The Witch of Kalak
He could not discern the precise reason, yet one thing was unmistakable: the woman before him wished to examine and interpret his body.
She doesn't seem like a bad person…
Yet neither did she appear wholly good. Hers was a nature in which good and evil shifted with the whims of her heart—capricious if spoken unkindly, or, more generously, a woman guided by convictions entirely her own.
"I have no desire to make a scene. If I simply confirm the nature of the baby's energy, I'll be happy~ the baby will be happy~ everyone will be happy~"
"But… if Noona harbors ill intentions, I'll be completely at her mercy."
"…Wait."
In that instant the woman's face hardened.
"What did you just say?"
"Huh? That… completely at her mercy…"
"Before that."
"If Noona has bad intentions…"
"Kyaa~~♥"
In the blink of an eye her form vanished and reappeared directly before him. Startled, Kaisent tried to put distance between them, but she swept him into a fierce embrace. Sheer speed he might have dodged; disappearance and reappearance were still unfamiliar, and so he was caught.
"Thank you so much~♥ Being called Noona after twenty whole years~♥"
"W-wait… Noona…!"
"Kyaaaaaaa~~~♥"
Held fast yet sensing no hostility, Kaisent could not decide how to respond. He attempted to settle matters with words, only to find himself hugged even tighter. The pleasant fragrance seeping through her slit dress and the soft, yielding warmth of her skin against his face only deepened his fluster.
"There, there. Won't you become Noona's disciple?"
"N-no thank you!"
"Why~? Ah, you don't know Noona's name yet, do you? I am…"
"That isn't the issue!"
The invitation to become her disciple snapped Kaisent back to himself. He freed his arms from her embrace and stepped away.
"If you investigated me, you must already know why I remain with the Wolf Mercenary Corps."
"Mm. But becoming Noona's disciple would mean…"
"Forgive me for cutting you off again, yet it truly does not matter what sort of person Noona is."
The woman regarded the boy's eyes—eyes that held an unyielding resolve never to follow her, no matter who she might be—and curved her lips into a seductive smile.
I knew he valued debts of gratitude over profit, a man of loyalty… yet he is firmer than the reports suggested. Almost a matter of creed. For such a little baby… it only makes me want him more♥
Boys of his age were so often dazzled by immediate gain. The sight of Kaisent, young yet already living by loyalty and repaying kindness through service, only sharpened her desire.
They said he was of another race, yet he is adorable, charming, and carries a steely dignity besides. He must have held no small station in his original world.
To a woman who despised vulgarity, Kaisent was a treasure she longed to claim. Yet beings of such character only grew colder when pressed; she chose to end the invitation here.
"Very well, I understand. Still, we ought at least to exchange names, don't you think? It pains my heart too much if the baby regards me as some suspicious Noona whose name he does not even know."
"…If it is only that much…"
"My name is Charlize Livelim."
"I am Jin Resili Kaisent."
Names exchanged, they returned to the original matter.
"If I drag this out any longer Noona will only earn dislike, so I'll be going~"
"Huh? But…"
"Ah, that? I've already finished checking."
"Eh?"
He had felt nothing at all. When, then, had she grasped the nature of his energy?
Could it be…?
The only moment she had drawn close was that brief embrace. If she had completed her examination in so short a span, she ranked among the true masters he had ever encountered.
On par with Countess Akina… perhaps even more.
Until today Akina had been the strongest he had known; that judgment might now require revision.
Meanwhile Charlize felt quiet relief. Kaisent's energy was unique, yet it was not what she had feared.
Thank goodness. This baby is not one of "their" subordinates.
He had stood out so early that she had worried; it seemed he was simply a genius of rare talent. Relieved that she need not kill him, she offered another alluring smile.
"And give my regards to Princess Lillian as well~"
"W-wait!"
"See you later, baby♥"
Not Wolf, but Lillian—and the title of princess. Kaisent reeled and tried to question her at once. Charlize merely waved, then vanished without a trace.
"……"
Like a sudden storm she had shaken him and disappeared.
