City ​​of Witches 1088

Chapter 1088 – #259_Godpapa

#1082

1.
Time rewound again, back to when Dorothy was a seven-year-old baby.

After roughly getting his condition back, Siwoo headed to the ‘Vault Bank’ in Ars Magna Town.

The ring Lydia left behind with her will.
He was trying to confirm what she intended to give him through it.

“Baron Shin Siwoo. It is an honor to meet you. Would you please wait in the reception room for a moment?”
“Yes, I will.”

Despite its unstylish name, the Vault Bank had a rather splendid exterior.

All the buildings in the upper town of Gehenna possessed aesthetic beauty, but if you were to throw money at it without restraint, it would probably look like this?

That’s because the Vault Bank’s asset scale was enormous.

Instead of paying interest to customers, they charged storage fees in exchange for thorough secrecy, high security, and personalized management services.

The extremely wealthy witches preferred to deposit their money in the reliable Vault Bank rather than in the current world where anything could happen, so it was no surprise that the Vault Bank, which had been around for 600 years of Gehenna’s history, was filthy rich.

Siwoo, who had become a VIP thanks to the Hesed Society’s start-up loan, was drinking tea in a special customer reception room that rivaled the imperial palace when a staff member appeared.

“Baron Shin Siwoo, the procedure to determine the authenticity of the ‘key’ you requested has been completed. Please follow me.”

The most preferred service provided by the Vault Bank was personal safety deposit boxes.

Operated with thorough security, privacy maintenance, and magical preservation procedures, this vault was famous for not showing the contents to anyone, no matter who they were in Gehenna.

The authentication process was also very strict, with a pair of keys, one held by the bank and the other by the customer, and the vault could only be opened by using both keys simultaneously.

The ring that the neatly dressed staff member returned was the customer’s ‘key’.

Safety deposit boxes came in various sizes, but Lydia’s vault was extra-large.
It was almost the size of a spacious room.

“Please take your time to look around.”

After the guidance, the staff member politely bowed and left.

Compared to the spacious vault, there was only a small wooden box inside.

“Bloom.”

He mustered his magic power with his still-unstable body.

There was no guarantee that the legacy Lydia left behind was not a trap for revenge.
Perhaps a powerful trap, poison, or barrier was waiting for Siwoo.

-Click

Keeping his guard up, he opened the wooden box and found a piece of paper, a few documents wrapped around a shiny magnetic card, and an artifact in the shape of a round table.

The documents wrapped around the card included an account transfer agreement with Lydia’s signature, an identification card, account information, and the contact information of a personal banker.

It seemed to be Lydia’s slush fund, and the amount deposited in four Swiss banks was about $80 million.

It was a very large sum and would be helpful for the operation of the Hesed Society, but that was not what was important now.

-Rustle

Siwoo took out Lydia’s will.

At that moment, a faint wave of magic power arose, and Siwoo’s name filled the blank space in the will.

=Upon confirmation of Lydia Magnus’s death, all children of the House of Angels are to be returned to their biological mothers.
=After the death of Lydia Magnus, Shin Siwoo inherits all rights and obligations as the Godmother of Las Wherfanas and has full access to all funds of the organization.
=All Wherfanas swear absolute loyalty to Shin Siwoo and absolutely follow his instructions.
=If Shin Siwoo’s orders are not respected as Lydia’s orders, the member of the organization will be immediately excommunicated.
=The succession of Shin Siwoo’s rule is confirmed through the artifact ‘Round Table Conference’.
.
.
.

In the businesslike and dry writing style, Siwoo could understand why Lydia, who had no apprentice witches, had mentioned ‘daughters’.

Las Wherfanas was an exclusive unit that had been cultivated in the House of Angels and blindly followed Lydia.

Like the mafia, Lydia was their Godmother, and she controlled her subordinates through a strong bond that went beyond a simple superior-subordinate relationship.

“…….”

This was strange.
Why would she give the handle of the sharpest dagger to the person who killed her?

At first glance, it seemed like nothing more than cold, calculated madness, but Siwoo saw something beyond that.

The second item in the will.
‘Shin Siwoo inherits all rights and obligations as the Godmother of Las Wherfanas….’ It was this part.

It was not just the inheritance of ‘rights’ but also the inheritance of ‘obligations’.

Wasn’t this the only part of the dry contract that contained emotion?
Wasn’t this the last path she had presented for her daughters, who had only blindly revered Lydia?

“They say to contact them through this….”

He picked up the round table-shaped artifact.

The ‘Round Table Conference’ was also mentioned in the will.
Judging from the flow of magic power inside, it was a remote communication artifact in a form that was impossible to trace.

“What is this?”

The round table, enveloped in a hazy light, began to shine, and soon after, illusions began to fill the vault.
The hazy figures, as if people were made of fog, knelt down upon seeing the ring on Siwoo’s hand.

