Blacksmithing Is Child’s Play for a Dark Mage - Chapter 21

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 21
Tae purchased two slaves from the Galloran Merchant Association: a cursed girl who appeared to be around twelve years old, and a twenty-year-old female slave with rather attractive features.
The girl was cheaply priced at just one Goldmanta Gold Coin (a defective product, after all), but the female slave cost him five hundred Goldmanta Gold Coins.
In Korean currency, that’s roughly five hundred million won.
Was a single slave worth that much expensive or cheap?
By the market rates of this fantasy world, it was quite expensive.
An adult male slave sold into bondage typically went for around two hundred Goldmanta Gold Coins.
Criminal slaves fetched even less.
So why was this female slave so costly?
Simple.
Because they weren’t bought for labor alone—they were used for sexual purposes as well.
Thus, if a woman’s appearance was reasonably attractive, her price rose accordingly.
Usually, such slaves were sold to brothels.
However, this particular female slave had received specialized training in all aspects of household management, could read, and had even learned basic arithmetic and subtraction.
In this world—
A world with a staggeringly high illiteracy rate—
The ability to read and do arithmetic was considered a valuable skill indeed.
Either way, Tae returned home with his two new slaves.
The girl’s name was Lant. In truth, the Galloran Merchant Association’s proprietor didn’t know her original name, so he’d given her a name derived from his own.
The female slave’s name was Daisy.
A common name—according to Galloran, she came from a farming family.
Her parents had sold her, or so the story went.
Since the Galloran Merchant Association was a well-known slave trader, both slaves had been subjected to magical measures.
This was a form of Black Magic—Slave Subjugation Black Magic.
Should they disobey their master’s commands, they would suffer pain, and they were fundamentally incapable of harming their master.
“Your duties are cleaning and organizing. And cooking. And you’ll also need to look after that one over there. Understood?”
“Yes, master.”
Daisy was obedient and complied readily with Tae’s instructions.
Which made perfect sense.
Skeleton warriors wandered through Tae’s house.
If your master was a mad Black Mage who commanded the undead, you had no choice but to be compliant.
And so Tae began his life with his two new slaves.
* * *
“Tada! The Madness Extractor is complete!”
—What is that, exactly?
The imp butler Ash spent most of his time within Tae’s shadow.
Manifesting visibly would cause mental contamination to afflict the enslaved Daisy.
And it was too tedious to cast protective magic on her mind each time.
“What do you think? It’s something for Lant. Just what the name suggests—a device that extracts Madness.”
What Tae held in his hand resembled a helmet fashioned from a cow’s skull.
[Madness Extractor]
Quality: Superior
Grade: Magical
A Madness-crafted helmet imbued with Madness itself.
When the wearer enters a state of irrational Madness,
that Madness is extracted.
The extracted Madness can be stored in a dedicated container.
Function: Madness Extraction
Function: Reduces the wearer’s Madness.
[Madness Container]
Quality: Superior
Grade: Magical
A specialized container crafted by the Madness-worker for storing Madness.
It preserves stored Madness indefinitely.
Function: Madness Storage
—You truly are an unusual one, contractor.
At Ash’s words, Tae chuckled softly before heading toward the room where Lant was kept.
Lant still sat on the bed, her knees drawn tight against her body, her head buried between them.
Due to her mental condition, she neither ate nor drank in this state.
The problem was that she also defecated without changing position.
Of course, feeding Lant, washing her, and cleaning up after her were all Daisy’s responsibilities.
It was only natural, since that’s what she’d been purchased for.
There was one saving grace, though.
The little girl didn’t resist when others touched her body.
Approaching the unresisting Lant, Tae placed the Madness Extractor on her head.
He heard her murmuring something unintelligible.
“Madness Extractor, activate.”
And then.
The item crafted by the Madness Genius began to show its worth.
Zzzzzzzt!
Strange crackling filled the air as a dark-red energy was pulled from the Madness Extractor, sucked into the glass vial suspended on its right side.
-It truly works. Remarkable.
“You don’t have anything like this in Hell?”
-We have something similar. An object that collects human malice and converts it to power, but what you’ve made is somewhat different from ours.
“Ah, I’ve heard about that.”
Hell was a world of demons.
And the fact that Hell possessed something capable of transforming human negative thoughts into power was common knowledge among mages.
During their brief exchange.
The Madness Extractor had drained all of Lant’s Madness.
The moment it stopped functioning, something extraordinary occurred.
Flicker, flicker.
Light returned to Lant’s eyes.
-This is truly fascinating. The girl—her mind has returned.
“So it has.”
