chapter_0145

Ibrante.

In the original work, she was a mercenary known as a miser who would do anything for money, and she was a character who, after all her “siblings” died, became desperate and joined the Demon King’s army, standing in the way of Leona and Aria.

After completing the Starlight Church document manipulation request and obtaining a huge amount of wealth from the warehouse, there had been no news of her, so I thought she had completely given up being a mercenary and was living peacefully with her siblings.

‘But why are you here?’

“No… No, it’s not you. You mistook me for someone else. Ibrante is inside, so I’ll call her…”

I was just as confused as the woman, but I realized what was going on when I saw her come up with a lame excuse.

Ibrante could change her face and body shape at will using ancient artifacts. Despite being 48 years old, she was able to enroll in Bellium Academy thanks to an ancient artifact.

‘Was the ring you just took off an artifact?’

I vaguely remembered hearing something about a ring shape, but since it had nothing to do with us, I had just listened and forgotten about it.

“You seem to be panicking, so it must be true. Why are you denying it?”

“No, I said it’s not! How many times do I have to say it!”

The woman, who was almost having a fit, tried to open the door, and I approached her and grabbed her shoulder.

“Do you remember me giving you a hundred platinum coins as a hiring fee?”

“……”

The woman, who had been roughly shaking off my hand, froze and slowly turned around.

The face I remembered wasn’t hers, but the look of shock on her face was unmistakable.

“……Yes, of course I remember. How could I forget your voice, employer?”

“You bitch! Are you not going to answer me?!”

The angry shout, mixed with vulgar curses, cut off her words. They were much closer than before. Ibrante looked scared, as if she was intimidated by them.

It wasn’t that she couldn’t beat them, but there must be something I didn’t know.

“I have a mountain of questions, but… Let’s deal with those guys first. They don’t seem like good people.”

“Yes. They’re really bad people. They’re much worse than me. And… They’re the ones who threatened me to attack your sister’s caravan.”

“I’ll check it out.”

I turned to the direction of the voices and reactivated the voice modulation magic. I felt bad about it, but I couldn’t completely trust Ibrante’s words. I needed to hear their side of the story as well.

Before I met her, Ibrante was a mercenary who would do anything for money. There was also the fact that she hadn’t contacted me since then.

I gave up on going inside and waited with Ibrante by my side for the angry, cursing voices to arrive. The owners soon appeared.

“You bitch, standing outside like you don’t have a mother. When I ask a question, you… Hey, look at this. Did you spread your legs for a man?”

The man had a rough face that looked like a criminal, and his rough face was matched by his rough speech.

The men glared at me as soon as they saw me standing next to Ibrante.

“Who are you?”

“If we didn’t give our names to you, there must be a reason. If you seduce another man to take advantage of your hole will be loose, so why don’t you just leave quietly?”

It’s not good to judge a person by their appearance, but with that appearance and that speech, it was hard not to judge them.

Ignoring my words, the man, who had been glaring and cursing at Ibrante, turned to me with a lewd smile.

“I don’t know who you are, but there’s a debt on this bitch that’s bigger than you. It’s a pretty big sum. If you mess with a half-and-half girl, your life will be ruined, so why don’t you just leave quietly?”

“You have a lot of debt? I gave you a lot of money, but was that not enough?”

“Oh, that’s not even close to the amount. It’s a sum that people like you and me can’t even imagine.”

“I’d like to hear about it. How much is it?”

“The amount you have to pay right now is a whopping twenty platinum coins! Isn’t that terrifying? You don’t seem to have much to do with money, so can you handle it?”

I looked at Ibrante, ignoring the comment about money. That was a way of asking if it was true. Ibrante, under the mask, glared at me.

“It’s a scam! I definitely paid off the debt last time! Your boss even certified it himself! Why is there a contract that I’ve never seen before?”

“Oh. It’s not a scam. It’s legitimate. If you don’t believe me, you can use magic to certify it. If it turns out to be illegitimate, I’ll get rid of it right now.”

“……”

Ibrante gritted her teeth. From their reaction, the debt itself seemed to be legal, but something unusual must have happened in the process of creating it.

“I understand.”

“Yes! You finally understand the truth. That bitch, she may taste good, but you’ll definitely get sick. We gave you a chance, so why don’t you just leave now? We’ll pretend we didn’t see what you did, so we can enjoy it too.”

“That’s not what I meant.”

I snapped my fingers, and the six men’s limbs were bound by mana chains and lifted into the air. From all sides, a loud, eerie scream rang out.

In fact, I could have done the same thing to Ibrante and questioned her, but I chose a different method. I wanted to seriously ask her why she did it, rather than forcing her to answer.

If I had tied her up and questioned her, she might have kept her mouth shut. In that case, I would have had to torture her or make her a vegetable, and neither of those options felt right.

This time, my instincts were right again.

“You bastard, are you crazy! What are you doing!”

The man who had been speaking on behalf of the others clenched his teeth and cursed. Even though he was hanging in the air with his limbs spread wide, he looked ridiculous.

“I gave you a lot of money. No matter how much it was, the debt should have been paid off and there should have been some left over, but it’s strange that there’s another debt of twenty platinum coins.”

“You expect me to believe that you gave that kind of money to someone like her? Who would believe such a lie?”

“I haven’t finished my sentence yet, so shut up.”

I snapped my fingers and slapped the man’s cheek. The sight of him hanging in the air with his limbs spread wide was quite funny, and one of the nearby men, who was also hanging, burst out laughing.

The man’s face turned red with anger.

“I’ll hear the whole story inside, so you guys can organize your thoughts until then. I’ll hear both sides of the story.”

As I glanced at Ibrante, she lowered her head, probably because she felt guilty.

