Chapter 819 – #171_Soul Witch (2)
#813
One.
I slipped my gaze and saw Gretel Nephthys’s hand her inviting me to shake it.
The long and thin threads of a witch-like island island corn.
The tips of the nails are painted with black nail polish.
I remember that Yebin wrote a letter of introduction and added that the witch of the soul is a great geek.
However, this outfit probably did not originate from a symbol.
They are probably building their own ‘symbol’.
“Aren’t you shaking hands? You’ve been looking for me all along.”
Don’t shake this
If Ye-bin introduced her without much worry, at least she wouldn’t be an outcast of a malicious scent.
However, the unidentified phenomenon that happened to the master in front of her worries her mind her, and the fact that this is a male witch worries her once more.
A male witch is a being who changes feelings of unwillingness to feelings of innocence.
Even a handshake that seems like a greeting can cause paranoia.
“Honey, come back.”
“Kwuik! Kkuik!”
When Siwoo is about to shake hands after thinking about it.
Gretel withdrew her hand her with embarrassing determination.
It’s as if she’s willing to pay back as much as she made me wait in a daze.
A pig with wings and horns runs eagerly on its short legs and is embraced by Gretel.
Gretel said while holding the pig.
“I tell you, I have no animosity on your part. I came here because I was introduced by Smyrna.”
“There was a problem with that.”
Her vigilance threw her piercing gaze at her.
I don’t know if it’s another problem, but it’s an intuition problem with Master’s comfort.
If there’s even the slightest bit of suspiciousness, I’m thinking of treating him, kicking him out, and fighting him here.
“This guy, as you can see, is my familiar, Happy Pig, and his name is Grunt. He is a female.”
There is no way that there is a bloody atmosphere.
Not only Siwoo, but the five archwitch-levels were exuding a subtle alertness.
But the spirit witch held the pig forward without a hint of intimidation.
“As you’ve experienced, I really like people who are smart, so I show them the utopia they want with the magic of ‘happy time’. Did everyone have a good dream?”
“I’m sorry, but I’m talking rubbish, so the main part….”
“A human could starve to death in an eternal daydream, but a witch wouldn’t. She can be locked up for rather long periods of time, but she mostly wakes up on her own.
No matter how perfect it is, it’s a dream anyway. The longer the time goes, the more uncomfortable you feel.
From the moment you feel a sense of incongruity, you can awaken at will.”
Gretel turned her attention to Master lying on her fallen leaves of her.
“However, Duke Tiphareth seems to have deepened his immersion.”
“Immersion? More than that, Tippe…”
“It’s strange that you don’t know he’s the Duke of Tiphareth. Because among the exiles, there’s no one who doesn’t know her. Hey, can you stop talking?”
“… Please continue.”
It does not seem like he stopped talking, but he gets annoyed as if he’s staring at his regular customer of his.
It may be more hysterical than it looks.
“Sometimes there are people like that. Did you notice that the moment Happy Time is activated, it combines with the subject and becomes a separate form of parasitic magic?”
“That’s right.”
“For some people, that dream feels so sweet. To the extent that I don’t want to come out no matter how much time passes. To the extent that I want to somehow squeeze memories and imagination to design it, and turn a blind eye to the slightest sense of incongruity.”
Gretel’s hand points to Master’s self-defence, which is gradually waning.
“If such people judge utopia as ‘ideal’, they perceive all elements that try to interfere with their dreams as ‘threats’. You choose to sleep forever locked in your own cradle.”
Considering Master’s situation and circumstances, it doesn’t sound like a lie.
No matter how much Si-woo loves Master, he can’t make his past scars go away.
All I can do is help so that it doesn’t hurt too much.
Her heart ached, but she swallowed and asked.
“What if you ignore your self-defense and wake up forcibly?”
“I told you. You’d better quit.”
Gretel shook her head.
He takes off her hat and scratches her head, then lets out a sigh.
“By force? No matter how Tiphareth is, there’s nothing you can’t do. However, if the bond is so strong, it must be separated through appropriate procedures.
Otherwise, reality and utopia get tangled up. When you wake up from a dream, you immediately realize that it is a dream and shake it off. But that doesn’t work. Did you see Inception?”
There’s no way I haven’t seen it
Thanks to this, the ambiguous analogy touched me much more intuitively and gave me goosebumps.
Sharon, with whom she watched the movie, also held her breath.
In the words of the protagonist’s wife, who mistook reality for a dream, and mistook a dream for reality.
I remember all too well what it was like.
“The witch of the soul.”
Rinne was the first to intervene in the conversation.
She asked sharply, clutching the sword she had drawn at some point.
“In the end, it’s your familiar’s fault.”
Siwoo, who was an enemy of her, knows.
How much pressure Linnaeus puts on her when she starts to harbor her vile ways her.
“No, you are the one trespassing on private property.”
“You should know how to wake him up.”
“Linne-sama, now let’s listen to Nephthys-sama more.”
Now that Rinne has acted as her whip her for once, it’s Siu’s turn her to shake her carrot.
It’s not going to be something that can be solved by coercion.
