DBOFS 47

Chapter 47

Until his master, Alucas, paid the contract fee in full and withdrew without resistance.

“Y-You really made the contract?!”

“Then, should I make a fake one?”

“Yes!”

“……”

“What’s with that look? You’ve been faking it all this time—”

“Shut up already. I can hear everything.”

“Huh, so what if you can? Since when did you start caring about that? Not like you — Ah!!”

Luken couldn’t resist and was dragged away by the scruff of his neck by Alucas.

“Catering to some petty merchant guild?”

He had lost his original intention.

Luken became even more certain when Alucas, after sealing the contract, ordered him to watch over the Rudos merchant guild as well.

Our guild leader has lost his original intention, and lost it completely!

“Seriously, why are you like this? I won’t complain, just tell me the reason.”

He felt like he was about to burst from frustration.

They say people only do things they don’t usually do either right before death or when they fall in love.

Could it be that Alucas has fallen in love…?

“No.”

“Ah!”

With a smack, Alucas hit Luken’s head and replied irritably.

“I do have tastes, you know? She’s just too difficult.”

“Y-Yeah, I know that very well…”

That’s what makes it even more of a problem.

Luken pressed on the bump on his head, grumbling inwardly. Why is he making such a fuss over someone who isn’t even his type?

Alucas let out a faint chuckle at Luken’s disgruntled face.

Well, from the perspective of an aide who had witnessed all of Alucas’s actions, his behavior would indeed be puzzling.

“I feel weird about it too.”

Alucas ran his hand through his hair. A faint tension flickered across his usually relaxed and sly face.

In truth, Luken was right.

If it was because the guiding went well, all he had to do was kidnap her as she was; if he liked the calming potion, he could simply take over the guild.

Yet, uncharacteristically, he was pretending to be kind and adjusting to Jade…

“…Luken, do you remember when I once broke into the Magic Tower?”

“How could I forget? Oh man, that was chaos. Because of that, we cut ties with the Magic Tower, making it hard to get magic tools! Seriously, thinking about it still pisses me off. Those bastards were experimenting on anyone they caught and then bragging about it — Ugh!”

“Yeah, yeah, seems you remember well.”

Alucas silenced Luken before he could ramble endlessly, then whispered quietly.

“I saw something then.”

“…!”

Alucas, who was no stranger to inhumane and cruel acts, had seen enough to be ruthless.

The Magic Tower Master’s experiments were cruel enough to burn everything to ashes, killing all the test subjects mercilessly.

In the chaos, Alucas managed to see one test subject escape.

A slender beauty with flowing pink hair and a mysterious aura.

“She glared at me.”

The hostility that pierced his ribs still vividly came to mind.

Though she looked exhausted from prolonged experiments, there was no hesitation in her steps fleeing through the ruins and corpses.

A unique first impression.

Normally, Alucas might have captured her, but at that time, he was not in his right mind.

He had come to confirm the information that his sister had become a test subject here.

A fact so unbelievable and unwelcome that upon seeing the test subjects, Alucas wished it was all a lie.

Better to be seen in this horrible state than to have caused the Magic Tower to become his enemy for nothing…

“There was no sign of her.”

By luck or misfortune, bloodied Alucas found no trace of his sister in the Magic Tower.

Instead, he found documents showing she had once been a test subject.

And news that she had been sold to a place beyond his reach…

“Ah, ahahaha—!”

Should he call this fortune or misfortune?

The Magic Tower was destroyed by the power of an S-rank fire ability user.

“But the Magic Tower was quickly restored after the Tower Master returned…”

Alucas’s gaze turned cold.

Despite being S-rank, the Tower Master’s presence had not diminished.

Rather, he now stood as an oppressive wall before Alucas.

Knowing that most of the Tower Master’s test subjects met death in Alucas’s flames, and that a few escaped, was a small consolation.

“That bastard will get his comeuppance.”

That faint sense of victory, and the relief that maybe his vengeance helped someone, gave Alucas some comfort.

So when he saw Jade in the dungeon, he couldn’t help but be surprised. She looked strikingly similar to that test subject from that day.

“She became the guide of Duke Godwin?”

Interesting. How did fate lead her there? Did that bastard Tower Master succeed in creating a guide?

