NOVEL NEXT Chapter 126
<126 - Oknodie is Not a Bad Kid>
The connections with the Dark Cult turned out to be unexpectedly useful.
“Bloodstone, huh? You seem interested in the secret and cruel art of borrowing the power of cursed Blood Magic without being detected by mana detection.”
“I just happened to acquire an item and I’m trying to sell it since I can’t use it myself. Could you possibly connect me with a decent buyer?”
The secret meeting place of the Dark Cult—a dusty, abandoned chapel of a failed sect, where no one comes looking.
A third-year senior from the Dark Cult club, with an atmosphere akin to a serial killer, decided that this would be the meeting place for my request.
Every step I took made the wooden floorboards creak, and torn scriptures stuck to my feet, creating such an eerie ambiance that it would not be surprising if they were secretly raising demons somewhere in the church.
‘It’s a bit scary, but this senior is trustworthy.’
Hadn’t the second-year seniors warned me that they were angry about the interference in their illegal cultivation of Red Fanged Mushrooms?
Thanks to that, it was clear that although he seemed terrifying, he had the heart of a kind pure-hearted macho.
“I’ll take a commission fee. Is that alright?”
“Sure!”
It would usually be a bit awkward to go directly to the third-year seniors to sell an item after fighting with them, but placing the Dark Cult club as an intermediary between the seller and buyer allowed me to hide my identity and ensured my safety.
“There’s a brutal one among the cult’s apprentice members who is knowledgeable about Blood Magic.”
“Oh. How does that senior handle Blood Magic?”
Just as necromancers handle corpses and elementalists handle elements, Blood Magicians handle blood.
Blood Magic without blood is like a fire mage unable to create a campfire or a necromancer who can’t resurrect a corpse—it’s nothing more than an unusable burden.
Unless you’re a vampire who can control someone else’s blood, it’s a tricky form of magic to handle!
“I heard that their original class was a Tamer.”
“Wow. Did they pioneer the ‘Crimson Tamer’ class that exploits the blood of pets?”
“No, they pioneered the ‘Mosquito Master’ class, which tames mosquitoes to gather blood.”
Wait, how can such a horrific occupation even exist in this world? That’s worse than vampires!
But the points are not at fault.
Until I sell the Bloodstone, they’re my precious customers!
“Enter the Confessional.”
“Okay.”
“A buyer will arrive within 30 minutes.”
The Confessional only had room for one person.
It resembled a coffin from which one couldn’t emerge if someone were to nail wooden boards from the outside.
In truth, trusting the senior who was likely to mistreat Red Fanged Mushrooms in such a cramped space was a bit scary, but my greed for points overcame my fear.
“Are you the one who wanted to sell the Bloodstone?”
“You found me well.”
“Show me the item first.”
On the other side of the Confessional, the dirty Mosquito Master entered.
The silhouette of the Mosquito Master seen through the translucent glass was quite unexpected.
I had anticipated a wild man with bushy hair or a pot-bellied monster, but surprisingly, the counterpart was a beautiful woman with clean white skin beneath a thick robe.
My favorability, initially set at minus 30, reset to zero upon seeing the Mosquito Master.
When it comes to beautiful women, one should assess them objectively, right? So, I dismissed any personal biases.
Wow, I must be too objective!
“What is the weight of the Bloodstone?”
“3500 grams.”
“It’s not particularly brilliant in color, is it?”
“For a product of that level, it should be sold to a professor.”
“…Hmph. It’s not completely worthless.”
The buyer suggested a price.
“1000 points.”
“That’s not enough.”
When I stood up to leave the Confessional, the buyer hurriedly stopped me.
“Plus 1000 points.”
“Try a bit harder?”
“Geez, if I had given you 2000 points for the Bloodstone, that would have been generous. What more do you want?”
For ordinary students, the points they could earn were about 2000 points after searching for the perfect life lessons to gain plenty of point bonuses.
At the Academy, that translates to 400 meal vouchers; eating breakfast, lunch, and dinner without fail would mean those points would disappear in 133 days, corresponding to a semester of about 4 months and 12 days. Still, many students barely earn that much and sometimes only eat two meals a day, with some even foraging for wild greens.
It’s no surprise that they appeal to new members about the possibility of food supply within the club.
“Haven’t you heard that a Blood Magician professor will be newly invited?”
“What? How do you know that?”
“I just thought I should tell you for your own good. If you don’t want to buy it, then don’t.”
“Wait a sec. I heard from the principal yesterday that they picked up a professor outside; could that be…?”
“What will you do?”
“I’ll give you 4000 points. I can’t offer more; there’s no point left to squeeze.”
The last price was double the suggested offer and four times the initial offer.
“Deal.”
It was a pretty good trade.
[You shrewdly increased the value of the Bloodstone significantly before selling it.]
[Negotiation Experience +5]
[Bad Kid Experience +1]
Now, I didn’t feel nervous about gaining Bad Kid Experience anymore.
