Will"s POV
“How can you keep laughing like that?”- I was told by an unknown adult when I was a kid.
Even though you were born like that, even though you are the son of the witch killer, even though you are being a nuisance to the family of your aunt who took you in, how can you laugh innocently like that…that was the meaning.
It"s not like I was laughing because I was particularly having fun.
I was just ticklish because the neighborhood cat rubbed against me.
I was fully aware of my position.
Once, the capital of Mistria was attacked by the witches. It has been said that it was a retribution for conducting cruel witch hunting and the previous King of Mistria who was its leader had his head cut off by the witches.
My father had sworn absolute loyalty to that King and was the leader of the Chivalric Order that conducted those witch huntings in person.
Wrath of the witches was also directed towards my father. The strongest knight, who lived with pride, met a miserable end after his pregnant wife was taken as a hostage.
However, my father wasn"t the only one who died due to the witch attack. A large number of innocent people also fell victim. For the family of those deceased, I was a hateful existence.
It wouldn"t have come to this if your father didn"t continue killing the witches.
Wasn"t your father supposed to firmly fight with the witches in order to protect the people even at the cost of leaving his wife to death?
Is what everyone is saying really right?
Without having the refuting words, young me had no other choice but to keep living while killing off my feelings.
Fortunately or unfortunately I had a Core, so my aunt took me in without sending me to the orphanage. Probably because it would add to the living expenses.
Selling magic powers is like selling yourself piece by piece, so I was always tormented by hunger.
I had never felt the satisfaction of having a full stomach. When my cousins would eat hamburgers, I"d be next to them, gnawing at the cut-off ends of the vegetables.
My aunt was perfect outside, but at home, she would openly make a distinction between me and her sons. She"d always be nagging me to not forget the favor of being taken in.
Even though I had questions about my situation ever since I became self-aware, I could only give up, thinking that it was something that couldn"t have been helped. The days of endurance would continue.
I gradually started to resent my parents.
Why am I the only one who has to suffer? If I"m not even allowed to laugh, there"s no meaning in living. There was only despair in the future.
“Your father isn"t at fault. I think he was a very n.o.ble knight.”
The one who saved me was a beautiful boy with blue eyes.
I met him during the winter when I was 10 years old, in a library where I had escaped in order to stave off the coldness. When he learned my name, he took me to a special archive where it was impossible to enter without a special qualification.
“Since the founding of Mistria, there are only four people including your father, who have won the Larimarde(ラリマーデ) battle tournament for three years in a row. Even after joining Chivalric Order, he"s been awarded special medals many times. He was a knight excellent enough to be chosen as the youngest head knight in history.”
n.o.body had told me that story. After touching my father"s name that was left in the records, for the first time in my life a pride was born inside of me.
On the other hand, I also touched a frightful record.
An old book about the true face of the witches, that wasn"t placed in front of the bookshelf.
They kidnapped the children and conducted magic experiments on them.
They bathed in the blood of young maidens, saying that it was good for the beauty.
There were also times when they murdered a family of a feudal lord just because they weren"t invited to a banquet.
Apparently, such records were left in multiple countries throughout the continent.
“Your father merely conducted witch huntings at my grandfather"s orders. My grandfather seemed to have thought of the witches as quite dangerous existences. There are only old records here but in the library, at the castle, there are also recent materials concerning the withes. I think that my grandfather knew『a crucial thing in order to repress the witches』, but unfortunately some of the records were lost.”
“…..Eh? grandfather? castle?”
“I totally missed my chance to mention it, sorry. Actually, I am the Prince of this kingdom.”
Prince Rain has been a bad person since a long time ago.
I"m saying that because we ended up becoming friends. No, I was also stupid for not realizing that he was a n.o.bleman from his outfit and the manner of speaking but how could I imagine that the Prince of a nation would be loitering in the capital without a bodyguard.
After a while, the Prince who learned about my life brought me a recommendation letter to a training school for knights.
