Chapter 93: Fallen Before the Battle Had Even Begun
Heni blinked, a little puzzled.
Hadn't sothing similar happened to her last ti too?
She was still turning the thought over in her mind when a white-haired, white-bearded old Mage stepped up to the front of the counter.
The elderly Mage had a kindly air about him and gave Heni a small nod.
Heni recognized him at once—he was a regular custor of the shop.
"Sa as last ti."
The Mage pointed at the blue potions on the counter, indicating he wanted Heni to get him 2 bottles.
A weighty pouch of Geo was set down on the counter. He took his potions and slowly departed.
Heni weighed the coin pouch in her hand, then turned and put it into the cashbox inside the shop.
The rule of a maximum of 2 bottles per Mage per day was actually quite sensible—at least for so Mages.
They didn't have to worry at all about a wealthy patron swooping in and buying everything out from under them each day.
After the frenzy of the earlier period, the daily limit of 50 bottles had settled into a fairly reasonable custor flow.
After all, 1,000 Geo a bottle was not a price any ordinary Mage could casually produce on the spot.
The foot traffic hadn't skyrocketed, but neither did the shop ever stand empty.
Strictly speaking, this kind of Magic Potion was a Consumable—no matter how potent its effects, it wasn't sothing one would find cause to use frequently.
Most Mages bought a few days' worth as a precaution, keeping them on hand so that in a mont of crisis they wouldn't be left at a loss with their Magic Power running dry.
In the course of ordinary training and handling tedious day-to-day matters, one naturally wouldn't waste precious potions—simply relying on one's own natural Magic Power recovery was more than enough.
Once the custor had gone, Heni finally ca back to herself.
The red impurity on the blue potion bottle had vanished—but now, a mass of red, wriggling sothing was creeping steadily toward her.
It looked just like a red lump of gelatin.
It didn't seem to have a solid form, and it looked incredibly strange.
The feeling it gave Heni was like...
Sothing not particularly bright.
"Hey, hey, hey? That's weird—can't you hear talking?"
The red gelatin was making a great effort to stretch its body, trying to get Heni's attention.
A little gelatin hand extended from its body and waved at Heni.
But strangely, Heni just kept staring at it—without giving it a single response.
The red gelatin retracted its little hand, went quiet for a mont, and sagged down sowhat limply.
"What the hell! Say sothing back!"
Whoa! The gelatin fellow was angry?!
Heni watched the gelatin trembling with indignation, gave a slight start, and hurriedly apologized:
"I'm sorry."
Upon hearing Heni's apology, the red gelatin seed quite satisfied. It squeezed 2 snail-antenna-like protrusions out from its round, pudgy body and swayed them lazily in front of Heni.
It appeared to be sizing her up—swaying its antennae as it asked:
"Not many humans manage to satisfy . Go on then—who are we going to beat up?"
Heni tilted her head, stared at the red gelatin, and thought it over for quite a while.
"Well... could you tell your na first?"
"Hah?"
***
The shop was quiet in the afternoon. The leisurely hours slipped by in a flash, and nightfall descended.
Heni returned to the Manor and walked up to the front gate.
She hadn't even reached out her hand before a Maidservant pulled the door open.
"Miss Heni."
Heni was startled.
She had always lived here as a guest, and being greeted so suddenly by soone left her feeling oddly guilty—she gave an involuntary shiver.
She looked up, and it was a Maidservant she recognized—one who had opened the Manor gate for her.
Heni imdiately breathed a sigh of relief.
But very quickly, a cold draft swept across her back, and she sensed soone standing right behind her.
That person's voice was utterly detached:
"Heni?"
The hairs on Heni's body stood on end. She turned slowly around to face the speaker.
It was Professor Viktor.
A jet-black Crow perched on his shoulder, sa as always.
For so reason, the Crow on that shoulder seed to have a distinctly more unnerving look in its eyes than usual.
Heni had just felt a flicker of delight:
"Professor! You're back..."
"What did you bring back with you?"
Viktor's words made Heni jump. She shrank her neck down and trembled, not daring to make a sound.
Viktor cast a sideways glance at the quivering Heni and dropped a single sentence:
"Co to my Study."
Heni had no choice but to follow ekly behind Viktor, looking thoroughly pitiful.
