The Witch (3)

A single downward slash cleaved a soldier ant in two before it could even scream.

Without recovering her blade, Yeon pivoted and swept it sideways—the massive mandibles lunging at her sheared clean off. Then she drove the black wolf's fangs into the maw left helplessly exposed.

The soldier ant shuddered as the attack bored through its own jaws, then crumpled. Feeling that death-tremor travel up her arm, Yeon made an inscrutable face and pulled free.

"Hahh—"

Two down in the span of a breath, and still the soldier ants kept coming. Yeon exhaled and swept her gaze around. If Tara—whom Choco had assigned to her—hadn't been fighting nearby, she wouldn't even have had this moment to catch her breath. Alone, she would have been crushed under sheer numbers.

Was she a brawler this whole time...?

Yeon flicked a glance toward Tara. The sight of her tearing through the soldier ants with white energy coiled around her fists was nothing like the demure composure she usually wore—though her words, of course, had always been edged like blades. Every time she threw a punch, something crunched and gave way, and soldier ants went flying, their heads caved in. Her hands were so fast that she casually dropped three for every one Yeon managed to kill.

Tara was level 60. As a Daoist—a class not unlike a mage—her physical abilities were on the weaker side compared to swordsmen of the same level. Even so, soldier ants that were a mere level 40 posed her no real difficulty. Why she was insisting on using her fists instead of her Daoist arts, though, Yeon couldn't begin to guess.

Sweat beading at her temple, Yeon cut down another soldier ant as it charged. The honest truth was that Tara made her uncomfortable. That cold impression, the high-handed manner, the cutting way of speaking—and on top of it all, a faint air of looking down on her.

In a way, it wasn't so different from the first impression Se-jin had given. But Se-jin only looked like that. In reality she was gentle, sociable—and just eccentric enough that, despite being ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the older one, she sometimes came off as downright cute. Tara had no such gaps. She ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠was blindly devoted to the Gumiho, and she treated Choco harshly at every turn. For someone bound to Choco as a familiar—or a shikigami, or whatever it was—she always needed to be begged at length before she'd lift a finger to help. The thought alone made Yeon's grip tighten on her sword.

She knew Tara had her reasons. Choco had told her as much. But there were limits. Tara wasn't the only one with circumstances, and Choco was already going out of her way to be considerate. It wasn't as if it would kill Tara to meet them halfway.

She was still grumbling inwardly when she felt a presence at her back. She whipped her head around—a soldier ant had closed in without her noticing, its mandibles already snapping shut. No matter how fast she moved, there was no dodging an attack that was already on her. She was about to thrust her sword anyway, braced to take the hit, when—

A sharp crack, and the soldier ant's head was driven into the dirt.

Tara landed on top of it as if it were nothing and looked at Yeon. Those clear eyes seemed to see straight through a person, and Yeon's body flinched of its own accord.

"Be careful."

"Ah—yeah. Thanks...?"

Yeon fumbled out a reply, but Tara was already gone. In the next breath she had thrown herself into another cluster of soldier ants and was fighting again.

Yeah. There's no way I'm getting close to her. Holding onto that thought, Yeon turned to watch the queen ants pushing through the soldier ants toward them.

Choco stared down at the unconscious Gejina with a peculiar look, her eyes spinning slightly.

She had brought that last strike down fully intending to cave the woman's skull in. And yet Gejina was still alive. At the final instant, hesitation had come out of nowhere, and Choco had pulled the force from the blow.

It was an absurd thing to admit, but she hadn't wanted to kill her. To put it more precisely, the will to treat her as an enemy had simply... vanished.

It made no sense, no matter how many times she turned it over. That last strike had been thrown with every intention of ending her. There was no reason to keep her alive in the first place. She didn't have information. She wasn't useful. The only thing a high-level enemy like her was good for was the experience she'd drop if you killed her.

Don't tell me it was because of that last attack I took?

Choco recalled the violet orb Gejina had hurled in a last, desperate thrash. She could have dodged it if she'd wanted to, but it hadn't felt particularly threatening, so she'd planned to just take the hit and keep swinging. The impact had been heavier than expected—enough to make her falter for a beat—but she'd still come within a hair of cracking the woman's skull, so it hadn't been the wrong call, exactly...

I really should've just dodged and then struck.

"Hm?"

She ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠was still turning over what to do when the level-up alerts rang out one after another. They'd been trickling in for a while now, actually, but this was the first time they'd come in a burst.

She cocked her head—and then two figures appeared in the doorway. Yeon and Tara, of course. Their conditions could not have been more different.

Tara looked exactly as she had when she'd left. Her snow-white garments were still immaculate, not a single hair out of place. She had probably been fighting from the rear with her Daoist arts, so perhaps that was only natural.

Yeon, on the other hand, looked like someone ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠who had just clawed her way through a brutal battle. Her hair was a wild tangle, and both her sword and the Ogle's Masterpiece armor were visibly worn down—the kind of battered that said they'd fall apart soon if they didn't see a forge.

So they really did fight a boss out there. Choco raised a hand and waved.

"Huh?"

A gentle breeze settled Yeon's tangled hair neatly into place. At the same time, a faint warmth of vitality welled back up inside her, and she tilted her head, bewildered.

Tara, standing beside her, spoke as if she couldn't believe what she was seeing.

"My, you do dote on her."

"Dote? Over something this small..."

Choco whipped her head away as she answered, but she couldn't quite hide the faint color rising in her face.

Why did I just do that?

It wasn't the sort of thing she would normally have done. At most she would have pointed out that the hair was a mess. She wouldn't have tidied it herself. And yet the gesture just now had come out as if it were the most natural thing in the world—so impatient, she hadn't even been able to wait for Yeon to come closer. She had gone so far as to work her spirit power.

