Chapter 189: The Box Is Opened
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 189: The Box Is Opened
Yohan wasn't the only one trapped inside the building. Hekaterina was there as well.
Of course, there was no way modern industry and technology could truly contain a witch, but the lecture she’d received from Yohan beforehand restrained her actions.
In the end, she allowed herself to be confined in the basement, complaining aloud in the tiny room.
“Hey~ I’m getting bored. When can I leave?”
[Please wait just a little longer. Our researchers haven’t arrived yet…]
“Research? Who are you planning to research?”
[…]
No answer came. Hekaterina felt a flicker of irritation. So, the people of this world are the same. Both here and in her own world, there was no shortage of fools trying to exploit a witch’s power.
If Yohan hadn’t told her not to cause a scene, she would have buried this entire pathetic building and been on her way.
Ugh, so annoying. Why do I have to be considerate of these humans?
Hekaterina had spent her entire life being chased by witch hunters and holy knights; she had nothing but bad memories of humans.
It was only natural that she despised them and treated them like bugs. Individually, they were pathetic insects incapable of anything, but when they gathered in groups, they were nothing but repulsive.
The very idea that these bugs had locked her up and were planning to experiment on her was infuriating.
“Hmm… let’s see~ Yohan, are you listening? If you don’t come rescue me right now, I’m just going to tear this place apart.”
Hekaterina began speaking to the empty air. Naturally, there was no way Yohan would come to her rescue.
When there was no response, Hekaterina stood up and began to stretch.
She figured that if her causing a scene here was truly a problem, Agapeite would have already turned back time—long before she was even brought here—and scolded her alongside Yohan.
“Hey, you guys. Are you listening? I’m leaving. If you open the door quietly, I’ll spare your lives.”
[…What are you talking about? Please stand by.]
“Okay, you’re the one who refused.”
With a smirk, Hekaterina immediately used her magic and began to swell her body. Seeing her body transform, the facility manager immediately sealed the door and pumped sleeping gas into the room.
He assumed that since Hekaterina was a living being, she had to breathe, and inhaling the gas would inevitably knock her out.
But he was wrong. She was not the Witch of Biology, but the Witch of Fear.
She wasn’t transforming into a fearsome ‘creature.’
She was transforming into a creature of ‘fear.’
Bubble, bubble.
Swelling like a boiling cauldron, black masses of flesh filled the room, shattering the sealed door with sheer mass alone.
The agents in the hallway saw the flesh emerge and began to scream in terror.
“Wh-what is that!?”
“G-guards!”
It was a disaster born from the fact that most of the personnel stationed at the facility were scientists, far removed from actual combat and softened by peace.
Hekaterina began to devour the agents, slowly filling the entire facility.
Oh? Time still isn’t turning back?
Dozens were dead.
Yet, time did not rewind.
In that case, there was no need to hesitate.
Accelerando.
Faster and faster.
The flesh began to fill the space.
*
“Yohan… Yohan is gone.”
Evangeline, who had been sleeping more and more lately, woke up and immediately realized Yohan was nowhere to be seen.
She rushed into the living room and called the other witches, asking where he was. But no one, not even Agapeite who had been with him last, knew his whereabouts.
“Makina! Where’s Yohan!?”
“Why are you asking me… I think some people took him.”
“‘Some people’? Why did you just stand there and watch them take him!?”
“Because Yohan went with them willingly…?”
If Yohan had thought they were dangerous and not guests, he would have immediately shouted for the witches.
A single witch present was enough to take on the entire United States, so there was no one Yohan would be too afraid to speak out against.
So, since he went along quietly, she had assumed they were his guests and saw no reason to interfere…
“Should I find out where he is?”
“Hurry, find him quickly. No, wait. I’ll just… I’ll just go to the past.”
Evangeline said this as she looked at Agapeite, who had just come out of the shower. Agapeite, who had been smiling brightly at Evangeline, shook her head as if to say that wasn’t possible.
“I can’t regress anymore.”
“What? What are you talking about? I’m just asking you to go back a little bit.”
“From this moment on. No one can return to the past. Not even if Yohan himself asked.”
Stroking her stomach, Agapeite offered a faint smile.
