Acquiring the Mental Pollution Spell
I returned Vestia’s physical body to her in that dangerous place. “You cruel bastard…” But instead of looking happy about it, she glared at me as if she wanted to kill me.
“Looks like you didn’t want to come back.”
“If you’re going to die alone, then die alone! Why drag me into this!” Vestia was utterly terrified. If anyone asked whose fault that was, the answer would be the witch who had just possessed Syucali’s body.
“Are you scared of the witch?”
“How can you look at this room and feel nothing?”
A room filled with male corpses on display. The witch had enjoyed the sight, but the real Vestia wore a look of pure horror. Yes, that was the normal reaction. Feeling horrified at a room full of taxidermied bodies was exactly right.
“Even so, you abandoned your own body and ran.”
“It would have been better to hand over my body and never meet again.” I wondered how much she must have suffered to choose the option of simply giving her body away.
“You’ll end up like that soon enough. So why drag me into this!”
“I need your help.”
“Get lost! You’re my enemy! If the witch sees me, she’ll come after me again and torment me!”
Vestia sobbed, her voice thick with misery. She was trembling violently, clearly on the verge of a breakdown.
“If you hate it that much, help me and then you can return to being a spirit.”
“You think that’s as easy as it sounds?!” She gave me a pitying look after my previous question. “Becoming a spirit requires a sacrifice and time. I suffered for an entire week to become one!”
“Then why did you stay in this villa?”
“B-because I couldn’t leave…”
“You call being trapped in the mansion after running away ‘running away’? You were even hiding inside this very room.”
“Wh-whatever! The witch didn’t pay any attention to me. She only used my body to chase after men.”
It felt like she was hiding something. Her words and actions didn’t quite match. I couldn’t tell exactly what she was concealing, but I could see what Vestia wanted right now. If I gave her that, she would probably agree to help me.
“Do you know about the Mental Pollution spell?”
“Don’t ask me.”
“So you do know it.”
“What if I do?”
“I want to learn it.”
“Like I already told you, you dragged me into this. The idea of looking at you favorably is ridiculous. I’d rather curse you.” Vestia growled and backed farther away from me.
“If you help me, I’ll get you out of this villa first.”
“Ha, that’s nonsense.”
“The witch is only focused on me right now. If I buy you some time, you should be able to slip out of the villa on your own. Since you’ve been watching her this whole time, you understand what I mean.”
“……”
I sensed that even after abandoning her body to become a spirit, Vestia had continued following the witch. All while fearing her and seeing her as a terrifying being.
From what I knew, spirits were naturally drawn back to their original bodies no matter where they fled. Because spirit magic itself wasn’t a spell that discarded one’s body. It was simply a means to interact with otherworldly entities. It was used to speak with souls who had died with lingering grudges or to read traces left on old objects. If I had used spirit magic on the flower-patterned pendant I once had, I would have immediately realized the red ratman was its owner.
“Even though you abandoned your body, it seems there’s still something here you want to find.”
“...So you didn’t just stupidly walk into the witch’s villa.” I felt Vestia’s gaze toward me soften just a little.
“I’m looking for the person the witch took.”
“It’s a man, I assume.”
“Yes. I came in because I thought he might be in this room, but then you appeared. So I tried to run immediately.”
“Do you need to use the door? I heard spirits can pass through walls.”
“Do you think the witch would allow that? Every wall in this villa is blocked by barriers. Not even an ant could slip in or out.”
“Then you must have entered this place recently.”
“That’s right. I just woke up. My memories aren’t clear, but… it seems I was some strange frog during that time.”
“A frog… you mean the frog mother?”
“Ugh… I don’t know. I vaguely remember the inside of the waterfall… ugh… it’s horrible. But it feels like someone hacked my head open and I crawled out.”
“...So the part about suffering for a week to become a spirit was a lie. Or is only what you’re saying now true?”
“Is that important right now?”
It was. Vestia had also been turned into a monster by the witch. The mention of the waterfall suggested the Rocky Mountain Waterfall Dungeon, and the odds that she had been the frog mother there were very high. It seemed that by hunting her, I had turned her back into a spirit. If she really had been the frog mother, one thing immediately came to mind.
“Do you know about the flower-patterned pendant?”
“!!!” Vestia’s eyes flew wide open.
“How do you know about that?!”
“The fact that you recognize it tells me I was the one who hunted you.”
“Wh-what did you say?!”
When the frog mother died, Vestia’s spirit had emerged. After regaining her senses, she must have returned to the witch’s villa.
“What you’re looking for is probably the man who knows about that flower-patterned pendant.”
“I heard black hair is cursed… but now I think I understand.” She stepped back warily, watching me with caution.
“I know the monster that has that pendant.”
“Where is it?!” Vestia grabbed my collar as she demanded an answer.
“Teach me the spell and I’ll tell you.”
“You’re not lying, right?”
“A ratman kept chasing me. That ratman wanted the pendant.”
“Ah… ah… he was alive… sob… sob…” Vestia finally broke into tears. Just how precious must that red ratman have been to make her react like this?