“Will, won"t you aim to become a knight? Your father was my grandfather"s strongest sword. I also want it. The knight I would place my absolute faith onto. Also, I want to speak to my friend without hesitation even within the castle.”
To me, it looked like a path of thorns.
Becoming the personal knight of the next king, moreover, of the one who would welcome a witch as a wife. Not only would I need to make efforts to the point of vomiting blood, my birth would also create discord with the surroundings.
But I still wanted to help the Prince. I wanted to protect him.
I wanted to return the debt of grat.i.tude for giving me the power to live.
More than anything, I wanted to know.
The secret hidden by the witches.
The proof that the witches were evil.
And I, who resolved to become a knight, devoted 6 years to studying while actually vomiting blood and at the age of 16 became the Prince"s imperial guard.
Because it was an appointment due to the Prince"s mediation, I had to make even more effort to not get taken lightly.
In the blink of an eye the days pa.s.sed and by the time I became the leader of imperial guards, the rumors of the mysterious incidents involving magic reached the castle.
It"s the work of a witch.
I and the Prince, who had the same hunch, left the castle and decided to follow the culprit.
“Will, take this. The current you can use it well.”
On our departure day, the Prince handed me a single sword.
It was the Witch Killer, a memento of my father, Cross Obsidia. Things being as it is, the royal family of Mistria had apparently kept it in custody.
“Is it okay? His Majesty the King"s permission….”
“I haven"t gotten permission directly but I do have his tacit consent. The one who gave me this sword was Sednyl”
Sednyl was a man who served as the King"s aide for many years, but he was also a kind-hearted person who, despite being tormented by the Prince"s habit of sneaking out, was still seriously concerned about his safety. “If you are going to follow the footsteps of the wicked witch who disturbed the country you will need this” – is apparently what he said and permitted me to have the Witch Killer.
“However, 『Please don"t do anything flashy』 or so I"ve been warned. It"s because if my fiancee found out that my best knight was armed with a witch killing sword she wouldn"t make a good face. In other words, both my safety and restriction of my behavior has been entrusted to this sword.”
The Prince said in a self-deprecating way.
The Prince didn"t seem to hold good feelings towards the fiancee determined even before his birth. He told me that she was sending pointless, tasteless, loveless, feelingless, boring letters. For example, even if they both wrote about “looking forward to meeting each other”, she would never write “I want to see you soon” and apparently he was fed up with this kind of exchange devoid of warmth.
The daughter of Alonia, the Witch of Salvation…
If I continue to serve Prince Rain, one day I"ll meet her face to face. I might even need to serve her as a guard or aide if she decides to do public work as the Queen.
When I thought about one day having to bow my head to the witch, I also started feeling depressed like the Prince.
While chasing mystery accidents I was made aware of the ugliness of the witches to the point of disgust.
Slashing the face of beautiful women, gouging children"s eyeb.a.l.l.s out, implanting explosions inside of magical beasts and creating biological weapons……
A number of crazy experiments that couldn"t be thought of as deeds of humans.
As expected, the witches are evil.
Most of the witches who we caught either killed themselves while spitting out incomprehensible words or were killed as soon as the guards took their eyes away even for a second. Most likely they were silenced by other witches.
The witches that went rampant and couldn"t be detained were killed by me. When my magic power was absorbed by the Witch Killer and I felt an intense hunger, I remembered the pain I experienced during my childhood.
I was feeling more on edge with each pa.s.sing day.
“You see, I want you to also laugh, Will-kun! If you laugh, you will become happy!”
During our journey, we met one girl.
A fluffy pale green hair and sparkling nightingale-colored eyes. She still had a lovely childish face but occasionally she would make a surprisingly mature expression.
That girl ―― Emerald was Witch"s Hated Child.
Hated Children are failure witches. Moreover, she insisted that she had the power of precognition. It reeked of a lie.
After meeting her for the first time, I acted coldly for a while, but without giving up or reading the mood, she became desperate in trying to make me laugh.
The one who gave in first was me. Before I knew, I opened my heart to Emerald and unconsciously started to laugh.
