Pastel held a long stick and stirred the cauldron.
Swish swish.
Bubble bubble.
It felt like being a witch.
“What does the deep and long mountain valley witch eat~?”
She held the wooden stick to her mouth like a microphone and sang passionately.
“Mr. Rabbit, do you know the spring? Mr. Deer, do you know the orchard~?”
After spinning around, she grabbed the wooden stick again.
“With everyone around, a life without hunger~!”
I’m so happy.
A demon approached and grabbed the girl’s shoulder.
Pastel was delighted.
“Shall we sing a song too, Demon?”
“Focus and don’t sing. You need to stir evenly so it doesn’t stick to the bottom.”
The finger pointed firmly at the cauldron.
Purple poison bubbled.
The demon was teaching her how to process various poisons and poison bags.
Pastel pouted her lips.
At first, the idea of making poison was exciting, but that feeling faded after repeating the same failures, now on her tenth attempt.
If I just had to make it, it might have been different, but she had to manually prepare materials, mashing seeds or finely chopping snake poison bags to extract juice.
Ugh.
This isn’t the repetitive work I imagined.
I was thinking of something like splashes and bangs!
She held the wooden stick and stirred the thick liquid loosely.
“Can’t I just burn it moderately since it’s poison anyway?”
She had been stirring the cauldron for thirty minutes.
Every attempt!
Ugh.
She raised her index fingers.
“One plus one is two! Mixing bad things with bad things means twice the bad!”
Special recipe, burnt poison!
Don’t complain that it’s bad~.
After all, if you eat it, you’ll die~.
“Of course not.”
The demon grabbed her hand and made her grip the wooden stick again, forcibly stirring the cauldron.
Ugh.
“Alchemy is not much different from cooking. If you burn the bottom of the soup to add a bitter taste, it doesn’t become a bitter soup but rather a burnt soup.”
Ugh.
“Demon, do you know? Meat tastes better when it’s slightly burnt! I completely agree! So wouldn’t poison taste better with a little burn?! Totally agree!”
Gasp.
Perfect logic.
The demon pretended not to hear.
“Stir well to avoid burning. We just need to stir for thirty more minutes to let the moisture evaporate as much as possible.”
Agh.
After thirty minutes, Pastel stopped, her shoulders slumped. She prodded the dark purple viscous substance in the cauldron and felt its sticky texture.
It feels like it could kill you if you eat it!
“I think it’s done!”
The demon looked into the cauldron.
Dark and murky.
“It’s burnt. Failure.”
Ugh.
I have to make it again!
Pastel held her head in despair.
“Waaah!”
Save me, Pastel!
The demon sighed and looked up at the ceiling.
“It’s already the tenth failure. What do you think the cause is?”
Hmm.
After seriously contemplating, she found the cause and her face brightened. With hands on her hips, she confidently said,
“I guess it’s our compatibility! You may not know, gloomy demon, but popular people can’t get along with everyone! That’s how it is between me and these!”
That’s right! This is the answer!
The demon poked Pastel’s forehead with a finger.
“You’re wrong.”
Eek.
“You keep making failures because you’re not following instructions. Why do you sing in the middle? Because of that, we’re in this situation.”
“You don’t understand! People need a labor song!”
“Then why do you dance? If you hadn’t danced, it wouldn’t have burned this much.”
“Well, that’s…”
Pastel thought hard.
“Just…?”
The demon looked flabbergasted.
Ugh.
“But! But!”
Pastel waved her arms.
“Knowing that the production process is this exhausting and tedious makes it hard for my body to stay still!”
The demon looked even more incredulous.
“Very confident.”
The demon’s finger pushed against Pastel’s forehead.
Wobble wobble.
“Waaah, stop!”
“You need to do it properly.”
She avoided the finger and stood up.
“Anyway! Demon, you said alchemy is no different from cooking, right? Am I right? Am I right?”
“What does that have to do with anything?”
Pastel smiled slyly. She crept closer and poked the demon with her finger.
“Demon! Demon! The cooking demon!”
“Stop calling me that.”
Holding her hands tightly, Pastel looked up at the demon.
“Since you’re going to cook for me anyway!”
Pastel’s pink eyes sparkled.
Sparkle sparkle.
“Please make the poison too!”
An innocent plea!
Feeling fatigued and bored, Pastel eagerly flattered.
“Fantastic and great super ultra demon! The touch of an expert is needed in specialized fields!”
She wiggled her soft hands as if to show them.
“Making inferior poison with these hands will only lead to regret in the field! The special poison you make is the ultimate weapon that can save starving Pastel!”
A perfect argument with no flaws!
Here, here!
Pastel pulled out a magic stone knife. Covering her mouth, she mimicked ventriloquism with the knife.
The knife spoke in a small voice.
“I agree too. The perfect poison to accompany me can only be made by the demon.”
Gasp.
Pastel showed a surprised expression.
“Did you just hear that?! My knife friend said so! Saying it has to be the poison made by you, Demon!”
Wow.
A consensus that even inanimate objects can speak!
The demon looked at her in exasperation.
“Younger Craft.”
“Yes!”
Eyes shining.
“I won’t do it.”
A firm voice.
Like a parent realizing that a soft attitude is having a very bad influence on their upbringing.
Gah.
Pastel froze.
The harsh and cold reality had arrived.
“Do your own work.”
The icy cold demon said in an absolute tone and went to clean up the failed cauldron.
