Chapter 16 - A Son's Revenge
The Balum family.
One of the prestigious families under Millesdusk.
The family had the good fortune of its eldest son entering the Fourth Son's service, and the tragedy of its eldest son being killed for failing a mission.
The office of Cardmun Balum, the head of the Balum family, was a ss.
A broken desk. Shattered pots and windowpanes. A fallen masterpiece painting.
The luxurious items that made the prestigious family what it was had all lost their aning with the loss of a son, more precious than anything else.
The direction of that anger was clearly the Fourth Son.
But could the Balum family oppose a scion of Millesdusk, the Fourth Son?
Absolutely not.
The mont they did, the Balum family would be trampled by the Fourth Son's army of giant bone soldiers, becoming no different from scraps of paper.
He could not throw away the reputation his ancestors had earned through countless sacrifices and victories.
Then, as a father, as the leader of the family, was he to do nothing?
That, too, was absolutely impossible.
Everyone in the household mourned the unjust and harsh punishnt handed down to the eldest son.
It was even more so when they saw the son's body, sent by the Fourth Son's Butler.
His son's heart no longer beat.
It must have existed, but now it was nowhere to be seen.
He had asked the Butler.
─The Fourth Son sent it as a gift to the Fifth Son.
Only a reply that felt like it would drive him mad ca back.
The arrow of his anger was aid differently.
…Yes. The Fifth Son.
He had to go to the Fifth Son to get the heart back.
The family would handle the mission that his son could not complete.
And thus, they would restore their honor.
The sadness that had enveloped the household soon turned to anger, and just then, the Fourth Son's Butler visited once more.
─According to recently acquired information, Jubel Maxman visited the Fifth Son's mansion. And it seems he went to the Dusk Citadel after so sort of discussion.
The Butler slowly drank his tea, his other hand tapping slowly on the desk.
─I wonder what it could be. It seems the Fifth Son is breaking his seclusion and extending his reach. An unwanted sprout, it wouldn’t be bad to cut it off early.
He stopped muttering, emptied his teacup, and waved his hand dismissively.
─Forget it. I just rambled on thinking you should hear the news about the Fifth Son, but it seems I'm only causing unnecessary confusion. I'll be on my way now.
The Butler disappeared just like that.
Jubel Maxman. The Fifth Son. Cut off the sprout.
It had not been a short conversation, but little of it remained in his mind.
Cardmun Balum swept back his disheveled hair, which he had not been able to tidy since the news of his son's death.
Blood must be paid with blood, and a heart must be paid with a heart.
That was the nature of a sorcerer.
“Put in a request with the Black Wolf Brigade of the Dusk Citadel.”
The target was Jubel Maxman's workshop.
The complete annihilation of the rchants and laborers hired there.
If that happened, Jubel Maxman would back out, and the Fifth Son's contract, which he had painstakingly obtained at his level, would be finished.
“Cutting off the Fifth Son's lifeline is the priority. Next, we will go to retrieve the heart ourselves.”
***
[Does the player wish to possess a new unique skill?]
What the. This is possible too?
“…Head Maid. I wish to be alone for a while. You don't need to co in until there's new information.”
“As you wish, my lord.”
The Head Maid withdrew without a word.
With nothing to hold back, I read the system window even more avidly, as if indulging in it.
[The player can possess one unique skill per heart.]
[The player is currently in possession of a unique skill.]
The wording was a bit strange.
“Does that an I can have two, or even three hearts? Why give a choice that's not even possible.”
Was it telling to abandon the unprecedented ability to copy skills with a heart and try so unknown skill?
No. The system clearly had sothing else it wanted to say.
It was just cleverly hiding the answer.
The answer definitely existed sowhere.
I slid past the system window as if gliding and stopped at a book.
It was the Scripture of the Dark Wheel.
“…This might be the answer.”
The na of the sorcery within the Scripture of the Dark Wheel.
Six Paths.
It was the collective na for six different sorceries.
What I needed now was one among them.
“Path of the Beast. This is it.”
Shwarrrrk─
I opened the Scripture of the Dark Wheel.
