Chapter 537: The Witch Trials

After that, Hearts managed to introduce the Little Witch to the Guild.

After Hearts had made contact with the young witch two or three times, he had no hesitation in putting her on the permanent squad for the next league and began to focus on her development, before which Hearts had a chat with Phoebe.

The conversation took place in a sombre room piled high with burgundy duvets on the island, in the pouring rain of an afternoon.

"I was ......" Hearts' stunningly beautiful face showed a rare glimpse of real weariness from its slouch, as he leaned back in a chair so wide that it looked like a bed, his feet curled up on it, his long burgundy hair dripping wet down the side of his face to his slightly open heart. "I was going to let you join the team."

Phoebe gave him a quick glance and hit the nail on the head: "You went to see your mother?"

She knew that Hearts' mother was buried on another island far from here, and if that was the case with Hearts, it could only mean that the guy had gone to visit his mother's grave before going to the island.

"Well." Hearts clearly didn't want to talk about it, he avoided Phoebe's eyes, his voice calmed down again and he moved the conversation back, "But Little Witch is a better fit than you, your skills overlap and you're a bit too extreme for the league so early on, Little Witch has developed very smoothly in all areas, she's a better fit than you. She's more suited to the team, and with her ability, although she's still a novice, she could even take over the tactician's position."

"I don't have a problem with being her replacement, she's strong, I deserve to be her replacement." Phoebe looked at Hearts and her tone was direct, "Even you should be her replacement."

"You're too weak and less likely to win than she is to win as a tactician."

"You're not as strong as she is."

Hearts was silent for a long time, he raised his hand over his eyes, his body leaned back and his voice was hoarse: "...... you're right."

"She was so young, through so much, so heavily suspicious, and in the midst of the hatred, she actually remained calm and had the will and the strength to protect others."

"...... I don't know what else I can protect, even your mother, my old friend, was saved by her."

"You're right, I should indeed be her replacement." Hearts slowly lowered his palm over his face as he looked across at Phoebe and whispered, "I want her to be the president of the King's Guild, and the true tactician of this warband."

"You're letting her go as president?" Phoebe perceived something keenly, "So you're leaving the guild are you, and what are you going to do?"

Hearts inclined his head, his eyes stoic as he gazed out over the island at the rain, and did not reply.

That night he went back to his mother's grave, a small European village in the middle of nowhere, which Hearts had bought, but which he did not care for, and which only contained his mother's grave.

It was raining heavily, and Hearts stood silently and wordlessly at his mother's grave, with a black umbrella, for a long, long time before he knelt down, hugging his knees and curling his body up like a child who feels the cold, lifting his head from them and looking quietly with those purple eyes at the picture on his mother's grave.

"I met a very powerful little girl." He said softly, reaching out to brush the droplets off the photo, "More powerful than Phoebe, who saved Rebekah the last time I told you."

"I want to give her the guild."

" Phoebe is right, I am indeed weak, and no matter how many [shields] I have to protect, I don't have the courage to bring you back into this world."

Hearts grows lighter in tone.

Phoebe had asked her a long time ago why she didn't resurrect her mother, when it was possible to do so with the power of the Guild, and Hearts sat in her desk chair for a moment, lost in thought, before replying with a scattered smile - the dead have a will.

Did you ask her if she wanted to live again when you just brought her back to life? If she lives and suffers and wants to die again, do you want to kill her again with your own hands?

-or watch her kill herself again?

What can be done with a resurrection?

The world still had the Papacy, still had the head arms dealer, still had everything to override him, to easily take her freedom from his hands, to demoralize her beautiful existence, and ten years ago he could not protect her, and ten years later he had not succeeded in protecting anyone who went down from the island.

As Rebecca said to Phoebe's father before she married him - what's the difference beyond the island?

But it's just a bigger island.

The only island free from the shackles of the world, Sky City, still floats in the sky, overcast and filled with the stench of blood left by the trials of that year, the only place he can master and protect her.

But if she came to life, was he going to let her live as he had for decades on an island covered with the traces of having hurt himself?

He had entered the game burned by anger and hatred, and after gaining the ability to sanction his enemies, he repeatedly tormented and judged them, growing weary as they were painfully tortured in this extreme, hatred with great intensity.

Hearts begins to feel a little empty and tired, sometimes feeling an uncontrollable disgust after seeing in the mirror a face that bears a slight resemblance to that of the man - the man who started it all, his biological father.

Disgust, hatred and exhaustion intermingled to drain him, and he was on the island, alone, lying in a trance in his flannel listening to the rain, the playing cards that once represented the settlers above scattered on the floor.

