episode_0053

“Le… Lergo!!!!! Come out right now, you scamming bastard…!”

Emma, entering the workshop with majestic fury, was like a legendary flash of lightning.

Indeed, there is no greater joy in the world than observing foolish beings barking loudly, unaware of their impending fate.

“…”

Meanwhile, our infamous true black magician, Mr. Lergo, seemed so wronged by being accused of being a scammer that he couldn’t utter a single word.

I shall surely avenge our poor Mr. Lergo, who has suddenly become a scammer and had his honor defiled…!

“Hmm… Emma Agnelli? What brings you here? Isn’t your repayment date tomorrow? Ah, perhaps you’ve come to pay early?”

While it is truly the virtue of an excellent debtor to repay a debt before the due date, it was highly unlikely that Emma would do anything so commendable.

“Orca? What brings you here…? No… more importantly… how did Lergo end up like this…?”

Seeing me, Emma pretended to be modest and softened her aggressive stance, then discovered Lergo, tied to a chair and groaning as if dying.

“It’s nothing much. This guy also owes me money, just like you. Today’s his repayment date, and he started spouting nonsense about not having the money, so I merely half-killed him.”

“Ha…! To Orca too? He truly was a worthless fellow.”

“It seems you also had some trouble with this guy.”

Emma, perhaps thinking I was tormenting Lergo, grew even more assertive as if she had gained an ally and began tattling to me in great detail.

“This fake black magician, full of bluff… his black magic is terrible… Oh, I’m sorry. I’m just so angry… Emma isn’t a woman who uses harsh words…”

Emma, seemingly in a very good mood, snuggled up next to me and acted flirtatiously.

This was by no means a pleasant experience for me, and in the worst case, it was dangerous because an enraged me might incinerate Emma’s entire head.

After all, I hadn’t come here to stage a slaughter.

[Pisces, an unexpected situation has occurred. Eliminate her.]

I immediately commanded my cute crow via telepathy to eradicate the pest, but before I could even give the order, Pisces swiftly darted forward and pecked Emma’s head with its beak.

Truly, the swift crisis management ability befitting my top subordinate. It was so quick that I felt like I should dote on it extensively once this was over.

“Aargh…! That damned crow… What was that…!”

“Oh dear. Such things often happen in a black magician’s workshop. Offer your head. I’ll tend to the wound.”

Emma screamed, bleeding from her head, and I pressed down on the small hole in her head using a unique Eastern pressure point technique called Jeomhyol.

The gushing blood soon stopped, and Emma was weeping, cursing under her breath.

I quickly and decisively sorted out the situation, accelerating the play’s progression.

“From what I’ve heard, this guy’s half-baked black magic didn’t function properly. Is that right?”

“Yes… that’s right. It’s such a struggle to be involved with a vulgar human like a sewer rat. Still, it’s fortunate that Orca is here, isn’t it? Thanks to you, the penalty clause contract was properly signed.”

It was truly astonishing that even after having her head pecked by a crow’s beak, she was still desperately putting on a display of charm and coquetry.

Unfortunately, however, not a single drop of mature beauty existed in her, making her merely unpleasant.

Fortunately, Emma turned her attention back to poor Mr. Lergo. It seemed she wanted to get revenge for the humiliation she suffered because of him.

“Lergo, you’re not even fit to be called a black magician. What? Great art? Is that flimsy stuff that can’t even properly snipe a single academy novice black magic? You only know how to bluff, you utterly useless human…”

“Heh… heh heh heh… Was that so? So my black magic was like that…”

Our Mr. Lergo’s acting skills, as he spoke in a hollow, desperate voice, were truly outstanding. Or perhaps, in this case, it wasn’t acting, but reality?

In any case, upon hearing Mr. Lergo’s line, Emma began to torment him with an even more furious voice and demeanor.

“Laughing, are you? Go on, try to choke me like last time? Your utter lack of skill has been exposed, so you can’t even do that anymore, can you? You can’t do anything but provide illusory deceptions, can you? What on earth did Lizley and His Highness the Prince see in a guy like you to trust him…”

Lizley, Prince.

She’s acting out, spilling details about how her masters are connected to the black magician.

My intelligent and cautious Pisces would never leak even a shred of information like that in front of others…

Of course, it’s not particularly surprising that Lergo is a black magician with a connection to Leon, as I already knew that even before my regression.

Furthermore, it’s not at all surprising that Lizley, one of the people closest to Leon, also has a connection with Lergo.

