Chapter 115
Chapter 115
Mad Black Mage's Tower Strategy
Chapter 115
"How rude. To speak such words to a lady."
Francesca the Phantom Thief, feigning nonchalance, looked around at the man before her and the carnage spread out behind him.
The completely melted altar and the Sea Dragon Tribe priests who had vanished without a trace.
Also, the red river flowing down the waterway and the Sea Folk floating here and there in between.
It seemed like the man before her had devastated this Dragon-Human Soldiers production facility.
'He already destroyed this whole place?'
At the entrance of the waterway, there was a boundary alarm that Francesca had installed.
She had rushed out immediately upon receiving that signal, but when she arrived, all situations had already concluded.
There should have been at least hundreds of Dragon-Human Soldiers, so how on earth?
Francesca was inwardly surprised but barely maintained her poker face.
'A foreigner who infiltrated Atlantis and ran wild during such ominous times.'
Moreover, if he was capable enough to subdue Dragon-Human Soldiers single-handedly and devastate the production facility, there was only one person who could be expected.
"Truly befitting of a supernova. How exactly did you do it?"
"How I did it isn't important. Why I destroyed it is what matters."
Seo-jin glared at the strange person before him.
Francesca the Phantom Thief.
He didn't know detailed information about her, but just looking at her tied silver hair and black bodysuit was enough to make assumptions.
Seeing how she appeared as soon as the Dragon-Human production facility was destroyed, she was probably employed by the Sea Dragon Tribe and the corporation.
She must be the one who stole the Tears of the Sea God too.
Seo-jin asked Francesca with a hardened expression.
"You must have known what was happening here, right? And yet you cooperated with them?"
To this, Francesca nodded.
"Well, I knew roughly. That it wasn't good work too. But whatever the client does isn't my concern, is it? I just follow the orders of whoever pays me."
"Even if it's some cruel act?"
"Yes, I'm just a tool. Like a knife or scissors. Do you blame the knife when it's used for crime?"
"......"
"And while I may steal things and subdue others, I've never killed anyone with my own hands. Not a single person. In that regard, aren't I cleaner than you who killed the Sea Dragon Tribe priests?"
Francesca shrugged as if she didn't understand what was wrong.
Whether she truly thought that way or was trying to rationalize her own actions was unclear.
'It would just hurt my mouth to say more.'
No matter what evil acts she assisted, she thought she was clean because she maintained a no-kill policy with her own hands.
There was no time to humor such sophistry.
If she considered herself a tool without will, then she should be treated accordingly.
Seo-jin gave up on conversation and resorted to force.
"Enough, just take a beating first."
Maybe her thoughts would change after getting hit.
Since he had used Transcending Heaven True Scripture consecutively earlier, using it more would be too much.
Anyway, since her body was quick and hard to hit, this was the time to win with quantity.
***
"AHHH! It hurts! Untie this!"
Before long, Francesca was hanging helplessly, bound tightly in black chains.
Her previous composure was nowhere to be found, and her whimpering was no different from a child's.
"How exactly did you develop to be so weak?"
Seo-jin asked her with a kind of admiration.
Combat ability that was hard to believe for someone in the late 200s level range.
Though her movements were nimble and fast, her combat ability wasn't high, so subduing her wasn't particularly difficult.
"You're the weird one! Why do you know everything even when I hide?"
Francesca's abilities and skills were specialized in agility, infiltration, escape, and miscellaneous skills like trap disabling.
If there was anything she could utilize in combat, it would be completely hiding her body in darkness and ambushing from blind spots.
But in front of the Eye of Insight, the ability to assimilate with darkness was completely useless.
As long as something was alive, nothing could hide its form before the Eye of Insight.
Even her quick movements weren't much help.
Seo-jin had narrowed her range of action by endlessly pouring out magic like when he subdued Se-yeon.
In the end, she became like a rat in a trap.
If she couldn't run away or hide, she ultimately had to bite the enemy, but her actual offensive capability was pathetically lacking.
At best, she could try illusions or poison, but even those didn't work on Seo-jin, who was accustomed to madness and well-versed in medicinal materials.
It was truly a perfect counter-match.
Francesca had properly met her match today.
Seo-jin grabbed both her cheeks with one hand and asked in a cold voice.
"Be quiet. Just answer what I ask. Who is the client for this job?"
"......I can't say that."
"It seems your pretty face needs to get messed up a bit before you come to your senses."
