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Some days just feel off for no reason.

From the moment I woke up, I felt refreshed, my body light, and my eyes wide open.

The breakfast was delicious, and the sunlight swept over me like feathers.

I could hear people’s voices more clearly than usual, and even a dog out for a walk with its owner and a cat basking in the sun caught my attention.

Such days do exist.

The morning that Rise welcomed was just like that.

A refreshing morning, absolutely refreshing.

On a day like this, I would typically think, “I’m in great condition,” and finish off the tasks I had been putting off.

But.

Why, despite feeling so good, did I have this strange unsettling feeling?

Why was I feeling this way even though everything seemed fine?

Rise had those questions on her mind.

…

…

…

“Who are you?”

And then, the moment Jinseong brought in a woman, that question was resolved.

* * *

“Let’s introduce ourselves.”

“…”

“This is my seeker here, a shamaness who’s been helping me out in Japan. This is Saigo Rise.”

“…”

“And this is the great witch, Odilia A Reich, who’s made a name for herself in Europe. She has a business, which is why she’s visiting America.”

Odilia and Rise faced each other, guided by Jinseong.

They glanced at one another in an awkward atmosphere.

Awkwardness.

A suffocating kind of.

An absolutely dreadful awkwardness that felt like it could burst at any moment!

“Y-Yes… Odilia, it’s nice to meet you.”

The first to speak was Rise.

Despite the awkward atmosphere, Rise smiled brightly and greeted her first, with a tone so kind and polite that anyone who saw it would think she had the personality of an angel.

“U-Um, yes. Nice to meet you…”

Odilia responded to that friendly greeting.

Her tone dripped with awkwardness.

Additionally, unlike Rise’s respectful greeting, it felt like an older person talking down to a child.

Of course, considering their actual ages, such a tone wasn’t particularly odd, but given Odilia’s youthful appearance, it wasn’t the best choice for a first encounter.

However, Rise didn’t get angry at Odilia’s attitude.

She simply smiled.

Only a warm and friendly smile remained.

Rise lifted her coffee cup, glancing at the awkwardly poised Odilia, who sat with her legs crossed and a body language that expressed psychological resistance as if she had nothing to say to her.

After lightly sipping the espresso packed with sugar and cream, she wiped her mouth with a tissue, just in case cream had smudged on the edge.

In that brief moment of wiping her mouth.

“Ahem. So, what’s the reason you brought me here?”

The great witch slightly tilted her head and asked Jinseong.

What came from her lips was not a tone tinged with rudeness towards Rise, but rather filled with respectful diction.

In that brief moment, the corners of Rise’s mouth shifted slightly.

However, that shift was so fleeting, and covered by the tissue.

So only Rise would know of that change.

“It’s not a big deal, really.”

Smiling, Jinseong replied to the great witch’s question.

He then reverted the face he had changed when entering the hotel back to his original face, settled between Odilia and Rise, and gulped down his still-steaming cup of coffee before speaking.

“The thing is, after visiting the farm, I’ve found it quite peculiar. If we put a little work into it, it could benefit us all, which is why we arranged this meeting.”

A tale that would benefit everyone.

Jinseong began to narrate.

“What’s tied to that farm is what the great witch would need. You would need raw materials for cosmetics, particularly special crops that are hard to come by, high-quality goods.”

“Eh? Yes…”

“Creating a new product is inherently difficult. You must pour in the effort, and luck must follow for it to come to fruition. If it’s been created, then it’s only right that it receives its due cost. But if it’s developed and then the materials are missing, causing it to be lost among the flood of products, wouldn’t that be a significant loss? Especially when the winds are strong and shaking the pillars!”

The crops growing on that farm were essential to the great witch for developing cosmetics.

Not just the crops, but the space itself was needed.

After harvesting all the existing plants, she planned to use witchcraft to do something there. Naturally, witchcraft would be about making the inanimate come to life and mutating the living, but the environment was crucial as well.

