The Witch's Accusation
“Everyone, come this way quickly!”
I stood up and shouted as loudly as I could toward the captain still aboard the ship and the sailors smoking on the beach. My voice wasn’t particularly strong, and it might have come out somewhat unclear, but no one moved.
They simply stared blankly in my direction. Only the one who had been worrying about my condition all along started walking toward me a beat late.
I had worried they might react this way. That was why I had been so conscious of it and shouted loudly from the start, but it seemed unavoidable after all.
“Get over here right now!”
When I summoned a magic circle in the air and shouted somewhat irritably, people finally began running over, as if they had grasped the seriousness of the situation.
Well, at least the distance wasn’t far, so it wasn’t too late. That was fortunate.
The dark elementals and lesser spirits that emerged from the magic circle surrounded the group and erected barriers around them. Of course, the thought crossed my mind that if they simply passed by without incident, it would put me in an awkward position, but the unpleasant aura was too strong to keep worrying about such things.
The situation continued ambiguously—whether that aura hoped to pass by like this or wished to reveal itself quickly—and soon something entered my field of vision.
“That is……”
It wasn’t a bird or any other wild creature. Its flight pattern and speed were unusual, but as I knew, there were many creatures that flew through the sky using mana or other special abilities, like Jequirac. What made me certain was that I had seen something flying in exactly this manner before.
“…A witch?”
It was the sight of a witch riding her broomstick in flight. Though her speed was much faster than before, it was identical to what I had seen when we had raided the black witch coven that had been sacrificing children.
“Does the Parerin Archipelago happen to have a White Coven?”
When I turned and asked, the people shook their heads. A White Coven was, simply put, a sect of good witches. I had asked just in case, but I had already expected it wasn’t so. After all, the aura was far too unpleasant to belong to a witch of the White Coven.
“Then why on earth has a witch come here?”
Witches generally did not undertake long-distance flights. Rather, they could not. Their spell system leaned heavily toward the sensory, and while they used broomsticks to compensate for that, there were still limits.
To fly long distances, they required enormous amounts of mana, and maintaining that broom-riding posture also demanded physical stamina, so they preferred other means of travel.
Yet here, in the Parerin Archipelago far from the continent, was a witch on a broomstick. Even if there was no White Coven, it could have been a black witch hiding within the archipelago. Still, combined with the prophecy I had heard from that girl and this unpleasant feeling I was sensing, the sudden appearance of this witch felt deeply unsettling.
“……”
I hoped she would simply pass by, but she was flying far too precisely toward us. It seemed my hope was in vain. Sure enough, the broomstick gradually slowed and came to a stop directly above our heads.
“Oh? You were prepared?”
Even though she was floating quite high, her voice reached me clearly through magic. Right—I should have used magic earlier myself. Then people might have taken the situation more seriously from the start.
Still, the voice itself belonged to a young woman, yet it carried a faint trace of experience that left me somewhat confused.
“Dark elementals. They certainly look better than the ones I saw last time. But are you alone? Where did you hide that failure?”
Her tone, looking down on me (though she was the one floating), held confidence, but an even stronger fury burned beneath it. Alone? Failure? I had no idea whom she was mistaking me for, but I had summoned enough dark elementals that even I thought it was sufficient. The fact that she showed no concern at all suggested I couldn’t afford to relax.
“I’m afraid I don’t understand what you’re talking about.”
I raised my own voice toward her through an air spirit.
“Don’t play dumb. After all this, are you going to claim you’re not a Dark Priest?”
A Dark Priest. I knew that matter hadn’t been resolved yet, but I hadn’t expected to be caught up in such a misunderstanding here in the Parerin Archipelago. And a witch, of all things.
While the captain and the others looked at me in bewilderment, my own thoughts grew complicated. Not only about why the witch was searching for Dark Priests, but also whether it would be safe to simply let her go even if the misunderstanding was cleared. And if I had to face her now, what would be the best course of action.
“You may not believe me, but I am not a Dark Priest.”
“Nonsense.”
Yes, I had expected she wouldn’t believe me. At least I had the equipped barrier adjusted in advance.
“…You seem like a fairly renowned witch to me. Could you tell me why you’re looking for the Dark Priests?”
