"…So, the full 800,000 gold was transferred in its entirety to a secret Imperial Bank account under the name of the 'Student Welfare Enhancement Committee.'"
The chairman's office of the old school building (formerly an illegal warehouse), with a red sunset streaming through the window.
I sank deep into a plush, top-grade leather sofa, reading through the report with a satisfied smile.
At my feet, Jackson—the agent of the Back Alley Broker Coalition, dressed in a neat secretary's uniform instead of the flamboyant outfit from his trading company days—was kneeling.
"Yes, Chairman! Thanks to that… 'magnificent' contract you personally drafted,
we passed through the scrutiny of the Imperial Customs and the Audit Office perfectly, without so much as a single warning!
We even claimed it as an educational fund and got a 3 percent tax refund!"
Jackson's eyes glistened with tears like a zealot witnessing a miracle.
It was understandable. Those who had spent their entire lives hiding in back alleys like rats, leeching blood through bribes and fees,
had rolled large sums of money under the umbrella of legality for the first time in their lives through my paper company.
To them now, I was no longer a mere blackmailer but nothing short of an economic demon king who had led them into the warm sunlight.
"Good work. Well then, shall we spend some of that money?"
I slowly rose from my seat and leaned on my cane.
"Ah, I haven't yet asked about your grand plan, Chairman.
With this enormous capital, which market in the Academy do you intend to strike first and monopolize?
A weapons merchant? Or perhaps the magic tool distribution network?"
"No."
I answered shortly and straightened my collar.
"I'm going to the pharmacy."
"…Pardon?"
Leaving behind Jackson, who stupidly asked again, I walked outside.
That's right. To hell with market dominance and monopolies. The problem was this fragile, terminally ill sunfish of a body that might not even open its eyes tomorrow morning!
To raise my life force stat, I absolutely needed top-grade elixir ingredients and materials.
And I had obtained information that tonight, a large-scale auction was being held at the 'Black Owl'—the Empire's top VVIP underground auction house located on the outskirts of the Academy.
"My lord, are you going out?"
As I opened the door and stepped out, Ellara and Silvia, who had been waiting like statues on either side of the hallway, bowed their heads in unison.
"…I thought I told you two to rest."
"How can the swords of your guard rest in their scabbards when your grand plan moves in the darkness?"
Ellara spoke resolutely, emitting a chilling aura.
Silvia also softly hooked her arm through mine and whispered, "You never know when Kailan's mana will backflow again. I have to keep cooling it."
Princess Aurelia, leaning against a window some distance away with her red eyes flashing, scoffed.
"I shall accompany you. I must witness with my own two eyes which leash on the continent you intend to grab first with that enormous fund."
*Sigh*, seriously. I'm just going to a pharmacy, you crazy yanderes.
Letting out a deep sigh, I led my unavoidably glamorous yet deadly trio of beauty guards(?) toward the underground auction house.
The VIP section of the Black Owl auction house, adorned with magnificent chandeliers and top-grade carpets.
It was a closed space accessible only to high-ranking nobles and merchant tycoons of the Empire.
"The next item! Three stalks of the mythical spirit herb said to bloom once every hundred years in the northern ice sea, the 'Snowfield Ice Blossom'!
The ultimate elixir of polar yin and yang that prevents mana circuit overload and drastically boosts life force! The starting bid is 20,000 gold!"
The auction hall buzzed at the auctioneer's booming cry.
'That's it!'
I cheered internally. Just chewing on those Snowfield Ice Blossoms would restore at least 15 percent of my depleted life force.
"25,000 gold!"
The fat patriarch of a baronial family raised his paddle.
"30,000 gold!"
I leaned back leisurely in my chair and tapped the floor once with my cane.
Then Jackson, standing behind me (having perfectly adapted to his secretary persona by now), immediately raised his paddle high and shouted.
"100,000 gold."
In an instant, a silence as if ice water had been poured over the entire auction house descended.
