Chapter 79: Picnic
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 79: Picnic
Like a witch.
Through all sorts of experiments, that was how Regina described Yohan's condition.
‘Like a witch...’
After hearing about his condition, Yohan carefully looked down at his own body. He was human. Born on Earth, raised on Earth, an ordinary human who had never had anything to do with things like magic or magic power his entire life.
But—was the him of now truly the same person as the him on Earth?
‘Completely replaced upon coming here...’
He'd seen a science documentary about something like that. Quantum teleportation. If you analyze and copy a human's information data and then paste it in another location—it was said to be no different from teleportation.
But, would the self that moved that way truly be ‘me’?
Is the copied me, me?
Am I, truly, me?
Lost in these jumbled thoughts, Yohan looked down at his body. A clear answer still eluded him.
Yohan, who had fallen from Earth into this isekai, had several items from his home world. Things like hiking clothes made for climbing mountains, sneakers, a bottle of water bought for a thousand won at a convenience store, and a smartphone.
Of these items, the clothes he had been wearing and the disposable bottle, which the people of this world also found useful, had already spread throughout the land.
Of course, some items were confiscated by the Church, and others were damaged from being handled too roughly...
Among them, however, was one item for which no inhabitant of this world could find a proper use. A small, rectangular lump of metal. It reflected like a mirror, but like pitch-black obsidian, it couldn't be used as one.
The smartphone.
“According to rumors, it is a rare object said to have been made by a witch, Your Majesty.”
“Hmm─.”
The item ended up in the hands of the Empire's emperor. The emperor looked the smartphone over before tossing it aside with a flick of his wrist, as if uninterested.
And the witch standing beside the emperor snatched the discarded smartphone.
“If you're not going to use this, can I have it?”
“Do as you please. I got it for you in the first place.”
“Sweet.”
The witch immediately took the smartphone and entered her workshop. Unlike the uncivilized people of this world who failed to recognize its value, the witch could see its worth at once.
Not only that, she could even deduce what it was used for, what capabilities it had, and what kind of civilization would be needed to create such a thing.
‘Incredible─.’
The witch's eyes began to turn, click by click, like gears. She immediately envisioned the machine's structure, principles, and production methods.
She lacked the necessary infrastructure to perfectly replicate the device, but—she could at least get this seemingly broken one to work.
Substituting magic power for electricity, she started up the small, complex machine. A light as intense as the sun began to pour out from the screen...
“...What's this? Why is it like this?”
The smartphone had stopped, displaying a photo of a woman. She seemed to be quite a beauty, but the witch paid that no mind.
Tap, tap. She touched the smartphone's screen, trying to figure out how to get to a different one. She was able to figure out that she could move to the next screen by entering some kind of number. However...
‘What's the password?’
She didn't know the smartphone's password.
And so, she could only stare down at this incredible machine that could leapfrog centuries.
“You worked... hard... Yohan.”
“You're the one who worked hard, Teacher.”
Seeing Evangeline, her face flushed and beaded with sweat, I felt my ‘thing’ stand tall once again.
But we had already gone at it more than enough, and doing it again would be greedy. Considering my body's condition, I shouldn't, even if I wanted to.
As I just stared at her intently, still hard, my teacher, who was using my arm as a pillow, carefully buried her face in my chest and spoke.
“Yohan, well─ the weather has warmed up a lot, and the autumn leaves seem to have turned a beautiful color... so... want to go on a picnic?”
“...You want to do it outside?”
“That's not what I meant!”
Waving her hands dismissively, my teacher called me a tease and lightly slapped my chest. I recalled the picnic I'd gone on with my teacher.
Thinking back on it now, I really regretted not making a move on her then. The one-piece dress she was wearing at the time suited her so well─.
“Okay. Let's go.”
“Really!? Then tomorrow...”
“But, it might get a little chaotic if we all go together.”
“...Huh?”
“What? Weren't you suggesting we all go together with everyone else?”
“...Ah, right. We should. If it's just the two of us, the others will get jealous. Right?”
“That's right. The others would get jealous, so just the two of us going is a little...”
