Chapter 24: Mirabelle, the Chosen Witch
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 24: Mirabelle, the Chosen Witch
“Mirabelle’s master? What do you mean by that?”
Naredi’s gaze turned icy as she glared at me.
Though not on Mirabelle’s level, she was still a witch, and the aura she exuded was far from ordinary. My old self would have been trembling like a newborn fawn.
But who was I now?
Even accounting for the soul synchronization, I was a man who had survived for over a year in a world where I could drop dead at any moment.
I refused to be intimidated and maintained a relaxed demeanor.
“What’s there to explain? It means exactly what it sounds like. Mirabelle is a slave, and I am her master.”
“Are you the slave trader he entrusted Mirabelle to?”
“That’s not entirely wrong. Mr. Harold did ask me to take good care of Mirabelle.”
“He did…?”
Naredi stared at me in disbelief.
I’d have reacted the same way. Her daughter, whose fate had been unknown, had returned as a slave. And to top it off, with a slave trader her husband had supposedly approved of. She must have been thinking, What kind of nonsense is this?
But what could I do? It was the truth.
“In any case, climbing the mountain has made me hungry. It looks like you were just preparing a meal. Would it be alright if I joined you?”
“……”
Though Naredi’s eyes were still full of suspicion, Mirabelle, having composed herself, chimed in at the perfect moment.
“Oh, Mom. I’m hungry, too. I want to eat your stew.”
“Oh, where is my mind? Mirabelle, you must be exhausted, and here I am distracted. Just wait a moment. Mom will make you something delicious.”
Naredi’s face softened into a gentle, motherly smile for Mirabelle, but the moment her gaze fell on me, her expression vanished.
“You, sit down for now.”
“I won’t refuse.”
We sat down on the wooden chairs.
But then, a problem arose.
“Mirabelle…? Why… why are you sitting there?”
“…Ah.”
Sure enough, Mirabelle had sat on my lap. Forgetting her mother was right there, she did it as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
Naredi was still wary of me. Her precious daughter, whom she hadn’t seen in so long, was sitting on the lap of a strange man. From a mother’s perspective, that had to be incredibly disturbing.
Look at her.
Her eyes were trembling with bewilderment.
She probably felt the same way someone does when their childhood friend is stolen away by a buzz-cut baseball player.
I had to explain this, and fast.
“Haha, being alone for so long seems to have made Mirabelle a bit dependent. Even when she sleeps, she won’t leave my side for a moment. She’s such a clingy little thing.”
“Even when she sleeps…? You didn’t!”
“Don’t misunderstand. I swear on the god of slave traders, I haven’t done a single thing.”
I had no idea if a god of slave traders even existed, or if he was the type of god one could make a reliable oath to, but I swore it anyway.
All I’d ever done was hug her like a body pillow and maybe take a little sniff of her scent. I was innocent.
“Anyway, there’s no need for that anymore! Come on, Mirabelle. Won’t you come to Mommy’s arms?”
“Umm…”
Mirabelle hesitated, conflicted, in my lap. This was a huge shock to Naredi. Her expression soured as if she’d been struck by a stone.
Naredi shot a hostile glare at me.
It was unfair, but it didn’t matter. The look in a loser’s eyes only adds flavor to victory. I raised the corner of my mouth in a small sneer.
Of course, it was just for a moment.
Pushing it too far would be counterproductive. The loser’s emotions were a delicious meal.
“Miss Mirabelle, it’s a rare day of reunion with your mother. You should go to her.”
“Hmm…”
Mirabelle thought for a moment.
Soon, seeming to agree it was the right thing to do, she scurried over to Naredi and hugged her.
This was yet another great shock to Naredi—the fact that Mirabelle ignored her words but obeyed mine without question. Even as she held Mirabelle, she couldn’t feel happy.
*
“And then the priestess…”
Mirabelle, paying no mind to the stew cooling in front of her, recounted everything she had been through.
Her expression was so excited it was hard to believe she was once so timid, as if she were recalling memories of a fun trip.
Naredi listened to her daughter’s story with a warm, pleased smile.
As the story progressed, the way she looked at me began to change. It went from ‘the thief who stole my daughter’ to something like ‘a classmate my daughter brought home.’ You could say it was a significant upgrade.
‘But damn, this is delicious.’
Not wanting to intrude on the mother-daughter reunion, I just kept spooning stew into my mouth, and it was incredibly good.
