The next morning was different from usual.
Even if the supervisor didn't beat up the frying pan, everyone got up from bed.
Not simply because there was no work.
“Wow… It has never happened before. I can't believe there is a class.”
“That’s right, what's going on?"
"Did something good happen?"
“Come to think of it, I heard that the Master took a huge chunk of stolen goods on the way here. Hey, do you know anything?"
The kids who chatted amongst themselves looked at Oliver who woke up from the worst corner and asked.
“This is the guy that Master picked up this time. He doesn't answer anything you ask, and just stares blankly.”
One child said.
"Don't mind him. If Tom sees you speaking to him, he might pick on you.”
“Ah, that's scary… But still, I’m so jealous of Tom. He came in with me, and I can't believe he is already a formal disciple."
"Is that true? Wasn't it just a rumor?"
"Almost true. Well, Andrew's underlings talk about it almost openly. Seriously, Tom already knows how to use Black magic, right?”
“That’s right, he's definitely going to be a formal disciple. He said he'd become a great Warlock."
“So be careful with him. He has a bad personality, you’ll get into a whole lot of trouble if you get on his bad side. And when he becomes an official formal disciple…"
“Well, it's not us who should be worried about, it's Marie. That 6-year informal disciple will die next month. It’s all because she went out of her way to help that idiot….Ah, what the f*ck?”
Everyone was surprised looking at Oliver who approached them without making a sound and stood next to them with a lifeless face.
“ Excuse me, Sirs, Can I ask you something?"
Oliver spoke respectfully.
There was no particular reason.
It was because the orphanage director and supervisor of the Mine always forced him to speak politely.
It became a kind of habit
Perhaps that's why Oliver's honorifics were more unpleasant than courtesy or consideration.
"What, what…?"
"Supervisor Tom. What kind of black magic does he use?"
"Ha…? What are you going to do with that?"
"I'm just curious. I beg of you."
Oliver asked, bowing his head.
Then, he could see the light of the children who were talking spread widely and soaked in a sense of superiority.
"Well, if you go that far, I'll let you know only once, so listen carefully. Well, it’s irrelevant to you, but to become a warlock, you must have two things. One, it the eye to see emotions and two, the ability to handle emotions.."
Saying that the boy raised his hand and gathered the black light.
A surprisingly crude circle was created.
"Ha… this is called emotions. It took me months to do this alone. How about you guys?"
The other two children who were chatting together made a circle with black lights on their fingertips.
It was a crumpled, clumsy circle.
“Oh, you've improved.”
“Didn’t I? I've been practicing from time to time!”
“Hahaha, how is it? Are you scared…? There are a lot of people who can't even do this. After being able to see and handle emotions, all that’s left is processing the emotions."
“What's processing, sir?”
"You don't know anything, huh. Casting Black magic using emotion is called processing. It could be a more powerful weapon than a gun, an invincible shield, or a terrible monster."
"And you can make drugs, cosmetics, perfumes, Pilates, and a lot of money."
When the word money was mentioned, the children stopped talking and exclaimed.
Oliver, who was not interested, tried to ask again what he should do to become a formal disciple, but at that time someone kicked the door and shouted.
"You idiots! If you wake up, you should clean up and eat! What are you all doing, especially when our Master is sparing his precious time and giving us lessons? Do you want to be smacked?”
All the workers who were listening to the supervisor's orders were stunned and stopped talking and began to move.
Oliver, who could not hear the answer he wanted, was disappointed, but soon began to move from the supervisor's gaze.
The supervisor grabbed Oliver and said,
"Hey, you… Don’t get cocky just because you got to attend a class as soon as you came, it’s never going to happen. There are guys here for more than a year and have yet to become official disciples. So don't even dream about it."
Oliver saw the emotion circling around the supervisor, it shone with anger and vigilance.
Oliver answered quickly, bowing his head.
"Yes, sir."
⏩ ⏩ ⏩ ⏩ ⏩ ⏩
As usual, Oliver started cleaning the factory with other workers.
Everyone worked hard as if they were happy to take the class, and thanks to that, everything ended earlier than usual.
After the cleaning, they took the meal as usual, where in addition to bread and soup, there was one more golden-yellow sausage today.
Everyone ate the sausage greedily, and Oliver too ate it.
It was salty and greasy.
Twenty minutes later, by the time they finished eating and cleaning up, a man appeared from out of nowhere.
Unlike the children working in the factory, he was well-built and had a fair complexion.
As soon as everyone saw him, they bowed their heads.
“Oh, Mr. Andrew…! Nice to meet you."
"Nice to meet you."
"Nice to meet you."
Everyone bowed their heads, following Tom’s lead.
Oliver also bowed his head, and the man named Andrew raised his hand and said,
"That's enough. Don't be so stiff. Have you all finished your meal?"
“Yes, sir!”
Everyone answered loudly.
Upon hearing the answer, Andrew gave a nod and opened his mouth.
"Well, follow me. Today, the Master will be teaching you in person."
The children had a faint smile on their faces.
Considering that they only take about five classes a year, it was a fully understandable response.
The children naturally lined up, and Oliver stood at the back after a quick glance at Andrew.
“Everyone, follow me,”
Andrew entered the factory warehouse.
In the warehouse, between the packaged sausage boxes and items covered with unidentified tents, there was a small door.
In fact, it seemed difficult to notice because it was closer to a secret passage than to a door, but when Andrew put his hand, covered with black light, the complicated pattern shone brightly and the door opened without noise.
As soon as Andrew entered the door, the children followed him.
