Chapter 167: The Witch and The Contract of Magic (9)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 167: The Witch and The Contract of Magic (9)
To be honest, Dorothea wasn’t sure if the ‘Chalice of Tuberose’ would be of any help in a situation like this.
However.
‘Well, it’s better than not even trying.’
It wasn't a choice that carried any risk of failure, so there was no reason not to take it.
Dorothea decided to abuse the power of the sacred treasure without a second thought.
“Yes, you called for me.”
Answering Dorothea’s summons, Sophia approached and offered her mana.
Everyone else was still in a panic, scared out of their wits by the ghosts.
A wine-red mana filled Dorothea’s eyes, and a fissure materialized before her.
Whether it was because Sophia’s mana was at its peak or for some other reason, the fissure was exceptionally large and vivid.
Dorothea reached her hand into the fissure.
*
Long, long ago.
A dwarf was born in darkness.
The dwarf’s world was dark and suffocating, but the dwarf did not know this discomfort.
For the dwarf had never experienced anything that was not dark and suffocating.
And so, the dwarf could not understand the laments of the adults around him.
The adults were always complaining.
The adults were always enraged.
The adults told the dwarf:
That there was a land far wider, brighter, and better to live in than this one.
The dwarf asked:
Then why do you not go there?
The adults answered:
That they had tried to go, but had failed.
The dwarf asked:
Why did you fail?
The adults answered:
That they had conquered many lands, but they could not conquer the land of faded ash.
The dwarf asked:
Why could you not conquer it?
The adults answered:
That it was because of the queen who ruled the land of ash and her knight.
That half of the great king's eight valiant generals had fallen one by one to the knight, and the other half had been subjugated by the heavens.
The dwarf was stunned.
The king the dwarf knew was a truly great being.
He was the king of the dwarves, the king of the adults, and the king of all who lived in the darkness.
For such a king to have suffered defeat was something the dwarf simply could not believe.
His surprise soon turned to curiosity.
The dwarf searched for a way to get to the ‘good land’ the adults spoke of, but it was no easy task.
For only the great king and his inner circle knew the way.
To earn a place in the great king’s service, the dwarf worked tirelessly.
And by the time the dwarf could no longer be called a child, the king’s chancellor summoned him.
The chancellor asked:
Are you the dwarf who wishes to step out into the sunlight?
The dwarf answered:
I am, O second-greatest in this land.
The chancellor asked:
Why do you wish to go there?
The dwarf answered:
Because curiosity has taken root in my heart and makes it beat faster.
The chancellor gave a small smile and told the dwarf the way to the bright land.
The dwarf said:
Thank you, O second-greatest in this land. What may I do to repay this kindness?
The chancellor answered:
You need not repay anything.
For our great king is the king of those who rage, lament, wail, and cry out.
On the day of vengeance that will one day come, we have no need for one whose heart beats with curiosity instead of hatred. Go and find your freedom.
But be warned. The arrogant heavens will see us as but a stain.
The dwarf thanked the chancellor once more, then left the dark land of his birth and ventured into the bright land.
The bright land was a truly wondrous place.
An endless sky, air that wasn't a struggle to breathe, and an abundance of food.
The dwarf now understood why the adults had so desperately wanted to possess this land.
As he wandered wherever his feet took him, the people of the bright land began to call the dwarf a ‘mage’.
The dwarf thought the magic wielded by the people of the bright land was different from his own power, but he did not bother to correct them.
He had grown quite fond of the title ‘mage’.
Wandering the surface, the dwarf discovered that the bright land had flora and fauna similar to what he had seen in his own world.
They were far weaker, likely due to the placid environment, but their roots were the same. The people of the bright land called them magic beasts.
But there was something amusing.
The people of the bright land called not only the creatures from the dark land magic beasts, but also the native plants and animals of this land that had been tainted by mana.
They even lumped the ‘people of the dark land’ like the dwarf himself—that is, the remnants left on the surface after the old war—together with the magic beasts.
The people of the bright land were strangely ignorant of the dark land.
This was because the heavens had forbidden such knowledge.
The dwarf tried to correct their misconceptions, but it was a foolish act.
Those with emerald energy branded the dwarf a heretic and tried to subjugate him.
It was during his arduous life on the run that the dwarf met the Golden Witch.
The witch, a master alchemist, offered the dwarf protection in exchange for the knowledge he possessed.
Exhausted, the dwarf agreed to the deal.
He told the Golden Witch about the various races living in the dark land.
How immense and powerful the giants were, what delicate work the small people were capable of, and what superior intellect the centaurs possessed.
The Golden Witch used the knowledge he shared as a reference, attempting to recreate them through alchemy.
The dwarf thought the witch’s creations bore little resemblance to the originals, but he didn't bother to say it out loud.
He had realized that the emerald light, once so persistent and vicious, was nowhere to be seen near the witch.