When Seo-jin raised his fist, Francesca, hanging from the iron chains, seemed frightened and struggled frantically.
"No, don't! I just got my nose done not long ago! I'll talk! I'll tell you! But instead......"
"Instead?"
"Give me the commission fee. If I spill information to you like this, I'll have to spit out everything I received from the corporation because of the confidentiality agreement. All future commissions will be cut off too. I need to make a living too."
"Hah."
She still didn't seem to grasp the situation. To actually demand money in a life-threatening situation.
It was absurd, but he decided to hear more about what she would say.
"Fine, I'll give it. How much?"
Francesca raised her voice.
"5 billion. Just give me 5 billion and I'll tell you everything. I can even stick with you and work as a double spy in reverse. How about it?"
"5 billion, you say."
Seo-jin nodded obediently.
Money wasn't that important at this point anyway.
After finishing his thoughts, Seo-jin took out several items from his inventory and stuffed them into her inner pocket.
They were expensive items he had collected while climbing to the 20th floor.
"I put in plenty. It should be worth 6 billion in goods. Since it takes effort to convert to cash too."
"Are, are you really giving it?"
Francesca's eyes widened as she gauged the items packed full in her pocket.
Since she had been stealing expensive goods so much, she seemed to immediately recognize the value of the items Seo-jin gave her.
"Yeah. Now I'm your client, right?"
"Of, of course. Order me anything."
She hadn't expected him to actually give it, but to readily pay such a large sum. It seemed like she had caught a good financier.
Francesca thought that way for a moment, but.
Seo-jin smiled wickedly and raised his fist again.
"You definitely said so earlier. That you do whatever a paying client orders, and you don't make value judgments about it, that you're just a tool."
Francesca froze as she looked at the shadow of the fist cast over her face.
"......Wait, wait. That's not what I meant."
She seemed to instinctively sense the danger, but it was already too late to be bitten.
"Fixing a broken tool is the content of this commission. And."
THWACK-.
"When a tool breaks down, beating it to fix it is the best method."
***
With black eyes and bruises all over, Francesca knelt with both hands raised up as if being punished.
Seo-jin reverse-summoned the Lich King while warning in a low voice.
"From now on, be selective about the commissions you accept. If you're short on money, contact me. I'll give you commissions."
"Mm-hmm."
Francesca became docile with her spirit broken.
Seo-jin looked at her and sighed inwardly.
'This woman was ultimately a victim too.'
While giving her physical therapy and learning about her circumstances, she really had no sense of guilt about accepting such commissions.
She wasn't a congenital psychopath or anything; the environment she grew up in as a child was itself an assassin specialist group.
Having received brainwashing disguised as education in such a place, it would be difficult to distinguish the boundaries between good and evil. She would have no resistance to receiving any commissions or orders.
However, her first execution as an assassin.
That is, during a murder commission, she was too frightened and ran away alone, which led to her current status as a phantom thief - that was Francesca's history.
Now she was using all the money she earned to help children in similar situations to hers.
At first, he had planned to half-kill her, but after hearing her circumstances, he felt sorry and went easy on her.
Since directly beating her felt a bit much, he summoned the Lich King and had the skeleton give her an appropriate thrashing.
Seo-jin released the black chains and threw her a healing potion.
"So, Nam-gung Cheon is imprisoned in the thunder prison?"
"Mm-hmm. I personally tied him up and left him there, so it's certain. Maybe he's dead by now."
"He wouldn't have died."
Because his life signs were being confirmed through the contract.
And there would be no problem with escape either.
Just in case, he had secretly attached one of his summons to Nam-gung Cheon too.
Even if it took some time, he could come out alive.
"Hmm."
Seo-jin fell into thought for a moment.
Thanks to persuading Francesca, he had gained considerable leeway in his movements.
He had also figured out the locations of the remaining Dragon-Human Soldiers production facilities, and learned that the corporation that joined hands with the Sea Dragon Tribe was the foreign giant capital Dark Rock.
At this rate, he wouldn't necessarily need to meet with Lunaria.
After pondering for a moment, Seo-jin soon made his decision.
'No, I should still meet her first.'
He could show sincerity by bringing back that Nam-gung Cheon bastard in the form of a prisoner exchange with Francesca, and there were things he could only know by meeting directly.
"Guide me."
***
The Sea Dragon Tribe's stronghold. The deepest part of the underground prison.
Nam-gung Cheon, tied up tightly, looked at the strange Sea Dragon Tribe member across from him.
