Chapter 1062 – #252_Hunter(3)
#1056
1.
It was the era of the Great Witches.
After the flood, the position of witches, especially public enemies, was on a completely different level than before.
Even amidst the news of Duke Keter’s passing, the public enemies, who had been trembling while trapped by the ghosts of the past, finally realized, “Hey! This is really our world now!”
In other words, they no longer needed to worry about mystery or anything else, and could freely do whatever they wanted. This was a huge boon for the Solidus Trading Company.
The smuggling ships that supplied Hexennacht originally had to take long sea routes and sneak around in the middle of the vast ocean, but now they were passing through the Panama Canal with pride and disappearing near the coast.
It had already been six months since that shocking performance had been circulating on YouTube and other platforms.
The Solidus Trading Company’s smuggling ship, the ‘Bora-ho,’ which was completely destroyed and sunk deep into the sea this time, was also one of the props in that magic show.
Displacement of 80,000 tons.
A Panamax-class logistics ship, the largest size that could pass through the Panama Canal.
Inside, there were plenty of toys that the higher-ups of Hexennacht would love.
This meant that it was filled with luxury goods from all over the world, from high-end wines and liquors, handmade furniture, to precious antiques and artworks, food ingredients, and magical experiment materials.
The containers loaded with those precious items sank into the water with a splash.
-Thump, thump, thump
Lydia also popped some painkillers into her stomach.
The ship value of the Bora-ho alone was $200 million.
The total value of the loaded goods was several times that.
It was fortunate that the antiques and artworks, which had been placed in special storage for safer transport, could be recovered.
However, even a fool knew that wood and seawater didn’t mix, and all the furniture was ruined.
The expensive liquor and food ingredients were also mostly destroyed as the containers, stacked like Legos, collapsed.
Even after salvaging the flooded cargo, about 60% of it was lost forever.
“…”
Due to her immense wealth, Lydia’s sense of money was on a different level even among the affluent witches.
Even if she hadn’t taken out insurance, she could have brushed off the sinking of a single merchant ship with a glass of scotch.
If this had been caused by a natural disaster, Lydia would have just said, “What a pain in the ass.”
But Lydia had seen it.
The ship, neatly split in two, salvaged by magic and lifted into a dry dock.
The ship, which had been cleanly broken without any explosion or natural disaster, was a mess, as if a huge piece of iron had smashed into its central bottom.
“Okay, let’s sort this out.”
Herya, who had personally come to Lydia’s workshop and made a mess.
Herya’s attitude of blaming Lydia as the mastermind behind the attack on the Lehar Group.
And the sinking of the Solidus merchant ship two days later.
As Lydia was about to get up in anger, it was a very minor sense of unease that pulled her back into her chair.
“How coincidental.”
Coincidental.
It was indeed coincidental.
Lydia had made enemies everywhere, but all the circumstantial evidence pointed to Herya.
In such a meticulously connected cause and effect, in such a plausible flow, Lydia felt a vague unease instead of clear anger.
“It’s strange, it’s strange. No matter how I look at it, it’s strange…”
Lydia, with her eyes half-open, pondered deeply.
At this point, the most suspicious person was Herya.
Some smart guy in the Lehar Group had caused internal strife, and Herya had mistaken Lydia for the culprit.
Therefore, Herya had attacked the merchant ship.
This was the conclusion that would generally be drawn.
Anyone would think so.
Anyone.
Throwing a moderately manipulated trouble between two groups was one of the tricks that Lydia had been using since long ago.
“It looks exactly like an act of sowing discord.”
The problem was that she couldn’t get a grasp on the ‘who?’ part.
The grudges and relationships that Lydia had built up over the long years were too extensive to be summarized in a single book.
The expanded list of suspects, moving away from Herya, captured too many suspects at once.
Was it the Qliphoth?
Or was it the Witchpoint?
Or was it Gehenna?
Or was it the sand-like witches who held personal grudges?
Or was the idea of discord just Lydia’s speculation, and was it actually just Herya’s rampage?
Lydia made a call.
“Are you eating well?”
[Oh, Mrs. Magnus. I heard the news. This is truly a heartbreaking tragedy!]
“Did you do it?”
[Well? Isn’t it just punishment for doing too many bad things?]
“I’m talking about this incident. Don’t you think it’s too strange?”
[Fuck off]
-Click
The call was cut off.
“Hmm.”
Lydia threw the phone that had been cut off arbitrarily and sank back into contemplation.
Herya was truly one of the crazy bitches with no backing, but her animalistic survival instinct was amazing.
If she sensed anything suspicious or circumstantial from probing Herya, she was planning to kill her without further trouble.
Does a hunter have to boil the dog only after catching all the rabbits?
A dog that might bite its owner can be boiled even by a hunter’s whim.
But the call was cut off without any excuses, explanations, or clarifications, as if she was just enjoying the misfortune of her enemy.
Was even this staged?
“Let’s see…”
She reset her thoughts.
She excluded her preconceptions and sequentially connected the simple events.
The person who made the five teams of the Lehar Group, including the 21st-ranked Great Witch, disappear without a trace.
The person who dove below the surface and split the bottom of the Solidus merchant ship in two.
The person who would gain the most from the conflict between the Lehar Group and the Solidus Trading Company.
“Who are you?”
Lydia asked the question to her invisible opponent across the table.
2.
It was handled cleanly.
