Chapter 172: Strange
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 172: Strange
Yohan's days were incredibly monotonous. Every morning, he would wake up, exercise, and when he was done, he would return to the cabin to prepare a simple breakfast.
Before, he used to prepare everything by himself, but—these days, the witches had gotten the hint and started sharing the chores.
He would prepare breakfast with Agapeite, and the large group of ten would eat together. After the meal, they would enjoy a short break before heading to the Empire to get ingredients for the afternoon.
Margaret's spatial magic handled the travel, but the members who went with him were always different. The witches had set up a rotation to take turns enjoying a date with Yohan.
While Yohan was out shopping for groceries, the witches would take care of the cleaning and laundry on their own. It was work that could be done in an instant with magic, so much so that they felt sorry for not having done it themselves until now.
When Yohan returned from shopping, accompanied by a witch with a flushed face and panting breath, the witch whose turn it was for the morning would cling to him to receive his essence.
It was a ritual to periodically remove the curse, and for this moment, she could have Yohan all to herself.
Once the morning routine was over, they would have lunch, lightly wash off their sweat, and then he would have sex with the witch whose turn it was in the afternoon. Then dinner, and before bed, he'd have relations with the witch for the night shift...
‘Am I a stud horse?’
Physically, it wasn't difficult, but mentally, it was draining enough to make him think that. At least four times a day. On some days, it could be five or even six times.
And that was just when every witch came once. If they had stamina left over and demanded a second or third round, the number of times Yohan had to ejaculate that day would increase exponentially.
Thanks to this, Yohan's skills in foreplay, ejaculation control, and hip movements had recently begun to skyrocket.
But even that wasn't enough. If modern neuroscientists were to scan Yohan's brain, they would all say the same thing: ‘This is a severe case of dopamine addiction.’
Due to the nature of dopamine receptors, whose threshold increases with every sensation of pleasure, Yohan's brain, which was ejaculating four or five times a day, was completely fried.
‘How sad.’
He was depressed. So overwhelmed he couldn't even feel such emotions. His mind was always foggy, and he could only move passively, like a machine.
There was no way the witches, who were always skin-to-skin with Yohan, wouldn't notice. The problem was that even in this state, Yohan acted without much difference from his usual self.
And so, rather than worrying about Yohan's condition, they ended up waiting for someone else to step up first and give up their turn so he could rest.
For these and various other reasons, one day, Yohan simply stopped moving, like a broken doll.
“Yohan?”
Evangeline, who had appeared before Yohan while stroking her now quite swollen belly, watched him stare blankly into space and waved her hand frantically in front of his eyes.
But no matter how much she waved, Yohan didn't react. Only much later did he seem to notice Evangeline was there, letting out a simple, “Ah—.”
“…Teacher, when did you get here?”
“Just now. More importantly, you….”
“Ah, it's already that time— I should get going, then. It's Adelheid's turn.”
With that, Yohan simply walked off somewhere. Watching him go, Evangeline thought he might just wander away forever.
He really did look like he would. What did they call that? Delirium? Dementia?
In any case, it wasn't a good sign. Even to her untrained eye, he looked like he needed professional, long-term treatment.
“Emergency. Emergeeency—!”
Evangeline immediately summoned the witches. Adelheid, who was enjoying her turn, didn't come, but they needed someone to keep Yohan occupied anyway, so it couldn't be helped.
After gathering all the witches in one place, Evangeline made an announcement.
“From today on, no more getting lovey-dovey with Yohan!”
“……What?”
“No more draining Yohan, I said! It's forbidden!”
Hearing her words, all the witches scowled and glared at her at once. Feeling their murderous gazes, Evangeline took a stance, as if daring them to attack.
The witches' magic power surged, and the heated atmosphere was on the verge of erupting into a fight when— Hekaterina propped both her feet on the table with a thud and asked.
“And why should we do that?”
“─Something's wrong with Yohan.”
“Then you should have said that from the start, you stupid bitch. Starting a fight for no reason.”
Hekaterina's point stung Evangeline, but she couldn't deny it. In her haste, she had indeed misspoken.
