Ch.418Late-Arriving NPCs. (6)

“Bill~!”

“Oh? Artia!”

After hearing that Avalitia had a solution, I ended up climbing onto Behemoth’s back in the middle of the night, unable to go home. Ragni immediately promised to take care of the money, and she whispered something to Avalitia that I couldn’t hear, resolving things uncomfortably easily. What on earth did she say to make this miser move so readily?

“Today marks the end of guarding that corpse’s core~! Now that I’m here, you can relax~♡”

“Huh? Can Artia extract and transport the core? Don’t tell me, like that time…”

“Ahahah. No, I have my methods. Just wait and see!”

Watching her laugh like a girl(?) in front of Mr. Devil, I can’t help but get goosebumps. Ugh, how did Mr. Devil end up falling for something like that? Is this my fault too?

Well, Mr. Devil himself seems to enjoy her behavior, laughing heartily while patting her shoulder lightly, so I decided to pretend I didn’t see anything. After dismissing all the adventurers who had been guarding the core, only Mr. Devil, myself, Avalitia, and Ray, whom I brought along for some fresh air, remained.

“Ha! This is truly an amazing core. I understand why you wanted to entrust it to your reliable man, keeping something like this hidden. If it weren’t for that woman’s story, I’d want it for myself right now.”

“…Don’t do anything rash. This core is for our Gor to use.”

“Look at this one! A demon offers help, and you direct killing intent at me?! Hey! Hasn’t his personality changed?!”

“That’s because you’re drooling while staring at it.”

“Haha! Artia, I think it would be better if you focused on the task at hand.”

Pushed by Ray’s killing intent and Mr. Devil’s words, Avalitia begins to handle the core. What exactly is she planning to do with that core…? Huh?!

-Crackle crackle crackle…

“Hey, what are you doing…!!”

“Just watch. There won’t be any problems.”

I had expected Avalitia to use demonic energy, but she boldly started melting Behemoth’s core with it. And the melted liquid was being absorbed directly into her demonic energy. No! We need a monster’s core, not a demon’s core! Are you expecting us to extract your core after you’ve eaten this and gotten stronger?!

“…Sigh, I thought the blonde was crazy, but you’re both insane. No, I already knew that, didn’t I? I must have spent too much time with you guys.”

Shaking her head in disgust, Avalitia didn’t stop despite my threats, and after manipulating her demonic energy for a few minutes, she put Behemoth’s core into the black smoke. Is this really okay? If it’s not, you’re dead. Seriously dead.

“……”

“Hey, you. Remember I’m standing right here too?”

“I have no grudge against you, Mr. Devil. I can introduce you to a better woman than this one. How about an elf?”

“What?! What did you just say?!”

I tried to lighten the mood by chatting casually, as Ray was silently glaring at Avalitia, but it seems nothing will change until this reaches a proper conclusion. Hey, don’t get distracted and spit out the Behemoth core first. Ray might draw her sword again.

“Hmph! Say one more weird thing to Bill, and I won’t hold back either.”

-Crackle crackle…!!

Trembling slightly as Ray glared at her, but still maintaining her haughty attitude, Avalitia directed the black smoke toward me.

-Click.

“There, done! That should be fine, right?”

“…No, this looks problematic.”

“…Are you playing a joke on us right now?”

A small bead, reduced to the size of a core typically dropped by a regular boss-level monster, was placed in my hand, but Ray’s and my expressions couldn’t get any worse.

I noticed because I could see the status window, but Ray could sense magical power from the start. She must have realized immediately.

[Behemoth’s Core: Processed. (Unusable due to lack of magical power.)]

“Hey, did you suck out all the contents and just give us the dregs? Do you want to die by my hand before Ray kills you?”

“Huh?!! When a demon helps you, you should just be grateful and accept it. Are you threatening me just because it’s missing some magical power…?”

-Shing.

“Jack, may I cut her down? She turned what was meant to be Gor’s core into trash. May I kill her?”

“Eek?!! B-Bill!!”

“W-Wait!! Jack, Miss Ray, hold on! Why are you acting like this…!!”

This time, I didn’t stop Ray and glared at Avalitia myself, causing even Mr. Devil to panic and step in front of her. Ah, can’t Mr. Devil sense magical power either?

“Huh? No, I’m not great at sensing it due to my low magical power, but I can detect it better than you who can’t sense it at all.”

“Then, you can feel that the magical power that was in this core is completely gone, right?”

“Uh, yes. But what’s the problem?”

“It IS a problem!! I was planning to use this as a core for Gor, who is family!! But that demon completely…!!”

“Eek!! What nonsense are you spouting?!! Weren’t you planning to process it anyway?!!”

“Jack, Miss Ray. Please calm down for a moment. Do you two not know about core processing?”

“What?”

