- Item Presentation (6)
Somehow or other, the matter of the brand Items was resolved nicely.
Melian seemed quite satisfied with this luxury-branding plan.
Well, naturally.
This had been modeled in part after the methods of famous luxury companies back on Earth.
There was just one thing that worried me.
A lot of what I had shown today resembled things from Earth.
Alterisha’s presentation had copied that of the famous CEO of the ‘Half-Eaten Apple’ company, and the luxury goods with just a few lines drawn on them had also been modeled after Earth luxury brands like ‘Samseon Brown’ and ‘Tomdidas.’
In particular, one of Flame’s settings was that she was fanatically obsessed with the CEO of ‘Half-Eaten Apple,’ so the moment she saw this, she’d probably start getting suspicious about where I came from.
‘Well, it can’t be helped.’
Honestly, the reason I’d said we should each keep fifty percent of our secrets was because the Narrative Force was forcing me to keep them secret.
My level of trust in Flame as the protagonist had already become pretty high, to the point where I sometimes thought maybe it would be all right to trust her and tell her my secrets.
[There is insufficient Narrative Force for that.]
…The problem was that damned Narrative Force kept interfering every time.
“All you need to do is sign here.”
The contract process turned out to be a little more complicated than I’d expected.
A lawyer from Starcloud came out and rambled on and on about all sorts of things, then thumped an entire stack of contracts down on the desk—bang!—and honestly, it scared me a little.
Thankfully, however, the Alterisha School already had a capable lawyer on hand.
With his help, I was able to complete the contract safely, and…
“Waaaaah!!”
“Clap clap clap clap!!”
Right at that moment, tremendous applause and cheers burst out from the grand hall where Alterisha was giving her presentation.
She, too, had successfully finished her part.
Now even ordinary people with absolutely no specialized knowledge understood it.
Just how revolutionary the technology called Item was,
and how enormous its influence on modern society would become.
Everything had now wrapped up perfectly.
What a relief.
I won’t have to stress over this anymore.
It would be nice if I could think that, but even now, that young lady over there is staring holes through me, and it’s pretty burdensome.
Zeliel.
Around her body, something like a yellow current was flickering.
Those became hints and told me a piece of information.
[Suspicion]
She was harboring doubts about me.
Thanks to the derived trait [Mentalist] from Crimson Spring March, I could tell.
Even without that trait, I probably could’ve guessed she was suspicious of me just from that expression on her face, though.
Most likely… and this is only a guess, but Zeliel’s trait [Value of All Things] probably won’t work on me.
How do I know that?
Because even in the game, when Zeliel encountered Flame, her ability completely failed to function.
I don’t know the exact reason, but maybe it’s because Flame and I are people from another world.
Anyway, by now, Zeliel is probably watching for a chance to kill me.
Of course, no matter how much of the Starcloud chairman’s daughter she is, she can’t just casually assassinate a Stella cadet.
Even in the original game, she couldn’t assassinate Flame directly, so she instead tormented the player in all kinds of external ways.
And on top of that, I’m not just any ordinary Stella cadet.
I’m the co-developer of the Alterisha School.
She won’t be able to torment me the same way she did back then, but there’s a good chance she’ll come up with methods that are even more intelligent and even more annoying.
I should make my move before that happens.
The best method would be the strategy the players planned when they had no choice but to become even more vicious and ruthless than the villainess in order to deal with that wicked villainess—
‘Seduce the Dad!’
—but there was no way I could do that, so I had to think of another method.
I know the knowledge of the original game well, and I also know exactly what it is that Zeliel is desperately searching for right now.
‘The ruins of Ancient Carmenset.’
A dungeon that barely even appears properly in the main episode, more like a subquest than anything else.
‘Defeat the soul of Carmenset in Soul Chess, and I shall bestow eternal light upon you.’
It was a kind of legend that left behind a vague phrase like that, and that ‘eternal light’ literally meant ‘immortality.’
