City ​​of Witches 563

Chapter 563 – 116_Trouble(3)

#563

1.
“Chomp….”

I quietly smacked my lips.
Judging by Luelle’s initial reaction, which showed a hint of color, it was a complaint that had been brewing for quite some time, as expected. Compared to that, if I had properly acknowledged my mistake and apologized, it was a situation where I could have easily been forgiven.

“Ha…. Is he really an idiot?”

The expression on Luelle’s face when she was happy to hear the apology and the expression when she found out the truth, with her hair standing on end like a hedgehog, alternated in my mind.
Of course, the truth was a little different, but seeing Luelle’s angry face, it wouldn’t have worked at all.

“I should have just asked why she was angry….”

Anyway, the unchanging fact is that out of many options, I chose the most idiotic one.

Like a wife who scolds her husband who comes home drunk late at night, saying, ‘Don’t even think about coming into this house!’, Luelle declared a ban on submarine entry.
I didn’t have the energy left from completing the trials, and I didn’t know when she would change her mind and come back, so I quietly sat at the table and waited for her.

However, even after an hour, even after two hours, Luelle did not appear.

“Should I have chased after her right away?”

Maybe she’s still fuming, saying, ‘What are you still doing!’

If the probability of getting scolded is fifty-fifty whether I stay here or go find her to apologize, it’s better to at least make a motion to apologize.

Even if staying here was the right answer, she’s the type of person who would accept an apology if I apologized properly.
And so, Siwoo got back on the submarine.

As usual, Siwoo returned to the ship through the upper observation deck.
Since the entire submarine was Luelle’s territory, she would have noticed his entry, but Luelle’s shadow was nowhere to be seen.

Again, there were two possibilities.
She was so angry that she really didn’t want to see me.
Or, she didn’t come out to greet me, but secretly hoped I would come find her.

In this case too, the choice was not difficult.
If it was Luelle, she would at least consider the fact that I came to see her as a mitigating factor.

Even if it wasn’t such a calculated thought, I also wanted to apologize honestly.

As Siwoo searched the ship, he suddenly stopped.

“So…! ……! ……! Did you do it?”

From somewhere, he heard Luelle’s voice, sounding very excited.
It wasn’t just muttering to herself, unable to overcome her anger, but a voice that sounded too joyful.

The source of the sound was the malt bar, where you could enjoy whiskey of long history salvaged from a sunken ship.

Is she talking with the crew?
Siwoo, wondering, stepped inside and saw a completely unexpected sight.

Someone in a nun’s habit was smiling kindly and acting as Luelle’s conversation partner, gesturing and talking excitedly.

Siwoo, who had taken off his eyepatch at that moment, immediately recognized that the nun was a witch.
A nun’s habit that couldn’t hide her voluptuous figure.

In the seemingly ordinary nun’s habit, he could see the aftereffects of powerful magic.

From her back to the long sleeves under both arms.
They formed a large cross shape, creating a symbolic system.

Judging by the pattern flowing like a magnetic field, it was probably a defensive type.
Judging by the density of the magic, it seemed to be a top-performing artifact that could negate most magic.

Even without going that far, a nun who could enter this kind of submarine wouldn’t be an ordinary human woman.

“…So, you see….”
“Oh my~ We have a guest~”

The nun, having discovered Siwoo, greeted him with a gentle voice and a light bow.
Her swaying gray hair and unique silver eyes were impressive.

“You’ve come at a good time.”

Luelle paused for a moment, then jumped off the chair as if doing a favor, approached him, and dragged him by the arm to stand in front of the nun.

“Who is this….?”
“She is my first friend! Dorothy, this is Shin Siwoo, whom I mentioned earlier. He’s a slave from the Nukelavi Kingdom.”

As a small act of revenge, I was demoted from a royal consort to a slave overnight.
It seemed like I would be reinstated soon, so it wasn’t a big problem, but in fact, Siwoo didn’t have the luxury to dwell on such petty jokes.

Was it because I had been through so many rough times?
Or was it the instinctive alarm bell that my life-or-death experiences were telling me?
The moment I stood in front of the beautiful witch, who was too voluptuous to be a nun, I felt a sticky, unpleasant feeling permeating my skin.

It was the same feeling I had when I saw a colorful mushroom, or when I saw a carnivorous animal with its mouth wide open.

Although I didn’t show it outwardly, I was on high alert, ready to engage in battle at any moment.

“…….”
“…….”

The two of them stared at each other with strange eyes without greeting each other, while Luelle tilted her head between them.
It was Dorothy who broke the silence first and offered a greeting.

“Hello, I am Dorothy Sahakiel. I’m called the Witch of the Path. It’s an honor to meet the Queen’s royal consort.”
“…I am Shin Siwoo. I don’t have a witch name.”
“Oh my~ As I suspected, you’re the male witch who’s been making a name for himself these days. It’s nice to meet you~”

Dorothy reached out her hand for a handshake.

