Hyungkesuni was preparing to run away far from her hiding place as the situation worsened.
Whoosh!
“Just build another hiding place.”
Thud!
“Sure, it’s a shame about everything I’ve gathered so far, but can I trade it for my life?”
Plop!
Hyungkesuni packed only a few belongings and took off in a hurry. The cowardly witch stepped out of her home just like always, fleeing far away from the scary place.
Zoom!
But this time, it was too late.
Bam!
Although it was late for her to say that all the karma she’d built up was coming back, what she had done was still tightening around her neck.
Dakota had thoroughly prepared to ensure she wouldn’t lose her.
Prep! Prep!
Not just double-checking the preparations, but making sure that even if there were mistakes, she could fix them somehow.
Snap!
Even if Hyungkesuni ran away, she wouldn’t have time to close her eyes if she was still alive.
Rustle!
Heading into the forest meant trapping her within, while going to the city meant checking every single person to make sure there was no place for her to hide.
Whistle!
Normally, when you set a trap like this, the one trying to escape gets tired, but so do the ones laying the trap.
Yawn!
Eventually, a gap would appear.
Ding!
But this time, it was different.
Huuh!
Because the people involved in the witch hunt were all laughing.
Ha ha ha!
There were various reasons.
There was a priest from the Outsider Church, burning with the mission of catching the real Hyungkesuni.
Bzzz!
There were people simply enjoying the festival of witch hunting.
Woo hoo!
Some were delighted because many came, and their goods sold well.
Cha-ching!
And there were those who were happy that the saint of the Outsider Church had come from far away.
Hooray!
The only people who weren’t smiling?
Gloom!
Those who had lost someone to Hyungkesuni.
Sigh!
Just like Dakota, the survivors by chance.
Gulp!
Dakota intentionally chose people who had a grudge against Hyungkesuni. Because she thought they would work properly when she asked for help.
Giddy up!
And her thoughts were spot on.
Bingo!
Dakota was coordinating the people at the top, while those below were taking on small tasks. The will of the upper management was unified, and the lower troops found it enjoyable.
Yes!
Then, what would happen?
Clang!
The Outsider devotees gradually tightened Hyungkesuni’s noose.
Choke!
When the smile that hung on Hyungkesuni’s lips covered her entire face.
Smile!
It took exactly three months.
Tick tock!
When Hyungkesuni first realized that the Outsider Church was chasing her, she immediately started to think.
Hmm!
Hyungkesuni was quite clever, after all.
Smart!
Long ago, she had learned the art from a witch and developed it independently.
Crafty!
If still, some of the very few witches alive today were living in the present.
Spooky!
Of course, the bias that witches were bad people was largely created by Hyungkesuni herself.
Oops!
That’s why many witches died.
Poof!
Once a bias forms, it takes an enormous effort to break it. But before that could happen, the majority of witches were killed for various reasons.
Thud!
So while Hyungkesuni survived so long because she was a coward, that was not the only reason.
Stab!
The reason a woman who had a personality that casually toyed with human lives could remain alive included her skills.
Zap!
But even those skills are not enough when facing too many enemies.
Ding ding!
So, whenever people gathered around, she had always fled with a smile.
Run!
Fleeing in fear of death.
Yikes!
If she could kill several in one go, her personality would never allow her to flee like that; she would toy with them and laugh.
Har har!
Anyway, lacking the ability to take down a mass of people, once Hyungkesuni confirmed that the Outsider Church was pursuing her, she decided to head west.
Westward!
The Ahu Jungle to the north.
Adventure!
The Skad Stone Desert to the south.
Dust!
Culturally, the east and west diverged significantly from this point.
Diverge!
Once, the Seongsin Church was the religion of most of the east but couldn’t expand west beyond those two regions.
Expand!
So, thinking the Outsider Church would do just that, Hyungkesuni decided to flee west.
Run!
It was spring when Hyungkesuni started escaping her hidden place.
Spring forward!
She passed the freshly melted water’s edge, sometimes disguising herself as an animal and at times hiding in mud. Since this forest was like her territory, she managed to survive for three months.
Whew!
But her fear of being chased caused her to make the wrong choice.
Oops!
To Hyungkesuni, who knew the vegetation of the Ahu Jungle well, the jungle was a place to gather food and a strategic location to obtain materials for spells, a sort of magic.
Hocus pocus!
But as the people tightened the noose around her, she had no choice but to move further away.
Far away!
To places where her knowledge would gradually become useless.
Uh oh!
She picked a location that seemed easy to break through and ran there. Only, as she continued, she ended up heading east instead of west, but she didn’t mind not going west.
East is fine!
After all, as long as she could survive, that was her victory.
Win!
However, that was the trap.
Snap!
A blessed person might be lacking in ability, but they excelled in all aspects compared to ordinary people.
Woo hoo!
Being blessed meant their intelligence also improved.
Smartypants!
Even a hundred-year-old person who had never received education in their lifetime could learn an entirely different form of magic after receiving blessings.
Whoa!
These kinds of people gathered and prepared to kill one person.
Huddle up!
It was like several Seoul National University graduates brainstorming a game to snatch wallets, so wouldn’t it make sense to pay to play?
Cha-ching again!
Hyungkesuni wasn’t foolish at all; in fact, she was quite clever.
Brainiac!
But she couldn’t win against the numbers.
Bummer!
Everywhere she went, the witch hunt festival was happening.
Party!
The people living in the city didn’t actually think they were hunting down and killing Hyungkesuni. Just the thought that they were holding the festival again, that’s all.
Oh no!
But from Hyungkesuni’s perspective, the whole city appeared to be working to catch her.
Eek!
