Chapter 66 – Migratory Birds in Summer.

After that, they wandered around the city and looked around. But for some reason, Usher frowned at the sight of the streets starting to overflow with more and more people. It was because he remembered what happened when he let go of the girl’s hand in the village. She gave a little more strength to her gripped hands and, nervously, slipping through the crowd, she finally let go of her tension.

“Huh, Usher, me no more.”
“Oh sorry!”

Belka looked for a place to rest after seeing the tired girl, probably because he was walking fast. Soon after, she found a suitable structure to sit on and decided to sit down and rest there. However, perhaps because her structure was higher than expected, the girl couldn’t climb up to the top of the structure and whimpered. Seeing the girl like that, Usher wrapped her arms around her waist and lifted her up.

“Now, is this okay?”
“…Huh.”

Then, seeing the girl sitting comfortably on a barely flat structure, Usher jumped up and climbed onto her structure. So she sat and watched the street beside her, still crowded with people and dwarves. People who sometimes glanced at them, but didn’t come closer than that. As Usher looked at them in the close but distant sense of distance, he felt a small weight on his shoulder along with the sweet scent of flowers that brushed his nose.

“Belka?”

The girl leaned her head on his shoulder. She didn’t really want an answer, so she looked at the girl leaning on his shoulder and then looked back. At the corner of the road where everyone was flowing, only they stood and watched them like this. Hearing the sound of his heart pounding in his chest and occasionally rushing to the side of his ear.

“That guy is good at buying things like that.”

Rogi had been secretly watching Usher and Belka as they roamed the city. She then thought she was bluffing by the way she seemed to buy the girl her shoes, but when she casually held out her iron and calculated the bill, she was angry that she was inferior to that guy. The money Logi had right now was at most a few copper coins. I knew it was because he was still young and the adults had never made him do anything right.

So how do you explain that a kid who seems to be the same age as you has enough money to buy a girl a pair of shoes? I wondered if I should work right now to earn money, but it was clear that the children would be surprised and kicked them out if I went to the elders. Then she bit her lip, reminding herself that the girl wouldn’t accept him unless she earned money to buy something like that. What is this feeling that she doesn’t want to understand even though she already knows that it’s over with the girl?

Even after I saw them buying shoes, I continued to follow them and saw them sitting side by side on a structure that was easy to sit on. We lean on each other enough that anyone can see that we are dating. Occasionally, he was heated by the happy muttering of a young couple among passers-by, but he couldn’t get it out of his mouth. The girl in his eyes looked very happy. Just the fact that we’re together makes it even better.

Seeing that, Rogi understood even though he felt an unknown misery. No matter how hard he tried, he could not give the girl such happiness. And he blankly recalled last night. The tears the girl had shed, the awkward, yet pitiful weeping that held her breath, as if she had never cried properly.

“…Let’s go back.”

Like a defeated soldier, he trudged along in a pitiful gait. The adults pushed their backs to come and play, but after chasing after the girl’s back, they had long since separated from the children and were not in the mood to play. He thought he had to go back to where the adults were, but he walked aimlessly, not knowing where his steps were heading. It was only when he belatedly recognized that the road had become too dark that he realized the odds.

“Where else is this?”

Have you lost your way? Perhaps because he had been walking so hecticly, he had slipped into a dark alley.

“Isn’t this a bit dangerous?”

I remembered what the adults said about not going to dangerous places. Could there be a thug around here? I looked around the alley, but unexpectedly, I didn’t see any thugs leaning against the wall, smoking, or crouching on the ground. While relieved for nothing, he found a doorplate with strange letters written on it. It was written like a wriggling earthworm crawling, but it was not very unrecognizable.

“Dvalin’s Magic Bookstore?”

Logi came to mind at the word magic. The worst man who raped the girl and dragged her in. This made me feel bad, but I remembered the girl’s self-talk that I had secretly eavesdropped on last night.

“…Didn’t you say it was made?”

