Chapter 700
Chapter 700
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Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 700
Chapter Title: Chapter 700 - #140_번뇌와 선택(6)
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Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 700
Chapter Title: Torment and Choice (6)
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1.
Si-woo stared blankly at Pina.
In the midst of feeling like he was swallowing a heated iron nail.
His complex thought processes seemed to have ground to a halt, leaving only a dazed sense of loss.
His own heartbeat throbbed vividly in his ears, accompanied by an unpleasant ringing.
Rozhi brushed past such a Si-woo and approached Pina's side.
"Pina, have you been well? You've felt neglected lately since I haven't played with you, haven't you?"
Like a child picking up a discarded doll and cradling it once more, Rozhi sat Pina upright and straightened her clothes.
She even brushed out the tangled strands of her hair.
What on earth was Rozhi thinking, pulling off something like this?
And what thoughts drove her to show it off to Si-woo like a trophy?
"So, what do you think? Surprised, right?"
"……."
To Rozhi's cautious question, Si-woo dryly washed his face with his hands.
He couldn't tell what expression he was making.
"But I didn't break every promise. And I didn't even kill her myself. Right, Pina?"
Rozhi planted a light kiss on Pina's peach-blossom cheeks, unchanged from life, then lifted the limp hand and hooked her pinky around it.
Humming a tune, she finished brushing Pina's hair and gently laid her back down.
"I'll definitely play with you next time. Sleep tight until then."
Rozhi's lips brushed lightly against Pina's and parted.
Pina regained the serene peace of a princess fallen into a deep, eternal slumber in the woods.
"Oh, right. I came to talk about the bet? So, if you win this Position Board game, I'll tell you what I'll demand."
Unexpectedly, what Si-woo felt wasn't the rage of witnessing an inhuman atrocity.
Just an indescribable torment and a pain that clenched his heart tight.
Humans are empathetic creatures.
Despair and suffering in others are emotions easily shared.
It felt like the despair and pain Pina had endured were seeping into him through osmosis.
And now, Si-woo's mind was refusing to comprehend it.
Because it was too abysmal, his psyche's safety mechanism was cutting off acceptance.
"First, I need to prepare cake and fireworks. Can't forget the party hat either. Because it's Mama's long-awaited reunion with Pina after ten years of waiting."
Ignoring Si-woo's reaction entirely, Rozhi chattered on about her plans in a sing-song voice.
"I'll start by eating cake with Mama in her room, telling her how hard it's been all this time. Then I'll blindfold her and bring her to Pina's room."
"……."
"That's where I need your cooperation. You'll love it once it happens, trust me. Pina may be in eternal sleep, but I've preserved and dolled her up with all my effort. No different from when she was alive, I tell you."
"……."
"You can really believe me. I've tampered with her brainstem, so a bit of mana makes her breathe and twitch. Body temperature's adjustable too. The only issue is her reactions are a bit subdued. But so what? She's so pretty and cute like that."
"……."
Rozhi's excitement had her buzzing around Si-woo like a fly.
Her crystalline cruelty echoed left and right in his ears, which hadn't fully recovered.
"What do you mean by that?"
Everything had been implied, but he couldn't grasp it.
No matter the grudge.
At least as fellow humans, no one could conceive of such acts—or so he'd denied.
Rozhi grinned broadly, flashing her white teeth.
"Hehe, why ask something so obvious? It means I'll let you have your way with Pina."
The thin membrane blocking the osmosis peeled away.
Like a hyena offering rotten meat to the pack.
Rozhi calmly proposed he join her wickedness as the bet's prize.
"No need for pretense. You're the only one I've shown Pina to. Whatever you do, it'll be our little secret."
"……."
"Anyway, when I blindfold Mama and bring her in, you just play with Pina."
Imagining the future, Rozhi's breathing grew ragged.
The flush rising on her cheeks was unmistakably a sign of sexual arousal.
"Mama will hear the sounds and get super anxious, right? The bed creaking, the wet slapping noises."
But even sensing something's off, she won't refuse me. It's the only way to reunite with Pina, right on the cusp of her ten years of endurance bearing fruit. You think so too, don't you?
"……."
"But when the blindfold comes off, she'll realize it. That her apprentice witch can never become a full witch again."
Rozhi let out a scream-like cheer and hugged herself tightly.
"Surprise! What to do? But that's not the end. If Mama's too kind-hearted, she might just be happy Pina's alive. That's when I tell her right away. Sorry~ Mama, Pina died here just three days after arriving!"
