Chapter 27 27: Witch Of The Famine
Azekiel turned the beautiful blue card around to see what was on the card; however, as soon as he turned the card, his expression became somewhat weird since he couldn't see a warrior like Raphael on the card. In fact, there wasn't even a man on it.
A lady was depicted on the card, having long blue hair as clear as the sea. Her deep blue eyes seemed to gaze straight into the soul of Azekiel through the card.
A beautiful black dress wrapped around the body of the lady, highlighting her curves. What stunned Azekiel the most was the staff that was in the hands of the lady.
He had seen a similar depiction in how witches were described in storybooks. Only the sharp pointy hat was missing.
Present in the hands of Azekiel, the card turned to smoke. The smoke flew up before it started expanding, obstructing the vision of Azekiel completely.
Raphael moved close to Azekiel to keep an eye on the surroundings.
The smoke soon disappeared, leaving behind one person standing in the distance.
It was a lady with flawless skin. The woman seemed to be in her early twenties, around the same age as Azekiel. She was still holding onto her staff which looked even more fierce in her hands. The top of the staff appeared like the head of a snake that was glaring at Azekiel.
Azekiel stood up, keeping his focus on the lady before him. "Who are you?"
"I suppose you are the King of Gluttony? You don't look anything special to me," the lady lazily stated. "In fact, you look quite weak. Whatever, I guess I have no choice, do I?"
She turned her gaze towards Raphael, who stood right beside Azekiel. "A fallen angel? Fascinating indeed. Someone as weak as him was able to summon two...?"
It was only after she noticed Raphael that she became somewhat surprised. What was happening here? How could a person this weak establish a contract with two people at once?
"I asked you a question," Azekiel repeated after being ignored initially. He couldn't understand why this lady was different from Raphael? She was supposed to work for him, so why was she showing so much attitude?
While Raphael was like a proper General, always working for the wellbeing of Azekiel, the lady seemed different. It was as if she was doing a favor to Azekiel by being here.
The lady glared in the eyes of the young man. "King of Gluttony, heed my words. I am here to help you. But that doesn't mean I'm your servant. So keep that in mind when you summon me to the material world."
"Also, who is that guy?" She noticed a dead body lying near her feet.
"He is the King of Pride... Or used to be at least," Azekiel explained.
"King of Pride? A King has been slain already?" She hastily turned to Raphael. "Did you do it?"
Raphael shook his head as he gazed at Azekiel. "He killed him."
Even though he had helped massively, he knew that even without his help, Azekiel could've killed Michael. Azekiel had surprised him again and again with his battle skills and planning, after all. Moreover, he wasn't here for credit.
It didn't matter for him if he got credit or not. What mattered was that Lia needed to know that Azekiel did it so she would not underestimate Azekiel.
"He did?" Lia exclaimed in surprise. "That's very interesting. You don't look the part of a warrior, but you managed to kill a King. I guess I underestimated you."
"What is your name?" Azekiel inquired. So far, he didn't know anything about the lady other than the fact that she was here to help him.
"I am the Witch of Gluttony, Lia." The lady identified herself. "I apologize if I was rude to you at the start. I don't like Kings much. I guess you can say some bad memories associated with it."
"Have you worked for other Kings of Sins in the past?" Azekiel found her words really interesting. She didn't like Kings? Were there other Kings of Sins in the past? Just what was she implying?
"I don't mean King of Sins." Lia clarified. "I meant general Kings. Like the Kings of Kingdoms. I mean, let alone me, who will like someone that commanded his men to have you burned in flames?"
"Commanded to be burned?"
"Yeah. How else do you think I became a Spirit of Sin? I was burned to my death. But that's all in the past. That bastard is long dead by now."
"Why were you burned?" Azekiel asked carefully. Since Lia was his spirit warrior, he needed to know her better to get close enough to her so they could trust and work together.
"I was accused of causing a Famine in the entire Kingdom. Some idiot told the King it was the work of Witches. Many other witches and I were burned that year..." The woman grimly stated as she looked down. "Hundreds of Witches were burned that year."
"So you were falsely accused and killed. I'm really sorry for what happened to you," Azekiel expressed himself.
The lady looked at Azekiel in confusion. "Why are you sorry?"
"I didn't say I didn't do it, did I? I did cause that famine." Her lips curved upwards as a smile formed on her face. "I just didn't expect to be caught. I really underestimated that bastard King."
Even though there was a devilish smile on her face, even that smile was really attractive.
"You really caused a Famine?" Azekiel asked, stunned. "But that would've killed so many humans... Why would you?"
"Meh, I was just bored and wanted to have some fun with the King." Lia lazily rolled her eyes. "Anyway, don't think too much. It wasn't as if too many people had died. More witches were burned than the humans that died in the Famine. That King went a bit too serious. I shouldn't have gone easy on him."
Azekiel couldn't help but shake his head in response. "I guess I can understand why you became a Spirit of Sin now. You became a Witch of Gluttony because you were hungry for amusement and entertainment. You didn't even care about the lives of innocents as long as it was for your pleasure... Am I right?"
Azekiel was really disappointed with the lady. Initially, he had thought that she was also like him and Raphael, who were punished too harshly for something that was barely a crime.
In fact, Raphael was still suffering for his crime that wasn't even that big. He was always hungry, and he couldn't even do anything about it. He had to live his entire life in torment; meanwhile, Lia... She actually committed those crimes...
He didn't know how to interact with her anymore. He was just too disappointed. He didn't want to say something to her that he was going to regret later, so he just stopped looking at her.
He shifted his focus back to the screen of his system to go through the details about his Weapon of Sin.
There was only one thing that could help his mood now. It was his new toy…