Still, as is so often the case in movies and novels, no one was going to hand out immortality for free.
In most cases, you lost your physical body in exchange for living forever, and in others your soul was forcibly taken by the Reverse Side, or you ended up being controlled.
Anyway, that was a problem for later.
What mattered right now was the fact that Zeliel was absolutely desperate about the ruins of Carmenset.
To begin with, she wouldn’t even be able to win a Soul Chess match against Carmenset…
and even if she did win, there would be nothing at the end but ruin, so it might honestly be better if she failed.
‘I can use this.’
If I take hold of the important information and keywords related to the ruins of Carmenset and wave them in front of her, I should be able to prevent at least some of Zeliel’s bullshit.
But before that, I was slightly worried.
Until she discovered the Carmenset ruins, I wouldn’t be able to stop Zeliel from tightening the noose around my neck…
Right then, for some reason, Zeliel suddenly smiled.
“Oh, right, Father. The gift we prepared.”
“That’s right. I almost forgot.”
When Melian gestured behind him, the lawyer stepped back and several large men came in carrying something like gift boxes.
“These are gifts we prepared as a token of goodwill. If they are too burdensome…”
“Oh no, you really didn’t have to.”
I hurriedly accepted the gift box before they could take it back.
It didn’t seem polite to open it right away, so I judged it by feel.
Thin, and long.
It probably didn’t contain gold bars, but at the very least there had to be a premium beef set inside. Or wild ginseng roots. Maybe even something better than that.
‘Did they poison this or something?’
As my suspicion of Zeliel deepened, she took out one more small box from her arms.
She held it out to me, and when she opened the lid, a pendant set with a pearl appeared inside.
“It’s a necklace made from a processed mermaid’s tear. This is my own sincere goodwill. Would you accept it?”
Zeliel said that with a bright smile.
It looked suspicious as hell, but for the moment I accepted it and checked it.
[Mermaid Pearl Pendan— bzzzt!]
[…Soul Orb]
As expected, it was an object whose original appearance and performance had been hidden with magic.
It looked to be magic of a pretty high level, but it wasn’t enough to deceive the Bulbul Glasses.
But what did I just see?
‘Soul Orb?’
It was one of the divine relics of the World Tree, a pearl with the ability to discern the soul of whoever carried it.
But other than that, it didn’t really have any other function…
Did pearls secretly come with a function that dried people to death or something?
Just in case, I checked it again through the Bulbul Glasses, but it really did have exactly the performance I knew it to have.
“If you wear it for one month, your eyesight becomes permanently clearer, and your body fills with vitality. It’s incredibly rare and expensive, but I’m giving it to you specially. Please, do accept it.”
One month.
The moment I heard that phrase, I understood.
For some reason… Zeliel wants to use this orb to test whether or not my soul has been corrupted.
And that smile of hers had just deepened.
Heh.
She probably seems convinced that my soul is corrupted.
If she’s right, and my soul really is corrupted…
then one month from now, the color of the orb will deepen, and I’ll be summarily executed on the spot.
Because the corruption of the soul is equivalent to being a dark mage.
But I’ve got nothing to worry about there.
To begin with, my soul has been dyed deeply by Iphanel, so what will come out is a bright, vivid white of pure goodness.
‘What the hell? This is what she went to all that trouble to prepare?’
I don’t know how she managed to obtain a Soul Orb, but…
“Thank you. May I put it on right away?”
“Yes, of course.”
If the plan she went to such lengths to set up is something this pathetic, then I’m only grateful.
After sending Melian and Zeliel off, I immediately went to find Alterisha, who had just finished the presentation.
I wanted to hear how it had gone from her, maybe get some afterthoughts and the like, but…
“Doctor Alterisha! Just one word, please!”
“Over here! I’m Doctor Lenok of the Freton School! Doctor Alterisha! About that meeting we were supposed to—”
“Please, give me the opportunity to conduct research with you, Doctor!”
