The dwelling of the Great Witch was silent.
The building, which had no attendant, maintained its silence. Considering the status of the national teacher of the Southern Kingdoms, this treatment was almost akin to neglect.
Naturally, there was no reason for the Southern Kingdoms to intentionally slight the Great Witch. In fact, the Southern Kingdoms, as well as the Academy and the Empire, had shown a willingness to graciously host the Great Witch.
Yet, why was it so desolate here?
There was only one reason.
Because the Great Witch desired stillness.
She was a woman who had isolated herself on an island within the Sea of Trees for hundreds of years. At this point, she had no wish to long for a bustling crowd.
Thus, the building located in a corner of the Academy had become another Great Forest.
In the midst of a sea made up of silence instead of trees.
On the desolate corridor, soft footsteps echoed.
Each step amplified the noise, banging against the eardrums. The warmthless marble floor spat out a sound as pale as its color.
It was a jarring sight for various reasons.
Like splashes of paint on a canvas that should have had nothing, the woman nestled next to me and I were making quite a ruckus. In particular, the girl wearing a hooded hat was flailing about in distress.
The clamor generated by her throwing her arms and legs was considerably harsh.
“Hey! Are you crazy?! I got this, no need for a junior to butt in…!”
“It’s good to save time, isn’t it? After all, you had something to do, right?”
Still, my voice remained remarkably calm.
In fact, ‘Senior Elsi’ was capable of freeing herself from my hold any time she wished. Even if we were to have a contest right now, it would hardly guarantee my victory.
Though she struggled, she wasn’t really trying to escape my grip.
This had to be understood as silent consent.
The truth of my judgement was proven shortly thereafter. Senior Elsi slackened her body and huffed, abruptly turning her gaze away.
“…Hmph, you wouldn’t understand how I feel.”
“Of course.”
There was no need to carry someone who wasn’t resisting like a piece of luggage.
I gently set Senior Elsi down on the ground, and the girl scoffed as she swept her hair back.
“Hmph, you should be grateful for the honor of touching the body of Elsi Rainelle.”
“That’s my fiancée you’re talking about.”
Of course, ‘Senior Elsi’ pretended not to hear my reasonable retort.
She merely strutted away, endlessly grumbling.
“That barbaric man… our Percus was much kinder…”
“Well, I’m not that guy.”
“Well, whatever. I actually had something I wanted to say to you too.”
With that, Senior Elsi halted her steps.
It was just when the blazing sun was drawing lines across the sky. With the sunlight spilling down at an angle, she let out a sigh mixed with frustration.
“…She’s not coming back.”
“Pardon?”
I could do nothing but let out a blank response at her incomprehensible words.
Senior Elsi then placed her hand on her forehead and shook her head.
“I’m talking about the original owner of this body! The ‘Elsi Percus’ you know isn’t coming back.”
“What do you mean…?”
“It was the same even after drinking heavily.”
My mind froze at the unexpected situation.
What was this?
Why isn’t Senior Elsi coming back?
She was one of the people who was immensely important to me. Naturally, it was not something I could easily accept.
Excessive confusion sparked agitation.
Just at the moment when the lump of fire rose up and nearly touched my throat.
The girl produced a fluttering note from her bosom.
“I’ve neatly organized the information you wanted. And, well, I was planning to just show my face later…”
With a snap of her fingers, the note soared towards me.
Instinctively, I snatched the paper, and my eyes silently swept through the writing.
‘Location presumed to be the base of the Five Elements Formation.’
Of course, such phrases were hardly going to hold my attention.
I was struggling to resist the impulse to rip the note apart as I asked, “So, why isn’t Senior Elsi coming back?”
“Why are you asking me?”
Her response came back with a scoff.
For a moment, irritation toward the girl welled up in my gaze but soon dissipated.
Instead, a long sigh filled that void. I was nearly angry about the fact that Senior Elsi wasn’t coming back, but looking back, it wasn’t truly her fault.
And ‘Senior Elsi’ was right as well.
