Genius Warlock

“Nutritional supplements?” asked Oliver, who was walking with a briefcase.

Rasso nodded.

"Yes, all of this Life-force will be processed into nutritional supplements. It’s not always possible to make it as a nutritional supplement, but these days, it's efficient to make it."

Oliver, an outsider, didn't understand much about the business.

Rasso kindly explained in more detail.

“Do you know who the main customers are?”

“No.”

“That's the rich in Landa. You know where Landa is, right?"

Oliver fumbled.

He had heard of it once.

When he arrived here in Wineham with Joseph, he talked about Landa once.

Wineham's factories are all moving to Landa.

“I've heard of it.”

“Really? So you know that now Landa is developing rapidly, eating up here and the surrounding cities?"

Oliver nodded again.

"In a rapidly developing city, there are a lot of rich people. Of course, there are more poor people, but anyway, most of Landa's rich are older fat people, and they're not very healthy even though they're rich. So they pay a lot of money to buy nutritional supplements made with Life-force. After all, life is more important than money."

Oliver nodded as if he understood roughly.

"So this Life-force is one of our family's major products, like Pilgaret. As demand continues to grow, this market has a bright outlook."

Rasso said like a confident businessman.

Meanwhile, Peter carefully intervened and flattered.

"Haha, that's great. The bright market outlook means that demand will increase. The family is going to be more prosperous."

Peter was just trying to make him look good, but Rasso took it more seriously than he thought,

"Yes, but just an increase in demand is not good. We need to increase the supply to meet demand."

“Supply?”

“Yeah, a bottle of nutritional supplements costs a fortune, but that's also when the product is perfect. If the quality is lowered to increase the quantity, the deal will get cut off immediately. So we have to be careful.”

"Oh, that's a big deal."

"Actually, it's not that big of a deal."

"What?"

"The point is whether we can get the ingredients right, but it's pretty hopeful given the situation in this city."

It was ironic.

The only city streets they've seen on their way were closed shops, factories, and houses that exude poverty, but Rasso said it was hopeful.

Rasso continued,

"I know what you're thinking. The word hopeful doesn't belong to this poor city. But that shows how immature you are. Poverty is surprisingly good for black magicians. Tell me. What would happen if all the factories in this city moved to Landa?"

Peter answered seriously like a disciple in a class.

"Uh… there'll be many poor, won't they?"

"Yeah. So, will everyone leave for Landa looking for a job? That’s not the case. Many will leave, but nonetheless, there will be many left here. It's not that easy to leave for another place. Then we can use reliable brokers to pay them some money and extract Life-force. Soon the whole city will be our ingredient."

Hearing that Peter's eyes shone.

"That's a great insight. As expected, an intermediate disciple is different from the lower class disciples like us."

"Actually, I only heard it from Andrew. I got beaten by the atmosphere and wanted to brag. Now, I'm a little embarrassed.”

"No, Senior is still amazing."

"Anyway, don’t tell this to anyone, I specially told you guys, keep it to yourself. It's not a secret, but there's nothing good if a lot of people knew about it."

Peter smiled slightly at the word

"special."

For Peter, who served as a Room Leader for most of his life, the words of Rasso, an outstanding disciple among intermediate disciples, were like a great praise.

In reality, even if it meant nothing.

"We're almost there. That's a relief. We arrived before dinner. By the way, what's going on over there?" said Rasso, looking at the busy crowd in front of the factory far away.

It was chaotic, and everyone seemed scared and confused.

"Hey, what's going on?"

Rasso approached and grabbed a busy and moving informal disciple and asked.

When he looked at him, there was some blood on the informal disciple's work clothes.

"It's, it's…. I don't know what it is, but someone attacked the official disciples."

⏩ ⏩ ⏩ ⏩ ⏩ ⏩

The conference room in the basement of the sausage factory.

Joseph, the family boss, and five of his senior disciples gathered there.

Everyone had a serious expression, and it was Joseph who opened his mouth first.

"Report,"

Andrew, the best among the senior disciples replied.

"Yes, Master. An unidentified mysterious group attacked our family today during the ingredient collection. Three out of ten teams were attacked. In total, one junior disciple was injured and two junior disciples died, fortunately, all the intermediate disciples are fine."

