episode_0082

After agreeing to become Mariel’s research subject, I received the money as promised.

Her hands trembled as she handed over the money.

I thought she was just a wealthy eccentric who bought the mansion and spent a lot of money without hesitation, but it seemed she had actually spent quite a bit buying the Bellaforte mansion.

She left, saying she would call me back once the preparations to turn the mansion into a research lab were complete.

I had received the money, and all that was left was the part about ‘granting whatever you desire.’

“Yunoa was excited at the thought of being able to control Mariel as she pleased.

But there is a limit to the requests he can grant, and he may have already given up on being human.”

Stop saying strange things without any basis.

He seems to be getting excited after taking on one job.

Of course, I had no intention of doing anything perverted as the narration suggested.

I’ll save this wish ticket for now.

I still don’t know what Mariel is capable of, and there’s no rush.

She’s said to be a quite talented mage, so there might be a day when I can make good use of her.

* * *

I waited for Mariel’s call and took on simple requests for a few days.

I purposely chose tasks that could be quickly completed nearby, focusing on hunting down individual monsters.

Even though I had enough money and could just relax at home, I didn’t want to lose my adventurer instincts.

Now, the requests that come with a silver rank are so easy to handle, it’s like catching mice in a warehouse.

Thanks to the Draconite Sword suppressing magic overflow, using magic skills wasn’t too inconvenient.

And the sword itself was of excellent quality, making it easy to cut down monsters without much difficulty.

I thought that increasing the destructive power of the sword with magic wouldn’t make much difference between a dull sword and a good one, but I was wrong.

With the money and effort I put in, the difference in the taste of cutting between a good sword and an ordinary one with the same amount of magic was bigger than I thought.

Although I was enjoying a peaceful daily life, the rumors I heard while visiting the guild every day seemed unsettling.

“Hey, did you hear? It seems like the Demon King’s power has gotten stronger.”

“The number of variant monsters empowered by the Demon King’s power seems to be increasing lately.”

“It’s fine for now, but it might become dangerous if this continues for a few more years.”

Adventurers gathered in the guild waiting room were discussing.

It is said that the Demon King’s power grows stronger as time passes.

As the Demon King’s power grows, monsters become stronger, and as monsters become stronger, the threat to the kingdom increases.

When I first became an adventurer, the request board was almost evenly split between bronze rank monster subjugation requests and silver rank monster subjugation requests, but nowadays, silver rank or higher monster subjugation requests made up about 70-80% of the total.

There were no requests on the guild’s board that required a minimum of gold rank.

This didn’t mean that there were no difficult requests, but rather, because the highest rank for ordinary adventurers was silver or the same.

In my opinion, reaching gold rank was akin to entering a hall of honor as an adventurer.

Of course, once you reach gold rank, you may be appointed as the leader of a large-scale subjugation force summoned by the kingdom or qualify to participate in various important tasks.

There were cases like Mireia, who reached the pinnacle with overwhelming power as a gold-ranked adventurer, and cases like Algot, who became a guild master or even ventured into politics as a gold-ranked graduate.

After understanding this reality, I lost my desire to advance to gold rank.

I heard from various sources that the promotion process is very complex and difficult.

The rare Gold Adventurer badge is somewhat tempting, but it seems like it will just bring unnecessary trouble.

As I pondered these thoughts, the adventurers in the waiting room turned their attention towards the hero.

“Well, the hero has finally set out on a quest to defeat the Demon King, so it should be resolved soon, probably.”

“Isn’t he the one who used to do all sorts of despicable things at the Central Church? Still, a hero is a hero.”

“But with all the things he’s done so far, who knows what will happen to him after defeating the Demon King.”

“What do you mean?”

“I heard that because the hero has been doing too many despicable things, even the palace is preparing. After defeating the Demon King, he may no longer be a hero. It won’t matter if he’s sent to prison or his head is chopped off.”

“That’s… karma, I guess.”

So that’s how it is.

The hero set out on a quest to defeat the Demon King…

The rumors about the infamous trash hero had quieted down for a while, but was it because he left to subdue the Demon King?

But just how strong is the hero?

I’m not a hero, so I don’t know, but I recall the overwhelming presence Queen Ludmilla displayed in Ainblad and the appearance of Bloodstain, the direct subordinate of the Demon King, who faced off against Milaia and Horg Canyon.

To overcome all of that and reach the Demon King’s castle to defeat him must mean he is incredibly powerful.

I wonder what kind of being the Demon King is.

With such a wide influence across the entire continent… could he kill someone like me with just a glance?

What does he look like, a giant and grotesque monster? Or maybe a being emitting an overwhelming aura like Ludmilla.

Well, I didn’t know right away since I’m not the hero of this world.

If I knew how the Demon King and the hero started, I wouldn’t even think about becoming a hero.

***

“Wow…”

Upon receiving Mariel’s call that the preparations were complete, I arrived at the Bellaforte Mansion and stood there with my mouth agape, looking at the changed appearance of the mansion.

