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As the logistic hub that brought goods from the Modern World, the distinction of night and day didn’t exist at the Border Town’s dock.

Witches were insatiable consumers of luxury.

Since their demands far exceeded Gehenna’s own production capabilities, they didn’t have any choice but to make up the difference by importing things from the Modern World.

The sound of cracking whips and shouts being hurled at the slaves echoed from all corners of the dock. Cargos were being unloaded from the ships, immediately loaded into the wagons that would travel all over Gehenna.

Most of these goods were transported by the slaves, but some of them were handled in different ways.

Many of the luxury items that the witches had ordered required careful handling. Any loss or damage came with serious consequences.

Such special deliveries were generally handled by the smugglers instead.

“Hey, handle that one with care!”

“For fuck’s sake, this thing’s heavy as hell.”

For example, the crate these two smugglers were currently struggling to carry.

The wooden crate, big enough for a woman to curl up inside, was covered with ‘handle with care’ stickers.

They had to crab-walked it along, pushed and pulled it for a while, before setting it down with ragged breaths.

“Huff, huff... Fuck, this is the heaviest damn thing we’ve moved today...”

“Do you know what’s inside?”

“Hell no. Do you think those high-and-mighty witches would actually write anything down?”

“Pfft, true. Whatever. Let’s just get this over with and grab a beer after.”

“Sounds good.”

The smugglers chatted in their rough voices as they plopped down onto a random crate nearby.

Now that they had brought the crate into the dock, all that was left for them to do was to wait for the assigned cart to arrive and load it up.

“Where’s this one going to be sent to?”

“Wait.”

One of the smugglers tapped the crate with his foot while the other pulled a notepad from his back pocket.

It was a log listing all the ‘special shipments’ they had to process that day.

“Let’s see, let’s see...”

The smuggler scanned down the list with his eyes.

Beside him, the other smuggler, still puffing on his cigarette, leaned in as he became more impatient.

He didn’t expect the other guy to take this long just to check.

“Something’s wrong?”

“...What the hell? This isn’t on the list.”

Indeed. No matter how many times he checked, the serial number on the crate they had just hauled wasn’t on the list.

The other smuggler who was puffing his cigarette patted the guy on his back, as if this was nothing.

“Forget it. It’s probably just something the captain stashed on the side. Let’s just put it back before we get chewed out.”

Not all smugglers ferrying goods between the Modern World and Border Town were honest workers.

Every now and then, they’d sneak in unlisted cargo, either for personal use or to sell it under the table for extra profit.

Such a practice was against the rules, but even if they got caught, they’d be overlooked as it was just such a common practice at this point.

-Thud!

The smuggler with the cigarette kicked the crate.

Now that he knew what was up, he put some force in his kick, venting his annoyance.

“Greedy pig. The fucker really stuffed this crate so full to the point it becomes this heavy.”

“Well, he told us to carry this, so what else can we do? Grab that side.”

The two smugglers exchanged bitter smiles.

Of all the crates, the one they had put the most effort to move was the one they had to put back.

-Crack!

But, at that moment, the crate’s lid blew off, as if its contents had just exploded.

At the same time, small hands grabbed the faces of the two smugglers without giving them a chance to scream.

“You oversized fucks were bitching about my weight?”

“Ghhkk... Gghhkkk...”

“Ack... Uggg...ggg...”

From inside the crate, a vampire witch with hair and eyes that were as red as blood, Claire Asmodeus, emerged.

“Tonight, you didn’t see anything. You’re going to wake up with a hangover and no memory of this. Got it?”

“Ugg...ghh... Y-Yes, Ma’am...”

“For the next shipment, get me a nice crate I can actually fit in, add it to the list. Not some bat-dick-sized piece of shit like this, something comfy.”

“Gghhh... Y-Yes, Ma’am... G-Got it...”

She clenched her teeth and threw their heads aside.

The smugglers, both more than twice Claire’s size, crumpled onto the warehouse floor like discarded cargo.

She then dusted the sawdust from her hair and brushed the broken crate pieces off her shoulders as she looked at them.

As much as she wanted to kill them, she had to think ahead.

If she were to go around needlessly murdering people, it’d only complicate things later and make securing an escape route even harder.

Hence why she settled for erasing their memories with her signature hypnotism instead.

“...”

Of course, she also made sure to smash the crate she snuck in with until there was nothing left.

It wasn’t to cover her tracks, though, she just smashed that fucking thing to bits because she had to spend two miserable weeks curled up inside it while shivering.

Exiles, sometimes even Criminal Exiles, had various ways of sneaking into Gehenna.

Some would use Homunculi with spatial-warping abilities to open backdoors into Gehenna, others slipped through with forged citizen IDs, others smuggled themselves hidden inside a cargo, just like what Claire did.

That last method though, was something that even the most desperate witches tended to avoid.

That said, it was the easiest one to pull off.

