abcnovels
Chapter 121
Chapter 121
Chapter 121
[Relationship: Evaluation]
[Though logical, changing one’s treatment based on the perceived value of that person is ruthlessly cold.
But while being constantly evaluated is like walking on thin ice, if one can endure it, they can establish a relationship where they will receive treatment that matches their worth.
*A Fatestone is created whenever the subject’s evaluation of you has improved.
*The maturation rate of the Fatestone increases as long as your evaluation is maintained.
*Currently created Fatestone: 0]
Evaluation, huh... Se-Hoon made a dissatisfied expression.
It wasn’t like such a Relationship didn’t make sense since it had only been established after he showed some competence, but...
It’s hard to turn this type of Relationship around once it goes the wrong direction.
When a Relationship based on evaluations went wrong, it would end up becoming like quicksand, a slow murky sink to the bottom—a mire of feeling as though one couldn’t do anything right, just like someone with a poor evaluation.
However, the most concerning thing was that Se-Hoon didn’t know what standard Erika was using to evaluate him.
Does she favor me because I’m versatile or because she has a big plan in her mind.... It’s hard to tell.
Thinking about what strategies to take over as the head of the family which involved him that Erika could be laying out, Se-Hoon became lost in thought.
“Is there something wrong?” asked Erika puzzledly, having seen him go deep into thought.
“...No, something just came to mind.”
For now, there was no rush; he could just carefully observe Erika’s reactions and act accordingly.
Pushing his thoughts of the new Relationship aside, Se-Hoon turned his attention to the black box he had taken from Amir.
For additional safety measures... hmm it doesn’t seem like it needs any.
Having checked that the black box had its own safety measures, Se-Hoon unhesitantly unlocked it.
Flap-!
The talismans attached to the surface of the box naturally flew one by one, rotating around the box to create a semi-transparent membrane. It was a very robust spell formula, its purpose seeming to be a second layer of containment to prevent the flames from leaking when the box was opened.
“That’s the Himura clan’s magic,” said Erika indifferently, having immediately recognized the origin of the spells on the talismans floating in the air.
The mention of that name grabbed Se-Hoon’s interest.
“From the Three Great Clans?”
“Yes. The spells are slightly smeared, but those are definitely from them.”
Ruminating over Erika’s words, Se-Hoon examined the magic in front of him. If the spells had been a part of some kind of mechanism planted inside the box itself, the box might have been made long ago and just coincidentally fell into the hands of the Dream Demon. However, that wasn’t the case at all.
Based on the smearing of the spells on the talismans, this box is definitely custom-made.
Whether it was being sold off to the pleasure district or the underworld, it was a certainty that the box would go through some backdoor dealing route.
Caden and the Three Great Clans... this is quite the gain today.
Feeling like things might get busier very soon, Se-Hoon smirked and refocused his attention on the box.
“Okay, I’ll open it now.”
Creeeak-
As the lid of the box slowly creaked open, white flames flowed out like dry ice, undulating gently.
Fwoosh-
And whenever the flames made contact with the talismans rotating around the box, they dispersed like mist. The sight and unique form of the flames made Se-Hoon's eyes widen in shock.
These flames are...
Having never expected such a flame to leak out of the box, Se-Hoon quickly fully opened the lid, revealing the item inside the box.
Sitting within the box was a fist-sized orb, tinted milky white. It had a lustrous surface that resembled a pearl at first glance, but upon closer inspection, the glow was not from the reflection of light but from the faint flame enveloping the surface—the source of the white flames seeping out of the box.
With his face softly illuminated by the flames that resembled tears streaming from the orb, Se-Hoon grimly muttered the name of the flame.
“Tear Flame...”
But that was only a nickname—a reference to the flame’s tear-like properties—among blacksmiths. Its widely known name was different.
“Lee Se-Hoon...” called out Eun-Ha in shock. She had also recognized the item in the box.
With a slight nod, Se-Hoon unfolded the information message to confirm.
[Southern Flame Pupil]
[Tier: Legendary] [Quality: Below Average]
[The pupil of the Vermillion Bird that reigns over flames.
An enormous amount of latent fire mana lies within, harboring a power for resisting mental interference and controlling flames.
It also contains Karmic Fire, which torments the target by burning their sense of guilt.
*Significantly increases resistance to fire
*Significantly increases resistance to mental interference
*Increases control over flames
*Depletes durability permanently to deploy Karmic Fire]
And saw a drop from the S-rank demon beast, the Vermillion Bird—a Legendary-tier material.
