I and the Witch of Time Who Seeks the Past

Time Travel (1)

December 4, 2030 — 09:31 AM

We were here again.

On this field where wildflowers were now buried beneath a blanket of white snow.

There was no time to admire it — I had to get her back to the Woodland Manor fast.

The car pressed through the snow, tires crushing the soil we’d driven over before. It had been less than a day, but everything felt completely different to me.

Lijedahl stared at the landscape, silent; I knew she was soaking in the view.

While we rattled along the uneven road, she suddenly said to me.

“This place is beautiful. It’s even nicer than at night.”

“Ah… yeah. I remember being awed the first time I came here.”

“Will, this might sound gloomy and spoil the mood…but we might not get to see this scene in this time again,”

“…”

“I still feel…sorry. I dragged you into this.”

“Did you forget? This was my choice.”

I smiled, hoping not to add to her guilt.

“Besides, I don’t feel you’ve burdened me. Think about it — how many times have you helped me? You flew me out of that space, vaulted through a window to escape, and beat back our pursuers. How could you have burdened me?”

I looked at her. Her eyes shifted into a pale blend of yellow and blue, then she met my gaze and gave a faint smile.

“Ah—what am I doing, getting sentimental?” She slapped her cheek and snapped back to herself.

Seeing her pull herself together, I didn’t press further.

We chatted a bit.

“Lijedahl, when I first met you, you weren’t like this at all, were you?”

“Huh? What was I like back then?”

“You seemed distant and a bit mysterious. Only when you helped me fly out of that underground chamber did you become this lively person.”

“...My eyes were fuzzy then, and I was dizzy, like waking up from a very long dream.”

“Aren’t you always awake?”

“Of course not. To pass those endless years, I’d only wake up fuzzy and dazed after long stretches of time. When the seal broke, it startled me awake. Except for seeing your magic flow, I could see almost nothing else.”

“I see… and how did you learn fluent English? Didn’t Europe speak Latin in those days?”

She propped her chin on her delicate hand and thought for a moment.

“I learned from the guards who watched the stone door.”

“Huh?”

I was puzzled — how could that be?

“It wasn’t hard. To pass the boredom, I listened to them talk. People outside changed one after another, and gradually I understood more and more. I learned about changes in the outside world.”

She hesitated, then her face clouded with confusion.

“But one day they were all gone. I never heard anyone outside again. I only remember they talked about making magic statues to guard this place, said there would be war, and then no more voices. After that, I fell into a long sleep.”

I thought quickly: it must have been when the Church fell into serious decline.

Still, even in decline, their power can’t be underestimated.

A chill trickled down my spine — maybe, no matter what era we go to, the Church will always be after us.

“Lijedahl… have you decided what time we’ll go to?”

“I’m not sure…”

“...What?”

“I’m not sure I can precisely control the time points. From my research, when starting the Chronomantic Clock, to travel to a specific era, you need to sense the magic of that era to steer the time magic in that direction.”

“So… you mean, with your current sensing, you don’t know which era’s magic you’ll pick up?”

“...Yes.”

A sudden thought struck me: if we just went back a few days, would the me from back then meet the me from now?

Too much uncertainty. I wanted to ask more, but Lijedahl hadn’t experimented fully herself — she’d said as much.

...No use overthinking.

She’s the magic expert; I was just an outsider. I don’t know the mysteries about it. I can only trust her.

At that moment, snowflakes drifted past, gently tapping on my car window.

But our short conversation ended.

“Lijedahl… they’ve beaten us here.”

“W-what?” She leaned in. At the tree line between the forest and the field, we could now see several cars parked; likely more elsewhere, but I didn’t have time to scan.

No doubt — the Church had reached the Woodland Manor. I quickly assessed the situation and told Lijedahl, “If we weren’t ambushed, they must have just arrived. Clearing wheel tracks slowed them down. Right now, avoiding a fight looks unlikely.”

“No, Will.” She immediately shook her head and extended her right hand.

What?

She immediately contradicted me and extended her right hand.

What did she mean?

I took her hand.

I immediately felt a sense of levitation as she lifted me up.

“Will, we’re going to the place we flew out of. Hold on tight.”

That's when I understood.

“Okay, let's fly as low as possible. We don't want to be too noticeable.”

I held onto my hat and cautiously observed my surroundings.

