Raban felt wronged.
‘Isn’t it his own fault for not checking carefully? This sort of thing is supposed to be a true contest between contracting parties!’
In its own way, he wasn’t wrong. Black mages and demons had, since ancient times, been in a relationship of mutually aiming for one another’s backs. But there had been a time when Raban and Inian had joined hands and worked together.
“Even so, I trusted you and set the price conscientiously! Have you no courtesy or conscience toward a business partner?”
It had been a decision made under the certainty that if he tried any pointless tricks on that damned black mage, retaliation would follow, but it could be packaged this way too. Raban avoided Inian’s gaze, blazing with fury.
“Now, Inian. Why don’t we stop talking about the artifact that’s already flown off and discuss something more constructive and practical?”
“I am saying that the dedicated equipment meant for emergency use in the field has been smashed!”
“There was a more important matter than that, wasn’t there? The thing we talked about at lunchtime today…”
Lunchtime? Inian rubbed his chin for a moment, then sprang up from his seat with a low exclamation.
“Na Ihyeon!”
“Hm? What about our oil field?”
It meant an oil field from which to draw out negative thoughts. Normally, a metaphor about petroleum would only work on modern people, but a demon who had accumulated all manner of experiences across many dimensions was fully capable of reading the greed and expectation hidden within the word.
“What oil field! The ground there is too solid; construction itself is impossible!”
“Hmph, and here I wondered what you were going to say.”
Raban laughed triumphantly. That demon was taking this Raban for one of the amateur black mages scattered everywhere. Naturally, he had prepared a way to crack even a firm mind.
“I told you before about that unlucky Charles, didn’t I?”
Inian nodded. The crocodile magical beast that Raban had been unable to deal with right away, which had led him to drag Inian into this antlion pit. Charles was supposedly the one behind preparing it.
He was a black mage of no ordinary skill, and at the same time, in trying to offer up his family as sacrifices, he also possessed the average personality of a black mage.
“The moment trust comes back to hurt the most is when you’re betrayed. If we dramatically reveal the fact that Na Chalsu tried to offer him as a sacrifice, then no matter how steadfast his heart is, he won’t be able to stop it from cracking.”
“Indeed. How very like you, containing the very essence of a black mage’s character.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment, ha ha ha ha!”
“But tell me?”
“Hm?”
“Do you have proof that Na Chalsu tried to offer Na Ihyeon as a sacrifice? I’m asking whether you’ve finished figuring out how and in what manner you’re going to reveal it.”
“That would be in the Black Forest…”
The fire that had broken out in the Black Forest replayed in Raban’s mind. To neutralize some sort of sacrificial ritual that used Na Ihyeon as its axis, he had brought in Salamandine and caused an arson incident.
Thanks to the crocodile magical beast that had popped out in the middle of it, the fire had spread far beyond what was intended.
Every black-magic preparation that had been set up in the Black Forest had been smashed to pieces.
“Huh?”
Inian looked at Raban with a faint trace of expectation. Surely that bastard hadn’t failed to anticipate even this situation and shoved him into this heavenly-world-like place with a cheerful, “Explosive fireworks show, just waiting on you.”
“Proof… there isn’t any?!”
“Hey!!”
Raban was so bewildered by the conclusion he had just reached that he didn’t even think to dodge the incoming fist. The punch struck him squarely in the jaw. The shock that rattled his brain sent some strange spark through Raban’s head!
…There was the adorable mistake that, as he expressed the joy of having come up with a brilliant idea with his entire body, his appearance came to resemble a live octopus tap-dancing, but in any case, there was no one here who cared about appearances.
“Stop screwing around and get up already.”
Raban sprang up from the floor as though doing a tumble and declared vigorously.
“If there isn’t any, we can make it!”
“Is the only option inside your head, whenever something goes wrong, to commit fraud first and think later?”
“No! This is an exquisitely rational idea! Even Socrates would give it a standing ovation if he heard it!”
With a decadent smile on his lips, Raban continued his explanation. The Raban that Na Ihyeon recognized was “an amnesiac victim of a magical disaster from Naju Pharmaceuticals.”
“Therefore! It’s natural for me to investigate the Naju Pharmaceuticals incident! I don’t know what the Naju Pharmaceuticals incident is, but that unlucky bastard Charles is probably involved!”
“I will admit that the possibility is high.”
“Then I can just bluff that I realized it while investigating my lost past and tell him something like, ‘Hey, your uncle launched your entire family into an outer dimension and tried to do you in too’!”