She was something akin to a specter suddenly called back to the past. Naturally, she could be ignorant of the related phenomena, and I wasn’t knowledgeable enough about her innermost thoughts to guess the surrounding circumstances.
Then who exactly should I ask?
One person briefly crossed my mind.
But before that, the girl had hinted at something.
“…Seems like she doesn’t want to come back.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“Well, uh, maybe she could be scared, you know? Haven’t you ever wanted to run away before?”
Indeed, there had been countless times.
But just because she didn’t want to come back, did that mean she truly wouldn’t?
If so, then where was Senior Elsi right now?
The problem, which I could scarcely begin to answer, burst the dam of my thoughts, flooding my mind. My grasp on the note unconsciously tightened.
It was then that Senior Elsi began to move again.
“To be honest, I had a lot of instances where I didn’t want to come back.”
I couldn’t remain paused like this.
I quickly followed behind Senior Elsi and asked, “How can we bring Senior Elsi back?”
“Well, I don’t know… I’m still a little scared.”
Before I could even ask what she meant by that.
Senior Elsi heaved a long sigh.
“Anyway, this old hag is always the same…”
It was immediately after.
A small flame was birthed in the void. That flame soon transformed into ashes, and from those ashes, a convergence began, which then began to turn into water at a certain point.
And then water turned into sprouts, sprouts turned back into flames.
As the interaction among the five extremes that formed a circle accelerated, the emptiness of the circle vanished.
At last, when it was time to take the trajectory to form a complete circle, a sudden crack split the void.
The striations beginning from the five extremities started to expand uncontrollably. It wouldn’t take long before an explosive sound shattered the world apart.
Hoo.
Amid the collapsing fragments, smoke from a cigarette floated. Before long, Senior Elsi and I found ourselves standing in a strange room.
With quite a puzzled look on our faces.
“…Not bad.”
“Thanks to rolling around under someone for years.”
Senior Elsi let out a hollow laugh and adopted a somewhat challenging expression.
It was an unexpected development. Hence, I decided to remain silent for now.
While it was important to retrieve the Senior Elsi I knew, the meeting of the two individuals should come first.
I could seek advice only after this incident concludes.
Another part that puzzled me lay in the Great Witch’s reaction.
Senior Elsi had broken something with an unfamiliar sorcery. I suspected it might be the Great Witch’s barrier, yet the Great Witch had been undone by her magic in front of a girl she was seeing for the first time.
Still, the Great Witch didn’t seem to show much change in her expression.
She couldn’t hide the vigilance emanating from her gaze, however.
“It seems you have a good teacher… Who did you study under?”
“There’s a nasty old woman. She’s so twisted in personality that she built her house in the middle of an empty forest. What’s more horrific is that she forces her disciples to live there too.”
At Senior Elsi’s cheeky words, the Great Witch exhaled a long stream of smoke.
“Well then, the disciple will stay with the teacher, or where else will they stay?”
“Doesn’t that seem a little funny? Yet, she sure gets incredibly lonely…”
The Great Witch, smoking a pipe, glanced sideways.
Her face appeared disinterested, but I knew.
The Great Witch was not one to engage in conversation if she didn’t have any interest at all.
“How strange… In my memory, there aren’t many who can wield the elements to this extent. None that matches the characteristics you mentioned.”
The gaze of the Great Witch was deeply submerged.
The now old seer, who had lived for hundreds of years, could sometimes unearth the deeply concealed emotions in a human heart. The reason Senior Elsi was able to meet the Great Witch’s eyes calmly must have been due to her familiarity.
Senior Elsi hesitated, then bit her lip.
And silence fell.
The Great Witch, with a contemplative hum, turned her gaze toward me.
“Well, after all, everyone has a past they want to hide. So, small fry, the reason you brought this shorty to me is…”
“…There is one person.”
I had to show a startled expression at the casually uttered words from Senior Elsi.
Wait, suddenly?
Yet a hint of anger hung in the blunt voice of the girl. I couldn’t understand that emotion and found myself lost in a daze for a moment.
The Great Witch also appeared bewildered at the unusual demeanor displayed by Senior Elsi.
