Chapter 84 - Smile Brightly

Looking at the trembling person in front, I felt somewhat wronged.

I couldn't understand why they were already shaking as if I had done something when I hadn't done "anything" yet.

What did I do?

At most, I had only killed all the black mages in the shadow city, stuffed this one into a shadow box, and made plans to use them as a scapegoat.

I didn’t know why they were showing such a reaction when I had never directly harmed them even once.

Thinking that black mages are quite paranoid, I shook my head.

I really don't understand these guys.

Come to think of it, they were fundamentally wrong from the start.

There must be many other methods if you look, but they deliberately choose and use techniques that use humans as an energy source.

Or using humans' negative emotions as an energy source…

Even if it had become a world where human value had become almost nonexistent, wasn't that still too much? 

I thought as I shook my head.

I really can't understand.

Since I didn't want to understand and had no intention of understanding, I blatantly brushed it off and said to Siren, "Siren, can I ask you for one favor?"

"Yeah, I'll do it."

I was bewildered that she immediately accepted without even knowing what I was going to ask, so I looked at Siren.

Siren looked at me and calmly said, "You want me to do brainwashing hypnosis training like I did to Elisia, right?"

I nodded somewhat reluctantly.

Siren touched Daisy's cheek, who was making "myeok" sounds, and continued speaking, "I've already done it once, so if you give me about a day, I'll have it done."

Seeing Siren say this, I felt a bit of regret, wondering if I had taught her something bad, but since there was nothing I could change even if I regretted it now, I decided to subtly turn my head and pretend not to know.

"...Thank you."

Thinking I wasn't sure if this was right, I was conflicted for a moment when Siren stared at me intently and made one request.

"Then can I ask for one favor?"

Hearing those words, I naturally nodded to mean it was okay.

Siren stared at my finger and said, "I want to bite too."

"... Bite?"

It was a somewhat surprising request, so thinking I must have misheard, I asked again, "I want to bite your finger."

As if to emphasize that I hadn't misheard, she made this request to me in a straightforward voice.

I looked at Siren with a reluctant expression and said, "...Why?"

"Because the Saintess bit it."

I wasn’t sure, but it seemed she became envious after seeing Ruen biting my finger earlier.

I wasn’t sure if it was right to express this as envy or jealousy, but…

Feeling that Siren would be quite upset if I said no, I nodded to prevent this.

"Then I'll come back after preparing."

Prepare? Why does she need to prepare to bite a finger?

My head was full of questions, but it was quite an ambiguous timing to dig deeply into these things.

So I decided to think about it later and awkwardly nodded.

Now what's left is calling the black mage guys and church guys.

I smiled, thinking I was quite curious what reaction they would show when they all gathered.

***

While Siren was proceeding with the brainwashing hypnosis whatever on the black mage, I started modification work to use the shadow city as our main base.

First, it would be good to make it sturdy.

Although it was virtually impossible, I decided to build it prepared for enemies, considering enemies might enter here.

Would it be better to make it in the form of a castle?

I decided to make it similar to the golden castle I had seen in the training ground, closed my eyes and concentrated.

It was trickier than expected, but not impossible, so I waved my hands and started creating the castle.

Ruen, who was watching this, seemed to find this sight very amazing and sat beside me, looking at me with sparkling eyes.

"Amazing."

It was embarrassing to receive such strange praise.

I smiled awkwardly and said thank you, then Ruen subtly approached my side and gave advice on the design.

"If you raise this part a bit more, it would look prettier. Ah, can you make water flow or something? If possible, if you make water flow here..."

The shadow city was literally a world made of shadows, not reality.

Because physical laws that were normally not allowed were applied, somewhat unusual sights could be created.

For example, waterfalls pouring out of thin air, or trees and furniture floating in the air could be made.

"It's so pretty."

Ruen seemed to really like this sight and kept exclaiming in admiration as she looked at it.

Seeing Ruen's reaction, I calmly opened my mouth, "Do you want to decorate the interior? I'm not talented at decorating."

"Yes...! I'd love to."

