Chapter 1138 – #270_Find Your Luck (2)
#1132
1.
‘Brain Sword Witch’ Cocoa.
‘Sword Control Witch’ Miya.
Nicknames given to them for their activities in Japan, together they were called the Archipelago Twin Flowers.
Like many great witches, they were full of confidence.
20th Circle Witches.
If you were to face the combined attack of two great witches who had adopted close-quarters combat tactics, which were difficult to deal with if you lacked experience, most people would be unable to cope.
Naturally, they believed they could kidnap this con artist and escape in one go.
They had no idea that the con artist was one of the strongest opponents they had ever met in their lives, a witch with a power that was among the best in this world.
“S-Stop! I lost… I lost, so stop… I surrender, I surrender!”
Miya, who had been resisting with gritted teeth, trembled and prostrated herself before Siwoo.
Around her lay six swords with their blades completely broken.
She had initiated the fight at her most confident distance, but unfortunately for them, Shin Siwoo was on a different level.
Despite hearing that he was a young witch, his ability to react without panicking to a surprise attack, like a seasoned old witch.
His ferocious power to receive the flamboyant sword dance, which was wielded using powerful telekinesis, head-on.
He used magic at a level that Miya could not even fathom, as if it were the most natural thing in the world, and he dispelled her ultimate move, which she had unleashed with all her might, with just a wave of his magical power.
If Cocoa, who had been knocked out by the first counterattack, had been conscious, would they have had a chance?
Not a chance.
It would have just taken longer, but he would have easily subdued both of them.
Wasn’t it true that he had dealt with the magic that Miya had recklessly used, prepared to burn out her magic circuits, without even breaking a sweat?
The thought that this man might have actually eliminated the Golden Coin Witch belatedly crossed her mind.
It was a realization that came far too late.
“…Please spare me…”
The only fortunate thing was that the red spear tip stopped abruptly when Miya quickly lowered her head.
“I was ignorant and was tempted by a moment of temptation…! If you spare me, I will do anything! Anything you ask!”
“Really?”
“Really, really! I didn’t recognize your greatness and acted disrespectfully, so I will do everything you command! Please, just spare me!”
“Let’s be clear. It’s not that you acted disrespectfully, but that you attempted a kidnapping. Right? You thought I was a pushover, and you conspired with your friend over there to sell me off at Hexennacht, and since you’re both great witches, you thought you could easily achieve your goal with a surprise attack.”
“Y-Yes, that’s right…”
It was an obvious scenario for Siwoo, but not for Miya.
When her secret, impromptu plan was immediately seen through, she was dumbfounded, thinking, ‘What is this? Did the plan leak? But Cocoa is a trustworthy friend…’
“Wake up your friend over there too.”
Miya got up clumsily and pulled Cocoa, who was neatly embedded in the pillar.
“Ugh… Huh!”
“Cocoa! Stop!”
Cocoa, who had regained consciousness, immediately took a battle stance and rushed at Siwoo.
Although she was in a state of confusion, she was trying to continue the fight, remembering the situation just before she had fainted, as a witch accustomed to battle.
It was truly a dazzling fighting spirit.
However.
“What do you mean stop! Miya! Let’s go with the Second Form of the Secret Art – Thousand Cherry Blossom Twin Dance! Kehek!!!”
-Bang!
Cocoa, who had tried to continue the fight with her friend, was hit in the stomach by a fist containing the essence of explosive power and was knocked down.
A clean blow that did nothing more or less than subdue her.
The lightning that had been surging around him like sharp teeth scattered instantly like chaff in the wind.
Even if Cocoa had just regained consciousness and was in a daze, to be sent flying with just one blow…
“You… Kehek… What are you doing… Ugh…”
“……”
Miya, who had secretly harbored the dark thought of ‘Maybe this time we can combine our attacks properly and escape?’, stared blankly at Cocoa, who was crawling on the floor like a grub.
It was only after Cocoa, who had barely managed to get up, had been sent tumbling to the floor a couple more times that Siwoo took control of the conversation.
“I-I’m sorry for acting without knowing my place…”
“Please spare me…”
Just as Miya and Cocoa were kneeling side by side, begging for mercy, the Osaka branch manager rushed in, sensing a sudden surge of magical power.
“What’s going on?!”
The branch manager was startled by the chaotic and broken state of the inner barrier, and then again by the sight of the Archipelago Twin Flowers, who had achieved some success at the location point, kneeling before Siwoo. After hearing the details, he raised his eyebrows in anger.
“You two! What are you doing! How dare you attack him, when he has promised so much support! Instead of treating him as a valued guest!”
Strictly speaking, the two exiles did not need to treat Siwoo as a guest for the location point, but as a branch manager, it was as if a VIP had been attacked immediately after receiving a promise of investment, so he was showing a venomous reaction.
“I don’t know how to apologize for this unfortunate incident… I am speechless…”
The branch manager, who had been scolding the two who couldn’t even make a peep, bowed so low that his head almost touched his toes and apologized.
“It’s alright. Leave their disposal to me, and go take care of your business.”
“But…”
“It’s really alright. It’s not like I have a lot of time.”
It was true that the exiled Archipelago Twin Flowers had committed a crime by attacking the Count of Gehenna.
It was also true that Siwoo had the right to dispose of them.
The branch manager repeatedly said that he wanted to compensate for this incident and left to review the rest of the work.
There was no need to keep the inner barrier up, so Siwoo took the two of them to a guest room, avoiding the eyes of those around them.
