Trapped in a Game That Flopped

Chapter 108

Episode 108

I looked around where Elaine had been standing just a moment before, amazed.

To think he could turn invisible with just that tiny speck of a tear.

The power of a Lv.999 item truly was incredible.

I stretched out my arm and waved it wildly where Elaine had been.

But I didn't touch anything.

It was definitely different from an invisibility potion.

"Make a sound, Green Mask."

I ordered it as a test, but the room was just silent.

It seemed to be true that it concealed the wearer's very existence, including sound.

Just as I was continually waving my arm in the empty air out of fascination.

Thwack!

"Ack!"

Elaine, who had reappeared in a flash, screamed as he was hit by my swinging arm.

Startled, I quickly retracted my arm and asked, my voice full of disbelief.

"What. Why are you back so fast?"

Elaine rubbed the forearm I had hit and retorted sulkily.

"Tch. It's because I didn't have enough tears."

"What? Then how long does it last?"

"About... 20 seconds?"

"Are you kidding me?"

I let out a dry laugh at the absurd duration.

At that, the guy protested with an aggrieved expression.

"It's still huge progress, I tell you! Originally, I couldn't even get a speck of millet!"

"That's true, but..."

Unlike the original scenario, Elaine, who hadn't lost his clan, didn't really have a reason to cry.

Considering how dry-eyed he was back at the black market, not shedding a single tear even when I hit him, it was true this was huge progress.

I ended up agreeing with him and offered a belated, awkward apology.

"Is the part you got hit okay? Sorry. Does it hurt a lot?"

"Slave-abusing owner-noona-da..."

I was ignoring the guy's nonsense, which was just begging for another beating, and sinking back onto the sofa.

"I'm starving to death! Please, something to eat..."

Suddenly, someone staggered out of the dressing room with a dying voice.

It was Ballakk.

The guy, whom I was seeing again after quite a while, just like Elaine, was noticeably emaciated for some reason.

I looked back at Elaine with surprised eyes at the guy's appearance, who seemed to have gone from an obese body to a somewhat normal weight in that short time.

"What, why is he like that?"

"It's a waste of money, so I'm only feeding him one meal a day."

Elaine answered nonchalantly.

It seemed he was steadily carrying out his own revenge.

The slaves were probably often unable to eat for days, let alone one meal a day, so I didn't care if Elaine starved the guy to death.

However.

"For that... he's too thin, isn't he?"

He looked excessively withered and weak, to the point where it was hard to believe it was just from eating small meals for a few days.

As if his very life force was draining away.

"...It's, it's all because of you!"

As I was scanning Ballakk's body like I was looking at something bizarre, the guy suddenly glared at me and shouted.

"What about me?"

"You, you... because you recklessly made me use high-level black magic like soul reflection without a single sacrifice, my life force...!"

At my confident retort, Ballakk trembled with a beet-red face.

"It's because all my life force was depleted that I ended up like this!"

"Ah."

So that's what he was talking about.

He seemed to be talking about when I made him control the monsters during the 'Saintess's Procession Quest' last time.

I shrugged and replied indifferently.

"So what. You should have drunk the gargoyle blood that splattered back then."

"That kind of disgusting, low-class monster's mana...!"

"Don't talk back, just die."

"Aaaack!"

Ballakk, who had been fuming and approaching me to protest, screamed and fell to the floor because Elaine cut in and shouted the activation word.

The sight of the guy clutching his head, which had the restraint on it, and rolling on the floor looked slightly pitiful.

"Aaaack! I get it! Ugh, I won't talk back, so please stop! I was wrong!"

In the end, only after the guy rubbed his hands together and begged that he was wrong did Elaine stop inflicting pain through the restraint.

He'd said I was vicious or whatever, but he was the one being utterly cruel and cold.

Feeling a little creeped out seeing Elaine's face, still smiling brightly while watching Ballakk's pained struggles, I finally turned my head.

"I'll order you food, so come and sit here."

When I called him, Ballakk, who had been crumpled pathetically on the floor, snapped his head up.

"R-really?"

"Ah, noona! It's not time yet."

Elaine grumbled in dissatisfaction at my lenient treatment.

But the bastard Ballakk had already scrambled over like he was crawling and sat down across from me.

"For the food, preferably some kind of meat..."

"Before that, there's something I want to ask."

"Wh-what is it?"

The guy, who had been shamelessly rattling off his menu request, flinched in tension at my next words.

