<661 – Irresponsible Pleasure (9)>
While waiting for the Executive Meeting, the Butler of Foundation was enjoying his hobby for a change.
His hobby was Jenga.
Collection is not just about owning material things.
It’s also about collecting actions and collecting outcomes.
This type of collection can also be associated with why all the geniuses of the world engage in eccentric hobbies and get labeled as oddballs.
Among them, the Butler of Foundation had a relatively mild collection hobby, and board games were one of them.
“Jeff. Today, we will build Jenga.”
“I must accompany your hobby today as well, Master.”
The Butler of Division 1, Jeff, carefully pulled out a metal block with the care of a thug afraid to meet someone’s gaze.
The Jenga blocks of masters were different from regular Jenga; depending on the property’s mana infused within, they contained interference techniques and traps that could burn adjacent blocks or create vibrations that would cause them to collapse during the next player’s turn if additional weight was added.
Not triggering these techniques while pulling out blocks and setting up traps to disturb the next turn was indeed worthy of the Butler’s hobby, and the other butlers nodded in agreement.
The Butler of Foundation placed a mana needle down and rolled up his sleeves to the elbow, clenching and unclenching his fist to heighten his senses.
He was in the process of building up to carefully expand the mana technique and pull out the block.
Bang!
“Urgent news!”
Crash.
The Jenga blocks collapsed.
The sudden intruder bringing urgent news, the Butler of Foundation looking down at the fallen blocks with extended hands, and Jeff, whose eyes asked what the hell just happened — none of them said a word as a chilling atmosphere persisted.
Realizing that he had severely disrupted his superior’s hobby, Jeff trembled in fear as the Butler let out a heavy sigh and asked,
“What is it?”
“All the teleportation magic circles near the Executive Meeting Room have been attacked. Additionally, a squad of an executive heading to the meeting has been ambushed and annihilated.”
“Who were the attackers?”
“Austerities consisting of masters with leashes from the City of Pleasure, it’s reported to be an attack from the Pleasure Slave.”
“Even the rat-like ones should have been quietly staying out of it; they’ve really lost their minds. I let them be since they are merely a less harmful bacteria to repel the harmful beings of alien origin, but has the Demon King’s Army finally gone mad?”
Before the Director’s assumption, back in the days of Gyeolsa when the Foundation was in its infancy, they would have bowed their heads trembling in fear during such ambushes, frantically trying to figure out why they were angry.
However, the Director elevated the Foundation to become a major underground organization.
“If they knew what the Foundation exists for and still proceeded to sabotage our cooperative relationship, this means they intend to pay the price for the losses incurred in the north.”
“Or perhaps we might be misunderstanding. If there’s any misunderstanding, we might need to understand and resolve it…”
“That could be true, if we were the weak ones.”
The Butler of Foundation tilted his head slightly.
“Are we weak?”
“No, we are not.”
Jeff, who had sprung to his feet, replied.
Even though the half-demolished Jenga blocks on the table fell crash down, no one paid them any mind anymore.
If they treated it as a game, they would handle it with care, but once playtime was over, it was merely a discarded toy and trash.
Annoying and bothersome, a pile of junk they needed to shove away somewhere far off.
Even the Demon King’s Army was no different than Jenga blocks to the butlers of Division 1 of the Foundation.
“The Foundation is not tested by anyone. We only collect, isolate, and dispose.”
“Just give the orders.”
“Collect. The obstacles that disturb our rest in the Middle Realm. It’s time to show what we’ve been fighting against and how strong humanity truly is.”
The elite butlers of the Foundation’s Division 1 set out against the City of Pleasure.
*
Sing couldn’t contain his disbelief.
“Does the Foundation hold meetings while executing enemies on the battlefield? Is the right to speak determined by kills?”
“Well, as I recall, that hasn’t been the case. There’s never been a meeting of that sort that you might be thinking of,”
Sing’s partner replied.
“Then why on earth is there an unexpected order for us to ambush the army of the City of Pleasure?”
Having just exerted himself with muscle transformation techniques that even Professor Pinkberry didn’t order, he was already having a hard time maintaining his disguised physique while being forced to exert strength again.
“Hahaha. Don’t think so negatively. Your getup looks just like an idol, and who would think someone showing off their stomach and sporting twin tails is a man?”
“It’s not about perception. It’s annoying because I’m worried the hard-earned body transformation will be undone.”
“Think of it as a way to relieve stress. Another executive isn’t going to come over to check on us in the next battlefield; we’ll just slash through everything.”
That made sense.
Even if he was stressed out alone, the situation wouldn’t change.
Choosing one of the marching routes of the army of pleasure, he spotted a significant number of troops.
“This energy…”
Sing frowned.
“Dark Mana.”
“Haha. The City of Pleasure has truly crossed the line.”
The army consisting of at least 30,000 troops was so filled with dark soldiers that it was hard to tell where the dark mana began and ended.
The proportion was so meaningless they could be called the Demon King’s Army without any hesitation.
Swish swish swish.
A great iron frame aligned like a diamond had a unit with spears set like hedgehogs, and at every entry point, shield bearers were forming paths and congregating.
