Volume 2, Chapter 36 – The Puzzling Blazing Eyeworm

Nearly a week had passed since the opening of Margaret Tavern. Contrary to Yisi’s expectation that there might be troublemakers, the client had mostly been nobles. Over the days, the tavern had gradually transformed into a peculiar space where nobles and commoners coexisted. The nobles, who usually looked down on commoners, uniformly sat on the left side of the tavern, far from the counter, while the commoners occupied the remaining right side, with neither group interfering with the other.

Yisi was perfectly fine with this arrangement. In fact, having only nobles would have been far more troublesome. To ensure that ordinary people could drink freely without worrying about the nobles’ opinions, Yisi even placed a folding screen in the center of the tavern, dividing it into left and right sections.

Initially, Yisi had stood behind the counter to help Fran collect payments, hoping to eavesdrop on the adventurers’ stories. Unexpectedly, however, whenever she stood there, the nobles would compete fiercely to pay their bills. In the past few days, fights had even broken out over this. Fully aware of the reason behind this, Yisi had no choice but to give up her role as an eavesdropper and retreat to the second floor of the tavern to sleep.

—This routine lasted only three days.

It was just too boring.

Early in the morning, Yisi lay lazily in bed, her silver hair splayed out, and let out a sigh.

“I really want a phone and a computer…”

Sunlight streamed into the room, where Yisi was alone, so her words went unanswered. She stared blankly at the ceiling, pricking up her ears to listen to the conversations of passersby on the street.

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Most of the tavern’s patrons were adventurers. After completing quests and earning rewards, they would come to the tavern with their companions for a few drinks, embellishing their adventures with exaggerated tales to earn praise from others. This was how most taverns operated.

Since the adventurers were skilled storytellers, many patrons would focus intently on their tales. This gave Yisi the perfect opportunity to disguise herself as Viel and quietly slip into the tavern to collect blood samples from female customers.

“But now isn’t the time…”

At the very least, she needed to cultivate a base of regular customers before making her move. Given the patrons’ preferences—currently, a glass of Margaret cost three copper coins, while a regular carpenter’s monthly wage was five silver coins—Yisi thought offering Margaret as an incentive might work better than outright bribes with silver. For example, she could further refine the Margaret to increase its alcohol content and market it as “Special Margaret.”

Then, she could introduce “Special Margaret” as a new product, recommending it to regular customers. After a select few had tasted it, she could turn Special Margaret into a limited-edition, high-priced item and introduce a voucher system. Only customers who spent a certain amount would receive vouchers, which they could exchange for Special Margaret.

By then, the small group who had tasted Special Margaret would likely boast about their experience, praising its unique flavor out of a sense of superiority. This would serve as free advertising, and the vouchers for Special Margaret would become a coveted luxury item. Eventually, Yisi—disguised as Viel—could use these vouchers as bait, enticing both commoners and nobles to exchange their blood for them.

“Of course, all of this hinges on Margaret being delicious enough… Is there something even more enticing—ah.”

Considering the lack of entertainment in this world, a new idea suddenly occurred to Yisi.

She could turn the vouchers into a form of entertainment, adding extra value to them.

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“Poker? Mahjong? Or board games? Hmm… It needs to be something easy for illiterate commoners to pick up. Poker is probably the best choice. For something more refined, board games could target the nobles.”

Naturally, she couldn’t immediately introduce poker as vouchers—that would make it impossible to complete a full deck. So before launching poker vouchers, she needed to familiarize people with poker and get them hooked on the game.

“First, I’ll make regular playing cards out of cardboard, teach Shinku and the others the rules, and then have Shinku teach the customers. I could also ask Darc to help promote it.”

Once the customers grew fond of poker, she could then modify the cards—for example, by issuing decks with more attractive designs and announcing that these special cards could be exchanged for Special Margaret. This would add value to the poker cards, making them even more desirable.

“Well, all of this will take time. No need to rush for now. For blood, I can always disguise myself as Viel and approach Shinku and the others. It’s about time to remove the mark on Sera’s back, too.”

At this point, Yisi suddenly remembered something important.

She seemed to have forgotten about the Blazing Eyeworm she had released in the Pescia territory.

Though resembling jellyfish with giant eyeballs at the top, the Blazing Eyeworm were essentially unmanned reconnaissance drones—except they lacked the ability to store information. In other words, Yisi could only observe the world through their eyes after establishing a connection. Before that, even the jellyfish themselves had no memory of what had happened. They possessed almost no intelligence and sustained themselves by passively absorbing fire elements from their surroundings, like filter feeders.

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Thus, if she didn’t check in on them periodically, she might lose track of their locations entirely.

Thinking this, Yisi sat up in bed, closed her eyes, and attempted to reconnect with the dispatched Blazing Eyeworm.

Like surveillance footage, four distinct landscapes appeared on her retinas: vast mountain ranges, a grand city, a coastal village, and a sea of flames dyed crimson.

“The city and the village… The first jellyfish should be south of Pescia territory, and the village is likely the one to the north. The mountains are near the eastern border of the vampire capital. That leaves the sea of flames—west of Celtic City? But this looks more like a lava world. Shouldn’t the jellyfish be in the sky?”

The first three perspectives were all aerial views, but the jellyfish in the sea of flames seemed to be underground. Yisi focused her attention on it, trying to command it to ascend.

But the control failed.

Yisi frowned slightly.

Has it broken free? Impossible. The fact that she could still see through its eyes meant it was still under her control. That left only one possibility—something was preventing it from rising.

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Perhaps it had entered a no-fly zone, forcing it to descend underground. For an incorporeal entity like the Blazing Eyeworm, moving through walls for a short time wasn’t an issue. As for the sea of flames, it had likely encountered a lava flow while underground.

Yisi didn’t dwell on it. Even if trapped in a no-fly zone, as long as it wasn’t destroyed, the jellyfish would keep moving forward and eventually escape.

“Besides, in a molten environment, the Blazing Eyeworm has nearly infinite vitality. Short of extinguishing the lava, no one can destroy it.”

What did concern Yisi was the no-fly zone. While such zones weren’t uncommon in Ragnarøk, in reality, she needed to be cautious. Could it be the work of another transmigrator? Or perhaps a powerful native of this world?

After checking the status of the other three jellyfish and confirming they were fine, Yisi severed the connection and let out a soft sigh.

“I’ll investigate the jellyfish in the sea of flames later. There might be a pleasant surprise waiting.”

“I need to verify your identities! Turn around and take off your clothes—I suspect you’re the fallen!”

No sooner had these words been spoken than a discordant voice erupted from the first floor of the tavern below Yisi.