#60
The Calm Before the Storm (1)
A basement without a single window.
In the middle of that pitch-black space, where not a shred of light could be found, a stone brazier sat all alone.
“···It is time.”
A low voice rang out from within the darkness, where there had not been the slightest hint of a presence.
Soon, the owner of that voice approached the brazier in silence, without making so much as a footstep, and stopped a short distance away.
At that moment.
Whoosh—
Purple flames burst up from the brazier in an instant, as if they would touch the ceiling, before slowly shrinking to the size of a campfire.
And because of that, in the space now tinged with violet light, five or six shadows were flickering around the brazier.
[Has everyone··· gathered?]
[Yeah, except for the idiot who died this time.]
The shadows conversed with one another in low, rumbling voices.
[What’s the rush? Let’s ask after each other first and take it slow, shall we? Kiki.]
[Please shut your mouth. Before I tear it open.]
“It seems all of you have heard the news.”
Since those gathered were all so strongly individualistic, the meeting did not proceed quickly.
As this was not a gathering arranged for them to socialize, it was best to ignore the pointless chatter and move straight to the main topic if they wanted to make progress.
[Ah, I heard. It was so absurd all I could do was laugh.]
[Kihihit~ Same here. To think he took even a branch of the World Tree with him, only to die so pathetically. Kikikik.]
At last, the regular meeting began in earnest.
They exchanged the information they each knew about recent events.
“So, no one knows how the Church and the High Elf found Nurabe and attacked him.”
[Ha! Was it not the World Tree’s intervention? That fool must not have put a proper leash on the sacrifice.]
[Hmmm~ I don’t think that’s it? That old man even properly took the sealing sphere from me, you know?]
Several opinions were exchanged again, but as nothing was certain, no conclusion came easily.
[In any case··· we need to be more careful···.]
[First Marcos, who made a fuss all by himself about monopolizing the Immortal King’s fragment, and now even Nurabe, who had been hiding fairly well. Haven’t we all gotten a little too relaxed?]
“Speaking of that Immortal King··· the Church’s movements lately have been unusual.”
The exchange of information continued once more.
[That descendant of the Immortal King. Could we use him?]
[Kihihit! Well, Marcos is already dead, so what can we do? If our interests align, joining hands wouldn’t be bad!]
The conversation between the black shadows flickering in the violet space continued.
Suggestions, rebuttals, alternatives, agreements, and more went back and forth for quite some time···.
“We’ll proceed with that matter as discussed. Then, I take it none of you have any other particular agenda?”
[Of course~ The Empire is always at peace.]
[No abnormalities··· in the east···.]
With a conclusion reached, the regular meeting of the Heaven-Defying Oath came to an end.
***
“Jin Soran, handle these as you did before.”
Heinz came to Jin Soran’s office while she was taking care of various tasks and laid out a pile of assorted items.
They were all expensive magic tools, including ones that allowed the use of subspace.
After staring in momentary bewilderment, she sprang up from her seat, her eyes shining.
“Wow··· Lord, where do you keep getting things like these?”
Though she had already seen such things several times before, she once again exclaimed in admiration as she examined the items he had brought out.
Since magic tools could only be obtained by returnees, their supply was inevitably limited, and as a result, they were not something one could acquire just because one had money.
“There are ways. More importantly, what happened with what I told you to prepare last time?”
“Ah, the pepper? For now, I had people repackage and store all of it.”
As expected, having people to order around was convenient.
As long as he gave instructions, they took care of the minor issues on their own.
‘I can’t sell items still packaged in plastic or vinyl as they are, so it’s troublesome, but they need to pass through another set of hands. Still, compared to the profit I can gain, that much effort is nothing.’
On Earth, pepper was not especially expensive, but it was different in Auterica.
It was a fairly high-class spice, and since the main production area was far away, the margin was also satisfying.
It was perfect as the first product for trade.
‘At first, I considered trying to sell things like artificial gemstones made on Earth.’