The girl blinked her eyes open, looked around her, and then slowly gazed down at her own bound form.
“I’m bound. Who are you, and where am I?”
And a voice of pleasant timbre spoke with utter naturalness, addressing him without deference.
The manner and speech were perfectly unforced.
“So she was born to nobility, was she…….”
-Wasn’t that something you deduced from the moment you saw how she bore that strange Curse, as well as from her appearance?
“Deduction is one thing. Confirmation is another matter entirely.”
-That much is true.
Yes, that was so.
Tae had already been suspecting that the girl came from a noble house.
For one thing, her features were uncommonly beautiful.
It was nearly impossible to achieve such looks without being born into noble bloodline graced with the Blessing of Mana.
In this world, heredity and bloodline were among the most formidable forces.
“Who are you conversing with?”
Lant’s question.
-To outsiders, you’ll appear to be a madman raving to himself.
At Ash’s words, Tae let out a soft chuckle. The dialogue had simply remained quiet, and it had not moved at all.
“First of all…… let me introduce myself. I am the master who bought you. A Black Mage. The words you just heard were my conversation with a contracted demon dwelling in my shadow. What’s your name, little one?”
“So I was sold to a Black Mage as a test subject…….”
Lant’s complexion darkened.
“Let me correct you on that point. I didn’t buy you as a test subject. I bought you for your resources.”
That was the truth.
He’d purchased her solely to extract Madness as a resource. He hadn’t bought her as a test subject, strictly speaking.
Besides, Tae wasn’t even a proper Black Mage to begin with.
He’d only received training sufficient to use Black Magic as a Debt Mercenary—he didn’t even know the first thing about conducting experiments.
Half-baked, one might say.
Black Mages raised as Debt Mercenaries were all this way. It was the deliberate intent of their rulers to make them that way—easy to use.
“Resources, is it. So you mean to drain my lifeblood. How…… pitiful this has become.”
As Tae watched the girl sigh, he found himself oddly…… entertained.
Tae himself had lived a previous life, so it was only natural that his mind was mature.
But this little girl, despite her apparent youth, carried herself with such composure that he couldn’t help but find it amusing.
‘A prodigy, perhaps? Well, well. I brought her in to charge up on Madness, but it seems I’ve acquired something better than I bargained for. And besides…… the Curse hasn’t disappeared. Has the Curse’s power merely weakened due to the Madness extraction?’
Although Tae was only half-trained in Black Magic, never having properly mastered it, he possessed knowledge accumulated from his previous life.
Even graduating only from high school in his past life would have earned him the reputation of a scholar in this world.
After all, the literacy rate in this world was abominably low.
Clap, clap.
Tae clapped his hands to draw the slave child’s attention.
“Look. I don’t know what miserable thoughts you’re harboring, but from now on I’m going to explain your situation, so listen carefully.”
And he explained it all to her.
What he’d bought her for, and what the situation was now.
How she’d been cursed and driven mad, and how he’d extracted that Madness to restore her sanity.
“Now that I see it, the Curse hasn’t actually vanished. So your newfound clarity is only temporary. In a few days, you’ll likely slip back into madness.”
When Tae finished his explanation,
the slave girl’s expression turned bitter.
“I see. So you cursed me in the opposite way to keep me from resisting the Curse… You really are too much, brother.”
“I understand you’re trying to sound clever, but you have no choice either way. Do you understand?”
“I understand.”
“So it seems you’ve accepted being a slave as well.”
“Indeed.”
“Then fix your manner of speech starting now.”
“I shall do so, sir.”
The girl promptly raised her tone of voice.
“Good. I’m Tae. Don’t call me Master—just call me Tae. Your original purpose was to be my Madness charger, but… now that you’ve come to your senses, I might be able to use you differently. So I’m asking: would you be interested in learning Black Magic?”
“Are you saying you’ll take me as your disciple, sir?”
“There’s no need to speak of discipleship. I didn’t mention it before, but I’m barely a 1st-Class Black Mage myself now. Do you know what a Debt Mercenary is?”
“Yes, sir. I know.”
“That’s how I became a Black Mage—as a Debt Mercenary.”
Tae told her about himself as well.
“So if you earn an amount equal to your purchase price under me, I’ll give you your freedom. Teaching you Black Magic is simply the means to help you earn that money.”
“I shall do my best, Tae.”
The girl’s eyes filled with resolve.
Tae thought himself fortunate.
A slave bound by the Curse of Subjugation was genuinely useful as a force.
The fact that she couldn’t betray him was extraordinarily valuable.
A Black Mage’s Path is Easier than a Blacksmith’s
Author |
Automaton G
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(주) Samyang C&C
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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