Naredi’s Stew.
It was an item from the game.
An item with no special effects but great symbolic meaning, one you could only get by seeing Mirabelle’s true ending.
I’d never used it in the game. It’s an unwritten rule to save one-time consumable items as souvenirs, after all.
I never thought the day would come when I’d actually eat it.
“You sure eat well. For what it’s worth.”
“It’s quite delicious. You’re an excellent cook, Mother.”
“Thanks for the compliment, but who exactly are you calling ‘Mother’?”
“Since ‘Father’ asked me to take good care of Miss Mirabelle, that makes you ‘Mother,’ doesn’t it?”
Naredi shot me a displeased look but didn’t say anything. It was because I was in the position of her daughter’s savior.
The whole world could curse me, but she alone couldn’t say a word.
“Mom, are you listening?”
“Of course, of course. I am.”
Naredi turned back to Mirabelle, her motherly smile returning.
*
Night came early in the mountains.
The sun had set long ago, but Mirabelle’s story showed no signs of ending. I couldn’t help but wonder how so many words could come out of that small mouth.
Even Naredi, who had been listening intently, was starting to look tired. Eventually, she couldn’t hold out any longer and had to coax Mirabelle.
“Honey, how about we continue the rest of the story tomorrow? It’s time to sleep. You have to sleep early to grow tall.”
“Huh? Hmm… okay.”
It was a phrase she hadn’t heard in a very long time.
She used to think of it as nagging, but Mirabelle now understood how precious such ordinary moments were. She didn’t complain. Not that her compliance would last for long.
“Where do I sleep?”
“Let’s sleep together in my bed.”
“Does Master sleep with us, too?”
“What a shocking thing to say. That man will sleep in the living room.”
Mirabelle looked at Karami with a conflicted expression. She’d gotten so used to him that she couldn’t fall asleep without him nearby.
Karami smiled faintly.
“Sleep with your mother tonight.”
“Hmm… okay.”
Mirabelle nodded obediently.
It had been a long time since she’d slept with her mom, after all. I can just sleep with Karami starting tomorrow, she thought.
The mother and daughter went into the room. But a moment later, Mirabelle peeked her head out.
“Master, good night. See you tomorrow.”
Karami was quiet.
He simply watched Mirabelle with a distant, wistful look in his eyes.
“Master?”
“You must be tired, Miss Mirabelle. Sleep well.”
“Okay, hehe.”
With a cute smile, Mirabelle waved and went back into the room.
Naredi laid Mirabelle down and pulled the blanket up. She lay down beside her and began to pat her back with a soft, steady rhythm.
Clutching the blanket that came up to her chin, Mirabelle beamed at the ceiling.
“Mom, I’m so happy right now.”
“You are?”
“Yes. Master is here, and I got to see you, too.”
“Do you like that ‘master’ person that much? He’s a slave trader.”
Mirabelle answered with a bright smile.
“Master is different from ordinary slave traders. He’s a little strange, and he does odd things… but he would hold me when I cried, and he was always on my side when people said things about me. He didn’t even care that I’m a witch. Besides Mom and Dad, he was the first person like that.”
He was there for her during the hardest time of her life.
He supported her when she felt like she was about to collapse.
“A peculiar slave trader, indeed.”
“He is. He knows so many strange things, and he helped me meet you. He’s going to help me meet Dad, too…”
That was something Naredi was curious about as well.
How on earth did he know?
That she was here, in this remote mountain?
He had apparently been telling Mirabelle all along that he would help her meet her mother. He knew. He knew that she was alive.
‘He’s suspicious, but…’
The fact remained that, thanks to him, she was reunited with a healthy Mirabelle. For that alone, she owed Karami a debt she could never repay.
“Tomorrow… I’ll show you… the magic I learned…”
“Yes, I know, so hurry up and sleep.”
Muttering in a half-asleep state, Mirabelle finally drifted into a deep sleep to the sound of Naredi’s lullaby, so deep that she wouldn’t stir even if someone carried her away.
Pat, pat.
Naredi, who had been patting her with a steady rhythm, thought, ‘This should be enough,’ and carefully got up so as not to wake Mirabelle.
The old bed creaked, but thankfully, the deeply sleeping Mirabelle didn’t stir.
Naredi stepped outside.
Karami was not in the cramped space that could barely be called a living room. The cold mountain air swirled inside the hut, a sign that the door had been opened and closed.
