Cucurouge is located in the open s.p.a.ce deep into the twisted sea of trees.
There aren"t even as much as 10 private houses in here. Its size and the design that doesn"t give out any feeling of unity really doesn"t make it feel like a village. There are no arrangements to part.i.tions so each one of houses is sporadically scattered around. There is a treehouse in the center of the village and fields or herb gardens are built here and there instead of the yards. Anyway, there is a lot of greenery.
There are no outer walls around, just colorful strings running through the trees.
The strings are loose enough that you can pa.s.s through without crouching, but there is a special barrier woven into the thread to repel evildoers. There are also threads stretched out overhead so it can attack from the air too.
It"s harmless against the villagers who have a contract with the barrier so sometimes it"s used as a string the hang up the laundry.
Within the dense forest, a soft light is shining on Cucurouge.
Little paradise of the witches. My precious hometown.
I hope it will soon become a comfortable place for Will too…but it would be impossible right away, wouldn"t it?
“Welcome back, Sonichan~ and welcome, Will-chan~ We are happy to have you here~”
A humble feast was held under the tree house the next day after our arrival,
Though even if I say that, it was just a casual party, with only some food and drinks brought from each individual"s house spread on the rug. It felt more like a picnic or flower-viewing, I"d say.
All the inhabitants of the village gathered up for the sake of me and Will. Well, there are barely 20 people though.
“Welcome back. How was the royal capital?”
“I can"t believe that there exists a man who would dump Sonioneesama!”
“He even made Hated Child his lover. The Prince must have some unusual preferences.”
“but…she brought back a good man instead, didn"t she?…”
“As expected from Sonia! She didn"t come back empty-handed.”
From babies to old women, most females of wide age range present here are either the witches or the apprentice witches so it"s quite noisy.
Even though there"s such an easy going atmosphere around, Will is the only one who has a tragic air around him as if he had been sentenced to death. It might be because he"s still feeling sick, but he"s still too tense.
Oh, he might be feeling disheartened because he doesn"t have the Witch Killer with him. I ordered him to leave it in the room because, as expected, it wouldn"t be very suitable for this place.
“Ok~ay, there is a greeting from Sonichan before the toast~”
The one managing the banquet is Coral – A witch whose characteristics are flashy pink hair, bear ear hairband, and a frilly ap.r.o.n. Considering that she"s 20 years old, her fashion sense is slightly cringy, but it"s still cute and suits her well.
……In the original work, she"s one of the bad witches who caused the mystery incidents. In order to stop that from happening, I made her live in this village since several years ago and now we"re very close, to the point that I left the management of my house, that was supposed to be vacant, to her.
“I"m back. I feel apologetic because we held a farewell party just half a month ago. There were various circ.u.mstances so I came back. Pleased to be with you from now on too.”
Smiling bitterly despite the enthusiastic applauding from some parts of the audience, I looked at the young man at my side, who was shrinking back.
“In compensation for a broken engagement, I got a former knight with a “Core”, Will Obsidia. He hates the witches also due to some various circ.u.mstances but he"s an honest and a good boy at heart, so don"t bully him. Though, if you try to seduce Will, I won"t forgive you.”
Will glared at me as if saying “what the h.e.l.l is that introduction”
Fufu, if you have a complaint you have to say it out loud.
There was a shadow that stood up during the spa.r.s.e applause.
“S-Sonisama…! Why, whyyy!”
An apathetic atmosphere flowed through the surroundings, towards the man who exclaimed while holding his head. Like, “Jeez, again?”
A young man with a large build and slouching back, who was wearing chain accessories, or rather, looked like he had chains wrapped all around his body. Almost transparent golden hair and bluish skin, there are big bags under his silver eyes. He almost looks like a ghost. His face leans more towards being beautiful, but his figure would inevitably make children cry if they saw him at night.
Let me introduce my faithful serv…I mean, a wonderful friend.
“Phantom…what happened to you all of the sudden?”
This is Phantom Gibberd.
He"s a so-called “mid-boss” from the original work.
He"s a pervert who enjoys being whipped by Sonia. In the final stage of “Anime, his mind was remodified by Sonia and he turned into a murder weapon. Maybe because he was an impactful character, he was popular with the “viewers” even despite playing a villain. Not to mention, even normally he was strong enough to match Will in terms of strength.
Of course, the current me hasn"t tried to train Phantom. I"ve been trying to interact normally with him since we"ve met, but for some reason, he still turned into yandere who has a weird affection towards me like in the original work.
“So meannn! Even though you rejected my love, saying that you couldn"t accept it because you were the Prince"s fiancee?! To think that you would bring back another man without even being married! and in addition, you are going to live with him under the same roof from now on..!? Kuh, I"m so envious….I"ll curse you, Will Obsidiaaaaaa…!!”
‘You"re cursing me?", Will muttered quietly. Looks like the target of the anger has suddenly changed.
I"d love to set him loose, but there"s no doubt that at this rate, blood and tears will be spilled. It"s such a good banquet, I don"t want any bloodshed to ruin it.
“Phantom, don"t blame Will. Or rather, you have a wife and a child so don"t start getting weirdly jealous”
“She"s right, Phantom-chan~ Don"t raise your voice too much or Flenchan will get scared~”
Hearing Coral"s word, Phantom suddenly returned to himself.
