Chapter 387 – #83_Joint Secret(3)

#385

One.
Diana puts a handkerchief on top of a pile of books and uses it as a chair.
She snapped her leg and pulled out something quite old.

“Have you ever asked why you’re lazy before?”
“Ah, you mean when you went fishing.”

Diana gave her a small nod as she hugged her knees.
It seems that she has already decided that she will speak, but she hesitates, as if showing a complex.

“You know what status quo bias is?”

In response to Siwoo’s question why she was so lazy, the words Diana said were her sophistry.

“It is a bias to avoid change. I hope tomorrow will continue like today, and tomorrow’s sand will continue like tomorrow. I hate to change. I hate being a witch too. That’s how her mother disappears….”

Diana turned her head to her window outside her bookstore.

“… I hate it.”

I could see that her voice was slightly locked as she finished her paused words.

“It is not difficult to show her mother the image of a diligent daughter. You just have to work a little harder.”
“…….”
“But if that happens, Mom will be gone, right? I will be left alone.”
“…….”
“So I want you to be together forever like this.”

At least in the witch society, “Succession” Is something to be proud of.
Succession is the honor of inheriting a vision that has been handed down for hundreds or even thousands of years.

Even fearing passing on her brand to an apprentice witch, even though her achievements had already been blocked.
Or, conversely, to avoid losing her teacher even though she was fully qualified to inherit it.
It’s stupid and shameful.
It was okay to say that I was not qualified.

I couldn’t bear to see his face.
His expression, as if looking at something bizarre, is frightening.
I have a belated regret that I may have brought up the word for no reason.

“Isn’t that strange?”
“Little bit.”
“… I know it’s ugly.”

Again, as expected.
She did not expect to be easily understood.
I just suddenly wanted to tell him about this worry that I had been embracing alone.

“No, not that part…. Lady Diana is an apprentice witch of the Yesod family, right? I had the impression that she was quite a stereotyped witch.”

Diana quickly turned to Siu.
There was neither the voice nor the expression of the incomprehensible incomprehension she had expected.
She just winked at her one eye with a mild face as usual.

“This…. Isn’t it strange?”
“What do children think of their parents? I also wanted my parents to live forever, what?”
“Why? I am an apprentice witch.”

No matter how much I think about it, I can’t understand such a calm reaction.
Diana asked, staring into his face, if perhaps she was pretending to be indifferent as part of her way of life.

“Isn’t she a witch?”

He shrugged her shoulders and Diana turned her head away.
She confided her secret, which she had never been able to tell anyone, and for some reason, all that remained was her two cheeks.

It was strange.
Confessing Diana’s secret complex to Shin Si-woo, who is no different from her outsider.
Besides, she was trying to understand, and as soon as she saw him, she was so happy.

She was in fact strange from the day she came back from Border Town.
Even when I’m having a nightmare, his back figure sticks out and protects me.
He comes to hate his mother, whom he loves more than anyone else.
Using the pretext of catching her weakness, he did the ridiculous thing of a surprise kiss….

Looking back.
Diana Yesod may have been strange for quite some time.

Because of that, it was not easy to bring out the next words.
I feel a sense of rejection, as if I have to force myself to say something I don’t want to say.

But her mother is also important.
She had to say

“If Siwoo makes her mother fall in love…. Maybe her mom will stay more in this world. She doesn’t pass on her stigma to me.”
“This is how it goes….”

Diana handed Siu the book she had chosen.

“Here, these are her mother’s favorite books.”
“I haven’t decided yet.”
“Take it at once.”

Books piled up one by one in Siwoo’s arms.

“Are you saying that we should read this and find common interests and have a conversation? So that we can get closer?”
“In a broad sense, yes. Maybe you will like it too?”

It seemed that Siwoo could sense what Diana was thinking.
However, she has too many problems to say that she knew right away.

First, the apprentice witch is a reflection body.

Unlike a witch’s spiritual body, she grows and is very slow compared to a human, but she also ages.
In other words, even if Count Yesod delays the succession of Chailpiil, it does not mean maintaining the status quo.

Moreover, it was not easy to think that the Count would agree with Diana’s idea.
The witch’s mantalite is powerful.

Even the twins who respect and love their master showed no objection to the succession.
But would the count, who has been living as an orthodox witch for over 100 years, want Diana to die without ever becoming her witch?
I don’t think so.

Second, in any case, this is to use the count’s mind.

Make her hundred concessions. The Count also likes this relationship, so he’s flirting with her.
In the absence of love or anything, only listen to Diana’s request and beat her work?
I don’t like it very much.

Let’s put these two together.
In any case, this matter should be resolved through sincere conversations between mother and daughter.
Even if Siwoo hugs them in the middle, they just wander around without knowing each other’s feelings.

“I have no intention of asking with my bare mouth.”

Diana jumped off the book she was sitting on.

“If I succeed in seducing her mother….”

