The Witch and Her Assistant (8)
When I infused Triceratops with magic power, three spiraling tendrils reminiscent of a demon’s horns surged outward, accompanied by dark, glowing eyes. I sent a small wave of comfort to Triceratops, who had suffered so much all this time being used only for cleaning.
The moment the head of one of their comrades exploded, three orc warriors lost their minds and charged. I cleaved them apart with a brutal swing of my battle axe. I didn’t want to drag this out. Thinking I’d finish quickly and then comfort Joshua, I enlarged the spiraling tendrils extending from Triceratops a bit more than necessary.
An orc chieftain who, sensing the threat, used a nearby orc as a shield. A shaman casting an area-wide buff. And the orc warriors who had lost all fear of death. One meat shield wasn’t going to be enough.
Just once. The moment the strike, laden with the curse of black magic, finished preparing to slice through the orc horde along the broom’s path—a beautiful swarm of blue butterflies fluttered past my eyes.
They possessed a refined elegance that seemed as if they would crumble at the slightest touch. It reminded me of the adorable butterfly perched on Joshua’s eye.
It looked like the Joshua who had been malfunctioning just moments ago had come back to her senses. She began desperately circulating her mana, as if searching for something she could do right now.
“Joshua?”
“Yes!”
Her unexpectedly spirited reply made me smile without thinking. After all, she was the strong child who had guarded her parents’ graves all alone in that ruined village.
“Real combat. Think you can handle it?”
“Yes!”
"Rise from the earth and bind them—"
⟨ Root Entangle ⟩
Tree roots burst from the ground and swallowed the orcs’ legs whole.
In the Aria Chronicle series, the witch’s role was that of a debuffer. They displayed a combat style that inflicted various debuffs on enemies. There were many inhumane status ailments only a witch could use—binding, curses, sleep, hallucinations, and more.
Using butterflies to sow confusion, then controlling tree roots for binding. Even though I hadn’t taught her, Joshua was performing her role as a witch brilliantly.
Since things had come to this, I canceled the plan to finish them all at once. A desire to coordinate with Joshua a little longer had sparked inside me. I had thought matching breaths with someone else would only be possible in the far distant future, so I wanted to watch the child’s growth with my own eyes.
I sliced through the orcs whose feet were bound and immobilized. Just as I had taught Joshua—if safety was secured, the shaman should be dealt with first.
“Miss Estelle, I’ll help!”
Under the cover of her butterflies, she dashed straight toward the shaman.
“Protect the shaman!”
Despite the orc chieftain’s shout, I cut down the shaman who couldn’t escape because of the binding, then swung Triceratops to threaten the orc horde rushing in from behind so they couldn’t approach.
It wasn’t even a coordinated attack, yet their heads had flown off in a single stroke. They should have felt fear. By the time the shaman died and they tasted this level of disparity, they should have been at least somewhat terrified. Maybe I had underestimated the power of the magic stone the orc chieftain possessed.
The magic stone wasn’t just empowering the chieftain—it was synchronizing with the entire horde.
“Kruuuuuh! Move aside. This body shall step forward personally!”
While the few remaining orcs fell one by one as sacrifices to Triceratops, the chieftain who had been observing finally lifted his heavy rear.
“You’re not too late?”
Whether fighting or running. No matter how wildly he swung his axe with the power of the magic stone, it was meaningless if he couldn’t hit anything. The more he lost his reason, the simpler his attack patterns became.
Sometimes he swung at the wrong place in his hallucinated state, and thanks to the tree roots interfering with his movement, he stumbled around pathetically. It almost felt like I was watching a monster arena run by the empire. Eventually, he seemed to decide that the reason his attacks weren’t landing was because of the annoying interference from Joshua.
“Catch that female!”
“Not a chance!”
I kicked the orc chieftain in the groin, then created holes in the heads of the last remaining orc horde that tried to rush toward Joshua during the opening.
“Kruuu…”
“Looks like you don’t have any subordinates left to give orders to.”
Only one remained. I sneered at the orc chieftain who was groaning in pain.
“You’ll play with me, right?”
Black tentacles burst from the shadows, binding the orc chieftain and forcing him to the ground. I stepped on his face to keep him from moving while I extracted the magic stone embedded in his forehead so he couldn’t resist.
The encounter with the orcs had primarily been for Joshua’s education, but I had grown curious about the power of the magic stone shown in the recent battle.
“P-please… spare me!”
