CH 14

Towards the east, there was a witch’s territory. There was a girl slumped over a mountain of stuffed animals.

“Bo-ri-ng, bo-ri-ng, booo-riii-nnggg!”

She repeats the word “boring” while on her pile of stuffed animals, kicking her legs.

“I wonder if there’s going to be a war, maybe I’ll pick a fight with the Witch of the South, maybe I’ll take over the world.”

Everything she said was catastrophic, but all of them were empty and without passion.

“Lady Witch,” someone said.

The girl buried in her mountain of stuffed animals reacts to the call.

In the center of the witch’s large room, a hooded woman kneels, bows her head, and begins her report.

“Whaaaat iisss iiiit?” the Witch whines, bored. “I’m not in the best mood right now, I’ll get angry if you say it’s something stupid.”

“One of the magic machines of my subordinates has disappeared,” the woman said.

“Disappeared…?” the Witch said, sitting up and facing her hooded follower. “Hohou, that’s fun, isn’t it? Is it the Knights of the Holy Empire again? They’re pretty fun.”

“It was not the Knights of the Holy Empire who made the magic machine disappear this time,” the follower said.

“How do you know?”

“Until now, the magic machines destroyed by the Knights of the Holy Empire were only ‘destroyed’ to its last component. This time it’s ‘disappeared,’ in a fight with those same knights.”

“You mean, it’s completely disappeared from existence?” the Witch asked.

“Yes,” the follower says.

The Witch’s expression changes. She jumps off the mountain of stuffed animals, she looks at the hooded woman’s face and speaks with a grin.

“What are you saying, is there some idiot who opposes the witches (besides us)?”

“I don’t know, but I think we need to find out,” the follower said.

“Hmm, that’s fun, isn’t it?” the Witch said.

As the two spoke, several men came running into the witch’s room.

“Lady Witch,” one of them said, “please forgive us for barging in suddenly and uninvited, but we have something we must tell you.”

The hooded woman speaks to cut him off: “A witch kindred entering the Witch’s room without permission is a crime worthy of death.”

Then, the hooded servant turns her hands to blades, displaying her intent to attack the witch kindred. The men, her “subordinates,” were frightened by her power and aura and tried to run away, sounding terrified.

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“Fatesy!” the Witch cried. “Come on, these boys have a reason, don’t they?”

Fates, the hooded woman, stopped at her mistress’s words, her hands returned to normal and she asked the witch kindred: “You seek an audience without invitation, you must have a good reason, yes?”

“Ye-Ye-Yes,” the witch kindred whimpered, “the magic machine I got from our Lady Witch has been destroyed… I’m, begging for forgiveness.”

The Witch’s face changes.

“Could it be you guys are the ones who just had their magic machine destroyed?”

“No, well, yes, you’re right,” the witch kindred says.

“Tell me more, I’m very interested,” the Witch says.

The one hanging his head before the Witch was part of the witch kindred Lulurun beat to a pulp earlier.

“So, the magic machine that Lady Witch gave me suddenly disappeared,” the witch kindred said.

“No, tell me in detail, who did it and how did they make it disappear?” the Witch said.

She was smiling, but you could hear her bit of frustration at her witch kindred not answering as she expected.

“A, a woman, a young woman, a young, cute woman,” the witch kindred said.

“A woman?” Fates interrupted. “Was it someone from the Knights of the Holy Empire?”

But, the Witch stops her and lets the witch kindred continue talking.

“There was also a Knight of the Holy Empire, but no, the woman had blue hair in a fluttery dress who could use magic,” he said.

“What did you just say?” the Witch said with an eerie smile.

“It seems that she was fighting with the Knight of the Holy Emperor at first, but the next thing I knew, the magic machine disappeared from some spell I’d never seen, and I’m begging for your forgiveness,” the witch kindred said, pressing his forehead to the ground in apology.

“Was that woman a witch?” the Witch said.

“The thing is, I don’t…” the witch kindred started.

With a small hand, the Witch grabbed the face of the witch kindred speaking to her.

“Ah, gah… bah…” he choked.

“A woman who uses magic is a witch, isn’t she?” the Witch said. “There are no witches other than us. Do you think someone else can just hide their existence and cast spells willy-nilly? If there are more witches than us Four, the balance would be lost, and that would be a terrible, awful thing, wouldn’t it?”

The Witch’s grip on his face is like a vise, the witch kindred desperately, and wordlessly pleads to her to let him go.

“This is fun, so I’m going to give you a chance,” the Witch said.

“Hagah… agah…!”

She forcibly opens the witch kindred’s mouth.

“Ga, hah, stop, gah,” he groans.

“I’ll give you my blood, so you’ll fight the woman again, and it doesn’t matter if you win or lose, I don’t care, ‘kay?”

The Witch bites her index finger and draws blood, drop-by-drop, bewitching and powerful, the magic and meaning in this blood is great, it means that a witch kindred is closer to their master and their magical power has been increased.

Blood slowly drips from that finger onto the witch kindred’s tongue.

“AAAAAHHHHHHHHH!”

The witch kindred who swallowed the blood glows red, the cronies he came with are frightened by the sight and run.

The red glow subsides, and the witch kindred slowly and silently stands up.

“Well then, do your best alright, ah, and that’s right,” the Witch said.

She takes a black doll from the mountain of stuffed animals and hands it to the witch kindred.

“This is a new magic machine, I think it’ll be a lot stronger than the one before,” she said.

The witch kindred who received the toy silently turned on his heels and left the Witch’s room.

“Fatesy, go check it out, I think he’s going to lose anyway, but there’s that woman,” the Witch said.

“Shall I just be observing?” Fates asked.

“Yes, go and take a close look,” the Witch said. “If it looks fun, let me know… and then, I’ll come directly to you, alright?”

“I understand,” Fates said, bowing lightly and disappearing from the spot with transfer magic.

“My, oh my, oh my, whoever you are, you’d be better be prepared for interrupting my playtime, u-fuu-fuu.”

Now alone, the Witch laughs happily, like a child who’s found a new toy.