Chapter 62: Worm Assistant
Chapter 62: Worm Assistant
“Ugh! Why, why again!!!”
“A worm?”
Rize writhes on the ground, lost in ecstasy.
Adryn and Mizu find her behavior disgusting.
“…!”
Rize comes to her senses late in response to the pair’s genuinely sickening and ridiculous reaction.
As if coming back from a sweet dream to reality, her eyes wide open, she jumps up from where she was sitting.
Still, with her face not completely free from blush, she glares at Mizu and Adryn and yells out.
“Shit, what are you staring at?”
To hide her embarrassment, her attitude becomes even more aggressive.
“…!”
But soon she hastily looks at Ceylon, as if remembering something.
The fear in her eyes was as if she was being silently ripped apart.
For some reason, her state reminds the onlookers of a pet trainer reprimanding their pet, saying “Hey!”
“Shit…”
Rize murmurs in a low voice.
Then, with a face twisted with humiliation, she looks at Adryn and Mizu and says,
“I… I’m sorry for showing my embarrassing side…”
“Yuck! Why is she acting like that?”
“Is this a psychological attack? Trying to make us let our guard down with ridiculous and disgusting habits?”
What kind of admission of defeat was this?
Rize, out of respect per Ceylon’s will for Adryn and Mizu, is perceived as suspiciously behaving in a manner that makes them feel uncomfortable, as they do not know the back story.
While she shows respect, Adryn and Mizu’s treating her as a crazy person only deepens the shades of anger and humiliation on Rize’s face.
It’s a frustration that turns her face into the shade of her red hair.
A clenched fist shut tight, losing all its color.
Seeing her suppress her anger and humiliation, even Adryn and Mizu started to feel uncomfortable.
“Why is she acting like this all of a sudden…?”
“Did she really surrender?”
While putting Rize’s attitude of showing respect to others despite her humiliation and anger aside, as a magician, her act of opening her blue heart itself was the ultimate surrender.
Because the moment someone else’s mana flows into the blue heart, the magic user that owns the blue heart becomes unable to control magic.
The problem is…
From Adryn and Mizu’s point of view, they have no idea why Rize would fully surrender.
At first, she tried to kill them right off the bat.
After the battle ended in a stalemate, she belittled them with a variety of disdainful words.
And then she surrendered completely.
Clearly, the middle process was omitted, misplacing the context.
From their point of view, it was more reasonable to think that Rize was plotting some kind of scheme in the shadows, rather than believing she had surrendered.
Just as Adryn and Mizu were confused and unable to figure out what was happening, Ceylon, the only one who understood the context of the situation, stepped in to clarify.
“I think she decided that if the fight continued as it was, she would lose to the three of us. We terrified her into complete surrender and begging for mercy.”
“Is… that so?”
Adryn asked, tilting her head in doubt.
“Considering how arrogantly she was boasting before, isn’t this too cowardly?”
As Mizu had said, considering Rize’s attitude until now, it was a humiliating interpretation that was hard for her to bear.
That was Ceylon’s intention.
In his view, Rize needed to feel quite- no, a hefty amount of humiliation and torment.
After all, she had attacked Adryn and Mizu.
She had to pay for her sins.
So, Ceylon was proud that his intention to humiliate Rize was pure.
“What the fuck are you talking about!”
However, watching Rize who couldn’t bear the humiliation and burst out, his slender eyes seemed to be filled with a certain kind of enjoyment.
“I, I begged for your mercy out of fear of you?”
As Ceylon intended, Rize felt unbearable humiliation.
The fact that she surrendered to the three of them, to beg for their mercy out of fear!
“What the fuck…!”
It was all because of the white snake.
If it weren’t for the white snake, Rize would have easily killed the three of them and taken the necklace, swiftly leaving Arienne.
She was a special being who was almost at the 5-star level in magic and had already achieved the 6-star level in black magic.
Her world was different from these kids who barely reached the level of 2-star.
“Oh really?”
But when Ceylon asked back with a smirk, she saw the white snake superimposed on him.
