Mage Manual

"No wonder, I remembered not having so many sisters, turns out they're personalities I split off..."

After Ash gave a simple explanation about the origins of the witch sisters, the little witch surprisingly accepted the fact quickly: "When I grow up, I can actually split off sisters to play with me; I'm awesome!"

"Yeah, yeah, witches are super awesome!" Ash echoed quickly, trying to slip away, but was held back by the little witch: "Wait, I want to know more about the person I like when I grow up."

"No need to trouble yourself, once you regain your memory, you'll remember me."

"It's different, different!" The little witch shook her head repeatedly: "If you lost your memory and I appeared in front of you, telling you I'm the princess you're destined to protect, wouldn't you want to know more about me?"

Putting himself in her shoes, the little witch's logic was indeed compelling, but now wasn't the time for a leisurely chat. Ash thought for a moment, "I'll answer three questions maximum; after that, you must finish the painting promptly."

"Okay." The little witch said, "First question, when you met me, did I already have four personalities?"

"Yes, they were Secret Princess, White Queen, Black Butler, and Red Death Cultist."

"Second question, what do I like about you?"

"Actually, I asked you this before, but you didn't answer me." Ash paused, "I just spent a lot of adventures and companionship time with you... Maybe your fondness is just the fondness for a playmate."

The little witch nodded and turned to look at the whiteboard, suddenly saying, "It seems I had a hard time growing up."

Ash was taken aback.

"How lonely does one have to be to split off other personalities for company?" The little witch said, "I must have had a tough and helpless life, like a princess captured by an evil dragon, becoming so desperate."

"Then, you shone into my world like light, protecting me like a knight, that's why I like you." The little witch raised four fingers, "I split into four sisters, so my standards must have quadrupled! Don't worry, my affection for you when I grow up will surely be serious, and quadrupled serious!"

Ash never expected to be comforted by the little witch. "I wasn't worried either!"

"Okay, okay, no need to be shy." The little witch patted his shoulder with a mature air, "By the way, I saw a little girl in the painting, have we already had kids? Speaking of which, how do you have kids?"

Ash quickly denied: "No, we haven't even lived together!"

Little witch: "So is the painting actually my inner desire?"

Ash recalled the painting of everyone going on a picnic together and nodded gently, "It could also be an imagination of happiness."

"Happiness..." The little witch murmured softly and suddenly said, "When I read fairy tale picture books, it always ends after the princess and knight live happily together. I was curious, what about their story after living together?"

"Then I turned back to the beginning, saw the evil king's lust and greed, the evil queen's jealousy and malice, and realized a book can be read twice."

She touched the whiteboard, "If we lived together like in the painting, could we always be happy? Or would we become the evil king and queen in the future?"

This question was too profound; Ash figured only his mom could answer it, not even his brother and sister-in-law, who've been married for years, could.

However, the little witch didn't need an answer. She started drawing on the whiteboard: "But no matter what, having someone to like and a life to look forward to, I'm already very lucky when I grow up."

Sly and clever, calm yet passionate, mature and profound, pessimistic inside but positive in thought... Ash found that the little witch was quite different from the four witch sisters. Whether it was Secret Princess, White Queen, Black Butler, or Red Death Cultist, none completely matched the little witch, but subtly, they all had traces of her.

It was almost as if... there was another witch sister Ash had never met.

"Last question..."

Ash said, "I answered more than three questions just now, right?"

The little witch looked at him, "I get to ask three questions each, and since I'm four sisters, I'm supposed to have twelve questions. But now, I just want to ask one more question..."

Ash surrendered, "What else do you want to ask?"

The little witch pointed to Little Sword Maiden and Little Weiser.

"Do we all like you?"

Ash was silent for a few seconds, squeezing out a few words from the corner of his mouth: "Not all."

The little witch understood, "So fairy tales are all lies; there actually is such a thing as a male Meiwa..."

Stop talking, stop talking. If you continue, I'll be hallucinating Igula's laughter.

Ash hurried over to Little Weiser. As soon as Little Weiser saw him, she hid in the corner, trembling with her back to him.

Although this kid was quirky too, she was much better than the Sword Witch. Using advanced experience from dealing with his nephew, Ash squatted beside her and asked, "Do you like to draw?"

