Solena’s Forest – Part 05
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Translator: Kell
“Very well!” Sanare said, as if she was dying to tell others. The attitude she displayed made her look like a child eager to show something off to people. “Wenias is just a decoy. The Knights Templar gathered around the kingdom will be annihilated by the witches and nations on Cestum’s side! The rest we can trap inside the kingdom. With the Boss’s power, putting up a ward for such purpose is easy. It would be reassuring if you joined us, Thirteenth.”
“A decoy?!” Albus was shocked. “You’re sacrificing the witches of Wenias to kill the knights?!”
“You idiot. Once the war begins, Wenias will be destroyed by the Church anyway. We may as well use this to our advantage and weaken them. You don’t even think that far ahead before starting a war. I’m so glad you’re an idiot.”
“You wouldn’t dare!”
“Oops, did I make you mad? Nothing you say can stop the war, though. You’ve already executed the sons of noblemen. You did it! The Church will never let the witches of Wenias go unpunished!” Sanare laughed out loud.
Thirteenth scoffed. Sanare stopped laughing, and looked at Thirteenth.
“You thought you had the Mooncaller in the palm of your hands, but in fact you did not see anything at all,” the sorcerer said. “Those youngsters you thought were executed are all safely imprisoned in the tower. She must have used the same method when they faked my execution. I understand. It’s much more useful to pretend that you’ve killed them and then hide them than to actually kill them.”
“What?” Sanare’s tone changed. If the event that triggered the war didn’t happen at all, it would change the situation drastically. “I know how stupid that brat is! She doesn’t have the brain to come up with something like that!”
“That assumption of yours is proof of your stupidity. The Mooncaller is young and imprudent. But she’s also noble and wise. You’ve taken advantage of her weakness, but you underestimated her too much that you failed to see her strengths. If it were me, I wouldn’t entrust an important mission to someone as inept as you. Now I know that Cestum is no threat at all.”
“Y-You don’t know anything! D-Did you call me inept? Nothing you say can change things now. The war’s already begun, and I’m the one who started it! You can tell the Church you didn’t actually execute anyone, but it’s too late. The Church has already raised its fist, and it won’t put it back down!”
“Maybe not. But it will end quick. The witches of Wenias will not fight the Church.”
“Are you going to surrender?! You’re insane!”
“There are no sane sorcerers anywhere. This simply proves my point: you are inept.”
“No!” Sanare shouted. “No, no, no, no, no! The Boss will never allow that! There will be a war. I’ll make sure it happens, even if I have to kill you and the king!”
Sanare, who was so intelligent and calm in front of Albus, looked like a foolish average person in front of Thirteenth.
Albus quietly hung her lead low.
I should’ve listened to Thirteenth’s advice. If only I was stronger… If only I had a stronger mind. If only I had the courage to stand up for the witches of Wenias, even if I had to use the person I hated.
If only I had the courage to give up my cheap pride.
Suddenly, the air changed. Not only that. The temperature dropped drastically. Their breaths turned white, and frost began to form on Solena’s plant-made lair.
“It can’t be!” Thirteenth exclaimed, astonished. “It’s impossible!”
The sorcerer was always calm. Albus could not help but be taken aback by his reaction.
Thirteenth turned around and exited the lair.
“It’s the Boss!” Sanare shouted happily, rolling out of the house. “The Boss is here!”
Albus and Holdem followed suit. They shuddered at the scene that greeted them outside.
“The forest…” Albus’s jaw dropped. “The forest is frozen?!”
The lush and green trees had turned white and frozen. Frost columns covered the ground as if it were the middle of winter. The air Albus breathed in seemed to freeze her lungs. She covered her mouth with her sleeve.
Thirteenth let out an uncharacteristically human groan tinged with a mixture of fear and confusion. There was a figure in front of his eyes, sitting gracefully in the air. It seemed like a dream, or an illusion, or some sort of a cruel joke.
The figure was filled with the dignity of someone overwhelmingly powerful. She was sitting comfortably on a non-existent chair, her long legs crossed, glaring at everyone present.
“Master!” Thirteenth said.
Albus stared at the figure floating in the air, dumbfounded.
It was an incredibly beautiful woman with long silver hair that reached her ankles.
