Part 2 Chapter 110: Santa Part-Time Job (3)/ 834
TL: Hanguk
“So that’s why you needed a top-grade mana stone?”
“Yes. If we put a mana stone into that hole over there, we can get food. A top-grade mana stone gives us this much food! Heheh.”
The child, who had been freed from brainwashing by Iona’s magic, chattered in response to Sejun’s question. Sejun was the only person here who listened to the child with a warm expression.
Sejun also asked about the good deed, and according to the child's explanation, although he didn’t remember it well, he said he had done a good deed by forcing a situation where help was needed and then giving that help.
“But where are your parents?”
“...They passed away....”
The child’s once-bright face darkened at the mention of parents.
“Ah... the other children too?”
“Yes. The bad man who locked us up here killed our parents and the other adults. Sob....”
The child began to weep uncontrollably at the mention of their parents.
At that moment
Grrrgle.
A sound came from the child’s stomach. Even crying required strength.
“You were hungry.”
Sejun hurriedly took out various foods from the Void Storage and
Gulp.
“Hyung, can I eat this?”
The child asked while swallowing saliva at the sight of the food Sejun brought out.
“Puhuhut. If you stamp the seal, you can have as much as you want... meow....”
“Yeah. As much as you want. There’s plenty of food, so don’t worry and eat up.”
Sejun, with an excited expression, grabbed Theo by the scruff of his neck, who was about to take out the stamp, and hung him on his knee as he answered.
“Heheh. Thank you!”
The child began to devour the food Sejun had brought out.
Meanwhile
“Kyoot Kyoot Kyoot. Cancel.”
Having completely grasped the pattern of the brainwashing magic, Iona dispelled all the brainwashing spells cast on the children at once, and the children regained their senses.
And then
“Okay. Line up!”
“Puhuhut. If you don’t line up, I’ll stamp you, meow!”
Sejun and Theo distributed food to the children who had been freed from the brainwashing.
“Kyoot Kyoot Kyoot.”
Exhausted from using large-scale magic, Iona closed her eyes and took a cozy rest on Theo’s tail.
***
Kihihit. Kking! Kking!
[Hehe! Great Detective Taechoping, hang in there! Just a bit more to climb!]
“Yeah! Oppa!”
Blackie and Taecho were crawling diligently through a slanted hole. Before they knew it, both were covered in dirt and dust.
A moment later.
The two were able to exit the hole.
Kk! Kking! Kking?!
[Ugh! It stinks! Why is the kitchen so dirty?!]
“Exactly. Dad keeps things super clean! He’d be mad if he saw this.”
They had discovered a kitchen in complete disarray. Never mind the lack of organization, the stench was overwhelming, and bugs feeding on rotten food swarmed everywhere.
“What’s this?”
Kking!
[Taecho! Don’t touch that! It’s gross!]
Blackie stopped Taecho from touching a bug. As her older brother, Blackie was doing his best to keep his younger sister in line.
Kking!
[Let’s go outside first.]
“Okay!”
As soon as they exited the building with the kitchen.
Clatter. Clatter.
They saw a massive number of skeletons farming, and behind them, endless rice paddies and fields stretched out.
Clatter. Clatter.
Even upon seeing the two, the skeletons paid them no mind and just continued their work diligently.
However
Kihihit. Kking? Kking?
[Hehe. These guys are terrible at farming. Should great Blackie teach them?]
“Skeleton-nim, you can’t water like that. The roots will all rot.”
The skeletons’ farming skills were so poor that even Blackie and Taecho felt compelled to comment.
Kking! Kking!
[Taecho! Let’s move! Great Detective Kapang and Great Detective Taechoping are going to catch the culprit and earn good deeds!]
“Heehee. Okay!”
The two ran energetically across the endless fields.
A while later.
Kihihit. Kking! Kking!
[Hehe. Taecho! Look over there! A suspicious building!]
“Heehee. Taecho saw it too! Blackie oppa, let’s investigate quickly!”
Kking! Kking!
[Yeah! Just follow great Blackie!]
