Chapter 74: Prediction
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 74: Prediction
After successfully completing the surgery, the group ran into a problem: they couldn't carry the injured back to the cabin by piggyback or by slinging them over their shoulders.
It had only been first aid, after all. There was a real risk the wounds could reopen if subjected to too much of a shock.
Fortunately, Evangeline solved the issue by summoning her familiar.
[Witch, what brings you to a place like this…?]
Fenrir, who had appeared out of the woods in a flash, saw the bleeding Evangeline and the blood-drenched Margaret, and his expression hardened.
He scanned the surroundings, wary of any potential enemies. Only after confirming that even his spirit animal senses couldn't detect anything did he lower his guard and approach.
[You are injured.]
“Yes, let us on your back. And please, don't jostle us.”
[Understood.]
Fenrir immediately lowered himself, and Yohan lifted Margaret into his arms and climbed onto the wolf’s back. As befitting a wolf the size of a house, Fenrir’s back was large enough for four people to ride without any issue.
Once he confirmed everyone was aboard, Fenrir began to walk cautiously toward the cabin.
‘Should I run?’
Left alone in the cabin, Hekaterina confirmed that not only the witch watching her but also the intimidating familiar were gone, and she began plotting her escape.
Of course, she hesitated. In her current state, she couldn't guarantee victory even against a weak monster, and this forest was so teeming with them it was called the Forest of Monsters. But the fact that the other witches hadn't returned after so long gave her courage.
The moment she decided to flee and opened the cabin door, she came face-to-face with Fenrir, whose head was poking through the doorway.
[Thank you.]
“R-Right…”
With those words, Fenrir lowered his body to let the group on his back dismount. Realizing the witches had returned, Hekaterina groaned inwardly, knowing she was too late.
“What, are you going somewhere?”
Yohan, who had just gotten off Fenrir’s back while carrying Margaret, asked when he saw Hekaterina standing at the door.
Hekaterina waved her hands, denying it.
“Going somewhere? What are you talking about? I just heard your footsteps and opened the door, that’s all.”
“…Whatever. Move.”
Shoving past the excuse-making Hekaterina, Yohan headed straight for Evangeline’s workshop.
Just as Hekaterina was about to breathe a sigh of relief that he’d bought it without suspicion, Evangeline, who had followed him inside, informed her of one thing.
“You know, it’s a good thing you didn’t leave.”
“What? What are you talking about… I told you, I wasn’t planning on escaping.”
“If you had taken even one step outside, the spell I placed on you would have activated, and whatever part of you went out would have slowly started to disappear.”
Leaving her with those words, Evangeline followed Yohan to her workshop. Hearing the words she had tossed out with a blank expression, Hekaterina felt a chill run down her entire body.
What? She had a spell placed on her?
She hadn't noticed. But it didn't sound like a joke.
Slick- Hekaterina pulled out a strand of her hair and threw it out the door.
The moment a part of her body left the cabin, her hair began to scatter into dust, just as Evangeline had done to her before.
Watching it happen, Hekaterina felt a wave of relief that she hadn't gone outside.
After laying Margaret down in the workshop, my master took several other measures. Being a complete layman when it came to magic, I watched as she continued a very fantasy-like healing process—chanting spells I couldn't understand, applying medicine to the wound, and pouring a potion into Margaret’s mouth.
And, as one would expect from a witch’s medical treatment, the fantasy-like healing boasted fantasy-like effects.
The wound that had been stitched with threads of magic power vanished as if it had never been there, and Margaret, who had been unconscious for a long time, began to open her eyes in what felt like an instant.
“…How many hours has it been?”
“Three.”
“Not that long, then. Phew.”
Margaret sat up with a speed that was hard to believe for someone who’d just had their abdomen pierced. She immediately started moving her body this way and that, checking if anything was wrong.
I, who firmly believed that patients needed absolute rest, stared at her in shock.
“Are… Are you okay?”
“Hm? Oh, yeah. I’m fine, I’m fine. I’m a witch, you know? A little injury like this is nothing a potion can’t fix.”
“But…”
“Hey, I said I’m fine. If I wasn’t, what—were you planning on doing something for me, Disciple?”
