The Apprentice Witch's Glorious Debut [Luna, Do You Want to Live?]
"Luna, do you want to live?"
"Of course!" Luna shouted back as if I'd asked the stupidest question imaginable. Her voice trembled fiercely, but the raw survival instinct packed into it burned hotter than anyone's.
[Even if it means doing anything to stay alive right now? Even if it turns you into a witch?]
Luna hesitated for a moment. All the efforts she'd made to prove she wasn't a witch, the medieval prejudice against them... A whirlwind of thoughts must have raced through that silvery head of hers in those fleeting seconds. But the mercenaries' heavy footsteps grew closer, their weapons clanging with sharp metallic shrieks. Luna nodded slowly, as if steeling her resolve.
Satisfied with her hasty but earnest decision, I spoke to her in an approving tone.
[Good. Then first things first—take me out and hold on tight. Pray or whatever, but make it sincere.]
Luna seemed to waver for a second, then squeezed her eyes shut and pulled me from her front pocket.
"Gonna pray now?"
"Why not call for your mommy!"
"Kekekeke!!"
They sneered with rotten grins at the sight of Luna clutching a tattered old book in utter desperation. To them, she was nothing but profitable prey—or a toy to toy with and discard. Maybe even Luna thought the same. She knew full well that trusting the ravings of some insane grimoire like me offered slimmer odds than bolting deeper into the forest.
Terror and anxiety at the approaching death, resentment, regret. The little girl gathered all those emotions into one desperate grip on my cover. Her fingertips turned white, her nails digging into the leather until her blood seeped into the book.
"Please... save me."
Luna clutched me tight and screamed.
"I'll be a witch or whatever!! Please, just save me!!"
What spilled from those words wasn't noble sacrifice or remorse—it was pure, unfiltered obsession with life itself, and hope.
[Offering, incantation, contractor. Rookie work, but it has the form.]
A voice thick with alien, turbid mana echoed everywhere.
"U-Uwaaack!!"
"Wh-What the hell is that!!"
The mercenaries panicked at the bizarre sight and unholy mana, stumbling in confusion.
[Contract established. Nice doing business with you, apprentice witch.]
"What?"
Before Luna could react, I slipped from her hand, shot into the air, and unfurled my pages. Violet chains, forged in some otherworldly forge, lashed out like lightning from between them. They sliced the air and pierced straight through Luna's chest—right where her heart sat.
"Ack! What the—?!"
Luna flinched and clutched at her chest, but there was no pain. The chains melted under her skin in an instant, vanishing from sight. A soul-link formed, one only she and I could sense, and her mana flooded into me like a burst dam.
I shuddered with the thrill of omnipotence I'd craved for so long.
Aaah, this chilling rush. It's been too long.
Just then, a boar-like man in the distance snatched up his weapon and bellowed.
"What are you idiots staring at?! Kill her now!"
Drakson, the mercenary captain who'd been so smug moments ago, shrieked the order like a man possessed. He'd seen it—a plain book floating midair, ominous violet energy swirling around the girl.
His bellow snapped the dazed mercenaries into action; they gripped their weapons and charged.
"H-Hey, you're gonna handle this, right? For real?"
[Listen up, Luna. No time for details. You know what magic is?]
"Hell no! You think I had time for that crap in some backwoods village?!"
-Fwhoosh!
A sharp arrow thudded into the dirt right by Luna's foot. She screamed and instinctively leaped deeper into the woods.
"Grab her!! We take her down here and now!!!"
Drakson kicked aside his stumbling men—tripped by roots and rocks—and barreled forward.
"You morons! Can't even handle one girl?!"
He blamed his men, but I saw it. The arrows' paths curving mid-flight, grass and stones snaring their ankles.
Maybe our meeting wasn't pure chance after all.
[Anyway, not important right now. We'll study later.]
"Hey! Quit yapping and do something! You said the contract was done!!"
Luna panted curses at me even as she ran. Fine, showtime. Time to reveal what her contractor could really do.
I slipped from her grasp again and flipped open my pages.
"You can fly too?!"
I ignored Luna's wide-eyed question and rifled through the pages with a rustle.
Something strong but no sacrifice needed, instant-cast...
The pages halted on one.
[Perfect. This'll do for a debut.]
The Chains of the Abyss pulsed with their master's will, churning up turbid mana.
"Come forth, you lowly things who stalk the king's shadow. Exiles who chase the dawn."
"I, proxy of the king in this place, command you—reveal your profane forms and aid me!"
