Ch.104104. Owen Baltani

Owen Baltani had no idea about the enormous debt he supposedly owed.

After holding his grandfather’s funeral, he spent his days pouring his grief into music.

While the boy lived through days of melody and tragedy, art and lamentation, it was rough loan sharks who dragged him back to reality.

Being an artist is a hungry profession.

Claren, filled with such artists, was a goldmine for loan sharks.

And since artists poured money into drugs, gambling, alcohol, and tobacco under the pretext of seeking inspiration, business expansion was easy.

It was the perfect environment for underworld thugs to become gangsters. This was the dark side of Claren, the city of artists.

Anyway.

Owen, who had been drowning in loneliness, first learned about his grandfather’s debt when the loan sharks brought documents.

Seeing the massive debt along with his grandfather’s signature, Owen was shocked as if hit in the head with a hammer.

In the end, all Owen could do amid this crushing debt was play the piano.

He was somehow earning money through street performances arranged by the city hall, but…

Thwack!

The loan sharks wouldn’t wait.

“You still have to pay the interest!”

On his way to the rooftop of Purucheni where he was supposed to perform today, Owen was caught by loan sharks and dragged into an alley where they were beating him.

“Ugh!”

His face swelled red. The boy who had never been associated with violence rolled on the ground, eyes reddening from just one punch from the thug.

The pianist who had just been determined to perform well found his world instantly colored with resentment and tragedy.

“Hey, look at this! Your grandfather owed us money, understand? Are you going to pay it back or not?”

The loan shark continued kicking while waving the debt document. After the foul-mouthed man who seemed to be the leader had been beating him for a while, a bespectacled man smoking tobacco in the back stopped him.

Owen’s curled-up body, beaten so badly he could barely breathe, trembled violently.

The brief pause felt like a small mercy.

“Kid, do you think you can pay off this debt working all day like this?”

“……”

“You’re just doing performances provided by the city hall, right? Claren is crawling with performers. You can’t even pay the interest with the pennies you earn.”

Whoosh.

The tobacco smoke was deeply exhaled. The smoke enveloping Owen’s nose made his mind hazy.

“Let me tell you about a good opportunity. If you take it, your debt will be resolved quickly. You’ll be able to get money that will let you live comfortably.”

“Ah…”

What was he talking about?

Does this person want something else from me?

Owen was perplexed, but the loan shark, uncharacteristically gentle, smiled kindly and extended his hand.

“Take it. A new world will unfold for you. After you make money, you can go back to playing whatever music you want.”

In truth, Owen didn’t care about that. He just wanted to escape this situation.

“Ah…”

He extended his trembling, bloodied hand, but…

Thwack!

The foul-mouthed man standing behind flew past Owen’s side.

Crash!

Rolling on the ground in an unseemly position, the man appeared to have already lost consciousness.

“What? One hit?”

White hair tied in a ponytail, though unfamiliar with the style, strands sticking out here and there.

A comfortable shirt and black pants.

And blood-red eyes staring like a predator watching prey.

The man smoking tobacco immediately realized that this woman who suddenly appeared was no ordinary person.

“Findenai, go get the documents.”

And behind her appeared a black-haired man. His slightly long black hair came down to his eyes.

His aesthetic appearance suited the city of artists, and his neat clothes indicated he was nobility.

Findenai approached the unsightly sprawled foul-mouthed loan shark and snatched the debt document he had been holding.

The loan shark with tobacco in his mouth nervously chewed the end before spitting it out.

“What are you doing?”

Though he addressed the nobleman with deference, the loan shark looked ready to overturn the situation and attack at any moment.

But Deus Verdi ignored the smoking man and examined the documents Findenai brought, then frowned.

“It’s forged.”

“…!”

The loan shark’s eyes trembled. The dog-like eyes that were ready to attack instantly deflated.

“You just took the signature from another document and used magic to forge this one.”

There were often such swindlers. That’s why documents needed to be checked multiple times and verified by experts.

The city hall would even lend magical tools to verify documents for free if requested, but…

Owen, only 16 years old and having only played piano his whole life, couldn’t have known that.

“We can go to an expert right now to verify it if you want.”

Under his cold gaze, the loan shark felt his heart shrink. Despite the summer heat, he trembled with chills.

“Ah, no. That’s…”

The shift from dominant to submissive happened in an instant. He tried to make excuses, but…

“Findenai.”

At the calm mention of her name, Findenai lunged forward like an unleashed wolf.

Crack!

Her knee smashed directly into the loan shark’s face.

Nosebleed and broken teeth sprayed everywhere.

Not stopping there, Findenai grabbed his hair with one hand and threw him deeper into the alley.

He landed on top of the other unconscious loan shark, and both let out painful screams.

