Chapter 44: Chapter 44
Chapter 44 - A Difference in Perspective
Ferda safely returned to Valdrova Castle.
Arwen watched him enter through the castle gates before immediately heading back to the Consilus County.
At the main gate, Luri welcomed Ferda and his party.
"How was your journey?"
It was a businesslike question, and Ferda answered in the same manner.
"It was comfortable. There were no ambushes, and with escorts accompanying us, I wasn’t bored."
"I see. Though... it seems there’s one more person than when you left?"
When they had departed from the castle, there had only been Zed, Ferda, and the coachman. Now, a man burdened with all sorts of luggage had joined them.
"Your Excellency the Regent! I’ve loaded my belongings onto the cart. Shall I load Your Excellency’s luggage as well?"
Malcolm, who had been unloading his things from the wagon, finally noticed Luri.
"Eek! Y-You’re that intruder from before?!"
Malcolm cried out in terror, trembling uncontrollably.
It wasn’t because he had been exposed to Dragon Fear.
Even if it had been emitted, he had already put on a resistance ring before arriving at Valdrova Castle.
He was simply a coward.
"Another pathetic fool has joined us."
Luri let out a sigh through her nose.
"Pathetic, yes. But he’s also an excellent specimen."
"A specimen for what?"
"What else? A specimen for experiments."
"...Are you researching Black Magic?"
"I do have research to conduct, but not that."
Having said that, Ferda stepped toward the castle entrance.
At that moment, Luri blocked his path.
"What is it?"
"What do you mean, ’What is it?’ Are you seriously asking because you don’t know?"
Luri’s gaze slowly drifted before stopping on Ferda’s right hand.
"Don’t you think entering the castle while carrying that stench is a serious crime?"
"..."
A strange chill ran down Ferda’s spine at those words.
His eyes instinctively swept over Luri from head to toe, eventually spotting something peeking out of her pocket.
It was a coarse towel dyed green.
If that towel touched your skin, it would strip away every trace of grime along with the outer layer of skin.
Naturally, there was no escaping the agonizing pain of having your flesh scraped away.
Pop! Pop!
The towel moving in Luri’s hand burst into dazzling white explosions.
Ah...
She had been waiting for this moment all along...
Luri had a perfectly valid reason.
The scent of another woman lingering on Ferda’s hand could cause Grand Duchess Valdrova to misunderstand.
Such misunderstandings needed to be prevented before they happened.
He understood the logic.
Even so, Ferda couldn’t forget the screams of the knights.
The screams they let out were like children who had come face-to-face with a demon.
Ferda had no reason to believe he could endure what they could not.
His eyes cautiously glanced at Luri once more.
Unlike Ferda, who was filled with apprehension, Luri’s face was full of eager anticipation.
"May I ask one favor?"
"Please."
"At the very least, I’d appreciate it if you did it inside that Spatial Isolation Magic."
He spoke like a condemned prisoner making his final request.
Luri solemnly nodded.
"Of course. We can’t have everyone hearing about Lord Ferda’s masochistic preferences."
"...Right."
He didn’t even have the strength to argue anymore.
Ferda followed Luri inside.
What happened in the bathhouse that day remained a secret known only to Ferda and Luri.
***
Having been scrubbed until his skin practically gleamed, Ferda finally managed to put his clothes back on.
Every brush of fabric against his overly sensitive skin sent sharp tingles through his body.
I have to endure it.
From this point onward, Ferda needed complete concentration.
His gaze fell upon the book resting on the desk.
Barbatos’s Shadow Arts.
The Demon of Schemes delighted in moving unseen, specializing in magic that manipulated shadows like extra limbs to catch opponents off guard.
Since it was a grimoire devoted to stealth, sealing it was exceptionally difficult.
Unless it was bound with silver chains enchanted with Shape Stabilization Magic, its form would melt away and relocate elsewhere.
There was only one principle emphasized throughout Barbatos’s Shadow Arts.
"The shadow must become me, and I must become the shadow."
Just as Shadow Hand had to be treated as though it were a genuine third hand, failing to keep that concept in mind would result in severe phantom pain.
But there are things I need from it.
Its greatest advantage was that Shadow Arts required no Magic Circle.
Moreover, the shadow wasn’t merely a magically created hand.
It could function as an actual limb.
That meant Ferda could cast other spells through Shadow Hand itself.
Its offensive power isn’t particularly remarkable.
As befitted Barbatos, the Demon of Schemes and Stealth, its style differed greatly from the Shadow Circle used in ordinary Black Magic.