Of course, right now, it wasn't fully deciphered, and I couldn't understand it.
But an answer always exists.
Discovering it or not is a matter of skill.
And my skill was sufficient.
“The Six Paths are sorceries of different categories and abilities, but in the end, they are skills.”
Whether the first Family Head used it or soone else did, in the end, it was sorcery.
It was what was called black magic outside the East, and what players called a skill.
The first Family Head needed the process represented in the Scripture of the Dark Wheel to use the Six Paths, and I needed my own process.
“I'll have to borrow knowledge from the western folks again.”
With the magic circle for mana recovery covering my body, I was starting to get confused about whether I was a sorcerer or a pure magician, but it couldn't be helped.
The dark side of pure magic was black magic, and black magic ca to the East and established itself as sorcery.
There were quite a few things that shared a similar trajectory if one looked for them.
Like how a rectangle and a square are different but share not a few commonalities.
Anyway.
“Pure magicians chant incantations to stabilize their magic. Ancient sorcerers ford hand seals.”
Nowadays, the trend was to not form hand seals and keep both hands relaxed.
Hand seals did increase the stability of sorcery.
The key point was in the sacrificial effect of sorcery.
By sealing the hand movents with a seal, one offered a sacrifice in itself, and in return, gained stability.
However, as knowledge accumulated and the average skill level rose over generations, it beca fine not to rely on hand seals.
“In the old days, a sorcery failure ant death, but not anymore. But if I fail, I could die.”
Using the Six Paths without being the Family Head ant that.
But fighting with both hands constantly sealed was also strange.
“There was sothing I always wanted to try whenever I used hand seals while playing. And now my mana can support it. It should be worth a try.”
I drew out my mana.
The Skeleton Soldier, a skill I was now all too familiar with, was cast.
However, now that my proficiency had increased, I could create only the desired parts from a single Skeleton Soldier.
What I needed now were both arms.
A pair of rattling skeletal arms positioned themselves behind my shoulders.
From now on, these were my second pair of arms.
I continuously sent that image to my mind.
Without stopping that suggestion, I ford the hand seal from the Scripture of the Dark Wheel.
Geumgang Hapjang-in.
The bony left hand and the skeletal arm brought their palms together.
[Hand seal ford.]
[Mana consud by sorcery decreases.]
[ntal power consumption decreases.]
“…It's working.”
I could feel the mana in my body calming down and becoming remarkably serene.
The system acknowledged my success.
Then, on to the next step imdiately.
Chanting the incantation.
That incantation was written here in the Scripture of the Dark Wheel.
In pure magic, an incantation was a word that expressed the most intense image of the corresponding magic.
In the Path of the Beast section of the Scripture of the Dark Wheel, there were also repeating words.
The description of the image the first Family Head felt at the ti he created the Path of the Beast.
That was the incantation.
Beast. Ceaseless Recovery. Prolonged Life. False Creation.
Jureureureuk─
I coughed up blood from my open mouth and closed eyes as I chanted.
As if branching out from the side of the skeletal arm that had ford the seal, another pair of skeletal arms quickly grew.
Seonjeong-in.
The two hands, palms facing up, were placed one over the other, left hand below, and rested in front of my abdon.
Kukung─
My heart, which had been pounding as if it would burst, cald down, albeit a little.
The intensity of the bleeding gradually lessened, leaving only long streaks of blood on my cheeks and chin.
Only after making a noble of blood finally cough up blood.
The Six Paths revealed a very small part of itself.
Six Paths Path of the Beast
Human Transmutation
I opened my closed eyes.
“……”
In my hand was what I had imagined in my head.
Sothing as red as an apple and as hot as if it had just been taken out.
It was definitely in my hand, but it belonged to no one else.
It was a heart created through the sorcery of the Six Paths.
“…It's tough even when I know the answer.”
What kind of hardship must the sorcerers who believed this book was the answer and pursued it to death be going through?
Putting aside my pity.
The heart in my hand beca the key that solved the problem posed by the system.
[A heart without a unique skill has been confird.]