She felt as if the white snake, which was coiling around in her mind, was glaring at her.
The white snake cherishes him, who is not even comparable to her.
“fucking…”
Rize once again hung her head low and shivered in humiliation.
A metallic taste spread in her mouth.
Her tightly clenched fist was damp.
Her fingernails dug into her palm, and a more natural and vivid red color was plastered over the nails that had just turned red.
Then, she lifted her head again and looked at the three of them.
“I, Rize, swear on my name and my blue heart, the source of my magic. It was a clear mistake that I attacked the three of you. To atone for my sin-”
Rize continued in a trembling voice.
Then, pointing at Ceylon with her bleeding index finger, she said,
“Ceylon, I swear complete obedience to you.”
Wooong.
The blue heart held in Ceylon’s hand emitted a faint glow.
Resonating with Rize’s words.
At that moment.
The words that Rize spat out, staking her name and her blue heart, had been engraved in the blue heart.
“Fucking…”
Now it was too late.
She was now bound to serve Ceylon as a mage.
There was only one choice to receive the attention of the white snake: to serve that idiot.
Rize closed her eyes and sighed deeply.
“Fucking, are you satisfied?”
Rize glared at Ceylon, her tone questioning.
Then he grinned and said,
“Yes! If you are this afraid and begging for forgiveness, we can believe you! And we believe you won’t betray us after deceiving us. But there’s one thing that irks me-”
“Fucking! You’re a piece of shit! What’s your complaint now?”
Ceylon pointed at his lips with his index finger.
“Is that the attitude of a submissive person?”
“Ah.”
Seeing Ceylon’s smile full of joy, Rize instantly regretted the thoughts she had bragged about not regretting just a moment ago.
“Well, I don’t mind it. But I’d advise you to avoid using such language with the other two.”
“…”
“Your answer?”
“Yeah, you fucking…”
“Haha, that’s a spirited response. Well done. Mizu?”
“Hmm?”
Mizu, who had been watching the spectacle with impassive eyes, promptly responded.
“Shall we see if my follower Rize has properly accepted my command?”
“Oh, good. Hey, pet worm. I have to receive an apology for the part where you insulted Bauer earlier.”
“Huh? Insulting Bauer? Did that happen?”
“I know. All humans fundamentally despise Bauer deep down inside.”
Fucking nonsense.
Rize muttered, scowling.
“By the way, you’re Bauer, huh? How dare the bastard of Harashin hang out with Teln. If I’m a pet worm, then what are you, a pet bastard?”
“Huh!”
Thump.
Mizu slowly sat down, placing both hands on her left chest.
“Ouch. A pain in the heart.”
“Huh…! Mizu, are you okay!?”
Ceylon rushed over to Mizu, exaggeratingly surprised, and extended one hand to her.
“One more hand.”
When Ceylon extended both hands as she said, she gripped them and struggled to get up.
She slapped Ceylon.
“Hey, hey. How did you train the pet worm? I got bitten.”
“Oh… I’m sorry Mizu…! I’ll apologize on her behalf!”
“No need~~~”
Mizu flatly pretended to scream.
“I must receive the apology directly from the worm.”
“Oh, in that case, there’s nothing I can do. Wormie- No, sorry. Rize. Why did you do that? I told you! Be polite to others even if you don’t have to be with me! If you keep doing this, I-”
Ceylon spoke with a meaningful smile.
“Do you feel regret?”
At that moment, Rize’s body shuddered.
As soon as Ceylon finished speaking, Rize felt her power being stripped away.
Rize thought.
The white snake was again following that squint-eyed bastard’s will and stealing her power.
‘For god’s sake, why the hell is he like this!!!’
She yelled in frustration, in her mind.
Why on earth would the white snake, a great demon, want to join in the childish games of those absurd kids?
Even if it makes sense to show respect to Ceylon, who receives his total affection, why must I respect such a woman of Bauer?
Did the white snake simply respect the will of that squint-eyed bastard without question?
Does it just fulfill whatever he wishes?
No matter how much she thought about it, she couldn’t comprehend or accept it.
