Chapter 147 - After Ritual - Part 5

"How are things going?" I asked Andrew, who accompanied us back to the villagers, leaving Jack behind to take care of the corpse. Though Andrew—very unwillingly—offered his help, Jack refused, saying that he would only be a pain in the neck. He wasn't wrong about that.

"Not very good," he huffed, shaking his head. "We've tried many ways to get some sort of reaction from them, but they stayed still as stone." 

I let out a big sigh, tired that things are yet to be over. I thought everything would be over once we stopped the ritual, but it seems that it won't end as smoothly as I thought. Should we leave them be, those black witches would surely come back and continue the ritual somehow.

"We haven't tried setting them on fire, though," he grinned, half-joking and half-serious. Or was he seriously considering that option? His grin immediately vanished when he saw me glaring at him, quickly adding, "…that will send our purpose straight to the dump, I know."

I looked at our surroundings, seeing how a few warriors were carrying the knocked-out puppets inside the houses. Though they are currently our enemies, it won't be any good for us if they die from the cold weather. By the look of it, the real owner of those bodies was still alive—yet trapped under the control of the black witches.

Perhaps we can still save them by calling the white witches to perform the so-called purification Maggie told me about. It will take us a long time, but it's still better than nothing. If this purification thing can free the puppets from the black witches' control, then it will surely be able to return those people to normal too.

The problem is that the White Church is located at the very far end of Wonsvile, and it will take us about one to two hours to go there from here. The time needed for them to arrive would be approximately four hours, and I don't have that much time to waste.

I had planned to send a letter to the White Church about this matter today, but the ritual happened way faster than expected, so I didn't have time to do so. Even if I did send the letter, I have no idea if they would agree to my request.

I'm not sure about the white witches, but I do know how the priests there didn't want anything to do with black witches. After all, they're sick bastards who only care about their own needs and greed. They will only use the white witches' ability for their own benefit, and nothing else will matter. Not even when someone else's life was on the line. 

You may be wondering how such people were chosen to be priests there, but this dates back to when the three lands were first formed a century ago. When we were split into three, everyone agreed that the ones who had contributed the most to the Great War should be given the largest of the three lands. This made us, werewolves, who took the lead in the war to be the strongest and largest community amongst the other dark creatures now.

Humans, despite their little—close to none—contribution to the Great War, were still given Myltha as their land after looking at the fact that they had the largest population of us all. It was not possible for them to wander around without a place to live, so Myltha was the least we could give to them.

As there were a lot more humans compared to werewolves alive at that time, Myltha was crammed with people whereas Wonsvile was pretty much empty. Might I say, Myltha wasn't even half as big as Wonsvile which is why this problem happened.

To solve the overpopulation problem, humans made an agreement with both werewolves and vampires. If we let half of their people live on our land, they promise to provide us with food supplies and any other things that only humans can produce at that time. Though humans were far below us in terms of strength, they were far more advanced in terms of technology and knowledge, so we agreed to their offer.

Given that Wonsvile was bigger and emptier than Gordom, the majority of the human population relocated to Wonsvile, making us the bigger contributor to the agreement. Those first groups of humans who migrated to Wonsvile ended up multiplying in number, making it into the Wonsvile now.

How can this be related to those priests, might you ask? Well, among those first groups of humans, there were a few people who came up with the plan to make a small church for the white witches to live in. It was purely out of compassion, and the white witches appreciated their kindness. However, it won't be possible without the werewolves' agreement to build such a place for the white witches to live.

As humans were the ones who came up with the plan, they were also the ones carrying it out. Werewolves had nothing to do with it except for giving consent, so everything related to the White Church belonged to the humans.

Grateful for their kindness, white witches offered them their services. Their white magic soon became a big thing among humans because of its effectiveness, and the White Church quickly gained a lot of followers.

For the first few months, everything went swimmingly well. White witches and those humans lived together as priests, and it was as if they were living in the best place in the whole world. But unfortunately, what started as compassion soon turned to greed after seeing how well they were doing, and those so-called priests turned the White Church into a place of business.

So basically, those priests were chosen from generation to generation, and the White Church has turned into a large family business over the years. Even with knowing this fact, I can't do anything to put an end to them due to the popularity they have amassed over the years. I didn't want to cause a useless commotion just because of their stupidity.

After all, their stupidity had nothing to do with werewolves.

"See? They're still not moving," Andrew sighed, shoving a man who remained in his position despite the impact. "They're more like a statue than a person now."

I watched as Andrew continued to harm the people, receiving nothing but silence. Why are they still like this even when the ritual is over? Be it in the past or now, everything related to black witches is always troublesome.

I think I have no other choice but to ask for the white witches' help. We have to spend at least four hours on the journey, and yet, we won't even be able to guarantee their willingness. It's fairly possible that we could spend those four hours of journey in vain, but I suppose it's worth a shot. Spending those hours will be better than letting the black witches have it their way.

[Zeke] I mind-linked the man, wanting to entrust the task to him as he was the fastest wolf around. I looked around, searching for him, but stopped when I saw Violet behind me.

She still looked forlorn, only staying quiet the entire time. With her puffy eyes, she looked at our surroundings, finally noticing the people and the sigil on the ground. It looked like she was too lost in her own world that she didn't even notice she'd returned to where the villagers were.

"What… what's wrong with them?"

Zeke, who I had previously called, appeared and bowed, seemingly ready to receive his mission. I shifted my gaze between the two, wondering what decision I should make.

That's right. How can I forget? I have a white witch right here. Though she hasn't learned much about her magic, she's good enough to stop the ritual, no? Perhaps she could find a way to return these people without having us spend another four hours waiting for the other white witches to arrive.

"They have been like this ever since you stopped the ritual," I said, taking her hand in mine. She glanced at my hand, then at me. The confusion on her face was clear enough for me to see without her having to ask any questions. "Can you please lend me your help again? We need to find a way to return these people to normal."

"That's a given, isn't it?" She frowned a little at my question, seemingly unhappy to receive it. "I… I don't know if I can be any help, but… you don't need to ask such a question."

Hearing it, I smiled, happy to hear such words come from her lips. It just showed that we shared the same feeling, and we were both as willing to do anything for each other.

"Thank you," I said, still smiling widely, "You're definitely a big help. A wonderful and beautiful one, at that."

She gave me a small smile and nodded, returning her gaze at the people.. She then started scrutinizing them one by one, as if looking for any hint of magic—as I was—then released her hold on my hand. She started walking towards the sigil, staring and thinking hard, then held out her hand, asking, "Do you have a knife?"