Miya and Cocoa were groveling before Siwoo, who held the power of life and death in his hands, as if they would give him their liver and gall.
“W-We don’t have much money saved up, but we’ll give you everything…”
“This Cocoa has gained a new perspective after witnessing the Count’s noble level. I want to repay this favor somehow…”
Looking at them glancing at the bed, it seemed they were planning to use their charms as well.
Why are all witches so similar in their thinking?
Perhaps bringing them to the guest room had caused a misunderstanding.
“Quiet.”
“……”
“……”
The two of them stopped their whining and looked up at Siwoo with frightened eyes.
“Miya, Cocoa, was it?”
“Yes…”
“That’s right…”
“I’ll give you a chance. You can either die here at my hands…”
The two of them trembled and swallowed hard.
What would he ask for?
They were determined to comply with even the most absurd and vulgar demands in order to save their lives.
“Or you can choose to come to the Hesed Society’s Hunting Rights Division Research Lab and work without pay. The term is 20 years.”
Their fate had already been decided.
He was planning to put the two of them to work in the information analysis department of the gate, which was currently short-staffed.
The information analysis of the gate was similar to coin mining in some ways.
It required a lot of computation, and money came in every time data was decoded.
It was originally the job of the Mysticism and Hermeneutics factions, but since both of them were great witches, they would be useful somewhere.
If he used them as slaves to do the tedious work that even the two factions found annoying, they would be of some use.
“Slave! We will become slaves!”
“Master! Please take care of us!”
The two of them bowed repeatedly, afraid that Siwoo might take back his words.
An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.
In the worldview of the witches living in the present world, if someone tried to take your life, you should repay them with their life.
But to be spared so easily in exchange for being used as a slave in the business division for 20 years.
And to be told that if they just endured for 20 years, they would be free.
This was not just a lenient measure, but an act of naivety itself.
If Miya or Cocoa were in the opposite situation, they would have sucked them dry until they were skin and bones.
“How merciful… How merciful…”
“This is the generosity and dignity of the Count of Gehenna. I am reflecting on my life, which has been lived only for immediate gain…”
Siwoo, not wanting to waste any more time on the flattering words that made his ears itch, contacted the Hesed Society and had the two of them sent back.
2.
“You naive pushover.”
“As expected of the Gehenna scholars. They need to experience the outside world to become more ruthless.”
Miya and Cocoa, who were being held in the Hesed Society’s underground prison until the procedures were completed.
They were busy trying to ridicule Shin Siwoo’s naivety.
Even though they had received a favor, backstabbing him was a kind of self-defense.
Their pride, which had been sky-high, had been brutally crushed before their eyes.
They had rolled around at his feet, barking like dogs.
So, they were trying to find fault with Shin Siwoo and criticize him.
Otherwise, the two of them would look too pathetic.
“Haa…”
“No, why is that rumor true…”
The two of them, who had been happily backstabbing him, could not shake off the gloomy darkness.
Even though they had received leniency from the naive victim, it was still 20 years of forced labor.
It was a waste of precious time to have their freedom restricted, even for witches who did not age.
Since the Count had personally shown leniency, he would not take their lives or harm them.
But only God knew what would happen.
“Come out.”
A member of the society, who had been coldly watching the two of them sighing, received a call and took them somewhere.
“Um… What’s going to happen to us?”
“……”
“Witch?”
Even though they asked about their destination out of anxiety, the guard, who was silently moving forward, stopped at the continued questions.
“Shut your mouths. If I had the authority to dispose of you… I would have ground you down to your fingernails to make you pay the price. I’m holding back even now, you know?”
“S-Sorry…”
That coldness made them realize how much trust and admiration Shin Siwoo, the head of the society, received within the society.
It also meant that Shin Siwoo had not given the order to ‘grind them down to their fingernails to make them pay the price’.
“Department Head, I’ve brought them.”
“Good work.”
“It’s nothing. I hope you will correct the rotten nature of these criminals.”
“……”
What appeared before the two people who were trembling with anxiety was a wide training ground, and a witch with black hair and black eyes.
“N-No way, are you?”
There was no separate introduction, but Miya and Cocoa realized that she was the Sword Witch.
If the one who was revered by the Gehenna witches who had mastered close-quarters combat was the Tiferet Duke, then the object of reverence for the exiles and public enemies was the Sword Witch.
Rinne opened her mouth expressionlessly.
“I am Rinne Samaquiel, and I will be in charge of your training from now on.”
The situation where they would be directly taught by the Sword Witch, who was the embodiment of martial arts, the symbol of strength, and the object of awe.
“You will be my sparring partners for 8 hours a day.”
They knew that she was one of Shin Siwoo’s lovers, but they never expected that she would personally train them.
If that was the case, then 20 years of forced labor was not a waste at all.
“Yes! We will work hard!”
“Yes! Thank you!”
They suddenly felt very guilty for backstabbing Shin Siwoo, the head of the society.
How could they have called someone who had shown such boundless generosity a pushover?
They were disgusted by their own shallowness.
-Sreung
However, the two of them did not know.
In fact, it was natural that they did not know.
Rinne, who almost always had no change in her expression, was a poker face whose emotional fluctuations could not be measured even by those around her.
However, those who knew Rinne well privately would notice.
That Rinne was feeling immense anger towards the exiles who had suddenly attacked her husband.
“Please spare me! Please spare me!”
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry!”
“……”
What awaited Miya and Cocoa.
Was Rinne’s brutal education, where she mercilessly beat their entire bodies with the flat of her sword under the guise of sparring.
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