Maou no Hajimekata

"Oul. I knew we'd stop. It's too dangerous."

"Yeah, what did I find out about your judgment? Just get your hands off me."

Oulu walks down the hallway of the dungeon dragging Floro, who pulls the sleeves of his clothes so that they stick together. In doing so, I realized that at least there was no such thing as a door around here.

As Floro puts it, I guess very few people have the skill of 'making something'. Even if we can get wood, there's nothing we can do to build a door with it.

Sometimes there is something like a borough cloth instead of a door, but most entrances and exits are uneven. Therefore, the rooms and passageways, inside and outside, were extremely vague.

If it is a dungeon of Oulu, the interior of someone's personal room and the passage of sharing that is not is strictly separated by doors. But in this dungeon without it, it's very hard to tell if anyone owns the way to go or nobody does.

Asking Floro about it, it seems that at the bottom the very concept of owning something in the first place is rare. Everyone uses the places and tools there on their own, and there's nothing to blame for that.

In such a place, there are two things that are clearly considered to be owned.

One is, 'Skills'.

And the other one...

"Slaves don't get a decent opponent or anything. They just take what's important."

-Slaves. That is, he was a man.

"I'm not a slave."

"No. At the time you come down to this lower level, you are a slave, Oul. Slaves not owned by anyone can't complain no matter what they do"

Floro lays down his eyes sadly and tells Oulu with sorrow.

"You can tell from what you're wearing that you were in a high position where you were. But now... you are a slave."

That was too intimate a tone to say I was just worried about him. It's like my thing.

Probably, yeah.

Floro's face is too neat for slavery, and he's sophisticated in what he does and in what he speaks. She herself was once in a noble position, and for some reason she put herself into slavery.

Is it because of the sympathy for him that I saw as a similar situation that you would burn Oulu to take care of?

"Even if it seemed like it."

Oulu told Floro off, feeling a strange irritation.

"I'm not going to be a slave to the root of my heart. It is up to you to live or die without obeying."

Floro stared at his face as he let go of his hand as surprised by the words.

"That's an inspiring word."

Suddenly, Oulu and Floro turn to the sound of being shrugged from the shadows.

"There you go, Floro? Did you forget to buy something?

That was the sound of a big snake crawling through the ground.

"You look like the first face I've ever seen..."

But what showed up was what a woman looked like. She was a beautiful woman with long stretched dark purple hair and sparingly exposed her busty chest. However, that is a story limited to the upper body. From the waist down is the scale-covered snake itself.

The subrace known to Oulu...... was a woman who looked very similar to Lamia.

"You're the merchant who bought this guy's eyes out?

"Yeah. My name is Naggia. Go ahead and get to know him."

Half a snake woman, named Naggia, showed her gracefully.

"It's Oulu. Sorry, but I want to buy it back."

"Oh. Fair enough. So maybe you're the one who used your language skills?

Naggia in a playful tone.

"That's right. Is that inconvenient?

"No, there's no inconvenience. However, I do not accept returns. Again, if we're talking about exchanging for something else, we'd be happy to respond."

"Now trade it for my language skills!

Floro cracks and enters Naggia, who answers with a smile.

"I'm sorry, Floro. That's not enough."

"Nah..."

Floro was stunned by Naggia's expression, which seemed completely unfortunate. Or so, Oulu thinks.

"Why!? Didn't you just have it replaced with that!

"Floro. That's what commerce is all about. Replacing something of the same value will not gain you. If it's an exchange for your eyes... you can't get ten times as valuable."

Again, Floro was quite bought and beaten. There is no one who can deal with slaves properly. Oddly enough, what she said earlier was happening to Floro.

"Oh no..."

"Get out of the way, Floro. That's the best thing he can say."

Nevertheless, the very attitude of trying to make a profit in a business transaction is natural as a merchant.

"I like the discerning lords. Okay, Oulu. What can you offer me as consideration..."

Nagya narrows her eyes softly and stares at Oulu.

At that moment there was a patchy sound, and Nagya closed her eyes so that she could suffer the pain.

"... Huh!? What's that...!?

"Looks like you tried to do something wrong, huh?

To Naggia holding her face, Oulu gives a niggling grin. She tried to Oulu some sort of trick. But the magic shield Oulu put up prevented it.

"It's great......! I've never even heard of a skill that prevents my skills!

Naggia looks so excited.

"How about that? If you can get that skill, I'll give you Floro's eyes back."

"You mustn't, Oul! Don't listen to what Naggia has to say!

Ignoring Floro, who pulls his sleeves together, Oulu showed a slight bare gesture of thinking.

"I don't mind...... this is not my skill and doing. It's technique. Is that okay?

"Art......? I don't know... I understand that."

Naggia nodded as she leaned her neck strangely. You can take away the vision you were born with. I guess I can get it, even if it's nothing special.

"Then it's an exchange. Just in case, you can take away this technique and return Floro's eyes."

"Yeah, sure. I'm not lying because I'm a businessman."

Oul intuited to Naggia smiling, that's a lie.

"No, Oulu...!

"Then take it."

Pushing Floro, who tries to stop him, Oulu says.

"Now, if you'll excuse me."

As Nagya then reaches toward Oulu's chest, his fingertips bury all over his body. There was no pain, but odd discomfort as being probed through my head.

"This is... amazing"

Slightly, Naggia took a small gem out of it. It was smaller than what Floro fed Oulu, but glowed powerfully, in the shape of a rugged true sphere with no pointy spots at all.

"I've never seen a skill so brilliantly honed."

