Chapter 4: The Mastermind Behind This Is!?

Her words had barely left her mouth when Gracia suddenly sensed a strange, unsettling feeling of dissonance.

Looking at the silver-haired little thing trembling on the floor with teary eyes… an inexplicable soft impulse rose in her heart: Maybe… we should just let her go.

This was absolutely not normal.

Slap!

Without any hesitation, Gracia raised her hand and delivered a crisp, resounding slap to her own face.

Su Ruanruan was so startled by this sudden hardcore act of self-harm that she nearly bit her own tongue.

“It’s her Authority,” Gracia explained coldly. 

Then she immediately turned and slapped the bewildered Noelle beside her with another loud smack.

“Huh?! Why did you suddenly hit me?!” Noelle clutched her rapidly swelling cheek and protested in disbelief.

“To help you sober up,” Gracia said expressionlessly while shaking her numb palm.

Immediately after, a magic-patterned restraint belt glowing with dark light was mercilessly brought out.

In just a few quick motions, Su Ruanruan’s slender and delicate wrists were forced behind her back and bound tightly.

“Hiss—”

The rough magic patterns dug into her tender skin instantly. 

Su Ruanruan sucked in a sharp breath from the pain.

She twisted her head with difficulty to look at her hands bound firmly behind her and mumbled tearfully, “…Isn’t this literally kidnapping at this point?”

“Shut your mouth,” Noelle growled through gritted teeth while covering her face and glaring at her.

Gracia couldn’t be bothered to respond. 

She roughly pushed Su Ruanruan back deep into the seat and sat down firmly herself.

This time, the casual, laid-back attitude the two had displayed earlier was completely gone. 

In its place was full vigilance and caution.

The only one tied up into a ball, Su Ruanruan, felt her heart turn utterly cold.

This is bad… There’s really no escaping now!

…

When the hovercar slowly came to a silent stop, the scenery outside the window had already transformed from the dilapidated desolation of the Seventh Ring outer slums into the cold steel jungle on the edge of the main city district.

Su Ruanruan was escorted the entire way through a spacious, brightly lit hall, a long panoramic glass corridor, and finally shoved into a private elevator.

The uniformed employees coming and going in the hall barely lifted their eyelids when they saw the two debt collectors escorting a silver-haired loli with her hands bound behind her back. 

They simply continued working as if it were nothing unusual.

The elevator stopped at the top floor. 

At the end of the long corridor stood a single heavy door.

The door was pushed open. 

Before Su Ruanruan could react, Gracia gave her a merciless shove from behind.

“Kyaa—!”

She stumbled and fell forward, landing on her knees on the soft, dark sound-absorbing carpet with no way to break her fall.

The dull pain from her knees hitting the floor made her let out a weak, animal-like whimper.

This was an office that felt somewhat empty due to its sheer size.

A sleek black executive desk, a massive floor-to-ceiling window that took up an entire wall, and dark sound-absorbing carpet…

Then, the large leather chair behind the desk slowly turned around.

Sitting there was a girl who looked no older than seventeen.

Judging from her magic power fluctuations, she was clearly also a Witch.

She had sleek, ink-black long straight hair that fell to her waist. 

Her neat bangs were cut sharply above her eyebrows, framing a delicate, cold-white face.

A high-end uniform jacket hung loosely over her shoulders, and she was casually sucking on a lollipop.

Wait.

Su Ruanruan stared in complete shock.

The next second, an overwhelming wave of grievance crashed through her defenses.

“…Yoruha?! How is it you?!”

Hearing this name, the black-haired girl blinked, pulled the lollipop slightly out of her mouth, and revealed a faint smile.

“Oh my, Senpai. So you still remember me?”

…

Kanzaki Yoruha leaned back comfortably in the leather chair, looking down at Su Ruanruan who was kneeling on the carpet.

To be honest, she had been pretending for a full three years for this very moment.

She had imagined this revenge scene countless times in her mind.

But now that Su Ruanruan was truly kneeling at her feet in such a pitiful and delicate state… Kanzaki Yoruha found herself shamefully getting excited first.

In her current kneeling position, Su Ruanruan’s legs clad in white knee-high socks were helplessly crossed.

Her shoes had fallen off during the struggle, leaving her fair, round toes exposed.

They curled uneasily against the carpet out of fear.

Large tears rolled down her exquisite little face one after another.

Her nose was bright red. She looked incredibly adorable.

