Chapter 0: One Day, About Five Hundred Years into My Witch Life, the Continuation

That day, a delegation from the Mubad Empire visited the Witch of Creation’s Forest.

One of the men stepped forward and greeted us with a bow. “It is a pleasure to see you again after such a long time, esteemed Witch of Creation.”

“Hi, long time no see. You don’t need to be so formal, you know?” I said.

“You can talk to us like you used to when you were little!” Teto chirped.

A sheepish smile curled on the man’s lips. “Please do not remind me of those days. Even now, my family teases me for the way I talked to you back then, even though you saved our house.”

He was the current Marquis of Dalite of the Mubad Empire. Our connection with House Dalite began four hundred years ago, when one of their members—now regarded as the restorer of their dynasty—wandered into the forest. After spending some time here with us, he eventually returned to Mubad, and became our intermediary with the empire. With his help, we began trading with Mubad, with the Dalite family acting as a point of contact between our two nations. We had also helped them a handful of times in the past when they’d found themselves in trouble. For that reason, they passed down stories of our magnanimity through the generations.

“At any rate, I am merely here as an escort today. This is the representative of the delegation,” Marquis Dalite said, gesturing to a man in the group.

“My name is Crandol. It is a pleasure to meet you. I have come to inform you that my father, Darius, has ascended the throne under the name of Dankfried IV,” Prince Crandol said, giving us a light bow, a hand on his chest.

I nodded. “Tell Emperor Dankfried that we congratulate him on his ascension, and that we hope to keep a good relationship with the Mubad Empire going forward,” I said, before encouraging Prince Crandol to continue with a glance.

“Thank you kindly. I have also come to retrieve the elixirs, as a proxy for His Imperial Majesty.” He produced a token, the kind we gave exclusively to members of the royal families with whom we had a contract, and showed it to me.

Anyone who owned one of these tokens was an official trade partner of ours.

“Time for me to fulfill my end of the contract.”

I could feel the nervousness radiating from Prince Crandol and the rest of the delegation. Over the past centuries, I, the immortal Witch of Creation, had turned the forest into its own independent nation, and signed a contract with all our neighbors. The terms had changed slightly based on the relationship between us and the rulers of those nations since we first signed that contract four hundred years ago, but it remained valid to this day.

“Beretta, can I leave it to you?” I asked my waiting maid, who stood behind us.

“Yes, Master,” she replied, lowering her head respectfully before going to retrieve a beautiful box with three potions inside.

She then carefully took one of the potions out of the box to show Prince Crandol and his delegation. The glass bottle was filled with a bright red liquid—an all-purpose remedy, also known as an elixir.

“So this... This is an elixir!” the prince exclaimed, swallowing hard, unable to tear his eyes from the red potion.

“It sure is. Per our contract, and as we do with our other two neighbors, we will be selling you these elixirs.”

“These can cure any injury or illness!” Teto added.

While the rest of the delegation stayed frozen in place, their faces and bodies tensing up at the sight of such a valuable remedy, Prince Crandol snapped back to reality and, after some hesitation, accepted the potion Beretta handed him.

“Lady Witch, may I confirm these are real elixirs?”

“Of course. Go ahead.”

I watched as he cast a spell to check the contents of each bottle. The Mubad Empire put a lot of importance on magic and mana, and, as expected, their prince’s use of appraisal spells and mana handling were both flawless. I couldn’t help but let out an impressed hum at the splendid display.

After carefully inspecting each bottle, Prince Crandol heaved a long sigh of relief. “I have confirmed these are all real elixirs. Here is your payment, as stipulated in the contract.”

With that, he took a leather pouch full of coins out of his magic bag and set it down on the table.

“Thank you. We’ll count the money to ensure everything’s in order, if you don’t mind. Can you do it, Beretta?”

“Yes, Master.”

“Teto helps too!”

The two of them began counting the coins in the pouch. The price I asked for a single elixir was two hundred large golds (with one large gold being worth ten small golds), which equated to around two hundred million yen in my past life. In other words, the total price for three elixirs was six hundred large golds.

When they were done counting, Beretta announced, “There is no excess or shortage in the payment.”

“Then the transaction is complete,” I said.

“Perfect. I will put the elixirs away, if we are done here—” Prince Crandol was about to stow the elixirs in his magic bag, when an old man from the delegation stepped forward.

“Your Highness!”

Marquis Dalite and the others immediately braced themselves, ready to protect the prince in case the man tried to attack him, but he did nothing of the sort. He all but slid across the floor until he lay prostrated at our feet. In my former life, we called that a sliding dogeza.

“Your Highness! I beg of you, please give one of those elixirs to me!” he pleaded with all his might.

“Wha—?! Count Olsen! What are you saying?!” Prince Crandol exclaimed as his guards tried to pull the older man away.

But Count Olsen didn’t budge an inch.

A stern expression appeared on Marquis Dalite’s face, replacing the amiable look he’d worn since arriving.

“Please let me use one of them to cure my daughter’s ailment!”

Prince Crandol and Marquis Dalite glanced at me with apprehension, worried that the count’s disgraceful behavior during an official meeting might have upset me, but I silently urged them to pay me no mind.

“Count Olsen, you’re aware that the royal family has already decided what to do with the elixirs. I’ve heard about your daughter’s condition. It’s unfortunate, but we cannot change our initial plan,” the prince said, trying to reason with the count.

Meanwhile, Dalite went for a sterner approach. “You’re being rude in front of Lady Witch. How will you take responsibility if your behavior affects our trade agreement with the forest?”

Having been reprimanded by the other two, Count Olsen turned to me. “Honored Witch of Creation! Please, I beg you for another elixir! For my daughter!”

“Count Olsen! Do you intend to shamelessly beg Lady Witch for more?!” Crandol snapped, displeased by the count’s behavior in front of me, their trade partner.

“Should I escort him out, Master?” Beretta asked.

I shook my head. “No, it’s fine,” I said, before turning towards the groveling man. “You—may I call you Count Olsen? What do you intend to give us as payment for the elixir?”

A lifeless “Huh?” spilled from the man’s lips.

“Every year, only a handful of elixirs are sold at auction, and they fetch a minimum of three hundred large golds.”

As they could cure all ailments, including fatal diseases, elixirs were extremely valuable, sometimes selling for two or three times that amount. On top of being nearly omnipotent, they were incredibly hard to come by. While they occasionally appeared in treasure chests within dungeons, the chances of finding one were slim, and those who knew how to make them could only brew a few at a time due to how difficult the ingredients were to find. In other words, the demand was significantly higher than the supply.

Seeing as he wouldn’t be able to get one from the young prince, Count Olsen had turned to me to plead for an elixir, as I was the empire’s supplier. This was why I’d asked him if he could pay the price for one.

“I’m providing the neighboring nations with elixirs because it’s part of our agreement: They allow us to remain independent and refrain from attacking us, and in exchange, we sell them elixirs below market value. If we started handing them to anyone who asks, it would only create unnecessary chaos,” I explained.

If we were to give an elixir to Count Olsen for free and word got out, what would others think?

“Why did he get an elixir?”

“Why didn’t my loved one receive one?”

“Why didn’t the witch give one to us when we needed it?”

“If she can just hand them over that easily, why doesn’t she start giving them away to more people?”

“If she has so many she can give them to others, then she must have a hidden stock somewhere.”

I very much wanted to avoid that situation, so I only sold a limited number of elixirs to our neighbors at a time. And while I did ask for less than the market value, it was still a significant sum—something most people couldn’t afford.

“People would start fighting for the elixirs, both those who need it and those who just want to make a quick buck, and more people would lose their lives than we’d be able to save with the elixirs,” I continued. “So if you really want one, you need to offer us something of equal value in exchange; something that would justify the trade to anyone who hears of it.”

Olsen gritted his teeth and clenched his hands, which rested on the floor, into tight fists. “I’ll find the money. So please...”

He was a count, so I had no doubt he’d manage one way or another. However...

“I don’t need money,” I replied, pointing at the mountain of large golds on the table with disinterest.

Having been dismissed for the second time in a row, Olsen glared at me, the prince, and Dalite, his eyes brimming with resentment.

“Lady Witch,” Teto said, a worried look crossing her features.

“It’s fine,” I replied, silently telling her to let me handle the situation. Taking in a deep breath, I decided to make a proposition to Olsen—a rather witchy one at that. “If I give you an elixir and your daughter recovers from her illness, it’ll make for a very moving tale.”

The man’s face lit up at my words, his eyes full of hope. “Th-Then, will you—”

However, I quickly put a damper on his enthusiasm. “But then, no one would be able to conduct any clinical trials for that disease.”

Olsen shot me a perplexed look, and I continued.

“If your daughter agrees to let us study her illness, then I’ll give you an elixir. But before that, we’ll have her go through extensive clinical experiments to research her disease and try to find a cure for it. We’ll only use the elixir at the very last minute, once her life truly is in danger.”

The man was flabbergasted—both by my suggestion to use his daughter as a lab rat and by my refusal to give him the elixir immediately.

“She’ll be hospitalized at a clinic in the forest, and will have to fight the illness for five or ten years, maybe even longer.”

“But...that would mark the end of her life as a noblewoman, wouldn’t it?”

“It would.” I nodded. “Using an elixir on someone who needs it will save one person. But studying the illness they’re suffering from and developing a treatment for it would enable all those born with that disease down the line to survive without relying on a miracle cure.”

I didn’t want money or material goods, but medical knowledge. With time and dedication, my hope was that we could reduce the demand for precious remedies with a more robust healthcare system.

“The choice is yours,” I said, lacing some mana into my tone to add more authority to my voice. “Will your daughter enjoy the rest of her short life as a noblewoman, or will she live longer, even if it means enduring years of agony?”

On hearing the pressure in my tone and my proposition—which would be my final concession—Olsen shut his eyes tightly, picturing his daughter and the life she could have. When he opened them again, the resentment had disappeared.

“Please allow me to discuss the situation with my wife, son and daughter,” he said, despite likely having made up his mind already.

With that, Crandol’s guards escorted him out of the room, and the prince turned back to me. “I’m very sorry for his attitude. It was completely out of line. We will punish him accordingly.”

“Surrendering his daughter to us for study is little better than offering her up as a hostage. Don’t be too harsh on him,” I said, pretending to be unbothered. “He’s probably not a bad person,” I added under my breath.

“We’re much obliged to you, Lady Witch. We’ll take our leave now.”

Crandol and the new emperor would still punish Olsen for form’s sake, but I was almost certain they wouldn’t go too far out of consideration for me, since I’d told them not to. Dalite gave us one last bow before leaving with the rest of the delegation.

With our meeting with the official delegation of Mubad having come to an end, I leaned against Teto.

“Good work, Lady Witch. You’re always so kind!”

“Am I, though? I’m planning on using a young girl as a test subject in service to my own ends.”

Besides, I wouldn’t even be doing any of the heavy lifting myself; I’d leave everything to the forest’s doctors.

They’ll probably hate me, I thought with a grimace.

“But you’re still going to cure her with an elixir if you have to. That’s really nice!” Teto said.

Hearing her say that comforted me a bit in my decision.

Throughout our refurbishing of the former Wasteland of Nothingness, I’d become responsible for many things: a fertile land blessed by the goddess Liriel, the demons and mythical beasts I’d taken in, a fully functional dungeon, World Trees and all the rare herbs that grew in the forest, and so on and so forth. I couldn’t even count the responsibilities I had accumulated. And it was to protect them that I had forged the contracts with our neighbors—the Kingdom of Ischea in the southwest, the Gald Beastman Nation in the southeast, and the Mubad Empire in the north.

This is the story of how I saved a young man who lost his way in the forest, which led to me creating my first elixir. It is also the tale of how that young man helped me forge the pact with my neighbors to protect the forest and my people.

Chapter 1: The Day the Barrier Disappeared

Some time after my little visit to the elves’ territory, Teto and I stood in the middle of our forest, looking up at the sky.

“Lady Witch, it’s happening!”

“It is.”

By channeling mana into our eyes, we could see the dome-shaped barrier Liriel had erected around the region ages ago. Now having fulfilled its purpose, the barrier had begun to disperse.

“It’s so pretty,” I commented.

“It looks like flower petals dancing in the wind!”

The goddesses had warned me that the barrier would eventually collapse, and it seemed that today was the day. A hole opened at the very top of the dome, gradually spreading as the barrier crumbled away. The broken fragments fluttered in the wind like so many flower petals, gradually dissolving in the air and showering over the land.

“I thought the barrier would last a little longer, but it seems that it’s served its purpose, huh?” I mused out loud.

This land, once known as the Wasteland of Nothingness, had been left barren due to an accident caused by a precursor civilization. All the mana there vanished instantly, and the entire land became a sort of mana vacuum, gradually absorbing the energy of the surrounding territories until the goddess Liriel raised a barrier to stop it. Without the barrier, the mana concentration of everything adjoining the wasteland would have plummeted, leading to the extinction of all the fauna and flora that depended on mana. On top of preventing mana, people, and monsters from entering, the barrier also pulled unused mana from Earth, slowly revitalizing the land.

However, things changed drastically when I was reincarnated into this world.

Having been summoned alongside an infusion of mana from Earth, I, along with Teto and my other friends, spent decades refurbishing the exclusion zone. Now it teemed with plants, animals, and mana. As such, the difference between the mana concentration of the former wasteland and the surrounding area had become so negligible that there was hardly any need for the barrier anymore. I knew it would disappear one day, but...

“It has become completely unnecessary now,” a woman’s voice whispered in our ears as we watched the barrier crumble.

“Huh?! Was that Liriel?” I asked with a start.

“Teto heard her too!”

I’d been able to meet with Liriel and her sisters when they visited me in my dreams, and could faintly hear them in specific places in the waking world, like churches. But her voice had never sounded so crisp before.

Liriel giggled at our reaction. “Looks like my little prank was a success.”

“Your little prank? Since when could you project your voice so clearly?” I asked.

“Can other people hear you too?” Teto added.

“My sisters and I can only communicate with you like this now that the land’s mana has been restored. And no, not everyone can hear us,” Liriel replied.

According to her, she and her sisters could deliver oracles more easily in places with abundant mana and a strong spiritual presence. Apparently, the forest now met those criteria.

“So we’ll be able to see you even when we’re not dreaming?” Teto asked, hopeful.

“Well, that’s going to be a tad difficult,” Liriel replied awkwardly. “Angels can descend to the human plane, but we deities are only able to temporarily manifest a fragment of ourselves, and even then, it comes with restrictions.”

“So it’s difficult, but not impossible,” I said, surprised.

“Teto hopes we’ll get to have tea with you and the others here one day!”

Hearing her innocent enthusiasm, I found myself thinking it would be nice if her wish came true. But for now...

“Well, at least we’ll have an easier time communicating with you now, Liriel,” I said.

It felt a bit like talking on the phone with a friend who lived far away, and the thought made me chuckle. A grin spread across Teto’s face when she saw me laugh, and Liriel muttered a quiet, “That’s true.” I could tell from her tone that she was happy too.

But when she spoke again, a tinge of sadness had crept into her words. “I wish I could keep protecting you, though...”

Teto and I immediately tried to cheer her up.

“We knew it was coming, so you don’t need to worry about us,” I said.

“Lady Witch is right! Teto and Lady Witch knew the barrier would break one day, so we’ve been preparing for it!”

It was, as I’d mentioned before, a little earlier than I’d thought, but we’d been able to come up with our own ways to protect the forest. Not only did we have Teto’s bear golems constantly patrolling the perimeter, but we’d also implemented the anti-trespasser measures our new friend Elnea, the queen of the high elves, had taught us. We didn’t have a perfect defense system just yet, but what we had worked decently enough.

“Seriously, we’re okay, Liriel. You can take the power you used to keep the barrier up and allocate it to something else,” I said.

“Thank you, Chise. I’m glad I summoned you to this world.”

The barrier continued disintegrating as we spoke, until no trace of it was left.

“I really hope things will stay peaceful...” I muttered.

We’d already had to deal with kidnappers and poachers when the barrier was still intact, so things might only get worse now that it was gone. That thought made me feel a little glum, but Teto reassured me with a smile. “Even if something bad happens, as long as we’re all together, it’ll be fine!”

“You’re right. Thanks, Teto.”

For a while, the two of us just stayed there, gazing at the sky where the barrier had once stood.

???’s Side

The Mubad Empire lay north of the Witch of Creation’s Forest. Its imperial capital was filled with rows of stone and brick houses to shield the inhabitants from the cold and gloom of the northern climate.

Some time after the goddess’s barrier fell, a series of incidents had begun plaguing the city.

“The random attacks, huh?”

Recently, there had been a surge of assaults in the streets of the capital, all at night. None of the victims showed any visible injuries, and they’d all been discovered by patrolling guards. But when doctors and healers examined them, they discovered that every single victim was showing symptoms of anemia. Based on that observation, it was speculated that the perpetrator had drawn out some of their blood before using a potion or some other technique to close the wounds.

From time immemorial, blood had been used as a catalyst for magic. If someone was going out of their way to gather so much of it, it was possible that was their goal. Perhaps they wanted to unleash a devastating spell upon the nation, create a curse or poison to inflict harm on others, or even use it to summon something.

To protect the empire, a certain man from an organization of secret agents had been tasked to investigate the matter, which led him to a particular building.

“The perpetrator of the attacks might be in here...” he muttered, looking up at the mansion looming above him.

As he retraced the victims’ footsteps, he’d realized that they had all gone missing temporarily in this area, and the only thing in the vicinity was that mansion.

The man used Dark Magic and his Stealth skill to hide his presence and sneaked into the mansion.

I heard this place was abandoned, but it’s unexpectedly clean inside.

Apparently, the building had been passed on to someone else after its original owner’s death, and its present owner had left it untouched ever since. The noble who used to live here had been a court magician, and it seemed that he had cast a preservation spell on the mansion to keep it from deteriorating over time. As such, even though a hundred years had passed since it had last been occupied, the building showed no signs of decay.

However...

It smells like blood in here. As I thought, the perpetrator must be nearby.

The stench was faint, but it tinged the air of the whole mansion. Still, it seemed far too inobtrusive for all the blood that must have been stashed on the premises, given how much the victims had lost.

The man placed a hand on a nearby door to explore another room when, all of a sudden, he felt a presence behind him.

“Has no one taught you not to enter someone’s house without permission? How ill-mannered of you.”

The man tried to turn around, but before he could react, a hand seized his head and slammed it into the wall.

“Gah!” he cried out as blood began seeping from the fresh wound on his forehead, painting his field of vision red.

“Oops. Silly me, I’ve gone and broken the door. I must not know my own strength! My house is all ruined because of you,” the voice said behind him, the outrageous claims clashing with their playful tone, as they ground his head further into the wall.

The man scrambled to try and fight back, but not only was the person still holding his head, they had cast some sort of paralytic spell on him.

“Time to dig in.”

Something sharp pierced his neck, sinking into his flesh. The next instant, the man felt his blood draining from his body. He could still just barely move his neck, so he glanced back, only for his eyes to shoot wide open in horror.

“You’re...a vampire?!” he exclaimed when he caught sight of her long silver hair and crimson eyes.

The vampire relished her feast in silence. Her prey felt his strength leave his body beat by beat.

I’m going to die here, he realized.

The vampire had nearly sucked him dry when she pulled her mouth away.

“Oh, dear, that was close. Your blood is so delicious, I almost used you up right then and there,” she said, her lips curling into a smile as she licked away the crimson trail spilling from the corner of her mouth. “When a secret agent of the empire dies, their position is transmitted to all their colleagues, isn’t it?”

“How do you...?” the man slurred, his hazy mind fumbling for answers.

“Since you saw me, you’re going to have to go missing for a little while.”

With that, the vampire implanted something into the man’s body. Searing pain surged through him, forcing the cry of a tortured animal past his lips. His resolve spent, the man lost consciousness, collapsing like a puppet whose strings had been cut.

The vampire fought to rein in her bloodlust as she stared at his inert frame. “The metamorphosis curse worked. I’ll have to ditch him somewhere outside the city before he wakes up. I suppose I’ll go to ground for a bit now that people are starting to suspect something,” she muttered in annoyance, grabbing the secret agent and disappearing into the night.

As he was being dragged away, fur began to sprout from the man’s body, covering his skin in a thick layer.

Chapter 2: The Witch’s Land Is Under Scrutiny

Back when Liriel’s barrier had still been there, nothing could enter or leave the forest without authorization, effectively keeping out ill-intentioned individuals and uninvited guests. But now that it was gone, anyone could come and go as they pleased, and those who had been keeping an eye on the area, waiting for an opportunity to strike, were growing more and more impatient.

Well, at least that’s what I thought. But in reality...

“I thought more people would try to cross the demon den and sneak in,” I said.

“There are way fewer people than we thought!” Teto added.

We were prepared to deal with the consequences of the barrier falling, but I was pleasantly surprised to see our expectations had been proven wrong.

“The Demon Den surrounding the forest has become even more perilous than before. I surmise this is one of the reasons people are not coming,” Beretta, my waiting maid who was also in charge of overseeing things in the forest, commented.

“Oh. I guess that makes sense,” I said, nodding.

The shallowest parts of the Demon Den were relatively safe, to the point that our people regularly ventured there to kill monsters, hunt for meat, cut trees, and gather medicinal herbs and edible plants. However, the potent mana flowing out of the forest had caused the monsters living in the deepest recesses of the Demon Den to evolve, rendering them much stronger. They worked pretty well as a wall all on their own.

When I reincarnated into this world around a hundred years ago, the monsters at the heart of the Demon Den were around D-rank, but now they were pretty firmly C-rank. It took an entire week to traverse the Demon Den and get to the forest, so anyone who wanted to attempt the journey would need to be well prepared and stronger than the average man; otherwise, it would just be a suicide mission.

Pardon the little tangent here, but the stronger a monster was, the more reliant it was on mana. As such, they preferred to stay in regions with an abundance of it and wouldn’t normally venture far afield. In other words, those places were pretty much safe—well, unless there was a stampede or a big dustup over territory, which might drive some of the residents out of the Demon Den.

“Not only are the monsters keeping outsiders at bay, but we’ve also apprehended so many ill-intentioned individuals over the years that people have come to understand how dangerous it was to approach us,” Beretta added.

Whenever we spotted scoundrels in the forest—be they robbers, kidnappers, poachers, or smugglers—we swiftly captured them and handed them over to Ischea or Gald. As a result, the forest had earned a reputation as a perilous place for such activities.

Teto’s bear golems were in charge of monitoring and apprehending outsiders across the Demon Den, as well as saving anyone who needed help. On top of that, we had put in place numerous anti-intrusion measures all around the forest. And so, since we’d caught so many bad eggs even before the barrier crumbled, people had grown wary of attempting to enter.

“That’s great. Let’s keep catching and dealing with those scoundrels as soon as we spot them to remind the others we’re not to be trifled with.”

“Yes, Lady Witch!”

“Understood, Master.”

I once again rejoiced inwardly that we didn’t have to deal with as many intruders as I’d thought we would. However, it didn’t mean that there were no issues whatsoever.

“Beretta, can you give me a report on all the incidents since the barrier fell?”

“Yes, Master. There have been sightings of avian monsters not native to this region flying over the Demon Den and the outskirts of the forest.” Despite her perpetual flat affect, her displeasure seeped through her words.

The contrast amused me slightly, but I chose to focus on the problem first.

“Sounds like we’ve got monster trainers putting out feelers,” I said with a sigh.

“Lady Witch, why are people sending monsters here now that the barrier is gone?” Teto asked.

I hummed pensively, trying to find the right words. “I’m just spitballing, but they’re probably trying to figure out why the barrier fell.”

It was likely those monster trainers were just adventurers who’d accepted a mission to monitor the forest for significant changes. Some of them possessed skills that allowed them to see through their pets’ eyes, so they were able to observe things from a safe distance.

I wasn’t fond of the idea of letting them spy on us, but if we killed their monsters, their trainers would lose out on their jobs. Call me naive, but I didn’t want to go that far.

“We have been warning the monsters to turn back as soon as we spot them, so there have been no real issues for the time being,” Beretta said.

“I still don’t like letting people spy on us, though.” I frowned, trying to come up with a solution.

We did ask our friends from the Liebel Margravate in Ischea and Duke Hammil from Gald to explain why the barrier fell. Anyone who still really wanted to take a peek inside wouldn’t stop anytime soon, sadly.

“I don’t know who’s investigating us, but I hope whatever they learned will make them want a good relationship with us,” I muttered, letting out yet another sigh. I was starting to get tired of this whole thing. “I can’t go on a trip while things are so uncertain.”

“Teto hopes the situation will calm down so we can go on another vacation!” Teto chirped.

“From our perspective, we are reassured to have you home,” Beretta said.

She had a point. After all, I was the one bringing everyone together here. As things stood, it wasn’t just the world outside the forest that was in turmoil after the barrier fell, but my own people as well.

“You’re right. We’ll be staying here until the uproar has died down.”

I couldn’t just up and leave and let the inhabitants of the forest live in uncertainty. For that reason, I agreed it would be best for us to remain here for the time being.

I’ll still go hunt monsters in the Demon Den to keep my skills sharp, though, I added as an afterthought.

The Secret Agent’s Side

When I woke, my body felt heavy and my head was spinning. Lying face down on the ground, I pushed myself up into a sitting position and shook my head, trying to recall what had happened before the blank in my mind.

Right... I went into that mansion to investigate the street attacks and got my head slammed into a wall by a vampire.

“Grrr...”

I heard an animalistic growl coming from nearby and looked around, wondering where the beast was hiding. My gaze fell to my hands resting on the floor.

“Grrr! (What the hell?!)”

My nails had been replaced by sharp claws, and my arms were covered in coarse hair. I didn’t want to know what was happening to me, but my heightened senses picked up the sound of running water, and I dragged my heavy body in that direction, eventually arriving at a river. Finding a spot where the water flowed gently, I looked at my reflection on the surface.

Please wake me from this nightmare.

“Grrrowl! (I’ve turned into a monster?!)”

My reflection in the water showed a bipedal monster covered in black fur, with a grotesque, hairy face, crooked horns resembling those of a demon, and a wide mouth full of fangs that stretched from ear to ear. The clothes I had been wearing were tattered and barely clung to my body. They must’ve ripped when I’d transformed.

“Grrr... (What should I do...?)”

This was clearly the work of the vampire. Unfortunately, it wasn’t like I could ask her what she’d done to me; I had no idea where she’d run off to. Going back to my organization was also out of the question as long as I looked like this. I didn’t even know how I would communicate with others in this form.

As I stood there, agonizing over what to do, my heightened sense of hearing picked up the sound of footsteps approaching. I turned around.

“E-Eeek! A-A monster!” a villager exclaimed.

“Grr! (No! I’m not!)” I cried out, reaching out to him, but the only sound that came past my lips was a snarl. As he caught sight of my fangs, the villager sprinted away in a panic.

It had all been so sudden, I didn’t even have time to write a message in the dirt to try to communicate with him.

This is not good, I thought, deciding to hide for the time being.

Not long after, a group of hunters carrying bows and spears arrived where I had just been seen. They picked up the torn remains of my clothes from the ground. It was soaked with blood from when the vampire had slammed my head into the wall.

“We...might already have a victim on our hands,” one of them said gravely. “This could be a man-eater!”

“Now that it’s learned the taste of human flesh, we need to kill it as soon as we find it, or it’ll strike again!” another added.

“Bipedal monsters are much more intelligent than most. Be careful!”

In other words, if I showed myself now, they would shoot at me without even giving me a chance to explain.

“Grr! (I can’t afford to die just yet!)”

Having resolved myself, I quietly fled the area.

No matter what happens, I have to let my master know about the vampire, I swore to myself.

And so began my aimless wandering.

Chapter 3: The Cherry Trees Border

A month had passed since I made the decision to remain in the forest. Teto and I stepped out of the mansion to go on a little outing. I took out my staff, Flying Jade, and the two of us straddled it, with Teto behind me.

“Ready?”

“Yes!”

I sent a burst of mana into my staff and used flight magic to make it slowly levitate into the air.

“Master, Lady Teto, have a safe trip!” Beretta said from the ground.

“See you later!” I replied.

“Bye-bye!” Teto chirped.

With that, the two of us headed for the forest’s northern reaches. No major issues had cropped up since Liriel’s barrier fell, but I still liked to inspect the borders to make sure everything was secure. As I hadn’t spotted anything near our borders with Gald and Ischea the last few times I’d dropped by, I decided to head north to conduct my examination near our border with the Mubad Empire.

As we approached our destination, the two of us were met with some new scenery: a band of light pink peeking out from between the trees in a soft arc.

“Wooow! There’s an entire row of them! It’s so pretty!” Teto exclaimed.

“What beautiful blossoms,” I commented.

That strip of light pink was actually a row of cherry blossom trees in full bloom. I had introduced them to this world with my Creation Magic, and they had now become something of a symbol of mine among the residents. At first, we only had one on the hill behind our mansion, but there were now several growing in each settlement. At this time of year, the forest’s residents must’ve been enjoying picnics under the beautiful blossoms.

But these trees were special.

“They’ve pretty much become a wall that protects us from outside threats,” I commented.

“They don’t let any bad monsters get close!”

The cherry blossom trees I had created with my magic were actually sacred trees that repelled evil and negative energy. By planting a ton of them in a circle around the forest, it not only made it clear where our borders lay, but also provided a barricade to prevent dangerous monsters from sneaking in, as they found the cherry blossom trees’ mana unpleasant. While it wasn’t as efficient as Liriel’s barrier, it was still something.

“Lady Witch, Lady Witch, let’s get down and look at the cherry blossoms from below!”

“Sure. That way, we can check if everything’s secure from the ground too.”

I lowered my staff until we touched the ground and looked up at the two rows of cherry blossom trees before us.

“Lady Witch! We should find a nice spot to sit and have lunch here,” Teto suggested.

“Jeez, Teto, we’re here to check the aftermath of the barrier disappearing, remember?”

I sighed, but her enthusiasm made it hard to stay serious, and a small smile tugged at my lips. And so, the two of us began walking along the cherry tree border in search of the perfect place to eat our packed lunches.

“Oh, Lady Witch! Over there!” Teto said, catching sight of a nice sunny spot with a perfect view of the cherry trees.

She used her Earth Magic to create a couple of chairs and a table before arranging the lunch Beretta had prepared for us on it.

“Looks like nothing’s amiss here either,” I noted.

Even though it had been a month since Liriel’s barrier fell, no one had managed to reach the forest so far.

“Were my worries unfounded?” I muttered.

I had been expecting something to happen, so it was almost anticlimactic how peaceful things were.

“Lady Witch, Lady Witch, are you going to have an onigiri or a sandwich first?” Teto asked, blissfully unaware of my worries. She had a serious look on her face as she opened the two-tiered bento box Beretta had prepared for us, which contained rice balls and sandwiches.

It seemed she was more concerned by the order in which we’d be eating our meal than the potential consequences of the barrier falling. Seeing her like this, I couldn’t help but feel a little foolish for being so worried in the first place.

“I’m going to start with an onigiri. I wonder what the filling is?”

“Teto will copy Lady Witch!”

Gazing up at the cherry blossom trees, the two of us stuffed our cheeks with rice balls.

“Ah, this one has konbu inside. It’s good,” I commented.

“Teto’s has umeboshi! It’s a bit sour, but the rice is yummy!” Scrunching up her face at the flavor of the pickled plum, she finished her onigiri and reached for one of the side dishes in the bento box.

Beretta had prepared a lot of things for us: several types of sandwich, rolled omelets, fried chicken, spinach seasoned with sesame sauce, braised burdock root, asparagus and bell peppers wrapped in thinly sliced pork loin, and this wasn’t even all of it. There was enough food for at least four people. It was way too much for the two of us, so I simply had a bit of each dish and stopped when I felt comfortably full.

“Lady Witch, you’re not eating anymore?” said Teto, between large, audible mouthfuls.

“It was delicious, but I’m full.”

“Really? Then Teto will eat the rest!” Teto said, gobbling down the leftovers.

In the twinkling of an eye, the lunch box was emptied, and she put the lid back on.

I watched fondly as she pressed her hands together and thanked an absent Beretta for the food.

After that, I made some strange fruits with my Creation Magic, and the two of us enjoyed them in lieu of dessert under the cherry blossom trees. As I sipped my post-meal tea, I watched the flurry of petals dance in the breeze, and one of them gently landed in my glass. The two of us savored the happiness of the moment, enjoying the afterglow of our meal.

When my stomach felt sufficiently rested, I stood up and suggested, “I know we came to check on the border, but how about we go hunt some monsters while we’re here?”

“Sounds good! We’ll get loads of yummy magic stones!”

Teto and I crossed the cherry blossom trees border, stepped into the northern end of the demon den, and began looking for nearby monsters.

The Secret Agent’s Side

How much time has passed since I transformed into a monster? I wondered.

Fortunately, the vampire had discarded me in a forest not too far away from the imperial capital, so I was quickly able to figure out where I was. I’d spent a long time reflecting on my circumstances and ultimately came to the conclusion that my transformation was likely the result of a curse laid upon me by the vampire.

I was inclined to believe that her motive for the rash of street assaults was simple hunger. Sadly, I wasn’t an expert when it came to vampires, so I was powerless on my own—especially against one who could cast curses.

For the time being, I chose to believe that my family would recognize me and offer their help, even in my current state. With that hope in mind, I made my way towards my parents’ territory in the southern reach of the empire, doing my best to remain hidden.

My current body was quite strong, and I could leap great distances through the air. However, maintaining such stamina required me to eat a great deal to replenish my forces, and hunger gnawed at me continuously. I still had the mind of a human, so I naturally thought I’d prepare some food. First, I created a fire with magic, then caught a monster, removed the organs with my claws, skewered it on a branch, and roasted it over the flames. Strangely, though, I found it didn’t taste good. I’d drained all the blood and cooked it for long enough, but it felt...lacking. In fact, the meat I hadn’t cleaned or cooked yet seemed much more appealing. Succumbing to the temptation, I sank my teeth into the raw flesh.

“Grr. (It’s...good.)”

Not only was I not repulsed by the raw meat, I enjoyed it. I gobbled it down, bones and all. The shift in my palate made me feel like I’d come one step closer to turning into an actual beast, and that thought filled me with sadness.

The rest of my journey was harsh. On cold nights, I curled up on the ground, thankful for my thick coat of fur. Whenever I ran into a monster, I’d roar to try and scare it off before it turned into a fight for my life. I’d even had to fill my belly with water a few times after an unsuccessful hunt.

“Grr... (Perhaps I’m really turning into a monster...)”

