Chapter 34. City of Dionysus (4)
The fountain's memory faded.
Jooheon looked at Cynthia.
“Someone like you thinks you're qualified to rule a city?”
Anger surged through him like a wave, sharpening every word.
Cynthia's eyes trembled at his shout.
But she gritted her teeth.
“Someone who protects others...”
Her voice shook.
“Sometimes has to make the dirtiest decisions!”
“What the hell are you saying—!”
Their emotions collided.
Then—
[Warning.]
[Abnormality detected in Lethe Artifact.]
[Condition for summoning ‘Betrayne’ fulfilled.]
[Settlement Mode: Emergency activation.]
Cynthia clearly understood what that warning meant.
Her face went pale.
“...No.”
“It's not time yet.”
“It hasn't even been a month!”
“?”
Her voice no longer carried its usual drunken laziness.
For once, she sounded desperate.
But the system remained merciless.
[Contractor: Dionysus Majesty Cynthia.]
[Due to an error in the Lethe Artifact counter, early settlement has been requested.]
[Majesty ‘Betrayne’ will personally begin collection.]
Apparently, this had something to do with Jooheon destroying the Lethe Artifact.
At the same moment...
A gate of abyssal darkness opened in midair.
Someone walked through.
“<Liberator> Cynthia.”
Tap.
A black dress shoe landed on the edge of the fountain.
A man stood there wearing a black mask that covered his eyes.
It looked like something from a masquerade ball.
A short white coat fluttered behind him as he walked forward with refined elegance.
He looked more like a polished designer than a monster.
Cynthia's voice hardened when she saw him.
“...Designer Betrayne.”
A contractor of Ra's Artifact.
A being who claimed that lives designed by his hand had no right to fail.
And someone who came to collect the same ‘quota’ from every Majesty under contract.
Cynthia forced herself to speak calmly.
“The deadline...”
“There should still be ten days left.”
Betrayne didn't answer immediately.
A smooth smile appeared beneath his mask.
“There seems to have been a problem with the counter.”
He shrugged.
“And circumstances changed on our side too.”
“Circumstances?”
“Didn't I warn you this quarter's settlement might be moved forward?”
“Delaira has been rushing us as well.”
Cynthia's eyes shook slightly at the name Delaira.
“But...”
“I haven't filled the quota yet.”
“That—”
“That sounds like your problem.”
Betrayne's voice flowed smoothly.
Polite wording.
A courteous tone.
But underneath it was the absolute arrogance of someone holding all the power.
“You signed a contract with the Majesties.”
“In exchange for keeping this city running, you agreed to regularly supply humans.”
He smiled.
“All you need to do is honor your promise.”
“...You could let it slide this once.”
“I've never failed to meet the quota before—”
“Isn't keeping a contract the bare minimum?”
“!”
“Don't look so nervous.”
Betrayne raised one hand.
A scroll-like Contract Artifact appeared in the air.
[If supply cannot be completed before the deadline, the settlement collector reserves the right to forcibly seize ‘substitutes.’]
He looked toward the streets above.
“We'll simply make up the difference with something else.”
“Perhaps a few of those citizens smiling outside?”
Cynthia's face turned white.
Her fist clenched so hard that blood appeared on the back of her hand.
“...No!”
The word sounded pitifully weak.
Betrayne tilted his head.
“No?”
“Don't touch...”
Cynthia swallowed.
“Don't touch the living people in my city!”
“‘Your’ city?”
Betrayne's voice turned cold beneath the mask.
“That's new.”
“So this city belongs to a woman named Cynthia now, rather than us?”
“...!”
“Then I suppose the Artifacts produced by this land belong to you as well.”
His smile sharpened.
“That would be a breach of contract.”
“Profits are naturally settled upward.”
“Were you planning to keep everything for yourself?”
“That's not what I—”
Betrayne laughed and clapped.
Clap. Clap.
“My.”
“What ambition you have, Lady Dionysus.”
The final title was pure mockery.
“If you don't like it...”
“I can just take some useful ones from the orphanages.”
He spoke casually.
“Children tend to receive higher grades.”
Cynthia stepped backward, visibly shaken.
“Wait.”
“There’s no reason to go that far—!”
And that was when Seo Jooheon's patience finally snapped.
“...I've been listening to this long enough.”
A new voice.
Betrayne turned.
A man had already walked close.
Arms folded.
An indifferent expression.
But his eyes gleamed with open disgust.
Seo Jooheon.
“You just keep saying things that ruin my appetite.”
Betrayne leisurely tilted his head.
“And who are you?”
He looked Jooheon over.
“You have a handsome face.”
“Dionysus's new lover?”
“What the fuck are you talking about?”
“Oh.”
“Not that?”
Betrayne smiled lazily.
“Then... a subordinate?”
“A friend?”
“Don't tell me...”
“An Artifact?”
“You want to die?”
“Haha.”
“My mistake.”
“I wondered if you might be one of this city's Artifacts.”
“If you were human, surely you wouldn't interrupt us this confidently.”
He touched his lips thoughtfully.
“Then who could you be...?”
His gaze shifted.
Then he spotted Majesty Yoo Jaeha.
“...Hm?”
Majesty Yoo Jaeha.
Betrayne chuckled.
“The <Creator> is here too.”
“I heard you pretended to be dead and escaped to the ‘Dead Point.’”
‘Creator’ was probably Majesty Jaeha's title.
But—
“...Dead Point?”
Jooheon tilted his head.
Majesty Jaeha lowered his voice.
