Let the Whales Fight, This Shrimp is Leaving! - Chapter 8

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 8
Chapter 2. A Barter Trade
“What a pity. I don’t need any help anymore.”
“I know how to block the Demon’s Curse.”
Holdin added immediately.
“I tried to break His Excellency’s curse, but it was no use. Instead, I learned something from that failure. This will definitely be of help to you, My Lady.”
“…….”
Holdin was right.
An opportunity to get what one wants without paying a price is not common.
But could I trust their words?
Watching me hesitate, Holdin added pleadingly.
“Whatever you wish for by summoning a demon, My Lady, I will not interfere. I just want to find a clue to break His Excellency’s curse.”
“So your proposal is this: you will help me successfully summon the demon, and in return, I will give you a chance to speak with it?”
“Yes. And you will also return him to me safe and sound.”
“Hmm.”
“I am certain it is by no means a bad deal for you either, My Lady.”
Holdin was confident.
I pretended to ponder for a moment before turning to Deyan.
“What do you think? Your subordinate is offering me a deal using your blood.”
“Honestly, I would like to oppose it.”
Of course he would. Even today, the moment he saw my face, he tried to persuade me to change my mind.
Even so, it did not seem like Holdin had made this offer to me entirely on his own.
“But seeing your reaction, My Lady, it doesn’t look like you will give up easily.”
It meant it would be better to at least secure mutual benefits through a trade.
“You see clearly.”
Speaking crisply, I pulled a key from my bodice.
With the sound of interlocking iron, the grated door of the prison opened.
“Shall we move somewhere else first?”
I led them out of the prison and headed toward the main building.
Deyan, who had been following me submissively, suddenly spoke up.
“There is one thing I would like to ask.”
“Go ahead.”
“How on earth did you arrive at the conclusion of demon summoning?”
“Let’s just say I recognized my own limitations early on.”
Glancing to the side, I saw Deyan looking down at me from beside me.
“Is the information about summoning magic truly reliable?”
“Yes. I confiscated it from the black market.”
He must have verified it thoroughly enough on his own.
I flashed a bright smile at Deyan, who still looked displeased, and shifted the subject.
“I would like to ask something too. How did the Nemanic Family come to make deals with demons for generations?”
“That is not a deal.”
“It is a deal.”
Deyan denied it, but I countered firmly.
“If you only suffered losses, it would be a curse, but you gained the power of immortality anyway, didn’t you?”
“Do you want power?”
“No. I want revenge.”
“What will you do once you find the culprit?”
“Well. I intend to worry about that when the time comes.”
There was no need to tell him every single detail.
I glossed over it vaguely and quickened my pace. However, Deyan caught up with me effortlessly.
‘His legs are unnecessarily long.’
As I grumbled inwardly, he questioned me again.
“Is that just your personality?”
“What is?”
“Smiling like that.”
“…….”
Good grief, he talks too much.
Keeping my smile fixed, I ignored Deyan’s words.
‘What a strange thing to ask.’
Did he really think I went around grinning all the time because I had a sweet disposition?
Fortunately, we arrived at our destination, putting an end to the conversation.
The destination was, naturally, the room where I had attempted the summoning magic.
I unlocked the closed door with the key and let them inside.
“Here it is.”
“My, my. You are quite serious about this.”
Holdin let out a sarcastic exclamation of admiration as he strolled around the magic circle.
“May I take a closer look?”
“Go ahead.”
With my permission, Holdin scanned the characters with a serious gaze.
After examining the magic circle for a good while, he soon pointed to a corner.
“There is an error here. It seems the letters were erased because the material is old.”
Pointing out a few incorrect spots, Holdin corrected the magic circle himself and straightened his back.
I watched his movements intently.
“It is ready now. Please begin.”
Before long, Holdin stepped away from the magic circle.
I drew the dagger I had prepared and approached Deyan.
‘All this fuss over just a few drops of blood.’
Deyan’s shoulders were stiff with tension.
Since he knew his own condition all too well, he could not help but be sensitive to even a minor wound.
“Are you alright?”
“……Yes.”
“Can I proceed?”
When I asked again to confirm, his lips quivered slightly before he held out his palm to me.