“What are you…”
With a sharp motion, the girl’s delicate finger pointed straight ahead. At its tip, it was only natural that the Great Witch was positioned.
Momentarily, the Great Witch, who didn’t comprehend Senior Elsi’s intent, froze in place.
Nonetheless, Senior Elsi didn’t stop her trembling voice. Instead, she ended up clenching her hands into fists, squeezing her eyes shut as if bowing her head.
“Wh-How… How…!”
And in the next moment.
With a pop, Senior Elsi’s hand shot out and seized the Great Witch by the collar. I couldn’t help but gape, my eyes agape, at the unimaginable rudeness.
“How can you not recognize me!”
The Great Witch, who had suddenly been grabbed by the collar, turned her frozen gaze toward me.
It was an unprecedented disaster.
The swordsman staggered forward while carrying Ceria.
Even though his physique had shrunk, the Master’s body was still robust. Despite transporting a girl taller than himself, the swordsman showed no sign of struggle.
Right now, his mind was filled with one thought.
“Ah, I want to spar…”
He needed to toss this burden into the infirmary and then check on the brat.
They had agreed to spar that night, so there was no more room for postponement.
It was just when he stepped into the temple.
Today, the temple, usually drowsy, had very few pedestrians passing through. Only weak voices could barely be heard seeping through the open infirmary doors.
Though they were barely audible to ordinary people.
The swordsman was different. The Master’s refined hearing picked up on all the sounds around him without any conscious effort.
It was at that moment.
“Only you can fulfill the imperial wish…”
“Please don’t harbor any vain thoughts…”
The swordsman halted abruptly upon catching an irritating sound. After mulling over the familiarity of the voice in silence, it seemed to belong to one of his nieces.
The Second Imperial Princess Iris.
And the other was one of the twins from Alphenhausen, possibly?
Unable to ignore his curiosity, the swordsman unwittingly turned toward the infirmary. It appeared they were just having a brief conversation before leaving, as whispers were all that could be heard through the awkwardly opened door.
“Shi-en, do you understand? I’ll negotiate well with that ‘I-an’ guy, so you just have to listen to me.”
“B-But Brother Viltéon is still… Ah!”
It was then.
The hesitant Shi-en’s gaze met that of the swordsman. The haunting nightmares of the past flashed in his mind, freezing him momentarily, but Shi-en, who had regained her health, sprung up from her bed as if delighted.
She rushed over, clasping her hands.
“Ah, welcome! You came to check on me because Sir I-an brought me here, right? I’m sorry, I don’t remember much from that day for some reason…”
As she spoke, Shi-en let out an awkward chuckle. It seemed the shock had erased those memories from her mind.
Realizing this, the swordsman sighed with relief inwardly.
Right, you don’t have to remember. Shi-en.
All the sins belong to this old hag.
It was then.
“…Who is that child?”
Iris’s cold gaze was directed at the swordsman. No, it wasn’t just Iris; all the attendants accompanying her directed their gazes down upon him.
It was unimaginable in the past.
Not only would he not dare to look up at them, but he couldn’t even keep his gaze steady.
With a wry heart, the swordsman swallowed a hollow laugh and opened his mouth.
“Who? I am, you see…”
“Hyiiiiiik!”
However, the moment the swordsman opened his mouth in his usual tone, Shi-en began to tremble and sank to the floor.
As the group held a silence filled with confusion, Shi-en spoke with a voice trembling with tears.
“Something… something keeps coming to mind… Uuuuuh!”
The swordsman was equally taken aback.
Was it because he used his normal tone that Shi-en seemed to be catching on to his identity?
If so, there was only one answer.
“I-I am… no! Th-The girl is…”
Whether fortunate or unfortunate.
As soon as he corrected his speech, Shi-en’s tremors started to fade. Glimmering tears welled up in her gray eyes as they locked onto him, leaving the swordsman with no choice but to smile with a serene face, swallowing back his tears.
“I-I’m… your sister’s little sister…”
Lately, he had really been feeling that life was becoming quite difficult.