Noisy, chaotic, a complete mess.
That was because an enormous crowd had surrounded Alterisha.
‘This is hopeless.’
Thankfully, the burly mages guarding Alterisha were keeping the line firmly drawn, but for a while, things were clearly going to remain like this, so it didn’t look like I’d be able to meet her separately anytime soon.
‘Still…’
With the Bulbul Glasses on, I quietly looked around me.
Above the heads of certain individuals, numbers floated.
[Dark Magic Corrosion Rate: 49.99%]
[Dark Magic Corrosion Rate: 49.99%]
[Dark Magic Corrosion Rate: 49.99%]
I couldn’t distinguish those who had merely been splashed by the seeds of dark magic, like Hae Wonryang or Arshuang,
but those who had chosen of their own will to become dark-magic contractors could be identified easily enough through the Bulbul Glasses.
There were quite a lot of dark mages gathered here who had suppressed their corrosion rate at 49.99% and concealed their own power.
That said, they wouldn’t be able to reveal their true abilities.
The moment they released dark mana, their heads would be cut off by the magic warriors already on standby before they could even return to their original forms.
There would certainly be many casualties, but since they’d also lose a large number of dark mages capable of controlling their own emotions and dark mana, the losses would be even greater on the side of the Dark Union.
Those guys absolutely would not make any reckless move, go berserk, or rampage.
Which brings us to the question.
Why had those dark mages come all the way here while hiding their identities?
“Doctor Alterisha! Please give me the opportunity to do research with you!”
That’s right.
As ridiculous as it sounds, the dark mages were trying to infiltrate the Alterisha School and steal her technology.
I’d love to point at them and go, “That bastard’s a dark mage,” and have them all wiped out, but I’ve got no proof.
With current technology, corrosion rates under fifty percent cannot be detected.
Still, I’m lucky that I have the ability to distinguish them.
Alterisha will accept my opinion as much as possible, so I should be able to filter all the dark mages out.
‘Hm? Those people are…’
Then two dark mages who stood out especially caught my eye.
[Professor Kamahon]
[Professor Tyburn]
Those two professors, whose personalities looked like they shouldn’t match at all, were also standing a short distance away waiting, apparently intending to enter Alterisha’s lab.
‘Hmm…’
Most of the other dark mages were mere underlings, but those two each held considerable status and power even within the Moon Shadow Church and the Dark Magic Tower.
That meant they belonged among the most dangerous dark mages gathered here.
Still, they think they’ve hidden who they are, but I already know their identities.
In other words, this is a situation where people are doing the deceiving, but no one is actually being deceived.
If I can exploit that point and let them inside, maybe I’ll be able to dig out some information about the internal affairs of dark mages that I don’t yet know.
‘Not bad.’
I was organizing in my head what I needed to tell Alterisha when, far in the distance, I caught sight of someone who stood out way too much.
A man who had become an object of terror to every currently living dark mage by tearing apart every dark mage who crossed his sight with brutal violence, earning himself the nickname ‘Dark Mage Slaughter Fiend.’
‘Captain Kaen of the 13th Dark-Extermination Squad?’
For some reason, he was here.
Well, that part aside…
‘…Isn’t he standing out way too much?’
He was standing in the dead center of Alchemic Hall with his arms crossed, sweeping the place in all directions with a terrifying gaze, so much so that not only the disguised dark mages but even ordinary people did not dare go anywhere near him.
Since he was wearing a mask, even if there were people who knew Kaen’s face, he wouldn’t be recognized, but as far as I know, the mages of the Crescent Moon Tower are supposed to conceal their existence thoroughly and operate while hiding their identities…
Staring at him in disbelief, I noticed the name tag hanging on his chest.
[Alchemic Hall Grade-9 Janitor: Kim Clean]
…Surely he doesn’t actually think that makes him inconspicuous.
There’s no way. Seriously.
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