Diana’s wet eyes turned to Siu.
She wasn’t avoiding her this time, she was clearly watching.
Can we call the momentary sensation of sensuality a mother-in-law?

“At that time, it was really…. Do it backwards… Ouch!”
“I’m not saying things like that carelessly.”

However, it was Siwoo’s last night that returned to Diana’s round forehead.
Diana’s head pushes behind her tic because she gave her enough strength.

“At the time… ! Did you hit me?!”

Diana jumping like a cat on her tail.
For Diana, who had never been slapped on the palm of her hand in her life, her beating was an unbelievable corporal punishment.

“Shall we go back at once?”
“What about my proposal?”
“I think it would be better to calm down a little and have a conversation. You seem to be in a bit of a temper right now.”
“That, like that… ! I said it hard!”
“I know, I know.”

Anyway.
Her daughter who would give her body in exchange for seducing her mother….
It’s not some kind of nonsense.

But she wasn’t all that embarrassed.
Siwoo had already noticed that Diana was contemplating on her own and had a tendency to run wild.
Maybe after a while, you will think about that content and think it’s not zero.

After leading Diana to rub her forehead and purchasing her book, Siu returned to her mansion.

2.
A passionate tryst with Shin Si-woo, who made me regain my energy from last night to this morning.
That made the count’s lips softer than usual.

However, the moment he enters Border Town through the portal, the count’s expression changes.
The second reason is that I have to reflect the image of a nobleman full of dignity.

As soon as I breathed in the misty rain of Border Town, the pent-up anger boiled over.

After descending the winding cliff road, we headed to Cloud Mushroom Village, where acorn trees grow thick.

‘The Rebellion of Jack the Swordsman’, in which a normal human transformed into a homunculus.
Unaware of the subject, a former death row inmate attacked Diana, and the new recruit was handed over to the Count via the Border Town Guard.

And the count handed it over to a witch again.
In one corner of the village, which has literally turned into a witch’s forest, there is a witch’s workshop that escaped the disaster of an accident.
The Count opened the door without hesitation.

“Count Yesod. You are here.”
“I’m in a hurry.”

The one who welcomes such an earl is the 18th-tier witch, Shriya Shitala, who is well versed in necromancy and mind magic.
I wanted to interrogate the author named Jack myself, but the more important the matter, the more important it is to leave it to an expert.
Shriya had already solved several crimes inside Gehenna, so she was all the more trustworthy.

“Come this way.”

She goes through the cluttered workshop and down the stairs to her basement.
She looked terribly sullen and bleak, though that would be rude to Shriya.
When I open the iron door, I see a white man sitting in a restraining chair.

Limbs limp, as if all her muscles had shrunk.
To prevent her from harming herself, her mouth is gagged and her eyeballs are sticking out like they’re about to fall out.

It was clear that it was not normal.
Even though the count came in, he didn’t show any reaction, and he was staring blankly at the sky like a vegetable man.

“I’m telling you in case you misunderstand, but I didn’t torture you.”
“Okay, even if I did, it wouldn’t have been a problem.”

The Count circled around the chair, examining him.

“As soon as the interrogation began, her brain started to fail. It took less than 15 seconds to go from the cerebral cortex to the limbic system, and immediately after that my muscles and joints melted away.”
“Hmm….”

It is not unheard of for a human to become a homunculus.
Countless homunculus existed in the world, and there are still homunculus sleeping in the dimensional rift without waking up.

Among them, of course, there was a homunculus that occupied a human body.
However, the human body cannot withstand the momentum of the homunculus.
Their fate is until the homunculus raises the body’s potential.

If the homunculus, realizing that the host’s body has reached its limit, is able to escape, it will only lead to death if it is lucky.
Therefore, there is nothing awkward about Jack becoming like this.

“I couldn’t say a word…. That’s strange. What is the possibility of a ban?”
“I’ll have to split the head to get a closer look, but at least I can’t find it right now. However, the heart attack is clear.”
“What are the odds?”
“More than 90%.”

However, until the interrogation began, Jack was conscious.
I was trembling about what was about to happen.
It is extremely unnatural that the condition deteriorated rapidly as soon as the interrogation began, and that it took only 15 seconds.
In other words, there is a high possibility that this raid was deliberately intervened by witches.

“Can we gather more clues?”
“We are currently going through the smugglers’ manifests and eyewitnesses before and after the incident.”

The immobile Duke of Keter.
The present world is agitated by the movements of dubious exploits.
Invasion of Gehenna happened twice in the last year.

In fact, this incident itself is an issue that can be passed lightly, but Yesod felt uneasy in the series of flows.
It was my intuition as a businessman.

“How do I handle this?”

Shriya asked, pointing her fingertip at Jack, who was in a vegetative state.

“Do I really need to ask?”
“Then, as you commanded, I will use it for collecting evidence without leaving a single piece of flesh.”
“Oh my goodness? A sound that will be misunderstood by anyone who hears it.”

The Count stepped out without looking back.
There was no mercy left for the criminal who could have killed Diana.