Chapter 31

When Oliver went out, he saw James waiting for him.

The pharmacist’s employee A, who was in the same truck as him during the decisive battle with the wizards, and the person who accompanied him while he was going to Landa.

James had been waiting for Oliver at the factory. 

He stood out because of his distinctive chin, brown hair that was tucked back, and his stout shoulders.

As soon as he saw Oliver, he warmly reached out and approached him.

“Ah, you finally came out.”

Oliver reflexively grabbed James’ hand.

“Hello.”

“Yeah, nice to meet you. This is our first time meeting after we split up in Landa. I worked there for a while and as soon as I came here I heard some interesting stories. Is it true?”

“I don’t know what you have heard, but I think it’s true.”

James laughed. 

” haha….It’s amazing…I didn’t expect this to happen. It’s really great. Should I call you Sir Warlock?”

“No, not really… What brings you here?”

Oliver asked, remembering the Pilgaret he prepared.

“Huh? Ahhh…it’s not a big deal, I came to check if things are being produced properly. Boss is recently worried. Actually, there should have been a lot of orders these days. I know it’s rude to ask but is there any problem?

“If that’s the case then there is no need to worry. We are preparing everything properly.”

Oliver looked at Peter. 

Peter nodded as if nothing was wrong.

“I see…That’s good.”

James nodded mechanically and scratched his chin as if he had something to say.

“Is there…anything else?”

James felt deeply embarrassed, but built some courage and then opened his mouth with determination.

“Do you remember the conversation we had when I took you to Landa?”

“What conversation?”

“What…”

“No, it’s because I can’t really remember.”

“…You told me that if I were to teach you about wizards, you would teach me black magic…..!!”

At James’ words, Peter and some other disciples around him were startled, while Marie watched Oliver from afar.

The party involved, Oliver, was calm.

“…Yes, I did. I remember.”

Oliver slowly nodded his head in affirmation while James said with his arms crossed.

“I came here to keep that promise…?”

As Oliver was about to answer, Peter interrupted.

“Master? What’s he talking about…?”

“As you heard. Mr. Employee…”

“James, my name is James. Didn’t I tell you last time? Call me James. Don’t be so mean.”

“As James said, he knows a lot about wizards and if he were to teach me what he knows about wizards, I promised I would teach him black magic.”

All the disciples, including Peter, were astonished to hear Oliver’s decision, to teach black magic just like that.

” Master… that’s a nonsensical deal. How could you teach black magic just like that and above all, that person isn’t even a real wizard, we don’t know whether what he says is true or not…!”

Peter’s behavior was understandable enough. 

Although the barrier to black magic is lower than real magic, the opportunity required to learn black magic was actually huge.

Most of them lived a slave life under Joseph in the past and the reason why they stayed here until the end was because for them being chosen by the warlock itself was a miracle.

To them, black magic was something that they can barely learn by spending a large part of their lives as slaves and servants but James was trying to touch on that noble knowledge with the ignorant things he had learned on the street.

James opened his mouth in a hurry to tell them about the facts he knows.

“I know a lot of interesting stories about wizards because I have a lot of connections….If that’s not enough, there are other stories too…..”

“No, it doesn’t make sense either way.”

“What do you know?

Oliver interrupted Peter and said.

“Well? I know quite a lot about street life and Landa’s back alley…”

James smiled awkwardly knowing that it was nonsense.

But Oliver had an unexpected reaction.

“…Yes, That’s good enough.”

“Master?!”

Peter said in a hurry.

“That’s ridiculous. That man is cheating.”

“Well… but a promise is a promise”

Peter didn’t say anything after that since he knew Oliver’s thinking systems were completely different.

Leaving Peter alone, Oliver said to James.

“Then, when will you start learning?”

“I don’t mind learning right now.”

“Um . . . Alright. Follow me.”

Oliver took James down to the classroom in the basement.

As he went, everyone looked at this sight strangely but no one dared to speak.

After arriving in the classroom, Oliver took an emotion for the educational purpose from the shelf.

“First, let’s see what you can do, shall we?”

