Chapter 25: Fear
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 25: Fear
A woman with a petite frame, around 150cm tall, and breasts unfittingly large for her small body, slowly approached, her golden twin-tails shimmering.
With her confident demeanor and the Holy Knight uniform she wore—a stylish outfit that looked like it could have been made in the 20th century—anyone would have thought she was a Holy Knight.
‘But she’s a witch?’
It was only then that I realized the problem with my constitution. Since the witches’ curse, which affects all things in the world, doesn’t work on me, I couldn’t tell whether someone was a witch or not.
Until now, it hadn’t really mattered. Given the persecuted nature of witches, I’d never had a reason to meet any witch other than my Teacher.
But now, it was extremely dangerous. In a situation where I couldn’t tell if she was friendly or not, if I also showed that the witch's curse didn't affect me…
“…What brings a Holy Knight to a place like this?”
“Hmm? You’re braver than I thought, aren’t you?”
“I’m not sure what you mean.”
Pretending to glance at her, I peeked at Margaret beside me. For some reason, she was just trembling in fear.
‘What is she doing? She should run away, or at least tell me what this woman’s curse is…’
Cursing Margaret inwardly, I looked down at the witch who had come right up to me. She was small. She’d looked small from a distance, but up close, she was absurdly tiny.
To the point that if I hadn’t known she was a witch, I might have unconsciously reached out, thinking she was cute—but knowing she was a witch, I didn’t dare even think of touching her.
She came right up to me and pressed her large breasts against my stomach as she spoke.
“You’re a witch.”
“…Excuse me?”
“What, did you think I wouldn’t know?”
She said this with a grin. It was the smile of a Holy Knight who looked ready to execute me on the spot. If I were a real witch, I wouldn’t have been so composed in front of a Holy Knight, known as the natural enemy of witches.
And of course, I wasn’t a witch.
“You seem to be mistaken. I am not a witch.”
“A moment ago, you squeezed a man, didn’t you?”
“…Yes, I did.”
“I tried it, but it didn’t work so well. Is it because my hands are small? Anyway—only a witch could do something that’s impossible even with the power of a Holy Knight, right?”
She said this, flexing her slender forearm. To me, it looked incredibly frail, but if she were a real Holy Knight, she could probably have knocked over three or four logs with ease, even with such a thin arm.
That must have been why the adventurers ran away earlier. A Holy Knight, with skills that couldn’t be judged by appearance alone and the immense backing of the Church, was not someone to be taken lightly.
“So, you must be a witch—yet you’re brave enough not to run away from a Holy Knight? Are you not afraid of me, or do you have a way to escape…?”
“…The latter.”
“Oh? You have a way to escape? And it’s so certain that you don’t mind telling me about it?”
“Yes. To be precise—it’s a method that will make you let me go the moment you hear it.”
“This should be interesting. Go on, try it.”
The moment she gave her permission, I quickly dropped my pants. As my pants and underwear came down together, my unsightly thing was revealed, dangling.
In front of the witch, who had frozen stiff at the sight of me suddenly taking off my pants, I shouted confidently.
“I’m a man! Not a witch!”
“Wh-what—?”
“Go on, try telling me I’m a woman after seeing this.”
Since she was pressed so close to me, my ‘thing’ dangled right at her eye level. Seeing the symbol of manhood, she stumbled backward, away from me.
“N-no—you, what is that…”
“Didn’t you tell me to prove it?”
“E-even so, to just drop your pants…!”
“Is there any proof more certain than this?”
Due to the nature of this world, where men cannot be born with magic power, there are no male witches. Just for having this thing dangling here, I would be cleared of the suspicion of being a witch.
Naturally, she, who was only pretending to be a Holy Knight, wouldn’t be able to threaten me any further.
Yes, if she was just pretending to be a Holy Knight…
“Ha, haha—right. Interesting. So you’re a man, not a witch…”
Standing a short distance away, she lowered her head and began to chuckle. After laughing for a long while, she abruptly stopped and looked up at me.
“—Now I’m even more interested.”
Ah, I’m fucked.
Hekaterina jumped back at the sight of the thing dangling before her eyes. It could have been a witch transformed into a man, but she didn’t sense any sign of that.
So, the man before her was not a witch but an ordinary human, and despite being a mere human, he possessed a strength that even witches couldn’t easily muster.
“Interesting. You.”
Of course, a witch’s specialty wasn’t physical ability, and she, being small even by witch standards, was particularly lacking in that department… but it was absurd that she couldn’t do something a human could.
That was the nature of magic power. A power held only by witches and monsters, granting a transcendent vitality that easily surpassed normal perception.
