Chapter 56
Chapter 56
Mad Black Mage's Tower Strategy
Chapter 56
"I'm back."
Seo-jin returned to Tito's house in F district, the farthest from the engine, after leaving Primgard's central government building.
Tito greeted him warmly.
"You're back? How did your conversation with the Supreme Leader go?"
Seo-jin nodded silently and dropped the bag he had brought onto the old table with a thud.
With a heavy sound, bluish-glowing mana stones spilled out from the mouth of the bag.
"I received this from that Supreme Leader. Let's have a warm night and sleep well today."
The amount of mana stones was more than Tito's several months' salary.
Tito's eyes widened as he answered energetically and ran toward the pipe.
"Yes, yes!"
When he put in the mana stones, the pipe began to tremble and emit lukewarm warmth.
Soon the air inside the house began to warm up.
Since it was a brick house full of holes, the warmth would escape quickly, making it very inefficient, but there was no reason to worry about it.
The pile of mana stones Seo-jin had brought was enough to keep the pipe running at full blast for several months.
Tito's grandfather, who had been lying quietly in the inner part of the room, also seemed to feel the warmth and showed a comfortable expression.
Seo-jin took off his dirty outer clothes and hung them up, then prepared a late-night snack using the food he had given to Tito earlier.
This was because he hadn't had dinner while busy talking at the central government building.
'The cookies that were snacks were all picked up and eaten by Ha-yeon.'
SIZZLE-.
Along with a pleasant sound, a delicious smell filled the house.
He stir-fried thinly sliced ham in oil and poured in canned baked beans to cook them together.
In another pan, he beat eggs to make scrambled eggs and toasted several pieces of hardened bread to go with it.
With a can of corn soup warmed up as well, a luxurious table was set that would be hard to come by in this frozen land.
At the fragrant smell of food, Tito unconsciously swallowed his saliva.
Seeing this, Seo-jin gestured for him to sit at the table.
"You come and eat too."
"I, I'm fine. I had dinner earlier..."
"At most you nibbled on a few biscuits. You're in your growing years, so don't refuse and just eat. I'll bring you more food."
Only after hearing that he would bring more food did Tito feel relieved and sit down to begin eating.
Tito's younger sister also sat next to Tito, who was hurriedly putting bread and ham in his mouth, and chewed on pieces of bacon, while their grandfather, who was not feeling well, slowly received the warm soup that Tito ladled for him.
With warmth and satiety finally pervading the desolate house, it now had the smell of human habitation.
After the meal.
"Sleep well."
Since there was no spare bed, Seo-jin ended up sleeping on the table with his robe spread out.
The stains on the ceiling, the room glowing bluish in the faint moonlight coming through the cracks in the walls.
Instead of closing his eyes, Seo-jin stared at the pipe quietly emitting heat in the bluish darkness.
Ella's ominous warning from the end echoed in his ears.
She had said not to keep the steam on because dangerous substances might come out.
He had a premonition that it might not be just a simple concern.
"..."
Seo-jin summoned Baduki, instructed him to patrol around the house, then briefly closed his eyelids.
***
Meanwhile, in a records room of the central government building that Seo-jin had left.
With only dim lanterns illuminating the darkness, Ha-yeon was rummaging through Primgard's records with Ella's help.
This was both because of Seo-jin's request to gather more information and because she was personally curious.
Ha-yeon's brow furrowed deeply as she alternately checked dusty bundles of documents and old data pads.
'...This is.'
A hastily concluded Eternal Snow Ice supply contract during the gap between when Ella's father and former Supreme Leader Camel died and before the next Supreme Leader was elected.
It was a contract that even had the influence of the notorious government-led organization 'Tower Development Committee.'
In addition to this, another contract was also discovered.
It was a contract stating that under the pretext of preparing for destruction, external support items such as mana stones and food would be stored in underground bunkers within the greenhouse.
This included items that Ha-yeon had personally sponsored.
Only then did Ha-yeon realize why the lives of lower-class people like Tito weren't improving.
Even when external support increased, most of it was embezzled in the middle, so nothing was properly delivered to those who should have received the support.
It was essentially like pouring water into a bottomless jar.
"Th, this is..."
Ha-yeon's expression crumpled as she confirmed the reality.
If the records confirmed through official minutes and contracts were this bad, the corruption and conspiracies that went on secretly underwater would be beyond imagination.
She knew that the situation on the 10th floor wasn't good, but she didn't know that the support items sponsored from outside were leaking out like this.
Ha-yeon spoke to Ella as if interrogating her.
"Why didn't you tell me until now? If, if I had known this would happen..."
To this, Ella clenched her fists and slowly opened her lips.
"I didn't want to cause trouble for you."
She deliberately avoided Ha-yeon's gaze and rubbed the stains on the table with her fingertips.
After hesitating for a moment, Ella continued speaking.
"I haven't mentioned it until now, but after my father passed away, the people who had been supporting me died one by one. At first I thought it was accidents or chronic illnesses, but... accidents happened too often, too coincidentally."
Ella swallowed dry saliva and continued.
"Moreover, strange rumors began to circulate. That components of Philisia, a poisonous plant that only grows in greenhouses, were detected in those people's corpses..."
Ella's shoulders trembled.
"Even the heroes left for the upper floors, and I was completely isolated. Who was ally and who was enemy... I couldn't trust anyone."
She paused for a moment to catch her breath.