“No~ pe~”
I wanted to see what happened to a living being that had become a host for a magic stone once it lost the stone. I wrapped mana around my hand and yanked the stone embedded in his forehead.
The magic stone, which had been sucking the host’s life force to protect itself, could only be pulled free after the orc chieftain had turned into a mummy. The intimidating presence it had shown on the orc’s forehead was gone; it had turned into an ordinary pebble you could find on any roadside.
One-time use, huh. What a letdown.
My excitement cooled completely. I tossed the stone that had once been a magic stone onto the ground and shook off any lingering attachment. I would see plenty more magic stones in the future anyway. There would be plenty of opportunities to satisfy my curiosity later.
That aside.
“Hmm. I don’t remember there being orcs like this among those living in the west…”
I examined the mummified orc chieftain’s face. If we had simply passed through this area peacefully, I might not have noticed. But the sight of an orc shaman trying to dispel a barrier was not something the stupid orcs of the west would do. They would have just smashed things with axes. They wouldn’t have come anywhere near this place in the first place.
I briefly considered asking the nearby orcs later, but the thought of them greeting me with a ninety-degree bow while shouting “Big sis! Have you been well all this time!” made my stomach churn. It would be best not to look at orcs for a while.
Joshua, who had used more mana than usual, had collapsed on the spot with shaky legs and was catching her breath. I helped her up.
“What do you think now that you’ve fought orcs?”
“Please don’t make me remember…. And… they weren’t much, the orcs…”
Even though she said it herself, she must have felt embarrassed, because her face turned red and she averted her gaze. Seeing the Joshua who had frozen in fear at the orcs’ roars earlier, my chest swelled with pride, but I didn’t feel like teasing her.
“Ugh…”
Perhaps the sight of the landscape stained with orc remains made her nauseous. I patted Joshua’s back as she dry-heaved.
I kept forgetting that I needed to be considerate of Joshua, who must find all of this unfamiliar because she had done so well. Later, when she had to kill monsters herself—or people—it would be even worse than this.
After retching a few times, she seemed to feel better and lifted her head. The eyes she usually hid behind her bangs sparkled as they caught the light. How nice it would be if she showed her eyes like this more often.
I wiped away the tears gathered at the corners of her eyes and stroked her hair.
“Shall we go home now?”
“There are still people here.”
People? Joshua pointed at the iron bars. They were the ones I had only glimpsed while she was explaining about the orcs. The man had fist-shaped bruises all over from being beaten by the orcs, with broken bones protruding through torn flesh. And the woman…
The handprints visible all over her body, the blood flowing from her lower half, and the nauseating white fluid made me frown. Since all her tendons had been severed, she probably couldn’t even resist properly.
I took off my robe and covered their bodies. It was purely for Joshua’s emotional well-being.
“They won’t last much longer.”
Joshua seemed to want to save them, but from what I could see, there was no point in keeping them alive. Even if they survived after being captured by monsters, the only ones who would rejoice were their families. Would the people around them truly be happy for them?
What man would want a wife who had been defiled by monsters? Especially when there was a chance she might be pregnant—he would fear being tainted himself during intimacy. Even if she hid the fact that she had been defiled, the trauma would remain and eat away at her mind. In the end, they would resent Joshua, who had saved their lives at the very last moment.
In that case, it would be better for them to draw their last breath right here. There would be no more days in their future when flowers would bloom.
Joshua had already done her best by saving them before they could suffer even greater humiliation from the orcs.
“But if it’s your medicine, Miss Estelle, you can save them, right?”
“Whether it’s possible or not, yes, it is. But in my opinion, rather than saving them, it would be better to let them pass away peacefully without pain.”
Among the items stored in the basement, there were several potions and artifacts that showed near-miraculous recovery as long as the person didn’t die. Those potions had been prepared in anticipation of future events; they weren’t something to be used on random passersby. The only thing I could give these people was a recovery potion strong enough to keep them from dying immediately—like pouring water into a bottomless bucket.
Honestly, even that potion felt too precious to waste.
“As long as they can live, that’s enough!”
“Joshua?”
She had never once rebelled while living with me all this time, even if she threw occasional tantrums. Seeing Joshua display such stubbornness that bordered on obsession felt unfamiliar.
“I’m sorry. I was being unreasonably stubborn.”
So she does know it was unreasonable.
“Do as you wish.”
It was better to regret doing something than to regret not doing it.