Rozhi's voice trembled as if reaching orgasm from the mere thought.
Her tightly shut eyelids bulged as her eyeballs darted beneath them, gazing at the sky.
"Ahh, the despair Mama will feel then... it'll burn so beautifully for sure."
2.
In front of Si-woo and Rozhi lay the Position Board they'd just set up.
Si-woo had the first move.
Rozhi countered as second player.
After setting up mana sources per standard play, they'd gone through the orthodox early-to-mid game, entering the late phase.
The match's advantage was clear.
Rozhi 6, Si-woo 4.
If this were a typical matchup between average players, it wouldn't be a huge gap.
Position Board was a game full of variables in every phase.
But Rozhi and Si-woo were both players who tolerated no variables.
Top-tier clashes in any field are decided by minute details, not dramatic reversals.
Taking first move yet handing the game's flow to Rozhi signaled a gap unbridgeable without a divine masterstroke.
Yet Si-woo's hands repeated mechanical, routine moves.
No bold attempts, no tricks—chances for reversal slipped away one by one.
If Rozhi had focused harder, the game would've ended here.
But she didn't.
Rozhi wasn't concentrating on the Position Board at all.
Her eyes sparkled as she boasted away.
"Pina was so beautiful. And so bold and spirited, you know? Even captured, she threatened to make me pay if I harmed her master even a hair. No matter how I tormented her, she bit her lip and endured. She was utterly lovable."
No matter how skilled Si-woo's acting, he couldn't hide his visceral disgust toward Rozhi.
Yet she seemed oblivious to it.
Instead, like a child gushing over her favorite doll's charms, she innocently rambled on about her precious memories.
"If you liked her that much, why did you kill her?"
Unable to hold back the burning question, Si-woo rasped it out to the enemy he didn't even want to speak to.
"Did I kill Pina? As if. Thinking back already brings tears. It was so sad, but she slit her wrists with broken glass..."
"So why?"
"Why'd she die? I was just too soft-hearted. My fault for not considering it. She didn't just fail to become a witch—she went and died on me."
Her refusal to name the cause outright here—perhaps a flicker of remaining shame?
No way.
Rozhi was still grinning ear to ear.
"Curious? You into this stuff too? Hmm... I'll spill a little."
Rozhi continued gravely.
"That day, Pina was screeching nonstop, ruining my mood. No matter how I yelled, she wouldn't listen. So in a fit, I threw in some experimental slaves as her roommates."
Experimental slaves, roommates, unable to become a witch, suicide.
Each ominous word pieced together a shovel unearthing a horrific past.
"Haah, I really shouldn't have. I regret it so much. No, but that night was pure bliss. The lesson here? Marshmallow experiments are total bullshit."
What am I even doing right now?
Si-woo glanced at the Position Board.
The game had tilted to 8-2 in Rozhi's favor in an instant as she pressed her advantage.
"You're playing so safely. No need to hold back, really. Truth is, you want in on my surprise too, don't you?"
No path to reversal in sight.
Rozhi's victory would be sealed in the next three moves.
"……."
He'd successfully kept distance from Rinne.
Dorothy had informed the Gehenna side of Si-woo's situation.
She'd return soon with the code to complete the dimensional transfer spell.
Si-woo was confident he could renegotiate the bet's stakes with Rozhi.
Even if it soured relations and meant abandoning Manya and Malisha, retrieving them was secondary.
Ownership lay with Rinne, so he could extract them through her if needed.
Worst case, he could secure Ye-bin and Alice for escape.
But the moment Si-woo vented his anger at Rozhi, everything he'd built would crumble.
All acts of violence at Hexennacht were personally punished by Clifort.
Tragedy exists everywhere.
Humanity's essence is cruel.
As long as shadowy fiends savor others' grief and tears like fine wine.
The words "tragedy" will never vanish from this world.
So Si-woo had no reason to shoulder every tragedy.
He could lament Pina and Mama's plight, feel righteous fury.
But risking danger to punish total strangers? That was a fine compromise.
"I win."
Rozhi declared the game's end with a bright smile right before his eyes.
She was the repulsive villain behind all this tragedy.
But in this moment, what repulsed him more was his own frailty, making excuses to avoid the risk.
He vowed here and now.
Half-baked justice he couldn't follow through on.
Call it complacency, naive optimism.
"Bloom."
Right now, he'd settle for beating the dog wearing human skin.
For the pitiful apprentice witch, who—entangled in immoral games—could only end her life in despair.
Who had to die in irrational tragedy.
Si-woo had the power she lacked.
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