“What do you think of that dark mage from earlier?”
He was nothing more than a guard dog tied up in an alley.
Yet this unusual situation felt deeply unfamiliar: a cautious man who revealed his face to only a handful of people had invited a dark mage he had met for the first time today into his own house.
“What do I care?”
“Is there anyone in the world who knows what that man is thinking?”
The others did not seem particularly concerned about this matter.
They knew.
No matter what happened inside, Fran Rekdorf would never simply leave the white-haired dark mage alone.
He was surrounded.
Rud had not expected the conversation to proceed like this, and he felt as though he had walked straight into a trap Fran had laid out.
He had expected it to some extent.
Why had Fran, who did not readily show his face even to the people he had personally hired with money, invited him to his house?
Anyone with their head screwed on straight would naturally refuse such an offer.
But Rud was a secret police officer.
To complete a mission, he had to enter, whether it was a tiger’s den or a lion’s den.
“Sorry for calling you to a place like this, Gerard. I am a cautious man, so I only feel at ease meeting people in a place where sound is completely sealed off.”
“I completely understand. The police crackdowns have become much stricter lately.”
Fran, whom he had seen earlier that day, was most likely a fake.
The real one was among them.
Rud briefly scanned them and continued speaking.
“By the way, these are truly well-made clones. Even I do not think I could make them identical to this extent.”
“There is a method for everything. Of course, I am not going to tell you.”
“I did not say it with the intention of asking you to tell me. If it sounded that way, I apologize.”
“No, there is no need. You are still at the age to learn, are you not? It is only natural to be curious about anything.”
Fran leaned back in his chair and spoke.
“I am the same. I passed the age of learning long ago, but my hunger is still not satisfied, so I am always searching for fodder. Why? Because knowledge becomes money, and money becomes fodder.”
Whether human or animal, no one could live always sated.
Money was the same.
No matter how countless bills piled deep inside a bank, one would feel hunger again and crave something new.
“Digest, eat, digest, and eat again. It is the same thing repeated. But strangely, I never tire of it. On the contrary, I always feel something new.”
“That is similar to Balant’s words. ‘The more lifespan we have, the more we can do. Therefore, we have no time to feel boredom.’ It is a passage I am very fond of as well.”
“That is right. You know it well.”
Rud crossed his legs, acting relaxed. Fran did not pay much mind to it even after seeing it.
“It seems we have something in common. We would make an excellent combination. So what do you say? Would you like to go into business with me?”
“What sort of business do you mean?”
Rud asked as if probing him.
“I heard from my subordinates earlier. They said you were looking for a partner to sell a new drug with you. I will help. If you use my routes and connections, you will be sitting on a pile of money in no time.”
“It sounds as though you mean to introduce me to a dealer. What kind of person are they, exactly?”
“I will tell you that after you accept the proposal.”
Was it because of his cautious nature, or was it the wisdom of not trusting others easily?
His skill at steering the conversation so that he could stand in an advantageous position was formidable.
‘He is a formidable opponent.’
Rud admired him inwardly without realizing it.
“I am truly grateful for the offer, but under those conditions, I will have to refuse.”
“Why?”
Fran’s eyes turned cold. Rud paid it no mind.
“There is no such thing as free in this world. You say you will introduce me to a middleman and connections, but you will only tell me the most important information after I accept the proposal. Do you not think those terms are far too unfavorable to me?”
The risk of selling a new drug unknown to people.
Naturally, that was a risk he should bear himself.
But if, like Fran now, he neatly omitted every disadvantage and placed only the favorable terms on the table, it was only natural for the other party to object.
Rud continued speaking.
“I am the one providing the technology, after all. Well, to you it may look like nothing more than a paltry new product, but if this is sold to the public, customers will gather on their own. I do not see why I should go through the trouble of using a middleman.”
It was a somewhat aggressive way to speak. However, this was the best option.
Fran gave a small snort, as though he found him ridiculous.
“It seems you do not know much about this world yet, but there are plenty of entrenched people here as well. If you catch the wrong eye, you may never be able to do business again.”
“That does not matter. I have my own countermeasures.”
He did not back down as easily as expected.
Fran could only wonder where that confident attitude was coming from.
Maktamin, the dark magic that could increase physical ability exponentially.
He did not know how it had been made into the form of a drug, but if it could be commercialized, it would undoubtedly bring enormous upheaval to this country.
The fact that its duration was only five minutes was somewhat of a flaw, but that could be improved through continued research.
Fran clearly remembered the story he had heard from his subordinates earlier.
They had said that a frail woman had become strong enough to break a concrete wall with her bare fist the moment she took the drug.
“Let us end the conversation here.”
Rud suddenly rose from his chair.
“As it happens, someone else has expressed great interest in my drug, so I agreed to meet them.”
“What time did you agree to meet?”
“Soon. If I had not been made to wander uselessly around the town, we might have been able to have a deeper conversation. What a shame.”
