Mystery: The Witch of Desire

"Ms. Fors, welcome to our theater troupe despite your busy schedule."

Fors smiled faintly, shook hands lightly with Bright, and said:

"Sorry, I seem to be late? There was a writers' salon last night, and we ended up chatting too late."

Bright did not show any displeasure:

"I understand. The salon is the best platform for writers to communicate their souls. A well-known writer like you must have many wonderful ideas to share in the salon."

Fors wore a serene and elegant smile on her face, but inside she felt a little embarrassed: she had chatted with Hugh too late last night, and this morning the bed seemed exceptionally comfortable, holding her firmly in place, making it hard to get up.

At that moment, as a Sequence 9 Extraordinary, she seemed to spiritually sense an unusual gaze upon her.

Fors turned his head curiously to look, but immediately froze:

Not far away stood a woman of extraordinary beauty, her eyes wide with astonishment as she stared intently at him. Her face, a blend of elegance and allure, transcended the limits of words; she was breathtakingly beautiful and possessed an otherworldly charm.

There stood a stunningly beautiful woman, staring at him in shock. Her beauty, a blend of elegance and allure, was beyond description.

What shocked Fors even more was that she had seen this beautiful woman before:

A few days ago, a stunningly beautiful woman suddenly appeared from the fluctuating void on the outskirts of Backlund.

But she never expected that she would meet him again in such a place.

At the same time, Livr was also filled with shock:

I saw that woman again! She was the first person I saw after I stepped out of the mirror world.

The scene became extremely awkward, and a hint of panic flashed in the eyes of both women.

Liviel is alright; being both a witch and an actress has greatly enhanced her mental fortitude and ability to conceal her emotions, allowing her to remain calm for the time being.

Fors was so ashamed that her cheeks were burning red. If there hadn't been so many people around, she would have wanted to use her apprentice's ability to open a door and escape immediately.

Mr. Bright, however, seemed oblivious to Fors's unusual behavior and continued to enthusiastically introduce the troupe members to her.

When it came to introducing Livre, Mr. Bright enthusiastically pushed her in front of Fors, saying excitedly:

"Ms. Fors, this is our leading lady—Miss Marilyn Monroe. What do you think? Doesn't she fit perfectly with the witch you've created?"

Fors nodded awkwardly, her eyes darting around and avoiding Livre's gaze.

Livre, on the other hand, behaved more gracefully. She suppressed her shyness and extended her hand to Fors with confidence, using her acting skills to deliver a perfectly polite smile.

"Ms. Fors, it's an honor to meet you."

Fors hesitated for a moment before tremblingly reaching out and grasping Livre's slender, fair fingers.

The moment they made contact, they both noticed that the other's hand was trembling slightly.

"She recognized me after all!"

The same thought popped into their minds simultaneously, and they both groaned, unsure how to face each other. Should they pretend nothing had happened? Or should they try to ease the awkwardness by talking to each other?

At this point, Mr. Bright finally noticed something was amiss and asked with some curiosity:

"Ms. Fors, Miss Monroe, have you met before?"

"I don't know him!"

The fact that the two of them blurted it out in unison only made it seem like they were trying to cover something up.

Fortunately, Mr. Bright did not press further, but simply smiled and instructed:

“Ms. Fors, Miss Monroe is the heart of our entire new play. You should have a good talk with her about the core of your witch character.”

Fors forced a smile and agreed, quickly ignoring Livre and turning to greet and shake hands with the rest of the troupe members one by one, thus avoiding the awkwardness of facing Livre face to face.

After everyone finished exchanging pleasantries, the entire troupe sat down in the sofa area, listening quietly to Fors's lecture like students.

"The core of this play is contrast, symbolizing the wicked witch's chivalrous act of punishing corrupt officials... thus creating a strong dramatic conflict..."

Fors improvised, fabricating so-called plot logic.

"Secondly, the romantic storylines in the play are also a very important part. The immoral love that the witch has that transcends worldly rules is what grabs the audience's attention the most, isn't it?"

When discussing the core of the character, Fors also has his own explanation:

"The soul of the entire play is the witch character. She must not only portray the innate darkness, cunning, and mysteriousness, but also hide a sense of concern for the country and its people and a kind heart; she must also grasp the charm and the spirit of rebirth, and switch freely between various expressions and states of mind, with layers of contrasts, in order to make the character full and vivid."

Fors rattled off a string of hastily put-together professional terms, deliberately avoiding eye contact with Livre throughout, her gaze darting around, not daring to look at her at all.

She then went on to analyze the core of each of the other characters and the key points of their performances. She spoke about each character in a clear and logical manner, which impressed the actors present, who nodded in agreement.