However, Emma had effectively confirmed it for me with her own mouth.

I merely gazed blankly at someone else’s incompetent subordinate.

Truly, it’s a relief that wasn’t my subordinate.

“Hey, you fancy black magician, Lergo. Enough of that… just spit out the penalty fee. You took the money and handled things so shoddily? It’s not a penalty fee, I should just make you my slave. Are you ignoring me? Why do you keep wearing this mask? You wear it to show off, but now that your skills have been exposed, you just look like a clown, don’t you? Look me in the eye and… answer me!”

Meanwhile, Emma, who was only good at being sarcastic, ignoring, and putting others down… nothing but useless things like that, relentlessly verbally battered Lergo until she finally ripped off his precious mask.

Actually, I had been planning to remove the mask myself when the timing was right, but Emma, unknowingly immersed in her role, delivered an excellent ad-lib, saving me the trouble.

With his mask removed, Lergo lifted his face, looking utterly defeated.

It was the face of a person filled with emptiness, yet also with a strong zeal for death.

It was that familiar gaze and expression that those I tormented by implanting the Mark of Annihilation before my regression always displayed before me.

He was a man with pale, grayish-white skin, as if he had never seen sunlight, and hollow, dark eyes, looking like a withered bracken fern.

A pitiable man, who had naturally become ugly after dedicating himself to black magic for so long, sat before us.

‘Now… shall I do as instructed…?’

To his ugly yet desperate gaze, I replied with a slight nod.

Emma, just so you know, if you keep tormenting someone who’s just minding their own business, they’ll bite back hard.

The long-awaited moment of role reversal. And the climax of the play I had prepared.

Now, deliver the lines you’ve practiced so hard, Lergo.

“Penalty fee? I can’t give you that. I don’t have a single penny to give.”

With a voice filled with exhilaration and madness, Lergo brilliantly played the role of a shameless debtor.

“What…? What did you say…?? You don’t have money? What kind of crazy talk is this…”

However, it wasn’t Emma’s turn to speak her lines yet, so the ruthless play script allowed no further ad-libs from her.

Blaze-

“Urgh…!!!!!”

From Lergo’s toes, his limbs, then his torso and internal organs, were engulfed by flames and began to melt away.

He swallowed his pain, and then, as if suddenly remembering something, looked at Emma with eyes flickering with fire and delivered his final lines.

“See you in hell, Emma Agnelli. I hope your journey isn’t too comfortable…”

“W-What in the…!!!”

The black magician Lergo, with his final magnificent lines, made a perfect exit from the stage of life.

Meanwhile, the fellow, who had clearly changed the lines I instructed him to deliver with more flair, definitely had a talent for acting.

If he had pursued acting instead of black magic with such good acting skills, he wouldn’t have had to die so painfully….

In any case, as a penalty for defaulting on his debt, Lergo melted and died in fierce, scorching hellfire, without leaving a single bone fragment.

A black magician’s contract, you see, is truly terrifying, capable of leaving not even a single bone fragment.

“Have you forgotten the contract between Emma Agnelli and Lergo? That guy chose to die instead of paying the penalty fee.”

Orca, the loan shark from hell—that is, I—kindly explained the situation to the bewildered, foolish youngster.

“That… contract is real…? No, he chose suicide for a few pennies? And to die such a horrific death…?”

She clearly doesn’t understand the fear of money. Well, that’s why she recklessly uses loan sharks without a shred of fear, I suppose.

With not much money at home, and unable to leverage power or connections through a title, why does she disregard money so much…?

“A few pennies, you say… that penalty fee was hardly pocket change. Besides, this guy even swindled my money, so perhaps he just chose to die.”

I calmly defended his death.

Since Lergo had gone to a distant place from which he could not return, I had a duty to prevent Emma from insulting him by calling him a beggar or similar names.

“Well… there’s no way to get money from someone who’s dead. This workshop is practically a beggar’s den anyway, so there won’t be much value here…. And whatever experimental tools and such he had that might be worth something are all already mortgaged to me.”

“What…? I can’t get the money? No… wait, then what about me…?”

Emma’s dumb head finally seemed to realize her situation.

The guy who was supposed to return the penalty fee had died, effectively saying, ‘Yep, I have no money. I’ll just die. Come follow me to hell if you want to get it~’.

All of his paltry assets, including his house, were entirely mortgaged to Orca, the loan shark, and even that was far from enough to repay the debt.

Furthermore, black magicians are cancerous presences in society who aren’t even issued identification cards and thoroughly hide their identities, so naturally, they cannot pass on either assets or debts to anyone.

