49 . Witch (7)
Witch Restaurant.
This restaurant was unusual in that it opened in the evening and closed in the morning, and had the distinct characteristic that its location could not be precisely determined because it wandered all over Arcanium.
The owner of this restaurant, which students from all five prestigious magic schools in Arcanium were currently searching for with fire in their eyes, was Melisher.
Wearing a smile full of warmth, she served food to the young boys and girls who had come once again tonight.
The menu was extraordinarily varied.
Since her customers were elite students gathered from all over the world, it was quite common for them to order dishes from other regions because they missed the tastes of home.
And Melisher could cook all of them.
…More precisely, she knew how to cook them all, but the actual taste was awful.
And yet the customers kept praising the food as delicious and came back again and again.
Why?
Simple.
Because these dishes were not ordinary dishes.
They were magical dishes.
Magical dishes?
It was a very strange phrase to hear.
No one had ever heard of something like cooking being mixed with magic.
But Melisher could do it.
Because she was a witch, and knew how to handle a very special kind of magic different from that of ordinary mages.
‘This should be enough.’
Watching the students in her restaurant busily eating, Melisher smiled faintly.
Until now, witches had no choice but to hide while enduring every kind of persecution.
No matter how completely witches held the advantage in terms of compatibility over mages, they were far too few in number, and as long as witch hunters existed in the world, revealing themselves openly was utterly impossible.
Thus, witches had been forced to live like ordinary people, either castrating or sealing away their own magic and hiding from the world…
But Melisher hated this life bound in chains, and had decided to reveal herself to the world with her own hands.
A normal method would be too dangerous.
She had to act quietly and secretly, and yet she also had to influence the magic world unmistakably, so that the magic world itself would come to fear the existence of witches.
‘This method was the right one.’
Since Witch Restaurant was nothing more than a rumor drifting among students, there was no reason for the Ministry of Magic to intervene directly.
But teenagers, who moved with trends, would never be able to resist getting pulled in by Witch Restaurant.
They would run all over the place searching for it, and a few chosen children would finally arrive here.
‘Idiots who don’t even realize they’ve stepped into a snare, and mistake themselves for tigers.’
They would think of themselves as successful predators.
In reality, they had merely been caught in the trap laid by Melisher.
The young mages intoxicated by the magic woven into the food would gradually begin seeking out her dishes more and more, and eventually they would become slaves incapable of living without Witch Restaurant.
The truly terrifying part was that their “witch addiction” would show absolutely no outward signs.
They would continue living the same everyday lives as always, and, just like students of prestigious magic academies ought to, they would become outstanding mages and go on to occupy posts in the greatest magical institutions scattered all across the world.
And by the time that happened…
the seeds Melisher had sown would have fully blossomed, and part of the magic world itself would already be in her hands.
‘I’m not foolish enough to dream of conquering the world.’
How many witches had met horrible deaths while rampaging around with dreams of world conquest?
Melisher did not long for such excessive ambitions.
‘Even if it’s just a tiny fragment of the magic world… if I can hold it in my hand and shake it myself…’
Perhaps then she might be able to bring witches, who had hidden in the shadows of the world, back out into the light.
Until then, she would simply endure this humiliation.
It was miserable and infuriating that she had been reduced to something like a shabby restaurant owner, luring in teenage hatchlings—
but she only needed to wait a little longer.
Soon enough, all this effort would bear fruit.
Jingle!
Just as the students were beginning to finish their meals and prepare to leave, the restaurant door opened, and Melisher frowned in confusion.
‘What?’
After taking in this latest group of customers, she had definitely cast a line-of-sight blocking spell to make sure no one else could enter.
No one else should have been able to approach…
‘Did I make a mistake?’
It didn’t matter.
Since she was disguised as a restaurant owner for the moment, Melisher put on a business smile and greeted the customer.
“Welco—”
—I found the witch.
Thrust.
…At least, that was what she had intended to do.
If not for the cold sensation piercing through her chest, she might even have bowed first in greeting.
“Ugh…!”
Drip—
Melisher slowly lifted her trembling hand.
Bright red blood poured over her palm like a waterfall.