What…? Why does she know about Lillian—and that she is a princess?
Why did she want to examine the nature of my energy?
One certainty remained: they would meet again someday.
…Wondering alone is useless. For now…
He resolved to tell Lillian everything, then concentrated on the magic Charlize had used to shift her position again and again.
It went like this.
Papap!
"Wah!"
Using teleportation for the first time, Kaisent startled as his location changed in an instant.
The ability to move to any place I remember. The farther the destination, the more mana it consumes. Clarity of memory matters as well. So this is the teleport spell that divides high-ranking mages from the rest.
Had Charlize witnessed it, her customary poker face would have cracked and she would have tried to abduct him on the spot. To reproduce, after only a few observations, a spell that affects no one but the caster was a feat beyond mere talent—it bordered on the incomprehensible.
Learning this properly would cost dozens of gold coins at minimum. Fortunate.
If Lillian's memories of Charlize proved fond ones, he would ask her to demonstrate more magic when next they met.
If I call her Noona a little more pitifully… she might agree…?
Having weathered the world's storms and learned at last how to wield his own charm, Kaisent felt certain it would work on Charlize.
Somewhere that appeared to be an underground facility, men whose auras were carefully restrained waited for someone.
"How was the otherworlder called Kaisent?"
Charlize arrived by teleport at the appointed place and answered the man who questioned her without the least surprise.
"Yep~ Clean. Simply outstanding talent."
"Honestly hard to believe, yet if the Witch of Kalak says so… Cough!?"
"I do not particularly enjoy being called that, you know~"
A curse sealed the man's tongue. Those around him reflexively drew weapons. The silenced man waved frantically, forbidding any attack. He could not imagine the witch would face armed men without countermeasures of her own. Fortunately the curse lifted soon enough.
"Cough! Cough! If you have complaints, speak them with words! Don't start with curses!"
"Hmph. Heartless men who understand nothing of a woman's feelings. A delicate girl like me is sensitive by nature."
At her calling herself a girl, the men hurled every unspoken curse imaginable with their eyes alone.
"Heheheheh."
Yet Charlize only smiled more brightly beneath those glares.
"…You seem to be in rather good spirits."
"I was called Noona for the first time in ages. Proof that I'm still in my prime~♥"
She lifted both arms above her head, twisted her body with languid allure, and winked. The man looked as though he had witnessed something best left unseen.
"We have little time. Interrogate the captives first. The sooner this cult is eradicated, the sooner the empire stabilizes."
"Tsk."
Shooting a sidelong glance at the men who failed even to appreciate her charm, Charlize abandoned the game and descended toward the basement that held the captured cultists.
Those who worship Outer Gods are dangerous by nature. Their laws stand utterly apart from those of our world.
Cultists who served gods from the "outside," not the deities of Zelsdad, were perilous even by her reckoning. That was why she lent her strength—however reluctantly—to these men she scarcely liked, helping them uproot the cult entirely. Yet the deeper she dug, the larger the organization appeared.
Best case, they exist only on the Western Continent… worst case, we may have to suspect they have already taken root on the Eastern Continent as well.
Once Kaisent confirmed that Lillian had brought the proceeds from selling their spoils, he stored the coin in the dimensional warehouse at her request. Large sums always drew thieves who could smell fortune on the wind.
"Charlize Livelim!?"
The moment he spoke the name of the woman he had met, Lillian's expression twisted in pure shock.
"Someone you know?"
"Far more than 'someone I know'!"
Long ago the Western Continent had been unified under the Dimenes Empire. Centuries of power, however, had slowly rotted the empire from within until it produced a tyrant. Rebellions rose against that tyrant across the land, and from those uprisings the many nations now scattered across the Western Continent were born.
The Luciarkenel Kingdom was one such realm. The Livelim family had been raised to a legitimate ducal house for their service in assisting the founding king. When the kingdom fell to the Saryeong Kingdom, the head of House Livelim had been Charlize—a master of black magic, called a witch, and feared by countless nobles.
