Chapter 91

The stone club flew in with enough force to pulverize Isabel immediately.

Not only Isabel, who hadn’t expected such a crude attack during conversation, but also the twin knights and other followers couldn’t react to the attack…

“Kieeeeek!!!”

The burning giant subjugated by Isabel let out a monstrous cry and threw its body towards Isabel.

Though its mind was broken by terrible torture and witches’ power, it knew that if Isabel died, it would also die as its source was interfered with by her.

Crack!

The burning giant blocked the stone club by sacrificing its shoulder. Naturally, the giant’s shoulder was shattered, and the stone club partially penetrated the giant’s shoulder.

Charred wood pieces fell from the giant’s body, hitting Isabel’s golden mask.

Isabel came to her senses from the heat felt on her face and ground her teeth in anger.

She knew that spirit was vulgar and arrogant, but to think he would commit such a crude act as soon as negotiations broke down!

“Kill that damned spirit right now! I’ll give one gold coin for wounding his body, and fifty gold coins for taking his life!”

Isabel shouted at her subordinates as she hurriedly retreated.

Wendigo looked at the scene with disdain.

Logically, rushing at a spirit was an incredibly stupid act, but for those who would risk their lives for just one gold coin…

“Damn it. Just thrust a spear once and retreat.”

“Arrows. You idiots, prepare arrows!”

“Wait for the puppets to attack. The spirit won’t be able to attack us at that moment!”

“……”

Wendigo looked at the followers burning with fighting spirit with incredulous eyes.

Even if they could land a hit with some luck, who would take responsibility for them returning unharmed after such an act?

‘… I underestimated human greed too much.’

Wendigo reflected that he had thought too rationally.

Just as many people risk their lives pursuing intangible values like religion or ideology, he had overlooked that there are plenty of people who would risk their lives if they could earn a huge amount of money.

After briefly reflecting, Wendigo stood the ice sword like a pillar and looked at the enemies.

Isabel, at that incredibly arrogant attitude, ordered the giant:

“Burn that spirit to ashes!”

“I’d prefer if you didn’t harm my puppets.”

As the giant spewed flames violently and charged, Ellen sighed and ordered her puppets.

The puppets moved their bodies like machines, forming a formation to follow behind the giant, with the followers and twin knights following behind.

The giant, even with its shoulder half-destroyed, swung its fist towards Wendigo while burning with endless hostility…

At that moment, a massive figure burst out of the forest, smashing trees. It grabbed the stone club and, as if not fearing the fire on the giant’s body at all, sent the giant flying with its heavy foot.

Bang!

The protagonist of the figure was Gulmag. Gulmag shook off the flames on the stone club and roared towards the enemies.

The followers who were rushing to stab Wendigo’s body immediately hesitated.

Risking one’s life against a single spirit was a gamble with quite high possibilities, but adding an ogre to that made it a scam, not a gamble.

“Damn it, why is there an ogre?”

“Are spirits and ogres friendly with each other? Is there no possibility of them fighting at all?”

“Does it look like the ogre isn’t helping the spirit to you? And where’s the law saying they can’t be friends? They’re both the same in tearing people apart and killing them.”

As their reliable ally spirit allowed the opponent’s attack twice without putting up a fight, the followers started to gauge the situation.

The followers weren’t the only ones watching the situation. The twin knights frowned at the unexpected appearance of the ogre.

They had come to protect Ellen because they loved her, not because they had any purpose with Isabel.

So why should they endure such a dangerous situation?

The two approached Ellen and whispered:

“How about retreating even now?”

“One spirit might be manageable, but with an ogre joining in, the cost-benefit doesn’t look good.”

“You worry too much. Isabel may be a bit hot-tempered and arrogant, but she’s not completely without ability, you know?”

Ellen’s words weren’t a lie. To put it bluntly, if a hot-tempered and arrogant woman had no ability, wouldn’t she have died long ago with a knife in her back?

Isabel looked at the followers gauging the situation and indifferently pointed at one of them while chanting a spell.

Among the followers pondering whether to flee now or charge along with the puppets, one man looked at his companion next to him with flashing eyes.

“Hey, hey! Your shoulder’s on fire!”

“Huh?”

Those were the man’s last words.

The man was instantly engulfed in flames without time to recognize his situation.

The flames that turned the man to ashes swam through the air and flew to the burning giant. The giant, absorbing the flames, instantly recovered its damage.

The followers realized what had happened and looked at Isabel in shock.

That crazy witch sacrificed the guy to recover the spirit!

… But the realization came too late. Isabel shouted at the followers glaring at her:

“You fools. If you’ve realized the situation, move to kill the spirit and that monster with all your might! If not, you’ll all die!”

As Isabel raised flames, the followers writhed in pain.

