Chapter 113: First Encounter Kill
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 113: First Encounter Kill
“The sea! The sea!”
“Welcome back, Teacher.”
Yohan, who had been resting in the hotel room, answered dryly as he watched his teacher burst through the door.
He had been focused on his book, so he hadn't quite heard what she said. Assuming it was just more of her usual nonsense, Yohan hadn't bothered to pay close attention.
Perhaps displeased by his attitude, Evangeline suddenly thrust her face right in front of Yohan's.
“The sea, Yohan.”
“...Teacher, I can't see my book.”
“The book isn't what's important—it's the sea!”
The sea, the sea, the sea.
It wasn't a word one would expect to hear in the dead of a snowy December winter.
People sometimes said that the winter sea had its own charm, but surely that wasn't enough to get this excited about.
“The sea... If you want to see it, why don't you just go with Margaret?”
“Nuh-uh, that's not it! Let's go swimming! Yohan!”
“...In this weather?”
Yohan said, glancing out the window. As if on cue, a cutting winter wind rattled the windowpane.
Yohan stood up and opened the window, and a fierce, frigid gust instantly flooded the room.
Beatrice, who was lying in bed wrapped snugly in her blanket, even let out a groan, “Ughh,” as the cold hit her.
“We'll freeze to death, Teacher.”
“It's fine! I found a place where we can swim even in this kind of winter!”
“Found? Where did you go?”
His teacher had been gone for less than an hour. To have found a beach suitable for swimming in the middle of winter in such a short time was something that defied common sense.
As he was tilting his head in confusion, Evangeline gave an awkward laugh and turned her head away.
“Umm... there's a place! Anyway, you're coming, right? You have to come. We're going!”
“...Well, if you're that excited about it, I guess I won't object.”
Seeing Evangeline already brimming with excitement, Yohan tilted his head and asked.
“So, where is this place?”
“Uh...”
Evangeline scratched her cheek and said.
“...I don't know either.”
“...Excuse me?”
“Ah, yes. I see. I'll do that.”
Evangeline immediately made a call and found out the location of the beach. Hearing the voice on the other end, Yohan realized it was the Emperor.
‘Don't tell me... she went to see the Emperor in that short time?’
Then again, she had left after reading the letter sent by the Emperor, so it was an easy guess.
The problem was, he had no idea what she went there for...
“Alright! Yohan, we have the location. Let's go!”
“Wait, can we just go like this? Without preparing swimsuits or anything?”
“They said we can rent everything there!”
Wherever she'd heard that, his teacher seemed desperate to drag him to the sea. And it was a disciple's duty to quietly follow his teacher's wishes.
Yohan silently followed her. As he did, he glanced over at the rest of their group.
“So, with that said, who wants to come with?”
The witches seemed to know full well how insane it was to go into the sea in the dead of winter. Thanks to that, no one was particularly eager to go.
Beatrice and Linne said they'd rather laze around the hotel, while Regina and Linna said they had other things to do and couldn't make it.
It was the same for Margaret, who could freely travel between the sea and the hotel anytime she wanted; she seemed to think there was no need to waste time riding a train.
“Take this with you. I'll come if I feel like it.”
“Ah, yes.”
She handed Yohan a small talisman before leaving to enjoy her leisure time.
With most of the witches having declined the winter sea trip, Evangeline already seemed delighted at the prospect of a seaside date alone with Yohan.
“I'll go too.”
“...Huh?”
“I said, I'm going.”
And she would have, had Hekaterina not ruined that date. Seeing her suddenly interject, Evangeline stared at her as if to ask, "Are you serious?"
Hekaterina just shrugged as if to say, "What's the problem?" Evangeline, taken aback by her attitude, replied in a flat, surprised tone.
“But, why you...?”
“I've never been to the sea.”
“For a reason like that? To the sea in winter?”
“It's my business where I go and when.”
Realizing she couldn't get rid of her, Evangeline lowered her head with a gloomy expression.
But she couldn't stay gloomy forever. She led Yohan and Hekaterina to the train platform.
“...Teacher, this is.”
“Yep, that's our train.”
She said, pointing to the train waiting at the platform. It was a super-luxurious train, the kind that even the considerably wealthy of this era would find difficult to board.
To be precise, it was a military train.
“We're riding this?”
“Yep!”
I haven't even done my military service, Yohan thought to himself as he boarded the train.
As befitting a train for soldiers, all the passengers were men.
Inside, there was a bar and a snack counter, and the clerk at the counter was a woman.
All the passengers were men, but all the crew members were women. Seeing the obvious intent behind the train's design, Yohan let out a small chuckle.
