SSS-Ranked Trash Hero: I Was Scammed Into Being Summoned-Chapter 92: The Puppet Master’s Toll

The chamber was swallowed in a gloom that even the flickering violet candles of Caelum’s study couldn’t fully pierce.

In the center of the room sat a device of exquisite, terrifying craftsmanship, a basin of polished obsidian filled with mercury that shimmered like liquid moonlight.

Caelum leaned back in his high-backed chair, his features cast in sharp relief by the basin’s glow.

He tapped a rhythm on the armrest, his eyes fixed on the surface of the mercury. With a wave of his hand, the liquid began to swirl, forming the jagged, aristocratic features of Lord Harren.

"Your Highness," Harren’s voice crackled through the ether, distorted by the distance between the capital and the desolate fringes of Veth.

The Lord of Veth looked weary; the bags under his eyes were deep, and his usually pristine silken robes were rumpled. "I assume the silence from Veth means the deed is done?"

"The Worm Mother is no more, Lord Harren," Caelum said, his voice a smooth, controlled baritone. "The infestation has been purged. The town is safe, and more importantly, your reputation remains untarnished."

Harren let out a long, shuddering breath, his image in the mercury rippling with his relief.

"By the Ancestors, Caelum... you have no idea the weight you’ve lifted from my shoulders. If that creature had been allowed to mature further, if the local authorities had traced its lineage back to my laboratories... I would have been stripped of my titles before the moon set."

"You speak as if I did this out of the goodness of my heart," Caelum reminded him, a cold smile playing on his lips. "We had an arrangement."

"And I will honor it, however much it pains my treasury," Harren replied quickly. He paused, his expression turning somber. "But tell me... did it look... healthy? Before you killed it?"

Caelum raised an eyebrow. "It was a monstrous engine of consumption, Harren. Why the sudden academic interest?"

Harren sighed, the image of the great merchant lord flickering as he paced on the other end of the line. "You see Veth as it is now, a dusty, backwater transit hub. But to me, it is the foundation. It is where I began my climb. Before I commanded the trade fleets of the Eastern Reach. I was a researcher in the basements of Veth. I built my fortune on the secrets I pulled from the earth there."

The merchant lord stopped pacing, his gaze intensifying. "The Worm Mother was not a natural occurrence. She was Subject 4-B, part of a collective brood I was cultivating when I first established my residency in Veth. I thought the containment fields were impenetrable. When she escaped three years ago, I assumed she had perished in the subterranean heat. I didn’t realize she had found a pocket of high-density mana to hibernate in."

"Until the reports of the ’pest problem’ reached the capital," Caelum noted. 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

"Precisely," Harren hissed. "I knew immediately what it was. But I am a man under a microscope, Caelum. The House of Gules and the Merchant Guild have spies in my very shadow. If I had sent my personal mages or a mercenary company to Veth, my rivals would have followed. They would have seen the biological signatures of my work. They would have realized what I was attempting to resurrect."

Harren’s voice dropped to a conspiratorial whisper, the mercury basin vibrating with the gravity of his words.

"The experiment... it wasn’t just about creating a more efficient biological worker. It was about the Bloodline. The Cursed Royal Bloodline of the Last Demon King. I had managed to isolate a sequence from a relic, a fragment of bone from the Great Calamity. I infused that essence into the worm larvae, hoping to create a bridge between ancient power and modern biology."

Caelum remained perfectly still, his expression unreadable. To experiment with the blood of the Last Demon King was the highest form of heresy in the current Empire. It was a crime punishable by soul-extinction.

"You took a gamble, Harren," Caelum said softly. "Using an exiled prince as your cleaner. Most would say you were desperate."

"Desperate? Perhaps. But also pragmatic," Harren retorted. "No one cares about you, Caelum. You are the ’Ghost Prince,’ the forgotten son. If you were seen in Veth, people would assume you were simply wallowing in your exile. You provided the perfect veil of insignificance. But the price... Caelum, even for a man of my wealth, what you asked for is... Painful to give."