Instead, it excels at catching opponents off guard.
It was weak in direct confrontation, but in battles of strategy, its possibilities were virtually limitless.
That was precisely why Ferda had chosen Barbatos’s Shadow Arts from among the countless branches of Black Magic.
To read it, I’ll have to remove these silver chains.
To remove the chains, the enchantment had to be undone.
And to undo the enchantment, the runes first had to be deciphered.
That was why Ferda sought out Echidna.
"I’d like you to remove these chains. Do you think you can?"
"O-Of course! I’ll do it right away, hehe."
Echidna grinned brightly as she looked at Ferda.
Her expression was somewhere between a young girl hopelessly in love with a prince and a creepy witch indulging in suspicious fantasies.
"Thank you. What would you like as compensation?"
"C-Compensation? I-I don’t really need anything..."
"If someone does work for you, it’s only proper to compensate them accordingly."
Paying an appropriate reward for completed work.
That was the safest way to deal with a Witch without causing trouble later.
"Compensation..."
Echidna’s eyes darted around.
They landed on the blonde girl standing beside Ferda.
Mori.
"T-Then... could you let me sleep together with Mori for one night?"
Sleeping together with Mori.
If it were simply two girls spending the night together, there was nothing particularly strange about it.
But the other party was a Witch.
A Witch who drooled ominously while staring at people.
"Would that be alright?"
Ferda asked Mori.
Mori answered by holding up a note.
- Based on an analysis of Echidna’s behavioral patterns, sleeping together with her is predicted to reduce work efficiency by 30%.
Thirty percent was far too much.
Just what kind of behavioral patterns had she displayed for the estimate to be that high?
"I’m afraid I can’t agree to that."
"Ehh... then I guess it can’t be helped..."
I shouldn’t have brought it up in the first place...
Echidna muttered dejectedly.
Seeing her obvious disappointment, Ferda decided to propose something he had already been considering.
"How about giving you some time alone with Zed?"
"With Sir Zed?!"
Echidna’s face turned bright red.
Overcome with excitement, she snorted repeatedly while nodding furiously.
"S-So... h-how much time...?!"
"About this much."
Ferda held up three fingers.
She looked completely satisfied.
"As much as thirty minutes! Mm-hmm...! That’s wonderful! Deal!"
"...Very well."
When Ferda held up three fingers, he had actually meant three hours.
Yet she had voluntarily reduced it to one-sixth and was still overjoyed.
If I had actually said three hours, it might have backfired instead.
Anything in excess created problems.
Now that he had established a baseline for compensation, Ferda decided he could adjust future rewards based on it.
"Well then, let’s have a look."
With an excited smile, Echidna placed the Shadow Arts grimoire on the worktable.
Putting on a pair of large round glasses, she began carefully examining the book.
She wasn’t merely observing its appearance.
She used all five senses to inspect every aspect of its composition.
"Hmm... the material isn’t hard—it’s more like soft clay. As for the smell... sniff~ haa... The sulfur scent rising from Hell is truly something special. You know, that pungent smell? Like... the one coming from someone’s armpi—"
"That’s enough."
"Ah, yes. Hehe..."
She was stopped before she could wander completely off-topic with her disgusting comparison and was redirected to the task at hand.
Having finished examining the book, she turned her attention to the silver chains.
As she lightly infused the chains with Mana, glowing blue letters emerged from them.
Runes.
"Hmm..."
Echidna’s expression became unusually serious.
It was hard to believe she was the same woman who constantly chased after men.
She’s similar to Vernel in that regard.
Whenever she focused on her work, she became completely composed as she began deciphering the runes.
If someone can create runes, then naturally they can decipher them as well.
What Echidna was doing resembled identifying and dismantling a carefully laid trap.
By deciphering the runes, one could understand exactly how the magic functioned and even predict the side effects that would occur if the enchantment were forcibly dispelled.
"There’s even a trap spell set to strike whoever forcibly dispels the Shape Stabilization Magic. An ordinary Mage would die from this. And this signature here... I think it belongs to the Alte Cult."
"Can you undo it?"
Echidna smiled sweetly.
"I don’t think we need to."
"Why not?"
"If we completely remove the Shape Stabilization Magic, this book could run away at any moment. Do you intend to read it only once, Your Excellency the Regent?"
Ferda shook his head.
Even after obtaining all the magic within it, he disliked the idea of letting the book escape somewhere.
"So instead, we’ll simply loosen the conditions a little."
"How?"
