Chapter 47 - Nyam Nyam Nyaa

I stared at the pulsating black heart and fell into thought for a moment.

No matter how I look at it, it seems to be the same black heart I saw in the North.

The black heart that the black mage who fled from Loraine was holding.

Of course, since I saw it from afar, it was somewhat ambiguous to determine if it was the same item that guy was holding.

Considering that the experiment hasn't finished yet and it's realistically impossible to mass-produce such an item…

It would be right to consider it the same item.

However, what I couldn't understand was why they kept such a priceless artificial sun in a place like this.

This question could be resolved through Liana's speculation.

"In my experience, when someone desperately wants something placed in such a closed and illegal place, it usually means they intend to lure in the person who wants that item."

"Lure them in?"

"Yes. It's like forcibly drawing them into the shadows to prevent them from escaping... In this case, I think it might be to draw them into the interests created by the black mages and the church."

...Someone who desperately wanted the artificial sun.

As this assumption arose, a tenacious ill-fated relationship came to mind.

Elisia.

If the black mages placed the artificial sun here to lure Elisia, what on earth do they want…?

Just before my thought finished, Daisy, who was in my chest, suddenly thrust her face out and said something to me while drooling.

"Nyam nyam nya."

Could she possibly want to eat it?

This time, I pressed her head firmly with my palm to mean absolutely not.

"Myayang yaya yang."

She must really want to eat it, as she kept whining and trying to escape from my chest.

Thinking I didn't know who she took  after to be so stubborn, I sighed, when from afar, the black mage slowly walked towards us and said, "No way, you opened this? Ha... You're crazy. What on earth are you? Even with tricks, it shouldn't be easy to open Phillips' barrier door."

He kept exclaiming in bewilderment, unable to believe that Siren had broken through the door.

Then he laughed hollowly and raised a black lantern that wasn't there before.

It seems he was late coming in because he was getting that.

Well, having seen someone capable of unlocking Phillips' barrier door, he wouldn't have entered without any preparation.

As I was warily eyeing the black lantern, he laughed loudly and said to me, "Given the place, I'll give you a chance. Hand that over to me, and I'll spare your life."

He wiggled his finger towards the black heart and spoke to me.

At his words, I gave him the middle finger and was about to take out the precious hammer I had put away when…

"Myam nyam nyam."

Suddenly, Daisy moved quickly and bit into the black heart I was holding.

Due to Daisy's small mouth size, biting the heart itself wasn't a big problem.

The problem was that the moment she bit into it, the black heart was absorbed into Daisy as if being sucked in.

"Ppyuk."

Daisy finally ate the black heart. Then, patting her protruding belly, she looked at us with a very satisfied expression.

"Myeong."

"..."

A chilling silence settled in the air.

The one with the most bewildered expression was the black mage, who was staring blankly at Daisy with his mouth open, probably unable to imagine that she would eat the artificial sun.

"Crazy..."

As everyone was trying to grasp the situation, unable to react because something that absolutely shouldn't have happened had occurred, Siren, who was beside me, looked at Daisy as if she was pathetic and calmly opened her mouth, "She's not Daisy anymore, she's Pigsy."

"Myak!?"

"Pigsy."

Hearing the joke from the side, I came to my senses and calculated the gains and losses.

It's not that bad? No, it might even be good. At least the chance of losing the black heart is gone.

I had already collected evidence of collusion between the North, black mages, and the church through Liana, so there wasn't particularly a problem.

Moreover, considering what happened last time, there was a high possibility that Daisy would rise from a low-grade spirit to a mid-grade spirit at once, so it wasn't bad.

So, thinking it was rather good, I smiled slightly and decided it was time to escape.

Well, there's no need to fight unnecessarily, anyway.

It would be enough to cause a big commotion and then quickly run away.

After making that judgment, I was about to fill my hammer with mana and Daisy's power to use a point explosion when

I felt an immense power gathering, incomparable to usual, and laughed hollowly.