A crazy jump from 30,000 to 100,000 gold. It was an overwhelming financial bombardment that ignored the rules of auctioning.
"O-one hundred thousand gold! Does anyone bid higher?!"
As the auctioneer shouted excitedly, the fat baron who had bid 25,000 earlier stood up with a reddened face.
"I say, young master of Count Cliff's house! However great a noble you may be, surely there is such a thing as auction etiquette! 100,000 gold—are you mocking us?!"
When the baron pointed his finger at me, I glanced up at him with tired eyes.
Before I could speak, Princess Aurelia, sitting beside me with her legs crossed, smiled coldly and opened her mouth.
"Impertinent piglet. To find fault with the young head of Cliff's decision,
is no different from crossing me, Aurelia, the majority shareholder of the committee he established. Do you not know that?"
"Y-Your Highness the Princess…?!"
At the princess's direct intervention, the baron turned pale and slumped back into his seat.
Adding to that, when Ellara's murderous sword aura brushed against the baron's nape, he fainted on the spot.
"Sold! The Snowfield Ice Blossom is sold to Young Master Kailan for 100,000 gold!"
What followed was truly a one-sided massacre.
"Next is the Southern Jungle Troll Heart Extract! The pinnacle of regeneration…!"
"200,000 gold." (Jackson)
"Next is a leaf of the World Tree discovered in the ancient elven forest…!"
"300,000 gold." (Jackson)
I literally began to sweep up every elixir and potion related to fatigue recovery, stamina enhancement, life force extension, and mana stability.
I didn't care about the prices. My paper company account held Professor Vane's fully laundered 800,000 gold.
However, I had no idea how this simple "medicine shopping for survival" appeared to those around me.
(Auction Hall VIPs' Brain Filter)
'I-impossible…! The northern Ice Blossom, the southern Troll Heart, even the ancient World Tree leaf!
Aren't those all extreme poisons and biological experiment materials accompanied by powerful side effects, things ordinary people wouldn't dare consume!'
'He's gathering all the continent's forbidden elixirs with that enormous financial power!
Without a doubt, he must be planning to combine those drugs somewhere under the Academy to create a terrible chimera legion or an absolute biological weapon!'
The nobles and merchants of the auction hall, terrified to the extreme, began to watch my every move.
(Ellara and Silvia's Brain Auto-Translation)
'Ah… My lord is carrying out another reckless plan.
He will consume all those fatal and agonizing elixirs, using his own body as an experiment to suppress the deeper power of the abyss!'
'To protect us, he will endure that lonely darkness alone…!'
"…Hey. Why is everyone looking at me with such moist eyes?"
I got goosebumps from the heroines' pitiful gazes and rubbed my arms.
"It is nothing, my lord. It is just… I have renewed my vow to protect you to the end."
Ellara said resolutely, wiping away tears.
'Crazy. Since when does buying medicine at a pharmacy require a vow?'
I clicked my tongue, gathered the packaged elixir boxes, and rose from my seat.
Thinking about sleeping deeply tonight, chewing up those medicines, and fully recharging my lost life force, a smile already spread across my lips.
At the same time.
A corner of the Academy Knights' training ground.
"…Is the information that just came in reliable?"
Rumen, training while emitting a golden aura in the darkness, growled low and tossed a silver coin to an information guild member.
"Y-yes! It's certain, young master Rumen! Just now at the Black Owl auction house,
Kailan von Cliff appeared accompanied by Her Highness the Princess and swept up all the continent's forbidden elixirs, spending hundreds of thousands of gold!"
"Forbidden elixirs… You said Troll Hearts, northern Ice Blossoms, and World Tree leaves."
Rumen's pupils blazed red with fury.
(Rumen's Brain Delusion Filter at Full Power)
'The regeneration of a troll, the mana rampage suppression of the Ice Blossom, and the life force of the World Tree….