“I can’t let my child disappear.”
“…You.”
Hearing her words, Evangeline instantly understood their meaning and let out a hollow laugh.
After all that time they’d spent together, she had finally conceived Yohan’s child. And just like Evangeline herself, Agapeite would do anything to protect her child.
“…Right. Congratulations.”
“What? Why did you get pregnant first?”
Margaret, who had been watching TV on the side, glared at Agapeite—who was practically her clone—with a dumbfounded expression.
Despite all her efforts to get pregnant, even using spatial magic to teleport the sperm directly to her ovaries the moment she received it, she hadn’t succeeded. She never imagined the newcomer would beat her to it.
As she glared daggers at Agapeite, Beatrice, who had been watching an anime on TV without any interest in their conversation, suddenly turned her head.
“…It snapped.”
“Huh? Beatrice, what did?”
“The thread.”
Beatrice said this as she lifted a long thread connected by magic power. It was the red thread that bound her and Yohan.
It was something that should never break unless something terrible happened, yet it had suddenly snapped.
And for a magical thread, invisible and untouchable by physical means, to be severed meant only one thing—.
“A witch cut the thread.”
It meant someone had used powerful magic near Yohan.
Without any regard for whether he lived or died.
Hearing this, the witches’ expressions changed in an instant. They immediately turned to Margaret.
Margaret grabbed Beatrice’s shoulder and asked where the thread had been severed.
“Where is it?”
“In this direction… about 20 kilometers away.”
“Seoul. Got it.”
The next moment, Margaret vanished. The other witches shrieked.
“Agh! That damn witch, she went alone…!”
“She’s trying to look cool for Yohan all by herself…!”
They couldn’t miss the chance to look good for Yohan. The witches immediately threw open the windows and took to the sky.
The next moment, Seoul’s air defense radar began to blare like crazy.
*
SPLASH—!
A splash of ice-cold water jolted him awake. Yohan opened his eyes and frowned at the sight of a cheerfully smiling agent.
I feel nauseous.
He glanced to the side and saw something stuck in his arm. A needle was connected to a tube, which in turn was connected to a bag from which an unknown liquid dripped.
“…Do you people still use torture these days?”
“Torture? What are you talking about? Oh, sorry about spilling the water. It was mine, my mistake.”
The agent chuckled. It was obviously intentional, but Yohan couldn’t argue.
His body wasn’t in a normal state. He felt like he would throw up the moment he opened his mouth. Only then did he realize what was being injected into him.
A truth serum, or some kind of psychoactive drug.
Something designed to make him spill everything he knew.
“Wow, but—this is really interesting. You could write a novel. Another world, witches…”
Ah, so they had already gotten everything out of him.
Yohan sighed inwardly and stared up at the agent.
“…After hearing all that, you can still afford to be so calm?”
“According to what’s written here, you’re something of a spiritual anchor for the witches, right? We’ve already collected your semen. We’ll just keep you locked up here and use the semen we extract to control them.”
Hearing that, Yohan realized he hadn’t told them everything after all. Not about the witches’ true abilities, nor the fact that they cherished him, not just his semen.
Realizing this, Yohan let out a chuckle. Seeing him suddenly laugh, the agent tilted his head, wondering if he’d finally lost his mind.
“You… you don’t know anything.”
“What? Have you gone crazy?”
“You know nothing.”
He could control the witches? They thought they could control them with just his semen, the only thing that could break their curses?
Impossible. If it were that easy, he wouldn’t be sitting here in the first place.
Controlling the witches wasn’t just difficult; it was impossible.
“You know nothing.”
“…For your information, I’m a Seoul National University graduate. I don’t think I need to hear someone with a high school diploma tell me I don’t know anything—.”
CRUNCH—.
At that moment, a black mass of flesh tore through the door and appeared.
As the agent stared in horror at the unidentified thing that had appeared behind him, Yohan grinned.
“You’re here.”
Yohan spoke, looking at the mass of flesh before him.
“Destroy everything, Hekaterina.”
As if in response to his words, the flesh filling the hallway began to dance.
He had no intention of stopping them anymore.
You’re the ones who opened Pandora’s Box. Deal with it yourselves.