Chapter 201

Evan D. Sherden, Discovering the Witch. (1)

"You seem to have the wrong person."

That was Evan's first comment to the group of witches. However, the witch simply laughed and replied, "Every witch has eyes to recognize its kind. We are of one kin."

"I'm a man."

"Descendants of witches are not all women. Yes, you're a man, but you have a witch's blood coursing through your veins. You're, of course, a mage with special skills?"

"I'm an alchemist."

"But you do control magic as well, right?"

"I can't control it at all."

"Please wait."

At that point, the witch called for a timeout and went back to her group. While Evan's party stared at that scene, the witch came forward as if they finished their discussion.

"My fellow kind, welcome back to the Witch Forest."

"Are you starting from there again?"

"I understood your situation, at least roughly. Since you're a man and yet was descended with witch's blood, you cannot control regular magic. But you do have some unique skills, don't you? Because you send out a unique scent, the scent of the mightiest!"

It was evident that the witches were an impressive race as she continued to talk when Evan was trying to deny her with his cut and dry comments.

"Master Evan is, indeed, a special being. So, who are you?"

Shine was already upfront, covering about half of Evan. Since he had two daggers tightly held in his hands already, you could tell his dexterity was improving by the day.

"Why do you ask who we are? I just told you. We are witches who are living here in this forest, making it our new home. We are of an ancient race. I figured that since you had a pure-blooded witch yourself that you figured us out, is that not true?"

The pure-blooded witch they were referring to probably was Belois. Evan's eyes landed on her.

As soon as the witches appeared, she summoned the Fox Fire and was on the lookout. Last year, it had seven Fox Fires, but now it was increased to eight.

"Well, Lua?"

"...They're all witches, Master."

"Really? If Lua says so, it must be right."

Although the witches could detect Evan's witch blood, it was not possible for Evan to know whether they were witches or not. But if they were to cast magic, he could probably capture its unique characteristic...

At that moment, the witch who had her eyes on Belois struck a conversation with her.

"Your name is Lua?"

"It's Belois. I'm a servant serving Master Evan D. Sherden. And you are?"

"I'm Ctheasil. You can call me Thea."

Belois came up front. As expected, there was no chance for her to call the witch "Thea" first.

"Belois, you learned magic from a witch, didn't you? Was it from Evan's mother? But, first of all, by Sherden, are you referring to the dungeon city of Sherden? Is he the heir of Sherden?"

"Master Evan is Marquis Sherden's second son. It's true that I learned magic from the Marquess, but... what brings you here, Ctheasil?"

With so many questions, Belois' attitude toward her naturally became defensive. Not sure if Ctheasil detected Belois' defensiveness, she held out her hands and shook vigorously.

"I'm sorry. We've been living out here in the deep forest, so I had no real chance to interact with outsiders... And I became too excited when I saw a fellow witch who came from elsewhere. I didn't mean any disrespect."

"Is that so..."

But Belois still had her guard up. Ctheasil, who saw the floating Fox Fire, smiled bitterly. There was a mysterious charm to the bitter smile made by such calm beauty.

"I would like you to answer my question..."

"Oh yeah. You asked what our purpose was, right? We sensed a witch's mana and came looking for you all. To save our fellow kind and, if wanted, to integrate you into our community... But from the looks of it, there wasn't any danger. It looks like it wasn't a big crisis."

Ctheasil was talking about how there was this scary thing inside the dungeon. Belois hesitated a bit to figure out how to respond to it, but after getting Evan's approval, she answered her.

"Master Evan took care of it."

"Of course! He has special skills!"

She clapped her hands as if she was genuinely impressed and turned her head back to Evan and asked.

"I want to talk more with Belois, and I have a lot of questions about you, too. Would you stop by our village? I feel we share something as you are a descendent of a witch... And also, I have a favor to ask you too."

"Master Evan."

Belois cut off the last part of Ctheasil's words and called Evan. Evan knew exactly what she was trying to say. She wanted to say that this all seemed fishy.

