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Chapter 59
A Life Like a Beggar's
"First."
Ferda opened the conversation.
A damp echo befitting the underground resounded.
"I am truly grateful to you."
"......."
W ẽ b̆ n o̊ v̆e̊l̈ Еñ u m а̌
"If you hadn't raided that day, I would have had to monitor Chancellor Bernard for days on end, and that would have been a pointless waste."
"If you're so grateful...... could you untie this?"
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"Don't want to. I'm grateful to you, but I'm not stupid."
Ferda brought a chair and placed it before him.
"That shapeshifting art is quite fascinating. It's not mimicking with magic or distorting cognition, nor is it a clumsy imitation like those doppelgangers."
"If it's so amazing, can you make the Regent one too?"
W е̊.ḃň о̃ṽ ẽ l̀ Ё núm а̊
He threw a joke with a hehe laugh.
"Can I become one too?"
Ferda took the bait on that joke eagerly.
"If there's blood, it's possible."
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Ferda pulled a clean dagger from his bosom and slit his own arm.
Bright red blood flowed down his forearm.
Е.ǹ úm̈а́. і̊ d
"Try becoming me."
"......."
The man drank the dripping blood.
As a considerable amount of blood entered him, Chancellor Bernard's appearance began to change.
It became Ferda himself.
Gray hair, blue eyes.
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A frail body that wanted to become a knight but couldn't.
Bruised and teeth shattered, but unmistakably wearing Ferda's face.
"Looks like it can't heal wounds. What happened to that monster-like healing power?"
"My role is to become that human. There's no way a human would have that kind of healing power, right?"
"Thorough."
Deliberately stripping away the demons' enhancement factors and pouring effort into mimicking a human.
Еnú ma.і̂_d
Ferda stared at him intently.
The man meeting his eyes burst into laughter.
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"Ferda Valdrova. I thought you were a bastard out of your mind, but you exceed even my imagination......."
"What do you mean?"
Ferda tilted his head.
"What you're looking at is yourself. Your own broken, shattered self. And you're sitting there looking like you're enjoying the view."
Ẁе̃ b ńov̊ёl E̊nǔ mà
"Not enjoying it."
"Yet your eyes never wavered once?"
Just as the man said.
Ferda showed not the slightest sign of averting his gaze or fear.
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He was observing his own shattered form.
"You...... were cast out by the Rosnova family, weren't you?"
W̆еb nо̆vе ľ Е̄nú ḿ ā
"......."
"I can feel through this body how much you struggled. No muscles, but you crushed your bones and worked until blisters formed on your hands, didn't you?"
"......."
"But your father didn't acknowledge it."
"Right, that's how I became a fiancé."
"No. That was just an excuse they made up to kick you out. You know that too, don't you?"
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The man grinned slyly with Ferda's face.
"You were abandoned because you had no talent. A human discarded like worn-out shoes, just like me."
His eyes appealed for camaraderie.
Camaraderie felt toward the same emotion named revenge.
The man wearing Ferda's face craved revenge.
A man seeking revenge against a king who betrayed his trust.
Е̊ ń.u̇m̊ а̂ . ĭd̄
A man seeking revenge against a father who cast out his child.
That emotion called anger was something Ferda could deeply understand.
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"Right, I was abandoned."
Ferda revealed disgust at that sight.
"But you and I are different. Different as hell."
"What's different?"
Е̂n̄ ǔ m̈ а.і̀ d̊
"The soul."
Ferda stabbed his own chest.
"My soul has always been mine."
Ferda looked up at him with contemptuous eyes.
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The man flared up at Ferda's words and shouted.
"I never sold my soul to anyone! This is the path I chose!"
Е n̆u_m а
"No, you sold your soul. You let those trash appraise yourself and didn't hesitate to make yourself cheap. That's why your revenge became a cheap piece of shit worse than a dog."
He shouted as if dumbfounded.
"Does that matter?! As long as I get revenge! Even if I break, making that bastard suffer more than hell is what matters!"
"No, revenge can't happen without a soul."
Ferda put his hand into the pouch he brought.
"Even if it gets dirty and breaks, it's only achieved when you've held your soul entirely as your own."
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What he pulled out was a medicine bottle.
A medicine bottle with no color or label, its efficacy unknown.
Seven total.
"So stop pretending to understand me just because you wore my face."
He opened one of the caps and approached.
"Enjoy life."
Е̌nům а̂
* * *
Upper Castle, Alchemy Workshop.
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The alchemist was in the middle of cleaning up.
"May I enter?"
At the familiar old man's voice, the alchemist stopped and bowed his head.
"I greet Count Consillus. Of course, you may enter anytime."
Е̄ ñú.m̂ă .і́ d
"Thank you for permitting the workshop's use to the Valdrova Regent."
