CH 2.3

After that, we walked together in complete silence.

While I didn’t feel like saying anything to my former nemesis, at the same time, I also wanted to talk about a lot of things with her. While I was contemplating that silly thing, the witch suddenly stopped.

“Here.”

She said nonchalantly.

The thing was, the place she pointed to was a really luxurious apartment. The idea that a single student would be living there was just so outlandish because of how expensive it looked.

“…Eh, are you serious?”

“What’s wrong? Why are you making that dumb face?”

Looking at me, the witch tilted her head in confusion.

“Your parents… Are they like, filthy rich or something?”

“Huh? I don’t know… They’re just, normal?”

The witch said, looking puzzled. She then proceeded to take out a card and swiped it in front of the front door. The door then opened soon afterwards and we were greeted by a really spacious lobby.

I, a mere commoner, could do nothing but tremble and let out a weak voice at this sight.

The witch, not noticing the state I was in, quickly got into the lift. I hurriedly followed her behind. I didn’t want to be left behind by her and get caught by the guards.

“This is amazing…”

Inside the elevator was a wall made of tempered glass. We could see the whole city from here.

“You’ve been overreacting about the silliest things since a while ago.”

Said the witch, shrugging her shoulders.

“Of course! I was born into a normal family, okay?”

Rather than making fun of me, she just didn’t understand what was amazing about her situation.

Because she had no friends, she wasn’t aware that the environment she lived in wasn’t a normal one at all. Years of failure in socializing resulted in her lack of common sense.

“Your lack of common sense hasn’t changed at all, huh? This is why you should try and socialize with more people so you could learn about the world you’re living in properly.”

“…Is that so?”

The witch had an uneasy look on her face. Maybe my words were finally getting through her.

“In other words, stop reading books everywhere you go.”

“I-I’m not doing that! B-Besides, I’m learning about this world through those books!”

She turned her face away with a ‘hmph’.

Eventually, the lift stopped. I didn’t even know how many floors we had passed.

The witch got off the lift and unlocked the door to a room at the end of the hallway and entered it.

“I don’t want you to be here, but go in.”

“S-Sorry for intruding…”

As I followed the witch fearfully and entered the room, the smell of books entered my nose.

There were several bookshelves lining up on the walls of the spacious room. All of them were completely filled with books. Hell, there were even some books that couldn’t fit in the shelves because there wasn’t enough space. Those books were stacked neatly on the floor.

In the center of the room, there was a table, surrounded by two sofas.

The witch sat down on one of them and I sat down on the sofa opposite of her.

“This room is so big…”

The room was spacious, but it felt suffocating to me. Maybe that was because of my commoner soul freaking out.

Even in my previous life, I didn’t live in this much luxury. Yes, they provided me with a private room that was as big as this room because I was a hero, but I didn’t use it much since I had to travel around a lot. I used to sleep in cheap inns instead.

“By the way, don’t you think there’s too many books here?”

“…It can’t be helped, okay? There’s so many interesting books in this world.”

Said the witch as she averted her gaze from me.

“Unlike back in the previous world, the books here are cheap and my family would buy me as many books as I want…”

Come to think of it, she was also a bookworm back in the previous world. But since paper was scarce over there, books were absurdly expensive.

“Hmm…”

When I took a closer look, there were a lot of manga and light novels on the bookshelves. There were other things too, such as historical documentaries.

I noticed that there were more shounen manga and light novels than anything there.

“I-It can’t be helped, okay?! T-The storybooks in this world are interesting!”

I didn’t say anything, but she started to defend herself all of a sudden.

“You’ve always liked stories like this, right? I remember your eyes would shine brightly whenever you were listening to the bards’ stories. I know you love heroic tales like knights slaying evil dragons and such…”

It felt nostalgic. Imagine the bards’ reaction if they found out that the young woman who had been frolicking like a child around them was the Witch of Calamity herself.

“…Ahem. I’m going to make some tea.”

Perhaps remembering that dark history of hers, the witch blushed and cleared out her throat. Then, she got up from her seat and returned not too long after with two cups in her hands.

“I thought I was not welcome here.”

“You’re still a guest, this is just basic manners. If you don’t want it, just throw it away then.”

“No no, thank you for the hospitality.”

The witch said in a dismissive tone and sat on the sofa.

Her manners and gestures were elegant and beautiful.

Well, since she was a rich young lady, she must’ve been properly educated from a young age.

I wish she would show this much elegance when talking to people other than me, though.

As I were admiring her beauty, suddenly the witch exclaimed,

“Hot!”

The witch who had just sipped her tea was currently sticking out her tongue. Tears started to form in her eyes.

“…Ahem.”

No, no, my impression of you was ruined already, clearing your throat wouldn’t fix that.

