My Wife and I Became Sages in Another World-Chapter 152: The Black Pearls Factory

A little over a week after we had taken the city of Startown, we received an attack from a group of lesser demons that tried to cross the walls but were quickly taken out and healed by the knights who had been guarding it.

Most of the beastkin soldiers that we cured from their curses had joined our army, which was making our numbers grow by a lot without Zagor knowing it.

Since we had to kill and bring back to life the beastkin when healing their curses, Zagor thought that we were massacring all of the people in the cities and villages. In reality, they were all alive and well, and most of them were going back for revenge.

We were still quite far from the capital, but our objective felt much closer to complete. freeweɓnøvel.com

When the army occupying the city decided it was time to keep moving, we started to make our way towards the factory of black pearls in the savannah that had been marked by one of the beastkin soldiers we saved.

Lampart and Rio had left a few days before to scout the area, and I received a voice message from them while we were moving, saying that the security at the factory seemed a bit lax.

My companions and I went ahead of the army until we saw the factory in the distance and regrouped with Lampart and Rio.

They said that apart from a few lesser demons wandering the outer part of the factory, the rest were just cursed beastkins that were working non-stop to create black pearls using the starstone.

They weren’t able to get inside, but after scouting for hours, nothing out of the ordinary happened, leading them to believe that those were the only people present at the factory.

However, when I used my "search" spell, I could feel a powerful presence inside the factory.

It felt much stronger than the ones the lesser demons extruded, but it still wasn’t as powerful as Armaros’ aura.

"There is something inside... Seems to be underground?" I said to my companions.

Vespera could feel it, too, and while she wasn’t able to identify exactly what it was, she said that it was definitely another type of demon.

Thinking that it would be best for us to interfere before the army arrived, my companions and I got ready to attack the factory with both Lampart and Rio joining us.

The reason we decided to do it before the empress could arrive was due to that strange presence we felt inside the factory.

If that thing could somehow activate the curse on the beastkin or simply use them as hostages, then we would have a bigger problem on our hands.

With our small team, we would be able to take the demons that were guarding the place without trouble, so I decided to go with that plan.

We watched the area for some time and spotted two beastkin that were hauling a massive wooden cart along the savannah with two lesser demons protecting their empty cargo.

As the beastkin arrived, their cart was filled up with crates containing black pearls, and the two beastkin went back to the savannah, pulling the heavy cart.

"Lampart, Rio. You guys take care of those delivery beastkins and the two lesser demons with them." I said to the two Dawn’s Defenders members.

I would have thought that Zagor was using better means to deliver his resources around, but they were just sending a couple of beastkin to haul the cart when they could have been using horses.

Still, that was good for us since it meant we could intercept all of the delivery beastkin that came this way for black pearls.

My companions and I flew high in the air to avoid being spotted by the lesser demons that were guarding the perimeter and slowly descended on the roof of the biggest building.

The courtyard of the factory had nothing other than beastkin moving carts filled with starstone around, but the black pearls were nowhere to be seen, making us deduce that their stock was inside.

"Vespera, Yoru. I want you two to weave through the shadows and heal the lesser demons out here. Once you are done, meet back with us inside..." I said to my companions, who understood their mission and disappeared.

I was left with Gina on the roof of the building, which didn’t seem to have any windows for us to sneak in, so I used my "search" spell and placed myself right above the powerful demonic presence.

"Whatever this thing is. It is right under us..." I said to the battle-maid, who clenched her daggers tight with anticipation.

After we both nodded, signaling our readiness, I used earth magic to open a hole in the roof, allowing us to jump down inside the factory building.

However, when we landed, all we saw were beastkin around us working on machinery that was processing the slabs of starstone into smaller, compact pieces.

The enslaved workers stared at us momentarily with dead eyes and continued their work as if they had seen nothing, which made me somewhat confused.

I expected them to start running and scrambling, but it was as if they had accepted their fate, whichever that was.

My "search" spell kept showing me the powerful presence under us, and when I turned to another side, I saw a set of metallic stairs that led to an underground area.

As we walked by the enslaved beastkin, who barely raised their heads to look at us, I took a peek at Gina, who had a furious expression on her face.

I supposed that seeing her own brethren as slaves working with no determination or life in their eyes would make anyone that mad.

At the bottom of the stairs, we found a metallic door with a small window that allowed us to peek and hear the commotion that was happening on the other side.

"Are you saying you don’t have any more MP, huh?" said a deep and raspy voice from the other side of the door.

"How weak! Even with your family on the brink of death, you dare stop your work!?" the voice continued.

When Gina and I peeked from the window of the metallic door, we saw a massive bipedal monster with red skin and bull horns, holding a beastkin by the neck as his limp body flailed almost lifelessly in the air.

’Yeah... That’s a demon, alright.’ I thought briefly as the shape and color of the demon was the one I was most familiar with since it resembled the monsters drawn in folklore stories in my past world.