The Butcher's Pride
As the carriage rolled into the disassembly yard, a wave of scorching heat and the metallic tang of blood hit me square in the face. At the boss’s signal, his wife and two daughters—who had been lost in idle curiosity—shifted their expressions in an instant and gathered at the workstations. What had looked like an ordinary family transformed into a razor-sharp team of veteran butchers the moment a monster carcass became their next job.
“Alright, let’s clear the first wagon! Hook up the pulley!”
At the boss’s command, the yard’s pulley screamed into motion. Thick iron chains rattled upward, and the Twin-Head Ogre’s corpse thudded heavily onto the dissection platform. The sheer mass could have been five grown men combined, yet the boss paused before picking up his blade. He studied the cross-section of the carcass with careful eyes.
“Spend your whole life carving up monsters and you start reading the hunter’s skill and temperament just from the body. But this… this is disturbingly, almost grotesquely efficient.”
The boss pointed at the cut surface sealed with coagulation powder and continued.
“I’ve been in this business since I was a boy, trailing after my father. We’ve handled creatures taken down by Mithril-rank adventurers and even the legendary hunters of the empire. But no one—not a single one—has ever hunted with this level of efficiency. The obsession to waste not one drop of mana bleeds from every knife mark.”
He adjusted his grip on the blade and swallowed. His gaze remained fixed on the sealed cross-section I had prepared.
“Normally, even Twin-Head Ogre blood scraped off the floor and wrung from a rag becomes a vitality tonic that nobles go crazy for. The mana in it is that potent. But this…”
When he pried away a tiny piece of powder with tweezers, a shockingly vivid crimson liquid shimmered beneath.
“By sealing the surface instantly with this powder, not even a trace of internal mana has evaporated. This isn’t mere blood—it’s practically a jewel of concentrated mana in liquid form. In all my years, I’ve never seen a premium product like this.”
The boss glanced at me with eyes full of awe before readjusting his knife once more.
“Thank you again for saving our family from ruin. I will carve out this precious commodity with my life on the line.”
Schlick. Schliiick—!
At the boss’s signal, his wife and daughters moved like machines. As he made a precise incision into the swollen aorta, the suppressed internal pressure exploded outward in a gush of dark crimson fluid. Thanks to the powder, the blood had been preserved at near-fatal pressure—like a taxidermied specimen. The daughters allowed not a single drop to spill, efficiently collecting it into dozens of silver vials. Next, three bottles of concentrated serum and an undamaged white nerve bundle were extracted from the heart junction.
“Now for the real one! Second wagon—everyone on it!”
The moment the upper body of the variant Three-Head Ogre was revealed, the air in the disassembly yard grew even hotter. Even though it had been severed at the waist, the torso alone dwarfed the normal adult specimen they had just processed. Its volume was like moving an entire two-story living room. The boss’s family began breathing harder.
The boss examined the three heads and swallowed dryly.
“How bizarre. Malice, blankness, rage… even in death, each face shows a different emotion. I’ve never seen an ogre with such expressive features.”
He swept a hand over his chest in relief at the sight of three distinctly different faces on the dead monster. His wife—who had received the priest’s blessing I mentioned last time—had regained much of her color and was performing her role with practiced skill.
“Your wife’s complexion has improved considerably.”
The boss finished his final preparations for the main work.
“Truth be told, she nearly died from the curse embedded in the last monster carcass. I suspect the rival workshop, Golden Scales, had a hand in it. Thanks to Lord Victor, we’ve protected this four-generation business. I will carve with my life on the line.”
He’s putting his life on the line quite a lot.
Schlick. Schliiick—!
The variant’s hide was three times thicker than a normal Twin-Head Ogre’s. When the boss drove his blade in with his full weight, thick blue veins as wide as a grown man’s thigh tangled into view. At his instruction, the daughters used red-hot silver tongs to clamp the vascular junctions extending from each of the three hearts. The central “triple convergence point” bulged outward with a deep indigo glow. The boss pricked the vessel wall with the tip of his curved blade, and the suppressed liquid burst forth.
It was far thicker and darker than ordinary ruby blood—viscous fluid like the molten core of a crimson sun. If normal blood was water, this was ultra-concentrated syrup. Where a regular specimen had yielded only three bottles of concentrated serum, the variant produced a staggering nine. The lower-body dissection proceeded smoothly as well, filling dozens more silver vials with heavy blood. Finally, the boss’s wife split the cartilage with a bone saw, revealing a bundle of white nerves that emitted a faint phosphorescence. With a steady rhythm, the boss pulled the strands free. They came out with wet crunch, snap sounds, like steel wire under tension.
The lower-body work was easier compared to the upper. Unlike the torso, which housed the major organs, the lower half was mostly muscle and thick vessels. The boss skillfully filled dozens of silver vials with the massive quantities of blood that poured out.
“…It’s done. Lord Victor, this isn’t butchery—it’s art. The empire has never seen serum like this.”
I inspected the box containing the nine bottles of variant serum and the nerve bundle. The pulse of mana inside the vials tickled my palm.
“What’s the disassembly fee?”
At my question, the boss wiped his hands on his blood-stained apron and answered carefully.
“Normally, a Twin-Head Ogre costs one gold coin. A variant is more difficult, so three coins—triple the rate. However…”
Instead of replying, I tossed him a heavy pouch. The metallic clink from inside was anything but ordinary. The boss opened it cautiously, and his eyes widened.
“Ten gold coins. Lord Victor, this is too much…”
“Consider it payment for the show. I saw something valuable.”
If you’ve witnessed a rare sight, you ought to pay for it.
The boss bowed deeply, almost folding in half with gratitude.
“I will never forget this kindness. The next time Lord Victor brings something, I will carve it with my life on the line.”