"Not at all. How could this humble one refuse the Count's request?"
Count Consillus pretended to look around, then opened his mouth.
"By the way, do you know what medicine the Valdrova Regent made?"
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"This is the ingredient list the Regent requested."
The quick-witted alchemist showed the lists he'd written.
È nù m̀ ӑ
Consillus scanned through the list.
He was a knight and soldier, but had quite a bit of knowledge picked up on the side.
Among them was alchemy knowledge, and he could grasp the basics quickly.
That's why Consillus made a dumbfounded expression.
"This is...... looks like healing potion ingredients, am I right?"
At Count Consillus's question, the alchemist nodded.
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"Yes. That's correct."
"He came all the way here just to make a healing potion? If it's just that, he could've asked you too, couldn't he?"
"That's what I thought too."
"That's what I thought too?"
The sigh he was about to let out got swallowed back.
The alchemist stammered.
Е ñu̇m а . і̇ d̆.
"No, that's......."
"Speak. I'll forgive even a bit of badmouthing."
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"Risking death to speak...... The Valdrova Regent's alchemy skills are a bit...... no, just the worst."
Distaste permeated his voice.
Count Consillus blinked at that reaction.
"You'd go that far?"
Е num̃а. і̃d
"Yes. He committed acts that completely defied manufacturing and usage methods, things even a novice wouldn't do. If my disciple did that, I'd have slapped him immediately."
"Hmm......."
"Gasp, I apologize. I was rude......."
Count Consillus stroked his beard, thought quietly, then spoke.
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"That's probably not inexperience."
"But it completely misses the mark in manufacturing and usage. Unless he's a novice......."
Е́_ň u m̃а. і d́
"Tell me. If it defies the manufacturing method, what effect does it have?"
"Well......."
The alchemist began reading what he'd recorded.
"First, among the acts the Regent performed, the stirring speed was too fast."
"What happens if it's fast?"
"The healing potion's effect decreases."
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"And the others?"
"He shook the cauldron during the cooling process. Shaking during the process where the efficacy spreads evenly decreases the healing effect. And......."
He started reciting the worst acts one after another.
In a short process, he'd committed over 20 errors.
"All those processes......."
The alchemist couldn't hide his astonishment.
W̄ е b̃ n̊о̃v̆e ľ Ê n̆u m̊ а
He hadn't noticed while watching, but picking them out one by one made it visible.
Alchemy is delicate.
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If something's wrong in the process, the healing effect could vanish completely or become water worse than juice.
But every single one of the Regent's inept acts led to a consistent effect.
"They all make the recovery speed and healing power decrease......."
Too intentionally directed to call it novice work.
Ёn̂ ü ṁ а̂ . і̃ d
* * *
"Kkeueueuk!"
The man's whole body tensed up tight.
Veins bulged on his neck, he gritted his broken teeth until they shattered further.
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"Feel it?"
Ferda asked, shaking the empty bottle.
Е́ n ůmа̃ . і ď
Everything that had been inside entered the man's body.
"Doesn't it feel like a burning field? Like it's slowly, incredibly hotly burning you."
"Kkeueueuk...... what the...... did you......?!"
He couldn't finish his words.
But Ferda answered for him.
"A shitty life."
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"Th, that's wha......!"
"A name I gave. The most painful life for bastards like you who resolved to die. And what you're feeling is the growing pains of nerves that died from severe torture coming back to life."
"Kkeueueuk......?!"
"Right. This isn't killing you. I'm saving you."
"Sh, shit......!"
No way this is healing.
Ё_nu m̌ а̂
Ferda shook the empty medicine bottle and spoke.
"Isn't it amazing? The better a healing potion's effect, the thicker and faster it heals. That's why high-grade healing potions are always popular. Well-refined so no aftereffects even if drunk mid-battle."
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The man was once a knight.
He'd been on battlefields, so he knew well what high-grade healing potion effects were like.
"Conversely, cheap healing potions are painful. Slow recovery speed, weak healing power. What I made is the cheapest of the cheap. So when I press like this......."
Ferda pressed down firmly on a bruised spot with his index finger.
Èn̈um̃ а̀
"Kyaaaak!"
A scream burst out.
The man who'd endured the executioner's torture let out a single scream for the first time.
"Revived nerves are damn sensitive. Just a finger does this much."
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He picked up the tool the executioner left behind.
Long and sharp-pointed.
Е ñum̆ ä
A needle.
"How about this?"
Clank clank!
"Sto, stop it!!"
He started thrashing, losing his mind.
"I'll tell! I'll tell everything!"
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"What?"
"There's a purpose to this torture, you son of a bitch! I'll tell! I'll tell you where our base is, everything! Just stop! Please! Pleaaase!"
5 minutes.
The time it took for him, who'd endured the executioner's torture, to surrender.
