Evan D. Sherden, Discovering the Witch (2)

Since they lived in a deep forest hideout, they didn’t expect much from a witch’s banquet, but surprisingly, they had prepared a splendid feast.

There were rare fruits that couldn’t be found in the outside world, liquor made from those fruits, and meats that were deliciously cooked and prepared. As soon as Evan saw it, he knew what it was.

“It’s monster meat.”

“It is difficult to raise livestock in a forest full of monsters. Also, since the mana density is too high here, they often turn into a monster. If you don’t like monster meat, we’re sorry, but it’s certainly not harmful to your body. I can also guarantee its taste.”

“No, it’s okay because I don’t care what it’s made out of as long as it tastes good.”

Evan held the unknown meat with its bones. Shine approached and took off a piece of the meat with a knife, put it in his mouth, and chewed on it. His face brightened up, maybe because it was better than he expected.

“Master, there’s no poison.”

“I’m sorry, I’m a noble after all, so I can be a little sensitive.”

“I don’t mind at all. Feel free to test it all for poison. Oh, it’s not poison, but some dishes help vitalize the body, so just know that.”

“So it is a witch’s recipe.”

Evan looked around the hall while biting down the meat. Although people’s eyes were focused on Evan’s party, there was no hostility in their expressions. Did they really let their guard down just because Evan was a descendant of a witch?

It appeared that all the people living in the village were present at the banquet. Even though everyone was there, there weren’t that many. There were seven witches, including the village chief Ctheasil, and 22 other men.

Although there was a serious imbalance in the gender ratio, Evan did not say anything. It was well expected when their entire identity was full of mystery.

‘Moreover, all witches were maintaining their younger from middle-aged to elderly… If I had not known that they were witches, I would have left the village already.’

He smiled bitterly and received the glass that Ctheasil had just poured for him.

Raihan casually intercepted the glass.

“You can’t drink liquor yet, Young Master.”

“Aww, please. I’m begging you.”

“My answer is still no.”

Ctheasil, who saw Evan’s and Raihan’s short encounter seemed surprised and spoke.

“It’s true that ordinary humans don’t drink liquor until they become adults. No, but, so you are still underaged?”

“Do I look like an adult?”

“You’re tall, and you seemed calm. Your face looked young, but I thought that was because you had a witch’s blood flowing in you.”

Ctheasil continued to speak.

“One of the witch’s training includes drinking liquor which has been made from the witch’s recipe. It could be considered an alchemy tonic too… Since you have witch’s blood in you, wouldn’t it be okay for you to have a drink?”

“…Lua, is that true?”

“I haven’t done it, but Madam sure said something like that before.”

When Evan, after hearing that, tried to get his hands on the glass, Belois took it away from him.

“But you shouldn’t because you are not a witch. No matter how thick your veins are with a witch’s blood, you shouldn’t.”

“Why do these people become so insistent whenever I try to have a drink…?”

Was there any chance that Evan drank liquor without knowing it and had gone berserk? While Evan was agonizing over the unsolvable mystery, the villagers started the welcome ceremony.

It was only playing the mandolin and the pan pipes, and men dancing awkwardly to the beat, but it seemed fun enough for the drunk people. Sober people were disgusted by it, so it was very easy to separate them from each other.

“So…”

After staring at the sight of some of the men in the village dancing whilst showing off their shame, Evan asked Ctheasil.

“Are you going to tell me about the Devil Runes?”

“The story is pretty long, is it okay?”

“We have a lot of time. It’s fine.”

She must have been waiting for Evan to say that first. Ctheasil hid her facial expressions by tilting her cowl hat, but she couldn’t hide her lips that went up.

“Did you know that they and us witches are hostile to each other?”

“Since they called me a witch and despised me, I figured.”

“Yes, they’re looking for our runes. They regard all runes to be that of the devil’s and call us, who received the rune’s powers from God, as thieves and despise us.”

Evan tilted his head. “Can’t you guys work together and fight against them?”

“When it comes to skills, we can beat them for sure. But unfortunately, our rune powers don’t work well with them. Those devil runes have the power to absorb the powers of our runes. Moreover, if we beat them, it would contaminate our runes, so just by fighting them, we are putting ourselves at risk.”

When he heard that, it made sense. The fact that he could get part of the Devil Rune by absorbing their blood and the fact that the boots with the devil’s curse could absorb a Devil Rune… It was certain the Devil Rune had such characteristics.

But he would never think that it was not just limited to the Devil Rune but could take power from other runes… Evan glanced at his gloves with a rune, the Black Cloud, but shook his head eventually.

It wasn’t possible to sacrifice his gloves, which were already exhibiting clear abilities, for an uncertain experiment where the risks were high.

“Right, those gloves contain rune power, don’t they? It’s the reason why I thought you were a witch.”

“I just got it from God in the dungeon.”

“It’s even more surprising than saying that you received it from a witch’s ritual. It’s really interesting. Which witch gave birth to you? There are a lot of witches wandering the world without any ties to the world, but to give birth to such a talented person, she must be…”

“She’s incredible. If you come to the dungeon city, I’ll introduce you to her.”

“There are many witches, but if it were a witch who gave birth to only you…”

“She’s a great person. I will introduce you in the dungeon city.”

Evan said so with a lighter tone to feel her out. It was problematic for Evan, too, for him to independently invite a group of strong people into the dungeon city… But things could work out.

