Chapter 106

Although Dario put on a stupid expression as if he didn’t understand Wendigo’s words, he actually understood what he meant.

He must be saying to try to persuade him, even though he doesn’t really like Dario but finds his abilities tempting.

If he couldn’t grasp the other party’s intentions just because a few words were omitted, he wouldn’t have survived under his suspicious and capricious father.

“Acting stupid suddenly won’t help… Or do you need to feel more crisis before you’ll open your mouth?”

As Wendigo made a slight gesture, the ice hand holding Dario’s body spread gradually towards his neck.

Feeling the strange and terrible sensation of ice crawling up his body, Dario shouted loudly without even having the composure to manage his expression:

“I understand! I perfectly understand what the king is saying, so please spare me!”

“Who said anything about killing you? I never said I’d kill you.”

When Dario seemed to have taken the situation seriously enough, Wendigo rotated his finger counterclockwise.

Then the ice that had been restraining Dario’s body released his confinement as if reversing time…

“Um… Could you please release my legs too?”

Dario pleaded with the most pitiful expression he could muster, pointing downwards.

Wendigo had precisely removed the ice from all parts of Dario except his lower body.

Wendigo stared at that sight and asked Dario:

“What difference does it make whether you’re frozen or not when you can’t escape anyway? Or should I make it even colder and render you impotent…”

“Wait, wait, wait!!! I’ll talk! I’ll try to persuade you using all the means at my disposal!”

With a face paler than his frozen legs, Dario reached out towards Wendigo.

The fear of possibly becoming truly impotent was a terror no male could bear.

Wendigo silently stared at Dario, and he swallowed dryly and forced an awkward smile.

‘I can hear the sound of his head spinning from here.’

While facial expressions and actions could be faked, smells could not be deceived.

The scent of fear and terror had already faded, and a sweet fragrance of expectation was gradually beginning to be felt.

It was quite an interesting situation.

The sun was slowly disappearing, and a thick darkness that couldn’t be dispelled by just braziers settled in the audience hall.

How could an emotion like expectation spring forth when having a private audience with a giant emitting an enormous and cold chill in such a place?

‘This guy must not be ordinary either. He’s probably half-crazy.’

Wendigo removed all the ice for Dario, leaving only ice shackles on his ankles.

With the fear of becoming impotent gone, Dario breathed a sigh of relief.

“Let’s sit down and talk for now. The conversation might get long.”

As Wendigo tapped the throne, a chair woven from wood appeared from the ground.

Dario looked at the chair suspiciously as he sat down.

‘He’s quite suspicious. Is it his nature… or a habit born from experience?’

Flinch.

As his eyes met Wendigo’s, Dario swallowed dryly and licked his lips.

It wasn’t an action to prepare for lying, but because the cold air had made his lips completely dry.

“Well, I’m not sure where to begin. No matter how I think about it, this seems different from the interview you conducted earlier today…”

“You seem to have roughly formed a strategy with the time you’ve had so far. Or do you need more time?”

Having his true thoughts exposed, Dario stopped his act and raised both hands.

Just in case the other party’s intentions were different from what he thought and involved violent methods.

“No, that’s not it. Thanks to the king giving me enough time, I’ve finished preparing, albeit meagerly, to persuade you. However, let me first clearly state that I absolutely won’t use violent methods…”

“As if someone who knows they’ll die the moment they draw a sword would do such a thing.”

“……”

As Wendigo nodded and spoke, Dario closed his mouth.

He couldn’t tell if the monster, no, spirit… no, king before him wanted to curse or praise.

However, Dario’s patience didn’t run out just from hearing such words.

Emotions naturally vary in intensity depending on the other party.

From Dario’s perspective, no matter how much Wendigo insulted him, it didn’t deal a big blow to his patience.

It was thanks to the early education he received from childhood, hearing dozens of different contempts and insults in the world.

“Ahem, then I’ll first share my thoughts. The reason you called me alone and presented a new interview is probably… because I have some use, right?”

“That’s right. It’s not easy to draw goodwill from people with a message that’s practically a mess.”

