City of Witches Chapter 158

The Witch of Embers, Della Redcliffe, had loved shiny things since she was a child.

Rings crafted with dazzling gemstones, glass artworks, brooches with intricate ornamentation.

She especially adored luxuries that, when held up to a soft light, revealed their brilliance more and more, proudly displaying their own beauty.

There was no particular reason.

Like a crow decorating its nest with collected shiny objects, Della too, since her days as an Apprentice Witch, had simply piled up all sorts of things in her chamber.

If something caught her fancy, she would inevitably acquire it.

She coveted the Brand her predecessor possessed so intensely.

The Redcliffe family's innate magic accumulated over generations, and the baronetcy title that came with inheriting it—she wanted them so badly.

She studied, researched, and strived further.

She shortened the training period, expected to take at least twenty years, by half and proudly inherited the Brand.

After becoming a Witch, she coveted all sorts of Artifacts and decorative items in Gehenna.

Della collected them by any means necessary.

If an item's owner refused to sell, she offered three or four times the price.

If they still refused even with the premium, she would create pressure from outside or within to establish a hierarchical relationship where they had no choice but to sell.

Eventually, not long after becoming a Witch, everything fell into Della's hands.

The largest and most splendid mansion in Ars Magna Town.

An ancient Magic Path tome of which not a single handwritten copy existed.

The cursed diamond auctioned at the Red Roof Salon.

The finest wine that, with just a drop to wet the tongue, induced dizzying ecstasy.

The untainted, fresh young bodies of pretty and adorable Witches, and so on.

Whatever she desired, it didn't take very long.

For Della Redcliffe was a chosen Baroness among many Witches and a Great Witch of the 20th Hierarchy.

The things Della wanted soon rolled into her grasp.

'How boring.'

However, once obtained, the value of those items soon faded.

The initial heart-pounding excitement from craving, lusting, coveting, obsessing over, and pursuing them was quickly covered by the thick dust of tedium.

The first flutter, excitement, passion, joy, and sense of fulfillment all became memories of a distant past.

This signified the demise of value.

How could something that sent no thrill through her heart possibly be precious?

Thus, Della turned her gaze to the Mortal Realm.

Even if she had grown tired of most things in Gehenna, perhaps a wider world, a mundane world overflowing with superficial pleasures and amusements...

Could quench her thirst.

The first few years were enjoyable.

Crushing Exiles who didn't know their place, hunting public enemies, constructing Homunculi.

She crossed oceans aboard a massive cruiser or wallowed in all sorts of pleasures and revelries in a desert city crowded with casinos.

The fruits of civilizations she had never heard of or seen temporarily filled Della's hungry insides with a false sense of satiety.

Yes, 'temporarily'.

'This is boring too.'

It was a repeat.

In less than ten years, Della's thirst and hunger awoke once more.

Around that time, Della was resigning herself to it.

That her tedium and dull days were an inherent, primal quirk within her.

She thought she could never truly fill this void.

Until she met a Witch in an Eastern divided nation she hadn't even known existed.

'This was originally my hunting ground!'

'So? From now on, I'll be taking over this place.'

'No... are you insane? Just because you're a Baroness?'

'How insolent... Shouldn't a Witch speak through Magic?'

She forcefully suppressed the Witch who boldly charged at her.

It wasn't very difficult.

For her Hierarchy, recklessly and fiercely charging without knowing her place, was only around the 17th level.

Yet, Della felt an instinctive attraction.

The slender, pitifully beautiful face and the unyielding spirit that didn't break even in defeat.

The bright turquoise strands mixed here and there in her deep green hair.

But most of all, what she liked best were the eyes.

The jade-tinted, pale blue irises seemed more covetable and valuable to Della than any gemstone she possessed.

Della felt the arrow of desire that always drove her now pointing toward Sharon.

And she immediately began a background check.

Sharon Evergreen.

A debt-ridden Witch exiled from Gehenna for causing a major incident.

An immature one who incompletely inherited the Brand from her predecessor.

When she heard that information, she expected things to go very well.

For a lacking human with nowhere to lean on, nothing to cling to, is in a state easily swayed by temptation.

'What? You'll give me 100 million to help you bathe?'

'Yes, a sort of charity. I'm well aware of your pitiful circumstances.'

When Della sought out Sharon again, she proposed helping with her bath for a large sum of money.

Of course, her intention wasn't to just bring Sharon in for a simple bath.

First, just bath assistance.

Next, natural physical contact.

Then, nights of ecstasy intense enough to bend backs in bed.

Lowering the hurdles one by one.

Right now, not long after being expelled, she's clinging to petty pride, earning pocket change through part-time jobs and Homunculi, but that's just a superficial facade that will soon be stripped away.

If she gets Sharon accustomed to the taste of easy money, it was obvious she wouldn't forget it and would come seeking more.

Therefore, from the very first proposal, Della was already imagining freely fondling Sharon's naked body.

But Sharon's reply was cold.

An immediate answer without a hint of hesitation or deliberation.

'What are you talking about? Get lost.'

Sharon glared at Della, furrowing her brows as if genuinely disgusted.

This expression might sound amusing, but.

Her eyes were exceedingly beautiful and noble.

And at that moment, Della realized.

If she didn't get Sharon into her hands by any means necessary.

If she didn't cover those clear eyes with the haze of pleasure and turn her into a plaything.

This thirst would never be quenched.

Though the clash lasted a mere minute, it was enough to devastate the area.

The interior of the crimson-hot overpass had transformed like a kiln, radiating residual heat of hundreds of degrees.

From the collapsed sections of the ceiling, the railway tracks that had been above hung down like taffy, dripping molten iron drop by drop.The asphalt that had been crushed beneath the wheels was melting stickily, emitting a pungent petroleum smell.