"To avoid dying, I've been surviving day by day, relying on the few citizens who support me. Even though they have powerful forces, many citizens support me."
Ha-yeon understood Ella's situation.
The mysterious deaths of her support forces.
When the upper floors opened, the strategy teams no longer had reason to stay on the 10th floor, and contact naturally became sparse as they climbed the tower.
The three families took advantage of this gap to collude with external companies and eliminated Ella's hands and feet one by one to isolate her.
Ella had endured the long cold alone with the determination to survive the clutches of the three families.
She couldn't even ask for help because she was conscious that she shouldn't get too close to Ha-yeon either.
Because if she became close to her, she would eventually lose her life to them.
"These bastards..."
Ha-yeon clenched her fists and trembled with anger.
Even if she immediately stormed into the greenhouse, dragged those guys out and beat them up, it wouldn't be satisfying enough.
But that alone wouldn't solve the problem.
Even if she completely destroyed all three families, this situation wouldn't be resolved.
As long as the Eternal Snow Ice monopoly contract remained, companies would eventually recruit someone else.
Moreover, this wasn't a problem limited to the 10th floor.
Perhaps the upper floors were in similar situations. Nothing would be solved by leading with fists.
As that supernova said, the best method would be to solve things calmly one by one.
Ha-yeon, who had been pondering what method would be good, suddenly stood up from her seat.
Ha-yeon strode out. Seeing this, Ella asked in surprise.
"Wh, where are you going?"
"To find that person. Where did you say he's staying now?"
***
CLATTER-.
Late at night. A secluded alley in F district.
With a clattering sound, an old manhole cover on the ground opened, and a man climbed out under cover of darkness.
An assassin covered in a black robe and wearing a gas mask.
As if accustomed to this kind of work, he looked around and approached the wall where the alley's pipeline passed.
CREAK-.
Then he skillfully manipulated the pipe's valve and took out a small glass bottle from his chest.
Philisia poison liquid glowing bluish inside the glass bottle.
It was a deadly poison that led to slow death just by inhaling it.
Especially if inhaled while sleeping, one would die without even regaining consciousness.
This was truly a comfortable death without pain.
It was the time-honored 'mercy' that the three families had bestowed upon reactionaries.
TAP TAP-.
The assassin tapped the bottle with his finger to spread the clumped poison liquid.
This execution target was said to be some poor person's house where a powerful stranger was staying.
Moreover, since the opponent was a stranger, they didn't know what variables might occur, so the order was to use extreme poison that could poison the entire surrounding area.
Hundreds of people would die from this incident, but he didn't feel particularly guilty about it.
Rather.
The assassin quietly muttered as he opened the bottle containing the poison.
"Death is mercy."
It might be better to die comfortably than to live suffering in such a slum for a lifetime.
It was pitiful, but what could be done. That was their fate.
It was just when the assassin was about to inject the poison into the pipe.
CRACK-.
In an instant, a hand that rushed in from a blind spot grabbed the assassin's throat.
"URGH."
The assassin struggled in pain and squeezed out his voice.
"Wh, who are you?"
The unidentified assailant, Seo-jin, lifted the assassin up and lowered his cold eyes.
"..."
Ella's warning, the former Supreme Leader's death, and now this assassination attempt.
'Now I understand.'
He also understood completely why she hadn't turned on the pipes in the government building.
What flowed through the pipes wasn't simply warmth alone.
"Whose orders?"
Seo-jin's red pupils glinting in the darkness.
Feeling that the situation was not ordinary, the assassin tried to commit suicide by biting the poison embedded in his teeth.
But Seo-jin's reaction was faster.
CRACK-.
"AAAAHHH!"
As Seo-jin's fist flashed, several of the assassin's teeth shattered with a scream.
Then Seo-jin rummaged through the assassin's mouth with his gloved hand and pulled out a small poison capsule.
A pungent smell that stung the nose.
Seo-jin crushed the capsule with his fingers to confirm the identity of the poison.
'Low-grade poison.'
Seo-jin, who was skilled with medicinal materials, rubbed his hands to shake off the poison.
Then he glared at the assassin with eyes glittering with anger and madness.
"Yes, as you said, death is mercy. But even if you die, you won't be able to escape from me."
Seo-jin growled and gripped the man's neck even more fiercely.
"URGH."
For Seo-jin, assassination attempts were something he had always experienced, so they weren't dangerous enough to worry about or something to be greatly angry about.
But this case was different.
If the poison had spread as planned, Tito and his young sister, and even his aged grandfather would have been exposed to danger.
No, with that amount, hundreds of poor people in this district would have lost their lives while sleeping.
That disgusting way of thinking that didn't care about hundreds of lives for the sake of their own purpose made Seo-jin angry.
SLAM-.
Seo-jin pushed him hard against the wall and asked.
"Whose orders?"
"I, I don't know."
The assassin tried to deny it while shaking his head.
But Seo-jin only muttered coldly as if he had expected this.
"I already know who ordered it. But I need to hear you say it with your own mouth."
"AAAAHHH-!"
As more force was added to Seo-jin's grip, the assassin's face contorted in pain.
The pain gradually intensified, and just as the assassin's consciousness was about to cut off from being unable to endure it.
At that moment, a low voice was heard from that alley.
"Ah, perfect timing. Let me join in too."
A mysterious figure wearing a rabbit mask.
She waved her hand cheerfully while leaning her back against the wall.