613 – 7.5 Season is Fall (2)
After the Archwitch nominated me as her apprentice, I naturally became an apprentice to the Archwitch.
“Anyway, with my temper… I should be grateful for the gift of a good body, why are you angry?”
The sound of rustling clothes.
The great witch left a low chant, and she was in the middle of her steps. Although her speed was slow due to her small size.
I asked, carefully matching my stride so as not to offend my teacher’s pride.
“Did you give me the body as a gift?”
“Oh, didn’t I tell you? That girl’s body. I think it suits a sword maniac too much, so I sent it as a gift a while ago. Then he came to visit today and raised his voice…… !”
The Archwitch who complained like that seemed genuinely sorry.
I thought for a while about how to respond to the fact that I was given a precious gift and received a bad treatment rather than a good treatment. Well, there are only a few options to choose from.
“…… The swordsman lacks an aesthetic sense.”
How can you speak bitterly to a teacher who is like the sky?
At my empty response, the Archwitch snorted at her excitedly.
“That’s right! After wielding only a sword all her life, what happened to her hair… Heh, what good night. She didn’t even return it. Let’s do what we have to do.”
It’s called ‘what to do’.
Even if it wasn’t so, it was a sound I had hoped for. I silently nodded, taking in the majestic building that revealed itself before I knew it.
I thought it was used as a temple a long time ago.
As ever, there were many injured in the academy. Therefore, the scale of the temple dedicated to treatment was bound to be large, and this was true of buildings built hundreds of years ago.
At least 100 sick people can be accommodated.
But those lying here were not just patients.
Silence like death.
If it hadn’t been for the occasional groans and whimpers, I would have thought of this place as a cemetery rather than a temple.
“Let’s go in.”
The archwitch’s voice was flat. She had the composure of a woman who had already witnessed countless tragedies.
She seemed to be unable to erase even the slightest bit of bitterness, although a smoking pipe was bitten in her mouth before she knew it.
Her addiction was frightening. Even though she didn’t need to smoke anymore, she wouldn’t let go of her smoking pipe all day because she was bored.
With this useless sentiment, I put my hand on the old doorknob.
Kikii Iik-
An unpleasant frictional sound unique to rusty hinges pierces the eardrum, and the interior landscape is revealed before long.
It was a field of corpses.
Although they are still breathing, can we say that beings that breathe only lightly without even moving are alive? Only those who were presumed to be close were often crying in front of him.
I hesitate to take a step. As I hesitated, the Archwitch gave an explanation like a sigh.
“Victims bitten by vampires… No way, as soon as the subject of the contract called a vampire dies, it becomes like this.”
“Do you know the cause?”
“Vampire blood doesn’t only have flaws. There are benefits such as strengthening the body and increasing immortality. If the body that has been modified like that loses its source of power…….”
Light green eyes scan the surroundings. The scenery that floated on that retina must be the answer that the great witch would enter at the end of her blurry words.
“That’s how it works. It happened… It looks like her brain has gone sour.”
“Can’t I do something?”
“If it had worked, I would have set out to solve it a long time ago.”
My dim hopes were thus thwarted.
hahahahaha, I wasn’t wrong.
Aren’t vampires the blood of the Great Witch? Naturally, the Archwitch also felt responsible for the series of events. If she had known how to solve it, she would have done it sooner.
I could tell just by looking at the way he chewed the pipe with a displeased expression on his face.
The archwitch also wants to save them. She more than anyone else.
A troubled voice continues.
“It’s difficult because there is a ‘contract’ hanging around. If you sign a contract with the Dark Church, not only your body but also your soul will be bound. It’s not a problem that can be solved simply by fixing the body…….”
“Is there really no way?”
“There should be. But time is absolutely running out… How long can you last like that?”
The Archwitch’s hands squeezed my hair.
Before long, a faint moan escaped from the woman’s lips as she frowned.
“Okay, if only this guy had enough time!”
It was the source of noise that appeared in a quiet space.
The eyes and ears of the people standing here and there were focused on me and the Archwitch. Even so, it seemed that no one was high enough to recognize the Archwitch.
It was not a meaningless act. Because when we met their eyes, the sadness and despair they embraced touched me even more.
My pupils inadvertently turned to somewhere.
There lay a girl with rich blonde hair. She seemed to have been away for a while, but there were traces of visits from some relatives beside her.
A woman with reddish-brown hair would have come to visit her in hospital.
She
She said she would protect her. She won’t shed any more tears, she swore inwardly.
How many people are left by my side?
Emma’s tears, Celine’s disappearance, Seria’s self-reproach.
Everything felt like my responsibility. This was the true nature of the whipping that kept punishing me.
‘Time’, ‘time’, ‘time’.
I just idly replayed it and activated my brain. While thinking about what the hell to do, how to solve the root of all these problems.
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It was then.
There is a person who suddenly flashed through my mind.
“…… What.”
A stupid sound leaked out of my mouth. It was inevitable that the Archwitch’s eyes glanced at me.
“Why are you like that, first.”
“Senior Elsie.”
There wasn’t much information the Archwitch possessed enough to understand her sudden name.
So I had no choice but to narrow my eyebrows and throw a counter-question.
