Chapter 9
Witch
“This is interesting.”
Ilea’s voice settled over the room. It had turned icy cold—so frigid that it sent a chill down Raguel’s spine.
Raguel couldn’t bring himself to speak. It was because of her expression. Though he was blind and couldn’t see it, it was easy enough to imagine. Her beautiful face must have been terribly contorted.
“…A witch, you say.”
Ilea drew out the final word as she mulled it over, bearing down on Raguel—or so the boy felt.
He grew anxious.
He wanted to lighten the mood somehow.
In a trembling voice, he said,
“S-Sorry. It slipped out without me realizing…”
“No.”
Her voice was completely different from before.
“I’m not accepting your apology. You’ve already hurt my feelings.”
It sounded young and bright. The frigid atmosphere vanished in an instant.
“I-Ilea…?”
Raguel couldn’t hide his bewilderment. He found it difficult to keep up with her sudden change in demeanor.
“You knew my name after all. Since you shouted that I was a witch, I thought you didn’t.”
Her words barely registered.
Raguel was flustered, and his mind was occupied with something else.
Ilea’s sudden request—she wanted him to introduce her to a friend? It had come entirely out of nowhere. They weren’t close enough to have that sort of conversation, and Raguel didn’t have anyone he could call a friend in the first place.
He was the very embodiment of a loner. Everyone in the castle would agree, so there was no way Ilea didn’t know that.
“What are you thinking about so deeply?”
His train of thought abruptly broke off.
She continued in a gentle voice.
“You don’t seem very afraid, considering there’s a witch standing right in front of you.”
The word witch made the boy flinch. His lips began to twitch nervously.
“If there’s something you’re curious about, you may ask me. I’ll answer you as sincerely as I can.”
After hesitating, Raguel steeled himself. He had been lying down, but now he sat up straight. After taking a deep breath, he spoke.
“Ilea, I have absolutely no intention of insulting you.”
“That’s quite a tense preamble. Please, speak freely.”
“I-I mean it. I’m only asking just in case… Um…”
When he continued to trail off, Ilea let out a quiet sigh.
“Yes, that’s right.”
“W-What is…?”
“I’m a witch.”
Then she calmly added,
“And you, Young Master, are a contractor.”
At that moment, footsteps approached.
Ilea turned around. A huge man clad in leather armor stood in the doorway.
“We meet again, mercenary.”
It was Gaf.
His gaze wavered as he looked at Ilea.
Ilea slowly rose from her chair.
“Since you have a guest, I’ll be taking my leave.”
Raguel couldn’t respond. He simply sat there frozen in shock.
Ilea gave the boy a gentle smile.
“We can finish our conversation next time. I enjoyed our little talk.”
She then turned away.
Just as she was passing Gaf, however, her steps abruptly stopped.
She had heard the cry of a baby.
“Waaah.”
Confusion flashed across Gaf’s face. Had that damned demon lost his mind? He couldn’t understand why it was deliberately drawing attention to itself.
“Waaah.”
Ilea turned her head. She was staring at Gaf’s cloak.
The mercenary reacted quickly, twisting his body to face her so that the cloak was hidden from view.
With an awkward laugh, Gaf said,
“Sometimes I like to return to the innocence of childhood.”
“Waaah.”
“That must have been the voice of your inner child.”
“I’ve been learning ventriloquism lately.”
“Then you’ll be needing a puppet.”
“Ha-ha. Well, you see…”
Ilea clapped her hands theatrically.
“Oh! Is that it?”
A baby’s head was peeking out from between the folds of Gaf’s cloak.
“Waaah.”
“How adorable.”
Gaf swallowed a groan.
“May I have a quick look?”
There was no way to talk his way out of this anymore. He said with a troubled expression,
“Ilea, you can’t. This child is…”
The smile vanished from Ilea’s face.
“I need to see.”
Her expression hardened like wax. The sight was so unfamiliar that Gaf froze for a moment. In the meantime, Ilea approached the baby.
Only its tiny face was visible. The baby appeared to be secured against Gaf’s back, most likely bound there with straps or rope.
She smiled warmly.
“Hello?”
After greeting the baby, she whispered into its ear,
“I’m your big sister—or perhaps your older sister.”
The baby merely stared at her without showing any particular reaction.
Ilea poked its cheek with her index finger.
It wasn’t dry and brittle like a doll, nor hard like a demon. It was simply soft and plump, with the perfectly ordinary feel of a baby’s cheek.
With a peculiar expression, she murmured,
“What a cute and lovely baby. So utterly ordinary, too.”
Gaf took a step back.
“You’ve seen enough, haven’t you?”
Ilea nodded.
“Yes, that’s enough.”
She then bowed her head slightly.
“It was an impolite request. Thank you for granting it.”
Gaf looked down at his daughter with a complicated expression. A moment later, he turned around and said,
“I should get going.”
Ilea pointed toward Raguel’s room.
“Isn’t it that way?”
“I took a wrong turn. I’m still unfamiliar with the layout.”
Gaf retraced the same passage through which he had come. He wouldn’t be bringing Johan to Raguel’s room today. Something about the situation left him uneasy.
Ilea watched Gaf disappear into the distance.
A blind boy, a baby, and a mercenary. What a peculiar combination, Father.
“Hero Kazan said to Gepetto, the specter of the duchy, ‘I understand your desire for revenge. I, too, was once consumed by resentment and spilled innocent blood. In the end, all I was left with was regret. Do not follow the same path I did. Please.’ Gepetto cackled.”
The demon’s reading echoed through the study.
“He raised a pitch-black blade against Kazan…”
Johan closed the book he had been reading. Seated at the round table, he looked down at Raguel.
“You cannot seem to concentrate at all.”
