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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Mod7
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It didn’t take long for everything to be revealed as a misunderstanding. Master came running in alarm when she saw me crying while being consoled by Marguerite in the living room.
“J-Johan!? What’s wrong!?”
“M-Master?”
Seeing Master rush toward me with her usual attitude, I asked if she had grown to dislike me and if that’s why she’d been keeping her distance.
Hearing this, Master shook her head vigorously, insisting that could never be the case.
“That’s impossible! T-that was just…”
“Just what?”
“…I-I heard that’s better for seducing men.”
She explained why she had acted that way. She’d bought a book to better appeal to me and followed its instructions.
Hearing this, I realized we’d both been swayed by a single book. While I was relieved she didn’t hate me, it was quite depressing that my actions had been defeated by some anonymous writer’s words.
As I sat there depressed, Master, realizing her mistake, fidgeted anxiously before offering what seemed to be another option from the book.
“A-are you okay? Johan? Want to touch my breasts?”
“…Yes please.”
As I fondled the breasts presented before me, Master began letting out sweet moans.
And as I touched her soft breasts, my depression and all the unpleasant thoughts from before completely vanished.
That’s when I realized something:
‘This book… isn’t so bad?’
Thanks to being swayed by its contents, I’d nearly confessed my love to Master, and when I got slightly depressed afterward, I even got to touch her breasts.
In the end, this book wasn’t bad for either Master or me.
“Nnh- good boy, good boy… my Johan. Master was wrong. I’ll throw away that naughty book right away─”
“…Master.”
“Hmm? What is it?”
“I was just thinking… having a book like that… might not be so bad.”
“…Really?”
Though she’d said she’d throw it away, Master seemed to agree with my words, perhaps finding it too precious to discard herself.
Delighted, Master declared this should be marked as a very special day and gave me an errand.
“Then let’s have a party! I’ll prepare the food, so could you and Ritz go to the city and buy some alcohol?”
“Alcohol?”
“Yes! There’s a good brewery in the nearby city. If you go there…”
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The moment I traveled to the nearby city with Marguerite, it felt like stepping into a sauna – the air was stifling.
I wasn’t the only one troubled by the surrounding air; Marguerite also frowned while covering her mouth.
“What’s with this place? Why is it so hot…”
It didn’t take long to discover why. All the city’s buildings had been reduced to ashes.
Not just the wooden buildings that would naturally burn easily, but even the stone walls and lord’s castle – everything had burned away.
I covered my mouth while looking around.
“…What is this?”
“This wasn’t just an ordinary fire.”
“Right. It couldn’t burn everything so completely otherwise.”
Like any medieval city, this one had a river flowing around the castle and a moat built from it.
But with even that riverbed dried up, this city’s devastation couldn’t be explained by an accidental fire.
Crunch crunch- As we walked forward, stepping on unidentifiable things, I frowned.
“…These couldn’t be corpses?”
“Probably are. Ugh- look how sticky they are. Completely melted together.”
“…Hah, Miss Marguerite. Should we- head back?”
“Yes, let’s go back.”
Marguerite immediately prepared her magic, and while she did, I looked around to check for survivors.
In a city burned this thoroughly, there couldn’t possibly be survivors… but since all the buildings had melted away, I could see all the way to the distant plains with just a glance.
While looking around, I spotted something and briefly grabbed Marguerite’s arm to stop her from using magic.
“What? Suddenly-”
“Miss Marguerite, over there.”
“Where?”
Marguerite followed where I was pointing and spotted a girl standing in the distance. She stopped her magic and stared at the girl intently for a moment before letting out a hollow laugh and grabbing my hand.
“Let’s run.”
“What? But there’s a survivor…”
“Don’t be stupid, could anyone survive this chaos? That’s not a survivor, it’s─”
Whoosh!
Just as Marguerite tried to speak, a stream of fire suddenly shot toward us. Heat that must have been thousands of degrees, hot enough to cook our lungs just from breathing near it.
The flames were blocked by the barrier Marguerite raised, merely swirling around us. Marguerite looked at the fire and spoke:
“─A witch.”
“…Are witches really this common?”
“Who knows─ anyway, shall we escape? We shouldn’t come here anymore.”
She said this and used the magic she’d been preparing to leave the city.
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“…They disappeared?”
The Fire Witch, who had been burning everything in sight while circling the city, realized the man she’d just encountered had vanished before her eyes.