After a long time, the dwarf noticed the pursuit had ceased and left the witch. The witch, having obtained the knowledge she desired, did not stop him.
One day, while continuing to wander the land in disguise, the dwarf spotted a beautiful young lady.
The dwarf felt a pang of regret.
He was quite taken with the young lady, but she had already lost her heart to another young man.
The dwarf thought.
If I cannot win the lady’s heart, I will take her daughter instead.
After all, a dwarf’s lifespan was incomparably longer than a human’s.
He could wait as long as it took for a child to grow.
The dwarf proposed a contract to the young lady and gave her a love potion.
In truth, the potion was nothing special.
It merely made her more beautiful and more noticeable to others.
But its effect was undeniable.
The young lady won the love she desired.
The problem came afterward.
The young lady changed her tune and tried to avoid paying the price.
The dwarf found it laughable.
A mage's contract was not merely the written words. It was a concept that also included unspoken mutual consent and understanding.
She had signed it fully aware of its meaning at the time; to think she could get away with mere wordplay was impossible.
He could have forcibly collected the debt if he wanted, but the dwarf, feeling resentful toward the young lady, decided on a bit of petty revenge.
He twisted the interpretation of the contract, just as his counterpart had first attempted, to place a much heavier burden on the contractor.
As a slight backlash for making the burden so excessive, the dwarf had to provide the contractor an escape route, but since she had been the first to dishonor the contract, a virtually nonexistent escape route was sufficient.
For the contractor to end this contract without giving up her daughter, she had to guess the dwarf's name.
But that was an impossible task.
For the dwarf had never revealed his true name to anyone since coming to the bright land.
In his own space, where no ear could reach, the dwarf sang, mocking the foolish contractor.
Today I'll make a potion, tomorrow I'll build a tower, and the day after, I'll take her child.
How wonderful that no one in this land knows my name is ■■■■■■!
*
“—Found it.”
The vision ended.
Realization dawned in the witch’s blue eyes, and the dwarf, sensing danger, trembled in place of the tower.
《Wait—》
“You might feel wronged, I get that. But if you wanted revenge, you should have kept it to the person involved. The moment you dragged an innocent third party into this, you lost all room for excuses.”
The witch raised her staff high.
The red mana of the Chalice of Tuberose and the witch’s own obsidian-like mana surged as one.
The dwarf’s name itself held such potent power that without this much effort, it was impossible for a human to even pronounce it correctly.
Within the storm of red and black, the witch wove the language of magic into the language of humans.
She pointed her staff toward the tower and declared.
“The contract is over. 『Rumpelstiltskin』”
*
The tower crumbled.
The tower in reality remained unharmed, but the tower in the alternate space that had been overlapping it could no longer maintain its form and was collapsing.
The chilling aura that had been emanating from the tower also began to thin like a clearing fog, until it finally vanished completely.
With a short sigh, Dorothea sent the spirits that had gathered around her away.
[The ‘Tin Knight’ asks if he is dead!]
“Not exactly. But he must have taken a serious blow. Decades of hard work, all for nothing. He’s probably just staring into space, completely devastated.”
[The ‘Tin Knight’ expresses his understanding, saying the shock would be immense, like waiting day and night for a limited-edition item only to see it sell out right before your eyes!]
“There you go with your incomprehensible analogies again.”
Shaking her head, Dorothea turned her gaze to the lady slumped on the floor.
The lady was dazed for a moment, but she soon began to stammer.
“Th-thank you. Truly, truly, this kindness…”
“Those words you’re saying right now.”
“…Pardon?”
“You probably said the exact same thing to that dwarf, no, that ‘mage,’ didn’t you?”
The lady gasped as if she’d been struck.
The witch looking down at her was smiling, but her eyes were chillingly cold.
“‘I will surely repay you. I will apologize to the children I used.’ That’s what you said earlier. A verbal promise, but a promise is a promise.”
As the lord and his party approached from a distance, the witch whispered in the lady’s ear.
“I trust you've learned your lesson this time about what happens when you try to cleverly mess with a contract. People make mistakes; I can forgive one. But if you knowingly try to repeat the same mistake… well, what do you think will happen? Want to find out for yourself? It just so happens there are a few friends here who have a lot to say to their ‘mother’.”
As Dorothea spoke, several spirits floated around her hands.
The lady trembled, shaking her head over and over.
Just then, the approaching lord and his soldiers saw the lady’s pale face and shouted at Dorothea.
“You! Get away from the lady!”
Dorothea just shrugged and obediently put some distance between them.
The lord rushed to the lady’s side and helped her up.
“My lady, what happened? Are you alright? Wait, hey! What is this!”
The lord tried to swat away the spirits beside the lady, but they clung to her body and would not be easily brushed off.
The lady, unable to speak, simply sobbed quietly.
On and on.
Crushed by the weight of her sins, for a long, long time.