If only she had a little more leeway and could ask someone, she would’ve realized it wasn’t truly dangerous.
Ding ding!
But up to now, she had been making judgments alone. And the three months of relentless pursuit had worn down her sanity.
Ding ding ding!
Everyone looked like an enemy to her.
Grrr!
Wherever she looked, they were all blaming Hyungkesuni.
Boo!
What would happen if someone saw a girl holding a hideous skull staff?
Yikes!
“There’s a witch here!”
Run!
Hyungkesuni reflexively cut off a head, turning it into a signal that revealed her location.
Shwah!
And once someone was dead, there was no going back.
Ka-boom!
Instantly, the city would start scouring for the real witch like hunting for a rat.
Squeak!
The trap worked perfectly.
Snap!
Hyungkesuni fled with a smile on her face.
Hee hee hee!
Laughing heartily, behaving just as she was known as the “Witch of Joy.”
Yay!
In reality, she was terrified, even revealing a trauma she had almost forgotten about for a very long time.
Scary!
But there were just too many sins she’d committed to attribute this as the cause.
Oopsie!
And sins do indeed find a time for reckoning.
Ding ding!
While there are many who don’t, Hyungkesuni was not one of them.
Shame!
In the end, people who resented her came before Hyungkesuni.
Poke!
Spears, swords, bows, staffs. They attacked her with various weapons.
Charge!
No matter how much Hyungkesuni was an elderly witch, she couldn’t fend off an attack from so many people.
Ouch ouch!
Eventually, her left arm was chopped off at the elbow with a sword, and her right hand holding the staff was crushed to the elbow by a hammer.
Crack!
Both legs were severely injured, and she had nails connected by chains embedded in her left knee, right thigh, and right lower abdomen above the pelvis, as well as her left shoulder.
Yikes!
This wasn’t an attack aimed at a person.
Roar!
They attacked as if they were hunting a huge beast.
Booom!
And the final moment had arrived.
Doom!
A man filled with the hope of revenge was about to stab her in the neck with a knife when…
Uh oh!
Dakota stopped him.
Halt!
“Stop!”
Clang!
The blade barely missed Hyungkesuni’s neck and planted itself in the sandy ground beside her head.
Oh no!
Hyungkesuni looked up with a face full of laughter.
Giggle!
There stood a beautiful woman with blue skin. She had seen her several times while running away.
Wowza!
She was Dakota, the saint of the Outsider Church.
Angelic!
As Dakota subtly glanced around, she ordered the assailants to stop and back away. The genuine laughter began to break through her fear-streaked smile.
Joy!
A glimmer of hope for survival appeared.
Sparkle!
“Hehe, Saint? I’m just a humble witch. Please, I beg for mercy. I haven’t done any bad things!”
Please!
So she pleaded. In any way possible to survive, Hyungkesuni opened her mouth despite the pain engulfing her body.
Oww!
“I was just scared. Suddenly being called a witch and attacked, I was just scared and…”
Eek!
She defended herself by saying she wasn’t a bad person.
No bad!
Dakota approached the chained and pinned down Hyungkesuni and crouched down beside her head. Looking straight into Hyungkesuni’s eyes, she asked.
Gaze!
“Hyungkesuni. Do you remember the day when the outsider fell?”
Memory!
“Yes! Yes! Of course! The filthy Seongsin Church guys blew up the Outsider! I remember it all!”
Boom!
That was genuinely one of Hyungkesuni’s most exhilarating moments.
Woohoo!
A monster that shouldn’t have come into this world appeared through Yasle’s blunder.
Uh oh!
She didn’t know what the warmth spoken of by the Outsider meant, but surely one wouldn’t think someone who had their power taken away could die properly.
Womp!
Especially with that ominous purple hair! It bothered her enough that she sought to kill it. But ominous imaginings tend to become reality.
Yikes!
The Outsider returned to this world.
Surprise!
Hyungkesuni feared the Outsider and begged for her life, insisting she be allowed to live. So, she was forced to write down the way to summon her.
Uh oh!
And she did.
Pen!
But after spending a few days together, she realized the Outsider was dumber than she expected. Rather, she was more like a strong brat.
Oops!
When she tried twisting the magic written in the book as a test, the Outsider understood nothing at all.
Blank stare!
She could deceive her.
Sneaky!
So, she twisted the summoning magic. If summoned, she’d changed the formula to seal the Outsider for ten thousand years.
Poof!
And it worked out well as the Outsider was banished from this world. At first, Hyungkesuni thought she was completely dead, but as more and more became tainted by the Outsider, she learned that wasn’t entirely the case.
Confused!
But still, the Outsider did not return to this world. Even more than the number of humans that had become sacrifices back then, the Outsider didn’t come.
Oomph!
Or maybe she couldn’t come to this world.
Fizzle!
Hyungkesuni felt wronged. No, I defeated the Outsider, how could you do this to me?
Unfair!
But that’s that.
Shrug!
To survive, she cursed the Seongsin Church with all her might. Would that make her seem like a humble witch to spare her?
Plea!
She begged Dakota for mercy.
Help!
But at that moment, Dakota said something strange.
Hmm?
“Do you remember the day someone died at the house with a terrace overlooking the square?”
Memory!
“No! Not at all! Yes! I don’t know anything! I’ve never killed anyone! Really! I was just attacked because they suddenly tried to kill me!”
Plead!
Hyungkesuni couldn’t see Dakota’s expression; shadows fell on her face since the sun was behind her.
Shadow!
Dakota said:
Chime!
“Let’s take the Witch of Joy to the headquarters of the Outsider Church.”
March!
Hyungkesuni mistakenly thought she had been saved.
Heh heh!