A hand was extended to Owen again.

Unlike the loan shark’s seductive offer earlier, this one was stiff and blunt, but…

“Let’s go.”

Due to an inexplicable trust that rose in his heart, Owen grabbed Deus’s hand.

* * *

After bringing Owen to the lodging, giving him a room to wash up, and ordering food at the restaurant on the first floor…

I sat at the table, lost in thought.

[He seemed to want something from Owen.]

“Yes, that’s right.”

The loan sharks had offered that small boy to follow them.

They even created fake debt documents to force him.

It might seem excessive, but we needed to consider the opposite perspective.

They wanted Owen badly enough to go to such lengths.

“They too must have noticed that Owen has a special ability.”

[I suppose so. But I wonder why they want it.]

It seemed like just the ability to comfort monsters, but I couldn’t be certain yet.

Even he didn’t fully understand his own ability.

Just then, Owen approached, having finished washing up, drying his hair with a towel. Illuania, who had been waiting, seated him in a chair and began applying medicine to his wounds.

The hostess’s food was placed on the table, filling the air with a savory aroma.

“Eat first.”

At Illuania’s gentle smile, Owen’s expression crumpled before he began putting food in his mouth.

Perhaps he hadn’t eaten proper food for a while due to the debt; the skinny boy stuffed food into his mouth ravenously.

After watching him from a distance for a moment, the Dark Spiritmaster and I returned to our conversation.

“The loan shark’s attitude was also suspicious. Before he knew the document was fake, he was ready to attack me if provoked.”

[Does that mean he had something to rely on?]

“Probably.”

It meant he had backing.

Not just a simple loan shark, but someone behind the scenes wanted Owen’s ability.

“I’m curious.”

While I was curious about the mastermind, I was even more interested in Owen’s ability.

“There’s no choice.”

I took out a jewel wrapped in cloth from my pocket. Just its appearance brought forth screams of souls, creating an ominous presence.

[You’re planning to wake him?]

The boy’s grandfather had already closed his eyes and entered his rest, but…

Strange events were unfolding around the boy.

“Asking directly would give us answers.”

I intended to ask Owen’s grandfather directly about the secrets he took to his grave.

* * *

“So you failed?”

In loan shark Volfras’s office.

All the thugs stood with their heads bowed, terrified.

At the center was a woman wearing a robe that didn’t match the office at all.

“Y-yes! I’m sorry!”

The voice of Volfras, the office’s original owner, trembled. His tongue felt increasingly dry and twisted.

If he displeased her even slightly, she would devour him immediately.

Having witnessed that scene several times, Volfras couldn’t help but be tense.

“And you brought the guys who got beaten?”

“Yes! They were in detention for fraud, but we paid bail and bribes to bring them here!”

“That’s good.”

The woman popped a piece of bread into her mouth and chewed it noisily.

The thugs felt a chill at the sight and hurriedly brought in the two culprits of today’s failure.

The condition of the two men kneeling in the office was quite serious.

One had his face completely smashed and swollen, while the other had both arms broken.

It was Findenai’s artistic work, conscious of the city of artists.

The two men trembled violently and pressed their foreheads to the office floor. Wetting the floor with tears and blood, they cried out:

“We’re really sorry!”

“Strange people suddenly appeared! If you give us one more chance, we’ll definitely bring him!”

“Bullshit.”

The woman abruptly stood up from the soft chair and extended her hand.

Her hand soon transformed into a giant maw resembling a beast’s, and the hideous teeth embedded in it instantly pierced through the two men, devouring them cruelly.

“Ugh, aah!”

“Help! Please sa—!”

Crunch, crunch.

It didn’t take long for the whimpering screams to turn into the sound of flesh and bone being chewed.

The thugs could only swallow hard and stare at the blood dripping onto the floor, unable to raise their heads.

“It wasn’t even the old man, how hard is it to bring his grandson…”

The woman’s eyes flashed as she grumbled irritably. Then she made an expression of disbelief.

“Ah, so that’s why.”

The woman who had devoured them all suddenly burst into laughter, holding her stomach. After laughing for a while, she wiped tears from her eyes and muttered:

“Damn, I killed them even though they gave me such interesting information.”

The thugs couldn’t understand what she was talking about, but…

The woman flopped back onto the sofa and crossed her legs.

“So the Necromancer is here.”

What a coincidence.

After Dante’s Beast Mage was killed by a girl named Aria Rius, she had come to Claren, filled with monsters, to replenish her forces, but…

She ended up encountering Deus Verdi, whose whereabouts had been unknown.

“Heh, hehehe.”

The woman licked her lips with her tongue, smiling with satisfaction.

It felt like a luxurious feast had been laid out right before her.

The woman licked her lips, almost drooling.