Holding onto the contract, she would find herself in a situation where she couldn’t get a single penny from anyone with that mere piece of paper.

“Naturally… you can assume there’s no money you can get from Lergo. You’re not thinking of taking the contract and filing a lawsuit for default, are you? Give up the idea… unless you plan to confess that you had contact with a black magician, don’t even entertain such a foolish thought…”

I teased Emma with a voice of pity, as if addressing a young person ignorant of the ways of the world who had been ruined by investment fraud.

Realizing what had happened to her, she turned pale and merely trembled.

“Well… what’s regrettable is regrettable. Your debt to me is a separate matter. Never forget that the debt repayment deadline is before Monday. Since you’re the kind of person who treats his penalty fee as a few pennies, you should easily be able to repay your debt to me, so I suppose I’m worrying for nothing.”

“U-Uh….”

Watching Emma stammer like an idiot, consumed by panic, was more delightful than eating the finest delicacies.

As delightful, in fact, as seeing Rosalie gently embrace me, or watching Pisces, Irha, or Marisa do something adorable.

“Caw-”

Our cute crow, Pisces, sitting on its perch, also seemed to like my masterpiece, ‘The Woman Entangled in Black Rose Vines,’ and was cawing adorably.

“Well, anyway… the place for debt repayment is here. This place is now mine, so you can come by comfortably. I’ll be here whenever you come tomorrow, so feel free to visit at any time.”

“U-Um… Orca…”

Her lips turned blue, and she clutched at me, trembling like an aspen leaf.

“What’s the matter? Ah, even if Lergo was a black magician, you must be surprised to have seen a person melt and vanish without a trace before your eyes. It’s alright. That’s just how things are in the underworld.”

“It’s… it’s not that… I don’t… have the money right now… If you could just reduce it a little, or… if not that, then extend the deadline just a little…”

It seemed I needed to discipline this impudent fellow a bit, as she was spouting nonsense that would never work on a loan shark.

“Listen.”

I shot a gaze at her, imbuing my voice with the essence of the Nine Heavens Annihilation Art.

After all, she seemed quite cold, so she probably needed a little warmth.

“Urgh…..!!!!”

Forgetting her trembling, she began to writhe as if afflicted by burning pain throughout her body.

“Kid, a loan shark neither reduces the amount nor extends the deadline. My principle is to collect the principal before the due date, and if it’s even a minute late, I collect interest as well from that point on. Do you think I’ll go easy on you?”

“Ugh… P-Please stop… I’m sorry… Orca…!”

Was it because of the pain, or because she had realized the hellish reality…? Or perhaps both…?

Emma begged for my forgiveness and pleaded with me to stop, her voice almost a scream.

I couldn’t kill her before collecting the money, so I stopped for now.

“Just so you know, the contract between you and me is different from the one you made with the black magician. There’s nothing to be resolved by ending your paltry life. If you die, I will torment your family and relatives… and furthermore, every single being, starting from Lady Gracia, whom you serve as master, to collect the money. If you’re thinking of running away by dying, go right ahead. Your life isn’t even worth putting on the scales, to begin with.”

She wasn’t the type to have the guts to take her own life just because she was cornered, but just in case, I didn’t forget to lay the groundwork beforehand.

The existence of Orca is, in fact, an illusion, so if she were to die, there would be no one to demand the money from, but this idiot wouldn’t know that.

“P-Please let me go for now… I’ll… somehow… get the money…”

Emma stumbled as she got up.

“Before Monday. I repeat, interest will accrue from the moment Monday begins. You saw the contract, so you know that loan sharks charge high late fees, and don’t forget that you agreed to it.”

Seemingly without the strength to reply, Emma staggered weakly out of Lergo’s den.

“……”

And then, after Emma’s presence had completely vanished.

“…Master-nim!!!!”

The cute crow flew into my arms, then transformed back into Pisces.

“Was it fun?”

“Yes!! Totally!!!! Pisces realized today why people love plays. Aww, but the plague doctor mask melted away…”

Pisces seemed to have enjoyed the play immensely, but it appeared a bit sad that the plague doctor mask I had given it as a gift had vanished along with Lergo.

“Don’t worry. We earned a lot of money anyway. I’ll buy you a prettier and cooler mask with it. A brand new, latest model.”

“Hehehe!! Then there’s no problem at all.”

Pisces, whose mood brightened immediately at the promise of a new one, was as adorable as ever today.