Come to think of it, she couldn’t take hot food too back in the day. (T/N: 猫舌 (neko-jita) meaning cat-tongued. There’s no proper equivalent of it in English, but it’s a metaphor for a person who can’t take hot food.)

“I-I’ll let it cool down first…”

The witch turned her gaze to the window, trying to hide her embarrassment.

I silently sipped my tea.

“Mm, yes, it’s a good tea.”

I didn’t know my tea, but it must have been an expensive one. The fact that it was expensive meant that it was a good tea. So, I should act like I knew a lot about tea here and gave it the praise it deserved.

“It’s just instant tea I bought from the convenience store, though.”

“Oi, what the hell? Why are you bringing out a commoner’s product all of a sudden?”

“You don’t know anything about tea, do you?”

The witch shrugged her shoulders and placed her cup down.

“Alright, I think it’s time for us to start.”

“Why are you acting haughtily when you’re the one asking me a favor?”

Seriously, be more humble about it at least.

“Whose fault do you think it is?”

“Even so… Well, whatever, it feels disgusting if you treat me politely anyway. Besides, this is something that I gotta do.”

The witch stood up and sat down next to me.

I thought she had an ulterior motive for a second there, then I realized that she did it so we could start dispelling her curse.

“O-Okay, you can start whenever you feel like it.”

For some reason, her voice cracked a little and her face was red.

…Seeing her like this made me feel conscious over the fact that I was currently inside the room of a girl classmate and I was sitting really close to her. Calm down, it was just the witch, don’t get any strange ideas…

“A-Alright, let’s do this.”

“Y-Yes…”

The witch leaned even closer to me.

A soft, sweet scent tickled my nostrils.

Her scent made me feel nervous. Even though I was a hero in my first life, I was still currently a high school boy. Even though I knew that she was the witch, I still felt nervous.

I couldn’t take my eyes off her. Everything about her drew me in from her long eyelashes, her clear and beautiful eyes, her pure white skin…

She was an immensely beautiful girl. She was a beauty in her previous life, but she was blessed with such a pretty face in this life too. Though, unlike her previous life, her current appearance could be classified as ‘cute’ rather than ‘pretty’. Her petite body only raised that impression further.

“W-What is it? C-Could you stop staring at me?”

The witch stared at me with a shy face.

“…A-Ahem.”

Seeing her expression, I came to my senses and let out a cough, trying to brush everything off. We were doing this because of the curse, nothing more. I needed to stop thinking about weird things!

“I-I’m going to hold your hand.”

Her voice trembled as she said that, probably out of nervousness. Then, she proceeded to touch my hand before immediately pulling away while letting out a small shriek. She attempted to do it again, slower, and managed to grasp my hand properly. I could feel the warmth of her hand.

Her hand was thin and small. It felt like it would break if I were to squeeze it tightly.

At first, I was worried about the possibility of my hand being sweaty and making her uncomfortable but then, I realized that she was the witch and I didn’t need to show her that much consideration. I let out a sigh and that made my shoulder move a little. Thanks to that, it grazed the witch’s shoulder and she yelped in surprise because of it. What the hell was that reaction?

“I-Is this really necessary?

“L-Look, I don’t want to do this either, but it’s the necessary procedure.”

Thanks to her being all embarrassed, the embarrassment spread to me and made my voice tremble as I talked.

My heart was pounding so hard to the point that I suspected that the witch could hear it.

I felt sweat start to form in the hand that the witch was holding.

…I should calm myself and focus on dispelling her curse. I closed my eyes and tried to use my power.

“O, evil that lies deep inside…”

Chant. A ritual using words as its medium. (T/N: 詠唱 (Eisho) was used here. It could also mean ‘aria’, but ‘chant’ felt less mouthful.)

It was used to activate the power of exorcism, the power to interfere with the cursed mana that was sleeping within the witch’s soul.

The pre-requirements of exorcism was the absence of mana within oneself. To be precise, only people with a unique constitution that rejected magic could use it. That was the reason why the witch couldn’t use it.

But, exorcism still required mana as its power source. To be exact, it used the mana of the exorcism subject as its power source. In this case, I was using the witch’s mana.

“Show your form before me.”

After the chant was finished, the exorcism spell was perfectly formed without any issues using the mana that the witch had in her body.

I let out a sigh of relief. There was no problem so far.

It seemed like as long as there was a curse to be dispelled, exorcism could be used in this world. The witch was confident that it would be the case, but I wasn’t since I was born in a different body compared to my previous life.

“…Alright, let’s do this.”

Anyway, that was just the opening act. This was where the real thing began.

I managed to secure a connection with the witch’s soul, so I only needed to remove her curse now.

If I wasn’t careful, the curse might afflict me as well, so this was the part where I needed to concentrate the most.