⟨ Night Servant ⟩
Squelch. Squelch. Squelch.
"Haha! Gotcha, you witch bitch! You ain't dying pretty...!"
A mercenary nearly on Luna raised his sword high. She cowered, arms over her face. But the pain never came.
Instead, a warm, foul liquid splattered her face.
Luna lowered her trembling arms and looked.
She swallowed a scream.
"Wha... wh-what?"
The overconfident swordsman stood frozen. A sleek, obsidian-black tentacle pierced his forehead dead center. It writhed inside his skull with sickening squelches; his eyes lost focus in seconds.
"M-My... head. My head."
The thing that slithered into view mimicked the dead mercenary perfectly—save for the lack of facial features—its body glossy like polished obsidian.
The black humanoid stared blankly at Luna, bowed its head, then slipped out of the forest.
Men's screams echoed across the woods.
"D-Did... you do that?"
I spun a lazy loop in the air.
[Obviously. Told you it was more impressive than it seems.]
"What kind of magic is that?! Never heard of anything like it in my life!"
[Night Servant. Not much to it—just a degraded copy of the original. Details later.]
Instant summon was its only real perk, but the flexible body and backstabs were hard to counter.
As the screams faded, Luna wandered out of the forest in a daze.
The hellscape before her was straight out of a nightmare. Corpses impaled on trees through the chest, torsos bisected with guts spilling out... And at the center, Drakson.
Blood-soaked, one arm gone, he groveled on the ground, trembling.
"H-Huh."
Amid the chaos, Drakson still breathed. Crushed and severed Night Servants dissolved around him.
Tough bastard, huh? Even drenched in blood, minus an arm, with his right eye pulped like a bruised fruit.
The captain who'd been all bluster couldn't even meet Luna's eyes.
"M-Mercy... please."
He slammed his bleeding head into the dirt, begging.
"I had no idea you were a real witch! Please, have mercy!"
Seeing Drakson grovel snapped Luna back to reality. Her gaze turned ice-cold—no pity, just frigid contempt.
[Luna, just checking—you're not planning to let him live, right?]
Luna nodded silently. She feigned composure, but I saw her slender shoulders quiver faintly.
No need to ease her conscience yet.
[Good. Then repeat after me, word for word.]
Mercenary captain Drakson was losing his damn mind.
Damn village chief! Said it was just one girl!
The chief hadn't truly believed Luna was a witch either, but that didn't matter to Drakson. He just needed someone to blame for his defeat and fear.
Damn it! When I get back, the chief dies first! Then you, bitch!!
As he burned with vengeance in his groveling pose, a chilling voice rained down.
"...Fine. I won't kill you."
"Th-Thank you!"
Drakson bolted for the village without a backward glance.
Stupid naive bitch! You're done for!
That's why he never noticed something slinking into his shadow.
Damn, damn! That fucking chief!
Drakson stormed to the village entrance and smashed through the chief's front gate.
"Hey! Chief! You old bastard!!"
His bellow made the chief jump in shock. How had Drakson gone from fine to a battered wreck in no time?
Drakson lunged at Hans, grabbing his collar to slam him for hiding the witch intel.
If not for the massive spike bursting from his own chest.
"Wi... tch."
That was the pathetic end of Red Mane Drakson, terror of the mountains.
The spike withdrew from the corpse, slithered into a massive wolf, and swiped a huge paw at the chief.
Hans thought, just before his skull pulped:
Oh shit, she really was a witch.
Crunch!
The wolf shattered Hans's head, demolished the ragged house in one go, and howled triumphantly.
Awooooooo—!!!
"Wh-What?! What's happening?!"
"Wolf! A wolf!"
"Quack!! The chief got eaten by a wolf!!!"
The wolf vanished into the darkness over the palisade, chaos spreading perfectly as intended.
[It's over.]
"Really? For sure?"
[Yeah. But why the sudden formal speech?]
"Oh, well..."
Luna ducked her head sheepishly, mumbling before answering.
"You... kinda saved my life, and you seem older and wiser somehow. Does it bother you?"
Her 180-degree shift in a single day was honestly adorable.
[Do whatever. But the villagers—you cool leaving them like that?]
"Eh, they'll self-destruct eventually. The chief's son isn't sharp or quick with numbers like his dad. Obvious what happens to a mountain village with no one to lean on."
Luna shrugged.
[If that's your call.]
I floated beside her and asked:
[So, where to now?]
Luna grinned.
"The city. Nothing like the backwater village I grew up in."