novelraw Chapter 15
Chapter 15
Chapter 15: The Young Lady’s Invitation
“...Jason, I don’t like jokes.” Norsen’s voice was extremely cold. A dangerous aura abruptly filled the entire underground prison, and Jason instantly felt pairs of eyes hidden in the darkness hungrily sizing him up, as if they would tear him apart alive the very next second.
“Mr. Norsen, I don’t think he was joking,” a blond young man with a warm smile and handsome features walked out of the shadows. “Feel it for yourself. Kenneth’s soul imprint is on this piece of cloth. That cannot be forged.”
“You shouldn’t have appeared here, wizard,” Norsen turned toward the young man and said darkly, “the Council’s hand has stretched too far.”
“Oh, sorry, sorry.” The young man smiled and waved his hand. “I had no intention of taking part in your great plan. I only came to say goodbye to you.”
“You’re leaving?” Norsen frowned.
“The cold wind of Volgania has already blown to Koberen and Solennam. There’s no need for me to stay here any longer.” The young man snapped his fingers, and his body turned into a rising mass of golden flame, disappearing into the air. “One last piece of advice for you... don’t underestimate any witch.”
After the golden flames disappeared, Norsen waved his hand, and certain things in the darkness of the prison shrank back into their own world. The pressure of being watched also vanished in an instant, and Jason could not help but let out a sigh of relief.
“That just now was...?” Jason swallowed and asked in a low voice.
“Just a group of pitiful self-destroyers,” Norsen shook his head impatiently, seeming unwilling to talk too much about the blond young man. “All the incarnations I sent this time were ‘used up.’ The Association moved even faster than I expected. It was as if they had foreseen our actions in advance...”
“Damn it... it was 【Fate】 again!” Jason slammed his fist into the damp wall beside him. “How long is she going to keep getting in our way!”
“Jason,” Norsen looked calmly into his eyes, “even 【Fate】 cannot glimpse the time beyond the mist...”
“Then this time it was...”
“It was Moon.” Norsen’s voice was hoarse and low, filled with intense hatred. “I took away the ‘Door,’ but I failed to take away the ‘Key.’”
“So it was actually her...” Jason drew in a sharp breath, his expression turning somewhat ugly. “That youngest Great Witch... do we have any chance of winning...?”
“Do you know how she became the witch ranked fifth?” Norsen let out a cold laugh. “Do you still remember that rumor?”
“After Star left, the furious Moon charged into Celestis, and after defeating five Great Witches in succession, she was subdued by the Ocean Witch, who was ranked fourth... after that, she became the fifth Great Witch.”
“But that was only a rumor. How could she possibly defeat five S-ranks in a row?”
“Do you know how long she took to break through the barrier of the Door of Dreams?” Norsen stared straight at Jason. “Thirty seconds! In thirty seconds, she amassed magic powerful enough to pierce through a ‘divine kingdom’!”
“Confronting her head-on is meaningless.” Norsen reached this conclusion in a decisive tone. He raised his head and looked toward the green-haired girl bound at the center of the cross. “But... she seemed to care somewhat about this girl.”
“Use... a hostage?” Jason asked tentatively.
Norsen did not answer him. He merely raised his hand in silence, and black flames slithered along his fingertips. He walked forward, and his body passed through the prison door as if through air.
When he reached the girl, a strange smile curled at the corners of Norsen’s mouth. He lifted his index finger wrapped in black flames and pressed it against the center of the girl’s brow.
“Nightmares could not shake a resilient heart, because no matter how terrifying a nightmare was, there would still come a day when it ended,” his gentle voice echoed through the cell, yet it sent a chill down one’s spine. “But no one would refuse an... eternal sweet dream.”
---
Lina fell into deep thought and shock.
Holy shit?! That shorty Fantasia found me?!
“Boom!”
A clap of thunder streaked across the sky! Dark clouds slowly gathered.
The chattering apprentices below the stage instantly fell silent.
Sorry, sorry, sorry, Miss Fantasia was the cutest in the world, the most beautiful girl in the universe, not short at all, it was my bad eyesight, I’d never dare do it again, please spare me!
