The Sorcerer's Handbook

Let the Celestial Chariot Ox step back to the midnight of May 20.

After Evelyn Belldet captured the group from the Funeral Agency, she did not hand them over to the Red Hats, nor did she "preemptively eliminate threats" as Ashe and Harvey had feared. Instead, she struck a strange deal with Annan. Evelyn would shelter them and even provide comfortable accommodations on the condition that they were strictly confined to Belldet Estate and forbidden from leaving without permission.

Additionally, the deal would terminate, and the Funeral Agency squad would regain their freedom once the six of them collectively earned six thousand Bel Points.

With six people in total, each individual effectively needed to earn a thousand points. Evelyn would provide them with various jobs around the estate. Working a standard eight-hour day yielded about sixty Bel Points, while putting in overtime could bring that total up to a hundred.

In other words, if they did nothing but eat, sleep, and work, the entire group could escape within ten days at most.

On the surface, the fairness of the arrangement was beyond question. With Annan, the head of the agency, personally overseeing the negotiations and locking down every detail, Evelyn had no way to exploit loopholes or trick them.

However, the problem was that the deal itself felt deeply suspicious.

At first, Ashe assumed Evelyn intended to threaten them, or perhaps test their limits with some form of punishment disguised as labor. Yet all the assigned tasks were perfectly mundane, like cleaning corridors, gardening, drying laundry... There was even a position available for a psychological care specialist. Aside from the overwhelming scale of Belldet Estate making the workload enormous, nothing seemed intentionally malicious.

The only obvious trap was that all food within the estate had to be purchased using Bel Points, which would significantly slow their savings. To counter this, Ashe and the others initially planned to work but spent absolutely nothing, relying instead on Pankey's portable suitcase for sustenance. They had not forgotten that Pankey carried a massive stockpile of emergency rations.

However, Pankey objected. His supplies were extensive, but not enough to sustain six people through more than ten days of high-intensity physical labor. They needed fresh, hot, nutritious meals to keep going.

Annan also issued a stern warning. "If you just hoard your points and starve yourselves, you'll fall straight into Evelyn's trap. The Belldet family loves nothing more than people who play the martyr. You grit your teeth and endure misery now, telling yourselves it's for a better tomorrow, constantly tightening the leash around your own necks. But the tighter the leash, the harder you snap. The moment an irresistible temptation dangles in front of you, you'll break, gorge yourselves, and use 'treating yourself' as an excuse to flush all your hard work down the drain.

"Currency only holds value when it circulates. If you never spend it, it becomes nothing more than numbers on a page, making it even easier to waste. To truly grasp the value of Bel Points and properly respect your own earnings, you must spend them on food.

"There is only one real rule you must follow. You must never spend more than what you earn. Absolutely do not use Spend Bel, and never accept any gifts from Evelyn unless she explicitly states, 'This is an unconditional gift to you.'

"Spend Bel and her gifts are the most insidious Miracles of the Belldet family. They represent the highest manifestation of the Control Class."

When Annan finally unveiled the true nature of the Control Class, Ashe and the others finally understood the staggering depth of Evelyn's scheme.

The Control Class was an ancient, long-established branch of sorcery, an offshoot of the Mind Class also known as the Enslavement Class.

Its name was entirely self-explanatory, representing the mandate to dominate others and enslave all things.

During the wars a thousand years ago, the Control Class had flourished. Any major power was required to possess high-level Control Class sorcerers, as they represented a faction's true military might. Without them, a warlord was nothing more than insignificant trash.

The reason was simple. A single Control Class sorcerer possessed the might of a ten-thousand-man army. This was no exaggeration. They could literally enslave legions of over ten thousand creatures and command them as effortlessly as moving their own limbs. While ordinary generals had to rely on outdated, clumsy communication methods like shouting and messengers, a Control Class sorcerer could crush everything in their path with a single thought.

