Chapter 37 - Weapon of the Blood Demon
The Dusk Citadel at sunset.
A unique, magnificent view that only the people of the East living in the Citadel could see.
The great walls surrounding the Citadel were the best spot, but the view from the smaller walls dividing the districts was also good.
Looking up from there, one could see the vermilion ceiling and the sun scattering its last light of the day.
It was fine whether there were many clouds or none at all.
The clouds, which only knew how to wear white or gray, were adorned with crimson skirts thanks to the sunset.
The sunset viewed from the Tower of Wisdom or the sunset viewed from the walls of the Citadel.
Both were equally beautiful.
Only the circumstances of why one was looking at the sky were different.
“It wasn't this color when I was trapped in the tower.”
Everything she saw since coming to the Citadel was unfamiliar, and now even the sunset was different from her memory.
“So this is how pretty it was.”
“The East is especially like that.”
“…!”
Her head turned reflexively, but it was stopped from behind by someone.
Anyone would stiffen if a sharp, sword-like index finger pressed against the back of their neck.
Especially in a situation with no one to help nearby and nothing in hand to protect oneself.
“Stay as you are. I had no intention of meeting you and just happened to run into you, so I don't want to break the illusion.”
“…500 Gold Coins.”
“Yes. That's what you call me.”
“You didn't tell me your name.”
“That is true.”
The index finger that had been pressing on her neck was slowly lifted.
The Wisdom girl's eyes gazed at the fading red light.
The Youngest Son of Millesdusk, his red eyes hidden behind sunglasses, continued.
“You weren't at the firearms shop.”
“Is that why you came out? You said you met me by chance earlier.”
“A truly outstanding person makes even chance into destiny.”
“……”
Sophistry.
500 Gold Coins was definitely a strange person.
But he was a person she was dying of curiosity about.
That curiosity spread like a kind of stubbornness.
She had completely shut her ears to anything that seemed related to Jubel Maxman.
She knew his warehouse and business were run with someone else, but she didn't try to find out who that someone was.
Because it meant the time wasn't right until he revealed it himself.
“Why did you come to the firearms shop, then? You said you had no intention of meeting me.”
“I had some business, so I sent my subordinate in. Since you weren't there, the person to deliver the message was gone too.”
“You could have just told Reggie or Kio.”
“A request for an item must be discussed directly with the technician herself.”
It was strange that the person who used the word 'directly' had sent a subordinate, but she let it slide.
She knew well enough that this person would get what he wanted one way or another.
He had broken through the cog engine, driven out the sorcerer family, and even had the flight ban lifted.
The contract with Jubel was up to the cog engine.
Now they communicated on topics like repairs or improvements, but she could tell just by watching the difficulties he faced.
Furthermore, she could tell that the 500 Gold Coins behind her had solved most of those difficulties.
He had given the young magitech engineer an amount of money she couldn't have imagined, and she had even collaborated with a large merchant troupe.
Wasn't every day like a dream when she was looking around the inside of Mariella and working there?
Josephine finally remembered what she most wanted to say to 500 Gold Coins.
“Um…. It's late to say this, but. Tha-nk you.”
“I can't hear you well.”
“I said thank you….”
“Sorry. The wind was too loud. One more time.”
“I-I said thank you!”
So much that it would be apologetic to ask again.
She expressed her gratitude so loudly it seemed the wall would fly away.
She couldn't see it, but the Youngest Son, who had let out a satisfied laugh, nodded his head.
“Thank you. I'm grateful. Ah, they are always pleasant words to hear.”
“Tsk….”
The girl of Wisdom, unable to deny it, pouted and got to the point.
“You said you had business. Please tell me quickly. My hands were starting to get itchy.”
“This time, you'll have to hold a hammer until those hands are wrinkled and swollen.”
“I'm looking forward to it.”
The task of holding a hammer and striking an iron ingot all day long.
For those who carried the blood of Wisdom, it was torture itself.
But Josephine, her excitement evident even from her back, had cheeks flushed like the sunset.
He spoke to the blue-furred puppy wanting a treat.
“Hand.”
“H-hand?”
Both hands awkwardly came together behind her.
Into those hands, he placed the weapon of the Balum family, the Head Collector.
It was a scythe larger than a grown man, so one would expect her to complain about the weight.
“Wow….”
The illegitimate daughter of Wisdom, unfazed, lifted it with one hand and examined it from all angles.
“This is a very old item. But it's been managed extremely well. Was it made of a material that doesn't rust in the first place?”
A magitech engineer is a technician who has mastered both magic and engineering.
She pressed her nose to the scythe to smell it, tasted it a little, and truly chewed, tore, bit, and enjoyed it.
The assessment using her five senses was over as quickly as it took to use them.
Josephine defined it briefly.
“It's simple. That's why its foundation is good.”
A fellow with an unadorned, simple but inherent charm.
A steel frame perfect for erecting a building.
That was Josephine's evaluation of the Head Collector.
“What exactly do you want?”
“I had a few things imagined before coming here. But thinking about it now, they don't seem very necessary.”
So he decided to present just one standard.
“When I use this, I will usually be in this form.”
“…!!”
Heat was felt.
But it was a fundamentally different fire from the one she had basically seen and learned in Wisdom, a completely different fire.
Her skin only knew it was hot.
But the body through which the blood of Wisdom flowed, and the core and senses within it, allowed her to know much more.