“I can’t do anything.”

“……..What?”

“As I said, I can’t do anything… No, no, not just that. I can’t condense the emotions on my fingertips. I can’t even see them.”

Both looked at each other in an unexpected situation, unable to say anything.

“……”

“Huh…can I be honest?”

“Yes, please.”

“I have no talent for black magic.”

“What?”

“There’s something I didn’t tell you. It’s not that I didn’t have any opportunities to learn black magic. At that time, I simply had no talent for it.”

“… Then why?”

“Well? Still, is there a way to learn something? I may be old, but my heart is still passionate… How? Is there no way? Aren’t you the warlock who won against Joseph?”

Oliver understood what James meant.

James had the faint hope that if it was Oliver, he might have a way to teach him.

Right now, Oliver was also confused.

He looked for education-related books in Joseph’s library to teach others but he couldn’t find any.

Because of that, all Oliver can do is point out other people’s problems and sometimes help them indirectly.

It was fine with the disciples because they were all able to open their third eye and were able to extract emotions, at least clumsily.

Oliver didn’t know how to teach someone who couldn’t even do the basics. 

Looking at Oliver, James asked with disappointment.

“Why…. is there no way?”

Oliver looked at him without saying a word and then suddenly stretched out his hand and covered both eyes of James.

“Ahhhh! What are you doing…!?”

“Wait a minute.”

Oliver struck James’s weakly resisting hand down and covered his eyes again.

Oliver focused his attention on James’ eyes making him enter a strange state.

As Oliver began to see James’ emotions more and more clearly, Oliver extracted some of the emotions stored in the test tube and then once again placed his hand on James’s eyes in the same way.

“What the hell…?”

“Wait.”

With those words, Oliver gave strength to the hands pressing Joseph’s eyes once again.

The normal vision weakened as his vision as a warlock grew stronger and as the boundary was about to be crossed, Oliver forcibly shoved the emotions he was holding in his hand into James’ eyes.

“Aaaaaaaaah!”

James felt a sharp pain in his eyeball and began to struggle.

Oliver didn’t let go of him.

“It hurts! Damn, Fu*kkkkkkkkk…… it hurts!!”

“Okay, okay. It’s fine. Wait a minute.”

James struggled as if the pain had reached its max, after screaming for a long time Oliver finally let go of him.

“Aaaahhhhhhhhhhh…!”

James fell to the floor while holding his eyes closed, he crawled on the floor moaning in pain but still he couldn’t open his eyes as if he had seen a flash bomb.

“Eyes…! My eyes…! What the hell did you do?!”

James exclaimed as he held his burning eyes.

However, as time passed, the pain gradually subsided and his vision began to get restored.

“What does this look like?”

Oliver raised his finger in front of James who managed to barely open his eyes and asked.

James replied blankly.

“…….circle?”

“… So, you’re saying that Landa was built by wizards?”

“That’s right…  it was built by capitalists and wizards to be exact. However, the people say that it was built by the wizards. Well, that’s not a lie either. Capitalists only gave money. Rebuilding Landa was the skill of the wizards. Even a three-year-old knows.”

“… I didn’t know.”

“What I meant is.. almost everyone knows it…Don’t you know about a metaphor?”

“…….”

“Haaa, You really don’t know… Anyway, the point is that the status of the wizards in Landa is great. Their status is even greater in other places that are better than Landa.”

“Okay. But how do you know about wizards, Mr. James?”

“Ah? Ahhh… First of all, there are many stories about wizards going around in pubs and the streets, then I’ve also been hired by wizards a few times. When they needed a solver.”

“Solver?”

“When they needed someone to set fire to a fellow wizard’s business or when they wanted to assault their employees.”

“…do the wizards fight a lot?”

“Uh. Smart people hate Smart people like them. It’s the fear of the same species. Can I ask you a question this time….?”

“What?.”

“How long do I have to do this?”

James asked while gathering his emotions into his fingertips in the form of a squiggly circle.

It can’t be called a circle, in fact, it was something that anyone would be embarrassed to call a circle.

