Chapter 11: This is how I befriended a shy Witch

Unknown Time, Unknown Place

The moment my body and mind started to wake up after sometime from the terrible encounter I had with the Witch of Envy, my ears woke up to a melodious humming. A soft hand was caressing my hair as my memories returned back to me.

I didn't outright wake up, my relative soreness and the strange pressure I was feeling on my still hurting leg suggesting that maybe some more rest was more than necessary after almost losing it because of the dark version of Satella.

Yet, as I enjoyed the pleasure that only a lap pillow offered by a fair maiden could concede, I found myself questioning some crucial details of my current predicament.

While my first thought was that I had somehow been fished out of the Witch's prison by one of the wizards assigned to guard the area, the fact I was being treated up by a female touch it clear that I was still stuck within the prison... but which part of it?

I knew that Satella was sealed in a special section of the dome that was meant to keep her away from her own darkness and the real world.

Two functions that showed that Flugel did somehow cared for the poor woman and, as I fought back the urge to jump away from the witch's lap, I realized that any misstep was going to end up with me getting either killed or erased from the world, cases that I wanted to truly avoid at all costs.

So planning this carefully, I did my best to try and fake 'waking up' slowly and quietly, eyelids opening to stare up to a very familiar face.

I have seen the original artwork of Satella, the one attached to the light novel as Subaru first encountered her in the Witches' Tea Party. Silent, politely and respectfully so, knowing that the boy did have some misplaced hatred for her and thus having her take a moderate stance to seek redemption to his eyes.

Still when my eyes saw her face, someone that has the 'classic' eccentric features of an anime's character, I was quite surprised when I caught on her appearance. Her pale hair was pure white, as if made of pure snow. Her eyes were a shade darker than Emilia's, there was some blue in that purple, and I saw her cheeks flush at my intense glancing.

"Y-You are awake." She blurted out, an embarrassed tone that seemed much similar to the half-elf I had just mentioned. It was kind of odd how her whole attitude did resemble so much Emilia and for a moment I was thinking that this was actually the 'innocent' girl.

The fact her dress was the same black one she had when she finally accepted to met Subaru and the fact her expressions seemed a little more mature compared to Emilia were enough to fully prove that this woman was Satella.

The Witch wasn't speaking further, looking away as she waited for a response from me. My perception of my surroundings broadened and I saw that I was lying on a white stone bench, nearby a small table with two chairs and some umbrella giving shadow to the furniture.

I blinked. "I am." My response might have been a little late, but she still nodded, eyes briefly glancing back at my face before she flushed once more.

"I-" She paused, I could see her throat swallowing nervously as she nodded to herself. "T-That is good."

Few more moments of quiet passed and I found myself closing my eyes once more, this time to reflect about my current predicament:

1) I was in the 'deepest' part of the prison, the entrance not visible where I currently am;

2) I was in proximity of the fragile personality of the once world-threat Witch of Envy, Satella looking quite meek as of now;

3) My leg was still hurting but recovering from the bandages applied on it, I should be able to get up very soon as I was starting to channel some of my magic here.

All in all not the worst scenario but certainly not the best either. I glanced back at the white-haired woman and smiled, catching another blush from her as she seemed completely unable to socialize in that situation. I guess that after being jailed for so many years (1000+) her notions of others had long changed.

A lonely woman, punished for the mistake of the one that is hailed as one of the grand saviors of Lugnica. A tragedy with a single title, its name being 'Satella' and its epilogue being a simple field filled with rose, no clouds in the sky as the sun moderately bathed us with its light and an outrageous amount of tea dispensed from that little kettle.

Now that was a scarier outcome than death.

"Satella." Her eyes widened as my dry throat let out her name, her attention redirected back at me as she braced for any scary retalation from me and... then I smiled. "Thank you."

She blinked once, then twice. The Witch looked calm and emotionless for a moment, then her composure broke a confused expression, one that seemed to show how she was failing to grasp the difficult reply I have just given her. Her chest heaved and then she blinked again.

"W-What?" That was what her mind could conceptualize in a response to the inane predicament she was now facing. It was kind of adorable of her inner struggling was perfectly visible in her face, scrunching once or twice as she evaluated any possible hidden meaning in the two words I just relayed to her.

