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1.

A strange incident was reported.

Alcoriza Familia, the most notorious cartel throughout South America...

Was reported to have 10,000 of its members gathered at one place to celebrate their godfather, Alcoriza’s birthday.

Even if it was for that purpose, it was still an unusual thing for that many members of a cartel to gather up in one place, so this matter quickly gathered the attention of Mexico’s military and police, as well as various countries’ intelligence agencies.

They even deemed the situation to be so urgent that a war might just break out at any moment.

So they prepared themselves for the worst, and even mobilized the military’s satellites to observe Alcoriza’s mansion.

That was when the most mysterious incident in the human’s history occurred.

The numerous members of the cartel, including Don Alcoriza himself disappeared without a trace, as if evaporated into the atmosphere.

Those at the highest level of power in the world knew of the existence of the witches, but they didn’t want the public to know that.

Normally, they’d pull all the stops to completely cover up the incidents that were related to the witches.

However, no matter how hard they tried, no matter how nonsensical the nature of the incident was, when major media outlets—both local and foreign—and countless numbers of people witnessed this situation with their own eyes, they just couldn’t do it.

Especially considering that the influence of Witch Points in South America was pretty much non-existent.

Various media outlets, both local and foreign, faithfully did their work, covering it in various media, even coming up with a name for the incident, the ‘Dawn of the Dead’.

Some stated that the Alcoriza Familia were the followers of the Devil, and they were just receiving their due punishment.

While others said that this was the result of a joint operation between the US military and the Mexican government. They cooperated to wipe the cartel out because they were suspected of creating biological weapons, and both the US and Mexican government were just playing dumb.

In the eyes of the witches though—who knew the real reason behind all the fuss—the way those people spread such false rumors was amusing, to say the least.

“Humans are sooo funny aren’t they? Even when they’re faced with something that can’t be defined with common sense, they’ll try to fit it within it anyway”

A witch in a nun’s habit said those words.

She was none other than the notorious ‘Witch of Crafts’, Dorothy Sahaquiel, who calmly crossed her legs as she watched the TV, feeling amused.

To her left was the ‘True Ancestor’, Claire Asmodeus, and the ‘Witch of Swords’, Rinne Samachiel.

They were the Criminals of Qliphoth that Bianca invited to ‘St. Regis Mexico City’ a while back.

As for why they were gathered together once again, it was to discuss Bianca’s death and the ‘Dawn of the Dead’ Incident

No one here had witnessed Bianca’s death directly, but they were all certain of it.

A Criminal like Bianca wasn’t someone who could be dealt with so easily.

If she were truly alive, she wouldn’t let everything develop this far, and instead would enact her terrible revenge already.

But, enough time had passed and she was nowhere to be seen. That meant two things.

Bianca Belleli had indeed died.

But she wasn’t killed by Keter.

Because if this was Keter’s doing, there was no way that she’d let an incident where 10,000 people disappeared into thin air to happen.

Instead, she’d show up and kill whoever was planning that incident before it could happen.

“So she died like an idiot after all, huh~? Still, that confirms Lilith’s words aren’t just lies.”

“Is Duchess Keter unable to move or what? I still don’t understand what’s going on.”

“Maybe she’s just sick of playing the police~? Rather than her, I’m curious to see what those guys at the Witch Point will do.”

“Those cowards won’t make the first move. They’ll just sit back and watch.”

“...”

As they exchanged their opinions on the matter...

Dorothy and Rinne noticed that one of them had been shutting her mouth tightly like a clam.

Indeed. Since their discussion began, Claire had been staring at her feet with her fists clenched.

“There’s no way.”

She raised her head and a sharp sound of her grinding her teeth echoed. Her eyes were bloodshot, giving off a murderous vibe.

“There’s no way that petty bitch would die like an idiot like that!”

A thick killing intent, enough to straight up kill someone, emanated from her body.

It was like a sharp blade that swept through the room.

But, the people gathered here weren’t people who’d be fazed from such a thing.

“Isn’t that good for you then? You won’t be bullied by her anymore”

“Shut up, you big-breasted bitch!”

Claire was a foul-mouthed witch, but this time there was a tinge of desperation in her roar.

Though she and Bianca were some kind of rivals due to their clashing interests in their business, Dorothy and Rinne knew...

Claire’s feelings towards Bianca were something like a love-hate.

Though Bianca only ended up satisfying herself and dumped her afterwards, at the end of the day, they were still ex-lovers. It wasn’t surprising for Claire to react this way after hearing her ex died.

“It’s a misplaced anger. The one who volunteered to be a guinea pig was the Witch of Desire herself. You agreed to this as well.”

Indeed. Claire agreed with Bianca’s outrageous proposal, but that was because she believed in her.

She believed that Bianca would come back alive no matter what kind of danger she’d face.

Never did she expect that the belief turned out to be nothing more than a blind faith, and she’d be greeted with such horrible news.