"A price you agreed to," Caelum said, his voice turning like flint. "Do not seek sympathy now that the danger has passed. You kept your head; I kept my secret. The deal is struck."

"Yes, yes," Harren muttered, looking defeated. "The transfer of assets and the... other items... will be delivered via the silent channels we discussed. I hope this is the last time our paths cross in such a manner, Prince."

"For your sake, I hope so too. Goodbye, Lord Harren."

With a flick of his fingers, Caelum severed the connection. The mercury settled into a flat, dark mirror, reflecting only his own cold, calculating eyes.

The room remained silent for several heartbeats, save for the crackle of the violet candles.

Then, the shadows in the corner of the room began to detach themselves from the wall. They coalesced into a tall, lean figure with feline grace and the sharp, tufted ears of a predator.

Skall, the Beastkin, stepped into the light.

"The old man sounds terrified," Skall remarked, his voice a gravelly purr.

"Harren is a creature of ledgers and profits," Caelum replied, not turning around. "He fears the loss of his status more than he fears death. Did the plan hold?"

Skall grinned, revealing sharp, white fangs.

"Perfectly. The people of Veth have no idea. While they were screaming about the ’monster,’ I was busy making sure their local militia was... distracted. I redirected the Worm Mother’s tunnelers toward the grain silos and poisoned the wells with just enough pheromone to keep the brood aggressive. If I hadn’t interfered, those bumbling town guards might have actually killed it before it matured enough."

Caelum finally turned, a small, dark smirk touching his lips. "And the ’People’ Harren tried to hire behind my back?"

"Dealt with," Skall said dismissively. "A few ’accidents’ in the mountain passes. They never even made it to the town gates. By the time you arrived, the Harren was desperate enough to view a disgraced prince as a savior sent from the heavens."

It was a cold revelation. The entire crisis in Veth—the terror, the destruction, the looming famine—had been a staged play.

Caelum had not merely solved a problem; he had cultivated it, allowed it to fester until Lord Harren was forced to pay any price to have it removed.

"You played both sides, Caelum," Skall said, walking toward the desk. "You made Harren think you were his only hope, while I ensured that no other hope existed."

"In this empire, Skall, power isn’t given. It is manufactured," Caelum said. He held out his hand. "Do you have it?"

Skall reached into a pouch at his belt and pulled out a small glass vial. Inside, a thick, iridescent fluid swirled with a life of its own. It pulsed with a faint, sickly crimson light, mirroring the rhythm of a heartbeat.

"The essence of the Worm Mother," Skall said, placing the vial in Caelum’s palm. "Or more accurately, the filtered essence of the Last Demon King that had been gestating inside her. It’s concentrated. Pure. And highly illegal."

Caelum held the vial up to the candlelight. The fluid seemed to react to his presence, pressing against the glass as if trying to reach him.

"Harren thought he was experimenting on a worm," Caelum whispered, his eyes reflecting the crimson glow. "He didn’t realize he was merely acting as a nursery for my heritage."

"What now?" Skall asked, crossing his arms.

Caelum tucked the vial into the inner pocket of his robes, feeling the warmth of the ancient power against his chest.

He walked toward the window, looking out over the jagged peaks that surrounded his estate. The moon was high, casting long, distorted shadows across the world.

"It’s time I reminded them that ghosts can haunt you until your last scream."Caelum said, his voice barely a whisper, yet carrying a weight that seemed to chill the very air.

Skall watched him, a look of grim respect etched across his face. He had known the prince for a long time, yet he still couldn’t help but fear him.

"Everything is falling into place."

He looked back at the mercury basin, which was now nothing more than a dark pool of liquid.

The silence of the room was heavy, pregnant with the secrets they had just traded.

The Worm Mother was dead, Veth was ’saved,’ and the world was none the wiser that a monster far more dangerous than a giant insect was now holding the keys to the kingdom’s greatest taboo.

Caelum’s hand drifted to the pocket where the vial lay.

But there was one more secret no one knew—except the Demon Prince himself: it was he who had first driven Harren to research the taboo.