Andrew's voice was relatively bright.

In fact, in a way, it was natural.

The junior disciples were of little use because they could barely use black magic, whereas the intermediate disciples were practical forces that could be used in actual combat.

Moreover, even if the junior disciples died, they could be roughly selected from the informal disciples and would be able to fill the vacancy immediately.

Joseph thought it over and opened his mouth.

"How did they get attacked?"

"It was done the same way. As they walked through the street, suddenly someone appeared, shot at them, and ran away."

"They couldn’t even catch a single one?"

"Yes, they were already gone when they followed them. I think they know the geography of this place very well, and maybe one of the families is picking a fight with us?"

The other family that Andrew told was two other Warlock families here in Wineham.

The Anthony Family specialized in manipulation, and the Dominic Family specialized in disease.

In the past, Joseph had a dispute with the two families, but after reconciling with the pharmacist's involvement, they were now quietly operating in their respective areas.

"Isn't it an attack because our family continues to grow?"

Joseph shook his head.

"No, this kind of half-assed raid isn't their way. It's annoying, but it didn't do much damage, did it? If it’s them they would have made a more proper attack."

“So who?”

“I don't know that yet. I heard that there are all kinds of bugs running around because of the noise of Landa…The concern is whether to catch this bug or not."

If there was enough time, Joseph would have ordered them to catch these fearless guys, considering the status of his family, but now, things weren't good.

The product delivery date was nearing.

Considering the business, he had to hand it over in time, so he had to use the available force to focus on production.

"First of all, let's focus on production. We can catch a bug later since it has nothing to do with our business."

A senior disciple raised his hand.

"I don't think the attack will end with this one time, can we really focus on production? Moreover, we have not yet received enough ingredients, and if something were to happen to an intermediate disciple, we will be short-handed.

"That's true…"

Andrew raised his hand when Joseph was immersed in his thoughts.

Andrew’s eyes flashed as if he had an idea.

"Then, why don't we leave the collection of the ingredients to the lower class and put the intermediate disciples into production like us?"

Everyone's eyes were on Andrew.

In the past few years, ingredient collection has been conducted under the leadership of intermediate disciples along with the junior disciples, but Andrew's proposal was to break that tradition.

"How come?"

"If we put intermediate disciples in the production of products, we'll be able to meet the deadline faster, and we can prepare for the unexpected."

When Joseph remained silent, Andrew continued to persuade him.

"I've heard from some intermediate disciples that junior disciples can extract some ingredients. At this time, I don't think it's a bad idea to increase their role. Above all…..there won’t be a great deal of damage even if some of the lower disciples die, isn’t it?"

His words were way over the line, but no one denied it, because junior disciples were only slightly better than the informal disciples and their position could be filled at any time.

Then, a senior disciple raised his hand.

"I honestly think it's okay. However, there’s one big issue."

"What is it?"

"If it's emotion, I can understand that the low-level disciples can extract it, but what about the Life-force?"

Andrew smiled brightly at that moment as if he was waiting for someone to ask this question.

"Don't worry about it. I heard an interesting story from Rasso."

⏩ ⏩ ⏩ ⏩ ⏩ ⏩

After dinner, everyone had a personal maintenance time.

Usually, most of them rested at this time while some chatted with the people they are close with, but the atmosphere right now was somewhat dark, perhaps because of what happened today.

It wasn't so strange, because someone was after the family.

Since they might be the ones who could get killed tomorrow if they were unlucky, it was a grave concern for everyone, except for one.

Oliver, who was speaking to Marie

"Ah, that’s why he got hurt a lot."

"Yeah, I've seen a person getting shot a few times in my hometown, but it's been a while since I've been here."

"Oh, really? But it's getting out of shape,"

Oliver said, looking at Marie's web.

Marie came back to her senses with a blunder.

“Sorry, I'm sorry.”

“It's all right. It's better than the first time.”

The strangely divergent conversation meant that the two had different interests.

Marie focused on today's attack, but Oliver focused consistently on black magic – Like a fire moth that only responds to light.

"You really don’t care about anything."

"What?"