“Until you make a perfect circle.”

“Haha… can’t you just teach the black magic right away?

“If you don’t know how to make a proper circle then even I can’t help it.”

At those words, James was greatly disappointed.

James was overjoyed about successfully taking the first step in black magic so he wanted to take the next step in a hurry but Oliver calmly advised him each time.

“…Also the true power of black magic is not in its powerful strength.”

“What?”

“If you look at the master’s books in the study, it says that the true power of black magic is the third eye that pierces through the inside of the opponent and the precise technique using those eyes to pierce the enemy. That’s what I think too. It will be of no use if you only think about the strength of the black magic.”

There was considerable dignity in the words of a boy who looked around only fifteen years old, and James stared at him without joking like he usually does.

“then….”

-Mr. James! Everything has been moved!

Workers came out of the sausage factory and loaded the boxes of pilgarets into trucks and shouted from afar.

“Okay! Wait a minute!”

James suddenly returned to being pharmacist’s employee A, while taking a cigarette and placing it in his mouth.

“That’s all for today. Keep practicing circles and if you succeed try making squares.”

“Okay…Square…By the way, can you increase production? We will prepare the required emotions.”

“……Aren’t we already manufacturing a lot?”

“Yes, we are indeed manufacturing a lot but we might need more.”

More? 

Oliver was a little worried.

At first, the production of pilgarets which had been increasing little by little suddenly doubled and then it tripled, now it has quadrupled.

That meant that Oliver’s workload would increase, and it was not a happy thing for Oliver who wanted to spend his time studying black magic.

Well, He almost finished reading all the books in the library anyway, so it wasn’t a big problem, but still…

“…can I just think about it for a moment? The workplace now has reached its limit.

“Okay. I’ll tell the boss that way. But if it’s possible, think about accepting the offer. Your items are very popular now, so you should row when the water comes in.”

It was not a good offer for Oliver, who was not particularly interested in money. 

And there wasn’t any interesting part in it.

“Is it popular?”

“Yeah, didn’t you know?

“Yes.”

“Why do you think the production has increased? Of course, it is because of the high demand. Supply is not coping with the demand. Your items are very popular now. No wonder the clients try to buy it from other vendors. It might be a little bit of exaggeration but it has the potential to even threaten the Black Smoke.”

“…what is black smoke?”

“…don’t you know what black smoke is? Are you kidding me?”

When Oliver shook his head silently, James was stunned.

“You are a warlock who sells pilgarets but you don’t even know what a Black Smoke is?”

“Because I never learned about it.”

“Black Smoke is the most popular pilgaret brand… A really high-quality pilgaret. And your stuff being compared to that tells how awesome it is.”

“….okay.”

“Come on!! I can’t even get a reaction even when I compliment. How many compliments do I need to give to get a satisfied expression on your face…? Anyway, I’ll tell the boss your opinion. See you next time.”

Oliver nodded and saw James off, but James suddenly stopped and asked with a very serious face.

“Can I ask you something?”

“Please speak.”

“It’s funny that I’m asking this now….why did you teach me so easily? Black magic. To be honest, you could have ignored me.”

Oliver thought deeply and opened his mouth.

“Why shouldn’t I teach you?”

James paused, then said with a low smile.

“Haha…you’re really a weird person.”

“Is that so?”

“Anyway. See you next time.”

Several cars were marching towards the backward city of Wineham.

It was the F-series, a vehicle for mass distribution and it was a model that was not strange looking from anywhere.

Thanks to this, it was very popular among the middle class, who were short on money, and those who performed secret missions.

They all stopped at once.

After a while, a woman got out of the car.

Porcelain-like skin, distinct facial features, and brilliantly blonde hair.

She was a beautiful woman who looked like a painting, and her looks expressed her beauty and intelligence.

No, not just beautiful, she looked holy.

“Is this the breeding ground for that stuff?”

“Yes, Knight.”

The woman who was called knight by her subordinate spoke as she touched the cross hanging from her neck.

“Then, let’s hurry. To destroy the evil that’s spreading the evil drug.”