It becomes this strong?

Just by gathering power, not only did everything around start burning,

I realized it had become several times stronger than before, seeing the intense sun power that melted everything around except allies.

Feeling the immense fluctuating sun power, I raised my hammer, curious about what kind of power would come out if I used “point explosion” with all of this gathered.

"...You little worm!"

The black mage seemed to notice that I was about to attack and hurriedly opened the front glass of the lantern.

Then he took out a huge, writhing evil from inside and shouted at me, "You're just a human after all, there's no way you can defeat this...!"

There was no need to listen to his words to the end.

I quickly ran forward while he was speaking and brought down my hammer, manifesting a point explosion.

Boom!

The power was so strong that everything around turned white, and an intense explosion sound spread in all directions.

Thinking that even I could hardly handle this level of power, I slightly raised the corner of my mouth.

Not bad.

At first I was flustered, but now I thought it was fortunate that Daisy ate the artificial sun. I took a light deep breath and looked around.

Everything had melted down, leaving no trace.

As I was performing a confirmation kill on the white ashes that used to be the black mage, just in case, a voice came from behind.

"Now let's run!"

I nodded at those words and hurriedly escaped through the door.

***

Elisia had reached the “clock tower” as written in the letter.

Being in the center of the city, it wasn't easy to get there.

But fortunately, she was able to reach it without being caught because while she received contempt for wearing rags all over her body that were no different from garbage, she wasn't suspected.

Now if I enter here... it should be fine.

With everything ruined now, there was nothing else to choose but to decide her fate on the uncertain element of the artificial sun.

There was no need to hesitate or worry.

But for some reason, she kept feeling reluctant and hesitated for a moment.

"Have you found the Grand Duchess?"

"Not yet!"

"Move faster!"

There was no time to hesitate, so she bit her lip hard and entered the clock tower.

As she went inside, what she saw was countless colorful clocks piled up.

It was questionable why clocks were piled up inside the clock tower, but that wasn't important now, so as she was looking around…

"You've come."

A man wearing a black robe called out to her from above and came down.

"It seems you've made your decision."

At those words, she silently looked at him, and he snapped his fingers to create a contract in the air and said, "Then let's start with the contract."

At the word contract, her body momentarily froze.

It felt like something was trying to bind her forcefully, so feeling the need to check a bit more, she lowered her expression and shook her head.

"Before that, please show me the artificial sun first. I need to confirm if it can really bring warmth to the North."

At those words, he smiled slightly and said, "It's not difficult. Then follow me."

He snapped his fingers again and revealed hidden stairs leading to an underground area.

Then he nonchalantly told her to follow and started going down.

Although it was an extremely suspicious place, there was nowhere to escape now with investigators roaming around, so she followed him down.

The place they arrived at was an excessively luxurious and antique-looking auction house.

In fact, just looking at this alone, there wasn't anything particularly special.

But unlike the well-maintained corridor, everything was broken as if a terrorist attack had occurred, and the somewhat strange sight of numerous people tied up and collapsed on the floor was peculiar.

What does this mean?

Or rather, wondering why he brought her to such a place, she called out to him and demanded an explanation of the situation, but…

"...No way. It can't be, there's no way someone exists who can undo Phillips' barrier door, so it must be a needless worry."

It seemed some problem had occurred, as he muttered incomprehensible words with a hardened expression while moving his feet hurriedly.

Thinking it would be best to follow him and see what the situation was, what she saw was,

...Ashes?

It was an unidentifiable place where everything had burned and melted.

It looked like a bomb had been detonated and then set on fire, as she was questioning the severely damaged black place when suddenly, the man in front started screaming and cursing.

"You crazy bastard!"

Unable to even guess what had happened, she was backing away when suddenly, he turned his body around, passed by her, and started leaving somewhere.

She hurriedly asked about the contract to him as he was quickly leaving, but…

"...Wait, what about the contract?"

He didn't even respond, let alone answer, and just disappeared.