"We’ll modify the conditions of the Shape Stabilization Magic. Instead of requiring the book to remain completely sealed exactly as it is, we’ll allow it to change shape within certain limits. Just enough for it to be opened and read."
"Proceed."
"Understood!"
Echidna pointed the tip of her pen at the rune while chanting an incantation.
Moments later, a circular Magic Circle spread out before her.
It appeared to be at least a Fifth-Tier spell.
She placed a finger against the Magic Circle and began manipulating various parts of it.
Manipulating a Magic Circle...
Even back when Ferda had been a Grand Mage, he had considered the possibility.
But destroying a spell and reconstructing it had always been simpler and far more common.
Rune Makers really are different.
They could directly manipulate magic itself and understood the flow within it.
That was why, instead of breaking the spell apart, they naturally thought in terms of loosening its conditions.
"If I adjust this part like this... There! Done!"
She lightly tapped the rune with her pen.
The Magic Circle was reabsorbed into the rune.
At the same time, the tightly wound silver chains gently unraveled under Echidna’s power.
"Would it be alright if I read it here for a while?"
"Yes! Of course!"
"Please bring me a few thick books."
"It’s books you need? J-Just a moment!"
Crash! Clatter!
Rustle, rustle.
Following his request, she brought over several thick dictionaries.
"But why?"
"I need to adjust the seat height."
"The seat height?"
Ferda stacked about three books on top of the chair.
He adjusted it to match Mori’s sitting height.
"Will this height do?"
Mori nodded.
"Then let’s get to wor-"
"W-Wait a moment!!"
Just as he was about to begin, Echidna stepped in and shielded Mori.
"Don’t tell me... you were planning to make our Mori read it? You’re making a child do something crueler than death?"
"Then why else would I have brought her here?"
"I thought it was because Mori missed me soooo much. Isn’t that right?"
Echidna smiled brightly at Mori.
Mori wrote on her notepad.
- That is not the case.
"Ehh...? I-I thought we’d become... c-close friends... Was I the only one who meant it...?"
- You were.
Mori drew the line without hesitation.
The answer struck like a bolt from the blue, leaving Echidna sniffling with tears in her eyes.
"This is a task only this child can accomplish."
"But exposing her to the Demon Language written by a demon..."
"Yes. It gradually drives people insane."
"And you still intend to make her do it? Isn’t that far too cruel?!"
Echidna hugged Mori tightly, rubbing her cheek against the girl’s head.
Now Ferda understood why Mori’s work efficiency dropped around her.
"It doesn’t matter. Corrupting this child is impossible."
"I-Is that really true?"
Echidna asked.
Mori nodded.
"If that’s the case..."
Even then, still uneasy, Echidna continued stroking Mori’s hair until the very last moment.
"Begin."
At Ferda’s command, Mori opened the book.
The instant she did, something hidden within its pages began to radiate outward.
A pungent sulfurous smell filled the air, accompanied by the sensation of something filthy crawling across one’s entire body.
That was what it meant to behold the Demon Language.
Simply looking at it was blasphemy.
Simply allowing it into one’s eyes branded the soul.
Whoooom...
Both Ferda and Echidna deliberately averted their eyes from the text.
The Demon Language had been created within Hell itself.
Anyone who came into contact with a demon’s script glimpsed fragments of Hell.
Those who witnessed those fragments would bear an invisible brand, forever hearing the whispers of demons throughout their lives.
It was a trial that never ended.
Fail to overcome that endless trial, and one would become either a follower of demons or descend into madness.
In doing so, they became a conduit through which demons could influence this world, taking the first step toward domination.
The same was true for me.
Because the corruption stemmed from the very nature of the script itself, there was no way to prevent it beforehand.
Ferda had once exposed himself to the Demon Language in order to learn demonic magic.
In fact, the only reason he had been able to master Shadow Hand was because he had learned the Demon Language.
But after mastering it all, I erased every trace of it from my mind.
The ideal approach was to learn the magic, finish deciphering it, and then erase the Demon Language from one’s memory.
That was why, despite knowing countless spells from Hell, Ferda had never become a puppet of the demons.
There’s no longer any need for me to learn the Demon Language.
There was already someone who knew it.
Someone who could interpret it in his place.
The Slave Sage, Mori.
She would become Ferda’s ghostwriter.
Mori gazed steadily at the demonic script.
Crimson flames ignited within her eyes.
It was as though the eyes themselves had become windows through which something sought to peer into Mori.
But there was no way it could shake her.
