[V8C15] A Theory Meant to Be Refuted
Translated by Jodas 8: The Witch of the BoundaryAfter finishing his services, Wren ate a light lunch with Tia, then departed from the Witch’s house.
After all, Wren and Tia had disappeared right in the middle of a Monster attack on the Lange Hamlet.
Roughly a whole day had passed since then. They should return as quickly as possible.
(Besides, we don’t know when that Kai guy will come back.)
The true identity of the Witch who gave Tia her human form was ‘Rebecca, the Chromatic Garden.’
She was an Ancient Magical Artifact hosting half of the soul of the First Thorn Witch, Rebecca Roseberg.
‘Rebecca, the Chromatic Garden’ absorbed the color and mana of others, and stored them in glass balls. When necessary, it seemed she could expend that mana to recreate all of the magecraft used by the First Thorn Witch.
It must have been magecraft from the Old Era that gave Tia her human skin as well.
(The problem is, after the Harpy who stole the ‘Chromatic Garden’ died, when did Kai get his hands on the ‘Chromatic Garden’? Who is Kai anyways? But…)
He’d casually brought up the topic of Kai, but the Witch gave him no answer. After telling the tale of the late Harpy, she said nothing more.
Even now, she did not come out to bid Wren and Tia farewell as they headed out, only sitting in the room of glass balls as she did at the start.
…Wren deduced that the Witch must not be in very great condition.
The Witch rarely ever moved or talked. When she did move, she always brought one of those glass balls with mana and color inside to herself. Without the support of mana, she couldn’t move at all.
(Could it be because Kai, who she’s contracted to, isn’t around? Or because missing half her soul has left her in an incomplete state? … I’m not sure if there might be another reason altogether, but whatever it is, I don’t feel like she’s at her best.)
The reason she didn’t request any color in exchange for helping Tia and Wren was most likely because her contractor wasn’t there.
(Well, even without her contractor, she’d stocked up enough power to keep this house and her human form up and running…)
As they passed through the gate, Wren looked back at the house and the beautiful garden surrounding it.
This strange garden with all four seasons occurring at once — feeling he may never see it again, he thought to burn the image into his mind.
“Wren, let’s go.”
When Tia called out to him, something snaked out, following the two of them.
It was the rose vine that guided him around during their stay. The vine extended past Wren and continued on Southwards.
Tia made a delighted “Pyofufun!” noise.
“She’s saying she’ll guide us!”
“That Witch really likes you, doesn’t she?”
“Piyo? I think she liked you too, Wren.”
“Well, that’s just because I’m a pretty boy!”
The rose vine evaded areas with poor footing, leading them down a relatively walkable path.
They briefly considered using a combinations of the Magical Leaping Device and the candies that let Tia return to Harpy form. But it would be a disaster if any humans other than Sevil saw them, so they ultimately decided to just walk.
Especially because there were flight magic users around like Oliver and Frederik, so the chances were high that someone might be searching from the air. If they showed up in harpy form, things could get ugly.
“The problem is how we explain your injuries, Tia.”
“Oliver was there, wasn’t he…”
When attacked by the mantis Monster, Tia was bleeding profusely.
While they were still a ways away from Oliver, so he might not have fully understood how bad her injuries were, he would still probably find it weird if he saw Tia running around with a spring in her step.
Especially considering how much Tia was bleeding back then.
“Let’s tell them we ran into the forest and found a spring and spent the night there. We washed off all the blood while we were there. We’ll say your injuries bled a lot, but weren’t actually that severe, or something like that.”
“Piyopp!”
“If he presses for more information, just insist that you’re fine because you always live a healthy lifestyle. I’m sure that explanation will work fine as long as we’re talking to Oliver.”
“Pirorororo… Will it really work?”
While she still had the scars, they’d pretty much entirely scabbed over.
It would be best not to let Oliver look too closely at them. If push came to shove, they would have to enlist Sevil’s help to come up with an excuse.
The conspired as they walked until the rose vine came to a stop. At just that point, he could feel the air of the forest shifted.
(We’re still in the forest… but it feels like we’ve made it out of the deep, dark part of forest.)
Possibly because the spacing between the trees was different, but their surroundings felt much brighter than before.
The rose vine that had guided them thus far slithered back towards the Witch’s house.
For whatever reason, Wren waved back at it.
“Thanks, Witch!”
He wasn’t sure if she could hear him, but he decided to be a polite pretty boy and give his thanks anyway. Imitating Wren, Tia also waved at the vine, saying “Thanks!”