“I’ve had a talent for gaining people’s favor since childhood.”

Dario cast off the pretense he had shown during the interview and proudly answered.

After all, pretense is only effective if one’s true nature isn’t exposed.

Seeing that his tongue had loosened up a bit, Dario decided to start persuading in earnest.

‘At least the king isn’t a spirit or crazy witch with twisted emotions.’

Dario was certain that Wendigo was more rational and personable than ordinary spirits.

Otherwise, he would have certainly thundered at Dario’s frivolous tone.

Moreover, if he wasn’t personable, he would have immediately beheaded Dario for the crime of deception.

“First, I’ll speak about the karma you’ve discerned about me. If I didn’t have such a shameful past, you wouldn’t have put me on hold, would you?”

Dario spoke of his past in a dejected tone while preparing fake tears as if he were used to it.

“I was a child unplanned by my father. When a banquet was held in the Empire, he forcefully took my mother, unable to control his lust… and as a result, I was born.”

“……”

“Of course, my father hated me, and the family hated me as I could become a big obstacle in their interactions with the Empire. So I…”

Dario was about to start shedding tears and express each of his mistakes tragically, but…

Wendigo raised his hand to stop Dario from talking.

Honestly, he wasn’t very interested in Dario’s past.

“Remove all the flowery language and summarize your past concisely.”

“Uh…”

Dario was taken aback as Wendigo seemed less interested than expected.

Usually, the most interesting things in the world are watching fights and fires, and there’s not much more interesting than someone else’s tragedy…

‘Did he make his heart out of ice too? No, come to think of it, he probably doesn’t have a heart.’

Dario cut out chunks of his tragic and moving past and connected the parts Wendigo might want to hear.

“My father and family wanted to kill me. Of course, I didn’t want to die, and being perceptive, I worked hard doing things they would like.”

“What kind of things?”

“I studied academics and acted in ways the Empire people would like. I maintained proper etiquette, displayed knowledge, satisfied their vanity… Other than that, I worked hard as an external envoy running around.”

Although the Kapustin family had turned their backs on their homeland, customs and traditions aren’t easily discarded.

The head of the Kapustin family was still a strong warrior… and the retainers preferred to solve problems directly with steel and blood rather than complex interests.

There was a gap between wanting to be recognized as a true noble family by the Empire, while not wanting to abandon the simple yet familiar northern customs.

Dario exploited that gap to survive in the family.

He gained trust by doing the things his father and half-siblings hated.

“Of course, it wasn’t smooth sailing. My terrible siblings and mother who wanted me dead would look for opportunities whenever they were bored.”

“And then?”

“Well, what could I do? If I didn’t want to die, I had to resolve things their way.”

Dario shrugged and made a gesture of slitting his throat.

To survive in the Kapustin family where northern customs still remained, he had no choice but to show viciousness.

Whether that meant poisoning, assassination, or directly beheading someone.

“Because of that, I did quite a lot of bad things. I needed a lot of money too… At some point, killing those who got in my way became one of my methods.”

“Hmm…”

Having learned roughly why Dario had started accumulating karma, Wendigo pondered.

It was an inevitable choice to become ruthless to survive in a place crawling with enemies.

The problem was that Dario had become so accustomed to that method that he started using it as a means rather than an unavoidable choice…

“Have you done such things to innocent people too?”

“I can’t guarantee absolutely not. I can’t be certain there weren’t people indirectly harmed by my actions…”

“What about plundering property without justification and selling innocent people into slavery? Or have you forcefully taken women?”

At Wendigo’s question, Dario frowned.

He tried his best to hide his emotional reaction, but Wendigo’s question had touched on his trauma.

“Never. And unlike my father, I don’t take women without responsibility.”

“That’s fortunate.”

Wendigo read strong anger in Dario’s eyes.

It was clear that being treated the same as his father greatly bothered him, given the circumstances of his birth.

Above all, there was no sense of lies in his words…

“I understand why you came to smell bad. However, that alone isn’t sufficient reason to employ you.”

“At least it’s fortunate that my past won’t have a negative impact.”

