episode_0055

“What the hell is this matrix so long?”

Venom was surprised by the changes in his hometown that he had visited after a long time.

In fact, everything else was the same as before, but one new building particularly caught my eye.

A store with a sign that says ‘Somerset Goods Store’, making you wonder what kind of items they sell.

There was already a long line there.

Most of the shoppers were men, but there were also women and children here and there, so I had no idea what kind of shop it was.

Especially, seeing all those who had come with him in the convoy join the procession as if possessed by a ghost as soon as they arrived.

I could tell right away that this was why Goldpool Valley was bustling.

Even Venom was curious and wanted to look around the store, but he didn’t have time to do that right now, so he quickly left the crowded area.

‘First of all, no matter what you do, you need money.’

As a black magician, I couldn’t live without eating bread, and I needed a lot of money to rebuild my base and organization.

Of course, since the black magicians could not earn money by working hard, there was only one way.

Unsecured, interest-free, unlimited term loan.

In simple terms, there was no other way than plunder.

They usually raided secluded villages that were out of sight of the guards, sacrificed the people, and took the wealth for themselves.

Now, it was difficult to raid the village since he had no Chaos Crystal to control the Tunnel Serpent and no companions to raid with him.

Venom’s black magic skills were still so shabby that even if the village’s young men came in a group wielding clubs, it would be difficult to handle them.

‘I need to extort money from the children of the wealthy families nearby by threatening them with curses.’

A curse is a representative form of black magic.

It was a terrifying secret technique that could kill the opponent depending on the caster, but with Venom’s still weak skills, it was only able to make the opponent sick for a few days.

For a healthy adult male, it’s just a minor illness that he suffers from occasionally.

However, it is a power that can put a child, who is weaker than an adult, in quite a difficult position.

Venom has chosen to target children.

If you put a curse on a child from a wealthy family and go to the parents and tell them that you can cure them, they will surely cry and beg you to save their child.

This is a possible scam because it’s Venom who cast the curse and Venom who does the harm.

After repeating this activity several times, you will have accumulated some funds and can use them to revive the organization.

‘I’m going to re-establish the Abyss Church. An organization with me as its leader!’

Venom’s eyes began to fill with hope again.

It was clear that he was someone who was strong against bad luck. He happened to be outside when the sect was attacked, and he even had a chaos crystal that could control the serpents.

“Rash! Why aren’t you running?”

The voice of a child brings Venom, who had already imagined himself as a future cult leader, back to reality.

‘what?’

Was I about five or six years old?

A chubby, blonde girl was riding on a cart, whining at a dog.

At the front of the cart was a dog on a leash, sitting on the floor with a very tired look on its face.

‘What the heck is this combination?’

Venom felt like cognitive dissonance.

The girl looks like she comes from a family with expensive clothes on. Why is she riding in a cart?

The way he rode on the carriage was so majestic that anyone who saw him would have thought he was attending a welcoming ceremony for General Gae-seon.

And I could understand that pulling a cart was no joke.

But wouldn’t a donkey or a cow at least be suitable?

Why is a dog pulling a cart?

And that thing is still a young puppy, but its size is like a wolf?

Even if I tried to infer it in my own way, it was not a combination that could possibly be gathered in one place.

But the important thing is not that the combinations don’t match.

‘Do I smell like a rich girl?’

It was important to me that the girl who was wandering around alone seemed to come from a fairly wealthy family.

Actually, I wasn’t alone.

Venom, who had been more aware of his surroundings than of his dark magic while living as a black magician, realized that there were people hiding around the child and guarding him.

But even if there was an escort, there was no way to stop the curse.

One of the advantages of the curse was that it could be cast on an opponent from a distance.

At the moment when he was wondering where to start, the food crawled in on its own. Venom felt very happy, as if the heavens had prepared it for him.

Now all I had to do was prepare to curse the child from a suitable distance.

Venom can’t help but feel excited just imagining the sight of his child dying and the expressions on his parents’ faces as they mourn over it.

But to be on the safe side, Venom looked around.

This was because it would have been difficult if there were any wizards or priests nearby.

Knights and ordinary people could not detect the aura of black magic, but skilled magicians or priests could sense the strangeness of black magic, so they had to be careful.

Fortunately, there were no people around who appeared to be wizards or priests.

‘Little one, you must become the foundation for a new Abyss sect.’

Venom hid behind the wall and began to chant the spell, silently preparing to cast the curse.

“I have seen my enemy with my eyes, now, darkness, bind him and break him, and curse his soul… .”

He took out the wand he had hidden in his bosom and was just one step away from completing the curse spell.

But at that moment

Boom!