Why keep judging theirs, their guilt is established, why not kill them - Phoebe asked him - kill them and it would be over.

He was always reluctant to give that group of people a break so easily, to let them and his own mother all end up in one place - dead, and whether their spirits after death would nag her for the freedom she had so easily gained, and because of the note the guest had left him, he always saw death as the best outcome for these people, but that day at Phoebe's puzzled questioning, Hearts took a rare moment to ponder - what would happen if he did kill them?

What will I do after I kill them?

Hearts asks himself very gently.

He has been on this island for twelve years since that day.

He started the guild wanting to become stronger, and he did, as he had hoped, become stronger, the whole world was his power, he even had the power to fight and confront the arms dealers, the daily flow of points in the guild warehouse reached a horrible lot, and in the early days he was a little relieved to leave the island, to become an actor as he had wanted to be in his childhood, to show himself to everyone, and He had naively hoped to receive the compliments she said, without any hint of desire.

But the truth is that you just can't get it, and the people he has come into contact with, from fans who have written to his studio for three years straight to investors who say they chose him because they believe in his acting, come in all shapes and sizes, very much willing to sleep with him if he wants to, or if they taste the extra meaning in a look he gives them.

Power, money, love, almost the top of these things he has seen, with a cold and weary gesture.

Was there really someone who was just genuinely complimenting her beauty, as she said? Or was it just that she was wrong and there was actually a glow of desire in his eyes?

He had no wishes, no desires, no things he wanted to do, no places he wanted to go, staying on the island day by day listening to the loud sound of the rain falling and walking away. He became lazier and lazier, even playing matches, preferring only to open [Shield] to torment his opponent instead of taking the initiative, acting as if he expected that one day someone would suddenly kill himself on the field.

It all came to an abrupt end when the black bone whip in the hands of the player named Spades was seen.

He could no longer recall the exact moment he had seen Spades, it was like hearing an explosive thunderclap on a rainy day, he was almost still, all his thoughts came together and he sat up straight for a rare moment, staring blankly at the black bone whip that Spades wielded on the small television.

"What's his name?" He heard himself ask.

Wang Shun respectfully replied to him, "Empress, he is the dark horse of this term."

"He doesn't have a name, he seems to have a code name, Spades."

You can't call me by my real name, just call me by my code name, you can call me Spades.

What followed was a logical progression, with Hearts' mad quest for Spades rightly interpreted as a quest, and he was rarely so career-minded as to chase Spades all the way to second place in the league - but only because Spades is a guy who only sees the game and his opponents, and if not If you don't meet him on the field, this guy will never respond to your questions and will walk right past you as if he didn't see you.

After losing the match, Hearts stood in front of Spades, and the hosts kept shaking their hands, but Hearts never held out their hands.

Hearts looked at Spades with barely any emotion in his eyes, a look of anticipation, "Your whip and code name, who gave you that?"

There is no such thing as a coincidence in this world that just happens to match up.

Spades replied, "I don't remember."

Hearts was silent for a long time before he extended his hand and looked up again with that impeccable lazy smile, "Very nice to meet you and I hope to see you on the field next time I see you."

"At that time, I hope you will remember the answer to your question."

Later on, Phoebe entered the game, the young witch joined the guild, and after many unsuccessful attempts to test Spades, Hearts got lazy again and started to let go of his power in the guild, letting the young witch take over in turn.

"So what the hell are you going to do?" Phoebe approached Hearts alone on a rare occasion and she stared at the other woman, "What are you going to do away from the guild when you're letting go so quickly and the little witches will all take over the Kings Guild by the end of this year?"

Hearts was quiet for a long time and spoke in reply, "Go outside the island."

His eyes were half-lidded and he smiled scatteredly, "Go to the dance where no one wants to sleep with me afterwards."

Phoebe is quiet for a moment - apart from a few essential things, Hearts hardly ever goes off the island, he loathes it as much as he loathes the island.

"With a face like yours, places like that don't exist." Phoebe replied nonchalantly.

-- Hearts' favourite dance is the Dance of the Seven Veils, a dance that is a bit seductive in its own right, and which Hearts dances to the point of seduction, a man who has grown up on this island of lust, and whose bones are soaked with compulsion.

"Well, I know." Hearts responded lazily, a smile still on his face and a certain sigh in his tone, like he was lost in memory, "I've only danced that one time where the other person just purely admired me, and I waited ten years for that guest, even the guild was named after him."

"And then never saw it a second time."

"I searched for him for a long time ......" Hearts rested his jaw, the candlelight swaying beside his face, his long lashes falling in wavering shadows, "and every time I was going to find it, I was so close to losing it. "

"Think outside the box." Phoebe said lightly, "Maybe he's already dead?"