The moment she heard that, my teacher, who had been nestled in my arms, suddenly turned her back with a huff and moved to the corner of the bed.
Not understanding why she was suddenly acting like that, I tilted my head in confusion and hugged her from behind.
“Go away.”
“Teacher? Did I do something wrong─.”
“You didn't do anything wrong. I'm tired, so just go away.”
I couldn't understand why she was so angry... but I quietly moved away from her and tried to sleep.
Thinking about the picnic tomorrow, my heart pounded with excitement, and I couldn't fall asleep.
After preparing a packed lunch and drinks early in the morning, I woke up all the witches and set out for our picnic.
Margaret and Hekaterina, jaded by the world, weren't thrilled about some picnic, but Teacher Evangeline and Beatrice were delighted.
“If you hate it that much, do you want to stay home?”
“...I don't want to do that either.”
“Then shut up and follow me.”
I led the group toward the place where my teacher and I had enjoyed our picnic before. Margaret, befitting the witch of space, grumbled about why we didn't just teleport, but my teacher and I ignored her and kept walking.
If our destination had been a distant place impossible to reach on foot, like the beach from before, then teleporting as Margaret suggested would have been right. But it wasn't that far—and walking through the forest colored with autumn leaves was part of the picnic itself.
“Look. It's so beautiful around us...”
“...Disciple, I'm sorry, but it's not like witches are children. There's no way they'd enjoy seeing something like this...”
“Yohan! Look at those! I'm so glad we came, right?”
“Yohan, the autumn leaves are pretty...”
Seeing the childlike reactions of the two witches, Evangeline and Beatrice, Margaret clamped her mouth shut.
Beatrice was one thing, but her reaction showed she never expected Evangeline of all people to act so childishly. But I knew it all came down to a difference in mindset.
‘Walking is a pain. Especially for a witch who doesn't need to walk...’
Just as someone with a car would refuse to walk several kilometers, calling it a hassle, the act of walking was nothing but a waste of time and energy for Margaret, who could move through space at will.
She, who could enjoy only the result, did not enjoy the process. No, she probably didn't even know how to enjoy the process.
“Look around! These are things you don't normally see, but if you make a point to give them meaning, they're truly beautiful...”
Just as I said that and we arrived at our destination, my teacher and I clamped our mouths shut.
Fwoosh!
The forest was burning. Pitch-black flames, like melting rubber. It was definitely not a natural fire.
Someone had set the forest on fire.
Witches think they're the strongest.
They don't die easily, and they use magic that defies the heavens.
For beings who kill humans like ants, it's only natural they'd think so.
But they are human, too.
They need a place to sleep, something to eat, a place to rest, a place to wash, a place to live a human life.
Burn it all.
Show the witches who we are.
How tenacious a creature man is. Who it is they've made their enemy.
Swoooosh─
Rain falls. An artificially created rain.
Margaret, who had drawn water from a nearby river, began to pat her shoulders as if they were heavy.
“Ugh... I thought I was going to die from the weight.”
“Are you okay?”
“I'm not okay. But I might be if my dear Disciple gives me a shoulder rub─.”
Saying that, Margaret started to lean her body toward Yohan. Yohan smiled lightly and rubbed her shoulders.
They weren't as tense as she claimed, but perhaps because of her large breasts, they were a little knotted. One could say it was a testament to her superiority as a witch that her shoulders were only this tense despite having breasts of that size.
While rubbing her shoulders, Yohan asked his teacher, who was staring at the forest with a grim expression.
“Who would do something like this?”
“Well, there could be many culprits. It could be a fire-breathing monster...”
“You don't think so, do you?”
“...No. You're right. Monsters don't produce flames like these. They have intelligence, you know, so they wouldn't burn down the forest they live in.”
As Evangeline spoke, she surmised who the beings that had burned this forest were.
She didn't have to think hard. If it wasn't monsters, there was only one other kind of being that would burn down a forest where witches and monsters lived.
“Humans... and Holy Knights at that, perhaps...”
“...Holy Knights.”
It wasn't something he should say, having just recently served as an instructor, but Yohan thought the group known as the Holy Knights was truly hopeless.
So much so that he felt it might be better if they just disappeared entirely.