Pastel grabbed a long stick and stirred the cauldron.
Swish swish.
Bubble bubble.
Feeling like a witch.
“What does the deep and long mountain valley witch eat to survive~?”
She held the stick like a microphone and sang enthusiastically.
“Mr. Rabbit, do you know the spring~! Mr. Deer, do you know the orchard~!”
After spinning around, she grabbed the stick again.
“A life where everyone is around, so you won’t go hungry~!”
I’m so happy.
Then a demon approached and grabbed the girl’s shoulder.
Pastel lit up with joy.
“How about a song, Demon Lord?”
『Stop singing and focus. You need to stir evenly so it doesn’t stick to the bottom.』
A finger pointed firmly at the cauldron.
Purple poison boiled.
Following the demon’s teachings, she was preparing and processing various poisons and venom.
Pastel pouted her lips.
At first, the thought of making poison excited her, but that was only for the first few times. She already failed on the tenth batch of a similar poison.
If it were just making them, maybe it would’ve been fine, but she had to do all the tedious prep work like trimming poisonous herbs, grinding seeds by hand, and finely chopping and squeezing snake venom.
Ugh.
This wasn’t the repetitive labor I imagined.
I wanted something like splash splash! yah yah! boom boom!
She stirred the thick liquid roughly with the stick.
“Since it’s poison anyway, can’t we just char it a bit?”
She had been stirring the cauldron for thirty minutes now.
Every attempt!
Ugh.
She raised her fingers.
“One plus one is this! Mixing something bad with something bad makes it twice as bad!”
Special recipe, burnt-tasting poison!
Don’t complain that it tastes bad~.
After all, if you eat it, you’ll die~.
『Of course, that won’t do.』
The demon took her hand and forced her to grip the stick again, stirring the cauldron.
Ugh.
『Alchemy isn’t much different from cooking. If you burn the bottom of the soup trying to add a bitter taste, it won’t be a bitter soup; it’ll just be a burnt soup.』
Ugh.
“Demon Lord, do you know this? Meat is supposed to be slightly burnt for it to taste good! I totally agree! So shouldn’t poison taste good when it’s burnt too?! I totally agree!”
Ugh.
Perfect logic.
The demon pretended not to hear.
『Stir well so it doesn’t burn. Just thirty more minutes to evaporate as much moisture as possible.』
Ugh.
Thirty minutes later, Pastel stopped stirring, her shoulders slumped. Prodding the sticky purple substance with the stick, she could clearly feel the gooey texture.
It looked like something that would kill you if you ate it!
“I think it’s done!”
The demon peered into the cauldron.
Charred.
『It’s burnt. Failure.』
Ugh.
I have to make it again!
Pastel clutched her head.
“Waaaah!”
Save Pastel!
The demon let out a tired sigh and looked at the ceiling.
『This is already the tenth failure. What do you think the cause is?』
Hmmm.
After serious contemplation, she found the cause and brightened up. Planting her hands on her hips, she confidently declared.
“I guess I just don’t get along with these things! You might not know, grim Demon Lord, but famous people can’t get along with everyone! That goes for me and these things!”
Right! That’s the answer!
The demon poked Pastel’s forehead with a finger.
『Wrong.』
Ugh.
『It’s because you’re not following my instructions that you keep making failures. Why do you keep singing in between? You’re the reason it’s burnt.』
“Demon Lord, you don’t know! Labor songs are important to people!”
『Then why do you dance? If you hadn’t danced, it wouldn’t have burned this much.』
“Well, that’s…”
Pastel thought long and hard.
“Just…?”
The demon looked exasperated.
Ugh.
“But! But!”
Pastel waved her arms.
“When I realize making this is so exhausting, boring, and tedious, my body just won’t stay still!”
The demon looked even more bewildered.
『You’re quite bold.』
The demon’s finger pressed firmly on Pastel’s forehead.
Wobble wobble.
Waaaah.
“Stop it!”
『You should really get it together.』
She ducked away from the finger and stood up.
“So anyway! Demon Lord, you said alchemy isn’t different from cooking, right? Right?”
『What of it?』
Pastel smiled subtly. She sneaked closer and poked the demon with her finger.
“Demon Lord! Demon Lord! The cooking demon!”
『Stop calling me that.』
She clasped her hands together and looked up at the demon.
“Since you’re cooking anyway!”
Pastel’s pink eyes sparkled.
Sparkle sparkle.
“Please make the poison too!”
A pure, innocent plea!
Having grown so tired of the exhausting and boring process that she didn’t want to do it herself, Pastel flattered vigorously.
“Fantastic and great super ultra Demon Lord! Expert hands are needed in the domain of experts!”
She wiggled her soft hands.
“If someone like me with these hands makes a low-quality poison, I’ll just be left regretting in the real deal! The special poison you create is the secret weapon that can save starving Pastel!”
A perfect speech with not a single flaw!
Here! Here!
Pastel pulled out her gem knife. She covered her mouth and made it flap like a ventriloquist.
The knife spoke in a soft voice.
“I agree. Only the demon can create the unique poison that will be my buddy.”
Ugh.
Pastel gasped in surprise.
“Did you just hear that?! Knife Friend said! That the demon should make the poison!”
Wow!
Even inanimate objects were agreeing!
The demon looked at them in disbelief.
『Young Craft.』
“Yes!”
Her eyes sparkled.
『I won’t do it.』
A firm voice.
Like a parent realizing their soft attitude was negatively influencing their home education.
Gasp.
Pastel froze.
The cold, harsh reality had arrived.