Within the formation, the archers, swordsmen, and spear users were likely commanded by a commanding-level strongman presumed to be from the Pleasure Slave, with main and reserve forces in the rear.
“Feels dangerous; can we rush in?”
“Transmute Shieldgrove — also known as a high-level tactic. It’s a formation specialized for troop and strongman interceptions. The spells are inscribed upon the shields of the shield bearers, giving them powerful magical and physical resistances as long as they’re grouped together unless they can break their shields up close.”
Even at first glance, it wasn’t a formation that could easily be broken through, and if those hidden Pleasure Slaves ambushed them, it would be easy prey, exhausted and stripped of energy.
“Sadly, I’m not a battle-specialized executive. So I’ll apply some light restraint before the rare and kind-hearted official with a twin-tail idol trait, Sing, charges in.”
Pasible Yep placed one hand against the ground with the body of an undead clad in human skin.
As he did, the foliage of the ground they stood on quickly wilted, making a squelching noise as the earth began to crack.
“?!”
Sing suddenly realized.
Director Pasible Yep’s class was that of an alchemist.
In Transmutation, he was an expert rivaling Professor Pinkberry’s Disguise Technique.
As he sacrificed the foliage of the land, bizarre plants of a different realm began to surge from the soil where the enemy was positioned across the battlefield.
As the once solid formation broke apart, eventually, the flora began attacking the army, leading the Pleasure Slaves to exert their strength.
“Causing a disruption in the formation of the army with individual strength…?”
“Well, it seems today is a lucky day for a draw. The foliage of this world, having allowed equivalent exchange, is exceptionally fresh and aggressive. Hold your breath for a moment.”
“What exactly are you going to do…”
Before he could finish, Sing sensed the rapid depletion of air in the surrounding atmosphere and quickly deployed his Domain.
Even as he blocked the depletion of air within his domain, toxic gas began to spew forth from a massive door opened in the void to replace the vanished air.
“It seems we’ve received the fresh air of another realm in exchange for the fresh air of the Middle Realm.”
As the exposed enemy troops fell over in agony, the Pleasure Slaves hurriedly deployed their powers to barely protect the air from Sing’s domain protection.
As they continued their fight with the plants in a forced state of domain deployment, Pasible Yep pointed with a fingertip.
“Let’s offer this as the final sacrifice.”
The domain of Pasible Yep skillfully took over the surrounding environment, sacrificing it as his own.
The third target that had become the sacrificial domain was none other than the very sky itself.
Rumble… Crash!
The clear blue sky and open view, along with the clouds and the bodies floating above the battlefield, were all swallowed by a massive distortion.
As the crack in the sky resembling a mirror shattered, everyone on the battlefield could witness it.
A large eye with a scarlet moon pulling down all terrestrial beings, and a being composed of red clouds extending tentacles to engulf everything floating in the air.
Grrr
Ahhh
Hearing the pitiable screams of the enemies, Sing was left speechless.
“After all this, you claim you’re not a battle-specialized executive…?”
“Haha. I was back when I was human. But now, I feel it doesn’t matter much if I’m consumed by another realm. Seems like I’ve unintentionally stumbled into a new upper class of taboo alchemy; perhaps I should switch classes now.”
“…”
Suddenly, Sing recalled something.
During the rescue operation for the Director, he had heard passing remarks from Titosso and Jiang about having seen the Director during Professor Sadako’s lecture.
“What was the director like when he was taken hostage? He was a very kind person! Maybe that’s why? A bit weak, right?”
“Rather than kind, he had many ‘brakes’ on how to use his abilities. Just forcibly stealing someone else’s body or treasured items could heighten the risk of alchemical equivalent exchange immensely. In the end, he still sacrificed only his own belongings, didn’t he?”
It was then that Sing realized the meaning behind the words that the director lost his humanity upon becoming undead.
He had been liberated from the shackles called humanity.
He truly had transformed into an executive befitting the Foundation.
It’s not as if a rational person would recommend cross-dressing to a perfectly normal man who was working in the Foundation.
“A few of the Pleasure Slaves who care for their comrades are putting up sporadic resistance. Could you go in there and help drain their energies, assisting the scattered troops to be pulled into the air?”
Even the seemingly harmless and foolish executives of the Foundation could become this brutal on the battlefield.
Sing understood what kind of being he had allied with and was suddenly gripped by fear.
What would happen if he showed an unsatisfactory performance in this battle, and the man who lacked humanity merely mimicked the vague memory of his past human self witnessed it?
For some reason, he had an inkling of what might happen.
A very ominous future.
“Oh, it seems that Sing’s inner hesitation is preventing him from tapping into his true power. Since you are so concerned about a female appearance, you are failing to focus entirely on domain deployment and combat; I will assist you with my taboo alchemy.”
“If you sacrifice my [Guard] to the sacrificial domain, I might not have to expend energy on transforming my body anymore by sacrificing the volume of muscle I have built to become a woman! A minor side effect might make my breasts or butt bigger, but I could accept any size as a potential! There’s no need to worry. Hahaha.”
“…”
Was that a bad thing or a good thing?
In an instant, Sing was thrown into confusion about whether to act on his abilities or to be idle.
