Shut up, brave man! I don't want to atone for my sins to you!

She stretched out her hand and spread her five fingers. In the palm of her hand, the shining trapezoidal octahedron that should have stopped moving slowly rose up and began to rotate like a miniature planet.

When leaving Diesel, the hero gave the limited wish machine he got from Longin Tyr to the witch. Now the witch took it out and restarted it.

The black shadows cannot actually destroy the limited wishing machine. At most, they can only temporarily stop the operation of the limited wishing machine.

After the shadow and their current emperor left, the witch was able to start the limited wish machine again. No, perhaps, it has never stopped running, because it has not yet fulfilled someone's wish -

It has not yet fulfilled Rachel's wish.

Fatigue was like water, and the witch became a drowning person. She felt the water rising above her knees, her chest... By now, the fatigue had reached her chin, and she had to raise her head and struggle hard to avoid suffocation from fatigue.

But even she herself knew that she probably couldn't hold on for much longer.

"This is the price," she thought with a wry smile, "This is... the price of a wish."

The wishing well in the Manifestation Square is not a wishing machine. The real wishing machine listens to the wishes of every stranger at any time.

Longin Teale, White Schilling, Ivan Thorne, Charles, she...

It will generously fulfill the wishes of every outsider and will also charge every outsider an equal price.

Longin Tyr's wish is for his kingdom to last forever.

Then he and his people became immortal shadows and were banished to the depths of the starry sky. His kingdom was indeed eternal.

White Schilling's wish is to find out the truth about the abnormal magical shock thirty years ago.

So he "saw" the Diesel people who were infected by the shadow, and he did restore the innocence of his old friend, the large magic monitoring array of the White Tower. But after learning the truth, he was infected by the shadow and finally chose to die as a human.

Ivan Thorne's wish is to give his mother a better life and to change this bad world.

So he took the initiative to accept the infection of the shadow, left crucial information for his successor, and died. After his death, the White Tower will be responsible for supporting his mother and will carry his ideals to change this terrible world.

Charles' wish is to get the priest back to him, while Rachel's wish is to find out whether Charles likes the witch or the priest.

So the priest's body was created out of thin air, and then the blank body gained consciousness, and finally the priest really returned to Charles.

So the individual named Lacie was divided into two parts, one was the witch and the other was the priest. In this way, she could certainly use this method to figure out who Charles liked.

So, what is the price they need to pay?

The witch lowered her head, raised her hand, and looked at her fingertips which were gradually disintegrating into a faint light, her expression dazed for a moment.

Immediately, she smiled bitterly.

She finally understood the price they had to pay for each other's wishes.

Charles will lose the witch again, and half of the soul of the one he loves; she will disappear with the dream, and then, before dying, she will realize her wish...

——She will find out who Charles likes through his reaction.

After realizing this, she even felt an inexplicable sense of relief. She looked at the hero and thought, "It's what you deserve. It's your fault for not wanting to confess your feelings to me!" It's too late to regret now, just like last time...

"No," she suddenly realized, "It's different from last time. This time, it seems like we are really saying goodbye forever."

For a moment, unspeakable fear gripped her heart, but she didn't want Charles to see her crying, so she stood there stubbornly, looking at Charles without admitting defeat.

“Get lost!”

She sniffed, bit her lip, and tried to stop the tears from falling, while cursing Charles in her heart:

"Why don't you get out of here!"

But through her eyes that seemed to be covered with a layer of mist, she saw that Charles suddenly gave her an extremely dazzling smile.

"Stupid witch."

he said softly.

"Eh?"

The witch was stunned.

Ciel ignored her and drew out his holy sword, saying:

"You've always felt it was strange, right? Why did I insist on solving Diesel's abnormality with the strength of the two of us? Why did I have the inexplicable confidence that I could resist those black shadows..."

As he spoke, he poured all of his forbidden magic power into the holy sword.

As the bright blue lines like a circuit board slowly lit up, the progress bar, which was just a little bit away from completion, was finally pushed to the complete level.

Then, an extremely bright and dazzling light burst out from the holy sword, and the weathered and scarred holy sword transformed under the light into an appearance that the world had never seen before.

It looks like an abstract "tree" made up of bright blue lines, with seven branches from top to bottom, and each branch has traces of some fruit that once grew on it.

The moment it appeared, complex and wonderful characters emerged in the void, and a long-lost, obscure and difficult-to-read voice sounded in Charles' mind -

"Detected temporary permission online... Permission passed... System self-checking... Warning! Printing modules 1 to 7 are offline... Warning! The self-regulatory program is offline... According to the final agreement, the system is switching to manual operation mode..."

Ciel held the new holy sword in his hand, looked into the witch's eyes, and said to her seriously and firmly:

"Wishes are meaningful only when they are fulfilled by oneself."

After saying this, the hero swung the holy sword.

He cut off the limited wish-granting machine that was suspended in the witch's palm.

[To be continued]

-

73. An accomplice

Ciel cut off the limited wish-granting machine in the witch's hand with the holy sword.

There is no way to describe the stunning beauty of that sword with pale words and text. Both the witch and the priest only saw light.

Slender, thin, gorgeous and poetic.

Just like the dawn breaking through the darkness, in just a moment, the sword light cut off the limited wish-making machine and the entire world it created.