As I was thinking about that, something murky and dark entered my consciousness.

“What the hell is this?!”

After taking a closer look at it, I realized that it was the curse itself.

But its form was abnormally huge and dense. It was hard to believe that this kind of curse even existed. The curse was bound tightly to the pure white soul of the witch’s. Even now, it was slowly eroding her soul.

…It was worse than I thought.

I was aware of its existence back in the other world but, back then, the curse’s erosion hadn’t reached this far. The light of her soul was barely hanging in there as almost every inch of it was contaminated by the curse.

“Oi, oi, what the hell happened to you?”

I dragged my consciousness back to reality, only to find that she was shutting both her eyes and her mouth, probably out of consideration for me. Acknowledging her intention, I decided to finish my business first.

“My miracle shall purify every impurity…”

It would be impossible to purify everything at once.

I could only do it little by little.

*   *   *

After the exorcism was done, I returned my consciousness back to reality.

The witch was breathing roughly and it was clear that she was in pain. Maybe it was the side effect of me touching her soul directly. She noticed that I had finished my job for now and thanked me, albeit with difficulty, as she still hadn’t managed to catch her breath yet.

She looked really out of it. Her body was limp as she leaned against me. I decided to get up and laid her down on the sofa.

“Calm down. First, try to catch your breath.”

“Y-Yes…”

Replied the witch before she took a deep breath.

…That was strange. I’ve done this a lot of times back in the other world, but she never ended up in this state. Was it because the curse’s erosion was worse than back then?

It was the curse that would bind its victim’s soul, damage it and eventually kill it.

In the past, thanks to her curse resistance, the erosion didn’t get too far. No matter how potent the curse was, the witch was able to resist it to the point that it wasn’t affecting her life at all.

That was the reason why she could afford to worry about what happened after her death. Ordinary people wouldn’t be able to stand such a heinous curse. They would die instantly the moment it made contact with their souls.

…So, what was going on with her?

Could it be that her reincarnation made her curse resistance weaker?

No, wait, I guess this was just how things should be, huh? It had been sixteen years since she was reborn to this world, after all.

Besides, I didn’t know what happened to her during those sixteen years.

“Are you really okay?”

When I asked, the witch furrowed her eyebrows and stared at me with suspicion.

“What are you talking about? I’m clearly not okay, that’s why I’m asking for your help to begin with.”

“You know that’s not what I’m talking about…”

“Are you talking about the erosion? …Well, everything will be fine. My lifespan will be shortened a bit, but that’s all there is to it. If you dispel the curse properly, I should be alright… Maybe…”

“‘Maybe’? What do you mean?! Stop talking about your own life lightly!”

“Like I said, you don’t need to worry about anything. Besides, we aren’t in the kind of relationship where we could afford to worry about each other.”

When I tried to scold her, she immediately cut me off.

I opened my mouth to try and refute her words, but I couldn’t say anything to her. After all, her words were true.

“Witch, are you?…”

“I have no reason to tell you anything. Remember that we are just in a cooperative relationship because our goal is the same, there’s nothing more to it. Just like in the other world. Got it?”

The witch seemed to know what I wanted to say and cut me off mid-sentence.

“I don’t care about what kind of relationship we are in! I’m just worried about you!”

“Why? You’re not a hero anymore, are you?”

The moment I heard those words.

I unconsciously held my breath.

She was right. I was no longer a hero.

The heroic Grey Handlet was no more.

My current identity was Shiraishi Godou, an ordinary high school boy who lived in Japan.

There was no reason for me to worry about my old nemesis.

Silence enveloped the room.

As I remained silent, the witch whispered something to me.

“From today onwards, you have to do this once every three days. I know this is a hassle, but this is the price you have to pay for not killing me on that day… That’s why, I won’t thank you for this no matter what…”

“…Got it…”

I didn’t mention the fact that she thanked me earlier. Maybe she did it unconsciously.

“Alright, I’m going home then.”

I have finished my business here and it wasn’t like she’d answer my questions even if I asked her anyway.

Besides, I had a part time job at seven, so I should get back home quickly.

There was only one problem, though.

I stared at the witch blankly.

She let out a ‘hmph’ when she noticed my gaze.

“What?”

“Nothing… Just… When will you let go of my hand?”

Even when I tried to pull it away, she held it so tightly that it couldn’t even budge.

“What are you?…”

The witch stared at our intertwined hands. She finally realized what she had been doing.

Immediately afterwards, she yanked her hand away and quickly backed away from me.

“W-W-Wha…”

“You don’t need to overreact like that…”

I smiled wryly at her.

She was still the same old witch. This clumsy side of her just never changed.

“Alright, see you at school.”

I drank the rest of the tea, which had gotten cold at this point, and left the witch’s room.