."
"Then what about the other matters?"
"Do not ask. If I answer, you will step on me again."
What was that supposed to mean, that he was going to say something deserving of a beating?
I had no idea whether this goblin ever learned anything at all.
All that talk about him being smart was bullshit.
After bickering our way along for quite a while, we finally reached our destination.
Most hunters usually operated to the west or east around Daejeon City, but I had come all the way down to the southwest.
According to HunterNet, the hunter-only information site installed on the Device, this area was a place people didn't usually come to.
The reason seemed to be a high-level monster farther south in Gwangju that they'd left there because it was too much trouble to deal with.
Apparently it had been sitting there as the local landlord for a full ten years.
Because of that, the whole area had turned into a monster ecosystem, and a dense green jungle stretched out before us.
"Goreuk. It feels like we've come into the West Sea Forest."
"The scale's tiny, but yeah, it's similar."
The scenery, with thick tree trunks and multicolored leaves swallowing up the ground and buildings alike, was not unfamiliar to me.
The smell, the sounds, even the quiet flow of mana felt just like the forest from my memory.
"There's not a World Tree here, is there?"
"Don't say horrifying things like that, Master."
"I'm only joking."
If that mosquito-like tree were here, Earth would already have ended.
"Hmm. Where would be good?"
I went farther inside with the familiar and looked for a suitable place.
"What are you planning to do?"
"Lure prey."
Ah, that spot looked good.
I walked toward a wide, deeply sunken stretch of ground.
Judging by the long bridge broken in the middle, this must have once been a riverbed.
It looked like it had long since dried up, buried under the thick grass growing all around it, but it was still a decent place to hunt.
I promptly tore off my right arm and threw it down below.
"Master. Why are you tearing off a perfectly fine arm all of a sudden?"
"Just watch quietly."
Snap.
As I flicked the right hand that had already begun growing back, a turquoise magic circle appeared over the piece of flesh that had once been my bleeding right arm and kicked up a strong wind.
The sweet smell of blood spread everywhere in an instant.
Before even a few seconds passed, signals began pouring in nonstop through Super Senses.
From far away, an uncountable number of presences were rushing toward that spot.
"Another stupid stunt."
"Not stupid, efficient. Want me to hit you? Speak properly."
This way, even the ones who'd been hesitating under our presence would come to their senses and charge in.
I'd turned the blood scent into something delicious with Jusu, so they wouldn't be able to resist.
"Now it's your turn."
"Goreuk?"
"Go, Bra! I've chosen you!"
"..."
The familiar looked up at me with irreverent eyes, as if to say, What the hell is this bastard talking about?
"What are you staring at?"
"Master. Are you telling Gobra to handle all those monsters rushing in here?"
"Yeah. What's the problem?"
"Of course there is a problem."
The familiar, who had been protesting so confidently, pointed at his own body and said, "I never expected Master to have any conscience, but at least give me a weapon before you order me around."
"Huh?"
Come to think of it, why was this bastard only wearing rags?
"Did you already forget?"
"...Ah, right."
Didn't I smash every sword and piece of armor he had when I killed him?
"Hey, you've got some rank under your belt. If you're the second in command of the Eighth Legion, you should be able to manage this much, damn it."
"Goreuk. Do you really think it makes sense to tell a swordsman to fight without a sword?"
Was that asking too much?
I avoided his yellow eyes, half-lidded from embarrassment.
"Ah, what's it called. That thing. You know, the one where you drop a huge sword from the sky."
"You mean Heart Sword."
"Yeah, that."
"Wasn't that the name Master gave it yourself? Try to remember."
"Oh, was it?"
"Goreuk. And you want me to use something meant for siege warfare here? Didn't you just say the prey itself wasn't the point, only the byproduct was? If I use Heart Sword, nothing will be left."
I asked him casually, while he shook his head.
"What if you control it?"
"Do you think that is possible?"
"You can't? Man, you've really been slacking off on training."
"Even if you try to provoke me, it will not work. I am not taking the bait."
Tch. I'd been traveling with this bastard for way too long.
"At this point, wouldn't it be easier for Master to just do it yourself? Why are you so desperate to get Gobra to do your bidding?"
"Hey, I want to do that too. Why do you think I called you?"
"To bully me..."
"No, you idiot!"
He was making me out to be some kind of terrible woman.
I scowled and reached out a hand to the side.
"Ukiik!? Kiiik!"
With mana, I seized one of the monsters hiding nearby and dragged it out.
"Upalukan? So there are monsters like this, too."
The familiar looked at the dragged-out creature with fascination.
Upalukan, which lived in the demon realm swamp regions, was a giant monkey monster with scales instead of fur, three eyes, bat wings on its back, and a snake's head for a tail.
Despite its ridiculous appearance, it was fairly strong and reigned as an apex predator.
"Watch closely."
The blood surge rising from beneath my feet swallowed the thrashing Upalukan in an instant.
Gurrrrgle. Hic.
The blood mass belched as if it had eaten well, spat something out, and vanished.
The familiar approached slowly, picked it up, and stared at me in complete disbelief.
"M-Master. Did you cast an illusion on Gobra?"
"You idiot, you aren't even under an illusion, so stop spouting nonsense."
"Then this is..."
"Stop denying reality. It's a Mana Core."
A Mana Core.
At that word, the familiar's eyes trembled slightly.
"How?"
"How should I know? Whenever I kill a monster, the Mana Stone turns into that."
On Earth, when you killed a monster, you could harvest a stone called a Mana Stone.
Hunters made money by selling the monster's body and that stone.
That had also been something new to me in the world of Ragnarok, and after changing careers into a hunter, I'd tried hunting outside the Wall a few times as a test.
But no matter what I did, whenever I killed one, a Mana Core came out instead of a Mana Stone.
After looking into it a bit, it seemed like Earth didn't even have a concept similar to a Mana Core, let alone the name itself.
"Anyway, that's why I'm telling you to hunt them. You sell Mana Stones to make money, damn it. Why the hell is a Mana Core suddenly showing up?"
"Is that really the problem right now?"
"What do you mean, is that a problem? Of course it's a problem."
The familiar, staring at me in utter disbelief, turned his gaze to the pitch-black orb in his hand.
"Master."
"What."
"Can this thing be used, perhaps?"
"How would I know? I haven't tried it."
Then the familiar suddenly held the Mana Core out to me.
"What, you want me to try it now?"
"Does Master not even feel curious? A Mana Core is the unique authority used by the Demon King, is it not?"
"So what? Even if it is, it's still not making money."
What was the point of having a power like this if I wasn't going to conquer Earth?
"Still, test it. Gobra is curious."
"Tsk. What a pain."
"If you do, Gobra will go hunt monsters with a branch instead."
"Hand it over, bastard."
He should've said that sooner. What a tiresome bastard.
I took the Mana Core from him, held it in my hand, and infused it with mana.
As the orb slowly turned white and began to glow, I casually tossed it to the side.
Crk-
A chilling sound soaked the air.
The light from the orb crushed the empty space, and something began to take shape within it.
"Ukiiii."
It was the very Upalukan I'd just killed.
"Ukyaak!"
"Kiiiii."
"Ukyak-ukyack!"
It had multiplied into ten.
"Oh?"
I hadn't expected it to actually work.
As a test, I gave a light gesture and ordered, "Hey, attention."
Snap.
The monsters that had been biting and tearing at each other immediately stood straight with their hands behind their backs, following the intent behind my words.
The familiar beside me saw that and covered his mouth, his eyes wide with shock.
"Goreuk. By the Demon King..."
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