Eventually, the vine disappeared from view, and Tia spun around on her heels to face Wren.
The Harpy who deceived humans typically wore the lovable face of a young girl. When she stared at him with her narrow, amber eyes looking up into his, Wren felt a little nervous.
“Thank you too, Wren. For bringing me to the Witch’s house.”
“I was only returning the favor.”
“Pyofu? When did I give you anything to return?”
“The entrance exam. Remember, when that black Monster showed up, you carried Sevil and me, right?”
Tia blinked. Tia was a bit of a bird-brain, so she might just have forgotten about the entrance exam already.
As Wren walked ahead of her, he spoke bluntly.
“The entrance exam! Director Linke controlled that snake Monster, remember?”
“That was a surprise!”
“You know, I heard recently that it was actually the power of an Ancient Magical Artifact.”
‘Despina, the Chain of Fools.’ — At that point, Wren had encountered the user of an Ancient Magical Artifact.
Back then, Wren hadn’t even known that Monsters still existed in the present day.
“After that, we ran into that black wolf, right! That huge, scary guy! Thanks to that, we just barely managed to pass…”
To pass the exam, they had to acquire a Wedge Medal and bring it back before noon on the third day.
But on the second night, Wren and the others encountered a black wolf Monster that backed them into a corner.
It was a Werewolf twice the size of a grown man with ratty fur. It had a huge mouth and sharp claws.
Had Tia not ran away carrying Wren and Sevil, he wasn’t sure what would have happened to him.
(…You know, they never found that Werewolf.)
At that point, Wren’s mind hit a snag.
When Wren fell silent, Tia peered into his face.
“Wren, what’s up?”
(Back then, I assumed that Monsters couldn’t last long outside of the Crystal Territory… But now I know that’s not true.)
Precisely in order to refute the theory that appeared in his head, Wren thought through the order of events.
“Back then, we were the last ones to pass, right?”
“Piyopp! Oliver said he showed up a little before I did! Oh, and Rose and Rukiye worked together. Rukiye said she made a key to open the safes!”
The safes were supposed to be opened by combining four keys, but the keys themselves were simply made. It wouldn’t have been hard for a talented aspiring artisan like Rukiye to make a copy.
“…And the first one to pass was Sophie, right?”
“Yup! She said it was actually already decided that she would pass from the beginning, but she felt bad about it so she pretended to take the test! Also, she said Roswitha and Julius passed quickly too. Both of them are really strong, you know?”
Sophie was a member of a lineage of Shamans, so she was absolutely needed at the Wedge Tower.
Roswitha and Julius were geniuses of Classical and Modern Magecraft, respectively. On top of that, Julius hired mercenaries just in case, so of course he’d be quick to pass the exam.
“…And who was the first one to report seeing the black Monster to Director Hegelich?”
“Pirororo… Probably Ella or Finn? I feel like both of them said they saw a black Monster.”
Neither Ella, who was bad at outputting mana; nor Finn, who was the son of a woodcutter; had the strength needed to pass that exam on their own. But since the black Monster appeared, they were lucky enough to pick up the passing medals that others had dropped and were able to pass.
It came as a bit of a surprise to him, but Tia had apparently had discussions about this stuff with the other girls. Thanks to that, he could get a perspective on the female half of the Apprentices that he never really got the chance to hear about.
“Hey, Tia…”
Wren tried to say something, but Tia stuck her hand out and covered his mouth.
Wren flinched as Tia brought her lips up to his ear and whispered.
“I heard footsteps.”
The first thing that came to mind with those words was that mantis Monster.
But when Wren listened closely, he heard it. The ‘crunch, crunch’ sound of someone lightly stepping on leaves.
Soon, he could see the form of a girl stepping out from behind a tree.
“Help me…”
She was an auburn-haired woman around twenty years of age. She wore light clothing utterly unsuited for the season.
When the woman looked at Wren and Tia, she pleaded in a faint voice.
“Help me… I’m being followed by Monsters…”
In the time it took for Wren to process what he was seeing, Tia had already begun to move.
Tia raced up towards the woman.
“Ah– Hey, Tia…”
Before Wren could stop her, Tia approached the woman… then jumped into the air and slammed the heel of her boots into the woman’s face.
The woman let out a pained gasp of air and collapsed onto her back.
Tia nimbly landed back on the ground and looked down on the woman as she declared:
“You’re not human.”