The dog lying on the ground’s eyes became sharper and it quickly ripped off the leash tied around its neck.

“Rashya! If you take that off, you’ll get in trouble with oppa!”

Rash stares at one spot without looking back at Ada’s words.

Soon, Ratchet started running towards the direction he was looking at, and Venom’s eyes widened.

“뭐야 이 미친 개새끼가!”

Venom, who was hiding behind the wall and about to cast a curse, was unable to cast a curse due to Rash’s sudden attack and collapsed, tangled with the dog.

“Boom! Boom!!!”

The movements of Rash, which was the size of a fairly large dog, were unusual.

Venom, who thought he would be able to defeat a dog at best, was surprised by the speed and power that was faster than expected and struggled to complete one spell.

“Hand of Darkness!”

A basic black magic spell that binds a target through their shadow.

When the order was completed, Venom seemed to have become one.

I couldn’t help but be dumbfounded as I watched Rash easily dodge the black hand rising from his own shadow by jumping into the air.

“What kind of dog can jump that high!!!”

But he couldn’t keep whining. He thought it would be an easy opponent, but it was not easy, and when he was in a crisis where he couldn’t guarantee victory even if he gave it his all, a cold sweat ran down Venom’s back.

Moreover

“What is that guy? I’ve never seen anyone like that in the territory?”

The soldiers who had been hiding and protecting Ada appeared at Rash’s sudden action and started to approach Venom.

‘Damn, if those guys get involved, we’re really screwed.’

Did the goddess or even the god of magic abandon him?

Contrary to Venom’s wish to end things as quietly as possible, they had already been caught in the eyes of someone, or rather, someone else.

***

“The saint is visiting, so I can’t help it.”

“I’m sorry, Princess Bluewell. I’m sorry I can’t invite you to the reception room, but would you like to take a look around the workshop while you wait?”

Alain spoke to Amelia politely.

Usually, when the reception room is empty, other nobles would invite guests by guiding them to places like the garden or zoo they have created on the grounds of their mansions.

Both Rupert and Viscount Clyne, who are the de facto financial stewards of the Somerset family, are people who value practicality more.

‘What about the garden? How about just using it as a factory site?’

‘I agree with you, Your Majesty.’

‘No!! No matter what, how can you welcome guests in a nobleman’s mansion without a garden?’

Count Bradley screamed in horror, but none of the servants in the mansion came forward and just looked on in pity.

In fact, if a garden or a zoo were built, it would all be their own job to maintain it, so I thought a factory would be better.

The vast grounds of the Somerset family’s mansion only housed the factory, so it became a kind of course for visiting guests to tour the factory instead of the garden.

“If you do, I would appreciate it. I have been curious for a while. What kind of place would it be to create such beautiful books?”

When Amelia readily accepted the offer, Alain guided her to the bookstore first.

“Can I introduce you to everyone, Your Highness?”

“No. I don’t want to disturb the staff’s work.”

When Alain took her to the workshop, the craftsmen glanced at her, bowed their heads once, and then concentrated on their work.

It was not uncommon for guests to come to the Somerset household to come and see the sights. The craftsmen had become accustomed to it by now.

Of course, some of them were so captivated by Amelia’s dazzling appearance that they couldn’t even come to their senses, and only then did they finally take their eyes off her under Alain’s fierce gaze.

“Oh, is that person by any chance?”

“Ah, I haven’t introduced you yet. This is the dwarf craftsman ‘Krun’ who started working in our workshop.”

Alain added his explanation as Amelia’s gaze caught sight of a dwarf fiddling with his steel arm in a corner of the workshop.

A workshop where dwarves, who are harder to find than elves in the empire, work.

‘You’ve been working so hard on this book.’

Amelia had always only received completed books, but watching the craftsmen make them gave her a new sense of excitement.

It was really cool to see everyone taking charge of the process and discussing their opinions with each other.

‘This must also be a landscape created by that person.’

As expected, he was definitely a warm person, despite his outward appearance.

Although all the craftsmen must have been tired from work, their expressions were brighter than ever and they were filled with laughter.

A natural scene that would not be seen if Rupert was a bad boss.

“Butler, can I cook for these people?”

“Are you speaking directly, Princess?”

“Yes, I brought plenty of ingredients, and as I’ve been learning how to cook recently, cooking for others has become my simple hobby.”

“The princess herself cooked it… It must be a once-in-a-lifetime miracle for the craftsmen as well.”

Amelia smiled slightly embarrassed at Alain’s answer.

Alain, seeing that sight, thought to himself that the food prepared by such a beautiful person with such a beautiful heart must taste heavenly.