『Do your own work.』
The frozen, chill-inducing demon spoke in an absolute tone and went to wash the failed cauldron.
Left alone, Pastel let out a gasp as if her soul had left her body.
Do your own work.
By yourself!
By myself…!
Clutching her head.
“Uwaah!”
Cold reality!
Harsh reality!
An intense sense of despair must have come.
“I didn’t want to do this exhausting, boring, tedious work by myself! Waaah! I was intentionally failing just because I didn’t want to do it…!”
Please recognize my sabotage!
Just let the demon do it!
Footsteps were heard behind her.
『What did you…?』
Eh.
Pastel slowly turned around, frozen.
Had the demon forgotten the cleaning solution, or had she come back in shock?
『Young Craft?』
Uwaah!
Caught in the act of making an unreasonable fuss, right before being found out…!
Facing genuine punishment…!
“I’ll be a good Pastel and solve it myself!”
Pastel dashed away.
The demon hurried to catch up.
『Wait a moment. What did you-』
“I’ll come back as a genius witch!”
Zoom zoom.
“Leonard!”
Pastel waved her hand with a smile.
Leonard, who was chatting with his subordinates, turned around with a sullen look.
“What took you so long to come?”
“Personal matter!”
“Such a brazen thing to say. Here, catch.”
Leonard handed over the audit results from the merchants.
While the knight order and soldiers were searching the cult that invaded the Sky Whale and looting the Presi Merchant, the Sky Whale gathering by other merchants had stopped. They had just begun a brief audit since it had halted.
If they really conducted an audit on the once-steady Presi Merchant in this situation, the anxiety among the other merchants would grow, so it was more of a formality than an actual audit.
“I can’t be sure, as I didn’t dig too deep, but on the surface, it looks like there’s no connection to the cult here. If I dig deeper, I might find something more.”
Pastel listened to the report while skimming through the documents. She shook her head with a smile.
“No, it’s fine! This is enough for the audit! From the knight order’s report, it seems that only some upper management from the Presi Merchant was linked to the cult. The rest were only following higher orders.”
“What? You said it was personal, but it seems like you weren’t just resting!”
Revenge is indeed personal.
After meeting Leonard and her friends, Pastel headed to the jail where the key executives of the Presi Merchant were detained.
『You said you’d solve it yourself, but why are you here?』
Ugh.
Though she had fled, due to the demon sealed in the Demon Sword, they had to stay together within a certain distance.
Uwaah.
So embarrassing!
The demon only sighed heavily but said nothing, yet Pastel was tortured by intense shame.
Covering her face, she mumbled in a small voice.
“Please don’t say anything….”
『Understood.』
Uwaah.
Since they were really quiet, her conscience was tormenting her…
After they arrived at the prison, they could be guided by the soldiers.
Pastel received the investigation documents and the list of executives from the Presi Merchant. She looked over each executive’s charges and backgrounds, marking some names and circling others to organize the list.
『What are you trying to do?』
“I’m going to sift through them and consume the merchant as a whole.”
The Presi Merchant had excellent techniques for processing high-quality materials that could be used for the cult’s drugs. While they might not measure up to the level of professionals, there was also a professional alchemy workforce present.
Put differently, it meant that they could potentially create poisons.
Hum hum.
If the demon won’t do it~.
Someone else could do it~.
The detained executives were caught on charges of contract killing against Marquis Craft and while at it, other economic crimes were being exposed as well.
She thought of granting clemency on the condition of taking over the merchant. The economic crimes could be smoothed over with bribery.
Pastel faced each of the officials on her list one by one.
“As someone targeted in a contract killing, I still feel a chilling sensation, but I was worried there might be an innocent one among you, so I’m carefully inquiring.”
Upon investigation, it turns out that you are innocent. I want to release your innocent self, but this experience left me traumatized, so please help change the scary Presi Merchant plaque that frightens me.
As she cautiously proposed from behind the jail bars, there wasn’t anyone who wouldn’t submit in fear of the pale pink girl’s face.
Whether it was really due to being tricked by lies, or if they were simply terrified, only the parties involved would know.
The released key executives shattered the Presi Merchant from within, making it easier for them to be taken over.
As the merchant’s value plummeted, Pastel was able to buy the low points with just a few signatures on documents.
Presi Merchant?
From now on, it will be called Craft Merchant.
Hehe.
The person who underwent the most significant life change during this process was undoubtedly Sinclair’s High Merchant.
No, he probably wasn’t a High Merchant anymore.
The girl stood in front of the bars. Darkness enveloped the prison. Only a faint light made the girl’s shadow stretch long.
Sinclair clutched the bars with a crushed expression.
“I am innocent!”
A hoarse voice echoed.
The girl flinched in surprise.
After seeing the reaction from the Marquis, a soldier shouted, swinging a baton into the cell. Sinclair got hit on the head and bled, but he did not let go of the bars.
Desperate eyes looked up.
“Marquis, believe me! I had no intention of harming you!”
His cracked voice cried out.
The girl trembled.
“Are you really saying you’re innocent, Mr. Sinclair?”
Hope filled Sinclair’s eyes.
“Yes! I am innocent! Please believe me!”
Having heard news of the release of the other executives, it seemed he was hoping it would happen to him as well.
“I see….”
The girl hesitated.
She cautiously lowered her body and whispered in a voice small enough for the surrounding soldiers not to hear.
“I know.”
It was a cold voice.
Sinclair froze.
“So, I’ll postpone your execution. Because I don’t think my heart can endure it. But you’ll spend your life in prison.”
The girl met his gaze and then stood up. Taking slow steps away, the soldiers followed.
Screams filled with terror echoed.
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