Even sorcerers of the same rank stood no chance against a Control Class sorcerer backed by a structured army. Titles like Strategic Sorcerer or Legion Sorcerer elevated the Control Class above all others, and for a time, a popular saying claimed that the ultimate end of sorcery lay in control.

However, like everything else, the greatest enemy of sorcery was time. Time brought technological progress and shifted the very fabric of human society.

After the Isa Imperial Family unified the Gospel Kingdom, warfare was suppressed to an extreme degree, and the glaring weakness of the Control Class was exposed instantly. Control Class sorcerers typically commanded a specific type of combat beast, such as wolves, cats, rats, or boars. During wartime, they could sustain their creatures through conquest and plunder. But in peacetime, there was no justification for maintaining such private armies.

Without their legions, Control Class sorcerers were merely inferior Mind Class sorcerers. They tried to adapt by putting their beasts to work in mining or labor, but no matter how intelligent the creatures were, they could not match even the clumsiest beastman.

As for using Control Class sorcery for livestock farming, it was mathematically redundant. Ordinary citizens without proficiency in the Control Class could raise sheep and pigs just as well.

Not every military system could transition into civilian use. It was not even a gradual decline. The Control Class effectively died the moment the Gospel Kingdom unified.

According to historical trends, perhaps if war ever returned, or if nations fell into large-scale conflict once more, the Control Class would be dug up from the archives, updated for a new era, and bloom again in a more brutal form. No throne lasted forever. The only thing that truly endured the test of time was mutual interest.

Yet, the Belldet family had managed to defy history's current, becoming the sole "version-breaker" of the Gospel Kingdom. They had developed a Miracle capable of dominating intelligent beings.

Traditionally, Control Class sorcerers only enslaved beasts, entirely avoiding intelligent beings or even lower-intelligence races like beastmen, ogres, and goblins. The reason was simple. Intelligent beings possessed civilization. They could communicate, learn, and accumulate knowledge, which meant their intellect grew over time.

Intelligence was not a fixed trait. A college-educated beastman could easily surpass a human raised in the wild among animals. With continuous learning and the development of independent thought, their intellect steadily increased. Ultimately, the natural enemy of Control was intelligence itself.

To control meant to impose one's will upon countless minds, turning one's command into the target's absolute fate and the sole truth they must obey.

Beasts were easy to control because they lacked complex thought. Even if they resisted instinctively, they did not understand why they resisted, how to rebel effectively, or what to do afterward. Controlling them simply meant replacing their basic instincts with a straightforward promise, like "Follow me, and you will be fed and safe." And so, they obeyed.

Intelligent beings, however, were plagued by thoughts. They desired more. They asked questions like, "Can I refuse to work and still eat?", "What if I don't want to?", or "Is it possible that you are the one who is actually enslaved?"

Controlling one or two individuals was manageable. But once the numbers reached into the thousands, the task became exponentially harder. A Control Class sorcerer who could effortlessly command a ten-thousand-beast army might only manage to hold ten intelligent beings. Even then, they lived under the constant threat of backlash and betrayal.

So, how many intelligent beings had the Belldet family controlled?

According to official statistics, the permanent population of Montphera in 1687 was 7.958 million. And that was just their stronghold. Unlike Vanmura, the Belldets' influence spanned the entire Gospel Kingdom. The total number of people under their sway likely exceeded 10 million.

The Belldet family achieved such a terrifying feat by fusing Control with Ritual, thereby leveraging the power of the Virtual World.

The Belldet did not pursue absolute, tyrannical dominion over others, nor did Evelyn possess the soul to enslave millions directly. Instead, the family utilized a mutually beneficial contract. They would provide material benefits, and in return, the user would share a portion of their cognitive capabilities.

According to investigative reports, those under the family's influence never felt as though a foreign mind had invaded their consciousness. Furthermore, Evelyn had no time to probe the petty emotional turbulence of millions of individual lives. In fact, most residents of Montphera genuinely considered it a fair trade, firmly believing they had profited and that the Belldet family was actually the one losing out.

So, was the Belldets actually losing out?

