Book 15 Chapter 5
Fated Love,
Apprentice Witch Rina's Wedding (2)
Lin accepted Ron Milado's challenge.
He said he wanted to duel at dinner, so, as written in the letter, she put on the necklace and went out.
But it was strange. It was true that they had formed a defensive line with carriages in a circle, but in the center, a makeshift wedding hall was lavishly set up.
“Ohh, that person…”
“How can anyone be so cute…”
“Ugh, congratulations, young master.”
As Lin approached the stage, the guests gasped.
The guests were the accompanying travelers, mercenaries, caravan guards, and laborers.
On the wedding stage, Ron Milado was beaming, staring at Lin.
“You must be happy, Lin.”
Friede, who had been holding her hand and escorting her, pushed Lin’s back with an unnecessarily charming smile.
“What the hell, crazy.”
As Rista sobbed, covering her face with both hands, Friede patted her back, and Pipi wiped away tears from her eyes.
“Don’t cry, Rista. It’s the wrong path, but let’s pray for her happiness.”
“Don’t cry, don’t cry, don’t cry.”
“But, but… if Lin just leaves like this!”
Friede took a long puff from his pipe and gave a wry smile.
“Hmph, children naturally grow up in an instant and leave the nest. It’s a bitter feeling.”
Rista’s tears made the guests strangely speculate about Lin’s past.
‘Apprentice Witch Rina lost her parents at a young age…’
‘Those two must have raised her like family…’
‘That’s why they can’t help but cry like that…’
On the other hand, from Lin’s perspective, the situation was strange, too strange. Should she have noticed the signs and run away then?
‘No, the strongest doesn't run away.’
The atmosphere was quite strange, but she stood on the stage where the challenger was standing, facing him. Ron Milado said,
“You, you’ve come wearing it! To think Lady Rina felt the same way as I did… Isn't this fate, after all?”
“Hmph, you’ve got quite some courage, don’t you? Trying even this.”
“You actually pretended to be shy, but you’re quite a wild person! That makes you even more Charming!”
The older man who had brought the gift cleared his throat to calm the guests’ commotion and gathered everyone’s attention.
“Then, from now on, I will begin the Milado Merchant Guild’s No-Questions-Asked Wedding. Guests, attention!”
“No-Questions-Asked?”
“Ah, Witch-nim. I should explain. It's an abbreviation for ‘No Questions Asked Wedding.’ Heirs of the Milado Merchant Guild have traditionally taken their spouses through this No-Questions-Asked Wedding. It is a marriage where everyone forgets about the past and present, no matter what they were like, and only looks to the future!”
The guests all whistled and applauded. Ron, neatly dressed in a tailcoat, clasped Lin’s hands tightly with both of his and shouted,
“The moment I saw Lady Rina, I felt fate for the first time, and the moment you accepted my invitation, I was certain of that fate! Come, from the wedding ceremony today… huff, huff, huff, until the hot, hot first night, we’ll do it all!”
Hmm, wait a minute.
Something’s off. No, it’s definitely off.
Suddenly, a wedding? Do the dictionary meanings of marriage apply differently in the north and south?
“Then, cutting to the chase, we will conclude this wedding with the bride and groom exchanging a kiss to promise a hundred years of happiness. Begin.”
While Lin hesitated, unable to comprehend the situation before her, Ron Milado grasped Rina’s shoulders with profound eyes. His lips, thirsting for the scent of a woman, twitched like an animal's.
‘No, wait. This madman, why is he so strong?’
She pulled her body back as much as possible, but Ron Milado’s face, gripping Lin’s waist tightly, was steadily approaching!
“Kyugyung!”
Closer, closer, closer…!
“You can’t go, Sbal.”
At the critical moment when the large pores characteristic of a peddler, who often basks in the sun, were clearly visible, and even his hot breath touched her cheek.
“Because this path will be the happiest for Lin.”
She couldn't possibly contend with his strength, so she was about to simply finish him with magic, at that very instant.
“Kyung?”
Sbal, held tightly in Rista’s hand, twitched his nose.
“Smell, smell, smell.”
And the very next moment, Pipi, perched on Friede’s shoulder, growled.
“I’m sorry, but you can consider such a rosy future to have all vanished the moment you became a target of me, [The Strongest Hunter] Toriu.”
A long sword, a short sword, a greatsword… an uninvited guest, armed with three rusty blades, crashed into the wedding from above!
“No, that guy…!”
Rista cried out in surprise.
“Wh-what do you want, you!”
Ron Milado, who was on the verge of succeeding in the greatest event of his life, shouted with a voice more filled with anger than bewilderment.
“You’ve been deceived, you foolish young master of the Milado Merchant Guild. This person isn’t the apprentice witch Rina. She’s a great villain who’s making the world noisy with profile fraud.”
Toriu’s blade pointed at Lin.
Both the high-heeled shoes and the witch’s outfit were uncomfortable and unfamiliar to Lin, so there was bound to be a gap in her evasive movements.
The chipped blade viciously tore the pointed hat and cloak, revealing the boy’s underwear beneath!