She has a mysterious power other than her power of precognition. Her smile relaxes people and makes them feel warm. It fulfills one"s heart.
Before I knew it, I started following Emerald with my eyes.
She was becoming more beautiful and dazzling day by day.
And when I started thinking about the reason for this, I suddenly realized.
She was beautiful because she was in love. Her eyes that were looking at Prince Rain were becoming more feverish with each day.
And the reason she looked so overwhelmingly dazzling was most likely because I had fallen in love with her.
I wish I hadn"t noticed it.
I quickly decided to put an end to my feelings.
I couldn"t possibly win over the Prince. Besides, a boring man like me would never be able to make Emerald happy.
Even touching her with my hands that were soaked with the blood of the witches made me hesitate.
An intelligent and beautiful Prince and a lovely girl full of colorful emotions.
They"re well-suited and will surely become happy.
……I am, also happy. Everything will be alright if my two precious people keep smiling.
The more I learned about Emerald"s personality, the more the revelation she received showed the trace of realism.
【The daughter of the Red Witch will bring forth the disaster of destruction over Mistria】
The Prince, who thought that the series of the incidents were connected, made full use of Emerald"s prophecy and finally made the witches spit out the name of the mastermind.
Sonia Carnelian.
It was the witch fiancee of the Prince.
There was no mistake that this woman was the one who would bring the disaster.
In succession, the truth about the attack 20 years ago also was revealed. Alonia was definitely not a savior. She was a wicked woman who greedily killed her own master and forcefully took status and honor from her, in process of what, my parents and other innocent people were sacrificed.
At this rate, the daughter of such wicked woman will pile up even more evil deeds and become the wife of the Prince while feigning innocence.
…..Ah, I loathe the witches. There is not a single good witch within them.
They always take my precious things away.
Now that I think about it, it was a very simplistic a.s.sumption, but back then we were convinced that if we defeated Sonia Carnelian, everything would end. That"s how well everything fell into place.
We faced the marriage ceremony that was supposed to change the fate of Mistria and reached an unexpected conclusion.
Sonia easily discarded her engagement with the Prince and requested me as a servant in exchange.
She was a spine-chillingly beautiful woman.
A l.u.s.trous long red hair and red copper-colored eyes that holds the bright intelligent light. Wearing a bewitching decadent atmosphere around her, she aroused awe from people around. I felt the same way as when I first pulled Witch Killer out of its sheath.
She was the opposite of Emerald in every possible way.
Sonia"s expression is always a mocking smile and you never know what she"s thinking about. Even though she was accused at the marriage ceremony, she never showed sorrow or anger, to the point that even I thought it was eerie.
Her personality turned out to be even worse than I thought.
Seemed like she didn"t feel like acting innocent before me, so I also told her that I hated the witches. It was supposed to be a threat that I"d kill her if she did anything suspicious before me, but Sonia foolishly let it through. It p.i.s.sed me off.
……However, if she"s leaving me and the Witch Killer near her in order to use us for some kind of plan then it"s convenient. I will absolutely not move according to her expectations. I will stop her from achieving her goal and prove that she"s an evil witch so I can save the Prince and Emerald who have fallen into a predicament.
“I won"t say anything bad. Miss Sonia is not the opponent you could win against, Will. It would be better to quietly obey her for a while.”
Prince Rain said while showing signs of fatigue after the ceremony of engagement annulment was safely concluded. It was the first time I saw him so weak-hearted.
“Surely, as that woman said, there is no way that the pledge will be fulfilled now. Mistria might not get destroyed, but that woman is definitely hiding something….this is only my hunch, but she has definitely killed a person before. She has that kind of air around her.”
I, who have killed a witch before, though involuntarily, understand it.
“I do think that your intuition is reliable, but there"s no evidence.”
“I will find it. If that woman is planning to use me, the chance will definitely come. Leave it to me. I will definitely save you and Emerald, Prince.”
The Prince smiled helplessly.
“I"m happy that you"re worried about us, but right now it"s better to worry about yourself, Will. There"s a chance that she"s leaving you near her because she truly holds affection for you.”
