High Witch Rizelotte was once an ordinary housewife living on this land. Then one day, a massive war broke out.
A great war where hundreds and thousands of people died every day. The men were conscripted, and the women had their harvests taken away daily as they toiled in the fields.
Children starving to death became a daily occurrence, and the situation worsened to the point where parents were faced with the grim choice of eating their own children─ that’s when it happened.
“This spot will do.”
“Hmm.”
Suddenly appearing soldiers and Black Mages began digging up the barren land near the village. They made prisoners dig several meters into the ground and then buried them alive right there.
After such a shocking event that left everyone too stunned to even scream, the Black Mage singled out Rizelotte, who lived in the village, and gave her an order.
“You’ll do. Stay here and guard this place.”
“Y-yes? What do you mean─ Kyaaah!”
Just like that, Rizelotte was cursed.
Hundreds of thousands of prisoners were buried alive, and the powerful grudges from their spirits clung to this land. She became the guardian to prevent those vengeful spirits from escaping.
From then on, Rizelotte became a cursed witch. And for hundreds of years, she guarded this land as a witch.
But she couldn’t live like that forever.
“I must… liberate these people…”
With that thought, Rizelotte began her research. To free all the vengeful spirits inhabiting this land. To break the curse of this land.
However, it wasn’t a curse that could be easily undone by an ignorant housewife with no education.
As time passed, her knowledge accumulated, but so did the resentment of the vengeful spirits.
By now, she didn’t have much time left where she could stay sane. Being tormented by evil spirits every minute of every day, she was slowly going mad.
If this continued, she would completely lose her mind, and eventually, even her spirit would be bound by this curse. Realizing this, she wrote a will and hurried her research as much as possible.
Hoping that if she went completely insane, someone who found this place afterward might fulfill her last wish.
* * *
“─That’s what it says.”
Sera, who had read Rizelotte’s will aloud, waved the paper in front of her while giving her a questioning look, silently asking if it was correct.
However, Rizelotte, already seemingly lost in her own world, simply stared back at Sera without reacting.
When Sera shivered slightly, feeling a bit spooked by her lack of response, the High Witch quietly spoke.
“Release me.”
“Kail, release her.”
“Hmm. If we attack from this distance, she won’t be able to block it?”
“It’s fine. She should know we’re not enemies. And didn’t you hear? This place is filled with things the High Witch has been researching her whole life. No matter how crazy she is, she wouldn’t use magic here.”
After hearing Sera’s words, Kail nodded and carefully removed the Aura he had embedded in the High Witch’s body.
As the Aura blocking her magic flow dissipated, the High Witch realized her magic was flowing freely again and sighed in relief.
“─That’s right.”
The two, puzzled by her sudden statement, tilted their heads in confusion until they realized it was her response to the will Sera had just read aloud, blinking in surprise.
If what was written in the will was true, she wasn’t an evil High Witch. The real villains were the Black Mages who had bound her to this land hundreds of years ago, and she was innocent.
But who would believe her now, even if she revealed this truth?
The High Witch spoke as if she didn’t care whether her innocence was proven.
“I just want to free the people buried in this land.”
“Is a curse really that complicated a thing?”
“I’ve spent hundreds of years studying curses. But what I gained wasn’t the way to break them—it was the curses themselves.”
Rizelotte was an ignorant housewife who barely knew anything. How could she possibly unravel a curse crafted from the complex theories of ancient Black Magic?
As the saying goes, when you stare into the abyss, the abyss stares back. What she gained wasn’t the method to dispel curses, but rather the curses and Black Magic themselves.
‘…I see.’
Sensing the story might take a while, Kail cautiously glanced at Sera. The two seemed to enjoy exchanging stories about their wounds, continuing to chat enthusiastically.
Realizing the story wouldn’t end anytime soon, Kail quietly slipped out of the cabin. Initially worried about leaving them alone, he quickly dismissed that thought upon seeing how engaged they were in conversation.
