Chapter 48: The Black Fangs Shelter (1)
Naming the blind girl,
Siel’s sudden declaration of her right to wish,
and unexpected happenings occurred one after another, but still, I steadfastly did what needed to be done.
I taught the children how to enhance their mana whenever I had a chance,
and at the same time, I sought out a blacksmith to repair the holy sword. (Of course, I secured a mana oath for safety reasons.)
Amidst honing my own combat abilities, those were my hectic days.
Even today, there was no rest on my schedule,
yet a smile naturally spread across my face.
It was only natural.
Who in the world hates money?
Watching money multiply in real-time would make anyone happy; it would be weirder if it didn’t!
I quickly stepped into Miss Rubia’s room.
Creeeak, the door opened.
There she was, stretching in her pajamas, just waking up—I mean, our eyes locked.
With drool still stuck at the corner of her mouth, it was obvious she had just rolled out of bed.
How could someone be so disheveled?
I thought such trivial things as I called out to Miss Rubia.
No, I was about to call her.
The moment our eyes met, before I could even begin a sentence, Miss Rubia’s face turned bewildered.
“I-I’m sorry…! I didn’t mean to presume to test the children!”
Suddenly, Miss Rubia began to fumble and back away in panic, then fell flat on her rear, collapsing on the floor.
Even if Cthulhu opened her door right then, she wouldn’t react this way.
Now that’s a serious overreaction!
“From the start, Miss Rubia… what do you think of me?”
I sighed as I asked.
I had indeed scolded her for harming the children before, but I never swore at or acted violently towards her.
Yet, judging by her reaction, you’d think I was threatening her life!
“S-Sorry…”
Miss Rubia sincerely apologized.
I wanted to know what made her so scared of me, but honestly, I couldn’t say much since I felt guilty about certain things too.
Sure, Lien and Siel were the odd ones, but from an objective perspective, I was quite a strange existence myself.
Knowing things nobody else could know, acting in rather extreme ways, and casually commanding strong folks like Siel and Lien.
To Miss Rubia, I must seem more mysterious than the Black Fangs leader.
But explaining all of this was not an option.
If I mentioned coming from another world or had knowledge of the original story, she’d probably think I was even crazier!
This is truly the tragedy of all transmigrators, you know?
Without the ability to explain the background knowledge of the original story, the people around me were bound to misunderstand me as something bizarre.
‘Though, it’d be such a waste not to use my knowledge of the original story.’
In the end, I had to take my time to gently make this overly dramatic lady understand that I was just an innocent citizen.
How do I reassure such a frightened person? The road ahead seemed daunting, but that wasn’t a worry for now.
“Follow me. I’m thinking of properly starting that potion business I mentioned before.”
Even after I said this, Miss Rubia still wore a blank expression.
When she’s doing her job, she’s typically sharp and icy, so I expected her to quickly regain composure.
But she gave me one of the oddest responses ever.
There could only be one explanation.
“…You didn’t pay attention to what I said back then, did you?”
“N-No! I heard! I remember everything!”
Her answer, the cold sweat rolling down her neck, and her pale skin—all of it screamed she was lying.
‘So you weren’t listening, huh?’
I explained everything in detail at the black market,
and she nodded along, but maybe her mind wandered elsewhere.
A foreboding feeling settled in.
Was she really suitable as a business partner?
Sometimes she showed off her eloquence, and whenever her own work came up, she was quite competent.
But how could someone be so capable yet so unreliable at the same time?
With a deep sigh, I took this immature lady forward.
*
Rubia followed the commander, drenched in sweat.
Her mind was swirling with all kinds of delusional scenarios.
‘I took in a villain like you, believing you could help. Looks like I was mistaken. No more chit-chat; prepare to die!’
The scenarios varied, but they all ended the same way:
Execution.
For the crime of being an irksome nuisance without any abilities, she envisioned a death sentence.
“Honestly, I don’t recall much of what you said last time, but I’m super competent! Really competent! You’ll definitely need me when starting a business!”
Thus, Rubia desperately attempted to promote herself from the back.
“…I see. That’s quite impressive.”
However, the response she received came with a touch of pity.
It felt like looking at someone just a bit mentally off, a poor soul. Apparently, she was the only one making a fuss this time.
Rubia’s face turned tomato red, ready to explode.
There’s definitely a limit to how embarrassing something can be.
She felt like biting her tongue off from humiliation.
…Well, given that reaction, it didn’t seem like he wanted to eliminate her.
That was a small relief, at least.
Creeeak!
With that, the door swung open.
It was the commander’s room.
Inside were all sorts of materials that the commander had gathered with the children last time.
It had a lab-like atmosphere.
“To explain once more, I am planning to mass-produce and sell elixirs.”
“…What?”
Even in this already strained moment, where she was trying to show her usefulness, such a confused response was inevitable.
Mass-producing elixirs?
What kind of nonsense was that?
“That’s impossible unless you bring the World Tree itself.”
“But we have the World Tree, don’t we?”
In response to her logical point, the commander spouted bizarre nonsense again.
Then, he pointed to a mound of silver hair.
“We can substitute it with that.”
Rubia had a rough idea of what that was—elf hair.
It’s been suggested several times as a substitute for the precious leaves from the World Tree used in making elixirs.
But.
“You can’t replace World Tree leaves! Everyone who tried has failed.”
“No, success was achieved.”
With that, the commander reached for a handful of elf hair.
“It’s not widely known, but someone succeeded about 300 years ago.”
She wondered how old he might be but kept her mouth shut.
There had to be a reason why he looked like a boy.
There was no need to poke around the secrets of such a transcendent being.
“This indeed contains the power of the World Tree. People just don’t know how to extract it.”
As he said this, the commander brought a still-burning demon horn close to the hair.
Then, from the elf hair, a golden liquid began to flow.
“When you hold it up to something exuding strong magic, it releases the World Tree’s protective power embedded within it.”
“The reason this hasn’t been discovered until now…?”
“It’s because this horn is rarer than you think. Plus, the hair needs various pre-treatments. It would have been tough to discover such complex conditions by accident.”
‘…If it’s so hard, how come you’re talking about it so nonchalantly?’
This was exactly what every alchemist dreams of achieving.
Having done something like this, why acted so unfazed?
Rubia held back the words she wanted to say.
He was practically advertising himself as something god-like rather than human.
At this point, one had to wonder whether he even was trying to keep it a secret.
But for now, it would be better to play along.
“And… the important part is the cost difference when substituting World Tree leaves with this material.”
A statement that couldn’t be ignored hit Rubia’s ears.
Instantly, her expression turned serious.
Naturally.
Value assessment.
Determining if this would turn a profit or not.
She prided herself on being the best in this area.
Rubia’s mind raced.
And then…
Her jaw dropped.
The price for a single elixir often exceeds 1000 gold.
So rare that they were nearly impossible to find.
But if those materials were used to produce elixirs…
The cost would be roughly 15 gold each.
In other words,
…money would be duplicated.
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