49 . Witch (2)
Recently, Hong Biyeon had been spending much more time alone. That in itself was rather unusual. Whenever she had the chance, she used to gather her faction members and flaunt her power.
Of course, it was not as if she had stopped holding gatherings entirely. Two or three times a week, she still enjoyed tea time with the noble girls who belonged to her faction, partly to observe what was happening at school and partly to keep up with the movements of high society.
“…It’s astringent.”
Hong Biyeon, who had been drinking black tea, let those words slip from her lips without realizing it and then startled herself.
‘Bitter… is that it…?’
She was not sure. In any case, it was an unpleasant sensation, as though it prickled at her tongue.
“P-Please forgive me, Princess. I ruined the tea a little today…”
When Hong Biyeon frowned, the girl who had brewed the tea panicked before anything had even been said.
“It doesn’t matter. Tea is supposed to be astringent.”
She did not know much about flavor, but giving a reply was easy enough. Reassured by Hong Biyeon’s indifferent answer, the girl relaxed, and to change the subject, the other girls spoke up.
“Oh, right, Princess. What do you think about Witch Restaurant?”
“Witch Restaurant?”
“Yes. They say it’s this mysterious restaurant that suddenly appears and disappears all over the city of Arcanium.”
“That’s right. There are all sorts of stories in our class too from people saying they went. Aren’t you curious?”
“Hmm…”
Hong Biyeon swirled her tea. The red eyes reflected in the teacup looked especially crimson.
“Not really. I have no interest in rumors like that.”
She herself showed no real interest, but the girls clearly found Witch Restaurant to be a fascinating subject, because they chattered among themselves with great enthusiasm.
Quietly staring at her tea, Hong Biyeon turned her head at the presence of someone approaching from behind.
It was Yae Taerin, Princess Hong Biyeon’s personal guard. Holding out a yellow document envelope, she said,
“Princess. I found the documents you asked about last time.”
“…Really?”
A few days ago, Eizel had come to ask her about Morfran Forest.
At the time, Hong Biyeon had brushed it aside as though she did not care, but if Eizel had come personally to ask about it, then there had to be a reason. She had no intention of devoting a great deal of time to it, but she was willing to satisfy a little curiosity.
And yet the documents inside the yellow envelope were full of blank spaces. One large stamp was printed across them.
[Level 1 Classified]
Hong Biyeon frowned.
“Yae Taerin. What is this?”
“It was high-level classified material, so it was impossible to bring the documents outside the royal palace. However, as you are now, Princess, you would certainly be able to return to the palace and view them.”
“That makes sense.”
Unless it was classified so highly that only the Queen herself could see it, there was no information Hong Biyeon could not touch. Even so, this was a little suspicious.
‘Morfran Forest…’
The core location of the incident ten years ago, when it was said that Princess Hong Si-hwa stopped Grand Duke Isaac Morf after he was corrupted by dark magic and went berserk.
It was such a famous heroic tale, the story that truly brought Hong Si-hwa’s name into the public eye, that there was almost no one now who did not know it.
Then why had the records of Morfran Forest been hidden so thoroughly?
Was there really a reason to do that?
“You’ve done well.”
With a flick of her finger, Hong Biyeon scattered the papers into the air, and they burst into flames, vanishing without leaving even ash behind.
‘…I should look into this in a little more detail.’
A smile appeared at the corners of Hong Biyeon’s lips.
A classified document that looked as though someone was deliberately trying to hide something.
Was it not obvious?
Someone was desperately trying to bury an embarrassment.
And that someone was almost certainly…
Princess Hong Si-hwa.
If she could only dig up one of that woman’s weaknesses, then she would gladly devote as much time as it took.
After returning to the Stella cadet dormitory, Eizel thought back on the strange thing that had happened at Witch Restaurant.
What exactly had that female server, with her oddly unsettling aura, been trying to say?
‘Hmm, it really was suspicious…’
Could she have been a dark magic user?
That possibility could not be completely ruled out, but the very idea of a dark magic user running a restaurant felt a little ridiculous.
Besides, with rumors about Witch Restaurant already spread all over Arcanium, unless she was a dark magic user with a death wish, she would have fled long ago.
“I really don’t know.”
Shaaah—
Even as hot water poured over her in the shower and she thought it over and over, she still could not figure it out. But at the same time, there were too many unsettling things about it to simply dismiss.
‘Can I really just ignore it?’
The deeper her thoughts went, the longer her shower became, and after standing under warm water for a full thirty minutes, even her head felt hot.