“La-Lady Rina, are you… perhaps a man?”
As Ron Milado’s eyes fluttered, Lin thought it was actually for the best.
“I didn’t want to wear this getup for another second!”
It was then that Toriu’s barrage was about to strike Lin.
Ron took off his jacket and used it to block Toriu’s sight, protecting Lin.
At the same time, he revealed his muscular physique, honed from a lifetime of merchant work since childhood.
“Even a man is fine! No, rather, being a man is even better!”
Lin’s punch landed squarely on Ron’s face, who was smiling, showing off his beautiful teeth!
“What do you mean ‘even better,’ you crazy bastard!”
“Tta-heuaaang!”
As Ron flew far away, the wedding hall had already turned into chaos.
Toriu had told the bounty hunters the location, and Black Witch Yoru had lured forest monsters here.
Lin threw aside the headband and hair ties Friede had arbitrarily put on her, draped her torn witch's robe over her shoulders like a cape, and confronted Toriu.
“I’ll thank you, old man. It’s good that you came here yourself without causing trouble, so I don’t have to keep cross-dressing.”
Toriu lowered his stance, pointing his sword forward. It was an antiquated preparation.
“I suspected you might be Lin, the thirteen-year-old genius mage. If my guess is correct, your combat skills must also be formidable, wouldn’t they? Shall I see if you’re worthy of becoming the prey of me, the strongest hunter, Toriu?”
Toriu’s sudden lunge with his short sword was instantly blocked by an abruptly rising ice wall.
“Old man, I’m sorry, but I am the [Strongest], unhuntable.”
Yoruhen-type double casting; magic circles deployed in each hand made lightning energy flow over the ice wall.
Both ice and steel are extremely conductive. An electric shock powerful enough to paralyze the entire body would instantly surge to the brain.
That was the judgment, but Toriu had already abandoned his short sword and leaped high above the ice wall. Placing his hand on the hilt of his greatsword, he shouted,
“Unfortunately, I am the strongest hunter who hunts the unhuntable strongest.”
In the midst of this fierce exchange, Lin’s eyes sparkled with a new realization as Toriu stubbornly recited his line to the end.
‘No, this old man… I see.’
Is he trying to teach me that this type of battle of wills is also an important fight?
One who aims to be the strongest must not lose in any fight.
Then, I’ll take on both fights with all my might.
“Truly, I'm sorry, but I am the strongest who hunts the unhuntable strongest, and I am the unhuntable strongest.”
Extending the ice wall horizontally, the moment it blocked Toriu’s greatsword… he vanished again and reappeared behind Lin.
‘This old man is incredibly fast?’
The last of the three rusty weapons, the long sword, was in his hands. Its tip aimed precisely at Lin’s neck and thrust forward.
“Most unfortunately, I am the strongest hunter who hunts the unhuntable strongest, and I am the strongest hunter who can even hunt the unhuntable strongest… Agh!”
Just then, Toriu’s side folded in half from a sudden kick.
The impact, enough to instantly bend his spine, contained immense recoil.
As his spine straightened and all the contracted muscles and tendons returned to their original state, the internal shock combined, sending Toriu flying far away.
“Don’t interfere with our Lin’s happiness!”
The opponent who had attacked cowardly during a finishing line was none other than the strongest, Rista.
“Now, now, I finally… gathered the courage to let Lin go… but you’ve made me regret it again! How will you take responsibility for my feelings?!”
It was impossible to understand what she was saying, but as everyone knows, she’s the strongest human and also the greatest madwoman, so it’s best to just let it pass.
“Oh, energy of the end drifting in the air, oh, energy of the quasi hovering in the sky, sing at the command of me, Black Witch Yoru! Iellanus!”
The sorcery that struck Lin and Rista then was Iellanus.
It was a mid-level ice-based spell that caused the moisture in the air to freeze one by one into the shape of spears and pour down upon the target.
However, since the rune was used in its forbidden Orbios form, the essence of the spirits also transformed, taking on the light and properties of the abyss.
“Meltani, incantation omitted.”
Before that could rain down on Rista and Lin, it was ‘Meltani,’ a mid-level flame spell, that clashed in mid-air and melted it all away.
“Friede!”
Rista called out with deep affection, but Friede’s face was not just fierce, but wildly contorted.
“Hey, Lin… how could you do that?”
“Oh, you came at a good time. Now that the farce is over, give me my clothes back.”
“Assaulting and trampling the groom on the first day of the wedding, was your true feeling a lie? Was it not true love, but actually just coveting that young master’s wealth? You bad bastard!”
“No, sir, stop spouting nonsense and give me my clothes back.”
“You trampled on the hearts of these people gathered here to bless your happiness with one mind! Do you even know how much pain victims like me suffer for life because of swindlers like you who covet others’ money and fake love?!”
Friede took a deep puff of smoke from his pipe, then exhaled it not towards Black Witch Yoru, but towards Lin.
“It is my mission to eradicate all such trash from this world! Die, Dragon’s Breath!”