Artificial gemstones made with modern technology were difficult to distinguish by ordinary means.
In fact, they contained fewer impurities and were cleaner, so that could even be used as a selling point, but···.
‘The fact that they were made on Earth and therefore can’t be used in magic is fatal.’
The reason gemstones were expensive in Auterica was not merely aesthetic.
Their value as materials used in various ways to assist mysteries—such as magical experiments, barriers, and the creation of magic tools—was included in the price.
In such a situation, if he sold defective goods that could not be used for mysteries, gemstones that were only pretty, he might get caught up in needless trouble.
‘There’s no need to attract attention and take risks now that I’m starting a business. Once things are established later, I’ll try selling them as premium goods.’
Of course, it would be a shame to let such a good business item go to waste.
Wasn’t commerce about disguising even such peculiar traits as distinctive points of differentiation and selling them off?
The wealthy would instead assign value to that rarity and go wild over it.
“Where did everyone else go?”
Having organized his thoughts, Heinz looked around and asked Jin Soran.
There were noticeably fewer people than when he had seen them before.
It seemed that more than half of them were absent.
“Ah, there was a small problem in Incheon. Mr. Jinseok went there personally, so it should be settled soon.”
As Heterosis expanded in size, many people newly joined under its shadow.
Not only the existing hardliners, but even those who had belonged to the moderates and the neutral faction.
Among them was even a Gamma named Jinseok, who had been an executive of the hardliners.
‘But he’s more obedient than I expected. I was planning to turn him into a blood crystal if he didn’t listen.’
Since he had been in charge of the provinces, he had not come to the villa, but when Heinz personally went to find him later, he immediately tucked his tail between his legs and swore loyalty on the spot.
Thanks to his faithful survival instincts, the absorption of the hardliners accelerated afterward, so Heinz was watching him with a fair degree of satisfaction.
‘It’s still a shame I couldn’t get much information about Alpha. If he’s this hard to find, that must mean he’s already left Korea, right?’
Alpha, the leader of the existing hardliners, presumed to be a level-eight vampire.
He had intended to deal with him when the opportunity arose, but the man’s whereabouts had remained completely unknown ever since that day.
After swallowing up the Blood Alliance, he had continued searching through its influence, but there had been no particular progress.
“Truly, thanks to you, Lord, the Blood Alliance’s situation seems to have improved greatly. Naturally, our Heterosis, which leads it, is gaining more and more say as well.”
Heterosis, which had rapidly expanded its influence based on the force and financial power originating from Heinz, led the Blood Alliance and dramatically increased its strength.
Of course, if they directly inflated their scale, Guardian or the Ability Management Bureau would inevitably become wary, so it was a covert operation that expanded their influence over underworld organizations from the shadows.
‘Those guys I sold the gold bars to back then also came under our command.’
Apparently, they were proving fairly useful in seeking sales channels for magic tools.
Thinking back to that transaction, they certainly had been fairly capable fellows.
‘Come to think of it, I should be moving soon, too···.’
Until now, after learning of the Beoncheon Society, his mind had been too occupied with making plans regarding them to even think of luxury.
But now he could afford to indulge a little, so it should be fine to start preparing slowly from now on.
‘Of course, not right away.’
“You said there was a problem in Incheon, right? I have nothing to do at the moment, so I’ll go personally.”
He needed to stabilize the Blood Alliance as quickly as possible.
Right now, a major event that would shake Auterica was just around the corner.
Once this event ended, the operation “Living Room Theater: The Demon King and the Hero” would begin in earnest, and Heinz would be busy beyond belief.
***
It had been fifteen days since the High Elf Lafori began searching for the Immortal King.
They had searched quite a few forests according to priority, but no particular results had come out.
Heinrich was able to sit in on the interim meeting arranged after they had gone through one group of candidates, and hear the progress report together with the others.
Now that he was deeply involved in this operation as well, he had come to prioritize this over his duties in the Paladin Order.
‘Though all I do is observe from the back and attend to them.’
