NOVEL NEXT 5 - Witch Society (4)
Since I wasn’t particularly in pain, tired, or having mental issues, I only stayed in the infirmary for a very brief time.
As for the hole in the desk… well, it shouldn’t be a big problem.
It’s not like it’s something precious.
“Are you really okay?”
Sharen, the girl I had greeted earlier, looked at me with a very worried expression.
This person I’ve never met before is showing unexpected familiarity.
When I expressed such doubt, she replied with a very disappointed look.
“What? Don’t you remember?”
“Remember what?”
“You’re from the same Witch Society as me, aren’t you? Even though we’ve only seen each other’s faces from afar, isn’t it good to be friendly now that we’ve become witches together like this?”
“…?”
Upon more specific investigation, “from the Witch Society” meant:
Children raised within the Witch Society to become witches.
Then what about the other witches?
They were brought from here and there, children with excellent qualities to become witches.
In other words, they were kidnapped.
The problem is that no matter how much they try to raise them as witches, not just anyone can become a witch.
Only a few among them become witches.
So they kidnap more to supplement their numbers.
Even though they’ve all become witches now, there’s still a division between natives who lived here from before and outsiders.
That’s why Sharen is trying to get along well with me, who was born and raised in the same Witch Society.
Of course, until now I didn’t know about Grace’s body’s background.
I just learned about it now.
I wasn’t interested before.
“By the way, are you and I the only ones left from the Witch Society?”
“Yeah, they say the numbers are particularly low this time. Among the newly become witches, there are more kids brought from outside.”
“Hmm.”
Looking around, I see about five children who became witches yesterday like me and Sharen.
Seven in total.
This was the result of grinding up all those many sacrifices and young girls.
Thinking about it made me feel dirty for no reason.
Because it made me imagine a mountain of corpses piled up beneath these seven bodies.
The screams they let out begging for their lives were vivid.
As my complexion worsened, Sharen looked at me with worried eyes.
“Shouldn’t you rest a bit more?”
“No, I’m fine.”
I shook my head.
Well, these children haven’t committed any sins yet.
I don’t know about the future, but.
Unlike other witches, it’s a bit early to hate these children.
I could slowly hear about the backgrounds of the other kids from beside Sharen.
“First, this is Ulrisa, from a barbarian background.”
“…?”
From the very beginning, she says something that makes question marks pop up.
But when I turned my gaze, I couldn’t deny that fact at all.
The distinctive tattoos on her face, bronze skin that didn’t look like the local race, fabric poking out here and there because the witch’s outfit seemed very uncomfortable and she wasn’t wearing it properly.
At this rate, she might take it all off.
…Why is there really a barbarian here?
“They made a barbarian girl from the north into a witch?”
“Y-yeah. I don’t really understand the witches’ intentions either. But anyway, that’s what happened.”
“Yorak ven, lum tor!”
The barbarian girl shouted in their language and used magic.
Why, is this really happening?
Did these crazy witches of the Witch Society kidnap a barbarian child?
No matter how talented in witchcraft she might seem, messing with barbarians carelessly can cause big problems.
The great chieftain of the northern realm might come rushing in to crush the Witch Society.
Even if it’s just kidnapping one young girl, they have strong ties between tribes, so major disasters often occur.
I know because I’ve experienced it a few times while playing the game.
As I held my head, momentarily dizzy for reasons unrelated to demons, I asked hoping there would be no more extraordinary cases.
“The, the other kids?”
“A-are you really okay?”
“O-okay. There’s a kid with a good background.”
“Good background?”
When Sharen pointed in a direction, I saw a girl there with an expression full of discontent.
Yellow hair and yellow eyes.
She gave an impression like a chick.
“Yeah, a noble from the Eldorania Kingdom.”
“A noble? From Eldorania at that?”
Eldorania was one of the great kingdoms that existed in Arcane Fantasy, a nation wielding powerful national strength in this chaotic dimension.
As such, it’s an area teeming with saints.
For reference, “saint” was a term referring to demigods who had reached the 3rd rank of the light faction.
2nd rank is called holy one, and 1st rank is called divine.
It was not at all a place that a witch with just the 5th rank title of ‘Condemnation’ could carelessly meddle with.
They messed with a noble from such a country?
No wonder the Witch Society got swept away by high-ranking clergy.
My head hurts even more.
“Do you know her name by any chance?”
“Yeah, I know. I think it was Belladrin Ibron or something.”
“Hmm.”
If there’s any fortunate point, it’s that I don’t know the family name Ibron.
If they messed with a great family by mistake, a saint would come and erase this entire area.
If it’s not to that extent, it would probably end with a 4th rank clergyman coming to sweep them away.
Still, only these two were special cases, the other kids were more ordinary.
Like being from serfs, or middle-class merchant families, or commoner backgrounds.
Such kids rather didn’t despair at being kidnapped and becoming witches, but thought they had caught a good opportunity.
Factions are not a realm that just anyone can enter.
A wall that can only be jumped over with talent like the stars, superhuman mental fortitude.
Even the evil faction, said to be the easiest to enter, isn’t it that only these seven were chosen after countless deaths?
“Now, children, let’s gather…”
Agrasha, who had been away for a while, suddenly appeared from somewhere.
The attention of the young witches who had been practicing magic focused on her.
This time she came holding a broom.
Is it
Riding a broom and flying around is the very symbol of a witch.
Therefore, witches could gain flight ability at relatively low ranks.
Agrasha gave me a worried look for a moment.
I shook my head at that.
Meaning to leave me alone because I’m fine.