It wasn’t because Mori herself was perfect.
Even those who were flawless could falter before demons.
Mori simply possessed no sense of self.
Demons needed one’s ego as a handle through which to manipulate them.
Without that handle, there was nothing they could grasp.
Taking up her pen, she began writing onto a sheet of paper.
Even with the gates of Hell seemingly opened before her, she maintained absolute rationality and continued translating.
Ignoring the demons’ whispers until the very last page, she completed the translation with astonishing speed before quietly closing the book.
The original manuscript rested in Mori’s right hand.
The translated copy was held in her left.
"Have you finished everything?"
Ferda asked to be certain.
Mori nodded.
Then Ferda gave his final command.
"In that case, forget everything you have seen."
At that instant, the crimson glow vanished from her eyes, returning them to their original color.
With a single command, she truly forgot everything.
Such an order could never have been carried out by an ordinary human through mere words.
Only Mori, the Slave Sage, was capable of such a thing.
A moment later, Mori’s body began to sway.
She struggled just to keep her heavy eyelids open.
The translation had consumed too much of her strength.
"You should sleep early today."
The moment Ferda granted permission, the exhausted Mori leaned back against the chair and quietly closed her eyes.
"Echidna, would you take Mori back to her room?"
"Of course!"
Echidna looked at Mori with a suspiciously delighted expression.
"Heh... hehehe... hehehehe..."
As if that weren’t enough, she even began drooling.
Ferda now had a better understanding of why Mori’s work efficiency dropped by thirty percent.
He added one more warning.
"Lay her on the bed and come back out. I won’t permit any further contact. Understood?"
"O-Of course! I never had any improper thoughts! Absolutely none! Absolutely!"
She said that, yet the way she repeatedly smacked her lips in disappointment made her utterly unconvincing.
Ferda picked up the completed translation.
He first read through the section on Shadow Hand, the part he already knew from Barbatos’s Shadow Arts.
She translated it exactly as I understood it.
That alone convinced him the translated copy was sufficient for learning the magic.
He turned back to the beginning.
The real reason I had to obtain this grimoire.
It was the Mana cultivation method.
One of the methods for advancing from the Third Circle to the Fourth Circle.
Shape of Shadow.
That page caught Ferda’s eye.
Despite reading a grimoire from Hell itself, written by one of the Seven Great Demons of Hell, he suffered no side effects whatsoever.
How long would it normally take to reach the Fourth Circle?
The Fourth Circle was the point at which one was finally recognized as a true Mage.
That alone reflected its difficulty.
Even those blessed with talent required years of dedicated effort.
The Red Circle was no different.
If anything, it was even more dangerous.
With every stage, the madness and risks of the Red Circle increased dramatically.
Was I ever the kind of person to worry about that?
Hatred had driven him to become stronger.
To gain power, he had never hesitated to challenge danger.
The only difference now was that he sought strength for the sake of Valdrova.
Ferda immediately decided to begin practicing the cultivation method.
Like all cultivation methods, the procedure itself was simple.
Light a completely dark room using nothing but a single candle.
Then place the candle behind your head, creating a long, deep shadow.
Everything began by staring into that shadow.
At first, one merely used magic through shadows.
Later, one became the shadow itself.
Eventually, one could even become another person’s shadow.
Discarding common sense and embracing complete freedom—that was the true objective of this cultivation method.
The shadow becomes me, and I become the shadow.
Keeping those words firmly in mind, Ferda quietly stared at the wavering shadow cast by the flickering candle.
Then it happened.
For a brief instant, Ferda felt as though his body had been pressed flat against the floor.
It was like being trapped inside a wall, confined to a narrow, suffocating space where movement was possible only across a flat surface.
His consciousness entered a state of absolute immersion within the shadow.
Now... close my eyes.
Maintaining that sensation, Ferda directed his awareness toward the Circle revolving within his Dantian.
He concentrated for nearly an hour.
He needed to draw Mana into the shadow and set it into motion.
...I can’t feel anything.
Ferda’s mind was simply too calm.
For the Red Circle, calmness itself functioned like a brake.
It won’t work right now.
Once he realized it wouldn’t succeed, he abandoned the attempt without hesitation.
Ferda was still young.
There were still many things he had to accomplish.
He left the dark chamber.
Night had already deepened, with the moon tilting toward the western horizon.
Since it had already sunk so far to the west, midnight had long since passed.
He had no idea how many days had gone by.
Only the hungry growl of his stomach testified to the passage of a long stretch of time.
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