Looking at Su Ruanruan like this, a sickly flush uncontrollably crept across Kanzaki Yoruha’s cold, jade-like face. 

Her throat moved slightly.

I really want… to bully her so badly.

But she took a deep breath and forcefully suppressed that instinctive Witch desire deep into the bottom of her eyes.

“Yoruha—” Su Ruanruan knelt on the carpet, her voice trembling with heavy sobs. 

“Why? Why did you trick me? I thought you—”

“What’s so surprising about this?”

Kanzaki Yoruha stood up from the leather chair and walked elegantly over to Su Ruanruan. 

The tip of her leather shoe stopped just short of touching Su Ruanruan’s knee.

“Since I’ve appeared before you, did you really think I would mercifully let you go? Don’t make me laugh!!”

“Yoruha, why are you doing this—”

“Ruanruan.”

Kanzaki Yoruha cut her off. Her voice was gentle, yet carried a suffocating chill. 

“Don’t tell me… you actually thought we were ‘friends’?”

Su Ruanruan felt as if she had fallen into an icy abyss. She froze in place.

…

Kanzaki Yoruha slowly crouched down, looking Su Ruanruan directly in the eyes.

They were so close that Su Ruanruan could clearly smell the fragrance on her body and see her own disheveled reflection in those black pupils.

“Every time I tried to get close to you, you always put on that high-and-mighty, arrogant attitude, as if I was nothing but garbage.”

Kanzaki Yoruha’s voice remained soft, but every word stabbed straight into the heart.

“Tell me, Ruanruan. Do you know how much it hurt here every time I swallowed my pride and approached you, only to be treated like that?”

She pointed at her own chest.

Su Ruanruan’s face turned deathly pale. 

All the words she wanted to say to explain got stuck in her throat. 

She could only squeeze out a few broken syllables. 

“I… I didn’t mean to…”

“Didn’t mean to? Then tell me—which time was on purpose? Go on, say it!”

Su Ruanruan was rendered speechless.

…

“Besides, you couldn’t have forgotten what happened back in elementary school, right Senpai?”

Kanzaki Yoruha’s tone suddenly shifted. 

“Remember? Back then, I mustered up the courage to confess to you in front of so many people—and how did you respond? Do you still remember?”

…Confess??! Wait a minute!!

Su Ruanruan’s brain completely crashed.

…

“If I remember correctly—” 

The corners of Kanzaki Yoruha’s mouth curved into a strange arc as she imitated the words perfectly.

“‘Ha? A small fry like you? This Witch has no interest in you at all~’ ‘Also, can you stay away from me? You’re in the way!’”

“Those were your exact words back then, right?”

Kanzaki Yoruha’s voice turned completely cold. 

The temperature around her seemed to drop to freezing point.

“Then you turned around and ran off without looking back. I kept calling your name desperately from behind, but you didn’t even acknowledge me.”

She suddenly uttered a number.

“Three years.”

“I spent a full three years setting this trap for you. Gaining your trust, the loan platform, consumption inducement, interest compounding, high-interest debt collection—every single step you took was within my calculations. I did all of this just so the person who threw me away like garbage back then would—”

She lowered her eyelids, her gaze once again sweeping invasively over Su Ruanruan’s white-stocking-clad legs and her slightly trembling body.

“—kneel before me like a dog.”

…

“So what?!”

Su Ruanruan suddenly lifted her head, her reddened eyes glaring fiercely at the other girl.

“So you were just bored and had nothing better to do?! You’ve been bullying me since elementary school using your powerful family background, then pretended to be nice and tricked me in the academy—pulling all these shady moves. Are you sick in the head?!”

Tears were still swirling in her eyes, but her small mouth fired off words like a machine gun. 

“What kind of confession was that back then?! It was obviously just a prank!! Wuuu…”

“…”

The air fell into a deathly silence in that instant.

For a fraction of a second, Kanzaki Yoruha’s expression went completely blank.

“…Bullying you?”

She quietly chewed on those three words. 

The blood gradually drained from her cold, white face, replaced by a deeply suppressed flush of anger.

She suddenly reached out and grabbed Su Ruanruan’s small, delicate chin, forcing her to tilt her head up.

“So that’s what you thought…”

Kanzaki Yoruha leaned down, her warm breath brushing against Su Ruanruan’s trembling lips. 

Her voice was terrifyingly hoarse.

PS: Kanzaki Yoruha character illustration as follows: