Chapter 71 – 21. Demon (1)
“Shit!!”
Bang!
At the count’s furious fist striking the table, the water surface of the still black tea trembles and the eyes of Philip standing still in the corner wander here and there.
“Why! Why didn’t you come!! Jeon Ji-hye!!”
An office located on the top floor of the count’s castle.
The owner of this place, Count Jonathan Cursreal, is a renowned shaman in the Empire. Although his body is old and frail, his mana-drenched fists are enough to make cracks across solid tables.
Currently, the Count is furious at the distortion of his final plan even before it begins.
Jeon Ji-hye with the [Death] Attribute, which is an epic level. Philip is also a familiar figure. Because he, like her, is a freshman who entered the academy this year and joined her shaman club.
On the first day of the new year, Philip awakened the [Poison] Attribute, befitting a scion of a witchcraft family. His family is a baron, the lowest of the titles, serving Count Cursreal for generations.
Thus, Philip acted as an assistant to Jamie, the successor of the Cursreal family, at the academy.
Therefore, it was a predestined step for him to step into the plan to kidnap Jeon Ji-hye in the shadow of his family.
Although Philip did not properly carry out the instruction to ‘get as close as possible to Jeon Ji-hye in the club’, he was able to fulfill his duty of promptly informing the head of the house, Jonathan, of the failure of the curse and Jamie’s death at the time of the terror attack.
And now, he stands here to receive plans and instructions for the next day. However, the news he heard as soon as he arrived was that Jeon Ji-hye did not participate in the trip due to her personal circumstances (惡報).
“You didn’t know, did you notice?! That I was aiming for! Phillip!”
“Yes, my lord.”
“Is there any chance that the curse you cast on her didn’t fail with probability, but that she realized the curse and destroyed it herself?”
“I think it’s highly unlikely…”
Philip recalled just three weeks ago.
“Mister Jamie reviewed the curse with me several times. The preparations were thorough, and Jeon Ji-hye at the time was a novice in witchcraft, not knowing how to use even a food body. .”
“…Well. Besides, if the curse were revealed, there’s no way I’d be so fine right now. The summoners are personally managed by the 3rd princess…”
Jonathan Cursreal shook his head with a dark expression.
“Then why didn’t you come on the trip! Are you saying that today’s menstrual period was just a coincidence…?”
“·······.”
“The sacrificial offering has already ended as planned. If it is not tomorrow, it loses its value. Tomorrow, we must perform the great magic somehow…!”
“This is it, what would you have done if I hadn’t heard of it and passed by? So, let’s do as I say? How is it?”
An unfamiliar voice from the other side caught Philip’s ear.
“There is no other way, no way. There is no guarantee that you can kidnap Jeon Ji-hye from the Imperial Academy right away. Is my plan the most certain and reasonable?”
“·······.”
“Grandpa, can you hear me? Hey~”
“Ah… Is there really no choice but to do that…”
Philip quietly rolled his eyes and looked around the room.
While the Count is clutching his head with both hands in anguish, a mysterious man sits across from him arrogantly with his legs crossed.
Gray clothes, black hair, and a white mask covering his eyes and nose. These were the only three pieces of information Philip could grasp.
The mask, which contains strange magical powers, blocks detailed information through magic that surrounds the wearer so that the wearer cannot be properly recognized.
A mask you would only see at a masquerade ball, and a very suspicious man. It was the first time in his life that he had seen both of them, but Philip kept his senseless curiosity and doubts in his heart.
First of all, it is clear that he is an unusual person at the point of using informal words to the head of the family,
It’s because you can see that he is an important guest of the count from the appearance of the maid of the mansion who is idly teased in the seat next to the man.
“I understand. I will follow your suggestion.”
“Yahoo! That’s a really good idea. It’s a win-win for both of us. Grandpa is reuniting with his wife, and I’m getting stronger and having fun!”
“As I said before. Tomorrow, the Garden.”
“Okay. See you tomorrow!”
With a voice that couldn’t contain the joy, the figures of the man and the maid disappeared in an instant. I was definitely looking at it with my eyes wide open…
“Philip.”
“Yes, my lord.”
He hurriedly lowered his head at the call of the family head.
“Is ‘Poison’ ready without any problems…?”
“······That’s right.”
Philip doesn’t know what the count and the suspicious man are planning. He simply follows orders that he can carry out better than anyone else.
Poison.
Physical curse.
In a broader category, any substance capable of affecting the human body either chemically or through interaction with magic.
His family’s specialty and his attribute talent.
All materials are already in stock.
The poison the family lord wanted this time is not only very simple to manufacture, but is also known to be harmless to health, so it is a substance that is quite free to use.
The effect is an awakening system that raises the body’s magic sensitivity. Since it is often used as a stimulant for knights or magic cooking, there was no problem preparing large quantities.
“Tomorrow morning.”
“All right······.”
Even if it were found out that such a safe and beneficial ingredient was added to breakfast tomorrow by ‘cook’s mistake’ and ‘a little too much’, no one would condemn themselves.
Phillip walked down the empty corridors, writing the new instructions into his head.