However, despite getting his hands on a Legendary material, the first after his regression, all Se-Hoon felt was worry.
What in the world are these guys up to?
***
“Damn! Stupid! Worthless! Scoundrels...!”
Smack! Smack! Smack!
The sound of flesh being beaten up echoed relentlessly along the shore. With utter indifference, the waves swept over the sand stained with red blood, cleansing it only for fresh blood to be scattered anew.
“Ugh ...!”
“Guh...!”
The hours of continuous beating had grotesquely disfigured the men kneeling on the beach, yet each one, without exception, just bit down hard on their torn lips and maintained their posture.
Smack!
Struck in the head by the iron rod, a man fell unconscious onto the sandy beach.
Thud!
Then the rod swung once again, ensuring that he would never rise again.
“Get rid of him.”
“Yes.”
Owner, a burly man who owned the Black Arms, lifted the iron rod as his employees rushed over to remove the body. Looking down at his rod, he adjusted his grip and then gazed at the trembling staff members.
“That makes ten.”
Smack!
Watching Owner resume the relentless beating of his staff, a man with crimson hair and a curious look on his face asked, “What’s he doing now?”
“He said he’s restructuring. Apparently, he’ll keep beating them until twenty have died,” answered a woman with green hair with a snicker.
Turning his gaze to the woman sipping her cocktail, the man, the A-rank demon Immortal, clicked his tongue.
“Tsk. Such ignorance...”
“What else can he do? An entire cargo ship has been raided. Honestly, it’s impressive that he’s even leaving some of them alive.”
In the business world, especially in the highly sensitive black market world, credibility was paramount. Thus their failure to prevent the hijacking of the ferry ship and even letting the cargo get stolen would put the brakes on the Black Arms’s rapidly expanding influence.
“Where’s the boss? Haven’t seen him around since we landed here.”
“He’s in that meeting.”
“Ah, right. He did say he was representing us this time.”
Recalling the schedule thanks to Immortal’s words, the woman shivered as she rolled an ice cube from her cocktail around in her mouth.
“Eek... a meeting with the Ten Evils. If I were in his shoes, I would be too scared to even open my mouth.”
Seeing Dryas, the woman, making a fuss, Immortal looked at her disdainfully. Before she joined the Black Arms, she had killed five people herself, yet here she was making such comments.
Hmm, actually, perhaps it doesn’t apply here.
In fact, how many could confidently speak in front of those monsters? To the rest of the world, both he and Dryas were feared as A-rank demons, but in front of the Ten Evils, they were no different from some pebbles on the road. Their reality was they could be kicked aside and removed from sight if they became even a minor eyesore to the Ten Evils.
I need to grow even stronger.
While Immortal frowned over his stagnation over the years, Dryas casually crunched on her now empty cocktail glass.
Crunch, crunch.
Chewing on the glass like ice, she asked, “So what exactly are they planning this time? It seems they’re even going to use that depressing dude. And there’s even the heart of the Vermillion Bird that we received—”
“Shush.”
The Immortal cut her off, not allowing her to speak further.
“Don’t talk about it until the boss gives us a clear explanation.”
“Tsk... you’re boring,” she grumbled, still chewing on the glass.
Shaking his head, Immortal went back to watching Owner’s restructuring process with a disapproving expression.
***
Within a small villa behind the bar where the two were seated, purple smoke was filling its living room, engulfing the interior.
Ssssh
The smoke blurred the outlines of the living room, looking as if purple paint had been haphazardly smeared over a finished painting. It was so dense that anyone inside would likely be unable to see anything, but in actuality, that was far from the case.
Going into the smoke, the living room changed. It was now covered by a rich red wallpaper with a dazzling chandelier hanging above a luxurious rectangular table in the middle. And around that table were ten chairs spaced far enough apart that even outstretched hands couldn’t reach over and touch another.
“Hmm...”
The living room had become so large that it was easily six times larger than the typical living room villa.
Is this the legendary Dream Castle? thought a middle-aged man, the boss of Bellows—the organization Immortal and Dryas belonged to—from one of the chairs. He looked around.
The Dream Castle was erected on the boundary between dreams and reality, a place the Dream Demon had painstakingly built over many years. Those invited could enter from anywhere, making it the meeting place for the Ten Evils. And thanks to its unique properties, even Perfect Ones had a hard time locating it.
