The Oracle of the Villainous Baby - Chapter 71

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Chapter 71
The man tilting his drink bottle furrowed his brow at the words spoken by the Sinister-Looking Man.
“…Touching people from the Udiah Duchy is a bit much.”
“Tsk, you’re being tedious again. We’re just going to sell them off to another country anyway, so what’s the problem? We take the money and slip away to a different nation. With that kind of coin, we can live lavishly anywhere for the rest of our lives.”
“…I’ve never seen anyone who laid hands on them end well.”
“Pfft. Don’t be such a coward just because you were born a man. How long are you going to keep scraping by, earning only a few thousand or tens of thousands of Lost? When will you finally break free from this?”
…
“Besides, if this job succeeds, the ones who hired us promised they’d even create an escape route for us. We won’t face any consequences. If you don’t like it, team up with someone else.”
After clicking his tongue dismissively and issuing the threat, the Sinister-Looking Man watched as the other man—his nose flushed red from drink—finally nodded with a hardened expression after a long pause.
“Fifty-fifty?”
“We’ll need a few more people to help, so fifty-fifty minus their cuts. Even if we have to give some money to the others, we should each walk away with at least 200 million Lost.”
The Sinister-Looking Man snatched the bottle from the other man’s lips and poured it down his own throat, then licked his lower lip with a sinister grin.
“Contact the people who’ll help us and give the Guild a heads-up.”
He straightened up and made a casual gesture to the man.
“We’ve landed ourselves something big.”
The Sinister-Looking Man laughed with contemptible glee and strode out of the Alley.
The two men followed at a leisurely pace behind the children.
* * *
“Wow… what is this?”
A pitch-black Staircase stretched downward for what seemed like an eternity. Below, demonic energy had accumulated and settled over a long time, making the air extraordinarily murky.
It was suffocating. Halfway down, I finally had to stop walking.
All three of us possessed divine power, but our abilities weren’t specialized in broad-scale purification, so continuing to cleanse the thickening demonic energy was beyond our capacity.
“Father, we should bring Salame along, shouldn’t we?”
“Ahahaha! Just how much filth has accumulated here? There were elves in this place? Something doesn’t seem right… Ugh! Marquis, Marquis. Look at this. I’m being corroded by demonic energy.”
Jedrian, still floating aimlessly in mid-air, blocked my path and held out his hand with a pitiful expression.
The fingertips of Jedrian, the Master of the Mage Tower who was born bearing immense magical power from the moment of creation, had turned pitch-black.
Magical power possessed some ability to block and control demonic energy, but even the Mage Tower Master’s power seemed unable to fulfill that role properly.
Regardless, I pushed the man aside with an indifferent expression, as if annoyed.
“Salame isn’t here. You know perfectly well he went elsewhere, so stop whining. If you really can’t manage, summon the Divine Beast.”
“Ah, how am I supposed to summon that massive creature in this cramped Corridor?”
Klein sighed, his brow furrowed.
Looking back at the path we’d come from, the entrance to the Staircase we’d descended was already out of sight.
Despite having come down quite far, the Staircase still stretched endlessly below us.
There was no sign of what could be called an Exit.
“This is so boring! Don’t you think? How much longer do we have to keep descending? The ancient elves were supposedly so brilliant, but can you really be confident we’re not being toyed with?”
“The Crystal continues to point inward.”
Ludbreed withdrew the Crystal from his inner pocket, still emitting its eerie sound, and spoke.
The faint light still pointed downward, ever downward.
“That’s! Exactly! The! Point! Do you have proof that it actually belongs to the ancient elves?! This place below is disgusting! It’s irritating! It’s sticky and suffocating!”
“If you’re going to act like a child, leave. If you can’t endure it, turn back.”
Kiriel replied coolly and continued walking down, ignoring him.
He brushed past Jedrian’s subordinates and the Holy Paladins who had been walking ahead, moving to the front.
“Whoa, whoa, Marquis. Moving to the front? Why, why? Are you sure? It’s pretty dark ahead, and if you walk all the way up there…”
Jedrian bounced through the air to block Kiriel’s path, grinning mischievously.