“Help me, and I’ll tell you where that ratman is hiding.”
“Okay. I’ll help you.” Vestia seemed to have made her decision. The reason she had returned to this witch’s villa was because of the man inside that ratman, so she had chosen to help me even though I was supposed to be her enemy.
“Let’s do this quickly. Mental Pollution is simple. Just think of it as a spell that forcibly injects my own mind into someone else.”
“So that’s how the children ended up like that.”
“Exactly. That’s why you can never pollute the witch.”
As Vestia said, Mental Pollution was a spell that intervened in another person’s mind using my own mental state. If the opponent’s mental strength was greater than mine, it would be easily blocked.
“We won’t know until I try.”
“You think you can overcome the mind of a witch who has lived for hundreds of years? Even I, an S-rank sorceress, couldn’t do it.”
Vestia had tried Mental Pollution herself, and the result had been her own transformation into a monster. That was how absolute a witch was in the world of sorcery.
‘Even if it’s impossible, this is the only way I have right now.’
I currently had three hostages in her grasp. I couldn’t escape with all of them. So I had to face the witch and win this battle.
“Good. Now that I understand the principle, I need to extract the technique.”
“Extract? What do you mean by that?”
I reached my hand toward Vestia’s body.
“Wh-what are you doing?”
“I will obtain it by forming a connection with you.”
“Wh-what?!”
“Didn’t you say you would help me?”
“Th-that’s true, but… this is…!”
“Is it because there’s a man you have feelings for?”
“……”
“If you grant this request, you’ll be able to go meet him.”
I had already given her the information about the pendant and the ratman. Once she knew the ratman’s location, everything would be resolved for her. I judged she would find it difficult to refuse this favor. Besides, in this world, sleeping with one man wasn’t such a serious issue.
“Fine.”
Vestia nodded as expected. To obtain the Mental Pollution spell, I embraced her inside the room where male corpses were displayed.
-Squish…
“Ugh…”
It wasn’t a relationship of mutual caresses or affection.
-Thrust… thrust… thrust…
Like treating a wound, I simply inserted myself into her and moved mechanically. She didn’t seem to mind this kind of encounter and quietly accepted it. I held her like that for one hour, then two.
Wisdom +4
Mana +5
Learned Mental Pollution Spell
“It’s done.”
Vestia said nothing. With a flushed face, she simply moved away from me.
“The red ratman with the pendant is staying in the dungeon behind the Rocky Mountain waterfall. The entrance is blocked by an ice door.”
“Yeah…”
“I’ll leave this room first and confront the witch. Use that opening to escape the villa.”
Vestia nodded.
“And… if you happen to meet a noble’s knight, I’d appreciate it if you sent them this way.”
“Even a knight won’t be able to defeat the witch.”
“I’m creating as many variables as possible. It may be difficult alone, but if we gather together, a chance might appear.”
“You really are a strange one…”
“Then… I’ll open the door.”
On the second day, I obtained Vestia’s spell. I had learned the Mental Pollution spell for the white witch who found me so entertaining. Now I held a blade that could be turned against her. Just as swinging a crude sword against goblins was different from the time I learned noble swordsmanship, having mastered this ability meant I wouldn’t be defeated so easily.
-Clunk… creeeeak…
The door opened, and I decided to head straight for the witch.
“You can find her in the bedroom.”
There was no need to search. The marionette maid waiting at the entrance informed me in a mechanical voice. I headed for the bedroom where I had first slept with the witch. I caught a glimpse of Vestia carefully slipping away in the opposite direction.
‘Now it begins.’
Knock, knock, knock.
I rapped on the bedroom door.
“Come in~”
Hearing Syucali’s voice, I opened the door and stepped inside.
“Haah… haah…”
“Ahn… aah…”
Inside the bedroom, three women were touching one another’s naked bodies and moaning.
“You came quickly, Kang Seo-ja~”
The thick scent of lewd females filled the room.
“Hueeet… et…”
Vera was already sticking her tongue out, her most intimate parts exposed.
“They’re decent specimens.”
Eos, wearing an eye patch, was being trained by Syucali.
“This demon especially doesn’t give in easily, does she?”
The witch inside Syucali kissed Eos, then climbed down from the bed. Syucali’s signature slender yet voluptuous figure was fully revealed.
“Kang Seo-ja, shall I serve you?”
“If I succeed with Mental Pollution, I’ll think about it then.”
“Heh… hehehe.”
The witch approached me with an amused expression.
“Do you really think it’s possible?”
The witch mocked me with a playful, mischievous face right in front of my nose.
“You look like you’re hoping it will be.”
“Kuk kuk kuk!”
For this witch, it was the face of someone who wished for an impossible story to become reality.
-Whoosh!
A white-haired girl burst out from Syucali’s mouth. Syucali’s body went limp, and the white-haired girl nestled straight into my arms, looking up at me.
“Try it.”
The witch had willingly stepped into the most dangerous territory I possessed.