After killing Talia, the 21st-ranked witch, who was sure to be the biggest obstacle in the early planning stages, Siwoo took a break.
He had temporarily stopped hunting.
It wasn’t that his desire for revenge had suddenly cooled, or that his sense of purpose had become blurred, or that he had suddenly been seized by guilt.
It was because of his condition.
Depending on where his base was, the combat time allowed for Siwoo was all short-term battles within about 10 minutes.
To deal with his prey in that short amount of time, he had to push himself somewhat.
In particular, the battle with the 21st-ranked ‘Witch of Tragedy’ had left severe aftereffects.
His magic circuits were tattered like old rubber bands, his joints were creaking like rusty machinery, and his muscles were torn like chewed gum.
Siwoo dragged a portable bathtub into the hangar and soaked himself in the medicinal bath he had prepared in advance, closing his eyes to relieve his fatigue.
Siwoo decided to make good use of this time when he couldn’t move yet.
“How will they react?”
An arrow couldn’t have left the bowstring on its own and pierced the target.
The bow was a tool.
It was the one who pulled it that pierced Dorothy’s heart.
There was no need to investigate in detail who the shooter was.
The news that Lydia Magnus, the head of the Solidus Trading Company, the Witch of Gold Coins, had declared a crackdown on the traitor at the conference had even reached Gehenna.
Therefore, while investigating the Lehar Group, Siwoo also gathered information about the Solidus Trading Company.
What he realized was that the Solidus Trading Company was a truly massive organization.
Especially after the launch of Hexennacht, it had grown at a terrifying rate.
They were two dinosaurs that were too difficult to even kite, let alone fight head-on.
His cold reason told him that he couldn’t fight these two at the same time.
He had found an interesting subject by looking through the DB, receiving letters, and collecting information on the ground.
It was the fact that Herya, the leader of the Lehar Group, and Lydia, the head of the Solidus Trading Company, were like cats and dogs.
He also learned that the conflict was quite old and persistent, and that it was at a level where a small spark could turn into a big misunderstanding.
If there was a good subject, there was no reason not to draw a picture.
He sank one of the Solidus Trading Company’s smuggling ships that he had found out about, at the right time.
The right timing was right after attacking the fifth team, Talia’s team.
Around the time when someone in the Lehar Group would start to notice the possibility of an attack.
Around the time when Siwoo needed to rest.
It would be best if the two of them grabbed each other by the hair and fought, but he didn’t expect that this kind of trick would lead to a dogfight that would lead to the mutual destruction of the two groups.
Even if that happened, Lydia would be the overwhelming victor.
There was no optimism.
He had thrown that away.
That’s why he was aiming to hide Siwoo’s presence while the two groups were at odds.
What he needed was smoke.
That was enough.
The moment the two groups shared a sense of crisis, there would be no place for Siwoo in the middle of this enemy territory.
“Shall we see how they react?”
The world is harsh.
Nothing is given to those who do not try.
But sometimes, doing nothing is the best thing to do.
That was right now.
Until the ‘next plan,’ all Siwoo had to do was watch the fight and rest.
3.
Three days later.
“Mrs. Magnus. It would be nice if we could go easy, right? You should have done this from the start.”
“Talk as you please.”
“You don’t have any friends because you’re so bad-tempered.”
“My long-time friend is a throbbing headache that you, a blockhead, can’t even imagine.”
The battle of nerves between Herya and Lydia superficially ended in Herya’s victory.
Lydia had entrusted the escort of the smuggling fleet to the Lehar Group, securing a place for them within Hexennacht.
The secretary of the Solidus Trading Company protested with tears in his eyes at Lydia’s decision.
‘It’s not that I’m upset about this loss! Where has the spirit and prestige of the great Solidus gone? How can you embrace a dog that bit its owner’s ankle! Shouldn’t we make them pay the price in blood?’
The secretary, who had never raised his voice before, cried and ran out after giving his advice.
Lydia, a pure-blooded public enemy, also thought that his sharp words were quite reasonable, so she didn’t scold him much.
In the public enemy society, money, power, and authority were everything.
In a situation where the conflict and discord between the two groups were obvious, the fact that the Solidus Trading Company had backed down first naturally led to rumors.
That Lydia was past her prime.
That she should sink a smuggling ship herself and negotiate.
That doing such a foolish thing was performance art, and so on.
Lydia didn’t care much.
Of course, if the attack was an internal strife or Herya’s own doing, and even the sinking of the smuggling ship was a trick by the Lehar Group, then this was the most foolish thing she could have done.
Conversely, it meant that it would end with just being called a fool.
Even if a single merchant ship was wrecked, the Solidus Trading Company was still strong.
If anyone questioned its power and tried to repeat the mythical negotiation strategy of the Lehar Group, then Lydia would personally twist their necks.
It was better to endure a little humiliation than to play a game with an unknown opponent and walk through an unpredictable minefield.
In any case, the Lehar Group had come under the complete surveillance of the Solidus Trading Company.
In other words, it was difficult for the Lehar Group to have other intentions.
Herya no longer suspected Lydia much.
Since Lydia had given in first, she didn’t act up anymore, and she performed the insignificant task of escorting the smuggling fleet quite diligently.
If the opponent was trying to sow discord and had a big picture in mind.
Wouldn’t it be better to move in a completely unexpected direction?
That was what she thought at the time.
She had somewhat underestimated the strategy of the opponent hidden in the dark.
