The Witch (7)

Witch's Restaurant

Uniquely, this restaurant opened in the evening and closed in the morning. It traveled all over Arcanium, making its location difficult to pinpoint.

Currently, students from the five prestigious magic academies in Arcanium were eagerly searching for this restaurant. Its owner, 'Mellie Sher,' served food and greeted today's young patrons with a smile

The menu was incredibly diverse.

Many often ordered food from other regions out of homesickness, and Mellie Sher could cook all such dishes.

… To be precise, she could cook them, but the taste was often terrible.

Nevertheless, the customers praised the food and kept coming back.

Why? The reason was simple.

These dishes were not ordinary; they were magical.

Magical food? It was a strange term to hear.

No one had ever heard that cooking involved magic.

However, Mellie Sher could do it.

She was a witch and could handle very special magic different from ordinary mages.

'... This is enough.'

Watching the students eating their meals with gusto, Mellie Sher smiled faintly.

Witches had been persecuted and forced to hide.

No matter how much of an advantage a witch had over mages, their small numbers and the existence of witch hunters made it impossible to reveal themselves.

Thus, witches had to suppress or seal their magic and live like ordinary people...

Mellie Sher hated this life bound by shackles, so she decided to reveal herself to the world.

It was dangerous to do so openly.

She had to act very quietly and secretly. She had to impact the magical world enough for it to fear the existence of witches.

'This method was right.'

The Witch's Restaurant was just a rumor among students, so there was no direct interference from the Ministry of Magic.

However, trendy teenagers would inevitably be drawn to the Witch's Restaurant.

They would search frantically for it, and some chosen few would eventually find it.

'Fools who think they are tigers but are actually caught in a trap.'

They would think they were successful predators, but they were merely ensnared by Mellie Sher.

Young mages intoxicated by the magic in the food would seek out her food more frequently and eventually become slaves who couldn't live without the Witch's Restaurant.

The frightening part was that their 'witch addiction' showed no outward signs.

They would continue their daily lives as before, and excel as students of prestigious magic academies. Additionally, they would secure positions in the world's top magical institutions.

By then...

The seeds sown by Mellie Sher would finally bloom, and a part of the magical world would be in her grasp.

'I don't wish for a grandiose dream like world domination.'

Mellie Sher had seen witches who aimed for world domination meet terrible ends. She did not desire such grandiose dreams.

If only she could control even a tiny part of the magical world...

Perhaps she could bring the witches hiding in the shadows of the world back into the light.

For now, she would endure this humiliation.

She felt pathetic and furious at herself for only being able to lure teenage rookies to her makeshift restaurant. However, she knew that her efforts would eventually pay off if she waited a bit longer.

Ding!

As the students were finishing their meals and preparing to leave, the door to the restaurant opened, causing Mellie Sher to feel puzzled.

'What?'

After attending to this customer, she had cast a visibility-blocking spell to ensure no one else could enter. It should have been impossible for anyone else to approach...

'Did I make a mistake?'

It didn't matter.

Since she was disguised as a restaurant owner, Mellie Sher put on her business smile and greeted the customer.

"Welcome..."

"Witch. Found you."

Thunk!

… She tried to.

If it hadn't been for the cold sensation piercing her chest, she might have even bowed her head in greeting.

Drip!

Mellie Sher raised her trembling hand. The shower of bright red blood appeared.

"Damn... Cough!"

As she coughed up blood and collapsed to the floor, the students who witnessed the scene began to scream.

"Ahhh!!"

"W-What!"

"M-Murder!"

However, the witch hunter who had stabbed her chest with a transparent blade didn't move an inch. He hovered in mid-air and his torn robe fluttered wildly.

"… A witch who has abandoned even her pride and hid her heart."

With a voice that sounded like nails on a chalkboard, the witch hunter spoke.

Mellie Sher smiled and wiped the blood from her mouth.

"Ha... Of course. You always aim for our hearts. How could I leave it in such an obvious place?"

As Mellie Sher clenched her fist and gathered her magic, the transparent blade piercing her chest shattered into pieces, and the space began to fold rapidly.

"Ahhh!"

"Save me!"

"Aaargh!!"

Mellie Sher frowned at the students' screams. They bragged about becoming future magical warriors, but now, faced with real magic, all they could do was scream.

Although she wanted to decapitate all those lowly beings immediately, she had no time for that now. Reluctantly, she grabbed the air and shook it.

Whoosh!

The small witch's restaurant spun wildly, spitting out all the students and slamming the door shut.

But the witch hunter didn't move an inch, as if space-manipulating illusions had no effect on him.

"How crude. No matter how much you manipulate space, I can simply grasp it."

As the witch hunter shook his robe, black shadows rushed out, permeating the entire witch's restaurant.

"An illusion is just an illusion. It cannot resist me, who deals with truth."

As he said, the illusions created by Mellie Sher were devoured by reality. Despite this, she calmly wiped the blood off her mouth and slowly stood up while gripping her broomstick-shaped staff.

"Ridiculous."