It ended remarkably fast.
Right, he'd learned how to resist while dying, but never learned how to resist while living.
Е́ n̈ ùm а̂ .і́.d
"No."
Instead of questioning him, Ferda gagged his mouth.
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"Your surrender is scheduled, but not now."
He set down the empty bottle and picked up the one beside it.
It sloshed.
To his sensitive ears, it sounded like waves hitting a storm.
Wе̇ b̄n o v̄ĕ ĺ Ёn̈ ũm a
"Sing a bit more. Feel that shitty life you threw away a bit more."
The spiral staircase leading underground.
Below, the screams of a villain fallen into hell didn't cease.
* * *
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3 hours later, Ferda faced Count Consillus again in the reception room.
"I learned a few interesting things."
Еn̊ ũ m̀а
"What are they?"
"They call themselves Dopplers."
"Doppler? Sounds like it's derived from doppelganger."
"Right. They call themselves Dopplers meaning beings superior to doppelgangers."
"Narcissism. How demon-like."
Count Consillus hahaha laughed.
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"Never imagined I'd get demon intel."
"More than demons, them being close to humans was the key. If they weren't close to humans, the torture methods I know wouldn't have worked."
"Truly amazing. Creating something we couldn't even imagine......."
Even the alchemist who'd served the castle for 30 years clicked his tongue at the idea.
Ferda had ruined it tens of times more difficultly and precisely than when making a normal healing potion.
It was a level worthy of being called art.
Е́nu̇ m а̃ . і̀ d
"Those Doppler bastards, Chancellor Bernard wasn't the first...... do you know when they started too?"
"They say they started 10 years ago. He said he just rose from servant-grade to knight-grade so he doesn't know exactly."
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Demons have a hierarchy.
Servant-grade are ordinary human followers, discarded pawns.
From knight-grade, they properly wield demonic power and authority.
"If they started 10 years ago, quite a lot must be hiding already."
Е̄ ṅumа̂ .id̃
"Escolleia, and even the Grand Council, are probably already infiltrated."
"That's...... impossible. How can the forces of chaos exist in the zone of the Great Order's Aspect, Blancaros-nim?"
"Chancellor Bernard's words at the Grand Council are already known. Whether human or Doppler, demon followers being inside is a given fact."
Count Consillus understood that too, but accepting it wholly was too much.
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"The Grand Council made for the continent's harmony is losing trust now."
The Grand Council created for the Serdes Continent's harmony.
Е́n ùmа̄
The news that the Evil Dragon Godwin's subordinate is planted in Blancaros's Absolute Zone will shake the continent.
Too big a ripple to use politically.
"What will you do?"
Consillus asked Ferda.
Maybe he'll make a wise judgment in this situation.
"Best is a preemptive strike."
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"Ambushing the enemy is indeed excellent tactics. But you'd need to know the enemy's base to ambush them, wouldn't you?"
"Of course."
Consillus belatedly grasped the intent of those words and brightened.
"Don't tell me you've found the enemy's base?"
"Not the base, but a key facility. He said he served as the security captain at the research facility making those bastards. So he knows the vulnerable parts better than others."
"Then we can just go strike them right away."
W̌eb́ ṅ о v еl_ Е̄ num̌ а
Knowing the location, the conditions were perfect.
"One problem."
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"What is it?"
"That research facility is in Silverwind's territory."
"Aah......."
Consillus knew how things stood with Silverwind right now.
W ě b n о̌ v́ ēl̇ Е n̈ u̇ m̈ а
"It's become troublesome. If we request Silverwind's cooperation, it'd resolve easily......."
"They won't do it. And requesting would take time too, wouldn't it?"
"Right. Then providing intel would be best but...... that's also not a pleasant matter."
"If it's just subjugation, we could collapse the mountain and erase it."
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The preemptive strike target isn't the demons' gathering place but the research facility.
Meaning, a place where information, not military force, is key.
Ẇе bṅ о̌v е ĺ Ě ǹ u m а
Among them, there'd surely be not just Doppler info but the demons' plans too.
Ferda decided.
"We'll have to strike secretly, collapse it, and withdraw."
A razor-thin special operation that could turn into war with one misstep.
Just as Ferda tried to frame the plan, Count Consillus suddenly cut in.
"A presumptuous request, but could you give this old man a chance?"
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"A chance?"
"Yes."
Count Consillus knelt and placed a hand on his chest.
"As the Empire's Shield and a knight loyal to the Great Power's Aspect, I want to be of great help to the Regent."
He was a white-haired old man.
But in his prime, he was a knight acknowledged by the Empire.
Е n ǔ m а̇
A knight who lost everything and voluntarily demoted himself.
Ferda gladly accepted that request.
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"We depart tomorrow. Prepare immediately."
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