I and the Witch of Time Who Seeks the Past

Escape (3)

December 4, 2030 — 8:00 AM

After getting in the car, I hammered onto the highway and sped out of the city. No one chased us the whole way, and we passed checkpoints without trouble, but I was still nervous—afraid of running into a trap.

Heh. Looks like they didn’t dare try to stop us openly.

But… they actually brought suppressed guns? And they fired inside the hotel?

Maybe they had people inside that hotel. Damn—couldn’t let my guard down for a second.

So… even though it seemed like nobody was after us right now, if we stopped, we’d probably get caught.

It looked like I had to drive straight to the suburbs, to the Woodland Manor, without delay.

Still, it would be a shame if we didn’t eat anything.

I remembered there were some snacks in the car.

Ah… two candies…

Oh well—give them both to her.

“Lijedahl?”

"Will? What is it?"

“You hungry?”

I pulled her out of her thoughts.

“I’m not—”

She didn’t finish, but her stomach answered honestly for her.

“I… I’ve been maintaining my body with magic for a long time. I haven’t felt hunger in ages.”

She shifted the topic a little awkwardly.

“Sorry, these are the only two candies I have in the car. Use them to tide you over.”

I freed a hand and placed the two pieces into her small hands.

“Aren’t you hungry?”

"It's fine, you eat them. Uh... though I don't think these two candies will even be enough to tide you over, haha."

I let out a helpless chuckle.

“…Half each.”

“Ah… It’s okay.”

“No, it’s okay for me too, so we should split them. Otherwise, I don’t really want to eat.”

She cleverly “forced” me into sharing, and the tension of being on the run evaporated.

“Alright, I’ll do as you say.”

One each, we ate them.

As expected… nothing at all.

“It’s been so long since I tasted sweets. This is the first food I’ve eaten since my seal was lifted.”

Lijedahl said softly.

I didn’t expect that.

“Really? I didn’t think the first thing you’d taste after unsealing would be a random candy I grabbed.”

"I think it's very nice."

Listening to her gentle voice, I replied, “Well, it’s a pity I couldn’t give you something better.”

“It’s okay. After we travel through time, we’ll be able to eat other things together.”

…Time travel. Will we succeed?

“Are you really confident we’ll make it?”

“Maybe… hmm.”

Her answer made me uneasy.

I noticed another odd thing. From the start, it felt strange—why did we get along so easily when I’d only just met her?

Yes, ever since we left the old manor, I’d felt a strange familiarity with her.

Why this feeling? Some precognitive dream from the past ten years?

It felt like I’d known her for a while—naturally woven into my consciousness.

I was about to ask when I heard a little commotion in my ear, and the rearview mirror revealed something that caught my eye.

…We were on the highway. Beside us were nothing but the motorway, windswept fields, and a few farm huts scattered among the wild grass.

“Lijedahl.”

I called out to her.

“I can feel it… Will, there are a lot of them.”

The rearview mirror showed two white cars clearly, with a few more possibly following behind.

I hadn’t noticed the vehicles before — they were driving low-profile cars!

Damn it! I knew they’d chase us. Of course, they’d catch up the moment I let my guard down!

“Will! They’re using magic!”

I snapped my eyes to the mirror and saw a man who looked like a Christian lean out of his window and cast something toward the underside of my car.

Were they trying to destroy my tires?

I was about to stomp the gas when Lijedahl shouted:

“Stabilize!”

Then I heard a scream. Looking back in the mirror, the caster had been flung from his car and smashed to the ground.

I didn't dare to look closely — he might already be in pieces.

“Oh my… I—”

I heard Lijedahl whisper. Her irises went a mix of light green and blue, and her expression stiffened.

“Lijedahl, it’s not your fault. Quick! get back in the car.”

So it comes to killing people after all…

“My apologies.”

I drew the hidden pistol, stuck it out the window, and fired at the windshield of the pursuing car.

Bang! Bang!

I watched the glass crack, but the rounds didn’t penetrate — it was bulletproof.

“I should’ve thought of that!”

I scolded myself, rolled the window down just enough to leave a gap, and shouted to Lijedahl:

“Buckle up! Lijedahl, I’m going to accelerate!”

