Chapter 9: Drunken Antics
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 9: Drunken Antics
“Were you bitten by a mosquito?”
“Wh-What!?”
Startled by Yohan’s question, Evangeline pulled the collar of her clothes tighter, trying to hide the flushed, reddened skin underneath.
Fortunately, he didn’t press the issue and let it go. Evangeline breathed a silent sigh of relief and recalled the events of last night.
It had been a long time since she’d had a drink. Having experienced firsthand what happened whenever she drank after a long break, Evangeline sipped her cup cautiously.
Yohan, however, did not. Already drunk on the atmosphere before he’d even started drinking, he downed his alcohol without realizing how intoxicated he was getting.
It was cheap liquor, but that didn’t mean it was low-proof.
“Ehehehe! Teacher! Can’t you show me your face just once!?”
“…No. I told you, you’ll be cursed.”
“Aww, I don’t think I will~.”
Quickly getting drunk, Yohan began his drunken antics. It was the kind of crude behavior that would make a stranger frown and an acquaintance curse him out.
Swallowing her irritation, she said to Yohan, “Yohan, I think you’re drunk. How about you stop drinking?”
“Huh? Me? I’m not drunk~?”
Anyone could see he was wasted. She was about to use magic to sober him up when she froze, watching Yohan scrape his chair right up in front of her.
Yohan’s eyes scanned her face. She habitually pulled her hood down to cover it. At the same time, she used magic to see through the hood and look at his face.
It was the first time she had ever looked at someone’s face from this close. Anyone who got this near to her was bound to be disgusted.
But Yohan wasn’t.
“…Teacher.”
“Y-Yes? What is it?”
“You really are pretty. My teacher is the best.”
“H-Huh? What did you just…”
He had mumbled it so quietly that Evangeline missed what he said. Fortunately, she heard the last part. The best? She hadn’t even done anything for him…
Covering her mouth to hide the twitching corners of her lips, Evangeline looked at Yohan. She’d always thought drunken behavior was unsightly, but maybe… something like this wasn’t so bad?
“Excuse me, Teacher?”
“Ahem. What is it?”
“I have a question… may I ask?”
Evangeline nodded. But it must have been a difficult question to ask even while drunk, because Yohan only spoke after chugging another bowl of alcohol.
“Every morning… are you trying to seduce me?”
“…What are you talking about?”
“You sleep in such a defenseless state every day. All your underwear is thrown off, your chest and butt completely exposed…”
She felt her lips go dry. That’s right. I am trying to seduce you. But the words wouldn’t come out.
As if under someone’s spell, her lips, heavy as lead, refused to move. Tired of waiting for her answer, Yohan took another sip of alcohol and spoke again.
“Please be more careful from now on… I’m a man, too. I can’t hold back.”
“…If you can’t hold back.”
“Pardon?”
“If you can’t hold back, what happens?”
Gulp. The sound of a swallow echoed around them. Yohan’s eyes widened as if he had misheard.
Evangeline decided to be a little braver. Once she’d crossed the line, crossing it a second time wasn’t so difficult.
“I’m a witch. There’s no reason for me to be afraid of a man who can’t even use magic… I don’t see why I need to be careful.”
“…Ha.”
His voice was chillingly cold. The moment she heard it, Evangeline thought she had made a mistake. But she hadn’t. It wasn’t a mistake; it was the right answer.
Yohan set down his cup and grabbed Evangeline’s shoulder. His large, hard hand pulled her toward him. It wasn’t strong enough to drag a witch against her will, but she let herself be pulled along obediently.
“You don’t know what happens?”
“N-No…”
“You shouldn’t be like that. You really shouldn’t.”
The hand on her shoulder slowly crept up to the nape of her neck. Fearing he would see her face, Evangeline pulled her hood down further and lowered her head.
Seeing this, Yohan let out a smirk.