I glanced at the massive piles of meat still on the platform.
“Are these leftover byproducts useful?”
“Of course. The hides become armor, the bones become alchemical ingredients. Especially this variant—it’s so grotesque that if you stitched the upper and lower halves together and displayed it as taxidermy, it could easily fetch hundreds of gold coins a year.”
The boss laughed lightly, but his expression soon turned bitter.
“But right now it’s just a pie in the sky. As you know, Golden Scales has completely blocked our sales channels. Even if someone wanted to buy, we have nowhere to sell…”
“If I bought both the basilisk and the two ogre carcasses outright, how much would it cost?”
The boss answered cautiously.
“Considering the volume and the variant’s special nature… at the very least, a thousand gold coins. But as I said, we have no place to sell, so…”
I cut him off.
“I’ll open the sales channel for you.”
I peeled off my leather gloves and spoke indifferently. The massive remains of the variant Twin-Head Ogre still steamed faintly on the platform.
“So you will purchase these carcasses. There’s no need to pay immediately. Once the goods are sold, settle forty percent of the profit with me. Use the rest as operating capital.”
The boss’s face instantly flooded with shock. He nearly dropped the boning knife in his hand as he stared at me in a daze. It wasn’t simply the outrageous offer of leaving him sixty percent of the profits. For a man on the verge of ruin under Golden Scales’ pressure, guaranteeing both distribution and profit was the same as forcibly breathing life back into a family business that had been hacked to pieces.
“How… could you go so far…”
Goodwill can exist in a transaction. But it must never become the main driver.
In my previous life, I had been a devil who swallowed giant corporations under the name of M&A, wringing blood and tears from countless people. This sweet proposal was nothing more than a meticulously calculated move to bring the boss’s entire workshop under my trading company.
I stared straight into the boss’s sweat- and blood-streaked face and drove the point home.
“There is, however, one condition.”
I brushed a few drops of blood from my sleeve and added,
“Incorporate your disassembly yard into my company. From now on, you will no longer operate as an independent contractor. You will move as my company’s exclusive dissector.”
At the blunt declaration, the boss’s body stiffened as if struck by lightning. The gratitude in his eyes instantly swirled with complex calculations and resistance. He gripped the blood-stained knife handle so tightly his knuckles turned white and finally spoke with difficulty.
“Lord Victor… this is a proposal more precious than life itself. But this place is my pride, passed down from my ancestors. Submitting to someone else would be the same as breaking the creed of a dissector that lives in the tip of my blade.”
Exactly the stubbornness I expected. The pride of a craftsman as hard as the calluses on his fingertips.
I met his logic head-on with a chilling smile.
“Creed?”
I picked up one of the ruby-colored serum bottles from the platform. Swirling the brilliantly shining liquid, I murmured quietly.
“When Golden Scales planted a curse on your wife and cut off your children’s meals, did that creed of yours act as any kind of shield?”
The boss lowered his head as if he had nothing to refute.
“Inheriting the family business isn’t about clinging to a pride that has nowhere left to protect. It’s about continuing to use the skills you inherited and keeping your family alive.”
I set the bottle down and tapped his chest with a finger.
“If you come under me, I will crush anyone who picks a fight with this workshop. Focus solely on dissection. Isn’t that the most brilliant way to preserve the family craft your ancestors protected?”
The boss’s breathing stopped for a moment. My argument had no gaps, and the reality choking him was like a noose tightening around his neck. Caught on the razor’s edge between pride and survival, he kept his head bowed for a long time, staring only at the dark red stains pressed into the floor by decades of monsters. They were medals left by the creatures that had passed through this workshop—and indelible traces of the family legacy that no amount of scrubbing could erase. The reality he faced was a precarious cliff edge that looked ready to collapse at any second.
“…Could you give me time to think?”
He spoke with great effort, looking at me with the expression of a man reviewing his entire life.
“This is not something that can be calculated with money. It is the very framework that has supported me my whole life. Once I’ve整理 my thoughts, I will give you my answer, Lord Victor.”
It was only the other day that this unbending creed nearly cost him his wife, his children, and the workshop his family had run for generations. An unyielding tree will eventually snap.
“Do as you wish. But I won’t wait more than a day for my offer.”
I confirmed that the basilisk and Twin-Head Ogre parts had all been loaded into the carriage, then climbed aboard. I indifferently shook off the heavy gazes and farewells from the boss and his family behind me. If he refused, I could simply find and train a replacement technician. If he accepted, I would obtain a skilled disassembly yard at a bargain price. Either way, my mental calculator showed no losses.
When the yard’s doors opened and the empty cargo wagon creaked its way outside, the children who had been loitering nearby all lifted their heads at once. Like me when I had chased after the disinfection cart in my youth, their eyes sparkled with anticipation for another grand spectacle. But upon seeing the empty wagon with nothing but bloodstains left behind, their faces quickly filled with disappointment.
“Aww, what? It’s already all gone inside?”
“Hey, did you see that thing with three heads earlier? It was seriously this big! Bigger than the city gate!”
“You didn’t see it properly? It was bigger than the gate, right? And those fingernails looked like knives this long! If you had just one, you could probably take down a dragon.”
“Idiot, that uncle already caught them all. Did you see the veins on the back of his hand? One casual swing and an ogre’s head would fly right off.”
The children filled in the battle they hadn’t witnessed with wild imagination, bickering among themselves. Some argued over the size of the ogre’s claws, while others elevated my strength into the realm of myth, watching the departing carriage with regret. In the end, like children disappointed by a disinfection cart that had already finished spraying, they brushed the dirt from their clothes and trudged back home.
Rattle, clatter.
The now-empty carriage had grown lighter, yet the weight of the memories it carried felt heavier than ever.