Episode 80
The Marchioness handed over the money.
After Chris left, the sounds of furniture smashing echoed through the room, but he didn’t care.
‘No wonder her son turned out the way he did with that temper. Instead of causing trouble for others, she should focus on raising her own child properly.’
Chris clicked his tongue.
Anyway, he took the money and headed to the gambling den run by Ruina’s Rudolph Trading Company.
‘I can always squeeze money out of Ruina, but I feel bad doing it for free every time. This time, I’ll pay properly.’
How generous of me.
With that thought, Chris threw himself into gambling.
This time, he was serious.
He needed to make money.
So, he set out to clean the place out.
“Five even numbers in a row!!”
“No way, that hand again?! The odds are 0.000078%!”
“This can’t be real! How many wins is this now?!”
“That’s gotta be cheating!”
“Cheating? Who do you think this is? None other than Prince Christian, the new prodigy of the Dark Mage!”
The crowd at the gambling den gasped in disbelief.
Money piled up in front of Chris.
He whistled softly.
‘It is cheating, isn’t it? Without cheating, there’s no way to clean them out like this.’
But as long as he didn’t get caught, it was all fair game.
The gambling den’s staff, pale-faced, tried desperately to figure out Chris’s method, but even the former gambling king of the Union couldn’t crack the trick Chris used to fleece them.
After raking in a fortune, a familiar voice cut through the noise.
“…Enough.”
A voice tinged with exhaustion.
Ruina, the owner of the gambling den, appeared.
Ruina took Chris up to a hotel room attached to the gambling den.
As soon as they entered, she shed her male disguise and spoke in a voice simmering with barely contained anger.
“…What on earth do you think you’re doing?”
“What do you mean? I was gambling.”
“You just took three million rupees from me? Even the gambling king wouldn’t stoop to this!”
“I needed the money. I felt bad always relying on you, so this time I wanted to pay with money I earned fairly.”
“…What kind of madness is that? You say you’re paying, but you’re robbing my gambling den!”
Ruina shouted, her tone harsher than when they first met.
She was furious over the money Chris had taken from her.
‘Just recently, I lost potions worth five million rupees to that damn Nogajoo!’
She huffed.
But this wasn’t the time to get angry.
“Wait, so you came here just to fleece me again?”
“I’m not fleecing you this time. I’m paying properly. Here’s three million rupees—can you get me some supplies I need?”
“Gah! That’s money you took from my gambling den! You bad prince!”
In the end, he was trying to take Ruina’s treasures again without spending a single coin.
“Over my dead body! Whether there’s a war between the Mage Empire and the Union or not!”
Ruina crossed her arms stubbornly.
When they first met, she was a composed woman with striking beauty, but in such a short time, she’d been worn down so much—it was clear she felt wronged by all the money lost to Chris.
‘Well, I did fleece her a lot in a short time. But compared to what Ruina did to me in my past life, it’s nothing.’
Despite appearances, Ruina was no honest merchant.
No honest trader would run an auction house.
If the other party looked easy, Ruina was a ruthless, cutthroat merchant who’d take everything she could. Chris had been on the losing end of that several times in his previous life.
Granted, the money Chris lost back then was small compared to what Ruina was losing now, but at the time, he’d lost everything he owned. So he felt justified thinking his losses were greater.
‘Anyway, Ruina values money more than her own life.’
Because she was a money grubber.
That’s why she was always Chris’s easy mark.
Chris tossed out a bait he knew would tempt her.
“I’m headed to the underground garden.”
“!!”
Ruina froze in place.
Suddenly, her tone shifted.
It became gentle, polite, and friendly.
“Did you just say that, Your Highness?”
“Well, I’m a bad prince, so I don’t really want to answer.”
“Oh ho ho. What a joke. Who would dare say such nonsense to our dazzlingly handsome, magnificent, and noble Prince Christian, the great Majesty of the Dark Mage? Such a wicked mouth! Tsk.”
Ruina smacked her own lips with her hand.
Chris chuckled.
“I’m going to the underground garden. I thought it might be useful for your trading company too. But if you don’t want to, I’ll find somewhere else.”
“No, no! Wait, stop! Please wait!”
The underground garden went by many names.
Among cultivators, it was known as the Garden of Training; among explorers, it was called the Treasure Garden.
Countless treasures, relics, and artifacts lay hidden there.
‘Most have already been excavated, but new treasures and artifacts still occasionally appear. Each one is incredibly valuable. The problem is, outsiders can only dream of them.’
All items from the underground garden belonged to the Dark Mage.
Even if visitors stumbled upon treasures by chance, they had to hand them over to the Dark Mage.
They were searched thoroughly—beyond just their clothes, even their bodies were inspected with high-level black magic—so smuggling anything out was impossible.
If anyone was caught trying to steal treasures, they were executed on the spot. But Chris was different.
