Chapter 79
Chapter 79
‘First impressions matter.’
I racked my brain.
The Massacre Maniac wanted to annihilate humanity to avenge her kind. So even if I treated her well, she’d only find it disgusting.
But what if I treated her badly?
That would only make her angrier, so I couldn’t treat her this way or that.
There was a reason she was considered beyond redemption.
‘There’s only one way. I have to “tame” her.’
“Why do you think I bought you?”
“I-I don’t know. Please, spare me.”
“Don’t pretend to be scared. I can tell you’re acting. You’re the only Jewel-Kin to have survived this long, so you must have some power hidden away.”
“……”
Silphinne’s face went expressionless.
A shiver ran down my spine, but with the Black Flame Dragon’s help, I barely managed not to show it.
‘From here on, I have to get this right.’
Could a monster become friends with a human?
Impossible. It was in their genes to instinctively hate humans.
And yet, there were people who tamed monsters and made them obey.
I had to “tame” the Massacre Maniac, too.
‘It would be as dangerous as walking a tightrope, and as difficult as climbing a cliff on one leg.’
The key to taming was the carrot and the stick, but when you were dealing with a terrifying monster like the Massacre Maniac, a mere stick wouldn’t work.
I had to try something else.
Thinking back to when I’d dealt with my most difficult client, I continued.
“You want to kill me right now, don’t you? No, you want to kill every human being. Am I wrong?”
“……”
Silphinne stared straight at me.
She looked like she was thinking, What kind of dogshit are you talking about?
“Whatever you’re thinking, I don’t care. All you have to do is work for me.”
“Work?”
“Killing. There needs to be bloodshed.”
“!!”
“I plan to cover this Dark Auction in blood.”
Seeing the interest immediately well up in Silphinne’s eyes, I clenched my fist.
In other words, what I was trying now was “bait-taming.”
‘Follow me, and I’ll give you lots of delicious food, so please don’t eat me.’
At least until the food ran out, she wouldn’t try to eat me.
“Hm.”
Silphinne crossed her legs.
She’d completely dropped the tragic act.
The slave mark the Black Mages had branded on her was there, but because of her cheat ability, it wouldn’t work on her.
“What if you trust me, and I end up killing you, too?”
She smiled sweetly.
That was the crucial moment.
I had to make her see me not as prey, but as a master she should follow.
“If you want to give up on avenging your kind, go ahead.”
“!!”
“I have no hobby of keeping alive a dog that bites its master.”
Whoosh.
An intense pressure bore down on Silphinne.
Of course, it was just a bluff—but it was the Black Flame Dragon’s bluff, no less.
Silphinne’s face stiffened.
Of course, she wasn’t frightened.
In no time at all, her smile returned.
“Hehe. You’re more interesting than I expected. All right. I’m looking forward to what lies ahead with you, Master♥”
Her voice was honeyed.
Translated, it meant something along the lines of, I’ll hold back for now, but I’m eagerly looking forward to the day I get to kill you.
‘Good grief, what did I do to deserve a lunatic like that?’
The Massacre Maniac wasn’t driven by revenge alone.
She was also a sadistic murderer who enjoyed killing.
A sadistic murderer with the excuse of avenging her kind—she was practically the complete package, and nobody could stop her.
I’d dangled the bait of covering the Dark Auction in blood, so things should be all right for now.
The problem was what came after, but I had a plan for that, too.
‘First, I need to focus on stealing the Gray Sacrificial Book. It was put up for private bidding, so the winning bidder has already been decided.’
Unlike earlier, when the auction had been held publicly in front of everyone, this was a private auction conducted through the Philosopher’s Stone server.
‘The winning bidder is Fox Mask. A Level 6 Archmage who isn’t anything special. But that’s not the problem.’
I looked over the notice and clicked my tongue.
The winning bid was 3.47 million Pena. Considering its value, it had been sold for an unbelievably low price.
But that wasn’t the real problem.
‘They’ve entrusted it to the Dark Magic Tower for safekeeping until the auction is over.’
Usually, the winner would claim the item right away, but sometimes they asked the Dark Magic Tower to store it.
They were worried that another attendee might steal or seize the item from them.
In other words, I was now in a position where I had to steal the Gray Sacrificial Book from the Dark Magic Tower itself.
‘Ugh. Damn it.’
Just imagining it was horrifying, but I had to do it.
I stood up.
“Get ready. We have somewhere to go.”
I gave the puzzled Massacre Maniac a brief answer.
“We’re going to attend the banquet.”
The Dark Auction lasted a full five days.
The actual auction took place only on the first day. For the rest of the time, banquets continued day and night, with everyone eating and drinking to their hearts’ content.
‘This banquet is the real Dark Auction.’
The banquet hall had only one rule.
You weren’t allowed to harm another attendee.
The Dark Magic Tower wouldn’t interfere with anything else.
‘People pulled all kinds of tricks to “legally” steal each other’s treasures.’
To attend the banquet, you had to bring the treasure you’d won as your entry ticket.
A blatant ploy to get everyone to steal one another’s treasures.
If you didn’t want your treasure stolen, you could stay quietly in a room the organizers had prepared for you. But the banquet hall was packed with people.
They were driven by greed, hoping to steal just one more treasure from someone else, by any means necessary.
‘The Gray Sacrificial Book won’t be at this banquet anyway, but.’
As I said earlier, the winning bidder had asked the Dark Magic Tower to keep the Gray Sacrificial Book in storage.
There was no way it would show up at this banquet.
[Welcome. May we inspect the item you won?]
“Here’s the girl.”