The longer I spent as a wild beast, the more I was seized with inhuman delusions, and that made me scared. As I wandered, alone and with an empty stomach, I found myself thinking about how easy it would be to give up on my rationality and spend the rest of my days as a monster. But I couldn’t—I had to let people know of the vampire lurking in the capital. My sense of duty allowed me to hang on to my humanity. After two weeks of roaming, I reached my hometown at last.

“Ghr... Grr... (I’m finally home...)”

I was currently hiding in the woods behind my parents’ mansion. I had faith that my family would recognize me if they saw me, but I was still scared. What if they didn’t, and they refused to help me?

“Growl... Grr... (I at least need to tell them about the vampire.)”

If I could get my family to communicate that information to the people of the capital, I would have achieved my primary objective. But how could I go about telling them? As I anguished over that question, I caught sight of some spare wooden boards, most likely left over from some recent round of repairs to the mansion. Borrowing one, I used my claws to etch a message for my parents into its surface before throwing it through an open window. A servant picked it up and hurriedly went to show it to my parents.

“Grrr. (Now to pray my plan works.)”

On the board, I had written a plea for help, a brief explanation of what I’d learned about the vampire in the capital, and a promise that I would be waiting near the woods at the rear of the estate. I also urged them not to be startled by my appearance and, finally, included a few details only my family and I knew about. Even if they wanted nothing to do with me, as long as they relayed my message to the imperial capital, I would have achieved my mission.

My heightened sense of hearing picked up the commotion coming from inside the mansion, and soon, I heard a crowd approach the woods where I hid.

“Who’s the idiot who resorted to such foolish measures?!” A male voice said.

“You claim to be our son. Show yourself!” A woman added.

On hearing my parents’ voices, I slowly emerged from the woods. Things immediately turned to chaos. The entourage my parents had brought with them—butlers, maids, and knights I was so familiar with—stared at me with horror. Some even screamed.

The moment I saw the fear and horror in my parents’ eyes, I knew they wouldn’t help me. I was about to leave when, all of a sudden, their eyes shot wide open in recognition.

“It can’t be... Clovis?!”

“Those eyes... Are you really Clovis?!”

“Master, madam, please stay back! This is dangerous!” one of their knights urged them, stepping in between my parents and me. He leveled his spear at me.

“What are you doing?! That’s my son, Clovis! Can you not tell?” my father exclaimed.

He and my mother may have recognized me, but no one else could. They were all trying to get me to leave the premises.

I couldn’t stay here.

But since my parents recognized me, I thought, they’ll most likely pass my message along to the capital.

Thanks to them, I was now convinced I had completed my mission. While I felt happy that someone still knew me for what I was, I didn’t want to cause them or the servants any more distress.

“Grooowl! (Goodbye, father, mother, everyone!)”

“Stop, Clovis! Where are you going?!” my father tried to stop me, but I turned away, leaving so that no one would have to bear the sight of my monstrous form any longer.

I sneaked out of the town and began wandering aimlessly through the woods. My duty fulfilled, and with nothing left to stiffen my resolve, I started to entertain the idea of dying.

A noble death would be better than a life spent as a monster, my brain supplied.

But when I pictured my parents calling my name, I found myself thinking that I didn’t want to die just yet. That’s when I remembered that I happened to know of a way to lift the curse.

“Grr... (Unicorns gather here, or so it’s said.)”

For decades, there had been rumors circulating in the region claiming that unicorns—mythical beasts known for their ability to purify and neutralize poisons and curses—lived deep within the demon den that bordered my parents’ land. With no other means to lift the curse that had transformed me, I chose to gamble on this flicker of hope and set my sights on the heart of the Demon Den.

Chapter 4: The Man in a Monster’s Skin

“Wind Cutter!” I chanted, flying into the monsters’ blind spot and unleashing a spell.

I had used this spell to ensure I could fell my prey in a single strike, leaving their flesh and materials intact. The wind blades cleanly severed the monsters’ heads from their bodies, sending them flying into the air. It had been so swift that the monsters died painlessly.

“Whew, we should have more than enough magic stones and meat for a while,” I commented.

“Lady Witch, Teto killed lots of monsters too!”

The two of us cooperated to hunt monsters around the Demon Den, shoving their bodies into our magic bags as we went.

“There’s really no end to these monsters, huh? Well, there aren’t as many as in dungeons, but still,” I muttered.

No matter how often we, the forest’s residents, or the carnivorous magical beasts hunted the monsters in the Demon Den, there seemed to be no shortage of them. Like other living beings, they primarily reproduced through breeding, but the areas with high mana density also regularly spawned new creatures. And thanks to the World Trees in the forest, there were many spots in this Demon Den where mana concentrated, leading to new creatures spawning. While it wasn’t as dramatic as the spawning in dungeons, it meant that the monster population of the Demon Den remained more or less the same at all times.

“Can’t you just leave the place alone?” one may ask. Well, no. Not only did we risk some of the monsters evolving into much stronger forms while fighting other beasts, but letting them multiply too much could lead to a stampede that would wreak havoc throughout the Demon Den.

As such, we had to regularly go around the place to cull their numbers.

“Well then, we’ve killed enough monsters and collected a bunch of mushrooms and edible herbs from the forest. Let’s call it a day and head on home,” I said.

“Roger! We’ll come back to hunt monsters again when there’s more of them,” Teto chirruped.

“Careful. We don’t want to put the forest’s hunters out of a job,” I chided her gently with a smile.

As we began making our way home, we suddenly heard noisy footsteps behind us and turned back around.

“Lady Witch, it’s the bear golems,” Teto told me.

“What’s got them so agitated?” I asked.

I decided to wait for them to appear. When the short, plump golems found us, they began flailing their arms and legs wildly to try and tell us something. They looked so comical and endearing that I couldn’t help but smile.

Teto, on the other hand, sported a grave expression as she listened to them.

She eventually turned to me. “Lady Witch! A strange monster has sneaked into the forest!”

“A strange monster? What kind?”

A single bear golem was roughly equivalent to a D-rank monster in terms of strength, meaning they could handle the Demon Den’s C-rank monsters without too much trouble as a unit. However, if they had rushed to warn us, it likely meant that the monster they spotted was either stronger than that or had some kind of troublesome ability.

“The golems said it seems to be looking for something,” Teto explained.

“A strange monster that’s looking for something?” I echoed back. “First of all, let’s go take a look for ourselves.”

“Roger!” Teto said, nodding. She turned to address the bear golems again. “Guys, can you take us to the monster?”

They did just that, leading us to the spot where they’d seen the monster.

“Lady Witch, apparently it was somewhere around here.”

“It had a bit of a feast here, huh?”

Half-eaten monster corpses were strewn across the ground. The forest’s slimes were already feasting on the remains.

Gathering mana into my eyes, I began looking for traces of mana. “The trail is faint. I wonder if that monster has a skill that lets it hide its presence... I can still tell where it went, though.”

“Nothing can hide the smell of blood!”

The two of us pursued the monster; I followed its mana trail, and Teto traced the stench of blood on its body. It eventually noticed us and tried to run away.

“It’s on the loose! Let’s go after it, Teto!”

“Roger!”

Weaving our way through the trees, we managed to catch up with the monster in no time. We simply outpaced it as a matter of course.

Once we had the beast in sight, Teto set her hands on the ground and chanted, “Earth Wall!”

A mud wall erupted from the ground, blocking the creature’s path. With nowhere to run, it stopped and turned towards us.

“Grrr...”

“Lady Witch, that monster’s weird,” Teto pointed out.

“It really is...”

The monster before us had horns and black fur all over its body. Blood dripped from its mouth, staining its chest. With its bared fangs and sharp, crimson-drenched claws, it cut a pretty terrifying figure. Yet there was clearly intelligence in those golden eyes. As I watched its every movement to ensure it wouldn’t run away on us again, I noticed I couldn’t feel any hostility coming from the beast. Its gaze darted around, like it was trying to find an escape route.

Its oddly familiar mannerisms immediately made us feel that there was more to this monster than met the eye.

“I can tell just by looking at you. You’re human, aren’t you?” I asked.

The monster’s eyes shot wide open, and it stared back at me.

“If you are, raise both hands in the air in surrender,” I said, in the hopes it would recognize a command.

The monster growled as if to show its agreement, then did as it was told, slowly raising its hands.

“So you are human.”

“Lady Witch, what are they?” Teto asked me.

The person in front of us resembled a monster, yet they weren’t one. A thought began to form in my mind about what might have happened to them. “I can’t say for certain, but I suspect they might be a normal person whose body has been transfigured into this monstrous form due to a curse or some other technique.”

Inspecting their body with Mana Perception, I noticed that they didn’t have a magic stone in their body as a regular monster would. Instead, there was an ominous presence embedded deep within them. I surmised this was the core of the curse, which fulfilled the same function as a magic stone and sustained the victim’s transformation.

“Lady Witch, does that happen often?” Teto asked me.

I hummed pensively. “I’ve heard of someone who got cursed by a high-rank monster right before it died, and part of their body turned into that of the monster in question.”

One particularly famous tale I read talked about a particularly tenacious serpentine monster that cursed its slayer in its final moment, causing scales to grow on part of their body.

Those who were strong enough to kill high-rank monsters usually had decent magic resistance, so most didn’t actually get cursed. As for those who did, most would simply head to a church and ask the clerics to dispel the curse for them. However, there were cases where the curse turned out to be more of a benefit than a burden, and some people chose not to seek a cure.

“Then the thing this person’s looking for...” Teto started.

“...is probably a unicorn,” I finished in her stead. “They can remove poison and curses. But unicorns don’t like impure things, so they’ll run away as soon as they sense you,” I told the cursed person.

The curse and the stench of blood would send unicorns fleeing in an instant. The human’s shoulders slumped upon realizing his plan was a bust.

“You know, I can use purification spells. I could remove your curse...if you want me to,” I said.

“Grr!” The cursed human nodded vigorously.

I pointed my staff at them. “Got it. Ready? Purification!”

“Gaaaaaah!”

As soon as my spell hit them, they let out a howl and crouched, trying to bear the pain of being purified. The next instant, thick black miasma gushed out of their back—where the curse’s core must’ve been planted, no doubt. It was thick, so much so that it was almost palpable. Faces of different creatures surfaced in the murky sludge.

“Disgusting,” Teto commented.

“The curse is resisting my spell. A regular cleric would’ve likely been killed by the backlash.”

The faces all let out cries of agony, their cacophonous wails echoing through the air. These must’ve been the remnants of the creatures that had been used to forge the curse’s core. The miasma stretched out in serpentine forms, the head at each end baring its fangs at us.

“Teto, it’s attacking us!”

“Teto will protect Lady Witch!”

She pulled out her sword and, in an instant, lopped off each snapping, writhing head. Having been severed from the core, the miasma serpents disappeared like mist under my purification magic.

“Grraaaah!”

Seeing that its core was weakening and with no way to flee, the curse itself decided to attack us. The miasma wrapped around its host, taking hold of them. They moved with jerky, awkward motions, struggling against the thick sludge that tried to dominate them.

“It’s almost over, just hold on a little longer! Purification!”

My second round of purification magic drained even more miasma from the curse. Intense pain ran through the host’s body as they tried to resist the curse writhing violently within them. I told them to hang in there, and they signaled to me with their eyes alone that they would.

“Come!” Teto said.

“Graaaah!”

The curse must’ve reacted to her provocation, as the human lunged at her, their sharp claws raised high, ready to strike. Teto met them head-on, her sword clashing against the host’s beastly claws.

“Gaaaaaah!”

Furious at having its attack blocked, the curse’s core unleashed several more miasma tendrils to attack Teto with as it steered the human like a marionette, but she cut them all off without faltering for an instant.

“G-Gruh?!”

The core was visibly shocked that none of its attacks had worked, leaving it momentarily destabilized. Teto seized the opportunity and kicked the host in the stomach. The curse channeled its miasma around the human’s abdomen to absorb the impact, but it wasn’t enough. The force of Teto’s kick sent the host hurtling through the air, crashing to the ground.

“Take this! Earth Bind!” she chanted without missing a beat, effectively restraining their body.

“Grah?! Grrr!”

“There, now you can’t cause us trouble anymore!” Teto said.

The possessed human struggled against the restraints, trying to break them, but the mud arms were much too resistant. The bindings wrapped around them in droves, holding them in a tight grip.

“Grrr...”

From the curse core’s perspective, Teto and I must have looked like easy targets. Yet we’d purified it and avoided all its attacks, even restraining its host. Knowing it was about to get purified for good, the curse core’s panic reached a new high, while the human’s eyes were perfectly calm.

And so, at last...

“Time to deal the finishing blow. Purification!”

“Gaaaaah!”

The curse and its host let out simultaneous screams at this third wave, black mist erupting from the human’s body. The moment the curse core lost its power, its host’s body began to transform. Crackling and creaking filled the air as their skeleton returned to normal. The claws and fangs disappeared, and so did the hair covering their body. They were back to looking like a regular human. Lastly, the curse core and its ominous aura was pushed out of the human’s body. The dark red orb fell to the ground and crumbled to dust, as if it had achieved its purpose.

“Whew. That took long enough. Pesky thing.”

“Lady Witch, what should we do with him?”

The human, who turned out to be a man in his early twenties, lay unconscious on the ground. The curse’s struggle against the purification spell must’ve caused him excruciating pain; it was no wonder he’d passed out. Thankfully, his life didn’t seem to be in danger.

“Well, first, let’s get him dressed and take him back with us. Creation: clothes.” I handed the garments to Teto and the golems. “I’m going to tell Beretta to prepare a place for him to rest. Can you guys get those on him?”

“Roger!”

I took a transmission device out of my magic bag and used it to contact Beretta.

“Beretta, are you free right now?”

“Is something the matter, Master?”

“I’ll spare you the details, but we saved a human in the forest, and we’ll be bringing him home. Please have a room ready for him.”

“Understood.”

It had been a pretty short conversation, yet by the time I turned back to the man, Teto and the golems had already finished making him decent.

“Thanks for letting us know about the intruder, guys,” I told the bear golems.

“Teto and Lady Witch will be going home!”

As we bid goodbye to the golems, I gently put a hand on the sleeping man and the other on Teto. “Well then, time to head back. Teleport!”

With that, the three of us were instantly whisked back to the mansion.

Chapter 5: The Curse’s Aftereffects

“Welcome back, Master. Please bring the man over here.”

We had just teleported back to the mansion, and Beretta was waiting for us at the gate. Following her instructions, we carried the freshly uncursed man into a guest room and laid him on the bed. He remained unconscious, his breathing steady. On the surface, he appeared to be back to normal, but I wanted to ensure that the curse hadn’t left any lasting harm.

I held a hand over his body and chanted, “Search.”

The curse was completely gone, and while he was clearly exhausted, he didn’t seem to have any external wounds. But when I prodded a little deeper, I noticed an anomaly.

“This is...”

“Lady Witch, did you find something?” Teto asked upon noticing my reaction.

“I’m not sure yet. I’ll need to investigate further,” I replied, evading the question, as I didn’t understand what I had found. All I knew was that I needed to look into that anomaly some more.

“Master, I shall assign a maid to keep an eye on him. I will call you when he wakes up,” Beretta offered.

“Thanks, Beretta. I’m going to do some research on that anomaly I’ve found, then.”

“Teto wants to help!”

The two of us left the man in Beretta’s care, and made our way to the mansion’s library.

“First thing first, let’s look into the curse.”

I had read all these books before, so I relied on my memories and my trusty Speed-Reading skill to sift through the volumes that might contain the answers I was looking for. The rustle of pages echoed through the library. Whenever I found a book that might be useful, I copied its contents on a piece of paper, using fountain pens I controlled with Psychokinesis.

“Lady Witch, Teto will put away the books you’ve finished reading!”

“Thanks, Teto.”

The sight of me rapidly flipping through the books, while fountain pens floated in midair, transcribing the contents onto fresh sheets of paper, must have looked like something straight out of a fantasy movie.

Teto assisted me by doing all sorts of little tasks around the library, and I felt very grateful for her help.

“There really are a lot of medical texts among the Church’s tomes,” I mused out loud.

“Lady Witch, what other books do you need?”

“Anything related to mana. I think those might be more helpful in this case.”

I mumbled to myself as I read, trying to put some order in my thoughts. In addition to the Church’s books, I sifted through every mana-related medical text and disease case report I could find. I also read anything that discussed the relationship between mana and the human body, as well as all the private journals of mages in my collection, and some other relevant texts. For two days, I spent every waking moment investigating what I’d found in the man’s body.

Teto had finished assisting me and, as she didn’t have anything else to do, was reading a book she’d randomly picked up from the shelves. “Lady Witch, what’s the issue with that man? You removed his curse, right?” she said, once again asking the question I’d avoided earlier.

With all the information I’d gleaned over the past two days, I was now sure what the man was suffering from, so I figured why not tell her?

“Teto, that man was the target of a very powerful curse. Because of it, his body—” I began to explain, but was interrupted by Beretta entering the library.

“Master, I have just received information that your guest has woken up.”

“Oh. Let’s go see him then, shall we?”

Teto pouted a little at the interruption, but when I said I’d explain it as soon as we went to see him, she agreed to be patient and helped me clean the books scattered around the library. After that, we headed straight for my patient’s room. I knocked on the door and, when I received an answer, let myself in.

“Sorry to bother you, but we were told you’d come around,” I said.

“Oh, you look much better now! Teto is glad!”

“You two... I see. It wasn’t a dream, then.”

He had collapsed right after I’d purified the curse, so he must’ve been confused to wake up in an unfamiliar bed. Surprise crossed his face when he saw Teto and me, but he quickly recognized that we were the ones who had saved him.

“I’m afraid I don’t know who you are, but you have my thanks for rescuing me,” he said, bowing deeply to us.

I told him not to worry about it.

“My name is Clovis,” he told us, slowly raising his head.

He sounded quite modest, but everything about his behavior screamed “posh.” He probably hailed from a good family.

“I’m Chise,” I said.

“And Teto is Teto!”

“Chise, Teto... I feel like I’ve heard your names before,” Clovis said pensively.

But since we’d basically saved his life, he quickly stopped trying to place us in his memories.

The three of us were sitting on sofas around a coffee table, with me and Teto on one side and Clovis on the other. There were a lot of things I wanted to ask him, so I wasted no more time and dove right in.

“Do you know what happened to you? And, if so, to what extent?”

“I was attacked by a suspicious individual. When I came to, I had transformed into a monster.”

So it seemed someone had purposefully turned him into a beast.

“Other people were afraid of me while in that form, and since I couldn’t speak, I wasn’t able to ask any of them for help. One wrong move and they could have killed me,” he added with a dry chuckle.

It was supposed to be a bit of gallows humor, but I didn’t feel like laughing right now.

“I came to the conclusion that I was under the effect of a curse, and decided to head to the heart of the Demon Den in the hope that I’d find a unicorn to purify me,” he continued.

“I see...”

“You must have struggled so much!” Teto exclaimed.

“I did. Fog enveloped me the second I stepped into the Demon Den, and I lost my way. It truly is a miracle I stumbled across you two.”

Teto and I looked at each other.

“It’s weird, Lady Witch,” Teto whispered into my ear.

“I’m not a hundred percent sure, but I think the spirits must’ve brought him to us,” I murmured back to her.

We had found Clovis at the edge of the Demon Den, near the forest’s border. It should have taken him at least a week to get this deep on foot. It simply wasn’t the kind of place one could reach in a couple of days—unless they went through the spirit corridor, a passage spirits could open to quickly travel from point A to point B. And we just so happened to have invited spirits to live in the forest as part of our security measures. Thick fog was one of the signs one had been swept into the spirit corridor, so I was pretty convinced of my hypothesis.

He probably believes we found him near the outer edge of the Demon Den, and we took him back to civilization.

He’d definitely be in for a shock if we told him he was actually all the way on the other side of the Demon Den.

Having answered my question, Clovis deemed it was his turn to ask us something. “Lady Chise, you can use purification magic. Are you a cleric in training, per chance?”

“Lady Witch is Lady Witch!” Teto supplied smugly.

That nonsensical answer only seemed to confuse Clovis further.

A smile curled on my lips as I observed them, and I clarified, “I learned the Purification spell from a book an acquaintance from the Church gave me. I’m just an ordinary mage.”

“I see...” Clovis replied, a thoughtful expression crossing his face as he considered what to ask next.

After a moment of silence, he spoke again—this time to make a request of us. “I’m aware it is much ill-mannered of me to ask you for something when you’ve already saved my life, but I need to return home. My parents must be worried sick about me. Would it be possible for you to lend me a horse, some provisions, camping materials, and a few coins to help me on my journey?”

He added that he’d reimburse us several times over as soon as he could.

He wanted to return to his parents’ side to reassure them he was all right, and I completely understood his feelings. However, there was something I needed to address before.

“I understand that you want to go home. But you can’t leave this land for the time being,” I said.

He let out a confused, “What?” at my words. He clearly hadn’t been expecting that response.

“I inspected your body after dispelling the curse. You bear a load of potent mana foreign to your own system.” I paused and met his doubtful gaze.

“That doesn’t explain why I can’t leave,” he pointed out, his tone tinged with irritation.

I continued to tell him about his condition. “It damaged your mana reservoir. Your body is currently unable to retain mana.”

Upon hearing my explanation, he seemed to realize what was happening to him. “A...mana leak,” he muttered in a trembling voice.

I nodded silently. A mana leak was a metaphysical disorder—a sort of spiritual incontinence, releasing one’s mana independent of any exercise of the victim’s will. In mild cases, this simply meant a decreased rate of natural mana recovery or a limit on how much they could regain at once. However, as the symptoms worsened, every bit of mana they produced would be released into the world, slowly draining them.

Using too many spells or skills could also lead to mana exhaustion, which often brought on nausea or lethargy. Thankfully, those side effects usually faded once the user’s mana was replenished. But if someone suffered from chronic mana exhaustion due to a mana leak, their body would gradually weaken, and in the worst-case scenario, die.

“According to my research, there’s only one way to deal with a mana leak, and that is to stay somewhere with a lot of ambient mana and eat mana-dense food,” I continued.

“You’ve got to be kidding me! It’s a cruel enough fate to have my humanity ripped from me for as long as I have; now, the moment I think I’m cured, you tell me I’ve sprung a mana leak?!” Clovis exclaimed, slamming his fist on the coffee table.

“Please calm down,” Teto said, trying to soothe him. “You’re just going to hurt yourself lashing out like that.”

Unfortunately, Clovis’s anger couldn’t be contained. “It makes no sense! If I developed the leak when I was cursed, why didn’t I feel the effects while I was a monster?!”

“My theory is that the curse core was plugging the crack in your mana reservoir. In a way, the curse may have been what kept you alive all this time.”

A mix of emotions swirled through Clovis at my words, and his face scrunched up, a pained look crossing his features. For all he might have resented and despised his curse, it had saved him as much as it had broken him, and that was a horrible feeling to have to untangle.

It seemed that he wouldn’t accept my diagnosis so easily. “I’m thankful to you two for dispelling the curse, I truly am. But I don’t believe you. I’ll go to another healer if I must!”

His desire for a second opinion made sense, and it showed me that he was a prudent man. Besides, I could understand why he was hesitant to accept my diagnosis.

“For now, try to get some rest. You can keep using this room for the time being. We’ll figure out what comes next later,” I said.

Clovis grimaced, as if trying to endure the storm of emotions within himself, and lowered his head to us. “Thank you very much for your kindness.”

He’d probably need some time to calm himself and gather his thoughts, so Teto and I left him to it for the time being.

Chapter 6: The Flight Towards Liberty

Clovis’s Side

I struggled to accept the words of the little girl who had saved me—that the strain of my curse had damaged my mana reservoir. Not only would I never be able to wield my magic as I once had, but if the leak led to chronic mana exhaustion, it could ultimately cost me my life.

Back home in the Mubad Empire, such a disability was basically a death sentence; nothing was of greater importance than the potency and mastery of one’s mana. Mages in my condition had no choice but to retire. Understanding how the ailment functioned, how it might be treated and its victims restored to their full strength, had been the subject of great swathes of research. Yet, to this day, there was no proper cure in sight.

According to the little girl who’d saved me, the two main ways of dealing with a mana leak were climatotherapy, by having the afflicted move to a region with abundant mana, and nutrition therapy, which involved making them eat mana-dense food. Glancing out the window, I could see that the girl’s mansion was an island of human habitation in a great sea of natural splendor. Mana did indeed seem plentiful here; it could be a suitable environment for my recovery.

But I refused to believe I truly had a mana leak. As a test, I tried to cast a spell in both of my hands. “Black Whip. Dark Mist.”

A black strip of leather appeared in my left hand, while a dark cloud shrouded my right. I effortlessly controlled both spells.

These were both Dark Magic spells—one that could summon a whip made of shadows, and the other, a pitch-black smoke screen. Neither was particularly lethal, but they were some of the spells I used the most often in my job as a secret agent, either to infiltrate a place or to run away unseen.

Seeing as I could control them with no issues, I chuckled through my nose. “I can use magic just fine. Guess I don’t have a mana leak after all.”

I’d panicked earlier, but it turned out I was just fine. If anything, my magic was even smoother than before, and I didn’t feel much of a drain on my mana.

“Well, I’m thankful these girls were so worried about me, but I guess I’ll just quietly discharge myself.”

I was grateful for that little girl’s help, but at the end of the day, she was still just an inexperienced mage-in-training. Her diagnosis was plainly wrong. Not that I was surprised; she wasn’t a healer or anything.

Either way, I needed to hurry home to tell my parents I was safe, and to deal with that vampire case. I couldn’t dillydally here.

“First things first. I’ll have to find some means of posting a letter,” I muttered.

I waited for the rest of the day to pass and, when night fell, used my stealth skills to sneak around the mansion and collect my supplies for the journey.

“Some warm clothes, food, a bag for camping stuff, something I can use as a weapon...”

I found a mantle in the clothes that had been left in my room. It was the beginning of spring, so I assumed they’d given me this in preparation for the colder days to come. After that, I slipped into the kitchen to grab some provisions for the trip—things that would keep well for several days. In the shed behind the mansion, I found a carryall bag, as well as a machete, hatchet, and knife. I was pretty much ready to go.

“Fire and water won’t be an issue so long as I mind my mana. I don’t have any money on me, but I can always kill monsters on the way and sell their loot to cover my travel expenses.”

I didn’t know where I was, but if the girls had found me near the demon den’s outer edge, I shouldn’t have been too far from my parents’ home. If I walked for a few hours, I’d eventually reach a town in the empire. Along the way, I planned to collect loot and materials, exchange them for money, and use those funds to send letters to my family and handlers.

With that plan in mind, I slipped out of the mansion during the night. However, I still hadn’t realized what kind of place this was. Morning arrived, and I pressed on relentlessly in my journey north. I hadn’t noticed in the darkness, but now I saw an enormous tree, larger than anything I’d ever encountered, towering over the landscape.

“What in the world is that gargantuan thing...?”

In shock, I made my way deeper into the forest and eventually stumbled upon tracks left by carriage wheels.

“All right. If I follow these, I should eventually find my way back to civilization!”

I did just that, and eventually reached a small village nestled in a clearing in the woods.

“People! If there’s an adventurer’s guild here, I can send my family a letter and—”

Overjoyed, I was about to step into the settlement when I suddenly heard the sound of hooves approaching from the trail I’d just followed, and hurriedly ducked into the tree line. Peeking cautiously between the trees, I was met with a sight that made my jaw drop.

“Morning! I’ve got milk and cheese for you here.”

“Thanks. I’ll have the villagers unload it. Oh, and loquat season has started, so you should take some home with you.”

“Oh, that’s great! My wife and daughter love that stuff.”

A villager and a man drawing a carriage were having a conversation near the village entrance. There was nothing remarkable about their exchange; it was the kind of market day small talk you could hear anywhere. What was remarkable, though, was the fact that one of the men looked almost like a Beastchanged wolfman, and the other was half man, half horse.

Beastchange was a skill exclusive to beastfolk, but only those who excelled in combat could learn it, and no one used it outside of battle. Yet, all the villagers who’d come to unload the cart—adults and children alike—were bipedal wolves. This was clearly not normal. The same went for that half human, half horse man; he belonged to no ordinary human race.

“...I can’t go there.”

I made a detour to avoid that settlement and, to avoid encountering that half horse again, decided not to follow the tracks anymore, but to head back to the woods.

I eventually came across many other nonhumans in the forest.

First, I spotted a group of men with bull heads, bipedal dragons, and large figures with horns protruding from their foreheads, all making their way deeper into the woods, weapons in hand. Then, I heard the lively chatter of women nearby. When I peeked at them gathering medicinal herbs and fruits, I was taken aback to see that some were half serpents, while others bore insect-like features. Elsewhere, I encountered beautiful women as ethereal as spirits, their appearances reminiscent of flowers and trees, sitting on stumps and playing with small fairies.

“What is this place?” I exclaimed, panting.

Looking up at the sky peeking through the canopy of leaves, I saw flocks of angels and devils winging about. In the distance, I caught glimpses of mythical creatures—pegasuses and griffins—and even saw a terrifying dragon with blue-green scales flying in the sky.

Overwhelmed by the sheer extraordinary nature of it all, I leaned against a large tree, slowly coming to the realization that I wasn’t in the Mubad Empire at all. I could scarcely believe I was in the same world. As I sat there in a daze, I suddenly found myself surrounded by mysterious creatures with two round protrusions on their heads and short, plump bodies made of clay. They were staring at me from the dark hollows of their eyes.

“Goh!”

“You’re...the Earth Bears!” I exclaimed, nervously swallowing my saliva.

For the past thirty years, before I was even born, there had been stories in the Mubad Empire about spirits with bear ears and bodies made of earth. They were said to punish trespassers within the wood and lead lost souls to safety. During particularly cold winters, they would even leave things like food, firewood, medicine, and pelts in front of the houses of the nearby villages. You’d occasionally hear people say they only managed to survive the winter thanks to the Earth Bears.

I’d seen a few in my parents’ territory as well, and when I was young, they stood as a symbol of the forest’s uncanny nature.

As they stood with their gazes fixed on me, silent intensity radiating from them, I felt cold sweat run down my back. Through my work as a secret agent, I often received all sorts of information, and one piece suddenly jumped to the forefront of my mind.

There was a place that had been called the Wasteland of Nothingness once. It was now said to be home to gargantuan trees, inhabited by demons—beings that were not quite human, endowed with incredible powers—as well as various species of mythical beasts, and even an ancient dragon. It was a land blessed by the goddesses and abundant with material wealth—a treasure trove of a country. Yet anyone who’d tried to sneak into the wasteland had been met with swift retribution.

The Earth Bears had originated from that land before they’d appeared in the Mubad Empire. Rumors said you could spot them in the wasteland’s other neighboring nations—namely, Gald and Ischea—as well.

It all sounded like nonsense, yet that land really did exist. In my time, I had also learned something of its supposed ruler. They said she was an immortal, endowed with nigh-infinite mana and skills seen nowhere else in the world, a mouthpiece for the goddesses, and always attended by a golden-skinned swordswoman...

“Ah! Found you!” a voice called from above.

Reflexively glancing up, I saw the two girls from earlier flying on a staff in the sky.

“You tried to sneak away, didn’t you?” the girl in the front in the hooded black robe said as she slowly lowered her staff in front of me and climbed down.

I recalled their names and my training, and my brain finally connected the dots.

“You’re S-rank adventurers—the Witch of Creation and her guardian,” I said.

I felt myself grow pale as I recalled how rude I had been. Not only had I refused the immortal witch’s diagnosis, but I’d even stolen from her mansion and tried to run away. I should have shown her the utmost respect, and yet I hadn’t. I really couldn’t complain if she decided to kill me here and now for robbing her.

But to my surprise...

“Oh, you found us out. Either way, I can’t blame you for not trusting the diagnosis of someone you’ve just met,” the witch said, as if she were sympathizing with me.

I raised my face and glanced up at her.

Despite her juvenile appearance, she had a mature expression on her face, and it really seemed like she felt sorry for me.

I decided to be honest with her. “I have heard of your reputation. You’re a first-rate mage; that much I don’t doubt. But I still don’t believe that I have a mana leak. I can use my magic just fine!”

To prove my point, I used the Dark Magic spells I’d tried out in the guest room in front of her.

Yet the witch still looked at me with eyes full of pity. “It’s because you’re practically swimming in ambient mana. Let’s go somewhere else and see how you feel, shall we? Teleport!”

In a word, a flourish, and a clever application of mana that most could never master, she whisked the three of us away.

“This is... Ugh?!”

All of a sudden, I felt the mana sap from my body. A wave of dizziness hit me, and I fell to my knees.

“We’re right outside the Demon Den, at the border of the Mubad Empire. What you’re feeling are the effects of the mana leak,” she explained.

“But...why?”

I’d been feeling just fine before, so I was utterly confused by what was happening to my body. Raising my trembling hands, I tried to use one of my usual spells, but nothing happened.

“When you suffer a mana leak due to damage to your reservoir, and you’re in a region poor in mana, yours will naturally drain away. By the same principle, if you’re somewhere with a high mana density, mana will flow in through the hole in your reservoir,” the witch explained.

I remembered how I hadn’t felt the mana leaving my body when I’d tried my spells in the guest room. That was likely because my body had drawn in the surrounding mana as I’d used my own.

Then...

“...you were telling the truth all along.”

“I was. Why would I lie to you?” she replied without a hint of hesitation.

I looked at her and chuckled in self-derision. “If I had trusted you from the start, I wouldn’t have wasted time and energy trying to flee.”

Even as I said that, the witch and her guardian remained kind to me. “How about you write a letter to the people who are worried about you?”

“If we ask the guild to send it for you, they will!”

“Thank you very much. I’ll do as you suggest.”

With that, the witch teleported us back to her mansion. I immediately felt my body absorb the ambient mana, the lethargy vanishing in an instant. Then the witch handed me some stationery, and I wrote a letter to my family, assuring them that I was all right. I also composed another, much longer letter to the secret services, written entirely in code. I informed them of three things: why I had disappeared so suddenly, that I had been cursed by the vampire behind our rash of midnight street assaults, and that I had been rescued by the Witch of Creation.

When I was done, I gave the letters to the witch and decided to do as she said and remain in her forest for a while.

A few days later, she brought me replies from both my family and the secret services. My parents spent many pages telling me how worried they’d been and how happy they were to hear I was all right. I felt a pang of guilt for causing them so much anguish. As for the secret services, they wrote that they’d received the information I’d carved to my parents on the wooden plank, and they thanked me for doing my duty despite my curse. Lastly, they instructed me to investigate the Witch of Creation’s Forest while I stayed there to recuperate.

