Fated to Be Loved by Yandere Witches – Chapter 17

—————————————————————–
Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Mod7
—————————————————————–

◇◇◇◆◇◇◇

I had a nightmare. A nightmare of something huge crushing me.

‘…Heavy.’

Something about 50kg in weight was pressing down on my entire body. Even with my eyes closed, I knew what it was. I slightly opened my eyes to look at Master lying on my body.

Perhaps as a reaction to revealing her secret, Master seemed intent on making me memorize even her pores, going beyond just showing her face.

“Master… it’s morning. Master?”

“Mmm…”

“I know you’re awake.”

“Mmmmm-!”

She buried her face in my chest and started whining. An attitude of not wanting to leave my side. However, I couldn’t start the day’s tasks while holding her.

When I forcibly detached her, she looked up at me with a face of despair like an abandoned child.

“J-Johan… are you abandoning me now…?”

“Yes. If Master doesn’t want to be abandoned, quickly wash up and come eat breakfast.”

I had to be firm at times like this. I couldn’t indulge her whining forever. Hearing my firm tone, she seemed to give up and headed to the bathroom.

While she quickly washed in the bathroom, I prepared breakfast. I made dishes we usually couldn’t eat using ingredients bought from the city.

Even before the cooking was finished, Master came out after her quick wash and watched me cook while resting her chin on her hands.

“Johan, how do I look?”

“Yes. You’re beautiful.”

“Hmph, how much?”

“The most in the world.”

Since revealing her secret─ she constantly sought praise. As if never tiring of it, she begged for compliments every day, every hour, every minute until my tongue might get cramped.

But since it wasn’t insincere praise, and she truly was beautiful – I happily complimented her. Seeing Master’s delighted reactions to each compliment made me happy too.

“…What are you two doing?”

“Ah, Marguerite.”

While I was lavishly praising Master, Marguerite emerged from her room and frowned at us both.

I explained the previous night’s events to her as she looked at us with an expression suggesting she couldn’t understand what we were doing so early in the morning.

After hearing about last night, Marguerite stiffened and carefully watched Evangeline’s reaction.

“…I told you not to tell.”

“Ah- you did.”

“…Tell Evangeline it wasn’t intentional.”

“Um, Master. Marguerite says-”

I relayed Marguerite’s message to Master. Marguerite gulped and tensed up, apparently thinking Master would explode in anger.

Actually, there was no need to be so tense. Indeed, as I expected, when Evangeline heard Marguerite’s message, she tilted her head as if wondering why it would be a problem.

“What’s this, Ritz, do I look like someone who’d get angry over something like that? Ehehe, aren’t you thinking too badly of me?”

“…You’re not angry?”

“Come on, people can do things like that sometimes. Right?”

Master said this while asking me for another compliment about her appearance. I obliged. Seeing this, Marguerite seemed to realize why Master was acting this way.

‘Like she’d be angry now…’

If yesterday’s Master had learned that Marguerite revealed her secret to me, she might have become angry as Marguerite feared and driven her from the cabin.

But not the current Master. Not the current Master who had developed an even deeper relationship with me through Marguerite revealing her secret.

‘When the result is good, the process tends to be forgiven.’

Thanks to Marguerite revealing the secret, Master no longer hid her face from me. It was good for me being able to always see her beautiful face, good for Master not having to hide her face from me, and good for Marguerite receiving no punishment for revealing the secret.

Everyone became happy, so OK.

“Ah, Master.”

“Yes, whaat~?”

“I’m going to the village today.”

“Ah, is it that time already? Okay. Take care.”

Having received Master’s permission, I finished breakfast and prepared to go to the village. My backpack was filled with monster hides and corpses that Master had processed.

Today was when the merchant caravan visited the village.

◇◇◇◆◇◇◇

Several carriages climbed the mountain path.

Soon after discovering the mountain village, Elicis asked the merchant:

“Is this the place?”

“Yes, yes! That’s right…”

“Good, when we go in don’t do anything suspicious- move naturally. Like usual.”

Following her orders, the merchant drove the carriage into the mountain village. Being the monthly day when the caravan visited, the villagers were waiting with money and produce.

The caravan leader began laying out and selling goods naturally as Elicis had ordered, just as they always did.

“Come, come! We don’t visit every day─!”

At these words, villagers approached and began examining the goods. Since some items were ones the villagers had specifically ordered, over half the caravan’s goods sold instantly.

The empty spaces were quickly filled with vegetables and fruits grown by villagers, and monster corpses.

And─ seeing the monster corpses, Elicis’s eyes sparkled.

“…Chief, where did you get these items?”

“Hmm? Who might you be?”

