[V6C4] A Miracle’s Price, A Witch’s Reward
Translated by Jodas 6: Secrets of the Wedge TowerWhen the door swung open, the first thing to jump out to her was the countless multicolored balls of glass hanging from the ceiling.
Some were small, only the size of a pebble or clenched fist, while others were as big as a human head.
None of them looked like lamps or lanterns. Rather, they caught the natural sunlight drifting in through the windows and refracted it in many colors across the floor.
Aside from those, it looked a lot like the room where Tia woke up in earlier. The only major difference was that this room lacked a bed.
The shelves on the walls to her left and right were filled with bottles, and the books that could not fit on the shelves were piled up on the floor.
Then, on top of one such mountain of books, sat a woman.
With a bountiful breast and a slender waist — her gorgeous body was clothed in a black dress and her head was cloaked beneath a lace veil.
The veil covered the top half of her face, but through the gaps in the veil, she could see ivory skin and vibrant crimson lips.
The woman atop the mountain of books hung her head, looking somewhat forlorn.
“O, Great Witch.”
Kai called out to her, and the woman slowly lifted her face up.
It was hard to see her eyes through the veil, but she could catch sight of vibrant red hair waving beneath the lace.
Her appearance got the blood pumping all through Tia’s body.
(Wow…)
How would she explain the feelings that welled up inside her?
She was struck with shock — and that shock brought joy, emotion, and an inexplicable sense of nostalgia and affection.
Tia’s jaw dropped open and she entered the room in a daze, as if being drawn in.
Through the veil, the woman looked at Tia. Feeling that gaze upon her, her heart started pounding.
The woman said nothing as Kai began to speak to her.
“I would like you to grant this Harpy a human form.”
“……”
The Witch said nothing.
Yet, the eyes under that veil stared deeply at the multicolored Harpy.
Before she knew it, Tia had already opened her mouth.
“I’m Folulutia! A Harpy from Breakneck Gorge, Folulutia!”
Tia did not have a habit of introducing herself to people.
Every one of her compatriots in the flock knew her name already, and there was no need for her to introduce herself to anyone outside of her flock. She still hadn’t told her name to Kai yet.
She’d told that girl, Fiene, because she was ordered to, but she certainly didn’t enjoy it. Every time that girl called her by her name, she remembered her whole body shuddering in displeasure.
And yet, she felt compelled to tell this Witch her name. She didn’t understand the reason very well herself, but she had a good feeling that it wouldn’t feel displeasing at all if this Witch were to call her by her name.
“Great Witch, could you heal my wings?”
“……”
The Witch said nothing. However, her crimson lips subtly moved.
Even with her excellent ears, Tia couldn’t make out a voice, but Kai proudly interpreted for her.
”‘There are two costs. One is the price of the miracle, the other is a reward for the Witch.’”
The Witch’s lips moved.
Kai continued to speak.
”‘The price for that miracle is fifty years of your lifespan. Then, as a reward, you must offer up your color and mana.’ — Those are the terms for fully healing your wings.”
Tia’s face soured, and she groaned.
“I don’t have fifty years of my life… Huh? What does it mean to offer up my ‘color and mana’?”
Mana was one thing, but she did not have any clue what it meant to offer one’s color.
Tia shook her head back and forth as Kai smoothly explained.
“That is the Witch’s power. By draining another’s color, she can gain that person’s mana as well. Then, by preserving that mana semi-permanently, she can use it whenever necessary.”
Kai looked up to the countless glass balls hanging throughout the room. Tia followed his gaze upwards and then she realized that these balls were not merely made of colored glass.
The color was not stained on the glass itself. Rather, the color was trapped inside of the balls of transparent glass.
“Well, for most people that means she’ll take the colors of their hair, eyes, and skin, but… in your case, that means your rainbow pigment. If you combined your hair and wings, that rainbow pigmentation should fetch a hefty price.”
As she watched the color trapped in one of the glass balls move around like a liquid, she noticed it strangely shifting hues.
That must have been some of the color that had been taken, along with some mana.
“Um… So… If you give the Witch your color and mana, plus something else, she’ll grant your wish?”
“That’s how it is. In the case of your wings, that ‘something else’ is fifty years off of your lifespan.”