And yet nothing seemed to make sense to her.

"I said 'Thank you'." I repeated calmly, my smile going still strong. "Thank you for nursing me up. I... I think I would have lost my leg there."

She gulped nervously. "I-It was my fault. I-I mean, t-the dark me t-tried to-"

"Satella." She stopped almost instantly and I nodded. "I know that you didn't want to hurt me."

"I still did." The woman remarked with quiet sadness. "I-I am not a good person."

"And why is that?" I continued to mount up the crescendo. "Can you tell me why?"

My tone seemed to quickly snap her away from her reverie, her eyes darting back onto my face. "I-I made a mistake!"

"Uh?" Was she seriously planning to tell the truth? I mean, I wanted to know that but... why this much opening-

"N-No, I shouldn't- I shouldn't tell. Flugel-"

"Is not here-"

"B-But I harmed him!" She sobbed, the first tears falling right onto my face. "I caused pain to him, I- I almost destroyed the world."

I didn't reply the moment she stopped, letting the Witch cry a little so that she could let go of the emotional weight growing within herself. I patiently waited and then... she turned to sniffling and I nodded.

"You may have done that." I muttered carefully. "But aren't you regretting that?"

She paused and blinked. No response, only another confused staring.

"Do you regret having done such terrible things? Do you regret it all?"

...

...

"I... I do."

It was a cold breeze that accompanied her words and I hummed quietly.

"That is a good thing then." I persevered insistently. "If you were a bad person, Satella, you wouldn't have regretted any of that. If you were truly a terrible being you would have been hateful of having gone ahead and finished it all, you would have taken pleasure out of the pain you caused and yet you don't."

Her sniffling slowly waned away, her sleeve going to clean up her tear-stained face. "Y-You- Why?"

I blinked. "What?"

"Why aren't you... hating me?" The Witch whispered nervously. "I-I did terrible things and yet... you aren't shaking, you aren't fearing all of this. Why?"

I sighed, my brain working for a coherent answer that dodged any of the usual shounen's cheesy replies.

"I am... not from this world." I mused loudly, her eyes merely blinking and confirming one of my suspects. "Something I think you have long established."

Satella nodded and I continued. "Well, it is quite known where I come from that sometime people commit the worst crimes for a reason, not just because they wanted to."

"L-Like me?" She asked with such a child-like voice. I was tempted to let out a D'Aww, but decided against it as it would interrupt the moment.

"Like you and worse."

Her eyes narrowed in further confusion. "W-Worse?"

"Yep." I nodded softly to her and continued. "But the thing I mean with all of this is that we are all flawed as living beings. We make mistakes, we do terrible things and then, based to how we truly feel within ourselves about what we do, we either praise or condemn ourselves."

"B-But why? Why a-are we flawed?"

"Because the world would be a dull and stale place if we were perfect. We wouldn't experience happiness because we wouldn't know about sadness, we wouldn't experience gratification because we wouldn't know about failure and we wouldn't learn about love because we wouldn't know what is hate."

"I-It's unfair!"

"But then you know what it's fair." Whatever angry outburst she tried to come up with it died down the moment I intervened. Jaws open, eyes widening and soon she started to think more about my words. Yet I was far from over.

"The world is a terrible place of disappointment and despair, but we all learn to stand up on our own or with the help of others. We learn to cheerish the few moments of joy, to treasure them away from the moments of mourning."

"B-But what about those that don't have a chance?" It was in that moment that her real naivety, the one that truly connected her to Emilia flared out and loud.

"Then they are unlucky." My response was anti-climatic and she frowned at it. "While I bet you were expecting me to give a name to the origin of all the evils, we all know deep down that we can't truly fault no one, not even ourselves in some situations. We are granted a life, then how it concludes is established half by us and half by luck."

"B-but-" She stopped, her tongue twisting as her mind failed to establish something to rebuke my honesty, her thoughts twirling left and right and it was all clear in her quickly-changing expressions.

"H-How do you continue to live then, knowing that there isn't truly a clear thing?"