According to statistical data, Montphera ranked first in the entire Gospel Kingdom for average working hours and consumer spending, yet last in its aging population rate. Nearly every resident lived in debt.

Advanced consumer entertainment, high-intensity labor, and marriage and childbirth, three concepts that should have been fundamentally incompatible, were instead the shared traits of every Montphera citizen. Everyone worked under extreme pressure while simultaneously raising children and maintaining a family. On holidays, they spent recklessly, exhausting or overdrawing their credit limits, only to return immediately to the grind.

Then, the moment they turned fifty and their bodies began to decline, a sudden shift occurred. Montphera's citizens would abruptly develop thoughts like, "I want to revisit my childhood dream of adventure," "It's time to bravely challenge life," or "The Gospel is vast, and I want to see it for myself." They would voluntarily resign from their positions, spend every last coin they had, and march straight into the depths of the abyss, remote mountain ranges, or forbidden zones, ultimately dying there.

As a result, Montphera maintained a remarkably healthy population structure. The streets were permanently filled with working-age adults, with almost no elderly people in sight, keeping the city vibrant and brimming with energy.

As a side note, the city with the highest aging population rate was Vanmura.

Every citizen of Montphera genuinely believed they were normal, happy, and living fulfilling lives. And that was precisely the terrifying nature of the Belldets.

Through rituals, the Belldets converted the cognitive capacity of millions into its own mental processing power, then used those same "threads of thought" to subtly influence every controlled individual in return. In simpler terms, the Belldets used the mental resources provided by Montphera's citizens to control those very same citizens. This was why Evelyn, despite being only a Two-Winged sorcerer, could effortlessly wield authority over millions of minds.

The Belldets never attempted to forcibly dominate the population with heavy-handed commands like "work until you die," "surrender all your wealth," or "if your efficiency drops, die to make room for the young." Such orders would only provoke resistance. Instead, it relied on psychologically wrapped incentives like "pursue your dreams," "reward yourself," and "if you don't adventure now, you'll be old before you know it." In doing so, it subtly reshaped the people of Montphera into the perfect producers and consumers for its system.

The Belldet Consortium had remained firmly rooted in Montphera for generations. They had even fully monopolized the second layer born of the city's flourishing economic expansion, claiming that entire inverted metropolis as their personal kingdom. They proved they had successfully evolved the Control Class into a new form adapted for modern civilization. And the medium through which the Belldets governed the masses was money, or more precisely, loans.

They provided society with interest-free loans that could be taken at any time and repaid over years, but the collateral was a share of the borrower's cognitive capacity. The more one borrowed, the greater the share they had to surrender.

How Montphera's citizens had responded to this in the early days was lost to history, but today, nearly all of them treated Spend Bel loans as an extension of their personal wallets. In their youth, they indulged in endless consumption.

If they collectively refused to pay it back, the Belldets would face an absolute financial collapse. Yet, ironically, once they reached adulthood, Montphera's citizens worked desperately to clear their debts, only to immediately borrow again. The concept of a deadbeat debtor simply did not exist in Montphera.

Annan summarized, "Rather than the Control Class, it's more like a Currency Class. So now you understand why Evelyn requires us to accumulate six thousand Bel Points. She is simply giving you a channel for consumption. The goal is to lure you into using Spend Bel, gradually eroding your cognition until you become the slave she needs.

"Never accept any of her gifts. Unless she explicitly states it is an unconditional present, it still counts as her property. Using it, even for a single second, is equivalent to stealing her interests, and she can still force you to repay it in cognitive capacity."

Iger raised a hand. "If this so-called Currency Class is so effective, why haven't Azura, Vanmura, or the other regions adopted it? Why is the Belldets the only one doing this?"

Annan replied, "Because not every family has an ancestor who was an Angel."

The reason the Belldets could control millions was that every loan they issued was bound to a contract of "money in exchange for cognitive capacity." The true executor of this system was neither Evelyn nor her predecessors, but the Virtual World itself.