As I was wondering whether to take it or not, Luelle nudged my side and gave me a look.
Reluctantly, I lightly took her soft hand, shook it a couple of times, and let go.

2.
After the awkward first greeting, the uncomfortable drinking party resumed.

Judging by Luelle and Dorothy’s reactions, it seemed that Siwoo was the only one who felt uncomfortable in this place.

“Since you still seem awkward, let me introduce you. Dorothy is a friend of my teacher and a very successful arms dealer in this world. This Akula was also obtained by Dorothy.”
“I see….”

I had no intention or justification to cause a scene right now.
Just because I had a bad feeling, it wasn’t right to spoil the friendly atmosphere. Dorothy was Luelle’s guest and friend.
It was possible that I was overreacting or barking up the wrong tree.

“Do you perhaps reside in Gehenna?”

Therefore, Siwoo naturally asked Dorothy a question.

Above all, I lacked too much absolute information, so I had to figure out the identity of this unexpected guest through conversation.
It wasn’t Dorothy, but Luelle, who frowned at Siwoo’s question.

She seemed quite displeased.
It was clear that she immediately understood the intention behind the question.

“Is that an important matter?”

However, Dorothy, as if she had nothing to be ashamed of, answered with a smile, her eyes drooping.

“An exile, or more precisely~ a public enemy, I suppose.”

I was confused by her very nonchalant reaction, but Dorothy continued her explanation in her unique, gentle tone.

“But it’s just that the sins of my ancestors were passed down to me, and now I’m just quietly running a small business~ There’s no need to be so afraid.”
“A business, you say?”
“I’m running a small arms dealing and brokerage business. My main customers are coup d’état regimes, terrorists, and cartels.”
“I don’t think that’s something to be proud of.”

In a capitalist society, if it makes money, there’s nothing you can’t sell, but to be an arms dealer of all things.
If you knew that the machine guns and bullets you sold yesterday were killing people today, you wouldn’t be able to do it with normal nerves.
At least, that was the case for Siwoo.

In that sense, it was a business befitting a public enemy.

“Don’t say that. My customers are happy because they can secure large quantities of weapons with diamonds that are difficult to cash, and I’m happy because I can turn rusty scrap metal in my warehouse into diamonds. Isn’t that a healthy win-win relationship?”
“…I don’t know.”
“There are far more people killed by cigarettes than by the weapons I sell. Does Shin Siwoo also hate the CEOs of cigarette companies?”
“I wasn’t trying to play word games.”

I politely brushed off her attempt to twist my words.

Listening to her speak, she was a death merchant with a thorough business spirit.
And yet, she was wearing a nun’s habit, which made it feel even more like a bad taste.
It was probably related to her self-magnetic magic, though.

Her business and attire were irrelevant, and I had many questions.

The witch of the deep sea is an exile and an old witch.
It wasn’t uncommon for public enemies and exiles to interact, so the connection between the previous Nukelavi and Dorothy wasn’t that awkward.

However, the previous Nukelavi had strictly forbidden Luelle from going above the water until she finished her trials.
Even if she had just inherited the throne, it meant that she was a cautious person who would put in place various safety measures for Luelle, who was the 23rd in line.

Would such a previous Nukelavi carelessly allow Luelle, who had not been the heir for long, to meet a ‘public enemy’?
Did she really believe they were close friends?

“What brings you here?”

If she had bad intentions, she wouldn’t tell me directly.
But just hearing the process would be helpful.

The question, born out of suspicion, naturally resembled an interrogation, and Luelle seemed to find it irritating.

She grabbed Siwoo’s arm and pulled him back, trying to stop him.

“Shin Siwoo! Why are you acting like this! She is my friend!”
“It’s okay, Your Majesty. It’s not a particularly unusual reaction.”
“Apologize for your rude behavior!”

Siwoo kept his mouth shut.

The aversion he had towards public enemies wasn’t simply due to a sense of superiority or discrimination.

Bianca Belili, Ea Sadalmelik, Paola Sochitl.
All the public enemies Siwoo had met so far were all women who were somewhat mentally unstable.

Especially unlike the Cowardly Witch, who at least had some room for sympathy, Ea and Bianca were sadistic madwomen.
They were psychopaths who would do anything to achieve their goals.
It was an unreasonable and foolish order to trust her just because she was Luelle’s friend.

“If you apologize, Dorothy will gladly forgive you, and I will not hold your misbehavior in my presence against you.”

But Siwoo did not open his mouth.
He just stared intently at Dorothy’s face, who was sitting across from him.

To observe what kind of expression she would make as she watched this situation.

“Follow me.”

The observation ultimately yielded no results.
Until Luelle, unable to bear it any longer, dragged Siwoo out of the bar.
Dorothy had only looked at Siwoo with a kind smile that had no flaws.