The dark clouds quickly dispersed, and the weather instantly cleared up.
The corner of Lina’s mouth twitched involuntarily. She turned her head stiffly and forced out a smile at the chief examiner. “Uh... um... does that mean I can get off the stage now?”
The chief examiner was clearly still in shock from the bizarre change in weather just now.
She remembered very clearly that before the first cultist had been “accidentally struck by lightning,” the sky had seemed to undergo the same kind of change!
The Association had originally been prepared to define this matter as an accidental natural disaster... could this lightning also have something to do with her?!
The chief examiner shook her head and cast those thoughts aside.
This little girl indeed had quite a few unusual aspects to her. This “temporary investiture” had also been arranged by the higher-ups in the Association, and even the gift box had only been delivered a few minutes ago... she probably really did have some kind of background, and not the kind a witch at her level could come into contact with.
“Ah, of course you can,” the chief examiner nodded. “You may go back and rest now, or celebrate with your companions.”
“However, the Witch Association branch in Osselro Town currently does not have the authority to issue D-rank certification. Your documents must first be transferred to another nearby branch for registration. During this period, you may be unable to accept commissions. Once the process is completed, we will notify you by letter.”
Stuffing the gift box and certificate into the storage ring that had just been imprinted with her soul mark, Lina slowly walked down from the podium.
The surrounding apprentices immediately crowded forward, and their barrage of questions left Lina somewhat at a loss.
The chief examiner’s voice rang out at just the right time: “Everyone, please proceed to the front office as soon as possible to collect compensation and register your lodging information!”
Everyone’s attention instantly shifted, and they surged toward the front desk, each trying to get there first. Lina also took the opportunity to escape from the crowd.
The moment Lina’s front foot stepped out of the Witch Association, that familiar and infuriating voice came from the entrance:
“Well, well, our ‘Great——Witch’ has come out. So, after making such a big scene, did you get your certificate?”
Tal leaned against the doorway, his eyes full of mockery.
As soon as he heard there had been an accident during the witch examination and that the test had been canceled halfway through, he had rushed over at top speed just to watch his sister make a fool of herself.
He straightened his back, making the large bronze E-rank medal issued by the Wizard Association stand out even more in the sunlight.
Lina glanced at him, then, under his dumbfounded stare, took out the silver D-rank badge from her ring and pinned it to her chest. “Mm, I got it, Mr. ‘Great——Wizard.’”
The corner of her lips lifted slightly. “Oh, so our ‘Great Wizard’ is only E-rank. Hehe... I almost forgot, the Wizard Association currently only has one S-rank. Don’t tell me you’re the second?”
“You!” Tal was furious. He suddenly thought of one detail. “You must have used some shameless trick! ...Right... this was an E-rank exam, so how could you possibly get D-rank certification!”
“Your certificate is fake! You forged it!” Tal screamed, pointing at Lina and shouting to the surrounding onlookers, “There’s an apprentice here pretending to be a formal witch! Grab her!”
“Grab your **!” Lina had already been feeling irritated, and she could not be bothered to keep tangling with this childish and boring younger brother. She took a quick step to Tal’s side and swung a flying kick at his waist!
Tal was startled. He instinctively dodged Lina’s sweeping kick and gathered magic, preparing to cast a Fireball.
Yet in an instant, Lina’s figure suddenly split into two! Another Lina abruptly appeared in front of him, and a fair fist rapidly enlarged before his eyes!
“Bang!!!”
Blood sprayed from his nose. Before Tal’s magic could even take shape, his whole body had already been sent flying backward. He rolled several times across the ground in a miserable heap before finally stopping.
Lina loosened her fist, then rushed forward and drove another kick into his abdomen.
In her mind, she recalled how Tal and their mother had once beaten the original owner simply because she had forgotten to add salt while cooking.
She remembered winter nights, when Tal, just because he was in a bad mood, had grabbed the original owner by the hair and thrown her into the snow, leaving her half-frozen.
This beast.
Lina grabbed his collar with one hand and hauled him up, then drove her knee upward and viciously smashed it into his crotch!
“Ah——” Tal let out a shrill scream and rolled around on the ground clutching his crotch.