[Yes, confirmed. Rabbit Mask has arrived! Fanfare~ Please give him a warm welcome!]
The noisy banquet hall came to an abrupt standstill.
Everyone turned to look at me.
“Rabbit Mask?”
“Who on earth is he? He paid fifty million Pena?”
“Even my master couldn’t see through Rabbit Mask’s true identity.”
“Your master is someone close to reaching the Master Realm, a Level Seven Upper Rank, isn’t he? That’s impossible. Could Rabbit Mask really be a Level Eight Transcendent?”
Their eyes were full of wariness.
Of course they were.
An unfathomable level of power.
Enormous wealth.
And on top of that, the dignity of the Black Flame Dragon.
Anyone could see I was a heavyweight among heavyweights.
Then something happened that only encouraged their misunderstandings further.
“M-Master, I’m scared. Please protect me.”
The Massacre Maniac trembled and leaned on me.
When I looked at her, wondering what she was up to, she gave me a mischievous smile.
It’s just fun.
…She had always been the mischievous type. The problem was, whenever she played a prank, blood was always spilled.
The attendees murmured at the sight of her.
“To think he broke the pride of that Jewel-Kin in just half a day…”
“They’re such stubborn bastards that they’d sooner let pain turn them into idiots than ever submit to anyone.”
“Who on earth is he? Could he be… one of the Ten Demons?”
At the mention of the Ten Demons, the hall turned icy cold.
No matter how influential these people were, the Ten Demons were not a name they could toss around carelessly.
The person who had first brought them up hurriedly shut his mouth, but by then the word had already lodged itself in everyone’s mind.
Each of them whispered under their breath.
“What kind of beings are the Ten Demons? There’s no way one of them would come to a place like this. He must have sent a proxy.”
“A proxy at that level?”
“By the way, did anyone see the Infinity Card Rabbit Mask took out earlier? The symbol on it looked strangely familiar.”
I didn’t say a word.
I don’t care what the likes of you have to say.
I left them to it, wearing an expression that seemed to say exactly that. My arrogant demeanor only drove them further into their mistaken assumptions.
It should start to bite soon.
Before long, just as the attendees began to say things like this:
“Wasn’t the symbol on that card the symbol of the King of Defying Heaven?”
“…Rabbit Mask is the King of Defying Heaven?”
That was when it happened.
A low whisper came from right beside me.
“Ban Ecclesia, what the hell are you doing?”
I turned my gaze. A noblewoman wearing a mantis mask was glaring at me.
Astonishingly, the noblewoman knew who I was!
She hadn’t seen through my mask.
“Not only did you disobey his orders, you’re actually pretending to be him? Do you want to die?”
This noblewoman, too, was a subordinate of the King of Defying Heaven!
She was the person I had been waiting for all this time.
I spoke to her.
For the record, the moment our conversation began, a magical barrier went up, so no one outside could hear us.
“Are you not disobeying the King of Defying Heaven’s wishes yourself?”
“What?”
“Coming here wasn’t the King of Defying Heaven’s idea, was it?”
I lifted the corners of my mouth and spoke the noblewoman’s name.
“Am I wrong, Witch of Cruelty, Duchess Beth?”
“!!”
That was right. Astonishingly, the noblewoman was Duchess Beth, the head of a Prestigious Magic Family.
Duchess Beth had always been closely connected to the King of Defying Heaven.
And not merely because she was a named villain.
It had to do with the King of Defying Heaven’s true identity.
The two of them were closer than anyone.
“What are you talking about?”
“Weren’t you trying to get a Brain-Activating Pill for Joanna with the King of Defying Heaven’s money? I doubt he gave you permission to do that.”
It was a medicinal pill said to increase intelligence.
Though its side effects were severe, it worked reliably, making it extremely popular among mages.
However, she had failed to obtain a Brain-Activating Pill.
“It only went for five hundred thousand Pena, and you came to the Dark Auction without even five hundred thousand Pena on you. Aren’t you a little stingy? Or is the King of Defying Heaven the stingy one? He won’t even let you have five hundred thousand Pena, despite how close the two of you are.”
“You…!”
“Enough. I’ll take care of obtaining the Gray Sacrificial Book the King of Defying Heaven commissioned. Don’t worry about it. But are you going to go back empty-handed?”
Duchess Beth fell silent.
“I’ll help you get the Supreme Clarity Pill.”
“!!”
It was a supreme elixir, incomparable to the Brain-Activating Pill.
It improved not only intelligence but overall magical talent.
It had gone for a staggering three million five hundred thousand Pena.
“How? The one who won the Supreme Clarity Pill was the Knight of the Dead.”
A Level Six Necromancer.
Duchess Beth was at a higher level, but the problem was that her opponent belonged to the Cult.
She couldn’t touch him.
“I can do it. But you’ll have to cooperate with me on one thing.”
“Cooperate?”
“Yes. It’s nothing unreasonable or difficult.”
Duchess Beth scoffed, but she couldn’t hide her interest.
“It’s simple. During the banquet, stay by my side as my partner and serve me as your master.”
“What? Do you want to die?!”
“It’s an open secret that everyone knows you’re closely connected to the King of Defying Heaven. If you serve me like I’m your master, everyone will be convinced that I’m the real King of Defying Heaven.”
Duchess Beth ground her teeth.
I don’t want to go around with you, either. I’d rather dance a sexy tango with that bald old man, Hans.
A flower in each hand, and the two flowers were the Massacre Maniac and the Witch of Cruelty.
It was truly a hellish banquet, but for the sake of my goal, I had no choice.