“Oh, my. My teacher, who’s more afraid of showing her face than her chest… Well then, I guess I’ll just have to make you more afraid of showing your chest, won’t I?”
“Wh-What does that—Kyaah!?”
The next moment, Yohan lowered his head and began to suck hard on the nape of her neck. So hard that it made loud, wet sounds.
Her delicate skin couldn’t withstand the pressure and began to turn red. In an instant, Yohan had left a single hickey. Inhaling the scent of the lewd witch’s flesh, he slowly moved lower.
He sucked her neck, bit her shoulder, and licked her collarbone. Each movement was an intense exploration of her body, and Evangeline trembled all over from the unfamiliar sensations.
“Ngh, wai—Yohan, what are you…”
“I’ll make it so you can’t walk around outside looking like you usually do.”
“Haah! S-So, hngh! what does that have to do with this…”
“If you’re covered in marks that prove you’re mine, you’ll be too embarrassed not to hide them.”
It’s your fault, Teacher, for walking around so provocatively just because you’re a witch, Yohan seemed to say as he moved toward her exposed upper chest.
The witch’s heart began to pound in anticipation of what was to come. She worried she might become the first witch in history to die from her heart beating too fast.
But that worry was for naught. The moment Yohan’s lips touched her chest, the rapid beating of her heart became the least of her concerns.
“Puha—Haha, Teacher. Look at this. Doesn’t it look like I’ve branded you?”
“B-Branded…”
“Now, whenever people see you, they’ll know you have a man. They’ll know this lewd body has an owner.”
He was now openly humiliating her. It was an ambiguous situation, and she didn’t know whether to be angry or happy. While Evangeline was caught in her indecision, Yohan continued to plant more hickeys on her chest.
By the time her entire upper chest was stained red, making it impossible to tell if they were hickeys or a rash, Yohan’s head slammed onto the table and he collapsed.
The witch, who had been powerless to stop him, panted lightly—haa, haa—as she stared at his slumped form.
“Y-Yohan…?”
“…”
“A-Are you really asleep? You are, right?”
Staring at her disciple who remained unresponsive, Evangeline swallowed hard. She gently took his unconscious hand and brushed it against her own chest. The spot where his lips had just been was now overly sensitive.
And the area below, which his lips hadn’t touched, was likely the same. She carefully reached her hand inside her clothes…
“Mmm… Teacher…”
“Hic!?”
Startled by his sleep talk, Evangeline clamped a hand over her mouth and watched Yohan cautiously. Thankfully, he showed no signs of waking up.
However, any desire she had to do something right then and there had completely vanished. Staring at her reddened chest, Evangeline lifted Yohan and carried him to his room.
“Teacher.”
“Y-Yes!? What is it?”
“Why are you so surprised? As if you were thinking something strange.”
“O-Of course I wasn’t thinking anything like that!”
As if I’d hit a nerve, Evangeline yelled back. I tilted my head at her reaction but didn’t pay it much mind, moving on to what I originally wanted to talk about.
“I have a question.”
“Ask me anything. Your teacher is a know-it-all who knows everything.”
“If you’re a doctor of all knowledge, does that make me a master of it?”
“…What?”
Seeing her tilt her head, unable to understand my Earth-style joke, I began to ask the questions I’d been curious about for a while.
“Is there a Church in this world?”
“A Church? Of course. A bunch of stubborn blockheads.”
“…You don’t believe in God, Teacher?”
“God? Of course not. There’s no such thing.”
“Then, are there no clerics or anything like that in this world?”
“Hmph. I think I have a good idea of what my disciple is curious about.”
She hummed and began to nod. For a witch who had lived for hundreds of years, she was surprisingly quick on the uptake.
Snap. With a flick of her fingers, a book flew toward her from a distance. Catching the book that had soared through the air, she opened it and began her story.
“Once upon a time, there lived a very kind witch. The witch, who lived alone in the forest, was attacked by very evil holy knights. The witch used magic to escape, but the holy knights’ blades cut through her magic and sliced off her head.”