Chapter 7: In Pursuit of the Legendary Panacea — Preparation Phase

Now that Clovis had finally accepted the truth about his condition, Teto and I took him back to the mansion. We had him move to a special building reserved for our guests, and he began living in the forest like the rest of us. He helped the other residents with farmwork and participated in the combat training drills we held from time to time. As a spy, his strength was no more than that of a C-rank adventurer, which made him seem weak compared to his demon neighbors. But he didn’t let that deter him; he poured everything he had into his training. The community found his determination amusing, and some even went out of their way to offer him lessons.

Meanwhile, Teto and I kept going with our research, all while keeping an eye on Clovis.

“Lady Witch, you’re not going to help Clovis?” Teto asked me one day.

“I take it you mean to ask if I plan to cure his mana leak?”

She nodded.

I paused my reading and, with a sigh, looked up at the ceiling, thinking of how to respond. “It is true,” I said carefully, “that there are records of people healing from conditions that I suspect to be mana leaks. But I don’t want to give Clovis false hope.”

I picked up the piece of paper on which I had written the summary of everything I’d learned about mana leaks over the past month. There were records of people who had lost their magic regaining the use of their powers, cases of children who had been born with what I suspected was a mana leak who made miraculous recoveries, tales of heroes who had found themselves on the brink of death after a battle with a powerful enemy having their strength restored thanks to the support of their friends, and so on and so forth.

As it turned out, a certain remedy appeared in every single one of these stories—a panacea that was said to cure any illness and injury.

“Well, if there’s a medicine that cured all these people, we should use it!” Teto exclaimed.

It was true that if we were to use that cure on Clovis, he’d make a complete recovery. However...

“The remedy they used in those stories is the elixir,” I muttered.

Teto cocked her head to the side. “Teto has heard that name before.”

“When we started growing hamaon, I mentioned it was one of the ingredients to make elixirs, remember?”

“Oh! Teto remembers now!”

Over forty years ago, I’d begun growing rare herbs that I felt like I might need in the future to make medicine. Back then, I had learned of one of the ingredients to make elixirs—hamaon fruit trees—and decided to plant a handful around the forest.

“We should make an elixir, then!”

I heaved a sigh. “It’s not that easy.”

The recipe of the elixir had been lost to the ages. We only had fragments of information, full of questionable details. Making an elixir would be an incredibly difficult task. Take the hamaon we were growing, for instance; while useful in its own right, we didn’t have any hard evidence that it was a genuine elixir reagent.

The most common way to acquire an elixir was to find it in a dungeon treasure chest, but even then, the spawn rate was low.

“The ancient tomes we found in the library of the former Kingdom of Krista are probably our only reliable source of information here,” I added.

The Kingdom of Krista fell during the stampede that occurred in the northwestern reach of the continent. The library in what remained of its capital contained at its heart an arcane archive dedicated to the extant works of the precursors, all written in a language that had long been forgotten—except by me. Having been reincarnated with the ability to understand and decipher any language, I could read these books with no difficulty. And, as it turned out, one of these contained information about the elixir. It was probably our most promising lead right now.

The only issue was...

“It lists the ingredients we need, but it doesn’t specify the quantities. Without that, creating the elixir would be nearly impossible.”

An elixir was made of three components.

First, you had to create the cure-all medicine that would counteract the effects of the injury or illness afflicting the individual. This required a combination of several rare ingredients: World Tree leaves, mandragora extract, unicorn horn, and ambrosia flowers, which bloomed only once every fifty years, plus a few other less notable components. It wasn’t effective immediately and wouldn’t restore any missing parts, but it was the only recipe for a universal cure that still existed in full in the world.

Next, you had to make a sacred wine to dissolve the medicine in. Alcohol made from fruits rich in mana boosted health and vitality, and could soothe one’s mind and soul. Furthermore, the mana within the sacred wine was unique; upon consumption, it transformed into the specific nutrients needed by the individual. Not only did it alleviate nutritional deficiencies, but it also granted one relative rejuvenation.

Lastly, you needed to brew the regenerative toxin that would remove the cause of the illness or condition the individual suffered from. Now, you might think the term “regenerative toxin” is an oxymoron. But regenerative toxins worked in two ways. First, they destroyed the cause of the illness or condition, be it abnormal cells like cancer or tumors, mental disorders, foreign pathogens, or curses. Then, their restorative effect mended any damage caused by these issues, increasing the body’s healing factor. The only problem was, the “toxin” part was stronger than the “regeneration” aspect, and using a regenerative toxin on someone could be fatal in its own right. But mixing it with the cure-all medicine and the sacred wine reduced its toxicity and enhanced its restorative properties, meaning that it could restore the body, mind, and soul to its optimal state. Unfortunately, the ancient texts only mentioned the toxin, and none had a recipe for it.

By mixing these three elements, you obtained the crimson panacea that most called elixir.

“But you can probably make elixirs with your Creation Magic, can’t you, Lady Witch?” Teto asked me.

“If only I could... Creation: elixir.”

I tried to make one to show Teto what would happen. My mana gradually turned into the shape of a medicine bottle, only to burst apart with a cracking noise halfway through, scattering into the air like it had dissolved. It was a failure.

“I have over 1,000,000 MP, yet I can’t make it. That’s why I have no choice but to look for a reliable way to brew the elixir.”

I could make anything with my Creation Magic, as long as I knew what went into it and the process to craft it. But if I still couldn’t make an elixir with my current mana pool, the only way for me to acquire one was to go about it the intended way and make it myself. Well, I could also wait until I had more MP, but that would probably take much longer.

As a sidenote, my dungeon also had the ability to spawn items, and creating an elixir there would cost me up to 150,000,000 MP. A dungeon could store 10,000,000 MP per stratum, which explained why only the most challenging dungeons, those with over fifteen floors, could spawn elixirs. While I could bring the necessary ingredients into my dungeon to reduce the costs, it would, unfortunately, still require slightly more mana than my dungeon could hold right now.

“Besides, if we had a recipe for the elixir, the others could make it even while I’m away, and we’d be able to help even more people. There’s no loss in researching it, really.”

“And when we have the recipe, we can use one on Clovis!” Teto chirped.

I shook my head. “Our people come first. Unless there’s a good reason for it, we won’t be able to spare one for him.”

As the ruler of this land, this seemed like the most rational thing to do.

“Lady Witch? There’s no ‘good reason’ to heal him?” Teto asked.

I thought about it. “Then again, Clovis is from the Mubad Empire, which we currently have no contact with, and seems to hail from an influential family. If we heal him and send him back, we might be able to use him to exchange and negotiate with Mubad. If we take that into consideration, I suppose we could afford to use an elixir on him.”

That was a good, logical reason.

Teto beamed at my words. Feeling a little embarrassed, I quickly averted my gaze. “But we can’t be the only ones working on the elixir. I’ll have Clovis help us gather the ingredients.”

If we just gave one to him, it’d be nothing more than charity. As such, so that we stood on equal footing, I wanted to have him contribute in some way. Then again, if I told him about the elixir and we ended up failing to make it, we’d just be setting him up for disappointment.

For that reason, I decided not to tell him what the ingredients he’d be gathering were intended for.

And so, Teto and I began our pursuit of the crimson panacea.

Chapter 8: In Pursuit of the Legendary Panacea — The Cure-All Medicine

Intent on cracking the code of the elixir, I promptly shut myself in my research tower. I decided to tackle what I could make first, which in this case meant finding the recipe for the cure-all medicine, one of the three elements that went into an elixir.

For my first attempt, I tried to make it following the instructions from the book I’d found. I added each rare herb and material to the cauldron in the order and timing stated by the recipe, adding some mana to each element that joined the mix. This created a reaction that turned it into an active ingredient.

I repeated this process several times: Add the required ingredient, use my mana to activate it, wait for the liquid inside the pot to change color, add the next one, channel my mana into it, wait for the liquid to change color... The concoction started off a pale green before changing to blue, purple, and then yellow.

Lastly, I upped the temperature from fifty degrees Celsius to seventy, and the entire thing turned transparent.

“We can find all the ingredients in the forest, and the recipe is pretty simple. All you have to do is add the ingredients in order, use mana and heat to make reactions, and voilà: You have a cure-all medicine,” I said.

“Even Teto can do it if she tries hard!” Teto chirped.

Some of the forest’s residents were great at making potions, so they could definitely handle this. However, there was a little issue.

“In this state, the mana channeled into each ingredient will only last for about a week before dissipating. We need to turn this into powder, so it can adhere to the medicine better.”

“It wouldn’t be good to have medicine we can’t use when we need it!”

A regular potion was basically one ingredient plus mana—it was simple and efficient, and could be preserved for a long time. But this medicine was made of multiple ingredients mixed in an intricate pattern. It was so complex that the mana struggled to adhere to it, meaning it’d lose its properties in a matter of days. This wasn’t a problem if you planned on using it right away, but to really trap the mana in and make the medicine last longer, you needed to turn it into powder.

“Besides, we wouldn’t be able to use it to make an elixir in this state,” I added.

Not only was it too liquid, but since the mana was barely mixed in with the ingredients as it stood, we wouldn’t be able to mix it with the sacred wine and the regenerative toxin. And for that...

“You need to put the potion on low heat and continuously mix it until the ingredients precipitate, then filter the whole thing. It’s hard work.”

“Your arms will get tired!”

By evaporating the water until I had basically a concentrate of the medicine, it would reach its saturation point, and the active ingredients would start settling at the bottom of the cauldron. Then, all I had to do was filter them from the excess liquid and dehydrate them to create a stable powder with the mana properly mixed in. Then, to use it, I could either just swallow the amount I needed as is or dissolve it in water.

There was one important thing to keep in mind when turning this cure-all medicine into powder, though.

“If you try to make all the water evaporate at once by cranking the heat up, it will burst out of the cauldron.”

“That’s very dangerous!”

Apparently, when heated to a high temperature, the medicine’s active ingredients turned from transparent to black and became very unstable and very explosive. For that reason, trying to evaporate the water by increasing the heat would just cause an explosion.

“For now, let’s just follow the recipe’s instructions.”

“Lady Witch, Teto will do her best to mix the potion!”

The two of us took turns mixing the medicine on low heat to get only the active ingredients. After several failures and follow-up attempts, I finally realized just how difficult this thing was to make. At first, we tried to heat too much of the medicine at once, and it wouldn’t turn into a concentrate. But when we started with too little, the temperature change was too intense, and the entire thing exploded in our faces. The only silver lining in all this was that, once the medicine exploded, it instantly dissipated into the air, meaning we didn’t run the risk of anyone accidentally ingesting a failed attempt.

But at last, after many, many blunders, Teto and I finally managed to extract the active ingredients from the potion.

“Whew, this thing really tested my nerves.”

“Good job, Lady Witch! We should find an easier way to evaporate the water for next time!”

“Yeah. We really need to streamline the recipe somehow. Besides, it’s so wasteful.”

“What is?” Teto asked, cocking her head to the side.

I picked up the medicine concentrate, from which most of the active ingredients had been removed. “There are still active ingredients in this.”

Not all the active ingredients had settled at the bottom of the cauldron when the medicine reached its saturation point, and some were still mixed into the water. But we couldn’t make it too concentrated, or we risked overheating the ingredients and causing an explosion. This meant that, with this method, we were leaving behind valuable components, which felt like a waste to me.

“Isn’t there a way for us to extract all ingredients?” I mused out loud, rereading my documents in the hopes of finding a hint to improve the recipe.

As I did, I stumbled across an interesting section.

“‘Location plays a crucial role in crafting a cure-all medicine. Brewing it on a mountain renowned for its miraculous properties is highly recommended. Borrowing the aid of a wind spirit will make it all the better,’” I read.

This didn’t feel particularly credible at first, but after I gave it some thought, it made a certain amount of sense. Crafting the cure-all medicine required a significant amount of mana, and locations with a high mana concentration were known to facilitate faster recovery, as you were basically breathing in the stuff. Borrowing a spirit’s mana made sense as well, but I didn’t understand why it specifically had to be a wind spirit.

A mountain plus a wind spirit... As I tried to wrap my head around it all, something clicked inside my brain.

“Could it be... Air Control!” Using my magic, I manipulated the air around the cauldron, gradually reducing the atmospheric pressure.

This was a Wind Magic spell that allowed me to make the air around the cauldron thinner, which, in turn, caused the medicine concentrate inside to boil despite being at room temperature. All the water eventually evaporated, and we were left with white powder at the bottom of the cauldron.

“Analyze. Yep, that’s exactly as I thought,” I said after confirming that the powder was the cure-all medicine.

“Ooh, Lady Witch, you made all the water go away so fast!” Teto exclaimed in surprise. “But how did it disappear even though you didn’t heat it?” she asked, cocking her head to the side.

“The boiling point of a liquid goes down if you lower the atmospheric pressure,” I explained. “That’s why the book recommends making the medicine on a mountain and using a wind spirit’s help.”

Our predecessors must’ve found this method through empirical observation. All I did was use my magic to re-create a similar environment to the one they’d suggested.

And so, I decided that my next step would be to develop a pressure-reducing device—no, a magical pressure vacuum—not only to make it easier for us to brew this medicine, but also to improve the quality.

Chapter 9: The Cure-All’s By-Product

Two months had passed since I started working on the medicine. Most people who’d have wanted to make the cure-all would have to spend time and effort on gathering the materials, but here in the forest, I had everything at my fingertips. I’d also managed to simplify the extraction process by creating an environment with low atmospheric pressure, which drastically reduced the time I spent on making the medicinal concentrate. This also improved the quality of the powdered medicine we got as a result.

I’d made a stock of powdered cure-all to use later when we’d be making the elixir, but I had now run out of ingredients, meaning it was time to move on to something else.

“Lady Witch, Teto is putting the next thing to dehydrate in.”

“Okay.”

My new objective was to improve and test out my new magical vacuum chamber. This nifty little device created a space with low atmospheric pressure inside it. It was a box with a glass door at the front, a bit like a microwave. I changed the design a little so that it could not only dehydrate the cure-all and other medicinal herbs, but also food. And so, I spent my free time trying to make different types of dried fruits. I arranged small fruits on a flat platter—making sure not to overlap them—put them into the magical vacuum chamber, and powered it on. The moisture was gradually removed from the fruits, causing them to shrink slightly.

When we were done experimenting with the medicine and the vacuum chamber, there was a polite knock at the door.

“Yeees!” Teto said, heading towards the entrance and opening the door.

Clovis stood on the other side. “Miss Witch, I have brought the materials you asked for,” he announced.

The basket strapped to his back was filled to the brim with ingredients for both the cure-all and our future experiments. He had to climb all the way to the last floor of the tower with the heavy load. I could tell from his face that he was tired.

“Good work out there, Clovis,” I said. “And thank you for the ingredients.”

“Teto will prepare you some tea!”

“Thank you. It’s almost summer, so it’s quite warm out today,” Clovis replied, flapping his shirt to cool his sweaty chest down as he made his way to the lab’s rest area with practiced ease and sat down.

He had come from outside the forest and didn’t have a clear job here, so he was just helping around as needed. I occasionally asked him to gather and deliver the materials for the elixir so that he had a hand in the process, so he’d already been in here countless times.

He looked around the room while Teto and I brewed some tea, and muttered, “You’re really not what I expected at all.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“Well, you’re the ruler of this land. I expected you to be more like a guild leader, you know? Bringing your people together while showing off your strength. But you’re more like a researcher,” he explained, not trying to evade the question.

While he didn’t think I’d be like a king or anything of the sort, he still expected me to behave like a leader of some kind. But I just did whatever I liked, without worrying about money or materials. I supposed it was only natural he’d think I was more akin to a researcher than a leader.

Teto and I served him a cup of tea and some snacks we kept in the tower.

“So? How has life here been treating you?” I asked.

“Are you having fun?” Teto added.

“I’m slowly getting used to how things work here. The demons have been teaching me how to fight, and I feel like I’ve become a bit stronger,” he said, before adding with a bitter smile that he was still no match for them.

Apparently, he mostly trained with the devils, who specialized in Dark Magic, and the werewolves, who excelled at stealth tactics.

However, he seemed to have one problem.

“How can I put it...? I don’t really like how some of the women look at me.”

“What do you mean?” Teto asked innocently.

Clovis averted his gaze and hesitated a little. “The lamias and melissae are always touching me and their gazes are a little, um...”

“Oh. The female-only demons,” I said, understanding the meaning behind his words.

Lamias and melissae were all women, so they needed to mate with men of other species to reproduce. And it seemed that they had their sights set on Clovis.

Teto seemed confused. Perhaps she still hadn’t understood what we were talking about.

Clovis eventually seemed to realize it wasn’t the type of conversation he should have with women, and evasively cleared his throat. “Anyway, they haven’t actually done anything to me, so please forget about it. Returning to the topic at hand, I like it here. My mana restoration is so quick, I find myself almost forgetting about my mana leak. It feels like I have a bottomless supply.”

“That’s typical of mana leaks.” I nodded. “In places with a high mana concentration, your body immediately absorbs the mana through your breathing, and even just the air touching the skin. It makes your restoration faster, though it’s limited to those places, of course.”

“I see. That’s why people recommend staying in regions with high mana density to recover, I imagine.”

The three of us exchanged bland pleasantries for a little longer, until Clovis’s eyes landed on the vacuum chamber. “I’ve been meaning to ask you for a while, but what is that box-shaped magic tool?”

“That thing? It’s to dehydrate stuff,” I replied.

“What...?” he asked, a confused look on his face.

“It’s an item that makes yummy dry fruits!” Teto chirruped.

It seemed that her explanation didn’t help Clovis understand any better.

“You two are S-rank adventurers, right? Why did you spend time working on something like that?”

“Is it that strange?” I asked.

“It’s not!” Teto assured me.

The two of us thought it was a normal thing to make, but Clovis disagreed. “Most researchers work on things like powerful spells and new weapons. Why did you make a machine to dehydrate fruits?!”

“Well, because I like making things, and this one is useful,” I replied.

“So the mountain of fruits you had me bring over last time was...”

“We made lots of yummy dried fruits, so we mixed them into these cookies!” Teto said.

When I had run out of ingredients to work on the cure-all, I had decided to try my hand at making dried fruits, so I’d asked Clovis to bring me a basketful of them. Now that he realized what we’d used them for, he seemed a little annoyed. We’d then baked those dried fruits into cookies when we’d had some time to spare.

Clovis looked at Teto as she stuffed her face with the aforementioned sweets.

“These are so sweet and yummy!” she said.

“Have some too, Clovis,” I offered. “We’ve used mana-dense fruits, so don’t hesitate to eat them.”

“Right, you mentioned that eating food with a lot of mana inside was good for mana leaks. If only these could cure me...” he muttered, reaching for a cookie and taking a bite. “Delicious. You made them with the fruits I brought you last time, right?”

“Yes. These have hamaon inside.”

Clovis choked on his mouthful. “Huh?! Hamaon?!”

Hamaons were fruits that resembled pomegranates; they had a red skin that split open when the fruit was ripe, and were packed with countless glossy arils even redder than the skin. They were also reputed to be one of the ingredients in elixirs.

They usually bore fruit in the fall, but we still had some from last year in our granary, which was enchanted with a time-stopping spell.

Clovis’s body trembled in shock. “Aren’t hamaons those incredibly expensive fruits said to enhance one’s appearance and promote rejuvenation?!”

“Yeah, that’s what most people say.”

“You can either eat them as is, or turn them into juice or jam!” Teto supplied.

Clovis looked like he was starting to have a headache.

Adventurers of B-rank and up were sometimes sent on missions to harvest hamaons. But most people didn’t know that they were used in elixirs, and just ate them for their benefits. To be fair, the quantities that people asked for in these missions weren’t anywhere near enough to make elixirs. But I didn’t know people just ate them like that.

Clovis heard me mutter that under my breath and slowly turned to me, his neck so stiff it almost creaked as he did. “Don’t tell me... Is that why you’re immortal? Because you eat hamaons every day?”

“Nope. Sorry to burst your bubble, but hamaons don’t have such properties. They are very good for your health, though.”

To be fair, I had indeed achieved immortality by eating fruits, so he wasn’t too far from the truth. It just wasn’t these specific fruits.

Clovis seemed unconvinced by my answer as he snacked on some more cookies.

Chapter 10: In Pursuit of the Legendary Panacea — The Sacred Wine

With my improved recipe and vacuum chamber, we weren’t far out from being able to produce the cure-all with no issues. This meant it was time to move on to the second component of the elixir: the sacred wine. Surprisingly, this one didn’t involve too many steps.

“Lady Witch, how do you make sacred wine?” Teto asked me.

I began reading through my copies of the documents from the former Krista Kingdom. “Um... You need to ferment mana-dense ingredients, wait for them to turn into alcohol, and...you’re done.”

“Wait, what?”

The cure-all had been so incredibly difficult to make that it had taken us two months and a new magic item to finally figure out an efficient method of brewing it. By contrast, the sacred wine’s recipe was incredibly simple. Teto was stunned, and I could understand why.

“I know, it seems unbelievably easy. But I asked Elnea, and she said this is really how sacred wine is made.”

I thought back to the conversation I had with Elnea when I went to ask her for advice on how to make elixirs.

“Hello, Chise. I see Teto is not with you today.”

“She went to gather some ingredients for me.”

On that day, I had sent Teto, Clovis, and the lamias to pick some medicinal herbs for me. I had invited Elnea over, so it was currently just her, Beretta, and me in the room.

“Elnea, there’s something I’d like to ask you if that’s all right,” I started.

“What is it? I shall help you to the best of my ability.”

“I’m trying to pin down the recipe for elixir. Do you have any idea how to make the sacred wine and regenerative toxin?” I asked.

I produced my copy of the elixir recipe I’d found in the Krista Kingdom’s library and showed it to Elnea. While it did explain in detail how to make the cure-all, the sacred wine only got a tiny paragraph. As for the regenerative toxin, only its name was mentioned.

Elnea took the document from me and, after scanning through its contents, set it down on the table with a long sigh. “I see. It would indeed be difficult for you to make an elixir using just this recipe,” she said before launching into an explanation. “In my Eltar Kingdom, we make a few elixirs each year, and the most difficult component to prepare is the sacred wine.”

“Is the recipe for it such a well-kept secret that our predecessors couldn’t even leave a trace of it?” I asked.

“Not at all. As the recipe you have found states, making sacred wine only requires one thing: time.”

What?

As I sat there, confused, Elnea took a sip of tea and resumed, “The spirits have personally told me the recipe. Wine was born from the fermentation of things like fruits half eaten by animals, honey that spilled from the beehives, or sweet tree sap that piled up in the hollows of trees or crevices of rocks.”

She paused and asked Beretta to serve her another cup of tea, since hers was empty. Then she added a spoonful of thick honey to her cup and continued. “It was all a coincidence created by Mother Nature; a miracle, even. Some saw it as a boon from the gods themselves. For that reason, they used to call it ‘sacred wine’ to show their respect for it.”

Her explanation made me think of the legends that existed in my past life about springs that produced alcohol and “monkey booze”—alcohol said to have been produced by the remnants of half-eaten fruits that fell into tree hollows.

“After that, humans invented alcohol brewing and wine making to try to re-create that ‘sacred wine’ themselves. But no matter how much they tried, they could only produce ordinary alcohol. Sacred wine fills the body with vitality with a single sip. No man-made alcohol had ever been able to re-create that feeling. What is missing, then?” She paused and finally got to the crux of her argument. “Mana, that’s what it is. Sacred wine absorbs the mana of all the nature around it; man-made alcohol could never compare. It does taste better, though,” she added under her breath, taking another sip of tea.

It seemed that she was done with her explanation.

“I see. So what makes wine ‘sacred’ is the quantity of mana within it,” I commented with a nod.

When fruits fell into the hollow of a tree and fermented, they produced a little bit of alcohol, which had all the surrounding mana to itself. In contrast, rows of wine barrels had to compete for the mana in the air. It was only natural that the former had a higher mana concentration than the latter.

“So, how can I make sacred wine? Do I just need to add mana when it’s done fermenting?”

“That is an option, but it is rather unstable. The most commonly used methods include making small quantities at a time, letting your wine age for long periods of time, and organizing rituals to imbue it with mana.”

The first method—making small quantities of sacred wine at a time—basically consisted of reproducing the environment in which natural sacred wine was created. You made a bit of wine at a time using fruits and ingredients rich in mana, in the hopes of achieving the same effect as natural sacred wine. In a way, it was a bit like home brewing it; you only made the quantities that you yourself needed. This also meant that all sacred wine made that way would vary depending on the maker’s choices.

The second option was to let your wine age for a much longer period, allowing it to absorb ambient mana and increase its potency. Some vintage wines, those left to ferment for decades or even centuries, could eventually transform into sacred wines. However, preserving wine for such extended periods was costly, and there was always the risk of the casks breaking or going missing during a natural disaster.

Lastly, you could hold a ritual to imbue the wine with mana. For that, you would offer it to a god or a spirit in the hopes that they would bless it and supplement the wine with their divine mana. It seemed like the simplest method out of the three, but according to Elnea, it wasn’t that easy.

“Goddesses and spirits have their preferences in terms of wine, and sometimes they might not be in the mood for what you offer them. They won’t bless your wine just because you ask them to.”

“Makes sense.” I nodded.

“On the contrary, if they enjoy the wine you offer them too much, the spirits might drink it all. It’s happened to me before! What a waste. Had I known, I would have drunk it myself,” Elnea said, laughing loudly.

I, on the other hand, was appalled such a thing could even happen.

“Anyway, your forest has the protection of the goddesses. Some of the wine you produce here may have already evolved into sacred wine.”

“I need to look through our reserves, then. Will you help me?”

“I do not mind. Oh, and for the regenerative toxin...”

She told me what it truly was, and I heaved a sigh. It was as I feared.

“You know, some people would consider everything I just told you to be invaluable information,” she said, an amused smile curling on her lips. “I believe you should give me a suitable offering in return for such wisdom. Something like, you know...” She mimed upending a drink down her throat.

In other words, she was trying to trade state secrets for booze.

“Fine. I’ll give you five bottles of any alcohol of your choosing—other than the sacred wine, obviously.”

“Ooh! I truly love dealing with you, Chise! I shall thoroughly appraise your alcohol collection to help you on your quest!” Elnea laughed.

And so, Beretta and I showed her to our alcohol cellar.

“Anyway, we did actually find a couple of bottles of sacred wine in our collection,” I said, having finished summarizing my conversation with Elnea to Teto.

I produced the three bottles Elnea had helped me find, and Teto oohed in admiration. “Teto remembers these! They’re all very yummy!”

The first one was hamao, a fruity wine we’d made by squeezing the juice of hamaons and fermenting it. While it seemed that hamaons themselves weren’t a key component in elixirs, they were a great ingredient to use in sacred wine. The clear layer that floated at the surface was shockingly mana-dense, which made the wine perfectly adequate to use in elixirs.

The second one was a refined rice wine made from a blend of rice we’d grown in the forest and clear spring water infused with mana from the leylines. This land was under the protection of the goddess Liriel, so the rice and water were essentially blessed by her. As a result, any alcohol crafted from these local ingredients had a greater chance of becoming sacred wine compared to those made with imported fruits—if left to age for long enough, that was. This particular rice wine had finally become sacred after absorbing the ambient mana for around ten years.

The last one was a bottle of alcohol I’d bought. During my adventuring days, I’d earned more money than I could reasonably use and had taken to collecting interesting alcohol and art pieces. And as it turned out, one of the bottles in my collection was sacred wine.

“Who would have thought that all the little things we’ve been doing all this time would lead us to this?” I mused out loud.

I had been prepared to make sacred wine from scratch, but it turned out we had three bottles of it right here all along.

There was one thing that bothered me, though.

“It’s such a shame that I offered so much alcohol to you and the others. We only have three bottles of sacred wine, but perhaps we could have had more.”

“But it’s a good thing we got to enjoy it with the others!” Teto chirped.

I liked to provide the forest’s residents with alcohol during seasonal festivals, which meant I might have served them sacred wine—or wine on the verge of becoming sacred—without even realizing it. At first, I thought it was a bit of a shame, but when I recalled how happy and energized it had made them, my regrets began to fade.

“Anyway, we have three bottles of sacred wine we can use in elixirs. Converted to potion bottles, that’s about twenty flasks,” I told Teto, who gulped loudly, her eyes riveted to the alcohol bottles in my hands.

I hid them in my magic bag.

I might not be able to make many elixirs, if these are the only bottles I have...

But that night, I received a dream oracle from the goddesses.

“Chise, if you want sacred wine, I can bless it for you. You just need to go to a church and offer me some of that delicious alcohol you have, like the one you gave to the high elf,” Liriel told me.

“Hey, Liriel, that’s not fair! I also want some alcohol from Chise! Something strong!” Lariel, the Goddess of the Sun, exclaimed.

“Personally, I’d like something fruity and sweet, Chise,” Luriel, the Goddess of the Seas, told me.

The three of them were practically begging me to wet their whistles.

And so, when I woke up, I headed to the church managed by Shael, a godkin, and delivered the goddesses the alcohol they’d asked for. Several weeks later, it had turned into sacred wine. However, despite still being sealed, the bottles were now half empty. I assumed the goddesses must’ve had more than a little sip.

There was always a bit of alcohol that evaporated during the aging process, which was commonly known as the angel’s share, but seeing how much the goddesses had drunk, Liriel and her sisters had clearly enjoyed my offering.

The thought made me chuckle.

Chapter 11: Taking a Breather

Having figured out how to make both the cure-all and the sacred wine, I was this close to being able to make an elixir...but the regenerative toxin still eluded me. I was at a complete standstill.

“I would love to write down a recipe for it, but how are you supposed to make a recipe for a poison you have no idea how to make?” I grumbled.

“Lady Witch, are you okay? You’ve been doing nothing but making potions these days,” Teto said, looking at me with a worried expression.

I tried to reassure her with a smile, but I couldn’t even manage that. It seemed I had truly exhausted myself.

With a sigh, I confided in Teto about my feelings. “I don’t think we’ll be able to figure out the recipe for the elixir.”

I had mixed the cure-all and the sacred wine into a potion and experimented by adding various poisons to my cauldron, hoping it would transform into an elixir. I’d thrown in poisonous plants, toadstools, monster venom, toxins from various minerals, created poison with Dark Magic, and even reinforced their toxicity by imbuing them with mana, but...nothing.

“They’re immediately neutralized as soon as they touch the liquid.”

The potion I’d made from the cure-all and the sacred wine was already potent enough to work as a nearly perfect panacea. As such, any superficial toxin I mixed into it was immediately nullified.

“I mean, these failures haven’t been for nothing. At least I have data about what level of toxicity gets neutralized by the potion. But it’s difficult to push through when there’s no end in sight.”

Visibly concerned about me, Teto asked, “Lady Witch? Is there no other medicine that can cure Clovis’s mana leak?”

“He could use the sacred wine to deal with the symptoms, but he’d never make a full recovery,” I replied.

Sacred wine healed maladies of the mind and the soul, so it would be able to repair his mana receptacle, as it was technically part of the soul. In fact, I was pretty sure a patient suffering from a light mana leak could recover just by drinking sacred wine. But in Clovis’s case, it was so serious that even if we managed to plug the hole in his receptacle, it would immediately break again the second he used magic.

“For him to make a full recovery, we need the regenerative toxin. It will destroy his receptacle for good and create a new, more robust one,” I explained.

The sacred wine would be enough if Clovis was willing to never use his mana again. But I didn’t think he’d be willing to settle for that after all this time he spent working on his combat technique these past few weeks.

I needed to make a perfect elixir to grant his wish.

“But all these failures are starting to take a toll on me.”

I’d already used up all the cure-all and sacred wine I’d made in my first two weeks of experimentation. I had Clovis gather more ingredients for me, save for the ambrosia flowers, which I made using my Creation Magic, as those only bloomed once every fifty years. I did the same for the sacred wine.

After that, I was met with failure well over a hundred times, and still hadn’t figured out the last piece I needed for my potion to become an elixir.

Elnea had told me what the regenerative toxin was, but...

“Lady Witch, Teto thinks you should take a break!” Teto chirruped, pulling me out of my thoughts.

“Teto? I mean, I agree that a break sounds great, but finishing the elixir is more important.”

Not only would it treat Clovis’s mana leak, but it’d also be great for the residents of the forest if we had such a powerful panacea on hand. I personally thought we ought to make it a priority.

“But all you ever do is go from the mansion to the tower and back! Everyone is worried about you!”

I let out a gasp at Teto’s words and hurriedly peered out the window.

The leaves of the trees had already turned red.

“Oh... It’s already fall.”

October, to be precise, as I happened to notice when I checked the date.

I had been so obsessed with the elixir that I hadn’t seen time pass. I’d successfully made the cure-all and the sacred wine in June, at the beginning of summer, and had spent the past four months working on the regenerative toxin.

I let out a breath. “You might be right. I think I need a break.”

The cure-all and sacred wine had been so easy to figure out, I’d thought I could finish the elixir in no time.

“Thanks, Teto. I’m going to stop here for today, and we can go do something relaxing tomorrow.”

I added under my breath that I’d like to see how everyone was doing, and Teto’s face lit up.

“Teto thinks it’s a great idea! Tomorrow the Great Elder sheds his skin. If we go help him, we’ll get to see the others!”

That sounded like a great idea. I quickly cleaned up my potion-making station and returned to the mansion.

The next day, we headed to the grotto that the Great Elder called home. All the forest’s residents were there, deck brushes in hand, ready to help the dragon polish his body. Looking around, I spotted the godkin Shael, the dragonkin Yahad, and the elf Raphilia. Even Clovis was there, as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

The Great Elder—the star of the show—quickly spotted us. “Oh, Lady Witch, Lady Guardian, I see you two have come as well. I’ll be in your hands today.”

The ancient dragon sloughed his skin once every year. Before molting, the outer layer of his scales lifted off and gradually turned off-white. From that point, it could be easily peeled off. I noticed that some spots on his body were already flaking off. Perhaps he’d scratched them with his feet or rubbed against the walls of his grotto.

“I’m going to pour some hot water on you to make it easier to peel off the skin. Fly!”

I leaped onto his back and cast a spell to shower warm water over his body. He closed his eyes in contentment at the sensation. The godkin joined me and began peeling the skin off the Great Elder’s back, while Teto, the dragonkin, and Clovis took care of the lower, more accessible areas—his flanks, legs, and tail.

“This is so fun!” Teto chirped.

“We’ll help you shed your skin so you can be as comfortable as can be,” a dragonkin said.

“Throw all the molted skin behind you! We’ll throw it away,” another added.

Everyone was familiar with the process by now, and we all cooperated to help the ancient dragon shed his skin.

“Ooh! The thin skin at the tip of the Great Elder’s tail peeled off perfectly this year!”

“Ooh!”

Several people had worked together to peel the skin off the Great Elder’s tail in one piece, and we all cheered when it came free. Call it self-indulgence if you like, but it lifted our spirits. A joyful atmosphere filled the air.