People normally say that ramen is born, but it is not said that it was created. Just in case, I was thinking just in case, but maybe the girl named Belka was born by magic? Giving up on her was a fact he knew all too well, but there were too many unanswered questions for Rogi to let go of her attachment to her girl. So, unable to contain his curiosity, he opened the old door in the alley.

“Are you there? Ugh! The smell of dust.”

Beyond the open door was as dark as a shady alley, and the smell of dust that had risen from the door being opened blocked his nose. It was to the point of being fortunate that there was no moldy smell. I wondered if it was a ruined store with only the name remaining, but fortunately or unfortunately, the inside of the store was lit with a weak light. And soon after, he found the figure of someone who had fallen asleep in a chair.

“Hey, look at the book…”

But he couldn’t speak. He went to ask for permission at first, but the closer he got, the more he got a glimpse of him that he couldn’t see from a distance. First of all, he was shorter than he was when he was still young. I couldn’t directly compare it, but it seemed as small as the guy who had the girl’s love. If that was all, I would have thought he would just be a dwarf, but the problem was that even if he was ugly, he was too ugly.

A large hooked nose that seemed to take up more than half of the face, and sharp fangs and crooked teeth were visible between the gaping lips of the jaw. His back was curved like a hunchback, and he seemed to smell something unpleasant. Most shocking of all was that her reddish and greasy skin looked green, though it was difficult to see in detail because of the dim light. Shocked by that, Rogi managed to recall some common sense about dwarves.

“A green dwarf?”

Dwarves are typically divided into two types. The first is a gray dwarf with a short stature and hardly any difference from humans. Logi didn’t know why they called them gray dwarfs. No matter how much I looked for them, I couldn’t find anything gray. Perhaps there were no dwarfs in Paciphenia, and I had never seen them in his hometown, but here, more than half of the people on the streets were gray dwarves.

But I couldn’t see where the green dwarf was. Looking at it now, compared to the gray dwarf, the green dwarf could understand why it was named that way. The skin was green. Despite being similar to him, Logi gave up waking him because of a sense of dislike. Although he tried to put up with it as best he could.

“This is too bad.”

Rogi couldn’t wake him up because he didn’t have the confidence to talk face-to-face. I could understand why the gray dwarfs were said to be wild compared to the green dwarves. The green dwarf was snoring, his nostrils as large as his great hooked nose. He looked around the store quietly, hoping he wouldn’t wake up, thinking he’d say hello when he woke up later. The inside of the store was dark with nothing lit except for a weak lantern, but it was a better bookstore than I thought.

“It would be nice if the book had a proper one.”

Rogi murmured and searched the bookshelves of the old, dark bookstore. Just pick one and take it out.

“You saw this when you were little.”

I don’t know since when, but the first thing I saw was a tattered magic book that was widespread regardless of region. Still, I open the book with a curious mind.

“Also.”

Inside the book, there were pictures of moving hands and large drawn letters along with pages covered with unknown text. This is so common that you can see it just about anywhere. As a joke, it is said that there is no one who did not read it when he was young. Still, as soon as I opened it, I looked through it to the end to see if there was anything different, but it was the same book, not a single mistake. With a sigh, I put it back and decided to choose the book carefully this time.

I was looking at the titles of books that I couldn’t see well by the light of the dim lamp. One thing caught his eye immediately.

“About witches?”

The first thing Rogi thought of when he heard the title of the book was none other than Belka. I was a little sorry about that, but I couldn’t help it. The girl was so beautiful and mysterious that the word witch was so inappropriate. He immediately opened the book and looked at its contents. And he was absorbed in the book.

“Witches are one of the few beings who can use magic that has been passed down from long ago…”

Because Logi didn’t know. While he was reading, he heard the sound of an old bookstore door opening and a dark figure creeping up behind him.

“You seem interested in magic, kid.”
“Aww!!”

Rogi couldn’t help but look behind him, frightened by the man’s low, dark voice coming from right behind him. There, a man in a dark robe was looking down at him.