“Heavenly Witch, Nairy Derbana. Godmother…. I respond to the call of the Godfather.”
“…….”
“Please generously forgive the rudeness of communicating through magic instead of meeting in person.”

It was a sudden development.
But he understood the situation.

Assuming this was not a trap, Siwoo was now the Godfather of Wherfanas.

The illusion that had manifested in this place was probably a kind of guide.

In the illusion, which was so detailed that emotions could be read through changes in expression, Nairy looked up at Siwoo with mirror-like eyes that showed unwavering loyalty.

“Godfather, please allow the kiss of oath.”

However, there was something strange.

“Before that, there’s something I want to ask.”
“I will answer anything within my knowledge.”

Nairy lowered her eyes and answered softly.

Yes, this was exactly what was strange.

He understood that Lydia had run Las Wherfanas like a family-centered mafia.
He also understood that she had designated Shin Siwoo as her successor, and that this was agreed upon by the members of the organization.

But it was Siwoo who killed Lydia.

The point of contact between Las Wherfanas and Siwoo was, at best, an enemy relationship.
No matter how much Lydia ordered it, it was hard to imagine them purely following Siwoo.

“The Godmother’s orders are absolute. Whoever she designates as her successor, it is all according to her will. You are the rightful successor and heir of Lydia Magnus, the true Godfather who will lead our Las Wherfanas. So please, the kiss of oath.”

Here, the cowardly Shin Siwoo, who would wave his hand and say, ‘Ah, I have too many girlfriends, so no kisses,’ was already dead.

When he extended his hand, Nairy crawled on her knees and carefully kissed the back of Siwoo’s hand.

“Ah…”

Her tearful and overwhelmed appearance was like that of a follower devoted to the successor of a cult leader, which was somehow eerie.

“Mother…”

At the same time, the moment he realized that her tears were not just of overwhelming emotion but also a mixture of longing for Lydia, he felt a strange mix of emotions.

Nairy, who had wiped away her tears, quietly lowered her head again.

“I apologize. I have shown you an unsightly appearance.”
“…It’s okay.”

It didn’t matter.

After this incident, he decided to use whatever he could.

As Lydia had said, now that she was dead, the war with Hexennacht had become an unavoidable task.

To prevent the war by using her ‘legacy’, or at least reduce the damage.
For that, he was ready to use Las Wherfanas or whatever else.

Without getting caught up in unnecessary emotions, he asked everything he was curious about.

After organizing the information Nairy had answered, it was roughly as follows:

1) Wherfanas was a private army organization composed of about 40 witches who were loyal to Lydia, and now to Siwoo, who had become the Godfather, and they were each assigned to the main businesses of the Solidus Trading Company.

2) However, despite being one organization, they had almost no information about each other.

3) Even Nairy, who was a capo, or a high-ranking member, only knew the personal information of the four members who were her classmates from the House of Angels.

In Siwoo’s view, it was a very inconvenient structure, but on the other hand, it meant that thorough security was maintained.
The invisible sword was the most frightening.

“That’s what the Round Table Conference is for. Since the Godfather has convened the Round Table Conference, the other capos will have been contacted as well. All the capos will respond to the meeting within 7 days. Only the Godfather will be able to see their faces.”

“I understand for now. If I have any more questions, can I call you with this?”

“Yes, I can see the Godfather at any time through the self-generating magic ‘Fog Illusion’.”

“Okay, go back for today.”

He didn’t completely trust Lydia.

Even the reason why Lydia handed over her legacy to Siwoo was suspicious.

But if they really became Siwoo’s loyal hunting dogs, there would be no stronger force.
Even if this was Lydia’s trick, he would just use the parts that were useful and discard the rest.

The conversation was over.

But Nairy did not step back and was just staring blankly at Siwoo.
When he looked at her with a puzzled expression, she lowered her head and bit her lip, hesitating.

“If you have something to say, say it.”
“No, I’m sorry.”
“I said, say it.”

Only after several proddings did Nairy lower her head as if she was sorry and open her mouth.

“How was… the Godmother’s end?”

Nairy’s voice, trembling thinly without a hint of resentment, caused a dissonance in his heart again.

The reason was the same as why he couldn’t feel at ease even though he had swallowed a huge legacy.

The deformed bond between Lydia and Wherfanas.
The love that he couldn’t tell if it was true or false.

Shin Siwoo, who had become the apex of a twisted bond simply because he was designated as the successor.

It was as if all the situations were asking in Lydia’s voice.
‘Can you handle it?’

When the silence grew longer, Nairy stepped back first.

“…I’m sorry. It seems like it was an impolite question. Then, I look forward to the day we meet again.”

Nairy, who had held Siwoo’s hand tightly and kissed it once more, scattered and disappeared like fog.

Only Siwoo was left alone in the vault.