Soon, we were done peeling the old skin off the Great Elder, and we began scrubbing his body clean with deck brushes.

“Ah... This feels heavenly,” the dragon sighed in contentment.

He’d occasionally tell us to scrub harder in some spots because they were itchy, and we all worked hard to ensure every inch was polished.

Two hours later, we were done, and the Great Elder’s verdigris scales sparkled beautifully, even more than they usually did.

“Whew, I feel nice and refreshed. You have my thanks for helping me with the molting. I owe you all a fair payment for your efforts.”

The dragon disappeared into his grotto before coming back, carrying multiple wooden boxes in his claws.

“These are just my leftovers, but I know you’ll make good use of the materials on these.”

The Great Elder often went to hunt monsters for his meals. The dragonkin were in charge of dismantling the bodies of his prey until the dragon was left with only the edible parts. I assumed these were the materials—bones, fangs, claws, pelts, etcetera—that were left behind.

Each box contained a certain type of material, and we all examined them closely before picking, in turns, the one we preferred.

Clovis stood in the middle of the group with an awkward expression. “Can I get one too?” he whispered.

Materials from A- and B-rank monsters were mixed into the boxes, and Clovis seemed hesitant as he looked at the valuable items inside.

“I don’t mind,” the Great Elder said. “You’re a warrior. Here, use this to make yourself a nice weapon.” He reached into one of the boxes and handed Clovis one of the items.

“Is that...some sort of beak? I-It’s huge.”

The beak in question had once belonged to a gloom crow, a B-rank monster. As its name indicated, it was basically an enormous raven. Its body was entirely black, and its beak was as hard as steel.

Clovis was bewildered as he looked at the item the Great Elder had given him. “I can’t possibly...”

He was about to refuse out of politeness, but the silent pressure exerted by the dragon made him flinch, and he relented.

“All right. I’ll gratefully accept it.” Then, under his breath, he added, “People’s sense of value is so strange here...”

“Congratulations!” Teto cheered.

However, it was clear that Clovis had no idea what to do with that beak.

“None of the residents have the skills to craft weapons with such rare materials, but we could ask our go-to blacksmiths to make you something with that,” I suggested.

“Your go-to blacksmiths?” Clovis asked.

“Yep. There’s a pair of dwarven brothers who run an excellent weapon shop in the town of Darryl in Ischea, one of our trading partners. We could ask them to craft you a weapon using that beak, if you’d like. What do you say?”

“They’re the ones who made Teto’s sword!” Teto added, showing her weapon off to Clovis.

A good chunk of the forest’s residents were powerful demon warriors, but there were no craftsmen here capable of forging weapons and armor for them. This quickly became a problem, so Teto and I had looked for some sort of workshop that could meet their needs, and we ended up going back to the dwarves who had made Teto’s sword and ogre-skin armor a long, long time ago.

After hesitating for a moment, Clovis eventually nodded. “All right. But how am I to pay for—”

I interrupted him. “Don’t worry about that. Think of it as payment for all the odd jobs I’ve had you do for us since you came here.”

“But...”

“If you really want to repay us, help us with the fall harvest. It’s a very busy time of the year, and we’ll take all the help we can get.”

I said I’d only give him his new weapon when the fall harvest was taken care of, and he agreed.

“Thank you very much, Miss Witch, Miss Teto.”

“We’ll take that gloom crow beak off your hands, then.”

I was positive the dwarven brothers would be able to make the perfect weapon for Clovis.

Having watched our exchange, the Great Elder purred, sounding quite pleased.

Chapter 12: In Pursuit of the Legendary Panacea — The Regenerative Toxin and the Elixir

While the others were in the middle of choosing their rewards for helping the Great Elder with his shedding, he contacted Teto and me through telepathy.

“I need to give you two your payment as well.”

“I don’t need anything,” I replied.

“Neither does Teto!”

The dragon laughed and told us he didn’t mind giving us something. He disappeared into his grotto again and returned with a wooden box, which he handed to us.

“Here, take this.”

“Potion vials?” I said.

“Ooh, that’s such a nice shade of red!” Teto noted.

Indeed, the potion bottles in the wooden box were all filled with a deep red liquid. I took one out and gave it a little shake. Based on how slowly the liquid moved, it seemed to be somewhat viscous.

As I stood there, puzzled, the Great Elder said, “I believe this is what you wish for the most at this moment.”

I gasped and raised my head to look at him. “Great Elder, don’t tell me this is...”

He nodded. “Yes, indeed. It is the last ingredient you need to craft your elixir—the regenerative toxin that will remove foreign objects and rebuild one’s body to be resilient. My blood.”

“Lady Witch, what does Mister Great Elder mean?” Teto asked, struggling to understand the conversation.

“There was no recipe for the regenerative toxin in the ancient tomes we found, because it isn’t something that can be made,” I said.

The regenerative toxin was actually the immune strength contained in the blood of ancient dragons and certain magical creatures. It was said that if someone were to drink dragon’s blood in its raw state, the foreign antibodies would wreak havoc on their body from the inside, as if they had been poisoned. However, if they managed to survive the process, the dragon’s self-healing abilities would rebuild their body into a much more resilient form.

It was such a popular legend that our precursors hadn’t felt the need to write it in their documents. Besides, all the tales that mentioned the elixir said that it was made from dragon or phoenix blood. I had already reached the conclusion that I would need one of these ingredients to make the elixir when I read those tales, and Elnea had confirmed it for me. Not any dragon blood would do, though—lower-rank dragons and wyverns, for instance, didn’t have enough immune strength, meaning their blood couldn’t be used as a regenerative toxin. Elnea told me that I would need the blood of a dragon of at least A-rank.

“So you just needed the Great Elder’s blood, but you were trying to make something else, Lady Witch?” Teto asked me.

“Yeah. I was trying to come up with an ingredient that could be used in place of the blood.”

“But why?”

“Because Lady Witch is nice,” the Great Elder chimed in. “She likely didn’t wish to hurt me to take my blood.”

A dry smile curled on my lips. I’d been found out. “It’s exactly as you say, Great Elder. I couldn’t picture myself going up to you and asking, ‘Hey, would you mind if I made off with some of your blood? I swear it’s for a good cause.’ Not an easy subject to broach,” I said with a chuckle of self-derision.

“My children live in this land,” the Great Elder said softly, a gentle look on his face. “If it is for their sake, sharing my blood is a small price to pay.”

Looking up at him, I realized that I should have come to ask for his help immediately instead of trying to figure things out on my own out of misplaced self-righteousness.

“Thank you, Great Elder. I love you,” I said, trying to convey my gratitude to him as best as I could.

“Teto loves you too!” Teto chirped.

He chuckled, sounding like a nice grandpa. “I’m glad to hear it.”

But then his expression darkened.

“Although I must admit that I did not enjoy having your waiting maid draw my blood using one of those big syringes.”

It seemed that Beretta had come to ask the Great Elder for his cooperation in secret, seeing as I struggled to come up with a substitute for the regenerative toxin. I could easily imagine why the Great Elder hadn’t enjoyed the experience; the needles we used administering medicine to and drawing blood from the larger mythical beasts were heavy-duty stuff, and it couldn’t have been fun feeling anything that girthy piercing his hide. At the same time, I was impressed that Beretta had managed to penetrate his scales at all.

“I’ll make the ingredient with my Creation Magic next time, so as not to bother you again,” I said.

“Yes, I would much prefer that.”

Teto and I chuckled, and I put the wooden box he’d given me inside my magic bag. Then, the two of us returned to my research tower.

We now had all the pieces required to finally make the elixir, and I immediately began mixing them together.

First, I mixed the cure-all and the sacred wine in a beaker to create the base. Then, I drew some of the Great Elder’s blood into a syringe and added a single drop to the mixture. I stirred it using a glass rod and channeled some mana into the liquid.

“Wow! It’s all shiny!” Teto exclaimed.

My mana had activated the drop of dragon blood, which began emitting light, the red hue of the blood gradually taking over the potion. The healing power of the cure-all, the nourishing effect of the sacred wine, and the immunity and regenerative properties of the regenerative toxin—all three of these elements blended together thanks to my mana, turning the liquid an even richer shade of red.

Once it reached a crimson color, I stopped channeling in my mana, transferred the whole thing to a potion vial, and sealed it.

“Analyze. We did it.”

My appraisal spell confirmed that the crimson liquid inside the vial was, indeed, an elixir.

“Good job, Lady Witch!”

“Thanks, Teto,” I replied with a little smile.

Teto cocked her head to the side. “Hmm? You don’t seem very happy,” she said.

“Huh? No, I am—I’m happy. But I was wondering how to make Clovis drink this... I didn’t think of it.”

I now had a way to cure his mana leak. However, elixirs were potent remedies that could heal any injury or illness. If people learned that I could make them, that would create its own set of problems.

“You could just ask him to keep it a secret,” Teto suggested when I shared my concerns with her.

“Hmm... But if I tell him it’s an elixir, he’ll refuse to drink it.”

Judging by how he’d refused to accept a gloom crow beak, he might not agree to drink the elixir. I had no choice but to give it to him without revealing what it was.

Teto and I stood there with our arms crossed, racking our brains for a way to make Clovis drink the elixir without him suspecting anything, but we couldn’t come up with a viable plan.

“Let’s stop worrying about it for now. There’s something I want to try,” I said, producing a handful of mana crystals from my magic bag. I didn’t know how much mana I would need, so I decided to go with a couple of 50,000 MP ones. Then I activated my Creation Magic.

“Creation: elixir!”

Before making an elixir by myself, I had lacked the knowledge and experience to create one using my magic, and my mental image of it had been imperfect. As a result, even though I’d used nearly my entire mana pool, I hadn’t been able to make one.

But this time, I decided to try using mana crystals. They shattered one after the other as they were drained.

Before, I had managed to create only the vial before my spell failed, but this time, it kept going. The shape of the potion bottle became clearer, and the liquid inside turned crimson. By the time the light of my magic disappeared, we were left with another vial, nearly identical in every regard to the elixir we’d made ourselves.

“Lady Witch, how much mana did it cost?”

“1,000,000 MP,” I replied. “That’s not a great conversion rate.”

One elixir could only cure a single person suffering from a critical condition. By diluting it, you could cure ten people with less severe ailments. I smiled bitterly at how inefficient it was.

But still...

“There are people who can only be saved by an elixir,” I muttered.

I tossed both vials into my magic bag and went back to pondering when and how I could make Clovis drink one.

Chapter 13: Harvest Time

Clovis’s Side

After the Witch of Creation dispelled the curse that had turned me into a monster, she allowed me to live in her forest. Mana was so abundant in this land that I was able to spend my days normally without worrying about my mana leak. At first, I had been so bitter about my condition and the fact that I had lost to the vampire that I refused to face reality and was determined to snoop around the forest, per my superiors’ orders. However, I soon hit a wall in my investigation.

“What should I do while I’m here?”

I had no prospect of healing from my mana leak in the near future, and I couldn’t just stay here as a guest for who knew how long. However, I didn’t know what I could do to earn my keep, so I began helping around when the demons needed it, and even joined their intense training sessions on occasion.

One day, Miss Witch came to me. “Would you mind helping me with my work too? You can do whatever you’d like the rest of the time.”

“Right—I should lend you a hand. I owe you my life, after all.”

My primary goal was to gather information about this mysterious land for my superiors, but I couldn’t possibly forget to repay the women who’d saved my life.

The task she put me in charge of was—

“Hey, you! You’re not harvesting these herbs properly! If you pull them out, root and all, they’ll never grow back. You need to cut them at the base instead!”

“Th-This is what I have to do...?”

Under the guidance of the lamias—female demons with the lower body of a serpent—I strolled around the forest, gathering ingredients for Miss Witch to use in her potions.

Being a secret agent, I was very confident in my survival skills. But the knowledge the lamias taught me went beyond mere survival, and I couldn’t help but feel impressed. They knew exactly which mushrooms were edible and how to prepare them to make them taste better, and were incredibly knowledgeable about medicinal herbs as well. They kindly and patiently taught me all sorts of specialized topics, and I learned a lot.

However...

“Clovis, there’s a cluster of medicinal herbs over here,” a lamia called me over, bending forward until I almost got a full view of her breasts.

“Phew, it’s so sunny today. Let’s go cool ourselves down in the spring on the way,” another said on a separate day, inviting me to take a dip in the water. Her clothes soon turned transparent, and she flaunted her body to me.

Another time, a lamia handed me a mushroom. “Did you know this one can be used as an aphrodisiac?” she asked me in a coquettish voice as she dropped her gaze to my crotch, a smile on her lips.

My heart thumped rapidly in my chest at their unabashed seduction techniques, but I forced myself to remain calm.

Now that I think about it, I’ve heard rumors claiming that lamias eat people...

Cold sweat ran down my back, and I began to fear for my life.

After that, I was approached by some of the other female-only demons. I was later told that all these types of demons reproduced by seducing men of other races. Apparently, they used to kidnap and force them to have intercourse with them to continue their lineage, but Miss Witch had forbidden them from using those methods. She also prohibited them from seducing married or committed men and destroying their relationships. Since I was neither, they’d decided to go after me.

And so, day after day, I gathered materials while avoiding the advances of the lamias and the other demons, before running away to Miss Witch’s tower under the pretext that I had to deliver the herbs she’d asked me for.

I also helped out as much as I could, always keeping my guard up around the demon women. I tried my hand at every activity imaginable—farming, forestry, ranching, cargo transportation, babysitting, cleaning, teaching... I even fished and made salt in Miss Witch’s dungeon. While I wasn’t allowed to take on any highly specialized jobs or assist with the office work involving confidential matters, I did well in all the tasks I was given.

On my days off, I participated in the training sessions organized by the forest’s residents and spent time with the various demon tribes. This gave me the opportunity to learn a great deal about combat. I often trained with the werewolves, who specialized in assassination techniques and hand-to-hand combat, as well as the devils, who were masters of Dark Magic. I could feel myself growing much stronger than before. Yet I never managed to win a single mock duel against the forest’s veteran fighters, and I only defeated the novice warriors a little over half the time. I could have easily claimed that it was impossible to win against experienced fighters and been satisfied with that, but I refused to take the easy way out. Similarly, I didn’t feel any pride in winning against beginners. My goal was to become strong enough to hold my own against the vampire who’d cursed me. I channeled my pain and frustration at my own weakness into motivation, fully dedicating myself to my training, and eventually befriended my sparring partners.

And so, I spent my days in this beautiful, lush forest, surrounded by people who were good to me despite our differences. I didn’t know if it was thanks to Miss Witch’s influence or because of the blessing of the goddess Liriel, but the food and alcohol in this land were delicious. The clothes woven by the arachnes and Miss Witch’s maids, while plain at first glance, were of incredible quality, from the fabric to the stitching. The entire place looked like a small countryside village, but I never got bored being here. In particular, I was fascinated by the mythical beasts and spirits I caught sight of during my strolls in the woods.

Moreover, perhaps because Miss Witch let her people access her extensive book collection, the forest’s residents had come up with many sources of entertainment. The devils used to be itinerant entertainers, and they occasionally held little plays and musical performances to amuse the others, while the most dexterous demons created various sorts of board games.

“Will I spend the rest of my life here?”

My employer and my family lived in Mubad. I had received orders to investigate the forest, but because of my mana leak, I didn’t know when I’d be able to return to my homeland and report my findings. Sometimes, I wondered if those orders were actually an excuse to make me accept living here... Perhaps I could just forget about my mission and the vampire, and give up the idea of ever leaving the forest. Perhaps this would be the normal thing to do.

Over the course of my stay here, and after gathering and delivering so many different materials to Miss Witch, I started remembering their names and properties. I even helped the talking dragon living in this land shed his skin and brushed his scales. This was the kind of ridiculous tall tale one would expect to overhear at a tavern in the imperial capital! The dragon even gave me materials from the monsters he’d hunted and told me to make myself a weapon out of them. Miss Witch encouraged me to accept, and I accepted her offer to have a blacksmith she knew forge me a weapon from the gloom crow beak I’d received. In exchange, I put my back into helping with the fall harvest.

“Whew... I had no idea harvesting crops was such an ordeal,” I said, panting as I sat down in the shade of a tree for a little break.

“Good job, Clovis.”

“We came to help!”

Miss Witch and Miss Teto had come to check on us.

A dry smile curled on my lips as I looked up at them. “This is much heavier work than I expected.”

Miss Witch nodded. “You really have to put your lower body into it.”

I basically had to squat down to pull the vegetables from the ground, then gather them all and stand up again, only to repeat the process over and over. It was unexpectedly tough. I’d managed to survive the first few days through stamina and sheer willpower, but by the fifth day, my muscles were screaming in protest, and I found myself unconsciously patting my lower back every time I stood up. I watched in awe as the women of this land, who had seemed much weaker than I, managed to do all this without breaking a sweat.

Eyeing me with concern, Miss Witch came behind me and held a hand over my achy hips.

“I’ll use some magic to make it easier for you, okay? Heal. Refresh.”

“Oh? I feel much better all of a sudden. Thanks, Miss Witch.”

“No need to thank me. You’re basically doing my work for me. Also, it seems like you’ve been pushing yourself a little too hard, so keep resting for now.”

“Teto will do the harvesting in your stead!”

Miss Witch was the ruler of this land, so I didn’t think she had to visit every settlement like this. But during the harvest season, she apparently went to check on the forest’s residents and healed those who got hurt or sick doing farmwork. As for Miss Teto, she helped the demons with the harvest, pulling out the crops from the ground with incredible speed and nearly bottomless stamina.

“Here, here, here, here! Come on, everyone, just a little more!” she encouraged the farmers. “Then, it’ll be time for the harvest festival!”

“Yeaaah! The harvest festival!” the men roared, resuming their tasks at even greater speed.

“The harvest festival, huh? That sounds fun. Sorry, Miss Witch, but I don’t have time for a break. I’m going straight back to work.”

She’d told me to rest up, but I’d feel bad being the only one taking it easy while my friends toiled in the fields. Motivated by the promise of the harvest festival, I stood up and went to help them finish the work.

Chapter 14: The Fall Harvest Festival and the Mediation Job

The Witch’s Side

Now that the height of fall had passed and things were less hectic, we were able to hold the harvest festival. From sunrise to sunset, everyone who lived in the forest—men and women, children and elders—gathered to enjoy dishes made with the fall’s harvest.

It was in the midst of this celebration that a visitor came to the forest.

“Hello, Chise! I have come to party!” Elnea, the queen of the high elves, stepped out of the transfer gate connected to her forest.

“Ah, Miss Elnea! Welcome!” Teto exclaimed.

“How did you know about the harvest festival? I didn’t tell you the date,” I said, surprised.

“Well, now that the great barrier has fallen, spirits can freely enter your forest. So I asked my little friends to do some snooping,” Elnea replied, throwing out her ample chest with pride. What she hadn’t bothered to bring up was that she could only “snoop” like this because we let her, since she was a friend of ours. The spirits that were born from Teto’s bear golems ran interference on more hostile spirits looking to pry into our affairs.

“Well, you’ve come all this way, so go have fun,” I said.

“Many thanks, Chise. Rest assured—I have not come to eat and drink for free. I have brought you some souvenirs from my kingdom. You may share them with your people,” Elnea said before asking her spirits to dispense the presents she had prepared for us from the subspace she used for storage.

It was all different sorts of alcohol, dishes, and snacks. Beretta and the other maids went to distribute them among the forest’s folk.

“Well then, if you’ll excuse me, I am going to go enjoy my food with the Great Elder,” Elnea said, grabbing herself a plate and heading over to the dragon.

The sight of the beautiful high elf queen clad in her luxurious indigo-blue dress and expensive jewelry with an enormous dragon stood out even amid the festivities.

The forest’s folks warmly watched over the two immortal beings as they shared conversation and laughter. Joining the two of them sounded fun—I was also an immortal, after all—but I ultimately decided to spend the festivities chatting with the forest’s residents.

At some point, I spotted Clovis hanging out with the demons he had befriended during his practice sessions, and I went to say hi.

“Are you enjoying the festival?” I asked.

“Good food makes all the fatigue of the busy season go away!” Teto chirped.

“Oh, Miss Witch, Miss Teto. I am, thank you for asking,” he replied with a smile, before glancing at Elnea and the Great Elder, who stood out conspicuously among the crowd. “Is the elf who arrived earlier a resident of this land as well? I’ve never seen her before.”

“No. She learned that we were holding the harvest festival today and decided to join us.”

Teto nodded. “She comes from time to time! And she brought us lots of food and drink today!”

“I...see?” Clovis said, confused that we had a guest despite our entire land being surrounded by a Demon Den.

An awkward smile curled on my lips. I turned to the demons who had been drinking with Clovis.

“Can I borrow Clovis for a minute? There’s something I need to talk to him about.”

They nodded and happily sent him our way. Teto and I led him away from the festival grounds and turned back to face him.

“Thank you for your help with the fall harvest. As promised, we’ve come to deliver you this.”

“We just got it!”

I produced a wooden box from my magic bag and opened it. A single dagger rested inside.

“Oh, right. The gloom crow’s beak. Man, I was so busy, I completely forgot about this,” Clovis said with a chuckle.

He grabbed the dagger, took it from its sheath, and inspected the blade. The monster’s upper beak served as the core, while the lower beak had been broken into pieces and alloyed with metal and magic stones. As for the length and shape of the blade and the thickness of the handle, we’d used the weapon Clovis had been using at the training grounds for reference.

The dagger was, of course, black (since it had been made with gloom crow loot); given Clovis specialized in Dark Magic, I thought it was quite fitting. The beak was also incredibly sturdy, allowing the user to deliver powerful stabbing strikes.

After gazing at the dagger for a little while, Clovis put it back in its sheath and attached it to his belt. “It looks even better than I expected. Thank you so much.”

“Well, I told you it’d be your payment for helping us with the harvest,” I said. With that out of the way, I moved to the second order of business. “By the way, there’s something we’d like to ask you. Is now a good time?”

“Sure. What is it?”

I paused, then said, “Do you want to go home?”

There was a flicker in his golden eyes, and he suddenly seemed a little sad. After taking a deep breath, he opened his heart to us. “Your forest is gorgeous and very nice to live in. I have to do a lot of jobs I’m not used to, but the food is varied and good, and the residents are friendly, even though most of them are demons. I’ve come to think that it might not be such a bad idea to spend the rest of my life here. But...” He paused and turned towards the north, where the Mubad Empire lay. “My homeland might be cold and austere, but my parents and my superiors live there. That’s where I belong. Well, not that it matters, I suppose, since I can’t leave,” he said with a self-effacing chuckle.

I nodded, then said, “All right. Then, I have a new job for you. I’d like for you to act as a mediator between us and Mubad.”

“A mediator?” he echoed.

“Yes. The forest is surrounded by three nations, and we already have a good relationship with Ischea and Gald. The only one we’ve never talked to is Mubad—and we’d like you to help us break the ice.”

He seemed a little shaken by my request. “But I thought I couldn’t because of—”

I interrupted him by pulling a vial from my magic bag.

“What’s that?” he asked.

“A cure for your mana leak,” I replied.

“If you drink this, you won’t be sick anymore!” Teto added.

Clovis gasped at our words.

This was obviously the elixir I’d made before. But mentioning its name would only lead to complications, so I chose to keep that information to myself. However, Clovis hailed from Mubad, a nation that valued magic above all. He must’ve known there was no cure for a mana leak, so he was visibly shocked to see that I had somehow found one.

“It can be your payment if you agree to put us in contact with Mubad. What do you think?” I asked.

Clovis eventually recovered from his shock and put himself on guard. “What do you want from the empire, Miss Witch?”

While he wanted the cure for his mana leak, he would likely refuse to help us if he thought my demands would disadvantage his homeland.

“I want to define a clear border between our two nations, and for Mubad to recognize my dominion over the forest. In the future, I simply want to be able to trade with them.”

The first part was the same thing I had asked of Ischea and Gald. As for the second part, I just wanted to be able to barter with a town from the empire, like we did with Liebel and Darryl.

“We don’t believe we’ll be best of friends with Mubad just like that,” I added. “But we would like to gradually build relations with the nations bordering the forest.”

The tension in Clovis’s shoulders eased, and he smiled. “Understood. I accept your request.”

“Good. I’ll write a letter outlining our terms later, then.”

“You should drink the potion now, Clovis!” Teto suggested.

“All right...” He uncorked it with a little pop and downed the contents in one go.

When he was done, glowing mana spilled out of his body.

The forest’s residents caught sight of the scene, and they turned to look at us in silence. Despite the hustle and bustle of the festival, our surroundings were completely quiet. Eventually, the mana stopped overflowing from Clovis.

“It tastes a little strange,” he commented. “Like strong liquor and medicine. And yet, I could drink it all day.”

He rolled his shoulders and his neck, then inspected his body.

“So? Do you feel any different?” I asked.

“Did your mana leak go away?” Teto added.

“It feels like the fatigue and soreness from the harvest festival are gone. But because there’s so much mana flowing inside my body here, I can’t tell if mine is still leaking or not.”

“Is that so? Let me try something. Barrier! Mana Drain!”

I used my magic to create a containment zone around Clovis and absorbed all the mana inside. Feeling the mana concentration of the air gradually diminish, he braced himself. However, even when there was almost no mana left around, his didn’t spill out.

“It worked...” he whispered, a look of shock registering on his face.

“Congratulations, you’re cured. I’ll come to discuss the matter of Mubad again later, so you can go back to enjoying the harvest festival for now.”

“Lady Witch and Teto are going back too!” Teto added.

I dropped the barrier, and the two of us left to return to the party, leaving a dumbfounded Clovis behind. His friends all gathered around to congratulate him. They were overjoyed that their new friend, whom they’d spent six months getting to know, would be able to return home. They concealed their own sadness to see him leave by making the best of the harvest festival and creating memories that would last a lifetime.

The next day, when I went to see Clovis to discuss the new mission I’d given him, he greeted me with a pale face and a sluggish expression. “Miss Witch... I apologize, but can we postpone our meeting to another day? I’m very hungover.”

Humans weren’t as hardy as demons when it came to drinking, so if he’d tried to keep up with his friends’ pace, this was hardly surprising. Shaking my head in exasperation, I prescribed him a remarkably effective hangover remedy.

Chapter 15: Clovis Returns Home

A few days after the harvest festival, Clovis, who had now fully recovered from his mana leak, decided to go home to carry out the mission I had tasked him with. Teto, Beretta, and I were there to see him off.

“How are the clothes?” Beretta asked, her eyes scanning his traveling outfit, which she and the other maids had prepared.

“They’re great. They’ll keep me warm against the upcoming cold. Thank you, Miss Beretta.”

Knowing the weather would start getting colder in Mubad, Beretta had prepared a warm, long coat for him. The dagger crafted from the gloom crow’s beak peeked from the coat, hanging from his belt.

“Here! Teto’s prepared some snacks for you to eat on the road!” Teto said, handing him a bag full of hard candy and cereal bars with dried fruits mixed in, wrapped in oiled paper.

“Thank you, Miss Teto. I’ll make sure to enjoy these.”

Lastly, it was my turn. I handed him a single piece of paper. “This is the letter I need you to deliver. Send the reply to the adventurer’s guild—either the Darryl branch in Ischea, or the Vil branch in Gald.”

He carefully took the letter I’d written with Beretta’s help, as if it were something precious. “I promise to deliver it to His Imperial Majesty.”

This letter was merely our foot in the door with the empire. If we truly wanted to establish a connection, both parties would need to make efforts to meet the other halfway. The only issue was that, despite being the ruler of the forest, I wasn’t particularly good at political discussions. I would have to rely on Beretta’s exceptional calculation skills and intelligence, along with the support of the rest of the council.

“Ideally, we’ll exchange a few letters with Mubad, then establish a trade agreement,” I said.

“Though my help might not be worth much, I’ll do everything in my power to ensure that your hopes come true,” Clovis assured me. But then his expression darkened slightly. “Unfortunately, it might have to wait. My initial plan was to swing by my parents’ home to borrow a horse first, then head to the capital, but snow tends to bog down travel in the empire through the winter. I may not be able to deliver your letter until spring arrives.”

“That’s all right,” I reassured him. “Don’t try to be a hero and travel in the snow if it’s too dangerous. Your safety comes first.”

“Don’t do anything reckless! Slow and steady wins the race!” Teto added.

After all, I was immortal—it wasn’t a big deal if my letter was delayed by a season.

The look of concern on Clovis’s face morphed into a reassured smile.

When we were done, the residents of the forest, who’d been waiting for their moment, came to see Clovis off. The demons who’d helped him train offered him lighthearted goodbyes.

“Be careful out there!”

“Come back, okay?”

“Don’t forget to practice in Mubad!”

Meanwhile, the female-only demons who had their eyes set on Clovis tried to stop him from leaving.

“Cloviiis, don’t go!”

“We finally had a young man around, but I couldn’t even get a taste before you left!”

“We get so few chances to interact with men!”

“Don’t let him go, Lady Witch!”

Clovis’s face stiffened at their words, but he eventually managed to compose himself. With a polite bow, he said, “I’ve been much obliged to you all.”

“I’ll teleport us out of the forest now. Ready?” I asked.

He nodded with a grin. “Yes.”

“Let’s go!” Teto chirped, gluing herself to my side as she always did.

“Please be safe, Master, Lady Teto!” Beretta and the other maids said.

“Teleport!”

A light, floaty feeling enveloped us. A split second later, we’d arrived at our destination.

“That town over there... It’s Noct,” Clovis said, tears welling up in his eyes.

It was the town in the Mubad Empire closest to the forest.

“Are you all right?” I asked.

“Yes, I’m fine,” he replied after a brief pause.

“Be careful out there!” Teto said.

Clovis grabbed the bottom of his shirt and wiped his eyes with it, a bit more forcefully than necessary. Then, he began making his way towards the town of Noct in the distance.

For a while, Teto and I simply stood there, watching his retreating figure. Once he entered the town, he disappeared from view, and we tore our gazes away.

“Well then, let’s head back home, shall we?”

“Roger! We have to prepare lots of fun activities and yummy snacks for the next time Clovis comes to play in the forest!” Teto chirped.

I nodded.

Confident that the letter I had entrusted him would yield positive results, I teleported the two of us back to the mansion, where Beretta was awaiting our return.

Clovis’s Side

My dreams had finally come true. I was home. And not just in the empire, but in Noct, the town that housed the Dalite viscount’s mansion—my parents’ estate.

Having lost my identity papers, I used the money Miss Witch had given me to pay the toll at the gate and entered the town, where I headed straight for my parents’ home. The last time I’d been there, I hadn’t been human. I had jumped over the town’s outer walls in the middle of the night and sneaked all the way to the woods near their estate.

I couldn’t help but worry they wouldn’t let me come home. The last time I’d been here, the thing I’d become had frightened everyone on the estate, and although my parents had recognized me, I had still caused them a great deal of concern. They had responded to the letter I sent after Miss Witch lifted the curse, but the prospect of returning still knotted my stomach with anxiety.

When I reached the mansion, the soldier guarding the gate—whom I was acquainted with—stared at me in shock, his mouth agape. “Impossible... Young master Clovis?”

“Hiya,” I said, forcing a smile. It might have come off more like a grimace, though.

The next instant, the man dashed towards the entrance of the mansion. “I-It’s a miracle! The young master is home! Young master Clovis has returned!”

The estate’s servants swarmed out of the building in droves. Those who knew me celebrated my return, tears threatening to spill from their eyes. I noticed that the ones who had been afraid and pointed weapons at me during my last visit were all gone. When I asked what had happened, the butler told me that my parents had written them recommendation letters and helped them find jobs elsewhere, so that neither I nor they would feel uncomfortable upon my return home. That came as a bit of a relief to me.

My parents dashed out of the mansion, and I noticed they seemed a little worn, probably because of the worry I’d caused them. Their eyes met mine before they wrapped their arms around me.

“Welcome back, my boy!” my father said.

“We’re so sorry! You came to ask us for help, and we were no use to you at all!” my mother added.

My body instantly relaxed and I returned their embrace. “As I told you in my letter, the people who rescued me treated me well. They’ve entrusted me with an important document, so I will need to leave for the imperial capital soon.”

My parents loosened their hold.

“I see... Well, that can wait. For now, get some rest. We want to hear about everything that happened to you.”

I spent a few days in my childhood home for the first time in a long while. My parents provided me with new identification papers to replace the ones I’d lost when I’d been transformed, and I told them about everything I’d experienced these past few months.

I hadn’t spent much time at home since becoming a secret agent, but I appreciated anew how comfortable it felt. I truly was glad to be back.

Eventually, after making all the necessary arrangements, I was ready to depart for the imperial capital. I had intended to go alone, but my overprotective father insisted on sending a few of his knights to accompany me. We made good progress, riding our horses from one town to the next, and we managed to reach the imperial capital just before winter set in.

Once there, I contacted the secret services to inform them of my return. After celebrating my arrival, they ordered me to report to the imperial palace, which I did, bearing the letter Miss Witch had entrusted to me.

I was ushered into a confidential drawing room for an impromptu meeting with my superior, Lord Bern, the emperor’s grand chamberlain. However, when I saw the man who entered the room alongside him, I immediately dropped into a deep bow.

“Raise your head, Clovis Dalite.”

“Y-Yes...” I replied, doing as I was told.

As I lifted my gaze, I found myself face-to-face with the ruler of the Mubad Empire—His Majesty Emperor Dankfried.

Chapter 16: The Emperor of Mubad

Clovis’s Side

Because of its northerly climes, crops grew slowly in the Mubad Empire. During winter, the entire country was blanketed in snow, and monsters roamed the land. However, at some point in history, outstanding mages appeared in Mubad, turning it into a prosperous nation. For that reason, magic became a cornerstone of the empire.

But as time passed, the descendants of those mages found themselves struggling to find time to dedicate to the study of magic amid their education and other responsibilities as nobles. As a result, they were nowhere near as skilled as their ancestors had been. The empire’s focus gradually shifted from prowess with magic to sheer mana. The current ruler, Emperor Dankfried, was presently the person with the largest mana pool in the empire. Despite not needing to use his magic often, His Imperial Majesty was a self-disciplined man who consistently practiced his spells during his spare time, to ensure he could defend himself should the need arise.

With his long silver hair, sharp eyes, and well-defined features, the man radiated much intelligence but little to no warmth.

“You have gone through much trouble at our behest, Lord Clovis,” the emperor said, his eyes trained on me.

“I merely did my duty, Your Majesty,” I replied humbly, casting a glance at Lord Bern, the head of the empire’s secret services, silently pleading for his help.

