episode_0027

Black Mage Pisces.

This was a subordinate I had taken in before my regression and put to good use.

Even before my regression, this guy was the boss of a small organization under ‘Black Rose Vine,’ the group that dominated this small area.

Though he was terrible at combat, as expected of a black mage, he excelled at manufacturing fraudulent drugs and other miscellaneous skills, making him ‘Black Rose Vine’s’ main financier.

“First, I know everything except what I don’t, so I won’t be taking questions. Anyway, your organization has been selling some bizarre drugs.”

“Ah.”

Aphrodisiacs, love potions, hallucinogens—all with simultaneously astounding effects and side effects.

They were all drugs he made and sold, the kind of merchandise that could get a back-alley dweller stabbed even in the back alleys.

“If someone in the shadows keeps provoking those in the light like that, they’ll die without a trace. You know that, and you’re still doing this, right?”

At my question, he protested, looking a little wronged and indignant.

“No, then what am I supposed to do?! Sir… I’m just a subordinate anyway. I make what I’m told to, and I don’t even get much money…”

“That’s why I’m giving you a chance. Abandon the guy who doesn’t even pay you properly, and take my hand. I’ll let you live a little more like a human.”

“…..But how can I trust you? Can you even defeat the boss of ‘Black Rose Vine’?”

His words were reasonable.

If some unheard-of young punk just shows up and says, ‘Betray your terrifying superiors and become my subordinate,’ credibility would certainly drop.

However, to be my subordinate, that kind of mindset is a bit lacking.

From my perspective, the most excellent subordinate is the one who just says, “Yes! Understood!” without thinking twice.

Just like our cute Irha.

“Anyway, you’re being held because they have leverage over you, aren’t you? Plague Doctor Pisces, from Azoulda Kingdom. A hybrid of demon and human, half-demon, half-human.”

“…..!!!”

As I rattled off his secrets, he broke out in a cold sweat, his eyes darting around.

A guy who was treated worse than livestock in his own country, illegally entered another to survive, and then got caught by human traffickers.

“You even have worms inside you that’ll burst if you don’t take an antidote periodically, don’t you? If you keep going like this, you’ll be drained dry as a slave your whole life. You might as well bet on me, it’d be for the best.”

He remained silent for a moment, pondering my offer, then soon conceded.

“You’re right. I don’t know who you are, but you must be an amazing person to know so much about even a small-time criminal like me. So, what do I do now?”

“Gather all the ‘Vines’ you can into one place. So I can burn them all at once. Watch them burn, and from then on, just be loyal to my words without question. How about that, easy, right?”

He nodded, then politely asked me a question.

The tense atmosphere was gone, replaced by an aura befitting a gang boss.

“Understood. But I need to know your name. Since you’re the one I’m swearing loyalty to, I need your real name, not an alias.”

“Ras Etgard. I’ve told you my name, so go ahead and set up your stage as you see fit.”

Hearing my name, he tilted his head curiously.

“From the Etgard Merchant Guild? I don’t know why you’ve come to such a remote place, but… understood for now.”

Soon, he tapped and manipulated a black crystal ball on his desk, which looked like a magical communication device.

“The eldest son of the Etgard Merchant Guild Master has goods he wants to distribute through the back alleys. I sent it roughly like this. I also said that you came with several escorts, so all the other executives should come as well.”

“Your head works well. Now, lead the way to the Vine field.”

He sighed deeply, then pulled out another pitch-black robe from the wardrobe, put it on, and cast the previous spell on himself.

Once the spell, a combination of perception-lowering magic and fear utilizing the rough demonic power unique to demons, was complete, he regained a certain mystical presence.

“One more thing… I’m genuinely curious about this… What exactly is Plague Doctor Pisces? I swear I’ve never had that nickname before…”

He asked as we exited the room, and I answered readily.

“A nickname you’ll gain once you become my subordinate. Isn’t it cool?”

“Absolutely terrible…”

He grumbled, then scurried ahead.

True to his quick wits, his movement to dodge a flick on the forehead one step ahead was excellent.

*

The place Pisces led me to was a rather spacious basement in a dilapidated building.

‘Black Rose Vine’ were guys I had torn apart and killed in my previous life, but I remember their headquarters were in a different location back then.

According to Pisces, like the shady characters they were, they rotated their headquarters periodically.