I scoffed. "Now, that is half-wrong." I hummed quietly as she pouted at being called out like this. "You did make choices in your life and those were determined for a certain outcome, one that you were 'sure' that it was going to end up into. You are not wrong to consider that some unknown element might alter the situation to a different outcome, but to truly fear the 'possibility' is what truly means accepting to not live."

"So we just... let it happen?"

"Yep."

She frowned. "I... I don't like that."

"Oh, trust me. Nobody does. But it has to happen or things would be worse."

There was some brief silence then Satella nodded. "This is very interesting... and confusing."

Slowly she flickered at my forehead. "Ouch! Why did you do that?"

"I got a headache." She hummed with some annoyance. "It's your fault."

"Is truly my fault if- Ouch, stop!"

She giggled a genuine one. "You are a very complex but silly man, John Bukharin." Then her smile slowly faded. "It's sad that I have to let go of you."

"Don't worry, I will work something to keep it contact. Maybe something like a-" She held something familiar above my face, I saw my reflection on it. "-mirror."

I blinked and she giggled again. "I developed this in case I wanted to talk with someone that aroused my interest. I want to hear more from you."

My hands softly grasped it, her own briefly touching it and retreating as she blushed at the contact. "I-I will be waiting!"

"W-Wait, how does this work? Is there some chant or words to repeat and how am I supposed to- WOAH!"

I was literally propelled up in the sky without notice, fear gripping my heart as I was thrown out of the hole and out of the dome, landing surprisingly safely few meters away from the prison and without suffering any damage. I spent some time blinking, trying to recover from the sudden 'propulsion' and was about to look around when I was pushed on the ground by... "Preacher C-Caralde?"

The man didn't reply, several magical circles appearing above my body as I felt a wave of magic go through my body. The scary situation lasted for about a full minute before I was released from the hold of the senior mage. "Y-you are safe, Mayor Bukharin?"

"Mostly yes and what the heck was that?"

He bowed his head quickly, giving a swift apology. "S-Sir, you were inside the barrier for two hours a-and everything could have happened inside of it."

I blinked. "You suspected that I was going to be 'changed', Preacher?" He gave another apology but I interrupted him. "It wasn't an accusation, just a confirmation. I know that it is a major issue and everyone needs to be ready for anything."

I turned to look around and saw nobody around. "Are we alone?"

"Y-Yes, the rest of the group decided to set up a temporary camp as we searched for you-"

"Preacher, do you want to redeem yourself in my eyes?" I was ready to make quite the imposition, the mere idea that people learned about my little trip inside of that dome was more than enough to cast suspicion over my work and that wasn't acceptable.

He nodded and I sighed. "The 'real' story is that I managed to get out of that barrier before I could get caught by the Witch, the stress being enough to make me collapse only to be found two hours after the event."

"S-Sir, I can't do that. I-it would be lying to the Kingdom-"

"A young girl is being branded a monster because she appears to look like the Witch of Envy." I stated quickly and harshly. "She holds nothing of important within the kingdom, do you know what it would happen if I am to be ousted and killed during my tenure for rumors? Do you want to have my blood on your hands?"

He backed away at the words. "N-No but-"

"Then please, I beg of you, accept to lie about this."

...

He gulped nervously but nodded slowly. "I- I will allow this, sir." He paused to look at me with some sadness. "I-I am at fault for this situation and... I will accept this burden."

"Thank you."

He didn't reply and I sighed tiredly as he started to walk where I assumed was the camp. As I tried to stand up, expecting to have trouble with the bandages on my leg, I found out that... my leg was fine. Heck, my pants looked untouched and only a single thing looked wrong about it.

A simple bluish-purple ribbon was tied to my shin, some warmth coming off from it.

"Do you like my gift?"

"Considering that you had me scream at the unexpected 'jump'? I think I might do if you tell me what it is." The mirror in my hand showed the face of the pouty woman as she had her arms crossed near her bosom.

"It's a protective gift. It will improve your current healing and help you deal with some curse-wounds."

I blinked. "That sounds deadly useful." I smiled at her. "Thank you, Sat."

She huffed at the nickname but nodded, understanding that using her name out-loud might led to some... troublesome situations. "Y-You are welcome, John."

