WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Coughing Baby

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 214: 214

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Puppetry was one of the most niche forms of magic. Naturally, there could only be a small number of customers looking to buy it.

Yet the sight before me overturned that common sense.

Arcana Puppet Workshop. Was the trading company operating it directly?

I stared blankly at the crowded shop. I had never expected to see so many people coming and going from a puppet workshop.

How had they drawn in this many people?

I learned the reason soon enough when a paper puppet shaped like a small bird flew toward me.

I calmly caught it and looked toward the shop entrance. The paper puppet had flown from there. It was not only flying to me, either. They were flying toward everyone passing along the street.

The puppet that landed in my hand soon crumpled apart, leaving words infused with magical power floating in the air.

[Try renting a puppet made just for you. It will handle everything you find bothersome! Monthly rental fee: 1 point. Feel free to visit us.]

The floating words quickly scattered and vanished.

I could only frown at the sight. That advertising copy was far too familiar.

Of course people would flock there if they loudly advertised that they could rent a puppet for just 1 point, practically free. That was the same price I had set.

I narrowed my eyes at the shop.

Had they not only opened a puppet workshop, but also copied my sales method? Seeing them spread flyers like this to draw people in, they were clearly targeting me.

If so, I needed to see with my own eyes what kind of puppets they were selling if they planned to intrude on my territory.

I gathered magical power at my fingertips and lightly touched my face.

Someone might recognize me, so I needed to conceal my appearance a little. The shape of my face gradually began to change beneath my hand. It was a simple trick I could perform because my body was a puppet body.

After checking my altered face through a mirror bug, I gave a small nod. Unless they were close to me, it would not be easy for anyone to recognize me now.

I carefully followed the flow of people into the shop.

Cheerful music reached my ears. Blending with the bright lighting, it carried magical power that gently eased the listeners’ tension.

I slowly looked around.

The inside of the shop was much larger than it appeared from outside, likely because it had been enchanted with expansion magic. I could see many other spells at work as well.

Together, those spells created an atmosphere that was both comfortable and luxurious. It was a scale that did not suit the first floor at all.

I clicked my tongue softly. So this really was a shop directly operated by the trading company.

I walked farther inside.

There, I saw many glass jars.

Inside them stood puppets in a wide variety of human forms.

The visitors stood before the jars, appraising the figures within. Then they chose the ones they liked and purchased them.

Following their example, I stopped before one of the jars that caught my eye.

Inside a glass jar large enough to hold a person stood a woman-shaped puppet with its eyes closed.

I looked it over from top to bottom and nodded slightly.

It was quite well made.

The woman puppet gave off an atmosphere similar to that of a real person. I could clearly tell that considerable effort had gone into making it.

Wondering whether only this one was exceptional, I examined the puppets in the other jars.

But they were all similar. Every one of them had striking features that made them seem like real people.

Even if I rented out my own puppets for 1 point, it would be difficult to cover the production cost. I had suffered major losses at the beginning myself.

That was also why I had not expanded my sales territory too much.

Yet they were renting puppets of this quality for 1 point?

Even if someone from the trading company was involved, it was difficult to believe.

If they had opened such a grand operation, it meant they had some way of covering their losses. There was no reason to open such a large shop simply to stop me.

I blinked slightly.

Who had made these puppets? What secret did they hold?

With those questions in mind, I moved my magical power to inspect the puppet inside the glass jar.

But my magical power bounced off the jar and was blocked.

At the same time, the puppet inside opened its eyes and met my gaze.

“Customer, you may inspect my body after renting me.”

The puppet spoke with a blank expression.

Its stiff voice was incredibly awkward, as though it were trying to imitate a human.

Still, I could not help being startled.

If a puppeteer had left that warning for me, there should have been a connection of magical power leading back to its owner.

Yet I could find no trace of such a connection.

The puppet was moving independently, without a puppeteer.

That practically meant an ego capable of thought existed within it.

A faint light of intelligence shone from its eyes. It was enough to make it clear that this was no ordinary puppet.

When I stepped half a pace back and withdrew my magical power, the puppet closed its eyes again.

I carefully studied it.

It had an ego.

Of course, as I had just seen from its awkward behavior, its ego was not particularly advanced. It could probably only carry out predetermined commands.

Even so, it was astonishing.

Even I could not easily create something like that. Making a puppet with an ego required a great deal of material.

My puppets had been able to gain egos because I tore off pieces of my tree and planted them inside the puppets. The unique magic within those tree branches created Fake Souls for them.

That was why others could not make puppets the way I did.

Even I could not easily create puppet egos except through that method.

Yet here I was, seeing puppets like this.

I frowned slightly.

