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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Mod7
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“Did you get bitten by mosquitoes?”
“Uh, y-yes!?”
Startled by Johan’s words, Evangeline pulled her robe tighter. She was trying to hide the reddened marks on her skin.
Fortunately, he didn’t press the issue and let it go. Evangeline let out an internal sigh of relief as she recalled the events of last night.
It had been a very long time since she’d drunk alcohol. Well aware of what happened every time she drank after a long break, Evangeline had cautiously lifted her cup.
Johan hadn’t been so careful. Already caught up in the atmosphere before drinking, he’d kept downing drinks without realizing he was getting drunk.
Though it was cheap alcohol, that didn’t mean it was low proof.
“Hehehe! Master! Can’t you show me your face just once!?”
“…No, I told you you’ll be cursed.”
“Aww, I don’t think I willll~”
Johan had quickly become drunk and started his drunken rambling. If a stranger had acted this way, she would have frowned, and even if it was someone she knew, his behavior was crude enough to warrant cursing at.
She deliberately swallowed her irritation and said to him:
“Johan, I think you’re drunk. Maybe you should stop?”
“Whaat? Me? I’m not drunk~”
Obviously drunk to anyone looking. Just as she was about to use magic to help clear his head, she froze as Johan dragged his chair closer to her with a screech.
Johan’s eyes scanned her face intently. She habitually pulled down her hood to hide her face. At the same time, she used magic to look through her hood at his face.
It was the first time she’d looked at someone’s face this closely. Anyone who got this close to her would normally come to hate her.
But Johan didn’t.
“…Master.”
“Uh, yes- what is it?”
“You really are beautiful. Our Master is the best.”
“Um, what did you just…”
He’d muttered so quietly that Evangeline missed what he’d said. Fortunately, she caught the last part. The best? Even though she hadn’t done anything special…
Covering her unconsciously twitching lips, Evangeline looked at Johan. Though she’d thought drunken rambling was unsightly, maybe this kind wasn’t so bad?
“Hey, Massster?”
“Ahem- what is it?”
“I’ve been wondering something… can I ask?”
Evangeline nodded. But even in his drunken state, it seemed to be a difficult question to ask – Johan only spoke after downing another large gulp of alcohol.
“Every morning… are you trying to seduce me?”
“…What do you mean?”
“Every single morning you sleep in such a defenseless state. No underwear, everything exposed – chest, hips, everything…”
She felt her lips go dry. Yes. She was trying to seduce him. But somehow those words wouldn’t come out.
As if under someone’s spell, her leaden lips refused to move. Tired of waiting for her response, Johan took another sip and said:
“Please be more careful… I’m still a man, I can’t always hold back.”
“…What if.”
“Pardon?”
“What if you can’t hold back, what happens then?”
Gulp- The sound of swallowing echoed through the room. Johan’s eyes went wide as if he couldn’t believe what he’d heard.
Evangeline decided to be a little braver. After crossing the line once, crossing it again wasn’t so difficult.
“I’m a witch. Why should I fear a man who can’t even use magic… I don’t see why I need to be careful?”
“…Ha.”
An ice-cold voice. The moment she heard it, Evangeline thought she’d made a mistake. She hadn’t. It wasn’t a mistake – it was exactly right.
Johan set down his cup and grabbed Evangeline’s shoulders. His large, firm hands pulled her. Though not strong enough to forcibly move a witch, she allowed herself to be pulled toward him.
“You don’t know what would happen?”
“U-um…”
“That won’t do. That really won’t do.”
The hand on her shoulder slowly moved up her neck. Evangeline pulled her hood down and lowered her head, worried her face might show.
Seeing this, Johan let out a small laugh.
“Look at you. More afraid of showing your face than your chest… Well then, shall I make you more afraid of showing your chest?”
“W-what do you me- kyahh!?”
The next moment – Johan lowered his head and began sucking hard on her neck. So forcefully it made wet sounds-
Her delicate skin couldn’t resist the pressure and started turning red. After quickly leaving a kiss mark, Johan slowly moved downward, inhaling the scent of the lustful witch’s skin.
Sucking her neck, biting her shoulder, licking her collarbone. Each action was an intense exploration of her body, making Evangeline tremble with unfamiliar sensations.
“Ahh, wait- Johan, what are you…”
“I’ll make sure you can’t go outside dressed like usual anymore.”
“Hah-! But, nnh! What does that have to do with…”
“If you’re covered in marks showing you’re mine, you’ll have to hide them out of embarrassment.”
Saying the witch was wrong for going around so provocatively- Johan moved to her exposed upper chest.
The witch’s heart pounded faster, anticipating what was coming next. She worried she might become the first witch to die from her heart beating too fast.
That worry proved pointless – the moment Johan’s lips touched her chest, her racing heartbeat became the least of her concerns.
“Phew- haha, look Master. Doesn’t it look like I’ve branded you?”
“B-branded…”
“Everyone who sees will know you have a man. That this lewd body has an owner.”
Now he was outright violating her. An ambiguous situation – should she be angry, or happy? While Evangeline couldn’t decide how to react, Johan continued marking her chest multiple times.
By the time her entire upper chest was stained red, making it impossible to tell kiss marks from rashes – Johan collapsed face-first onto the table.
The witch, who hadn’t been able to stop him, let out small gasps as she looked at his collapsed form.
“Jo-Johan…?”