She adjusted herself at once when she heard me.

“Oh! Okay!”

Her voice trembled, but sounded determined.

I slammed the accelerator. With the engine roaring, we tore along the highway.

My car wasn’t a sports car, yet at full speed, it still felt terrifying.

There was no time to worry about anything else.

Because I sped up so fast, the cars pursuing us didn’t react immediately — we managed to put some distance between us and them.

No slowing down, no distractions — if we crashed into another car now, we’d have no burial ground.

My attention was locked on the road; I couldn’t focus on Lijedahl.

“Cough, cough—!”

Suddenly, I heard violent coughing. Only then did I notice Lijedahl — her face was pale and she was coughing violently.

What do I do? What do I do!

No choice. I had to slow down.

I eased off the gas and hurriedly asked, “Lijedahl! What’s wrong?”

She took painful, deep breaths; the agony on her face was unmistakable. She looked at me and tried to speak several times, but couldn’t get any words out.

No — this wasn’t caused by speed. It could only be…

Magic.

Could it be that she was affected when she stuck her head out of the car earlier?

…Looks like I had to—

I pulled the car slowly to the shoulder of the highway.

I carried Lijedahl out of the car.

In the distance, I saw them closing in.

Four white cars in total; they charged toward us and quickly encircled us.

Where we were parked, one side backed onto a small hill, the other opened onto the plain.

Aside from the man we’d already killed, four people climbed out of each car. They all wore Christian-style garb and each carried a suppressed pistol.

Standing among them was a white-bearded man holding a cross — he looked like a priest and was clearly their leader.

Lijedahl kept taking labored breaths. I held her and watched the Christians who’d surrounded us with guarded eyes.

“Mr. Will, you finally stopped running.”

The priest toyed with the cross in his hand. At his motion, Lijedahl curled up in my arms, wracked with pain.

I understood — he was the caster.

“I never imagined that the Great Witch of old would be so easily held at the throat by me.”

His tone had the bureaucratic chill of someone cruel and cold-blooded; the words echoed in my head.

“I’m curious… why are you so calm?”

“Nothing special. I’m just an ordinary man.”

“Oh… an ordinary man. I can recite your résumé: your family is deceased, you have almost no friends, you graduated from a run-of-the-mill university, and your current job appears mundane. But—”

He glanced at the car window I’d cracked with my gun.

“—yet you possess a firearm.”

“I acted in self-defense. I clearly saw you tracking me, and one of you was tampering with my car, so my partner and I acted in defense. Besides, sir, did you check my occupation? I’m an international translator — I have the right to carry a weapon.”

He didn’t even bother to look at my credentials; with that same bureaucratic air, he interrogated me.

“It seems so. But in our records, you haven’t purchased any firearms, and… your country bans guns.”

“So you searched my records, suspected me, and launched this manhunt?”

“No, just a simple chat.”

He smiled.

“The real reason is the person you’re holding now.”

His gaze turned vicious as he stared straight at me.

“Kid, you can’t talk your way out of this. My patience is limited. Hand over the witch, and I might spare your life. If you don’t—”

His men took up ready stances, looking like they’d open fire at any moment.

“So… it was your magic that’s causing her pain?”

He snorted derisively at my question.

Suddenly, I felt my breath constrict; a suffocating despair pressed against my mind.

“Drop your weapon.”

He spoke with contempt.

I let the gun I’d hidden under Lijedahl fall to the ground. I caught Lijedahl’s eyes — she looked so sad and terrified that the color of her irises hardly registered.

“Good. Put the witch down.”

I obeyed and gently put Lijedahl down.

I saw a flash of helplessness in her eyes, then a look of resignation washed over her face.

Had she somehow accepted that I was betraying her?

“Hahaha, excellent!”

He laughed triumphantly and waved the cross.

My breathing freed up, and I began coughing uncontrollably.

“Take the witch up. Quietly eliminate this man so no one finds out. Oh, and you may torture her however you like.”

He tossed out those cold words, then turned to leave.

His men grabbed Lijedahl and moved toward me.

I saw their sly grins as they pocketed their guns and drew small knives from their belts, as if planning to torture me first.