“This is enough for today.” Lina spat at the twitching Tal lying on the ground. “If there’s a next time... I’ll roast every inch of skin on your body until it’s crispy, and make you wish you were dead.”
This woman, this woman actually dared...
As he stared at Lina’s gradually receding back, Tal’s heart suddenly turned vicious. Enduring the intense pain, he raised an arm, and faint sparks danced at his fingertips.
From this angle... she couldn’t dodge!
“That’s enough, Tal!”
Lina turned back to look and saw Sibyl standing at the entrance of the Association with a stern expression.
“You two know each other too?” Lina’s eyelids twitched. She thought to herself that this world really was small.
“Lainie!” Tal froze, and the flame at his fingertips quickly went out. Struggling to his feet, he half-knelt on the ground and began to complain bitterly, “This woman, she just now...”
“She is my savior,” Sibyl’s voice was extremely cold. “The disturbance caused by the cultists this time was resolved almost entirely because of Lina, which is why the Association made an exceptional promotion for her.”
“I saw everything just now! You were the one who provoked Miss Lina first... and even slandered and defamed her!” Sibyl deliberately raised her voice, and the surrounding crowd of onlookers immediately began murmuring about Tal.
“Lainie, you can’t...” Tal’s eyes were full of disbelief. “You are my...”
“Shut up!” Sibyl’s gaze was icy cold as she said word by word, “That was a decision my father made on his own. I never agreed to it!”
“And one more thing, don’t call me so intimately. It makes me sick.”
Tal’s pupils shrank instantly, and all his words were choked back down.
“Well... since there’s nothing else, I’ll be going first?” Lina blinked. Although she was a little curious about the relationship between her younger brother and Sibyl, after thinking it over, she decided it was better not to get involved.
“Please wait, Miss Lina.” Suddenly, Sibyl called out to Lina.
“Miss Lina, I would like to invite you to dinner.”
“Oh, it’s fine, I can just find a restaurant myself, so I won’t trouble you...”
I really don’t want to get involved with you nobles, please spare me, big sister!
“At that newly opened hotel in town,” Sibyl’s voice came again, “today’s menu has Valentia beef soup, Adler roasted pork knuckle, Gaul City baked meat, and smoked sausage... my treat.”
“Well, now that you mention it, there’s no reason not to go when a friend invites me to dinner, so where are we eating?”
Just having a meal surely won’t drag me into some noble trouble, right, and besides, how could I refuse an invitation from a beautiful girl like this, anyway I’m starving to death, I’ll eat first and talk later!
Sibyl smiled faintly, and under Tal’s shocked gaze, affectionately took Lina by the arm. “Let’s go, Miss Lina.”
As if she had not seen Tal at all, Sibyl left the Association gate with Lina, chatting and laughing with her.
“That bastard...” Tal gritted his teeth, spat on the ground, then raised his head and shouted to several servants not far away, “What are you staring at! Hurry up and carry me back!”
---
“By the way... Sibyl, do you know Tal?” Lina finally could not suppress her curiosity and asked the question.
“Him...” Sibyl let out a sigh. “He is currently also a wizard employed by our family. You know him too?”
Lina shrugged. “More or less... it’s a bit of a cursed connection. I’m pretty annoyed by him.”
“I don’t like him either,” Sibyl sighed softly. “But my father seems to admire him quite a lot. After all, his magical talent among the younger generation of wizards is indeed fairly decent. Father even wanted him to become my fiancé...”
“Why don’t you like him?” Lina raised a brow.
“Childish, boring,” Sibyl said coldly. “He has no great ambitions, yet he still loves showing off.”
“Oh...” Lina nodded thoughtfully.
So Sibyl’s father had intended to match her with her younger brother, but Sibyl looked down on him.
That made sense. With that kind of personality, what girl would like him?
He was a complete turn-off, an overgrown baby, all right!
“W-wait... wait for me! L-Lina sis... sister!”
A burst of hurried footsteps, accompanied by a girl’s panting shout, interrupted the second half of Sibyl’s sentence.
Annie was hugging a black breadstick as she ran toward the two of them, panting for breath.