Odilia gazed at him as if entranced.
On ordinary days, she would have shouted at him not to be so full of himself and pulled the trigger immediately, but strangely, this time the man’s words didn’t come off as arrogance. Instead, it felt like something that had been condensed and concealed from what she was originally meant to say.
However, her pride wouldn’t allow her to just sit quietly.
Her ego, hardened over the years, fiercely rejected the idea of kneeling easily in a situation like this and giving the other party what they wanted. Logically speaking, it would be best to do as the man in front of her suggested, gather information, and seize an opportunity, but her pride—her pride as the Great Witch—denied that choice.
Stuck in this awkward standoff for a moment, Odilia suddenly thought she had heard the man’s tone somewhere before.
Where had she heard it?
Where had she come across such a peculiar way of speaking?
Where had she heard speech that was almost identical to that of an old man?
After pondering for a while, something came to her mind.
“Shaman.”
That was the very word “shaman.”
But the man showed no particular reaction upon hearing it.
It was only natural. What else could a being who wields the ‘Hammer of Judgement’ against witches and commands evil spirits and shadows be if not a shaman?
“You’re a shaman, right?”
Nevertheless, the witch succeeded in drawing a conclusion from that obvious word.
The shaman who had shaken up her life.
The shaman who had roasted her alive with a voice that mesmerized people.
That old man’s voice saying he had come to help a burden he didn’t want to see in crisis.
The shaman who had disturbed her with tales no one should know about ‘Hans.’
“A shaman I spoke to—!”
Jinseong nodded as if that were the answer to Odilia’s exclamation and rose from his seat. Then he approached her, gently pressing down on her right shoulder and whispering in her ear.
“Now that you know, sit down.”
With just a bit of pressure from his hand, he seated her in the chair opposite him.
Although Odilia had been forcefully made to sit by Jinseong, she didn’t explode in anger. Instead, her face was filled with confusion instead of resentment. It was a deep confusion, akin to witnessing someone she had thought was on her side betray her.
Jinseong observed her expression quietly before asking.
“Witch. What is it that confuses you so?”
“Why….”
The Great Witch looked at Jinseong with a perplexed expression.
“Why are you doing this?”
It was a question packed with meanings.
Why did you use Maleficium Maleficarum against me?
Why did you pretend to be an innocent boy and pull me in here?
Why are you oppressing me like this?
Why?
Why?
All those questions were contained within.
But the most important one among them must be this:
“You are a witch. You must be wondering. You said you would grant whatever I desired as long as it was within your ability, so why engage in such acts? You must be curious why it feels like you’re being threatened despite saying you would willingly pay the cost.”
The question of why someone who claimed they would pay a price was behaving in this manner.
With a slightly dazed expression, Odilia nodded.
It was a sign of agreement.
“The robber does not harm those who willingly offer their wealth, nor do beasts take the lives of those who give them food. Even a mere insect or beast of a human wouldn’t do that, so how could a shaman living close to people harm those who are paying?”
“And yet…”
Jinseong smiled coldly.
“If you cannot pay, there’s a room for discretion, but trying to lower the cost means that a proper price isn’t being paid.”
He asked whether she had truly intended to pay the price properly.
When he heard that the shaman was Ella’s older brother and realized she was a minor.
He questioned whether she genuinely planned to pay the price she had premeditated truthfully.
“You have presented a blank check with your words, but only when you assumed the shaman is of noble standing. So, tell me, witch.”
“Pa, Park Jinseong….”
“What is your country of origin?”
“Unified Korea….”
Odilia, perhaps feeling the atmosphere pressing down on her, answered him obediently.
“Correct. A minor hailing from Unified Korea.”
He spoke without pause, directing his words toward Odilia.
“Übermensch, Übermensch. You are a witch currently bearing the surname ‘Reich.’ In the past, you were merely the daughter of a tailor. What did it feel like when the insignificant name ‘Schneider’ was changed, and you received such a glorious name? What thoughts crossed your mind when you escaped a life of worry about your next meal, wrapped in shabby clothes?”