Left alone, Pastel let out a sigh as if her soul had left her body.
Do it yourself.
Yourself!
Yourself…!
She clutched her head.
“Waaah!”
Cold reality!
Harsh reality!
A wave of despair probably washed over her.
“To think I now have to do the exhausting, boring, and tedious work myself! Ugh! I just wanted to make a failure on purpose to avoid doing it…!”
Please recognize my sabotage!
Just let the demon do it!
Footsteps were heard behind her.
“What did you say…?”
Eh.
Pastel slowly turned around, frozen.
The demon returned, having left behind cleaning supplies, staring in shock.
“Younger Craft?”
Waaah!
Caught red-handed with a guilt-inducing tantrum…!
The real fear of getting scolded…!
“I’ll be a good Pastel and take care of it myself!”
Pastel ran away in a hurry.
The demon hurried to chase after her.
“Wait a moment. What was that just—”
“I’ll return as a genius witch!”
Hurry hurry.
“Leonard!”
Pastel waved her hands cheerfully.
Leonard turned back, appearing somewhat taken aback while talking to his subordinates.
“What were you doing that you just arrived now?”
“Personal matters!”
“What a shameless person. Here, take this.”
Leonard handed her the results of the audit from the guilds.
While the knight corps and soldiers searched the cult that invaded the skywhale, the gathering of other guilds was halted. They had just begun a simple audit while they were at it.
If they conducted an actual audit while the Prism guild was disintegrating, it would only increase the anxiety among the other guilds, so it was more of a formality than a proper audit.
“I can’t be sure without digging deeper, but on the surface, there doesn’t seem to be a connection with the cult. If we dig further, we might find something.”
Pastel skimmed through the documents while listening to the report. Then, she shook her head, smiling.
“No, it’s okay! This is enough for the audit! From what I heard from the knight corps, only some senior members of the Prism guild are related to the cult. The rest just followed upper management’s orders.”
“Really? You said it was personal, but it seems you weren’t just idling around?”
Revenge is indeed a personal matter.
After meeting Leonard and his friends, she headed towards the prison where the key executives of the Prism guild were being held.
“You said you would solve it yourself. Why are you here then?”
Ugh.
Though she had run away, due to the situation with the magic sword sealing the demon, they ultimately had to travel together within a certain distance.
Wah wah.
So embarrassing!
The demon only sighed deeply and didn’t say much, but Pastel was tormented by intense shame.
Covering her face, she murmured in a small voice.
“Please don’t say anything…”
“I understand.”
Agh.
Really not saying anything made her conscience ache…
When they finally reached the prison, they were able to receive guidance from the soldiers.
Pastel received investigation documents and a list of executives from the Prism guild. She examined each executive’s charges and careers, marking some names with lines and others with circles to organize the list.
“What are you planning to do?”
“I’ll sort them out and have them eaten by the guild.”
The Prism guild has excellent techniques for processing high-quality materials for drug use. Though not at the level of handling materials, there were also professional alchemy personnel.
In other words, it could produce poison.
Hum hum.
If the demon doesn’t make it~.
Someone else can do it~.
The executives, having been captured on charges of conspiracy to murder Craft, were also facing the exposure of other economic crimes.
She was considering a conditional leniency for the guild takeover. Economic crimes could be swept under the rug with bribes.
Pastel faced each of the listed executives.
“As the person who was targeted for assassination, I still feel the terrifying sensation lingering, but I was worried that there might be an innocent person among you.”
Upon investigation, it turns out you are innocent. I want to release you, but this experience has left me traumatized, so please help me change the fearful nameplate of the Prism guild.
Proposals sweetly suggested by the pink girl with a frightened face over the prison bars were hard for anyone to reject.
Whether it was truly because they were deceived by false statements or the terrifying figure calmly threatening them with a fearful expression, only those involved knew.
The released executives dismantled the Prism guild to make it easier for it to be taken over from the inside.
As the guild’s value plummeted, Pastel could now buy it at a lower price with just a few signatures on documents.
Prism guild?
From now on, let’s call it the Craft guild.
Hehe.
The one who likely experienced the biggest change in life during this process was probably Sinclair, the guild master.
No, perhaps he’s no longer the guild master.
The girl stood before the bars. Darkness enveloped the prison. Only the dim light cast a long shadow of the girl.
Sinclair, with a battered face, clutched the bars.
“I am innocent!”
His hoarse voice echoed.
The girl flinched in surprise.
A soldier witnessing the reaction from the noble touched off an uproar, swinging his weapon inside the prison. Sinclair was hit on the head and bled, but he didn’t let go of the bars.
His desperate eyes gazed.
“Noble! Please believe me! I had no intention to harm you!”
His cracked voice cried out desperately.
The girl trembled.
“Is it true? Are you innocent, Mr. Sinclair?”
Hope flickered in Sinclair’s eyes.
“Yes! I’m innocent! Please believe me!”
He seemed to hope that he would be released as he had heard the news of the other executives’ release.
“I see….”
The girl hesitated.
Carefully lowering her body, she whispered in a voice small enough for the nearby soldiers not to hear.
“I know.”
It was a cold voice.
Sinclair stiffened.
“Then I’ll postpone your execution. I feel like my heart won’t be able to take it. Instead, you shall spend your life in prison.”
The girl met his gaze and then stood up. Slowly, she took her leave. The soldiers followed.
The sounds of terrified screams echoed.