Just as tropical plants couldn’t grow in snowy mountains, and cacti would struggle to float and survive in a swamp, the environment needed to be optimal for witchcraft to be employed efficiently.

In that sense, the farm was the perfect space for Odilia.

She could grow special crops for cosmetics, use witchcraft to create powerful bodyguards, and experiment with all sorts thanks to the rich soil. Moreover, as it was spacious and distanced from the city center, she could create something big without interference from the bizarre creatures common in Europe, making her mind at ease.

So it was a place she absolutely wanted to secure…

However, according to Odilia’s conjecture and Jinseong’s fortune-telling, that farm had fallen into the hands of her nemesis.

For the utterly ridiculous purpose of hindering her business and mocking her.

“Therefore, acquiring that farm would surely bring benefits.”

Jinseong stated and then looked at Rise.

“If what I just said was for the great witch’s benefit, dear my shamaness, it would bring you clear gains as well.”

My shamaness.

Hearing those words, Rise’s expression brightened a bit.

Moreover, a smile blossomed on her face.

But Odilia’s expression shifted strangely.

Her eyes swept over Jinseong and Rise.

‘Could it be…?’

A thought passed through her mind; perhaps these two had some odd connection.

The divine power is a peculiar force. It is energy, yet its essence is different from magical power, and it diverges from Qi. Qi can be compressed and settled within the body, whereas magical power, like liquid, flows, so neither are inherently bad qualities for being contained in a body. However, divine power varies depending on the subject, and its nature is vastly different. It can be called energy, but it is an exerting force not easy to contain within a body.

Yet, whether Odilia understood this or not, Jinseong continued discussing energy with Rise.

“The shamaness is a vessel, and the form of that vessel is hard to change. Thus, the divine body selects the shamaness, bestowing her with divine power, while also lending her strength to enable her to wield that power, permeating those who cannot be filled with divine power with it. However, since these vessels differ from one another, their sizes and shapes vary. Hence, while one may gain power swiftly, surpassing its limits becomes quite challenging…”

Unlike other abilities that could expand their potential and alter their form and size, those who are tied to a divine body found it difficult.

This issue arose because the subject of divine power derived from the divine body they served, not themselves.

While other abilities enabled the user to master energy with practice, accruing small assets to become a billionaire, divine power was merely like scraping a wealthy individual’s card as if it were their own.

It’s convenient, not having to worry about amplifying their wealth directly.

One could use the card’s full limit right from the start, which was also a perk.

However, since the card’s owner isn’t them, the limit on that card remains unchanged.

So when a beggar becomes rich and when someone with no influence suddenly basks in respect, the person holding the card, at the end of the day, will still just be using someone else’s card and remain the same as before.

Additionally, whether they can use the card again after exhausting its funds depends on the card owner’s will and circumstances…

Thus, those receiving cards yearn for the card owner’s attention, hoping their power would be renewed quickly…

Flooded with a cruel power that demands talent.

Since the strength is determined by the vessel, it is a far more brutally talent-demanding power than others.

Yet.

This unbearably cruel force felt as gentle and sweet as a spring breeze to Rise.

Perhaps that was only natural.

Wasn’t it almost akin to dunking the card holder and enslaving them?

Once the divine body Rise once served was gone, she became a shamaness with unlimited access to divine power.

A shamaness who could receive divine power in real-time, without restriction.

How could this simply be called a vessel?

Rise had become a being closer to an inexhaustible spring.

The size of the vessel she originally possessed merely represented a limit on what she could pour out at once.

Yes.

This was inevitable.

As metaphorically compared with the card earlier.

The size of the vessel is akin to the limit of a card.

Hence, what Rise needed was to expand the card’s limit.

“If it’s difficult to enlarge the vessel, we can decorate it and attach appendages to it.”

Yes.

Just like how Rise had once received baptism from Jinseong and acquired fox ears and tails as part of her external divine power….

“There’s something at that farm that will aid you.”

 

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