Chapter 86: The Witch's Children
That day was the coming-of-age ceremony celebrating Calix Tutatio Zahardt turning 18.
-Brother, brother! Do I finally get to have a sword too?
-Of course. You'll get a sword just for Calix. But remember, Calix. There's one rule a Zahardt must always follow when entering the ‘Hall of Swords’.
-Huh? What is it?
-It's...
But the foolish Calix ended up breaking the rule.
The result was devastating.
Drip, drip, drip.
Everything around was quiet.
The only sound reaching the ears was that of blood drops falling from a high place. Like dripping eaves, it must be the sound of life extinguishing.
-Cal, ix?
Thick pain laced his dear brother's voice. Everywhere his vision reached was red.
Blood, blood, blood-!
Burying his face in his hands, Calix gritted his teeth and distorted his expression.
“Mr. Calix?”
Noticing this, Jana carefully touched his shoulder. It was the moment he returned from the past to reality.
“Mr. Calix. Are you alright? You don't look well.”
“...Ah. I’m fine. No problem.”
Acting nonchalant, Calix straightened his posture and changed the subject.
“It seems best to join up with those guys first. Jana, can you find their location?”
“...Yes, of course. Please leave it to me.”
Jana slowly nodded her head.
Hwaaaaak!
The shadow flickering beneath her instantly spread wide, secretly seeping into various parts of the tunnels.
“I am the body that was once the White Moon of the Shadow Clan. The reaper who rules where darkness descends. And... this place is underground where twilight permeates everywhere.”
For a moment, Jana’s pupils shone brightly without shadows.
“Beneath the shadows, there is nowhere I cannot go.”
* * *
Shuuuuuk!
Gale, Sercia, and Hake. The place where the three people—no, four including the deeply sleeping ‘Horned Lizard’—had moved to was the outskirts of the Batevil tunnels.
Whether it was underdeveloped or development had been abandoned midway, materials and construction tools were scattered about haphazardly.
Unlike the generally bright and bustling central area of the tunnels, an eerie atmosphere even lingered here.
“It’s creepy.”
Like a cemetery.
Unlike Gale, who looked around feeling an unknown sense of foreboding, Hake focused on Sercia.
“I thought this in the labyrinth too, but really, Ms. Sercia, you’re amazing. Moving so many people instantly like this.”
“What’s there to it? This much is basic.”
At Hake’s quiet admiration, Sercia shrugged her shoulders.
It wasn't modesty or humility. She truly considered it trivial.
For Hake, who was quite knowledgeable about the breed called mages, that nonchalant attitude was beyond surprising; it was astounding.
‘Even excluding the caster themself, as the number of people being moved increases one by one, the time and mana consumed also increases...’
That was the common sense of the world.
‘But Ms. Sercia, even if it wasn't a very long distance, showed no sign of strain despite moving three people.’
Ordinary space mages would lose their effectiveness as the distance to the target location increased and as the number of companions being moved grew.
This was because moving others consumed a vast amount of mana and time.
Therefore, large-scale teleportation magic was often performed by drawing a ‘magic circle’ on the ground or wall.
Even that required mobilizing many space mages to proceed smoothly.
Moreover, another surprising point was.
‘Could it be... Ms. Sercia has three mana affinities?!’
Fire, space, and even healing.
Setting aside the fire affinity, classified as elemental magic, space and healing affinities were extremely rare.
Perhaps Sercia was the only mage who possessed both those affinities simultaneously!
‘But not only space and healing magic, but also elemental form magic are known to be tricky... Ms. Sercia displayed her magic very skillfully.’
Hake remembered how she had freely handled space and healing magic in the labyrinth, and how skillfully she had managed flame form magic during training on the airship.
In other words, what all this meant was.
‘...A genius!’
That Sercia Edelweiss was indeed a great genius! One who might someday make her mark on history!
‘Does she not realize she's a genius?’
No, that wasn't it. Seeing how she occasionally revealed immense pride in her outstanding magical skills, it seemed she was aware but didn't pay much attention to it.
How great a mage she was, how high a level she had reached compared to other mages.
‘Perhaps there's some blind, absolute goal she must achieve... so she's completely absorbed in it, making worldly standards invisible to her.’
Hake could understand. The assassin Hake raised in Depicio might never have understood...
But the current ‘Hake’, who had experienced bonds with comrades for a short time, could sense it.
Because he too had something he desperately desired.
‘Loss.’
Sercia Edelweiss had lost the person most precious to her.
And that she was angry at the ‘someone’ who had created that void.
‘Like me, she doesn't know her roots... Does she have no childhood memories?’
And that Sercia Edelweiss, like Hake and Gale Garav, also lacked ‘memories’ of her childhood.
Of course, it wasn't as malicious or extreme as Gale, who was thrown into the world as a blank slate when his body and mind were fully grown, but.
‘Besides, she was sensitive about Melasa, no, about ‘witches’, wasn't she?’
She must have had contact with some ‘witch’ in the past.
The memories left by those scars ran deep, deep enough to have shackled her present self with chains that would never be undone.
‘Perhaps Ms. Sercia's witch...’
Might be dead.
Hake, who had lived close to death until now and had lived a life similar to hers, instinctively realized this and quietly buried it within himself.
