The contract’s red thread that connected them together was telling the witch that what Iron was telling her was the truth. Confusion and interest twisted together as they started to color the witch’s eyes once she confirmed this to be true. 

“It’s true.” 

“I’m not the type to lie when doing important transactions.” 

The witch laughed at Iron’s words. 

“Is that all?” 

“If you want to hear something else, then shouldn’t you tell me something too?” 

The witch’s smile turned deeper when she heard Iron’s provocation.

She hadn’t seen such a reckless young man in such a long time. Her curiosity for this boy, who only had the strength to rival one finger of the continent’s strongest men, had increased when he rudely provoked her. 

‘I want to know more.’

 ‘What secrets are he hiding?’

 ‘If it’s another world, I wonder what it’s like?’ 

These thoughts hovered in the witch’s head. Curiosity, something that she hadn't felt in a long time, surfaced once again in her mind. The witch savored the feeling for a while before opening her mouth. 

“I’ll tell you where the other dimensional cracks in the Northeast are under the condition that you tell me more.” 

“Give me more. You have to give me more if you want to know how I came over.”

“Hmmm…  I don’t know much about the forces that create dimensional cracks. But… I can roughly tell you what we’re going to do in the future. This is the limit of your information’s worth.”

“Give me some more.”

“You’re quite greedy.”

“The Imperials. I’ll give you information on that as a bonus.”

The witch’s eyes widened when she heard Iron’s words.

“When I looked through the historical records, I found out that you don’t have a good feeling about the Empire? Especially towards the Imperial Family.”

The witch stared at Iron without showing her assent or dissent. 

“I should untangle those sorry bastards. Well…”

Iron sighed deeply before opening his mouth.

“I came here because of something called God Game. Ah! I should explain about the game.”

Iron said ‘Oops!’ as he briefly explained the nature of the game to the witch. Then, he fell into Samcheon-po and talked about modern civilization. He was only able to barely return to the topic as he explained the story of his past life as briefly as he could.

As he talked about his previous life, he worked hard to season his words well and show how much anger he has towards the Imperial Family. Perhaps it was because of this that he made a good impression to the witch that she even piped up in agreement.

“That’s right. Those men from the Imperial Family have been extremely rude ever since ancient times. They pretend to be righteous on the outside but they’re just narrow-minded trash.” 

“Yeah. Anyway, thanks to them, I was used and left to die…” 

“So that’s when that guy called God Game reappeared?” 

“Yeah.” 

The witch pondered for a moment after hearing the entirety of Iron’s story. Since she had heard much bigger information than what she initially expected, she had to give himself the proper and right information in return. However, it would be a waste if she were to just tell him the information that she knew.

“Promise me one thing.” 

“Promise?” 

Iron spoke with disappointment. 

“If you ask for more, then you’ll have no conscience. Am I right?” 

“Don’t you have bad blood with the Imperial Family too?” 

“Uhm… So?” 

“That’s exactly what I want you to promise me.” 

The witch said this and stared at Iron. Iron clicked his tongue for a while as he pondered before nodding slowly. Her suggestion was not that bad for him either. After all, he still kept his anger and hatred against the Imperial Family deep in the corner of his heart. So he still wanted to grind them down to dust. 

“I hope that you can, to whatever extent that you can do, make the Imperials eat some big shit someday.”

“That’s all?”

“But with your skills right now, I don’t know when you’ll be able to do it?”

Iron’s mouth shut tight like a clam when he heard the witch’s words. 

“Hoo… Fine. If I survive, I’ll definitely give the Imperial Family some big shit in any way that I can.” 

The witch nodded in satisfaction when she heard Iron agree to her. Although they were enemies, it was still a transaction that they could do since they also had a common enemy. 

“I would like to sweep them down to the ground myself but… it’s a bit hard.” 

The witch looked bitter as she said those words.  

The Imperials were people who took care of their security really well. Even a witch as powerful as her couldn’t dream to sweep them away all by herself so she just resorted to using tricks here.  

“By the way.”

Iron watched the witch sigh in disappointment. 

“If you’re going to ask me for a favor, shouldn’t you tell me about the Imperial Family’s weakness?”

