Blood Witch (3)
Blood Witch (3)
The moment the disaster of a game called Fanta X Aca became reality, there were certain risks that became unavoidable.
The most serious of them all: the difficulty.
True to its reputation for being disgustingly hard, every single enemy was powerful. The difficulty only escalated as the story progressed. Stronger foes appeared, and the villains grew stronger alongside them.
Richard Pierce was a perfect example.
From the second scenario onward, Richard would burst in and throw the player into a panic. Later, he became a walking calamity—devouring people to grow stronger, wielding overwhelming force, and brazenly exploiting his authority as the Northern Archduke.
Powerful enemies who made you want to quit the game entirely.
Now, on top of that, a more immediate problem had been added.
The fact that Ian had possessed the body while the story of Fanta X Aca was still in progress.
He couldn't possibly know every villain lurking in the story's shadows. He could only make vague guesses based on the hints that had surfaced so far.
If Pongpongi—whom everyone thought had committed suicide early on—suddenly appeared as a Bloodkin, the only conclusion anyone would draw was, "He must be connected to the Blood Rock Sect somehow."
Without ever dreaming that the Blood Witch was behind it all.
The world was flowing normally again.
"......"
Ian stood still for a moment.
It felt as if he had been cut off from the world and then abruptly returned.
'... Was it a dream?'
There was a chance it was just a hallucination brought on by all the hellish suffering in the North.
Come on—you beat a scenario-level boss, and then an even stronger enemy shows up right away? Does that make any sense?
The surroundings, completely unchanged as if nothing had happened, only fed that vain hope.
But.
It had been far too vivid for that.
The Blood Witch's red eyes, the feel of her skin, her scent—all of it.
— Tap
As if to confirm it, the sound of footsteps came from the distance.
"......"
His mind went blank.
'Out of the frying pan and into the fire.'
He'd barely dealt with Richard, and now this absurd monster had appeared.
'If it was a hallucination, my mind would be a lot more at ease.'
Truthfully, he wanted to believe he'd simply seen it wrong.
There were two reasons why, despite its vividness, his mind refused to accept it.
First, the Blood Witch's unfathomable strength.
'The idea that time-stop magic exists...'
He'd never heard of any such magic.
If something like that existed, it would shatter all balance from the start.
An absolute ability with no counter.
No matter how much of a trash game Fanta X Aca was, there was a clear line between what was possible and what wasn't.
But the scene Ian had just witnessed was unmistakably everyone frozen except for himself and the Blood Witch.
'Did she control every single person one by one?'
That at least was more plausible—using magic to seize control of each person, one at a time, to stop them, and doing the same with every object, a massive illusion.
'Either way, it's still nonsense...'
But having directly touched the Blood Witch's dantian, he could feel it.
She possessed a power that made the impossible possible.
Second, her obsession.
After all, Ian was still in the process of growing.
And that meant the already overwhelmingly strong enemies either didn't know about Ian or didn't care much about him.
For example, figures like the Second Imperial Prince or the Inquisitor of Heresies would have no reason to have heard the name Ian Blackangus.
But.
The Blood Witch was different.
She was clearly obsessed with Ian himself.
Beyond simple obsession, he'd sensed outright madness.
The way her hands had caressed his body was undeniably full of desire.
'Why the hell.'
Why would such an absurd monster hide herself and watch over him?
There was one thing he could guess.
Yulan of the Blood Rock Sect and Richard—both of whom Ian had encountered.
Both had casually let slip that someone high up in the Blood Rock Sect had an interest in Ian.
On top of that.
The story of Fanta X Aca just before his possession also supported it. In the game, Pongpongi was supposed to die by suicide—was actually killed—and later appeared as a Bloodkin.
Considering that ordinary people were simply devoured and vanished as prey for the Blood Rock cultists...
Once you factored in the Blood Witch, every puzzle piece fell into place.
"......"
Ian swallowed dryly.
A bitter taste filled his mouth.
"Ian, you okay, nyan? You're sweating."
Danya looked up at him with a worried expression.
"Probably from mana exhaustion. I'm fine."
As he was patting Danya's head, Rina ran over.
She untied the handkerchief from around her neck and wiped his sweat.
"I'm fine now, Rina."
"But you're sweating all over like this... Are you hurt?"
Instead of answering, Ian asked them both.
"By any chance, did you see something just now?"
"See what?"
"Never mind. Let's go."
The nausea lasted only a moment as they passed through the portal, and then they were right back at Lichten.
◆
Now that a scenario was over, I'd wanted to take it easy for a while, but...
Now that I'd become aware of the Blood Witch's existence, getting at least a minimal grasp on her came first.
So I unpacked my things at the dorm just enough and headed toward the library.
"...?"
Walking through the streets, Ian felt a strange discomfort.
Because every passing student was glancing at him.
'... What's this?'
Plenty of people had stared back in his Pongpongi days, but most had done so with open contempt.
Now, the glances were more curious than hostile.
"Your performance was truly incredible!"
A passing male student in priestly robes shot him an unprompted thumbs-up.
"I'll, uh, be rooting for you."
This time, a girl in priestly robes approached and murmured.
... Seriously, what's going on?
Ian tilted his head and opened the library door.
Fortunately, the scenery here hadn't changed.
The same girl with sky-blue hair was sitting in the same spot, with the same expression as always.
"......"
The librarian gave a slight greeting.
Expressionlessly, she shifted her gaze this way for about one second, then returned her attention to the book she was reading.
'The first time was 0.1 seconds. Have we gotten a lot closer?'