“Damn…! Cough!”
As she coughed blood and collapsed to the floor, the students who had seen what happened began screaming.
“Aaaahhh!!”
“W-what is this?!”
“M-Murder!”
But the witch hunter, who had driven a transparent blade through Melisher’s chest, simply floated in the air with his torn robe fluttering and did not move in the slightest.
“…So you are a witch who has even thrown away her pride. To think you hid your heart.”
As the witch hunter spoke in a voice like nails scraping a blackboard, Melisher wiped the blood from her mouth and smiled.
“Ha… obviously. When all you bastards ever do is aim for our hearts, did you really think I’d leave mine somewhere that obvious?”
As Melisher clenched her fist and condensed mana into it, the transparent blade piercing her chest shattered to pieces, and the space around them instantly began folding in on itself.
“Aaaahhh!”
“S-Save me!”
“Gaaahhh!!”
At the students’ screams, Melisher frowned.
These were the same brats who always strutted around talking about how they were future magic warriors, and yet the moment real magic started flying before their eyes, all they could do was shriek.
She wanted to slice every last one of their lowly throats right then and there, but she did not have time for that now, so instead she grabbed at empty air and shook it.
Whoooooosh!!
At once, the little Witch Restaurant spun wildly, then spat all the students back outside and slammed its door shut.
But as though refusing to be caught by a mere spatial illusion, the witch hunter did not move so much as an inch.
“Pathetic. Even if you seize space and shake it, all I need to do is seize it in turn.”
Flutter—
The witch hunter flicked his robe, and a black shadow spilled out from within it, beginning to seep through the entire Witch Restaurant.
“Illusions are only illusions. They cannot resist one who handles truth.”
And just as he said, every illusion Melisher had created was swallowed up by reality.
Even so, she calmly rose to her feet, still leisurely wiping the blood from the corner of her mouth, and took hold of a wand shaped like a broom.
“How ridiculous.”
“…Hm?”
Then—
the black, shadow-like mana that had been devouring Witch Restaurant stopped moving.
As if there were no longer any illusions left for it to consume.
“This is…!”
“How long do you think we’re going to keep using primitive magic, like tossing frogs into cauldrons and stirring them around?”
Then Melisher swung her wand, and the shadow transformed into rainbow-colored thorns inside the illusion, then shot back toward the witch hunter instead.
Thud. Thud-thud!
The witch hunter’s body had no real substance—
and yet Melisher still tore it to shreds.
“You… you… don’t tell me…!”
“Could you stop being such a nuisance? I’m busy enough trying to run a restaurant.”
“I can’t believe this…”
Witches hunted mages.
Witch hunters hunted witches.
That relationship was a food chain created out of absolute compatibility, one that had never once been overturned in the history of the magic world.
Which meant that the instant a witch hunter discovered a witch, the natural order of things should have been a one-sided chase.
“This makes no sense…”
Even as his whole body was torn apart by the illusion barrier, the witch hunter continued glaring at the witch with red glowing eyes until the very end.
Even faced with that terrifying gaze, the sort of thing that could have come straight out of a nightmare, Melisher merely wiped away the blood soaking her chest.
“My heart, huh…”
The witch hunter had aimed for her heart.
That was precisely his fatal mistake.
“You should have done your research before coming.”
After muttering that, Melisher sensed a great number of approaching human presences from outside and let out a sigh.
It seemed the spatial interference barrier had been completely disturbed, and now the mages had noticed and were approaching.
“Tch. Today’s business is completely ruined.”
With no choice but to close early, Melisher flicked a finger.
Shrrrk!
At once, the barrier protecting Witch Restaurant closed, and in the blink of an eye the entire place vanished from space itself.
Nothing remained there.
“…We’re too late.”
The Stella Knights, who arrived at the scene only afterward, twisted their expressions in frustration.
They had come as soon as they sensed the release of mana, and yet for it to have vanished so quickly—
“It’s fine.”
While the Stella Knights stared blankly at the place where Witch Restaurant had disappeared, Baek Yuseol walked up from behind with ease and said that.
“What do you mean, it’s fine?”