All they needed to do was to find the right smuggling crew and stuff themselves into a cargo hold.

It was just, if they got unlucky and the route got messed up, they could end up trapped in the dark crate for several months.

Considering how prideful witches were, there was no way they’d willingly shove themselves into a box like that.

In other words, Claire had been pushed so far into a corner that she didn’t have the luxury to care about such a thing anymore.

To inflict the same pain on Duchess Tiphereth, who took Bianca—the woman she both loved and hated—away from her.

That was her only goal.

Still, no matter how pathetic her opponent was, causing a commotion in Gehenna would only get her taken down in an instant.

Even Bianca, who had countless ways to move in the shadows, only made her move after luring her prey outside Gehenna.

But that was when the Aquarium came in.

Running through her plan in her head again, Claire rolled a small bead between her fingers.

Although, it wasn’t like she had planned much to begin with.

Her plan was simple.

One, find Shin Siwoo.

Two, throw the Aquarium to give him as bait, and then run away as fast as possible.

Of course, she’d love to stick around and watch him get ripped to fucking shreds, that’d be the perfect revenge, but that was too risky.

Besides, if she only used the Witch of the Deep Sea’s Mystic Code to pull this assassination off, Duchess Tiphereth’s wrath would only land on that empty-headed, submarine-obsessed bitch instead.

If the bitch was dumb enough to pick a fight with the Witch of the Deep Sea and kill herself, that’d be the absolute best-case scenario for Claire, but even if she didn’t die, the chaos would buy her more time to plan her next move.

Unlike when she first lost Bianca, Claire was thinking much more clearly now.

“O Crimson Blood, let it overflow.”

Following the chant, beads of blood welled up from every inch of Claire’s body.

As if faithfully reenacting the legends of vampires passed down through folklore, her magic resembled the bizarre sorcery that such vampires used.

From her blood, hundreds of familiars formed, morphing into bats as they scattered into the night sky.

2.

A sudden secret rendezvous with his little mother-in-law.

Deneb had hurriedly thrown on a cloak over her thin nightwear and suddenly suggested a walk.

Most would see cloaks as a trade-off between convenience and style, but when Countess Gemini draped one over her shoulders, that logic didn’t apply.

After all, this cloak was made of Astrakhan fur—harvested from Persian lambs.

The fabric modestly concealed her figure, shielding it from the gaze of other men.

Anyone could tell that she had just tossed it on casually, but even if most women spent hours dolling themselves up, they couldn’t hope to match her effortless grace, even someone utterly clueless about the mood would have had to swallow back a gasp.

“Countess. May I ask you something?”

“Go ahead.”

In any case, it was Deneb who suggested a walk.

Or rather, it was more of an order than as a suggestion.

Although Siwoo didn’t get why she insisted on going all the way to Tarot Town when her mansion had a perfectly good garden to stroll in.

After all, at this hour, there was nothing in the town except for shuttered shops and sleeping citizens.

“So... Is there a reason why it has to be Tarot Town?”

“What? You have a problem with that?”

“No, of course not.”

He just asked that casually, but the glare she shot at him was sharp enough to cut his courage up.

Since he had more than a few things to feel guilty about, he wisely decided to shut up.

Also, there was another strange thing about this whole thing.

It was her who had called him out to talk and yet she remained completely silent.

He expected her to chew him the entire way, but instead, she just strolled along without saying anything.

So, he just followed behind her like a loyal servant.

“...The twins might still be awake. If they see you walking around the mansion, they’ll come running.”

“Ahh... So that’s why.”

“Also, it’s been a while since I’ve been to Tarot Town.”

“I see.”

That still didn’t explain everything, but Siwoo wasn’t dumb enough to argue.

After a long silence, as they passed by a fountain, Deneb suddenly spoke.

“Have you slept with the twins again since then?”

Her voice that was lacking its usual confidence as well as her awkward hesitation made him immediately realize what she was trying to say.

“No. I haven’t touched them since.”

After that ‘verification’ from his mother-in-law, the Harvest Festival began.

He had spent time with his master and Sharon, but the twins were further down the list back then and in the end, he never got around to them.

The closest attempt to sex they had was the one time where Deneb found out about it, so they really hadn’t had sex for quite some time.

At his answer, Deneb fell silent again.

After a moment, she suddenly looked up and said,

“I think that’s enough of a walk.”

“Oh, are we heading back?”

“No, I need a drink.”

“A drink?”

“There’s a villa nearby. You know the place, don’t you, Mr. Siwoo?”

“Y-Yes...”

The villa, the very place where she had caught him fucking the twins.

His stomach churned at the memory.

Is she planning to scold me even more once we get there?

“Do I...have to come with you?”

“Of course. I’ve spent this entire walk organizing all the things I need to scold you for, so you can sit and take it there.”

Under the pressure of his little mother-in-law, the guilty son-in-law had no choice but to follow like a lamb being led to the slaughter.