“How sad~ So you’re attracted to a bad bitch like her, huh?”

“Shut up! I swear I’m going to kill you!”

Eventually, Claire’s eyes burst out in tears.

Seeing this, Dorothy just glanced at Rinne and shrugged her shoulders.

Their relationship wasn’t so friendly that she’d go out of her way to comfort the crying witch for free.

Dorothy actually wanted them to talk about how to divide the business that Bianca had left behind, but seeing how emotional Claire was, carelessly bringing that topic up would most likely lead into a real fight.

And so, she decided to take a step back and see if she could exploit her current emotional state for profit.

“Hmm~ Then, what about this? I’ll help you out in your revenge~ Bianca’s my friend too, after all.”

“Me too. I’ll help you find the person who killed her.”

“...Stop saying those disgusting words.”

Hearing that, Claire clenched her teeth.

Those two held significant power in the underworld, and they could be a great help to her, but she couldn’t trust any of them at all.

“It won’t be for free, of course~ You can just give us some money instead, though~ I mean, you’re going to absorb the familia anyway, no? Surely you can do that much~?”

“Your emotional state is unstable. Make a decision after you calm down, and contact us after.”

“I promise you won’t find a more reliable partner than us~”

“Get the fuck away from me! Now! You fucking piece of...!”

The moment Claire was about to go into a frenzy and spit out more curse words...

The whole room became quiet.

Just like the last meeting, both the Witch of Crafts and the Witch of Swords didn’t come here with their real bodies.

They were using a mental dissolution spell to materialize their main body using a human sacrifice.

“Aaaah! AAAAAAHHHHH!!”

Unable to control her anger, Claire struck the head of one of the corpses around that was bubbling with blood.

With a loud noise, its head exploded like a tomato, its brain scattered everywhere.

Seeing the thick blood, she let out another scream.

“Bianca... Bianca... My Bianca...!”

She didn’t care if Bianca ripped her off for money.

She didn’t care if Bianca was just using her to make herself richer.

All she wanted was just to become a witch that was worthy of Bianca, so that one day, she’d notice her and take her back to her side again...

But now, her cold eyes and smile...

Her mocking words that would get to her head, everything...

Was gone forever.

“Hic... Sniff...”

Soon enough, the only sound that could be heard from that dark room were Claire’s sobs, and the sound of the dripping blood from the exploded head.

2.

Eloa put the letter in her hands down.

[...for this reason, we would like to ask for your assistance. We would wait patiently for your reply.]

The letter was four pages of wide Korean papers long, filled with elegant writing strokes that were created by a brush.

But that wasn’t all, a thick file with various pictures was also attached to the letter.

The one who sent them was none other than Branch Manager Sua.

Most of the means of communications between Gehenna and the Modern World weren’t instantaneous.

It had been a few days since the Witch of Desire perished, and Alcoriza Familia, which was under her control, collapsed.

Ten thousands of the cartel’s members dissipated overnight, and it was obvious that this phenomenon was caused by magic.

The purpose of that was suspected to be sacrifice.

And the culprit was unknown.

Despite such an incident happening in the Modern World, Gehenna was peacefully preparing for the upcoming Harvest Festival.

It was clear what kind of stance the people here were taking. They simply didn’t care, feigned ignorance, and treated the incident as having nothing to do with them.

Unfortunately, Eloa couldn’t take up the same stance.

After all, she had promised Ravi.

To keep the innocents out of harm’s way.

Furthermore, several high-ranking witches, including her, knew...

That the chaos that occurred in the Modern World would someday reach Gehenna.

The scale of the incident this time was too big for her—the founder of Witch Point—to simply ignore.

After all, this incident had reached an even larger scale than the fuss created by the Cowardly Witch a while ago.

The incident was committed without any thought of concealing anything, it was to the point that more than enough major media outlets covered the news of it—whoever the perpetrator was, they had clearly crossed the ‘line’.

And yet no purge had happened.

Even though the biggest unwritten rule of the witch’s society had been broken.

For now, some of the more cautious Criminals would probably opt to watch and see the situation for a bit more, and the ones who had been teetering to test Keter’s limit would probably continue to do that for a while before making any big moves.

After all, not all of them would want to risk Keter coming after them.

But...

What if the duchess couldn’t make her move?

What if she, who had been suppressing all those Criminals from causing chaos, suddenly abandoned her previous ‘duty’, or was unable to uphold her rules?

That meant, someone had to take up that role.

The role of an iron-blooded ruler who’d enforce the law by blood.

Taking up the blade of the purge.

Eloa unfolded a blank piece of paper.

After she met Siwoo, she had been experiencing a happy life—something she couldn’t imagine experiencing again after Ravi’s death.

It was a blissful moment that she always thought she didn’t deserve.

The Harvest Festival would last for three days.

Her time alone with Siwoo—as discussed in the council the other day—would happen tomorrow.

While hoping that she could experience peace for one more day, she wrote down her reply.