Spotting a grand and splendid castle, they hurried toward it.
As the two, running with all their might, entered the castle.
“Kuukuukuu. Adorable guests have arrived.”
A sinister-looking man in his fifties smirked as he observed Blackie and Taecho enter the castle through a crystal orb.
“Now then, who should I have greet our guests?”
The man leisurely looked around. Surrounding him were one hundred people standing like statues, their entire bodies marked with stitch scars here and there.
The people had expressionless faces, their skin pale as if lifeless, and their eyes empty and hollow.
While surveying them.
“As expected, shouldn’t the princess of the Bellis Royal Palace personally welcome our guests? Princess Asil?”
The man addressed a beautiful woman dressed like a bar hostess. Despite having a grotesque cross-shaped scar stitched from four differently toned patches of flesh around her nose, it did not mar Asil’s beauty.
“Yes, Master.”
At the man's words, Princess Asil replied in a voice devoid of any emotion and immediately moved.
Srrrng.
Srrrng.
Each time she moved, there was a dragging sound of metal. Instead of her originally beautiful and noble white hands, two massive axes were attached to the ends of her arms.
Once Princess Asil disappeared,
“Kukuku. If only you had accepted my proposal, the once-beautiful Princess Asil wouldn't have ended up like that, don’t you agree? And the citizens as well. Isn’t that so, King Balian of Bellis?”
Tuk. Tuk.
The man lightly tapped the cheek of a man in his forties who, like Princess Asil, had swords instead of hands, and said,
“Yes, Master.”
King Balian replied in a flat, emotionless voice.
***
Srrrng.
Thud.
Thud.
Thud.
Kking?
[What’s that sound?]
“Oppa, it’s coming from up there!”
Blackie and Taecho, who were about to climb the stairs, turned their eyes upward at the strange sound coming from above them.
Thud.
Thud.
Thud.
They spotted Princess Asil coming down the stairs. The sound was made each time the axes hit the steps as she descended.
Kking!
[Youngest! Run!]
“Okay!”
Without a moment's hesitation, the two turned around and began to flee. Their physical combat power was significantly lacking.
They could overpower her with effort if they pushed themselves.
But why go through the trouble?
Seriously?
For them, there was always Sejun, a perfect place of refuge.
However.
Thud!
Princess Asil jumped and landed in front of them in an instant, blocking their path.
Whoosh.
Raising both arms high, she swung the two axes down at Blackie and Taecho like lightning.
Great Blackie doesn't want to get stronger!
Taecho has to play with Dad!
Annoyed, the two began to release their sealed powers.
At that moment.
Kueng!
[No, you mustn’t!]
With Cuengi’s shout, who had been secretly following them.
......
Princess Asil’s movements stopped, as if caught in a spiderweb. Cuengi had used telekinesis to immobilize her.
In that time.
Grrr. Kking!
[Grrr. Hey! Because of you, great Blackie almost had to become strong!]
"Taecho almost got stronger just now because of you!"
Thud.
“Yap!”
Emboldened by Cuengi’s arrival, Blackie and Taecho rammed their heads into the immobilized Princess Asil.
Kueng!
[Cuengi must protect the younger siblings!]
Cuengi quickly followed after them.
As the three of them entered Princess Asil’s mental world.
“If you all go in like that, it’ll be dangerous here.”
Cuengi’s eyes turned red as the Beast of Apocalypse awakened.
“For now, it’s best to eliminate the threats.”
With a tired expression, the Beast of Apocalypse floated the group using telekinesis.
“Haa. What a hassle....”
He sighed as he moved.
But.
This counts as one good deed for me too.
Despite his words, the corners of the Beast of Apocalypse’s lips subtly lifted.
***
Inside Princess Asil’s mental world.
“Is anyone there?! Please save me?!”
Princess Asil, whose face was free of stitch marks, shouted desperately from inside a prison cell.
And then.
“Aww. So noisy. No matter how much you scream, no prince is coming to save you. Lord Direon already killed them all. And even if they did come, I, Dia, would just chop off all their heads. Kekeke.”