The secret services were a branch of the empire’s chivalric order. Knights with a talent for stealth, investigation, and independent operations were offered an opportunity to work as secret agents for the empire. This meant that I was technically a knight as well. However, since the empire prioritized magic and mana above all else, arcane knights—who excelled in both swordsmanship and magic—and sorcerers capable of wielding powerful offensive spells were regarded as the elite, while soldiers and regular knights like myself were often seen as second-rate. For that reason, I was utterly baffled to hear the emperor acknowledge my efforts.

Lord Bern cleared his throat. “Hmm... Your Majesty, it seems that my subordinate is a little confused. I would suggest asking him to update us on the investigation we have tasked him with.”

The emperor nodded. “Clovis, please recount the circumstances of your disappearance. I wish to hear it directly from you, rather than in writing.”

“Yes, Your Majesty! As I mentioned in my letter, my investigation into the serial street attacks in the capital led me to an abandoned mansion where the perpetrator seemed to be hiding,” I began, observing their reactions. “There, I had an unfortunate encounter with a vampire—a woman with long, silver hair and crimson eyes.”

The sharp canines peeking from her mouth, her superhuman strength, and the fact that she had drunk my blood were irrefutable proof of her true nature as a vampire, a type of demon.

“After defeating me, she turned me into a monster and discarded me in a forest. After days of aimless wandering, I was eventually rescued by Miss Chise, the Witch of Creation, who lifted the curse and offered me shelter.”

The two of them nodded, and Lord Bern said, “I was surprised to receive a message from you engraved on a wooden board. But I’ve been wondering—why didn’t the vampire kill you? You know her true identity. Surely, she should’ve silenced you to protect herself.”

“She knew that, if I were to die, it would transmit my location to my fellow agents,” I replied. I hadn’t written that part in my letter.

The empire’s secret agents all had seals engraved on the back of their necks by the court magicians, designed to transmit their survival status and location to their comrades. In addition to being able to check that information with the corresponding magical device, if a secret agent were to die during a mission, the residual mana in their body would relay their position to the others. I believed the vampire hadn’t wanted throngs of soldiers to swarm her location after killing me, so she’d decided to turn me into a monster and ditch me in the woods instead.

“Have you discerned anything more about her since?” I asked.

“We dispatched a group of soldiers to the mansion you talked about in your message, but when they arrived, she was already gone,” Lord Bern replied.

“I see...”

It must’ve taken quite some time for the information to reach the emperor, so the vampire must’ve taken advantage of that window of opportunity to escape.

“Her goal is still unclear, but we can likely assume she attacked these innocent people to feed on them. We’ll continue searching for her and increase security in the city, but it’s possible she may have already left the country,” the emperor said with a sigh before settling his piercing gaze on me again. “Now, please give us your report about the Witch of Creation and the land she has claimed for herself.”

“Yes! Miss Chise lives in what the inhabitants of the land refer to as the ‘Witch of Creation’s Forest.’ For the sake of brevity, I will simply call it ‘the forest,’” I said as a preamble before disclosing everything I’d learned there:

Different races of demons peacefully cohabited in that land;

The forest was as large as a small country, and was dotted with countless enormous World Trees;

By contrast, the population of the forest was quite sparse, numbering under ten thousand inhabitants who all lived in small settlements;

Because the land was surrounded by a Demon Den, all the inhabitants were quite strong, particularly the demon warriors;

There were also many different species of mythical beasts living in the forest, as well as spirits and magical creatures, such as bear golems and mandragoras. They, too, coexisted with the forest’s residents;

A dragon capable of human speech, called the Great Elder, protected the land;

And so on and so forth. I had only lived in the forest for around six months, but I had seen and experienced so many things that I almost didn’t have enough time to talk about them all. It all sounded like a fairy tale, yet the emperor and Lord Bern’s expressions remained sharp and stiff.

When I was done, I presented the letter Miss Witch had entrusted to me to the emperor.

“Miss Witch asked me to give you this letter, Your Majesty. She wishes for you to acknowledge her ownership of the forest, and wishes to trade with the town nearest to the Demon Den.”

“The town nearest to the Demon Den?”

“Yes. That would be Noct, which is part of my family’s viscounty.”

The emperor closed his eyes, as if deep in thought, and exhaled slowly. “In the letter you wrote to us, you claimed to be suffering from a mana leak, which had rendered you unable to leave the Witch of Creation’s Forest. So how were you able to return?”

I straightened up my spine and told him the truth. “As compensation for taking this letter to you, Miss Witch gave me a remedy for my mana leak.”

For some reason, the emperor and the grand chamberlain cast down their eyes at my words, looking grave.

“What color was that remedy? How did it taste?” the emperor asked.

“If I remember correctly, it was a deep red color. As for the taste, it was like a medicinal liquor.”

The emperor let out a long, long sigh and looked up at the ceiling. “There is no remedy for mana leaks,” he muttered.

“Huh?”

“How long do you think we have researched that ailment? There is no remedy that only cures mana leaks.”

“Then what did Miss Witch give me?” I asked, confused.

“World Tree leaves. Unicorn horns. Mandragora extract. Wine enriched with mana. The blood of a powerful dragon. These are all ingredients used to create the panacea of legends—the elixir.”

A gasp escaped my lips, and I widened my eyes.

Miss Witch’s forest was teeming with those ingredients. Based on that fact, there was no doubt that she could make elixirs.

“Elixirs, huh? That sounds nice. I would love for us to have some,” the emperor muttered.

A wave of apprehension washed over me at his words, causing my pulse to quicken. Elixirs could cure any condition except for death, and royalty and nobility would do anything to get their hands on one. There had even been wars and massacres over these precious panaceas. Anxiety tightened around me like a vice as I began fearing that the emperor might be considering those options.

He must’ve noticed my turmoil, as he said, “Do not worry so much. I don’t intend to take the elixirs from the witch by force.”

“Y-Yes, Your Majesty.” I nodded, releasing the breath I’d been holding.

“When the barrier around the witch’s forest fell at the beginning of spring, some of my advisers did indeed suggest using that opportunity to invade her land.”

I almost spoke up at that unexpected revelation, but Lord Bern eyed me in warning, silently urging me to keep quiet, so I held my tongue.

“However, if what you claim is true, I believe it would be wiser to accept the witch’s proposal rather than make an enemy of her—an S-rank adventurer and the prophet of the goddesses—and her dragon friend.”

I immediately dropped into a bow. “Thank you so much, Your Majesty! Thank you for considering fostering a good relationship with Miss Witch!”

“Ischea and Gald already have a trade agreement with the witch, so we are lagging behind,” Emperor Dankfried said, matter-of-factly. “During the winter, we will begin exchanging letters with her to lay the groundwork for a formal agreement come spring. We shall make the necessary arrangements for that.”

I felt as if a weight had been lifted off my shoulders.

“You will now take the letter from the witch to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where you will assist them in scrutinizing the conditions she proposes and adjusting the terms as necessary.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

With my audience with the emperor concluded, I followed Lord Bern to the foreign affairs department in the imperial palace. As I walked down the hallway, I glanced out the window. Snow had begun to fall from the gloomy gray clouds hanging in the sky.

Winter had arrived, and it was shaping up to be a very busy one.

The Vampire’s Side

Let us turn back the clock a ways.

After cursing Clovis, the man who’d discovered her hideout, and ditching him in a forest, the vampire promptly left the capital of the Mubad Empire. Traveling exclusively at night for fear of the sun, she finally arrived at her secondary hideout.

“I’m home. I’ll be staying in the detached mansion for some time,” she declared as she entered the office of the man whose house she’d hijacked.

He clicked his tongue in annoyance and spat, “Why did you come back? Can’t you just disappear once and for all?”

The man didn’t actually work for her out of his own volition—he was bound to her by a subjugation spell, a type of Dark Magic of vampiric provenance. He was a nobleman, and the vampire was pretending to be a private sorcerer in his employ to explain her presence in his estate.

“I’m hungry. Do you have some blood for me?” she asked.

“Drink this, you monster!” the man said, taking a vial out of the magic bag that had been in his family for generations and throwing it at the vampire.

Being a nobleman from Mubad, he had been trained in the art of magic and could easily procure blood for nominal “research purposes.”

The vampire downed the blood in the vial and grimaced. “Disgusting. This is strictly gutter-rate.”

Based on the taste, she assumed it must’ve been animal blood, likely from livestock. The blood the nobleman provided for her was always of terrible quality. Perhaps he was doing it on purpose to spite her, since there wasn’t much else he could do to show his dissatisfaction.

“I’ll never evolve into a Daywalker if I keep drinking that swill.”

“Yeah, I thought you went to the capital looking for ‘good blood’ or whatever to evolve. Why did you come back so soon?” the man asked, glaring at the vampire, as if his feeble attempts at intimidation could trouble her.

“A secret agent from the empire found my hideout,” she replied.

“A secret agent?! You didn’t kill him, did you?!” the man exclaimed.

Killing a member of the empire’s secret services was basically treason. He wondered if he, too, would be subject to sanction if the truth came out that the vampire living under his roof had murdered one of their number.

But she shook her head. “Don’t be ridiculous. Of course not.”

“Oh. That’s...good.”

“I just turned him into a monster and dumped him in the woods. It’ll take about a year for the curse to wear off.”

She had done so to buy herself some time before the entire empire twigged to her presence and began hunting her. But while being turned into a monster might have seemed like nothing to a vampire with perennial youth and a tough body, a regular human could easily be killed in the wild, be it by a predator or another human. And if they managed to survive a year, they would be left aimlessly wandering with no clothes or weapons. It wasn’t much better than killing them outright.

The nobleman clutched his head in despair, fervently hoping that the secret agent would vanish before he could inform his superiors.

“Anyway, I’ll be staying here until things calm down in the capital.”

“And when will that be?”

“Considering how long it takes for humans to forget, I’d estimate ten years. Maybe even fifty.”

Fortunately, the nobleman’s estate lay beyond the reach of the capital’s investigations.

“Ugh, that blood really is vile. Get me better stuff next time.”

“How about you just...attack people, if you want better blood?” the man suggested, the disgust evident on his face.

The vampire’s lips curled into a smirk. “There are almost no villains left in your territory. I drank all of them dry. If regular people start disappearing too, people will start asking questions.”

“But you need blood, don’t you?” the man asked, as if to taunt her.

She snorted and pretended to be annoyed. “I won’t fall for that trick. You’re trying to bait me into attacking innocent people so that the capital will catch wind of me again.”

If she started to behave too recklessly in this quiet, peaceful place, it wouldn’t take long for people to realize something was up. That was why she’d set her sights on the capital in the first place—it was far enough from this place that no one would be able to make the connection. She had hoped to stay there far longer, sneakily drinking a little bit of blood from a variety of people, only going back to the nobleman’s residence once people were too on edge for her to remain in the city any longer. It truly was a shame that the secret agent had discovered her hideout. Then again, his blood had been delicious...

She sighed and muttered, “I really want to drink better blood.”

Oh well. Nothing good would come from standing there chatting with the man, so she made her way to the detached mansion to wait and watch and plan.

Chapter 17: Elixir Brewing Workshop and an Unexpected Medical Examination Request

Several days after Clovis’s return to the Mubad Empire, I rounded up all the potion makers from the forest in my research tower.

“Lady Witch? Why did you summon us all here?” a lamia asked, stepping forward as the spokesperson for the group.

I looked at the women one by one and replied, “I haven’t said it before, but I’ve been researching a recipe for the elixir since early spring.”

“‘The elixir’?”

“What’s that?”

“Oh, I’ve heard about it! It’s that amazing panacea that often appears in children’s stories and fairy tales!”

The potion makers exchanged incredulous looks, their skepticism evident. Teto stepped forward, her chest puffed with pride, and declared, “Lady Witch has successfully created an elixir!”

The women all oohed and aahed at her words. They had noticed I’d spent a lot of time in the mixing room, but none of them had any idea what I’d been up to.

“I want to teach you how to make the elixir as well. That’s why I summoned you all here today,” I said.

“It will be very helpful if you can make it too!” Teto added.

I wanted the potion makers to be able to brew the elixir by themselves. That way, they would be able to cure all sorts of illnesses and wounds even while I was away.

“No way, we can’t! We don’t have the skills to make the panacea of legends!” the lamia from earlier exclaimed, and the other women nodded to show their agreement.

“I’ve written a recipe for it, and I’m positive you’ll be able to master it with some practice. What do you say?” I asked, distributing pieces of paper with the instructions for the elixir to all of them. They even featured illustrations for each step.

The women looked at the documents and immediately seemed a little more hopeful, some muttering they might actually be able to do this.

“I’ll make all the ingredients for you with my Creation Magic until I run out of mana for the day,” I said.

“We also gathered a bunch of materials you’ll need!” Teto added.

“All right... We’ll do our best,” one of the potion makers said.

They seemed a little anxious, but were willing to give it a try.

I started my little elixir-brewing course with the cure-all. The women were all used to making potions, so it only took them one or two tries to make stable samples. And with the help of my magical vacuum chamber, they all successfully managed to turn it into powder.

Next up were the sacred wine and the regenerative toxin. With the former requiring a long period of fermentation and the latter being found in the blood of powerful dragons, I decided that I wouldn’t make the potion makers collect the ingredients themselves. Instead, I had prepared the necessary materials in advance for them to mix the cure-all powders they’d made into them. They did just that before imbuing their preparations with mana to turn them into elixirs.

However...

“Whew... This is so hard. But I did it!” one of them announced, panting.

“It costs so much mana... I don’t have anywhere near enough!” another complained.

“How can you do it without even breaking a sweat, Lady Witch? Ugh, I’m gonna puke!” a third asked.

The potion makers were all covered in sweat and out of breath. Some were even on the verge of vomiting.

As Teto and I distributed mana potions to the little group, I assessed the situation.

“Are you okay?” Teto asked each of the women.

“Imbuing the potion with your mana was a little tiring, wasn’t it?” I said.

It cost over 50,000 MP to turn the potion into an elixir. Needless to say, that was a lot. Moreover, blending all three components together apparently required some very precise mana manipulation. Because of this, the potion makers could only try their hand at brewing elixir once a day before collapsing.

“I see... That also explains why elixirs are so rare,” I muttered.

Not only were the ingredients incredibly rare and difficult to find, but one could fail at the very last step if they didn’t blend everything properly. It made sense that the recipe fell into disuse because of how impractical it was. The potion makers I had gathered here today were all skilled in their craft, yet only about five percent of them had succeeded in creating an elixir—and I quickly realized that none of those results were stable. The success rate was even lower than I thought.

“What are you going to do, Lady Witch?” Teto asked me.

“For now, I’ll keep making ingredients with my magic for them to train with. We’ll hold practice sessions every few days and hope the potion makers become a little better with each attempt.”

My plan was to have the women focus on honing their mana manipulation skills for several consecutive days before attempting to create a single elixir. After that, we would repeat the process over and over. I was pretty sure that having them imbue the elixir with mana would help grow their mana pools as well. By repeating that training cycle and providing the women with mana crystals, their success rate would gradually improve, I assumed.

And so, while I waited for the potion makers to recuperate over the next few days, I utilized my Creation Magic to produce more sacred wine and dragon blood that Teto stored in the preservation shelves for me.

One day, as I was teaching mana control to the now fully rested potion makers, Beretta came to see us at the tower.

“Master, may I have some of your time?”

Teto and I turned towards the door.

“Beretta? What’s wrong?”

“Did something happen?”

She walked up to us and said, “We have just received an urgent message from Lady Selene through the communication device. Her husband, Lord Vaise, has fallen ill, and she would like you to go examine him.”

“Got it. We’ll get ready and head over.”

“We’ll bring him some fruits as a get-well gift!” Teto chirped.

I apologized to the potion makers for cutting our lesson short and headed back to the mansion with Teto to pick some fruits to bring to Vaise. Once we were ready to go, I used my own communication device to call Selene.

“Selene? Can you hear me?”

“Mom, big sis Teto.” Selene’s face appeared in the crystal. “I’m sorry for contacting you all of a sudden.”

She was almost a hundred years old at this point, yet she looked barely half her age. Her extensive mana pool had slowed down her aging, but, not wanting to rest on her laurels, she also used makeup and the skin-care goods we produced in the forest to make herself seem even younger. The only detail that hinted at the passage of time was the presence of white strands in her beautiful emerald-green hair, which looked almost like highlights. However, her face had a gaunt and weary look, likely caused by the stress of her husband’s declining health.

“I was wondering if you could come take a look at him in the near future...”

“No need to explain yourself, Selene. We’re going to teleport over to you right now. Where should we land?”

“Should we just go straight to your home?” Teto added.

“At the gate, then, please. It would cause an uproar if you just appeared inside all of a sudden. I’m heading out to get you as soon as you get there.”

“Got it. We’re coming now. Teleport!”

I teleported us according to Selene’s instructions and arrived—not at the big Liebel margrave estate, but in front of a cozy mansion in the middle of the city. Selene and Vaise had already retired from their duties and were now living out their days in the secondary residence they’d built in Darryl.

“Whoa! What the hell? Someone just appeared out of thin air!” the gatekeeper exclaimed.

But as soon as he recognized us, he quickly dropped into a polite bow.

“L-Lady Chise! Lady Teto! What brings you here today?” he asked, a little tense.

We had teleported over so quickly that Selene hadn’t had time to inform him of our arrival.

“Selene asked us to come check on her husband’s health. Do you mind if we wait here until she comes to get us?”

“Please try to keep that information to yourself,” he said in a hushed voice. “The master has been protecting Liebel this entire time. If word gets out that he’s ill, it might give certain people bad ideas.”

Teto and I nodded. We had only been informed of Vaise’s declining health because of our close relationship with Liebel.

We had some time to kill before Selene arrived, so Teto took the fruit basket we’d prepared for Vaise out of her magic bag and handed a mandarin to the gatekeeper. “Oh, and we’ve brought fruits! Here, have one!”

“I appreciate your kindness, but I’m not allowed to accept gifts,” the gatekeeper said. “Some might interpret it as bribery, and if there were poison in the fruit, it could hinder my ability to perform my duties.”

A dejected look crossed Teto’s face at his refusal. She peeled the mandarin right there and then, and ate it herself.

“It’s all right, Teto. We’ll give the fruits to the servants, and they’ll distribute them to the others after inspecting them for poison,” I said.

Powerful nobles all had servants who could perform appraisal spells to check food items for poison, or magic tools that served a similar purpose. Once the fruits were deemed safe, the gatekeeper would likely agree to have some.

We stood there, exchanging pleasantries with the gatekeeper for a bit, until a servant came to fetch us.

“Lady Chise, Lady Teto, we’re very sorry for the wait. This way, please.”

He led us into the mansion and guided us to the room where Selene and Vaise were waiting.

Chapter 18: The Way the Margrave’s Ancestor Chose to End His Life

We followed the servant to a room on the first floor. He knocked on the door and announced us to Selene and her husband. “Master, Madam, I have brought your guests to see you.”

“Come in,” Selene’s voice came from inside.

The servant opened the door, and we stepped into a room with a large window that overlooked the garden. The sun’s rays streamed in, creating a very pleasant atmosphere. A large bed was positioned against one of the walls, where Vaise sat upright. Selene was seated in a chair beside her husband.

“Mom, big sis. Thank you for coming,” she said.

Vaise was seized by a fit of coughing, but he eventually greeted us as well. “I’m sorry you had to see me like this.”

Vaise used to be the lord of this region and had been a knight for a time before that. As such, he’d always been rather muscular. As he got older, deep wrinkles etched themselves into his skin, and he was now sporting a splendid beard. His hair had lost its color, but he was still an attractive man. It was hard to believe he was in his nineties.

However, I couldn’t help but notice that his limbs were much thinner than before, and his coughing worried me.

“Don’t apologize. I’m happy you chose to ask me for help,” I assured him, forcing a smile on my face.

“We brought you fruits as a get-well present! Eat lots and get better, okay?” Teto said, handing the basket of fruits to the servant from earlier.

He gave us a polite bow before leaving the room, leaving only the four of us inside.

“Well then, do you mind if I take a look at you?” I asked Vaise.

“Please, mom,” Selene said.

“When did you start feeling sick?”

A look of worry crossed Selene’s face, and Vaise gently put his hand on hers, giving it a reassuring squeeze. He nodded as if to tell her it was all right. “I went to visit a village in the summer, and overexerted myself a little fighting a monster that had tried to attack my people. I may have retired, but I’ve never neglected my sword training,” Vaise explained with a tired smile.

“He collapsed after running out of mana, so I gave him a potion and healed him as best I could, but his condition kept deteriorating...” Selene supplied.

“Did you manage to fight off the monster?” I asked.

“Yes. Fortunately, there were no casualties or injuries among the villagers. But I overdid it a little when I saw it attack my people. Back when I was in my prime, I could easily handle groups of C-rank monsters without any issues, so I didn’t expect to exhaust so much mana fighting just one,” Vaise explained. Yet he was smiling, as if to say he didn’t regret what he’d done.

“I see. Well then, I’m going to touch you to examine you, all right? Analyze.”

I channeled some of my mana into his body to inspect it. After about a minute of searching through every inch of it, I let out a small sigh.

“Running out of mana threw off the balance of your body. You’re showing signs of senile decay.”

“I suspected as much,” Vaise replied calmly upon hearing my diagnosis.

Selene seemed to have expected this result too, but her shoulders still slumped. Perhaps she had hoped for a different outcome.

“A lot of older knights suddenly fall ill and eventually die after using too much mana at once. I assume this must be the case with me,” Vaise said.

He must’ve had an inkling of what was happening to him.

Humans’ bodily functions were powered by their own mana. This was particularly remarkable in individuals with a large mana pool and good mana control, as they aged much more slowly than regular people and were usually in better health. However, even then, most humans’ bodies eventually deteriorated, gradually requiring more mana to function properly. Once an individual’s own mana was no longer enough to sustain their body, its balance would be disturbed, causing them to age rapidly.

“Was my healing magic not enough to help him?” Selene asked.

When I’d examined Vaise’s body, I saw that Selene had used restoration spells on him, as well as Lesser Bless to reinforce his body.

Seeing her frustration at not being able to cure him, Vaise gently told her, “I don’t have as much mana as you. We both knew I would pass before you, and it seems that the time has come.”

“If you had let your bodyguards take care of that monster instead of using up your own mana, you...”

A weak smile curled on Vaise’s lips. “I may have retired from my position as margrave, but I never retired from being a knight. When the beast struck, all my old instincts took hold; the mind might have been more prudent, but the flesh had already made its own decisions. My people are no longer in jeopardy; I regret nothing.”

“You’re right.” Selene nodded.

“Lady Witch, Lady Witch, if we use the you-know-what, would Vaise get better?” Teto whispered to me while Vaise and Selene were locked in their own world.

“He would,” I replied.

They must’ve overheard us, as they turned to look in our direction. “Mom? Big sis? What is the ‘you-know-what’?”

“The elixir. If we used one on Vaise, it would reverse the symptoms of his aging and extend his life,” I explained.

With that, I produced a single bottle of the panacea from my magic bag.

The husband-and-wife pair looked at it with shock, their eyes widening.

“An elixir... Where did you...?” Vaise muttered, his voice trembling, while Selene covered her mouth in disbelief.

“Lady Witch just made it herself!” Teto preened.

“I don’t mind giving one to you, since you’re family,” I said.

But Vaise shook his head. “An elixir would give me a few more years at best. I’d prefer it if you used it on a hopeful young person instead of me.”

Vaise had accepted that it was his time to go with unwavering nobility.

“Besides, as a subject of Ischea, I can’t accept an elixir without the royal family’s approval.”

I paused, then nodded. “I didn’t take your circumstances into account. I’m sorry.”

“Don’t apologize. I’m thankful that you suggested it to us. And I will admit, it is a tempting offer, but I prefer to comply with the will of Mother Nature and cherish my last few days in this world. Besides, as a knight, I never expected that I’d know the luxury of dying in my own bed,” he added, a playful glint in his eyes as he flashed us a smile.

But then he schooled his expression back into that of a nobleman again. Though he was now an old man, his sharp demeanor could still put anyone he talked to on edge. It was impressive, really.

“Miss Chise, may I tell the royal family that you have found a way to create elixirs?” he asked, changing the topic.

“The royal family? Why?”

A grave expression crossed his face. “The nearby nobles have started obstructing our trade with the forest.”

“What do you mean?” Teto asked.

“The Liebel Margravate has grown significantly stronger due to our relationship with you. However, some have chosen to meddle with our trade. I’m not sure if their goal is to weaken us or if they simply want their share of the spoils.”

I furrowed my brow. “That’s...”

“It has happened before,” Selene muttered awkwardly. “But during the time of my generation and my son’s, we could rely on our relationship with the royal family to keep them in check. However, our grandson isn’t particularly close to the current king.”

During the reign of Selene’s father and her half brother, they had provided protection for her and Vaise, as they were family. But the current margrave—their grandson, Wilburd—was nothing more than a distant relative of the royal family, and Selene herself had retired from noble society. As a result, their ties to the royal family had weakened, and the king stopped looking after Liebel as much.

“Wilburd is in the process of passing his title to his own son, Aster, but he’s been complaining that things haven’t been progressing as smoothly as he hoped because of the other nobles’ interference,” Vaise explained.

“I can’t believe little Wilburd has already been head of the family for so long,” I muttered.

“They grow up so fast!” Teto added.

Wilburd was already over fifty years old now, and his own son, Aster, had begun taking over more and more of his duties. Yet it felt like just yesterday he had been a teenager. Teto was right; we hadn’t seen him in quite some time, and now he was an adult with children of his own. As for his grandson, Aster, we had only met him once or twice. Our relationship with Selene’s family, much like their ties to the royal family, had gradually shifted over the years to become purely formal. That realization made me feel a little sad. However, perhaps it was for the best for the forest; the more impersonal our relationship with Liebel became, the healthier it would be for our trade agreement.

Vaise cleared his throat, pulling me out of my thoughts. “We’ve strayed a bit off-topic, but I assume you don’t want other nobles meddling in our affairs either, am I right?”

“Exactly. I don’t want to get dragged into anything troublesome.”

“Lady Witch doesn’t want anyone to get in the way of what she wants to do!” Teto added.

Vaise finally got to the point. “I believe the elixir could be the key to rebuilding our relationship with the royal family, which should deter the other nobles from interfering in our affairs.”

“I see.”

Once the king was aware, he would likely want the royal family to be included in our trade relationship, which would allow Liebel to reinforce their ties with them again and rid us of the problem.

“You really thought things through, huh? Thank you,” I said.

“Teto doesn’t really understand, but thanks!”

All of a sudden, the sound of footsteps echoed from the hallway outside the room. They stopped in front of the door, and someone knocked.

“Gweat-gwandfather, how awe you feeling?”

The door opened a crack, and a little boy of around five poked his head into the room, accompanied by a white fenrir. The grave expression on Vaise’s face melted away, replaced by a broad smile as he beckoned the little boy forward. “Thank you for visiting me, Ludo. Come here.”

The adorable little boy ran over to Vaise and Selene, wrapping his arms around each of them in big hugs. The fenrir, meanwhile, bowed its head in greeting before settling down on the floor.

As Selene and Vaise gently patted the boy’s head, he eventually caught sight of us and stared, his wide eyes filled with curiosity.

“Who’s that little cutie?” I asked.

“Ludomir. He’s Eleneriel’s son.”

“I see. He must take after his father, then. And I assume this fenrir is the one Elene used to bring everywhere?”

Selene’s granddaughter, Elene, had always been a bit of a tomboy and a huge fan of mythical beasts. She’d often ride on the backs of the griffins and pegasuses who flew to the forest for trade, and would spend hours just running around in the woods. As the daughter of a noble family, she’d been expected to marry for political gain, but as Vaise had pointed out before, Liebel had become too powerful through our exchanges. As a result, marrying her off would’ve disrupted the balance between the noble families, so her family had deliberately chosen to let her do whatever she wanted with her life.

She’d decided to become an adventurer, taking one of the fenrirs she’d grown close to in the forest as her partner in crime. She steadily built her reputation and climbed through the ranks before eventually marrying a man from her party in her late twenties. He was ultimately dubbed a knight of Liebel, and the margrave offered them a baronial title along with a small estate. They went on to have three children, with Ludomir being the youngest of the bunch. Her fenrir took on the role of an older brother to the children, watching over them.

Ludomir wasn’t the only one visiting Selene and Vaise; Aster’s children—their great-great-grandchildren—often came to see them, as the main family estate was just a short distance away. Caitlin, Wilburd and Elene’s sister, had married a marquis living in a far-off region, which made her visits less frequent. Nevertheless, Selene and Vaise were able to enjoy an idyllic retirement, surrounded by their grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and great-great-grandchildren.

“Who awe you, misses?” Ludo asked us.

“This is my mom, the witch Chise, and my big sis Teto. I told you many stories about them, remember?”

“Stowies... You’we my witch gweat-gweat-gwandma?” he asked, looking up at us in curiosity.

I couldn’t help but let out a chuckle at his slightly garbled speech.

“Hi, Ludo. You can just call me ‘grandma witch,’ if you want.”

“And Teto is Teto! Nice to meet you!”

A broad grin broke on the little boy’s face.

After that, Selene prepared some tea for all of us, and we enjoyed some of the fruits we’d brought to Vaise.

A few months later, Vaise was found dead in his bed, a peaceful look on his face. It seemed that he hadn’t suffered in his last moments. Right before passing, he’d used his communication device to tell the royal family of Ischea about the elixir, performing his last duty as a vassal of the kingdom.

Teto and I attended his funeral. He was mourned by all as the family’s patriarch before being sent to rest with Loriel, the Goddess of the Underworld.

Chapter 19: Winter Negotiations

Several months after Clovis returned home, we received a letter from the Mubad Empire.

“Master, the representatives we sent on the trading expedition have brought this letter back to us.”

“Thanks, Beretta. It seems that Clovis made it home safely and was able to deliver our message to the emperor,” I said, accepting the letter.

“What does it say?” Teto asked, plopping down next to me, ready to listen.

I chuckled at her antics, opened the envelope, and scanned the contents of the letter.

“Let’s see... It seems that the emperor is willing to acknowledge our ownership of the forest if we pay a fee. He also agreed to let us exchange with the Dalite viscounty near the border of the Demon Den. From what he wrote, he wants us to finalize the details of the contract through letters over the winter and enter into proper negotiations come spring.”

I reached the end of the letter and frowned.

“Lastly, he said that he would like us to sell elixirs to Mubad. Well, I figured this would happen.”

“Did he guess what the medicine we gave to Clovis was?” Teto asked.

“Probably. But the emperor of Mubad definitely isn’t the only one who wants to get his hands on an elixir.”

Right before Vaise passed away, he told the king of Ischea that we had figured out a way to make the panacea of legends, and we’d told Gald—our third trade partner—as well. As a result, both royal families had approached us, wondering if we could provide them with elixirs.

“Hmm... I think it’d be better to negotiate with all three nations at once rather than individually. What do you think, Beretta?” I asked.

“I have researched the past market value of elixirs and estimated our yearly potential production output. I suggest using this data as a starting point for our negotiations with the three nations.”

“Got it. In that case, can I leave the gist of the negotiations to you?” I asked.

“Of course.” She nodded, then moved on to the next point she wanted to discuss. “They are also hoping we could increase the scale of our exchanges.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“Like, they want us to bring things to the towns more often?” Teto added.

Noticing our confusion, Beretta explained, “Not quite. They would like us to open our own directly managed stores in Vil and Darryl.”

Our trading team only visited those towns once a month, which limited the opportunities for the people of Ischea and Gald to purchase our products. As a result, they requested that we establish a proper store in each town to give them more frequent access to our wares.

“I want demons to be able to live among humans eventually, so this might actually be a timely offer.”

I didn’t want to force the current residents of the forest to live here forever. Demons relied on mana to survive, so once the concentration of it in the nearby regions increased, they would most likely be able to thrive in the outside world. As for the humans who lived in the forest, I assumed some of them would eventually want to venture out as well. I had actually been contemplating the idea of opening up stores in the towns near the Demon Den’s border to prepare them for life among others for some time. And with the goddess’s barrier gone and the difference in the mana density of the forest and the surrounding regions beginning to equalize, this felt like the perfect moment.

However, it would require much preparation, from selecting the ideal location for our store and constructing it to choosing employees from among the forest’s residents and providing them with proper training. We would also need to discuss how to time opening a store in Mubad.

“So many things could go wrong with this,” I said.

“For now, I suggest we focus on the issues we can anticipate. I will also prepare to hold lectures on ethics in human societies,” Beretta replied.

“Thanks. It seems like a lot of work, but I’m counting on you.”

With that, I shifted my focus back to the negotiations with our three neighbors. We held countless meetings with the representatives of each race living in the forest to discuss the specifics of our demands. Incorporating all of their input and continually adjusting our proposals based on the requests of my people and the three nations proved to be a complex undertaking. As such, I decided to send communication devices to our neighbors to make the communication smoother. This allowed us to hold four-way meetings, which sped things up drastically.

We had many conversations about these negotiations.

“Master, there is something I would like to discuss with you regarding our trade agreement with the Mubad Empire,” Beretta told me one day.

“What is it?” I asked.

“Is there an issue?” Teto added.

“Yes. The Mubad Empire does not have anything to trade with us, so it is likely that we will experience a one-sided influx of capital.”

The north was a region poor in resources, so Mubad invested heavily in training mages to compensate for this deficiency. As such, one of the few things that they had to offer was the magic items crafted by those mages, but we really didn’t need them. If we started trading with them, the imbalance would cause the empire’s wealth to flow one-sidedly into the forest.

“That’s a problem,” Teto said. “If there’s nothing to buy, we can’t go shopping!”

“What about their works of art?” I asked.

I had more money than I knew what to do with, so I had taken to collecting art pieces and folk crafts just for the sake of spending it. If I bought the ones from Mubad for more than market value, it should help the money circulate.

Well, that was my idea, but...

“Their funds would still fall short. You would need to buy even more artworks to make up the difference, and that would have other consequences.”

“You’re right. We need to find a way to make the money circulate, but how?”

I racked my brain, trying to come up with a solution, and was eventually struck with an idea: Why not use this opportunity to fix one of the problems faced by the forest’s residents?

“Some of the demons were complaining that processing the harvests was too much work. What if we had the people of Mubad handle that for them?” I proposed.

“Outsourcing the processing tasks...” Beretta muttered, a pensive look crossing her face.

I nodded. Fermented condiments like miso and soy sauce, bacon and sausages made with monster meat, smoked food, pickled and canned crops, dried ingredients—all of these needed to be processed. The magical vacuum chamber I’d created while working on the elixir had significantly sped up the drying of fruits, but there were still many other tasks to tackle, which amounted to quite a significant workload.

“They said that they were very, very busy before winter, with the festivals and everything,” Teto added.

The forest’s residents were forced to sacrifice rest time to complete everything on their to-do lists, and that was an issue.