“…If it’s something I can do.”
“—Oh?”
At my words, Margaret’s eyes sparkled as she looked at me. She began to lick her lips, her eyes raking over my body from top to bottom as if carefully selecting the kind of favor she would ask of me.
I had only a moment to think I’d misspoken before my master grabbed Margaret’s face and slammed her back down onto the bed.
“Just lie still and sleep. What is a patient doing… Yohan, you can leave. It seems I have something to talk to Ritz about.”
“Y-Yes, ma’am…”
Driven out of the room by my master’s forceful actions, I returned to the living room. As soon as I came back and sat on the sofa, Beatrice leaped into the space between my legs.
Like a baby bird begging its mother for affection, she rubbed her head against me. As I rested, gently stroking her hair, Hekaterina let out a hollow laugh as if she found the sight absurd and sat down next to me.
“Lolicon.”
“…What?”
“Pedophile.”
“No… what are you—”
“Having fun playing with a little kid? You rapist.”
Only then did I remember that Hekaterina held a grudge against me, and thus had more than enough reason to hurl such ridiculous, baseless accusations. I gave a weak laugh and looked at her.
“Well, for one, I’m younger than her…”
“So? You think other people will see it that way?”
“No—but it’s the truth…”
“Yohan? What are you two talking about?”
“Ah, it’s nothing.”
Seeing us talk, Beatrice tilted her head and asked. I gently stroked her head and brushed it off as nothing. Hekaterina saw this and smirked before speaking.
“Hey, do you know what a pervert he is? He comes to my room every night to fuck me, and he even feeds me food he’s cum in every day. You might be next, you know.”
“…What are you saying to a child?”
“Pfft, see? You think of her as a child, too.”
Even though I knew Beatrice couldn't hear what others were saying because of her curse, Hekaterina’s words were so explicit that I instinctively covered the girl’s ears.
Of course, Beatrice tilted her head up to look at me, puzzled by my sudden action… but I just gave her a bright smile and spoke in a voice only Hekaterina could hear.
“And besides, I didn’t fuck you every day.”
“Fucking me every other day is the same as fucking me every day.”
“…And what’s this about putting semen in the food?”
“Aha, did you think I wouldn’t know? Did you think I wouldn’t be able to recognize the smell of semen after you fucked me like crazy every day?”
I had.
My master’s special seasoning should have been more than enough to hide the smell of semen, so I thought Hekaterina would never realize the special secret my semen held—that it blocked her magic.
It was a secret that absolutely could not be revealed, because the moment she found out, she would obviously stop eating the food containing my semen and try to regain her magic…
“I’ve been thinking about it. The way you come to fuck me every day, and that mysterious liquid you made me drink when you brought me here—”
Hekaterina’s eyes gleamed as she looked at me.
“There’s something about you, isn’t there.”
In the end, she’d found out.
The one person who absolutely couldn't know.
As soon as Evangeline finished her long talk with Margaret, Yohan rushed to her and told her that Hekaterina had discovered the secret.
Hearing Yohan’s story, Evangeline nodded calmly, as if she’d been expecting it. Her placid demeanor, as if she already knew, made Yohan tilt his head and ask.
“You knew?”
“No. But I could predict it, to some extent. She’s not an idiot. I figured she’d notice eventually.”
And Yohan was partly to blame for her figuring it out. As befitting the Witch of Fear, who grew by feeding on the terror of others, Hekaterina was skilled at reading emotions.
She had sensed hesitation from Yohan, who had been ravaging her so violently every day. With so much time to think, it didn't take her long to realize the reason.
Evangeline hadn't realized this part, but she didn't need to—the very act of fucking her periodically was a hint in itself.
“In fact, the only reason we could drag this out for so long… is because you, Yohan, are an unprecedented existence.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes. To think you could nullify a witch’s curse… such a being has never once appeared in history. It must have taken her quite a long time to even consider that you were such an existence.”
Now that she knew, there was no way to turn back. Evangeline was the Witch of Love; she didn't know any methods for erasing memories.
Sighing, Evangeline spoke, her eyes devoid of emotion.
“It can’t be helped. If she resists… we’ll have to kill her.”
Her cold voice echoed in his ears.