"...I like it."

"Then why don't you draw? You can just copy the drawing."

"...It's so scary."

"Hmm? Is what you want to draw scary?" Ash found it odd, "What do you want to draw?"

"I, I," little Weiser stammered for a long time without saying anything. When Ash asked more questions, her nose twitched, tears welled up in her eyes, and she wailed, "Vione, Vione, come quickly..."

There are two options here. One is to spin her like a top, which makes kids obedient. Ash has tried it on his nephew, and it worked well. The other is to chat with her and slowly comfort her.

Obviously, the latter is the only choice here. After all, erasing memories is only temporary. If Weiser regains her memory and knows Ash teased her, the Bonds Level might decrease. Besides, to be fair, Youlan Weiser has been diligently working since she joined the team, never causing trouble for Ash, so Ash is willing to be more patient with her.

So he asked, "Who is Vione?"

Little Weiser sniffled, "Vione is Vione."

"She treats you well, doesn't she?"

"Yeah."

"Then you want to go back to see her, right?" Ash gently coaxed, "If you finish your drawing, you can go back to her, okay?"

Little Weiser sucked back her snot bubble, turned to Ash, and asked, "Really?"

But she quickly shook her head, "You must be lying to me. Last time they also lied to me, and there was no tool to make Vione better."

Ash asked, "How did they deceive you last time? What's wrong with Vione?"

"Vione, Vione isn't feeling well, always lying in bed. She promised to take me shopping for clothes. I want her to get better, so I asked many people, and they told me to go somewhere at dusk to find the tool to make Vione better."

Ash slightly frowned, "Is Vione ill? Aren't there any Healing Mages helping her?"

Little Weiser shook her head, "I, I also sought the sister who helps relieve my pain, but she said she couldn't help. Ordinary people at this age will feel uncomfortable, only Mages can live a bit longer."

The life limit of ordinary people? Hereditary disease? Environmental pollution?... Ash asked, "And then? Did you look for the tool?"

Little Weiser nodded, "In the evening, I went to that place, searched for a long time, till it was dark, yet didn't find anything. Then I got lost for a long, long time, saw many things, even some very scary stuff... boohoo..."

As she spoke, she seemed to recall those terrifying experiences and scared herself into crying again. Ash helped wipe her tears and asked, "Then did you leave?"

She took a deep breath, coughed twice, and then nodded, "After a long time, I managed to get out, and ran back to find Vione. Vione noticed I was missing and when she saw me return, asked where I'd been. Discovering I was still out at night, she got very angry and spanked me hard..."

"She told me she was dying and wouldn't be around anymore. I would have to take care of myself from then on."

Little Weiser looked at Ash, her eyes blurry with tears, and asked, "Where do people go when they die?"

These kids keep asking deeper and deeper questions... Ash replied, "They should go to the Heavenly Kingdom to enjoy happiness, right?"

Little Weiser shook her head, "No way, only the most powerful people can go to the Heavenly Kingdom. Vione isn't a Mage; she can't go to the Heavenly Kingdom."

If it's not the Heavenly Kingdom, then it must be Hell. But seeing little Weiser's pitiful face, Ash couldn't bring himself to say "Vione went to Hell to suffer."

He hesitated for a while and suddenly thought of another option, "Do you know about the Void Realm? The Void Realm is vast and is everyone's destination; when people die, they return to the Void Realm."

But little Weiser wasn't satisfied, continuing to ask, "Then what do they do in the Void Realm after dying? Can people come from the Void Realm back to reality? Can Vione come and see me occasionally? Can she write to me?"

Seeing little Weiser's eyes full of hope, Ash instinctively told a lie, "When people die, they find eternal happiness in the Void Realm, so they can't return to reality."

At that moment, he saw little Weiser's eyes filled with a peculiar gleam, even the tears hanging on her eyes shone brightly.

"Really?!"

"Really."

"That's wonderful! That's wonderful!" Little Weiser was so happy that she jumped up and hugged Ash, "It's true, Vione didn't lie to me!"

"What?" Ash was stunned, "Vione didn't lie to you?"

"I also asked Vione where people go when they die, and she told me exactly what you did!" Little Weiser said joyfully, "I thought she was tricking me again!"