He figured that once this train reached its destination, there would be some action between the bikini-clad crew and the grunts. People tend to become more open-minded in open environments, after all.
“Yohan, want a snack?”
“No, I'm fine.”
“Really? How about a drink?”
“Not really.”
While dealing with an excited Evangeline who was tapping her feet and humming a tune, Yohan casually turned his head to look at the woman sitting next to them.
A blue-haired woman, not a single inch of bare skin showing from her fingertips to her toes.
Judging by the epaulets on her uniform, she was a soldier, but Yohan found it hard to believe that such a beautiful woman could achieve such a high rank in this era.
‘A witch.’
A train heading to the Empire's exclusive resort for soldiers, and a beautiful female soldier on board. Putting the pieces together, Yohan recalled what the Emperor had told him about the guardian witch who protected the Empire and realized this woman was her.
Fortunately, she seemed to have no interest in them, her eyes fixed intently on her book.
“Yohan? What are you looking at?”
“...Nothing. It's just rare to see a witch.”
“There's a witch here?”
Evangeline, who had been stealing glances at Yohan's face, finally realized that a witch was sitting next to them.
After confirming it was a witch, Evangeline frowned slightly and pulled the curtain over the window.
“Don't look anywhere else.”
“Okay.”
“Hehe, what should we do first when we get there?”
Just as he was getting cozy with Evangeline, whose mind was already at the beach, Hekaterina, who had gone to get a drink, opened the cabin door and came in.
“...What are you two doing?”
“Ah, Rina! Let me have one.”
“What? Hey, I got that for me...!”
“Oh, what's the big deal?”
Hekaterina, whose drink was snatched by Evangeline the moment she returned, frowned slightly, but Evangeline paid her no mind and sat down.
Frowning in disbelief, Hekaterina sat down and muttered.
“We'll see how long I'm the only one losing things.”
“People who say 'we'll see' are never scary.”
“Hmph, is that so?”
Hekaterina scoffed and turned her gaze to Yohan. As he met her sudden stare and tilted his head, her violet eyes began to scan him up and down.
Feeling a sense of unease from her gaze, Yohan looked away.
The train ran on, heading for a resort with an unknown arrival time.
The moment they arrived at the resort, Yohan felt like he was suffocating. The clothes he'd worn for the Empire's midwinter weather were unbearably stuffy here.
Taking off his overcoat, Yohan headed to the hotel, tossed his clothes in his room, and changed into a short-sleeved shirt he had packed just in case.
Evangeline and Hekaterina, apparently unable to stand the heat either, changed into thin, summer-appropriate clothes.
“Alright, then! Rina and I will go rent swimsuits, so you go on ahead and save us a spot, Yohan!”
“Huh? Oh, okay. Understood.”
Like the wind, Evangeline took Hekaterina and vanished.
Watching them go, Yohan rented a swimsuit, a parasol, and a bench from a nearby shop and headed for the shore.
Countless soldiers were already enjoying the resort by the sea, wearing nothing but swim trunks.
As a civilian at a military-exclusive resort, Yohan had no desire to rub shoulders with the soldiers, so he walked along the shore in search of an empty spot.
Before long, he noticed that one section of the beach was completely empty. He moved over to that area and immediately began setting up the bench and parasol.
“You shouldn't come here.”
“Huh? Ah...”
Turning his head at the sudden voice, he saw the blue-haired witch from the train speaking to him.
Hearing such a strange warning out of the blue, Yohan tilted his head and asked.
“What do you mean, I shouldn't be here...?”
“Because ‘I’ am here. The private beach for nobles is over there.”
“...Is it a curse?”
“You catch on quick. Yes. It's a curse.”
She said, raising her hand. Despite being on a beach where everyone else was openly showing skin, she was completely covered from head to toe.
From the pure white gloves that covered her entire arms to the matching white stockings that seemed to declare she would never show a bit of bare skin.
“A curse that freezes everything I touch... Thanks to the Empire's help, I can manage daily life, but you never know if we might touch, so be caref— Wh-what are you doing!?”
“Oh, it's fine if I touch you. I was just curious what was underneath these.”
Adelheid snapped at Yohan for suddenly pulling at her glove, covering herself as she backed away.
“D-don't come any closer. If you touch me, you'll freeze solid...”
“I told you, it's fine.”
Yohan said, casually tapping her cheek. By all rights, his hand should have frozen solid, but surprisingly, it was perfectly fine.
He waved his unharmed hand in front of her face, showing it off.
“...No, how can this be.”
Stunned by a phenomenon she had never witnessed in her entire life, Adelheid stared intently at Yohan.
...The warmth his touch had left behind began to burn on her cheek.