The genius craftsman in the Novel, selling his magic tools under the name of Anonymous, couldn't be tracked down since he sold his items to various traders in the black market, but all of them will say the same thing if asked where they bought it, Azure Empire.
Except for Angela Samael who read the novel, no one knows the identity of the genius Craftsman, not even his family.
Born as a bastard child of a small nobleman in the Azure Empire and a foreign beautiful slave from the Crimson Empire, he has reddish flame-like hair and captivating apricot eyes inherited from his mother, the rare bright colors in the Azure continent.
Though the Baron of Roseville seems to have a lot of bastard children from several different affairs with women, he only recognized the red-haired boy as his son and bring him back to the Lord's mansion as the 4th young master when his birth mother died, unfortunately, the reason is never because of affection.
The Lord has the average looks, the same goes for his wife and children, the only thing that differentiates them from commoners is their fancy clothes, they have neither charisma nor appearance befitting nobles.
But not for the red-haired boy, he was rumored to be the most charming boy before the Crown Prince is born, even wrapped with a shattered shirt, his attractiveness couldn't be hidden.
'This lad can be sold to the higher noblewoman'
With that thought in mind, he took him into the family as his illegitimate child at the age of 7 after his mother couldn't win over an illness.
Bullied and always beaten up by his half-siblings out of jealousy of his appearance when he was a child, he tends to keep himself in the room and playing with cheap magic tools, starting with disassembling and reassembling them, he developed a passion for craftsmanship.
Buying then selling the magic tools and the components in the black market, he learned to use his looks to be his advantage as he grows up, like seducing the vendor to make the price cheaper.
On the other hand, his stepmother started to bring him to social gatherings and parties to introduce or more likely sell him to the higher class women, where he practiced his charm to gain the favor of the noblewomen regardless of their ages giving him gifts and gold, after all, he needs money to fund his craftsmanship.
The start of the infamous Womanizer with irresistible allure.
A lot of noblewomen sent him invitations, to be their guard, Knight, Butler, foster child, or being a husband for the unmarried lady and widows.
Seeing the enthusiasm, the Roseville Baroness delays his marriage until his 20th birthday and wait for the noble who offers the highest price.
The young man who is aware of his family's bad intention, happily waiting for the one who wants to buy him at a high price as well, not because he wanted to sell himself, but to escape while leaving a huge blow to this crappie family.
Running away from the old bride, putting ashamed on the Countess, and making his family drowned in debt, are the reasons for him to smile genuinely when they set up his marriage.
Click!
The young man locked his door, tomorrow is the wedding day and he has packed all his belongings to his storage ring, the ring made by himself has a far bigger capacity than the storage rings sold in the market.
'Hhmmm...??'
He furrowed his eyebrows looking at the strange letter on his empty table, he remembered had cleaned everything except for his wedding suit hanged on ready to be worn tomorrow before leaving the room for his last dinner in this mansion.
His eyes look at the letter in suspicion, someone has put it on the table when he was away from the room.
"It doesn't look like the usual love letter I received"
He opened the mysterious letter cautiously and found 3 pieces of paper but...
"WHAT???!!!"
Couldn't keep his composure, he yelled accidentally shocked by the thing written in the letter.
Bang!
"Young Master?!"
2 guards stationed at his door barged into the room forcefully breaking the lock, they are the guards sent by his stepmother under the pretext for the groom's safety while treating him like a prisoner.
"What now? Did the Madam also forbid me to read a letter for my safety reasons?"
He asked coldly, because of his status as an illegitimate child born from a foreign slave and has nothing but godlike looks, the workers in this mansion are looking down at him as if the most despicable person exists.
They could just knock on the door and asking his wellbeing instead, it's too obvious that they were scared something happened to the groom, something like trying to run away.
"We are here just to guard you as ordered, because tomorrow you need to please your elder bride, pfft"
One of the 2 guards answered, sneering in disrespectful behavior towards the 4th young master of the house.
"Now you've confirmed that I am in a very good condition, can you get out?"
He said sarcastically without any emotions on his face, his mind is full of the letter, he wants to read it as soon as possible.
The other guard who is observing the surrounding glanced at the letter in the young master's grip, though couldn't see the content of it, the soon-to-be groom is indeed only reading a letter. Then he shifted his gaze towards the locked balcony in the room, the guards placed on the balcony didn't do anything either, which means there is no attempt to escape.
"Let's go, this place is surrounded by the guards anyway"
The guard said to his friend who is openly mocking the young master.
"Tch!"
Bang!
The door was slammed close by the insolent guard yet earning him nothing but a stony face of the prisoner.
When the silence once again wrapped around the chamber, the young genius craftsman quickly opened the letter again, it's only 3 pieces of paper but he couldn't hide his impatience.
Before he started to examine the one that catches his attention the most, he read a simple sentence written on the other paper.