Clive was extremely perceptive of emotions and had already noticed something amiss. She could clearly sense the tension that Fors couldn't hide in her expression, and the occasional slight pauses in her speech, which clearly indicated that she was speaking off the cuff without any prior preparation.

"Could it be that Ms. Fors... improvised the whole time?"

Livre was secretly amazed. She quietly rolled her tongue to activate her spiritual vision and began to investigate Fors's astral body without making a sound.

Fors's celestial form was surrounded by a tense, pale red aura, while her inner body glowed with a warm, gentle orange light, revealing her naturally lazy, easygoing, and mild-mannered nature. Her outward appearance lacked any obvious characteristics of an extraordinary being. Of course, psychic vision was inherently difficult to accurately identify extraordinary beings, and Livre only used this as a reference, not entirely believing it.

Mr. Bright listened very attentively. After Fors finished speaking, he led the applause and then encouraged the actors to ask Fors questions and exchange ideas, just like a teaching assistant creating a lively atmosphere in a university open class.

Many actors asked Fors questions, and Fors answered them one by one with a smile, but Livre did not join in the fun and just sat there quietly.

Before long, it was lunchtime. Bright had already prepared a private room on the first floor, laden with authentic Intis cuisine, including a dazzling array of dishes such as grilled veal steak and creamy baked lobster. He personally led the male and female leads, along with the core members of the troupe, to their seats for the meal.

The atmosphere was filled with laughter and chatter. Bright spoke enthusiastically about his theatrical vision, hoping that the new play would be a huge success and resonate throughout Backlund, a long-held wish of his.

"I didn't expect Mr. Bright to be so passionate about theater."

Liviel ate silently, lost in thought.

She didn't say much throughout the meal, but enjoyed the sumptuous feast to the fullest without being impolite. Compared to the black bread and salted meat and bean soup she usually ate at small restaurants, this meal could be called a heavenly banquet.

After the meal, Mr. Bright had prepared a deluxe room for Fors in the fourth-floor accommodation area and specially arranged for a waitress to guide her to her rest.

"The arrangements are really thoughtful."

Livre was quite impressed; she hadn't expected Mr. Bright to show such respect to Ms. Fors.

She couldn't help but wonder if Mr. Bright would still treat Ms. Fors with the same respect if he knew she was doing such things in the wild.

"No, no, no, I can't think like that. Everyone has to go to the bathroom sometimes. Maybe Ms. Fors just couldn't hold it in anymore..."

After her meal, Livre planned to relax on the sofa in the lounge area for a while. Just then, a waiter rushed up from downstairs, went straight to Bright, and hurriedly whispered:

“Mr. Bright, some police officers have come to visit downstairs.”

Bright remained calm.

"Please invite them to my office."

A short while later, Livre saw four police officers led up to the fourth floor by a waiter. One of them had two silver stars on his shoulder insignia and was an inspector, while the other three had V-shaped tags on their shoulder insignia and were ordinary police officers.

"What happened? If it were an ordinary case, it wouldn't have alarmed someone at the inspectorate level..."

Livre thought to herself, based on her memory, in Tingen City, only cases of murder or higher warranted the involvement of the inspectors. Although the police in Backlund were generally of higher rank, inspectors wouldn't handle petty theft cases.

She went to the mezzanine between the third and fourth floors, leaned against the window, and pretended to look at the scenery outside. After confirming that no one was watching, she activated her spiritual power, touched her cheek with one hand, and activated her invisibility ability, making her entire body transparent.

The invisible Livre arrived outside Mr. Bright's office on the fourth floor and, relying on her keen senses, listened intently to the conversation inside.

"What? Isabella is dead? How could this be..."

"Yes, her death was extremely gruesome; we suspect it was done by someone who harbored deep hatred for her..."

Isabella is dead!

Livre was quite shocked. Although Isabella was making things difficult for her like a madwoman, Livre did not think that she deserved to die.

"Who could have killed her?"

After that, the conversation inside the room noticeably quieted down. Plus, Brett's office was very well soundproofed, so Livre had a hard time hearing what the people inside were saying.

Just as she was about to leave, she heard rustling noises coming from the room next to her office.

She glanced curiously at the next room. It was a guest room, the door ajar and unlocked, indicating that it had just been cleaned and was unoccupied.

"Is the cleaner still inside and hasn't come out yet?"

Livre cautiously approached, listening to the sounds inside: the rustling noises were subtle and restrained, as if afraid of being noticed by outsiders, and could not possibly be those of a careless cleaning staff.

Livre peeked through the crack in the door and was immediately startled:

Ms. Fors was pressed against the wall, listening intently to the sounds coming from Mr. Bright's office next door.

"Ms. Fors?! What's she doing here instead of staying in her room?"

Livre was shocked and also felt a little strange. She had been outside Mr. Bright's office for quite some time and hadn't seen anyone enter the next room.