Hearts laughed out loud for a moment, then went quiet again, "It might end well for him."

"That guest ...... did yearn for death."

Phoebe's heart swelled with a sense of foreboding, and she looked at Hearts' face, which was haunted by the candlelight, even in its contemplation, and almost instantly guessed what the other woman was thinking, and she pressed Hearts somewhat sternly: "So ...... you feel good about dying because of him too, do you? Is that right?"

"So you left the guild because you wanted to die, did you?"

"At first ...... when he said he wanted to die, I did find it hard to accept, I even wanted to kill the person who was going to kill him." Hearts spoke very softly, "But after all that time, now that I think about what he said, it doesn't seem like anything is wrong."

"It's all boring to me, and I don't need to bring her back into this uninteresting and dirty world."

"- Death might be a good ending."

"Even if I go to hell after I die, it might be cleaner than this island I'm on now."

Hearts tilted his head slightly, the faint glow of the candle reflected in his godless purple eyes, and raised his hand to flick the wick casually as the candle light went out.

So not a ray of light could be seen on the island.

The sound of rain outside the window is piercing.

A few months before the league was due to start, something changed and Phoebe was the first one to notice that something was wrong with the little witch.

She knows that Liu Huai, the weak and incompetent man, is at the heart of the little witch, but the Guild has Liu Huai well under control, and although the little witch is always silently "looking" at the controlled and somewhat muddled Liu Huai, not looking like she approves of what they are doing, she does not stop them from doing it.

For someone as timid, incompetent and weak as Liu Huai, such tight control might also be a form of protection.

Phoebe dislikes Liu Huai, one might even say loathes him, and although she has changed her mind about the underdog, she dislikes Liu Huai as a weakling with no conviction and a passion for betrayal.

She is certain that Liu Huai will be the young witch's weakness, and she feels that Hearts shares her opinion - otherwise this guy wouldn't have pulled off some kind of grooming operation for a prep group of brothers.

But Phoebe is not happy about this kind of operation.

"If a person's core desires could be easily replaced or transferred, they wouldn't be core." Phoebe hit the nail on the head, her tone tinged with disgust, "And these brothers you're looking for are too inferior for the young witch to easily transfer to these men."

Hearts smiled noncommittally as he asked her, "And what do you think it means to be a quality brother to a young witch?"

"Being able to understand her to some extent, support her in what she wants to do and be able to get her to successfully empathise, similarity in appearance to Liu Huai is a must, as well as similarity in experience, such as having taught her a lot and believing in her abilities ...... " Phoebe raised her eyes, "And finally, preferably also as cowardly as Liu Huai, so that she can be protective."

The smile on Hearts' face faded.

Phoebe said nonchalantly, " Hearts, I can't believe you haven't noticed that the little witch has similar complex feelings for you as she does for Liu Huai."

"You're the perfect person for her [brother]."

"You only need to use the skill once on the little witch and you will become Liu Huai in her eyes, you and her brother are not only identical in appearance, your personality and the role you play in her current experience are also similar, with your skills you can also completely replace Liu Huai in the little witch's mind psychologically, Liu Huai's weakness is replaced by you With this weakness replaced by you, the Little Witch can become stronger and more stable ......"

Hearts' tone faded: "That's enough."

Phoebe looked Hearts in the eye: "If you are determined to make the little witch overcome her weakness, why don't you want to lie to her yourself?"

"Obviously you're the right one for the job."

"Me in person?" Hearts gave Phoebe a smirking look, "I'm [the Queen] in her eyes, how is she going to accept me as her brother?"

Phoebe looked up, " Hearts, there's no use running away."

"You're a man, and in that way you're fit to be her [brother] as well."

"You've done all the bad things, dragging your feet like this will only backfire, don't be a vicious and cowardly person in power, Hearts."

"Well, that's the end of the discussion on this matter." Hearts gathered his expression, his eyelashes dropping, "Go ahead and leave, I'll think about it."

Phoebe paused for a moment, pushed open the office door and left. Hearts sat alone in his chair in silence for a long, long time before slowly pulling open the drawer under his desk, he took out the picture that was in the drawer and placed it on the desk.

Hearts slowly lowered his head, leaned it on the table, buried it in his elbows and looked at the picture of his mother's bright smile, his voice too soft to be heard.

"...... I hate the idea of becoming a man to lie to her and win her over."

"It will make me think of you."

"...... So I got someone else to do the job." Hearts slowly lowered his head as he gave two abrupt low chuckles, " Phoebe's comment was pretty spot on, I'm so cowardly and vicious ......"

"But I really ......"

"I don't want to lie to Jiayi."