After capturing the Demon King’s Four Kings Red Tide, a small issue arose in the Golden City.
“Can’t we just extract all the souls and use them as information for the next vessel of Avalon?”
“Then Darknodi won’t have anything to eat!”
Conflict of opinions between Oknodie, who wanted to gather candidates for Great Evil for Riske and Darknodi to tame Avalon 2 to her liking!
To Gwakjo the Evil Sage, it felt like a breath-stopping showdown of pride between the ancient Great Evil and the new generation.
‘If those two clash, won’t a massive brawl split the city in half?’
I’m really freaking out.
“Collecting such unclean things in the city is not good for aesthetics.”
“Isn’t it unclean to shred those unclean things and cram the knowledge into their heads?”
“…It’s about processing beneficial information. I’ll remove the personality traits of a dull man that don’t suit Avalon, like his fear of blood, and instead extract the timid, cowardly aspects that depend on me, keeping the adorable and lovely parts!”
Cruel was about to say that sounds even filthier, but Gwakjo dashed over and covered her mouth for dear life.
Though a terrifying being that alters human races, even Cruel had at least a minimal amount of compassion.
Much better than Oknodie, who turned people into Battle Air Golems and scolded them for not sounding like engines, along with Riske, who agreed with him.
“If that’s the case, shouldn’t the candidates for Great Evil have a more comfortable isolation facility to stay in?”
“Why’s that?”
“A person feeling a crisis and being pushed emotionally wouldn’t show a comfortable and weak side. It’ll be difficult to extract information from their heads, and during that process, their personality may be significantly damaged, leading to them turning into idiots!”
“Exactly…!”
“Have you ever tried it?”
“Actually, before Avalon’s resurrection, I curiously scoured such personalities. But since there was a risk of losing more important knowledge, I never did that again…”
Well-managed candidates for Great Evil wouldn’t reveal weaknesses but also wouldn’t turn into idiots.
And for work efficiency, Oknodie’s construction of an isolation facility wouldn’t be a loss but a facility he’d pay extra to complete, making it an essential construction.
This meant no one could stop the facility rising like a landmark.
“Rosinante too~? I gave it limbs like a transforming robot, and you have to move at least 25 tons of building materials at once instead of just trickling them along!”
“Wuwu… I don’t need limbs… I want to be a fighter plane again… Wuwuwu…”
Rosinante, who had longed for the human body, was grimly overworked to the point of cursing its cursed form as a humanoid transforming golem!
Knowing that this perception of Oknodie as a ‘bad person that can be treated poorly’ kept him from revealing his true nature.
“Don’t even dream of leaving out a single rebar in your tantrums. If the building collapses, we’re all buried alive. If the building shakes, who knows what punishment we might face?”
One of the guard members of the prisoner unit raised their hand.
“Speak.”
“Why aren’t we letting Seonhwang go?”
“…Is this guy for real?!”
At the construction site, Seonhwang and Okashii-ne were there, but of course, they weren’t given any tasks.
They weren’t people Oknodie could command.
The Dark Princess’s discontent towards those who were watching was, in some ways, admirable.
‘Living to this age with such a foolish intellect is impressive.’
That meant their talent and skills were indeed genuine.
For now, it was just hard at work stacking and assembling the rare metals produced by Oknodie and Cruel with those honed talents and skills.
It was horribly heavy, and with a certain level of mana applied, its form became even more solid, intricately inscribed with magic circles that had to be assembled correctly.
It was a tough construction process to leave to ordinary workers.
The Darknodi guard members, strong and with magic knowledge, used their mana reactions properly and fitted perfectly into the role of special construction workers.
‘Could it be they planned this too?’
Thanks to the natural resurrection of Avalon, Riske, the Golden Dancer, found herself without a place to rely on.
Adding her desires to her long-term goals, Oknodie gained her cooperation and could remodel the Golden City to his liking.
In the Magical Territory where there was little worry of external search and surveillance.
‘Even if a new stronghold for the Foundation is created, it’ll be in the world’s safest place, where nobody knows!’
This reinforced Oknodie’s continuing construction with even more certainty.
“Originally, we wouldn’t have needed living facilities, but now we do! So let’s go ahead and reconstruct the entire city to not just look like a city but actually have practical functions!”
“Is that really necessary? What we need anyway is just the isolation area for the candidates for Great Evil.”
