The Witch Who Lives in the Forest (4)
After Roy set out, only three people remained in the witch’s house.
The baron began preparing to tail him in secret.
But the witch stopped him.
"Why not? When I took my trial, Father—"
"You don’t need to go this time. Lily! Follow that boy Roy, and if he’s in danger, bring him back. I’ll allow you to summon the Black Wolf. If he tries to enter a dungeon, drag him out by force. Don’t kill him."
"Yes, Witch."
Lily ran straight into another room.
She didn’t seem ready to leave at once; she clearly needed to prepare something first.
Ilia the Witch spoke to the baron, who was watching her with a grave expression.
"A moment ago you didn’t hesitate to send your young son out, and already you’ve changed your mind? Losing your nerve? Then go fetch him back yourself."
"I heard that when I took my own trial, Father followed me in secret. So why stop me now?"
"There’s no need to worry that much. That’s why I’m sending Lily. She’ll be safer out there than you would be."
"And you expect me to believe that."
The baron’s voice dropped low.
His anger was unmistakable.
Watching the man who stared through her as if he could bore a hole in her face, Ilia’s expression turned lonely.
"You’ve changed a great deal too. You’ve grown older, of course—but to think the day would come when you’d actually get angry with me…"
"Ilia!"
"Hah. Fine. I’ll show you myself, so wait."
For the first time since the baron had entered the house, Ilia rose from her chair.
The blanket that had been lightly draped over her slipped down, revealing the full, generous figure she had been concealing.
The baron turned his head aside as if he had seen nothing.
A short while later, Lily emerged from the room where she had been preparing.
Judging by the rather large bag, she intended to watch over Roy while eating and sleeping out in the forest.
A piece of dried jerky, already cut small, was already clenched between the girl’s teeth.
"Lily is my only disciple. Her innate mana surpasses even yours, and she’s already drunk a fully refined elixir of the highest grade. She’s stronger than you by now, you know?"
"……"
The baron furrowed his brow and waited to see what the witch meant to show him.
If it was nothing of consequence, he would run out at once and find Roy.
He believed the boy could endure—but he could not simply leave a child who had not even entered the Knight Academy yet alone and unprotected in a forest crawling with monsters.
"Witch. My preparations are complete."
"Good. Come back safely. And don’t be so stupid as to let a little boy catch you while you’re tailing him."
"Catch me…? If something that shameful ever happened, I’d accept any punishment gladly."
Lily stood in the yard before the witch’s door and blew a long whistle.
As she repeated it several times, the baron’s insides burned with impatience.
If they delayed any longer, finding Roy would become difficult.
Then, from within the forest, a black shadow charged toward the witch’s house at terrifying speed.
Startled, the baron drew his sword in a rush.
"It’s all right, Clive. That’s the Black Wolf Lily summoned."
As the baron watched with a stunned face, a jet-black beast appeared—easily twice the size of an ordinary horse.
It was smaller than the monster wolves said to inhabit Wolf Forest, yet it radiated a far more ominous, incomparable aura.
"That’s… a wolf?"
"Surprised? It’s a little different from a real wolf. But it isn’t a monster, so don’t worry. That wolf is a special spirit Lily contracted with."
"A spirit? That thing?"
"Yes. Not one of the common spirits you know, but a spirit all the same."
While the baron spoke with the witch, Lily climbed onto the Black Wolf’s back as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
"Then I’ll be off, Witch."
"Go on."
Still carrying Lily, the Black Wolf accelerated with tremendous force, weaving between the trees of the forest until it vanished into the unseen distance beyond.
It was faster than any horse by far.
"Convinced now? The girl herself is strong, and with the Black Wolf at her side, there’s nothing to worry about. There’s no monster in this forest more powerful than that wolf. She’ll handle the watch far better than if you went yourself."
"……"
"Then let’s go inside. I’ve missed you. It’s been so long since we last met—tell me how you’ve been living."
"I—I’m already a married man…"
"Pfft! Who said anything? I’m not going to eat you, so hurry in. It’s cold out."
With a face far redder than usual, the baron followed the witch inside.
Standing in front of that woman always makes me feel like a child again…
Having left the witch’s house behind, Roy ran and ran.
Without once looking back, he followed the map drawn on the scroll eastward into the forest.
No need to waste time.
Rising mana coiled around his entire body.
The boy’s steps were lighter than they had ever been.
As he ran, the traces of beasts and monsters flickered into view here and there.
He had clearly left the range of the barrier the witch had raised.
But there was no need to worry.
By training in swordsmanship, Roy had become an entirely different person from the boy who once knew only magic.
"Hmm…"
After traveling for a long while, he arrived near the first marked area on the map.
The scroll even detailed the methods for gathering each plant, so once he found them, the rest would be no problem.
Yes.
