Chapter 18: The Final Piece
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 18: The Final Piece
“You… you were a witch?”
Myra’s face twisted into a scowl as she suddenly confronted me, radiating a menacing aura, as if she’d kill me at the slightest provocation.
Wait, how did she know?
Then it hit me.
It must have been when I used the Heavenly Covenant.
That’s right, she used it to grab me.
And Mirabelle had even awakened. She must be emanating a witch's energy that I can't sense. A clergywoman like Myra would have no trouble detecting it.
I knew things were going too smoothly.
I had to talk my way out of this for now.
“Haha, our Mirabelle is amazing, but a witch? She's not that amazing.”
“Is that so? That staff looks quite impressive. Mind if I take a look?”
Damn, she was sharp as a tack.
There was no easy way out of this.
“So what if Mirabelle is a witch? Are you going to fight her again in your condition? Even if your entire Knight Order attacked, it wouldn't be easy, you know~”
I sneered, standing defiantly.
There was no need to be subservient anymore.
Mirabelle, the one with the highest potential in the story, had awakened as a witch. She was no longer an opponent a mere priestess could handle.
“Really? But the kid doesn't look like she's in any state to fight.”
Hm?
I checked on Mirabelle and saw that she had reverted to her timid self, not the one who had beaten Myra to a pulp.
Was it because she was away from the grimoire?
If that was the case…
“Hahahaha, just kidding. It was a joke~”
“Too late.”
Sigh, what should I do?
Should I give the grimoire back to Mirabelle? And then pull the “Daddy’s leaving” stunt again?
As my brain went into overdrive, Myra let out a deep sigh.
“So that's why she trembled whenever she saw us. It all makes sense now. Why she looked at me like I was a murderer.”
Myra muttered with a complicated expression. It was as if she were talking to herself, her voice laced with regret.
A slave trader's intuition.
This was an opportunity.
I couldn't let it slip away.
“This child lost her parents and was sold into slavery simply for being a witch. Her life was destroyed overnight, even though she committed no crime.”
“Are you trying to play the sympathy card in front of a clergywoman? For a witch?”
“The weak can't survive unless they resort to such things. That's how the world works. That was this child's reality.”
“…Hah, fuck.”
Myra, who had been glaring at me with displeasure, cursed and scratched the back of her head. Her face was contorted as if she'd been dragged into something troublesome, and it showed no sign of smoothing over.
Then, she let out her irritation with an exhale and glared at me once more.
“You knew she was a witch. So why are you keeping her with you? Don't you know what witches are?”
“How could I not? It's something everyone in the world knows.”
“Stop changing the subject and answer me.”
Myra's eyes narrowed sharply, reminiscent of a hawk searching for prey in a field, trying to uncover my hidden intentions.
I didn't flinch. Instead, I scoffed as if it were a pathetic question.
“Isn't it uncomfortable being forced to act a certain way just because you're a priestess? You might want to curse a little, speak informally, rashly suspect people, and even throw a punch or two. You don't have to be prim and proper to be a priestess.”
“W-What?”
“It's the same for witches. While there are witches in the world who perform human experiments, there are also kind and cute witches like her. How unfair would it be for her life to be threatened just because she's a witch?”
“Stop beating around the bush and get to the point. What are you trying to say?”
My silver tongue is a slave trader's lifeline, but she's so demanding.
I pushed Mirabelle forward, using her as a shield. Faced with Myra, Mirabelle flinched and threw herself into my arms.
Her stance clearly showed she preferred a slave trader to a clergywoman. As Myra watched Mirabelle with a complicated expression, I added one more thing.
“Witch or demon, it doesn't matter. If she's my slave, whatever her identity, I will take full responsibility and care for her. That's the only way to raise a good slave. Once you start being picky, there's no end to it, you see?”
“Ha.”
Myra let out a hollow laugh, as if in disbelief. Seeing her chuckle, it seemed my answer must have been quite amusing to her.
I'd done all I could. All that was left was to wait for her answer.
What choice would she make?
If she decided to gather her knights and execute the witch, it would be game over. I couldn't even buy items with points anymore.
I had to trust in my silver tongue—one that could tie a cherry stem into a ribbon—and my Master of Negotiation skill.
An uncomfortable silence stretched on.
Despite my relaxed facade, my mouth was going dry.
“…Go.”
“Pardon?”
“I said go, while I'm looking the other way. But if you get caught, you're dead. If they find out I let you go, it's my neck on the line too.”
In the end, Myra's decision was to let us go.
Perhaps she never imagined Myra would let her go. Mirabelle's eyes went wide as she stared intently at the priestess.
“What? Never seen a kind clergywoman before? You looked scared because of me, so I'm letting you go because I feel bad about it.”
“Do people usually call themselves kind?”
“I wasn't talking to you, so please shut your mouth.”
Unable to bear Mirabelle's intense gaze, Myra finally looked away.
This was the same Myra who had physically intervened back at the tavern. Even if it ended in a misunderstanding, her actions had stemmed from a genuine desire to help Mirabelle.
That hadn't changed even after learning Mirabelle was a witch—something only a person with firm convictions of their own could do.
I offered her my heartfelt thanks.
“Haha, thank you for sparing us. But we can't leave just yet.”
Sorry to ruin the cool moment you just had.