‘I can smuggle treasures out anytime I want. They won’t strip-search the prince of the Dark Mage.’
That’s why Ruina was so anxious.
Getting treasures from the underground garden was a dream for any collector.
“Oh ho ho. What do you need? Just say the word. I’ll search through both Rudolph and Deer Trading Companies to find it.”
“I’m not taking anything for free. I’ll pay.”
“Three million rupees? That’s fine. If you share some treasures from the underground garden with me, that’s more than enough.”
“No, you’d better take it. What I need this time is a bit expensive.”
“……”
Ruina’s smile vanished.
Chris had never asked for anything like this before, despite all the money he’d taken from her.
‘What on earth is he trying to take this time?’
She forced a smile.
“Uh, if it’s armor or a magic sword, could I rent it instead?”
“It’s not that kind of thing.”
“…What exactly do you need?”
Chris said casually,
“Scissors of Space.”
“…Excuse me?”
“Ah, maybe that doesn’t ring a bell? The Scissors of the Archmage Lenin.”
“……”
Ruina fell silent.
She knew exactly what Chris meant.
But—
“…That’s an item worth over ten million rupees, isn’t it?!”
Ruina suddenly shouted again.
That’s right.
Chris was asking for one of the highest-tier artifacts made by humans, with powers comparable to relics.
The difference between artifacts and relics was simple.
Artifacts were made by humans.
Relics were made by constellations or demons.
The performance gap was obvious.
Even the lowest-grade relics outclassed the best artifacts.
When relics appeared, it wasn’t uncommon for factions to go to war over them.
But occasionally, some human-made artifacts had powers comparable to relics.
One of those was Lenin’s Scissors.
‘It’s a famous item. It has incredible power, but… it’s practically useless.’
A surprising story.
And it was true.
Lenin’s Scissors could cut through space.
More precisely, they could cut space to move through it.
Like a “gate.”
As expected from an item made by the legendary archmage who reached the ninth star rank, it had tremendous power.
But in practice, it was useless.
Because calculating spatial coordinates was incredibly difficult.
‘Calculating coordinates for long-distance travel is beyond human capability.’
It wasn’t a matter of skill.
It was a human limitation.
Long-distance spatial travel involved passing through subspace, where countless unpredictable variables appeared and vanished. No human mind, not even an archmage’s, could calculate it precisely.
‘A very few archmages can do long-distance spatial travel on their own, but only with tools to assist coordinate calculations.’
Lenin’s Scissors had no such assistive function.
They only cut space.
The user had to calculate infinite variables themselves to reach the desired destination, which was practically impossible unless they were a spatial magic specialist.
Spatial archmages wouldn’t need such a tool.
So despite its incredible power, it was a useless item.
“Don’t be too disappointed. Even if you keep it, no one would buy it. You should be grateful someone’s using it at all. In exchange, I’ll bring back a good treasure from the underground garden.”
Ruina pursed her lips.
Her face was full of frustration.
But Chris wasn’t entirely wrong.
If she kept it, it would just gather dust in storage. Using it as a bargaining chip with Chris was actually beneficial.
Still, she couldn’t shake the feeling she was losing out—maybe because she was a money grubber, or maybe just because she found Christian annoying.
“Ugh, I paid so much for that! Ten million rupees of my own!”
Ruina swallowed her tears and said,
“…At least give me three million rupees.”
Even though that three million was money Chris had taken from her gambling den, she felt it would ease her resentment to get something.
Strictly speaking, this wasn’t a losing deal for Ruina.
Opportunities to get treasures from the underground garden didn’t come often.
If not now, she might never get another chance.
Above all, the treasure in the underground garden was incredibly valuable. If handled right, it could bring in a massive profit far beyond the initial investment.
After that, while Ruina prepared the supplies she needed, Chris spent his time lounging around without a care.
“I’ve been working way too hard lately. People need to rest sometimes! But when am I supposed to get a drink? I hate ginger!”
Chris scowled at the ginger ale in his hand.
Even as a Confucius figure, his fate with ginger ale hadn’t changed.
Finally, everything was ready.
“…You absolutely have to bring back the treasure. Not just any treasure—a good one. No, it has to be an expensive treasure! If you fail to bring it back, I’ll seriously demand compensation! No dark magic or anything like that!”
Chris chuckled softly at Ruina’s constant grumbling.
“Alright, I’ll wait. Oh, one more thing. You’re dealing with the Gold Cross faction too, right?”
“…Of course.”
Of the two merchant guilds Ruina was affiliated with, the Deer Guild operated under a coalition.
“Then keep a close eye on Gold Cross’s movements from now on. Especially in the Law Kingdom.”
“…The Law Kingdom? That’s where the ‘Cursed Prince’ recently died, causing all that commotion, right? You don’t mean…”