Miss Witch’s Devotion Has Gone… Twisted

Chapter 108: Captain of the Raging Tide

"Master Mentor..."

The woman's voice was difficult to hear clearly, because half her face had been cut off, exposing her oral cavity. She only had one eye left, and bore no resemblance to a living person at all. It was a miracle someone like her could survive.

"Oh? Captain Raging Tide, what brings you here?"

Loren recognized the person before him. Her name was Mara. She was a pirate, nicknamed Captain Raging Tide, a madwoman. Merchant ships she robbed never left a single survivor. She harbored extreme hatred for humans.

Because she was a half-breed, a mix of human and merfolk.

Humans and merfolk had no reproductive isolation, but years of living in the deep sea had caused some mutations in the merfolk;

they were no longer truly human.

The ocean had no god overseeing it, so the ocean was also the most insane place in this world.

Because of this, when Mara was born, she was a monster. Human and fish features appeared randomly on her body.

If that was all, it wouldn't have twisted her psyche.

"As expected of you, to remember the name of a small person like me."The current Mara hadn't fully grown into her power yet, having only recently been put on the wanted list. This was also why Loren directly spoke her nickname.

"No need for idle talk. What do you want with me? If it wasn't something important, you wouldn't risk being discovered by the Church to come find me."

Seeing Loren so direct, Mara also stopped wasting words:

"Master Mentor, may I ask if you know about the treasure left by the Dawn Princess... that powerful magic rumored to make one invincible under heaven?"

"Naturally, I know. What, you want it?"

Mentioning this made Loren feel a bit exasperated. Back then, he had also gone through countless hardships, found four guideposts, and finally discovered the treasure at their intersection.

At the time, he thought he was about to obtain the graduation-level magic. Instead, the treasure was just a stone slab with the words "Friendship is magic" inscribed on it.

Back then, Loren was so angry he wanted to find a necromancy spell to dig up the Dawn Princess's corpse and whip it. However, in the end, Loren didn't come away completely empty-handed either. The Tarot card: Strength was also at the treasure site.

"I want to know if that rumor is true. That if one masters the magic left by the Dawn Princess, they truly become invincible under heaven."

"It's true."

After receiving Loren's confirmation, Mara's remaining half-face revealed uncontrollable joy. Her entire body trembled.

Her excitement wasn't without reason. Mara was born in the territory of the merfolk. The merfolk deeply hated humans, and Mara's birth exposed the fact that her mother had fallen in love with a human. The result was that Mara's mother was imprisoned, and Mara herself had all the fish-like parts on her body cut off before being casually tossed into the ocean.

This was also why Mara only had half a face. Not only that, one of her hands was only half there, one leg had already been replaced by a prosthetic, and even half her lung had been cut out. It was a miracle she had survived until now.

Shortly after being discarded, a sea witch found Mara. It was that sea witch who kept Mara alive.

Only later, that sea witch was killed by humans, killed by people from the Church of the God of Vows and Wind.

She hated the merfolk who discarded her, and she hated the humans who killed the sea witch. In the end, she simply hated both races, humans and merfolk alike.

Looking at it this way, Mara was indeed a pitiful person. But that didn't stop Loren from feeling disgusted by her, nor did he feel any burden about tricking Mara right now.

Mara seemed fierce, but she was also a bully who feared the strong. It was the merfolk royal family who abandoned her, but she only dared to kill some isolated merfolk. It was the Church of the God of Vows and Wind who killed the sea witch, but she only dared to attack merchant ships at sea.

If she had actually attacked the merfolk territory or the Church of the God of Vows and Wind, even if she indiscriminately killed everyone good and bad, Loren wouldn't have disliked her so much. But she only dared to bully the weak and innocent.

A tragic background is not an excuse for evil. The witches' backgrounds were far more tragic than hers, yet the witches never killed any innocent people.

Moreover, Loren wasn't lying to her. Friendship is magic. If the whole world were your friends, wouldn't that make you invincible under heaven?

Just thinking about the expression Mara would have after finding the treasure made Loren want to laugh.

"I have two guideposts here. Do you know the whereabouts of the other two?"

Mara excitedly took out an ancient piece of parchment, which detailed the guideposts.

Loren knew she had these two guideposts. Previously, he had snatched two guideposts from Mara.

One was from the sea witch's collection, the other stolen from merfolk territory.

Mara later returned to merfolk territory once, and that was when she discovered her mother had died. She took the guidepost with her then.

"I know, but having your two is enough. The treasure lies on the line connecting these two guideposts."

Loren had seen all the guideposts and knew the approximate location, which happened to be between the two guideposts Mara had.

Actually, originally only three guideposts were needed;

you just had to traverse the lines connecting the three points. But this time, even the third one wasn't necessary.

"Really?"

Mara's body trembled with excitement. She was finally going to obtain that magic, finally able to take revenge.

"Really. But obtaining the treasure isn't that easy either. There are many mechanisms there that ordinary people simply cannot decipher."

Mara didn't doubt Loren's words at all. That was the power of reputation.

"Then... could you come with me? I'm willing to pay any price!"

Mara didn't even realize Loren was guiding her to invite him. Originally, Loren had been worrying about how to obtain the Strength card. Mara's arrival was like a pillow appearing when you're sleepy.

Mara had a ghost ship. To travel safely on the insane sea, a ghost ship was essential. Even though the God of Vows and Wind held partial authority over the ocean, He couldn't completely protect His believers at sea.

Even so, Loren still declined initially:

"Do you think you have anything that could attract me?"

This made Mara freeze. Indeed, Loren held a high position. The current Mara, still a small-time pirate, couldn't offer Loren any benefits at all.

Offer treasure? The money from one of Loren's songs was more than she could plunder in a month. Promise status? Loren's current status was no lower than the Pope's... As for other things, Mara had even less to offer.

"However..."

Loren suddenly changed his tone. Mara also focused intently, listening to Loren's next words:

"I am quite interested in the treasure's contents. As long as you have a way to get there, I don't mind accompanying you on the trip."

"Rest assured, Master Mentor. My ship is a ghost ship, capable of withstanding most dangers at sea!"

Seeing Loren agree, Mara felt incomparably excited. However, she also had her own little schemes. Even though Loren's help was significant, she absolutely would not share the treasure with him. She was already prepared to betray him.

And Loren, from the moment he first saw Mara, had already sentenced her to death.