As I examined these puppets, their price became even harder to understand. Could they truly handle the demand if they rented such puppets for 1 point?

Lost in thought, I shook my head.

If I did not know, I needed to find out myself. To do that, I needed to rent one of these puppets.

I raised a hand slightly and let magical power flow out.

Perhaps sensing it, an employee who had been waiting nearby approached. He was a man with a cheerful demeanor. He bowed lightly and smiled at me.

“Did you call for me?”

He wore a name tag on his chest.

Arcana General Trading Company, Fifth Division Customer Response Department, trainee employee Jegang.

The Fifth Division. He belonged to the same department as Hwaryeong.

I had wondered if Hwaryeong might have lied to me, but seeing him here made me certain that the People’s Council had opened this shop. This man was surely connected to them as well.

“I would like to rent this puppet.”

I pointed to the puppet in the jar before me.

Jegang smiled kindly and approached it. He lightly tapped the glass jar containing the puppet.

The jar shrank and settled into his hand.

“Please come this way. We will fill out a simple contract.”

Jegang led me farther into the shop.

Several rooms covered by curtains were there. They had an atmosphere similar to reception rooms.

I sat on a sofa and took a sip of the tea Jegang had brewed. It had a rather familiar taste, perhaps because he had used my magic.

Jegang set the jar containing the puppet on the table and bowed again.

“Thank you very much for choosing our puppet. As you saw in the advertisement, if you pay only 1 point each month, this puppet will serve you perfectly.”

After finishing, Jegang took out a document.

It was simply a form for basic personal information. I made up some details, filled it out, and met Jegang’s eyes.

Such a simple contract. Did they not care if I stole the puppet?

Then I quickly realized that their situation was different from mine.

Who would dare steal property from the trading company?

After taking back the contract, Jegang pulled a mirror bug from his clothes. It popped out slightly, and he held it toward me with a small smile.

He was asking for the points.

I took out a ring and held it against the mirror bug. I could not show my own mirror bug to someone from the trading company, so I had brought this one in advance.

Once Jegang confirmed that 1 point had been transferred, he nodded slightly.

“Payment confirmed. This is the puppet instruction manual.”

Jegang handed me a thin booklet.

I examined it carefully and soon realized that its contents felt strangely familiar.

Cooking, waiting on someone, cleaning, simple tasks, and so on.

It was an attendant puppet that did whatever it was told. It was an exact copy of my puppets.

It could only operate for three hours a day, just like mine.

I stroked my chin.

I had sensed it before, but I had not expected them to make them this identical. Still, if this was all, I might be able to compete. My puppets had many additional functions.

“Can more functions be added?”

I accepted the puppet and asked.

Jegang narrowed his eyes slightly at my question. Did he suspect me?

I hurriedly added, “I know of a place that sells similar puppets, and I saw that they added functions there.”

“Ah, so you have seen the products over there. Please wait a moment.”

Jegang searched through his clothes for a moment before taking out a book. It was far thicker than the earlier puppet instruction manual.

He handed it to me.

I accepted it and slowly checked the contents. Then I could not help frowning.

Just like the advertising and instruction manual, this was also extremely familiar.

The booklet contained the sales structure I had planned in its entirety. Additional functions, added operating time, and more.

What was worse, the prices were far lower than the ones I had set.

Extending the operating time to twelve hours cost only 20 points.

It was an absurd price, less than half of what my puppets cost.

I had not expected them to steal this much.

Seeing my troubled expression, Jegang seemed to misunderstand and smiled quietly. He leaned toward me a little and spoke in a whisper.

“Since you came from over there, you may not be pleased with these prices. For customers like you, I have good news. We also operate a referral program.”

A referral program?

I narrowed my eyes and looked at him.

Perhaps he thought I was interested. Jegang continued slowly.

“If you bring in other customers, you will receive discounts. You will also accumulate points.”

It would be roughly like this.

With that, Jegang wrote a simple formula on paper.

There was a 10 percent discount for each referral, up to two people in total. A certain portion of the points used by those customers would also be refunded.

I looked at it and nodded quietly.

Now I knew for certain.

This shop had copied mine completely.

The direction of its puppets, its shop structure, and even its sales methods were all the same as my workshop’s.

Was it fortunate that their discounts were lower than mine, at least?

Still, considering their cheap prices, their puppets were much more accessible than the ones I sold.

I clicked my tongue softly.

I now understood why the People’s Council had been silent for the past several months.

They had clearly spent that time thoroughly studying my business model. They had even brought in a puppeteer capable of competing with my puppets.

“I will think about it some more for now. As you said, I would need to bring in other people.”

Jegang gave me a slight bow.

I rose from my seat and slowly headed out of the shop. Then I stopped in front of it and turned the jar containing the puppet over in my hands.

