[Silver Ash] - Become The Strongest In Another World
CHAPTER 69: Man (3)

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"By the way, Noelle .. What did you whisper to Glantz earlier? "

After some time talking to Glantz about Noelle's 'order', Noelle and Cryll immediately walked out of the workshop.

And when they were right at the gate, Cryll asked Noelle about what she whispered to Glantz earlier.

Cryll looked curious and wanted answers, but Noelle did not answer and smiled faintly.

" … Yahh, it's just a trivial matter about my sword sheath, I want some additional ornaments to add there."

After a moment of silence, Noelle answered Cryll's question with her usual bright smile.

Cryll wasn't sure. He knew that was not the real answer. In her ear, Noelle indirectly said that she should not know any deeper than that.

Cryll narrowed his eyes and frowned uncomfortably.

"By the way, I still have some business regarding my request earlier, and this will probably take quite a while, so .. I want you to go back to the inn first."

As if unaware of the uneasiness in Cryll's mind, Noelle cheerfully asks Cryll to return to the inn alone.

Naturally, Cryll realized that what Noelle was going to do next was something related to this problem.

Though curious, Cryll still tries not to get involved in any serious issues with Noelle, as it is their kind of friendship from the start.

So Cryll easily nodded his head.

"Alright, but don't blame me if Miss Olivia scolds you later."

"Ahaha~ don't worry about it~ somehow I'll handle it."

Noelle said with a wry smile.

"Well, I'll go now."

"Mhmm, see you~"

Cryll turned around and walked away leaving Noelle alone who was still waving her hands cheerfully.

As soon as Cryll's back was out of sight, Noelle slowly lowered her hand and her bright smile had also slowly disappeared, replaced with a sharp grin.

"Well, the emotions and the human brain are the parts that make me most curious … "

Noelle said that in a voice so low that it could only be categorized as 'whispers', then turned around and went back inside the workshop building.

The sky was already dark, and community activity was also seen to have been halted since a while ago.

The deafening sound of bells echoed throughout the city as a harbinger of the coming night.

A few working blacksmiths, slowly began to leave the workshop with cheerful faces.

Noelle walked past them all without anyone realizing it as if her existence had never been there.

After a few seconds down the deserted workshop room, Noelle finally arrived right in front of a tightly shut metal door.

Noelle's smile deepened as if looking forward to what was coming next, then she slowly pushed the door with both hands.

The door smoothly opened following the amount of force Noelle had exerted on her hand, then-

"《Reign》"

Instantly, a gigantic magic circle appeared and filled the room behind the metal door.

"W-what happened?! "

Glantz who was still in the room alone seemed to be cooed with a magic circle that suddenly appeared, but he could not do anything.

In the next instant, the magic circle began to fill the room with an extremely bright and dazzling light.

Bring Noelle and Glantz who drowned in it.

...****************...

"Ughh … "

As soon as Glantz opened his eyes, the first thing he saw was a dark red stone wall with an uneven surface and a very rough appearance.

"Where ... Am I …? "

He tried to look around him, but only his head was able to move.

He could not feel his body at all.

The surrounding scenery was nothing more than a dark red-colored stone wall that looked terrifying with a few blood spots there and here.

Glantz is not an amateur. He is someone with a lot of life experience on the edge. So, even though his body was paralyzed and only his head could move, he was somehow able to remain calm.

"Yo, you're finally awake. It's hard enough waking you up using magic, you know? "

A voice he had recently known appeared from behind him.

He could not turn his head to look back, but he knew who it was.

"Noelle .. Kah? "

"Yep, it's me~"

Noelle appeared in front of him with a bright smile.

"Geez, how immune are you to magic? I'm having trouble just waking you up, you know? "

Noelle folded her hands and spoke in a joking tone.

"Yahh, but it's not important because you finally woke up by yourself~"

" … Even though it ate most of my magic power just to maintain this room."

Glantz did not understand his point, he just stared intently at Noelle who was playing around in front of him.

" … How long have I fainted? "

She tried to ask with a stern expression at Noelle, but Noelle seemed unfazed and answered her casually.

"Just for a minute, you only fainted for about five minutes."

" … By the way, did you take me to this place? "

Glantz narrowed her eyes and looked at Noelle with a menacing look.

"Technically, we're still in your room at the workshop, but .. You can assume that I did take you somewhere else~"

" … What are you talking about … "

Glantz said that with a voice that sounded like a small scream and made Noelle smile.

