Rizelotte appeared in the air, looking completely different from how she used to be hundreds of years ago.
The bony woman who had been wasting away in the witch’s forest was gone, replaced by a plump and beautiful figure.
“Long time no see, kiddo.”
As soon as her feet touched the ground, Rizelotte spread her magic power to assess what was happening around her.
After spreading her magic, she tilted her head in confusion upon realizing there was no one around. She couldn’t imagine Kail summoning her for no reason.
“Hmm—surely you didn’t call me just to see my face…? What’s going on?”
“Maybe I did?”
“You? Really? For such a trivial reason?”
Rizelotte stared at Kail for a moment before pursing her lips in exasperation.
“You’re not trying to comfort me with flattery so you can summon me a few more times, are you? Even though you saved me—”
“No, don’t worry, it’s nothing like that.”
Kail waved his hands dismissively at Rizelotte’s unnecessary worries before handing over a drawing he had made himself.
Perplexed by the incomprehensible drawing, Rizelotte tilted her head again.
“What is this…?”
“It’s a person’s face.”
“This is…?”
Rizelotte let out a dry laugh as she closely examined the montage Kail handed her. Once she thought of it as a human face, it kind of started to look like one.
But humans naturally perceive any circle with three holes as a face, so drawing something *not* resembling a face was actually harder.
“The name’s Agni. Apostle of the Evil God.”
“—So this is why you called me.”
“Yes, High Witch. From now on—”
Kail pointed to the montage as he spoke.
“I’d like you to curse this guy for me.”
***
The Evil God Cult. That’s what the world called this heretical religion, but internally, they referred to themselves differently.
They called themselves the Knights of Original Sin. The seven apostles were each burdened with one of the seven deadly sins, wielding power over tens of thousands of followers with just a wave of their hand.
Agni, the Apostle of Wrath, was the most active among them. This was tied to her abilities.
“Be angry. Be angry at this world. Burn everything down. We will bear all your sins.”
““Ah, ah—!!””
Of all her powers, the one she used most frequently was emotional manipulation through wrath. Adrenaline surged uncontrollably, and the emotions of hundreds or even thousands of followers twisted and turned at her command.
It was an overwhelming domination of emotions, enough to melt brains. Those who fell under it inevitably became followers of the Evil God Cult.
After successfully converting an entire village, Agni smirked and headed toward the inn.
The innkeeper, who had devoted their body to the Evil God, prepared a feast for her.
“The meal is ready, Apostle-sama.”
“Great~ Oh, looks delicious. Let’s eat!”
Agni sat down at the table and began her meal. A lavish feast awaited her—meat, eggs, milk, all rare finds in such a rural village.
She stuffed bread into her mouth, added meat and eggs to make a sandwich, then shoved it all in and washed it down with gulps of milk…!
“Mmph, mmph!”
As she swallowed too much food at once, Agni suddenly felt her throat clog, cutting off her breath.
Seeing Agni coughing violently and pounding her chest, the surrounding followers panicked, unsure what to do. They couldn’t dare touch the Apostle blessed by the Evil God’s power.
Moments later, Agni’s face turned pale as she collapsed onto the table, foaming at the mouth. Realizing the gravity of the situation, the followers finally forced the food out of her throat—but by then, Agni was already dead.
“What do we do…!?”
“A-Apostle-sama has passed away…!”
The absurdity of the situation left everyone dumbfounded. How could the Apostle of the Evil God, capable of manipulating thousands of emotions, die from simply eating?
Just as they were panicking, Agni suddenly sprang back to life, shocking everyone.
“Ah, I almost died.”
“A-Apostle-sama!?”
“B-But you clearly passed away…!”
Agni spat out the remaining debris in her throat and looked at her followers as if questioning their sanity.
“Me? Die? Don’t be ridiculous.”
“But, but—”
“How could I possibly die from eating? If word gets out, what would the followers think of me?”
“Y-Yes, understood.”
The followers, understanding Agni’s words, promptly erased the memory of what they had just witnessed.
