The Witch and the Beastfallen – Part 04
That’s a number, not a name. I held back the urge to interrupt. I was talking to a witch. I couldn’t assume that what was common sense to me applied to her as well. I took her bowl and poured soup in it silently.
“Thirteenth is a brethren of mine. We studied Sorcery together in Moonsbow Forest, but he left the cellar to take care of a little problem. I waited and waited and received no word from him. Without much of a choice, I decided to follow the trail of his insidious magical power and made it all the way here.”
Moonsbow Forest was the name of a “forest with no ruler” located on the outskirts of the continent. A land deeply associated with witches, no country claimed sovereignty over it as they found it too creepy. In the end, it became a lordless territory. The Church should’ve conducted numerous witch hunts in the area, but seeing a witch from Moonsbow Forest out here in the open suggested that the Church’s witch hunting squad were a bunch of incompetent fools.
“You have heard of the witch hunts in this country, yes?” she asked with a grim look.
“Witch hunts happen all over the world,” I spat out.
“It is much harsher here compared to other places. I was almost burned at the stake three times when I was not even doing anything.”
“Ah, yes,” I nodded. The little problem that Wenias was facing—going as far as hiring mercenaries to solve it—was witch-related. “Witches are staging a revolt. That explains why the witch hunts here are worse than anywhere else.”
“Witches staging a revolt?” she repeated, blinking uneasily. “That sounds like a thing of the past.”
So are you witches. She seemed genuinely curious, however. Well, she was right. Large-scale revolts by witches were only heard of in folk tales.
“I’m with you on that one,” I said. “I thought it was a load of bull until that witch attacked me. A witch attacking a traveler is weird, any way you slice it.”
To put it simply, the witch hunts conducted by various countries were more like hunting for survivors. Five hundred years ago, a war broke out between witches and the Church. After suffering defeat, the witches dispersed and went into hiding in various lands, living their lives in secret. Now the world had deemed them as evil creatures, hunting them down endlessly.
But five hundred years had passed and people grew tired of it. Needless to say, witches that brought about calamities out in the open were hunted down, but the low-profile ones were left alone. People didn’t rejoice witches’ deaths anymore these days, so countries and the Church saw no point in hunting them.
Witch-hunting was, for the Church, nothing but a means of demonstrating its power. There can be no good without evil. Without good, the people would not believe in God. So the Church branded witches as evil.
Should a state called for aid, the Church would deploy the Knight Templars for an outrageous amount of donation. But Wenias didn’t do that, and so the Church simply watched from the sidelines. Now the government had grown desperate in their efforts to suppress the witches, who were doing whatever they pleased.
“As a matter of fact,” I continued, “I’ve heard countless rumors of disturbing witch-related cases ever since I entered the kingdom. Apparently it’s not unheard of for a witch to occupy a village and enslave the villagers. Don’t tell me this “little problem” that you mentioned is lending a hand to the revolt. And now you’re pretending to be clueless, but you’re actually on the way to back them up too. Am I wrong?”
It made sense, then, that Wenias was a dangerous place for her. She deserved the awful things she went through so far. But as soon as I finished speaking, she turned pale as though I just insulted her.
“Why would I do something so bothersome? If the witches won, we would have to rule the country. I despise spending effort. If I had to rule a country, I would prefer one that is darker and smaller, with swarms of spiders.”
You won’t find a creepy country like that anywhere. For a moment, I imagined a gorgeous woman covered in spiders, and I deeply regretted it. Thanks for ruining my appetite—Wait. Where’s my pot?
Realizing the pot I was holding had disappeared, I quickly glanced at the witch. Before I knew it, she had snatched the pot, moving the ladle at a fast pace.
“Wh-Why, you… How?!”
“I am a witch, beast warrior. If I want to, I can easily shave off all your fur in an instant, leaving you naked. You were doomed the moment you let your guard down. This soup is now mine.”
“Y-You bitch…” I growled. She was clearly mocking me, but I had no means to take the pot back from her hands. Helplessly, I sipped from the bowl I had left.
“So going back, what’s this ‘little problem’ of yours?”
“Some scoundrel stole a book from us. Thirteenth left to find and retrieve it.”