“The maids have taught the residents how to re-create things based on your knowledge of your previous life, but they will indeed be unable to come up with new innovations if their processing capacity is overloaded.”

“Exactly. That’s why I think we should outsource our less important tasks to the people of Mubad.”

We would transport the raw materials to the empire and have them process them and deliver the finished products to us. Then, they’d be able to use the money earned from this arrangement to buy our wares. That’d make life easier for the forest’s residents, all while providing more jobs to the people of Mubad and give the empire more funds to trade with us. It was a win-win situation for everyone involved.

“Oh, but they’ll need factories to process the food and warehouses to store the final product,” I mused.

“I shall draft a preliminary estimation of the costs and suggest it to the empire,” Beretta said.

If they accepted, we’d need to teach them how to process the goods too... One thing was for sure: we would be busy.

We went through many discussions during the winter, but we still needed to iron out the details about the elixir. For now, we decided to head to the Dalite Viscounty come spring to sign a preliminary trade agreement with Mubad, as well as a contract acknowledging my ownership of the forest.

Chapter 20: Recognition of Ownership and Trade with the Dalite Viscounty

“Today’s the day we sign our contracts with Mubad, isn’t it?” I asked Beretta.

She nodded. “Yes. I have made all of the necessary preparations.”

The empire required me to pay a fee to officially acknowledge my ownership of the forest. Initially, they demanded five thousand large golds (approximately five billion yen), but Beretta negotiated them down to half that amount and secured an agreement that allowed us to pay in kind. We decided to give them fifteen hundred large golds and cover the rest with a selection of mythical beast materials and rare herbs from the forest.

“Teto is anxious!”

“Me too. I’m curious to see what kind of person the viscount of Dalite is.”

So far, we had mostly dealt with the emperor of Mubad and the civil officials in charge of drafting contracts, so we had never even talked to the viscount.

“Clovis said he’d act as mediator between both parties, so I’m not too worried,” I added.

He was the one who’d delivered my letter to the emperor, so he would be there for the signing of the agreement, along with a representative sent by the imperial family.

“Let’s go,” I announced.

As it was our first time meeting, we decided to hold the signing ceremony in Mubad. Teto, Beretta, and I hopped on the flying carpet, while our trading team rode on griffins and pegasuses. We crossed over the Demon Den that separated us from Mubad and made our way to the town where we had taken Clovis when he left the forest. A group of people stood in a row, awaiting our arrival.

“Miss Witch, Miss Teto! This way!” Clovis raised his voice and waved at us from below.

Teto poked her head over the edge of the flying carpet. “Ah, it’s Clovis!” she exclaimed.

“Prepare to descend, everyone! We’ll be landing a little farther away!” I announced to our group.

“Yes, Lady Witch!” the people riding the mythical beasts nodded, before doing as they were told.

Clovis made his way towards us, accompanied by the emperor’s representative and the grandmaster of Mubad’s Adventurer’s Guild, who had come to serve as a neutral witness to the signing of the contract.

“Long time no see, Miss Witch,” Clovis said.

“Hi, Clovis. You look well. Thank you for delivering my letter to the emperor.”

As the two of us exchanged pleasantries, Teto scanned the surroundings as if she were searching for something. “Hmm... Is Mister Dalite not there?” she asked.

Now that she mentioned it, I didn’t see him either. I assumed he would be there, but it was just Clovis and the emperor’s representative.

As I looked around, Clovis scratched the back of his head awkwardly. “Right... Let me introduce myself one more time. I’m Clovis Dalite, the heir of the viscount of Dalite. I’ll be your contact in the empire for your trade activities.”

My eyes shot wide open in shock, and Teto’s jaw hit the ground. I had more or less guessed that he hailed from a noble family, but I never imagined he was from the region closest to the forest...

There was one thing that still perplexed me.

“Wait, but aren’t you a secret agent of the empire? Why are you working in that kind of organization if you’re a viscount’s heir?”

I was pretty sure he should have been learning how to manage his family’s domain, not working for the nation’s secret services.

“Everyone in Mubad is required to work somewhere in the civil service for a few years after graduating from school,” he explained.

The empire placed a strong emphasis on magical education and allocated a substantial portion of its budget to support it. Consequently, graduates from subsidized schools were required to serve the nation for a period after completing their studies. This allowed the empire to secure elite talent for its public services, while the eldest sons of noble families could hone their skills and socialize with their peers before eventually inheriting their family titles. For the second sons, younger siblings, and commoners, this gave them access to excellent job opportunities.

“I just finished my service, so I’ve used this opportunity to return to my parents’ domain and prepare for succeeding my father,” he said.

“I see.”

“We have installed a table over there. Let’s go sit down and proceed with the negotiations, shall we?”

Clovis led us to a table placed outside and handed me the written acknowledgment of my ownership of the forest for my review. I scanned the documents, which bore the emperor’s sign and official seal, and nodded. “This looks fine.”

I made Beretta double-check it to ensure everything was in order. When she was done, I signed my own name at the bottom of the contract. The emperor’s representative, the guild’s grandmaster, and I each received a copy for safekeeping.

“Can we proceed to the payment?” the representative asked.

“Yeah. I have the money, and they have the goods,” I said, pointing at the demons before producing a leather pouch full of coins out of my magic bag.

The demons did the same, taking the materials I had entrusted to them out of their own magic bags. The civil officials who’d accompanied the representative counted the mountain of coins to make sure that the amounts matched the agreed terms, then checked each material we’d given them to confirm they were indeed worth one thousand large golds.

“Your transportation capacity is incredible, Miss Witch,” Clovis commented, awestruck. “And those materials...”

“We have brought them as samples. Mythical beast materials are rare, so we can’t exactly offer many of them. We’ll mostly sell potions, foodstuffs, and monster loot from the Demon Den, along with wooden crafts and clothing made by the forest’s residents,” I explained.

Mythical beast materials accounted for the bulk of our trading profits, but since our main goal here was to foster a good relationship with the empire, selling things like medicine and food was more important. As we sat there, chitchatting while the civil officials calculated the value of our offerings, Clovis suddenly turned serious.

“Miss Witch, thank you so much for giving work to our viscounty.”

“Oh, you mean the factories? These won’t be built for quite some time yet, will they?”

“They won’t, but our territory will benefit greatly from them. I truly am glad.”

We had decided to prioritize constructing stores in Ischea and Gald, as they were our oldest trading partners.

For the Ischea branch, we’d decided to staff it with mechanoids, as they looked every bit like humans. Some had married and gone on to have children, who were now adults.

In contrast, Gald was home to various beastman races, which we believed would make them more open-minded. Therefore, we decided to send demons to staff our future shop there. However, I still had concerns about them standing out too much, so I stipulated that any candidate must have mastered the Humanchange skill.

As for Mubad, since our trade relationship was still in its early stages, we decided to hold off on opening a store there just yet. We did, however, plan on using the money we made from trading with them to buy some land and eventually build a store there, along with some factories, granaries, and factory dormitories for the workers, to outsource part of our production to them along the line.

The civil officials eventually finished counting the money and calculating the value of the materials we brought.

“Thank you so much. We have received the requested amount of money, so this officially marks the start of our relationship as trade partners,” Clovis said.

“Thanks. We look forward to working with you from next month onward.”

“We’ll come too if we feel like it!” Teto chirped.

Clovis smiled awkwardly and nodded.

The emperor’s representative turned to face him. “For having finalized this contract, His Imperial Majesty has decided to elevate your rank from viscount to count.”

“Th-Thank you very much.”

“We shall hold an official ceremony at a later date. Be sure to prepare accordingly.”

Clovis chuckled weakly. “I will.”

“I still can’t believe you’re actually from the Dalite family. Either way, congratulations.”

“Congrats!”

His smile grew even more feeble. “Thank you... But now that I’m a count, I’m going to need to brush up on my etiquette and go through a bunch of marriage interviews.”

As a count, his manners needed to be flawless. Moreover, since his house was now our point of contact with Mubad, he would need to marry a woman to form a strong political alliance to deter the other families from meddling in his affairs. Apparently, the emperor himself would be choosing his future bride. This was a bit of a shame, especially considering how difficult his life had been already with the monster transformation and all, but I hoped he would overcome this challenge as well.

Chapter 21: Invited to an Auction

Having secured a trade agreement with Clovis’s viscounty—pardon me, county—and with the emperor of Mubad officially acknowledging our ownership of the forest, we were now an independent nation in the eyes of all three of our neighbors. Not that it caused any big change in our lives or anything, but we at least didn’t need to worry about them trying to invade us.

Our first goods exchange with the Dalite county went just fine, even though we were both still trying to find our footing. I hoped we could engage in more discussions in the future and perhaps increase the volume of our exchanges.

We also began holding semiregular meetings with our three neighbors through our communication devices.

“Are you ready, Master?” Beretta asked me on the day of one such meeting.

“I am.”

“Teto will keep quiet during the discussion!”

“I shall power up the device, then.”

Beretta did just that, and the silhouettes of three seated men appeared on the other side of the crystal. The first one had blond hair, blue eyes, and an extravagant outfit—the king of Ischea. Beside him was a muscular lionman with red hair as vivid as the sun that connected to his sideburns and his beard, making it look like a mane: the beast king of Gald. Our last interlocutor was the emperor of Mubad, a slender human man with long silver hair, sharp eyes brimming with intelligence, and a handsome yet aloof appearance. I’d already seen all of them countless times through our communication crystal during our many meetings where we discussed the terms of the elixir trade.

“Lady Witch, my wife and daughters have requested that you stock your future branch shop in our kingdom with a wide variety of beauty products,” the king of Ischea requested right off the bat.

“Gah ha ha ha! As for us, we’d love all sorts of different potions,” Gald’s king chimed in. “We’ve become much better at mass-producing them, but we can’t seem to make enough. Oh, and could you let a handful of those guys who always let us spar with them stay in Gald permanently?”

“Can we really make demands of Lady Witch during such an important meeting...?” the emperor of Mubad whispered, visibly confused.

I grimaced at their antics, while Beretta cleared her throat. “We would like to conclude our agreement regarding our sale of the elixirs.”

Now that we had finalized our agreements with Mubad, all three nations stood on equal footing, and we were now able to proceed with our trade of the elixirs.

“Let me read through the conditions we have all agreed on to make sure we’re all on the same page,” I said.

These were the terms of our prospective agreement:

The king of each nation would have the right to buy up to three elixirs a year;

We would sell them for two hundred large golds—less than the lowest market value, which currently stood at three hundred large golds;

They would have to make an appointment with us and come to the forest themselves to collect the elixirs;

They were strictly forbidden from attempting to invade the forest;

If we discovered that one of them had aggressive intent towards us, we would reduce the number of elixirs they were allowed to purchase to one and add the other two to the maximum allocation for the nations that weren’t scheming to attack us.

If all three nations tried to attack us during the same year, they would not be allowed to purchase elixirs from us the following year.

I could go on for ages about the fine details, but this was the gist of it. The first half was the guidelines for elixir trade, while the second half was there to protect the forest, the only suitable site at present for their manufacture. We would punish those who tried to invade us and reward the nations that respected the rules. By punishing the bellicose nations and rewarding the peaceful ones, we could hopefully deter them from interfering with the forest.

Once I was done reviewing the conditions we had agreed on, the king of Ischea spoke up. “All three of us agree to these terms. There doesn’t seem to be any issues with them.”

“Are you sure?” I asked, eyeing him with suspicion. “Did none of your nobles oppose the agreement?”

I was certain that there were individuals among their ranks who believed that attacking us and seizing our resources would be far more advantageous to them than engaging in trade and signing contracts.

“Some do indeed believe that we are better off setting aside the question of diplomacy entirely, yes,” the king of Ischea replied calmly.

“I knew it.”

“But! They lost interest in pursuing such avenues once I leaned on them properly. I warned them that if any noble dares to attack you unprovoked, we will ask them for compensation for making us lose our purchasing rights to the elixirs, and bring them to ruin.”

That was quite cruel now, wasn’t it?

The king of Gald spoke up next. “We’re also doing everything we can to keep the meatheads in check, but some still resist. We hope you can be a little lenient if push comes to shove.”

“We won’t treat small groups trying to attack us as acts of invasion, don’t worry. They’re not much different from bandits and poachers. But if Gald should ever leverage them to sabotage us, we will issue a warning,” I said.

We would ask the multi-eyed demons to question these groups, as it was their specialty, and immediately know their intentions. I said as much to the king of Gald, and in his words: “Ooh. Scary.”

“Mubad has its share of war hawks as well. They claim that, since we never had a relationship until now, we should just invade the forest,” the emperor of Mubad said.

“Is that so? Will you punish those who try to attack us, like the king of Ischea intends to do?”

“Naturally. Besides, I personally believe that invading your territory would be unwise.”

“Really? Why?” I asked.

His expression sharp as ever, the emperor explained, “The point of an invasion is to seize land, people, knowledge, and assets. Even if we were to succeed in conquering the forest, you could easily use your magic to teleport your people, infrastructure, and assets away, especially seeing as we would struggle to navigate the land. We would end up with less than half of a remotely desirable return on the necessary investment.”

He added that, if we were to seek asylum in another nation, it would benefit the country in question, which obviously wasn’t something Mubad wanted.

“Besides, I have to admit that I am scared of facing divine retribution for attacking the land you, the goddess Liriel’s prophet, calls home. And I must confess, I have no desire to invite the contempt of the ancient dragon dwelling in your lands.”

Sheepish smiles appeared on the faces of the other two as they nodded in agreement with the emperor’s words.

“Noted. If you all agree, may we finalize the agreement?”

“Yes, everything seems acceptable on our end. However, if I may suggest, what do you think about offering an elixir in one of our auctions before signing the contracts?” the emperor of Mubad said.

“Why?” I asked, confused by his unexpected proposal.

“Some remain skeptical about whether the elixirs would genuinely benefit our nation. Additionally, certain nobles likely believe that as long as we pay indemnities to you, you would overlook any acts of aggression on our part, even if they are technically forbidden by our agreement.”

“I see. So you want to show the people how much elixirs go for at auctions.”

All nations organized auctions in cooperation with the different guilds in their territory. I had such a close relationship with the adventurer’s guild because of all the rare monster loot and dungeon items I’d put up for auction through them over the years. Other guilds also participated; for instance, the blacksmith’s guild contributed magic swords crafted by renowned artisans, while nobles relied on the commerce guild to sell their old belongings and jewelry. As for the buyers, they were mostly royalty and titled nobility, as well as rich merchants and highly ranked adventurers.

By selling an elixir at an auction, it would make people realize just how valuable they were, and show those contemplating the idea of attacking us just how much they would need to pay us as reparation. Most of them would also stop complaining once they realized that we were willing to sell our elixirs for significantly below market value.

The kings of Gald and Ischea immediately objected.

“Ahem. I agree with the emperor of Ischea’s suggestion. Making people aware of the value of the elixir is a good idea. However, is there a specific need to put it up for auction in Mubad?”

“I was thinking the same thing. You’re trying to sneak another elixir into your empire, aren’t you? That’s not fair.”

“Humph. Then how about you participate in the auction and try to win that elixir for yourselves?”

As I watched them bicker, annoyed, Teto suddenly chimed in with a suggestion, “If you’re all doing auctions, then we can just bring elixirs to all three of them!”

The three rulers immediately stopped arguing, struck dumb at her proposal.

“Entering a single elixir in each auction would indeed be the fairest way to achieve our objective,” Beretta said.

“Then it’s settled,” I replied. “We’ll put an elixir for sale in all three of your auctions. When do you want us to do it?”

“What about the summer auction?” the emperor of Mubad suggested. “We would love to have you there to witness the lucky winner.”

“Hey, you’re trying to steal a march on us again,” the king of Ischea argued again. “If you go, you should come to ours too, Lady Witch.”

“Then come to Gald too! While you’re at it, don’t hesitate to bid on whatever catches your fancy to bring some money into our country,” the king of Gald said without an ounce of shame.

Apparently, all three auctions would be happening at the same time, so I wouldn’t be able to attend all of them.

I hesitated a bit before replying, “Hmm... I’ve never been to Mubad before, so I’m thinking I’ll do some sightseeing there and pop by the auction. I’ll attend one in Ischea and Gald another time.”

“I see...” both rulers said dejectedly.

“But if something catches my eye in your catalogs, I might ask you to bid on it for me,” I added.

This seemed to cheer them up.

“All right, so I’ll attend the auction in Mubad in the summer; then, come fall, we’ll officially sign the elixir trade agreement. Does that sound all right with you?”

“No objection here,” the king of Ischea said.

“Yup, sounds good to me,” the beast king added.

“We shall make a grand announcement concerning the elixir’s availability for sale at our auction. I will leave the matter of your accommodation to Lord Clovis, and he will be the one showing you around as well. I hope you look forward to it.”

With the meeting over, I cut the call and, letting out a long sigh, leaned against the backrest of my chair.

“An auction in Mubad, huh? I wonder what will be up for sale,” I muttered.

“Teto is super excited to do some sightseeing!”

“Summertime is quite nice in the north. I believe we will find the escape from the heat quite welcome,” Beretta added.

Just like Teto, I was looking forward to our next travels.

Chapter 22: En Route to the Imperial Capital

With everything settled, I went ahead and made the elixirs I would be listing at the auctions. When I was done, I entrusted the final products to each country’s adventurer’s guild, who appraised them before taking them to their respective venues.

Months passed, and the time of our trip to Mubad finally arrived.

“Lady Witch, what will we be doing in the empire?” Teto asked me.

“We’ll first regroup with Clovis, then travel together to the capital, and stay there until the end of the auction,” I told her.

The auction was scheduled to take place about a month from now. I planned on teleporting us back to the forest when everything was done. We would be spending about a month in the capital, minus the travel time. Beretta was joining us this time, carrying a magic bag disguised as a travel bag.

“Master, what are our plans in the capital?” she asked me.

“I haven’t decided yet, but I assume we’ll be doing sightseeing, for the most part.”

I just wanted to sample the local food, visit the capital’s famous places, and look for novel, uncommon things. If we could, I would love to take day trips outside the capital as well.

“I’ve brought a travel handbook for Mubad, so I was thinking of using it as a reference to find spots I’m interested in,” I added.

“Teto wants to go eat yummy food!”

I smiled at her usual gluttony and nodded.

“Understood,” Beretta said. “Let us depart, then.”

“Yep. Ready? Teleport!”

I teleported us right outside the little town of Noct in Dalite County, Clovis’s family territory. He was already waiting for us there with a couple of carriages to take us to the capital.

A middle-aged man stood beside him as well. “It is an honor to meet you, Miss Witch. My name is Rex. I am Clovis’s father. As the patriarch of House Dalite, I wish to express my gratitude to you for saving my son,” he said, bowing to us.

“No need to thank us. If anything, we owe a lot to Clovis. I kept making him help me with my work while he was in the forest,” I said.

“He collected materials for us to make medicine!” Teto added.

Clovis fidgeted awkwardly as we talked about him. “Thanks to you, our family’s domain is now a county. It would be a disgrace if we weren’t to repay the favor. We would like to invite you to stay in our town house in the capital until the auction,” he said.

“Are you sure?” I asked after a pause.

“Yes. My father agrees. Besides, it would be difficult for you to find lodgings during the auction period.”

Having received permission to stay in Clovis’s family’s town house in the capital, we began preparing for the trip.

“Miss Witch, please use this carriage,” a knight in the service of House Dalite offered.

“Ah, no need. We have our own,” I replied, taking a house-on-wheels and a horse golem out of my magic bag.

Clovis, his father, and the knights and servants who would be accompanying us to the capital all goggled at it, gobsmacked. Having gotten used to seeing all sorts of strange things in the forest, Clovis regained his composure before the others.

“You truly are full of surprises, Miss Witch. Come on, everyone, snap out of it! We’re going to the capital!”

Clovis climbed into one of the carriages, while the servants settled into the other, and our little procession set off towards the imperial capital. We traveled from town to town without complaint. Each night, we stopped at inns along the way, where we enjoyed our first tastes of the local cuisine, which I savored with delight. Beretta diligently learned the recipes of each dish we tried and engaged in many discussions with the Dalite family’s cook.

Teto and I enjoyed strolling through the quaint towns, searching for interesting trinkets to buy. Once we returned to our house-on-wheels—much larger inside than it appeared from the outside—I would inspect our finds and use my communication device to check on the state of the forest.

We arrived at the Dalite family’s town house in the imperial capital sooner than expected, about a week after we departed.

“So this is the capital of Mubad, huh?” I commented.

“The buildings all have pointy roofs!” Teto said.

“I believe it must be to prevent snow from piling up on the roofs during winter,” Beretta suggested.

I couldn’t help but voice my wonder. It was so different from Ischea and Gald.

“I have to report to the palace,” Clovis told us once we arrived, before setting off to inform the emperor of our arrival. We were important guests of Mubad, after all. “I’ll show you around the capital from tomorrow onward.”

“Thanks, Clovis,” I said.

“Teto is looking forward to it!” Teto chirped, while Beretta lowered her head to Clovis lightly to thank him.

And so it was decided that we would be in House Dalite’s care until the day of the auction.

The Vampire’s Side

Having sneaked out of the capital, the vampire spent her days at the estate of the noble she had subjugated in utter boredom.

“I’d love to drink some better blood.” She sighed.

“If you’re bored, how about you get the hell out of here and go drain some monsters?” the noble, who had come to see her in the detached mansion, suggested.

“You know we vampires can’t travel far. I’d need to plan out where I’d spend the daytime.”

The man clicked his tongue. “If only you could just burn in the sunlight,” he spat, as rude as always. “Anyway, did you take care of that job the civil official hired you for?”

“Yes, yes. I put everything over there,” the vampire said, pointing at a box full of blue potions. “Insect repellent, as promised. A sprinkle of it on the fields and the pests won’t be able to eat the crops.”

“Humph. You’re at least good for something,” the noble said, picking up the box.

The vampire might have forced him into servitude and was freeloading in his home, but she had attempted to break his mind forcefully. As a mage in his service—albeit in name only—she frequently acted in ways that benefited his domain. He didn’t have full control of his body because of her influence, yet she was also the reason his territory was thriving. That dichotomy infuriated him to no end.

Perhaps she knew how he felt; perhaps she didn’t. Regardless, she flung yet another unabashed demand at him. “I would love some good blood as a reward for a job well done.”

“You’re mooching off of me, yet you still have the audacity to ask for more? How shameless!” He paused, then added, his tone full of venom, “How about you take a look at the catalog for this season’s auction? That way, you can drool over all that delicious blood and think about how hungry you are.”

With that, he threw the catalog in question on the floor in front of her.

The vampire didn’t tell him off for his rudeness. She forced him to play the role of a responsible lord in public, so the least she could do was allow him to relieve his stress somewhat.

“Good idea. I might be able to get my hands on something yummy at the auction,” she said, picking up the catalog and flipping through the pages. “Perhaps they’ll even have rare monster blood this time.”

Vampires mostly drank people’s blood for sustenance, but they could also consume monster and animal blood to enhance their powers. However, as they couldn’t be outside in the sunlight, it was nearly impossible for them to harvest monster blood. As such, she had no choice but to enlist the help of others and buy monster blood from them, as she had done many times in the past.

As she scanned the auction’s item listings, her eyes stopped on a particular entry. “...An elixir?!” she gasped.

“Oh, right. It’s the featured lot this time. What’s the big deal?”

“What do you mean, what’s the big deal? It’s an elixir we’re talking about!” she exclaimed.

The noble eyed her with suspicion. She was never this excited about anything.

“One of the ingredients in the elixir is blood from a powerful dragon,” she explained. “There’s only a little bit of it, but still! If I could drink an elixir, it would bring me one step closer to becoming a Daywalker!”

If she reached that stage, all her weaknesses would vanish in an instant—her aversion to the sun included. She would no longer need to drink foul blood or wait for others to forget her misdeeds.

“When will the auction take place?” she asked the noble, her chest swelling with desire.

The noble didn’t reply at first. He hated to see her get her way.

“I asked you a question,” she said, her voice dropping an octave. “When will the auction take place?”

The spell laced in her words made a wave of agony crash through the man’s body. “Ugh... I-In one month,” he said, groaning in pain.

“Gather as much money as you can until then! We’ll win that elixir!” the vampire ordered in a cheerful tone.

“You’ll pay for this, you monster.”

The vampire controlled the man to make him work as hard as possible in the hopes of accumulating enough coins to buy the elixir. Going back to the capital was a risky move, as people were more vigilant now, but she fully intended on making a return on her investment.

But the noble under her control wouldn’t just do as she said and obediently gather the money for her.

She had established specific rules when she’d bound him: He couldn’t reveal her true nature as a vampire, had to avoid suspicious behavior, and was forbidden from acting violently towards others—all perfectly reasonable demands. Among her regulations was the requirement that he properly redistribute tax revenues to his people. Previously, he had squandered his personal wealth and his domain’s budget on his lavish lifestyle. Now, he was no longer permitted to waste funds as he had before. It was annoying, but right now, it was working in his favor. The vampire could only use his own money at the auction. By allocating portions of his wealth to his domain, family, and the necessary expenses of his estate—per the vampire’s rules—he could diminish the budget she would have at the auction. As such, she wouldn’t be able to get her hands on the prize she coveted so much.

This was the only flicker of rebellion he could manage under her control.

Chapter 23: The Turbulent Auction Begins

Teto, Beretta, and I spent most of our days as guests of the Dalite family doing some sightseeing around Mubad. Clovis had agreed to show us around the capital, but I made sure to tell him I didn’t want guards following us around; I hoped we could tour the city as if we were commoners. To comply with my demands, Beretta changed from her highly conspicuous maid dress into a more casual outfit, and the four of us set out into the streets of Mubad’s imperial capital. Some of our destinations included:

Restaurants that served traditional food from the empire;

A lake on the outskirts of the city that supplied it with water and also served as a fishing spot;

A bunch of shops, including some that sold folk crafts and, of course, bookstores;

The adventurer’s guild, where we took on a few easy quests to kill time and earn some pocket money;

The marketplace, where we bought ingredients to cook under the guidance of the Dalite family’s personal chef, and so on and so forth.

We had so much fun that the month went by in the blink of an eye, and the day of the auction was finally upon us.

“What do you think of that outfit, Master?”

“Why can’t I just wear the same thing as usual?” I groaned.

“The auction has a dress code.”

Despite the auction being held at night, she had started getting Teto and me ready in the afternoon. Her magic bag was full of outfits the maids had made for me, and she had picked a fancy-looking dress for me to wear for the auction. Teto was dressed in a pantsuit, as she would be playing the part of my bodyguard, while Beretta was in her usual maid uniform. I was jealous that she got to wear her everyday outfit while I wasn’t allowed to.

“You’re so cute, Lady Witch!” Teto chirped when I got changed.

“Thanks, Teto. You look very stylish.”

She usually wore shorts, and the slacks made her look more mature than usual. I couldn’t help but chuckle at the way her face softened when I praised her. No matter what she wore, Teto was still Teto.

In the early evening, when we were all ready, we climbed into the Dalite family carriage Clovis had arranged for us and made our way to the auction. When we arrived, Teto hopped out of the vehicle and held out a hand to help me down. “Teto will escort you tonight, Lady Witch! Teto was told she had to say so!” she declared, a proud look on her face.

“Thank you, Teto.”

I accepted her hand and climbed out of the carriage. After that, we regrouped with Clovis, who led us to the auction hall. We took our seats in the box on the second floor—which the emperor had kindly secured for us—and waited for the night’s event to begin.

The Vampire’s Side

Meanwhile, the vampire had just arrived at the auction hall. Her thrall had headed to his own box first, and the vampire had waited for the sun to set completely before heading to the venue. She climbed out of the carriage, clad in a white dress and a mantle to shield her from the sun. A veil attached to her wide-brimmed white hat obscured her features, yet no one batted an eye at her odd attire. Being close to a lake, the imperial capital was a popular summer retreat for the nobility, and it was common to see ladies in similar outfits hoping to conceal their identities.

The vampire showed the ticket the noble had secured for her to the staff at the doors and went to join her companion, who was waiting for her in his box on the second floor, his arms crossed over his chest.

He sniffed and shot her a glare. “You’re late.”

“I found you, so why do you care? Besides, the elixir is the last lot of the auction. There’s no need to be so impatient,” she retorted, leisurely taking a seat and looking down at the stage. “So? How much money do you have for the elixir?”

“Eight hundred large golds,” the noble replied.

She was well aware that he had allotted the maximum budget he could without attracting her ire to his domain and estate. Fortunately, she carried her own stack of coins in her magic bag.

“I have five hundred, meaning our budget is thirteen hundred large golds.”

“I looked into past auctions, and the most an elixir has ever gone for is eight hundred large gold,” the noble said.

This meant it was highly likely the vampire would win the elixir that night—though the noble would have vastly preferred if she didn’t. That way he wouldn’t have to spend his own money on her.

“What will you do if you don’t win it, though? Will you wait for the next opportunity?” he asked.

He really hoped she would just give up altogether. But then he saw the corner of her lips, which peeked out from behind the veil, tug upward in a daring smirk.

“I’ll just steal it from the winner.”

The man had wondered why she’d come to the auction herself, instead of sending someone else to bid for her. Whatever she did, the man prayed that it wouldn’t cause him any trouble.

The auction eventually started, and the first lot was brought to the stage.

Chapter 24: Flourishing Culture and Dying Culture

“Ladies and gentlemen, the auction will now begin. Our first lot is...”

The auctioneer’s voice echoed through the hall as he introduced the first item, using a voice-amplifying device. Participants began bidding, and we watched, captivated, as the item’s price kept rising.

“Lady Witch, what are they doing?” Teto asked me.

“Items at an auction have a base value, and the people in the audience compete by bidding higher sums,” I explained.

The auctioneer brought down his gavel, and the first lot of the night was officially sold. He announced the number of the bidder who won and the final amount the item went for, and the crowd erupted in applause. Then, the next lot was brought to the stage.

“Huh? Why are they not giving the man his prize?” Teto asked.

“Because the auction isn’t over yet. They sell all the lots first and have people pay for them at the end.”

As we watched the lots being sold one after the other, Clovis shared some gossip with us about the auction’s participants.

Number 15, he said, hailed from some noble family and was interested in this-and-that, so he bid on that item.

Meanwhile, number 240, the foster son of a marquis, had his sights set on a particular prize he hoped to gift to his foster father to win his favor.

Number 47, who lost his bidding war, had only bid on that item because he considered number 88, the one who won it, his rival.

Number 57 likely only had about eighty large coins, so he probably wouldn’t be able to win any other lot tonight.

Being a former secret agent of the empire, Clovis had dirt on nearly all the auction’s participants. Our experience was made all the more interesting by his comments, which added a side of human drama to the event.

“By the way, um, is there a lot you’re interested in, Miss Witch?” he asked.

I pointed at a handful of things in the item catalog. “I like art pieces, antiques, and old books, and there are a few listed tonight. But I want to see them first before deciding if I want to bid on them.”

We had set our budget for the auction at fifty large golds, or fifty million yen. It might have seemed low compared to the other participants, but the items I wanted weren’t particularly expensive, so I figured we’d be fine.

“Lady Witch, it’s almost time for that thing you want!” Teto exclaimed.

Indeed, the book I was interested in had just been brought to the stage. It was a massive, ornate tome called Fleeting Snow in the Imperial Capital.

“You want that book?” Clovis asked, seemingly a little confused. “If I remember correctly, it’s a popular novel from two hundred years ago. But I’m pretty sure you can buy it at any bookstore, even nowadays.”

That’s right; the book I wanted was a best-selling novel from Mubad. Clovis didn’t seem to think it was worth being sold at an auction, though.

“Well, it is a beautiful book,” he conceded.

“That’s not why I want it. The true value of this book lies in the quality of its lettering, which was done by Mr. Rochel Bencer,” I explained. “Rochel made a living copying books, and his handwriting was absolutely gorgeous. Beautiful, easy-to-read letters are works of art in their own right, after all.”

Because each letter was hand-drawn, the skill of a transcriber was visible through every letter. Most copyists simply slavishly imitated the books they were tasked with, one after the other, but highly skilled transcribers were often hired by nobles to reproduce books and write official documents in exchange for a substantial amount of money. This was just how valuable beautiful lettering was, and some transcribers even became celebrities. Mr. Rochel was one such person.

“You can compare his writing to another transcriber’s and savor the difference. This is the purpose of that book.”

Seeing me so uncharacteristically passionate about a topic, Clovis seemed all the more confused.

“Besides, the profession of transcriber might disappear soon,” I added.

Ever since I taught the Church of the Five Goddesses how to manufacture paper, they had been able to produce books much more cheaply. However, transcribers weren’t able to keep up with the demand. As such, people had started researching ways to mass-produce books, such as woodblock and letterpress printing, and these were slowly becoming more and more popular. As such, books copied by transcribers threatened to disappear from the next generation onward.

“Anyway, Beretta? I’m counting on you.”

“Yes, Master.”

Looking as calm as ever, she began bidding on Mr. Rochel’s book for me. There were only three participants interested in the book, myself included. But all three of us knew the true value of that book, and we refused to back down.

Eventually...

“Number 98 gets this lot for seventy-four golds!”

The book had started at ten gold coins, and ended up costing us over seven times that amount. The crowd erupted in cheers. After that, we bid on a few more of the art pieces and antiques I was interested in. We gave up halfway through for some of them, thinking it’d be wiser to save our money for later, and ended up placing the highest bid on three items, including Mr. Rochel’s book.

Having run out of money and without anything else catching our interest, we watched the rest of the auction with a leisurely detachment. Each lot was more valuable than the last, and the audience grew more excited with every item brought to the block. The selections truly ran the gamut, from magic swords and armor to magic tools, works of art, antiques, monster loot and taxidermy specimens, title deeds, skill orbs, and more.

“Some of these have been crafted with materials from the forest,” I commented.

Teto and Beretta had noticed it too.

“Oh, look! That staff has a unicorn horn in it!” Teto exclaimed.

“The stone at the end has been made by combining carbuncle gems,” Beretta added.

The unicorn horn had been cut into small pieces and reinforced with mythril. As for the catalyst at the top of the staff, it was a compound gem made out of the gems that fell out of the carbuncles’ foreheads. It was a work of art, and the price soared before our eyes.

“What is he doing here?” I asked.

“Your Majesty... Why are you even here?” Clovis muttered.

The winner was none other than the emperor of Mubad himself, who’d also claimed a box seat.

The participants pretended not to have noticed his presence, but I could see them trembling slightly with excitement.

“I’ll pretend I didn’t see him either,” I said.

The lots sold one after the other, and at last, it was time for the auction’s showpiece: the elixir.

Chapter 25: Who Will Get the Elixir?

