Chapter 33: A Lead (4)
Rowen thrust her blade toward the man with a sharp gaze.
“Hey. There is something else nearby!?”
The atmosphere shifted. Unlike before, the man’s face carried a trace of composure as he slowly curled his lips into a smile.
“…For some hunting dogs, you guys are quick to notice.”
“…?”
Nike’s party turned their gaze toward the forest beyond the window. The endless trees swayed, and a loud cracking noise echoed.
Something was rushing toward them.
At the same time, the man chuckled darkly.
“Heh, heheheh.”
Nike turned his head again. Rowen’s blade was about to pierce the man’s throat.
He had been acting from the start, pretending to be a wrongly captured slave, luring them into a trap.
This was what made the Golden Dawn’s members so dangerous. They were assassins wearing ordinary masks, fanatics unafraid of death.
The way they suddenly pressed a blade to your throat without a sound was always chilling.
“You, bastard… from the very beginning.”
“I’ve no idea how the hounds of the Order managed to crawl all the way here. But…”
The man fixed his eyes on Nike. A smile spread across his mouth, filled with the satisfaction of finding his target.
“Thanks for walking right into our hands.”
Boom!
A tremendous impact shook the whole cabin. Something burst through the window and landed on the second floor.
No. It flew in.
“…?”
The group lifted their arms to block the flying glass shards. When they looked up, they saw the intruder.
The sight alone made them freeze.
Rowen and Lou Gehrig were surprised. Nike shouted “Food!” while Hestia’s eyes widened in horror, as if she recognized the figure.
“A kid…?”
“It’s a girl.”
“…!?”
“Food!”
The being that radiated a far more dangerous aura than any chimera outside was none other than a young girl.
Her body was small, and she looked no older than ten.
Black hair in thin braids on both sides.
Fresh freckles that gave her a certain charm.
A face pretty enough to be called doll-like.
At first glance she was nothing more than a child, yet what emanated from her was unmistakably killing intent, similar to a witch’s.
“Oooh, I greet the great Ascending Star.”
“…What are these things?”
The girl spoke in a slightly childish yet cheeky tone.
The man who had been mocking the group until moments ago dropped all pretense. He bowed deeply, his demeanor solemn, like one worshiping a god.
“Vermin of the Order crawled into your workshop.”
“How?”
“…That, I do not know... Forgive me.”
The little witch’s pitch-black eyes slowly shifted to Nike.
She was clearly a child, yet no one dared to move. They could all sense that she truly was a witch.
Acting on instinct here would be fatal. Nike, however, only watched with curiosity to see how she would react.
“You. What are you guys?”
The arrow finally turned their way. Rowen knew this was inevitable, so she stepped forward, shielding her team.
“…Who are you?”
“Errg! You insolent wreeeeetch! Silence! How dare the filth of the Order speak without permission before the Ascending Star—!”
Pop!
The moment the fanatic raised his voice, his head swelled grotesquely and burst apart like a lie.
“You’re so damn noisy, seriously!”
The culprit was none other than the little witch girl.
With a mere gesture, she exploded a man’s head, whining like a child. The sight was horrifying.
“Teehee—”
Her mocking laugh followed.
She made a V with her fingers and pulled up her mouth in a twisted smile.
“Kyaahahahaha! Kya—”
The child witch, called the Ascending Star, rolled through the air clutching her belly in laughter. It was an obvious opening, yet Rowen could not even think of attacking.
A being who could burst heads with a flick of her finger. The difference in class was overwhelming.
‘I need to at least learn which kind of witch this is. But I’ve never heard of anyone with the name Ascending Star…’
While Rowen sweated coldly in thought, the girl stopped rolling and stood up again.
“Ah~ I laughed enough. That was fun. Right, big brothers and sisters?”
Her voice was now clear, and her gaze playful yet cold, swept over them.
“I was lying from the beginning. I knew everything. I opened the gate myself.”
“…?”
“W-What?”
The little witch landed lightly, hands clasped behind her back, and sauntered closer.
She leaned forward and spoke with a giggle.
“Sestria. That crazy~ bitch. She’s dead, right?”
