Ch.33Strong Blood Tower (4)

“Huh?”

I tilted my head as I arrived at the Crimson Blood Dining Hall to have a meal with Irina.

The dining hall seemed unusually noisy.

Of course, dining halls naturally get bustling when crowded with people, but this commotion didn’t seem to be from diners—it appeared to be for some other reason.

‘Usually these things get posted on the MagicPad.’

I immediately took out my pad and accessed the Blood Tower forum.

As expected, the Blood Tower forum was filled with informative posts about the current situation.

[“That” idiot just entered the forum lol]

[Who told him to threaten people with magic to lower prices?]

[I seriously want to kill him lolololol]

After skimming through the posts, I could roughly understand what was happening in the dining hall.

‘Must be the owner of another restaurant.’

Just as I thought.

It made sense—if the Crimson Blood Dining Hall opened, most mages would naturally come here to eat, reducing customers at other restaurants, leading to complaints.

‘This works out well.’

I was planning to visit and ask whether they would leave the Blood Tower or normalize their prices and run a proper business.

Though I’d love nothing more than to kick them out immediately, some people might actually enjoy that restaurant’s food.

…

Then again, there wasn’t a single compliment about the food quality despite the lowered prices, so perhaps they weren’t serving delicious meals after all.

Come to think of it, if the Crimson Blood Dining Hall only offered school cafeteria-level quality…

Unless someone is particularly strapped for cash, people generally invest in what they eat.

Why eat relatively tasteless food if you don’t have to?

If the owner’s restaurant had provided food worth the price, it wouldn’t have lost so many customers.

In the end, they brought this upon themselves.

‘I suppose I should at least ask once.’

“Wait here for a moment.”

“Unni?”

I need to go in and teach that owner a lesson.

I patted Irina’s head reassuringly and stepped inside.

“How can this make any sense?! Who do you think has been feeding this Magic Tower all this time?! Huh?! Tell the Tower Master to come out! Now!!”

“Well, as you requested, I’ve come. Is there a problem?”

“Problem?! Yes, plenty!! Are you playing games with… me… wait…”

The man who had been responding confidently to my answer suddenly froze as if sensing something strange, then slowly turned his neck to look at me.

“Y-you are…”

“I am the Master of the Crimson Blood Magic Tower. I heard you had something to say to me, so I came personally.”

The man’s eyes darted around nervously.

He seemed unsure how to respond.

Of course he would be.

True, the restaurant owner had come to the Crimson Blood Dining Hall causing a disturbance, demanding to see the Tower Master and complaining about unfair treatment, but he had only done so within the dining hall—he hadn’t directly asked for me to be brought to the Magic Tower.

So naturally, he was flustered by my sudden appearance.

He was probably thinking, “Why has such an important person suddenly come here?”

But what the man didn’t know was that mages have their own communication channels.

I crossed my arms and approached him.

Due to my short stature, I ended up having to look up at him.

I clicked my tongue in disapproval.

“I don’t like this. Should I have to look up at someone like you?”

“T-that’s…”

“Kneel.”

Thud!

As soon as I spoke, the man’s legs bent involuntarily.

“Gahk…?!”

Master of all living beings.

Transcendent of life.

Everything inside the man’s body revered me and instinctively obeyed my command.

“Ugh… urgh…”

As his legs were forced to kneel, the owner gritted his teeth.

He was trying desperately to move his legs, but no matter how hard he tried, they wouldn’t budge.

“You, and your father, and his father before him… you’ve been living like parasites attached to the Blood Tower, and you have the audacity to show your face here?”

“Huh… huh… gasp…”

“Do you truly wish to die?”

The Magical Kingdom doesn’t permit the arbitrary killing of humans.

Unlike the Empire of the past, the notion that all human lives are precious has long been prevalent.

Killing this man here wouldn’t be a good idea.

Of course, I have no intention of killing him.

I never killed ordinary humans even during my Hero’s party days, as I didn’t particularly enjoy harming people who weren’t part of the Demon King’s army.

The fact that I didn’t engage in blood-drinking, which would be natural for a vampire, should indicate how little I enjoy harming people.

I would take lives when necessary, but I don’t particularly want to.

There’s no reason to kill the man before me—he hasn’t killed anyone or committed any comparable grave sin.

However…

‘He should pay for what he’s been extorting all this time.’

When you run a monopoly business with arrogance, you eventually get your head cracked.

Of course, it was probably this man’s ancestors who accumulated wealth by earning more money… but considering he’s living a wealthy life with that money, it’s not strange that he should pay the price.

I made my decision.

“I’ve changed my mind. There’s a better way.”

Making him normalize prices would be truly foolish.

Instead…

“You now have two options.”

“T-two options…?”

“First, you can confess. Since you’ve been scamming people for generations, shouldn’t you return the money you’ve earned through dishonest means?”

“T-that money…”

“I hear you’ve been milking people for over 100 years across generations… wouldn’t this amount be appropriate?”

When I showed him the number on my pad, the man’s face filled with shock.

“I-I can’t pay this much!! What small business owner in the world has this kind of money?!”

“Then what can you do? You’ll have to sell your body or something. Of course, even if you sold yourself into slavery, you couldn’t repay this amount in a lifetime, but for someone as incompetent as you, it’s the best way to repay as much as possible.”

It’s unfortunate for him that he must pay for his ancestors’ sins as well.

That’s why I recommended the second option.

“Then… the second option.”

“Ugh…”

“The second option is simple. Provide food for free, just like the Crimson Blood Dining Hall. Don’t worry, I can provide you with ingredients, so you just need to cook and serve meals.”

“F-for free?!”

The man exclaimed with a shocked expression.

“Not just that. This offer applies not only to you but to all external restaurants in the Magic Tower. Haven’t they all been exploiting our tower?”

“T-that’s impossible! How can a merchant run a business without receiving money!”

“Hmm, you must have accumulated wealth by extorting money from Blood Mages… shouldn’t you be grateful that I’m not taking everything back?”

What a greedy fellow.

“That’s…”

The man gritted his teeth at my words.

“I won’t stop you from spending the money you’ve earned. You don’t need to return it to the Blood Tower. However… the Blood Tower won’t compensate you for your labor. Also, if you try to escape or divert ingredients to sell them… you know what will happen, right?”

In short, he would have to work at the Blood Tower for half his life.

“Ugh… ah… that’s…”

“You’d better choose wisely. Just remember, I’m being as accommodating as possible right now.”

I chuckled and spoke to the Crimson Blood Dining Hall guards behind me.

“Take this man out.”

“Yes!”

“W-wait! Please wait! We’re still talking…!!”

“No need. If you don’t provide free meals by tomorrow, I’ll assume you’ve chosen the first option and prepare legal proceedings.”

Does he really think I would spend my time on him?

How incredibly stupid.

“I’ve just delayed my mealtime with Irina. Tsk.”

She was already hungry, and this is completely unhelpful.

I heard that not just this man, but other restaurant owners in the Magic Tower would hear about this and make their decisions.

If they didn’t provide free meals, I would consider it a rejection of my offer and deal with them all.

It was time to clean up the accumulated corruption of 129 years.

‘The forum must be going crazy.’

I saw earlier that everyone was watching.

Checking the forum later will be quite entertaining.

‘It’s good for my image to improve.’

After all, I need to improve my image to start my plan.

With a refreshed stride, I went to meet Irina.

First, we need to eat.