The 2 of them reached the Study shortly. Viktor swept a hand and switched on the desk lamp.
A small, warm yellow light fell across the writing desk. Viktor stood before the desk; Heni stood at the doorway, head bowed, looking for all the world like soone who had done sothing terribly wrong.
The shadows of both figures swayed and danced on the wall behind them.
"Nothing you'd like to tell ?"
"Professor, I... I was waiting until you ca back to tell you..."
Heni held out her hand. A mass of red gel-like liquid erged from Heni's arm, landing on the writing desk with a series of soft plops.
The desk lamp's light fell across its tiny body—but no shadow appeared on the wall behind it.
Like gelatin, it began continuously reshaping itself, shifting through form after form until it finally settled into the shape of a very small... crocodile.
The crocodile hadn't quite figured out what was going on yet. It looked up, glanced left and right, then fixed its gaze on Viktor—whose expression had gone terrifyingly cold.
Sensing Viktor's far-from-friendly stare, the little crocodile abruptly shot out a small claw and slapped the surface of the desk with a sharp crack.
"The hell you looking at?"
Clearly not a very clever Demon—it hadn't quite worked out what the current situation was.
Viktor narrowed his eyes.
In the ga, the propagation of Primordial Demons had always been a deeply mysterious affair.
In the Storyline of Chapter 1, the 7 great Primordial Demons had gathered within the Empire of Carencia—with Greed at their head seizing the imperial capital, while the remaining 6 spread out across different cities.
Once Greed was slain by the players, the remaining 6 Demons vanished from the Empire's borders in rapid succession, as though they had received a command.
But in the Storyline chapters that followed, players could encounter these Primordial Demons in all manner of locations.
And the little crocodile before him—quite obviously—was the Demon of Wrath.
Laiton.
Viktor knew the true nas of all 7 Demons. Which ant these Demons posed not the slightest threat to him.
After all, his identity now was entirely different from what it had been in the ga.
Players in the ga had been unable to interact with NPCs in any aningful way—in an NPC's eyes, players were more akin to "mutes," emotionless machines.
This ant that even if a player could check a Demon's na during combat, they could not use that true na to restrain the Demon.
Heni stared at the Demon that had turned into a crocodile, mildly startled.
It had only been a single day—how had the gelatin fellow beco a little crocodile?
"Primordial Demons draw on the emotions of those they attach to in order to grow stronger. Given sufficient corresponding emotion and Magic Power, they need only a single day to grow into a state no army could handle."
Weija offered an explanation to Viktor from beside him.
In truth, the reason Viktor had been able to notice the Demon on Heni in the first place was because Weija had sensed it ahead of ti.
As an Evil God, Weija was acutely attuned to things like Demons—existences that transcended ordinary living creatures.
The atmosphere in the Study grew sowhat peculiar in the silence. Viktor waved a hand at Heni, signaling her to step out first.
Heni pressed both hands over her eyes, gave a sob-sob nod, and left the Study with an air of deep grievance.
She had thought she had done sothing wrong.
Only once she had stepped out did Viktor turn his gaze back to the crocodile and say, unhurriedly:
"Speak. What kind of deal did you make with her?"
The crocodile clearly understood Viktor was asking it a question—but it showed no fear of the enigmatic man before it. It ground its teeth with so irritation and replied:
"A deal? What deal?!"
"She cos straight up and asks my na—how was I supposed to make a deal?"
"......"
At the very least, this ant there was nothing to worry about—Heni had not been ensnared by the Demon.
The crocodile before him was still very weak—like sothing newly born.
Viktor narrowed his eyes. Weija tittered softly on his shoulder. Only Viktor's voice rang out in the Demon's ears:
"How interesting."
"First it was Greed—and now, Wrath."
"The Demons clearly have far better hosts to choose from, yet without exception they keep gravitating toward this one little Succubus."
Each Demon's abilities manifested differently.
The Demon of Greed could stir the desires that lay dormant in a person's heart—through constant gifting, those desires would be amplified several tis over, until the person was ultimately left completely unable to repay the debt.
The Demon of Wrath, on the other hand, would magnify a host's anger a hundredfold, exhausting their strength—until they perished in the throes of unending fury.
And then there was sothing like the Demon of Lust...
Viktor decided he didn't want to keep thinking about that.
