〈 Episode 27 〉Witch's Dream 9

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"Come on, eat some carrots. I'll boil them today so they'll have a better texture."

"...."

It was Elisha who saved me from Sergen's interrogation. Her one word.

[In the name of Elisha, he is not a hermit, he is in a relationship with me].

Serghen's mouth dropped open at that, and he looked at me for a moment.

[Is it true?]

The Deckard estate has long looked down on those who use the powers of the otherworldly, such as wizards and witches. The Order exists to stabilize civil unrest and to provide military doctors in times of war, but those with otherworldly powers are not favored by the Deckard Estate. Therefore, as the lover of Elisa, a witch, I could never become a hermit of the Deckard Estate.

[Example...]

My opponent is Sergen Sirtus, who hates Deckard with all his might. Therefore, I could only be declared as Elisa's lover.

"...Elisa..."

"You should say Elisha. You're not supposed to call your girlfriend by her first name, are you?"

Seeing Sergen's slightly distant glance, I slowly opened my mouth.

"Elisa."

"Huh?"

I stare at the stew and carrots on my wooden spoon.

"Do you want me to eat it myself...no, I'll eat it."

"Hmm, you shouldn't."

Elisa slowly approaches me.

"I..."

"We're supposed to be lovers, aren't we? Even if it's unintentional, I think this much squeezing is enough affectionate exchange between us?"

"...."

I can't help it, I put down my wooden spoon and take her wooden spoon of carrots into my mouth.

"Is that an indirect kiss?

Sure enough, Elisa has taken a few bites of stew with her own wooden spoon. When I look at her, she looks back at me, her eyes closed, her small lips pursed.

"Me too."

"Then, would you like some?"

"No, tirni spoon."

She's about to turn the meal into an act of stewing, and even Sergen, watching from the sidelines, coughs in disbelief.

"That's quite a relationship."

Witches can't have children. They are emotionally dangerous beings, and love artifacts associated with them are said to be curse artifacts that bring curses. They crave love, and find other ways to fulfill their unfulfilled maternal needs. Sometimes, maternal witches will take in abandoned children, or even kidnap those they really like.

"I'm sorry, Sergen."

"No need to apologize. It's just that I seem to be inevitably caught up in the process of bonding between the sexes."

Her cheeks flushed slightly. Of course, as a man, I'm embarrassed to death, and I'm sure Sergen is too, no matter how dear he is. Elisa, clamoring for stew, not caring what anyone else thinks.

"Come on."

I scooped up the stew and popped it into her mouth. She gobbled it up happily, like a baby bird being fed.

"Ah, that's good, thank you, Tir."

She snuggled in closer. I smell the fragrant dandelion again.

"Ah, no, you're welcome...no..."

I try to say something respectful, but it's a half-sentence. I'm flustered, not sure what to do.

"Hmm, is that how men and women interact at the Deckard estate?"

Sergen Sirtus, who lives in the West, wonders if the culture is different in the East. Even in the East, men and women don't act like this. It's just that Elisha's behavior is special because he doesn't care what others think.

"C'mon, Elyssa, we have to go, so why don't we clean up?"

"Tir will clean up?"

She doesn't hesitate to hand over the plates and spoons of leftover stew, for she's a servant, after all. The dishes smell a bit like they've been saved for the river.

"Is there a river nearby?"

Elisa waves her hands in the air with an apologetic expression. The odor quickly dissipates and the plates are clean.

"Wow."

Serghen's expression changed from that of a dignified lady to that of a young girl watching a marvelous magic trick.

"Hmph, a witch, indeed. She's quite skilled."

"Ordinary wizards don't even learn these practical skills from the Witches' Society. I'm sure they'll be suffering from food poisoning at their next meal with poorly washed dishes."

Elyssa seems to have a bad case of wizard discrimination, and Serghen seems to have a bad case of Deckard discrimination, and she wonders if she should curse at the wizards or the Deckards, but decides it's better to keep quiet and climbs onto the cart.

"Wizards are idiots who only learn violent offensive spells, and their unconditional rise in combat power will eventually crumble under the weight of their tilted growth, when they should be practicing practicality and growing up."

"I suppose that's what the Libra Witches of Condemnation say as well. Sometimes we call in cleaning witches when the mansion we're staying in gets dirty, but are most of the witches of that association trained in hygiene magic?"

"Yes, they're probably just beginner witches trying to make ends meet, and the world needs them to ward off any illnesses or wounds that come from getting too dirty."

