[Location]: Yggdrasil Academy · Dormitory [Golden Bough] · Room 302
"That is Politics," Victoria had said, closing the chapter on the 'Lunchbox Incident'. "But you are right to be disgusted. Because their 'Flexibility'—and their failure to control their own greed—cost us the greatest treasure in history."
Victoria stood up from her high-backed chair and walked to the large, yellowed map of the cosmos hanging on the wall.
Her pale finger traced the jagged, torn edge of the dimension where the Fourth Layer of Hell used to be.
"They were too busy fighting over who would get the biggest slice of the cake," Victoria whispered, her voice tinged with the scorn of a true strategist. "So the cake grew legs and walked away."
She tapped the empty void on the map.
"After the Devil Lords severed the connection, the entire plane drifted into the Deep Void. It is still out there, somewhere. Preserved in amber. Five layers of untouched resources, frozen in time."
"Now, the 'Coordinates of Hell' has become academia's biggest cold case. It is the Holy Grail of the Exploration Department."
Victoria turned around. The shadows of the room seemed to cling to her dress. Her voice dropped to a whisper that sounded less like a history lesson and more like the rustle of banknotes.
"Whoever finds it... will not just be a hero of the World. She will become the Richest Woman in the Inner Sea of Stars."
Hathaway sat frozen.
Her brain, which had just been processing historical timelines and lunchbox logistics, suddenly experienced a Magnitude 9 Earthquake.
The word "History" faded. The word "Tragedy" evaporated.
Only one word remained, glowing in neon gold in her mind:
RICH.
She looked at the empty space on the map. She did the math again. Not the dates, but the value.
Five layers of Hell.
Infinite Demon Labor.
Crystals.
Real Estate.
Compared to this... what was her 30,000 Solar startup? It was dust.
What was the 380,000 Solar sports car her mother sold? It was a toy.
If she had those coordinates, she could buy the entire automobile factory. She could buy the bank that held their debt. She could buy the planet.
Wait.
A synapse fired in Hathaway's brain. A memory, sharp and humiliating, surged from the depths of her first day in this academy.
[Memory Playback: Day 1 - Reality Marble · Execution Court]
The scene played out in 4K resolution in her mind.
She saw herself—terrified, desperate, cornered by Victoria. She saw herself screaming the only curse she could think of in her panic.
Hathaway (Screaming, veins popping): "Fuck off!!! And go to HELL!! Victoria!!"
Victoria (Stopping suddenly, the mana storm dissipating, looking genuinely shocked): "You... are serious?"
"Hisss—!!!"
Hathaway sucked in a cold breath so sharp it made her teeth ache. She slammed her hands over her face, burying her burning cheeks in her palms.
She finally understood.
She understood everything.
No wonder Victoria stopped! No wonder the Third Miss of Wellington suddenly hesitated! No wonder she looked at Hathaway with that mix of suspicion and intrigue!
Because in the Witch's lexicon, "Go to hell" isn't a curse telling you to die. It isn't an insult.
The translation of that phrase is:
"May you go to that place paved with liquid gold!"
"May you find the lost Imperial Treasury!"
"May you master the coordinates that will make your family prosper for another ten thousand years!"
Sweet Mother of Mana...
Hathaway groaned behind her hands, feeling like the biggest clown in the galaxy.
I wasn't cursing her. I was giving her a Blessing.
No, worse... I was implying a Transaction.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
When she screamed "Go to Hell," Victoria didn't hear hate. She heard: "Back off, and I will share the location of the Lost Treasury with you."
And she believed it! She thought I was holding the map to the Five Layers!
Hathaway wanted to dig a hole in the floor and bury herself. She thought she had won that duel through sheer grit and intimidation. Turns out, she won because she accidentally engaged in Telecommunication Fraud.
"What's wrong?" Victoria’s voice cut through her internal meltdown.
The silver-haired witch was looking at her with a tilted head. "You look... constipated. Do you have questions about this historical segment?"
Hathaway slowly lowered her hands.
Her face was still red, but the nature of the heat was changing. She looked at Victoria—this powerful, terrifying, greedy woman who had stopped killing her just for a chance at wealth.
Then she looked at the map again.
She thought about the "Thunder Roar" sports car her mother sold with a smile. She thought about the 8,800-Solar boots that cost her mother's credit score. She thought about the Goblin Hardtack she ate this morning.
Why were they in debt? Because the resources were scarce. Because money was hard to earn.
And why was money hard to earn? Because Five Layers of Resources were missing.
The awkwardness in Hathaway's eyes faded. The shame of the misunderstanding evaporated.
It was replaced by something hotter. Something darker. Something that tasted like iron and blood.
It was an Empathetic Anger belonging to the ruling class.
Since "Going to Hell" means "Going to get rich." Then the Devils running away with Hell doesn't just mean "Migration."
It means...
They ran away with My Money.
BANG!
Hathaway slammed her hand onto the obsidian desk.
The sound was loud, violent, and utterly un-lady-like. She stood up, kicking the chair back.
Victoria blinked, startled by the sudden aggression.
"Those bandits!!" Hathaway clenched her fists. Her red eyes weren't tearing up from shame anymore; they were burning with a righteous fury—the fury of a shareholder discovering the CEO has embezzled the funds.
"Teacher Victoria! Those Devils are absolutely treacherous!" Hathaway began to pace the room, her voice rising with every step. "Think about it! We Witches were willing to accept them! We were willing to merge Hell into the Inner Sea of Stars's map!"