But one thing was clear: the suffocating deprivation brought on by the power vacuum.
“I-I’m sorry!!! This shithole, a lowly rat of the back alleys dared to challenge Bauer!!! I deserve to die!!! I’m sorry!!! SORRY!!!!!! Happy!?!”
Feelings of inferiority.
Injustice.
Humiliation.
All the emotions Rize was feeling at that moment were compounded with resentment.
And when added to the overwhelming sense of deprivation and powerlessness she felt from having her power stripped away,
Rize was, unknowingly, tearing up.
Tears flowed from her reddened eyes, and her voice cracked.
“I’ve had many experiences of crying because of bullying, but this is the first time I’ve witnessed someone cry as a result of it,” said Adryn aside from Mizu.
“She’s the one who tried to kill us. You don’t need to feel guilty…”
Even as Adryn uttered these words, she seemed to be feeling guilty herself, which made her aggressive stance rather awkward.
Adryn was not used to hurting others.
Never mind punching someone’s face with her fist, unless it was a situation that required the courage in the necklace she wore.
If it was not for her first real fight experience, she would not have engaged in the battle properly.
At Adryn’s appearance, Mizu shook her head.
“I’m not sure about the guilt, but it does feel a little creepy. Don’t you get the feeling why people laugh at Bauer?” “Uuu- Rize is again having a negative influence on Mizu’s feelings- Anyway! Adryn?”
“Huh? Hm? Me? Why?”
“Adryn, too, should receive an apology from Rize.”
“No, I don’t particularly-…”
The moment a soft-hearted Adryn tried to refuse,
She remembered the actions that Rize had just-
-what the Dalleye had inflicted on them.
They tried to kill her.
And they attacked her, who declared her family’s name.
She could put up with and overlook the act of insulting herself, but she could not overlook the insult to her people Ceylon and Mizu.
The insult to her own family was the same.
Above all, Rize tried to kill Ceylon and Mizu.
The moment Adryn recalled that point, her eyes were suddenly cold.
As if she had made a decision, she parted her lips with difficulty.
“I, Adryn of the Teln family, formally demand an apology from you. For trying to harm my people. And for insulting our Teln family. I need to formally apologize for that part.”
Adryn took a big step toward Rize and spoke.
Kissing him on foot means that.
As far as the noble Adryn knew, it was a way to get the most sincere apology from the other party.
“Hah…!”
Rize burst into real laughter.
The tears that had been endlessly flowing since a while ago.
She looked at Ceylon with her swollen eyes.
This isn’t it.
This can’t be it?
She said so, with a powerless, heartbreaking expression.
Then Ceylon smiled and said,
“What a relief. Mizu and Adryn are indeed merciful.”
“…”
Rize stiffened at his words.
He was right.
If a noble from another family, at the same level as the Teln, found themselves in a similar situation, they would have made a huge fuss and threatened to kill Rize.
Rize felt relieved.
‘Huh? Why am I?’
She felt a strange sense of relief even though she was asking herself.
Why should I feel relieved to receive an apology from them?
From these wretched nobodies who are inferior to me?
Then again, the image of the white snake appeared in her mind.
“Ha ha…”
In Rize’s mouth, a vacant laugh escaped as if the wind was seeping from her mouth.
She gave up thinking.
Thunk.
As Rize slumped into her seat, she kissed Adryn’s foot.
Then she looked up at Ceylon –
With a trembling voice, she spoke to the white snake looking at her from within.
“Are you satisfied…?”
Then Ceylon, with a sly grin on his face, said,
“Well done.”
In an instant.
The white snake returned the power it had taken away.
This time, a meaningful amount of power for Rize.
“Hu-heuk…!”
For those who luxuriate in power, such as black mage-
No, it was an ecstasy that they could never refuse.
Rize, trembling with that ecstasy, fell to the floor again and rolled in pain.
Mizu, who had been quietly watching,
Quietly muttered as she saw Rize indulging in a mysterious behavior from her perspective.
“…Is she enjoying this?”