Chapter 65

My name is Paffa.

I'm a criminal mermaid who was sentenced to five hundred years of imprisonment in the mermaid court. However, the mermaid kingdom is truly a place with a small heart and a narrow mind. They couldn’t understand my great research and even interrupted it by locking me up.

If my research had succeeded, the mermaid kingdom would have become the strongest nation in the world, and we could have wiped out the land dwellers.

But alas, that glorious future has vanished like a bubble in a fairy tale, thanks to the shortsightedness of a few ignorant individuals.

It’s all over.

Even though I was willing to use my valuable intellect and magic for the mermaid race, if they were going to obstruct me, I won’t do anything for them. Let the mermaid race continue to indulge in their complacency and be destroyed by the demon race or the human race.

While thinking this, I spent every day in solitary confinement with no stimulation... for about ten years, I guess?

Suddenly, I was taken out of my cell and informed that only two years had actually passed since my sentence was handed down.

Damn, really?

Life in solitary confinement was so boring and painful that two years felt like more than ten.

For a genius like me, who thinks several times faster than ordinary people, it was an unbearably harsh punishment.

Am I going to be sent back to solitary confinement after they’re done with me?

Damn, if I’m not going to be released until I die, why not just execute me?

While I was thinking this, I met an unexpected person in the visiting room after being taken out of solitary confinement.

Oh my, a handsome guy ♡

He was a well-built, handsome man.

“I am Arowana, the eldest son of King Nargus, the ruler of the mermaid kingdom. Have you heard of me?”

A prince!?

No wonder he’s handsome. But that’s not it.

He’s the top of the system I hate the most, the future king.

Damn, I got excited for nothing.

“Are you the mad witch, ‘Frost Witch’ Paffa?”

Stop it, that nickname.

It’s embarrassing, like a kid tried really hard to come up with it.

“You specialized in the manipulation of the underwater mana flow, which is prohibited by the laws of the mermaid kingdom. You are suspected of trying to manipulate the mana in the sea at will to destroy the mermaid kingdom. Indeed, it is a crime worthy of a sentence close to life imprisonment.”

That’s not true!

If the theory I propose is put into practice, it would be possible to destroy the world, meaning it has that much practical value!

It’s just a matter of not misusing it!

“The arguments around this were thoroughly discussed during the trial. Let’s set that aside for now.”

Set it aside?

Then why did you come to see me?

“I came to make a deal with you.”

A deal?

“The sentence given to you is five hundred years of imprisonment in the abyssal prison. Normally, it would be impossible to serve such a long sentence within your lifetime. However, it can be shortened by changing the type of punishment.”

Really?

How much shorter?

“Ten years.”

Huh?

Ten years?

Is it that the five hundred-year sentence becomes four hundred and ninety years?

“No, it’s that the five hundred-year sentence becomes a ten-year sentence.”

Really!?

I’ll do it! I’ll do it!!

I’ll change my punishment. If I can be free in just ten years, I’ll take it!

“You’re jumping at the chance!? ...But are you sure? You didn’t even ask what the new punishment entails!?”

This place is so boring, I’d rather do anything else!

Hurry up and process it! Before the idiot who came up with this great opportunity changes their mind and says, “I changed my mind”!

“Alright, alright...! Then, Frost Witch Paffa, ‘Agreed.’ That’s one more slot filled.”

There’s a quota!?

I’m glad I accepted immediately! I’m really glad I didn’t hesitate and end up with, “Applications are closed”!

“Then, you will have to wait until the interviews with the other candidates are over. Once the lineup is decided, I will call you again to go to your new place of service. By the way, your punishment will change from imprisonment to hard labor, so be prepared for that.”

Sure, sure! It means I have to do labor!

For me, boredom is far more painful, so it’s actually a relief!

Today is a great day! I feel like I’ve been released!

Hurry up and finish the interviews and come get me! I’ll be waiting!

And, Prince!

I forgot to ask something important!

Do you have a girlfriend right now!?

* * *

And so, I began serving my new punishment in a new land.

Two other prisoners, like me, chose this path and joined me in the new land. Both were well-known names.

‘Inferno Witch’ Lamp Eye.

‘Plague Witch’ Gara Rufa.

Both, like me, are part of the Six Mad Witches.

It’s crazy.

The Six Mad Witches, despite the embarrassing name, are real in their power and madness.

Even I, one of the Six Mad Witches, have to admit that...

What kind of new place of service is this, where half of the Six Mad Witches are being sent together?

It’s not like we’re being sent to a land battlefield to serve as special attack forces, is it?

But even so, it’s still better than being bored in solitary confinement until I’m an old woman.

While being escorted by the mermaid soldiers, I swam...

For how long?

I swam with my eyes blindfolded, so I have no idea where or how I swam.

And we arrived.

It was land.

Huh?

Our new place of service is on land!?

“We have arrived!!”

The prince who accompanied us said.

“This is the settlement where the Saint resides! From today, you will serve your labor here, following the Saint’s orders!! This is your new punishment!!”