I rummaged in my pocket and placed something in front of him.

[Lv.??? Soul-Reflecting Cursed Doll]

[Lv.??? Soul-Connecting Strings]

They were the items whose levels had been reset after severing the gargoyle's soul.

"These things. Can only black mages use them? Or can anyone with mana use them?"

"If anyone could use them, they'd all be black mages!"

The guy, who had been staring wistfully at his belongings that I'd taken, raised his voice in displeasure at my question.

But when I glared, he quickly tucked his tail and muttered.

"...Only one who has taken another's life and made it their own can use it."

"Why?"

"When using a cursed item, a sacrifice is needed to act as a medium. The stronger the curse, the more life and mana it requires. Normally, one uses the caster's own body, but..."

Pausing for a moment, Ballakk glanced at Elaine and continued.

"...If you do that, the caster's life force will be depleted, so you take and use another's."

I nodded at his words, pretending to understand.

'I guess it just means you steal and use someone else's HP and MP?'

I then asked another question.

"Is mana that important? Important enough that you have to relentlessly devour non-human races like you did?"

"Ugh!"

When I precisely pointed out what he had spoken of vaguely, the guy flinched, looking guilty.

As Elaine's expression instantly turned icy, Ballakk hurriedly spoke.

"I-if you're not modifying the puppet, you just need enough to at least make it move!"

"Aha."

I looked at the utterly shabby middle-aged man in front of me and recalled the huge, powerful puppet Ballakk.

It seemed the reason Ballakk had devoured countless non-human races and monsters was to modify the puppet's appearance.

Thinking of the deeds the guy had committed, it was utterly disgusting, but it was still a relief to hear that as long as you weren't modifying its appearance, controlling the puppet didn't require that much mana.

I could probably manage that much with potions.

"...I-I answered everything, without hiding anything! Even if you ask more, I have nothing else to tell you!"

While I was lost in thought for a moment, Ballakk couldn't stand the wait and pressed me.

Guuurggle! At the same time, a sound like thunder echoed through the room.

Looking like he did feel shame, the guy, with a reddened face, looked back and forth between me and Elaine.

"Th-that food, when..."

"Right. A promise is a promise."

With my questions roughly all answered, I got up from my seat and activated the crystal ball connected to the front desk.

[Front desk. How may I help you, guest?]

"Please bring one order of swill."

[S-swill... you said, sir?]

The employee asked back in a flustered voice at my request.

"Swill?!"

The bastard Ballakk also stared wide-eyed back at me.

"Yes. Just whatever leftover scraps, boiled together, that can be eaten."

[E-excuse me... is this to feed a pet?]

"Well, something like that. Anyway, please."

The communication cut off with the employee's voice saying they understood.

Whatever he had been expecting, Ballakk shouted, his face horribly distorted.

"Y-you said you'd give me meat!"

"When did I? I said I'd order food. Should I cancel it if you don't want it?"

"Eek...!"

At my words, Ballakk gaped with a furious face, then finally huffed and went to sit at the table.

It seemed he was so hungry that he didn't even care if it was swill.

I had never intended to treat the guy to good, nutritious food in the first place.

'He should be grateful for even swill.'

The treatment of the slaves I saw when I went to the black market last time left a deeper impression and shock on me than I expected.

The slaves, packed tightly in narrow cages, were all tangled up, scooping up and eating some unidentifiable thick slop from a large washbasin with their hands.

No matter how much it was just one of the fabricated settings, the treatment, no different from livestock, made me frown automatically.

I had forgotten for a while, but through the short conversation just now, the guy's evil deeds came back to me vividly.

The moment I turned my cold gaze from the guy, I suddenly met wheat-colored eyes staring intently at me.

"What are you looking at?"

"Wow... noona, you really are vicious and cruel."

[Elaine Griselda feels a certain level of affection for you.]

[Elaine Griselda questions your ethical ideology.]

"This bastard."

I flared up at the contradictory system windows that appeared without fail, but I ended up laughing in futility.

"I really couldn't have thought of that. How can you screw someone over so creatively?"

Because Elaine's eyes were sparkling as if he found this incredibly amusing.

"After this is over, can't I learn some of that viciousness from you, noona? I want to use it too."

"Ugh, help me..."

At Elaine's bright mumble, Ballakk trembled, his face looking dead.

It seemed the guy didn't know that he was already acting plenty vicious, even without me teaching him.

Ding-dong.

Before long, Ballakk's portion of swill arrived.