While Choco's thoughts tangled themselves in knots, Tara approached, narrowed her eyes at the still-unconscious Gejina, and frowned.

"And why haven't you dealt with this one yet?"

"Hm? Ah, well..."

"Don't hem and haw. There's no reason to keep her alive, is there?"

There was nothing wrong with what Tara had said. But Choco couldn't quite bring herself to answer. She was still hesitating over whether Gejina truly had to die.

"If you can't do it, I'll handle it for you."

"Ah—wait, that's a bit..."

Tara raised a fist wreathed in sacred energy and started forward. Choco hurriedly stopped her.

"Must we... truly go so far as to slay her...?"

"...Are you seriously calling that words right now?"

"No... but still..."

"Choco said she doesn't want to. Why do you keep pushing?"

"Ha?"

Tara's eyes cut toward Yeon, sharp as a blade. Yeon's body shrank back on instinct, but she held her ground. There was no reason to be intimidated, was there? It wasn't as if Tara could actually attack her. She topped up her courage as best she could.

"A-and you're Choco's familiar, or shikigami, or whatever, right? So you should listen to what Choco says. Why do you always jump down her throat the second she—"

But under that heavy gaze looking down at her from a greater height, the courage she had so carefully inflated collapsed just as fast. Yeon's voice trailed off into a mumble.

Tara spoke in a voice gone distinctly chilly.

"So. Are you quite finished?"

"Y-yeah..."

"Ha. I am genuinely speechless."

Eep. Yeon squeezed her eyes shut. She was certain that fist—the same one that had been pulverizing soldier ants—was about to come down on her head.

Fortunately, her skull did not cave in the way the ants' had.

"Gah!"

The fist landed on Choco instead, who had been watching the two of them with nervous eyes. A sharp, electric pain shot down from the crown of her head. Swallowing tears, she looked up at Tara.

"Why—why dost thou strike Yeo...?"

"Because you've been spouting nonsense without even realizing you were brainwashed. Have you come to your senses now?"

"Come to my senses...? Huh?"

Still clutching her head, Choco suddenly realized that her mind had gone clear. The pain was still ringing through her skull, but separate from that, something that had been sitting on her thoughts like a lid had been wiped clean away.

Reading that realization on her face, Tara went on.

"I suppose a mongrel like her would have a knack for such filthy tricks. To think it would work this well on the successor."

"Choco was brainwashed?"

"Yes, well. It doesn't seem to have taken hold completely, which is how we ended up with this mess."

So saying, Tara lifted her foot over the fallen Gejina and glanced at Choco.

"I'll just kill her, then?"

"Huh?"

She didn't even wait for an answer. Her foot came down. A wet crunch, and the ground split open.

The system windows just kept coming.

"Whoa..."

Yeon stared blankly, her mouth hanging open, as the level-up alerts poured in without pause.

By the time she and Tara had finished off the soldier ants outside and taken down the queen ants as well, she had already been sitting at level 46. That much was only natural. The soldier ants the two of them had killed numbered close to a hundred, and on top of that they had dropped three boss-grade queen ants. If her level hadn't climbed after all that, something would have been wrong. But the levels that came from Gejina's death dwarfed even that.

And it still wasn't over. The experience that began flooding in as a clear reward produced a result that defied all reason.

"...This has to be a bug, right?"

Yeon muttered it while staring at her own level. Before they had come down into the boss room, she had been level 41. However hard the fight had been, her level had jumped by sixteen in a single boss battle...

"Well... I should think it no mere bug."

Choco sounded just as dubious. Just how many had they killed out there, for the levels to come in all at once like this? Dungeon clear rewards scaled with the size of the clear. The stronger the monsters, the greater their numbers, the more you received. And looking at these numbers... it could not have been an ordinary amount.

"Yeon, was it?"

"Eek."

Yeon jumped and looked over at the sudden voice. She had the look of prey that had just noticed a predator, and Tara muttered as if she couldn't believe it.

"Why so startled? It's not as if I'm going to eat you."

"W-well, no, but..."

Yeon mumbled, pointedly looking anywhere else. She had raised her voice at Tara only moments ago. In hindsight, Choco had been brainwashed and unable to think straight, which meant Tara had been right. Yeon had talked back knowing nothing at all. She was already shrinking, certain she was about to get an earful for real this time, when Tara spoke.

"You were right. Sulking forever would have been no different from going against Lady Gumiho's will."

"Uh—huh? R-right?"

"That said, you do understand that suddenly acting all friendly would be a bit much? I have no desire to, for one thing—and it would be strange, wouldn't it? That sort of thing."

"Then..."

"Well. I shall try to be a little more amicable."

So saying, Tara looked at Choco.

"Then... that means thou shalt henceforth heed Yeo's commands well?"

"'Commands' is putting it a bit strongly, but—to a degree, yes."

"Then thou wilt apologize for striking Yeo just now—eep."

"Don't get cocky."

Tara rapped her on the head with a folding fan that had appeared in her hand from who-knew-where.

"Well then. I'll be going."

"Ah. Yeah. See you...?"

Tara closed her eyes in a slow blink, dissolved into a cluster of light, and vanished. Yeon was left wearing a thoroughly dazed expression.

"Why must she keep striking one upon the head..."

"Does it hurt a lot?"

"It does not hurt, as such... how to put it. It rather feels as though one is being treated like a child."

"Want me to blow on it?"

"Th-that much is quite unnecessary!"

Watching Choco startle so badly, Yeon let out a small laugh. And with it came the thought that perhaps—just maybe—she and Tara might get along a little better.