The witch frowned at Iron’s words. 

She seemed to know something but it seemed like there were some restrictions that bound her that made her shut her mouth. 

“Is it because it’s related to the Imperial Family?”

The witch shut her mouth and just smiled when she heard Iron’s question. Iron couldn’t help but sigh at the witch’s actions. 

“Hoo… What a pity.”

He knew that there was nothing he could do when he saw that the witch was truly bound by some restrictions. 

“……”

Iron asked for a handshake after seeing the witch be silent for a while. The witch tilted her head for a moment before reaching out to hold Iron’s hand. At that moment, a red energy passed through their hearts.

The witch’s eyes widened when she saw this before smiling. She had confirmed that Iron was sincerely going to try and fulfill their contract. Because of this, their contract proceeded without any other additional measures. And each of their souls and mana were bound tightly by the contract.

“What’s this?”

“It’s a contract. From this point on until the day you die, you must give those Imperials some big shit. If you try to renege… something bad will happen to your heart, you know?”

Iron stared at the witch as if he had been taken advantage of. If he knew that it would be a compulsory contract then he would have never agreed. Iron knew that he had been forced to sign a fraudulent contract but all he could do was sigh and nod his head after contemplating it. Anyway, if things went as he planned, he would still be able to feed the Imperials at least one big shit so it was still a business that would be completed one way or the other. 

“Hoo… Fine. It’s already been signed so there’s no point in arguing… All that’s left are things that I should receive. I’m looking forward to the things that you will tell me.” 

Iron tapped his chest as he said so. After signing a double contract, he stared at the witch who had received everything that she could from him. 

“I thought about it after listening to you. God Game… I recalled something fascinatingly amazing when I combined that with the information that I have.” 

“Something fascinatingly amazing?”

“That game… somehow I got the idea that perhaps that’s what the gods are doing to this world.”

Iron nodded at the witch’s words. It was something that he could infer with the name of the game. 

“But is it just a game between the gods here and the gods beyond the dimensional crack?”

“What?”

“Then, why did they call for you here? If it was simply a battle between the gods beyond the crack and the god here, it would be fine if they just played with the people here.”

Iron frowned before looking at the witch with an expression that screamed ‘No way!’.

“Your head really works well.”

The witch smiled. 

“Did they bring other people, aside from you, from the world that you lived in before?”

“So, what you, the witch, are saying is…”

“There is a high possibility that the god from the world that you live in is also involved in this game.”

“On what grounds?”

Iron’s expression turned solemn when he heard the witch’s words.

“The members of our forces. That’s my basis.”

“Explain it in detail.”

Iron looked annoyed.

Up until this point, he thought that this was just a different world. That they were just dumped in another world to play a game. He believed that he would come back to his normal life as long as he survived from this. But right now, even the handful of belief that remained in the corner of his heart was broken and turned into dust. 

“The reason why we have gathered together is to open dimensional cracks. But is it really just for that purpose alone?”

Iron frowned at the witch’s question.

“What do you mean?”

“What I meant is that it’s not everything. I held hands with them to avenge myself and sweep the Empire and the continent as a whole into dust. But the others have different purposes.”

“Others?”

“Yes. There’s a different force behind us.”

Iron’s eyes widened when he heard her words.

“A force behind…” 

The witch opened her mouth as if she wanted to help Iron when she saw him mumbling to himself as if he couldn’t make sense of her words. 

“The Hell’s Gate opened in the Winter Mountains, right?” 

“What do you… Ah! No way?” 

“That’s right. The dark elves joined forces with hell. Then, who did the other guys hold hands with?” 

Iron’s expression turned even solemn when he heard the question. 

“The dimensional crack is just a means. It’s because of the identity of the force that we have joined hands with that those who wanted to come here have formed a temporary alliance.” 

“It’s not just gods’ tricks to destroy the continent?” 

“Gods aren’t saints. Why do you think they’re doing this? Do you think greedy bastards will try to do something that does not benefit them?”

Iron sighed. 

“Then, let’s say you’re not just a single group… What’s this got to do with our world?” 

“If our forces are an alliance of various dimensions wouldn’t the gods also be like that?” 