Deyan spoke in his characteristically low voice.
“I will do it myself.”
He was telling me to give him the blade.
“Hmm, alright. Go ahead.”
I hesitated for a split second, then flipped my grip on the hilt.
Pretending to hand the dagger to Deyan, I swiftly checked on Holdin.
He was watching us expressionlessly, but he could not stop his Adam’s apple from bobbing heavily.
‘Why are they both so tense……?’
I barely suppressed a sneer.
Why did the wide window behind Holdin and the straight-line distance between me and Deyan bother me so much?
‘I knew it.’
As expected, one should never trust people easily.
Moreover, to trust a knight from an enemy kingdom.
‘They think too little of me!’
Twisting the hilt within my palm, I simultaneously grabbed Deyan’s wrist.
Slash!
And without a shred of regret, I sliced across the inside of his palm.
“Ugh……!”
In an instant, skin split and muscle parted as crimson blood leaked out.
Deyan hurriedly tried to shake me off.
‘I will never let go.’
I dropped the blade and clung tightly to his hand.
“Giselle!”
Deyan’s blood splattered onto the floor, but the magic circle did not react.
Holdin had played a pathetic trick on me.
“Handle Holdin!”
“Yes!”
“Argh! Stay back!”
Holdin made a massive fuss, darting this way and that to avoid Giselle’s sword.
“A trade, you say?”
Don’t make me laugh! Neither they nor I had ever intended to honor such a thing from the very beginning.
‘That’s why you pulled a stunt like this!’
I did not relax the grip of my fingers holding onto Deyan.
As I clung desperately, Deyan’s face contorted, and anxiety washed over his features as he looked at the fleeing Holdin.
“My Lady!”
“You betrayed me first, so why are you angry at me?”
As long as I could get the blood, these men were unnecessary.
I dug my fingernails into Deyan’s palm, where the wound was already trying to heal.
“Urgh!”
‘This is my country.’
On the board I laid out, the only piece that should move freely is me.
Applying force to gouge his wound, thick blood smeared onto my hand.
His eyes staining a vivid red, Deyan glared down at me.
‘So what?’
You were the ones who used petty tricks to deceive me first, weren’t you?
I merely kept my guard up until the very end.
“Let go of my hand!”
Roaring like a beast, he half-flung me away.
I leaped to my feet, keeping my blood-stained fist tightly clenched. Then I bolted toward the door.
“Giselle, kill that bastard and take cover! It doesn’t matter if you let that man escape!”
Commanding Giselle, I slipped out the door.
The moment I wedged the rod I had prepared between the doorknobs, the door rattled violently from the inside with a heavy thud.
“My Lady, please give up! The demon will not be controlled according to your will!”
Did he really think I hadn’t considered that much?
I lightly ignored Deyan’s warning.
‘What I am trying to do is not for my own benefit.’
Revenge. What a sweet sound that was.
There was no demon who disliked it.
Even if the demon brings about my ruin, if I can grab the culprit by the hair and drag them down to hell with me, that place will be my heaven.
“I am sorry, but if I were the type to change my mind over those words, I would have given up a long time ago.”
Leaving behind those quiet words, I turned around.
‘Good. It starts now.’
The most important ingredient was smeared on my hand, and the preparations were already complete.
‘If only I can succeed in the summoning……!’
It was then.
Creeeeak.
The sound of the door behind me being completely torn off caught my attention.
“What kind of human strength is……!”
Deyan was breaking down the door to capture me.
“My Lady, please listen to me!”
Through the gap in the broken door, my eyes met his blood-shot gaze.
‘I have to get to the magic circle quickly.’
With the sole thought of summoning the demon, I raced down the corridor.
With a gruesome sound, the door finally shattered completely, and Deyan began to pursue me with terrifying momentum.
In tandem, I increased my speed as well.
“I would rather cooperate. If your goal is to find the culprit and take revenge, I will……!”
No matter what Deyan pleaded from behind, I couldn’t hear a single word.
I ran, looking only ahead.
‘The magic circle.’
The magic circle. The magic circle. The magic circle!
Success was right before my eyes.
I could not fail pointlessly here. I ran with only that single conviction.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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