“Nice to meet you, kids.”

I greeted them cheerfully, scanning the faces of the assembled men.

Some faces were familiar, some blurry, and since my memory wasn’t *that* good, there were even some who seemed entirely new.

“So… a young master from a rich family has come to such a shady place. What do you want to sell?”

The ruler of this entire area, seated in a chair he had clearly taken some care to set up, looked at me and spoke.

He was a scrawny man with eyes that were half suspicion, half gleaming greed.

He had a black rose tattoo carefully carved onto his face, but to me, it just looked like a grotesque fashion choice.

“Valdes of the Black Rose. Roughly late thirties, specializing in human trafficking and fraudulent drug sales. Combining all this… death penalty.”

It wasn’t a question that needed an answer, so I just said what I had to say.

“Oh my~ Did the cute young master come to play hero or something? Shall Big Sister play with you?”

At my words, some old woman in the corner grotesquely flirted. Her ugly appearance, wearing a nun’s habit to boot, infuriated me.

I remembered tearing that woman apart in my previous life too. Was her name Susan?

“You old hag who sells off orphans. Add the insult to the nun’s habit, and you get the death penalty too, you idiot. And in this cramped basement, guys with axes, guys with spears… You’ll hit your own allies swinging those… you morons.”

Their expressions grew increasingly hostile at my mockery, and Valdes, who had been posing in the chair, spoke to Pisces.

“Pisces. You said you were bringing a business connection, but you brought a lunatic instead. Seeing as you gathered us all in one place, did you perhaps ask your Prince on a White Horse for help? Frixos was right to report you.”

Creak-

The basement door opened, and roughly thirty bug-like men lined up and streamed in.

Judging by their faces, which looked more competent than the guys at the tavern earlier, they seemed to be men with some power within the organization.

I cheerfully greeted the familiar-faced, squint-eyed man mixed in with the group.

“Frixos. As expected, physiognomy doesn’t lie; you truly are a betrayer. We’ve had some history, so leave a final will for the boss you served.”

“If I’d known the one I served directly was some idiotic bitch, I would’ve stabbed her long ago. I wondered why she was so soft… Well, I suppose I can scatter your ashes in the river. Hahahaha.”

Watching him deliver such a rich last will, I clapped my hands, *clap*.

“Thanks to the squint-eyed bastard, I saved myself the trouble of tracking you down to burn you. But why are you guys so idiotic? You should have attacked when I was running my mouth…”

Simultaneously, black rose vines thicker than my leg shot out from the floor like tentacles, binding my feet and legs.

“Are you some young master who learned magic or swordsmanship somewhere? You speak too much. If you’re a true Etgard, we can extort ransom money from the guild master.”

Crunch-

Along with the rose-tattooed man Valdes’s mockery, a large rose thorn pierced my leg.

Blood streamed out, soaking my black trousers, and the bug-like guys, huddled together like terrified dogs, laughed at me.

“Hahaha! That idiot, he tried to look cool and now he’s getting what he deserves. What did he think he’d do alone?”

“We were scared for a moment, thinking he was a hero of justice.”

Valdes continued, speaking in a calm tone to me as I gazed at the huddling bugs with an impassive expression.

“I don’t know what audacity you had to come in here, but the paralyzing poison and corrosion poison on my rose thorns are not something a young punk can endure. Stay still, and I’ll make you a slave.”

The guy posing with closed eyes as if he were a great sorcerer, with a serene expression, was simply amusing to me.

“Actually, I was a little curious about what kind of magic you wielded. So you used idiotic magic fitting for a human trafficker, huh.”

It wasn’t an attack that was particularly hard to avoid or defend against.

I was just curious what kind of magic the tattooed man, whose throat I had grabbed and ripped out before he could even cast a spell in my previous life, would use.

“Pisces, watch closely. Your new master is so…”

I snapped my fingers, *snap*.

Simultaneously, the burning mana, manifested through my mental image, became tens of thousands of threads, ensnaring them and dancing gracefully.

Nine Heavens Annihilation Flame Art (九天滅火功), Flame Thread Waltz (炎絲輪舞)

“…a man like fire.”

In an instant, the entire basement was bathed in crimson flames and screams even redder than the fire.

The flames, far hotter than ordinary fire and manifested from my mental image, swiftly burned and melted the bugs.

