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Claire hung from the ceiling, arms twisted behind her, shackled in chains.

Her head drooped, jaw clenched tight, and though cold sweat poured off her like rain and her head throbbed, she still checked over her body’s condition.

This place felt like a prison rigged with some kind of ritual that completely shut down magic itself.

It must’ve been suppressing her magic circuits, cutting off mana at the source.

For other witches, this would have been an utterly effective method, but for Claire, it wasn’t a perfect way to keep her locked up.

She wasn’t like the others. Claire stored her mana by spreading it through her blood.

So if she could just get a bit of healing in, her superhuman physical abilities would snap right back.

And if she could just stall for a little longer, she’d rip through these rusty-ass chains and crumbly stone walls like wet string and a gingerbread house.

-Click-clack, click-clack

She lifted her head at the sound of approaching heels.

There stood the Witch of Perfume, who had been bombarding Claire with all sorts of questions just moments ago.

“Guh!”

The moment the witch silently walked up and tapped Claire’s forehead.

Claire felt all the circuits she’d barely managed to piece back together twist into a mess again.

The backlash hit her so hard that she coughed up a bowlful of blood.

“Don’t even think about trying to escape.”

Only Countess Gemini could use mana down here in this underground cell.

But Countess Albireo, before heading back upstairs, had handed off a special ‘key’ so the interrogation could keep going smoothly.

It was an artifact that eased the prison’s restrictions for the holder.

“.......”

Claire clamped her mouth shut and glared daggers at Amelia.

The realization that her plans had gone awry stirred feelings of fear and dread about the future, but she still believed that not everything was lost.

“From now on, I will torture you.”

“.......”

With a simple gesture from Amelia, fine white particles began to seep into Claire’s body.

“These little particles? They’re seeds. Once they pick up a mana wave, they bloom. Last time, I went easy and just knocked you out...

-Snap!

The second Amelia flicked her fingers, Claire squeezed her eyes shut.

Claire was also a Grand witch with a deep understanding of magic.

Her past experiences allowed her to intuit what was about to happen.

-Thud!

But the flowers didn’t bloom from her body—they erupted from the chains holding her.

Claire, still half-suspended, saw the iron shackles clamped around her wrists crumble into piles of petals.

“That won’t happen again.”

It was a clear threat.

Claire’s breathing grew ragged.

“To be honest, this is my first time torturing someone.”

Amelia stepped forward. Claire flinched, inching back, looking up at her in fear.

“I know I won’t be perfect right off the bat. Controlling the force might be tricky. So if you want to spare yourself the pain, I suggest you start talking before things get worse.”

Staggering back, Claire suddenly felt the cold bite of the stone wall against her back.

And that in this inescapable situation, letting fear consume her would only get her devoured.

“You look pretty worried, huh?”

“.......”

This was Gehenna, after all, and Claire was a captured Criminal Exile.

She knew how this was going to end.

As long as she wore that title, she wasn’t getting out of here alive.

If that was the case, she’d rather not cower and whimper—at least she’d scratch at their pride.

With that thought, Claire bared her fangs and sneered at Amelia.

“Aw, poor thing. That Shin Siwoo bastard’s probably already dead

A taunt—an open admission that she was involved.

Amelia’s response was simple.

“Ugh...!!!!”

Claire watched in horror as her pinky finger crumbled before her eyes.

The instant it bloomed, a flower burst through her skin and reduced her finger to dust.

There was no pain.

And with her body’s unique constitution, she’d grow it back in no time.

But having to witness a part of their body vanish before their eyes delivered a horrifying dread.

Amelia, who committed such an atrocity without even blinking, spoke in a calm voice.

“He’s still alive.”

Alive? Even after going into an aquarium?

Claire tried to figure out what she meant by that.

Amelia had no reason to bluff.

Was the problem that Deneb Gemini went in there with him?

But if they still hadn’t made it out, then that meant they hadn’t found an escape route.

Unlike that monster with its near-endless healing, a witch’s mana had its limits.

So, the outcome was just a matter of time.

Having made up her mind, Claire finally felt like she could breathe again.

Though the plan was only half-complete at best, there was a satisfying thrill in having dealt a blow to a bunch of snotty witches who strutted around calling themselves ‘nobles’.

“So what now? Not like it matters. I’m gonna die anyway?”

Claire still spat her words out with a mocking sneer.

“No. You’d better hope he comes back in one piece.”

Amelia fired back without missing a beat.

She leaned in close, locking eyes with Claire.

“Because if something does happen to him, you’ll die screaming in a pain far worse than anything you could ever imagine.”

Claire swallowed hard. Amelia’s words didn’t sound like a threat, they sounded like a vow.

Like she was fighting to push back the fear tightening around her heart, Claire shoved Amelia’s chest with everything she had.

“What the hell did I do that was so wrong? I just paid her back—paid that fucking Duchess Tiphereth back in kind!”

She tried to throw herself at Amelia, but Amelia took her down effortlessly.

Flailing, Claire screamed—her face twisted into a bizarre mix of laughter and tears.

“She took Bianca from me! I just wanted her to feel the same kind of loss...! Bianca was my everything!”

Whether it was Bianca who planned to kidnap Siwoo first, or whether Duchess Tiphereth was just reacting accordingly.

None of that mattered now.

What mattered was Claire trying to become just a little more useful—hoping that maybe, just maybe, Bianca, who’d turned her back so coldly, might look her way again.

That had been Claire’s only reason for living.

But now, it was beyond repair.

Nothing but a burning thirst for revenge took responsibility for Claire’s existence anymore.