[The skill 「Balum's Scythe」 will be bound to the heart.]
Right now, this heart was outside my body, and my own heart was in my chest, but it was clearly mine.
It wasn't like a Lich's phylactery where I would die if it was destroyed, but if it was destroyed, I wouldn't be able to use the skill.
“I'll need another storage.”
Wiping the blood from the corner of my mouth with the back of my hand, I opened a drawer.
The spatial artifacts that had belonged to the owner of the skill in this heart were strewn about.
The undead in the sub-space had all vanished when their master died, but the artifacts remained.
“A bracelet should be fine.”
I put it on my wrist and opened the sub-space.
As befitting sothing from a rich young master, the inside was spacious.
I threw the heart inside.
“Thankfully, it went as planned.”
My body should be fine to this extent… or is it?
A few of my internal organs were slightly torn, and the brain in my skull almost split, causing blood to pour out from all over.
The vampire lineage was a race that could reattach a severed arm.
Furthermore, a body that inherited the blood of its royalty would recover sohow as long as it didn't die.
The mana that was currently depleted would also be rapidly recharged by the magic circle.
I fiddled with the bracelet and thought.
“Even performing the most basic technique of the Path of the Beast was this much…. If I hadn't been able to form the incantation or hand seals at once, I would have been bedridden.”
I might have had a few organs burst, let alone the heart.
“At my current level, this isn't sothing I can do multiple tis. And turning enemies into undead private soldiers is more efficient.”
In the current situation, there was no reason to bind a skill through such an arduous process.
If I wanted to use a skill, there was a more convenient thod called Skeleton Armor.
At that mont, the system ca to mind again.
Not that it appeared before my eyes.
I rembered what the system had said at first.
“It asked if I wanted to possess a skill.”
Possession ans ownership.
Ownership ans I can do whatever I want with it.
Furthermore, sorcery was closely related to sacrifices, and sorcerers would often ddle with sorcery beyond their usual level through such sacrifices.
“Is the system telling not to just possess the heart, but to use it?”
A sudden riddle.
For now, the encroaching sleepiness was more urgent.
Jubel would start mass production, and when spring ca, the Plague Demons would swarm as they did every year.
When the vaccine was distributed throughout the East, it would an a windfall of money, and I could grasp a financial power that might be more helpful than the Six Paths.
But what's better than money is more money.
The vaccine was the first stage of making money.
There was a second and a third stage, and by then, I might be able to draw Jubel in.
I had also given Josephine sponsorship funds and sent a rchant ship so she could use the funds without limit.
She, too, would show a dazzling growth rate and grow to be incomparable to before.
My last thought before falling asleep was - everything is going smoothly.
***
A rchant's morning starts one or two hours earlier than most people's.
They have to open their stores and prepare their goods.
They had to be diligent to be faster than the custors, and if they had a good sense on top of that, money would follow.
Today, too, looking at the pale violet sky of dawn, the great rchant Jubel Maxman woke up with thoughts of money.
Thanks to preparations finished in a flash, he could start mass production today or tomorrow.
He had prepared the materials and the laborers.
The resources and manpower that had been sufficient until yesterday.
“…Marvin. Can you explain why the workshop slls of blood.”
“I have nothing to say other than… it was an attack.”
The factory he had acquired yesterday was covered in blood, and the laborers he had hired yesterday had beco dismbered corpses rolling on the streets.
The people around were trembling in fear, pretending not to have seen the tragedy of the previous night as they passed by.
“This is the first ti I've received such a one-dinsional interference since I was called a great rchant.”
But because it was one-dinsional, it was effective.
Especially for a one-dinsional task like mass production.
“To pick a fight with us, they must not be an easy target.”
“If they're not an easy target, then the district Branch Managers and the Stationmaster have probably already been bought off.”
“It's highly likely the witnesses have been silenced as well.”
“We have no choice but to solve this ourselves.”
“We have to.”
Jubel nodded calmly.
But a situation report to his partner was essential.
“Marvin. Send a ssenger Ghoul to the Fifth Son.”
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