As far as healing powers go, there are some, like the Order's Holy Light, which I've experienced firsthand, but hygiene magic was the Witches' Society's specialty, and Elisa seemed to take pride in that aspect of her work. Of course, she seemed to take even more pride in the emotional magic she specializes in, and frankly, her pride is pretty cool, if not for the discrimination against witches.

"I wonder if it's because I don't belong anywhere.

Serghen belonged to the Sirtus estate, and Elisa belonged to the Society of the Libra of Condemnation. Where was I supposed to belong, she wondered, with a bitter taste in her mouth as she realized that she belonged to the slum dwellers who kept their mouths shut when she pickpocketed them.

"Well, not bad.

Though he had grown up being used by the Deckard estate, not all the slumlords were their servants. Only the ones the butler said would not be hermits, but I hold out the vain hope that many of the people I've met are not.

"Chet.

I grumble for a moment. I glance at the rusted dagger I took from the goblin and realize it's not a useful object, so I give up trying to polish it and slip it into my belt.

"You're pretty rough with a dagger, aren't you?"

Serghen eyed the rusted dagger, which looked like it was at least 20 years old.

"It originally belonged to the goblins."

"Goblins? Did you also encounter monsters in the Hammel Great Forest?"

Goblins and orcs are said to be the most common monsters in the Great Forest of Hammel. Outside of the great western expanse, there are kingdoms of goblins and orcs that form colonies... but most orcs and goblins do not form large groups and roam the forest like monsters. Just as humans are diverse, so too are their lives as monsters.

"Right..."

He looks at Elisa with a slightly resentful expression.

"Hmm. Anyway, for a new adventurer to come to Sirtus and fight monsters in the Great Forest, it must have been quite a journey, huh?"

"What?"

"Slaying goblins is a common request from adventurers venturing outside the realm for the first time. They come with greedy tongues at harvest time, and while we don't exterminate them all, it's important to keep them in line."

Serghen nods. She doesn't seem to have much of a prejudice against adventurers.

"I.

I don't know if it's because of the hermitage the butler put me in, but I don't have a good impression of the Adventurers' Guild. It was possible that the man who had drugged me with sleeping pills while I was hiding in the stables was a real adventurer, and since adventurers were rumored to do anything for money, it was possible that he was a real adventurer caretaker and not a hermit under the butler.

'If we go to the Sirtus estate, the Adventurers' Guild should stay away.

The Adventurer's Guild is separate from the manor, and it's possible that some adventurer warden who recognizes my face might send word to the Deckard's. If that happens, the Adventurer's Guild might sell your news to them for a large sum of money. Of course, if I could get into Sirtus and be guaranteed safety by the Witches' Society, that would be fine, but I didn't want to pay them too much money.

"I guess I've become prejudiced against adventurers in some way?

For a moment, I began to understand Serghen and Elisha. It's human nature to dislike even their own organization if you've been hurt by any motive.

"Haha! In the future, when you capture goblins, in addition to the daggers, cut off their right ears, which you can present to the Adventurers' Guild for some traveling expenses."

Serghen gives sincere advice to a novice. Even though she was the favorite of a wealthy count, she was willing to share tips with adventurers.

"Do you cut off your right ear when you kill goblins, Sergen?"

"Of course, adventurers don't like it, but it's the Count who pays the Adventurer's Guild to hunt down forest monsters. It's only right that we return the money he pays us by slaying them. If the adventurers have done a good job of hunting down the monsters, there's no reason for me to clear the forest in the first place, is there?"

Her logic was sound. The Count routinely hires the Adventurer's Guild to slay monsters to prevent damage during harvest season or when the monster population grows. However, the Adventurer's Guild often spares or releases a few monsters to relieve themselves of their duties.

"Is that true?"

"Yes. Monsters that don't make money, their own quota, or something like that, they'll let them go on purpose so that they can multiply again, so you don't have to go into the forest, just search the neighborhood, and you can make a lot of money. It's called monster farming among adventurers."

"That's ridiculous... They do it for their own benefit while leaving the farmers to suffer."

It would be quite a task to exterminate all of the monsters in the Hammel Great Forest, but I felt bad for the adventurers who tried to keep the population under control so that they could hunt more easily. It was their job, of course, and to some extent they were indispensable, but they were snobbish, to say the least.

"Normally, I only clear the area near the manor, making it harder for adventurers to get in to make money, but I thought I'd give the Great Forest of Hammel a try."