The brand they received on the day they swore loyalty to the Red Rose Dawn Society was burning their minds.

When Isabel withdrew the flames, they understood their situation while shedding everything they could from their bodies, be it tears, saliva, or even gastric juices.

If they refused Isabel’s orders from now on, a pain worse than death would burn their minds!

“… So that’s how it is. What was I bewitched by to follow a witch and end up like this!”

“Shut up and grab your weapons! Do you want to suffer that hellish pain again?!”

“Damn it!”

As the followers picked up their weapons, swallowing their despair, Dylan and Cole were disgusted.

They didn’t particularly revere honor, but Isabel’s actions were beyond eccentricity and utterly evil.

To make the judgment to burn a subordinate alive to recover the spirit…?

As the two felt uneasy, Ellen inwardly sighed.

‘At this rate, I don’t know who’s the stupid one…’

Isabel tried to rule people through fear, but people tend to resist rather than submit to fear.

Especially in cases like the twin knights who had ability, fear had a severe countereffect.

Ellen approached the twin knights lost in thought and grabbed their hands.

“Ellen! I think it would be better to retreat even now.”

“There’s no need for you to suffer harm because of that crazy woman.”

“Will you two listen to me for a bit?”

‘What is she doing?’

Wendigo, watching from afar, was puzzled.

He was about to signal other subordinates as the knights, the strongest force here, looked like they might flee at any moment…

The two knights listening to Ellen’s whispers were seriously pondering something with hardened expressions.

Just in case there was anything useful, Wendigo focused on Ellen’s voice…

“I’ll specially let you do it holding my tail like you’ve always wanted.”

“Hmm…”

“Imagine it. The sight of yourselves ravishing me at will as I cry like a kitten, strongly gripping my tail.”

‘What nonsense is this.’

Wendigo was so bewildered he forgot there were followers rushing towards him.

To ask them to risk their lives not for precious treasure or vast sums of money, but for the memory of one night…

The problem was that the power felt from Ellen was similar to Freyja’s mystery… and as if to prove that it wasn’t a lie that the twin knights joined the Red Rose Dawn Society because of Ellen, they fell head over heels for her.

The twin knights who accepted the proposal drew their swords with resolute faces as if they had heard a victory spell.

Wendigo watched from afar and thought:

‘What kind of being is the god behind those guys, to make Isabel gather only such fellows?’

The suspicion arose that perhaps Allfather might be a fairy among the gods.

---

Isabel, watching the soldiers charging towards the enemies, was lost in old memories.

‘Finally, the time has come to reclaim the rights I once enjoyed.’

In her childhood, Isabel was born as the daughter of a noble family feared by everyone.

People didn’t dare make eye contact with her, and she could obtain anything she wanted, even if it was someone’s life.

Naturally, she believed without doubt that this was the right she should rightfully enjoy.

… At least until her family fell.

Her father incurred too much resentment from surrounding nobles, and that resentment returned as the family’s downfall.

Being sold as a slave and selling her body, serving others with a body that had lived receiving service all her life – these days were unbearably terrible for Isabel, who had thought herself noble.

Unable to accept reality like that, at the moment she was about to burn down her new master’s house and die herself.

[ Your heart is truly vicious. Stupid, arrogant, and proud… but that’s why I like it. ]

An unknown voice came to her. At first, she thought it was just an auditory hallucination heard before death, but she soon realized it was the voice of a god.

[ I’m curious how much you can mess up the world. I’ll give you a chance. ]

That day, the flames burning down the mansion instantly filled her body, and thus she became a witch and a priestess serving a god.

Of course, she didn’t act as a devout priestess worshipping and propagating the god.

Isabel thought even at that moment that all this was a natural ‘right’ she obtained because she was noble.

Above all, what good would it be if the god took interest in other believers rather than herself?

Isabel prided herself that this judgment was not wrong at all. If not, how could she have reached this far?

“Yes. I wasn’t wrong. I will establish a new family here…”

Boom!!!

Just as Isabel was about to imagine herself wearing a colorful crown and ascending as queen in her delusion.

When Wendigo’s ice sword struck the ground, ice sprouting from the earth tore apart the followers and stretched towards Isabel.

Isabel startled and called the spirit, sacrificing followers.

The spirit raised flames while covering Isabel’s body, but…

Crack!

“Kieeeeek!!!”

The ice ignored the spirit’s flames and dug into its body, and the spirit screamed in pain from the cold energy tearing through its body.

Isabel roughly pushed away the spirit’s arm and took in the catastrophe unfolding before her eyes.

Corpses frozen in their burst, torn, and severed states.

Taking in those corpses, Isabel reconsidered her choices for the first time in her life.

Perhaps targeting this land had been a foolish idea.