“No, I can’t do that.”

But Ctheasil outright rejected Evan’s suggestion.

“We have a task to do in this forest. It’s the reason why we can’t leave the forest even with the threat of the Devil Rune.”

“I thought so… Alright then, continue with the Devil Rune.”

“Okay.”

According to Ctheasil, Devil Rune was a new race created by the devil to eliminate the God-created ancient race, the witches, and control the human world with evil. A Devil Rune monster, which develops and procreates by absorbing the witches’ rune, was the ultimate natural enemy of the witches. It was Ctheasil’s argument that if time passes and the Devil Rune’s territory expands further, eventually, all the witches throughout the entire world would be hunted by them and be eliminated.

“Therefore, if not stopped, you who inherited the blood of the witch, and Belois with the power of the witch, will be in danger. Also, your mother, who is in the dungeon city.”

Could this have been the reason why Evan was pleased to learn that he had a witch’s blood in him? Because he could frame it as “our problem” instead of framing it as “their problem”? Evan’s eyes narrowed.

“I have one question. Even if they don’t prey on runes, do they have the capability to reproduce? If so, then the danger becomes too real.”

“It is possible, but it takes a very long time. What shortens the time immensely is the power of the witches’ runes.”

“That’s why they are aggressively going after you guys.”

“Yes, so…”

Ctheasil seemed to hesitate for a while, but put on a miserable face that couldn’t even be imitated and asked Evan.

“I would like it if you could eliminate them. Please don’t turn your back on your kin.”

“Well, I did expect it would be such a request.”

“If we didn’t see you coming out after killing that Devil Rune, we wouldn’t have asked. But you proved you were capable by defeating it. One concern I have is regarding your rune…”

While saying that, Ctheasil glanced at Evan’s gloves. Evan shrugged his shoulders and said.

“I don’t know if there hasn’t been such a situation so far, but at least when I defeated the mole, I didn’t feel that it was taking my rune from my gloves.”

“I see, it must be that it’s a rune engraved on a tool, unlike a witch’s rune… Then what about Belois?”

“I haven’t performed the witch’s ritual yet, so I can’t handle the rune’s power.”

“I thought that was the case. But, thanks to that, it would be okay for you to hunt the Devil Runes. It’s ironic that your weakness disappears because you can’t handle the rune’s power.”

You could tell how much the witches who had runes feared the Devil Rune monsters by that statement.

‘Naturally, I wonder why they live in this forest hiding out with all this risk… She won’t just tell me if I ask her.’

Evan nodded, sighing in his mind.

“Alright, I’m taking on your request. It turns out I’m also impacted by this… And I also had business with them too.”

“Really?! Then we too will give as much support as possible. We know the location of the particularly dangerous Devil Runes.”

As soon as Evan nodded, Ctheasil brightened and took out the prepared parchment.

It sure looked like something that everyone would say, “It’s a quest item!” It was a dark brown parchment that had the map of the region, which was clearly and precisely described. You could see there were countless locations which had been marked with an “X”.

“Did you figure out where the Devil Rune monsters are? The location of the one we killed is also marked.”

Isn’t this getting more and more like a quest? But it was Ctheasil who was impressed by Evan’s reaction.

“Did you figure that out right away? You’re really amazing.”

“Yeah, well, I’m a guide.”

But the path he was taking was far from the ordinary paths!

“But why are they all trapped in a dungeon?”

“Because we took care of the ones we encountered which came out from the dungeon. Since if the witch kills them directly, the witches’ rune becomes contaminated, we would critically injure them, and the men would kill it off in order to minimize the contamination.”

As expected in a witch village, men who are not witches seemed to be powerful as well.

Evan admired and looked at the villagers, and Ctheasil reached her hand out and gently grabbed Evan’s hand. Belois, who was quietly watching the two, lit up.

“But even with that method, we can’t prevent the rune’s contamination… I ask you again. We have no one but you to rely on.”

“Leave it to me. I’ll leave immediately tomorrow.”

Evan responded with a bitter smile to Ctheasil and put the parchment in his inner pocket.

In fact, most of the places she checked were the dungeons where Evan planned to lead the Dungeon Knights to. So even if he didn’t accept her request, they were the places that he would’ve gone anyways.

So basically, it was as though Evan was making a big deal about something that he was going to do anyway.

‘Moreover, I was planning to kill every Devil Rune monster I see. Thanks to meeting these guys, I got so much since now I know about the dungeons that I previously didn’t know.’

And if he successfully conquers the marked dungeons, he will be able to obtain the Evil Origin and the Grass of Innocence. There’s nothing but good here!

“Thank you so much, Evan. Tonight, I will serve you with all my heart…”

“Master Evan, if you’re done talking, I’ll take you inside.”

At the very moment Ctheasil gently pushed her body into Evan and whispered sweetly, Belois brushed her hand from Evan and protected Evan. Evan smiled bitterly at Ctheasil, who had a bummed face.

“Well, we’ll call it a night then. Could you prepare a place we can sleep in? We’ll need to leave early tomorrow.”

“Ummm. Okay.”

Evan waved with the other hand, which was not caught by Belois, and left.

Ctheasil was still in that position for a while, but she burst into laughter as she looked at the Belois’ hand, who firmly held Evan’s hand and was leaving.

“No matter how young you are, a witch is a witch.”