WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Coughing Baby

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Chapter 224: 224

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Several weeks had passed since the small banquet I had hosted. I walked over and stopped before the puppets I had set out.

The puppets, all shaped like handsome men and beautiful women, stood with their eyes closed as they waited for my orders. I turned to look at the cold-faced man.

“These are the puppets you requested.”

At my introduction, the man released magical power and approached the puppets. He slowly began examining them with his magic. I glanced at the name tag pinned to his chest.

It read, Customer Response Department, Grade 3 assistant manager, Orgot.

As expected of someone from the Trading Company, he was incredibly thorough in his inspection. Before long, he nodded and withdrew his magical power.

“These will be sufficient.”

“Is that so? Then I’ll pack them immediately.”

I signaled Isabella, who had been quietly watching us. She brought over boxes for the puppets and laid them out before us. Then I sent my will into the puppets.

Feeling my will, the puppets slowly shrank and climbed into the boxes. I quickly wrapped the boxes with magical power and held them out to Orgot. He tucked them into his arms and gave me a slight bow.

“Then I look forward to working with you. Per our agreement, please call for me whenever you need anything.”

“The feeling is mutual. We’ll be seeing each other for a long time, after all.”

I bowed to Orgot as well. He gave Isabella a small nod before leaving my shop. I stroked my chin as I watched him go.

The puppets Orgot had taken were caught between the second and third generations. Perhaps I could call them 2.5-generation puppets. They were inferior to third-generation puppets, but their performance was clearly different from that of second-generation puppets.

Of course, the magic contained within them was not particularly different from that of second-generation puppets. The difference in performance came from the gap between the egos within them.

Normally, the egos inside puppets sold to customers had only recently been created. That made it easier for them to interact with customers and form connections.

That was why I did not sell the puppets that had already been used in the tower. How could an ego that was already half complete form a connection with someone else?

However, the egos inside these puppets had spent a long time in the tower. They were beings that had already formed constellations. Naturally, they could not help but differ from second-generation puppets.

The reason I had handed such puppets over to someone from the Trading Company was because their purpose had changed. I narrowed my eyes as I watched Orgot head toward the Trading Company.

He had taken those puppets to use as customer-service agents on the first floor of the Trading Company. They intended to hand the duties normally handled by trainee employees over to puppets.

For use as customer-service agents, completed egos would clearly be more effective than growing ones. That was why a new demand for 2.5-generation puppets was bound to arise.

I nodded with a satisfied smile. The role might usually have been handled by trainee employees, but the first-floor customer-service desks were places where countless pieces of information passed through.

The puppets placed there would steal many things in the future and store them within the shadow tree’s domain. The Trading Company surely knew I would gain that sort of benefit as well.

Even so, they had taken my puppets because it was one of the terms of the agreement we had reached. They had encroached on my territory and established the Arcana Puppet Workshop. I needed to receive something in return.

That was why they had yielded positions under their control to my puppets. They had given up a portion of their territory. Perhaps other shops would see those customer-service puppets and want to use my puppets as employees too.

Hmm. Should I try advertising through the Trading Company’s system?

I looked around. Then I saw Repo’s group chatting together in one corner of the shop.

They often stopped by the shop to spend time like this. They had practically made it their base. Soon, they touched the small mirrors hanging from the arms of their puppets.

The puppets gave small nods and led them out of the shop. It was mealtime, so they seemed to be following their puppets’ recommendations. I nodded slightly at the sight.

As expected, the system created by the Trading Company was extremely convenient. Now that it was being applied to my puppets as well, customers would surely be even more satisfied.

At last, my business in the city had come to an end. Feeling a small sense of accomplishment, I stretched. Isabella approached my side and slowly began writing.

[Master, you’ve worked so hard.]

“Isabella, you worked hard too. It would have been difficult for me to manage the shop alone without you.”

[Oh my, that was my job. So please leave it to me from now on as well. You need to return to the tower now.]

I slowly nodded. As Isabella said, I finally had the freedom to return to the tower. I planned to leave the city tomorrow. There was nothing good about staying here for too long.

I took a light breath. The stale magical power unique to the first floor filled my chest. I quietly shook my head at the sensation of magical power I could never quite get used to.

I had already spent several months breathing this filthy magical power. That also meant my growth had stagnated for that long. I needed to return to the tower and focus more on training.

Of course, training was not the only thing I needed to do at the tower. I had to keep making puppets to supply to the city, and I needed to help Mira, who was conducting lectures in my place.

