MTLNOVEL Chapter 6 - This Is How You Really Take Revenge
It was easy to find the location of the butcher shop.
It seems this Alcest character had quite a notorious reputation in the area for his violent temperament and cruel torture methods.
When I asked if they knew a fat man who roughly handled a blonde elf, everyone quickly pointed me to this place.
“Master… it really is you, Master! This isn’t an illusion, is it?”
“It’s been a while, Misha.”
“Master!!”
I clearly told her to call me teacher, not master.
Well, I’m not even a teacher anymore. I’m not teaching at the academy anymore.
More importantly, Misha, don’t suddenly hug me. Didn’t you say that your chest is big, so when you hug, your breasts get pressed and it’s embarrassing?
“I, I knew I would meet you again someday, Master!”
“Yes, I’m glad to see you too. But you were just trying to tear off that necklace, weren’t you?”
“Huh?”
“Didn’t I teach you that the necklace is designed to self-destruct if the wearer tries to tear it off themselves?”
“Ah… but.”
“No matter how hard it gets, don’t commit suicide. Who are you dying for?”
“Ouch. Hehehe.”
I hit her on the crown of her head as punishment for trying to take off the necklace on her own, but Misha just grinned.
This kid, she’s always been good at following me, but she quickly forgets what I tell her and doesn’t put it into practice. She’s surprisingly stupid.
Despite that, no matter how much I scold her, instead of getting discouraged, she even seems slightly happy, this strange kid.
“Hehehe. I got scolded by Master again.”
“That’s not something to be proud of. Don’t be happy about it.”
“Yes, sir.”
Misha cutely stuck out her tongue and acted coy.
She has lived almost her entire life as a slave. They say that period spans a thousand years, so it’s hard to easily imagine the total amount of suffering, and there’s no end to listing all the hardships she’s endured.
All the humans Misha met were trash. The pattern was always the same: at first, they would be attracted to her beautiful appearance and flirt with her, but when Misha asserted her pride as a forest spirit worshipping the World Tree, they would quickly reveal their cruel nature. Misha had to taste endless despair from humans who took advantage of her inability to resist due to the slave mark and carried out all sorts of torture to force her to obey.
Lightly hitting her on the crown of her head was, from Misha’s perspective, a gentle skinship that didn’t even count as punishment.
Even Faust’s occasional nagging sounded like whispers of love to Misha.
Well, after hearing curses and vulgar talk passively for a thousand years, one’s standard for kindness naturally lowers.
Faust’s nagging like “If you don’t do your homework properly, you’ll have to take supplementary classes again” was internally translated in Misha’s brain as “I want to be a special professor just for you. Don’t go home, stay with me.”
—Of course, I was completely unaware of the information distortion happening in Misha’s head.
“Uhehehehehehe♡”
“Oh, she’s laughing to herself again.”
Even though I scolded her, she’s laughing. In some sense, this kid is invincible.
“But I finally reunited with the Master I’ve been dreaming of. Misha doesn’t want to be separated from Master anymore…”
“Alright, let’s stay together for a while. I have things for you to do too.”
“Things to do?”
At that moment, Alcest, who had been slammed into the wall, slowly got up with a groan of pain. It seems that controlling the power of the explosion magic to avoid hurting Misha had extended this guy’s life.
“Urgh…. Fuck, who are you? I thought you were some crazy bastard, but aren’t you that idiot living like a beggar cleaning horse dung? Are you really insane?”
“Don’t speak rudely to Master!”
“I’ll properly educate you later, bitch, so stay out of this for now. I’ll put you in an Iron Maiden and give you time to reflect on your mistakes.”
“Mi-Misha won’t go into such a scary place!”
“You don’t have a choice. A slave just has to do what the master tells them to.”
“Eek…!!”
Unlike humans, elf slaves who don’t die even when stabbed with a knife and heal naturally were dream toys for sadists. Of course, I can’t allow such things to happen in front of me.
“Hey, butcher. If you repent your sins now, I’m willing to forgive you.”
“Go fuck yourself.”
The bastard raised his middle finger.
As expected, the humans here are not worth saving.
The more compassion I show, the more disgusting they become.
Thank you.
For making me realize this obvious fact once again.
“Faust, I’ll fucking report you, you son of a bitch.”
“You’re going to report me?”
“Of course, you idiot. What are you relying on, you outcast hated by the whole country, to use violence against me, the rightful legal owner of that elf bitch? The hero is already looking for a reason to kill you, with fire in his eyes. You’re just asking to be killed. What you’ve done is property damage and attempted murder. You’re facing either capital punishment or life imprisonment, you idiot. No, the hero might even publicly execute you in the square.”
“Misha won’t let that happen!”
“You stay out of this!”
Alcest threw a butcher knife. Throwing a sharp knife at a living being. What if she dies?
This crazy bastard.
“Ow… that hurts.”
“Mas…ter. Why did you catch that? Your hand… it’s bleeding.”
“Ah, what else could I do? It was flying straight at your face.”
“Master… is bleeding…”
The focus disappears from Misha’s eyes. Her eyes, once as blue as the sea, are now dyed with deep darkness. The air around Misha becomes heavy, and the ground shakes as if there’s an earthquake.
“How dare… how dare you make Master bleed.”
Honestly, I wasn’t that badly injured. It was a level that could be mostly healed with the healing magic I know.
However, I deliberately let Misha’s exploding anger unleash.
The necklace worn by elves serves to control them, preventing them from using magic unless permitted by their master.
