Translator: Wan ED/PR: Fan
Lucion stared blankly at Hyum.
“Act…?”
“Ah, is that not a word? I meant that it’s the moment for me to help Young Master as a valet.”
Hyum’s smile grew larger.
“How?”
Lucion asked.
“I’m unstable, but I’m a monster.”
Hyum pointed to herself.
“There is something I didn’t mention as it’s a useless ability.”
“What ability is it?”
“Besides strength and transformation ability, I have a memory related ability and an ability I learned while at the banquet.”
“Is there something besides those?”
“No, there are no more. But the warlock who made me said I can evolve. I think I’ll be able to increase the number of abilities if I evolve.”
‘… Evolve?’
Hearing that word felt unfamiliar to Lucion.
But it was not the time to ask about it.
“What ability haven’t you told me about?”
“I can take out the memories I saw today and reexamine them.”
It seemed like it was an ability similar to a perfect memory.
That must have been the reason why Anthony said that Hyum was a fast learner.
“During the banquet, I learned that I differentiate smells while smelling them after I tried to find the refreshingly sweet scent. Unlike the memory ability, I’m able to remember them a bit longer.”
“Details.”
“So if there are A, B, and C smells here right now, I can only chase after A. It’s still impossible to chase after them at the same time.”
“You can see the smells with your eyes?”
“No. Each smell feels different. I may be able to know more details after I train it.”
Hyum looked at Lucion, hoping for praise in her heart.
‘Is Hyum… some kind of canine monster?’
Lucion fiddled with his mask, and accepted the situation to some degree.
On all accounts, Hyum’s ability was certainly a great help in the current situation.
“Good judgment, Hyum.”
“Thank You!”
[Are you some kind of canine monster?]
Russell couldn’t endure his ticklish mouth, and carefully asked.
“I’m not sure. I certainly heard that some things were mixed together.”
Hyum answered with a smile full of happiness.
“Hyum.”
Lucion called Hyum.
“You said that you can recollect the entire memory of what you saw today?”
“Yes. That’s correct.”
At Hyum’s answer, Lucion briefly thought of the number of doors he saw.
‘It’s not an amount I can move today.’
It was a pity, but it seemed that he should start messing with the most important things.
Lucion pressed his lips.
‘And I guess I can make use of the information those bastards so tirelessly gathered.’
This place was a mine of precious information.
“Let’s start.”
Lucion ordered Hyum.
“I’ll tell you the things you have to see today.”
“Yes. Please tell me whatever You want. Because I don’t need to sleep.”
For a person who was to soon be dying, Hyum’s expression looked very happy.
Thanks to that, Lucion was also happy.
‘Competent workers are always good.’
Lucion first told Hyum to check the Cronia and Jeven families, and memorized the smells left on the two.
They had to look through the information itself anyway, no matter how long it took.
‘And then I should stealthily touch up the information.’
Lucion enjoyed that thought alone.
He was extremely happy right now.
He was able to comfortably wander around, and he could comfortably visit shops and buy things.
Others may laugh at this, but it was a peace that he found after dozens of years, so it was a precious happiness to him.
He had no plans to forgive any bastard who tried to touch Cronia and steal that happiness from him.
While Hyum examined the information related to Cronia, Lucion looked at Russell.
[What do you want to know again?]
Russell, who was looking at the innocent Hyum with pity, responded to Lucion’s eager gaze and spoke up.
“Is it possible to track the Darkness of a dominated ghost?”
Lucion also knew about ghost domination.
The dominated ghosts had the Darkness of a warlock inside of them.
That Darkness was a Darkness unique for each warlock.
[You want to find the warlock who dominated the ghosts?]
“Yes, that’s correct.”
Though he could re-dominate the dominated ghosts, it was not a method Lucion himself wanted to do right now.
Russell was deeply worried.
Thanks to the willpower he innately possessed and Latta, Lucion grew much quicker than others, but he has only been a warlock for barely three weeks.
