Chapter 173 - The Strongest Witch - Part 1

Ignacio? It was the first time I had heard of the name. 

I turned to Maggie, wanting to ask her if she knew about the witch, but found her laughing at the baby tiger's remark. 

"How come he's the most powerful witch when I've never heard of him?" She guffawed, assuming that the tiger had just spouted a joke to lighten the mood. "Is he your neighbor?" 

The tiger gasped yet again, then tugged at my feet with his little paws.

"Master, why are you hanging out with these imbeciles? They don't even know who Master Ignacio is!" 

Uh… how should I explain this?

"I hate to break it to you, but… I also don't know who Ignacio is," I told him, making him stumble and fall back to his bum. "L-listen, I really think that you've got the wrong person. I'm not your master. It must be only a coincidence that we were born on the same day." 

"You are! You—you must be…" His voice trembled, eventually becoming more unsure of the truth. His excitement and bubbliness gradually faded, replaced by sadness and loneliness. It must have shattered his heart. He had waited for his master for so long, and now that he thought he had found the purpose of his life, it turned out to be the wrong person. "If you are not my master, then who is?"

He let his body fall to the ground, hiding his face under his paws. Then came the sniffles, the cry of the little baby tiger. 

"H-he's crying!" Andrew shouted, and I've been told that a crying creature was one of his weaknesses. "It's not me! I didn't make him cry!" He announced, then ran to hide behind the bushes. 

Jack, seeing the tiger cry, offered him the bear he had just caught before. He thought it would cheer him up to see good food, but it only made him cry even louder. Apparently, he was afraid of bears. Coco was the only exception.

"Just leave him be," Maggie said, as she couldn't care less about the crying tiger. She started packing her bag, preparing herself to continue our journey. "We have places to go, and we don't have the time to wipe the tears off this kid."

"But…" I hesitated, not knowing what to do. Though Maggie was right, it didn't feel right to leave the tiger alone. 

Before I could decide what to do, Coco walked closer to the tiger, putting a paw on his back. Unlike his indifferent owner, it looked like Coco cared enough about the tiger to try to comfort him. Perhaps the fight from before created a certain connection between them.

When the tiger looked up to see whose paw it was, Coco's paw moved from his back, going up to his face, then—POW!!

"Coco!!"

Coco punched the tiger.

…

"Ah! So you're here to look for the Wishing Tree?" The tiger asked, bouncing a little as he walked beside me. "It's still a bit far from here."

After Coco punched the tiger, a little fight occurred between them, and we had no other choice but to ask him to come travel with us out of guilt. Fortunately, our little company seemed to have lightened his mood. He must have been lonely.

"Have you ever been there before?" I asked as I nodded to his question, smiling at how adorable he was. He was so small, standing shorter than my knees.

"Of course! It's one of the best places to take—" the tiger stumbled, tripping at a rock on the ground but quickly got onto his feet and acted as if nothing happened. "—a nap!"

Gosh, could he be any more adorable than this? I thought tigers were scary, but perhaps the storybooks I used to read were telling lies. How silly of them to publish a book without confirming the accuracy of its contents.

"Why?" I asked, trying hard to give him a proper response rather than squealing over his adorableness.

"Because the weather is always good up there," he replied, and I knew it's not relevant, but I wonder what his name was. "The flowers and trees are always kind, and even the birds sing the best there."

"It sounds like a wonderful place," I said, making him nod vigorously.

After walking for some time, we finally arrived at the foot of the colorful mountain I saw before. Thankfully, the sky is clear and the sun is bright, causing the mountain to welcome us with delight.

Flowers bloomed in all their grace at every step we took, filling the air with their wonderful scents. The scene that we were beholding was colourful, and everything seemed to be at peace in this place. The wind that blew as the trees swayed was soft and gentle, lulling the few rabbits and deer to sleep.

Maggie went crazy as there were a lot of ingredients that she could use to make her upcoming potions. I heard her whispering to herself that she would definitely make a potion to kill off bats in one go. From Maggie, I learned that grudges are scary.

Unlike Maggie, who found this place to be like heaven, Jack found the place to be hellish. It seemed that he was allergic to a certain flower amongst the group. He couldn't stop sneezing, and Andrew couldn't stop laughing at him whenever a snot escaped his nose.

"Wow, you could make a whole waterfall with that amount of snot," Andrew jeered, and out of annoyance, Jack walked closer and wiped his nose with Andrew's shirt. "AAAHHH!!"

Andrew and Jack then started a game of tag, with Andrew desperate to swap his shirt with Jack's. I found that Andrew had quite a few things that he disliked. If squirrels and crying creatures were the second and third things that he disliked the most, being dirty was the first. Jack knew about it and made good use of that knowledge. He seemed to have had enough of Andrew, after a few long years of self-restraint.

Is it the place? Everyone seemed to be a lot livelier.

"Master? Why are your brows drawn together?" The little tiger asked, tilting his head as he looked up at me. If not for him, I wouldn't even have noticed that I was frowning.

"I-is it?" I quickly laughed in response, not wanting to make him worry. "I'm only exercising my face muscles. It feels a bit stiff today," I told him, but even for me, it didn't sound very convincing. "Well, to tell the truth, I'm worried about my mate. He's very sick right now, and I couldn't help but wonder if he's eating well—or if he's even conscious at all."

The tiger nodded his head, and the look on his face became dimmer.

"Did you come all the way here to wish for the Wishing Tree's fruit to cure his illness?" He asked, to which I replied yes. "I'm sure the Wishing Tree will be willing to give you its fruit. The Wishing Tree is very kind to kind people."

"Have you ever wished for anything from the Wishing Tree?"

"I have," he replied, a wry smile on his face. "But it couldn't grant me my wish."

"What did you wish for?" I asked.

"I wished for my parents to be back," he said, lowering his head, perhaps to hide the tears that were welling up in his eyes. "I was afraid I'd forget about them one day, so I wished to be with them again, but the Wishing Tree told me that it couldn't bring back the dead. Instead, it brought them into my dreams every night so I wouldn't forget them. The Wishing Tree is very kind."

He's… a lot like me. We both lost our parents at a young age, leaving us to carry on with the void in our hearts left by the space they once occupied. I struggled day after day to accept the fact that I no longer have my loving parents, but even after so many years passed by, it's still hard to accept the truth. Does he feel the same?

At the same time as our conversation that was turning more depressing, the sky above us was also turning. The bright blue sky was no longer, replaced by the gloomy grey that came with a storm. The calm and gentle breeze turned harsher, swaying the trees off their roots. The flowers died, and the birds cried.

The change was so quick that we didn't have the chance to prepare ourselves.

"M-master! We have to hurry and hide!" The little tiger shouted, making his voice louder to fight the ferocity of the wind. "If we stay outside during a storm, we will wake the—"

"GROAAARRRRRR!!" A deafening, earth-shattering roar filled the entire space, drawing the attention of those preoccupied with their own worlds. Maggie quickly hid the flowers she'd plucked behind her back, while Andrew and Jack, who were still attempting to swap their shirts, quickly made up when they heard the roar.

"—the spirit bear!!"