Naredi went outside the hut and spotted Karami walking down the mountain.
She hurried to catch up with him.
“Where are you going at this time of night?”
“My business here is done, so I have to go. I’m a busy man, you know. Oh, and don’t worry, I’ll release the magic binding Miss Mirabelle.”
Karami kept walking, saying only what he needed to. Only when Naredi blocked his path did he finally stop.
Naredi lifted her chin and glared at him.
“You’re going to let Mirabelle go? A slave trader, letting a slave go for free? You expect me to believe that?”
“I’ll turn that right back at you. I am a slave trader. I don’t do things that result in a loss. This is profitable for me.”
“How is it profitable?”
“In many ways. And… I saw what I wanted to see.”
Karami recalled the sight of Mirabelle and Naredi crying in each other’s arms. It was a scene he had witnessed dozens of times, yet it was also the first time.
There are things you can’t feel through a screen. The wave of emotion that struck his soul left a deep, lingering impression.
“So you don’t need to be suspicious.”
“But if you leave like this, Mirabelle will be upset…”
“Your family is full of strange people. A man who entrusts his daughter to a slave trader, and a woman who tries to stop that slave trader from leaving.”
“I can’t help it. Mirabelle relies on you so much.”
“That’s why I have to go now. If I leave during the day, won’t Mirabelle try to follow me? This is more convenient for you, too.”
“Well, yes, but…”
Slipping past the hesitating Naredi, Karami waved a hand dismissively without looking back.
“Just tell Mirabelle something appropriate. I’ll leave that much to you.”
Naredi stared blankly at Karami as he left, acting for all the world like a guardian.
“This is the time when demonic beasts and wild animals come out.”
At her words, Karami stopped dead in his tracks. He turned his head with an audible creak.
“Do you happen to have any magic? Magic to drive away wild animals.”
*
I started down the mountain again, this time cloaked in Naredi’s mana.
With the lingering scent of a witch on me, any half-decent demonic beast would be too scared to even think of attacking. The amount of mana wasn’t large, so it would dissipate into the air by the time I reached the bottom of the mountain. Even if I ran into a member of the clergy, I wouldn’t arouse suspicion.
I looked back at the path I’d taken.
So much had happened. Some things went as expected, others didn’t. The result was okay, but there were many areas that needed improvement.
Seeing them struggle was suffocating, but knowing the ending was a great comfort.
Knowing they’ll be smiling in the end—the moment I see that, all my frustrations wash away.
I looked back at the path I’d taken.
The hut where Mirabelle was staying was no longer in sight. Now that I was this far, she wouldn’t be able to catch up even if she woke up.
I wouldn’t have to worry about retaliation for having enslaved her. The current Mirabelle didn’t seem like the type, but you never know what might happen in this world.
“From now on, don’t get caught by bad people. Live happily with your mother.”
Snap!
I snapped my fingers.
A crisp sound echoed through the mountains.
The shackles that had been suppressing Mirabelle’s soul shattered and were retrieved.
As they vanished completely, a status window appeared.
[Liberation of "Mirabelle, the Abandoned Witch" Complete]
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Mirabelle, the Abandoned Witch.
Born in a small, nameless village, Mirabelle was a cute little girl you could find anywhere in the world. But on the day the clergy arrived, the girl's life plummeted off a lightless cliff.
Her beloved mother dead, abandoned by her father, Mirabelle was sold into slavery. She was fated to be listed in the Slave Carnival and sold to a pedophilic noble. To such a girl, you readily threw a lifeline.
You forced open the tightly shut doors of her heart and pulled out Mirabelle, who was huddled in the darkness. You acknowledged the girl who denied her own existence, so Mirabelle decided to trust another person one more time.
You helped Mirabelle grow into a witch, resolved the girl's trauma, uncovered a hidden secret, and safely returned her to the arms of her family.
Mirabelle realized that she, who had believed herself abandoned, was a precious daughter loved by her parents, and a witch who would bring about miracles.
Mirabelle, the Abandoned Witch.
The girl was not abandoned.
Because she was chosen by you.
────────────
[Mirabelle's liberation is at 100%.]
[Reward: 50,000pt have been awarded.]
[The skill [Soul Shackles] has been enhanced.]
[You have acquired the new skill [Generous Master].]
[Fully Liberate the Main Slaves. Progress: 1/5]