She destroyed those she disliked slowly, over long stretches of time, with every manner of curse. At first the victims believed themselves merely ill; only later did the truth spread in whispers that it had been her curse all along.
"When the kingdom fell she vanished without a sound, so I assumed she was dead… And she even knew that I am the leader of the Wolf Mercenary Corps…"
What in the world had she been doing since the kingdom's destruction?
"Hmm… Then why not ask her for help? Even if I can no longer be treated as a princess, we know each other; she would not refuse outright…"
"Impossible."
"Huh? Why?"
"That woman is a witch whose personality is so twisted even Father feared her."
"……"
Witch or not, Kaisent could not deny her character was rather twisted.
"She always wears a smile, yet you can never tell what she is thinking behind it. I have been frightened every time I saw her, ever since I was small."
"Umm……"
"And Charlize never acts on emotion."
"But from what I saw…"
"It looked emotional, didn't it? All of it is calculated. Inside she calculates with merciless coldness. She merely drapes emotion over movements that have already been measured to the last detail."
One fact stood clear: Lillian feared Charlize.
From what I saw she did not seem so terrible a person.
He could not deny the twisted streak, nor that she had pretended delight at being called Noona while secretly examining his energy…
Wait… I was completely played, wasn't I?
Only now did Kaisent realize he had been swept along by her pace and thoroughly outmaneuvered. Yet the strange thing was that he felt no resentment.
The goodwill she showed me was genuine.
He who could read malice and goodwill in others—especially in women—with uncanny precision recognized that Charlize's affection toward him had been real. Even so, the way she had achieved her purpose while holding that goodwill revealed how deep her schemes ran.
The two of them spoke of Charlize and prepared for the day they would meet again. For reasons he could not name, Kaisent felt a strong premonition that their paths would cross once more.
When talk of Charlize began to wind down, he seized the moment to ask the question that had weighed on him.
"By the way, Lillian."
"Hm?"
"You're hiding something from me, aren't you."
Kaisent had believed her failure to conceive stemmed from some doubt or dissatisfaction she held toward him. Yet confronting so grave a matter required more courage than he possessed at first; several days of quiet resolve had been necessary.
"Me? Hiding something? What?"
Swearing by every god that she had concealed nothing from him, she reacted with pure bewilderment. In this world disposable magic items existed that could detect pregnancy; she herself had used one and shared his confusion at the result.
"I truly wanted to impregnate you, Noona. There is not a single shred of anxiety or doubt in this heart."
Faced with eyes that held not the slightest hesitation, she searched her own heart for any reason she might have refused pregnancy.
"…Ah."
"Ah?"
This was not the sound of a secret exposed, but of something she herself had never consciously considered.
Lillian ordered her thoughts, then spoke.
"…I thought it would be pitiful."
"Huh?"
"Your first woman is Dang Seol-yeong, is she not? As desperately as you search for her, she must be searching for you with equal longing. If, while you were apart, a wife had already borne your child… how would Dang Seol-yeong feel?"
"Ah…!"
Clever yet still short of experience and broad perspective, Kaisent could only bow his head before Lillian's wisdom.
"If I am to become pregnant, I want it to be after we have found Dang Seol-yeong. Only then would it feel fair."
"……"
Kaisent felt a quiet self-loathing for having only now understood what Lillian had already considered.
"Do not blame yourself. It is proof of how deeply you love me. But let us wait for pregnancy until after we find her. Understood?"
"Yes……"
Heavy with guilt toward Dang Seol-yeong, Kaisent burrowed into Lillian's arms.
Fool. Someone this strong, who already knows how to charm women, could easily forget a girl he met for only a few days…
Lillian held him close and gently stroked his back. Kaisent's power and talent already transcended ordinary humanity. In time people would revere him and beauties would seek him of their own accord—yet still he searched desperately for a woman he had known only days.
She could not fathom what about Dang Seol-yeong inspired such devotion, yet to Kaisent the woman was both his savior and his first love. Lillian felt a subtle jealousy bloom toward the one even her own love could not make him forget.