Chapter 250 Parasitic Demon
Zaka Norman, who is over 40 but still looks very young, has a well-trimmed beard, thick hair, a pair of charming light green eyes, a standard figure, decent manners and a graceful demeanor. Anyone who sees him has to admit that he is a charming Rhine gentleman who is popular with women.
When Captain Clark introduced Yang Qiu's identity as a knowledgeable and enthusiastic spellcaster, Baron Norman, who was sitting upright in a high-backed chair, looked obviously embarrassed. His eyes wandered, he uncomfortably switched legs and crossed his feet, and subconsciously touched his nose.
This reaction clearly showed on his face that the problem he wanted to ask for help was extremely difficult to talk about.
From the time Yang Qiu entered the VIP room to the time he sat down, he had already looked at the baron from head to toe.
As far as aristocratic men were concerned, the baron's first impression on him was not too bad - he had a monocle case in his breast pocket, smooth calluses on the tip of his thumb and the second knuckle of his right middle finger facing the thumb, and there were some very faint traces of ink on his fingertips that had not been completely washed off.
Obviously, the baron's hobbies are more inclined towards literature and art, and his so-called "nobleness" based on arrogance and contempt is much less than those of the nobles who spend their entire lives on pleasure.
The fact that he could still concentrate on worrying about his own experience in front of the notorious "Nightmare Butcher" proves to a certain extent that the baron is very confident about the cleanliness of his own ass... Of course, it may also be blind self-confidence. After all, it is always difficult for men of a certain status to recognize their own worth.
"I have some impression of the surname Norman." Yang Qiu was more patient with literary youths, and took the initiative to speak with a smile, "Around 950, when I was traveling through the Rhine Kingdom, I heard that a baron named Arabet Norman held an exhibition of Lady Marion's statues. Unfortunately, the exhibition had ended when I learned the news, and I had no chance to appreciate the collection of this Norman baron."
"That was my great-grandfather." Baron Norman exhaled softly. The spellcaster in front of him was older than his deceased great-grandfather. Baron Norman's embarrassed expression eased a little. "My great-grandfather was very obsessed with Lady Marion's sculptures. He even made a will requiring that after his death, Lady Marion's works be donated to collectors who were as fanatical as him."
The fate of Madam Marion's early death added a tragic color to her works, causing the price of the works of this sculptor from the Norsk Federation to continue to rise in the two hundred years , making her worthy of being sought after by collectors from the continent of Nabaron... For Madam Marion herself, it is not clear whether it is fortunate or unfortunate.
Taking Lady Marion as the topic, Baron Norman chatted for a while about the literary traditions of the Norman family. Baron Norman sent away the male servants and butlers who were serving beside him. Only Captain Clark and the guest Yang Qiu were left in the VIP room. The Baron then bit the bullet and told his experiences one by one:
"…Looking back, all of this probably started when I got that incomplete travelogue three years ago."
"Compared to my father's love for classical literature, I am more interested in imaginative and incredible legendary novels and travelogues. I think this kind of storytelling genre is more vivid, easier for people to accept, and more conducive to spreading all the beautiful things that people yearn for."
"I am publicly collecting all kinds of legendary novels and travel notes, whether they are in circulation or not, in Moses Port. If they are lost orphans, I will be happy to pay a price that matches them."
"Three years ago, in the summer of 1030, a dark-skinned Sokri sailor approached my steward and wanted to sell a roll of parchment he salvaged from a shipwreck in the southern part of the Sokri Empire."
"The price asked by the Sokri sailor was not high, and my steward paid it directly."
Yang Qiu interjected, "Is this the housekeeper who accompanied you?"
"No." Baron Norman shook his head. "That was an old butler passed down from my father to me. He died of illness last year." After a pause, the baron added, "It was a normal death. His heart had always been in poor condition. Our family doctor personally examined him before issuing the death certificate."
Yang Qiu nodded slightly: "Let's continue talking about the parchment."
Baron Norman took a deep breath. It seemed that this parchment had cast a great shadow on him. "The parchment was missing a part. The text written in some waterproof ink was not the common language, but the ancient southern language."
"I spent a lot of energy looking for information and asked my father, who was well versed in classical literature, to help translate it. It took me about half a year to decipher part of the content."
Baron Norman paused and took a breath, then took out a palm-sized notebook from his jacket pocket, turned to one of the pages, and handed it to Yang Qiu, saying with some difficulty controlling his emotions: "The content of the interpretation is really ordinary, Mr. Spellcaster. It doesn't seem to be related to the unknown mysticism. Otherwise, I wouldn't have explored it in depth. Even when there was...abnormal clue, I didn't connect it to this in the first place!"
Yang Qiu gave Baron Norman a reassuring look, indicating that he was willing to trust him, and took the notebook.
The notebook had written down the contents of the parchment scroll in beautiful penmanship. It looked just as the baron had said, very ordinary, like a rambling travel diary written by an uneducated sailor during a boring voyage. It recorded the customs and habits of some coastal cities thousands of years ago, the famous delicacies and women of some port cities, cursed the bad weather, complained that the sour rum tasted like horse urine, and even complained about his parents' favoritism towards a more capable brother.
No matter how you look at it, this content is just a travelogue of a coastal voyage passed down by a Sokri crew member who had some literacy and lived before the common language became popular. Not to mention anything related to the occult, not even a single word related to any religious sect or church appeared.
Yang Qiu first quickly glanced through it, then read it carefully from the beginning and closed the notebook.
It is certain that Baron Norman’s experience had nothing to do with “text”.