"No…nothing. How about this?"

Marie said, showing the finished web.

It's noticeably better than before, and she didn't just imitate the form, it looked like a real spider web.

It could be said to be a great development.

"….. it's good,"

Marie smiled hearing Oliver's reply.

She felt like her efforts were appreciated.

Marie knew that it was not just her own effort that made it possible, it couldn’t have been possible without Oliver's help than her own effort.

Oliver continued to help her, corrected her, and improved the wrong parts so that she could achieve the current level.

Indeed, it was amazing.

The results she achieved over the past few days were way more than what she achieved with her efforts alone in the past six years.

It was really great.

"But this part is better,"

Oliver said, pointing at Marie's web.

The central axis of the spider web was divided into five branches, turning into a more complex and robust form.

"This is better. Do you understand?"

“Oh, yes… Thank you."

“No, thank you. If you don't mind, can I borrow it for a while?"

Oliver took Marie's emotions back in his hands.

The barely made model of Marie's web quickly regained stability when it got transferred to Oliver's hand.

In the past, Marie was jealous of Oliver’s talent, but as she kept looking at him, she didn't feel that way anymore.

Jealousy is possible only when there's a certain level of difference.

Marie said again as she looked at Oliver making the spider web.

“Thank you very much.”

“No, thank you. I get help with this and that."

"You already learned letters and numbers, right?”

Oliver has long learned everything Marie can teach, such as writing, reading, and number calculation at an amazing learning speed.

Nevertheless, he continued to teach Marie.

"Ah… not about that, but this one."

Oliver said, pointing at Marie’s emotion in his hands.

"I can practice little because Supervisor Marie lets me extract her emotions,"

Oliver replied, removing the spider web model and making a sphere.

"It's really nothing. It doesn't matter if it's a small amount."

"No, I can't even extract that small amount from me."

"…What?"

"I can make a shape at my fingertips, but I can't extract my emotions. Before coming here, the Master said that my emotions are weaker than others. I think I can’t extract it because of that."

“Oh…"

It was the first time Marie heard about it.

"So I had to extract other people's emotions, and Supervisor Marie helped me with that. It would have been depressing if it weren’t for Supervisor Marie."

"… speak comfortably without honorifics. Now, you are in a position higher than mine."

“No, I'm comfortable with honorifics,”

Oliver said sincerely.

From his experience in life, he felt that anyone who spoke formally could avoid getting beaten.

But regardless, Marie seemed to be somewhat disappointed.

"Well, then, feel free to tell me whenever you want to extract emotion."

"Yes…"

A short, emotionless answer.

Soon Oliver became silent and focused all his attention on the emotions in his hand.

Marie also followed Oliver and looked at the emotions, and there was nothing special, except for the slight flinch of the sphere.

Eventually, Marie said, unable to bear the silence.

"How was it today? You went to collect ingredients, right?"

Oliver replied calmly about how he followed Rasso, how Rasso extracted the maternal love of unmarried mothers, and about the pharmacist, where he extracted the Life-force of the debtors.

"…. Wait a minute. Did you extract Life-force? Oliver?"

Oliver nodded.

"How? You wouldn’t be able to learn to extract Life-force until you're an intermediate disciple?"

Oliver couldn’t reply since he felt like she was asking as if how is he breathing.

It seemed so obvious that he couldn't explain it, but Marie was amazed and worried at the same time.

"Hey, Oliver?"

"Yes.”

“Be careful.”

“What?”

“I know Oliver is a genius, but it's dangerous if you reveal all your talent too early.”

Oliver turned his head and made eye contact with Marie.

“Dangerous?”

“Yes…”

Marie stopped talking and looked around.

"… No one knows if the junior disciple, who was originally in Oliver's place, really died of food poisoning,"

Marie said with a frown when Oliver didn't understand.

"Maybe…"

Beep! Beep! Beep!

Suddenly, a broadcast signal rang out throughout the factory.

[Ugh! ugh! Oliver! Oliver! Come to the Master's office right away. I'll repeat again, Oliver………]

Oliver got up from his seat, looked at Marie, and said,

“I'll go.”

“…Oh, yeah, have a safe trip.”