But with the snow covering everything, it was hard to see what was happening inside the forest.

However, the enemies probably couldn't see us in this dense, lightless forest either.

“Will, I need to fly higher.”

“Okay, just for a moment. Take a look at the Woodland Manor, then we’ll go back down.”

We rose. From above, I saw the sight I least wanted to see.

“…They’ve arrived.”

I murmured. A group wearing Christian attire stood at the manor gate, on guard.

“Will, we need to hurry.”

I felt her grip tighten.

“Get ready to drop fast.”

Suddenly, the feeling of levitation vanished, replaced by a sensation of falling. But at a certain height, the levitation returned, and we stopped falling. Before I could even catch my breath, Lijedahl carried me quickly toward our destination. We flew over the top of the forest, our forms gradually shifting from a floating state to that of birds in flight.

We bypassed the Woodland Manor from a distance, circling toward the entrance of that space. Soon after, we saw the opening. The area around it was free of trees, which made it easy for us to land.

“Will, I was going too fast just now. I need to slow down gradually, or we'll be thrown off by a sudden stop.”

After hearing that, I remembered a technique I had learned.

“Lijedahl, slow down a bit. I'll land quickly over here to scout. You do the same as soon as you can.”

“Okay... but how will you land quickly?”

“I’ve learned a method. When you slow down to a speed I think is right, we’ll let go at the same time. Wait for my signal.”

The speed was decreasing. I changed my posture, and I was getting closer and closer to the cave entrance.

“Now.”

The speed was just right. We let go at the same time. I used the five-point landing technique, touching the ground in a specific order: the balls of my feet, the outer sides of my calves, the outer sides of my thighs, the side of my buttocks, and my back muscles, rolling into a stop.

“Good. It seems I haven't gotten rusty.”

I picked up my hat, which had been thrown to the side, and jogged over to the opening to check the situation inside.

I saw the Chronomantic Clock still at zero o’clock, with no one below it. It seemed we were fast; they hadn't entered yet.

I looked up. Lijedahl circled once in the air and then landed smoothly.

She quickly ran to my side, crouching down to check the situation below.

“You managed to land with a spin like a pigeon.”

“Oh? Are you curious about that?”

She smiled at me, then continued her observation.

“Will, we might be able to go down before they arrive.”

“Okay. Do you sense anything with your magic?”

She shook her head.

“Besides the Chronomantic Clock, there's no magical aura.”

“Alright, let’s go down.”

We used our old method to enter. As we landed, our feet touched the snow that had drifted in from outside. I was back here again.

“I can't believe we're back here.”

“Yeah, it hasn’t been long, but here we are again.”

She sighed, then started walking in a certain direction.

Hiss. Wasn’t that the direction she kept staring at when I first met her?

“Will, do me a favor.”

“Okay.”

I walked over, but there was nothing there.

“What do you need me to do?”

“Tear off the disguise paper.”

Shhhh—

A sound of tearing paper. It turned out the floor looked unremarkable, but it had a hidden mechanism.

I looked closely. Below, there seemed to be some kind of symbol drawn, something I couldn't understand.

I helped her tear it off, only to find it was just a small corner.

“Before I was sealed, I hid the Chronomantic Circle as quickly as I could. It originally had a magical blessing on it, but too much time has passed, and the magic has dissipated. But some parts of it are still perfectly preserved.”

How clever. This magic circle made me wonder if today's mages would worship her as an ancestor or a great figure in magic.

“Alright, we have to hurry.”

She patted me, urging me to get to work.

“Yeah, you’re right.”

Although the magic circle was huge, the paper wasn’t sticky anymore. I thought it would take a long time to tear it off, but Lijedahl and I finished in just two minutes.

The massive magic circle was covered with all kinds of mysterious symbols, some orderly, some uneven. The combinations of the symbols were shockingly complex. They were all crowded into three concentric circles, but in the very center, there was only one symbol, just like the huge Chronomantic Clock in front of me.

Lijedahl knelt in the center, bent over, and touched the magic circle with both hands.

“Will, I’m going to activate the Chronomantic Clock. You can't disturb me during this time.”

“All right…”

Before she could finish, a sound of stone grinding came from outside the marble door.

Was it those statues? Had the Church arrived?!

Then I heard people shouting. There was no doubt about it. They were here!