“Honey, sugar, and...hmm, I suppose we’ll need jam too. I think her condition should improve if she drinks some mixed in with hot water...”
As Leen kept remembering more things she needed to buy, I followed, thinking about my own things.
“Hakura, I’m going to buy some bottled products, so I’d appreciate it if you could wait and... Hakura?”
Leen turned around, evidently concerned I hadn’t answered, and her locks of hair danced after her a beat later.
“Hey, Leen, I’ve got a request...”
“Which is?”
“I’m thinking of going to Cormeca’s.”
“Excuse me?”
Leen did a full tilt to the side like a broken scarecrow, unable to believe what I’d just said.
“Are you serious?” she went on. “What are you going to do if Cormeca’s a witch?”
“If she is, that speeds things up. I kill her and everything is fixed. If she’s not...well, it was a simple waste of time.”
I was pretty certain. I remembered that smirk she’d given when she walked away earlier. The way the corners of her mouth had twisted up and how she’d sneered, as if she were looking at something beneath her, worthy of stepping on. I knew that expression well. It was exactly the same as the one that woman I wanted to kill more than anyone else made.
Leen closed her eyes and fell silent. She then took in a deep breath, held it for a good few seconds, then slowly let it out. She opened her eyes once more.
“Listen. If Cormeca were a witch and you decided to skip a witch trial and personally sort things out, do you really think you would get off scot-free after all that?”
I couldn’t say anything. I knew the answer: I wouldn’t. It went without saying, but murder encroached on the laws of every nation. As well as the guild’s own rules.
“In my eyes, there’s a ninety percent chance that Cormeca is a witch. She is a really fishy person. However, we cannot deal with this independently. You understand why Erifell and Derg are waiting for the Carbuncles, attempting to do this the right way, don’t you?”
Leen laid her words thick, as if scolding an unruly child.
“Because I don’t have the authority to do it myself.”
A witch trial needed to take place under the eyes of the law.
The Carbuncles were a specialized organization that held witch trials. The reason they could conduct trials and executions across national borders was because of the overwhelming influence of the Church of Saphir. Another huge reason for their presence was to stop extrajudicial vigilante trials that were kicked off due to people’s misunderstandings or prejudices.
If I decided to ignore this and slay a witch—even if she was a real witch—then I would be the one getting punished. I knew that. I, too, was an adventurer who worked under the rules and protocols set by the guild. Killing a witch was not permitted unless you received an official quest that requested it or if a witch revealed her identity and was in the middle of wreaking havoc.
All the same...
“If we sit around twiddling our thumbs, then Erifell’s gonna die. This witch set quite the smart trap for us,” I said, my words laced with sarcasm.
We were running out of time, and she was preventing anyone from gathering the necessary evidence against her. If the witch made sure there wasn’t a trial, then there would be no one to testify against her. I was pretty certain that the witch had taken into account the fact that Esma’s priest was on the way to Leston as part of this whole damn plan. This witch was acting with precision, ruthlessness, and pragmatism to be one step ahead at every turn.
“In my opinion...if there’s a witch going around cursing and killing people from a safe spot, then she deserves to be killed, even if it means I’ll die too,” I said.
“Is that because you were raised in a witch’s den?” Leen asked, eyes narrowed.
“Yeah,” I replied without skipping a beat.
The witch’s den of Istilla, ruled by a witch also named Istilla. She was known as the Cruel Mistress and with white hair, white skin, and white eyes, she lacked any and all color.
I was born and raised there, alongside many other children who had faced a similar situation. I had friends. I had peers. I had close friends who were like my brothers and younger sisters. And...they were probably all dead.
“So Leen, I think you should drop out.”
“Excuse me?”
“From here on out, I’ll act alone. I won’t get you, Erifell, or Derg involved. Taking care of this on my own is the most logical and efficient way.”
The number one priority right now was killing the witch. The longer we neglected this, the worse the situation would become. I needed to act now, before Erifell’s energy ran out, and kill the witch. Well, it’d end up with me choosing to break my and Leen’s contract. Whenever I put lives on the scale, I always made sure to balance them against mine and mine alone.
“If you play dumb when they ask questions, then you won’t need to get involved any more than you have already,” I went on.
“If I may, Hakura?”
I thought I’d given a pretty fitting conclusion, but Leen stopped walking, turned around, and grabbed my arm. I felt a spark of annoyance and scratched my head. There wasn’t any further need for debate.
“What?”
“I’m asking this, just in case. Just in case! I want to confirm things just in case I misheard something, misconstrued something, or if some kind of misunderstanding has cropped up, but...are you serious?”
Leen really laid the words on thick, and I couldn’t hide my disdain. Why did she need to confirm this?
“Well, yeah. Huh? Whoa!”
Before my anger could properly turn into words, Leen had grabbed my hand and resumed walking. We weaved our way between the stores as she marched onward. Her pace was too fast for me to find a moment to shake her off. Only after I was pulled into a small alley off the main street was I finally freed.
“What are you—”
Before I could say “doing,” a smack echoed through the air. Leen’s hand, which a moment ago had been pulling me along, collided with my cheek. She wasn’t all too muscular, but an unexpected slap from a Sphere-wielding adventurer was enough to make me see stars. That was why I was unable to stop her from dropping her staff, squeezing my cheeks with both hands, and pulling my face in front of hers.
As Leen took a deep breath, all I could do was watch.
“Hakura, you IIIIIIIIDIIIIOOOOOT!”
I was unable to respond to her scream, louder than I’d ever heard her before. I was dizzy from the slap and now I had a full-on assault on my ears. It felt like all my senses had been thrown out of whack.
Even as Leen panted, she didn’t let go of my face. Those green eyes of hers forced their way into my wavering line of sight.
“After all this, what was that about?! Are you stupid? No, you don’t need to tell me—you are stupid! Otherwise why would you spout the kind of idiotic drivel that you’d say when you accidentally missed a target and shot a passerby instead?!”
“L-Leen, calm dow—”