“A book?”
“A very precious book, and there is only one of it. It could spell disaster if it falls into the wrong hands.”
“By disaster, you mean…?”
For a moment, the witch went quiet. Her hands stopped moving. Then in a strangely quiet voice, she spoke.
“The end of the world.”
“The end of what?”
“I said the world.”
I stifled a yawn. “Ain’t that terrifying? Oh, how awful would that be? I’m so terrified, I’m about to burst into tears.”
“Can you tone down the sarcasm? You are hurting my feelings.”
“I’m not stupid enough to believe that a single book can destroy the world.”
“A single book? Preposterous. A single page from that book will be more than enough,” she said, her tone as indifferent as it could get. Her voice was neither threatening nor exaggerated. It was as if she was simply stating an obvious fact, giving her statement a sense of credibility. I still found it hard to believe, though.
In fact, the world seemed fine to me at the moment. I had no idea when exactly the book was stolen, but judging by her words, this Thirteenth fellow had been gone for a while. If that book really held such power, the world would have ended by now.
“Assuming what you’re saying is true,” I said, “what’s it got to do with me? I asked you what you wanted from me. I didn’t ask about your journey.”
“What, you do not get it?”
“I’m slow, unfortunately.”
“In short, I need to retrieve the book, which is apparently somewhere in this kingdom. But a witch like me walking alone in these parts is quite inconvenient and dangerous. Getting chased around is exhausting as well. Which is why,” the witch glanced at me, and I finally realized what she was getting at. “I want you to be my bodyguard.”
“Hell no!” I snapped.
“That was a fast reply. I am actually impressed.”
“Do you want an explanation? I fuckin’ hate witches.”
“Wait, hear me out. You will be paid, of course. I am a witch, someone who offers sacrifices to demons to bring about miracles. Paying the appropriate amount of compensation when forming a contract is a basic tenet of Sorcery.”
“It’s not about payment. You see, I wish nothing but the total annihilation of witches, and I came to this kingdom to help with that. A country without witches would mean a better life for me, after all. Escorting a witch doesn’t make any sense whatsoever.”
“You do not mince your words, huh? Why do you despise witches so much?”
“Come on, now. Do you see my face?”
“Your face?” She studied my features, cocking her head to the side. “You are a handsome man. I quite like it.”
“Oh, spare me the sarcasm.”
“It is not sarcasm. You have wonderful fur, sharp eyes, and robust jaws. You are the perfect example of a beautiful beast of prey. Besides, I think the human face hiding beneath that fur is pleasing to the eyes as well.”
The face beneath my fur? I touched my face, but it still had the same beastly features.
“You can see my face?” I asked.
“Why, of course. I cannot call myself a witch otherwise. So that is what you mean by this ‘Beastfallen’ thing. That is the result of the Beastowal spell rebounding.”
“A rebound… what?”
“Beastowal is a spell that grants immense power to a human being by transforming them into beast-like warriors. It is said that a thousand years ago, when powerful countries constantly waged wars, a million beast warriors were created.”
“Y-You mean witches created the Beastfallens?!”
“Not quite right. Spell and spell rebound might sound similar, but they are completely different. The former is cast voluntarily, while the latter is simply the result of an automatic chain of events.”
“Sorry, but you lost me there.”
I frowned, and the witch spoke in a lively voice, like she was having fun teaching a struggling student.
“Allow me to demonstrate. Get me that stone.” She pointed at a small, flat stone lying by my side. I did as she said and gave it to her. She then started fiddling with it in her hand. “Let us assume this is a spell created by Sorcery. I, a witch, will cast it.”
She hurled the stone at an incredible speed behind her. How she produced that much power from such slender arms was beyond me. The stone ricocheted off a tree and came flying straight back to her. What happened next, I didn’t expect. She dodged the stone, and it hit my head instead.
“Ouch.” It made a loud sound as it landed. If I wasn’t a Beastfallen, I’d be bleeding profusely.
The witch shrugged, seemingly unapologetic. “I aimed at the tree. The stone bounced back, but I did not catch it. As a result, it hit you, someone directly on its path. A similar thing can happen in Sorcery as well.”
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