“!?”
“I killed her!”
“Wait. Nike, don’t answer.”
Nike had shouted as if he had been waiting for the question. Rowen cut him off at once.
Clap— The girl witch clapped her hands in delight.
“So it was you, oppa! Thank you, thank you~”
Like greeting a friend, she waved into the empty air. Nike answered in kind, thrusting his hand into the air and shaking it.
The whole scene was absurd, yet no one dared move.
From the moment she burst the man’s head, her aura had changed completely. The suffocating killing intent was gone.
“…Hnng~ look at your stupid faces…”
The little witch instantly erased her smile. She pranced about the second floor with careless disdain.
Tapping a glass jar with her nail, large enough to hold an eyeball as big as her head, she spoke.
“I’ll give you guys a special pass and spare you.”
She said it lightly, but the confidence came from knowing their lives were in her hands. It sounded like arrogance, but she clearly had the power to back it up.
“Truth is, I invited you because I was thankful. That old hag Sestria made me her slave, forced me to guard this place and work in her experiments.”
“…”
“As these damned days went on, snap! The binding on me broke one day. And wouldn’t you know it, that was the very day some fools from the Order barged in without fear. I thought, oh, so the hunting dogs got her. Serves her right~”
She flicked her head toward Nike and smiled brightly.
“But who killed her, I wonder? Let me see my savior’s face. Oh my, so it was a handsome oppa huh? Thank you for killing that crazy hag!”
“It was nothing!”
“Kyaaha~ what a funny oppa you are.”
The little witch hopped around again, playing with severed fingers as if they were toys.
“So I’ll let you live. Normally I’d kill you and use you for mana… but you’re special. See how kind I am?”
“…”
Rowen said nothing. All she thought about was how to kill her cleanly.
Being spared by a witch was meaningless. If left alive, the girl would only murder more innocents.
“Relax your face, oldest sis. If I close the gate, you won’t be able to leave. You’ll be stuck fighting all the chimeras outside. You don’t want that, do you~?”
At her chilling warning, Rowen bit her lip. The girl already had them in her grasp.
It was not a lie. She had to be the one who had opened the portal. Nothing else could explain what was happening in the Dark Forest.
“…And what is it that you want?”
Rowen decided to play along. If she could get the girl to open the portal, she could use Nike’s power to capture her. She calmly asked.
“Heh~ Nothing? What could humans possibly give me? Want to dance for me or something?”
“…”
Even though she was a witch, her personality was every bit as rude as her tomboyish appearance suggested. Rowen held back the surge of anger and opened her mouth to speak.
“…Then.”
“I’ll just let you go. Wait, no… You can ask me one question if you’re curious about anything. I’m in such a good mood I’ll grant one!”
Answer a question?
The party stirred for an instant.
An opportunity to question a witch.
‘...Honestly, this is too valuable to pass up…’
Rowen had never heard of such a thing. Witches did not show humans favor.
Yet the little girl clearly liked Nike a lot. She even circled around him, giggling while yelling “Kya~”
Everywhere Nike went, variables arose. Each small ripple could become the butterfly effect that destroyed witches.
“Hurry~ before I change my mind in five seconds! Five… four…”
Rowen shut her eyes tight and asked quickly.
“…Why did the Witch of Distortion attack the Order?”
“You heard already, didn’t you? Those Golden-whatever fools asked her to. They wanted her to bring them a boy. Arrogant, weren’t they? Ordering a witch around~ Kids these days.”
Rowen hesitated, then pushed again.
“Why? Just what is this boy?”
In an instant, the girl’s eyes chilled. She stared at Rowen as if she was going to kill her any moment, but then clicked her tongue.
“I said you can ask one question… Whatever. I’m feeling generous. They said he was a sacrifice or something?”
“A sacrifice…?”
“Mhm. A vessel for mana, supposedly. It’s obviously nonsense though. Crazy cultists. Since when do men bear mana? The Sin abandoned them, and they refuse to accept it. Their minds must’ve broke because of that~”
She laughed lightly as she spoke. Rowen burned every word into her memory with her eyes widened.