However, if one were to think about it, there was no way that the witch race, who had been hiding and living without being mentioned in history, will not seem suspicious. Evan knew from the start that they were suspicious, which was the precise reason he was searching for them. So it could be determined that they were indeed the witches Evan had been trying to find!

He simply nodded slightly at Belois, and answered calmly, facing Ctheasil.

"I will gladly accept your invitation."

"Thank you. But wow, you're really handsome!"

"Thank you. I hear that a lot."

And therefore, the party visited a forest village where the witches lived together thanks to the unexpected encounter with the descendants of witches.

Unsurprisingly, it was not somewhere you could just go. You would arrive only after disabling a barrier that only witches could detect and move in a specific way, and even then, you would need to get into the distorted road.

"If we don't have this kind of distorted safety mechanism, we'll be destroyed by those scary guys."

Ctheasil replied uncomfortably when she saw Evan, who made this weird inexpressible expression after going through the complicated distorted paths.

The fact they spoke of the scary thing inside the dungeon and also... It was certain that these witches were... Evan didn't play any games and just asked straight away.

"Are you talking about the Devil Rune?"

"You know about it."

"Yeah, because they advertise it themselves."

"That's right. They are Devil Runes, the offsprings of the cursed devil."

The moment Ctheasil spoke in the harshest tone, Evan felt a surge of pure happiness as if everyone was celebrating him. This was something that would be said in the intro of a game's new scenario!

Ancient tribe hiding in the deep forest, and the underlings of the devil going against them! The protagonist who accidentally encounters them gradually gets sucked into their lives, and eventually, the witch race proliferates, and the protagonist eliminates the Devil Rune and rises as the hero...!

"Hmm, it's bothering that I'm not the protagonist, but I'm finally playing Yo-Ma Great War Series 5..."

"Are you okay, Evan?"

"Sometimes he does this, so you don't have to worry about it."

Ctheasil worriedly looked at Evan but shrugged and backed off at Shine's words.

"I'll tell you the rest when you get to our village."

"Ctheasil, we'll be arriving soon."

"Okay. Go first and let them know we have guests coming."

Ctheasil was apparently not just a representative of the group but also in a position to give orders. One of the men wearing a cowl hat ran through the forest first after Ctheasil's order. That was when Evan finally noticed it.

"I didn't notice before of the slim figure but... Isn't that person a man?"

"Yes, he's a man. It's because witches don't only give birth to women. There are also those men who don't inherit the witch's power."

"But you all still live together?"

"Yes, because it is a village. You'll know when you're there."

When he nodded at Ctheasil's words and looked back, the kids were following them in an organized fashion, even in such an unforeseen situation.

Just two of them... Lin and Lan were hyper as usual, but they were controlled by Jhin and Shine, and maintained their positions.

"From here on, we'll be visiting the witch's village. Everyone, behave. Stay right next to either me or Shine. Anyone who falls behind will not get any snacks."

"Yessir!"

"Okay, I'll never fall behind!"

The threat of not giving snacks worked well since they were still kids. But for Serena, who hugged and hung onto Evan's right arm as soon as she heard it, she just needed an excuse to stay with Evan.

"It's a strange hobby you have, going into a dungeon with these young children."

"You may probably have noticed already, but they are not just ordinary children. They all are elite combatants who I'm training."

"Indeed... Then, is your special skill training?"

"Well, there's no such thing."

Five minutes later, the party was able to reach the witch's village safely. They only moved one step to the right from a very common forest path and saw the entire background change in a second. Such an experience seemed pretty special to Evan too.

"Welcome to the Witch Forest."

Ctheasil, who was leading the group, confirmed that all members had entered, took off her cowl hat, and bowed exaggeratedly. The sight of her silky hair flowing around was just plain beauty.

"People are preparing your welcome ceremony. In the meantime, please wait at my house for a while."

"Your house?"

"Yes, I'm the chief of this village. Although it's not much of a rule, if a guest comes to the village, the village chief's house is supposed to host them."

