Dangerous Witch
“Oh my, our daughter is so cute. I have to take a picture.”
Cocooned in Yena’s arms like a little princess, the Royal Witch was the picture of meekness. Gone was the murderous aura from moments before. Now she scanned her surroundings with the anxious eyes of a lost kitten.
She wouldn’t normally act like that…
She had been summoned in a weakened state and had done a few undignified things because of it, but this creature was still a high-ranking noble who had once ruled an entire pocket world. There was no precedent for her shrinking like this just because she felt her life was threatened — and least of all in front of a human she was supposed to eliminate.
So she was behaving this way because she was my summon, after all.
“Hey.”
At my call, the Royal Witch immediately looked my way.
Did you summon me?
I tapped my own lips with a finger.
“From now on, every conversation is in human language — Korean, specifically. Got it?”
It was a precaution against any scheming I couldn’t overhear. There was no reason to stubbornly stick with monster-speech when dealing with a creature that could learn languages.
The Royal Witch nodded at once.
I understand. Please authorize the spell linkage.
Eldrisa has requested ‘Language Link’.
“Accept.”
Eldrisa is acquiring your language.
Language sharing successful.
The Royal Witch, who had closed her eyes for a moment, snapped her head up with a soft pop. She looked at us as if to say, go on, try talking — so Kang Jiye, who had been watching the whole exchange, spoke up in my place.
“She really is a humanoid monster. Every now and then you run into ones in dungeons that can speak human languages like this.”
The Royal Witch gave a calm nod. She had understood every word.
“Language acquisition isn’t difficult.”
“Huh? Our little unnie can talk human-talk?”
Yena stared at the Royal Witch with wide, astonished eyes. For a second the Royal Witch clenched her teeth in wounded pride, but she eventually forced out a reply.
“…I’m not used to it, but I can manage.”
“Wooow—!”
Yena’s mouth stretched into a huge, delighted grin. Communication with the Dorries had probably been a bit of a struggle until now. Not that she had ever complained — she found it cute, if anything — but having at least one friend she could actually talk to properly couldn’t hurt.
“Our little unnie is the best! We’re gonna have so much fun! Dress-up and stuff!”
Yena was clearly already planning girl-time activities. With a figure that size — basically a living princess doll — she did look perfect for that kind of play.
Though she’ll need a little education first.
“Auntie, could you hold Yena for a moment?”
No matter how meek she had become, a monster was still a monster. Witch-types in particular had wildly different temperaments, and there was no telling what sudden stunt she might pull.
Apparently Kang Jiye hadn’t heard me, because she was scowling at her phone and tapping away.
“Ugh, it keeps erroring out. Why do electronics only die inside gates?”
“Auntie! You dummy!”
“Huh? What?”
Kang Jiye raised a fist.
…
“I said, please hold Yena for a bit. I need to knock some sense into that one.”
Kang Jiye kept her fist raised as she answered.
“Is there something to teach? She’s not even hostile.”
“She just blasted Yena with murderous intent a minute ago. What if she suddenly casts an attack spell?”
“…Oh my! You’re right. She did.”
Only then did concern for Yena’s safety kick in, and Kang Jiye scrambled into motion. She must have developed a dangerous case of safety blindness just because the witch looked exactly like me.
Something about the ‘Seduction’ skill seems to have side effects. I’ll have to talk to her about that later.
Kang Jiye plucked the Royal Witch out of Yena’s arms and scooped her own daughter up instead.
“W-wait, little unnie…!”
But the Royal Witch started stretching her hands toward Yena in a pitiful, desperate reach. The way she kept sneaking glances at me told me she had figured it out — if conversation failed here, she would be torn apart without a sound. And she was right. If there was even a shred of real danger, I fully intended to kill her on the spot.
“Wait, I have no intention of attacking—!”
Even her frantic voice couldn’t stop the two of them from being completely separated. Suddenly alone in the danger zone, the Royal Witch clutched her broom and started warily eyeing the surrounding Party Bears.
As expected. Her temperament’s shifted a little more human.
“Eldrisa, was it?”
I crossed my arms and plopped down on the ground. The Royal Witch’s whole body snapped taut into a rigid attention stance.
“That is correct!”
…
That speech pattern was uncomfortably, cringingly stiff. Never mind. I’d deal with it later.
“You don’t have to be that tense. I know you don’t plan on hurting them.”
“Hah… Thank you for understanding.”
Once the murderous intent had been wiped clean, the danger was essentially gone. As a born aristocrat she still possessed a degree of free will, but in the end a summon inevitably took after its master’s disposition. Her hostility toward humans had clearly vanished. This private talk was nothing more than a final confirmation.
“First, let me tell you what you need to know. If we can’t communicate, we’ll just play dismemberment games with the teddy bears instead.”
Eldrisa trembled openly.
“I-I will do whatever you command.”
Look at her acting.
I recited the same precautions I had given the Party Bears: don’t show yourself to humans carelessly, don’t attack humans without a legitimate reason, and so on. Being a clever witch, she grasped the meaning remarkably fast.
“So I am permitted to eliminate humans who disrupt human society?”
“Only when unavoidable. Otherwise, just restrain them appropriately and hand them over to the humans.”
“Understood. Then I have one more question.”
“Go ahead.”
“Why does Your Majesty cooperate with humans? For the record, I am not saying I refuse to obey.”
That means you hate it, you little brat.
I stared at Eldrisa for a long moment before answering.