“Master-nim.”
When Lucion urged him, Russell looked at Lucion’s Darkness.
— Latta can help with whatever it is. So Russell can tell Lucion whatever it is.
Even Latta urged Russell.
[It’s possible to backtrack, but…]
Russell’s words trailed off.
“Then You can teach me. The bastard who hired that warlock must be some important bastard related to this place.”
Lucion didn’t think he could catch the head right away.
Such careful bastards don’t reveal themselves easily.
But if he caught each bastard one after another, they would reveal themself in the end.
And he had patience to drive out and beat up each one of those bastards.
[You have barely enough Darkness to learn it right now.]
“Does it need a lot of Darkness?”
[Obviously. As the name backtracking suggests, you use your own Darkness to get to the place where the warlock is, so you have to be able to maintain a certain amount of Darkness in the meantime.]
“My Darkness increased thanks to the Divine Beast’s blessing.”
[Yeah. The Darkness did increase thanks to the Divine Beast’s blessing.]
“Then…”
[But that’s it. You’re still like a kid taking his first steps, and if the backtracking fails, it won’t end just with them discovering your location. It will feel like your innards were ripped to pieces.]
Unlike usual, Russell didn’t want to recommend backtracking magic.
This magic had too many stability issues.
[You will be able to track them down safer later, so right now, wait for the results Hyum will bring.]
“From Master-nim’s words it sounds like I can’t use anything besides that tracking magic right now. I should learn it, thinking of it as an experience.”
Even with Russell’s warning, Lucion spoke comfortably.
[As an experience…?]
Russell spit out a snort, as if dumbfounded.
[It will be really painful if it fails…]
Russell was about to raise his voice, but he stopped himself.
After all, Lucion started his morning by eating latchou and vomiting blood, and even going to the Grand Temple with his own feet, so there was no way that he would give up in this situation.
[… Ha.]
Russell sighed deeply.
[This poisonous punk. Are you going to try to obtain a poison resistance too?]
“If there is a way to get a resistance to poisons too, I naturally have to get it.”
Lucion also worried about situations involving poisons.
As one the top five reasons for nobles’ deaths was assassination by poison.
It was rejected because it was so vicious, but poison magic also existed for a matter of fact.
‘In the novel, one of Lucion’s subordinates was a bastard who was a poison mage.’
Lucion checked the group of nobles who took advantage of the soon-to-be villain during the banquet, and recognized them as villains who would appear in the future.
‘It’s good to get rid of villains before they become villains.’
Lucion got ahold of his thoughts first and spoke to Russell again.
“Master-nim. As Master-nim already knows, this is a battle of speed. I have to grab the enemy’s neck in one fell swoop.”
‘I hoped that he would say ‘I’ll never make such a request again’, but he would never say that even if he were to die. ‘
Because of Lucion’s stubbornness, Russell scowled.
[Let’s move to another room first.]
In case the backtracking failed, shouldn’t they avoid Lucion standing in the room with the doorplate ‘Cronia’?
“Hyum. Stay here until I come back.”
After Lucion ordered Hyum to wait, he entered another room.
[I’ll block the dominated ghosts and your Darkness from leaking, so you don’t have to worry about that.]
Russell decided to block the small things around to raise Lucion’s chances of success.
Latta came out of his shadow and looked at Russell with full seriousness.
[You know about maintenance time, right, Latta?]
— Yeah! Got it. It’s possible for longer than in the past.
[It will probably be around 30 seconds.]
Russell looked at Lucion.
[It means you have to solve it within that time.]
“It will be the only chance.”
Lucion’s voice sank slightly.
[Right. It means only one chance.]
Russell licked his lips.
[I’ll soon show you to a dominated ghost. From then on it really starts. I’ll tell you what you have to do.]
***
[I have to find that suspicious bastard. Suspicious bastard. If not, I’ll go to heaven.]