“…If it's the smell of sulfur, is it a demon…? But it's not just the scent of sulfur. It's something more diverse and complex….”
The sulfur smell that a demon exudes.
Over that, a low-lying smell of blood.
The nose perceived information through scent, and the core of Wisdom perceived it through magic power.
Ferocious. Violent. Berserk. Explosive. Fiery. It was even strangely sticky.
“Should I say it's like… lava that has absorbed the blood of countless people who drowned in it. Are you human?”
“Half-right. In any case, I now need a weapon that suits this state.”
I couldn't fight bare-handed forever.
Those who lived at the ceiling of the sorcery world never fought with just undead.
The sum of all the undead they possessed could not surpass the caster himself.
So, this side also had to add on everything it could do and all the power it could obtain.
“Can you do it.”
“Mmm…. Should I call it inspiration? Good ideas are popping up all over.”
“That's a relief. I'll leave the support funds here and pay for the item later.”
“W-wait a minute. Are you leaving now?”
As the heat subsided, the suddenly cool outside felt empty.
But the voice had not yet disappeared.
It would disappear soon, but at least for now, it was there.
“I'm still here.”
“I-I have something to say.”
“Is it a request to raise the support funds?”
“No…! W-well, that would be nice, but… no, that's not it! If you like this item, please tell me your identity.”
“That's not a difficult task.”
“Okay. That's all I need. I don't need payment for the item.”
Money was already coming in for the engine from the contract with Jubel.
On top of that, Jubel was trying to make an additional contract combined with the support funds.
Money would not be drying up anytime soon, but she wanted to pour gold into this weapon here.
She wanted to pour her heart and skill into it.
She thought of it as a way to repay the person who was something of a benefactor.
But her mumbling lips threw out the question she had been holding back.
“By any chance…. are you a Millesdusk?”
The question spun in the air and disappeared with the wind.
No answer came back.
“I-I'm turning around.”
After a series of warnings.
She shifted her gaze slightly behind her.
The sponsor was gone.
Having left behind 500 gold coins in support funds.
“…Did I ask for nothing.”
But it was something she really wanted to ask.
It was also the most likely possibility.
If she was going to make up her mind, it was better to know the truth as soon as possible.
Someone from Millesdusk sponsoring a runaway illegitimate daughter from Wisdom.
That meant.
“They'd also be very keen on making a family with me and having children, to bring Wisdom's talent to Millesdusk.”
And this was Wisdom, which had strict standards for its collateral branches.
Even if it was half-blood, if it went to another family, especially the enemy Millesdusk.
“Wisdom might not hesitate to go to war.”
But that was for the Millesdusk trying to make a collateral branch member bear a child to handle.
“Seeing as he hides his face, he probably isn't handsome. Still, if I just play the part of a wife, he'll let me continue my work.”
No matter how she looked at it, she couldn't see any bad intentions from 500 Gold Coins.
“Then I'll be able to help Reggie and Kio more easily.”
The engineer, drawing a future with rice cakes she hadn't even been given, picked up the scythe and trotted down.
Whatever the future held, she loved the item in her hands right now.
She couldn't control her quickening steps as she imagined how it would change.
***
The Gatekeeper had been feeling something strange lately.
A cart from the Maxman Merchant Troupe entered through the main gate.
If I asked what was inside.
“It's the settlement for the vaccine. Packed with the tax-exempt profits.”
A day passed.
A cart from the Maxman Merchant Troupe entered through the main gate.
Only the coachman was different; it was the same cart, with the same contents.
“It's the settlement for the vaccine. The Youngest Son's share, divided from the tax-exempt profits.”
Another day passed.
A cart from the Maxman Merchant Troupe arrived.
Now, I didn't even ask what was inside.
“It's the settlement for the vaccine. The tax─”
“I know all about it being the profits calculated with the tax exemption and the settlement divided from that, so shut up and pass.”
“Y-yes, sir.”
He looked like a simple gatekeeper, but my hairs stood on end as if a beast was in front of me.
From then on, the coachmen of the Maxman Merchant Troupe quietly dropped off the goods and scurried away.
The carriages came almost daily and left behind money pouches.
Those were funds and budgets.
The money, to be used in various places, had to be prepared for the biggest expenditure.
The bloodshot eyes of the Youngest Son, who was looking at a map of the entire East in the mansion, were fixed on one place.
“Before we move the house there, I have to grant the Fourth Son's request.”
The death of Hinek.
By now, he would be confused and out of his mind.
The ones he firmly believed were the culprits had already vanished from the world, and the Black Wolf Brigade had vanished even before that.
The fact that what he thought held all the keys was not even a key at all.
Even so, Hinek must have identified someone as his enemy.
The problem was that the identified enemy was someone he couldn't even touch, the Fourth Son.
“You will try to become the Chairman before the Fourth Son reveals his killing hand. You'll try to persuade him, who is still alive and holding his position, but.”
Unfortunately, the Youngest Son also had the same strategy.
To persuade the Chairman.
He would persuade him to hold his position firmly, solidly, and not to hand it over to anyone.
It was a showdown of whose words were more persuasive.
Knock, knock─
The Head Maid, who knocked on the door from outside, delivered the news received via a Messenger Ghoul.
“Young Master. The Chairman of the Confederation has agreed to a face-to-face meeting.”