We can't go yet.
“What?”
“There's something I need to get here. We can't leave until I find it.”
“What do you mean you can't go? Do you not understand the situation?”
“I wouldn't be a slave trader if I couldn't read the room. But what can I do? We're screwed anyway if I don't get it. Well then, let's meet again someday. Now, Miss Mirabelle. Say goodbye!”
“Ah, g-goodbye…. See you again?”
“Uh, yeah, you too. …Huh?”
Before the dumbfounded Myra could come to her senses, I grabbed Mirabelle's hand and bolted.
Then I came back.
“W-What was that?”
“I forgot my money.”
*
A few days had passed since Mirabelle's rampage.
Nothing much had changed.
The aftermath was handled smoothly, and the lord, having been bribed, didn't press charges. Besides, with Mirabelle on our side, he couldn't touch us easily.
He has no idea she can't use those spells anymore.
I'd asked Mirabelle to try using the magic from that day, but she couldn't. It seemed she needed the grimoire, which we had unfortunately returned to Myra.
Because its demonic energy contamination was too high. She said even purification wouldn't work. There was no choice but to incinerate it.
But before burning it, she did us the service of deciphering it. It was a goblin’s delusional notebook, with a story about becoming a god and punishing humans.
In modern terms, it was like one of those satisfying power-fantasy webnovels. The kind where you awaken an SSS-rank skill and go on a rampage. Except the main character was a goblin.
It was absurd that something like that had caused Mirabelle to awaken.
No wonder she awakened in a form I didn't recognize.
It was a shame she couldn't use those spells anymore, but it didn't matter much since she had awakened. It was a huge step toward Mirabelle's liberation.
Her physical specs were upgraded, so the next important thing was her mental state…
Morning sunlight streamed into our inn room.
I was having a sandwich for breakfast and catching up on world events through the newspaper. Mirabelle, having finished her own food, was staring at me intently.
“What is it?”
“W-Well…”
Mirabelle fidgeted with her fingers, unable to continue. I let out a small sigh at the sight.
“If you want to, you can.”
As soon as I said that, a faint blush colored Mirabelle's face. She slid off her chair, wriggled over, and burrowed into my arms, settling on my lap.
She must have been deeply shocked by my attempt to leave her behind, because now she refused to be separated from me for even a moment. Not when we walked, not when we slept, not even when she bathed.
Of course, I've managed to draw the line there.
Her increased dependency was a bit troublesome, but it wasn't a major cause for concern.
I'd seen the ending where it all gets resolved dozens of times.
This time would be no different.
So for now, my role was to accept it whenever Mirabelle wanted to lean on me.
*
Do you know what starts after you clear a dungeon?
You have to clear the dungeon first.
I still hadn't obtained the Soul Grimoire. I couldn't proceed until it dropped.
Because of that, Mirabelle and I spent days on end grinding the dungeon over and over.
We no longer needed the Dungeon Map. After the incident, Mirabelle had begun exchanging knowledge with Delphine’s mages and had learned detection magic.
Mirabelle took the lead through the cave, and we reached the boss room with ease. The goblins inside were already dead.
“Excellent. A direct hit again.”
As soon as we entered the dungeon, Mirabelle had cast a spell, and a magic arrow had twisted and turned through the passages to strike the monsters in the boss room.
A skill worthy of a circus act.
Mirabelle's magical skills were improving exponentially by the day. I guessed it was because she had experienced a fragment of her awakened witch self, however brief.
“Hehe.”
Mirabelle giggled happily.
Leaving her to it, I rummaged through the Goblin Shaman's corpse.
How many times has it been now?
I think we've done this at least fifty times.
The Goblin Shaman's Grimoire wasn't a 100% drop, and even when it did drop, it wasn't the Soul Grimoire. If it had appeared right away, we wouldn't still be doing this.
This trashy double gacha system.
Applying it to a key item, of all things. Even games weren't this vicious.
As I was grumbling internally, my hand touched a book. Thankfully, a book had dropped this time.
[Goblin Shaman's Grimoire]
As always, I handed the grimoire to Mirabelle.
She could decipher any book just by looking at it. It might have been because she was a witch, or perhaps it was a main character perk.
After all, Narsha was an ordinary noble lady, but she'd been able to learn swordplay with ease.
If that applied to me, I'd be the one on a rampage right now.
But since it doesn't, I have to struggle through each day.
“Master, this…”
Mirabelle showed me the grimoire, pulling me from my thoughts.
“What is it? Is there a problem?”
Mirabelle's expression was peculiar.
Don't tell me it's not the one. Another endless dungeon run?
“This one… it has instructions on how to handle souls.”
The moment those words left Mirabelle's lips.
[Goblin Shaman's Grimoire]
>
[Soul Grimoire]
The item's name changed.
It's finally here.
The final piece for her liberation.
I looked up at the cave ceiling and let out a long, long sigh.
After expelling all the frustration that had been weighing on my chest, I met Mirabelle's gaze with a much lighter heart.
Her indigo eyes, sparkling with a vitality that was completely different from when we first met.
The way she no longer felt shy, having grown used to the short skirt.
And so many other changes.
All that remained for the girl who had become a proper witch was her wounded heart.
This is the final step.
“Let's go. To get revenge on your father.”