Scholars and young intellectuals are indeed the people who are most easily influenced by the mystical books that have not been seized by the church, but Baron Norman is obviously not so irrational. Not only will he ask his family doctor to check the cause of death of the butler who was related to the parchment scroll, he will also take the initiative to seek help from the church. Since the church in Port Moses cannot solve his problems, he will still go to Innadri at the cost of his trouble.
"The problem should be with the parchment, Baron, do you still have it?" Yang Qiu returned the notebook to the other party.
"...burned it." Baron Norman said awkwardly, "After some inexplicable things happened to me, I changed the utensils I usually use and disposed of everything I thought was suspicious...including this parchment."
Yang Qiu nodded. This was also the normal reaction of a normal person after being caught off guard by a strange incident: "Let me see where the abnormality you encountered is manifested."
Baron Norman took a deep breath, stood up from the high-backed chair, called the two servants outside the door in, asked them to stay by his side, and then began to take off his clothes.
When the baron took off his shirt, Yang Qiu, who had visited the dimensional demon world many times and seen all kinds of weird monsters, couldn't help but be stunned.
Wrapped around Norman 's body, which could be considered muscular by ordinary standards, was a humanoid monster that looked like a relief, very "thin", yet very three-dimensional.
If the monster's skin was not the same color as the baron's, one would have to wonder if the baron had some special fetish and had wrapped a monster's skin around himself.
What's even more bizarre is... this monster seems to have life - when it noticed the gazes of Yang Qiu and the grinning Captain Clark, its flesh-colored eyeballs actually turned to the direction of the guests. A mouth-like crack appeared on its triangular face, and it let out a dull growl like a wild beast threatening its enemy.
The monster's limbs wrapped around the Baron's body seemed to be able to control the Baron himself, causing him to rush towards the guests uncontrollably.
The two sturdy servants seemed to be accustomed to this situation. They held the baron's body on the left and right, and skillfully put on the shirt and buttoned it up for the baron whose body was out of control.
Using clothes to block the monster's sight, the Baron regained control of his body. He seemed exhausted and let the butler help him put on his fine wool sweater, vest, and coat. He was helped to sit back in the high-backed chair and rested for a long time before he could pick up the teacup with slightly trembling hands.
"...That's it." Baron Norman said with despair, "At first it was just a small area of skin that was slightly raised. I thought I had some skin disease, but I didn't expect... Dear Spellcaster, I need your help."
"It's really - rare!" Yang Qiu stared at the miserable baron with shining eyes.
Captain Clark quickly coughed to remind Yang Qiu to pay attention to other people's moods: "Mr. Yang, do you know what this is? Is there a solution?"
Yang Qiu slightly restrained his attitude of treating the baron in front of him as a rare treasure, and nodded with a smile: "Monsters that parasitize on the surface of humans or animals and take shape with the flesh and blood of living things are indeed recorded in the Ivory Tower's Monster Codex."
It’s just that I have never seen a living host - out of politeness, Yang Qiu omitted this sentence.
Baron Norman suddenly felt hopeful: "Mr. Spellcaster, is there any hope for me in this situation?"
Yang Qiu thought for a moment and said, "Generally speaking, there are two ways for monsters from the dimensional demon world to come to the material world. One is through unstable space-time rifts or demon summoning arrays. This is the only way for most mid-level and high-level monsters to come to the material plane. The other is for powerful demons to project part of their own power into the material world, affecting a certain area rich in magic power and allowing their clones to take shape, or to plunder the bodies of native creatures born in the material world to shorten the time it takes for their clones to take shape."
The magic power of this material world is indeed abundant, but it still cannot compare with the magic saturation of the dimensional demon world. Even in the Tarantan Wasteland, which is rich in magic power and has frequent unstable space-time rifts, only low- and medium-level monsters can be born, and there are not many high-level monsters.
For a lord-level demon, the risk of his real body passing through the space-time rift is very high. Even if he wants to come to the material plane, he can only project a clone.
"Baron Norman's situation belongs to the latter." Yang Qiu raised a finger. "If I'm not mistaken, a thousand years ago, a powerful demon projected part of its power into our world and parasitized a lamb. However, the demon that had just been projected was very weak, and the parasitism required a long period of time. The sheepskin of this lamb was made into parchment, which interrupted the first round of parasitism."
"Then, the parchment fell into the hands of a Sokri crew member, and was buried in the sea due to a shipwreck. It was not until it came into the hands of the baron by chance."
When Baron Norman heard the word "big devil", he collapsed in his chair...
The spellcaster is very particular about the words he chooses to describe it, and the term "archdemon" is not used lightly - in other words, he is finished!
"There is no need to despair, dear Baron." Yang Qiu smiled and said, "You have had the parchment for more than three years and have not been killed by the parasitic monster. The parasitic demon that borrowed part of your flesh and blood has no wisdom left, only instincts. There is only one possibility... During the thousand years of waiting for the opportunity to parasitize, the big demon's body has died in a certain dimension of the demon world."
In a chaotic place like the dimensional demon world, even the demon kings can change several times in a thousand years, not to mention the lord-level demons.
Baron Norman covered his chest and gasped, feeling a mixture of fear and relief. He pleaded painfully, "Please save this lucky unfortunate fellow like me, dear spellcaster, I am willing to thank you with everything I can afford!"
Yang Qiu's smile became even more friendly. As long as they were willing to pay, everything would be fine.
The reason why the eccentric lich Enwei learned how to take orders and do business was all due to his influence - he was the black magician who was most enthusiastic about helping others!
If it weren't for the huge hatred he had with the Church of the Fiery Sun, he would have saved enough money to build the Mage Tower long ago!