“Oh right~! Since you’re cursed by the Demon Clan anyway, darkness like this and the Demon Clan’s aura must be nothing to you, right? Then it’s only fitting that our Marquis takes the lead. Yep, yep.”
Jedrian massaged Kiriel’s shoulders as he spoke.
His smiling face was innocent to a fault, yet every word that spilled from his lips scraped at one’s nerves with precision.
He had been the same way when they first met as children. Still selfish, still speaking whatever he pleased whenever he pleased.
Kiriel watched the shorter man’s insolence for a moment, then silently brushed past Jedrian, who had blocked his path once again.
He knew all too well that engaging with him only made things more exhausting.
“Aw, come on. Marquis~~ Are you really ignoring me and leaving?”
Kiriel walked down in silence.
How much further did we descend?
After a considerable stretch of time, we arrived before a Great Sealed Door.
It was a jet-black door. Covered entirely in magical formations and incantations, fortified with formidable barriers.
“Wow, this is messed up.”
Jedrian said with a broad grin.
He floated upward, examining the enormous door—as tall as three grown men standing on each other’s shoulders—from every angle, then descended with a soft drop, smiling even more brightly.
He then approached Ludbreed and thrust his hand directly into the man’s chest pocket, pulling out a Crystal.
With a light flick of his fingers, the Crystal in Jedrian’s hand flew through the air and embedded itself into the door somewhere.
Uuuuuung—
Simultaneously, a tremendous vibration resonated, and countless golden-yellow letters and symbols blazed to life across the black door’s surface.
“Marquis, this is impossible. Look! It’s completely filled with ancient Elvish and archaic languages. Unsealing it will take quite some time. Ahahaha, no matter how much I wanted to see ancient Elves, this is a bit~ too much!”
Jedrian pouted and spun in circles through the air as he spoke.
Kiriel’s brow furrowed at the dissatisfaction evident in Jedrian’s complaints about the impossibility of the task.
“Ancient Elvish especially? I don’t even know it, and most of the texts have disappeared. Even if we started researching right now, it would take at least decades at best, or centuries at worst.”
Jedrian crouched down, examining the inscriptions carved into the stone tablets surrounding the door on all sides, shaking his head.
“But it really is incredible. Ancient Elvish! How did they create such an enormous sealing formation? I wonder how far it extends.”
Jedrian placed his hand on the door and slowly channeled his mana through it.
He wanted to at least determine the range covered by the magical formation. To see if there were any loopholes to exploit.
“If you’re not going to investigate further, let’s go back.”
Kiriel, who had been gazing blankly at the sealed door, suddenly turned around.
Something felt subtly unsettling.
Besides, with all the direct family members away, I was growing concerned about the estate’s internal affairs.
Of course, Lebon and his subordinates were all remaining at the Marquis Estate to handle matters in their stead, but Bunny was always an existence that defied his expectations.
“Huh? Marquis, are you really just leaving like this?”
“You’re the one who said there’s no point in trying and it’ll take forever anyway.”
At his unusually curt tone, Jedrian blinked and grinned.
“Ahahaha!! What, what~~ Could it be! You’ve hidden some honey pot away? Or is it finally happening—am I finally getting a sister-in-law? This is too much, really too much. Sigh… Such a tragic life, always being ignored even by my friend.”
“Don’t talk nonsense.”
Kiriel let out a cold scoff. Jedrian withdrew his hand from the door and grinned mischievously after a long moment.
“You know what? You know what? I don’t think we can enter through the proper way, but I bet we could slip in through some clever means!! Ahahaha!! I wonder who broke through it, or maybe it’s worn down from the passage of ages. This is getting interesting.”
“What are you talking about?”
At Ludbreed’s question, Jedrian bounced upward and took flight into the air once more.
He drifted about aimlessly before suddenly stopping in mid-air some distance away from them, crossing his legs in a seated position and freezing in place.
“Here!”
Jedrian pointed his finger at something. A small fissure-like crack was visible on one section of the wall.
“Right here. Don’t you think something interesting might come out if we poke at it? Holy Knight Commander?”

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————