“…”
“Are- are you really asleep? You are, right?”
Looking at her unresponsive apprentice, Evangeline gulped. She gently lifted his hand and brushed it across her chest. The areas his lips had touched were overly sensitive.
Probably the same for the areas below that hadn’t been touched. She carefully reached inside her clothes…
“Mmm… Master…”
“Eep!?”
Startled by his sleep-talking, Evangeline covered her mouth and carefully watched Johan. Thankfully, he showed no signs of waking.
However, any thoughts of doing anything more in this place had fled. Looking at her reddened chest, Evangeline picked up Johan and headed for his room.
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“Master.”
“Ah, eek!? What is it?”
“Why are you so startled? As if you were thinking something strange.”
“L-like I would think about such things!?”
Seeing Evangeline shout defensively as if I’d hit the mark, I tilted my head but didn’t dwell on it, instead bringing up what I’d wanted to ask.
“I have a question.”
“Ask anything. Your master is a know-it-all genius.”
“Then am I a know-it-most studying under you?”
“…What?”
Seeing her tilt her head, not understanding the Earth-style wordplay, I started asking things I’d been curious about.
“Are there churches in this world too?”
“Churches? Of course there are. Stubborn idiots.”
“…Master, don’t you believe in god?”
“God? Of course not. As if such things exist.”
“Then, are there no priests or anything in this world?”
“Hmm~ I think I know what my apprentice is curious about.”
She cleared her throat and started nodding. As expected of a witch who’d lived centuries, she was quite perceptive.
With a snap of her fingers, a book flew over from the distance. Catching the airborne book, she opened it and began:
“Once upon a time─ there lived a very kind witch. The witch who lived alone in the forest was attacked by very evil holy knights. Though the witch tried to escape using magic, the knights’ blades cut through her magic and took her head.”
She read from what seemed to be a fairy tale. About evil holy knights and a kind witch…
Isn’t it usually the opposite? As she read from the book whose author I could guess, she seemed to notice I was thinking something else and closed it with a snap, looking at me.
“Now then, what did you learn from this story, Johan?”
“…Was there something to learn?”
“Of course- a true sage can learn even from a pebble on the road.”
“Um… a witch wrote this?”
“Th-that’s correct… how did you know…? ─Ahem, that’s not what I wanted to say.”
After clearing her throat a few times, she revealed the story’s moral.
“The church is full of bad people, so don’t try to learn about them.”
“That’s the moral?”
“Of course! As my apprentice, you must remember this.”
Never get close to the church.
After this warning, she returned to her room saying she had research to do. Watching her go, I also returned to my room to continue studying magic.
‘Though I am curious…’
I had no desire to take unnecessary risks to meet them.
If my master warned so strongly─ there must be good reason.
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Several merchant caravans entered the city. Thanks to the practice of bribing guards, there was no inspection.
Even forbidden goods like items made by slaves or witches could be smuggled in without issue.
This time was no different. The merchant expected the nobles would pay handsomely if he showed them his goods in secret.
‘To get such items for just a few gold coins, those country bumpkins…’
The merchant headed to his shop, chuckling. Someone blocked the path of his carriage that would normally have proceeded without issue.
Neigh─!
“What!?”
The merchant got down from his carriage in irritation, but froze when he saw who blocked his path.
A uniform with an inverted cross neatly sewn on it. In this kingdom, only one type of person wore such clothes.
The church’s witch hunters – fanatics who did as they pleased even with the royal family under the ideology of witch hunting.
“Stop right there.”
“W-what seems to be the matter? Sir Knights…”
“Divine revelation tells us there are cursed items in this carriage. We’ll inspect it.”
The word “refuse” didn’t exist in the merchant’s mind at this moment. Rather, he even laid out all his goods to make them easier to examine.
The knight seemed pleased with this behavior and smiled slightly. Then he naturally walked past the merchant to look at the displayed goods.
But not finding what he was looking for, he frowned and looked back at the merchant.
“Is this everything?”
“Y-yes… that’s all…”
“I see. Understood. Take him.”
“What!? What is the meaning of-!”
The knights ruthlessly subdued the resisting merchant and dragged him to the church. Of course, they confiscated all his caravan’s goods too.
Watching the merchant being dragged away, a red-haired knight carefully spoke up.
“…Isn’t this too harsh?”
“Hmm? Ah- Lady Elicis.”
The woman called Elicis looked at her superior and surveyed the devastation he had wrought. That merchant would be dragged to the interrogation room and receive torture he’d never forget.
While the caravan’s owner was being tortured, there would be no one to take responsibility for the employees’ wages. They would lose their jobs.
Several victims had already appeared despite there being no witch in the carriage, nor even anything that appeared related to one.
Yet her superior spoke without any sense of guilt.
“Are you doubting divine revelation? Once revelation has come down, this caravan and its merchants are criminals who transported witch’s goods – and that merchant is a witch’s follower. There is no room for debate.”
“But…”
“No buts, Lady Elicis- listen well. We follow God’s word. But those wicked merchants do not. They follow what benefits them. They’re the kind who would sell their own children to a witch if it profited them.”
Her superior’s eyes sparkled with religious fervor.
Eyes without a trace of doubt.
“Do you understand? One cannot achieve great works while fearing small sacrifices.”
“…I understand.”
Though still unsatisfied, Elicis quietly nodded.
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