All the magic power was washed away and dispersed. In Lacier's perception, there was even a magic vacuum in the huge space for a long time. All the magic power seemed to have awakened and actively fled the area. For a moment, the whole place was filled with chaotic turbulence and sharp howling.

"What on earth is that?"

The answer is obvious -

It is a forbidden spell.

Only the forbidden spells mastered by the brave warriors of all generations can expel magic power so efficiently, but... even in the mouths of those bards who are particularly fond of making up stories, the effects of forbidden spells will never be so exaggerated, and the momentum will never be so huge.

Rachel couldn't help but doubt:

"Is it really just a forbidden spell?"

But what she should be most concerned about now is not this, but what to do after Charles' sword cut off the limited wish-granting machine and she was divided into two parts and her wish has not yet been realized.

So she lowered her head and looked at her body.

The quagmire-like, sticky and heavy sleepiness that had submerged most of her body had quietly dissipated. Her hair was still the cool silver, and there was still the familiar mole on her thigh. Her fingertips that had dissipated into a faint light had condensed again.

She is still a witch, not a priest.

The priest had disappeared... no, it should be said that she who was separated by the limited wishing machine had merged with her again.

But this fact did not make her happy, it only made her dazed.

As if she had lost her soul, the naked Lacie covered her chest and slowly collapsed to the ground.

Then, she heard footsteps approaching her little by little.

Steady and rhythmic, like a hammer striking an anvil, Charles came to her and stopped in front of her.

Laceel didn't dare to look up at Charles. She just bit her lips and whispered with all her strength:

"You can kill me or chop me up...it's up to you."

But Charles neither killed her nor seemed to intend to skin her alive.

There was a rustling sound - it seemed that Charles was taking off his clothes.

Then, before Lacille could react, Charles gently put his coat on her.

The man's coat was particularly large, and when wrapped around Lacie, it easily covered half of her thighs.

He leaned down and squatted in front of Lacie, carefully helping her button up her clothes to cover the girl's fair skin.

His movements were so gentle, so gentle that Lacie was actually a little...uncomfortable.

She had thought that Charles would be rough with her, and she was prepared to be punished. After all, she was a bad person. She had deceived Charles' feelings. She...

Lacie suddenly sniffed, her eyes became sore again, and her voice became tearful:

"Yes, I'm sorry..."

She apologized.

Charles, who was helping her button up the last button, was stunned when he heard this. He didn't say anything, but just shook his head.

Rachel couldn't guess what he meant - no, actually she could guess it. She always thought she was very smart, so how could she not guess what Charles was thinking?

She was just scared.

She was afraid that Charles was completely disappointed in her, she was afraid that Charles would not forgive her, she was afraid...

She was afraid that Charles would no longer want her.

Overwhelmed by a heavy sense of guilt and fear, Laceline wanted to ask Charles for forgiveness, but she really didn't know how to do it.

Whether before or after coming to Pangaea, she had never directly expressed her feelings to others. She had always lived in seclusion because this allowed her to avoid all unnecessary social interactions.

In the end, she finally came up with a solution that wasn't really a solution.

As if accepting her fate, the stupid witch lowered her head, and with trembling hands, she unbuttoned the buttons that the hero had fastened for her one by one.

The girl's tender and fair skin was once again exposed in front of the man.

"Or, or you can just sleep with me..."

Lacey pulled open her coat, turned her head away, her cheeks flushed, and confessed in a voice that was about to cry.

But all I got in return was silence.

Charles did not accept her confession, but he did not reject it either - but this ambiguous attitude itself implied a certain tendency.

Lacele seemed to understand something, so she sniffed, let go of one side of her clothes, boldly grabbed Charles' hand, and clumsily tried to take the initiative to lead Charles to touch her body.

But Charles shook her hand off.

"Eh?"

Lacey was stunned for a moment.

It took her a while to realize that she was being rejected.

Her mind instantly went blank.

She froze there, at a loss - perhaps because this was the most sincere thing she could do. Apart from this, she had already...

She seemed to have nothing left.

Suddenly, warm liquid flowed down her cheeks, fell to the ground, and blossomed into tiny, bitter tears.

Rachel tried to hold back her tears, but the more she tried to suppress them, the more they rebounded. Gradually, she began to sob softly, and her tears continued to flow like a dam bursting. In the end, she even began to hiccup in a funny way.

“I’m sorry…” She hiccuped and sobbed while repeating her apology, “I was wrong, I was wrong… Can you please forgive me, please? I don’t want to be like this… I want, I want…”

She kept regurgitating the words that she had been thinking about for three years but had always been stuck in her throat like a fishbone. Perhaps she felt that if she didn't say it this time, she would never have another chance. The stupid witch, who was almost out of breath from crying, finally raised her head, looked at the hero who was close at hand with tearful eyes, and stammered:

"Actually, I...I like...I like you."

Lacele originally thought that Charles would remain indifferent to this statement, but this time, she guessed wrong.

The man in front of her suddenly sighed, then reached out to the coat she was wearing, fumbled in one of the pockets for a while, and found something that was hidden very well -

A very exquisite jewelry box.

Lacie's sobbing stopped and she stared blankly at the jewelry box. She seemed to have guessed something but couldn't believe her eyes and brain.

Charles opened the jewelry box in front of her.

Then, a ring made of star silver and sunken gold, engraved with her favorite golden rose, appeared in front of her.

Lacie's brain, which had finally regained its normal thinking ability, fell into a state of shutdown again.