Gluttony Demon King with the Swampman ~A Man with No Magic Power Who Dreamed of Magic, Wielding Knowledge from His Past Life Through Steady Research and Hard Work to Become the Most Vicious Final Boss~

Chapter 56: Magical Armaments Are Romance

After several more experiments, I finally started fine-tuning the magical armament.

In the mansion’s laboratory, now thoroughly broken in from half a year of constant use, I released the fragment of the “Demon King of Thorns” that had been bound in ink.

It was completely exhausted, yet the insolent thorn still crackled and squirmed, trying to pierce me dead with its glare.

When I pinned the thrashing tip down with ink, it became safe enough to handle—for the moment.

“Yeah, it’s definitely trying to split.”

The Demon King’s fragment desperately branched outward, tearing itself in half. Its monstrous vitality was plain to see.

“Young Master, how shall we proceed?”

“Let’s go according to plan.”

“Understood.”

I had already discussed everything with Oz and Zaria.

Everyone currently living in the mansion was here, except Noiche being the only one absent since she was looking after Cira.

Well, in this particular case—
the best approach would be to locally puppetize the thorn’s “growing points.”

“Umm, I don’t really get it… what’s a growing point, boss?”

I explained to Egiy, who tilted her head in confusion.

A growing point.

It’s the single spot inside a plant where cell division is especially active—the part that governs the plant’s growth.

Thinking back to my previous life, the example closest to me was cabbage.

Even after harvest, cut from the root and shoved into the fridge, cabbage keeps growing, wasting the nutrients and water stored in its leaves.

That happens because the growing point is still alive.

Since a cabbage’s growing point sits deep inside the core, you stab it with a fork and crush it. Once you do that, the cabbage stops growing and can be stored long-term with all its nutrients intact.

“Growth, proliferation, division… we’re going to make sure it can’t do any of those anymore. Zaria, if you please.”

“Okie-dokie!”

Zaria took a slow breath and chanted.

“Rise, fire-whale of the sky; dawn, clear the gloom; let thy sign shine here.”

It was an applied spell of “Detection” developed just for today.

Instead of exposing an enemy’s weakness, it revealed and marked the growing points that needed to be sealed.

Then Oz removed her blindfold, and her demonic eye glared at the countless glowing dots.

“Looks good. No problems.”

Thanks to all the careful preparations beforehand, the puppetization by demonic eye went perfectly smoothly.

With dry, cracking sounds, the Demon King’s fragment convulsed, and soon every growing point turned into ebony stakes driven deep inside.

When I released it from the ink to test, it still thrashed, but it no longer multiplied. Growth had completely stopped.

“Now we process it while it’s still alive. Something easy to use, easy to carry… Egiy, make it exactly like the plan we drew up. Feel free to improvise if you think of something better.”

“R-roger that!”

I tossed the re-bound thorn to her. Egiy yelped “Eek!?” in fright but caught it safely with both arms.

Watching us, Zaria spoke up.

“But if we completely stop its growth, won’t that kill the Demon King of Thorns’ greatest strength?”

“That part will be fine once Cira gets her hands on it.”

“Really?”

Her plant magic is a little unusual.

She can force existing plants to grow and freely control the direction they grow in—but it doesn’t end there. Plants raised by her magic stretch vines, spread leaves, and bloom flowers in places that should be impossible places.

Call it an expansion of possibility.
The power to make plants “flower” even where they shouldn’t be able to grow— that power will surely work on these thorns whose growth has been halted.

Which means the hero Cira can wield this armament. And only her.

“A custom weapon, huh? That’s pretty cool.”

I really love romance.

Around the same time the hero and Haro were devoting themselves to training— an ominous movement stirred in town.

“I can’t stand it anymore! That brat called Haro… because of him, the whole medical guild has lost all face!”

The medical guild of Terranon.

It was a vested-interest group made up of doctors and healing mages, and every member gathered here absolutely despised Haro.

That was only natural.

Put simply, their vulgar complaint was “That kid is stealing all the medical work, so nothing comes to us anymore,” but for them it was a matter of life and death.

And it wasn’t only about money—it was about trust, too.

“How the hell is that brat doing it… even I couldn’t heal that missing limb! Yet he regenerated it perfectly!”

“Same with the retired Viscount Chiltor’s case. How did he safely remove such a huge liver tumor…!”

Missing limbs, cancer.

Diseases and injuries everyone had accepted as incurable—Haro had cured them.

The ruler of this city, Viscount Chiltor, already treated Haro favorably out of gratitude for healing his retired father, and that attitude from the lord was starting to spread to the citizens.

They say he’s the doctor the lord trusts.

Even though he’s so small, if the lord believes in him that much, his skill must be real.
No doubt about it—my old man was cured by that boy too.

The rumors among the common people had already spread through the city beyond any hope of stopping them—

And so the medical guild lost nearly all the work it once had.

“A-are we really doing this? A duke’s daughter is with them, you know.”

“It’ll be fine. We’re not the ones getting our hands dirty.”

“The request is already placed. What is there left to fear now!”

—In short, the medical guild had been driven into such a corner that they could no longer survive unless they somehow got rid of Haro.