"Well, nah~ don't have to be mad at me~ you better save your energy for later."

" ……… "

Glantz did not say anything, and simply looked at Noelle with killing intent.

Noelle seemed unaffected and seemed to be enjoying it.

Although he directed killing intent at Noelle, it did not mean that he could do anything in his current state.

He was in a sitting position on a wooden chair with his hands tied behind his back.

Moreover, his body was so paralyzed that he was completely unable to move anything other than his own head.

He believes that Noelle has done something to him, but he has no proof of that …

Although it would be more appropriate to say that he did not need any evidence at all.

Noelle has admitted that she was the one who brought her to this place.

" … What do you want? There's absolutely no point in kidnapping someone like me, you know? "

Glantz asked as calmly as possible.

He has no family so Noelle won't be able to make them pay the ransom, and he was just a money-making tool in the eyes of the nobles so he had quite a strong protection from the nobles who invested in his workshop.

So Noelle would absolutely not benefit anything just by swooping her.

At least that was what he thought with his pessimistic personality.

"Ahh~ aren't you putting yourself down too much? Even if it's true sih~"

Noelle said that while slightly giggling.

"But, at least .. You still have many uses lho~"

" ……… "

Slowly and silently, Noelle walked up and stopped right behind her.

Glantz was currently sitting on her back to Noelle.

"I told you that, right? I'm pretty sure I whispered it pretty clearly in your ear … "

Noelle slowly brought her lips closer to Glantz's ears.

Unbeknownst to Glantz, Noelle had also used some debuff-type magic to mess with her mind.

"I'm sure you hate me, don't you? "

" ……… "

There was no answer, but Glantz's eyes wandered unfocused and panicked.

Noelle only whispered in her ear, yet it had a very strong impact on Glantz's emotions and psychological state.

It seemed that the effect of the debuff magic was quite strong as Glantz was instantly shocked and his mouth was speechless.

"Right, you're completely useless, you don't have any use, you don't have anything you can be proud of."

Noelle continued to whisper Glantz using the words she had carefully chosen.

Without realizing it, his smile deepened.

"You know? When I first saw you, I knew right away that you had a very deep 'darkness' in your heart, so I thought that you would be an easy person."

"People with a tendency to have negative emotions in their hearts are very conquerable people, but it is quite difficult to find such people, because that is .. Glantz, sacrifice for my experiment, huh uh? "

Noelle with a crazy grin pointed a knife at the neck of Glantz who was sitting with empty eyes.

"Hmm? Ahh~ I think this magic effect is too good~"

Noelle who saw Glantz's 'empty' condition looked a little disappointed, but still maintained her smile.

"Well, I don't think your mind is strong enough to defend yourself with that magic .. Well, let's start now~"

Noelle flicked her finger, and the room once again changed.

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It was a dark room with one big light hanging right in the middle of the room.

The room was a little different than the one before.

If the room that was previously synonymous with the theme of 'blood and torture', then this place might have the theme of 'eternal void' and would destroy one's mentality slowly.

There was absolutely nothing in that place but himself.

At least that's what he thinks. But in reality …

"Hey, I'm sure you're angry, but .. Can you stop ignoring me? "

Noelle stood behind him with a terrifying smile.

" ……… "

Glantz did not respond at all.

Noelle made a pouting expression and frowned, then she shrugged her shoulders in a relaxed motion.

"Well, I hope it goes well even if he's only half conscious."

Noelle then turned her lips back to Glantz's ears and began to whisper.

"Why are you quiet? You loser."

In the next instant, Glantz's body trembled and his eyes slowly began to emit a light of madness.

Just one sentence was enough to make his common sense disappear, that was proof of how terrifying mind-type debuff magic was.

Noelle still used that magic on Glantz every few times with the same dosage, so, the effect would be consistent.

The disadvantage of this magic is that it is only effective in people with higher levels of negative emotions than normal people, and the effect also did not last long so the mariner had to continue chanting this spell for the effect to be consistent, it would actually exhaust their mana for just this one spell alone.

(Yahh, the effect is still not visible anyway, precisely ... This is the first time I tried to brainwash someone using magic ... then .. Let's continue.)

Noelle grinned and whispered back in Glantz's ear.

"Hey, again, you must hate me, right? "

"I have everything you don't have."

"I have a natural talent in everything, wealth, status, connections, women, and great power."

"Well you? You didn't have anything from the beginning. You are nothing more than a side character who has no influence whatsoever on the course of the story in this world."