She looked a lot like someone Albus knew.
“Zero?” Albus murmured.
But she looked a little too old.
The woman’s crimson eyes—unlike Zero’s violet ones—turned to Albus.
“It is a pleasure to meet you, young Mooncaller Witch,” she said. “I have no name to introduce myself with, so allow me to describe myself instead. I am a Murky Darkness Witch, one who finds meaning out of meaninglessness and creates something out of nothingness.”
“Shocked? Surprised? Bet you didn’t see that one coming!” Sanare’s grating voice, like the unpleasant buzzing of insects, passed through Thirteenth’s ears. “That’s right. Cestum’s leader is none other than your mentor!”
Beads of sweat ran down Thirteenth’s cheeks, freezing in mid-air, then crumbled on the ground.
It can’t be. It’s impossible! Thirteenth repeated the words he just said in his head.
He was certain that he killed her.
“You’re so stupid, Thirteenth,” Sanare said. “You couldn’t possibly kill your master. It was all a part of her plan. She pretended to be stubborn and made you decide to end things once and for all. She made you take the Grimoire of Zero, create the Coven, and spread Magic!”
Sanare rattled on, waving her doll arms, expressing her joy with her whole body. “You thought you came up with your plan? You thought it was your decision, didn’t you? You fool! You actually believed you were a clever sorcerer when you were dancing in the palm of your master’s hands all along! What a riot!”
“Sanare.”
“Yes, Master?”
“You talk too much.”
The witch snapped her fingers. Sanare let out a shrill scream, writhed in pain, and crawled on the frozen ground. Then the doll plopped down, unmoving.
Thirteenth turned his attention back to the doll. If Sanare’s soul had been expelled from the doll, she would be heading back to the princess. If Zero and the others had not yet captured the princess, the plan would fail.
Seeing the puppet twitch slightly, Thirteenth felt relieved. Then overwhelmed by a heart-crushing tension, he looked at the Murky Darkness Witch again. Her red eyes that seemed to see through everything watched Thirteenth languidly.
She noticed. She realized that Thirteenth’s goal was to stall Sanare. Not that she mattered at this point.
With the appearance of his mentor, all that awaited Thirteenth now was defeat.
Why did he think that he could kill this witch?
It was extremely easy to stop the functions of the human body if you knew how. A single pen could do the trick.
Thirteenth took the lives of all the witches in the cellar back then. Their hearts stopped beating. They weren’t breathing.
But that wasn’t death. Just as Solena’s soul was still alive in this forest.
The Murky Darkness’s gaze turned to Sanare, then Albus, and finally rested on Thirteenth.
“It has been too long, Thirteenth. You have worked hard all this time. You have done everything I expected you to do. I will gladly welcome you to Cestum.”
Thirteenth’s eyes grew wide. “Welcome me? If you are joking, it is not funny.”
“I do not like jokes, and if I recall correctly, neither do you. Needless to say, the order I am about to give you is no joke either.”
“What order?!”
“Kill the Mooncaller.”
Thirteenth swallowed hard. Her command held so much force that his knees almost buckled. He turned to Albus.
Albus jumped, but stood her ground. Ever since he met her, she had always been like that. It did not matter how much fear and difficulty she faced. She cowered, trembled, panicked, but she never ran away.
Thirteenth thought she was foolish.
“If I kill the Mooncaller, the wards will disappear,” Thirteenth said in a low voice. He was thinking of something else entirely.
One year ago. His confontration with Zero. The incantation from the Forbidden Chapter. Misnomers.
He remembered every word of Zero’s chant. I should be able to do it.
Ard Geld in de Koa Dia Zea.
“You can rebuild the ward yourself. Surely you can copy the spell of an inexperienced Mooncaller witch.”
“I don’t see the point in killing her. She has much more value alive.”
In the name of the King of Despair, who lords over the crossroads of desire and longing, from the depths of mud and darkness, come forth from the murky abyss, O’ Gate of Decay.
“She is valuable dead, Thirteenth. She is a witch who bears the title of Mooncaller, and a direct descendant of the great Solena. Despite that, her death would not affect the world in any way. That is exactly the kind of witch’s heart I am searching for.”
“A witch’s heart? For what?”
“An offering,” she answered curtly, her face still.
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