Most functions, I realized it only after accumulating them without even knowing what they were for, suddenly chiming, “Oh, this is how it’s used!”
There’s no need to worry about figuring it out in advance!
But the steadily increasing points, like a constant dot deal, couldn’t be ignored.
[You maneuvered through the interference of mosquitoes and third-year seniors to secure the Bloodstone. It seems like there might be one huge highland-walking mosquito left, but that might just be a feeling!]
[Drug Manufacturing Experience +5]
[Bad Kid Experience +5]
[Intimidation Experience +3]
[Climbing Experience +3]
The Status Window urges me.
I want to read the explanation of the features.
But I can’t waste the points I earned selling the Bloodstone just to satisfy my curiosity.
‘I’ll find a way somehow!’
I tried to shake off the uneasy sentiment.
“By the way, why does the Mosquito Master need a Bloodstone? Don’t you collect blood diligently using mosquitoes?”
“Actually, there were some mosquitoes I managed to control, but some naughty seniors sprinkled strange reagents on them, took control away, burned them, and caused chaos.”
“…Wow, that must have been a big deal!”
“Right? It was about time to harvest the bloodstones, and I was really looking forward to it, but it ended up being so hollow. But where did you get this Bloodstone?”
“It’s a secret!”
I didn’t want to risk the Mosquito Master with a grudge releasing mosquitoes in the dormitory, so I needed to keep my mouth shut about the source of the Bloodstone.
*
Arcadia was curious.
Did Oknodie know about it too?
The fact that every year around this time, a lowerclassman at the Wiheomhae Foundation causes trouble.
Nothing would change even if I fretted alone.
I should ask directly.
I caught up with Oknodie, who was heading back to the dormitory with an energetic step.
“Dee. Can we chat for a moment?”
Oknodie flinched as if caught doing something wrong.
“Can’t it wait?”
“I really want to discuss something right now.”
“Okay.”
The scent of blood wafted from Oknodie, who had just returned.
While having tea, I thought I understood this child more than anyone else.
Now, it was starting to fade.
Surely they hadn’t killed anyone.
…Right?
“Dee, what were you doing on the way here?”
“I just returned from a little transaction!”
“A transaction, huh.”
In the pest-controlled closed room with the windows shut, only Arcadia and Oknodie occupied the lounge at this late hour.
On sunny days, the balcony was a place where they set up white tables with tea and desserts, enjoying conversations with the sunlight while looking back at the memories that felt so distant now.
It felt as if the moment, the memories, were far away, blocked only by a single layer of window.
“Killing an innocent person’s blood will surely invite karma. Even if someone doesn’t demand a price, you feel in your heart that you’ve gone astray.”
Arcadia reminisced about the times she fought pirates to protect her family’s merchant vessels.
Pirates weren’t always rotten from the start.
A poor fishing village.
A nation that diverted its navy to protect merchant ships, costing the citizens their peace.
Villagers couldn’t survive on fishing anymore, and they began taking to their boats to plunder merchant vessels, thus the first pirate was born.
The Sebiche Duchy, to which Arcadia belonged, was the source of the calamity when the navy moved to protect a single family’s merchant ships due to their lobbying.
The day she realized the original sin deeply rooted in her family for generations, Arcadia voluntarily ventured into the perilous sea.
Her journey was not just to protect merchant ships.
She also made frequent excursions to eliminate maritime monsters that threatened the lives of villagers, all under the guise of honing her family’s military skills.
It was to face the karma her family had turned their backs on.
“Those who confront their karma can feel at ease within themselves. But those who turn away become hollow inside. They cannot endure it as they are.”
Just as many of her family members from the [Sebiche Duchy] had.
“I don’t want to see you become hollow like that, Dee.”
“Arcadia…”
“I won’t pry into what you’ve been up to anymore. But please, promise me one thing: to be true to yourself.”
As soon as Oknodie hung her head low, she confessed.
“Arcadia, I actually have something to confess.”
“I’m all ears.”
What a relief.
It’s not too late.
Oknodie’s kindness still remained within her.
I had waited for hours to meet Oknodie,
gripped with anxiety,
and steeled my heart for the worst-case scenario.
Those moments weren’t in vain.
With a deep sigh of relief, Arcadia listened to Oknodie.
“I’m sorry. Because of me, there might be even more mosquitoes at the Academy.”
“…Dee, what does that mean…?”
“I made a deal with someone who raises mosquitoes. I learned how to raise more of them.”
Arcadia’s mind raced with information.
Wiheomhae Foundation.
Scholarship students flourishing like mosquitoes.
The trouble that might just happen soon.
Oknodie’s confession.
The one who raises mosquitoes.
The method to raise them.
‘Oknodie obtained the information the foundation required so that other scholarship students could survive at the Academy!’
I finally understood why Oknodie felt so strange lately.
The signs that Oknodie was plotting something bad.
The plan to gather bloodstones to sell for carriage boarding tickets and to collect antidotes.
It was all a request from the foundation.
The Wiheomhae Foundation is at fault!