Chapter 52: The Witch’s Journey
The carriage wheels turned, making a "clunk-clunk" sound as they struck the ground.
Sitting inside the carriage, Sylvia breathed in the cold air. She glanced at Isabella, who was conversing with the maid but kept glancing in her direction, and couldn’t help but let out a soft chuckle.
Of course, only Isabella could see all this—her personal maid Maria didn’t notice anything at all.
Withdrawing her gaze, the puppet girl let a wisp of starlight rise from her palm. It swiftly traced the shape of a miniature spell formation, into which a line of starlight-written words was then cast.
At the same time, in the underground bishop’s office beneath St. Ruls Cathedral, Lakdevo, who had been squatting on the chair back with his eyes closed, abruptly opened his blood-red eyes and looked at the desk where something strange had appeared.
At this moment, a dazzling line of text emerged:
"I’m not coming back tonight."
“Gah?”
A certain fat crow looked at this line of words in confusion, not knowing how to respond.
Back on the carriage, under Isabella’s envious gaze, Sylvia dispersed the starlight in her hand, then folded her fingers with visible puppet joints.
“Want to learn?”
She wore a faint, elusive smile as she looked at the blonde girl sitting beside her.
And Isabella, who couldn’t reveal that someone was beside her, could only nod heavily.
“Young Miss, what are you...?”
Maria, who had noticed something was off with her young mistress since getting into the carriage, asked in confusion.
“It’s nothing!”
Isabella answered quickly.
“Click.”
Sylvia made a strange sound unconsciously, and by the time she realized it, it was too late.
Such behavior was entirely inconsistent with the image she had built for herself outside!
Was she getting too relaxed?
She thought so inwardly, then turned her gaze away and looked at the cement road where one carriage after another rolled by.
They were Radiance believers returning after the New Year’s prayer, most of whom were relatively well-off.
Those impoverished who worshipped Radiance, on the other hand, had neither the money nor the energy to attend such events.
After all, they would need to rise early tomorrow to toil for survival.
For them, except for being able to eat something they usually couldn’t afford, the New Year was barely different from any other day.
...
The carriage entered the familiar garden and stopped before the main gate.
This time, Isabella, who no longer needed anyone’s help, still descended the carriage a little wearily. Sylvia followed behind her, walking into the house behind Maria, the personal maid.
Ten minutes later, the gray-haired puppet girl sat in a chair in the upstairs bedroom, casually flipping through a popular novel in her hand.
Isabella, meanwhile, had gone to the bathroom with Maria’s assistance.
Sylvia focused her attention on the words in the book, reading line after line with some curiosity.
It was her first time reading this world’s popular literature—
The book’s title was "The Witch’s Journey."
As the name implied, the protagonist was a witch.
Thanks to the Primordial Witch, one of the Nine True Gods, the image of witches here differed significantly from those in her homeland’s medieval and early modern Europe.
In this world, witches were not seen as negative figures. They were usually portrayed as women who wielded powerful magic.
Of course, through artistic embellishment, they were also given many other colorful attributes—like in the book she held.
Her gaze swept quickly across line after line of words, and a vivid, natural image began to take shape in her mind—
Hmm, kind of trashy.
Using a term from her homeland to critique it, she found herself amused.
A light novel of a foreign world?
Naturally, whether in writing style or storyline, this book had obvious differences from the one in her memory.
Just as she was engrossed in reading, the door suddenly opened.
Isabella walked in after bidding her maid goodbye, closed the door, and looked curiously at the book in Sylvia’s hand and the focused expression on her face.
“Huh, Your Highness, you actually like this book too?”
The puppet girl gave a light cough, set the book aside, then looked at her and smiled without speaking.
Isabella, half wistful and half dreamy, continued talking:
“Mm, this book was published a few years ago. I really liked the story, so I’ve kept it with me, rereading it over and over again.”
“At that time, I wished to become a witch like the protagonist—traveling across all the nations of the continent, recording every unforgettable moment in a diary.”
Sylvia nodded and asked with a smile:
“You really like traveling?”
“Yes.”
Sitting on the bed, Isabella nodded firmly:
“But back then, my body wasn’t strong enough to support long journeys, not even by steam train.”
“But now, everything has changed.”
At this moment, the golden-haired girl’s eyes were full of yearning.
Sylvia only smiled and refrained from commenting. Instead, she shifted the topic slightly:
“You said you wanted to become a witch?”
Witch—also one of the thirty-two extraordinary paths.
However, according to the scriptures of the Church of Radiance, this path had another name: the Jurist.
This seemed to correspond with the honorific title of that Primordial Witch:
The Witch who Crafted Law and Reason, the Great One who Deconstructed the World, the Harbinger of Calamity and Destruction.
Here, the so-called “law and reason” referred to magic and truth, not to law and order—that domain belonged to the God of Law and Order.
Those who took this path would become immensely powerful spellcasters, mastering an overwhelmingly vast amount of magical knowledge.
By the end of the path, their field of expertise would be so broad that they could be called “omnipotent.”
However, according to those scriptures, all extraordinary beings who followed this path were women, without exception.
Whenever she thought of this, Sylvia couldn’t help but wonder—was it truly impossible for men to become witches, or did those who did simply stop being male afterward?
At that moment, Isabella shook her head:
“No, it’s not like that.”
"Although the powers of witches are truly enviable, what I really admire is their freedom."
"Oh?"
Sylvia was a bit surprised, then immediately asked,
"Then which path do you like?"
"Once you’ve fully recovered your health, I’ll guide you onto the path of the extraordinary."
"Huh?"
Isabella was clearly even more surprised:
"That crow\... didn’t Lakdevo say I had no choice and could only follow the same path as you?"
"That’s correct, but something unexpected happened on my side."
"It led to a new developmental direction in the path I’ve woven."
Then, regardless of whether the other party could understand or not, she began explaining the theory behind the Parasite Path.
After all, the girl had insisted that Sylvia give her a supplementary lesson in mysticism tonight!
After hearing the explanation and its related interpretations, the confusion in Isabella’s eyes gradually turned into insight.
Then, she fell into deep thought, seemingly contemplating which extraordinary path she wanted to choose.
A few seconds later, she looked up and said to Sylvia with determination:
"Your Highness, I’ve decided!"
"My basic path will be the Warrior!"