“Phew…”
After finishing her shower, Eizel cleaned up neatly, changed into her pajamas, and sat primly down on the edge of her bed.
Then her eyes caught on something tucked away in the corner of her room.
At a glance, it looked like an ordinary broom. But in truth, it was an object she had found in the Witch’s Hut during the Stella Dome practical training, and since it carried a magical presence far too unusual to be mere teaching material, she had brought it back to the dormitory.
But when she asked the professors about it, they had shaken their heads and said they could sense no unusual magic from it at all, leaving Eizel with nothing more she could say.
Whatever the case, the professors were undeniably superior mages, so their words had to be the correct ones.
“What in the world is this…”
No matter how carefully she inspected the broom from every angle, there was nothing she could figure out. Other than the fact that it gave off a suspicious and unpleasant magical aura, there was nothing about it that could truly be called unusual.
At this rate, even if she kept holding onto it forever, she would probably never uncover the truth.
Would it be better to take it outside and ask an expert to appraise it? It would cost some money, but it would at least satisfy her curiosity for certain.
‘Since I’m already thinking of it, should I just go right now?’
When she checked the clock, it was not too late yet.
As long as she returned before ten at night, there was no issue, so if she went out at once and left the broom at a magical tool shop in Arcanium, there should be plenty of time.
After thinking it through, Eizel immediately changed clothes and finished getting ready to go out.
And then, just as she was about to leave the dormitory—
A thought suddenly occurred to her.
‘Should I just go ask Mr. Baek Yuseol instead?’
Come to think of it, did she really need to go all the way out and have it appraised? Baek Yuseol, who seemed to know everything, was right nearby.
Even if he did not know, there was no loss in asking.
Having reached that conclusion, Eizel turned her steps away from the dorm exit and toward the boys’ dormitory instead.
It was her first time going into the male wing, and that made her strangely nervous, but perhaps because all the S-Class boys were out, there was hardly any sign of people.
Knock knock—
She found Baek Yuseol’s room and knocked, and an answer came almost at once.
“Who is it?”
“It-it’s me. I wanted to ask you something.”
It was her first time ever visiting someone else’s room directly—especially a boy’s room—so her voice came out trembling a little.
Had Baek Yuseol noticed?
Click.
The door opened, and Baek Yuseol looked at Eizel with visible surprise.
“What brings you here?”
“Well… there’s something I wanted to ask.”
“I see. Come in.”
“Yes, yes? Is that okay?”
“Why wouldn’t it be? Hurry up and come in.”
At Baek Yuseol’s nod, Eizel steadied her fluttering heart and stepped inside his room.
The interior was more ordinary than she had expected.
The other S-Class girls all decorated their dorm rooms with every kind of interior style under the sun to show their individuality, so was this how boys all were? Or was Baek Yuseol simply too lazy to decorate?
Whichever it was, she learned one thing for certain: he did not particularly care for interior design.
“There are a lot of snacks…”
“Yeah. I got them as gifts. That one’s from Flame. Want some?”
“Oh, no?”
Answering in a fluster, Eizel found herself oddly hung up on what Baek Yuseol had said.
Gifts.
Was it natural for teenage boys and girls these days to exchange things like that?
Come to think of it, Baek Yuseol had helped her so much, and yet she had never once given him any kind of repayment or gift.
Had she only been receiving, and too one-sidedly at that?
Would it be better if she prepared a gift for him separately?
And if she did, what should she get?
Since there were snacks piled everywhere, did that mean he liked nibbling on things? But if it was meant as a gift of gratitude, giving snacks somehow felt a little…
“Why are you spacing out?”
“Huh? No, it’s just… I had something on my mind…”
“Anyway, what is it?”
“Oh, right. It’s this. Could you take a look…?”
Carefully, Eizel took the broom out of her bag and showed it to him.
Baek Yuseol’s eyes widened.
Then he pulled out his glasses and put them on.
“Hmm… You found this at the training ground, didn’t you?”
“What? How did you know?”
“I just had a feeling.”
Baek Yuseol’s expression turned complicated.
‘A witch’s broom.’
Come to think of it, lately the rumors of Witch Restaurant had been spreading all over Stella. There were times when rumors like that flared up and faded away on their own, so he had not paid much attention to it, but now that Eizel had actually found the broom, he could no longer ignore it.
‘Is the episode trying to progress simultaneously again this time…’
The story was common and predictable.
Eizel would accidentally obtain a witch’s broom and end up being mistaken for a witch. In the worst case, an actual witch hunter would come looking for her and attack…
“Have you met anyone suspicious lately?”