“─Ah, aah! Chief! She’s my daughter! My daughter!”

“First I’ve heard of you having a daughter.”

“W-well, as you can see by her looks, I’ve kept her preciously hidden away, yes.”

The merchant desperately acted to prevent Elicis’s identity from being exposed. Though the chief scratched his beard suspiciously, he answered what she had asked.

“Well, our village hunters caught them. Good work, isn’t it?”

“Yes. Very good. I can see why Father comes to trade in this village.”

A lie.

Elicis realized the chief was lying.

Other holy knights would have revealed their identity at just this and subdued all the villagers. Then called their waiting soldiers to transport them.

But she couldn’t do that. Her temperament was too weak for witch hunting.

‘…If there were more definitive evidence-‘

This was enough, but also not enough.

Troubled by her conscience, Elicis asked the chief several questions.

“Could I meet the hunter who caught these?”

“Hmm? No, they’re out hunting now…”

“I see. How many hunters are there? One? Several?”

“Hoho, sometimes one catches them, sometimes several work together.”

As the questions continued, the chief began to feel like she was interrogating him. His instincts were quite sharp, so he realized the woman before him was not the merchant’s daughter.

The chief glared slightly at the merchant then suddenly started coughing while laughing.

“Keh, cough! Kaak-! Cough! Cough!”

“A-are you alright!?”

“Kuhuk! Kek, cough-! …Phew- s-sorry. Getting old brings these coughing fits…”

“If you’re unwell, should I give you some medicine?”

“Ahaha- thank you, but just resting at home cures it.”

“Oh… I understand. Please take care-”

While Elicis watched the chief with a worried expression, the villagers’ eyes changed upon hearing his coughing.

The chief had no such illness. As the wealthiest person in the village, he was healthy enough to never have minor ailments.

The cough was a kind of signal. A signal alerting them that Elicis was a threat to the village’s existence─.

“Oh my, I left the pot on the fire-”

“S-suddenly feeling tired─ hey, shall we go drink?”

“Y-yeah?”

The villagers began leaving one by one. Though it looked natural at first glance, Elicis felt an inexplicable suspicion. She noticed how suddenly they were all departing.

“Do they usually disperse this quickly?”

“They’re mountain folk, so once they buy what they need and chat a bit, they often leave quickly.”

“Suspicious…”

However, she couldn’t thoroughly search the village without proper evidence. Finally thinking she’d gained nothing this time, Elicis turned and boarded the departing carriage─.

“Oh, is it over already?”

A new customer arrived.

Someone not found on the village’s roster. Elicis’s eyes sparkled as she looked at him.

─Found him.

◇◇◇◆◇◇◇

The caravan that came to the village didn’t have as varied goods as the fancy shops seen in the city, but it was loaded with items the villagers desperately needed.

It was like this world’s version of a traveling market. Though this wasn’t the military, and it came monthly rather than weekly, that was slightly different.

I exchanged greetings with the merchant while setting down my bag full of monster corpses.

“Is it over already?”

“…No! We’re still going!”

“Oh really? Well I wanted to sell this─”

“Ch-Charles!”

Just as I was about to greet the merchant, the chief who had been heading home came running over to greet me.

Since we weren’t that close, I frowned at the chief.

“What’s with you, old man? Why are you acting like this?”

“H-hoho. Charles my boy. Isn’t this too much even though we haven’t met in a while? You should respect your elders…”

“Respect? Did you really eat something wrong…”

The chief I hadn’t seen in a while was speaking strangely as if he’d eaten some poisonous herb. He even called me by a different name.

I pushed him aside slightly in annoyance.

“And who’s Charles? It’s Johan. Why can’t you remember?”

“Ha, hahaha- what are you saying! Charles my boy! Did you hit your head some─”

“Enough.”

As the chief was shouting, the red-haired woman who had been sitting in the carriage carefully cut off the chief’s words and approached.

Coming over with a bright smile, she stared intently at the backpack I had set on the ground.

“Are you here to sell goods?”

“Ah, yes. That’s right.”

“Then may I see the goods for a moment?”

“Of course.”

“Ah, no…”

The chief let out a despairing sigh when he heard I would trade directly with the caravan. That’s what you get for being so greedy, how long were you planning to skim off the top?

Taking the backpack I handed over, she looked at the corpses and hides inside and her eyes began to shine.

“─Monster corpses? And very high quality ones.”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“Did you catch all these yourself?”

“Of course?”

“I see.”

The red-haired woman began looking back and forth between the chief and merchant.

The two men began sweating profusely and hanging their heads when they met her eyes.

‘Why are they acting like this?’

I just tilted my head, unable to understand what was happening.

◇◇◇◆◇◇◇