Rather than being burned to death, his very existence had disappeared from this place. Like magic.
“Not human… was it a witch?”
She felt somewhat sorry for attacking a fellow witch, but the next moment- rage boiled up at the fact that despite being a fellow witch, they hadn’t saved her until now.
A witch who could vanish so suddenly like that could have easily saved someone like her, so why hadn’t they done so all this time?
The reason was simple. Humans might believe persecuted witches help each other survive, but that’s not how it works.
Witches persecute and hate each other just like humans do.
That must be why she wasn’t saved either.
“Yes, not just this city… everything.”
Everything must burn.
The cities, the country, humanity, the world.
And then everything that melts will mix together.
“Everything.”
No exceptions, not even witches.
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Upon returning to the cabin, I immediately reported this to Master. That the city she’d mentioned had been completely burned by a witch.
Hearing this, Master thought deeply with a serious expression. After thinking for a while, she looked at me awkwardly before smiling as if to say not to worry.
“It’s fine! That city is quite far from here, and more importantly, I’m protecting this forest! Johan doesn’t need to worry about anything!”
“…Could I help somehow?”
“Help? Don’t do anything unnecessary. Johan helps most by staying put.”
“But I can use magic too. And it’s even a cheat magic that can negate all magic.”
“Cheat magic…? I don’t know what that means, but your ability isn’t that special. It’s rather common, if anything.”
“…What?”
My ability was common…? Shocked by this unbelievable statement, I asked her again.
Though Master seemed reluctant to speak, thinking she couldn’t stop me from trying to help unless she revealed the truth, she disclosed the secret she’d been keeping from me.
“It’s the same ability the holy knights use.”
“…Holy knights can nullify magic?”
“Well, yes. Though there are some small differences in the details- but essentially, holy knights can indeed nullify witch magic.”
She went on to explain that holy knights gain superhuman strength through special training, and their blades can cut through witch magic because they contain divine power.
In any case, I had thought I might someday save the world with my cheat ability to nullify magic, but learning that others could commonly do the same left me deeply discouraged.
Master drove the point home to my dejected self:
“So, if even the holy knights failed to stop that witch, there’s no need for you to take unnecessary risks. Understand?”
“…Yes.”
“Good, as long as you understand. And hey! Just because our Johan isn’t great at fighting doesn’t mean you’re not needed! You can stay here and massage Master’s shoulders, right?”
Though Master offered this as consolation, honestly─ it wasn’t very comforting.
The disappointment of learning that what I thought was my unique cheat magic was actually a common, mundane ability wouldn’t fade so easily.
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“Then I’ll go do the housework…”
“Johan, I did everything while you were gone, so you can go rest.”
“Ah- right, you did.”
Johan said he’d go rest for a bit and shut himself in his room. He seemed quite dejected after learning his ability wasn’t particularly special.
Watching Johan trudge dejectedly to his room, Marguerite scribbled something on paper she’d produced from somewhere and passed it to Evangeline.
[Why did you do that?]
“Do what?”
[Your apprentice’s ability is completely different from the holy knights’.]
“Well Ritz, I couldn’t just let Johan go fight a witch, could I?”
[Even though his ability is specifically anti-witch?]
Marguerite thought about Johan’s magic. That unique magic that could shatter anything he considered magic.
It was qualitatively different from what holy knights used. Holy knights truly believed everything was equal under God’s name and shattered anything that wasn’t divine power.
Unlike their inflexible ability that rejected everything in God’s name, Johan’s magic allowed him to subjectively choose which magic to negate… it was truly an upgraded version of the holy knights’ power.
“That’s exactly why.”
[What do you mean?]
“An ability that can definitely win against witches… in other words, Johan could crush any witch he meets, right?”
[I… suppose?]
“Having just you around is annoying enough, why would I want more witches here? Absolutely not.”
Evangeline imagined what would happen if Johan defeated a witch. Witches who had been persecuted, avoided, and unloved would inevitably fall for Johan who could defeat them and was immune to their curses.
It was a natural instinct as both a witch and a female.
“Johan is mine. I won’t give him to anyone.”
She couldn’t accept that possibility.
She couldn’t hand him over to anyone.
Not to anyone.
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Johan meets a new Witch.
Not even yandere – this is just being a b!tch at this point.
It does makes sense tho