Only the Virtual World could sustain such a massive, high-frequency system of millions of contracts processing every day. In a sense, the Virtual World was the Belldets' backend.

Without the Virtual World, other families would already have difficulty controlling a few dozen people, much less running a small business.

Previously, Annan and the others could not comprehend how the Belldets had secured such powerful backing. But after the Family Ranking appeared, everything became clear. The Necromancer Angel didn't leave behind a physical legacy for the family. Instead, it left behind the ultimate key to enslaving the masses.

Harvey added, "The Control Class and the Necromancy Class are fundamentally similar. The Control Class enslaves living beings, while necromancy creates and enslaves the dead. The Necromancer Angel could easily draw parallels and develop new Control Class Miracles. It may be unorthodox, but it makes perfect sense."

At this point, everyone finally understood their immediate goal. They had to earn six thousand Bel Points, and they could not owe Evelyn a single thing.

***

Iger slammed the table in fury. "To think you actually have the nerve to buy Evelyn's things! You probably think it's perfectly fine to spend the Bel Points you earned yourselves right now. Tomorrow, you'll think it's fine to use just a little bit of Spend Bel. The day after that, you'll be mortgaging your own brains for a bargain discount! That's exactly how she breaks down your psychological defenses step by step, until you let your guard down and become that cheap, trashy woman's mindless slaves!"

Harvey raised his hand. "Iger..."

Iger let out a heavy sigh. "Harvey, can you please use a shred of common sense? Even a stray dog knows you're obsessed with necromancy. Anyone with eyes can see you're destined to inherit an Angel's legacy someday. And the Angel whose tomb you're currently digging up just happens to be Evelyn's ancestor! Do you honestly think she has even an ounce of goodwill toward you? She only wants to use you to reclaim her family's inheritance! And yet you still dare to buy her merchandise? If I were you, I'd pretend to be a corpse! Don't listen, don't look, and don't ask a single damn thing about that vicious viper of a woman!"

Lys raised her hand next. "Aunt Perskin..."

Iger snapped his gaze over, glaring at her. "You too, shut up! Can't you just use a normal mirror? Do you really need her tech for that tiny bit of convenience? Didn't Ashe teach you not to talk to strangers? Why are you still dealing with a literal, child-eating monster like Evelyn?"

Ashe, his expression incredibly strained, slowly raised his hand. "Male veela, so, uh—"

Iger blew his top. "And you, Ashe, are the absolute worst of all! This morning, you were confidently telling me to trust you, and by afternoon, you're already acting like you can't resist temptation! Let me guess, she's seducing you, isn't she? Can't you keep it in your pants for a few days, or just take care of it yourself? Don't tell me you're actually interested in that pint-sized gremlin, Evelyn?!"

"Iger Perskin."

Iger froze mid-sentence, the color draining from his face as he slowly turned around.

Standing right behind him was a blue-haired girl.

"Apologies," Evelyn said, her voice dripping with ice. "The pint-sized gremlin wants a word with you. Please follow me."

The fraudster immediately adjusted his expression and followed Evelyn out as if nothing had happened. "Of course. Lead the way."

Before leaving, he shot Ashe and the others a sharp glare, silently screaming, Why didn't you warn me?!

However, Ashe and the others felt entirely vindicated. They had tried to interrupt him several times, in fact. It wasn't their fault Iger's verbal machine gun fired too fast and too aggressively for anyone to clip. They could only watch helplessly as he delivered one critical hit after another straight to Evelyn's reputation.

The room fell quiet until Harvey suddenly spoke up. "Do you think a single coffin can fit two people?"

Ashe pondered it for a moment. "I think it'll be tight, but fine. Iger is pretty scrawny."

Lys blinked, processing the words. "Eh? (⊙△⊙)"

Ashe gave Lys a comforting pat on the head. "Lys, it's going to be just the three of us at dinner tonight. No one else is coming, understand?"

Lys's eyes went wide. "So you've already accepted that Aunt Perskin is a dead man?! Σ(°△°|||) "

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