Whether she understood my intention well or not, she distributed brooms to us.
The brooms were really nothing special.
Just light and sturdy, that’s all.
They didn’t feel at all like items that assist flight.
You might wonder how to fly with this, but everything was imprinted in my mind.
This was a power.
A power that could be used as naturally as breathing.
As I mounted the broom, I slowly felt the sensation of rising into the sky.
“Oh…”
Can I really fly like this?
It was very fascinating even as I was actually flying.
While handling the mysterious power of magic was fun, flight was even more so.
The fact that I could directly fly through the sky as I wished made people very excited.
Of course, controlling the broom wasn’t exactly easy.
I could use
In my previous life, I had never even gotten a driver’s license, let alone piloted an airplane.
So how could I perform aerial maneuvers in midair?
I obediently floated up to about the height of the wall and flew around.
The barbarian witch Ulrisa fearlessly rose high into the sky and almost had a disaster of losing her sense of direction and falling to the ground.
“The sky is high! Really hiiiiiigh!”
If Agrasha hadn’t caught her, she might have really died.
Moreover, even catching her was barely done with magic, she fell from quite a high place and rolled around on the ground very excitedly.
Even Agrasha was flustered.
“A-are you okay?”
“I’m fine! It was rather fun! I want to do it one more time!”
Of course, the barbarian witch was perfectly fine.
They’re born with sturdy bodies. A little rolling around doesn’t hurt them much.
Even if they get hurt, they’ll be right as rain.
Agrasha educated Ulrisa, who wanted to ride the broom again despite nearly dying just now, with a knock on the head and sent her straight to the infirmary.
Then Agrasha cleared her throat and gave precautions.
“You’re not used to flying yet, so fly low at first. What would have happened if I wasn’t beside you?”
“Yes, yes…”
The young witches didn’t really agree with her words.
She flew that high because she’s like that, normally people would be too scared and fly low.
If there’s one thing I felt while flying on the broom, it’s that this wasn’t as uncomfortable as I thought.
I thought sitting on this thin wooden stick itself would be more painful than sitting on a bicycle’s pointed saddle.
It’s just like I’m flying with a broom stuck underneath?
Wondering if I couldn’t fly without the broom, the moment I put it down, my body plummets downward.
Falling face-first onto the bushes, I personally realize this doesn’t work.
Sharen beside me laughed a lot seeing me.
I lightly threw some magic at the cheeky little kid and hit her head.
I can see Agrasha, who was supervising the witches training in the distance, being shocked at my possessed magic skills.
“Ah, ouch! You, how could you?”
After practicing flight for a while (with the incident of us shooting magic at each other), Agrasha clapped twice and gave us a short break time.
The sun was already setting.
Perhaps because handling the new power was so much fun, I didn’t even realize how much time had passed.
“You must be getting hungry too? I’ll bring some food, so rest for a while.”
“Yes!”
“Take care!”
At those words, the young witches gathered together to play among themselves.
Sharen also jumped in to join them.
I watch these children who still retain their innocence.
Such kids will become witches who kill people, offer them as sacrifices, and mock life itself.
And inevitably they’ll be consumed by madness and go crazy.
As a veteran who has played evil factions countless times, if I were to give the correct answer to escape this fate…
While thinking such thoughts, I felt a chilling sensation on my back.
I immediately turned my head.
“Hello? Aren’t you the cute child I saw this morning?”
The fishy scent of blood rushed to my nose.
It was such an intense scent as if she had bathed in blood.
She had somehow approached close behind me and reached out her hand.
That hand was heading for the back of my hand.
Slap-!
“Hm? How cold.”
“Don’t touch me.”
“But I can’t help being curious, can I? You’re wearing gloves now, but I saw it this morning. That pattern, or rather that grotesque picture that’s hard to even call a pattern…”
-Kikikik.
She looks at me while letting out a bizarre laughing sound.
“What kind of bomb have you planted in your body, I wonder? Do you think that monster will stay quietly dormant? Soon that monster will tear out of your body and start destroying everything. That’s fate, the inevitability that will come to you.”
I frowned at her suddenly appearing and pouring out curses.
For an ordinary witch, that might be true.
But the perks I possess won’t allow such a situation.
Not knowing such thoughts, she grabbed my shoulder and continued muttering.
“No matter how much you cry, beg, and plead, it will gradually start taking over your body. From some point on, you’ll be in a state where it’s better to just die. Because you don’t want to become a slave to a demon that has violently devoured your body and soul. But the contract is already completed, and you can’t be free even through death.”
Looking at the back of her hand resting on my shoulder, I could see her pattern.
A form not as distinct as mine, but still unclear.
It seemed she had contracted with a demon beyond her capacity and couldn’t endure it.
“Agrasha, don’t follow the words of that soft-hearted one. You and I must constantly walk a tightrope and cross over high ranks to survive. This is my sincere advice for you. Trying to stabilize the demon and take control will eventually lead to being eroded and meeting your end. Rather, if you hand over control and raise your rank as much as possible…”
Wooong-
Her eyes glow red.
I was shocked to see that.
Demon Eyes!
A power granted to witches who have reached 7th rank.
That means she’s on par with Elender.
Compared to her outward appearance of being only a year or two older than me, she had risen to 7th rank at an unbelievably fast speed.
She smiled.
Her red-tinged Demon Eyes looked as if she was shedding tears of blood.
She lowers her head and whispers in my ear.
“My name is Kayla. I’ll invite you to our gathering. You’ve embraced an amazing demon, so you’ll be able to rise to higher ranks even faster than me.”