“If we occasionally give them risky tasks or permit activities within the city to relieve stress, we can use them longer! Even toy robots wear out their joints without being oiled, you know?”
“…Is that so?”
“I know because I’ve played with them a lot!”
“…!!”
Gwakjo locked eyes with Riske.
Though they rarely conversed, their thoughts synced at that moment.
There are times like that.
Even with numerous people between them, only those two felt emotions exchanging without a word.
When thoughts align perfectly to the point of enough mutual understanding for mana fluctuations to sync, a more intimate form of communication happens.
-Did the Dark Princess play a lot with such toys like the candidates for Great Evil?
-Now that you mention it, she certainly could. We were practically the puppet toys ourselves.
Ah, the Dark Princess.
With a bright face and gentle actions—quite contrary to her infamous reputation—she hid a wicked nature that even the candidates for Great Evil couldn’t outrun.
Seeing Rosinante transformed into a humanoid robot fighter golem reflects the dark, unasked origins of her toys and the forms they took, which nobody should inquire about.
‘So the true Darknodi was this one. After all, there can’t be a better clone than the original. The one with an upper hand in wickedness must be that playful original.’
Without interference or dissatisfaction from anyone, the city reconstructed itself into a new [Isolation City] akin to a Collection City.
To the untrained eye, it looked like a city with the same grandeur as the capital of the Empire, Jeido, but if the candidates for Great Evil, marked as prisoners, attempted to escape, the ordinary architecture would merge together to suppress them with brute force, or the building would split open and unleash magic artillery for bombardment.
Seeing facilities labeled as usable by ordinary citizens but designed to unleash high-level magic made one’s stomach churn with fear.
“Did you have a tough time staying in the Underworld for so long?”
“Are… are you referring to us?”
“That’s right! It’s an expensive world, yet you each get a free house! Hehe, hurry up and express your gratitude for my generosity!”
Oknodie boasted with a pleased expression, lifting her soft chin, as if she were a saint providing homes to pitiful refugees.
Behind that triumphant persona hid the grim reality of the Dark Princess enforcing them into becoming residents of a monstrous city.
Unlike the naive and cheerful guards, Gwakjo held back tears, forcing a smile and bowing his head.
“Thank you sincerely for preparing a place for us to stay. Until the external operation schedule is set, we will rest happily.”
“Oh, it’s not like you need to go outside! We need to test whether the isolation rituals drawn on the candidates for Great Evil are working and how the city will respond to attacks!”
“…”
They’re not just caging us; they’ve locked us up in a new prison under the name of Isolation City!
Gwakjo thought inwardly, shedding tears in silence, rivaling even the wickedness of the Dragon Principal.
Isn’t she the daughter of the Director of the Foundation, not the daughter of the Gift Academy’s principal?
“Of course, I’ll be conducting the tests myself, and you’ll need to ensure that the activated rituals and facilities operate according to plan! Also, you should calculate how much of the resources stored in the city will be consumed, and where to secure additional supplies. Gwakjo is smart enough to handle at least the calculations, right?”
Fortunately for Gwakjo, the Dark Princess wasn’t as devilish as he had imagined.
It was as if she had employed a candy and whip tactic, assigning him the crucial responsibility of managing the city’s resources.
‘It’d be good if I didn’t have to do it, and if those machines malfunctioned badly enough to end me…’
Looking at the spectacle of him bringing down the 7th-grade Earth-devouring spell with a single shout of “Aha!” and jumping in midair to create a shield of hundreds of different colors to defend against a torrent of multicolored magic, his dream seemed unlikely to be realized.
He resigned himself to giving up on rebellion and the lucky punch of malfunctioning facilities, diligently managing the city until one day.
A familiar uninvited guest arrived.
Thud!
The distinctive distortion of space accompanied by the generation of the Dimensional Gateways could be felt through the mana waves.
Rushing to the scene, a being that closely resembled the Dark Princess, but now considerably gentler, appeared.
The runaway Darknodi had returned.
“Darknodi… are you crying?”
Tears rained down from her eyes.
What would happen if the original saw this?
Invasion of the Gift Academy?
World War?
Whatever it was, they were the ones who’d be cut off.
Gwakjo was a pallor, pulling out a handkerchief.
[Handkerchief soaked in anesthetic]
“…”
He pulled out another handkerchief.
[Handkerchief soaked in a mild poison]
“……”
Gwakjo stuffed them all back into his suit pocket and emerged from the bathroom with a towel.