I understood their method immediately.

It was a kind of price war. They were clearly trying to pull away my customers with cheap prices.

It was a trap aimed solely at me.

A sense of crisis filled my chest.

Yet at the same time, a simple question rose within me.

I looked down at the puppet in my hand.

How was it possible to make a puppet like this?

I had spent a long time considering the possibility of others intruding into the territory I had created. If a place generated profit, others would surely try to interfere.

The functions of the puppets I sold were incredibly simple, which made it even easier for others to enter the market.

Simple massages, cleaning, attendant work, and so on.

Even the summoned creatures controlled by summoners could perform such supporting tasks.

That was why I needed a competitive advantage that others did not have.

The advantage I had chosen was the cost of my puppets.

I wanted to retain customers by charging 1 point, a price low enough that others would struggle to match it.

In the case of summoned creatures, the cost of bringing them into our dimension was enormous. Add the catalyst needed to open a dimension and the magical power involved, and it would easily exceed 1,000 points.

It would be far too expensive to use them for this sort of task.

So I had lowered my prices as much as possible.

That was possible because of my puppets’ unique nature. The only important material I used to make them was my own tree branches.

The reason a puppet’s base cost was around 500 points was to give it the capacity to add various functions. Other than that, the cost was almost nonexistent.

Moreover, these puppets’ egos were just as impressive as summoned creatures. They could judge situations and act on their own.

I had believed that no one could easily create beings like them, born from my innate magic.

Cheap attendant puppets.

That was the business structure I had envisioned. Those who wanted additional functions simply had to pay more points.

I believed my territory was perfectly differentiated from everyone else’s.

So even while constantly wondering how they might move against me, I had never considered that they would compete with me directly.

Yet they were offering lower prices than mine.

I could not believe it.

It was impossible for me to lower my prices that far. The prices I had set for puppet functions were already the lowest possible while minimizing profit.

If I lowered them further, I would lose money with every puppet I sold.

How could I endure that?

The reason they could set prices like that surely lay in this puppet.

So first, I needed to inspect it properly.

I quickly headed toward my own puppet workshop.

When I entered, a quiet scene without a single customer greeted me.

Isabella, who had been watching the shop, spotted me and bowed slightly. She held a small paper puppet in her hand.

[Master, you have returned. Have you seen this? I found it in front of the shop.]

Isabella shook the paper puppet.

It filled with magical power and wrote words in the air.

It was the advertising copy I had just seen.

I frowned slightly.

Were they advertising their shop this aggressively? It surely would not take long for word to spread across the entire first floor.

I nodded slowly.

“Yes. I even went there and rented a puppet.”

I placed the glass jar in my hand before Isabella.

She looked at the puppet inside and narrowed her eyes slightly. Then she tilted her head.

[This is the puppet you brought from there? ...It somehow feels a little familiar.]

Familiar?

Isabella reached toward the puppet. She touched it and quietly closed her eyes.

It did not take long before Isabella opened her eyes again.

She lightly clapped her hands and placed one on her chest.

[This puppet is similar to my body.]

I blinked as I looked down at the puppet.

It was similar to her body?

I clearly understood what that meant.

Isabella was a puppet made from a human.

There was only one thing that could give a similar sensation.

A human.

This, too, was a puppet made from a human corpse.

[At first, I was uncertain, but now I am sure. I can feel the presence of a soul inside it.]

Isabella nodded as she resonated her magical power with the puppet.

I frowned slightly.

I had thought it was simply a well-decorated puppet.

But I needed to trust Isabella’s words. She was a corpse puppet. No one would know the feeling of her own kind better than she did.

“I see. Thank you for your advice. I will go inside and inspect this puppet in more detail. I need to find out how they made it.”

[I am glad I was able to help.]

Isabella smiled slightly and bowed.

Leaving her behind, I headed deeper into the workshop.

There was a simple workbench in one corner of the storage room. I had placed it there to modify puppets.

When I took the puppet out of the glass jar, it returned to its original size.

I ordered it to lie on the workbench. It nodded and obeyed.

I stared at the woman puppet lying on the workbench with its eyes closed.

Was this really a corpse puppet?

I moved my magical power and began to inspect it slowly.

This time, I felt none of the resistance from before. Perhaps renting it had transferred half of its ownership to me.

After inspecting its interior, I could only let out a hollow laugh.

The puppet contained many security spells. Any puppeteer would make such things. They needed to stop others from learning how their puppets were constructed.

Perhaps because it was locked behind such complex security, it was difficult to determine precisely how the puppet had been made.

Still, I could understand a little of its structure.

Just as Isabella had said, it was undoubtedly a puppet made using a corpse.