[Facing crossroads, I am looking forward to which destiny for you to choose]
He frowned in confusion reading the strange line of words didn't understand a thing, then push it aside as something is more interesting for him to see.
Shooosh...
He fully opens the biggest piece of paper and analyzes it thoroughly.
"This blueprint is insane, which genius thought this kind of thing? My dream weapon won't stay as a dream anymore if it successfully created"
He chirped passionately examining the design of his dream weapon, now he looks more like a mad Craftsman than a sexy womanizer.
"Hhmm, Did the one who sent me the letter knew that I am a Wizard Class Awakener? This weapon suits me too well"
He recalled around 10 years ago when he awakened his ability, all of the Roseville family members were attending a grand party held for several days by the Southern Duke, as one of his vassals, Baron and Baroness of Roseville were too busy to flatter the Duke, leaving their sons and daughter along with the other bratty young nobles to play a little prank on him that almost costs his life, he was locked alone in an abandoned warehouse starving for days, fortunately, or unfortunately, his painful awakening stage occurred when he was locked in there and resulting his ability remains secret.
"The sender of this letter couldn't possibly know, right?"
He muttered by himself, as a wizard, he rarely trained his magic because his passion for the craftsmanship took all of his time and energy, compared to the other awakeners he is considered weak, the only thing that differentiates him and the non-awakener is his huge amount of mana, and he perfectly mastered the mana manipulation techniques only because it was the basic requirements for crafting magic items.
That is why the blueprint that was sent to him is undoubtedly a perfect weapon for a magician who has a low physical attack, miserable in agility, and only knows how to manipulate mana like him.
"This design is too out of the world yet I couldn't find a flaw and claim the impossibility, insane but make sense at the same time"
He gulped at the title of the blueprint, Sniper Rifles, the ammunition used for this weapon is the sniper's mana, as long as he can manipulate mana perfectly this weapon will be as deadly as unstoppable magic bullets piercing through shield and barrier.
Moreover, the range of this weapon is 10x larger than magic arrows shoot with an ancient bow, with simple mathematics, he could assume a rough prediction of this weapon that at least could reach 3Km away from the target, make it possible for someone whose physically as weak as him to actively involved in the assault while staying hidden.
Lastly is the muzzle brake part of the rifle, the unique mechanism as recoil reduction. Shooting a powerful bullet like this will equally have a powerful recoil or a kickback as well to the wielder of the weapon, but it can be reduced to the extent of 70% with the muzzle brake.
Unfortunately, the blueprint is purposely sent incomplete to lure him into the den of the devil.
"Aarrgggh, I'll happily sell my soul to the devil to see the complete version of this blueprint"
When he mumbled in frustration, he takes the least thing that picked his interest because of the appearance, a fake magic scroll, is what he thought.
Everyone knows that there are a lot of people trying to fake magic scrolls due to the high price, and the easiest way to differentiate the fake scroll is through the parchment, since it was produced in ancient times, the real magic scroll will be made of old materials.
"The parchment of this magic scroll is new, it can't be a rea- wait, this is..."
"This mana..., it's not a fake magic scroll"
He said in surprise while examining it, as someone sensitive towards mana, he could distinguish between the fake and real magic scroll by feeling it.
The young man took a magic scroll he plans to use tonight from his storage ring and compare it to the one that was sent to him.
"It's undeniably the same magic teleportation scroll"
After comparing the two teleportation scrolls, he was sure it was the same magic circle that drawn on the scrolls, but...
"The parchment is new..."
'Don't tell me this sender also has the way to reproduce the magic scrolls...??!!'
He screams inwardly because he used up all of his savings as a genius craftsman and all the gifts given to him by the noblewomen only to purchase a single magic scroll, and it takes him years to finally found a teleportation magic scroll in the black market.
Magic scrolls are not as legendary as Stone of God, but the price gradually increases as the technique for creating it originally belongs to the Elven race, since the extinction of Elf, the technique to create Magic scrolls also vanished altogether.
Moreover, the magic scrolls are a one-time use item, to activate the magic circle drawn on them, the user needs to rip the scrolls.
To make it worst, magic researchers also didn't find any other way to reproduce the magic scroll yet.
"To send me this valuable thing..."
Sigh...
He grabbed the first paper of the letter he read earlier,
[Facing crossroads, I am looking forward to which destiny for you to choose]
"A crossroads..."
He mumbled as he finally comprehends the meaning of the letter, he is indeed facing the crossroads of his destiny.
Glancing at the 2 teleportation scrolls that will lead to a different way of his life.
A teleportation scroll he bought has no specific coordinate, he can move to wherever he wanted to go as long as he ever visited the place.
Or the teleportation scroll from a mysterious sender with a set destination in a coordinate that will teleport him directly to the sender.
"Hahaha"
"I must be crazy to say I will sell my soul to the devil, but..."
"Who cares!"
Shriiiek...
He laughed loudly like a madman as he ripped off the magic scroll given by the devil who waits for him at the capital.
To be continued...