Watching them comply so obediently, Agni smiled in satisfaction.
‘Ugh, so embarrassing…’
Sure, it was embarrassing to choke on food in front of her followers, but she couldn’t exactly kill them all, could she?
Shaking her head, Agni left the inn. She never wanted to sit in such an unlucky place ever again.
***
“Hmm, it failed?”
Rizelotte sighed faintly, sensing her curse hadn’t worked—or rather, it hadn’t worked as intended.
Her curse had indeed killed its target; she felt the satisfying sensation of death. The problem was that the target continued moving normally afterward.
“I told you—they come back to life even after dying.”
“Immortality… How is that even possible?”
“It must be the power of the Evil God.”
“Even divine power has its limits…”
Divine power was indeed formidable. But as someone who manipulated the world’s rules, Rizelotte knew such abilities weren’t infinite.
Using godlike power on Earth required immense resources—resources beyond human imagination.
“Well, whatever. If I can’t kill them outright with a curse, I’ll just keep cursing them steadily.”
“What kinds of curses?”
“Curses like always running out of toilet paper or stubbing your pinky toe every time you cross a threshold.”
Hearing this, Kail stared at Rizelotte, wondering if she was trying to kill Agni through sheer stress.
But no matter how he looked at her, Rizelotte seemed completely serious. She genuinely believed these petty curses could kill Agni.
‘Come to think of it, she has lived for hundreds of years…’
While such trivial curses might seem harmless in the short term, over years, decades, or centuries, they could become devastating.
“By the way, kiddo, names alone aren’t enough for these curses.”
“I have plenty of blood. Will that work?”
“Oh, blood will do just fine.”
Kail took Rizelotte to the spot where Agni had died dozens of times. There, Agni’s thick, sticky blood soaked the ground.
Rizelotte waved her hand lightly over the blood-soaked earth, and soon the blood, partially decomposed by microorganisms, gathered into her palm.
The amount of blood collected was enormous—far more than could have come from a single human body.
“With this much, I can curse her for hundreds of years.”
Without hesitation, Rizelotte began casting curses. Toilet paper always running out, stubbed pinky toes, indigestion every time she ate, insomnia—all manner of petty curses flew toward Agni.
After the ritual, Kail asked why she resorted to such trivial curses.
“Huh? You’re asking why I’m using these kinds of curses?”
“Yes. If you can kill with a curse, wouldn’t it be better to use one that kills them every moment?”
“That’s because you don’t understand curses.”
Curses weren’t simple things. They only seemed easy because Rizelotte, the High Witch, was using them. In reality, curses were delicate and difficult to wield.
“A curse that brings death is like throwing a punch with full force.”
As she spoke, Rizelotte threw a full-powered punch at Kail, who reflexively dodged it.
Seeing him dodge, Rizelotte shrugged smugly.
“But the curses I just cast are light taps—ones you wouldn’t even bother avoiding.”
She playfully tapped Kail’s arm. Since there was no real force behind it, he didn’t feel the need to dodge.
“If I kept using powerful curses that brought death every moment, she’d instinctively try to avoid them. She might even realize something’s wrong and perform a counter-curse.”
“…Are these curses different?”
“They’ll cause some stress, but they’re too weak to be considered proper curses. So it’s hard to detect or counter them.”
Low-effect curses didn’t show immediate results. But over the long term?
What if every day she bruised her butt on her own feces, stayed up all night unable to sleep, and suffered indigestion every time she ate?
Humans were both incredibly resilient and extremely fragile.
Constant daily stress could lead to serious illness.
“Anyway, if I could meet her directly, I wouldn’t need to bother with this.”
“What do you mean?”
“My dear, have you forgotten who I am?”
Rizelotte smirked as she spoke. Kail tilted his head in confusion before suddenly remembering her true identity.
She was the High Witch, but her specialty was none other than soul manipulation.
An expert in handling souls.
Whether immortal or monstrous, no one could resist her. Even if their physical form couldn’t die, without a soul, they’d be nothing more than living dolls.