“Don’t tell me…” 

“That’s right. There’s a possibility that the god of your world has formed an alliance with the god of this world.” 

Iron’s thoughts churned violently when the witch finished her words. 

A united front between the world that he lived in and this world. And a united front between the forces that wanted to open the dimensional crack. The two forces were trying to fight a huge battle over this world. Although the gods couldn’t intervene directly, it was possible for them to direct each creature and being as if they were controlling the characters of a game. It seemed like they followed and joined forces before starting a war. In other words, Iron and the people living in this world were like long-term war partners. 

“I’m going nuts.” 

A huge battlefield was immediately drawn in Iron’s head after he heard the witch’s words. 

If he considered this world as the main front, then his original world was like a military camp. A camp that would continue to support and help with troops. Perhaps the same was true for the other places. 

“What’s this? I feel like I’ve learned some huge secret.” 

“Yeah. But this alone is not enough compared to what I received.” 

As the witch said this, her mana combined together and formed into a stone before throwing it to Iron. 

“Carry this around.” 

“What’s this?” 

“If a being with polluted and corrupted mana appears, it will shine red.” 

The witch smiled at him. 

“Perhaps they’re already spread all over the continent. After all, they’re tasked to cause confusion and breed distrust among each sides.” 

“They must be in the capital.” 

The witch smiled when she heard Iron’s take on the matter. 

“More details?”

“Did you forget that I’m also tied to a force?”

Although she made a contract with Iron, she still couldn’t say a lot of information because she was bound by the restrictions not to say any information that could directly interfere with their operations.

“Well, I think I can tell you this much.”

The witch clapped her hands together. Then, the space distorted as Iron’s consciousness began to fade. But before his consciousness descended to darkness, the witch’s words rang in Iron’s head.

“The explosion of the dimensional cracks in the Northeast is unstoppable. The already sealed dimensional crack in the Winter Mountains will open once again.”

“Ah…”

“But that’s the end of our job in the Northeast. Because we faced a far stronger resistance than what we had expected, the cowardly bunch decided to move elsewhere.”

Iron stared at the witch as he tried to maintain his blurring consciousness. 

“What does that mean?”

“It means that if you can stop me alone then the damage will be minimized. So you have to try your best and stop me. Fufufu…”

The witch disappeared in the darkness after leaving these words. Then, Iron’s consciousness faded away once more. After a while, Iron woke up to see that he was leaning on one side with his wounded body.

“A… monster?”

The violent and ferocious battle around him continued but it seemed like there wasn’t that much time that passed since he lost consciousness. Considering the conversation that he had with the witch he thought that the time would be long but it seemed like it was just an absurdly short amount of time in reality. This meant that she could control the flow of time to some extent. The black space that they were in earlier seemed to be the boundary between times. 

A witch who can even manipulate the time. 

The witch in front of him was undeniably strong but it was his inevitable fate to stop her. 

However, despite being witness to the witch’s great power he was strangely unafraid. 

Is it because of the power that I felt when I was speaking with her earlier?

Compared to that power, the witch’s power that she was using to fight against Crimson and Two Moons right now seemed to be quite weak. 

‘Hollow gangjeong?’ 

This was the thought that passed by his head. However, he soon realized the reason. It was because the monstrous witch continued to work on the dimensional gate while fighting against Crimson and Two Moons. 

The witch gazed briefly at Iron as if she knew that he had noticed.

Iron couldn’t help but smile when he saw this. The witch was so composed as if she could deal with whatever he would do. 

Iron stood up with determination.

He would smash the witch’s composure to dust whatever the cost was. 

***

Notes

[Fell into Samcheon-po] 삼천포에 빠졌다 – an idiom that means wandering off the topic, flying off the tangent of the conversation or getting sidetracked. Samcheon-po is a coast town in the southern area of the KR peninsula. There were quite a lot of folk mythologies about the origin of this idiom but it usually has something to do with a trader being blown off course or a navy man returning to service that took the wrong train. 

[Hollow gangjeong] 속 빈 강정 – a proverb meaning it looks good but has no substance. Useless, no good. BG: gangjeong is a traditional confectionery made from sticky rice, honey and oil. A deep fried rice puff with a hollow inside.