Chapter 425. All Cards on the Table
"Ask yourself: even if I had selfish motives for toying with you, did I not, objectively speaking, facilitate the deepening of your feelings with those two young girls? Do you truly regret falling in love with them? Or do you hate being loved by them?"
As she spoke, her tone grew more self-righteous, her posture more upright—she possessed quite an overbearing air.
Garfiel glanced at his General, and seeing his steady attitude, felt a surge of confidence. He simply closed his eyes, lunged forward, and shoved the frail Echidna hard, sending her sprawling dismally to the ground.
Even though he couldn't open his eyes to see it, Garfiel felt incredibly satisfied—satisfied enough to burst into laughter. Settling both public and private grudges at once was an absolute high!
The public grudge was her instructing Roswaal to cause the heavy snow, leading to everyone in the Sanctuary being devoured alive by the Great Rabbit. The private grudges were even more numerous. His mother was clearly still alive, yet the trial scene Echidna gave him deliberately cut off right as his mother disappeared under a mudslide, intentionally leading him to believe she was dead.
And if it weren't for this bastard Echidna's meddling, how would that purple-haired merchant have become entangled with the General? She had split the General's love for Lady Emilia for no reason!
"Go to hell, you bastard!
I won't allow! In my presence! Hurting, harming, killing, self-mutilation, or suicide! Don't think for a second you won't be safe, sound, and healthy in front of me!!"
Garfiel's actions provoked Minerva, the Witch of Wrath. Her appearance was accompanied by an earth-shaking commotion, but in the next second, before she could say another word, she was instantly neutralized by Reinhard and restrained.
This was something Hikigaya Hachiman had communicated with him long ago.
Among the Witches in the Sanctuary's tomb, with Reinhard present, the only one worth fearing and possessing utility was Echidna. The others didn't have nearly as many convoluted schemes or stores of knowledge; once they appeared, they were to be taken out immediately.
With Minerva suppressed, Reinhard moved as if in an uninhabited land. His blatant disregard immediately annoyed Daphne, the Witch of Gluttony, and Typhon, the Witch of Pride, who had been watching the fun from behind the scenes. They appeared one after another, only to follow in Minerva's footsteps within two seconds, experiencing the might of a full-effort Reinhard.
"You're right, I was indeed happy... That 'genuine' progress with Crusch and Anastasia—I truly don't regret it, nor do I hate it."
Without glancing at the three other Witches, and completely unaffected by them, Hikigaya Hachiman slowly crouched down and looked at Echidna. "But they are they, and you are you. How I feel about them has nothing to do with you.
To try and use that as a favor to demand repayment—when did you become so naive, Echidna?"
"Hmm~ Trying is better than surrendering without doing anything, right?~"
Echidna sighed with regret. She hadn't been able to shake Hachiman's composure, losing one card after another. "Compared to me, that bitch Pandora is a much greater threat, isn't she?"
"Knowing I'm certain to die, do you think I'd still lead you to find her?"
"That is a problem," Hachiman said. "If it weren't for Priscilla, that is."
"Relying on her extreme luck... sigh, how troublesome." Echidna's eyes narrowed coldly. She had known long ago that the woman was a huge problem.
"What if I said I could help you deal with that bitch Pandora?"
"She's lying!"
Roswaal denied it flatly. "Before the final battle with the Melancholy Demon, Teacher told me that she had a disagreement with Pandora and was subsequently expelled from the Witch Cult by her."
No matter how gentle or non-competitive the Witch of Greed's personality was back then, if she had the power, she absolutely wouldn't have sat by and watched Pandora run amok. The fact was, she couldn't beat Pandora; otherwise, she wouldn't have been expelled.
"I haven't wasted these four hundred years in vain~"
"Is that so? Who can say for sure if you're telling the truth? Perhaps your plan is to use an audience with the Witch of Vainglory as an excuse, then defect and join forces with her to fight Reinhard or escape and sabotage us from the shadows?"
Roswaal sneered, his words cutting deep. He wanted nothing more than to put Echidna to death as soon as possible; this was the only thing he, as a disciple, could do for his true Teacher. Without the prophetic information gap of the Tome of Wisdom, his intellectual plotting was inferior to both Hachiman and Echidna, but he could still act as the wind that topples a leaning tree.
However, in the next moment, Roswaal looked like a duck being strangled by its neck, staring at Echidna with wide eyes.
"I can bring your Teacher back to life," Echidna said, simply because she could. "Not me, but the Witch of Greed, Echidna, whom you long for."
Whether it was the method to kill Pandora or the resurrection of the original Witch of Greed, these two greatest trump cards were actually things Echidna had intended to use to improve her treatment or keep for an emergency to blackmail Hachiman.
Regrettably, without the information gap and facing Reinhard's terrifying combat power, she could no longer manipulate Hachiman. To live, to be able to witness the brilliant unknowns and the new future, she had to offer these two solid benefits.
"In these four hundred years, I have researched a lot. In fact, I could have resurrected myself and left this tomb already... But I can give this opportunity to the original Witch of Greed, Echidna."
"As long as a contract is signed, I, who am not resurrected, can also leave this tomb, Hikigaya Hachiman."
"You—you, you, you—"
Voices trembled. Beatrice and Roswaal were already gasping for air, their minds buzzing.
"I can sign a contract with you and be completely at your service. Look at your precious Beatrice; how much she wishes for her mother's return. Think of the threat of that bitch Pandora; compared to her, I'm actually much better, aren't I?
As long as you don't completely restrict my pursuit of the unknown, I can achieve everything within my power for you. Do you really want to resist such a win-win situation, Hikigaya Hachiman?"
She believed that Hachiman had come with the sincere determination to kill her. But she knew even better that if he had no other purpose, he could have just had Reinhard kill her the moment they met. The reason he dawdled and talked was, at the end of the day, to see if he could squeeze anything out of her.
And when she demonstrated that the benefits he could gain from her outweighed the threat she posed, she could, in fact, obtain a one-time "stay of execution."
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