“The second one? Heh, I said goodbye to my family soon. They said they had to take a ‘graduation exam’ or something anyway, but I talked to Delemore well and decided to replace it with the Great Forest dispatch. If you die under me for a few months, you’ll still be useful…….”
“Not that ‘elsie senior’.”
The suspicion in the archwitch’s eyes deepened.
What are you talking about, just before the right question bursts out.
“I need to meet senior Elsie.”
My body immediately started running.
I heard the High Witch calling for me, but she didn’t mind. I ran like a gale and rummaged through my memories.
Where is Elsie-senpai now?
It’s only been a few months since we met, but we’ve crossed countless dead ends together. It was not difficult to guess the feelings of the other person ahead of her engagement.
The Great Witch said she was about to say goodbye to Elsie-senpai.
If you start training in the Great Forest, you won’t be able to breathe outside air for at least several months. If that were the case, he would have wanted to say goodbye, but the person Elsie terribly cared for was very rare.
If you even exclude me, yes.
There was only one.
Once the person to be found was decided, the search became much easier. Unlike Elsie-senpai, who went around with me and sorted out her previous relationships, that man still had friends all over the academy.
Just a few minutes.
It was the time I needed until I found Elsie-senpai.
A pair of men and women were sitting on a chair on a promenade in autumn. Most of them gave off a sweet and fresh atmosphere, but there were also those who showed a particularly heterogeneous relationship.
Senior Elsie and Lupine Rainella.
The two siblings were directing a strange scene. The male side is procrastinating, and the female side makes a puzzled expression.
It was to the point where anyone could see them as fledglings about to break up.
The inside story was different, though.
As soon as I gasped and showed up, senior Elsie immediately showed off her bright colors.
“What, Master? Well done! No, well… Lupin cries that even if he dies, he will not be sent to the Great Forest…….”
“My, when will I!”
It was the sound Lupine, who was shedding tears of joy, jumped up and shouted.
Of course, there was no persuasive power, but he continued his objection without giving up.
“I was just saying that it wouldn’t matter if I went after graduating from the academy! La, do you think the Prince of the Rainella family will shed tears over that?! You think so too, Ian… Hey profit! Don’t come any closer!”
Of course I didn’t have time to mingle with Lupin’s bullsh*t.
My steps are taken without hesitation. One step, two steps. And before I knew it, my body was right in front of the Rainella siblings.
Lupin shuddered, screaming at what he was imagining. It must have reminded me of a nightmare from a long time ago, but I was on the other side of the business.
My hand covering the girl’s shoulder with her chin.
I don’t know, but maybe my expression right now is infinitely serious. It was possible to guess this just by looking at senior Elsie, who was looking at me with bewildered eyes.
He comes to me out of nowhere and makes a serious face.
As Elsie-senpai, it was an embarrassing situation. Even so, this was a request that only ‘Elsie senior’ could accept, so I opened my mouth with a low voice.
“Senior Elsie… Can I hit you once?”
And silence.
My fiancé was blinking and unconscious. The same goes for Lupin, who was watching from the sidelines, and those who were paying attention to us at the sudden appearance of a celebrity.
The eyes and ears of the crowd are aimed at me.
How long to do that.
“Hey, this… You crazy bastard!”
Lupine lunged at me, gouging out his eyes, but his slender fists failed to do any significant damage to my body.
It was a sad season.
*
The main gate of the academy.
There stood a guard with a very nervous expression. Normally, he would have been yawning and thinking about ways to kill time, but the recent academy was literally a hot potato.
A new hero appears.
And the ensuing conspiracy of the Dark Church and the visits of those in power to deal with it were enough to restore the lost sense of mission.
Wasn’t it even rumored that an important shipment would arrive soon?
Perhaps you couldn’t stand guard more nervously than this.
The guards thought so, but that belief was shattered shortly after.
By a woman who appeared with her back to the sun.
“That, that, ah… ….”
The guard’s accident hardens.
It wasn’t just him, any man would do that. Pure white skin without a single blemish, and features that seemed to have been painstakingly crafted by a craftsman. And when faced with silvery hair that could be trusted even if it was molten and wrung out of pure silver.
A light pink dot is stamped on the superb view created by God. Even that color was terribly suitable, and the guards became the audience’s feelings in the face of a work of art in an instant.
Is it because I rushed?
The woman’s breathing was rough, and her complexion was not perfect. Even so, she has a look that can’t find a single blemish.
It’s pretty. Beautiful. All sorts of other compliments were floating through her mind, but the moment her woman’s lips moved, all her thought circuits were bleached white.
“Where are you?”
“…… Yes?”
The guard had no choice but to sincerely ask that question.
He wanted to help his opponent somehow. It’s not just because of her beauty.
A small sun is floating on the top of the woman’s head.
Halo.
An agent of the heavenly gods, a symbol that can only be worn by those called saints.
The woman’s lips softened again.
“Ian Perkus.”
The face of the woman who brought out the name of a certain man naturally smiled. It was a ship that was so beautiful that it made my heart stop, but why?
The reason why a corner of her chest is getting chilly.
The guard’s forehead was wet with cold sweat.
The sound of her fists being crushed before long.
“…… My husband.”
Now, it’s the season when the wife who left the house comes back.
It was autumn.