I also needed to serve Professor as best I could after being away for so long. I would be rather busy. I smiled faintly as I thought of everything I had to do at the tower.

Still, my months of suffering amid this murky magical power had not been for nothing. In the end, what I had gained from the fight was greater than what I had lost.

I looked out the window. Beyond the passing crowds, I could see the Arcana Puppet Workshop in the center of the city. Many people were entering and leaving the workshop, which had reopened.

I narrowed my eyes at the number of people, which seemed far greater than before. The audit that had been underway had only recently ended. Yet so many people were visiting the shop already.

[They say they’re giving out puppets for free for three months to restore the trust they lost. That includes the additional functions they plan to add to the puppets.]

Isabella wrote. I nodded as I read it. So they had planned an event like that. Was that why there were so many people?

Having resumed business after so long, they seemed determined to encroach on territory more thoroughly than before. I let out a quiet exclamation. It was a method I could never have imagined.

Only the Trading Company could hold an event like that. If they kept moving like this, they would not merely recover their lost territory. They would surely grow far beyond it.

However, unlike before, I had no reason to be wary of their growth. I no longer needed to fight them. We had already negotiated enough.

Rather, I hoped they would expand their territory further. The more they expanded, the more my puppets using their systems and structures would benefit. We had formed a kind of symbiotic relationship.

During the previous audit, those who had been hostile toward me had been thoroughly purged. The puppeteers who supplied puppets still remained, of course. But they were ultimately people bound by points.

The moment the dagger called Jegang disappeared, the puppeteers had become nothing more than tools of the Trading Company. Their feelings toward me were not particularly important.

As long as they did not oppose me, this agreement would remain in place. There was no need to worry about betrayal either. I gently rubbed my wrist, feeling the flow of the contract we had formed this time.

The terms of the negotiation were simple. They were exactly twice what had previously been offered to Jegang. On top of that, I had succeeded in receiving part of their territory. My shop was bound to keep growing.

I had never imagined I would receive such favorable terms. Hwaryeong had probably not expected it either. I smiled lightly as I remembered the look on her face when she was caught off guard.

Then a small vibration came from my pocket. A mirror bug floated into the air, its screen flashing. Someone had contacted me. I narrowed my eyes at the mirror bug.

Speak of the drake, and it appears. Hwaryeong had sent me a message. When I sent my will into the mirror bug, it wrote Hwaryeong’s words in the air.

[I have decided to accept the outcome of this matter. Still, it is a little disappointing. I thought you would choose me. If another opportunity arises, please leave it to me.]

The words quickly scattered. I shook my head as I watched them disappear. Since she had contacted me again like this, she must have been quite disappointed. Naturally. From her perspective, she had let prey slip away just as it was within reach.

I quietly stroked my chin. The one I had chosen to cooperate with instead of Hwaryeong was the People’s Council. Orgot, who had just visited, belonged to the People’s Council as well.

They had already invested heavily in the Arcana Puppet Workshop. If they lost it, Hwaryeong would naturally push them aside and drive them out.

That was why they had paid me so much to survive. Per our deal, I had made them the sole party for negotiation. With my support as their foundation, they had succeeded in protecting the territory they had built.

What a reasonable transaction. It was an outcome that made everyone happy. I was happy because I had gained profit, and they were happy because they had survived.

It was not as though I had disliked what Hwaryeong offered me. She spoke of what would happen after she completely removed the People’s Council and swallowed the entire Customer Response Department.

She said that once she had control, she would give me every area related to puppets. In exchange, she wanted only a somewhat weak cooperative system for the time being. Something roughly equivalent to what Jegang had offered me.

She had offered future value rather than immediate profit. It was certainly tempting. Yet I chose the People’s Council over Hwaryeong.

It was simply the result of calculating profit. She said she would give me more in the future, but what the People’s Council had agreed to hand over would bring me great benefits immediately.

There was no need to cling to uncertain future value. My shop had already reached an unrivaled position. I told Hwaryeong as much.

I told her that if she could provide the same thing they did, I would cooperate with her at any time. That was respect for the time we had spent together.

Until now, Hwaryeong had been assigned exclusively to me and had provided me with many conveniences. I had provided her with plenty of profit as well. There was already some degree of trust between us.

However, she refused my offer and withdrew first. She must have judged that maintaining their proposed terms would cost her more than taking hold of the People’s Council’s leverage.

Well, I had expected her to act that way. In the end, our relationship remained within the realm of business. To her, I was ultimately nothing more than a useful tool.