Under Captain Arain’s orders, they had allowed Baek Yuseol to join them as a provisional knight for now, but honestly, they could not trust this young, arrogant boy.
They themselves had also grown up being called “geniuses” in their day. And though they had not been as exceptional as Baek Yuseol, they too had earned tremendous merits and proudly become members of the great Stella Knights.
So how could they look favorably on some kid who had parachuted in and been handed even a provisional knight’s status?
Baek Yuseol understood their feelings well enough, but he had already gone through this exact same sort of precedent once before back in the past ten years ago, so responding to them one by one felt unbearably tiresome.
“It looks like there was a battle here.”
“Correct. We know that much ourselves.”
“Have you also figured out who fought, and how?”
It was a perfectly natural question.
But they could not answer.
“We will find out in time. Bring the Memory Compass. There are strong traces of mana left here.”
“It’s useless. Things that happen in a space made out of illusion do not remain in memory.”
“And you intend to say it’s impossible without even trying? You may still be young, but the Memory Compass—”
“It was a witch hunter.”
“…What?”
“The traces of mana here. I mean the corpse of a witch hunter.”
At his sudden words, every knight present froze in bafflement.
“What kind of nonsense is that…?”
That was a normal response.
Witch hunters were beings so rare that there were only a tiny handful in existence, and even their appearances were hidden behind veils. So if someone took a few scraps of cloth scattered on the ground and a clump of condensed mana devouring the air and suddenly called it “the corpse of a witch hunter,” who would believe it?
But these were the Stella Knights.
To solve incidents no one else could solve, they needed not only martial power but also the ability to think broadly.
‘…Honestly, even I was a little surprised.’
Through the Jikbakguri Glasses, I had been able to analyze the traces left by the witch hunter.
But since this had never happened in the original game, I couldn’t help being surprised.
According to the original story, that witch hunter had been supposed to attack Eizel, not a witch.
‘I don’t know what changed, but honestly, this works out better.’
The corpse of a witch hunter would be a major clue.
“Let’s investigate that first.”
“…You’re insane. The corpse of a witch hunter? You’ve completely lost yourself in delusions.”
“Huh? No, I’m serious.”
“Stop talking nonsense and stand back.”
“If you cannot be of help, then at the very least do not get in the way.”
As the knights shoved him aside and pushed him back, Baek Yuseol looked utterly dumbfounded.
‘These are the Stella Knights? Seriously?’
In the original game, the Stella Knights were always described as the strongest group standing at the absolute summit of the world.
That was not wrong.
It was true that those who possessed the greatest martial strength gathered there.
But still—
that did not mean every last member was elite.
These people were still saplings among saplings.
They had not yet truly grown, had not yet attained real insight, and their way of thinking was still rigid. Bound by their pride as “knights,” they were unable to make flexible judgments.
Outside, they might be called somewhat strong mages.
But they were still lacking if they wanted to truly be worthy of the Stella Knights.
Their knowledge was undoubtedly broad and deep, but the direction in which they were capable of thinking stopped right there.
‘Now I see why that man Arain sent me these idiots…’
They were elites, and for that reason they had been judged suitable for Stella and appointed as knights.
But once he saw them in practice, Arain must have realized that because of their rigid personalities, they were not showing proper growth.
What conclusion had Arain come to while wondering what to do with them?
He probably wanted to inject them with a stimulant.
A shock strong enough that they would be forced to acknowledge that they themselves were wrong.
‘…I asked him to give me useful errand-runners, and instead he attached dead weight to me.’
Still, Arain’s judgment wasn’t entirely bad.
Because while they were busy doing nothing useful, Baek Yuseol intended to find the witch himself.
‘Actually, this is better. Since the witch hunter is dead, Eizel probably won’t be in danger anymore.’
One of the reasons I had been trying to solve this incident so urgently had disappeared, so at least that part could be called fortunate.
Rising from his place, he looked toward the direction of Stella Academy.
Even if cutting off and erasing every story in advance, before an episode could even begin, might create some unknown variable in the future—
for the sake of the safety of the protagonists attending that school, he was willing to do anything.
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