Thanks to an expensive pendant given to her by the Sirtus estate, she was able to roam the forest on her own without getting lost. In a way, Sergen seems more like an adventurer than a knight.

"How strong are the orcs?"

"Orcs (orc) are very similar to humans, and their strength is such that even a full-grown man would not be able to overcome them."

I'd heard that before.

"What god do they believe in? Most say they believe in a god called Horc. There's a theory that they named themselves the Orcs after him...I don't know the details. In any case, they believe in Horc, and they are beings who know the honor of dying in battle. They love war, and they see plunder as their rightful place."

"Wow...they're scary?"

"They're green-skinned, over two meters tall, and can crush large logs with a single punch. It's not uncommon for novice adventurers to run into them, get their heads split open, and women kidnapped and raped in their clan."

Sergen smiled at me, trying to scare me. But I could tell she wasn't lying.

"I've heard of quite a few deaths.

In the halls of the Adventurer's Guild, there were occasional reports of adventurers encountering orcs in the Great Forest of Hammel and having their parties wiped out. Either a few of the party had been taken by goblins, or the entire party had been wiped out by orcs. It was the orcs of the Great Forest of Hammel who made up most of their obituaries.

"Women, do women get raped by orcs?"

This part of the story was new to me.

"Hmm? You don't know orcs well. They consider women to be their spoils. You could call them greedy... but there are many aspects of their culture that are just part of their culture. They see them as tools for procreation, and there are some orcs who will defend a woman with their child with their lives."

Complexity is human-like. It's easy to see why Serghen called the human-like monsters orcs.

"That's why there are so many half-orcs in our Sirtus estate."

"What?!"

Half-orcs, who were half-orc and half-monster, mingling with humans? I felt incomprehensible about that.

"Among the half-orcs, individuals with strength and brains halfway between orcs and humans are born, and are rejected by the herd. Most are rejected by their clans because they are weaker than normal orcs, and because of their faster growth and survival than humans, they are often used as adventurers, beasts of burden, or menial laborers by Count Sirtus."

Elisha's earlier comment about the Sirtus estate embracing people of other races made sense.

"Is there any discrimination?"

"Why, there is no discrimination. However, the Counts of Sirtus are always passing laws against discrimination, and many of the half-orcs and other xenomorphs are given the rights of the common folk, though adventurers and taskmasters often do worse, preying on the innocent half-orcs."

"Wow..."

I remembered the East's point about the West being a filthy place that takes in the lowly. Of course, I can't say that I have nothing against half-orcs or other folk, but the West's more liberal attitude toward them made me feel something new.

"Maybe the East is doing it wrong.

Many nobles in the East, including the Deckard family, persecuted all non-humans. The West strives to accept them, and occasionally interacts with other races. While most of the creatures of the Great Forest of Hammel are marauding monsters who would rather maraud than compromise with humans, they have a strange affinity for those who are willing to talk to them, as Serghen says he is always willing to talk to anyone who wants to talk.

"You're slaying orcs... do you think they're different from the orcs of the West?"

"Of course not. Humans are bandits to be slain, and orcs are just like them in that they plunder and fight."

Something about this statement shattered my worldview. She characterized monsters as mere marauders, a disparate group of unspoken races. I had been struggling with the distinction between what was a monster and what was an alien, but listening to her, it came down to simple logic.

"If a human is a bandit, they're a monster, and if a monster can talk and interact with humans, they're a xenomorph.

"Occasionally, Orcs who dislike the plundering of their clan will follow the Half-Orcs into Count Sirtus's estate. Of course, they're discriminated against, so most of them take the road to the Orcish kingdom... but they have their own ideas."

It was easy to see why Serghen was so comfortable talking to Elisa, a witch, and me, a poor pickpocket. She was free. Unlike any woman I'd ever met. Noel was like a bird in a cage, and Elisa was like a curious being, exploring and checking everything. And Sergen...

"Free.

She felt like she had more freedom of thought and power than anyone else.

"So. Elisa. I assume you feel it too?"

"Yes."

I don't find the point of her words.

"You've been wondering, and it looks like you're going to have an encounter with some monster orcs that aren't half-breeds."

"What?!"

Serghen laughs, drawing his middle sword.

"Be careful, boy. The orcs of the Great Forest of Hammel are surely at the top of the list of enemies you've encountered."

Elisa was laughing, too...and honestly, I wanted to cry. The number of red eyes that seemed to recognize them in the forest began to increase as they spoke.

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