"Could it be that she was hiding in the next room from the very beginning?"

After a slight hesitation, Livre gently squeezed her entire body through the half-open door into the room without making a sound.

Fors remained pressed against the wall, listening intently, his face full of curiosity and the writer's instinctive exploration and interest in bizarre material.

Livre stood silently beside her, holding her breath and watching her quietly without making a sound.

Just then, footsteps sounded outside the door. The cleaning lady walked to the door again, pushed it open, and came in. Only then did Livre notice a towel draped over the bed, which must have been left there by the cleaning lady when she cleaned earlier.

Hearing the noise, Fors quickly ran to the wall on the other side of the room.

Just as Livre thought she was going to find a place to hide, a shocking scene unfolded:

Fors raised his hand and touched the wall. The originally solid and cold wall instantly became illusory and hazy, rippling with faint spatial ripples, and a narrow passage suddenly appeared. Without the slightest hesitation, Fors ducked down and quickly crawled inside. The next second, the wall returned to normal, leaving only a trace of spiritual fluctuation that was difficult for ordinary people to detect.

"An apprentice! She's an apprentice!"

Livre was startled, never expecting that Ms. Fors was actually an extraordinary being in the apprentice sequence!

Livre quickly disappeared into the shadows, leaped out of the window, and bounded along the windowsills of house after house. She saw Fors inside the houses opening and closing doors in uninhabited rooms until he returned to his own room.

Then, she lay down on the bench, as if still savoring what she had overheard.

Livre quietly watched her contented appearance from outside the window, a pang of jealousy rising in her heart:

"The apprentice's ability is really convenient. It's a pity I can't drink another bottle of apprentice potion. I can, on the other hand, possess an item made with an apprentice's extraordinary ability... However, an apprentice's extraordinary ability costs 200 pounds, plus the crafting fee for making the magical item, it should be a very high price."

Livre sighed helplessly. When she looked at Fors again, she was no longer the languid beauty, but a pile of glittering gold pounds.

At that moment, Fors shivered inexplicably; the apprentice's considerable spirituality made her sense a gaze containing greed.

She quickly activated her spiritual vision and looked towards the windowsill, where she saw a faint figure watching her, its face converging into a barely visible cheek!

"It's you!"

Fors instinctively cried out in surprise, then immediately regretted it: she should have known that Miss Monroe was suspicious. Who in their right mind would suddenly appear naked in the suburbs?

Because of the awkwardness, she subconsciously didn't think about it in this way. However, an extraordinary being who can turn invisible is not someone that she, a Sequence 9, can handle. By directly revealing that she recognized her, she might provoke her to take some extreme action!

Without hesitation, Fors quickly ran to the side of the wall, trying to escape by passing through it.

Meanwhile, Liviel was extremely anxious. Normal invisibility requires spiritual powder to support it, but she was only using a simplified version, so the effect was not as good. And because it lasted for a long time, she was actually discovered by the apprentice who was not weak in spirituality!

What to do? Is this Ms. Fors an official Beyonder? Even if she isn't, it's still bad if others find out about her Beyonder identity. Livre had just seen a glimmer of hope for a stable life and didn't want to live in constant fear anymore.

Without hesitation, Livre immediately climbed through the window into the house and activated her power, arousing Fors's desire.

Fors, who had been walking briskly, suddenly froze on the spot, a hint of anxiety appearing in her watery eyes:

"Damn it! Why did it have to happen at a time like this...!"

Fors struggled to take another step forward, almost touching the wall in front of her.

At that moment, Livre had already stealthily approached her from behind like an assassin, unleashing her frost power with a wave of her hand. The frost instantly transformed into ice rings, binding Fors's hands and feet. Fors lost control of her body, but still managed to struggle and fall against the wall using the momentum.

"As long as we can get to that place!"

Fors's moist eyes were full of hope, and she was only inches away from the wall.

But at that moment, Livre grabbed her long brown hair and wrapped one arm around her neck, pulling her back.

As the wall, so close yet so far, receded further and further away, Fors felt a surge of despair and opened her throat to shout:

"save……"

Before she could even cry out, two long, slender fingers were already inside her mouth, pressing down on her tongue. With a sudden downward thrust, Fors felt as if something was stuck in her throat, and a strong wave of gagging surged up, forcing her to swallow her cries for help.

Livre quickly pressed Fors face down on the bed, grabbed a bath towel and stuffed it into her mouth, finally managing to subdue Fors.

However, she was now at a loss as to what to do with Fors.

Kill her to silence her? No, although Livre coveted her extraordinary qualities, she still had a conscience. She couldn't bring herself to kill Fors until she was certain that Fors was truly heinous.

Erasing her memory? Livre wished she had such a method, but unfortunately she didn't.