And on the scorching hot pavement blocks, Sharon lay collapsed.

Sharon, with burn marks covering her face and ceremonial dress in various places, struggled to breathe, gasping heavily.

A fight between a 17th Hierarchy and a 20th Hierarchy Witch.

Della had held back her power to match Sharon's level, but even that level of aftermath had incinerated not only the underpass but every building within the Hidden Boundary.

"Haa... Huh... Ugh..."

The pipe she had offered as a sacrifice to utilize the fire element snapped weakly.

Sharon met the gaze of Della, who was arrogantly looking down at her with vacant eyes.

"Do you still not understand your place?"

The air inside the underpass was heated to a degree that would instantly cook the lungs of any ordinary human who inhaled it.

But Della opened her mouth very naturally and began to calm the surrounding heat.

The temperature inside the underpass plummeted to around 60 degrees in an instant.

Truthfully, Sharon had known it would come to this.

Redcliff is the Witch who has achieved the highest mastery in fire elemental magic among currently existing Witches.

A half-baked amateur like herself stood no chance even if she tried.

"Still, you've improved a lot since last time."

Della remarked, lightly lifting the hem of her own singed red dress.

At least she had put up a decent struggle, perhaps not having been idle for the past ten years.

Thanks to that, about 70% of the magic power stored in her Brand had been consumed.

Of course, more than half of that was magic power wasted to control her strength.

"Huh... Ugh... Ugh..."

Sharon seemed to be straining to get up, but she lacked even the strength to part her lips, only managing to open her eyes with difficulty.

Della's shoe pressed firmly down on Sharon's chest as she tried desperately to rise.

"My, don't try to get up like that. What if you get more hurt?"

Della, who had been enjoying the soft, yielding sensation of breasts under her shoe, lightly licked her lips.

How could such an expression be so adorable?

The fiery anger was soaked in cold helplessness.

Pride, once like a pristine white cloth, was stained with the blotches of humiliation and disgrace.

Thinking that she had endured so much hardship just to see this face, she felt she might climax right then and there, standing as she was.

"Mmm, mmm... Such a pretty body indeed."

Della, who had been pressing down on the chest several times without applying her full weight, removed her foot.

Because if this continued, Sharon seemed likely to lose consciousness right then.

"Since I've won again this time, I should claim the victor's spoils. Don't hunt in this area from now on. I'll be taking over your territory up to your zone."

"Bull...shit... Shut...up..."

Anger and defiance reignited in Sharon's eyes, which had been growing hollow.

But it was insufficient to become the driving force to lift her exhausted, collapsed body again.

Della crouched down right there, bringing her face close to Sharon's.

"If that happens, you'll have nowhere to earn money immediately, won't you? If you can't properly pay your dues, regaining your citizenship will be forever out of reach, right?"

".........."

She reached out and gently, very gently, stroked Sharon's cheek.

The slightly roughened skin tickled the back of her hand.

"So I'll give you a job. Since you probably have nowhere to stay anyway, you can live in the hotel room where I'm staying. I'll give you money every time Sharon does something cute. Now, look at this."

Della thrust her finger right in front of Sharon's mouth.

Simultaneously, she pulled out two thick checks from her wallet.

On them were written numbers and the words 'Fifty Million Won Only.'

"If you suck on it like a baby nursing, I'll give you this. It's a kind of Contract. A Contract that from now on, you'll obey me well and work hard to earn money."

Sharon no longer had a home.

Her hunting grounds were practically gone as well.

Among the options to repay the enormous debt of 58 billion, the easiest was to break her pride and accept Della's offer.

"........"

Sharon's mouth slowly opened.

Della placed her hand inside, making it easy for her to suck on the finger.

"That's right, good girl."

Della smiled a triumphant smile.

No matter how strong her self-respect or overflowing her pride, in the end, she was a slave to debt.

Having isolated and brought her down this far, she planned to start with something light and gradually erode her.

The ultimate goal was to later buy Sharon's debt from Count Gemernai, play with her like a doll, and make her dependent on herself.

This was the first step toward that grand pleasure.

-Crunch!

However, it didn't take long for Della's satisfied eyes to furrow.

Sharon had bitten down on Della's fingertip with all her might.

It seemed like she was biting with the resolve to sever the finger, but the pain felt was only at the level of a puppy teething.

But the pain wasn't the issue.

It was that Sharon still hadn't broken her stubbornness and was resisting.

Sharon's eyes, blazing a cold blue, shot a glare at Della.

Della didn't like that.

"........"

An inexplicable sense of humiliation stabbed at her chest, and she felt a click as the limiter in her mind released.

If she wouldn't submit even after all this, then there was no choice but to take her by force.

"Miss Sharon, now that I look, you're too badly injured."

Della's voice was trembling slightly.

How dare this half-baked Witch, after being shown this much consideration, still try to climb up.

Let's just take her to the hotel.

If she had exhausted even the magic power needed to activate her Autonomous Defense, then no matter what Della did, she wouldn't be able to move a finger.

Let's watch as she's taken by force and gasps for breath.

We'll think about what comes after later.

She resolved herself.

"I'll heal you. Let's go to my room first."

"Let...go...of this..."

Sharon tried to shake off Della, who was trying to lift her by the collar with all her might.

But Della didn't budge an inch, lifting Sharon with a cold, ruthless gaze.

"Stop resisting. It's annoying."

"Ugh!"

Should I knock her out for now since she's being bothersome?

Della pushed a wave of magical power inside, churning Sharon's insides violently.

Sharon went limp, unable to even resist the magic power digging into her body.

-Swish!

Then, she felt something wrapping around her wrist.

"Huh?"

At the sudden sensation, Della shifted her gaze.

Around her wrist, exposed beyond the crimson dress, a Black Ribbon was now wrapped.