“Vuvu….”
Tia twisted her lips and groaned.
No matter how much color or mana she offered, it seemed impossible for her to have her wings healed.
“…How much is the ‘something else’ to make me into a human form?”
When Tia asked that, Kai spun his body around.
It didn’t seem that his intention was to face Tia head on. Rather, he moved in such a way so that his back was towards the Witch in the corner of the room.
Hiding his expression from the Witch, Kai’s mouth curled into a wide smile.
He was happy. He was enjoying this. He was mocking her.
”‘Reproductive ability.’ — That is the cost of a human skin.”
That made sense. That was quite the heavy price.
But Tia found something about that quite strange.
“…Wouldn’t it be harder to make me a whole human form than to just heal my wings?”
“Not at all. It’s in fact much simpler to make a new skin for you to wear than to heal your severed wings. Taking back something that has already been lost is extremely hard to do.”
Tia was conflicted.
Her reproduction was important. But, at this rate, she wouldn’t be able to fly. A Harpy who couldn’t fly wouldn’t be able to return to the nest. She would have no choice but to find a place to die.
The priority order in Tia’s mind was clear. First was flying and singing. Leaving descendants came second.
Even if she was unable to have any children of her own, so long as she could fly and sing, she could protect her flock.
“Okay. So that I can learn flight magic at the Wedge Tower, I want a human skin.”
When Tia made her decision, the Witch lifted a hand. A transparent sphere floated at her fingertips. It started at the size of a pebble, but as the Witch’s fingers swirled around, it gradually grew larger and larger.
Eventually, once it reached around fist-size, the Witch’s fingers stopped moving.
The transparent sphere floated up to roughly the height of Tia’s head.
Kai looked to Tia with anticipation.
“Once you take that, the contract is sealed, Folulutia of Breakneck Gorge.”
Tia stepped forward without hesitation and reached out to the sphere.
As her fingertips brushed against the sphere, she felt a gradually increasing warmth. At the same time, a tingle ran down her spine — the feeling of losing something stunned her brain.
“……Ah.”
Tia let out a small voice. Color started to flow into the sphere where her fingertips touched.
Red of a burning flame, orange of the sky at sunset, pink of a springtime meadow, yellow of a summertime flower filled with life, green that glimmered like an emerald, navy more vibrant than the evening sky, cerulean like the sky in midwinter — The vast array of colors that made up Tia’s wings spun around inside of the sphere, retaining their vibrancy without blending together.
As the colors increased, the ball itself swelled in size.
Eventually, when it grew to the size of her head, the Witch bent her index finger.
Doing so, she caused the sphere to leave Tia’s hands and float towards the Witch.
“……Peuu.”
Tia fell to her knees in exhaustion.
When she twisted her head around, pure white feathers caught her eye. The hair that brushed against her cheek had likewise lost all its color and been left completely white.
Along with her color, a considerable amount of mana had been taken from her as well. A feeling of severe exhaustion engulfed her body. Nevertheless, Tia couldn’t bear to take her eyes away from the Witch for long, and lifted her face to watch.
The Witch’s fingers caressed the glass sphere.
Her red lips could be seen forming a deep smile through the veil, then she spoke in a clear voice.
“Not bad.”
It was not Kai speaking on her behalf, but a sweet, cold, beautiful voice. Those were the first words Tia ever heard the Witch speak.
Tia sat down on the ground and looked up at the Witch.
“Hey, Great Witch.”
The rainbow pigments now stored within the glass sphere and her newly white hair and wings.
Looking back and forth between the two, Tia asked a very basic question.
“White is a color too, right? If you want to take colors, Great Witch, why won’t you take white?”
The Witch’s lips moved subtly.
Her beautiful voice whispered in a song-like pitch.
“White, white… I hate white.”
“Oh, I see!”
Now that she mentioned it, none of the glass balls hanging from the ceiling contained any white.
If she didn’t like white, then maybe she liked rainbows? ‘I hope she likes the rainbow colors I gave her,’ Tia thought.
The Witch stroked the rainbow-colored glass ball as her eyes looked down on Tia from under the veil.
“Nonetheless, I shall remember your white wings, Harpy.”
Hearing those words made her feel strangely happy, and Tia giggled “pefufufufu!”