She read me a fairy tale. One about bad holy knights and a good witch…
Isn’t it usually the other way around? As she read from the book, whose author I could easily guess, she seemed to notice my mind was wandering. She snapped the book shut and looked at me.
“Now, what did you learn from this story, Yohan?”
“…Was there something to learn from it?”
“Of course. A truly wise person can find enlightenment even in a stone on the side of the road.”
“Uh… that the book was written by a witch?”
“C-Correct… How did you know…? Ahem, that’s not what I was trying to say.”
After a few coughs, she shared the lesson of the story.
“The Church is full of bad people, so don’t even try to learn about them.”
“That’s the lesson?”
“It is! As a witch’s disciple, it’s something you must remember.”
Never get close to the Church.
With that warning, she returned to her room, saying she had research to do. Watching her go, I also went back to my room to continue my magic studies.
‘I am curious, though…’
But I had no intention of seeking them out if it meant taking unnecessary risks.
If my teacher said something like that, she must have her reasons.
A merchant caravan leading several carriages entered the city. Thanks to the custom of handing money to the guards, there were no inspections.
Even if they were carrying forbidden goods like slaves or items made by witches, they could be smuggled in without any problems.
It was the same this time. The merchant anticipated that if he secretly showed the goods he brought to the nobles, they would pay a handsome price.
‘To think those country bumpkins would hand over something like this for a gold coin or two…’
The merchant chuckled to himself as he headed for his shop. But then, someone blocked the path of his carriage, which should have proceeded without issue.
Heeeigh!
“What is it!?”
Annoyed by the horse’s neigh and the sudden stop, the merchant got down from the carriage, only to freeze stiff when he saw the person blocking his path.
A uniform with an inverted cross neatly stitched on it. In this kingdom, only one kind of people wore such clothes.
The Church’s witch hunters—psychopaths who, under the ideology of witch hunting, could waltz in and out of the royal palace as they pleased.
“Halt, right there.”
“Wh-What is it? For the Holy Knights to…”
“An oracle has declared that there is a cursed item in this carriage. We will conduct a brief inspection.”
The word ‘refuse’ did not exist in the merchant’s mind at that moment. In fact, he went so far as to pry open the boxes and lay out the contents to make them easier to see.
Pleased by this action, the holy knight smirked. He then casually walked past the merchant to look at the displayed goods.
However, not finding what he was looking for, he frowned and turned back to the merchant.
“Is this everything?”
“Y-Yes… that’s all…”
“I see. Understood. Take him away.”
“What!? What do you mean!”
The holy knights mercilessly subdued the resisting merchant and dragged him to the Church. Of course, they also confiscated all the goods from his caravan.
Watching the merchants being dragged away, a red-haired holy knight spoke up cautiously.
“…Isn’t this too much?”
“Hm? Ah, Sir Elesis.”
The woman called Elesis looked at her senior and surveyed the tragic scene he had created. That merchant would be dragged to an interrogation room and subjected to torture he would never forget.
With the owner of the caravan being tortured, there would be no one to take responsibility for his employees. They would lose their jobs.
There wasn’t even a witch in the carriage, let alone any related items, yet there were already several victims.
Despite this, her senior spoke without a hint of guilt.
“Are you questioning the oracle? As long as the oracle was given, this caravan is guilty of transporting a witch’s goods, and that merchant is a follower of a witch. There is no room for debate.”
“But…”
“No buts, Sir Elesis. Listen carefully. We follow the word of God. But those wicked merchants do not. They follow what benefits them. They are the kind of people who would sell their own children to a witch if it meant making a profit.”
The senior knight’s eyes shone with faith.
They were eyes without a single shred of doubt.
“Do you understand? You cannot achieve a great cause if you fear small sacrifices.”
“…I understand.”
Though still displeased, Elesis quietly nodded her head.