Naggia sighs with a glimpse of its brilliance.

"I see... is this what happens when they pull it out"

Oul, on the other hand, had a strange feeling.

Knowledge and memories of magic protection have completely fallen out of me. Something that you should have known for sure doesn't come up. Now, the fact that "there was something missing there" itself is recognizable.

It was a strange situation, completely different from the art of memory manipulation that I can't even remember what I forgot itself.

Name: Nagya

Race: Tail

Gender: Female

Age: 16

Master: Sarnak

Possession skills: 'Tightening', 'Sword moves LV2', 'Penetration', 'Language', 'Concealed LV1', 'Skill crystallization', 'Appraisal'

As Oul was testing the sensation, such letters inadvertently appeared in his sight.

"Become...!

"That's a strange trick. Is this a skill called 'appraisal'?... but you're younger than I thought."

Oulu in stunned naggia, looking at the letter in front of him. I thought he was still in his mid-twenties. It is just colourful incense and abundance that makes you think so. I think it's not necessarily the earliest time to get old like Oulu's known calendar.

"What did you do!? This skill should have been well taken......!

"I'm telling you it's a technique, not a skill. And that's not all I have."

The magic protection Nagya has acquired is the most basic and lowest level of means against directly interfering techniques. It can be deployed at all times, even without consciousness, but instead there are limited techniques that can be prevented, and we do not know what techniques have been applied.

Oulu can use a number of more advanced anti-magic tricks if he is conscious. For example, something that invalidates advanced surgery, something that analyzes the nature of the surgery without letting the target realize that it has been invalidated, and something that I just used… bounces the contents of the surgery straight back to the target.

"You'd love to sell that skill too... oh?

Saying, Naggia includes in her mouth the crystals she received from Oulu. And I frowned in surprise.

"... what, what is this...?

"I told you. It's not a skill, it's a technique."

What makes the word skill different from "technology" is that it is independent. There is no other skill that is a prerequisite, and it can be handled alone.

But that's not the technique Oulu's been cultivating. Every technique is interrelated, stacked and structured with another technique. That's why taking out only one surgery is of no use, and vice versa can complement that from other knowledge even if only one is pulled out.

Oulu had already reinvented in himself the magic shield that had been removed, and on the contrary, Nagya could not handle it. Because I don't know anything about the convergence of the presupposing magic, how to circle it all over my body, or how to handle witchcraft without chanting.

To put it, I don't remember hearing about one ingredient, close to being given only recipes with cooking methods. Oul, on the other hand, can devise a recipe from scratch because he remembers what he wants to make even if he forgets how to make it.

In other words, this was, from the beginning, a deal of no loss to him.

"Now, as promised, will you give me Floro's eyes?"

"…… I accept, I will not"

Nagya turns her face away dissatisfied with the oul that offers her hand.

"This is not a defective product! You can't take the deal."

"I told you it wasn't skill, it was surgery from the beginning. Or are you saying you're not making the same deal?

To Oulu's words, Nagya answers with a smile of kusuri.

"Oh. Did you make that promise?

Sulai, and the sword is pulled out of her hips. Floro bit his teeth, still not willing to trade properly from the start. It would be too late to regret that if we had held back the oul harder.

"Right."

But Oul answered quietly without showing any remorseful gestures.

"Then reward the sorcerer for making a mistake."

Like squealing, I told him so.

"Ahhh... ahhh!?

On the way Nagya removes her sword and rolls it to the ground.

"Ouch......! Ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch! What...! I did, of...!?

"Say something different. Was it you who did?

Looking down at the stuffy and painful naggia, Oulu.

Seeing that look, Floro fought.

Many enjoy humiliating, tormenting, and hurting people. They make up their minds and smile when they do. Shady, nasty, dirty grin.

But Oul was completely faceless. He doesn't enjoy Nagya's suffering at all, and on the contrary, he's not even interested.

"It's a pain that tightens your soul. Unlike meat pain, you can't get used to it or go crazy."

I just did it because I needed it.

That seemed scarier than enjoying the harm.

"Forgive me... please, let me! Please...... Huh! Please, I'm sorry!

Naggia pleads so, weeping in unbearable pain.

"It's easy if you want to be free from the pain. You keep your word."

"Hold it... no, no! Floro's eyes... to my husband... to Sarnak, give them to me... and I did... ugh!

Then again, Naggia didn't mean to keep her promise from the start, Floro thinks. But Oul made a promise to her after figuring it out. That one was more shocking and I didn't feel like blaming Nagya.

"Right. Then there's no choice."

"Oulu......! Will you forgive me already?

Seeing it, Floro asked Oulu to do so.

"I have neither forgiveness nor forgiveness. A covenant is a covenant, a covenant is a curse. This is what breaking a contract with a magician is all about. I'm not doing anything to torment him right now."

I mean, even Oul himself can't stop Nagya from suffering. Naggia's face blued as he glanced at his words telling him otherwise.

"It's... isn't it too pathetic? Did she blame you for suffering so much?

"You were worried about me and you stopped, and you said something funny. But well, there's no way to break the curse."

In a glimmer of light, Nagya stuck to Oul's foot.

"Please......! Shima, su......! Whatever, I will! This pain,...?

And then I begged...

Suddenly, I realize that the pain is drawing from my body.

"Ah... oh...?

"You said it."

Oul laughed niggardly, looked down at Naggia, and told her.

"What (...) and (...) and (...) ru (...). Now don't make a difference."

Nagya needed a few more seconds to understand how deadly the words she had spoken were.