"That wasn't an invasion! That was a Merger and Acquisition!"
"That was a blessing they cultivated for lifetimes! It was the sublimation of their primitive civilization!"
"And what did they do?" Hathaway pointed a trembling finger at the torn edge of the map. "They dared to run away with OUR property!!"
Victoria watched her, eyebrows raising slightly. "Our... property?"
"Yes! Hell itself!"
Hathaway got more angry as she spoke. She wasn't acting. She wasn't pretending to be a Witch. She was a Ludwig. And Ludwigs did not tolerate people touching their assets.
"This isn't just theft," Hathaway hissed through her teeth. "This is a Trade Blockade. This is Embezzlement on a planetary scale!"
She turned to Victoria, her chest heaving.
"I figured it out, Teacher. When I shouted 'Go to hell' that day... that wasn't a curse. I wasn't joking."
Hathaway took a deep breath. She looked Victoria in the eye, and for the first time, her presence filled the room.
"That was my Sacred Vow!"
"I meant to express: One day, I—Hathaway von Ludwig—will kill my way back to those lost coordinates!"
"I will liquidate their assets! I will seize their minerals! I will take back those five layers of real estate that belong to us by right of conquest!"
"The meat was practically in our mouths, and it flew away!"
Hathaway pounded the table again, the sound echoing like a war drum.
"Do they know what that means?!" She wasn't talking to Victoria anymore. She was interrogating the universe. "That means we lost at least three hundred years of technological accumulation!"
"If we had the resources of those five layers, my mother wouldn't have to sell her car! We wouldn't have to treat 30,000 Solars like it's a 'Large Sum'!"
"We could build thirty more Eternal Floating Cities! We could double the current 'Per Capita Mana Resource Rate'!"
Hathaway’s voice trembled with genuine heartache.
"Every newborn sister could crawl out of her egg and bathe in Liquid Gold Solars! We strictly control our population just to ensure everyone can live like True Sovereigns. And the result? These Devils dared to run off with our Social Security Fund and Infrastructure Budget!"
"It's immoral!"
Hathaway slammed her fist into her palm.
"This is a crime against humanity... oh no." She looked up, her eyes flashing with a cold, predatory light. "This is a Crime Against Witch-kind!!"
The room fell silent.
The echo of Hathaway's rant hung in the air.
Victoria sat on her high-backed chair, staring at her student. She watched this girl who, just ten minutes ago, was sitting politely, eating a croissant, worrying about alchemy formulas like a diligent little scholar.
But now?
Now, Hathaway was standing there, panting, hair slightly disheveled. She was wearing the face of "An Empress discovering the treasury has been emptied by the servants."
It was ugly. It was greedy. It was entitled.
And to Victoria Wellington... it was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen.
Victoria paused for a second.
Then, she revealed the brightest, most genuine smile she had shown all week.
It wasn't a warm smile. It wasn't a comforting teacher's smile. It was a smile of Terrifying Beauty.
It was evil. It was manic. It was the expression of an apex predator watching a cub finally sink its teeth into raw meat and realizing it liked the taste of blood.
"That's right, Hathaway."
Victoria stood up and walked over. The shadows of the room seemed to bend around her, acknowledging her delight.
For the first time, she didn't poke Hathaway's forehead. She didn't criticize her logic. She didn't call her a mortal.
She reached out and patted Hathaway's head. Her touch was light, but possessed a rare, dangerous satisfaction.
"At the Entrance Duel, when you shouted that vow, I thought you were a Scammer," Victoria admitted softly, her fingers brushing through Hathaway's silver hair. "I thought you were just a cunning liar using my greed against me."
"And yesterday... when you pitied the Angels..." Victoria’s smile grew sharper, her eyes curving into crescents of delight behind the blur. "I feared the Ludwig bloodline had finally produced a Sheep. I thought you were a defective product with a mortal heart."
"But I was wrong."
Victoria looked into Hathaway's burning red eyes.
"You are not a sheep. And you are not a liar."
"This anger? This entitlement? This pain of losing money that wasn't even yours to begin with? This is the Truth."
Victoria withdrew her hand. She didn't look at Hathaway as a student to be protected, nor as a successor to inherit her legacy.
She looked at Hathaway as an Accomplice.
"Remember this pain, Miss Ludwig. Remember this greed. Store it in your core. Use it as fuel."
"In the future, when you encounter exam questions about other races—whether they are Devils, Elves, or Humans—answer them with this mindset:"
Victoria leaned in, whispering the ultimate truth of their species:
"'They are not just aliens; they are stumbling blocks hindering our civilization's ascension.'"
"'Their resources are not theirs. They are simply ours, waiting to be collected.'"
Victoria turned back to the map, her voice ringing with the pure, unadulterated arrogance of the Witch.
"You called me Teacher. So, as your Teacher, I am telling you now:"
"You are no longer broken, Miss Ludwig."
"Welcome to the food chain."
Hathaway stood there, panting slightly from her outburst. She looked at Victoria. She saw the silver-haired witch smiling at her—a smile that was objectively crazy, possessive, and dangerous.
Hathaway turned her head slightly and caught her own reflection in the darkened window glass.
Pale skin. Red eyes.
And on her lips... was a smile identical to Victoria’s.
It wasn't the smile of the sensible office worker she used to be. It wasn't the smile of the girl who wanted to be a "Good Person."
It was the smile of a Monster who had just realized she had teeth.
And she was hungry.