The auction’s staff carefully brought the elixir we had listed to the stage.

“The elixir,” the auctioneer proclaimed, “is a true panacea with the ability to cure any ailment. It can save you from fatal diseases, regrow lost limbs, dispel poisons and curses, and restore anyone to perfect health.”

The participants grew increasingly intrigued as they listened to his speech.

“Ladies and gentlemen, the crimson panacea: the elixir! Starting at two hundred large golds!”

A frenzied bidding war ensued.

“Three hundred large golds!”

“Four hundred!”

“450!”

“480!”

The higher the price soared, the more participants abandoned their bids, leaving only two contenders for the elixir.

“723 large golds for number 123! 724 for number 24!”

One of them was a man on the first floor. He relentlessly bid on the elixir, a look of desperation on his face. His opponent was a nobleman sitting in a box on the second floor, accompanied by a woman in a long, white dress. His face was grim as he continued bidding, only increasing the price by a single large gold at a time. I hadn’t heard either of their bids called during the rest of the auction, so I assumed that their focus had been solely on the elixir from the very beginning.

“They’re not giving up, huh? I wonder how far they’ll go,” I commented.

Clovis supplied me with some details about the two contenders. “Number 123 is the head of the Fortis Company, a famous megaguild from Mubad.”

“Why does he want the elixir, do you think?” I asked.

I surmised that he was either planning to sell it for even more profit or that he was sick and was looking for a cure. Alternatively, he might have wanted to gift it to a powerful noble to form an alliance with them.

“I believe it must be for his daughter,” Clovis told me. “She’s sick. I’m assuming he’s trying to get his hands on the elixir to save her.”

“I see. Then what about number 24?”

“That’s the marquis of Bozredt. I don’t believe that the woman beside him is his wife, though...”

The woman in the white dress had a veil covering her face.

“What kind of person is he?” I asked.

“The House of Bozredt holds one of the empire’s western domains. They have successfully reclaimed the Kingdom of Krista, which was destroyed during the last major stampede.”

“Wow. They seem like a very put-together house,” I said.

Clovis nodded. “They are. I’ve heard that the current marquis lived a life of excess and debauchery before assuming his title, but once he did, he proved to be an even more capable lord than his father.”

“What an intriguing background,” I replied.

A debauched nobleman turning into a perfect lord, huh? That sounded like something you’d read in a story.

Beretta seemed to have felt something odd about him. “What cause does he have to covet the elixir? He has not bid on any other item since the beginning of the auction.”

“I assume that’s the only item he’s interested in. Maybe someone close to him is sick?” I surmised.

“If they are, I haven’t heard a word about it during my time in the secret services,” Clovis said. “Maybe the woman with him is the one who needs the elixir, and he’s bidding in her stead.”

He may have been attempting to get the elixir for a noble from another country with whom he had familial ties. It was entirely possible that the woman in the white dress was one of his relatives from abroad.

The price of the elixir had kept rising slowly during our conversation—871 large golds, 872, 873... It had already gone way past the highest sum an elixir had been sold for. Everyone in the audience watched the two men’s bidding war with bated breath, anxious to see who would get their hands on the panacea.

“One thousand large golds!” the president of the Fortis Company announced in a resonant voice. He must’ve grown tired of waiting.

The Bozredt marquis’s face paled, an air of despair surrounding him, as if he were on the brink of ruin. Seeing his reaction, all eyes in the crowd turned to the president of the Fortis Company, convinced it was over and that the marquis wouldn’t make another bid.

“Eleven hundred large golds,” a woman’s voice resonated through the auction hall, breaking the silence.

She hadn’t spoken loudly, but her words rang clear to everyone present. The one who had spoken was none other than the woman in the white dress sitting beside the Bozredt marquis. It seemed that she had decided to continue the bidding war in his stead.

A commotion ran through the hall, and a look of despair appeared on the president of the Fortis Company’s face. “Grr...” he groaned.

“Number 123, what will you do? Will you raise the bid?” the auctioneer asked.

The man on the first floor gritted his teeth and weakly shook his head from side to side. Meanwhile, the marquis of Bozredt sat in a daze, looking royally burned out. In contrast, the woman in the white dress was grinning broadly behind her veil, the corners of her lips peeking out from behind the mesh. She seemed ecstatic. In her joy, she accidentally released a puff of her mana, which she had kept reined in so far, causing the veil to lift briefly, revealing silver hair, red eyes, and a provocative smirk. The audience’s gazes were glued onto her, including Clovis’s, whose eyes widened in shock.

“Ladies and gentlemen, our auction has reached its conclusion. Successful bidders, please make your way to the conference rooms to finalize your purcha—”

“You! What are you doing here, vampire?!” Clovis’s yell interrupted the auctioneer’s speech, his anger plain in his tone.

His eyes were still riveted to the woman in the white dress. Without a moment of hesitation, he materialized a whip with Dark Magic and tried to restrain the woman. She effortlessly deflected it with her bare hands, sending her wide-brimmed hat tumbling off to reveal her face. With long, beautiful silver hair, eyes the color of blood, pointed ears akin to a half-elf’s, and sharp, protruding canines, there was no mistaking what she was: a vampire—demon kin.

“Tch. You’re that human who trespassed on my home! You dare to obstruct me again? I won’t let you this time!”

Clovis flung his whip against a corner of the wall, then leaped in the direction of the vampire as he reeled himself in. But at the last minute, black, bat-like wings sprouted out of the woman’s back, and she jumped off her box seat.

“Good grief. If only things had ended quietly... Well, since I’ve been exposed, I’ll take that elixir by force!”

“What are you plotting?!” Clovis exclaimed.

The vampire held out a hand below her and chanted a short incantation. “Come forth! Invocation!”

Magic circles glimmering mysteriously appeared in all corners of the auction hall. Skeletons emerged from the glowing runes and began attacking everyone in arms’ reach.

“Aaah!”

In a split second, the auction hall was plunged into chaos. People were crowding together so tightly that I couldn’t even let off a combat spell without risking harming the audience.

“Arcane knights, prioritize the safety of the guests!” the Emperor of Mubad ordered.

The security guards began fighting the skeletons, along with the participants’ personal bodyguards and the adventurers in the audience.

However, no matter how many skeletons they killed, more kept pouring out of the magic circles.

“Ugh...” Clovis, who was chasing after the vampire, faltered for an instant, but eventually decided to join the knights and began dealing with the skeletons jumping out of the box seats on the second floor.

“Lady Witch...” Teto looked at me.

“Teto, Beretta, help the audience evacuate and fight these skeletons! I’ll go protect the elixir from the vampire. Short Jump!”

My two companions took their respective weapons out of their magic bags, vaulted over the box’s fence, and joined the fray on the first floor.

Meanwhile, I had pulled Flying Jade out of my own magic bag and teleported to the stage, right as the vampire was about to grab the elixir.

“I will finally become a Daywalker—”

“Multi-Barrier!”

I raised several barriers around the elixir, and the vampire’s hand bumped against them. She turned towards me with a glare.

“Teleportation Magic...? I don’t know who you are, but can you get out of my way?” she said.

“Too bad for you, I’m the one who listed that elixir at auction. I would appreciate it if you didn’t snatch it without paying.”

“I was planning to pay for it. But that man had to make a racket and ruin my plans. If you want to blame someone, it should be him, not me.”

With that, she raised an arm to break the barrier. She used Body Strengthening to reinforce her already superhuman physique and channeled Dark Magic into her arm, causing her nails to grow longer and sharper. As she brought her arm down on the barrier, a sharp sound like glass breaking echoed through the hall.

“Hmm? I didn’t break it?” she whispered.

“A single strike from a vampire sure is impressive. It’s the first time anyone has managed to break five of my barriers at once,” I remarked.

I had erected ten barriers around the elixir, but the vampire had managed to shatter half with a single hit. Having felt the barriers’ resistance, she tried attacking them again, but I quickly aimed a Light Magic spell at her.

“Laser!”

“Tch! Stop getting in my way!” she shouted, jumping back to avoid my attack and flashing me another glare.

Holding her stare, I channeled some mana into the barriers to repair the ones that she broke, leaving her unable to grab the elixir. Every time I saw her make a move to attack the barriers, I answered with a spell of my own. She would have to defeat me if she wanted to get her hands on the panacea.

“What a hassle. Here I am, thinking I won the elixir, only for that human to expose my true nature to everyone. And now that it’s finally within my reach, you come to interrupt me. I have to hurry before reinforcements arrive.”

The others were busy fighting the skeletons she summoned continuously, but there must’ve been a limit as to how many she could call forth at once.

“It’s fine. If I make her lose consciousness, her barriers will fall, and the elixir will be mine!” she whispered, having come up with a plan.

She darted towards me at lightning speed to deliver a chop, going so fast it looked like she was gliding above the floor. Slapping up a few barriers around me, I used Body Hardening—the superior version of Body Strengthening—to enhance my reaction speed and met her attack with my staff, which I had preemptively reinforced with mana. Her hand struck against Flying Jade with a harsh clang, like metal on metal, and they scraped against each other.

“Oh. You’re not so bad at close combat for a mage. Still, you’re no match for a vampire!” she said defiantly, pressing against my staff with even more strength.

I didn’t want Flying Jade to break, so I quickly relaxed the tension from my arms and used a flight spell to buy myself some clearance.

“You’re right—I can’t fight you head-on. But I’m pretty sure I can outlast you in a war of attrition,” I said.

And so, the two of us resumed our duel on the stage of the auction hall.

Chapter 26: The Vampire’s Dance

My staff and the vampire’s hand collided forcefully. Warding off her attack with my barriers, I hopped back and fired a ring of light to restrain her, but she canceled it with a burst of Dark Magic before closing the distance between us.

“Barriers, Body Strengthening, and what I assume is flight magic that keeps you floating above the ground. You even tried to restrain me with a spell. But how long will you be able to keep this up, little girl?”

A provocative smile curling on her lips, the vampire thrust her hand out, breaking several of my barriers at once.

Maintaining my defensive stance, I asked, “Why do you want the elixir?”

“Because it contains dragon blood. There’s no finer nourishment for a vampire!”

“If drinking the elixir will make you stronger, then I definitely can’t let you have it.”

I repeated the same sequence as before—leaping back and popping off a restraint spell, but she once again canceled it with her Dark Magic. She closed in on me and managed to shatter more of the barriers, but I quickly built them back up, blocking her next strike. Despite my large mana pool, I was quickly burning through my 1,000,000 MP, since none of my attacks had managed to land.

“This is tough,” I muttered.

I fully intended to win this fight; I had enough mana to outlast her.

The vampire must’ve heard me complain to myself, as she increased the vigor of her blows.

“Then burn through your mana faster. You’ll be able to rest that way,” she taunted, attacking me again and forcing me to expend more mana.

However, I quickly realized that there was no killing intent in her blows. Looking around the auction hall, I saw the skeletons she had summoned grabbing people in the audience, but it didn’t look like there had been a single casualty.

Was she trying to...avoid killing others?

I didn’t have time to dwell on that thought; instead, I focused on maintaining my defense. At a glance, it may have seemed like the vampire was winning, as all I did was block her attacks. But after five or ten minutes, her expression began to darken.

“When are you going to run out of mana?” she groaned, eyeing me with suspicion. “Aren’t you a human, little girl?”

A regular mage would have already exhausted their mana and lost consciousness, yet I was still holding my ground.

“I’m a little confident in the size of my mana pool,” I replied.

She chuckled darkly. “And here I thought I’d be able to settle this fight quickly... How foolish of me.”

Demons were physically stronger than humans and possessed a wide range of unique abilities. However, they struggled to use mana efficiently—and vampires were no exception. In a drawn-out battle, they would inevitably deplete their energy.

The vampire’s expression shifted into a look of resolve. “I’m done holding back. If you won’t run out of mana, I’ll make you collapse myself!”

With that, she lowered her hips and charged at me, unleashing her quickest, sharpest attack yet.

Using her superhuman physical abilities and propelling herself with the bat wings sprouting from her back, she reinforced her claws with Dark Magic and pierced through my barriers.

A gasp escaped me, and my eyes shot wide open. I hadn’t expected her to break all my barriers in a single hit, and I began to panic; for a moment I was sure I was done for. However, the vampire’s claws decelerated before reaching my body, reaching out instead to grab me by the neck.

“Ugh!”

Activating my flight magic and casting a telekinesis spell, I fell backward to evade her hand at the last minute. In the process, her claws grazed my throat. I frowned at the discomfort as blood trickled out of the wound. A look of astonishment registered on the vampire’s face, but I wasn’t done just yet.

“Laser!”

“Uuugh!”

The converging beam I had reflexively fired blasted the vampire’s arm away from my neck, the excess force blasting a hole through the ceiling.

“This smell... This mana...”

The vampire’s features contorted in pain at having her arm blown off, but there was another expression on her face as well—delirium, as if she were suffering from a fever. Her eyes, riveted to the bleeding wound on my neck, glimmered mysteriously.

She reached forward with her remaining hand to grab me, but quickly withdrew it to dodge the dark shape plummeting from above.

“How dare you hurt Lady Witch?!”

“Teto?!”

I had asked her to help the auction-goers evacuate, but she had come running when I got hurt. Glancing in the direction she’d come from, I saw Beretta standing there, a hand raised above her head. She must’ve used a gravity spell to fly to my side.

Teto’s sudden arrival threw the vampire off. She took a big leap backward and looked around to assess the situation.

“I took too long,” she muttered.

Her skeletons had all been defeated, and the guards and adventurers were making their way to us one after the other to deal with the vampire. The sight of my blood had stimulated her, but she managed to regain her calm.

“Vampire! You won’t be leaving this place alive!” Clovis yelled, glaring at her and pointing his gloom crow’s beak dagger at her. Teto was huffing and puffing like a wild beast, glowering at her with anger. She would not let her get away scot-free.

My duel with the vampire had been fierce, but not brutal. Yet, now that the others had arrived, thick bloodlust filled the air.

The vampire chuckled in self-mockery and said, “Fine. I suppose I don’t have a choice. I’ll give up on the elixir; better to run and live to see another day.”

“Do you really think I’m going to let you escape?” Clovis asked, a stern look on his face.

A provocative smile tugged at the vampire’s lips. “Oh, I will escape. Your defense is full of holes!” She released a wave of mana that forced everyone to falter. Taking advantage of that lapse in their attention, she turned into countless tiny bats and escaped through the hole my laser had left in the ceiling.

“Stop!” Clovis’s voice echoed as he relentlessly fired spell after spell at the colony of bats, but each shot missed its intended target, and the flock vanished into the night sky.

Silence fell over the auction hall.

“Lady Witch!” Teto’s voice broke the stillness as she turned around to look at me in a panic, going back to her senses now that the vampire was gone. “You’re hurt! You’re bleeding!”

“Oh, right. I am.” I brought a hand to the thin cut on my neck. It was still bleeding, but it was only a trickle. “Heal. There. I’m good as new,” I said, closing the wound under Teto’s panicked gaze.

“Master. There is still blood on your neck,” Beretta pointed out.

She handed me a handkerchief, and I wiped away the crimson trails. I cast a quick Clean on myself for good measure.

“Are you really okay?” Teto asked me.

“I am. Don’t you worry, Teto.” I gave her a reassuring smile.

“You have used a considerable amount of mana,” Beretta said, walking up to me with brisk steps. “I would advise resting for the remains of the day.”

I shared her opinion. However, a quick glance at the Emperor of Mubad, who had appeared from behind Clovis and the guards, told me that I wouldn’t be able to hit the sack just yet. I knew that I was in for a long conversation.

“You have my apologies for the trouble tonight’s events have caused you, Miss Witch. Would you mind coming to another room with me for a moment? I wish to talk to you.”

“Sure, that’s fine,” I replied.

I retrieved the elixir from its pedestal and followed the emperor to one of the auction hall’s meeting rooms.

Chapter 27: The Aftermath of the Auction

Teto and I took a seat on one of the sofas opposite the emperor, a coffee table positioned between us.

“Miss Witch...may I ask why you’re sitting like that?” he inquired.

“Teto’s worried, so she wants to stay close. Don’t mind her,” I replied airily.

She had her arms wrapped around me tightly, refusing to let go. The emperor looked perplexed by this arrangement, but he cleared his throat and began, “The vampire’s attack caused no casualties. All of the auction’s participants were able to evacuate safely.”

“That’s good to hear.”

“There was a casualty! Lady Witch was bleeding!” Teto pouted, pulling me in a tight hug.

I patted her head to console her. “So? What are you planning to do about the vampire?” I asked the emperor.

“I will have the palace’s knights and mages work together to track her.”

Well, I supposed that was a valid way to go about it... But there was something else that needed addressing. “What about the man who was with her?”

“Marquis Bozredt...”

The emperor glanced at Clovis, seemingly wondering whether we should be having this conversation in his presence. After a moment, he must have decided it was acceptable. “We have detained him and are presently questioning him, but he won’t talk.”

“He won’t talk?” I parroted back, finding it strange.

“He is under the influence of a servitude curse—most likely the work of the vampire. She must have forbidden him from revealing anything about her,” the emperor explained, before adding that the court mages were working on lifting the curse.

It likely would only be a matter of time before Marquis Bozredt spilled the beans.

“Another curse, huh?” I whispered, throwing a sidelong glance at Clovis. He had also been cursed when he appeared in the forest, and he had been the first one to realize the vampire’s true nature... Could he have had a run-in with her before?

He noticed my gaze and, his expression severe, explained, “I haven’t told you yet, but that vampire is the one who turned me into a monster.”

He proceeded to tell us about a series of street attacks in the capital that had also been the work of the vampire. I understood why he’d been so hell-bent on catching her—although I didn’t hold any particular grudges against the vampire, save for the fact that she had tried to steal our elixir. As such, I had no intention of helping them find her.

“You’re stuck waiting for information, then. What about the auction’s participants? Where are they?” I asked.

“They will be sent home one after the other. We plan to deliver their lots at a later date,” the emperor explained.

That was the most logical course of action, but his face twisted with a complex expression, as if his next words were a struggle to utter.

“However... The president of the Fortis Company is pleading for you to sell him the elixir right away. He will pay for it.”

“Right, he was the second-to-last contender, wasn’t he? May I ask why he wants it?”

“His daughter is in critical condition. It seems that she won’t last until the day on which we are planning on distributing the lots.”

“What is the legal course of action here?” I asked.

At an auction, if the person who won a lot was unable to pay for it, the person who made the second-highest bid got the right to buy it. As such, since Marquis Bozredt was unable to finalize his purchase, the right to buy the elixir fell to the president of the Fortis Company.

“If it hadn’t been for Marquis Bozredt, the president of the Fortis Company could have purchased the elixir at a much lower price. Therefore, we’re treating it as if he won it at the bid that surpassed the third contender.”

I remembered exactly who had placed which bid, so I immediately knew the price we would be selling it for. “That means his winning offer is 710 large golds.”

That was the first offer the president of the Fortis Company had placed after the third contender for the elixir had announced his last bid. It wasn’t the eleven hundred large golds we would have earned from selling it to the vampire, but it was a considerable sum nonetheless.

“Because of what happened, you also have a right to remove your item from the auction and list it again at a later one,” the emperor added.

“Well, there’s a girl’s life on the line, isn’t there? Besides, it’s more than enough money to convince those who are urging you to attack the forest that we are far more valuable as allies than enemies.”

The emperor nodded.

“We don’t know when the vampire will attempt to steal another elixir. Handing it over to the president of the Fortis Company now is far safer than giving her another opportunity to get it.”

“Understood. I shall send for him and his daughter, and we can proceed with the transaction right away.”

After a few minutes, the president of the Fortis Company and a young girl whom I assumed was his daughter were ushered into the room, followed by a handful of servants and the doctor in their service.

“Thank you for coming,” the emperor said. “Per your wish, we shall now proceed with the elixir transaction.”

The man threw us a quizzical look. “Um... Your Imperial Majesty? I have come to retrieve the elixir. May I ask who these women are...?”

“They’re the ones who listed the elixir at the auction. They deem that organizing another would be too dangerous now that the vampire has her eyes set on the panacea, so they have agreed to sell it to you for the price I told you before.”

“I see. Thank you very much.”

He began fishing coins out of his magic bag and stacking them on the coffee table. Clovis hadn’t been lying when he’d called the Fortis Company a megaguild; the president took mythril coins—each worth ten large golds—out of his bag as if it were nothing. He supplemented the remainder of the balance with large golds and regular golds, and the auctioneer painstakingly began sorting through the pile to ensure not a single coin was missing.

“I have finished counting: Everything is in order. The transaction is now finished,” the auctioneer declared.

“Thanks. Here,” the president of the Fortis Company said, removing the lid of the elixir and slowly tipping the liquid into his daughter’s mouth. “Drink slowly, all right?”

She didn’t have the strength to drink the entire potion in one go, so it took several minutes for her to be done. Just like Clovis when we gave him his, her mana turned visible and began spilling out of her body, emitting a soft glow.

“Oh? So this is what happens when one drinks an elixir,” the emperor muttered in awe.

The light eventually dissipated, and the girl looked down at her body in amazement.

“How do you feel?” her father asked nervously.

“It doesn’t hurt anymore, father,” she replied. Her complexion was now much healthier and her emaciated body back to a healthy weight.

Tears welled in the family doctor’s eyes as he observed the pair embracing in joy. When the president of the Fortis Company managed to regain his composure, he left the room with his daughter and went to celebrate the news with his family.

“I shall return to the palace with the Marquis Bozredt and have the mages proceed with the curse-lifting and interrogation,” the emperor announced.

“I have to chase after that vampire, so I’ll arrange a carriage to take you three back to the town house,” Clovis said.

As they each had their own business to attend to, the two of them bid us goodbye and left the auction hall.

“Should we let the emperor deal with the aftermath of this mess and go home?” I suggested.

“Teto is hungry!”

“I recommend eating a collation when we arrive home, then immediately going to bed,” Beretta said.

It was quite late in the night, so we decided to return to the Dalite town house and let the emperor’s subordinates clean up after the vampire attack.

“As you earned more from selling the elixir than you owe for the lots you won, would you like to use part of the elixir’s proceeds to pay for the items?” the auctioneer suggested, and we agreed to his proposition.

A portion of the money we earned from the sale of the elixir would go to the auction committee as a listing fee, and the auctioneer also took a handful of coins to cover the lots we had won. Even after all that, we were still left with a substantial pile of large golds.

I stowed the rest of the money along with the items I’d won in my magic bag, then climbed into the carriage that Clovis had arranged to take us back to the town house.

Chapter 28: The Witch’s Trap

Having returned to our temporary home, I had a light dinner and got changed into more comfortable clothes before sitting with Teto and Beretta in one of the guest rooms. Teto immediately glued herself back to my side, still traumatized by the fact that I had gotten hurt, and the three of us enjoyed a nice, relaxing chat.

“Things got seriously rocky towards the end, but we’ve safely achieved our goal in Mubad. Let’s head back to the forest tomorrow,” I said.

“Teto misses everyone!”

The vampire’s attack had come as a shock to me, but in the end, she hadn’t managed to snatch the elixir. I was happy that our panacea was used to save a young girl’s life instead.

I relaxed, thinking that our job here was done, when I noticed the grim look on Beretta’s face. “What’s wrong?” I asked.

“Is there something on your mind?” Teto added.

Beretta spoke up, her tone hesitant. “Is this truly the last we’ve seen of the vampire?”

I paused. “What do you mean?” I didn’t know what she was trying to get at, and an inexplicable feeling of dread made me shudder.

“She said that she would abandon the elixir when she escaped,” Beretta said.

“She did. But there’s no elixir left anyway. We used it.”

With the elixir gone, she didn’t have any reason to appear in front of us, didn’t she? Beretta seemed to think otherwise.

“You bled during the duel, master. When the vampire smelled your blood, her eye color visibly changed.”

“You think that she will target me next?”

Beretta nodded.

In her opinion, the vampire hadn’t surrendered the elixir out of defeat, but because she had found better prey. That seemed plenty plausible.

“You have a vast mana pool and the blessing of the goddesses. Perhaps she has come to the conclusion that your blood is more valuable than the single drop of dragon blood contained in the elixir,” Beretta surmised.

Besides, I was a living being, meaning that I would keep producing blood.

“That...doesn’t sound so far-fetched,” I said, pressing a hand to my forehead.

“Teto won’t let that vampire get away! She hurt Lady Witch!” Teto declared, still holding a grudge against the vampire, before hugging me even tighter. “Oh, Teto has an idea! If Lady Witch is in danger, we should go back home immediately! Lady Witch will be safe there!”

I shook my head at her suggestion. “She won’t be able to get to me there for a time, but I don’t want to have to live my life on edge, wondering when she’ll try to attack me again.”

Teto’s bear golems constantly patrolled the forest’s perimeter, and we also had the traps the elves had taught us to make. However, based on what I had seen from that vampire, it was likely she would identify a weak point in our defenses or exploit a gap to sneak into the forest.

“I recommend setting up a trap,” Beretta said.

“A trap?” Teto and I echoed in unison.

“Yes. Let us consider the perspective of the vampire here: She has found a better source of nutrition than the elixir, but now she has countless pursuers on her trail. It is likely that she will flee the capital to shake them off and strike when Master’s defenses are at their weakest—probably when she is sleeping.”

The vampire had two options. First, she could retreat to collect information on me and craft the perfect plan to abduct me. This would increase her chances of success, but would also give us time to prepare for a potential attack. The other possibility was for her to strike quickly, albeit with minimal preparation. If she chose this route, we would not be ready, meaning that, depending on when she attacked, she might succeed in catching us off guard.

“Taking into account her ability to escape at any given moment, it is likely that she will try to take you by surprise. If she succeeds, she will manage to abduct you. If not, she can just try again later with a better plan.”

“I see. That does sound like a likely scenario,” I said.

However, I felt like we weren’t well prepared enough to set up a trap just yet.

“But will the vampire find Lady Witch?” Teto asked.

“I believe she already has. Bats appeared out of thin air when she escaped, did they not?”

I nodded. “Yep. She turned into a bunch of bats and flew away that way.”

But Teto disagreed with my assessment. “Hmm? No, she didn’t! She escaped along with a bunch of bats!”

Confused, I glanced at Beretta. “It is as Lady Teto says. The vampire summoned countless bat familiars, then turned into a bat herself and escaped by blending among the colony.”

“Ooh, so that’s what happened. I had no idea.”

I grumbled to myself, wondering for a brief second if my mana detection abilities had declined, but Beretta assured me they hadn’t.

“These bats all were tainted with the vampire’s mana. I believe that she drained their blood and then injected her own into them to control them.”

This explained why I hadn’t been able to find her among the bats; their mana signature was the exact same.

“Then how did you two notice?” I asked.

“Hmm... Dunno. Teto just did!”

“I can sense the body temperature of my targets, and noticed that all of the bats were hypothermic, save one.”

As always, Teto had only noticed thanks to her sharp instinct, while Beretta had used her thermographic sight. I didn’t even know that she could do that. But she had evolved from a type of robot, so in a way, it didn’t surprise me too much.

“Returning to the topic at hand, I believe that the vampire is using her bat familiars to search for you, Master. Perhaps she even had them tracking you this entire time.”

“So I should assume she already knows we’re staying in this town house.”

“Let’s set up traps to protect Lady Witch!” Teto said, and we did just that.

Being the middle of the night, we decided to avoid turning on the lights to avoid arousing the vampire’s suspicion, meaning we also weren’t able to spend too much time on setting up the traps. I burned through the last of my mana to install a trap in the room where I had been staying in until that point, then asked Teto to help me erect a barrier to hide the servants’ quarters, where Beretta had relocated, before joining her. Now all we had to do was wait for the vampire to fall into our trap.

“Hngh...”

“Are you sleepy, Lady Witch?”

“Yeah. I used too much mana, so I’m tired.”

“Please get some rest, Master. Lady Teto and I will stand guard and monitor the town house.”

“Yup! You can go night-night, Lady Witch!”

Taking them up on their offer, I borrowed a room in the servants’ quarters and promptly fell asleep.

How much time had passed since I drifted off?

In my shallow sleep, I suddenly felt a presence approaching the guest room I had been using before.

“Lady Witch, the vampire has come,” Teto whispered, gently shaking me awake.

Rubbing my bleary eyes, I nodded and got up. I made my way to the crystal ball linked to the security camera (the magical surveillance device, actually) we had installed in the guest room, and focused my attention on the images within. Through the window’s curtains, I saw a single bat land on the guest room’s balcony, then assume humanoid form.

“Heh heh heh. She truly is defenseless,” the vampire cackled, using Dark Magic to sneak a shadow through the balcony’s door and open it from inside. She stepped into the room, an ominous glimmer in her crimson eyes.

The arm I had taken from her had already regenerated, and she seemed in perfect health. Perhaps she had made a pit stop to top herself off somewhere. She slowly approached the bed, in which my trap awaited her, then took in a deep breath.

“Aah, this blood, this mana... Once I drink it, I will become a Daywalker. I will never fear the sun again,” she whispered, peeling away the blanket covering the dummy I had placed in the bed.

The second her hand came in contact with the dummy, the traps I had installed in the room activated all at once.

“Wh-What’s going o— A doll?! Aaah!”

A strong light as bright as the sun radiated through the room, making her recoil. Being exposed to her weakness, her skin began to burn, smoke billowing in the air. Her regenerative abilities kicked into overdrive, gradually reversing the damage, but my second trap soon activated. Anti-magic restraints shot out from under the bed, sealing the vampire’s mana.

“Damn it! I was duped! But these restraints are nothing!” She tried to use her superhuman strength to break the bindings around her, but they wouldn’t budge.

Upon realizing that her plan wasn’t working, she dashed for the window, but hit an invisible wall that sent her flying backward. If she’d had her mana, she would’ve likely been able to break the barrier, but with her magic blocked, there was nothing she could do.

“Should we go?” I asked.

“I shall take the lead,” Beretta said.

I decided to let her handle capturing the vampire.

After some time, she entered the room and restrained the thrashing vampire before signaling to us that we could come.

“Looks like Beretta has it under control. Let’s go.”

“Roger!”

We joined Beretta in the guest room. The vampire knelt on the floor, a self-deprecating smile curled on her lips.

“Laid low by my own gluttony. I can scarcely believe it. Are you going to kill me?” she asked.

“If I have to.”

“Oh. So this is where I will pay for my crimes. It feels a little anticlimactic,” she said weakly. She glanced at the dummy that had rolled to the floor and sighed. “You wiped some blood on a handkerchief and put it on the doll, huh? I can’t believe I fell for such an old trick.”

It was as she said: I had taken the handkerchief I had used to wipe the blood from my neck at the auction hall and wrapped it around the doll. The smell of it must’ve stimulated the vampire so much that she had let her guard down, allowing me to suppress her Body Strengthening and Dark Magic with the restraints.

The vampire seemed puzzled about something.

“But I don’t understand. Why did you choose to restrain me? You could’ve just killed me outright,” she said.

Had I continuously exposed her to sunlight once I caught her, she would’ve burned to ash. However...

“I’m not the one who will decide your fate: The empire and the law will.”

She snorted. “They’ll kill me for the mere fact that I’m a vampire.”

Discrimination against demons was still rampant in many nations, forcing them to live in small villages away from civilization or to lead a nomadic lifestyle. Some, like the vampire, probably took advantage of the cover of darkness to commit crimes.

“Then let’s use a spell from the church and have Loriel herself decide the gravity of your sins.”

“...What?”

I produced a grimoire from the Church of the Five Goddesses from my magic bag and flipped through the pages until I landed on a certain spell—one superior even to the Dream Oracle: the Divine Authority Summoning. This spell temporarily materialized a fragment of the goddesses into our world, along with a portion of their power. Each goddess offered unique miracles depending on whom one chose to summon. Liriel, the Earth Mother, would bless a harvest to be bountiful, while Lariel, the Goddess of the Sun, could grant protection during wartime or incinerate enemies with flames, and so forth.

“I beseech you, Lady Loriel, Goddess of the Underworld, to reveal this woman’s merits and sins and aid us in passing judgment on her. God Calling!”

It was a huge spell that drained my entire mana pool at once. Thankfully, my mana had regenerated while I was asleep.

As I called forth the goddess Loriel, who had the ability to judge the merits and sins of a soul, a pillar of light pierced through the ceiling. A young girl with white wings descended through the radiant beam, opening bleary eyes and setting them on us.

“The... The goddess...” the vampire muttered, shivering.

I peered at Loriel’s face. She looked the same as she had in the dream oracles, but her face was completely blank and her movements mechanical. It was only a fragment of her, after all, and fragments didn’t have personality. All they could do was wield the goddesses’ powers.

The fragment of Loriel spoke. “Carla. Your sins are many, yet they have hindered a greater evil from rising. Therefore, I will grant you my pardon.”

“That’s what I thought,” I muttered.

I thought back on our duel at the action hall, and the fact that Carla hadn’t tried to actively kill anyone in the crowd. That was when I’d realized that she wasn’t actually a bad person.

However, Loriel wasn’t done speaking.

“However, the harm you have caused to all these innocent souls and the misfortune your egotistical actions have brought them remain. Fortunately, no one has died as a consequence of your actions, but your sins remain numerous, albeit minor. You must atone for them for an age.”

The fragment of Loriel brushed a hand against Carla’s forehead, and a symbol appeared on her skin.

“Wh-What is this?” she asked, glancing at the mirror in the room.

“A stigma. It will protect you from unjust punishment and serve as evidence of your atonement.”

With that, Loriel turned to us, and I saw a glimmer of vitality appear in her blank eyes.

“Please bring me traditional sweets again next time.”

The words had barely left her mouth when she vanished in thin air, as if the pillar of light had absorbed her. I wasn’t sure, but it seemed to me that the real Loriel’s personality had taken over the fragment at the last minute.

As the divine authority summoning came to an end and I let out a sigh of relief, hurried footsteps came from the hallway.

“Miss Witch, are you all right?! A strange beam of light has appeared over the town house!” Clovis exclaimed, barging into the room.

He must’ve spotted the anomaly as he was searching for the vampire and rushed over to make sure that we were all right.

His eyes shot wide open when he took in the scene in the guest room.

“You... The vampire!”

Charging at Carla’s restrained form left kneeling on the floor, he drew his dagger and swung it at her. But before he could touch her, the stigma on Carla’s forehead glimmered in a silver hue, and Clovis was forcefully shoved back.

“Ugh! What just...?”

“I see, I see. So this is the power of Loriel’s stigma. It seems like she was telling the truth when she said that it would ward me from unjust punishment,” Carla said.

She had been in low spirits since we caught her, fearing that the empire would kill her for her sins, but upon realizing that Loriel’s seal was protecting her, her mood lifted a little.

However, Loriel had also said that the stigma was the mark of her atonement.