Lafori gave an awkward smile as he organized the documents on the areas that had already been investigated.
“···Hm, we’ve gone through all the areas I thought had the highest probability, yet the results haven’t followed. After stepping forward so confidently, I can hardly raise my head.”
At Lafori’s embarrassed words, the Saintess and the archbishop firmly shook their heads, saying that was not the case.
“We are only grateful that you are making such efforts, Lord Lafori. To begin with, it was our Church that decided the order of the search.”
“In truth, he may be in a completely different region with no forest at all. Even if that turns out to be the case, we can narrow down the area greatly, so it is not entirely a bad thing.”
“Thanks to that, even now, the Church’s search parties are focusing on regions without forests. Needless to say, our efficiency has increased greatly.”
As they said, the search personnel who had continued to operate were dispatched mainly to areas such as deserts and wastelands.
Of course, the forest search was not completely finished yet, but from the Church’s perspective, they needed to prepare in advance for any contingency.
Archbishop Latius examined the continental map hanging on the wall and the documents organizing the priorities.
“Then shall we look at the next group of candidates? Let’s see··· this time, they’re roughly around thirty percent.”
“Haah, at this point, that probability doesn’t seem to mean much anymore.”
“Ahem, well, that cannot be helped, can it, Saintess?”
“Ah! That’s true. That must also be the result of many people’s efforts. I was too thoughtless.”
The Saintess sighed with a self-reproachful expression.
They had said it was fine, but with no results forthcoming, she seemed to have grown mentally anxious.
“Then, since it’s already late today, I will examine these areas in order starting tomorrow.”
“Ah! We’ll be in your care, Lord Lafori. You must be tired, so please go and rest.”
With that, the gathering dispersed, and Heinrich, who had been observing the progress of the operation to search for Hans in real time, returned to his quarters.
‘At last···. There really isn’t much time left now.’
On the fifteenth day since the search began, the Forest of Monsters located in the western part of the continent was included among the next candidates.
‘Still, I’m glad I made it in time.’
Because he had just obtained the fruits of his research.
At the same time Heinrich was heading to his quarters.
[Heh··· Hehahahaha—! I finally succeeded!]
An eerie laugh, as if rising up from hell, echoed through a certain cave.
[As expected, nothing is impossible for this Lord Hans. Given enough time, something like this is nothing at all.]
The descendant of the Immortal King, the Arch Lich Hans, had thrown open the front of his black robe and exposed his ribs.
In the empty gap between his starkly revealed white ribs, a single object asserted its presence.
It was a black gemstone that pulsed regularly like a heart—the fragment of the “Immortal King’s Heart.”
However, there was one major difference from before.
Its form was no longer clear, but translucent.
[Kekeke···. A phased subspace using this body. Existing, yet not existing. With this, this body has drawn even closer to perfection! Khahahaha!]
He had created a space overlapping with his own existence and placed the heart he had extracted with “Immortality” inside it.
To put it simply, it was the same as turning Hans’s body itself into a subspace magic tool.
It was a bizarre act that would have been absolutely impossible for a human··· no, for any living being.
Of course, since it was not a proper method, he had given up on complete separation, and the space was only about as large as the inside of his ribs, but···.
A problem of that level was nothing to him.
‘My initial goal has already been achieved, after all!’
By making his own body into a pseudo-subspace, he had ignored the fragment’s restrictions, and he had also created a smooth channel for supplying dark mana.
Needless to say, it also became easy to hide its existence.
There was no way the difficulty of concealing it would be the same when it was entirely exposed and when it was connected only through a single channel.
‘On top of that, I can now use “Immortality” properly as well.’
Now, even if his entire body were turned to dust, he could recover instantly with the dark mana supplied through the channel.
In order to defeat him, an attack that split space itself, or magic that handled such a thing, had become essential.
‘And there’s no way Hans would obediently let himself be hit by such an attack.’
It was a result satisfying in many ways.
This was a few days before Lafori’s search began in the Forest of Monsters.