He knew she was the leader in that group but didn't know that she was the leader of the entire village! Evan thought long and hard as to whether to ask Ctheasil, who looked to be around her 20s, how old she was. But he recalled his mother's, Redine's, appearance and decided to put a rest to it.

"This way."

It was very easy to find Ctheasil's house. This was because one could just look for the largest house in the center of the village. The house, made of red bricks, was a pretty house that seemed perfect in a fairy tale.

"Hmm, they are all real brick houses. So does that mean we avoided the Hanzel and Gretel storyline?"

"That's too fantastical, Master Evan. Let's just go in and see."

Evan was led by Shine into the house. It was somewhat expected, but the inner space was much bigger than how it looked from outside. The house was enchanted with space increase magic.

"I feel that I have come to a real witch's house."

"Yay! There are piles of apples there!"

"I want to eat it!"

"Kids, let's avoid the apples now."

However, because the children were so excited about the strange decorations or unknown magic tools and were going crazy, Evan clapped loudly, had them side by side, and gave them snacks.

"You promised to be quiet, right?"

"Yes!"

Evan and Shine grabbed the children one by one and calmed the children who were just excited by the new and mysterious environment. On the other hand, Arisha and Belois were looking around the room with a cold look.

"This is way too suspicious. First, they approach us telling us they felt a witch's mana, then they invite fourteen of us to a secret village they have been hiding? If they are in a hideout, they wouldn't have that much food, right? It's just so weird, Evan."

"Don't be too bothered by it, Arisha. When you're proceeding with a scenario, something like this is bound to happen. It's full of situations where you keep asking yourself, 'Why is this happening at this time? Where did this person come out all of a sudden?' From where I stand, when I heard about engagement from you at the OnCheon village, I felt the same way."

"... Is that right? I, of course, was surprised too at that time."

Arisha's cheeks turned slightly red. It seems that Arisha's first meeting with Evan was not something she wanted to remember....

Evan turned to the group, all with an anxious expression like Arisha, and said lightly.

"We were looking for witches in the first place. Also, we'll be able to get information about the Devil Runes here, so I was ready to take some risks from the start. So stop worrying, but be cautious at all times."

"Cautious?"

"I mean, stop being anxious about what might happen, and be prepared to respond to anything that happens."

"Oh..."

This was something that players should keep in mind if they are playing open-world games.

In games such as Yo-Ma Great War Series, an open-world game with a high degree of player freedom, you never know when and what quests will occur. You didn't know where and what monsters were going to spawn. You couldn't plan in advance which NPC you're going to encounter and what kind of relationship you're going to form.

Of course, it would be impossible to perfectly respond to all those possibilities. But it was only logical to prepare oneself so that whatever situation came at them, they were ready to give their best shot.

"Arisha, I believe you understand what I'm trying to say."

"... Phew. It just leads to that mentality, saying that you should give it your best at every moment. I find it interesting, though, since it's something that you would probably say."

Perhaps she had acknowledged Evan's words; Arisha nodded eventually at Evan's words even when she was grunting about it. Serena, who appeared from the side, went past Arisha and ran into Evan's arms and smiled.

"It would be enough if you just be honest and tell you're falling in love with him!"

"I'm not like you. I don't fall for someone because of a few words."

"Well, I only fall for Evan, too, you know!"

Serena, while being held in Evan's arms, stuck her tongue out and made fun of Arisha. Evan, while with a bitter smile, stroked Serena... and gave a short glance at Belois. She nodded slightly and answered.

"I know, Master Evan."

"Okay, thank you. I'm depending on you."

"Yes."

"Didn't you just secretly exchange something with Belois?"

Others didn't notice it, but Serena, who was in Evan's arms, quickly noticed the gaze between them. Evan placed his hands gently on her head and winked.

"Rei, you just keep on smiling."

"Okay! ...But if you don't explain it to me later, I'm going to kiss you when you're asleep."

"Keep this up, and I'll send you back to the palace."

"I'm gonna kiss you really deep."

Two hours passed since killing time and relaxing with the group, including Serena.

The man who had appeared wearing a cowl hat soon informed them that the banquet was ready.