“All well and good. But where do you intend to get that proof?”
Raban stared fixedly at Inian.
“You’ve wormed your way in among people researching extradimensional exploration, so couldn’t you privately make use of some equipment?”
“What nonsense is this now…”
“I’m not telling you to find real, proper proof. Even a few fragments good enough to bluff with will do. What matters is the atmosphere and momentum anyway.”
No matter how skilled a gambler was, he could not fabricate a hand when he had not been dealt a single card. More precisely, he should not.
If he was holding a royal straight flush in his hand before the cards had even been dealt, his wrist would be chopped off on the spot.
But once five cards had been distributed, and if the surveillance was sufficiently lax, a cardsharp could produce a miracle.
Raban’s point was simple. Set up the table just enough that a little fraud would not draw suspicion.
‘But can I trust what that bastard says?’
Raban was the sort of man who, even if his wrist got chopped off, would regenerate while grumbling, “Damn it, next time I shouldn’t get caught,” then go loiter around another table.
A bizarre idiot who, when he had only four cards—or in severe cases, only two—would mutter, “Is this the angle?” use a technique, and get dragged out on his own.
However, if what was at stake was not his wrist but his neck itself, he would, with truly astonishing skill, present a flawless comeback that no one could raise doubts about.
At length, Inian let out a sigh. It was because of the practical issue that, while he could not fully trust Raban’s mental state, Raban was the only one he could immediately rely on.
“Haah, fine. To think that at my level, I must run around in someone else’s organization’s field site.”
“It’s fine, it’s fine. I’ll funnel performance results to you with my vascular familiar.”
‘…Don’t tell me he did that even when working in the Demon Realm?’
Inian, who had once been the executive of Lamashutu Holdings, was seized by the impulse to report Raban to the Mother Fairy right this instant and escape Hikarius through a plea bargain.
***
Ding-dong.
“Huh?”
It was strange. No one visited his studio apartment. Schnee or Papirun called him directly, and if Mister had something to give him, he tended to meet him in the counseling room and hand it over there.
It wasn’t as if he had ordered a package either. With a faint question in mind, Na Ihyeon opened the door.
A smooth black mask with no special features. Two open eyeholes were all it had for facial features.
He was a gentleman in neat attire, even wearing a fedora, but the mask that did not reveal his face looked rather eerie.
By contrast, the neatly worn tailcoat was entirely white. Here and there, it was finished with gold thread, so it was not entirely plain.
Seeing the masked gentleman, Na Ihyeon opened his mouth with an “Oh.”
“Mr. Reshef?”
He was a familiar face—strictly speaking, a familiar mask. He was one of the managers of the scholarship foundation where Na Chalsu served as chairman.
“Did Uncle Chalsu come?”
“No. The chairman is currently devoting himself to external business. However, upon hearing that the Black Forest and the mansion nearby had burned down completely, he dispatched me.”
“Well, it was a big incident. I did contact Uncle, but I didn’t know he’d handle it this quickly.”
“Though he emphasizes selection and concentration in the division of work, matters directly connected to your safety, Ihyeon-nim, are handled with the highest priority.”
A hand clad in a black glove slipped into the breast of the white tailcoat. When it emerged again, it held several sheets of paper.
“Taking the fire accident as an opportunity, he intends to refurbish the Black Forest and build a branch of the Na Chalsu Scholarship Foundation on the site of the mountain lodge. He said he had been too neglectful in looking after his hometown. Please sign this confirmation here.”
“Huh, you need my name?”
“We need proof that we received permission from the actual resident.”
After receiving the documents, Na Ihyeon signed them briskly without hesitation. Reshef nodded to express his thanks.
“Thank you, Ihyeon-nim. If there are any children at Lux Tierra High School who need the foundation’s assistance, please recommend them without reservation.”
Na Ihyeon smiled bitterly and waved his hand. After all, there would be no students willing to receive help from the successor to Naju Pharmaceuticals.
***
As Reshef received the documents, he grasped Na Ihyeon’s magical power through the fingertips that brushed against his.
It went without saying, but it was an incredible amount.
Both the negative thoughts concentrated within that body, and the magical power of dreams and hope he must have contained when he was chosen as the proxy champion of the Mother Fairy.
There was a reason that person had his eye on him. At once, even now…
Reshef shook his head. What he was currently permitted to do was only to measure that thing’s degree of completion and confirm whether it had suffered any damage.
Now was the time to guide the livestock that did not recognize its master in a more desirable direction.
For proper correction, the foundation had come.