Jinseong leaned in slightly towards Odilia.
“The great Führer Adolf Hitler, ha ha ha. Yes. That legendary third-rate sorcerer once said, ‘Behold the purity of the Aryan race. See the potential of this great Aryan! The Germanic people are the tribe destined to rule the world, and here is the proof. This is the blossom of the splendid Germanness. It has bloomed in the cracks of the degenerate and worthless. Thus, in the name of the great Germanic race, I confer a new surname upon your master, ensuring that it continues on for generations—the name is.'”
He leaned in so close that their breaths mingled and whispered quietly.
“‘Reich.'”
Clank.
With those words, Odilia felt as if insects were crawling over her, causing her to instinctively jerk backward. The chair leg scraped against the floor, producing a sound that startled her back to her senses, and she glared at Jinseong.
“…Right. Yes, that’s how it was….”
Now fully aware, Odilia affirmed his statement.
But unlike the frenzied tirade of emotions she had expressed earlier, her tone had since softened, her words shifting from informal and half-honorific speech to full honorifics. This change indicated that she was indeed under pressure from Jinseong’s demeanor.
Jinseong chuckled silently at her state.
‘Weak against the strong and endlessly strong against the weak, huh? It seems her temperament isn’t nearly as filthy as it was before the rewind, but those traits remain unchanged.’
Perhaps it was because she had such traits that she had survived.
She had lowered her head to the overwhelmingly strong and mad Nazi Germany, and by bowing her head to her master, who took pride in aiding the Nazis, she had found herself reaching the realm of the Great Witch.
‘Easily defeated signifies it is easy to manipulate, and being easily swayed means one is gullible. Thus, it’s no wonder that she fell hard to a religious figure before the rewind and lost her firearm, meeting a horrific end.’
She wasn’t a scum of humanity.
She could not forget Hans, her first love, and she was extraordinarily kind to the Jews, not wanting to get involved with the Holocaust, helping to rescue Jews within her reach, so she was able to emerge unscathed from war crimes trials, maintaining the name ‘Reich’ and rightly accepted by everyone, aided by countless Jews she had saved, becoming the owner of a world-class company.
Moreover, while she tended to mistreat those she considered subordinates, there remained a minimum line, and she carefully discerned people’s strengths and weaknesses, never mistreating those she deemed stronger than herself.
Yet, in her later years, she fell under the sway of a religious figure, giving up all her money, crossing even the minimum line she had maintained, and ultimately, perhaps due to madness, she attempted to shortchange a mercenary, meeting a dreadful demise.
“Witch, I know you. I know your past. I know your future. So why would you try to deceive me? Why attempt to hide your intentions from me?”
“That.”
Odilia felt compelled to say something but swallowed her words instead.
She was overwhelmed by the intensity of Jinseong’s gaze glued to her.
“Witch, I ask. What did you think when you heard me say I was from Unified Korea?”
“…”
“Right. You must have thought this—’In that tiny country, they say there’s a shaman? Oh, since they were annexed by Japan, surely someone there would have learned shamanism. Then, they must be an older person.'”
Odilia’s eyes widened slightly at that remark.
Jinseong attentively observed her facial expressions, her pupil movements, the changes in the size of her pupils, the twitches of her nose, and the movements at the edge of her mouth.
“But here’s the shocking part. The mention of being a minor! Then, witch, what came to your mind? What would you have thought upon hearing ‘a minor shaman from Unified Korea’? Speaking in an old man’s voice, though clearly a shaman, and knowing things no one should know; he can’t be a scammer. So truly, what could he be?”
Jinseong carefully monitored her expression and slowly articulated his next words.
“A shaman disguising their identity?”
“…”
“A marvel created by shamanism?”
“…”
“Is it something only a prophet can do?”
“…”
Three questions.
Two of the same reactions.
One special reaction.
“Yes, witch. You would have thought all this possible because you could foresee the future.”
Jinseong continued casually.
As if… it was akin to solving problems while looking at answers.