“Oh, don’t be so surprised. I’m just a guest here.”

The unknown man told him to calm down, but Rogi couldn’t. How could I not be surprised to see that?

“Most of the books here aren’t very useful, but every now and then there’s a hidden treasure.”

The man covered his entire body with a dark robe that seemed assimilated into the darkness of the old bookstore. Under his deeply pressed hood, his face was covered in pitch-black, and beneath the wide sleeves of his robe were his hands, which were wrapped in something like bandages, leaving no skin exposed. The appearance alone was scary enough, but the bigger problem was the man’s voice.

“Oh, this.”

The man bent down and picked up the book that had fallen in front of him. This is the book Logi was reading. He looked at the book with interest, opened it as it was, and skimmed through the pages. How he reads so quickly that the pages of that thick book are rolled over in an instant and then covered.

“Witches, witches. Very interesting people. You must be curious about what witches are like.”

The man’s voice was clearly that of a young man, but it had a different sense of intimidation than the others. A creepy bass that seems to press people down every time they hear it. The feeling of intimidation was so vivid that it frightened me.

“Whoa, what do you want?”
“Don’t be afraid, kid. Fools who show interest in magic until your age are rare, so I’m just curious.”

The man who openly called him stupid, but Rogi couldn’t say anything. He was really just in case, but maybe this guy is a wizard. There was no proof that this man was a wizard, but who could be a wizard if he wasn’t?

“Do you want to know more about witches?”
“I-I just read that book.”
“If it’s this book, I’ve read it. But there are quite a lot of missing or distorted parts. The writers are also human after all, so the thoughts of the writers are bound to come out.”

He clicked his tongue, saying that if this book is only looking at witches in a very negative light, then those who read this book will have no choice but to think badly of witches.

“That’s why I’m trying to tell you about witches.”
“But why would you…”
“Hehe, it’s because there aren’t a lot of brave guys who want to explore the truth these days. Originally, I would be busy doing my research, but it seems like I’m glad I met a beginner after a long time.”

He said it was just a minor whim, and laughed mischievously. But Rogi knew this wasn’t such a bad situation. It’s a bit dubious, but that’s why I thought I could trust the information. He swallowed nervously and asked him.

“Are you familiar with witches, Mister?”
“Well, I’m not a witch either, so I can’t say I know the details. Most of them are shy and don’t even interact with each other.”

Doesn’t that mean you don’t know? Thinking that Rogi had been tricked, he tried to go back, but before that, he heard the man speak first.

“But as a person who uses the same magic, you can say that you know better than a guy like you.”
“Omg!”

Upon looking back, a glowing sphere floated above the man’s hand, illuminating the dark interior of the bookstore. It wasn’t that bright. However, he couldn’t help but be surprised by the appearance of a lump of light that was brighter than most candles. It was definitely not a candle. To say it was a candle, the shape of what was placed on the man’s hand was close to a perfect sphere, and to say that it was an object, it was not simply placed on the man’s hand, but floating in the air.

“Can I touch it?”

Those were the words Rogi uttered reflexively before he could even think about them.

“If you can touch it.”

It was belatedly sorry, but fortunately the man seemed to have no hesitation. With trembling hands, Rogi touched the sphere of light floating in the man’s void.

“Uh?”

But he couldn’t touch the sphere. He thought he had touched it, but his hand had already passed through the sphere and the light was still there. He kept trying to touch something, but in the end, Logi couldn’t touch the sphere.

“No matter what I do, it won’t work. It’s just light. Do you think you can touch light?”

Rather, to continue the conversation, he brought a chair from somewhere and sat down. Even so, a man tall enough to look down on him was a burden, but Rogi calmly sat in front of him.

“So, it seems like you’re ready to hear the story now.”

He smiled contentedly and began to talk, bringing his bandaged fingers together at the ends.

“People think of witches as simply evil wizards, but they are lonely and forlorn women.”