AN

What? An Omake? Sure, why not! (Sadly this has to be not-canon)

Omake 2: The blessing of have a male friend and an one-sided mirror connected to him.

It has been another tiring day and Wilhelm had been quite the merciless trainer as I suffered his 'muscle memory' training of his. Sighing, I took a sniff at my clothes and almost belched at the resulting foul smell.

It had been days now that I have skipped some bathing and I was starting to suffer the worst with the relentless training and lack of privacy. This was a medieval city which lacked a proper place for people to bathe.

First thing tomorrow morning shall be a proper application of a modern bathroom's layout to every, single house in Erindor.

Sighing again, I bumped with Ser Orestes, the old knight noticing immediately my annoyed expression.

"Something bothering you, young mayor?"

I nodded and groaned in my hand. "I need somewhere to clean up, Ser. Do you know anyplace that would fit the request?"

He paused to think about it, humming softly and then nodded. "There is a small river nearby, very few people visiting it, nowadays."

Blinking, I thought about it. 'With some fire magic I could create some properly clean bathing section out of it.'

Then I nodded. "Thank you, ser. I will verify quickly if I can make use of that."

"Glad that I could help with your plight, young Mayor."

Meanwhile...

Satella has spent centuries in that same field of roses, quietly trying to gaze over the endless horizon in front of her and failing to catch anything resembling as a new and interesting detail.

But with the arrival of John Bukharin? Things have gotten pretty interesting very quickly.

A complex mind that was fitted with the most curious of comic tastes. He was a friend, there was no doubt about her, but what bothered her the most was... the fact he had to sleep and train some of the times she used the mirror.

In the first instance, she would feel very close to his sleepy face, almost ready to steal a kiss out of him. The latter case was more of a bothering one if she had to be honest as the young man had to ditch his shirt more than once, showing a frame that was developing muscles while dripping from sweat.

Not her 'proudest' moments, but certainly quite the sight to see after so much time.

When she connected her mirror back to his own, she had expected those two cases as the worst scenario and thus still went ahead with her decision.

The moment the mirror connected, Satella frowned at the pure white steam covering it, huffing as it was obscuring her sight. Soon said steam started to dissipate and... she was left with quite the intriguing scene.

Clothes folded near the mirror, John Bukharin was taking a steamy bath right in front of the mirror... which was connected to her.

Her face exploded in red as she continued to have her eyes fixed on the sight, unable for reasons unknown to look away from. The steam was hiding what was hiding under the water's surface, further increasing the somewhat intriguing situation she was bestowed with.

Purple eyes darted nervously, trying to avoid keeping a direct contact with the unaware young man, failing as every single action during his cleaning up were visible to her. The precision, the meticulous care he applied to his hygiene were all revealed to her poor self.

But as the whole scene unfolded without her notifying her friend of this very predicament, her ears caught the sound of some tree branches cracking under a foot. Attention shifting to the more important detail, she looked around to try and notice whom was disturbing the calm moment, ready to call the intruder out.

Mere moments of silence passed and soon, someone jumped right from where the mirror was placed and a loud voice exclaimed. "Jooooohn!"

The mayor shrieked as a younger man crashed onto him, a blond-haired fellow that reminded her of... someone. The youth, more extrovert than his senior, commenced to try and pull in a hug the retreating John, the stall bringing to a very funny scene to behold.

"C'mon! Let me wash your shoulder!"

"Stay away from me, Fourier! You aren't even clean enough!"

The situation continued until finally her mind relaxed and let in the fact she was staring at two boys bathing.

"Do you know what is better than a simple young man, dear Satella." Echidna whispered in her ears with a teasing tone. "Two boys hugging while bathing~!"

Indeed Satella was seeing why it was 'better' than before. The blush was back but soon it was followed by something unexpected.

Suddenly blood exploded from her nostrils as the peculiar predicament and rarity of this sight sunk deep in her weary brain, her eyes widening as her mind melted down.

Collapsing on her chair, still holding her mirror as it continued to show John fending off against the overly-affectionate prince, his irritation similar to the dreadful panic developing from something worse than that 'kiss' predicament.

The world is mad!