Ruen seemed happy that I made this offer and said to me with a bright smile, "I'll try to decorate it as beautifully as possible."

I nodded to Ruen and said, "Tell me if you need any structural changes or furniture."

"Okay. I'll organize everything and tell you at once."

Ruen showed a reaction as if steeling her resolve, then immediately started looking around the castle interior and pondering how to decorate it.

I watched Ruen's side profile for a while, then slowly left the castle and looked down.

Come to think of it, are those giant worms still alive?

I wasn’t sure if they were alive since we caused all sorts of chaos.

Thinking it would be good to go check first, I was about to create a door leading to the basement when

Loraine lightly tapped my back and said to me, "Young Master, let's go together."

"Shall we?"

It seemed she had something she wanted to say, so I answered okay.

***

As we were going down to the basement, Loraine spoke to me in a calm voice, "Young Master, what do you want to do when your revenge is over?"

I couldn't hide my bewilderment at the words "when your revenge is over."

I hadn't thought at all about what I should do afterwards, let alone what I wanted to do.

So as I was pondering without being able to give any answer, Loraine looked at me and made one suggestion.

"If nothing particular comes to mind, I think it would be good to start thinking about it from now."

"Is that so?"

"Yes. People who lose their purpose usually feel a great sense of loss. If that person is a regressor, they would feel it even more strongly."

I almost laughed at the Damian regression theory appearing again, but I held it in and said to Loraine, "Then what do you want to do, Loraine?"

"Me? Well, I'd like to travel, find a good spouse and get married. To put it more broadly, I want to live an ordinary life."

An ordinary life…

Certainly, Loraine had been a famous prodigy with great prospects since childhood, so she must have lived a life far from ordinary.

Moreover, after becoming a top-grade Expert…

She became Damian's bodyguard and got involved in all sorts of strange incidents, even going to the North... The ordinariness Loraine desired must have gradually moved further away.

At those words, I pondered for a moment then made one suggestion to Loraine, "I'll give you a long vacation when this is over."

"Pfft, a vacation? A vacation sounds nice. But it's okay. Now I think I prefer guarding Young Master more than living an ordinary life."

At those words, I immediately looked at Loraine, and Loraine gestured to me with a playful smile.

"Aren't you grateful?"

I awkwardly nodded, and Loraine lightly patted my back and said, "Anyway, I'll be by your side forever until young master does everything you want to do. So please don't worry too much."

Hearing those words, one question suddenly occurred to me.

Loraine wasn't just any ordinary knight, but a top-grade Expert knight, which were said to be rare... moreover, a top-grade Expert on the verge of becoming a Sword Master.

I couldn't quite understand why she volunteered to be my bodyguard.

Bluntly speaking, if she went to the imperial family or somewhere, she could gain enormous wealth and power.

I decided to subtly ask about this when we became closer later, and continued going down to the basement.

When we went down like that, what we saw were giant worms resting.

They're alive and well.

Thinking it was fortunate they seemed to be doing unexpectedly well, I looked at those guys fondly and said to Loraine, "I saw last time that we could quickly dig tunnels with those guys."

"Yes. I saw that last time too."

"So I was thinking, couldn't we use those guys to do more three-dimensional terrorism?"

"...Three-dimensional?"

Loraine looked at me with eyes that didn't understand at all why the words terrorism and three-dimensional came out together.

I added some explanation to Loraine, "No, it's nothing special, just fill the worms' bodies with shadow bombs, move them underground, then detonate them to attack from below."

"...Young Master."

Loraine held her forehead as if dizzy and shook her head.

I looked at Loraine like that and smiled as I started cleaning up the cavern where the worms were living.

***

I, who had named the black mage who tortured Ruen... this name was too long so I roughly named her Poppy,

Collaborated with Liana to scatter information to the black mages and church using Poppy.

To the black mages, stories about the artificial sun, to the church, stories that the goddess doesn't exist.

From their perspective, these stories were things they absolutely had to retrieve or had to hide.

So I heard that core figures from each side had infiltrated the North in large numbers.

I smiled brightly as I watched them gradually gathering in the North.