… Huh?

At that moment, the black shadow magic that was devouring the witch's restaurant stopped moving.

As if there were no more illusions to consume.

"This is…"

...!

"Did you really think we still use primitive magic and put frogs in cauldrons and stir them?"

With that, Mellie Sher swung her staff. The shadows transformed into iridescent thorns within the illusion and rushed toward the witch hunter.

Thunk! Thunk!

The witch hunter's body had no physical form, yet Mellie Sher tore it to shreds.

"You… Could you be...?"

"Stop bothering me. I'm busy running this restaurant."

"I can't believe it…"

A witch hunted mages.

A witch hunter hunted witches.

The nature of relationship formed an absolute predatory hierarchy that had never been broken in the history of the magical world.

Therefore, when a witch hunter discovered a witch, it was normal for it to become a one-sided chase.

"This is impossible…"

Even as his entire body was being torn apart by the illusionary barrier, the witch hunter glared at the witch with bloodshot eyes.

Even in the face of such terrifying eyes, Mellie Sher calmly wiped the blood from her chest.

"My heart, huh..."

The witch hunter had aimed for her heart, which was his fatal mistake.

"You should have checked properly."

Mellie Sher muttered as she sensed numerous presences approaching from outside and sighed.

It seemed the spatial interference barrier was completely disrupted, and the mages had noticed and were approaching.

"Tsk. Looks like today's business is ruined."

Resigned to the fate, Mellie Sher snapped her fingers.

Whoosh!

The barrier protecting the witch's restaurant closed, and the space instantly vanished, leaving nothing behind.

"... We're too late."

The Stella Knights arrived at the scene and frowned. They had rushed over as soon as they sensed the outburst of magic, but the witch's restaurant had already disappeared.

"It's alright."

As the Stella Knights stood stunned, staring at the empty spot, Baek Yu-Seok approached them calmly.

"What's alright?"

Although the commander had ordered Baek Yu-Seok to join the Stella Knights temporarily, they couldn't trust the young and arrogant boy.

They, too, had been called 'geniuses' in their youth and had earned their place in the prestigious Stella Knights through significant achievements.

So it was hard to accept someone who had parachuted in and been granted even a temporary knight title.

Baek Yu-Seok understood their sentiments, but having dealt with a similar situation a decade ago, he found it tiresome to respond to each one individually.

"It looks like there was a battle here."

"Yeah. We know that much."

"Have you figured out who and how the battle was fought?"

It was a straightforward question, but they couldn't answer.

"We'll find out eventually. We'll bring the 'Compass of Memory.' There's a strong mana trace left here."

"That's useless. Events that happen in illusionary spaces don't leave memories."

"Are you saying it won't work without even trying? You might be young, but the Compass of Memory..."

"It's a witch hunter."

"... What?"

"That mana trace. It's the remains of a witch hunter."

At his sudden words, all the knights were stunned.

"That's impossible..."

It was a normal reaction.

Witch hunters were extremely rare, and their very existence was shrouded in mystery.

Who would believe it if someone claimed that the scraps of cloth scattered on the ground and the magical energy lingering in the air were the remains of a witch hunter?

But they were Stella Knights. They had to be able to think broadly and use not just brute force but also their intellect to solve cases no one else could.

'... Honestly, even I was a bit surprised.'

Through the Sentient Spec, he could analyze the traces of the witch hunter, but this situation hadn't happened in the original game, so he was genuinely taken aback.

According to the original story, that witch hunter was supposed to attack Eisel instead of a witch.

'I don't know what happened, but this works out better.'

The corpse of a witch hunter would provide a significant clue.

"Let's investigate that first."

"... You're crazy. The corpse of a witch hunter? You're delusional."

"What? No, it's real."

"Stop talking nonsense and step back."

"I trusted Commander Arien's words, but I am a bit disappointed."

"If you can't be helpful, at least don't get in the way."

As the knights pushed him back, Baek Yu-Seol looked incredulous.

'Is this really the Stella Knights?'

In the original game, the Stella Knights were described as a group of the world's strongest elite.

That wasn't wrong.

The fact that the most powerful individuals in terms of brute strength were gathered there was true.

But that didn't mean every single member was elite.

They were still saplings yet to fully grow.

Their thinking was still rigid, and they were too proud of being 'knights' to make flexible decisions.

Outside, they might be considered somewhat powerful mages, but they weren't yet fully part of the Stella Knights.

Their knowledge was vast and deep, but their way of thinking was stagnant.

'I understand why Arien sent these idiots to me...'

They were elite and deemed suitable for Stella, but their rigid personalities hindered their true development.

Arien must have wanted to give them a jolt, a stimulus strong enough to make them recognize their mistakes.

'... I asked for a helpful errand boy, but he sent me dead weight.'

But Arien's decision was quite sensible.

Because while they were fumbling around, Baek Yu-Seol planned to find the witch.

'This worked out well. With the witch hunter dead, Eisel won't be in danger.'

One of the reasons he had hurried to resolve this incident was gone, so that was a relief.