“Anyone have any complaints?”

“Who the hell would believe you, you idiot! If you had any sense…”

-Creak!

Something was cut off with a chilling sound, and the man stopped speaking. He slowly lowered his head, and what should have been between his legs was rolling on the ground.

“Kyaaaaaaaaaaak! Ahhhhhh! Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!”

A little late, a horrible scream rang out, and the bright red blood that gushed out stained the weeds and the soil. The other men, who had been laughing, closed their eyes and turned away.

“It’s not for nothing that they say it’s better to be polite. Why are you cursing? I’ve been patient with you so many times.”

Even though I didn’t want to see it, I had to use healing magic to stop the bleeding so he wouldn’t die from blood loss. Whether or not to reattach it depended on how he behaved after hearing the explanation.

I didn’t want to see it, but I had no choice but to use this method instead of a verbal warning. He didn’t seem like the type to listen to words.

The man whose thing had been cut off was unconscious, even though the bleeding had stopped. The pain must have been too much for him.

“I’ll ask again. Anyone have any complaints?”

“……”

They all nodded vigorously, as if their lives depended on it. I used magic to seal their mouths and fix their gaze and head position so they couldn’t conspire with each other, and I quietly warned them.

“I’ll call you in one by one and ask the same questions, but if you even think about lying, you will end up just like the one who’s unconscious.”

The men trembled. I closed the door behind me and left the men outside, and when I was sure the door was completely closed, I took off my mask. Ibrante sighed bitterly.

“It’s really you, employer.”

“Yes, it’s me. Are you Ibrante, the one I gave the assassination request to at Bellium Academy?”

“Yes. You gave me the assassination request for four nobles, with an additional fifty gold coins each, and the request to infiltrate the Starlight Church and manipulate the documents, with no additional payment but the freedom to take as much as I wanted from the church warehouse, right?”

Ibrante, who seemed to be trying to prove that she was the Ibrante I knew, rattled on about things I hadn’t even asked about.

“I thought you were doing well since you left without a word, but it seems I was wrong.”

“I’m sorry I couldn’t say anything. I was supposed to greet you a few more times. I could have paid off my debt and lived well, as you said. I tried… I tried…”

Ibrante clenched her fists tightly for a while, then relaxed and slumped.

“……It’s not something I can explain standing here. Follow me. There might not be a car… I mean, I can offer you some water.”

I followed Ibrante into the shack. There was a kitchen, a living room, and a bathroom. That was the extent of the interior.

“Please wait here. I’ll be right back.”

Ibrante tapped the table and disappeared behind the tattered curtain. Instead of sitting on the rickety chair, I looked around.

She had said she started working as a mercenary to take care of her “siblings,” but I didn’t see any of them. I wondered if something bad had happened to them because of the debt.

I used detection magic. The mana-based sense swept through every corner of the shack. Soon, I felt a group of people huddled under a charred blanket in the middle of the living room. There were a total of fourteen people.

‘That’s a lot.’

I thought there were twelve, but two more had been added since then.

Anyway, they were Ibrante’s siblings, and Ibrante had hidden them, so it wasn’t my place to say anything. I ended the detection magic and tried to ignore them, but I felt someone cautiously climbing up from below.

The secret door, which was hidden under the blanket, opened without a sound. It seemed that a lot of effort had been put into soundproofing the secret space. Someone poked their head out cautiously.

And, as I looked directly at that spot, our eyes met.

“Hiiiiii!”

A girl screamed shrilly and staggered backward. I protected her with magic to prevent any injuries. As her body floated and stayed suspended in the air, I could sense her bewilderment as she looked around at her own body.

“What’s wrong?! What happened?!”

Ibrante came running with a clatter, blinking as she alternated her gaze between the half-open secret door and me.

“She opened the door and saw me.”

“What?!”

At those words, Ibrante freaked out and ran to the secret door, shouting something down below. She was telling them not to come out yet. One of the siblings complained that it was too uncomfortable down there, but quickly quieted down when reminded that I was the one who had made them a lot of money before. I could hear someone scolding them for making a fuss.

“Should I give them some money later?”

It wasn’t intentional, but I felt like I should. While mentally counting the gold coins in my robe pocket, Ibrante sighed and closed the door.

“I’m sorry, employer. They were curious because it got much quieter than usual so quickly.”

“It’s okay. It happens. Don’t worry about it.”

Ibrante trudged back to the kitchen and returned with two wooden cups that seemed as clean as possible. They contained a small amount of slightly green-tinged water.

I took a sip. It was barely even tea, just water with a faint color. I didn’t mind and emptied the cup, causing Ibrante to look away embarrassedly.

“…There’s nothing else available. I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine. I’m not here to get something to eat. The explanation?”

“Oh, yes. I’ll explain now.”

I could sense the girl who had fallen after making eye contact with me carefully putting her ear to the secret door again, but I ignored it. It wasn’t a problem if she overheard.

Ibrante, seemingly unaware of this, sighed deeply and began to speak.

P.S. Hello Everyone! I’m VarieTL. I hope you are all enjoying this Novel! I only wanted to announce that I have posted a new Novel on the site 🙂

The novel is called: I Became an Unknown Professor at the Academy

You can find it here: Novel

Summary:

Baek Woo-jin has spent three years playing a text-based game with 999 endings. In all those endings there is only death and misfortune for the character ‘Wolf’.

However, after finishing the last ending and preparing to close and then delete the game window, a small message window appears, offering Woo-jin a chance to create the 1,000th ending. Baek Woo-jin accepts the challenge, and possess the character Greed.

For now there are only 5 chapter on the site but you can read 25 advance chapters on my Ko-Fi

The schedule is just like this one, one chapter a day.

Good readings!