Surprisingly, it was a fairly well-packed basement inside the door, and the light bulb was lit at regular intervals, making it pleasant.
The children chattered among themselves as if they were having fun, imagining being a Warlock living here someday.
“Oh, was there really a class today?”
A man who met Andrew on the way asked.
Judging from the atmosphere, he seemed to be in the same position as Andrew.
"Yes."
"That's surprising. When the Master comes back from the trip, doesn’t he always rest well for a few weeks, and only read books?"
Hearing the question Andrew looked at Oliver in the back.
"I guess there are times when he doesn't. Don’t mind it.”
“OK.”
After a short conversation, Andrew started walking again.
After passing through several rooms and corridors, they finally entered a room that seemed like a classroom.
Unlike other places, the wall was half-soil because it was not properly paved.
But the room wasn't very unprepared either.
Although not enough for the number of people, there were desks and chairs prepared, and there were test tubes and black magic books on the shelf, and Oliver felt his quiet heart beat again after a few weeks.
"Welcome,"
Joseph, who appeared out of nowhere, said while standing at the podium, in front of everyone.
Everyone bowed their heads as soon as they saw him.
“ We greet the Master!"
“ We greet the Master!"
Joseph raised his hand lightly and ordered them to sit down.
There were 10 desks, which was absurdly small for informal disciples who were over 30 to sit on, but there was no problem.
When the three supervisors sat down first, the workers began to fight for the rest of the seats.
Slow-footed and weak Children were forced to stand in the back and hear the classes uncomfortably.
Faster, stronger people can enjoy more, that was the motto and the first teaching of being a Warlock.
As soon as the class started, Joseph asked Andrew.
“Are you not going out?”
“Can I join you in your class, Master, if you don't mind? Since Master's teaching is always useful."
"…Do as you please."
Andrew bowed when the permission was granted.
Joseph quickly started the class.
"Well, this is a special class that I’ll be giving you, so listen carefully. First of all, let's talk about the basics before the full-fledged class. What is black magic?"
Marie raised her hand before anyone.
"It's basically a study on using emotions. To be precise, it's actually a study that deals with the soul, which is the foundation of human beings. Emotions are just some energy from the soul."
"Yes, black magic is essentially the study of dealing with the soul. Therefore, in addition to emotions, invisible human characteristics such as vitality and attractiveness can be extracted and used. Since the soul is the foundation of everything, black magic can be said to be the search for truth and fundamentals of human beings.
"Oh-oh…"
Everyone nodded in admiration and writes in their notebooks as if they understood.
Oliver thought he was the only one who didn't understand.
"Well then, is there anyone who can tell me what is the foundation of black magic."
Once again Marie raised her hand.
“Seeing emotions and handling them are the foundations of Black magic."
"Yes, no matter how much knowledge you have, it's useless if you can't see and handle emotions. And what next?"
“To become a warlock, you need to have the ability to extract the emotions and process them.”
"That's right. That's the basics of the basics and it's the real first step. But it is also as difficult as it is. Why?"
"Emotion is the energy of the soul. The moment you try to extract and process, it affects the Warlock himself. Grief, anger, hatred… If the Warlock is careless or lacks the ability, he or she can be affected by emotions and suffer damage.
"Yes! Black magic has the most destructive power and efficiency, but it's not without any risk. If the Warlock's mental strength is weak or he lacks skills, he or she would be rather eaten by the emotion. Therefore, black magic is the strongest magic only in theory, but there was no one who was able to reach it practically.”
The atmosphere became solemn for a moment.
Everyone felt worried and scared that black magic was not that easy.
CLAP!
Joseph clapped his hands to draw the attention of everyone.
"That's why I had this class. So that at least one person can build up their skills. Let's stop with the theory and try to extract emotions."
Joseph gave an experimental flask to the informal disciples.
There was a moving mass of emotion in it.
The first one who received it was Tom.
He smiled confidently and touched the mouth of the flask.
After a while, a black thread slowly came up.
Everyone exclaimed and admired it.
Next, it was handed to Marie.
She had to try a little harder than Tom to extract the emotions.
Marie frowned heavily, and Tom smirked derisively at the sight.
Next, it was given to the supervisor who manages Oliver.
He also extracted emotions but had a hard time compared to Marie and Tom.
“Supervisors sure are in a different league,"
Someone murmured.
After all the supervisors extracted the emotions, it was the turn of the workers among the informal disciples.
Everyone looked determined, but only a few were chosen from among them.
There were only a handful of people who could properly extract and pull out the emotions to their hands, while for the rest, the extracted emotions got cut off midway or were not even able to pull out the emotions.
In addition, it seemed difficult for those who extracted to maintain the emotions collected in their hands, it was also the reason why they were not made formal disciples.
“Come on, take it.”
Finally, it was Oliver's turn.
Oliver just stared at the flask container, but the other informal disciples didn’t even bother to turn their heads in Oliver’s direction since they knew that they had nothing to see…….Until Oliver opened his mouth.
"Master…"
Everyone looked at Oliver reflexively.
"What is it?"
"How much do I have to extract?"
Everyone’s eyes grew wider except for Joseph.
"…. As much as you can extract. It's training. So, extract and handle as much emotion as possible."
As soon as Joseph finished his words, Oliver placed his hand on the mouth of the flask.
Then, he began to extract emotions based on the image training he had been doing.
The lump of emotion, which occupied about one-third of the container fluctuated, and soared out of the flask container.
Surprisingly, it regained stability in Oliver's hands.
"What should I do next, Master?”
Oliver's question echoed in the room filled with silence.
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