Chapter 87

“Eh? Isn’t that too cheap? I thought things in places like this were usually marked up to ‘tourist prices’…”

Come to think of it, I did notice that was unusually cheap.

“Well, it is the countryside. Compared to the Royal Capital, the cost of living might just be lower. I wish the prices in the capital were this cheap.”

“That’s true. But if this ice cream is only one small copper coin, I feel like the ranch won’t make a profit.”

“I’m sure they’re managing through operational efficiency. No transportation costs and all that.”

I didn’t question it any further. I don’t really pay much attention to local prices anyway.

That evening, as we walked through the market in Lightstone, everything there was strangely cheap as well.

Three pairs of socks for two small copper coins.

Five pieces of fried chicken for one small copper coin.

All-you-can-eat buffet for one copper coin.

“Whoa! This is even cheaper than what Dad was saying yesterday! Maybe I should buy a bunch of non-perishables and take them back to the company dorm in the capital!”

I expected everywhere to be crowded, but that wasn’t really the case.

Then, I overheard some housewives talking.

“I heard Tanmil, the next town over, is even cheaper.” “They say past Tanmil is cheaper still.” “Even if you pay for the carriage, it’s cheaper to go out there.” “The carriages started selling fifteen-trip commuter passes.” “Apparently, this county is just uniquely cheap.”

Seriously? If it’s just about daily life, living in this region is actually incredibly easy.

However, I noticed quite a few shops were closed. Papers were posted saying “Closed today due to circumstances,” but the number of them seemed a bit high.

The next day, market prices dropped even further.

And the number of temporarily closed shops increased again.

I tapped Mary on the shoulder.

“Hey, isn’t something weird? Prices keep dropping. I appreciate the discounts, but this is too much…”

“I know what you’re getting at. There are parts of those documents I haven’t looked at yet, so I’ll focus on digging through those…”

I think Mary and I both had the same event in mind.

That poem-like incantation.

Did that trigger something…?

And after Mary performed an emergency deciphering job, she discovered something terrifying.

I, Mary, and Cerulia gathered in my room. I didn’t want my parents to overhear this.

“Franz, I figured out the true identity of the incantation.”

Cerulia and I held our breath, waiting for Mary’s next words.

“That was—a Dark Magic spell to create the Evil Spirit of Deflation.”

A brief silence filled the room.

“What even is that?! Can magic even do something like that in the first place?!”

Influencing the state of the economy… isn’t that way beyond the scope of Dark Magic?!

“I was shocked too. But there was a passage hinting at it, and looking at the poem again, it’s no wonder this is happening.”

Mary placed her finger on the relevant part of the poem.

<Let us create a spiral of night that never, ever ends—>

“This means a Deflationary Spiral!!!”

“Now that you mention it, it does look like it means that!!!”

Don’t tell me my ancestor was trying to dominate the economy through Dark Magic? Isn’t that a bit too much of a “novel” way to attack…?

“Ah… I think I understand now…”

Cerulia had a look of pure horror on her face.

“Master’s ancestor intended to blanket the entire kingdom in a wave of deflation to bring about the collapse of the nation! This must be the ancestor’s plot for national destruction!”

“Whaaaat?! But… that actually sounds right!”

Deflation is a state where the prices of things keep getting cheaper. It happens naturally when the national economy is in bad shape.

However, no matter how you look at it, the impact is progressing too rapidly around Lightstone. It’s gotten to the point where shops can’t make a profit anymore and are closing down within just a few days.

“At this rate, employees’ wages will definitely be slashed, and they won’t be able to buy expensive things. Then, shops will have to lower their prices even more… You’re right, the spiral is going to keep turning…”

If this wave spreads across the country, it really will be a national crisis… Moreover, in a way, it’s a crisis we caused…

We have to take responsibility and stop it.

“Mary, do you know a countermeasure for this?”

Mary looked down, and I knew the answer was no. Even for Mary, this was outside her expertise.

I made up my mind.

This started because of something my ancestor tried to do; if so, I’ll be the one to clean up the mess.

Especially if his blood is flowing through me, then it’s even more my responsibility.

“Don’t worry. I will definitely find a solution.”

I said that, but the goal was far away…

After all, this was an unprecedented Dark Magic spell. I didn’t have a clue how to dispel it. Moreover, the remaining documents were written in a way that I couldn’t read them with my own power. I had to have Mary read them first.

As a result, I ended up being the one making suggestions to Mary.

“Hey, can you really make an original Dark Magic spell that easily?”

“Of course not, you can’t do that overnight. In that regard, there’s no doubt Franz’s ancestor was a big-shot Dark Mage.”

I never thought having a big-shot ancestor would cause me this much trouble.

“But you can’t make them with talent alone. In the case of Dark Magic, negative emotions often lie at the root.”

In my eyes right now, Mary looked like a teacher.

“Envy, resentment, anger—those kinds of unpleasant feelings are the source. Sometimes it’s ‘unbridled indulgence’—basically the desire to do whatever you want without caring about the trouble you cause.”

“I get the gist of that.”

Mary flipped through a Dark Magic reference book. It was one I had brought back to study a bit during my home visit.

“In this case, I think he made it based on this.”

The word Mary was pointing to was—Dissatisfaction.

“I think he created this magic to vent his dissatisfaction at not being able to be with his sister. He intended to destroy the country that wouldn’t let them be together.”

“What a nuisance of an ancestor… But still, can the dissatisfaction of just one person really result in magic with such a large-scale effect?”

I’m a Dark Mage too. I know the rules of Dark Magic.

“Look, usually when the scale gets this big, you have to pay some kind of price. The scale and duration are huge, but Mary, who did the chanting, didn’t pay anything.”

“About that… Franz, your body glowed back then, right?”

Mary spoke a bit hesitantly.

“Yeah, I remember clearly.”

“I think that means Franz’s body has become the ‘host’ for the activation of the magic.”

“A host? You mean I’ve accidentally become like a sacrifice…?”

That’s not a very pleasant image. I know there are spells that sacrifice someone close to the caster.

“It’s not so much that you personally became one, but rather that the ancestor’s blood inherited by your body is acting as the host. This magic is designed so that ‘if the chant is performed, it uses the body of a mage carrying the ancestor’s blood to activate deflation’.”

It’s complicated, but I got the meaning.

No matter who chants it, deflation occurs using someone of his own bloodline as the medium.

“So the dissatisfaction of that Dark Mage who wanted to be with his sister was passed down to my body too…”

What an epic revenge drama.

But at that moment, a solution occurred to me.

“Then, if the distance between me and my ‘sister’ closes, won’t that dissatisfaction be resolved?”