The Lady's Butler: I Reincarnated To Serve The Villainess-Chapter 31: Alvíss Eldgrim

Atchoo.

"This is annoying," Adrian muttered as he let out another sneeze while he put on his official butler uniform.

«This is the best case scenario,» Noctis, lying on the bed, answered, «after all, there was a high chance of you blowing up due to mana clash.»

He didn’t respond, instead he just continued putting on the uniform before walking out the room, despite Margaret warning him to rest.

It was the morning after he almost caused Renelle to be overloaded with mana and according to Margaret, the Lady seemed to have completed her breakthrough and was now calmly sleeping.

Although he wanted, more than anything, to ensure that she really was fine with his own eyes, tomorrow was the start of the academy and there was something he could only do today.

To avoid being seen by Margaret and potentially being forced back into bed, he sent his shadow forward and the moment it was completely out the gate, they switched places.

ATCHOO!

He sneezed again as he reappeared outside, a bit far from the mansion’s gates, with Noctis on his head and his shadow trailing behind before reconnecting with his feet.

Adrian then continued forward with a destination in mind, the market place.

***

It took him only a few minutes to reach the market and he was immediately hit by the sounds of merchant’s shouting out their goods.

But he was interested in none, instead, he turned towards a set of shops before calmly stopping in front of one whose sign read:

{FUCK OFF IF YOU HAVEN’T GOT ANY SPECIAL MATERIAL.}

"How welcoming," Adrian said before pushing the door open, the bell above it letting out a ding as he walked in.

The interior seemed like weapon shop you’d find in a fantasy shop, with a multitude of weapons both on display and just randomly laying around.

Atchoo!

"Don’t fucking get your spit over my weapons, just stay home if you know you’re sick."

The moment Adrian sneezed, a gruffy voice came from behind the counter, but strangely enough, there was no one standing there.

"And where the hell do you think you’re looking?"

Well, there was someone behind the counter, but one had to actually look behind it.

Saving Adrian the trouble, the person suddenly revealed himself, seemingly standing on some sort of stool.

The grumpy voice belonged to a balding old man with so much beard that one would swear he was a dwarf....erm, only for his beard of course.

Him being associated with a dwarf had nothing to do with his below average height.

Adrian stood there for a couple of seconds, looking at the sho— bearded old man. The manhwa had described him as being extremely short, but seeing him through pages and in real life, were two different perspectives.

But his height wasn’t what made Ethan pause, rather he was simply recalling the information he had on the man. 𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

Alvíss Eldgrim, a simple blacksmith.

Or at least that’s what the manhwa would lead you to believe in earlier arcs.

He only appeared once in a while, whenever the Prince or any of his followers needed some sort of magic tool.

But in truth, he was one of the villains....or rather antagonists that would be an obstacle in the path of the two MCs only for them to defeat him, bullshit him about the goodness in him and then gain a genius blacksmith by their side.

When in truth, Alvíss’s genius lay in his mad science.

Adrian always thought he was a wasted character, the moment he switched sides, his creations seemed to lack the spark they previously had.

After all, being part of the protagonists team, meant you also had to turn into a goody two shoes, thereby preventing him from running his experiments.

Why did he clash with the protagonists in the first place?

Well, at that point in the manhwa not much was explained, but it had something to do with another certain unique antagonist the protagonists had managed to recruit.

Alvíss kidnapped her to find out if he could turn her into a living magic tool, the protagonists interrupted the plan and after a clash that almost destroyed half the royal capital, which was ridiculous for B ranks, the prince used a certain powerful technique which awakened the good in the old dw—man....

The age old, power of words.

And that was exactly why Adrian was here, well, not because he wanted to turn him good, no.

All he was interested in was Alvíss’s original genius...but first,

"I’d like to sell some cores," Adrian said as he approached the counter.

"Go away kid," Alvíss said, "I’m uninterested in the Frost Wolf’s core your papa—"

Thud!

His words were cut off when Adrian pulled the cores from his [Shadow Vault] and calmly placed them before him.

Alvíss’s eyes narrowed as he looked at the cores before him before looking up at Adrian, finally assessing the customer that had walked in.

"Where did you get these?" He asked as he watched the cores saturated with mana, mana that definitely wasn’t from the frost Wolves.

"The frozen forest," Adrian answered with a calm look on his face.

Alvíss was a bit surprised, but he didn’t let it show on his face, after all, this much shouldn’t be a surprise.

But he was forced to swallow his thoughts when Adrian suddenly said, "ah, I almost forgot about this."

Sitting in his palm was a core that clearly holds a lot more mana than the rest but if it was just that, Alvíss wouldn’t have stopped in his tracks.

"T-that’s..."

Alvíss’s hands seemed to tremble,as his eyes seemed to immediately get greedy, wanting nothing more than to snatch the core from Adrian.

But he calmly stepped back, away from the old man’s reach as a small grin appeared on his face, one which he quickly hid and spoke finished Alvíss’s words,

"A dragon’s mana," he finished before wrapping his hand around the core, "now then, would you like to make a deal?"