That was why he went looking for her, but…

“…Mercenary King, Alucas.”

Her eyes widened in surprise, and at the same time a unique, enchanting sweet scent wafted.

And…

“Another S-rank ability user.”

When you reach that rank, you can’t help but recognize one another.

But before Alucas could properly acknowledge her, she left.

There are few S-rank ability users fast enough to vanish before he could catch them.

“…So, she’s the escaped test subject from the Magic Tower.”

Luken’s voice broke the silence.

“Yes.”

“Not only has she survived, she’s safely become the presumed high-grade guide of Duke Godwin, personally took over the guild, and created the calming potion…?”

Luken’s eyes narrowed as he counted it one by one.

The guide he had once thought adorable but insignificant was no ordinary person.

“She’s no amateur.”

His teasing voice turned serious. Alucas shrugged silently.

In fact, Alucas did not fully agree with Luken’s speculation.

Though it fit the conclusion, he felt something didn’t match about the person and the meticulous strategy.

“She looks smart, but she’s not that scheming.”

Perhaps that’s why Alucas suspected there was more.

That Jade was either just insanely lucky or had a hidden mastermind pulling the strings.

“Or maybe both.”

If you’re stupid, you wouldn’t survive even with luck.

Weak and fragile as Jade was, being given the chance to act smart was already very fortunate.

Then who made that luck?

Alucas was from a desert nomadic tribe. What saved him and led him to become the Mercenary King was intuition, not logic.

By that intuition, Alucas was sure.

The test subject he saw escaping the collapsing Magic Tower was not that girl.

“She looks a lot like her… but she’s different.”

He remembered locking eyes with that test subject.

Amid smoke and destruction, the distant figure wasn’t clear. He initially mistook her identity because of that.

But he could still vividly recall the intense hostility in those distant eyes that seemed to pierce his ribs.

“Who are you?”

With curiosity, cruel curiosity, and mystery, the girl on the terrace stood up.

“Stop opening your eyes like that. I’ll guide you.”

Her tone was almost arrogant. Then an intangible power swept over him like a wave in the air.

It was an absolute rest close to pain, like his head was being hit.

He had never experienced such a guiding wave before. He didn’t even realize his body staggered.

When was the last time he had such a fitting guiding? Even his sister’s guiding was not this overwhelming.

Under such overwhelming guiding, new memories began to overlap the ones in the Magic Tower.

Same place, same time, same destruction… only one thing was different.

By the side of the fleeing elf hybrid beauty. That girl was there.

Just before the flames touched her, the girl hiding the beauty…

“…Touched by the flames.”

And like the other victims, disappeared without even a dried corpse left behind.

Surely, that must have happened.

“—So is that why?”

Alucas blinked slowly.

“…What?”

“You’re helping to screw over that Tower Master on purpose. That’s why you said you’d attend the banquet too?”

Alucas smiled calmly as if he hadn’t been lost in past memories.

“You could say that.”

The overwhelming guiding that even brought the S-rank himself to his knees. The intelligence that even reached his sister. And the calming potion…

Everything was fascinating, but the most shocking was the last.

The girl he had clearly killed had appeared before him again, without even remembering him.

What could that mean?

“Did you think I was an idiot?”

Alucas shrugged, not bothering to correct Luken’s thoughts.

“Impressive. It’s no easy feat to hijack both us and the Magic Tower, and to escalate the stakes this far.”

“That’s right.”

“I’m curious what exactly she’s planning to do.”

Luken looked seriously toward the banquet hall door.

“Who knows.”

Alucas, who was satisfied with the trouble coming his way despite complaining it was a pain, picked up a glass of wine placed all around the banquet.

In fact, there was one thing Jade had ordered him that he hadn’t told Luken.

“Well, I guess I can tell you once the time comes.”

Because it was something that might or might not work.

Half in expectation and half for amusement, Alucas downed his drink.

I wonder what our secretive lady is doing now.

“Th-This doesn’t feel right.”

I thought as I held the immoral fortune in my hands.

I knew Harris didn’t care much for his biological parents.

But still, no matter what, you shouldn’t just hand over your deceased mother’s inheritance like this to just anyone?

“I-I’m thinking about running away with it…”

“Run away?”

Don’t Obsess Over the Fake Calming Potion, Mastermind