Chapter 102

Chapter 102

Otherworld Cheat Harem.

Episode 102: Making Gold (6)

Ars Magna.

A collective term for those who create gold.

The pinnacle that all alchemists dream of.

They deal with gold and try to get closer to gold.

Naturally, thinking that an alchemist made Dojin’s necklace of gold was a reasonable assumption.

“…You, an alchemist.”

“Yes, yes… But why…?”

“The item Dojin has, did you make it?”

Upon hearing those words, Noah froze, unsure of what to do, her eyes darting around. The next action she chose was to deny.

“Ah, ah… I don’t really know… Oh! Now that I think about it, I was in the middle of research! Sorry, I have something urgent, so I’ll just─!”

“Where do you think you’re going?”

With a snap, Raize blocked her path. Noah, who suddenly collided with the floor, clutched her stinging nose.

“Wh-what are you doing?!”

“Did you think you could fool me with such a stupid act? That’s more shocking.”

“S-stupid act? What on earth…?”

“So you made it, right? Then if I search your mind, I’ll find out?”

“S-search my mind?!”

Noah was horrified by those words and tried to distance herself from Raize. But with a mage in front and a wall behind, there was nowhere to run.

‘Wh-what should I do?’

The idea of a mage tearing open a head to rummage through the brain inside was an ancient tale that had been passed down orally in this world.

It was especially a favorite repertoire used by adults to tease children.

Noah also grew up hearing that if you approached a mage, you’d be ‘used’ from head to toe, and thus naturally grew up with an ingrained fear of mages.

No matter how small Raize was, if she was a mage, she could only be seen as a dreadful witch.

‘Sh-should I tell?’

That the computer given to Dojin, the intelligence artifact, was made by her own hands, not with any bad intentions, just because she could.

Would pleading like that spare her life?

‘…No.’

However, Noah decided to hold off on that choice. If mages were trustworthy, Noah would have already published her research, patented it, and made a fortune.

The world would have quickly faced a magical revolution and entered humanity’s greatest boom. Humanity would have conquered dungeons, the deep sea, and even space.

The reason it hadn’t happened was because mages weren’t that friendly to humanity.

“…Let me go.”

“What?”

“If you don’t release this barrier, I will resist.”

That’s why Noah decided to confront Raize. Deciding to oppose a mage wasn’t easy, but if she was going to die either way, there was no point in hesitating.

Raize looked at Noah with an incredulous expression. Clearly level 1, she had no magical tools that could threaten her, nor did she seem to possess any special skills.

And yet, what? She was going to resist?

‘What is she thinking…?’

Though unsure, Raize thought it would be best to subdue her gently first and then have a conversation. So she created ice handcuffs and sent them flying towards Noah.

Seeing the ice handcuffs flying at her, Noah grabbed a vial from her pocket and threw it.

Crash, the vial shattered, and the moment the liquid inside touched the handcuffs, a steam explosion occurred. The rapidly expanding air pushed the handcuffs away, and the burst of steam obscured the view.

“Cough! What is this—?”

Raize recoiled in shock and then summoned a gust of wind to blow away all the steam, but Noah had already melted the wall behind her and escaped.

“…If she’s running away like this, it must mean there’s something going on, right?”

She abandoned the thought of asking nicely from now on. Raize reached out her hand towards the fleeing Noah.

And then her specialty, lightning magic, burst forth. Seeing the lightning that could change its trajectory at will, Noah pulled out a metal rod from her pocket and drove it deep into the ground.

The lightning, induced by the principle of a lightning rod, flowed into the conductor and dispersed into the ground. While Raize looked at her with a bewildered expression, Noah ran off into the distance.

“Dojin! Dojin!”

Running quickly, Noah urgently searched for Dojin. Awakened by her voice echoing through the mansion at night, he saw Noah running down the hallway and asked what was going on.

“What…? Noah, what’s happening in the middle of the night?”

“It’s an emergency, a big emergency!”

“What is it?”

“A mage! I’ve been discovered by a mage!”

“A mage…? By Raize?”

“I don’t know their name! But they’re small!”

“Then it’s Raize, right.”

Hearing Noah’s words, Dojin reassured her not to worry. However, she couldn’t calm down so easily.

“No, I’m telling you, she tried to kill me!”

“…Raize did?”

That couldn’t be true, Dojin thought, recalling Raize’s personality and wondering if she was the kind of person who would go so far as to kill Noah.

She wasn’t. Although she was straightforward, she wasn’t the type to literally stab someone.

“You must have misunderstood. There must have been some confusion.”

“I’m serious…”

“Anyway, go inside and rest. Don’t shout too much at night…”

“Found you.”

And then, from afar, a bunch of stone handcuffs flew in. Dojin swung his fist to knock them all away, and only then did he look at the person who had thrown them.

“…Raize?”

“Dojin, step aside. I have something to ask that person.”

“There’s no need to capture her.”

“She keeps running away.”

Hearing that, Dojin looked at Noah. Noah shook her head vigorously and hid behind him.

Sighing lightly, he spoke on Noah’s behalf and asked Raize.

“She says she’s not running away.”

“…Even so, I still need to catch her.”

“Why?”

“Because I need to erase her memory.”

“Eek!”

The first thing that came to mind at the mention of erasing her memory was the image of a witch tearing open her head and pouring cleansing liquid into her brain.

If that happened, she’d become an idiot immediately. Noah clung to Dojin’s back, trembling.

Dojin listened to Raize and asked for the reason.

