Magical Journey: The Other Shore Blooms on the Other Shore

Chapter 140 Hermes, the Land of Deception, Part 2

Obviously, as Hermes' only witch, Hailna couldn't possibly be short of gold coins; she wasn't someone who traveled around like Elena.

Not to mention her living expenses, the amount of gold coins she obtained through fraud is unknown.

She pretended to be the representative of the commission simply because she wanted to see Elena, the young witch who happened to be passing through Hermes' travels.

They used a deceptive trick to test Elena's true strength.

It's basically just teasing her. This is one of her little pleasures in life—after all, it's too easy to fool ordinary people, and it gets tiring too easily. She likes to challenge herself.

As a witch who has been famous for countless years, Hailna's disguise easily fooled Elena's eyes, including her deceptive illusion about gold coins, which Elena failed to recognize.

This can't be blamed on Elena, after all, Khairna is almost twice Elena's age.

In the art of deception, she surpassed her master, the previous Witch of Sophistry, in skill. If her tricks were easily seen through, her reputation wouldn't be so widespread.

Of course, that reputation wasn't a good one.

But then a small accident happened.

Unexpectedly, the person beside this witch has some tricks up his sleeve.

She didn't know how he saw through her deception. After confirming that the man in front of her, who called himself Jin, wasn't bluffing and had genuinely recognized that she had counterfeited gold coins with copper coins, she readily admitted her defeat.

I'm curious how the man will react if he continues the fraud and the instrument testing the authenticity of the gold coins displays an error message.

But it would be pointless to be so unforgiving when dealing with two younger people.

As Qin said, she wasn't short of money; she just wanted to play a prank.

In any case, the two of them would stay in Hermes for a while longer, and there would be plenty of opportunities to continue observing the lyre.

……

"How did you figure out which gold coins were problematic?" Elena asked curiously.

This is a matter of life and death for her. What if she receives similar counterfeit money in the future? That would be a huge loss.

Everything else is negotiable, including how Jean recognized that the spokesperson as the infamous sophistry witch, but this is extremely important.

“There are some things I can do instinctively without needing to activate magic,” Jean explained. “If you’d like, I can explain in more detail.”

His eyes had been specially modified, incorporating many of Beatrice's magic, giving them the power to detect things, and even more so than ordinary detection magic.

But the Witch of Deception disguises herself as someone else, and Jean doesn't realize it.

It's clear that Hailna put a lot of effort into disguising herself. The magic used to forge copper coins into gold coins is far more profound than ordinary detection magic, which is completely useless in revealing her true form.

Even Qin's modified eyes couldn't tell.

The reason I guessed the sophistry witch's identity was simply based on some kind of intuition. I just felt that, given that witch's personality, she would definitely come to join in the fun if she heard that Elena was a traveling witch.

After all, witches are really not very common.

"Then forget it," Elena sighed, but it was within her expectations. After all, Jean had already said she wouldn't use magic anymore, and if it weren't for magic, she wouldn't have been able to learn it either.

Asking further will only reopen old wounds.

It's already quite remarkable that he can talk to himself like this.

After this little mishap, she gained an extra bonus. Elena waved her wand, and a copper coin in her hand instantly turned into a gold coin; she naturally possessed magic of this level.

As a witch, and one who is knowledgeable in all kinds of magic, transformation magic is naturally within her grasp.

By observing up close the copper coins that the sophistry witch was using to transform into magical power, Elena gained a great deal of magical knowledge from the gold coins that were transformed from copper coins.

In the future... hehe... even the witch won't be able to tell the difference between my counterfeit money and real money, so wouldn't it be usable as gold coins?

Money that can't be spent...

Seeing the somewhat disdainful look on Elena's face, Qin knew that she had started indulging in her fantasies again.

You can probably guess what she's thinking; she's probably fantasizing about rolling around in a pile of gold coins. For a witch to be so obsessed with gold coins is rather strange.

After all, for any witch, it's very easy to live a life of comfort and ease, if she so chooses.

Gold coins are something you can easily earn if you put your mind to it; it's just a matter of time.

Things are valued for their rarity. Since something is readily available, one shouldn't care too much about it.

But Elena is clearly an exception.

“Give me the money,” Qin said.

"Oh." Elena turned the money back and handed it to Qin—she had accidentally taken out her secret stash of money earlier…

Since it was a request I made in the first place, I have to abide by it no matter what.

"Go borrow money if you're broke—do you think the casino is a dye shop?" A burst of insults snapped Elena out of her reverie, and she looked toward the source of the sound.

But then they saw a naked man kneeling on the ground, begging for mercy.

Elena immediately turned her head back.

Even so, her cheeks still felt slightly hot. What's going on... in broad daylight?

"I didn't realize you were so innocent," Qin said.

"Heh, I'll take that as a compliment." Elena didn't offer any further explanation. This blockhead probably wouldn't even get angry if she kept staring at other men.

Sigh, he must have saved the world in his past life to have such a pure and kind heart like me.

Although my gaze was no longer fixed on that person, I could still hear intermittent sounds of him weeping and wailing.

"Please... let me buy on credit, I will win..." the man said. "My wife is waiting at home for me to buy medicine, this money is our last hope."

Is he gambling with the money meant for his wife's medicine? What a scumbag.

“In this kingdom, if you believe, you lose,” Qin suddenly said.

Elena looked at Qin curiously. "Are you really able to read minds?" "I was just complaining that man actually said something like that. Whether it's true or not, he's a complete scumbag." "Of course I know he's lying."

“I can’t read minds, because your expressions are easy to understand,” Qin said.

"Why didn't you think I would confess back then?" Elena muttered to herself.

"Get out!" the casino owner issued his final ultimatum.

The man who had lost everything was kicked several meters away by the casino owner, landing right in front of Elena and Qin.

The man was covered in wounds, bruises and welts.

"Damn it... my money..." The man looked up again in the direction of the casino, struggling to drag himself towards it.