In other words, if the master gives permission, they can use magic.
I quietly lifted the restriction on magic prohibition.
“I will never forgive anything that hurts Master!!!!”
There was a flash—
All I saw was a moment when photons of light enveloped Misha.
A cruel light that didn’t even allow shadows stole my vision, and I bent over as if I had been punched in the stomach by a boxer. I heard a series of explosions and things breaking. Screams of terror didn’t cease.
When I opened my eyes again, the market where long lines of people had been standing was completely gone. The street where at least dozens of shops should have been lined up had turned into a clean empty lot.
The fact that not a single person died was probably due to the restriction of not harming human life engraved in the slave mark. Well, I plan to remove that someday too.
“What is this?!”
“My, my shop! My shop!”
“The hardware store passed down for generations!!!!”
“What was that explosion just now?!”
“Oh no, my money!”
“How am I supposed to do business now!”
The merchants who had barely survived were too busy lamenting their lost property rather than rejoicing over their saved lives. Well, from the perspective of merchants who live and die by money, it’s maddening to have their business capital disappear overnight. They must be out of their minds.
“Ahem! Everyone, look here!”
I flashed a sneer at Alcest, who was sitting on his butt with a dumb expression, and drew attention.
“That explosion was caused by this elf!”
“The elf? You mean Alcest’s elf?”
“The one from the butcher shop?”
“Elf… right! I’ve heard that elves actually know how to use magic!”
People who have lost money instinctively and desperately look for someone to pin the blame on to cover their losses. Before long, every single person in the market had gathered around what used to be the butcher shop.
I winked at Misha, signaling her to play along. Even if Misha is stupid, she should be able to read the situation to this extent.
“That’s right, Misha? You did that just now, didn’t you?”
“Huh? Ah… yes. To protect Master—”
“You heard that, right? It was this elf! The elf who is the legal property of the butcher Alcest!! She’s the one who damaged your precious property!”
Alcest, wanting to show off the fact that he owned such a beautiful elf as a slave, often took Misha for walks in the market street whenever he had the chance. There wasn’t a single merchant here who didn’t know that Alcest was the owner of the elf.
“Alcest!! What’s going on here!! Pay up right now, you bastard!”
“My money! My shop! You have to compensate for everything!”
“If you don’t pay compensation for the damage to my collapsed shop, I’ll really kill you. This is not a joke!!”
“Ah, wait a minute. Why me… that elf bitch used magic on her own… ma-make her pay!”
Alcest made his last desperate attempt, pointing at Misha with a trembling finger. Misha hid behind me, sticking out her tongue to tease him.
The butcher shop owner, red up to his ears, tried to drag me in like a water ghost.
“Th-That’s right. Faust, that bastard. He’s the one who told her to use magic. Misha is his slave!”
“Hey… Alcest. What kind of bullshit are you spouting? Weren’t you the one boasting loudly that you were Misha’s legal owner?”
“Ah, no. I did say that, but in reality…”
“Ah, close that stinking mouth of yours.”
I threw one last piece of meat with large chunks to the merchants who would sell their souls to the devil to cover their lost damages, and left the scene with Misha.
“As you all know well, slaves have no legal responsibility. This means they have no obligation to repay debts. It’s common sense, even stipulated in national law, that the master takes responsibility for the slave’s crimes, so all the property damaged by the elf should be compensated by Alcest.”
“Fa-Faust!! You son of a bitch!! Where are you running off to! Co-Come back! Misha!! You come back too! You bitch, your master is me…! No, that’s not it! Everyone! I have nothing to do with that slave. Lo-Look at that! Isn’t she running away with Faust! Do-Don’t intimidate me, go after those bastards! Aaargh!!”
Rights and obligations exist together like the two sides of a coin.
Misha, who has no right to own property, naturally has no obligation to repay debts. In the end, it means Alcest alone will have to take all the blame.
I heard later that the debt Alcest had to bear, after being sued by the merchants, totaled 50 million shillings, which was exactly 1,000 times his entire fortune. They say he’s not really living now, constantly harassed by debt collectors. Rumor has it that he’s living like a giraffe in the Serengeti plains, taking 10-minute naps at a time, not knowing when debt collectors might chase after him, and his once fat belly has become so thin that he now resembles a mummy.
“This is how you take revenge, Misha. It’s not fun if you just kill them. Death is eternal stillness. The true pleasure of revenge lies in the dynamic of watching your prey despair.”
“Ah, yes. Misha knows about dynamics too. I ate a lot of them when I lived in the forest.”
“…It seems you need to study a lot.”
“? Are we going to the academy again?”
“No. For now, let’s go to my house and talk. I’ll tell you about the situation I’m in.”
“! Master’s house! Great! I-I’m nervous because it’s my first time at Master’s house!”
“…It’s also my first time bringing a guest to my house. I’m a bit excited.”
On the way back after destroying the market.
Some shabby fallen noblewoman who had been waiting in front of the front door suddenly stands up when she sees me. With a forced, fake smile.
“Fa-Faust! You finally came back! I think I said something wrong earlier. I’m really reflecting on it and I’m ready to work hard as a member! of your party! from now on—”
“Come in, Misha. Be careful not to get dirty germs on you.”
“Yes! Master! But who is that woman?”
“Who are you talking about? I don’t see anyone.”
“………”
Of course, I completely ignored her and closed the door.
I could hear Serena sobbing outside, but it was just pleasant background music.