“You think I care how I die now? Where the hell’s Tiphereth? I wanna see that bitch bawling her eyes out, drowning in grief.”

Soon, Claire began laughing maniacally, and Amelia realized they were misunderstanding something.

Claire thought Duchess Tiphereth, the one who’d been close to Siwoo, was the one who’d killed the Witch of Desire.

But the truth was, it was Siwoo who had taken her down—and it was Amelia who struck the final blow, when Bianca tried to take him down with her.

And Siwoo, he still believed there was a chance Bianca had faked her death to escape.

Of course, the fact that she’d done nothing while her empire burned to the ground probably meant that was just wishful thinking...

No point in correcting every little detail, though.

This wasn’t about facts. This was about squeezing her for everything she had.

Amelia spoke.

“I’m the one who killed Bianca Bellelli.”

“.......”

With that, Claire went dead silent—like someone had hit mute on her whole body.

No—more like someone pressed pause. She didn’t even seem to be breathing, just stared up at Amelia in shock.

“N-No... that... that’s a lie...”

It was a bombshell that shattered everything she thought she knew.

Her voice faltered.

Bianca was more bossy, more self-willed, and stronger than anyone else.

She had been Claire’s lifeline. The conqueror Claire wanted to be crushed under.

Claire had never really been able to accept that Bianca was gone.

If an ordinary witch had made such a statement, Claire would’ve just scoffed and let it go.

After all, they believed there wasn’t a witch alive who could take her on—unless it was the renowned Duchess Keter or Duchess Tiphereth.

“The Witch of Desire died by my hands.”

But.

If it was the witch standing right in front of her, it was possible.

The same woman who bent Claire like a twig, like snapping a child’s wrist.

If it was Amelia Marigold, who didn’t show the slightest hesitation even while torturing, it was entirely plausible.

In that moment, Claire spotted a gleam.

That same blinding spark she once saw in Bianca’s eyes when she’d lost everything and was wandering, empty and unmoored.

A fire blazing with fate, so beautiful and deadly—like a flame that draws in a moth even though it knows it’ll burn.

2.

Two days had passed since the date written inside the Aquarium.

The Kraken was finally brought down.

Deneb’s magic, further developed and refined through repeated research, succeeded in bringing the Kraken, who was saying ‘You come’ in the sea, to a near-death state.

Siwoo was the one who drove the final nail.

Instead of a spear or sword, he conjured a massive axe and charged at the Kraken, whose stamina and regeneration had hit rock bottom.

It wasn’t even a fight at that point—more like tearing down a building. He just went in and bashed its skull in.

Sounds easy when you say it like that, but that’s how everything sounds when you boil it down to a few lines.

Even the start and end of World War II could be crudely reduced to “a failed art student committing suicide” if you chopped off the context.

Either way, the Kraken didn’t go down easy, so by the end, both Siwoo and Deneb were completely spent.

“We finally pulled it off.”

“Yeah... we did.”

Their voices said we won, but they sounded too drained to really mean it

Honestly, if a bed showed up right then, they’d pass out on the spot.

The pier was in such a mess that it was impossible to find its original form, and only the black sea, which seemed to have decreased in water level, testified to the traces of the past struggle.

The Kraken’s body crumbled into nothing.

From the middle of its giant head—dragged halfway onto shore—a blue marble slipped out and rolled with a soft clatter.

Given its strong resemblance to the citizen’s pass used for entering and exiting Border Town’s ‘Gate,’ it appeared to be the Aquarium’s ‘pass’.

At the same time, the bell tower, which had always rung incessantly, chimed again and formed a circular ring.

It looked like it was straight-up yelling, ‘This way to the exit~’.

That confirmed Deneb’s hunch: this world really was a pocket space, just like Gehenna

“This really is the end.”

“What a wild ride. Can’t believe this happened so late in my life... Not everything about it was awful, though.”

Realizing that it was really over, the two looked at each other and smiled awkwardly.

Ever since that night they lost control and went at it like animals, Deneb had started acting way more tender.

She stopped acting like she was out to eat him alive, and he wasn’t scared of her anymore either.

“You’ve been through a lot, Mr. Siwoo.”

“Same to you, Countess.”

“You didn’t forget what we agreed on, did you?”

“Of course not. I’ll keep it between us.”

They’d only had proper, full-on sex like real lovers once, and even after that, he’d kept some boundaries.....

So Siwoo figured he’d gladly honor Deneb’s request.

“Shall we? I’ll walk you out.”

When Siwoo reached out his hand, Deneb hesitated for a moment before nodding slowly.

“I’m gonna sleep like the dead the moment we get back.”

“Me too. Now that we’re out, I can’t recharge my mana with Mr. Siwoo’s help anymore.”

Just as they were chatting casually and reaching for the pass.

Siwoo and Deneb were shocked enough to make their hearts sink.

This was the Aquarium.

A world where only Siwoo, Deneb, and the Kraken had ever existed.

But in the spot where the Kraken’s corpse had lain, a witch stood with her chin raised, as if she’d been there all along.

Her long hair rippled like the dark sea at night.

Her eyes, dark, deep, bottomless—like the deep sea itself

She was beautiful, like any other witch, with no other standout traits.

“...So it was you?”

Siwoo and Deneb both felt it right away.

That rage in her face, her mana crashing out like a tidal wave, it felt like staring down a natural disaster.

“You filthy little insects... You dare harm My people?”

As her voice split with fury, a name surfaced in his mind.

“For that crime—you will pay with your lives.”

The one who ruled this Aquarium, and the Witch, thought to have been purged ages ago by Duchess Keter.

The one known as the Witch of the Deep Sea.