It wasn’t because the mansion had undergone a neat transformation that I was surprised.

It was because the mansion had not improved at all from the dilapidated state when I sold it.

The windows were still broken, and the garden floor was full of scorch marks as if something had exploded.

At least the mansion had been cleaned up a bit once I entered.

The broken furniture and piled-up dust had all disappeared.

But the place was still messy with strange and weird tools filling the space.

In some rooms, magic circles were drawn on the floor.

It was more like a witch’s abandoned mansion than a wizard’s laboratory.

“Oh! Have you come! I’ve been waiting for you!”

Mariel ran towards me as soon as she saw me.

And she started poking my chest and stomach with her index finger.

I’m not a fish or fruit…

“…I came, but is it really safe here?”

“What do you take me for! I’m Mariel, the greatest wizard on the continent!”

“Sigh…”

Seeing Mariel’s excited expression, I couldn’t help but feel a sense of dread.

Still, I reminded myself that there must be something to gain by being her experimental subject.

Honestly, every time I saw Mariel, the vivid image of her struggling with teleportation magic failure and wriggling legs made me anxious.

And so, Mariel’s research began in earnest.

It started with infusing magic into various objects she instructed.

Ordinary stones, crystals, swords, branches, and more were infused with magic, and Mariel observed them.

Each time I infused magic, Mariel’s face lit up with interest and excitement.

“Your magical power is truly fascinating! It’s as if it’s a mix of half human and half demon magic!”

Subtly sharp.

But I didn’t bother to explain how I ended up with this kind of magical power.

As Mariel’s experiments continued, I began to feel more and more at ease.

I thought that being a weird magician, her experiments would involve something extraordinary, but they turned out to be surprisingly ordinary experiments.

Experiments that were simple, just observing and checking values, with no major consequences even if something went wrong.

If all the experiments ended like this, it would truly be a profitable situation, but…

While experimenting with various things and recording the results, Mariel handed me a dice-like object made of gemstone.

“Can you transfer the magic imbued in this object to this side?”

The object, shaped like a dice, seemed to be imbued with magic.

As instructed by Mariel, I closed my eyes and tried to feel the magic imbued in the object.

The sense of feeling magic allowed me to perceive the color of the magic imbued in the object.

Ordinary people had blue magic, while the magic I felt in Ainblad was red.

The magic imbued in the dice was close to red, but unlike the magic I felt in the Ainblad magic prison, the color was very faint.

Focusing on the magic contained in the dice, I tried to slowly transfer it to the object placed next to it.

Since it wasn’t my own magic, it was difficult to control, but as I concentrated my mind, I felt the magic slowly transferring to the object next to it.

It was a bit challenging, but not impossible.

After transferring all the magic imbued in the dice to the object as Mariel wanted, she trembled.

“You… you… you are truly a special human!”

“Me?”

“That’s an object imbued with demon magic! The fact that you can move that magic… my eyes didn’t deceive me!”

“W-what…?”

“Let’s try just one more experiment! Come outside for a moment!”

Following the excited Mariel, I went out into the spacious garden of the mansion.

What is she trying to do?

Mariel placed me in the center of the garden and said, “You should be able to do it! I’m going to cast a fireball at you now! Try to nullify it by taking control of the magic!”

“W-wait… what?”

“Let’s begin!”

As Mariel pointed her index finger towards the sky, a huge flaming fireball appeared.

Without any hesitation, she pointed her index finger at me, and the massive fireball began to fly towards me.

“N-no, wait! Miss Mariel? Aaaah!”

Boom!

With a loud noise, the exploding fireball.

I narrowly avoided the fireball by leaping to the side.

Mariel shook her head and said, “No! That’s not it! I meant to control my magic to neutralize the spell! Don’t dodge it!”

“If I fail, I’ll die!”

“It’ll be fine! You’ll just get a little burn! Anyway, let’s try again!”

Mariel summoned another huge fireball and started to launch it at me.

Now she’s showing her true colors, this psycho witch.

Boom!

I dodged the fireball again by leaping to the side.

Mariel looked displeased.

“That’s not it! There won’t be any progress like this! Ugh!”

Mariel suddenly reached out her hand towards me and started to cast a strange spell.

After a while, my body began to numb, and I couldn’t move my arms and legs properly.

“Excuse me? Miss Mariel? What did you do? I can’t feel my arms and legs!”

“I just temporarily numbed your senses so you wouldn’t interfere with the experiment! Don’t worry!”

“W-what…?”

“Alright! Let’s try again!”

Mariel summoned another fireball.

With my arms and legs numb, I couldn’t move my body.

At this rate, I would be hit directly by the fireball she launched.

“You can do it! Now, focus on feeling the magical energy concentrated in my spell, and try to control it!”

“Wowwwww!”

A large fireball sent by Marie came flying towards me, blazing fiercely.