Even if they use the same magic, witches are hard to meet. They have been using magic much longer than they think and take it for granted.

“In that sense, there are those who see them as descendants of ancient humans.”

After all, there was a time when, long ago, it was natural for humans to use magic. Perhaps among them, those who did not lose their magic remained, and their descendants were witches.

“It’s not a discredited story, but it’s a very weak claim.”
“Why?”
“Can you explain why only women can use that magic?”

Logi kept his mouth shut. Well, if men could use the same magic, there would be no meaning to distinguish witches from wizards. Even though the two look the same, they were distinguished because the magic they used was different. Summoning magic and blood magic showed a lot of difference in size and purpose.

“There’s nothing revealed about him, so I’ll have to move on.

But what is certain is that they are human beings no different from themselves.

“But among those witches, there are some special ones.”

Among witches, it is said that sometimes special ones are born. Witches’ blood-based magic doesn’t show particularly strong power, but those special witches were an exception.

“They have the power to cancel the wizard’s magic.”

His words reminded Logi of the board he had left behind in the wilderness as punishment. Come to think of it, he was obviously a wizard. How could he be so incapacitated? When the belated question was promptly resolved, he was able to be sure of what he was vaguely feeling. The girl, Belka, was a witch.

“That’s how even wizards are born with powers to fear, but they’re not without weaknesses.”

Those who meet them are given only one chance to offer sacrifices per person.

“Sacrifices…?”

What comes to mind is the girl’s words.

“The price for the sacrifice has all been paid. Whether it was your intention or not, the contract was made and it is over.”

And she remembered her rabbit, which she had given her.

“Yes, there is a rule that they have to accept offerings from others in return for being born with stronger powers than other witches.”

It is not even a restriction placed on oneself or others, but a rule enforced by innate magic, so they must abide by the rule.

“The conditions for the sacrifice are simple. It must be a living creature.”

Depending on the value of the offerings made, the number of wishes that can be made to them increases. This is because the magic she can wield becomes as strong as the value of the sacrifice. So, she says, it is important to offer as many precious creatures as possible when offering sacrifices.

“No matter what sacrifice they offer, they cannot expect complete servitude, but they have an obligation to grant the wish of the person who made the sacrifice, whether they like it or not. They will want a witch’s child, because having a witch’s blood is a very valuable opportunity.”

Logi couldn’t say anything. Could it be that he did something crueler than he thought to the girl without realizing it? It was when Rogi couldn’t bear to speak about the shocking fact. What happened to the man from where he was sitting?

“But it’s strange. It’s strange.”
“What, what?”
“Your expression.”

A man came up to him and grabbed him by the shoulder. The strength of his hand was so strong that his shoulder felt like it would fall off, but the darkness in his robe approached right in front of him, and Logi gasped and couldn’t even scream. And the creepy laughter that comes from the darkness.

“Kuhh! Kuhhh! You, have you met a witch? A very special witch!”

There was the sound of something hard hitting something. Logi barely noticed that it was the sound of his teeth grinding.

“How did you meet her? When? Where? What does she look like? The color and length of her hair? The color of her eyes? What is her skin? What is she wearing? How tall? How long are her arms and legs? The shape of her ears? “How many teeth? How many fingers? Are they all attached? Are the nails long? Short? Are the breasts large? Are the feet bent? What is the face? Personality? Voice?”

It was horror. The fear that licks him from the bottom of his feet to the top of his head. Rogi managed to shake off the man’s hand and hurriedly left the bookstore. But.

-Chaeeng!
“Oops! What is this!”

He tripped and fell over something that made a loud noise at his feet. If you look closely, there is a large barbed wire that can fit a child. There was nothing inside, but there was nothing like this until I went in. But even for a while, I had no choice but to get up and run away at the sound of footsteps approaching from inside the bookstore. Just before I left the alley, I saw the man holding up the barbed wire he had just knocked over and looking at him.

The man’s face was still hidden in the darkness of the tightly pressed robe, but he somehow thought he was smiling.