Chapter 178: Witch of Batomata (3)

"There is something scary about this…" Getting off the carriage, Aya looked at the quiet dark castle among the woods and felt a chill.

"Can't deny that." Koyami agreed.

"Let's go and take a look." The magician stepped forward and touched the gate.

"Is it open?" Imada asked.

The magician nodded, then pushed the gate.

He was the first to walk into the castle. Everyone else followed behind him. Going up the main door, the magician rang the doorbell. Immediately, the sound of footsteps came tightening the hearts of the teens. Seconds later, the door slowly creaked open revealing a beautiful woman in her twenties.

"What can I do for you?" She asked calmly.

"Uh, we are here to request help from the witch." The magician directly came to the point.

Imada stared at him. 'How does he know that she isn't the witch? I mean, it's common sense that a big figure like the witch shouldn't come in person but how could he be so sure?'

The beautiful woman answered. "I'm afraid that's not possible. At this time, she is resting."

The teens' eyes dropped. 

"What about tomorrow? Can we ask for shelter?" The magician's question raised the teens' eyes again.

The beautiful woman swept her gaze across the people in front of her. "Come in."

***

Imada comfortably laid on the soft bed and stared at the ceiling above him. 'The castle looks like a haunted house from the outside but it's really beautiful in the interior.' 

"Imada." Koyami, who was laying down on the bed beside the bed that Imada was laying on, suddenly called out to him.

"What?"

"I don't have a good feeling about this approach. I think we should just stay on the island for six months instead of taking a risk." Koyami said whatever there was in his mind. 

Before Imada got the chance to reply, Sakai from another part of the room chimed in. "That's a cowardly argument, especially considering that we don't even know if there's a risk. Why would there be a risk? Don't let your imaginations run wild. Tomorrow, we'll meet with the witch and simply request her to send us to the Central. It's that simple."

"Yeah, but what if the witch doesn't take kindly to our request?" Koyami replied back with a question.

"Interesting scenario." Koshikawa joined in the conversation.

Just like that, an argument started where the two sides kept on bringing up strawman arguments which led to nowhere. Imada finally got tired of it and turned to the quiet magician at one corner of the room.

"Right. How come you were so sure that the maid that just came wasn't the witch?"

The arguments as soon as the question was thrown as everyone's attention was drawn towards the magician who sighed.

"I have seen the witch."

Sakai: "What?"

Imada: "Huh?"

Koshikawa: "How?"

"It might be hard to believe but the witch wasn't always a witch. Do you all have the patience to hear everything? Again, I'm not a history teacher so I could very possibly leave out important details---"

Koyami interrupted him. "Who cares about details? Just give us an important idea of who she is." 

"Yes. Back in the carriage, you only narrated the history and strayed away from the main point." Sakai complained.

"Do you guys even want me to explain?" As soon as the magician said that, the room went quiet. He coughed, then continued. "There are some people in the world who are way beyond the border of life and death. There are many different ways to interpret the sentence but for now, let's just say that - there are people who are immortal in the sense of never dying. It doesn't mean that those people couldn't be killed but just that they don't, or more appropriately speaking, age very slowly.

"One of those people is the witch. She had existed since the [Golden Laws Era] and is youthful till this day. Now, before you ask how's that possible? How can anyone live for that long? Let me just clear one thing, I don't know. Immortality is a secret that I'm not worthy of knowing. All I know is that immortality doesn't equal strength.

"Take the witch herself as an example. She is Gold-ranked Gruer User. She definitely is a top-tier Gruer User but if you consider the core members of the Council, they are much stronger than her while not being immortal. Alright, now. How do I know the witch?

"She was a freaking role-model as well as an influencer during the [Golden Laws Era]'s industrial revolution of the three nations - Avim, Jordnia, and Nus, which were technologically as well as economically way backwards than the other three nations. She was the Vice-Chairman of International Progressive Society (IPS), founded in the 25th century, that aimed at recognizing and finding solutions to the socio-economic issues that were prevailing back then. 

"The witch did a great service to society and was loved all around the world. I think it was around the late-25th century when the witch resigned from her post, came to this island and declared herself a "witch". The reason why she resigned or called herself a 'witch' is something that has been a mystery till now. Regarding her behaviour, after she considered herself a 'witch', on more than one occasion, she has shown herself to be needlessly aggressive so be careful with that." The magician stopped speaking.

Imada nodded, then closed his eyes in an attempt to fall asleep.

Sakai and Koyami also did the same. After more than twelve hours of journey, they had gotten tired. Only Koshikawa was up, looking at the magician with an interested expression. 

"The beginning was really cool but the story overall was unsatisfactory. There are so many questions that are left unanswered. Can you tell me more about IPS? Why was there even an organization like that? Wasn't the Council enough?"

The magician laughed out loud when he heard this. "You think that the Council cares about the social and economic issues? They don't. They only care about maintaining their dominance. You might as well complain to your King rather than the Council. In all seriousness, the primary, no, the only motive of the Council is to terminate terrorist organizations."

Koshikawa argued back. "How can that be? If the Council only wanted to establish dominance, they wouldn't have let the Central become so powerful. From my knowledge, even if the Council had twice the amount of military strength, they still wouldn't be able to overpower Central. Not to mention, the Council itself isn't like an independent organization. It consists of the kings, army generals, and all the other powerful people from all over the world. It can't establish dominance because it's not an independent organization."

The magician shook his head. "Why do you think the Central doesn't have a King?"

"Because it has several kings - Head of Inumaki Clan, Head of Atsushi Clan, President of Hot Glacial Foundations and the former Council President's Black District. These four hold most of the power in Central but because they are more or less on the same level, a King can't exist. For a King to be born, he has to unify the Central which seems impossible, at least to me."