“S-sorry…! Ahh, my angel!”
Phantom showed a melting smile to the baby Flena in the cradle next to Coral.
Actually, Phantom and Coral and married and they had a baby just a year ago.
Being too deeply loved by Phantom and unable to sleep at nights, I asked Coral to deal with it. Phantom at that time would lose his composure at no matter what I said and would start shouting so it was impossible to hold a conversation with him. It"s the same even now though.
That"s why I had Coral tell him to stop his stalking. And then, before I knew it those two were already together. It"s a mystery.
Both Coral and Phantom are without any relatives and have eccentric fashion sense so there are plenty of parts that could attract them to each other. By the way, Phantom is 19 years old so they only have only a slight age gap. I think that it"s wonderful.
“Forgive me…Sonisama…Even though I have you…I…I…I still find my daughter the cutest..! Please step on me as a punishment!”
“I don"t want to. I don"t have any reasons to step on while you look so happy.”
“Ahhhhhhh, as expected Sonisama is very gentle, I love you…!”
“What about the wife, me?”
Despite pouting, Coral didn"t seem to be angry. I can feel the composure of an “older sister” wife.
Without minding Will, who was dumbfounded, or rather, recovering, we said a toast and the banquet continued.
“Eat…your complexion looks bad. Coral is the best cook after Sonisama so the dishes are very delicious.”
While being brusque, Phantom still put a lump of meat on Will"s plate.
Cucurouge has 2:8 male to female ration. Men are made to do all the hard work and they seem to feel inferior, so they often get together to complain.
For a reason of him being a new male, Phantom seems to really want to become friends with Will. Even I"m getting nervous, despite only observing from far.
“I don"t want you telling me anything about my complexion…but I get it. I"ll eat.”
While still wary, Will lost to Phantom"s persistence and stuffed his cheeks with stewed meat. I thought that he would keep stubbornly refusing…but he really loves meat dishes, huh? Or, is it stress eating?
“Nnn, it has a strange flavor. An unusual texture…what kind of meat is this?”
“Listen and be amazed!…it"s the meat of grey sky dragon!”
Will choked dramatically.
“A buuunch of them flew here the other night, but Phantom-chan just killed all of them~Even though I wanted to catch them alive and sell them to the mount beast sellers~ What a waste~”
“Uuh, but, the scales and the “Core” were sold at a pretty nice price….and we also got a good amount of meat too”
“You"re right~ It was a good extra income~ Plus, we rarely get to eat the meat of the Dragon race~ So I"ll forgive you~”
Phantom let out a relieved sigh and while jingling the chains, started to eat his beloved"s cooking.
Meanwhile, pale-faced Will chugged fruit wine in one go. Looks like he barely managed to stop himself from throwing up.
I wonder if he had flashbacks of that night? Poor Will. He didn"t resist even when I secretly patted his back.
“Speaking if Obsidias, is he the kid of that witch hunting knight?”
When the banquet settled down, I took Will and went to visit the elder of Cucurouge.
Though I say “elder”, she"s more of an advisor and doesn"t really have an authority. But she"s a very knowledgeable person so young witches naturally pay respect to her. I was also doted on by her since my childhood so I love her.
Probably because of the wrinkles around her eyes, she looks like she"s always smiling. In actuality, she"s a kind grandma.
“Yes, grandmother.Will is Cross Obsidia"s child. He has also inherited the Witch Killer.”
“Is that so. 20 years ago, my youngest sister died by his hands. Though she was a witch who only lived in the city together with her son"s family and grandchildren and hadn"t done anything wrong.
Will tightly grasped his sword and held his breath.
“…..Do you hate me in place of my father?”
“No, if we punished people by blaming them for their parents" sins, there wouldn"t be any person left on the earth right now. It"s okay to inherit only good things. Your father was a very, very good man. Strong and sharp like a beast. Even as an enemy I must admit that the sight of him laughing while bathing in the blood of the witches was truly bewitching and…”
“Wha…?”
Elder looked into the distance as if feeling nostalgic for that time and sighed.
“That was also a child born from the deeds of the witches. For several decades after the era of Black Witch Slaytzia…It is quite strange that you and Sonia got together.”
Will turned his gaze towards me in search of an explanation, but I shook my head.
“Grandmother says incomprehensible things from time to time. It"s already pretty late at night so please don"t pay a mind to her words.”
“Both Jebera and Alonia only pa.s.sed on worthless things” Elder groaned, seemingly not having heard my words.
—
Notes:
Sonia actually says 痛いファッション which is literally a painful fashion but I thought cringy was more appropriate for that
Ghost was actually 幽鬼 which can be the soul of the dead, revenant, ghost or a departed soul.
The word Sonia used for training was 調教 that is more like training/taming animals
Sonia says 姉さん女房 so I think it"s like “older sister”-like (as in mature) wife?
Slaytzia is written as スレイツィア, help pls
From left to right: Coral, Phantom, Dude X, Emerald, Prince Rain, Will, and Sonia.
I was actually planning to release this on Halloween, but I finished it early and thought that I"d do a good deed and release it on my birthday.
Hit me up about mistranslations, typos and weird grammar.
P.S I divided sections with some circles because wordpress hates empty s.p.a.ces