Her aura was indeed far from ordinary despite her youthful appearance, but more importantly, this kind of flattery was effective at loosening the tongues of those with large egos. How many people had spilled information after hearing things like “You seem quite formidable” or “Your achievements must be extraordinary” or “You don’t belong in a place like this”?
“You’re going to keep pretending?”
However, she didn’t fall for it. It wasn’t a conscious refusal to be baited by my intention, but rather the feeling that she was so accustomed to this sort of praise that it no longer moved her.
“Well, it doesn’t matter. Once your feet start melting from the poison, you’ll want to confess everything. Even if you endure, I can just soak your head in the drug and turn you into a scarecrow that answers any question.”
Of course, either way it would be more painful and horrific than simply dying, but if she could make someone talk with drugs from the start, why bother with torture first? It meant her main goal wasn’t information gathering but inflicting pain.
Using torture or other coercive methods to obtain what she wanted already revealed her nature, but these words laid bare her ugliness.
“…It seems there was no need to consider simply letting you go.”
If she had no intention of doing so, then I could treat her accordingly. I immediately ordered all the dark elementals and lesser spirits—except for the few protecting the sailors—to attack at once. I would have preferred to avoid unnecessary combat if possible, but judging from the movement of her mana, that wasn’t an option. In that case, striking first while I had people to protect was advantageous in many ways.
As expected, the moment the dark elementals flew toward her, a green mist burst from beneath her black robe, as if she had been prepared. It reminded me of Bagloros’s Veil of Night. The lesser wind and fire spirits that touched the green mist had their materializations undone, suggesting it was a spell that dispersed mana and energy.
But that alone couldn’t stop the dark elementals. Though their senses felt somewhat dulled, the dark elementals pushed through the green mist and charged toward the space where she floated.
“……!”
Yet the instant those black hands were about to strike her, the dark elementals’ movements suddenly stopped. They were caught in the green mist like fish in a net.
‘So that was her aim.’
The moment I realized her intention, the green mist and the dark elementals trapped within it scattered into the air as if torn apart by a gust of wind.
She had deliberately weakened the spell’s intensity to lure the dark elementals in, then eliminated them all at once once they were inside. It required not only delicate spell control but also an enormous amount of mana released in an instant to handle so many at once. She was certainly no ordinary witch.
“……!”
But before she could celebrate her success, she was forced to twist her broomstick into a precarious aerial maneuver.
—For something so bite-sized, you’re quite nimble.
With a sharp whooshing sound, Jequirac’s massive beak swallowed the space where she had just been floating. Not only Jequirac—dozens of red birds with long, crocodile-like mouths floated around him. A flock of Qualmos hunting in a pack. They weren’t particularly strong monsters, but they were more than enough to interfere with her flight.
“You’ve already finished summoning? And this many?”
There was no reason to stand idly by while an attack was underway without knowing the enemy’s true strength or methods. From the moment the green mist spread and the lesser spirits’ materializations were undone, the next summoning had already been nearing completion.
If she was skilled at undoing materialization, then I simply needed to summon creatures that already possessed physical form.
—Are you sure you want me to kill her?
Jequirac asked as if confirming, though I had already said as much during the summoning. His tone suggested he wouldn’t accept any reversal.
“Yes. Do as you like.”
It would have been better to subdue her if possible, but there was no reason I had to keep her alive at all costs. Moreover, even if I managed to subdue her, I had no confidence I could keep holding a fighter of her caliber alone afterward.
Jequirac exhaled deeply with apparent satisfaction and let out a roar. Soon the jewels embedded in his body began to glow.
—Leave it to me, Contractor!
Flames and lightning summoned by Jequirac flew toward her. She dodged them by the narrowest of margins. Even as an enemy, her flying skill was remarkable. I had to acknowledge that.
“Whoa.”
When I looked back, one of the sailors had let out an exclamation of awe. Not only him—the other sailors and the captain were also staring at me with looks of wonder. It must have been quite a spectacle for them. Especially since the same person who had been pathetically suffering from seasickness until now was now displaying such abilities. The shock must have felt even more dramatic to them.
Their gazes had changed completely from before, which was somewhat satisfying, but I had no intention of dwelling on it.