“You, what’s your name?”
“Yohan. And you, Holy Knight?”
“Hekaterina. You, have any interest in becoming a Holy Knight?”
At her words, Yohan looked at her with a slightly stiff expression. Then he asked her in return.
“…Is it possible for me to become a Holy Knight?”
“Can’t you see this? Since I’m a Holy Knight, of course I can recommend someone else to become one.”
But he looked down at her with an expression of disbelief. Seeing that look, she realized the man before her was suspicious.
No, beyond suspicion, he must have realized she wasn’t a Holy Knight. There was no need to wonder where he’d figured it out. She could find out starting now.
“You—”
“Yohan! Now!”
At that moment, something flew from behind her and sliced through her neck. It was magic. She confirmed this with her head, which was now flying high into the air.
But she couldn’t tell who had cast the spell. They were invisible. As she frowned in confusion, Yohan, who had been in front of her, had also vanished.
“—Ha, hahaha.”
Lying on the ground where she’d fallen with a thud, Hekaterina burst out laughing. Then, she moved her headless body to pick up her own head.
After brushing the dirt from the cross-section, Hekaterina shoved her severed head back into her neck. Blood burst from the crushed surface, and Hekaterina cracked her neck from side to side, checking if her head was properly attached.
“Aah, hmm… It’s been a while since I reattached my neck, did I mess it up a little? I feel like I might be a bit shorter…”
“Uh, uhh—”
And—a citizen who had witnessed her pick up her severed head and reattach it to her body was trembling so hard his legs gave out, and he collapsed to the ground.
Seeing the man pointing a trembling finger at her, Hekaterina approached him, her face blooming into a wide smile.
“Ahaha, you caught me.”
“M-monster…”
“A monster? You have some nerve, saying that to this delicate, beautiful girl. How mean.”
Hekaterina crouched in front of the man and stretched the corners of her mouth into a wide grin. It was a smile so cute it would make anyone who saw it smile back, but the man facing it couldn’t even breathe.
“S-save—save me…”
“What’s wrong? You say that as if I’m going to kill you. Don’t you see this? The cross?”
“H-Holy Knight—th-then what was that before…”
“Yep. A miracle of God! Isn’t that right? God is someone who can even bring the dead back to life.”
“Th-then, I…”
“I’ll let you live.”
“Th-thank—thank you. Thank you…!”
The man believed her words and tried to get up. But for some reason, his arms and legs wouldn’t move. When the man sensed something was wrong and looked down at his body—he realized his arms and legs had been cleanly severed.
“Ah, aah—aaaaah! Aaaaaargh!”
For some reason, not a single drop of blood flowed, but the man felt an intense phantom pain piercing his mind. Seeing the screaming man, the kind witch picked up his severed limbs and threw them far away, toward the side of the road.
“Now—if you can crawl over there, you’ll live.”
“Guaaaargh! M-my arms! My legs! Uwaaaaargh!”
“…You’re noisy. I said I’d let you live.”
“Mph, mmph! Mmph!”
“Ah, how did he do it back then? Was it like this?”
Grabbing the noisy man’s jaw, Hekaterina used the Iron Claw that Yohan had demonstrated at the guild earlier.
Since it was impossible to grip the man’s whole face with her small hands, she could only grab his jaw… but that was more than enough to silence this man.
Crunch—craaack—!
“Kghhhuup! Kghhhuuuuk!”
With all his teeth broken and his gums caved in, the man groaned in agony, blood dribbling from his mouth. Amidst this, the fear that screaming would only bring worse torment prevented him from even letting out a proper scream.
Hekaterina, perhaps thinking the mess she’d made was quite a sight, nodded and prodded the man.
“There! Get going now! You’re bleeding a lot. If you don’t get treated soon, you might really be in danger, you know?”
“Kghhhhh—!”
The man struggled to survive. As he writhed and crawled across the stone ground without arms or legs, the witch simply watched him move, as if she truly intended to keep her promise.
After crawling for a long time, the man finally managed to reach the main road. People walking nearby were startled to see him and rushed over. Finally relieved, the man opened his mouth and coughed up blood.
—Heeeyaaaah—!
Seeing the man spit blood, a passing horse was startled and began to thrash about. The coachman lost his grip on the reins, and the horse, freed from its harness, trampled the man’s head.
Splat—!
A headless corpse was left behind. Hekaterina, who had been watching, seemed to lose interest and quickly left the scene.
The royal capital, upon discovering the corpse with its cleanly severed limbs, launched a direct investigation.
After the investigation confirmed a witch’s involvement in the incident, the capital requested the Church to dispatch Holy Knights.