Exhaling deeply as he gazed at the forest, Kail realized that within a radius of hundreds of meters around the cabin, it was a safe zone untouched by evil spirits.
‘Bodies are buried here?’
They also said that tens or even hundreds of thousands of prisoners were buried alive. It was a tragedy caused by the Black Mages, yet astonishingly, those responsible didn’t seem to care at all.
Or perhaps they deliberately ignored it, using curses to bind the bodies and ghosts to this land.
“Hmm… Is this it?”
While wandering through the forest, Kail sensed ominous energy swirling underground. Frowning slightly, he pushed a branch deep into the ground.
Channeling his Aura into the branch and driving it into the earth, the ominous energy flowing beneath the surface hesitated, blocked by the single branch.
Amused, Kail stuck a few more branches in before returning to the cabin. As he burst through the door, he saw the High Witch rushing out towards him.
“You, youuuu─!”
“What? Suddenly?”
“Youuu! What did you do!?”
Seeing the High Witch shaking him violently by the shoulders, Kail scratched his cheek, perplexed.
“What did I even do?”
“The curse suddenly broke! What did you do!?”
“The curse?”
Shrugging as if to say why would it break, Kail realized the High Witch truly had no idea what he’d done, causing her to panic.
If these two weren’t the culprits, why did the curse, which had been intact until they arrived, suddenly shatter?
Confused, the High Witch blinked repeatedly, but soon realized something more important than the broken curse.
“A-ah, no…!”
“What? Isn’t it a good thing the curse broke?”
“If breaking it was that simple, I would’ve done it ages ago! But if it breaks like this…”
Woooooo─.
The ground began to shake lightly. Kail tilted his head, wondering what was happening as he experienced an unexpected earthquake.
This wasn’t an earthquake. What the High Witch feared was actually happening.
“They awaken.”
Tens of thousands of corpses buried underground for over hundreds of years. Their bones had long turned to dust, but the vengeful spirits below remained very much alive.
The hundreds of thousands of vengeful spirits buried underground had evolved into a single colossal evil spirit after centuries of mutual torment under the curse.
─Uwoooooooo!
Stripped of reason, all that remained was hatred and curses.
A supermassive evil spirit, formed from millions of evil spirits, revealed itself.
Looking at the branch embedded in its thigh, Kail groaned inwardly.
‘Ah.’
Isn’t that the branch I stuck in earlier?
* * *
“Return! This is not your land!”
Seeing the colossal evil spirit towering dozens of meters high, the High Witch immediately began chanting spells to banish the evil spirit.
However, the evil spirit ignored her magic as if it were invisible and started walking toward the edge of the forest.
“Kail!”
Hearing the commotion, Sera emerged from the cabin late and ran towards Kail, shouting.
“Let’s run!”
“─No.”
“What? What do you mean!? If we stay here, we’ll be crushed to death! Can’t you see!?”
Sera pointed at the evil spirit as she spoke. The other evil spirits in the forest were being drawn into the colossal evil spirit one by one.
Like a massive star pulling satellites with its gravity, souls lured by the evil spirit’s intense hatred merged with it.
Watching the evil spirit grow larger with each absorbed ghost, Kail shook his head.
“Still, we can’t run.”
“Why are you suddenly acting so righteous!? I said let’s run!”
“I think I woke that thing up.”
“…What?”
Ignoring Sera glaring at him as if blaming him for some catastrophic accident, Kail muttered defensively.
“And there’s another reason we can’t run.”
“…What now?”
“Where do you think that evil spirit is heading?”
“Where else─.”
Sera glanced at the direction of the evil spirit’s steps and her expression hardened. The evil spirit was heading straight for the Diaros Empire they came from.
Realizing this, Sera looked at Kail with disbelief. Guessing her thoughts, Kail quietly nodded.
“The ones who created that evil spirit perished hundreds of years ago, and the current empire stands in their place. But─ does that thing look like it has the reason to tell the difference?”
Convinced by his perfectly logical argument, Sera had no choice but to agree with him.
She had to agree with the necessity of defeating that evil spirit in the forest.