The fact that he had been invited to such a place, was truly a marvel to the boss.
Whoosh!
At that moment, someone appeared in one of the empty chairs.
“Sorry, I’m late. I was caught up listening to a story.”
The new arrival was a woman with deep purple hair who wore a dress that exposed her shoulders. She had yellow pupils that shone in her dark eyes like the moon and curled black horns—like those of a goat—adorning her temples. Observing the woman, whose skin was tinged with a lighter shade of purple than her hair, the boss’s eyes narrowed.
I can see her clearly, yet she somehow feels blurry.
If a person’s dreams were molded into a beautiful woman, it would probably look exactly like her.
He continued to observe the woman, the Dream Demon, and his eyes instinctively landed on her horns.
They say no part of a demon’s body exists without a purpose.... If that’s true, then what role might those horns play?
Given her name, could those horns contain an amount of dream mana incomparable even to Dream Ivory? He became more and more curious.
Whoosh-
Then, without warning, half of his vision suddenly disappeared.
“...!”
Startled, he touched his face and realized his right eye socket was empty and began panicking.
“It seems you’re having a hard time focusing, so I’ll hold onto this until the meeting is over,” the Dream Demon abruptly said, lightly grasping a white mass, the boss’s right eye, in her hand.
Flutter.
She then opened up her grasp and purple butterflies fluttered away.
A chill ran down the boss’s spine.
Right... stepping into this place is like being inside the belly of the Dream Demon.
Unless one was a monster like the other Ten Evils or a Perfect One, the Dream Demon was easily capable of instantly dissolving anyone in this castle.
The reminder jolted his memory, and he recalled his place—a mere representative—so the boss subdued his burgeoning curiosity and nodded.
“My apologies, Madam.”
“It’s alright. Well, let’s get started right away since we’ve already been delayed because of me.”
Clap-
Summoned by the Dream Demon’s light clap, the previously blurry figures within some chairs became distinctly visible.
Slowly but surely, a grotesque ball-jointed doll with all orifices except the sewn-shut mouth, a giant over two meters tall—dressed in a black hat, robe, and beak mask that completely covered their skin together—and a gentle-looking elderly man appeared.
With just a glimpse at the three new arrivals, the boss could instantly recognize who they were.
“Puppeteer, Tuner, and the representative of Dawn.”
The representative of Dawn was likely a mid-ranking officer like himself.
Seeing that no one else had arrived, the Dream Demon wore a disappointed face.
“I reached out to them, but the others expressed no interest in joining our meeting. How unfortunate.”
Tuner, wearing the plague doctor mask, just shrugged.
“Figures. Demons being notoriously uncooperative is nothing new anyway,” grumbled Tuner in a light tone, a mismatch with his large stature.
He then surveyed the attendees before leaning back in his chair and addressing everyone.
“Well, since we’ve gathered the minimum required, I, as the initiator of this meeting, shall proceed. Lately, Babel, or more precisely, the Emperor of Ascension, has been making some bold moves. Though Puppeteer did stir things up first, him taking out a third of Exuviation’s research facilities in retaliation seems a bit too much.”
The moment he mentioned Exuviation, a subgroup of Watchers, Charles and the boss, representatives of Dawn and Offering respectively, both turned their attention to him.
“It seems he didn’t like that someone was messing with the Eternal Nocturne’s body parts. And okay, that’s fine. I’m annoyed, but honestly, it’s daunting to confront him directly. It’d be a waste, too.”
The Ten Evils were immensely powerful, but they were still significantly outmatched by the Perfect Ones. Hence, Tuner had intended to let the incident slide, but then, he found out some interesting things.
“But as it turns out, there are quite a few people with grievances... or, should I say, issues with the Emperor of Ascension.”
Shrugging his shoulders, Tuner looked around at those seated. While the goals of those gathered today were different, their paths to achieving them aligned.
And since that was the case, Tuner saw a spark of possibility in a plan that would otherwise have been impossible, leading to the current meeting.
“So, I’m asking you guys to put in some effort... you know, I’m not good with words, so I’ll keep the plan simple.”
Gazing at those gathered—three of the Ten Evils and two subgroups of Watchers—Tuner spread his arms wide and made a crazed grin. With the joint force that not even Perfect Ones could easily handle, it would be a wild festival.
“Let’s burn down his damn garden. Let’s see it blaze gloriously.”