Ep.3 - Temporary Alliance (2)
Ep.3 - Temporary Alliance (2)
This was Neva's reasoning.
If they were going to Load anyway, everyone except herself, Delin, and Philmark would lose their memories.
So the plan was to take this heinous bitch along, track down Delin, and then Load again. That would solve everything.
Releasing and escorting such a treasonous criminal,
such utter garbage,
a woman who deserved nothing but death—it certainly pricked at her conscience something fierce.
But Philmark, living up to her alias as the Great Thief, possessed exceptional tracking abilities, making her the most suitable person to search for Delin.
Of course, the moment she freed this bandit bitch and they broke out of prison together, she herself would also be branded a treasonous criminal and hunted. But if she found the runaway Delin and Loaded, everything would be resolved.
The slight snag, if any, was how to lure out this cunning thief... and, just as she had feared, Philmark giggled and spewed words that grated on Neva's nerves without restraint.
"Even if it were me, I couldn't stand living with a disabled fucktard like you. Pffft... kkhk... kkhp..."
"Shut up and listen. I can kill you whenever I want, but I'm giving you one last chance."
"Then just kill me... yeah? Go ahead and kill me~"
Philmark knew.
The fact that Neva was trying to free her meant she had faced a truly difficult situation, one she could absolutely never resolve without her.
Releasing her when she would rather grind her to death right now? It could only mean she had absolutely no one else to find Delin.
"This bitch...!"
For a moment, fury surged within Neva—an urge to ram her fist into that insolent thief's face and beat her senseless—but she quickly regained her composure and spoke.
"...This really is your last chance. If you don't want to give up on Delin like this, follow my lead."
"Aha... I get it. You... Delin dumped you. Right? Pfft! Puhahahaha!"
Philmark laughed raucously, her voice still thick with blood. The notion that deliberately avoiding a Load meant he was trying to escape Neva instantly clicked in Philmark's mind.
"Ahak, ahhk... I'm dying of laughter. I knew it. You and Delin don't suit each other anyway. What suits you perfectly is jerking off in defeat while picturing Delin's face in bed. Yeah... pfft..."
"Hoo..."
Neva let out a sigh deep enough to crack the ground. Her situation—having to ask for help from that bandit bitch, who didn't have a single likable thing about her—felt utterly despairing.
But what could she do? To bring Delin back...
"...I'm asking you. Please help me."
"Wow... Never thought I'd see the day our dear Knight Commander bows her head. They do say you should live a long life to see everything..."
"If you help me, I'll do my utmost to ensure your life is spared. Sincerely."
"Oh my... how very thankful I am~"
Giggling and snickering, Philmark pointed with her other arm—still bound to one of Neva's slack limbs—toward her still-shackled arm.
"Then undo this too. And pull out all the spikes."
"...Fine. But there's a condition. You wear the special handcuffs I brought."
Neva pulled out a unique pair of handcuffs glowing with a blue light from her waist.
Made of moonstone, a fairly famous material, these cuffs had the effect of suppressing the wearer's mana.
"Tch, fuck... you're so pathetic..."
"Shut up and listen. You focus only on finding Delin's location. I'll handle all the fighting."
"As if you could even properly kill a neighborhood thug on your own... Knight Commander Neva-nim?"
Without even dignifying that with a reply, Neva sliced through the chain fixing Philmark's other arm—Seogeok—.
Soon after, she cut through the two chains on her legs, and even the thick chain wrapped around her torso.
All of them were cut in two by Neva's sword.
"Now I can finally feel alive. Keohok..."
Savoring her returned freedom for a moment, Philmark spat on the ground—Pteu—and then, rising on her creaking body, she slowly walked over to Neva and pointed at the spikes embedded in her own flesh.
"Now then... pull these out for me, would you? I can't walk properly like this, you see?"
"Put the handcuffs on first."
"Ehyu. Fuck."
Cheolkeok—
Philmark obediently held out her hands, and Neva locked the cuffs around those sleek wrists.
Philmark had no particular reason to resist, either. Rather than being tied up in this underground prison, tailing Neva and waiting for an opening when her guard was down was far more advantageous for her.
So, for now, she would pretend to go along with Neva's words and bide her time.
'I must not let my guard down.'
Of course, Neva also knew the pitch-black intent inside Philmark, so she repeated inwardly to herself to stay sharply alert.
In countless battles, just how many times had she been fooled by the scheming Philmark, how many times had she suffered at her hands...
Though she always held the upper hand in pure martial force, Neva had continuously come up empty-handed against a few particular tricks and schemes.
She absolutely could not be fooled by her this time.
She had to be the one leading.
For her beloved Delin's sake,
humiliation of this degree was...
"Ah~ and one truly final condition."
"...What is it?"
"Let me hit you too. You've been beating the shit out of me so far."
At those words, Neva's face flushed bright red, then purpled with an irrepressible rage, but Philmark just cackled once loudly instead.