Then I needed to respect her attitude as well. A transaction was ultimately a symbiotic relationship based on mutual benefit. In such a relationship, customers naturally moved toward the side that benefited them more.

Hwaryeong failed to satisfy me, her customer. The People’s Council satisfied me instead. Those who were desperate always put more on the line. I shook my head slightly.

“Hwaryeong is as she has always been. There is such a thing as human affection before business, you know. Don’t you agree, Jegang?”

I turned to ask Jegang, who was standing quietly in the corner of the shop. However, no answer came back.

It could not have. That was only a puppet.

I glanced over it from top to bottom. Jegang, no, the puppet that looked exactly like Jegang, stood blankly staring into space as it gave off clear magical power. It was the magical power I had felt from Jegang before.

What the People’s Council handed over during this agreement was not merely profit. One of the things they had promised was punishment for the person who had directly targeted me, Jegang.

That was the punishment Jegang had received. Since he had harmed me with corpse puppets, they had turned him into a corpse puppet. Even I could only shake my head at the Trading Company’s viciousness.

Of course, that puppet had not been made from Jegang’s actual body. One rule that absolutely had to be upheld at the university was the right to life. No matter what crime someone committed, it was impossible to kill a mage within the university.

However, loopholes existed everywhere. Jegang had tried to pressure me by using the Trading Company’s assets. In the end, he suffered only losses. By the same logic, he had taken the Trading Company’s assets.

That meant the Trading Company had the right to take what was his. Among everything Jegang possessed, there was only one thing that could make up for the Trading Company’s losses.

The tree he had built over his entire life.

That was how Jegang was forced to have most of his tree torn away. The puppet was a kind of clone made by planting roughly half of that tree inside it.

No. Since Jegang had lost most of his tree, that puppet could be called the real Jegang. A mage’s tree was everything to them, after all.

Of course, he had been given a chance to escape such punishment. If the People’s Council had helped him, things would not have gone as far as having his tree torn away.

However, the People’s Council had exhausted most of its resources while negotiating with me. They could not protect Jegang. No, they had even sent Jegang to me as one of the terms of negotiation.

I quietly shook my head. They had discarded someone who had been their colleague until yesterday so easily. They were truly cold. Mages really were not trustworthy beings.

Still, Jegang had a chance left. He had survived, after all. One day, he might be able to regenerate his tree. It would probably take a few hundred years, though.

The reason I could easily tear away my tree was because my tree regenerated quickly. That was also based on the nature of my soul. Because it was incomplete, it was quick to restore its previous form.

People like Jegang would surely be unable to do that. The more perfect something was, the more difficult it was to restore once it collapsed.

Furthermore, the tree that had been torn from him was not made of peripheral branches like those I cut away. It came from an area closer to the center of his tree. His foundation must have been damaged in the process of removing it as well.

His realm had probably dropped while his tree was being torn apart. Even if he restored it, he would not be able to return to how he had been before.

I clicked my tongue softly. A mage who had stood at a realm above mine had fallen into ruin in an instant. He had been my enemy, but it was still truly unfortunate. There was no greater pain for a mage.

Of course, it was good news for me. I smacked my lips lightly. A tree branch from a mage who had reached the realm of the completed tree, and something close to the original at that, had fallen into my hands.

There were countless ways I could use it. Perhaps I could use it to practice before handling Professor On’s tree branch. I smiled lightly and gestured to the puppet. It shrank and climbed into my arms.

Since the People’s Council had provided something so valuable, I needed to remain on good terms with them. Of course, I knew they were hostile toward Hwaryeong, but I did not need to fight deeply with them too.

The more paths I had leading to the Trading Company, the better. That was also the advice Hongryeong had left me. I narrowed my eyes as I looked toward the Arcana Puppet Workshop.

In truth, I had wanted to choose Hwaryeong despite the slight discomfort. We had already built sufficient trust, and there was no need to create discord with her.

It had also been an unavoidable choice. Until then, I had no other suitable options. The People’s Council might oppose her, but their capabilities were bound to differ from those of a great family.

Even so, I chose them because Hongryeong had presented me with a new option. I closed my eyes slightly and reviewed the memory.

I had been quite surprised to see Hongryeong appear so suddenly after the banquet ended. As he said, it had been seven years since I had last seen him. Hongryeong smiled faintly at me and slowly opened his mouth.

“The reason I came to see you like this is because of the People’s Council. If I am to keep my older sister in check, I need to keep them alive.”

Keep her in check. I could only blink quietly at those words.

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