The Petty Curses of the Great Witch
Liselotte, who had revealed her form in the air by pouring every ounce of her power into the curse, looked nothing like the woman Kyle had seen before. The bony, frail figure who had spent centuries groaning in misery within the Witch’s Forest was gone. In her place stood a stunning beauty with healthy, plump curves—a complete transformation.
“It’s been a while, dear.”
With a soft thud, Liselotte planted her feet on the ground and immediately sent her mana spreading outward to assess the situation. When she realized there was no one else around, she tilted her head in confusion. She couldn’t imagine Kyle summoning her without good reason.
“Hmm. You wouldn’t have called me just to see my face… So what is it?”
“What if I really did call you just to see your face?”
“You? Truly? For something so trivial?”
Liselotte studied Kyle’s face for a moment, then frowned as though troubled.
“You’re not softening me up with sweet words just so you can ask for more summons later, are you? No matter that you freed me—”
“Ah, it’s nothing like that, so don’t worry.”
Kyle waved off her needless concern and handed her a single drawing he had made himself. Liselotte stared at the incomprehensible sketch and tilted her head again.
“What is this…?”
“It’s a person’s face.”
“This…?”
Liselotte let out a dry laugh and examined the montage more closely. Once she tried to see it as a human face, it did somewhat resemble one. Still, humans had a natural tendency to recognize three holes inside a circle as a face, so creating something that didn’t look like one was actually the harder task.
“Her name is Agni. She’s an apostle of the evil god.”
“—So this is why you called me.”
“Yes. Great Witch, from now on I’d like you to—”
Kyle pointed at the drawing.
“—curse this one for me.”
The evil god cult. That was the name the outside world gave their heretical religion, but internally they used a different title for one another: the Knights of Original Sin. Each of the seven apostles bore one of the original sins, and their authority allowed them to command tens of thousands of followers with a mere gesture.
Among them, Agni, the Apostle of Wrath, was the most active. It had everything to do with her ability.
“Be angry. Rage against this world. Burn everything to ash. We shall carry all the sins.”
““Ahh, ahhh—!!””
Of the many powers she possessed, the one she used most often was emotional manipulation through wrath. Adrenaline surged wildly, and the feelings of hundreds or even thousands of followers twisted however she wished. It was mind-melting emotional domination. Once someone experienced it, they had no choice but to become a follower of the cult.
Having successfully converted an entire village, Agni smiled with satisfaction and headed toward the local inn. The innkeeper, who had already offered her body to the evil god, had prepared a meal just for her.
“The meal is ready, Apostle.”
“Yes, yes~ Oh, this looks delicious. Mind if I dig in?”
Agni sat down immediately and began to eat. A lavish spread of meat, eggs, and milk—rare delicacies in such a rural village—awaited her. She took a huge bite of bread, stuffed it with meat and egg to make a sandwich, then washed the whole mouthful down with big gulps of milk…!
“Ugh—!”
As she tried to swallow everything at once, Agni felt the food lodge in her throat, cutting off her breath. She coughed and pounded her chest while the surrounding followers stood frozen, unsure what to do. They didn’t dare lay a hand on the apostle who carried the evil god’s power.
Moments later, Agni’s face turned deathly pale. She collapsed onto the table, foaming at the mouth. Only then did the followers realize the severity of the situation and frantically clear the obstruction from her throat—but by then, Agni had already died.
“W-what do we do…?!”
“The apostle… she’s dead…!”
The apostle who could freely manipulate the emotions of thousands had died in such a ridiculous way—choking on her food—that no one could respond with any semblance of reason. Just as panic set in, Agni suddenly bolted upright, startling everyone.
“Ahh, that was close. I nearly died.”
“A-apostle?!”
“B-but you definitely passed away…!”
Agni spat out the remaining bits in her throat, then looked at the followers as if they were speaking nonsense.
“Me, die? Don’t be ridiculous.”
“But we saw—”
“And from something as trivial as eating? If word of this spreads, what will the followers think of me?”
“U-understood.”
The followers who grasped her meaning quickly erased the event from their minds. Seeing how obedient they were, Agni gave a satisfied smile.
