“Does it really matter?” he asked. “When I take on a job, I do as I’m asked. I won’t betray my client, but I’m not so righteous as to go back and make a report that’s going to get me killed. The squadron was annihilated—this witch hunt was a failure.”
“No, it was a success,” she protested. “The witch was defeated by the valiant sacrifice of the soldiers and would never show her face in these parts again.”
And we all lived happily ever after, right?
The witch prattled on like she was spinning her own fairy tale. As he once again started thinking of what he should do next, something she said caught his attention.
“Wait, what are you talking about?” Zig asked.
Her gaze took in his confusion. “I want to hire you as my bodyguard.”
“Are you serious?!” he blurted out before he could stop himself.
“Of course!” she replied proudly.
“Why?”
He couldn’t read her intentions. The witch, meanwhile, could see the bewilderment written all over his face. Her eyes remained downcast, but her lips curled into the smallest of smiles.
“I’m tired,” she said softly. “I’m tired of being pursued time and time again. Tired of having to keep changing where I live. I’m always being hunted, and I’ve had it.”
Her face wore a look of resignation, as if she was weary of life itself. She looked like a young woman, but in that moment, he could see all the years she lived weighing heavily on her.
Zig remained silent. Once again, those eyes of bright cobalt rose to meet his.
“I want you to take me to a place where no one will come after me.”
Though the request was ambiguous, and she didn’t seem to have a plan, her tone was laced with earnest sincerity.
Zig examined her face, recognizing the expression on it.
She had the look of someone who had nothing left. Someone who was standing at the edge of a cliff and on the verge of ending it all.
Standing back and watching it happen would be no skin off his back, and he was well aware of the effort required to keep her from teetering over.
All the more reason to refuse.
“Sorry, but I’m not interested in your sob story.”
She looked like she wanted to protest but stopped short, swallowing the words as she cast her eyes down.
“All right. Sorry for asking something like this out of nowhere.”
She looked up again, a lonely smile playing across her lips. With a laugh, she said, “It’s been so long since I last talked to someone that I got carried away. Please forget everything I said.”
Her laughter rang hollow. When she realized the feigned mirth wasn’t fooling anyone, she hung her head again.
“I’m a mercenary,” Zig said.
“I know.”
“I’ll take any job if it pays enough. I’m the type who’s even willing to kill other people. That’s why…” He glanced at the witch. Her eyes were still locked on the ground. “…All I care about is if you’re willing to pay me what the job’s worth.”
The witch gasped, looking up to meet Zig’s stare.
That’s right. I’m a mercenary. I’ll take on any job, no matter how troublesome, as long as I get paid.
He was a seasoned professional. He wasn’t his younger self anymore—the novice that would have wholeheartedly chosen to stand back and watch her fall.
“Can you pay?”
“Y-yes! I can pay! I can pay you!”
The witch looked flustered as she fished around in her clothes. After a while, she seemed to find what she was looking for and presented Zig with a gem. “This should work as an advance payment, right?”
The jewel sitting in her palm was a deep shade of crimson and about the size of a child’s fist. Its gleam was captivating, a sight to behold as he studied it.
“Hmm.”
“What do you think?” the witch said proudly. “Magnificent, isn’t it?”
“I don’t know…” he said slowly.
“What…?”
“If I had a talent for evaluating jewels, do you think I’d be working as a mercenary?”
“I suppose you have a point, but…” She seemed disgruntled—that gem probably meant a lot to her.
“Is it really that good?” Zig asked skeptically. “How much do you think I could get for it?”
“I dunno.”
He looked exasperated. “You’re killing me here.”
“Why would a witch know anything about human exchange rates?”
“You’ve got a point. Still, this could be an issue.”
The gem would probably fetch a considerable sum, but when taking all the future expenses into consideration, he couldn’t say for sure if it would be enough. As he puzzled over whether he could make ends meet, he remembered something she mentioned earlier.
“You called this an advance payment, right? Do you have more gems?”
She nodded. “Yes. I have three more that are about the same size. Is that not enough?”
“That’s not what I’m saying. We can talk about my commission later in more detail.” He began to mumble to himself. “Three more, huh? That should work…”
She gave him a questioning look, so he continued his explanation.
“I’m going to be blunt here. There isn’t a place on this continent where a witch won’t be pursued.”