With that idle thought, Ian stood in front of the desk.
The librarian looked up at him.
"It's been a while."
She answered with a minute nod.
"What'd you do over the break?"
No reaction.
It meant: quit the small talk and ask your question already.
No chit-chat. Questions kept short-answer only.
After observing her a few times, Ian had learned how to handle this girl.
"Is time-stop magic possible?"
The end of his question timed itself perfectly to the moment her eyelids were closing.
The librarian's sky-blue eyelids slid downward, then stopped halfway, half-lidded.
Ian felt a moment of confusion.
Don't tell me time had stopped again?
It hadn't.
— Flip
— Clatter
The sounds of pages turning and chairs being adjusted filled the background.
Only the girl in front of him had frozen like that.
'Wait, is she lagging?'
Just as he thought that, the librarian's eyes finished closing and then opened.
"... It's possible."
"How?"
Instead of answering, the librarian picked up a notepad and pen.
A larger notepad than usual.
'At that size, it's not a memo pad, it's a notebook.'
Stretching it a bit, it was almost like a sketchbook.
Ian leaned forward slightly.
'What's she writing?'
— Scratch scratch
With the sound of the pen scratching paper, black ink filled the page densely.
It was tiny, neat handwriting, about 8-point font.
In that small script, the girl was listing relevant book titles in dense rows across the notebook-sized memo pad.
"...Um."
"?"
She raised her head but kept her pen moving.
"Sorry, but I don't think I can read all that."
Screech.
Her hand stopped like an unoiled machine.
The librarian nodded expressionlessly, as if it was nothing.
But Ian could see.
The last stroke of her writing had strayed by about a millimeter.
"Well, I'll still try to read them, so can you give me that?"
Nod.
"Thanks."
It looked like I'd have to read them one book at a time whenever I had the chance.
Preferably in front of the librarian, if possible.
I neatly folded the paper, tucked it into my inner pocket, and asked the next question.
"Could there be a case where a very powerful villain watches over or raises someone who might one day harm them?"
That mysterious look in the Blood Witch's eyes when she'd stared at me.
I wanted to understand what she thought of me.
Nod.
This time, the librarian's pen moved without hesitation.
Her cheeks were subtly flushed as she handed over the memo pad.
She seemed oddly pleased, but I was probably imagining it.
Ian examined the note.
————
• 「My Slave Was an Enemy Kingdom's Prince—Is That a Problem?」
• 「How to Devour Your Carefully Raised Disciple」
• 「Ah, Master! You Mustn't Do This!」
————
"......"
Quite the chaotic selection of literary titles.
On the back, a few theory books were listed.
————
• 「The Psychology of Obsession and Love」
- ...
• 「The Psychology of the TRPG Board Game Trending Among the Empire's Youth: Focus on the Player's Other Persona, the 'Character'」
————
One word in particular caught my eye.
Character.
Come to think of it, Fanta X Aca was, in truth, a classic character-raising game.
Overwhelmingly talented heroines who had to be nurtured to prevent the world's destruction, yet they were absurdly fragile.
Take Rina Rosewell. In the brief time she'd been in the North, she had shown considerable growth. Handling a fire spirit in a place filled with nothing but ice was no easy feat.
On top of that, with mana recovery scarce, she'd faithfully carried out her role to the very end.
Danya was a bit of an exception. She wasn't a heroine, but that was because she was fated to die in a fixed accident early in the story.
Thanks to the butterfly effect of his possession, Danya was alive, and the talent she displayed was showing an incredibly rapid growth rate—terrifyingly so, even to Ian.
And Sharon Pierce.
She possessed the most brilliant potential, yet contrary to her appearance, she was the most fragile of the heroines.
With the blood of both Richard Pierce and her master Sasha Asilia running through her veins, her talent was beyond question.
These thoughts suddenly occurred to him because, before his possession, Ian had been a player.
When you immerse yourself in the fun of raising characters, before you know it, you become attached to them to the point of obsession.
Ian realized it then.
The way the Blood Witch looked at him was exactly like the way one looked at a character.
That didn't mean she was a player.
It was just that.
He'd simply realized why her gaze treated him like a toy or a beloved doll.
Talent. Intelligence.
The Blood Witch had repeated those words.
As if raising characters in a game.
The Blood Witch was raising Ian in reality.
Whether for sport or to devour him later.
'... She's genuinely insane.'
The Blood Witch's eyes, burning red with desire, were still vivid in his mind.
Wait.
'Then why did she try to suck out my mana?'
If I'm just a toy to her, why would she need to harm me?
At that sudden thought, Ian ran his mana through his mana circuits in a quick loop.
"... It's completely clean."
The mana and circuits that had been entangled from the fight with Richard were now calm and orderly.
It must have happened after the Blood Witch sucked it in once.
"......"
A chill ran down his spine, and the Blood Witch's sticky smile surfaced in his memory.
In that moment.
— Swoosh
The sound of hair brushing against something reached him.
Creeeak. Ian lifted his head.
Fortunately, it wasn't the Blood Witch.
It was the librarian, her head tilted slightly to the side.
Only then did Ian realize he was still standing in front of the librarian.
"Ah. Sorry."
Instead of answering, the librarian lightly shook her head.
Probably meaning it was fine.
Ian waved the memo pad she had given him.
"Thanks for the recommendations. I'll go read them."
A small voice caught Ian as he turned to leave.
"Rather than books."
The librarian pointed.
"That person. Since earlier."
Ian turned his head to follow her finger.
There, standing with half-teary eyes, was Sylvia.