"Pfft! Look at you trembling. Oh, if you don't want to get hit, just go~"
Swaggering loosely, she trudged back into the interior of the dungeon where she had been tied up.
However.
"...Just one hit."
"Oh?"
"Hit me just once. I'll take it."
Neva, she bravely endured it!
Admirable! Neva!
Jjaak—
"Ehyu, fuuuck. That felt so refreshing deep down."
Without the slightest restraint, Philmark coolly smacked Neva across the cheek hard enough to make her stagger, then—seeming utterly satisfied—she beamed brightly as she stepped out of the prison.
"There. Let's go now~"
"You... are irredeemable trash."
"Thanks for the compliment. Hurry up and let's go, you retarded bitch. Before the remaining traces are wiped away."
-----------------------
"There. Have a seat here."
Chichi sat Delin down on a small wooden chair and called him, snapping her fingers in front of his eyes.
"Now. Look at me. Look at noona."
His mind half-gone, Delin barely managed to roll his eyes to look at her. The drool leaking from his mouth down to his chin spoke volumes about his current state.
"Why is that? Delin. Why aren't you listening properly when noona is talking to you?"
"..."
"I'm not trying to scold you, so don't be scared, just answer. Now. I'll call you again. Delin?"
"Yes..."
"Noona is doing this to praise you, not to scold you. Delin. You're a truly remarkable child. I recognized it at a single glance. You have talent."
"Yes..."
"Now. Focus, focus! Should I give you one more candy? Yes. Let's have one more candy first, then talk."
One more special witch's candy was slipped into his limp, open mouth. His already overstimulated salivary glands gushed drool anew, maintaining Delin's hazy state.
"Eh... uuh..."
"Delin. You're my jongja. You haven't forgotten, right?"
"Jongjaa..."
"Yes. You're my jongja, aren't you? Now. Listen."
Chichi again thrust the crystal orb she had secretly taken out during their first meeting in front of Delin.
From it, Delin's voice leaked out. The voice said:
[Ritealsha Terima de Furine]
"You hear that? You said it yourself with your own mouth that you'd become my jongja and devote yourself to noona."
"..."
"Thinking about it again, using my first jongja only as teaching material for lessons doesn't sit right with me. So from now on, you'll do the teaching material role moderately and train together with noona..."
"Jongja... what the..."
"...Oh my."
Delin wiped the drool dripping down his face with his forearm and glared at Chichi. At that rebellious display, Chichi felt a perverse attraction instead, looking at Delin as if he were cute. Her gaze called out to him.
"Hmm..."
Chichi's affectionate look lingered as if she had fallen in love at first sight, but Delin found that gaze rather creepy and turned his head away.
"You. You're enduring it. Can you explain to me how you're holding on? Noona has seen it firsthand too, but there's still so much I don't understand."
"Dunno..."
"You don't know? Well. I suppose that's possible. Honestly, I don't really know either. It's my first time seeing a case like you. Usually, if I gently knead their head a little, they just get all swoony and become cute little puppies."
Chichi placed her long, extended index finger under Delin's chin and gently lifted his face.
"Let's do this. If you listen to noona well, I'll let you live somewhat comfortably in my own way. It'll be much better than the teaching material role."
"...Why would I."
"Why? If you live as teaching material like this, you'll be wrung completely dry within a year, start creaking and aching, and then be tossed outside Raftel. Noona will protect you. Live as my jongja and learn magic. How about it?"
Delin agonized inwardly, turning it over hundreds of times. There was plenty of opportunity to call out a Load, and the woman before him knew nothing about Load.
He could Load at any time.
However, if he went back like this...
"..."
"What's there to agonize over so much? You should listen to noona. I'll nurture your talent to the very end."
Talent, she said?
What kind of talent did he possibly have? He was just an unlucky, foolish idiot who got devoured by women left and right.
"Trust noona. I'll help you receive the most humane treatment possible. From now... from now on, you just do as noona says. I'll let you attend lessons like the other students. Live with noona and learn magic. How about it?"
"..."
Delin thought it over.
Wasn't it better to endure his current situation and wait for a good opportunity, rather than calling out a Load and being dragged off by Neva?
"Alright."
"Good! That's a promise. You got it? I knew my jongja would be a good listener. What a splendid and cute jongja, fitting for the greatest witch."
"I'm not your jongja, though."
"If it's recorded in the crystal orb, it's final. I never forced you, so its validity is perfectly sufficient."
Fuck. What the...
"Right. Then wait here like this. I have to go catch another male to be your substitute."
...Well, at least it's better than being teaching material, I guess.
To the other bastard who gets caught. I'm sorry.
But I can't keep getting passed around and devoured like a toy until I drop dead. I can't Load, get imprisoned, and then live tied to a bed until I die, either.
"Good night, Delin. Let's see each other again at dawn."
With that final greeting, Chichi rode her broom back down to the human world.
However, quite ironically, the very night she descended to the human world was the same night Philmark and Neva escaped together and set out to find Delin...
Underneath the same blue moon,
one witch,
one knight,
and one thief,
began to move at the same time.