It’s gloomy outside the window, it’s not strange when it rains.
‘What the hell is going to happen tomorrow…’
It’s disturbing.
It is said that fortune tellers predict fate by looking at the constellations in the night sky.
The sky obscured by cloudy clouds seems to represent the Cursreal family, whose future is uncertain…
* * *
“Hmm…”
I looked down suspiciously at the object in my hand.
A luxuriously wrapped scroll.
After cleaning Ah-yeong’s room after a strenuous workout with Iris, Ireina gave it to me as I was walking to the bed with overwhelming fatigue.
It is said that Lady Emilia gave it to me.
ㅡHe said that ‘everyone here is dangerous’ and told me to open it alone…
“······.”
Can I really trust Emilia?
Jonathan Cursreal and his son, Jamie, are my obvious enemies because they tried to rob me of my wisdom. In response, Jamie was killed under the guise of terrorism, which Jonathan will deal with during this trip.
Then what about Jonathan’s daughter, Emilia? Since she also wishes for the resurrection of her dead mother, it is quite possible that she cooperated with the villainous plan.
Although she did not name Emilia when she tortured Jamie’s fiancée, Sophie…
My conclusion is ‘unreliable’.
Scrolls can be traps. It could be the purpose to confuse me by writing wrong information here, or it could be a magic bomb that activates magic as soon as it is opened.
Of course not, but there’s nothing wrong with being cautious.
Therefore, I decided to hold the scroll opening ceremony in the presence of the hidden Iris.
I’m tired to death in the middle of the night, but if the contents are useless at all, Emilia might be able to do it with Jonathan this time.
“I’ll open it now.”
Nod
I hit it with mana five paces away from the scroll. The rolled paper rolled and slowly unfolded, and the magic circle drawn on it began to glow red.
‘Was it really a bomb…!’
It’s a really cunning tactic. I’ll send you four years to hell.
I didn’t take my eyes off the front while checking the state of the shield magic I had chanted beforehand. Judging from the magical power of the scroll, this amount should be able to block any attack that comes out.
However, it was not magic that materialized before my eyes.
Crimson strokes floated from the paper into the air, mixed with each other, and soon began to form a single shape.
It was a doll.
As the red light gradually faded, the woman who regained her original color,
“Aww!”
She fell to the floor with a short, delicate scream. Her knee fell first and it hurt. She was in pain for a while before our eyes met hers.
“Umm… Jung Ji-hoo, nice to meet you. The girl is called Emilia Cursreal.”
Her red hair swayed gently in the lingering magical wind. But I didn’t have time to worry about such trifles.
I was quite shocked by the sight before my eyes.
Emilia was summoned from the magic circle of the scroll.
Because this is really nonsense.
Space magic such as blink, teleportation, and teleport is the highest level of magic. ‘Space’ is not the specialty of the mythical [Earth] Attribute for nothing. It wasn’t trivial magic that could be realized with a simple magic circle of such a small and ordinary piece of paper.
I calmed her agitation and looked more closely at her with her celestial eye, and soon realized the truth about her.
There are no errors in my knowledge.
It was Emilia who was wrong.
Sitting on her knees, she is in a state of only mana. Not human For example, pure mana life form, or magic itself.
“Are you a food soul?”
Food soul. An incantation tool that becomes the hands and feet of a shaman.
It’s such a realistic diet.
I heard that Lady Emilia was obviously ill, and even though she had awakened her attributes, she did not enter the academy. Looking at her now, she seems to have polished her witchcraft hard in the mansion.
My question was quite natural, based on natural logic,
“No.”
Her answer was very perplexing.
What the heck is this Currently, I can’t find any of her proteins or biomaterials in her. If I blow the wind of mana right now, it seems like it will scatter and disappear.
Emilia didn’t care about my reaction and slowly brought her hands to her chest. Then she unbuttoned the buttons on her jacket one by one.
The young lady of the count who suddenly starts undressing herself.
‘······?’
How the hell did the young lady’s sexuality change? How did sex education work in this family? So, is the scroll an application for a midnight yobai?
This kind of approach is always welcome, of course.
If the woman’s approach was normal and the woman was not causal.
“I don’t remember calling a night service, but…”
Despite my insults, Emilia silently continues the striptease.
Eventually, when her inner body was revealed without cover, I was able to clear all my doubts with a new shock. Sudden summoning, 100% mana, and even exhibitionism.
Numerous black lines were drawn all over Emilia’s body.
Straight and curved brushstrokes overwhelm her pale skin.
The moment I checked them, things I hadn’t been aware of began to come into view.
See. The black strokes act as a chain that restrains her soul, fixing the shape of her body like a preservative. No matter how long it has been tightened, I can see the delicate soul that is on the verge of drying out and crumbling.
Emilia is not human. She was human, but she almost lost her humanity. A black curse is eating away at her humanity and taking its place.
Emilia stands on the border between humans and witchcraft. But now it’s on the verge of completely leaning towards witchcraft.
The scroll from before was not a teleportation circle, but a shaman circle that implements one spell.
“Please save the many people living in the Cursreal Territory…”
I decided to listen to her one more time.