Grit, grit.
Biting his fingertips, the dominated ghost wandered around.
It was because Russell released the hidden power of Lucion for the ghost.
— You can dominate the dominated ghost, but usually that’s a stupid thing to do. The warlock will be warned right away. So you have to…
Lucion recalled what Russell said while releasing Darkness, letting it fall to the ground like a whip.
— Smash it with Darkness. Because of the shock of other Darkness being pushed out, the dominated ghost will usually faint.
Whoosh!
When the dominated ghost entered the room, Lucion swung the whip and the ghost fainted.
Russell kept the words ‘well done’ to himself.
It was a fight of willpower from now on.
Looking at the swaying ghost, Lucion recalled what Russell said again.
— Then, you grab onto some shape of the Darkness. Latta will assist you as usual, so just maintain some kind of shape and stab it into the ghost’s chest.
Lucion thought of a bamboo spear, and rolled up the Darkness, maintaining the cylinder.
The Darkness, who giggled at the new shape, soon said it’s boring, and started to scatter.
‘… Keep quiet. Quiet.’
Lucion forced the scattering Darkness into the cylinder and grit his teeth.
Maintaining its shape was more difficult than he thought.
As if his head was on fire, it was so hot in the mask that steam was leaking out.
Before the shape scattered, Lucion thrust the spear made out of Darkness into the ghost’s chest.
Peuk!
— Stabbing the dominated ghost in the vicinity of the chest is to forcibly connect your Darkness with the other warlock’s Darkness.
‘Connected…’
Starting with his fingertips, Lucion had a feeling of his whole body being sucked into the ghost.
— When connected, find the real Darkness hidden inside. Rely on your senses.
In that instant, his vision turned dark.
Lucion felt as if he was locked in a room without even a bit of light coming in.
— 5 seconds have passed!
Latta said.
25 seconds left.
Even though he knew he couldn’t see, Lucion reflexively moved his eyes around.
But he soon closed his eyes and searched for the Darkness relying on his other senses.
The spear he thrust became a cane and let out a ‘tap, tap’ sound.
Tap.
Nothing on the left.
Tap.
Nothing in the center.
Tap, tap, tap.
The sound grew faster when he turned right.
‘Found. My senses are dragged there.’
Lucion felt a throbbing sensation for a second.
— 27 seconds!
With 3 seconds left, his heart raced ‘thud-thud’.
— 28 seconds!
Lucion stretched out his hand towards the throbbing sensation.
— 29 seconds!
His fingertips touched something.
— 30 seconds!
At the same time as Latta’s last words, Lucion pushed Darkness again through his fingertips.
Swish!
Scenes passed in his vision, like a fast-played video.
‘This…’
The name of the area entered his head on its own.
The scenes passed by swiftly, and when he saw a person in black robes and a person in red robes, they stopped.
‘Blue thread…?’
Suddenly, a blue thread appeared, connecting the two people and him.
Lucion moved his eyes.
He had to find the warlock.
And Lucion’s gaze stopped on the head of the person wearing black robes.
He saw wriggling Darkness.
‘That’s the bastard!’
Lucion recognized the black robed person as the warlock who dominated the ghosts.
‘The bastard beside him…’
At the moment the red robed person was about to push back their hood, the warlock was startled and turned his head.
It seemed like his two eyes met his own for a second.
Snap.
Luckily, the Darkness connected to the dominated ghost was cut off.
He returned in the instant, as if the events that just happened were a dream.
‘Did our eyes really meet…?’
Dazed, Luicion looked at Russell to report.
Jingle.
At that moment, a terrifying feeling engulfed him from behind.
Unknown letters appeared in the air, and soon changed into something blue, covering Lucion.
*~*~*
Translator’s note: Russell is still in self-denial that his disciple is addicted to suffering…
Editor’s note: I mean, Lucion isn’t helping when he keeps doing self-destructive things…
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