If he could only find them.
The map was far too rough; locating a single clump of grass in a vast forest was no easy task.
Roy was no professional herbalist, after all.
I thought winter would make it easier, if anything…
In the cold of winter, plants withered and twisted, and every leaf fell away.
The ones that still boldly asserted their presence even in such weather were the phantasmal herbs.
Yet the thick carpet of dry fallen leaves covering the ground hid everything from sight.
In the past, the baron had told him something.
Dragon’s Breath, he said, formed in places where mana accumulated within the earth.
In truth it seemed this witch named Ilia crafted it in its place—but the words the baron had shared with him had not been entirely false.
Could there be a mana vein near here…?
But mana could neither be seen nor felt with ordinary senses.
Most people opened their eyes to the mana within their bodies after receiving the baptism, yet sensing the vast currents of mana that existed in nature was difficult even for great mages who had lived more than a hundred years.
But.
Heh. I have that.
Roy possessed a secret means.
About six years earlier, in the basement of the manor, he had received golden eyes from a suspicious spirit whose summoning had failed.
Roy immediately concentrated mana into his eyes.
At once they flooded with golden light.
"Ehehe… I can see it. I can see… no—I can feel it."
It was not something seen with the eyes.
It was felt.
"Hah?!"
The boy could not help but be stunned.
Through the Golden Eyes he sensed a fierce vortex of mana surging from every direction.
It was enough to create the illusion that he stood in the middle of a vast lake—or an endlessly wide sea.
An experience he had never once felt within the manor.
With every breath he drew, the powerful mana in the air seemed to pour into his body.
"Ahh…"
It was intoxicating.
Yet no matter how he held his breath and tried to trap the mana that filled him to the depths of his lungs, such a thing was impossible.
"Puhhh…"
That was not his to claim.
It was great nature itself—something he could desire but never possess.
Even so, though he could not own it, Roy gradually grew accustomed to the flow of mana streaming around him.
It’s definitely different from the area around the manor. This forest… there’s something here for certain.
Even the place where Roy stood was nothing more than the outermost fringe of that enormous current of mana.
This is barely the starting point.
If the sea were the comparison, he had only just set foot on the shore.
To obtain what he wanted, he would ultimately have to throw himself into the deep ocean of mana beyond.
I won’t hesitate.
He took a step forward.
Whatever he might see within—
or whatever monster he might meet—it did not matter.
Roy’s goal was only one thing: Dragon’s Breath.
"So that’s how it was. I thought it was still only that woman—but now a second wife. You’ve made yourself another woman besides me."
"……"
She had already known from the rumors, yet Ilia put on a deliberately sorrowful expression for the baron’s benefit.
The baron found the entire situation extremely uncomfortable.
The days when they had fought together as members of the Wolves.
Looking back now, it was a deeply nostalgic time—but it had not been filled only with good memories.
Especially the woman before him.
There had been any number of problems with the witch.
In the year the baron graduated from the Knight Academy, he had undergone the coming-of-age ceremony and at the same time become engaged to his present wife, Anna.
After that, the headaches caused by Ilia—whom he had accepted as a party companion—had been more than one or two.
The witch was the first to bring up those memories.
"I still remember it vividly. The day you, still a boy who’d just finished your coming-of-age ceremony, came to me asking me to join your party. You were so cute and bold back then."
"……"
"‘Witch! Please become my companion!’ you said, kneeling—and while it was absurd, the thought that there existed a human who could look me straight in the eye so clearly… That was the first time my heart had ever raced so fast. And later I learned you carried the blood of House Greenhilt, of all things. What a coincidence…"
"Back then I was desperate for everything."
"And now? Have you changed?"
"Of course I’m still desperate."
"Yes. You were always a man who put his territory and his house first. That was what drew me to you."
At the time, the baron had sought out the Witch’s Forest on nothing but rumor, even before his own father had introduced him to the witch.
He had been wandering lost in the fog because of the barrier when Ilia, returning from an outing, found him and helped him escape.
As if it were fate.
The baron had made his request with formal courtesy.
If she would only join his party, he would do anything.
It was the story of the days when he—mere second son of a baronial house—had rushed about trying to build a force that could surpass his elder brother Billy.
"You’ll never look at me with those eyes again."
Ilia set down her teacup and moved behind the baron seated in his chair.
She gently slipped both arms around his neck and drew him close.
"Regrettably, time cannot be turned back, Ilia."
"I know… Instead, will you hold me one last time?"
The baron turned his head and met the eyes of Ilia, who was embracing him from behind.
The veil she had worn over her head slipped free and fell to the floor, and the dazzlingly beautiful, radiant golden hair that had been hidden settled softly around her.
And between those gleaming strands of hair, two pointed ears jutted out.
Those ears, no matter how one looked at them, could never belong to a human.