Hearing our conversation, Mr. Devil made an “Ah!” expression and began to explain.

First, the difference between magic stones and cores. Magic stones are crystals formed when magical power accumulates inside monsters, and they’re simply consumables. Once all the magical power inside is used up, they inevitably corrode and disappear. That’s why magic stones, no matter how large, don’t become that expensive.

In fact, even magic stones from high-level monsters like Blue Trolls are only slightly more expensive than regular trolls, and even monsters above Blue Trolls—monsters that require gold-ranked adventurer parties to face—have magic stones that never exceed 1 million cans, no matter how expensive they are. But monster cores, dropped by extremely powerful dungeon bosses or field bosses, are completely different from magic stones.

A core that’s just the size of a child’s palm starts at a minimum of 5 million cans, and the price skyrockets as the size increases. The reason for this difference is that magic stones, as mentioned earlier, are consumables that corrode and disappear once used up, but cores don’t.

Unless deliberately destroyed, cores can be refilled with magical power up to their original capacity and reused infinitely. He explained that the reason our [Mime Golem] could move until now without receiving magical power replenishment from external magic stones was probably due to this characteristic. Mr. Devil explained that when processing a core, all the magical power inside is always completely drained first. In other words…

“You crazy bastards!! Do you think I’d take Behemoth’s magical power to establish a country or wage war against the Holy Nation?! Even with this magical power, there’s no way to land a hit on that insane, arrogant bastard. Do you think I’m crazy enough to fall out with you over a rat-dropping amount of magical power?!”

“R-Rat droppings? But the magical power I felt was quite…”

“Hey! Blondie!! This thing has been dead for almost two months! To begin with, how much magical power do you think was left in a corpse that had already depleted most of its power fighting you and couldn’t recover?! Want it? Should I give it back?! Bring another core!! Damn it! I’ll return everything, so bring another core!!”

“…S-Sorry.”

“I-I’m sorry!”

Faced with Avalitia’s shouting as she hid behind Mr. Devil, we could only bow our heads in apology. No, well, um. I didn’t know, I really didn’t know. Sorry.

In the end, Avalitia, who had been spitting and cursing at us, linked arms with Mr. Devil and left. The only consolation was that Mr. Devil winked and made a hand gesture suggesting we have a drink later to make up. Ah, damn it. Did Ragni know about this? This is so embarrassing!!

“…Jack.”

“Yes?”

“I’m sorry. I keep getting emotional.”

Seeing Ray starting to look dejected again, I reached out and put my arm around her shoulders. Come on, how can anyone always be calm, happy, and energetic? Given our situation, it was a natural reaction. I acted stupidly too, so don’t look so down. Even I, who played the game, heard about this difference for the first time today!

“If I had protected Gor, when you entrusted him to me…”

“…Want to take a short walk?”

I start walking hand in hand with Ray, who was becoming genuinely dejected. Normally, she would have shown a cute, embarrassed reaction to such a gesture from me, but now there’s no vitality in the hand I’m holding. Sigh.

“Ray. I did say I’d entrust Behemoth to you all, but I don’t think you needed to take responsibility for Gor too. Besides, I’m partly responsible for Gor’s collapse. I didn’t expect Ira to intervene and cause such an incident either.”

“……”

I heard from her why Gor was destroyed. Who could have possibly thought that Ira, who was hiding in the shelter and attacking from a distance, would approach with her friends? Moreover, without their support, we wouldn’t have been able to deal with Behemoth so quickly. No matter how I look at it, it’s all the result of my careless thinking and judgment.

“So don’t feel too responsible. If anything, I should be the one feeling responsible, yet I’m still talking to Gor as if nothing happened.”

[Master, you were depressed for three days too.]

Shut up. How long has it been since those three days? I didn’t respond to Gor’s words and chased away the status window with a glare, and Ray noticed from my expression that Gor had said something.

“What did he say?”

“He says it’s hard to see you keep getting depressed because of him. Rather than being so downcast while he’s gone, he asks you to take good care of Ira.”

[I didn’t say that, but I’ll let it slide.]

‘Stop butting in…!!’

-Squeeze.

Ray, who had been holding my hand, finally returned some pressure, and with determination in her blue eyes, she spoke.

“Yes! Gor, don’t worry!! I will definitely protect Ira and Jack’s third female position this time!! I won’t let Miho, Chikuyo, or Luxuria cut in line!!”

[That’s good news.]

“……”

The two people who had made their own resolutions and somehow understood each other wouldn’t actually cross gazes or words. But seeing Ray regain her spirits, albeit in a strange direction, I decided not to say anything unnecessary…

[I’ve noticed Miho trying to enter Master’s room at night occasionally. Please focus on that aspect, tell her.]

You can tell her that yourself when you’re revived. I’m seriously not going to say anything unnecessary.