It was not strange that I had failed to notice it.

The corpse had been thoroughly refined to look like a puppet.

Had I thought it looked like a human?

My assumption had been wrong from the start.

This was not a puppet made to resemble a person. It was a person processed to look like a puppet.

If Isabella had not told me that it was made from a human, I probably would not have noticed so quickly.

I lightly tapped the puppet.

Now I could understand its low price a little better.

It was not made from a valuable corpse like that of a mage. It was made using ordinary weeds that could be found anywhere.

Perhaps that was why the magical power circuit inside it was so crude.

For the trading company, acquiring corpses like this would have been extremely easy. They probably did not even need to spend points.

But there was still something I could not understand.

Where was the magical power that moved this puppet being replenished?

Puppets required a power source.

I soon learned how this puppet moved.

Within the traces hidden by its security magic, I caught a brief sense of a mana heart engraved in its chest.

I frowned as I felt that trace of magical power.

It had only passed by for a moment, but it possessed a very familiar structure.

Had Isabella said she could feel the presence of a soul inside it?

The reason she had felt that familiarity was obvious.

A soul like hers had been condensed inside it as well.

Once I realized that, I naturally understood where the magical power came from.

They were burning this soul to obtain magical power.

I remembered experiencing just how powerful magical power obtained by burning a soul could be when I had faced Isabella. Watching her fight dozens of puppets alone had been deeply impressive.

If they ground down a soul to create magical power like that, it would surely be enough to move the puppet.

The original soul of this body was probably inside it. Aside from a puppeteer’s magical power, that was the only possible power source.

Moreover, the functions this puppet performed did not require much magical power.

As magical power was consumed, the soul would surely recover.

It was practically an infinite power source.

I could understand the foundation upon which this puppet had been made.

But one most important question remained.

How had the faint ego this puppet displayed been formed?

I realized the answer the moment I confirmed the structure that burned the soul.

I tightly shut my eyes.

As I had seen earlier, the many security spells inside this puppet prevented me from stealing the information it contained. No matter how skilled a mage was, it would be difficult to break through them.

Yet I had recognized the structure behind this ego at once because I was the one who had created that structure.

I placed a hand on my chest.

Perhaps sensing my will, Myoil, which had been sleeping with roots planted in my foundation, slowly emerged.

Clad in a human body, Myoil looked at the puppet before us.

After carefully examining it, Myoil suddenly twisted its face into a grimace.

I could feel its discomfort clearly.

So that was it.

I gently patted Myoil, which fled back into my chest, and nodded.

It was only natural for Myoil to feel uncomfortable looking at that thing. In some ways, it was very similar to Myoil.

But unlike Myoil, it was horribly distorted.

To Myoil, it was like encountering a broken member of its own kind.

I narrowed my eyes and looked at the puppet.

The faint ego within it leaked out from fragments of its soul.

The way it was created was very similar to Myoil’s.

Just as I had demonstrated before Professor On, it used a structure that created new souls.

Of course, while the methods were similar, the results were vastly different.

The soul inside this puppet did not have the form of the life I pursued.

It was little more than cutting apart a soul and forcibly granting it an ego.

An ego created this way could not grow. It could only think in a hazy, limited manner.

And that was exactly the level of ego most appropriate for this puppet.

It was a shift in perspective.

If they were controlling a powerful puppet, such a vague ego would have no value.

But this puppet was only used to wait on people. There was no need to put effort into forming its soul.

It was a method even I had not considered.

I had tried to create souls as similar to humans as possible, yet they had twisted that idea and used it in such an efficient way.

I could only marvel at the ruthless efficiency of using people as material.

There was no way this required a large material cost.

All they had to do was bring in an ordinary weed from the roadside outside the university, and they could make one puppet.

They had thoroughly refined a person, even grinding down their soul to make a puppet.

Seeing that skilled workmanship was truly astonishing.

I slowly shook my head.

When I began this business, I had been confident that no one could intrude into my territory.

Yet I had never imagined they would use the method I created to pressure me.

Of course, these puppets still cost something to make.

When adding functions, they needed to invest enough material, just as I did.

But these puppets contained the malice of someone willing to endure those losses in order to slowly kill off my business.

And I could clearly tell where that malice had begun.

The structure that created life was knowledge shared only within our puppeteer association. Wandering mages could not use it.

So someone within our association had clearly made these puppets.

And only one group gathered people who used corpses as puppets.

Ugo’s association.

I slowly rose to my feet.

It seemed the People’s Council was not the only group targeting me.

For now, I needed to find Mauro.

When I visited Mauro’s workshop, I saw Mauro, who had been drinking tea, give a bitter smile when they saw me.

It seemed they had expected me to come.

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