‘Sacrifice. Mana. Vessel. Cult. The Witch of Sin that vanished. Forsaken Golden Dawn.’
It was a flood of valuable information.
And most importantly,
‘This girl… she doesn’t know the truth about Nike. Moreover…’
She was a witch, yet she had not sensed that the boy before her carried mana. She had not realized that he was the very target the cult had asked for.
It seemed like she could feel it faintly, but not distinguish them from all the chimeras that filled the surroundings.
It was proof that she was immature, too young a witch to discern the difference.
Rowen pieced everything together in an instant.
‘This kid… she hasn’t even awakened her Eye yet. She’s only a first-rank witch.’
In truth, she was weak enough to have been Sestria’s slave.
The portal, the exploding head, the aura of menace, etc.
All of these inexplicable strengths could be explained by using the spells Sestria had engraved in her workshop.
Witches thrived on deception after all.
Because she was a first rank witch who lacked wisdom, it was likely that she was spouting nonsense when she was offering to spare them. She was also the most reckless witch Rowen had ever seen.
The conclusion was clear.
They could win.
They could capture her.
Rowen forced her lips to stay flat, suppressing a triumphant smile.
“…The questions are over.”
She acted as if she were humbling herself to appease the witch.
“Okay~ You guys may go now.”
The witch girl snapped her fingers and waved her hand.
Then, a bloody ritual circle glowed, and space warped from floor to ceiling.
‘As I thought…’
Rowen cheered inwardly. Her deduction had been right.
This brat couldn’t make the portal herself. She was only triggering Sestria’s pre-engraved spells.
Even bursting the man’s head had only been an activated restriction. She was bluffing with someone else’s power.
‘Good. First, we’ll pretend to leave…’
Rowen turned, signaling her team to retreat. Her plan was to snatch the girl into the warp with them at the last moment.
Once outside, it would be their ground, and they could even call on the Order if necessary.
Honestly, Rowen was confident enough to defeat a first rank witch by herself.
But it was then.
“But~”
A chilling voice came.
Rowen turned around.
The witch girl spoke with a grin.
“I never said all of you could go. That funny oppa stays.”
“…Why.”
The witch’s face turned icy in an instant.
“Because. He recognized the portal. That oppa.”
“…!!”
Damn.
She had missed the most important detail.
No, she had been completely deceived by the witch’s act.
Her whole body broke out in goosebumps.
A first-rank witch was shallow in magic, but her cunning and sharpness surpassed humans. Even a novice witch was still a witch.
“Even if I made the invitation with the portal, would anyone actually realize it was a gate? Nuh, uh~ I myself was shocked when I saw something popping out from it, you know? Isn’t it funny?”
Indeed, a witch was still a witch. Her cunning was chilling.
“Since someone else appeared instead of that hag, Sestria must be dead. That means I’m free. If someone can cross distortions like that, he must be the sacrifice the Golden-whatever wanted. The other three are trash, so it’s clear that this oppa is the sacrifice.”
“Y-You have keen eyes!”
“Ahaha! Thank you~”
“…”
The girl laughed gleefully, thrilled at having fooled them.
“Ah, I wonder why all humans so stupid like this.”
“So you knew everything from the start…”
“Did you think I wouldn’t notice, big sis? How ridiculous... Did you look down on me because I look young~? That’s kinda insulting.”
The muscles under Rowen’s eyes twitched.
She should have doubted and doubted again. Instead, she had underestimated the witch and been tricked.
Had she wasted all her master’s teachings?
Her disappointment in herself only deepened.
“Still, the other three can go. I’ll keep my promise. Oppa, you stay and play with me. I’ll devour you after I’ve had my fun~”
“What? No!”
“I don’t like it either!”
Danger.
Yet the fact remained that this witch was weak. The situation had soured, but it was not too late.
Rowen reached for the rope in her cloak, ready to strike.
But then,
Hestia stepped forward.
She had been muttering softly to herself all this time, confused, whispering words no one could make out.
“…Betty?”
At that one word which came out of nowhere, the little witch’s freckled face suddenly froze.
“…Number 21. You are Betty, right?”