Grateful that the punishment for his crimes wasn’t severe enough to lose his head, Dario listed what he could do.

Dario was well-versed in the Empire’s etiquette, history, and noble families, and had a solid foundation in academics thanks to learning from the Empire’s intellectuals.

Above all, Dario’s most shining ability was his excellent perception and ever-wagging tongue…

“Um, the tongue part is a bit…”

“It’s not entirely wrong, so let’s move on.”

“But still…”

“Ahem.”

When Wendigo firmly rebuked him, Dario pouted and closed his mouth.

Anyway, Dario’s most outstanding ability lay in his innate social skills.

Even now, he had succeeded in managing the situation when his head could have flown off if he had stuttered.

‘… There’s no one around me with such social skills.’

Social skills weren’t just a talent that could only be used for flattery.

Moreover, saying he had run around as an envoy meant he had experience dealing with people.

‘Dealing with people is always the hardest and most difficult thing, but for this guy, it might be his calling.’

Having made his decision, Wendigo snapped his fingers. The shackles on Dario’s legs shattered with a clear sound.

As the chilling cold disappeared, Dario joyfully moved his legs.

It was only a few minutes, but the experience of having his movement restricted was never pleasant.

“I’ll ask you one last thing. Is that all you can do?”

“Isn’t that already quite useful? You’re being too harsh.”

“If one’s character is lacking, they should at least have good abilities.”

Dario, who had lost more than he gained by grumbling unnecessarily, carefully considered and weighed…

‘I must be crazy. If something I’ve hidden gets exposed later, I’ll be completely finished in the north.’

Throwing away the mental scales that were about to reflexively pop out, Dario pondered if there was anything else useful.

Since he had decided to grab the lifeline Wendigo had thrown, there was no harm in proving more usefulness.

Twirling his finger while thinking, Dario came up with something quite good and snapped his fingers as he spoke:

“I met some elves who came across from the Great Forest recently! I was curious and made connections with them, so I might be able to introduce them to you if things go well.”

“Elves?”

Wendigo was intrigued by this unexpected story.

He had met humans and beastkin here before, but never elves.

“Yes. Are you interested?”

“I am interested, but it doesn’t seem like a story to hear right now.”

Though curious, he decided to postpone hearing about the elves.

Quite a long time had already passed listening to Dario’s story.

“For the time being, you’ll be working with Walton for university establishment.”

“Of all people, why him?”

When Walton’s name came up, Dario looked disgruntled.

Unlike others, it seemed it would be quite difficult to gain Walton’s favor.

Wendigo’s thoughts weren’t much different from Dario’s.

“Seeing that you dislike it, it seems I chose well. Did you think I’d entrust work to a guy with shady roots like you without any safeguards?”

“You’re too harsh. I had sincerely decided to serve the king loyally and with passion since you treated me without prejudice.”

When Dario spoke with a serious face, Wendigo burst out laughing in disbelief.

Wendigo taught Dario one more fact he hadn’t told him before.

“I’ll forgive you this time, but be careful with lies from now on.”

“Pardon?”

“I can discern the truth in someone’s words by smell. And just now, that statement… smelled quite foul.”

Dario, who had been listening, turned pale and his legs gave out as he collapsed with a thud.

Fortunately, Wendigo wasn’t too disappointed in Dario.

If he had been naive enough to sincerely pledge loyalty from their first meeting, he would have been killed by his own family long ago.

‘Walton is a person of upright character. Working with such a person, this guy might learn something too.’

If he failed to cleanse his karma even after being given such an opportunity… well, that would be the extent of this guy’s fate.

Wendigo gestured dismissively for Dario to leave, not thinking much of it.

“I’ll let it slide this time, so you may go.”

“Th-That is…”

“Hm?”

Though Dario’s complexion returned at the words that he would be spared, he couldn’t get up.

Overcoming the pain that was coming over him, Dario spoke with difficulty.

“I-I’m so shocked that my back…”

“……”

What nonsense about his back from such a young guy?

Wendigo called a servant in bewilderment and ordered them to take Dario away.

… Perhaps he was an even more worthless guy than expected.