“Erase her memory? Why?”

“Originally, Dojin, I need to erase yours too… for creating such an item.”

“No, such an item… this?”

The solid gold necklace once again made its appearance in the world. Just looking at it made Raize feel dizzy.

“…Yes, that one.”

“Why this?”

“It’s an item that needs to disappear from the world. Even if I don’t destroy it, other mages will come to do so.”

“No… is that really necessary?”

“It’s that dangerous of an item. Dojin, do you have the confidence to fight and win against the Magic Tower?”

“…No, I don’t.”

In this other world, where the Magic Tower monopolized the maintenance, operation, repair, and sale of magical tools and scrolls, fighting against it was akin to fighting against an entire nation.

Turning an entire nation into an enemy was something even Dojin couldn’t do.

“Then hand it over. I’ll smash it and make it as if it never existed.”

“Is there really a need to react like that? This isn’t such a dangerous item…”

“Even if you think so, others won’t see it that way.”

“Hmm… what if I say I won’t give it to you?”

Dojin tucked the necklace into his clothes. Seeing this, Raize felt her anger rising.

“Why don’t you understand? I’m trying to save you right now.”

“If you want it that badly… try taking it with your own power, Raize.”

“…Since the first time we met, I’ve wanted to kick your butt.”

Raize said this as she raised her staff. Plasma sparked at the tip of her staff, a phenomenon created by the gathering of high-voltage electricity.

Dojin watched this with a sly smile, then took out the necklace and transformed it into the shape of a staff.

And he prepared magic just like her.

“You!”

Raize felt humiliated by the fact and crammed all the magic circles and power she could muster.

Dojin simply held onto the magic input at the end and injected his power. There wasn’t much he could do from the start.

Moments later, intense beams shot out from the ends of their staffs. The beams met in the middle of the hallway, clashing and devouring each other, emitting a dazzling light.

Vrrrr!

The beams, which were fiercely pushing against each other, began to merge after countless repetitions of pushing and being pushed.

And the merged beams scattered with a powerful explosion.

The mansion exploded.

With a crash, the mansion’s ceiling shattered and began to collapse, causing plaster dust to rain down. Dojin brushed off the dust from his head and stood up.

“Ugh… What the…?”

There seemed to have been an explosion, but he hadn’t seen it clearly. His whole body ached. As the cold wind blew in and he looked around, the mansion was destroyed, revealing the vast sky.

‘…Wow, what is this?’

Like the ultimate move of two SF robots combining, the merged beams exploded, blowing away half of the mansion.

Only then did Dojin, startled, look for Raize and Noah. Fortunately, the two had only fainted from the shock and weren’t injured.

“…What the heck? What did you do this time?”

Hearing the loud noise from the intact part of the mansion, Seoyoon came out and asked Dojin what he had done, seeing the half-destroyed mansion and him standing there.

Dojin scratched his head, trying to think of a way out of this situation.

“…Nothing happened.”

“Nothing happened? Do you have a death wish?”

“…Sorry.”

Seeing Seoyoon grimace as she spoke, Dojin immediately apologized and explained the details.

She frowned at the part where he mentioned creating a tool that allowed him to use magic freely, and she began to get angry when she learned he had hidden it from them.

“Why didn’t you tell us something so important?”

“…Because the fewer people who know a secret, the better?”

“So, did you manage to keep that precious secret? You got caught by the one person who shouldn’t have found out.”

“Ah, well, that’s true.”

At that moment, Raize opened her eyes. Seeing Dojin looking down at her and the wrecked mansion, she quickly grasped the situation and let out a heavy sigh.

“…Dojin, good evening.”

“Good evening…?”

After opening her eyes, Raize uttered that out-of-the-blue remark and then pointed at the staff Dojin was holding.

“Enough, hand that over.”

“…You’re going to break it.”

“I won’t break it. Just give it to me.”

Dojin hesitated but handed over his staff. Receiving the staff, Raize sighed heavily as she looked at the dreadful object.

‘This kind of thing shouldn’t exist in the world.’

Dojin, who knew nothing about magic, had wielded magic equal to hers, which she had trained over 20 years to master. It was truly an absurd tool.

‘If it already exists, and if the flow can’t be stopped…’

Rize swung the staff around the mansion. Then, as if time were rewinding, the mansion began to return to its original state.

She felt her magic power draining away, but Raize felt a pleasure that surpassed the exhaustion.

‘…I just need to stay ahead of everyone.’

The magic she had just performed was something she could never use at her level. Yet, she used it.

The meaning of admitting this was very simple. It proved that not only those who didn’t know magic, but especially mages, would desperately want this tool.

The ones with the strongest curiosity and greed for magic were, after all, the mages.

Raize, who had fixed the mansion, returned the staff to Dojin.

“There, it’s done, right?”

“Wow… that’s amazing.”

“If you can’t break it… you might as well mass-produce it.”

“…Mass-produce it?”

“Yes.”

Raize advised sincerely. Having experienced it firsthand, she was convinced that if this tool spread, it would cause division among mages.

So, thinking in reverse, they should mass-produce it. Even if everyone got their hands on magic, the value of mages wouldn’t diminish.

If anything, it would only increase…

But there was one problem.

“Uh… I can’t mass-produce this.”

“…Why not?”

“Because I don’t know how to make it.”

Raize looked at Dojin upon hearing that. Her expression seemed to ask if she was serious.

“…Really?”

“Yes.”

A deep sigh filled the interior of the mansion.