“Ah… well, I’m not sure. What kind of object is this, exactly?”
“It’s nothing special. Just a broom.”
He said that, but at the same time Baek Yuseol snatched the broom out of Eizel’s hands.
“I’m confiscating this.”
“Yes?”
“I like the design. I’m going to hang it on the wall and admire it for a long time.”
“…Is that really your taste?”
“It should have a matching dustpan as part of the set. Don’t you have that too?”
“…No.”
“Anyway, this is mine now, so you should go back and sleep.”
“That’s so mean.”
“What’s mean about it? Should I buy you a brand-new broom?”
“That’s… fine.”
Eizel pushed out her lower lip in a pout. She had come to have the broom examined, and instead it had been outright seized.
“I’ll be going now.”
“Yeah. Want to take one of these with you?”
“…Okay.”
When Baek Yuseol held out the gum that looked like pizza-flavored candy, Eizel quickly snatched it and hurried out of the room at once.
Click.
As the door shut behind her, she let out a long breath.
This was not how she had meant the conversation to go at all. And on top of that, it had been a rare moment with just the two of them, yet all she had done was answer stupidly and then leave.
‘…Anyway, why did he take the broom?’
Could it really be that he actually liked decorating with old brooms like that?
Since she still knew absolutely nothing about the broom, her questions only continued piling up.
‘It’s probably… nothing serious.’
And then the next day—
Sitting together with Flame at lunch, Eizel happened to bring up what had happened the night before.
“Oh, right. By any chance, do you think Mr. Baek Yuseol has some kind of hobby involving collecting brooms?”
“Huh? What nonsense are you talking about?”
Flame made a baffled face, as if she had just heard the weirdest thing in the world.
“Well, he’s helped me a lot recently, hasn’t he? So I wanted to get him a gift, but I just can’t figure out what he likes.”
“Really? Hmm. What does that Ahjussi like…? But why brooms?”
“Well, actually, I picked up a strange broom at the training ground not long ago. It felt like it had a suspicious magical aura, so I took it to him to ask what it was… and then he suddenly said he wanted it and took it away.”
“…What? A broom?”
This time Flame’s reaction was much stronger.
Her spoon, which had been moving nonstop, froze in midair, and she asked Eizel again,
“You’re sure? You picked up a broom?”
“What? Yes… that’s right.”
“…And Ahjussi took it from you?”
Nod nod.
As Eizel bobbed her head up and down as though there was no problem at all, Flame let out a deep sigh and said,
“That was a witch’s broom.”
“…What?”
The word came out far too suddenly.
It was clearly a word she knew, and yet Eizel’s mind could not process it.
“A-a witch’s broom…? You mean the witch I’m thinking of?”
“Yeah. That one.”
“Ah… haha, that kind of joke is too obvious to be funny…”
Out of all things, a witch?
Why would a witch suddenly appear? More than anything, Flame liked jokes, so Eizel thought maybe she could have thrown out something like that out of nowhere.
But unlike Eizel’s desperate rationalizing, Flame’s face was utterly dry. She did not look as though she were joking at all.
“It’s a witch’s broom. And as you know, if you keep a witch’s belongings with you for too long, the scent of a witch starts to seep into you. It’ll have a bad effect on you. Maybe even… a witch hunter might come looking for you. That’s probably the worst danger of all.”
“…No way.”
She had heard of witch hunters before too. People who abandoned everything about themselves in order to live only for the sake of hunting witches. They were the sort who would stop at nothing if it meant a witch hunt, which made them as dangerous as witches—perhaps even more dangerous.
There was a reason even the magic world had thrown up both hands in surrender when it came to witch hunters.
Luckily, their numbers were extremely small, but there were plenty of stories saying that if there had been even a few more of them, the entire magic world might have been shaken.
“No, wait. If what you’re saying is true… then why would Mr. Baek Yuseol take the witch’s broom?”
“Obviously to protect you, isn’t it? No matter how weird that Ahjussi is, where in the world are you going to find a lunatic who decorates with a broom?”
“That’s true, but…”
Let’s say that really was the reason.
Then—
“…Wouldn’t that mean a witch hunter might go after Mr. Baek Yuseol?”
Flame’s hand, which had been just about to move again, stopped still.
Witch hunters were dangerous.
More dangerous than almost anything in this world.
No matter how much of a monster Baek Yuseol was, could he really handle a being like that so easily?
With that question came worry, and the two girls found they could no longer properly finish their meal.
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