Hearing that something was wrong with Yohan, the other witches nodded in agreement, as if they too had sensed it to some extent.
“But is it that serious? When he was with me, he just seemed a little out of it.”
“Yeah. A little while ago, he didn't even seem to know I was standing in front of him. If this keeps up, Yohan might really break.”
“……It's that bad?”
Margaret looked at Evangeline in disbelief. She couldn't imagine her lying. Making such a proposal meant that she, too, would be staying away from Yohan.
Everyone here knew that she loved Yohan more than anyone else, so for her to be the one to bring this up meant his condition was truly serious.
“─You're forgetting the most important thing.”
As the witches began to agree with Evangeline's proposal one by one, Hekaterina sneered at them, asking if they hadn't forgotten something.
“Is keeping our distance from him really going to cure him?”
“……Well.”
“Regina, can you cure him?”
At Hekaterina's question, Regina began to flip through the records in her grimoire. After reviewing all the medical knowledge recorded from the past, Regina remained silent for a moment before shaking her head.
“I don't know.”
“What do you mean, you don't know? You're the Witch of Records! Shouldn't you have all the medical knowledge humanity has ever accumulated?”
“Records are, quite literally, things that have happened in the past. They don't contain everything that might happen in the future.”
Regina went on to explain that humanity had never made any significant breakthroughs in the field of the ‘brain’; it was still an unknown territory.
As a witch who could only read records, she couldn't reach a realm no one else had ever reached.
After all, Regina was a witch who excelled at imitating others, but was incapable of creating something new.
“……Then what do we do now?”
Evangeline clutched her belly and slowly began to crumble. Yohan was breaking, and there was nothing they could do.
What if Yohan died like this? What if, because of their greed, he completely broke down and crossed a river of no return?
This guilt would eat away at them. And one day, it would surpass its limits and affect the world.
Margaret looked at the dejected witches and thought that this scene looked very familiar.
‘This is…….’
It was similar to how the witches looked back then—when Agapeite had sent her to the distant future. Though this was assuming that the currently gloomy witches would, with a bit more time, become completely broken.
“What are you all sniveling for?”
Just then, Hekaterina shot to her feet and spoke with confidence.
“Leave it to me. There's a way to solve this kind of thing.”
“……To you?”
“Yeah, me.”
Hearing this, the witches began to hesitate. Hekaterina wasn't the type to worsen the situation by taking Yohan away under the pretext of ‘curing’ him only to fuck him like a dog, as Evangeline or Margaret might, but she wasn't exactly trustworthy either.
What was their first meeting with her like? Margaret had nearly pissed herself, and Evangeline had almost died after losing Yohan.
It was like entrusting a fish to a hippo. It might not intentionally eat the fish, but if you left it nearby, it could naturally get crushed....
“What are you waiting for? You guys want to do it instead? You got a plan?”
However, since no one else was stepping forward confidently to cure Yohan—in the end, Hekaterina was put in charge of him.
Hekaterina pointed to herself and grinned as if to say, ‘Don't worry.’
“Just trust me.”
After his session with Adelheid, Yohan trudged out into the living room and realized the atmosphere in the cabin was rather strange.
A more dejected mood than usual washed over him. The witches he knew weren't the type to create such an atmosphere, so he tilted his head in confusion and approached them—only for Hekaterina to immediately grab him by the scruff of his neck.
“……Hekaterina?”
“Come with me for a bit.”
“Where─.”
Before he could even get out the words, ‘It's not even your turn today,’ Hekaterina signaled Margaret. Margaret teleported the two of them to the prearranged location.
Instantly arriving atop a mountain range, Yohan stared at Hekaterina as if to ask what the hell she was doing.
“Hey, you— what the hell are you doing….”
“Starting today— we begin hellish survival training.”
“……What?”
Before he could even question her incomprehensible words, Hekaterina shoved him right off the cliff.
Falling from the towering cliff, Yohan looked up at Hekaterina with shocked eyes.
“See you if you survive!”
“What kind of crazy shit is that—!”
And so, Yohan fell down the cliff.