Chapter 181: To Earth
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 181: To Earth
“Um, I’m going to pop over to my hometown for a bit.”
“Wha- Whaaat?”
Hearing Yohan’s words, Evangeline tilted her head and stared at him as if she had misheard. Go? Where was he going?
His hometown was Earth. A separate world whose very existence was dubious even to witches like her, a place that not even Margaret, the witch of space, could ever reach.
A world that, even if he somehow managed to return to it, he could never be sure of crossing back from.
He was going to a place like that?
“N-No way!”
She didn't even know how he could go, but her first instinct was to stubbornly insist that he couldn't. He might not be able to come back. The fear of being separated from Yohan forever was just that terrifying.
But Yohan just smiled brightly and began to soothe her.
“It's not a permanent farewell, Teacher.”
“But still…!”
“If you want, would you like to come with me?”
“Huh…?”
Pausing for a moment, Evangeline’s eyes sparkled as she looked up at Yohan.
“I can!?”
“I don't know if it's possible… No, it's definitely possible. Yes. As long as you're okay with it, Teacher.”
“Then I'll go! I want to see it!”
If that was the case, then it was a different story. If she could stick right by his side and go to his hometown with him, she wouldn't have to worry about him never coming back.
If they were returning together instead of him going alone, it would be a kind of trip. And even if they went there and could never return to this world, it didn't matter.
For Evangeline, Yohan himself was far more precious than all the connections she had made in this world.
“When are you thinking of going?”
“Well…”
He didn't know when he would be able to go. But Illeija herself had said that such negative thoughts were not helpful.
Quite the opposite. What was important was the confidence that he could do anything. God had said that with such confidence, self-hypnosis, and mental victory, a human could become anything.
Then that's what he had to do. Mental victory.
I can do it.
I can become anything I want to be.
The entire universe will help me.
“You want to learn spatial movement?”
“Yes.”
Margaret tilted her head as she looked at Yohan, who had come to see her. He wanted to learn magic? Was magic something you could learn just by wanting to?
According to her common sense, it wasn't, but Yohan looked at her with eyes completely devoid of doubt. His gaze was so full of conviction that it made Margaret wonder if she herself was mistaken.
Seeing that look, Margaret nodded as if to say, what's the harm?
“Alright, fine. If you want to learn, you want to learn. But it might not work out, you know? I'm warning you, okay?”
“Yes, I’m in your hands, Margaret.”
Margaret smiled faintly at Yohan. This was a chance to monopolize him under the pretext of magic lessons.
Spreading her arms wide, Margaret rested her chin on her hand and began to ponder what to teach first. A moment later, she decided to show him how she cast her magic.
“Well, you’ve used magic scrolls a few times, so you probably know, but… spatial magic is—.”
She slowly began to explain the basics of spatial magic, casting a spell above her palm. A tiny circle began to cycle continuously over her hand.
It looked like a very simple act, but the reality was anything but. She was changing the position of the air in real-time, every fraction of a second.
As the displaced space continued to connect in sequence, it looked as if the air itself was squirming and moving on its own—a technique often used in movies and anime, artifacts of Earth's culture.
“Hmm—so it's something like this.”
Yohan closed his eyes and imagined himself manipulating space just as Margaret had done. Controlling the subconscious was no easy task, but spatial magic was different.
He already had experience using spatial magic several times. Based on that experience, he envisioned himself using magic without a scroll inscribed by Regina's recording magic.
‘I can do it. I can do it.’
As he imagined himself wielding magic, the air in his palm began to shift slowly, just as it had for Margaret. Margaret, who had been smiling cheerfully beside him, froze, her expression hardening as she watched.
The very idea of a human using magic was like a bolt from the blue, something she had never once experienced. And he was copying a spell after seeing it just once? Was that even remotely possible?
Even if it is my disciple…
She couldn't believe it. And he didn't even have a scroll with the magic recorded on it. He had just used magic on his own! This was even more shocking than the fact that the witches' curses didn't work on him.
And at the same time—she began to covet his secret.
“How did you do that, Disciple?”
“I just did it, and it worked.”
“…Huh?”
But the answer he gave was utterly absurd. I just did it, and it worked? It wasn't like magic could be used as easily as haggling at a marketplace. In the first place, did it make any sense that one could use another witch's magic just by having magic power?
If that were possible, the witches would have gathered together, shared and taught each other their magic, and then annihilated all the church members and Holy Knights who had persecuted them. They wouldn't have been captured, tortured, and killed instead.
“Are you serious?”
“Well, there was a trick to it.”
“What is it!?”
“It’s simple.”
Yohan took Margaret's hand and carefully opened his mouth.
“You just have to believe you can do it.”
“…What is that supposed to mean?”
“Ah, I can use this magic. I can do it. Once you truly believe that… like this.”
Swoosh—.
Using the magic once more, Yohan smiled in satisfaction at the now-familiar activation and then dispelled his spell.
Margaret stared at him as if he were spouting utter nonsense.
“Believe you can do it… How do you do that?”
“Pardon?”
“I'm asking how you 'believe you can do it.' Does that make any sense? Logically?”
Hearing her words, Yohan paused and looked at Margaret. It was because he sensed something strange in her words.
‘It doesn't make sense logically? So you can't do it?’
What on earth did that mean? Imagination wasn't an exclusive trait of humans; hadn't it been proven that even animals like dolphins have the intelligence to imagine things?
After thinking for a moment, Yohan realized this wasn't just her problem. It wasn't only the witches; the humans, too, used divine power solely for killing witches.
‘Come to think of it, even though Elesis is a Holy Knight, she couldn't use any cleric-like skills such as healing or purification.’
She could ‘purify’ heretics by crushing their skulls with her ‘Purifying Mace,’ but she couldn't purify filth or heal wounds.
If they could, the Holy Knights would have been called ‘holy-roaches’ and become even more troublesome enemies.
But the Holy Knights of this world didn't do that.
‘Why?’
What was the reason?
Pondering the question, it didn't take long for Yohan to realize the answer.
Magic and divine power existed in this world. Supernatural abilities, not science.
Powers that humans hadn't achieved on their own, but abilities that simply appeared and disappeared without warning.
It had stolen people's ability to think for themselves and imagine what wasn't there.
In contrast, Yohan came from 21st-century Earth, a world without magic or divine power, where humans had conquered the planet with their own strength and wisdom.
Humanity, which had built up its wisdom to communicate in real-time with the other side of the globe and had finally succeeded in sending creatures made of water, carbon, and a few other elements into outer space and to the moon of a planet, was steeped in the confidence that it could do anything.
That difference created the gap between him and the people of this other world.
‘Humans are beings who can do anything… but for the people of this world, that's not the case.’
Yohan smiled at the difference, realizing that the method of returning to Earth was also something he had to do himself.
There was no way a witch trapped in the shackles of common sense could open a portal to Earth.
How much time had passed since he began training with Margaret? Yohan finally succeeded in creating a portal back to Earth.
He told his teacher and the other witches, gathering anyone who wanted to go to his hometown with him. Naturally, all the witches wanted to go to Earth with him.
Even Makina, who was supposed to be in the Empire, joined them midway.
“Alright, I’m opening it.”
Yohan carefully opened the portal and looked at the world that unfolded beyond it. Just like the Empire of the distant future he had seen not long ago—a square, concrete jungle greeted them.
“…This is.”
“My hometown.”
He said, puffing out his chest and taking a deep breath.
The familiar smell of fine dust filled his nostrils.
Yohan had returned to 21st-century Earth. By his own power.