"GRRRR."
Something was different from other Sea Dragon Tribe members. An appearance that somehow felt noble and a pure aura.
Though about half his body had taken the bizarre form of a dragon-human and his aura had also become murky, he might have originally been a high-ranking member of the Sea Dragon Tribe.
"Hey, hey. Can you hear me?"
The Sea Dragon Tribe member who had been groaning in pain for a while answered in a hoarse voice.
"......Who are you?"
"I'm a foreigner from outside. Who are you? You don't seem like an ordinary prisoner."
An unusual aura and appearance. Moreover, seeing how he was sealed in such deep underground, he probably wasn't of ordinary status.
"A foreigner? I, I am...... GRRRR."
The Sea Dragon Tribe member who was trying to say something writhed in pain again.
Then, as if he had lost his reason, he began convulsing wildly without being able to give any answer.
GURGLE-.
Nam-gung Cheon fell into thought watching that sight.
'If I can get out of here, I should somehow take that Sea Dragon Tribe member with me too.'
Since his whole body was grotesquely changing as if under some strange curse, if left like this, he would die before long.
'Moreover, that Sea Dragon Tribe member seems worth saving.'
Though he didn't know what crime he committed to be imprisoned, if he was a person who posed a threat to Lunaria's regime, he might be helpful in resolving this entire situation.
Of course, that was only if he could escape from this prison.
Right now, it was hard enough to take care of his own body.
'Ugh.'
Anyway, every time he followed that bastard, what kind of hardship was this?
It was when Nam-gung Cheon had given up everything and was lying flat on the floor.
SLITHER-.
Something emerged from his shoulder.
'What, what is it?'
A black form that had no fixed shape, like slime.
Soon, that slime-like thing crawled from Nam-gung Cheon's shoulder toward his wrist.
And.
GNAW-. GNAW-.
It began to gradually gnaw at the handcuffs on his wrist.
The handcuffs made of steel and Neptune began to develop tiny cracks.
Nam-gung Cheon tilted his head watching this.
'......What the hell is this?'
Where did this come from, and why was it eating the magic handcuffs?
The amorphous black slime that grew little by little as it devoured the magic handcuffs.
Though he didn't know what its identity was, it seemed like it would be tremendously helpful for escape.
CRUNCH- CRUNCH-.
'Good, keep eating it all up.'
If he could somehow deal with just the magic handcuffs, he could break free of the rest with strength.
And some time later.
CLANG-.
The magic handcuffs that the strange creature had been gnawing on came loose, and Nam-gung Cheon became free to move.
He unleashed his internal energy to release the remaining chains and shackles as well.
Then Nam-gung Cheon stretched the iron chains thin to make a lockpick and opened the prison door.
Then he approached the Sea Dragon Tribe member across from him.
"Hey, are you conscious?"
Nam-gung Cheon infused internal energy into the Sea Dragon Tribe member to boost his energy.
The Sea Dragon Tribe member who had been convulsing while making strange sounds barely regained his senses.
"Ah......"
He stared blankly at Nam-gung Cheon, then urgently opened his mouth.
"I, I am Prince Kshtra of the Sea Dragon Tribe. I was originally supposed to inherit the position of chieftain."
"Originally the chieftain? Then what about Lunaria?"
"That one is a usurper. The current Sea Dragon Tribe's hostility toward Atlantis is also because of that woman. GRRRR."
Kshtra writhed in pain.
Though he had barely regained his senses with Nam-gung Cheon's internal energy, the pain seemed to remain the same.
Nam-gung Cheon asked before he lost his reason again.
"......If you're the original successor, are there still forces that follow you?"
"If they haven't been purged. Not all Sea Dragons want Leviathan's revival. Rather than chasing past glory and making everyone our enemy, we should cooperate with each other even if it's difficult."
Leviathan? Revival?
Though they were incomprehensible words, that seemed to be Lunaria's purpose.
This Kshtra seemed to be the leader of the opposing moderate faction.
"Well, I don't know the details, but I understand roughly."
That taking this guy would be useful in various ways.
That was when it happened.
CLANK-.
The door of the underground thunder prison opened, and he felt multiple Sea Dragon Tribe members approaching.
Nam-gung Cheon had no choice but to go back into the prison, put the magic handcuffs back on, and pretend to be tied up obediently.
Then a Sea Dragon Tribe guard approached Nam-gung Cheon and shouted.
"Come outside, foreigner! Her Majesty is looking for you."