"You have no talent, you have to train very hard for many years just to reach a level of strength that is much lower than me."

Glantz's body trembled even more and his eyes began to swell. But that just makes Noelle's smile deeper.

"I had a lot of wealth instantly, I was even confused how to spend all my money."

"While, you have to do a lot of hard work just to get a small amount of my total wealth."

"Hey, it feels sad, doesn't it? Does that hurt? "

"How does it feel? When you hear the news about someone much younger than you has gotten everything you wanted for so long? "

"Of course it's really annoying, isn't it? I'm sure you've heard or even seen far more successful people with less effort than you who try so hard, yet are still a loser."

"You're just a useless loser, you don't have the strength, you lost everything you dreamed of, yet you didn't accept that reality and ended up blaming someone else. Right? "

Glantz's body stopped shaking as a hypnotic effect, and his eyes slowly turned lifeless.

"I don't know about what happened to you in the past, but I can guess just by looking at you."

Noelle raised both of her hands and grabbed Glantz's head from behind.

"Human brains and emotions have always been the most mysterious thing to me for a long time, I'm dying to know more about it, but most of the research I've seen are just plausible hypotheses from adults."

"Therefore, I thought of doing my own experiments, but .. I had enough trouble finding a good subject."

Noelle's terrible whispers continued and aggravated Glantz's lifeless state.

"The brain structure of humans and monkeys is quite different, so I can't use monkeys as the subject of my experiments, after all I'm the type of person who doesn't want to hurt animals."

"I've been looking for a lot of subjects for a long time, but I didn't find one that fit my hypothesis at all, but .. You've pitched, Glantz."

"You have so many negative emotions accumulated within you, yet you are still able to maintain your consciousness without experiencing the [Berserk] condition."

Noelle had no idea how Glantz managed to maintain her sanity without having to turn into a berserk due to the negative energy that was accumulating inside her.

Noelle had been living with Charlotte for some time, so she could easily tell the difference between negative energy and positive energy.

And when he met Glantz, he immediately realized that the person had an enormous amount of negative energy sitting inside him.

Positive and negative energy are different from magic energy.

Magic energy or mana is energy that flows throughout his body through blood vessels and organs called magic circuits. The process of circulation is quite similar to blood circulation.

The beating heart will produce a gradual amount of magic energy which will then be flowed throughout the body through the magic circuit.

Meanwhile, positive energy and negative energy are the energy that settles in the 'soul' of a person.

A normal person has a balanced composition of positive and negative energies, and it is not easy to increase that amount of energy.

The only person with the most negative energy Noelle knew was Charlotte.

He originally wanted to do this experiment on Charlotte, but Charlotte had the blessing of Goddess Anastasia protecting him, so it was impossible for Noelle to influence him.

Charlotte had the blessing of Anastasia that would automatically convert that negative energy into her source of power as a [Fallen-Angel], but Glantz most likely did not have that.

Noelle felt a little curious about how Glantz was able to survive, which is why he will investigate tonight.

The condition [Berserk] will only be achieved once a person increases the negative energy he has massively.

Naturally, ordinary human bodies and souls would not be able to hold large amounts of negative energy, which would eventually cause damage to their bodies and souls.

It was Noelle's theory of berserk conditions.

Charlotte has a blessing that protects her, whereas Glantz does not. How did Glantz survive to this day?

Noelle was interested in the answer.

Noelle once again brought her lips closer to Glantz's ear, and began to whisper.

"Hey, Glantz .. You yourself realize how bad you are, don't you? "

" ……… "

"You're a loser, useless, a burden, unimpressive, lame. Whatever you do will only be looked at one eye by another."

"You're nothing more than a money-making tool for those high-class pigs."

" ……… "

"You know? Instead of wasting your time like that, it would be better if you could be of use to me."

Noelle raised Glantz's head and made him look into her eyes forcefully.

Noelle's smile deepened.

"You should be grateful that I'm hiring a dud and crummy like you."

Glantz's eyes looked lifeless, yet he nodded slowly.

(I didn't think brainwashing was this easy .. )

It's a little different than he expected.

Noelle thought it might take more time to do brainwashing. However, perhaps due to the effects of magic or Noelle that triggered the negative energy within her, Glantz seemed to be directly obedient to Noelle.

Noelle's smile grew deeper and more insane.

"Well, then .. Explain everything you know about this city, about the past, about the intricacies of this kingdom that you know."

"Tell me everything without hiding anything."

With a crazy smile, Noelle issued her first command.

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