But the fact that Heni could attract different Demons ant the remaining ones very likely had a chance of showing themselves in the future as well.
Whether that was a good or bad thing was a question for another ti—but Viktor could start making plans in advance.
"Now then."
Viktor narrowed his eyes and looked at the little crocodile before him.
The red crocodile gave a shudder. A creeping sense of wrongness crawled up its body.
"Flying into a temper at will is hardly sothing to be proud of."
"I'll teach you to control that anger of yours, Laiton."
The mont Viktor's words landed, sothing in the little crocodile's heart snapped shut around all 4 of its limbs like a pair of shackles—its entire body rendered immobile.
As though against its own will, a thread of connection ford between it and Viktor.
"Contract established."
***
Early the next morning, Heni was in a low mood.
She kept feeling as though she had done sothing wrong and made Professor Viktor unhappy—and this feeling had kept her from going to find Viktor up until now.
Just as she was thinking of heading to the garden to clear her head, a Maidservant ca running over in a hurry and said to her:
"Miss Heni, the head of the household is asking you to co to the Study."
Heni was a little puzzled, but her feet carried her toward the Study all the sa.
Her heart was in a knot the entire way there, and she kept reassuring herself that everything was fine.
She pushed open the door to Viktor's Study. Heni saw Viktor sitting at the writing desk as usual, his hands crossed.
2 sheets of paper sat on the desk. Heni didn't pay them any particular attention.
"Pro... Professor, you called for ."
Viktor gave a nod, and his eyes gestured for her to co to the writing desk.
Heni obeyed and stepped forward, eyes fixed on the 2 sheets of paper before her, her hands not knowing where to go—her mood clearly uneasy.
Viktor spoke first:
"Before you are 2 contracts. The 1st is an invitation from the Royal Academy."
"Sign this contract, and you will beco an honorary Associate Professor of the Royal Magic Academy—with treatnt equivalent to that of a full Professor, including a house of your own."
Heni listened, and a slight daze ca over her.
"Asso... Associate Professor?"
It felt as dreamlike as a fantasy—as though a wish she had longed for over many years had suddenly beco real.
A warmth surged up without warning and spread through Heni's entire body.
Her breathing quickened involuntarily.
Viktor, however, showed no sign of hurrying. He continued:
"The contract on the right is one I had Leah draft yesterday."
"Sign this one, and you beco a retainer of the Clavena Family—you can choose 1 role within the family's work, or simply continue living here."
"Of course, the terms won't be unfavorable either."
Heni was stunned once more.
One was a nomination for Associate Professor. The other was a retainer of the Clavena Family.
If she chose the 2nd one... she would be a mber of the Clavena Family?
But then, the position of Associate Professor...
Ahhhh.
Life was full of choices—her teacher had once told her that.
Before Heni now lay 2 paths.
One was the dream she had longed for.
The reward she had worked and studied toward for so many years, straining to reach.
The other was the aspiration she had wanted to follow for the rest of her life.
In the end, Heni looked at Viktor.
She knew that everything she had now had not co easily.
And so, Heni had never once felt that her dream could compare to the aspiration she saw before her.
And so, she made her choice.
"Professor, I want to choose..."
"Wait."
Viktor's sudden word cut her off.
Beneath Heni's sowhat blank stare, Viktor tapped the desk.
A gentle breeze drifted through, and both contracts slid forward toward Heni at the sa ti.
Heni was puzzled and confused—but Viktor's voice seed to settle the unease in her, drifting to her ear.
"I never said this was a question with only 1 answer."
"......"
Heni stared at Viktor, dumbstruck.
For reasons she couldn't quite explain, a faint warmth gathered at the corners of her eyes, as though a thin veil of mist had co to rest over them.
But it wasn't from sadness—Heni knew that with perfect clarity.
When happiness floods through the whole body, it is as though a sliver of light has co to redeem the entire world.
"Professor."
In this mont, she was filled with an imasurable gratitude for her life.
All the cold disdain, mockery, and abuse she had once endured.
Felt, all at once, as though it had finally found resolution—like bitterness giving way to sweetness at last.
Heni's hand rested over her heart, her voice carrying a faint tremor.
"To have t you... it truly..."
"ans everything."
Heni, LV9→LV10.
1st-Tier Mage.
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