“Because I’m human.”
“Pardon?”
“Obviously I cooperate with humans because I’m human. Any more questions?”
She clearly didn’t understand the answer at all, but Eldrisa slowly bobbed her head.
“…None.”
Good. I had been ready to hit her if she didn’t get it.
“Alright… then one last check. Who are the top-priority protection targets?”
“The human Kang Yena, and her mother, Kang Jiye.”
“And who are our enemies?”
“Um… the subjects of the Demon Realm?”
“Wrong.”
“Pardon?”
“Whoever I designate as an enemy is an enemy. Most monsters just happen to fall into that category. Understood?”
At my words, the Royal Witch allowed herself a small smile. Since I wasn’t radiating any killing intent, she was starting to relax into this private conversation.
“Just as I had heard. I understand.”
I narrowed my eyes at her. Instantly, the Royal Witch’s smile froze solid.
“….”
“….”
Should I hit her a little?
Cooperation was fine, but the way she had been deliberately hiding her real personality this whole time — playing pitiful, playing polite — was starting to grate on me. Like she was thinking mission accomplished. That blatant sense of relief was somehow infuriating.
…Forget it.
If I left her alone here, her attitude would change soon enough. I’d finish the conversation then.
Heh.
Just imagining it made the corner of my mouth curl up.
“Alright, we’re done here—! You can come over!”
I waved them over, already looking forward to next time. Eldrisa pressed her fingertips to her chest and let out a long sigh of relief.
At the sound of my voice, the lead Party Bear came scampering over with Yena on its back. Eldrisa immediately mounted her broom, flew up, and settled her rear lightly onto Yena’s right shoulder. For a second I was weirdly reminded of the Town Musicians of Bremen statue.
“Wooow—! Our little unnie likes me too! She flew right over!”
Eldrisa answered Yena’s gushing with a curt retort.
“I was assigned a protection duty. Do not get the wrong idea.”
“That mouth of hers, I swear…”
I immediately glared and raised an open palm. So she still had some pride left to protect.
“…!”
“Aaaah! Don’t hit her! I’ll teach her properly!”
Startled, Yena grabbed Eldrisa off her shoulder and hugged her tight against her chest. Eldrisa, for her part, buried her face in Yena’s front with equal haste.
“Okay, I’m heading out! You Dorries have fun—! You too, little unnie!”
After Pecia and the Kang mother-daughter pair exited the gate, Eldrisa — who had been waving at Yena — immediately wiped the smile from her face.
Damn it all.
There could be no greater humiliation in the world. A witch who had held a Count’s title in the Demon Realm, reduced to a mere human’s plaything. She had even clung to that tiny creature out of sheer terror of death.
“Protect her? Are you kidding me?”
She let out a hollow laugh. She had not the slightest intention of guarding some mere human. This “Yena” was neither a research subject nor a source of any benefit to her. She had promised her master, so she wouldn’t go out of her way to harm the girl — but neither would she actively protect or cooperate. If the child just died somewhere, so be it.
Frankly, if the other party hadn’t been Pecia von Chiffonside, she would have defied the order without a second thought.
“Pyuik.”
“…?”
Someone tapped her shoulder. She turned to find a crowd of teddy bears pressing in. Eldrisa shot them a wary look.
What? Didn’t you hear the no-fighting-each-other rule?
The Party Bear at the front flapped both arms.
Play.
What?
Play!
…
Eldrisa stared at the Party Bear, then snorted. Come to think of it, things like “Pecia” were everywhere in this amusement park. And “play” in an amusement park was limited to whatever they found fun — if she halfheartedly played along, there wouldn’t be anything left of her body.
…Pathetic things. Without the Queen, the likes of you wouldn’t even be worth my time.
Eldrisa mounted her broom, shot into the air, and easily shook off the Party Bears before returning to the castle.
…
She did not see what happened next. The Party Bears watching her recede all shifted their gazes, as one, to her torn armor soldiers.
A few seconds of eerie silence passed.
Then the Party Bears’ mouths split wide open, revealing zigzag stitches of thread.
Several hours later.
Eldrisa’s eyes flew open on the bed where she had laid her exhausted body. The amusement park was far too quiet. There were hundreds of Party Bears that never stayed still for a second without Pecia’s orders. So why couldn’t she hear even the sound of a single ride moving?
She absently glanced out the window — and something strange caught her eye.
…?
A colorful line stretched from the Fairy Tale Castle walls all the way to the floating islands. Looking closer, it was a gigantic ladder made entirely of Party Bears.
…!!!
H-how long had that been there? She had been asleep for at least a few hours. If they had put their minds to it, every last one of those grotesque things could already be up here!
In the instant her body locked up with shock and terror—
Tap—
A familiar sensation touched her shoulder.
“Pyu. (I said, let’s play.)”
“……”
She swallowed hard on pure reflex. Only then did Eldrisa finally understand the meaning behind Pecia’s meaningful smile.
“Big Pecia unnie! Open the gate for me!”
“‘Big Pecia unnie’… No, more importantly, why the gate?”
“No matter how I think about it, I feel too bad for our little unnie to sleep! I wanna sleep with her!”
“Ah….”
Pecia smiled kindly.
“Don’t worry. Eldrisa is happy right now.”
“Aaaah!! Open it! That’s your lying smile!”
In the end, unable to withstand Yena’s relentless pestering, it was decided that Eldrisa would stay at the apartment.