A monstrous doll named Dia, covered in stitch marks across its entire body, mocked the desperate Princess Asil.
The evil puppet master Direon had created the malicious spirit to freely manipulate the corpse of Princess Asil, who had died.
“Don’t you get it? You’re nothing more than a toy for Lord Direon. So hurry up and accept reality and swear obedience to Lord Direon. It’ll be easier that way, you know?”
Dia now spoke in a soft and pitying voice, unlike earlier, trying to coax Asil.
However.
“No! I am the princess of the Bellis Kingdom! I will never submit to Direon, who slaughtered my father, the king of Bellis, and the citizens!”
When Asil rejected her words.
“Submit to Lord Direon! I said, SUBMIT!”
Crack!
“Kyaaa!”
Crack! Crack!
Dia’s face twisted into a demonic snarl, and she screamed in a voice full of rage, mercilessly swinging her whip at Princess Asil.
At that moment.
Thud. Thud.
The ground rumbled as Blackie appeared with Taecho riding on his head. Behind him followed Blackie’s subordinates, and then Cuengi arrived as well.
“Grrrr.”
“Blackie oppa, there are two of them. Who should we punish?”
Taecho tilted her head as she looked at Asil and Dia.
“Hehe. Great Blackie can tell at a glance who the bad guy is! The one locked in the prison is the bad one! Because she looks just like the one who tried to attack us outside!”
Blackie spoke confidently.
“You’re right! Blackie oppa, you’re amazing!”
“Heehee. Of course! Great Blackie is amazing!”
As Blackie and Taecho judged that Princess Asil should be the one to receive “mental education”.
“Kekeke. How dare you come in without the permission of me, Dia?! DIE!”
Smack!
Without fear, Dia launched a surprise attack at Blackie.
“Grrrr. How dare you hit great Blackie?”
“You hit my oppa?! Blackie oppa, let’s punish her!”
“Hehe. Got it!”
Boom!
While casually chatting with Taecho, Blackie swiftly dodged the whip with agile movements, then swung his front paw and smashed Dia.
Ssssss.
Dia turned into black ash and vanished.
Meanwhile.
Kwaduduk.
“It’s safe now! Hurry and come out!”
Cuengi spread apart the prison bars and let Princess Asil out of the cell.
“Thank you for saving me. Now I can finally return to where I belong.”
Princess Asil bowed her head in gratitude to Cuengi, Blackie, and Taecho with a bright smile. But for some reason, it looked like a sorrowful smile.
“Return? Where is that? Cuengi will take you there!”
“Heehee. Where are you going?! The great Blackdolph will take you!”
“Taecho will go with you too!”
Seeing Princess Asil, Cuengi, Blackie, and Taecho were moved without realizing it and decided to go with her.
However.
“Hohoho. Thank you so much for saying that, but… well, I don’t actually know where I’m supposed to go. It’s my first time being dead, so...”
Princess Asil didn’t even know where she was supposed to go.
“Ah! Cuengi doesn’t know, but Dad definitely will!”
“Yeah! Let’s go to the butler first!”
“Daddy knows everything! He’s a genius!”
And so, the group decided to go find Sejun.
At that moment.
After distributing all the food to the children.
“Vice Chairman Theo, let’s go. I’m seriously mad now. That guy, Direon or whatever, I’m not letting him off easy.”
“Puhuhut. Great! Let’s enforce justice, meow! In the name of the great hybrid Chairman Park, meow!”
As they went to catch Direon.
“Huh?”
They found corpses and skeletons neatly laid out on a vast land. Direon, the main culprit, was nowhere to be seen.
He had recklessly picked a fight with the Beast of Apocalypse, and the beast, unable to control its power, had completely erased both his body and soul.
And then.
Purr.
Snore.
Snuffle.
A short distance away, Cuengi, Blackie, and Taecho were peacefully sleeping on top of Princess Asil’s corpse.
***** TL: Merry Christmas to each and every one of you! 🎄🎅