‘Ugh, how embarrassing…’
Of course it was humiliating to choke to death in front of her followers, but she couldn’t exactly kill every witness, could she? Agni shook her head and left the inn. She never wanted to set foot in such an unlucky place again.
“—Hmm, it didn’t work?”
Liselotte let out a small groan as she sensed her curse had failed to take hold. To be precise, it had worked. She had felt the distinct sensation of her curse killing the target. The problem was that the target had simply gotten back up afterward as if nothing had happened.
“I told you, didn’t I? She comes back to life even after dying.”
“An immortal… How is something like that even possible?”
“It must be one of the evil god’s powers.”
“Even so, a god’s power shouldn’t—”
It was true that divine power was formidable. But as a great witch who toyed with the very laws of the world, Liselotte understood that such abilities could not be used without limit. Using a god’s strength on the mortal plane would require an enormous price—resources beyond what ordinary people could even imagine.
“Well, no matter. If I can’t kill her in one strike, I’ll simply curse her steadily.”
“What sort of curses do you have in mind?”
“Things like a curse that leaves you without toilet paper every time you use the bathroom, or one that makes you stub your little toe on every doorframe?”
Kyle stared at Liselotte’s face. The suggestions were so absurd he wondered if she was trying to stress Agni to death through sheer frustration. Yet the more he looked, the more he realized she was completely serious. She genuinely believed these curses could kill the apostle.
‘Well, she has lived for hundreds of years…’
What seemed like trivial annoyances for a day or two could become devastating over a year, ten years, or even a hundred. The accumulated stress would be no small matter.
“But dear, a name alone isn’t enough to cast curses of that nature.”
“I have plenty of her blood. Will that do?”
“Oh my, blood is more than sufficient.”
Kyle led Liselotte to the spot where he had cut Agni apart. The ground was still soaked with the thick blood the apostle had spilled while dying dozens of times. Liselotte waved her hand lightly over the blood-soaked earth, and the clots—already beginning to break down from microorganisms—gathered into her palm. The sheer volume was so immense it seemed impossible for it to have come from a single human body.
“With this much, I could curse her for hundreds of years.”
Yet Liselotte paid the amount no mind and immediately began casting. Just as she had mentioned, she layered on curses: no toilet paper when needed, stubbing the little toe on every threshold, indigestion after every meal, insomnia that refused to let her sleep, and countless other petty hexes. All of them flew straight toward Agni.
Once the ritual was complete, Kyle asked why she had chosen such trivial curses.
“Hmm? Why only these kinds of curses, you ask?”
“Yes. If they’re strong enough to kill, wouldn’t it be better to use one that kills her every single moment?”
“That’s the question of someone who doesn’t understand curses, dear.”
Curses were not so simple. They only appeared easy because a great witch like Liselotte was using them. In truth, they were delicate and extremely difficult to wield.
“A curse that leads directly to death is like throwing a full-powered punch.”
Liselotte demonstrated by swinging her fist at Kyle with all her strength. He reflexively twisted his head and dodged.
Seeing his reaction, Liselotte shrugged as if to prove her point.
“But the curses I placed just now are like light taps. The kind you don’t even feel the need to avoid.”
She gave Kyle’s forearm a cute little tap. There was no real force behind it, so he felt no urge to dodge.
“If I used a curse powerful enough to kill her every moment, she would instinctively try to avoid it. She might even notice something strange and seek a way to dispel it.”
“…And the curses you used won’t cause that?”
“They’re only mildly stressful—far too weak to be recognized as proper curses. That makes them difficult to dispel and even harder to detect.”
Low-powered curses could not produce dramatic effects right away. But over the long term? If someone hit their rear on their own waste every day, lay awake unable to sleep every night, and suffered indigestion after every meal? Humans were both incredibly resilient and terribly fragile. Constant stress like that could eventually lead to fatal illness.
“Of course, if I could meet her in person, none of this would be necessary.”
“What do you mean?”
“Oh my, dear. Have you forgotten who I am?”
Liselotte smiled mischievously. Kyle tilted his head, confused, until he finally remembered her true nature. She was the Great Witch, but her specialty was soul magic. She was a specialist who manipulated the souls of others. Whether the opponent was an immortal monster or anything else, they were powerless before her. No matter how indestructible the body, without a soul it was nothing more than a living doll.