Because sometimes, there are things one must pretend not to know.
Wouldn't anyone dislike an unrelated stranger trampling on precious memories with muddy feet?
“...Excuse me, Mr. Hake.”
“...”
“Mr. Hake?”
While Hake was lost in thought, Sercia suddenly spoke to him first.
“Ah? Ahhh, yes!”
Above her hands, clusters of mana light sparked like embers. Magic circles repeatedly formed and disappeared, hinting that she was preparing some advanced magic, but.
Sercia continued speaking without a hint of change in her expression.
“Earlier... I was rude.”
“Yes?”
As Hake asked back, having no idea what she meant, Sercia smiled as if sighing and said.
“I mean when we reunited in the High Forest. I made some nosy remarks. You were quite offended, weren't you? I'm truly sorry.”
“Ah, no! I wasn't offended at all! I think it was perfectly reasonable for you to say that!”
Flustered by Sercia bowing her head to apologize, Hake waved his hands frantically.
“S-So... Ms. Sercia, you are too, right? A ‘Witch's Child’, greatly influenced by a witch.”
“...”
High mission completion rate and loyalty. An assassin outstanding enough to be counted on two hands even within Depicio, where everyone was an assassin.
Furthermore, Hake, who could unleash powerful unique magic if the ‘conditions’ were met, was suitable personnel for the ‘Mediale Collapse Operation’ planned by Depicio.
But would such a Hake choose betrayal for such a simple reason?
If he had defected while attending Rusram Academy, if he had shown even the slightest sign, he wouldn't have even taken the Hunter exam and would have been killed by Depicio.
And his position would have been replaced by another assassin.
Thus, Hake's betrayal naturally occurred after applying for the Hunter exam.
Elwin had concluded this choice was purely due to the power of the ‘original work’, the bond between the five different species... but naturally, that wasn't all there was to it.
—Witch's Child.
It was a term referring to people whose lives, beliefs, ways of thinking, etc., had been completely changed under the influence of a ‘witch’.
It was a word created by people who couldn't comprehend these changes in those who lived lives completely opposite to their previous paths after a very brief encounter.
“That's right. Truly, unforgettable... I received such grace. ‘Me too,’ does that mean you as well, Mr. Hake?”
Sercia affirmed with a calm expression and asked back.
“...Yes, me too.”
Hake suddenly recalled Melasa's words. The kind sentence that changed his life.
-You don't need to live the way others want you to. Life is lived only once. Hake, live the way you want.
It was like... a blessing. A feeling like the celestial LAMPAS pouring sacred oil over his head, peeling back a layer within him, setting him free.
Melasa's words held such mysterious power.
‘I want to find my roots.’
Amidst the dulled senses from harvesting countless deaths as an assassin, a desire long extinguished and forgotten suddenly reared its head!
The mother and father who gave birth to me. Perhaps siblings I might have.
-...I want to find my family.
Because such a desire arose, Hake had feigned death to survive against the Top Hunter of Yellow.
He accepted Elwin's proposal to be a double spy.
“Ahaha! Witch's Child, you say. I never believed such urban legend-like stories.”
But it was a power that actually existed.
After all, weren't Hake and Sercia living proof?
Witches were a different category, similar yet distinct from mages who wielded magic.
Both were wielders of powers incomprehensible by common sense, but witches were far more mysterious.
Because they were the only ones who could handle unknown spiritual powers.
“It’s really alright, so you don’t need to apologize anymore, Ms. Sercia. As I said, I think it’s something fellow Witch's Children can definitely say to each other.”
At that, Sercia gave a faint smile.
“You’re quite a kind person too, aren’t you?”
“W-Well. You’re the first person to call a former assassin kind...”
Hake also awkwardly smiled along with her.
“What were you talking about?”
Just then, Gale, who had been wandering around looking about, approached.
“It’s nothing!”
“Hmm, really?”
When Hake denied it, startled, Gale narrowed his eyes but didn't press further and let it go.
Suddenly, Hake found this mature side that Gale sometimes showed surprising.
“Alright, done with this!”
At that moment, Sercia stood up with a small cheer. Gale and Hake reflexively looked at her as she spoke.
“Preparations are complete. Ready to thoroughly rummage through the Horned Lizard's head.”
“...Hey, that phrasing sounds a bit off? Like a mad scientist.”
“Mad scientist? Ha! How could you say something so harsh to me? There’s no way I’m such a lunatic!”
Gale spoke hesitantly. In response, Sercia trembled like a willow tree, as if greatly insulted, and strongly denied it.
“N-No! I didn't mean you're like a mad scientist, miss! It's just that...”
Gale floundered, faced with her seeming readiness to foam at the mouth and charge at him.
Sercia also calmed down quickly, but perhaps realizing she had overreacted, her face turned bright red.
Not knowing what to do, Gale conversely started teasing her.
“Kahahahat!”
It was then. That an unfamiliar laugh was heard.
“You guys sure are having fun, huh?”
“!!”
“...!?”
Reacting immediately and turning their gazes, there was...
“Why stop? You can keep going. Show off some more tricks! Hurry!”
Smiling widely without any hint of intoxication, revealing her fangs, stood the ruler of the Batevil tunnels, the Horned Lizard.