“……What?”
According to Prince Rain, just before, when he talked about me in the private room, Sonia"s eyes became slightly cold.
“This is merely my hunch, but I think that Miss Sonia is obsessed with you. I don"t know the reason but….will you be okay? In the worst case, she might seek a physical relationship with you.
I told him to stop with the tasteless jokes but the Prince"s eyes were serious.
“Impossible…there"s no way.”
“I wonder why your self-a.s.sessment is so low, Will.”
The Prince sighed with “good grief” and said.
“Will…Really, don"t push yourself. You don"t have to think about saving us, but you must not let yourself be enticed by Miss Sonia. Beware of only that.”
I don"t want to make Emerald feel sad.
I couldn"t reply to the Prince"s words.
It"s alright, me.
The Prince was just being weird after being exhausted in the verbal fight with the witch. Her chest was pressed on me during the journey while we were riding, I was almost tamed with food and we ended up sleeping in the same with a sick child as an excuse, but everything is just an imagination.
It"s impossible for Sonia to desire me. Nothing weird will happen.
So it"s alright….alright…..
“I took much time. Sorry.”
While I was in the corner of the room holding my head, wet red hair entered my view.
Sonia in a black negligee appeared and my stomach tightly shrank back.
When Sonia wears black, her spotless skin shines and the beauty of her figure is highlighted. There"s not much skin exposed but what"s with this erotic appeal? At the scent of fruits robbed of flowers, I unknowingly gulped.
Is she really 16 years old like Emerald?
How carefully must one nurture themselves to embody such overwhelming beauty?
I headed towards the bathroom in an attempt to escape. I gnashed my teeth while pouring cold water on my head.
It"s alright. I won"t do anything that would shame my parents, the Prince and Emerald.
The witches are hateful beings.
I must not be misled no matter what kind of form they have.
When I managed to concentrate my mind and went back to the room, Sonia was already settled peacefully in her futon. The light was turned off and the fragrance of flowers filled the entire room. Looks like she burned an incense.
“Goodnight, Will.”
While mumbling that the lack of sleep was an enemy of beauty, Sonia closed her eyes.
I felt relieved from the bottom of my heart even though my expectations were fully backfired. Looks like she also didn"t have any other intentions.
I sat down at the corner of the room and wrapped myself in a blanket.
When I think about it, there"s no way I"ll be able to sleep in the same room with a witch. As expected, I should"ve gone to the bar. Right now my nerves will only wear out.
Suddenly, I felt a temptation.
Right now I can easily take her head. I feel down just thinking about how we"ll have to spend time together from now on. I can find the evidence that she"s evil later, so I"d rather now…..
My hand unconsciously stretched towards Witch Killer.
“Will, do things like that after we go back to Cucurouge. There"s a sick child at this inn right now.”
Hearing that sleepy voice made cold sweat run down my back.
Everything has been seen through.
What a frightening woman. I can"t relax even for a moment.
It looks like, on our way back to Cucurouge, the melancholy will continue.
Next Chapter —-
Notes
I"m back!
Will says ウグイス色 while describing Emerald"s eyes and the nightingale color was the most poetic description I could find.
I translated 鼻を掠めた果実の甘い香りに思わず喉が鳴った as I unconsciously gulped because “my throat sounded out” didn"t feel right so if you have a better translation don"t be shy and hit me up.
セドニール was translated as Sednyl but I have no f.u.c.king clue what the author had in mind, to be fair,
This was a weird chapter because the narration is mostly in past but somewhere in the middle you randomly get input about his ‘present" thoughts and impressions.
I also changed the first two chapters and made all narration of actions into past tense and left inner monologue into present tense so if you feel like rereading it please tell me if it became somehow easier to read and if I should change the rest of the chapters too.
You already know that I translate with the help of Google so please tell me if you see any mistranslation, typo, weird grammar and stuff like that. I"ll fix it afap.
Anyway, this chapter proves that Will does know about what his father did but at the same time thinks that witches most likely deserved it. (biased statistics are scary yo)