The burning bugs themselves became walls of fire, trapping them and preventing escape.

Valdes, who pretended to be cool-headed, Susan, who pretended to be seductive, Frixos, who would burn without even leaving his squinting eyes, and all the other nameless idiots…

“Oh, they burn so well.”

Their sight, clinging to each other and burning together unable to withstand the heat, was truly like burning rose vines.

Only Pisces remained, standing behind me, his eyes wide as saucers, watching the untimely midday incineration show.

The bastards vanished into ash, not even leaving proper remains.

“Let’s go.”

I spoke curtly, turned my back, and exited the basement, with Pisces hastily following after me.

*

Although I felt a slight dizziness, it was a surprisingly satisfying battle.

It was the first fight after reforging my flames, and the decrease in firepower was less than I’d worried about, and my emotional and sensory state after killing was quite stable.

Both the Nine Heavens Annihilation Flame Art and my mental image realm were techniques that a mad arsonist might use, and they had corrupted my temperament in kind.

The more intense the fight, the stronger the opponent, the harder it was to control this volatile temperament, and as a result, before my regression, I had mercilessly burned half of Sephiroth.

“Uhm… Master-nim? Boss? Ras? Are you okay? Your leg is bleeding. You won magnificently, but you must have been poisoned, right…?”

I had walked back coolly to Pisces’s dwelling, but this guy, Pisces, completely ruined the mood.

“Ras is informal, so use any honorific you wish. The poison is fine. That level of poison doesn’t affect me anyway.”

I wasn’t just posing, it was true.

For a poison to affect a flame-human like me, it would need to be incredibly strong, or a poison manifested through a mental image.

Of course, right now my cultivation realm is gone, so I’m not at the level of immunity to all poisons or anything, but once my cultivation begins to rise, I’ll develop immunity-level durability against poisons and drugs.

Even at my current level, a pathetic rose poison like that was already completely burned away inside my body, causing no issue.

“Well, the blood needs to be dealt with. You can take a look at the wound for me… But that’s not what’s urgent right now.”

“Eh, then what is?”

Since this guy did a decent job with what I ordered, I should do what I promised him.

“Lie down and stick out your belly. I’ll sort you out.”

“….!!!!”

Hearing my words, his face turned bright red, and he scrambled onto the desk, then took off his robe.

And slowly, he even began to remove the clothes he wore underneath…

“Why are you taking your clothes off? You can keep them on.”

“Ah..! Boss, do you perhaps prefer to do it with clothes on…?”

He spouted nonsense, so I flicked his forehead.

“I told you I’m not interested in women who don’t wash their faces. I’m going to burn the worms in your stomach, so stop with the nonsense.”

“Hmph… you made me misunderstand you. Ow! No flicking on the forehead! It’ll make my head worse. But won’t all my insides burn? That’s scary…”

I didn’t answer, and placed my hand on his abdomen.

The process of burning or melting something inside the body is delicate, so I needed to maintain direct contact like this to scan his insides.

A soft, slightly elastic feeling from his abdomen.

A gurgling sound followed that feeling.

Following the small, pulsing beat, I channeled a delicate flame into Pisces’s stomach.

“Ehehe! That tickles. But it’s also a bit hot?”

Listening to his giggling with one ear and letting it pass through the other, I searched for the anomalous flow.

Starting from the leg of a large, bedbug-like worm that was coiled up and impudently glaring, I ignited it.

[Screech…!!!!]

Soon, the worm began to burn and scatter, squealing, and Pisces started screaming in harsh pain.

“Agh..! What is this..! It hurts! It hurts so much!!! This arsonist is trying to kill me!! Mom, I’m dying!!”

Even amidst the chaotic scene, I cleanly burned the worm until no residue remained, then removed my hand from his abdomen.

As always, delicate work was harder for me.

“Alright, you’re done, you big baby. The feeling will be different now.”

“Uwooh… so hot… huh??”

Watching him, covered in beads of sweat, I let out a sigh of relief.

If I could treat Mirha with this level of gentleness, wouldn’t it be enough?

“Master-nim…!!!”

He suddenly hugged me, weakened as I was, but…

“You, go quickly wash your face, and if you can, take a shower too. You smell like an unwashed dog.”

“Ah…!”

Just like in my previous life, all it did was make me frown.

Then or now, I prefer things to be fresh and clean.