Her face immediately darkened. Since all the other aspects of mysticism on the continent had vanished, witches were the only feared entity remaining. Everywhere they went, they were faced with hostility.
Each nation actively sent out witch-hunting expeditions to save face and show the other countries that they weren’t afraid of these creatures of folklore. There were cases when deceased people were posthumously declared witches to boost morale, while others were falsely accused and persecuted for witchcraft. And that was just the tip of the iceberg.
“This continent’s been embroiled in disputes for ages,” Zig said. “Whether it be skin color, language gaps, or cultural differences…the people here are desperate to snuff out anything that’s remotely different from them.”
“It’s so foolish,” the witch said as she stared into the distance. “No matter how much time passes, they never change.”
She had lived for so many years… It was likely she was a long-time witness to the disgraces of humanity.
Zig smiled self-deprecatingly. “I guess that makes guys like me, who are able to put food on the table thanks to those conflicts, the equivalent of parasites.”
“Oh! No, that’s not what I—”
“It’s fine. I knew what I was getting into when I signed up for this line of work. Let’s get back on topic. What it comes down to is there’s nowhere in these lands where an extraordinary entity like a witch is going to be welcomed.”
“You can’t mean to suggest…” The witch gasped as realization dawned on her.
“That’s right. You’ll need to go to the unknown continent.”
There was one other continent that the people of this continent had been aware of for some time now, but the currents were rough and being unable to read the tides meant that it was initially unreachable. However, a survey of the tidal currents had recently been completed, and boats that could withstand the rough conditions had been designed and manufactured. Following the mass production of these boats, there were plans to start dispatching full-scale research groups.
“What about all the talk that you can’t traverse the waters with today’s ship-building technology?” she asked.
“How long ago did you hear this ‘talk’?”
“Oh? I wonder how many years it’s been. One, two, three, four…”
Zig sighed as he watched the witch start to count on her fingers. I never realized a difference in life span caused such a discrepancy in one’s sense of time…
It’s been some twenty-odd years since he heard the bold proclamations of, “Passage to the unknown continent will be possible in the near future!” as a young boy.
Just how old is this witch? Zig wondered before going back to discussing the plan. “Investigation teams are leaving for the unknown continent soon. We’ll infiltrate one of them.”
“Is that even possible?”
“It’ll cost money, but the chance isn’t zero.”
The investigation teams were usually made up of many foreigners as state-sponsored expeditions were difficult to conduct due to the lingering possibility of invasion from another country. Instead, merchants from various countries would work together to open a new sales channel, pooling their resources to reduce the involved risks.
Each nation planned to take advantage of this concept by sending their own personnel to join the investigation team. Not only would they be able to keep an eye on enemy movements, but they could also determine what sort of profits they might gain from the unknown continent.
Since all parties involved were keeping tabs on each other, no one could afford to devote too much manpower to the project, but they couldn’t ignore the far-off land brimming with possibilities either.
“It should be pure chaos at the moment, so there’s no better chance to sneak in than now.”
The witch silently processed all the information he had given her. His proposal does make sense, but there’s no guarantee witches won’t be persecuted on the unknown continent as well. No one even knows what’s over there in the first place! It’s highly possible that I could be in greater peril than being hunted here.
Still…
“Jumping headlong into the unknown doesn’t sound so bad if there’s a chance I won’t be scorned or pursued,” she said with a slightly cocky smile, her resigned attitude from earlier completely gone. “Are you okay with that, though? It may not be easy for you to return if you accompany me all the way over there.”
“That’s fine,” he replied. “It’s part of the job. Besides, I’ve gotten tired of seeing the same battlefield scenery over and over again.”
Zig had no hesitation when it came to killing people. He survived so long by being a soldier for hire, he didn’t know any other way to make a living. But that didn’t mean he enjoyed it.
“Well, I look forward to being in your care…umm…”
That’s right. He hadn’t given her his name.
He smiled wryly as he extended a hand. “I’m Zig. Zig Crane.”
The witch seemed taken aback by the gesture, her eyes wide as she gazed at his outstretched hand. After a moment’s hesitation, she gingerly reached out and gripped it tightly, as if she were trying to reassure herself.
“It’s nice to meet you, Zig.” A smile broke out on her face as she felt the warmth radiating from his hand. “My name is Siasha. Just Siasha.”