Even though he didn’t appear to be depressed in the first place.
“What do you want?”
“A male witch holding a letter of introduction from Smyrna. What do you want from me?”
“Two things. Master’s waking up safely, and a simple health checkup.”
“Shall we move for now? And at this rate, time passes too quickly in a dream. I’ll have to make some adjustments.”
When Nephthys sat down on Master’s bedside, defenseless, she unconsciously grabbed the spear.
“I’m telling you just in case, but if a problem arises, I won’t just go over it.”
“After all, I am a doctor. As long as the medical bill is paid properly, the patient will not be harmed. You look like you have a lot of money.”
As Nephthys’s fingertips moved toward Master’s forehead, a sign of self-defence arose.
But as soon as she gently tapped her forehead, it subsided.
She was relieved to see that Master exhaled more evenly.
“I will guide you to my studio.”
2.
Gretel Nephthys’ workshop stood tall in the clearing in the middle of the larch forest.
Since it is in a poor environment, like an island in the mainland, I thought the facilities would be poor as well.
However, it is not a waste to say that the studio that welcomes the party is a mansion.
It was a stone building with a Nordic feel.
The landscaping is poor due to the gloomy weather and the unappealing coniferous forest, but Siwoo, who is accustomed to living in the rich man Jemonai’s mansion, looks luxurious.
With Eloah still asleep in his arms of her, Siu followed Gretel to the drawing room.
As I took a quick look at her interior decoration her, which contrasted with white marble and black curtains, the witch of spirits served her tea her.
“Drink, nothing strange.”
“…….”
Impatience was intense at the sight of her leisurely appearance.
Anyway, there was a problem with Master’s personal affairs.
But the spirit witch does n’t even offer a confirmation that she can wake up her master her, let alone the price she wants.
Siwoo is also completely unnoticed.
This is an intentional silence to increase my ransom.
To carry it out calmly in front of so many great witches is to be called bold or reckless….
“You can drink tea anytime. I want to start with the main point.”
“The car comes first. I’ve adjusted the time multiplier, so I’m not in a hurry. Time is flowing at a 1:2 ratio because I have tuned it.”
When he thought that Siu had spent half a day in his dream her, the time that had passed in reality was in seconds.
Assuming that Gretel’s words are true, a one-to-two ratio would be a very good first aid.
“It’s all over the place and all I can offer you is this.”
I didn’t want to play around with Gretel’s face any more.
I took out the negotiating materials that I had kept well in her arms.
A letter of recommendation with the seal of Count Gemanai.
Before her eldest mother-in-law left, she quietly stabbed her.
Gehenna is promoting a citizenship restoration project targeting exiles to check Hexennacht.
We are still working on a few specific targets, but will gradually expand the scale.
Considering the prestige of Count Zemanai, there is no doubt that the letter of recommendation is citizenship.
“The current world is turbulent. There is no better place than Gehenna to study in safe conditions.”
Although the rules have been loosened somewhat, Gehenna is still a place many exiles want to return to.
Wouldn’t it be expensive to get a return ticket?
However, contrary to expectations, Gretel’s reaction was tepid.
“That’s not enough. You said you wanted to wake Duke Tiphareth and be treated by me, right? The original purpose would have been the latter, and this letter of recommendation would be a reward prepared for the latter. I have to pay extra for new medical expenses.”
It’s an advantageous situation, so it’s a mindset to extract even the best price.
Do I need to worry?
Master’s safety is our top priority.
If anything, she is willing to cooperate with her research her as well.
“That’s as far as…”
“Can you just talk to me for a minute?”
Dorothy, who was not able to see, stepped forward.
She is the one who has experienced the most negotiations among the people in this position.
As she watched Siwoo’s clumsy negotiations, she couldn’t stand behind her like a folding screen.
“You are. It makes the story strange from the beginning. After all, this four months is because you threw that pig at us, right?”
“Therefore? I’m an outcast If a crowd like this comes rushing in, you should be prepared. On the contrary, he even gave first aid to a customer who might pull out a knife.”
Dorothy’s eyes her, always fluttering, drew a softer arc.
It was an eye smile that released the pressure that stifled her.
“I like to answer straight. Because I know what you believe in and play around with.”
“A joke?”
What do you mean by that?
Before Shiu could even tilt her head, she saw Gretel’s first hesitation of her during her conversation.
It was very brief, but it was clear.
“Our cutie duke and handsome witch. If there is a problem with either of them, I will definitely find your body.”
“Um, I don’t know what you mean.”
“Okay? I’m not sure what I’m talking about either. So, if you don’t want to know….”
Dorothy leaned over and whispered in Gretel’s ear in a low voice.
“Behave well.”
Gretel only pursed her lips, but she couldn’t straighten her stiff expression.
Dorothy patted her on the shoulder and smiled broadly.
“Now, shall we start a proper conversation again?”
Dorothy turned Gretel’s face to earth with just a few words.
Siwoo recalled that Dorothy, always smiling and acting cute, was a high-ranking official who had lived among the pack of wildcats, and at the same time, was the world’s largest arms trafficker.