“Hmm? My head feels like it’s in a vise. It hurts!” Carla writhed in agony in her restraints as pain spread through her skull.

Clovis stood there, utterly confused, while Carla flailed on the floor. It was quite the chaotic scene, but at that point, all I wanted to do was leave them there and go back to bed.

Chapter 29: How to Deal With the Vampire?

It was now the day after our capture of the vampire Carla. Thanks to the stigma Loriel had put on her, no one could unfairly harm her. She was transported to a carriage with thick, light-blocking curtains covering the windows, and we accompanied her to the imperial palace. There, she was led to the basement for the emperor and Clovis to interrogate her.

“Ouch, ouch, ouch! Why does it hurt now?!” she cried out, tears welling in her eyes at the pain in her head.

“Stop it! Are you trying to make a fool of us again?!” Clovis barked, annoyed by the umpteenth interruption.

“Her head hurts when she lies,” Teto supplied.

“It seems that the stigma Loriel has put on her comes with some side effects, huh?” I said.

The stigma was both a way to protect her and a mark of her guilt. If she acted or thought in a self-serving manner, refused to cooperate, or lied, her head would throb as if a vise was tightening around it. This had happened countless times during the interrogation, and it seemed that Carla had begun to understand the stigma’s effects, as she had stopped trying to dodge the questions.

However, the Emperor of Mubad was struggling to believe her.

“How many humans have you cast the curse of servitude on?” he asked.

“Four,” she replied plainly.

The emperor and Clovis both frowned.

“You’re lying.”

“I’m not. Look, the stigma isn’t reacting, is it?” Carla said, lifting her bangs to show the stigma on her forehead.

The emperor and Clovis were speechless.

According to Carla, she had been lurking in the shadows of Mubad for over two hundred years and had turned a couple of lords and court mages into her puppets.

“So the great figures who marked Mubad’s history, they...”

“They never truly existed. I personally didn’t mind turning nobles with bad reputations into my puppets,” she replied with a smirk.

“Did you control these nobles’ dominions all by yourself?”

“Oh, no. Even the crappiest nobles have loving parents, meaning that they’ve hired the best people to support them. I let their subordinates handle the territories, and they did a pretty decent job.”

She added that she’d restricted her puppets’ freedom to prevent them from getting in their subordinates’ way.

“And those subordinates never figured out that something was wrong?”

“Heh heh, never. Well, no, that’s not quite right—they probably did, but they all turned a blind eye to it.”

If a serious, hardworking person began acting strangely, the people around them would likely try to get to the bottom of it. But who was liable to complain if a notoriously noxious coworker suddenly shaped up? After all, if they uncovered the truth behind their behavior, they might revert to their former selves. This may have been why so many people had overlooked Carla’s machinations. Perhaps the new version of their master was so much better than the former one that they consciously chose not to pry too deeply into their change of heart.

Meanwhile, Carla forced the formerly debauched nobles to behave like perfect lords and used them to gather blood to feed on.

“I see... That’s why Loriel more or less forgave her,” I whispered—but as we were in the basement, my words echoed through the room a little louder than I expected.

If Carla hadn’t taken control of those evil nobles, their people would have suffered terribly. In a twisted way, her wrongdoings actually turned out to be good deeds.

“I don’t understand,” Clovis chimed in. “Why do you go about things in such a roundabout way? If you can control people, you could’ve secured way more blood.”

Carla snorted. “Some of my fellow vampire relatives did use that approach. They ended up getting killed by the church’s holy knights and exorcists.”

“I have indeed read as much in a tome relating the history of Mubad. Two hundred twenty years ago, the people of the Church of the Five Goddesses collaborated to hunt vampires all around the empire. You’re a survivor of the hunt, I gather,” the emperor muttered.

Carla nodded. It was exactly because she had endured those times that she knew to rein in her actions and preferred to have debauched nobles do her bidding. She also tracked down the evildoers who sneaked into these nobles’ dominions to feed on their blood, so in a way, she had helped maintain order in these territories.

“We cannot make this public,” the emperor muttered gravely. “I cannot believe that these nobles’ achievements were all the work of a vampire.”

“And one can’t possibly be held accountable for a crime that hasn’t occurred,” Carla replied, chuckling in delight.

Clovis threw her a sharp glare. “What about the street attacks in the capital?! While you didn’t kill any of them, you left them unconscious on the ground where other ne’er-do-wells could have killed them!”

“I always made sure my familiars kept watch from a respectful distance after I had done my business,” Carla replied, her tone perfectly even.

Her indifference only added fuel to Clovis’s anger.

“You already had the nobles under your control secure blood for you, didn’t you?! So why did you attack innocents?!” he asked, fuming.

Carla stared him in the eye. “This was done out of pure egoism on my part, to become a Daywalker and gain the ability to stand in the sun. Once I ran out of targets to hunt in the nobles’ dominions, I relocated to the capital to borrow some blood, a little bit at a time.”

Drinking low-quality monster blood hadn’t brought her any closer to achieving her goals. Frustrated by the lack of results, she had turned her attention to more valuable sources, such as the blood of the people from the imperial capital, the single drop of dragon blood in the elixir, and mine.

“Even if you hadn’t broken into my hideout, I was planning on retreating to my puppet’s estate eventually!” she told Clovis, her tone accusatory. “Then you thwarted my plans again during the auction by revealing my identity and causing a fuss. I’d argue you’re the one to blame here!”

“Wha—?! Are you trying to foist the responsibility for the attack onto me?! Also, I haven’t forgotten about that curse you cast on me. Miss Witch saved me, but your spell still left me with a mana leak! You almost passively killed me!” Clovis declared.

Carla snorted again, as if it were none of her concern. “Ha! I tried to make it so you wouldn’t notice, but oh well. Do you really think I would hesitate to kill a single human? Ah, ouch, ouch, ouch!”

Her words had been so harsh that the stigma on her forehead activated, sending pain coursing through her skull and bringing tears to her eyes. The stigma prevented her from committing crimes and bad deeds, but it didn’t mean she would automatically be acquitted of her past sins.

“What are you going to do with her?” I asked the Emperor of Mubad.

“Well, we cannot harm her, and she cannot commit any crimes...” he said, visibly troubled. “I believe that the best course of action here would be to confiscate her possessions and exile her from the empire. But where can we send her...?”

Her money would most likely be enough to cover the repair fees of the auction hall and compensate the victims of the street attacks. She had amassed quite a lot of savings from stealing the belongings of the criminals she had preyed upon.

However, the problem was: What should they do with Carla herself? They couldn’t execute her because of the stigma, and keeping her locked in a cell would prove difficult. They could have made her join a convent of the Church of Five Goddesses, but it was unlikely they would accept her due to her demonic nature. But if they simply released her into the wild, she could cause trouble for Mubad’s neighbors.

Seeing the emperor’s hesitation, I made him a proposition. “We’ll take her in.”

“We would be ever so grateful if you did, but are you—” The emperor looked poised to agree, but Teto interrupted him before he could finish.

“Teto is against it! She hurt Lady Witch!” she exclaimed, puffing her cheeks out in indignation.

“We’re partly responsible for her fate, since we captured her instead of killing her. Besides, what’s one more demon in the forest?” I said, but Teto was still unconvinced.

“But what if she attacks you again?!”

“I can’t, because of the stigma,” Carla chimed in. “The mere thought of how delicious that little girl’s blood looks is enough to make my head hurt,” she added in a dejected whisper. “Anyway, why do you want to take me in? What will you make me do?”

“Vampires are experts when it comes to blood, right? I want you to help me find a way to make artificial blood.”

With man-made blood, we could not only perform medical treatments like blood transfusions, but I could also obtain dragon blood for elixirs without harming the Great Elder every single time. Right now, I was using the blood I made with my Creation Magic, but I hoped that one day, the forest’s folk would be able to craft it themselves.

Besides...

“How long do you vampires plan to continue living like hunter-gatherers? It’s high time you learned to produce your own food.”

She burst into laughter. “That’s not very kind, comparing us to hunter-gatherers! Are you seriously telling me to grow my own blood? That’s hilarious!” she exclaimed, laughing to the point of tears. “Although you do have a point: If humankind becomes able to make artificial blood, vampires wouldn’t need to harm others any longer.”

She clearly thought my ambitions were nothing but a wild dream.

“What do you say? Will you help me with my research?” I asked her.

“You have interesting ideas, I’ll admit it, but I don’t see what’s in it for me. While the stigma prevents me from attacking humans, I can still feed on monsters.”

“How about I give you a reason to help me?” I said, producing a needle from my magic bag.

It was made of mythril, and I usually used it to engrave magic circles onto the items I crafted. I pressed it against my index finger and pushed, the tip piercing through my skin.

“Lady Witch?!”

“Master, what are you doing?!”

I hadn’t given Teto and Beretta a moment to intervene. My features twisted in a grimace as I endured the sharp pain before finally removing the needle. A bead of blood seeped from the puncture wound.

Carla gasped. “Blood! Blood of the finest quality!”

A metallic tang filled the air, stimulating Carla’s vampiric instincts. A fiery glint appeared in her eyes as she bent forward, as if ready to pounce on me despite her restraints. When she’d smelled my blood at the auction hall, I had already exhausted quite a bit of mana, meaning it was a lot less potent than usual. But now that I had gotten some sleep and my reserves had recovered, my blood seemed even more attractive to her.

“You want this, don’t you?”

I made my way towards Carla, who was still thrashing in her restraints, desperate to get even a millimeter closer to me. Holding my index finger over her open mouth, I let a single drop of blood fall onto her tongue. She swished it around, savoring the taste, before swallowing it down with a loud gulp.

A look of trance spread across her face, and she let out a blissful sigh, as if she had just enjoyed a glass of the finest wine in the world.

“Oh, what delicious poison. Now that I’ve tasted this, any other blood is nothing but swill. I doubt I’ll ever be able to drink anything else again.”

“If you figure out how to artificially reproduce it, you’ll be able to gorge yourself on it to your heart’s content,” I said.

She could also reproduce her other favorite types of blood, and might even be able to invent new, nonexistent flavors.

“Besides, if you keep drinking artificial blood modeled after my own, you might eventually become a Daywalker,” I murmured in her ear.

Carla had no other choice now.

“To say such a thing after making me drink your blood... How could you call that anything but a devil’s whisper? But, fine. I, the vampire Carla, will devote myself to assisting you with your research.”

Just like that, I managed to convince her to come to the forest with us. However, I did slightly regret the way I went about it after enduring Beretta’s lecture and Teto’s tearful outburst over my self-inflicted wound.

And so, one day later than originally planned, we made our way back to the forest with Carla.

Chapter 30: Carla’s Underground Lab

Now under our care, Carla began living in the forest. Since vampires feared the sun, we had to arrange a place for her to live where she would be safe from its rays. With the help of Teto and her familiars, we added an underground room to my research tower, which would serve as Carla’s home and laboratory.

“Hmm... This looks quite comfortable, indeed,” she commented, looking around the room.

Teto flashed her a glare, clearly still wary of her. “Teto really doesn’t like her living in the forest.”

“I mean, with her sleep schedule, you probably won’t cross paths with her that often,” I said in an attempt to console her.

As Carla had to avoid the sun, we likely wouldn’t see her much unless we had a good reason for it.

“Anyway, you’re not a guest here, Carla. I’m expecting you to earn your keep,” I said.

“Of course, I will.”

“Lady Witch? What will you have her do?” Teto asked with genuine curiosity. She wasn’t as aggressive towards Carla now that she knew she wouldn’t have to see her on the regular.

“I plan on having her work as a night-shift doctor.”

From what Carla told me, she had enough knowledge of the human body and experience to work in medical care. While she couldn’t use healing spells, she could treat people through other means, knew how to make potions, and even dispel curses. As such, I decided to have her prepare a set number of potions for us every month and have her see patients at night to accommodate her sleep schedule. In her free time, she would have to research artificial blood, as promised. If the need arose, I would have her dispel curses as well.

“Loriel told me to atone for my sins,” she muttered, a self-mocking smile curling on her lips. “Fine. I’ll play doctor while I chip away at this artificial blood project of yours.” She waved a hand dismissively before starting to tidy up her new room.

“By the way, why are you so determined to become a Daywalker?” I asked out of the blue as I watched her bustling about.

It didn’t seem like she harbored any desire for revenge against humans, so I was genuinely curious about her motives.

She turned to face me, a glum expression on her face. “It’s simple: I hate how weak I am.”

“How...weak you are?” I echoed.

“You’re super strong, Carla!” Teto added.

As a vampire, she was much stronger than a regular human, could wield Dark Magic, had the ability to shape-shift, and could even fly. She was a force to be reckoned with. While I hadn’t been able to unleash my full powers because of the people around, she had still managed to put a scratch on me at the auction hall. In fact, I truly believed that she could kill me if she put her mind to it.

She shook her head. “I have many weaknesses: the sun, silver... If someone were to use these against me, they could easily kill me, just like they did my relatives. That’s why I’ve spent my entire life in hiding, trying to achieve my goal without revealing myself. In the end, I rushed into things and lost to my own gluttony,” she said, rubbing the stigma on her forehead. She whispered as if she’d remembered something, “Actually... I’ve been wanting to become a Daywalker since before my kin were slain.”

“Why?” I asked.

“Likely because of a book I read as a child,” she murmured. “It was a story about children walking under the sun, who watched over their path and removed obstacles from their way.”

Thinking back on the children’s tales I’d read featuring a personified sun, I figured out the story she was talking about. “Ooh, I see the one. It’s a fairy tale from Mubad, right?”

As Mubad was a snowy nation, they practically worshiped the sun, since its warmth provided relief from the harsh cold. As such, they revered Lariel. I believed that the story Carla had mentioned was a fairy tale version of a miracle Lariel had performed many moons ago.

“I must’ve longed for that life. Being a creature of darkness, I’d always wanted to be able to walk in the sun. I just remembered that had been my motivation as a child.” She sighed and let out a self-deprecating chuckle. “How rosy-eyed I was back then.”

“It’s a beautiful dream,” I commented.

“Teto can’t forgive you for attacking Lady Witch, but Teto hopes you can achieve your goal! Taking a nap under the sun feels really, really good!”

For a moment, Carla was taken aback by our words. Then she laughed quietly. “You two are much too good-natured. I shall add taking a nap under the sun after a long walk to my list of things to enjoy once I become a Daywalker.”

With that, she resumed carrying her furniture into her new room, and Teto and I left the tower. Carla had now become a permanent resident of the forest.

Some time passed.

Despite working and conducting her research in her basement room, it wasn’t like Carla spent all her time down there. She would occasionally take midnight walks around the forest and swing by the monster den to secure some blood. While her sleep schedule clashed with everyone else’s, she could still chitchat with the other residents of the forest if she ventured out in the early evening.

“You’re the vampire who just moved here, right?”

At first, their exchanges with Carla hadn’t been all that friendly. They all knew that she had harmed me at the auction hall, so even though I had given her my permission to live here, some struggled to accept her.

“I hope you like pain!”

“I’ll show you what happens to those who underestimate vampires!”

For some reason, this led to numerous fights, born from the resentment of the locals and Carla’s desire for them to accept her. They didn’t all attack her as a group; instead, they went after her one by one. I knew that demons only acknowledged those who met their standards of strength, and I supposed they did need to vent some anger... I still sighed when I received the report after the fact, though.

As an aside, while the stigma on Carla’s forehead activated when she was attacked by those with malicious intent, it didn’t in duels like these—unless either party got too worked up and risked killing the other. Then the stigma did its duty.

And so Carla proved herself to the people of the forest through sheer strength alone. With time, she became a full-fledged resident of the forest herself. Some of the other demons would even ask her to suck some blood from their brethren to calm them down when tempers flared too high.

Chapter 31: A Nonaggression Pact Under the Goddesses’ Protection

Despite the little snafu caused by Carla, all three elixirs I had listed at the auctions in Mubad, Gald, and Ischea were sold. The sheer amount of money they went for was enough to make the last few recalcitrants in each nation change their minds, and we finally had the green light to sign the elixir trade contracts I had drafted.

And so, today...

“Lady Witch, should I put this transfer gate here, in the north position?”

“No, that one is linked to the one in Ischea, so it needs to go there, in the southwest quadrant.”

We were in the middle of arranging tables and transfer gates around our mansion’s courtyard. We had invited the head honchos of all three nations to proceed with the signing of the contract, and they would soon arrive through the transfer gates, using the ones we had installed in each town we traded with.

Once everything was ready and the time had come, the gates opened. The first to cross were armed guards, ensuring that everything was safe for their bosses. Then, it was time for the stars of the show: the rulers and their delegations. I had already seen their faces countless times in the communication crystals, and they had truly gone all out with their outfits today. Every single one of them was dressed in sumptuous clothes befitting their titles.

“Welcome to the Witch of Creation’s Forest,” I announced. “This session will be brief, but I look forward to our cooperation.”

“It is an honor to be here today. These transfer gates sure are handy, huh? My great-aunt told me about them, but it’s my first time using one,” the king of Ischea said, as friendly as always.

“So this is the forest, huh? Wow! That guy over there looks strong!”

“Your Majesty, we’re here to sign the contract, not for you to test your strength against the demons.”

“Can’t we just do a little duel or two when we’re done?”

Meanwhile, the king of Gald was sporting a belligerent smile; he had spotted a particularly strong-looking demon, and his aide had to keep him in check.

The emperor of Mubad and Clovis were the last to arrive.

“So this is your land, Miss Witch. The mana here is even more potent than I have heard, and the air is nice and fresh,” the emperor commented.

“It truly is.” Clovis nodded. “It is the perfect environment to practice magic.”

“I can almost feel my fatigue slowly melting away,” the emperor said, his gaze settling on the World Trees in the distance.

He seemed a little more tired than the last time I’d seen him, but the forest’s air was already doing him some good. When I asked why he was so busy, he told me that he was investigating Carla’s past to ensure she hadn’t caused any negative influence on the noble houses she had taken control of. Marquis Bozredt, her latest victim, had succumbed to greed after being freed from Carla’s mind control, so the emperor deemed him unfit to rule his territory. He sentenced Bozredt to house arrest and arranged for his heir to inherit immediately. As for the other nobles Carla had taken control of in the past, they bore no traces of her influence anymore. There were rumors of the lords of the time taking in a beautiful mistress who looked like a half-elf and letting her stay in their separate mansions, but that was pretty much it.

As for the abandoned mansion she had used in the capital, it used to belong to a court mage, who had left it to her. Speaking of the mage in question...

“He was indirectly involved in the succession war a hundred years prior.”

The succession war in question had opposed the crown prince of the time in favor of his father’s younger brother. There were many reasons behind that war, but to make a long story short, the crown prince’s uncle (the current emperor’s grandfather) ultimately won, becoming the next ruler of Mubad. During that dispute, Carla forced the court mage under her spell to remain neutral. However, the emperor discovered in the court mage’s memoirs that he had been a follower of the crown prince, who had allowed him to carry out inhumane experiments as a reward for his support. If Carla hadn’t been there and the mage had joined the war on the prince’s side, perhaps they would have won, and many more people would have fallen victim to the mage’s monstrous schemes.

Even though he was still reeling from the shock of this revelation, the emperor of Mubad had kindly joined us to sign the contract today.

“Well then, enough chitchat. Let’s proceed with the contract,” I said.

I had already signed my name on all three of the magical contracts ahead of time, and the three elixirs they would receive as part of the deal had already been arranged in front of each ruler.

“Good idea. Let us confirm the contents one last time; then we will sign them.”

One by one, the rulers picked up the contracts, carefully reviewed the terms, and signed their names at the bottom of the pages. The contracts emitted a faint glow, signaling that the agreement was now officially binding.

All of a sudden, a pillar of light appeared from the sky.

“This...”

It was just like when I had invoked the fragment of Loriel. Eventually, Liriel, my benefactor, appeared in the column of light.

“Lady Witch...” Teto whispered.

With the barrier around the forest now gone for good, Liriel did technically have the option to descend into our land. But I didn’t think that she would choose to do it now.

She glanced at everyone present and spoke up, “What you signed is an inviolable pact with my dear prophet and the land under my protection. I trust you will honor the terms of that agreement,” she said, her voice resounding with divine authority.

The rulers of the three kingdoms and their followers immediately fell to their knees as they were forced to acknowledge the existence of the goddesses, whether they liked it or not.

“I shall do my utmost to respect the contract,” the king of Ischea spoke first.

The king of Gald and the emperor of Mubad made similar promises.

Liriel nodded, satisfied, before vanishing along with the pressure of her divine might. It was as if nothing had happened at all. Our guests were covered in cold sweat, wondering if what they saw was real or just a daydream.

After that, the three rulers paid the amount stated in their contracts, retrieved their elixirs, and returned to their respective nations with their retinues, still dazed from the encounter with Liriel.

Hee-hee. Their reactions were hilarious, Liriel’s voice echoed through Teto’s and my mind a little later that day.

“Liriel, don’t you think you overdid it a little?” I chided her.

“You shocked Teto!”

I figured I might as well ensure they uphold their contract with you, my dear prophet.

She now officially protected the contract. While I knew that she wouldn’t actually punish the other parties in case they breached the agreement and tried to invade us, the fact that she could would likely deter them from attacking us.

“Thanks, though,” I added.

“Thanks for worrying about us!” Teto chirped.

I’ll invite you to a dream oracle soon. Let’s enjoy some alcohol together, shall we? My sisters are excited to see you again too.

With those words, Liriel’s presence faded away. Loriel had asked me for Japanese confectionery when I summoned that fragment of her, so it seemed like we would have a full-on banquet the next time the goddesses summoned me to a dream oracle. And sure enough, when Liriel invited us that night, we feasted on alcohol, Japanese sweets, and all sorts of other delicacies I had created with my magic while exchanging aimless, relaxed conversation.

Chapter 32: Our Very Own Stores—The Beginnings of the Hexen Company

With the contract with our three neighbors officially signed, we invested part of the money earned from the sale of elixirs to build our first brick-and-mortar stores in all three nations. The opening of the Hexen Company was just around the corner. We decided against selling rare magical beast materials there; those would still be handled by our contacts in the Liebel Margravate, the Hammil Duchy, and the Dalite County—the newest addition to our trade network.

All of our Hexen stores would feature two sections. The first would consist of foodstuffs we harvested and gathered around the forest, as well as the daily commodities crafted by the residents. As for the second, it would be more like a drugstore corner where we would sell medicine, potions, makeup, and skin-care products. I was already planning to create a third corner in the future that would offer fabrics and clothes crafted by the arachnes and the maids. However, I couldn’t afford to send more people to work in the stores just yet, as the forest’s population was still too small, shy of ten thousand people.

“Master, what management policies do you intend to implement for Hexen?” Beretta asked me.

I sighed. “I don’t know. My goal isn’t to turn a profit, so...”

The money from the elixirs alone would cover any deficit we found ourselves in, but I also didn’t want to use these funds to engage in price wars with other firms, seek mergers, or outright buy off businesses. It reeked of trouble.

“I just want each Hexen store to become a part of its local community. That’d be more than enough.”

It was the residents’ only point of contact with the outside world, so I just wanted to keep a modest trade going. If the worst were to happen and our stores ended up operating at a loss, I’d simply turn a blind eye to it to ensure that the money we made from the sale of the elixirs didn’t simply remain in the forest, causing the economy to stagnate.

“Master, how about making the funds from the elixirs circulate among the inhabitants of the forest?” Beretta suggested.

“Right, now might be a good time to transition from barter to a money-based economy.”

Plus, now that we had our stores, we could buy up goods outside the forest and have them circulate in the forest instead of relying exclusively on trade with the other nations.

And so, for a time, we worked on slowly introducing currency to the forest, all while preparing for the opening of our first stores. Well, I didn’t do much regarding the latter; as the owner in name only, I simply watched from afar as the others did the arrangements.

The stores eventually opened, and one day, Teto and I decided to go pay a little visit to the one in Gald.

“Welcome— Huh?! Lady Witch? Lady Teto?!” the employee—who happened to be the daughter of one of the first-generation mechanoids I’d created—exclaimed when she saw us.

“Hi, how are things going?”

“Are you working really, really hard?”

The mechanoid quickly regained her composure and answered our questions. “We still do not have much customer traffic. Should we hold an opening sale campaign, perhaps?”

The mechanoids I’d created didn’t show much emotion, but their children had gone through the same growth process as humans and were more expressive.

Forcing a smile on my lips, I reassured her, “I don’t need the shop to be thriving. Things are fine as they are.”

“Oh, right! I need to tell the others that you’re here!” the mechanoid exclaimed before disappearing into the back of the store.

A few seconds later, she emerged, a group of beautiful women in tow.

“Lady Witch, we’ll do everything in our power to keep our line going!” one announced.

All the other employees were the daughters of the female-only demon races. As their goal was to ensure the continuity of their lineage, they had chosen to work at the stores in the hopes of meeting men to take as their mates.

Most female-only demon races had to copulate with men of other races to have children. Before, they used to kidnap the men in question to achieve their goal, but such conduct was completely forbidden in the forest. As such, they had no suitable mates in the forest and were starving for the company of men, to the point where they had all tried to seduce Clovis during his stay there. As such, all the women working at this store were quite fierce and aggressive, taking advantage of their days off to go on romantic rendezvous with the men they met at their job. Once they got pregnant, they would return to the forest, and the next batch of prospective employees would replace them at the store.

“Hmm? Is it just me, or are some of you missing?” I asked, eyeing the group of women.

“Those who are absent have either left to restock or are off today,” the mechanoid explained to me.

Apparently, the store operated on a rotating shift schedule so that each employee could have some time off. For the restocking, they needed to return to the forest to gather supplies, as they weren’t stocked directly in the stores. As for their days off, they spent them relaxing in the dormitory at the back of the store, taking on adventuring jobs, and going on dates with men. I was glad they could do whatever they wanted during their free time.

“Did you run into any trouble running the store?” I asked.

“Teto and Lady Witch will fix all your issues!” Teto added.

“Work is fun, but we have a hard time keeping up with our chores when we go home,” the mechanoid told me.

“I’ve lost many a day off doing the laundry that accumulated during the week and cleaning my room.”

“And we eat out a lot, so the costs are starting to add up...”

It seemed that the biggest source of their struggles was housework. While they could likely maintain their current pace if they worked diligently, I had to agree with them that juggling work and household chores was quite difficult.

“I see. Should I hire some cleaning staff and personal chefs for you, then?”

The store was running decently enough that they could manage with fewer employees, so I could assign one of the mechanoids as the superintendent of the dorms and hire cleaning staff and chefs to lighten their load.

“That’s a great idea. As long as the cleaning staff takes care of the communal areas and the laundry, we should manage just fine,” the mechanoid responded.

“Got it. I’ll go ask the employees of the other two stores for their opinion and work out the budget for all this with Beretta,” I said.

As promised, Teto and I went to check on the other stores, where the employees told us that they had similar issues. As such, we decided to hire some staff to ensure they wouldn’t have to spend all their free time doing chores.

The only issue was that we couldn’t afford to send more people from the forest to work outside. In the end, we settled on hiring local residents, such as those who grew up at the church’s orphanages, which we often donated to, and widows with children. Not only were we contributing to society that way, but the store employees would volunteer to teach them the things they had learned in the forest during their time off, mostly for fun. As for the cooks, we taught them the recipes for all sorts of dishes from my past life, which we ate a lot in the forest and did wonders for boosting the employees’ morale.

Later on, these housekeepers and cooks would go on to open their own branch stores, having learned the ropes from the employees, and Hexen would slowly spread across the entire continent.

Once we had resolved the store employees’ issues, Teto and I returned to our mansion to enjoy some relaxing downtime.

“I wonder if things will keep changing in the future,” I mused out loud.

Our daily life felt both familiar and yet slightly different from how it used to be. Watching the store employees hard at work truly made me realize just how much had changed.

“I’d love to go on another journey,” I added.

I couldn’t wait to meet more people.

“Where are we headed next?” Teto asked me.

“Let’s see... What about somewhere in the west of the continent?”

And so, the two of us began daydreaming about our next trip.

Extra Story: The Vampire Has Atoned for Her Sins

After the delegation from Mubad’s visit, the nobleman who had begged us for an elixir agreed to admit his daughter to our hospital. We dispatched a doctor from the forest to inspect her, chart her symptoms, and diagnose her, all of which he then forwarded to me. The girl’s clinical records in hand, Teto and I headed to the hospital to deliver them. There, we admitted patients with serious diseases from everywhere in the world, and our medical staff aimed to find treatments for their illnesses.

We stepped into the building, and the nurse at the reception area caught sight of us. “Welcome, Lady Witch, Lady Teto. What brings you here today?”

“Hi. We’ll be taking in a new patient soon, so I’ve come to deliver her clinical records to the director.”

“And we figured we might take a look at how things are going while we’re at it!” Teto added.

A smile spread on the nurse’s face. “If you’re looking for the director, I believe she may be sunbathing in the park as we speak. The weather is beautiful today.”

“Thanks. We’ll go look for her.”

“The flowers in the hospital’s park are beautiful, aren’t they?”

With that, the two of us headed to the aforementioned park. It was visible from all patient rooms and had flowers blooming throughout the entire year to cheer them up a little. When the weather allowed it, the patients who felt strong enough to walk could enjoy a nice stroll in the park.

We reached a large grassy spot featuring a single large broad-leaved tree. There, in the shade of its leaves, a woman was reclining on a lawn chair, sipping from a drink pouch.

“How are you, Carla?”

“Are you sleepy?”

On hearing us approach, the vampire Carla looked up at us. “Chise, Teto. I was just in the process of sampling my newest artificial blood variant,” she said, holding up the pouch for us to see. “It works quite well for blood transfusions, but the taste is vile. The scent of the chemicals I used to synthesize it has transferred into the flavor, and it just tastes like medicine.”

Carla’s research on artificial blood had truly borne fruit, and she was now able to make blood to use for transfusions, as well as for her to feed from. She even managed to replicate dragon blood, meaning that we didn’t have to ask the Great Elder to spare some of his to use in our elixirs as often as we used to. We had noticed that re-creating blood using the same sample multiple times resulted in a loss of quality, so, unfortunately, we still needed to ask for his contributions from time to time. This was an issue Carla was currently trying to fix.

Speaking of the vampire, she had changed quite a lot since our first meeting.

“Dear me, it’s this late already? I need to go back to the hospital.”

Squeezing the pouch, she gulped down the last of the blood before stepping out of the shade of the tree. She squinted a little at the sudden change in brightness, but her skin didn’t burn. As a Daywalker, she now feared none of her former weaknesses, not even sunlight.

Thanks to the rare blood she had consumed over the course of her research and her days competing with the other residents of the forest, she had managed to evolve into her ideal form.

The three of us made our way back to the hospital.

“What brings you two here today?” Carla asked us.

“You’ll have a new patient soon. Here—these are her clinical records,” I said, producing the documents in question from my magic bag and handing them to Carla.

Teto stared at Carla. “Do you think you can cure her?”

The vampire glanced at the file, a serious look on her face, then broke into a grin. “Uh-huh. We’ve actually treated someone suffering from the same symptoms before.”

“Really? I’ll be leaving her in your capable hands, then.”

“It took us twenty-five years to cure the last patient who suffered from this disease, but now that we’re more familiar with it, we should figure out a cure in less than ten.”

I had decided to take the girl in without consulting Carla beforehand, so I was a bit afraid she wouldn’t be able to cure her. However, it seemed my worries were unfounded.

“Ten years? That’s a looong time!” Teto exclaimed.

“What are you talking about? There’s only one way to cure illnesses that don’t react to healing spells: through sheer tenacity. Making new medicine requires a lot of trial and error, you know?” Carla said, adding, “Humans have such a short lifespan; they all end up dying of old age before a hundred years pass. I get attached to these patients after spending so much time with them. It always takes a toll on me to see them pass away,” she grumbled.

“Wanna quit, then? You’ve already atoned for your sins more than enough, haven’t you?” I asked.

When Carla moved into the forest, I’d simply had her perform late-night medical care for the residents who needed it. As an immortal being, she was able to perform her duties for many, many years, accumulating knowledge and experience with each patient, until she eventually became the director of our hospital, which specialized in finding treatments for incurable diseases. In the end, she had, both directly and indirectly, saved more people than she had hurt in the past. Furthermore, thanks to her research into artificial blood, she didn’t need to attack others for sustenance anymore. Loriel must’ve deemed that she had paid the price for her past crimes, as the stigma on her forehead had disappeared.

Rubbing the spot on her forehead where the stigma used to be, Carla flashed us a self-deprecating smile. “How mean. I take pride in my work, you know? Don’t take it away from me.”

“Got it. I’m leaving the new patient in your care, then.”

“Teto is rooting for you!”

The job I had entrusted Carla with had become something that she took a lot of pride in. Tales of her medical knowledge spread far and wide, and to this day, you could still find her helping those in need.

Afterword

To new readers and old readers, hello. This is Aloha Zachou.

I’d like to give my biggest thanks to everyone who picked this book up, my editor I-san, Tetubuta-sama for the lovely illustrations he drew for the series, and everyone online who looked at my work before it was published as a book.

A manga adaptation of this series by Shin Haruhara-sama is currently streaming on Gangan ONLINE; Chise and Teto’s interactions are absolutely adorable, so I highly suggest you go give it a try.

In this volume, I introduced the handy-dandy cure known as the elixir and a new demonic race: the vampires. What did you think of this storyline? Both the words “elixir” and “vampire” have appeared a handful of times over the course of this series, but I’m glad I was finally able to add some depth to them. I ended up veering off course from both the original plot and the characters I had come up with, though.

My first idea had been to have the vampire lead a rebellion in the forest, then seize the opportunity to attack Chise for her blood. However, with how heavily defended the forest has become, the scope of such a riot, and the possible resolution for this plotline, I concluded that it wouldn’t work. Instead, I had Chise leave the forest and attend an auction to make her an easier target.

I wasn’t sure what approach to take for the vampire either: Should they be a villain who can be won over, or an utter villain who must be defeated? Initially, I planned on the latter, envisioning him as a stylish middle-aged man like Count Dracula in Castlevania. I imagined him having two servants with special blood who would serve as his main source of nutrition. While their relationship would technically have been that of master and servants, I envisioned them growing somewhat fond of one another over the years. I could already picture how emotional the scene would be when the vampire was defeated and his two servants were left behind.

But when I sent my halfway draft to my editor, he commented that the vampire “didn’t feel that evil.” I know! I’m terrible at writing antagonists!

In the end, I gave up on the idea of a truly evil vampire and created Carla: a minor villain whom Chise eventually won over. Please look forward to the next installment of Chise and Teto’s adventures with their new immortal friend.

Please keep treating me—Aloha Zachou—well from now on too.

Lastly, I’d like to thank every reader who picked this book up once more.