The figures of Fran surrounding him turned sharp gazes on him.
The atmosphere suggested they might lunge at him at any moment. Even so, Rud paid it no mind.
“……Fine. Then did you bring the drug?”
Fran was the first to take a step back. Rud turned his head halfway and looked at him.
“Why do you ask?”
“I have to check the condition of the goods before I can revise the terms of the deal or do anything else.”
He had a point.
Rud put his hand into his trouser pocket, took out a white pill, and handed it over.
Immediately after that—
FLASH!!
As though it had been waiting for that moment, a rectangular frame glowing white rose from beneath his feet and trapped Rud as if locking him in a cage.
If he had reacted even a little later, his arm would have been cleanly severed by now.
The pill in his hand fell to the floor. Fran picked it up by hand as if nothing had happened.
“What is the meaning of this?”
Rud murmured in a sharp voice and tapped the rectangular frame confining him with his hand.
It was not very thick. If he wanted to, he could destroy it easily.
Of course, they would not merely stand by and watch him do it.
White lines had been drawn beneath the feet of the four Frans he had briefly forgotten.
The lines were connected to the corners of the rectangle, and the moment he made a suspicious movement, he did not know what they might do.
“You barged into my territory and tried to do business as you pleased, so is it not only proper that I treat you accordingly?”
“Did you intend to do this from the start?”
“Of course. Did you think I would do business with someone like you?”
His mocking tone scraped at Rud’s nerves.
Fran ignored Rud, who was trapped in the rectangular frame, and examined the pill he had picked up.
But perhaps he sensed something strange, because the corners of his eyes slowly began to lower.
“This is……?”
“I suppose you have a good eye because you are a drug peddler.”
That was simple cold medicine.
Rud had prepared it deliberately because he had anticipated something like this.
Fran glared fiercely at Rud with murderous eyes.
“Where is the real one?”
“Who knows? If you let me out of here, I might tell you……!”
CRUNCH!!!
Before Rud could finish speaking, the rectangular cage rapidly shrank and vanished in an instant.
It was an instinctive movement.
The absurd thought that he had been toyed with from the very beginning struck the back of Fran’s mind like a blow, and before he knew it, he had disposed of him.
He might have acted too hastily.
But no one would bring out a fake so openly at a meeting about business, would they?
‘Exactly how much of this was a lie?’
Fran’s complexion rapidly turned pale.
He had an ominous feeling.
Perhaps the other clones felt the same, because they began murmuring in bewilderment.
“What is this? There is no sensation.”
“Did he disappear in that split second?”
“Impossible. Is that possible?”
No lifespan could be felt.
He might have been hit by dark magic, but unfortunately, Fran felt no certainty of that at all.
“First, let us find him quickly.”
“How dare he deceive us……!!”
“I will go tell the subordinates.”
One clone hurried upstairs.
Meanwhile, the remaining Frans were discussing what they should do next when—
“Hey, something terrible has happened!”
The clone who had gone outside rushed back down and shouted.
“The subordinates outside are all lying on the ground. It looks as if someone got them!!”
“Wh-what did you say?”
“That is not all. The housekeeper and the guide who were inside the house have all disappeared somewhere!”
It was something he could not believe unless he saw it with his own eyes. Fran immediately went up to the surface to check.
All of his subordinates were dead, cut down by a sharp blade.
There were no traces of magic being used. Did that mean someone had killed nearly twenty people with pure swordsmanship alone?
‘Where was the information exposed?’
This had to be the work of the police.
There was only one of them, and since they were nowhere to be seen, it seemed they had dealt with all his subordinates and moved somewhere else.
The situation was turning strange.
Panicked, Fran struggled to gather his senses before even figuring out the full story and spat out the words.
“First, we flee from here. That white-haired dark mage bastard—I do not know what he is, but it seems he had another trick prepared.”
He had no idea what kind of disaster this was.
Fran calmly returned underground and pushed aside the carpet laid on the floor, revealing a secret door.
They probably had not yet identified the main body.
Fran walked through the underground passage and arrived in a secluded alley, then immediately climbed to the rooftop of a building to avoid the police pursuit.
The clones had already left, each remembering their assigned route.
Now he only had to leave the town.
Fran was about to hurry away using the rooftops as footholds when the person he had been certain had disappeared somewhere was standing in his way.
“Gerard……?!”
He was not seeing things.
He did not know why Gerard was here.
And the atmosphere around him was not ordinary.
It looked like the eyes of a police officer finally face-to-face with a criminal he had pursued for a long time.
“Where are you going in such a hurry?”
Fran Rekdorf did not answer the question.
It was because the peculiar instinct he had developed over many years of evading the police filled him with an inexplicable sense of aversion.
“What are you?”
It was certain that he was no ordinary dark mage.
A disturbing sensation, as if he had been cornered.
Fran glared murderously, exuding something like a dark aura. Then Rud curled up the corners of his mouth.
“I am a dark mage, just like you.”