Feeling called out, the boy sighed.
“I keep thinking about what happened yesterday.”
“Didn’t I tell you? You have no particular reason to worry.”
“She discovered that I’m a contractor. How can I possibly not worry?”
“It was bound to happen eventually. A witch’s eyes cannot be deceived.”
After a brief hesitation, Raguel spoke.
“…Is she really a witch?”
“As I’ve told you several times, yes.”
“I don’t understand.”
Witches were a race that had vanished.
It had already been fifty years since Rachel, the one known as the Last Witch, had perished.
They had been powerful, but before the overwhelming might of the Empire, they had been crushed like ants.
Thus fell the last of the minority races.
Only humans and demons remained in this world now. They were its sole intelligent beings.
And yet, there was supposedly still a witch. It was difficult to believe.
Johan spoke.
“Even if I talked day and night, it wouldn’t be enough to make you understand. Just remember one thing: Ilea is the last witch.”
Raguel replied with a sullen expression.
“But I’d like to hear about it.”
“I don’t want to tell you. It’s bothersome.”
A silent battle of wills passed between them. As though resigning himself, Raguel let his shoulders slump.
“Yes, of course. An all-knowing demon like you couldn’t care less about my curiosity.”
Johan snickered.
“Indeed. Whether you’re curious or not is of no concern to me.”
Just as Johan was about to reopen his book, Raguel spoke.
“Then let me ask just one question.”
Johan clicked his tongue.
“Make it quick.”
“Ilea can use magic, can’t she?”
“Obviously.”
Apparently startled by the answer, Raguel stammered,
“Th-Then she must have a demon under her command…”
Johan was rather impressed.
“How did you know that?”
“I read it in a book. Witches command demons and siphon off their demonic energy, converting it into mana.”
“It seems there are forbidden books mixed into this library. If you go around talking about that, the Inquisition will drag you away.”
Raguel swallowed nervously.
Johan continued,
“At any rate, you’re correct.”
Ilea was most likely controlling a demon as her slave.
Raguel nodded in understanding.
“Then that explains how she noticed the contract.”
“The demon under her command must have told her. Otherwise, she saw through it with her own eyes.”
In truth, it had been both.
“Wait. Didn’t Ilea meet you yesterday too, Johan?”
“She did, outside your room.”
“Then she must have realized that you’re a half-demon.”
That was uncertain. It was precisely why Johan, while in his infant form, had deliberately attracted Ilea’s attention.
Could she see through to his true nature?
There had been no way of knowing without testing it. None of the Red-Bloods who appeared in the original story had been capable of shifting between human and demon forms.
In other words, there was no precedent.
Johan murmured,
“She didn’t seem to know. For now, at least.”
“That’s a relief.”
“Why?”
“Because witches are demons’ natural enemies.”
“Depending on how you look at it, theirs is a symbiotic relationship.”
Raguel asked with a puzzled expression,
“Do you perhaps want Ilea to take you under her command?”
Come to think of it, that explanation made sense. Even after Ilea discovered that Raguel was a contractor, Johan hadn’t seemed particularly concerned.
He had acted as though he didn’t care what happened. Ilea might trace the contract back through Raguel and discover Johan, yet the demon remained calm.
At least, that was how it appeared to Raguel.
There could be only one reason.
Johan wanted to be placed under her command.
Johan let out an incredulous laugh.
“By that little girl?”
Raguel cautiously replied,
“…Aren’t you just as small and young as she is?”
“You damned brat. This tiny body contains knowledge accumulated over countless ages. I’m not so shallow that some little girl could lead me around by the nose.”
Johan paused briefly before continuing.
“Besides, my days as an imp are about to end.”
He looked down at the floor of the study.
An enormous spell formation had been drawn there—the Corruption Formation, constructed from black blood. It was an altar designed to corrupt a sacred relic.
He had copied it from a grimoire he had retrieved from the forbidden archive.
Since the formation required demonic blood, he had fainted several times from excessive blood loss. Nevertheless, the result was satisfactory.
After countless failed attempts, he had finally completed a flawless Corruption Formation.
He would soon be able to escape his infancy.
The moment he defiled Kazan’s ring, Johan would evolve.
Raguel swallowed a groan.
“I may not know what it is, but you seem to be planning something wicked again.”
Being blind, he couldn’t see the Corruption Formation.
“It is only a moderate act of evil.”
Raguel almost asked whether evil could truly be considered moderate or severe, but stopped himself. There could be nothing more foolish than debating morality with a demon.
“At any rate, I need a witch to complete this task. I’ll have to meet her eventually, so what reason is there to conceal my identity?”
Mana was required to activate the Corruption Formation.
He would have to procure either a mage or a witch.
Both were rare.
Mages were demon worshippers and were classified as serious criminals in this world. Since they kept themselves carefully hidden in the shadows, there was no way for Johan to find one at present.
Witches were rarer still.
There was only one in the entire world—and, by sheer coincidence, she happened to be close at hand.
He would have to make use of her.
Raguel’s expression darkened.
“I can’t imagine what you’re planning that would require the help of a witch.”
“That isn’t all.”
“What?”
Three conditions had to be met to corrupt a sacred relic.
The first, the Corruption Formation, and the second, mana, had more or less been secured.
Only the third condition remained unmet.
After considering the matter briefly, Johan spoke.
“Raguel, let me ask you one question as well.”
His voice was lower than before.
It sounded ominous for no apparent reason. Though a little uneasy, Raguel nodded.
“…Yes. Ask me anything.”
The demon’s crimson eyes gleamed.
“Is there anyone you want to kill—or anyone who deserves to die?”
The third condition required a human sacrifice.
“Choose someone from within this castle.”