Good heavens, these are the core offerings required to hatch the legendary demon beast of destruction, the 'Apocalyptic Behemoth'!!'
'He used the funds extorted from Professor Vane to eventually acquire the military supplies to summon an ancient demon that will destroy this world!
Even brainwashing the Princess to use as a shield… What a malicious, terrible demon bastard!!'
"There's no time…."
Rumen gripped his sword so tightly it seemed about to break.
"Before he hatches the demon beast with those elixirs, I will conquer the Demon Dragon's Nest first and obtain the power of a Transcendent to cut down Kailan! Wait for me, Mastermind!"
Rumen's misunderstanding pierced through the universe and ascended, and the world's power balance was once again shaking like crazy.
The top floor of the dormitory, my VIP room.
"Ugh… damn, this tastes fucking awful, seriously."
I straddled the bed and downed in one go the terrible green liquid mixed from the 'Northern Ice Blossom' and 'Troll Heart Extract' I had just bought.
A nauseating taste, like rotten sewer water mixed with wasabi, flooded down my throat, but I held my nose and swallowed to survive.
At that moment.
[Warning! A powerful extreme-yin elixir and the blood of a monstrous beast are clashing within the body!]
[Trait 'Mana Vessel (EX)' is forcibly activated, expelling impurities!]
"Kuhack, kulk!!"
A handful of black, dead blood (impurities) poured from my mouth, splattering the floor.
In martial arts novel terms, it was a perfect process of shedding the mortal body and transforming the bones, of qi circulation,
but outwardly, it was the miserable spectacle of a terminal patient vomiting blood after consuming a deadly poison.
"Kailan!!"
"My lord!!"
Silvia and Ellara, who had been about to open the door and enter, witnessed that terrible scene, screamed, and rushed to me.
"W-what are you doing! Why are you drinking this poison, you fool!!"
Silvia sobbed and frantically wiped my blood-stained lips with her silk sleeve.
Her refreshing cold mana rushed into my body like crazy, struggling to lower my boiling body temperature.
"My lord, why do you try to bear that pain alone again! Please punish this disloyal knight!"
Ellara dropped to her knees and tore at her own hair while screaming.
"Ah, n-no… that's not poison, it's good… ugh!"
I opened my mouth to make excuses, but ended up vomiting another handful of boiling impurity blood from inside.
[Life force has increased significantly! Current life force: 45%]
[Mana circuits are expanding, and the blocked 'Abyssal Magic Power' slot is opening!]
My body felt light enough to fly, and the status window was setting off celebratory fireworks, but the reality before my eyes was truly a living hell.
Silvia bawling as she held me, Ellara barely restraining herself from suicide,
and Princess Aurelia, leaning against the door frame, biting her lips as she gazed at me with heartbreaking sorrow.
(Princess Aurelia's Brain Translation)
'…To suppress the enormous destructive demon beast lurking within his inner self,
he was enduring the pain of drinking medicine no different from deadly poison, whittling away at his own flesh.
Behind that arrogant mastermind who holds power and commands the continent… who would have known such terrible self-destruction and sacrifice was hidden.'
From the princess's red eyes, a single transparent tear—something she had never once shed since birth—fell with a soft plop.
She slowly approached and carefully brushed my blood-stained cheek.
"Do not try to endure this alone, my sovereign. Half of that poison you drink… from now on, I shall swallow it with you."
Aurelia leaned her body down and crushed her red lips against my blood-covered ones.
"…Mmph?!"
Instantly, the Imperial House's massive pure-white mana poured into my body like a waterfall through our saliva.
Silvia's shriek, Ellara's shock, and the princess's breath devouring my lips as if to consume them.
"H-hey, this, I can't breathe…!"
Having just gotten better from taking the medicine, now I was really about to suffocate and die from the heroines' suffocating obsession.
The night of the 'Mastermind of Darkness' who had shaken the world's economy deepened once more amid such savage and sticky delusions and misunderstandings.