NOVEL NEXT chapter 86
86. Witch (1)
The Philosopher’s Stone remains…?
“Uh..Uh…Uhh?!”
Is it natural that we become dazed when we accept too much information?
“eee!!!”
“What did you show Heo-jeop?!”
What was written on the note was a simple one-line sentence, but the impact it brought was by no means small.
Could it be that you really left the Philosopher’s Stone as it is?
Unlike before?
Come to think of it, it was strange.
Why didn’t the person who cleared the last floor of the labyrinth and got the Philosopher’s Stone return to reality?
If I had gone back, I would never have left a note like this, nor would it have entered my body.
Three assumptions came to mind.
First, I found the Philosopher’s Stone, but I couldn’t go back because it was not recognized as clearing the game.
Labyrinth Maze is a long-lived game with as many as 3 episodes.
In other words, the theory that you can’t go back until you see the ending of all of them.
Then… 100… 200… How many years do you have to endure here, you bastard goddess!
Second, he found the Philosopher’s Stone and was able to return to reality, but he chose to remain on his own volition.
This… Maybe it makes sense.
I stared at Yan without saying a word.
“What, what is that? Why are you looking at me with those eyes?!”
“No, what’s wrong with my eyes!”
Yan, who had wrapped her arms around her as if she was getting goosebumps for some reason, hesitated and stepped back without saying a word.
This hurts me a bit…
I became sullen.
Third, I found the Philosopher’s Stone, but it… Had no power. No, in the first place, the worst assumption is that the goddess had no intention of bringing us back to reality.
Without saying a word, she glared at the small statue of the goddess in the corner.
If that’s really the case, I’m willing to tear the goddess apart with all my heart…
“…That’s not it.”
If she really only wanted to see me suffer that way, she would have left me alone.
Since then, the Goddess has been intertwined with me, and she has been inseparable.
I squeezed her hand that held her note.
“The contents of the note are… Well, a little shocking.”
Since it was written in Korean, no one would have recognized it, but what if, if someone had the means to decipher it…?
Looking at Raffy, he gently shook her head.
“As for the content, no one has read it as far as I know. It’s something that was sealed until just an hour ago.”
She was relieved for a while, and Yan came closer and grabbed her note with a quick snatch.
“Oh! Give it back, Yan!”
“Hey, what is it written on? Huh? What is this strange text? I think I wrote it down so that other people wouldn’t recognize it, but if I get caught by this Jan Esttoria-sama, it’s one shot!”
At the same time, a magic circle began to rise above Yan’s hand holding the note.
“Whoops, the deciphering magic that penetrates the secret cipher text of any ancient ruins at once-“
“Ah! Stop it!”
No, why do you have such magic?
At this rate, Yan will find out.
The moment she tries to stop the magic by throwing herself away and taking back the note Yan snatched away-
“Huh…? 25Th floor… G̨͚͍g͇͜҉h̵҇͜y͎͋͌j҉͔̀j̡͚҇rg͇͜҉h̵҇͜y͎͋͌j҉͔̀j̡͚҇ry̶͚͖j͖͍͕j̛͖͖͖͇͇͇͇͇?”
Yan’s words as he was performing the magic stopped as if someone had cut them off.
Beep- Flash!
My eyes widened in an instant, and something unknown flashed and covered my vision.
What the heck, what happened?
Broken and incomprehensible sounds pass by my ears.
What happened suddenly, I slowly pushed up my eyelids that had been furrowed and looked at the buzzing front.
And what greets me…
“-So, what happened?”
“This is a story related to Jan Estoria.”
Yan and Raffy were talking as if nothing was wrong.
The person who handed me the note and was curious about its contents no longer existed.
As if someone forcibly cut out memories and time…
“No way…”
I opened my left hand that had clenched the note, but there was nothing there.
It was just empty, as if it never existed in the first place.
The feeling that remained faintly in my hand was certainly real, but it became something that hadn’t happened in the blink of an eye.
It’s the same as back then.
When Iren’s existence was erased from this world.
Divine intervention, this place is like the middle of the church, so the one who intervened was probably a goddess.
The cause of the intervention was clear.
What happened as soon as Yan tried to find out the contents of the note.
In other words, the goddess doesn’t want this information to be known to others?
Something only I should know about?
“… Ha.”
I should have thought a little deeper since it was written in Korean without anyone knowing.
“Yan, can I buy you ice cream again?”
“Heojeop www This time, he will completely wipe out his wallet”
I asked a few more questions, but fortunately it didn’t seem like the past had changed or anything like that.
Receiving the mark and entering the church, and…
“Kkokkook!”
Even the pig phoenix stretching its neck in the corner over there.
So far, there doesn’t seem to be much change…
It’s also my fault for not considering the variable called decryption magic, but… Why are you trying to steal someone else’s note! This cheeky little witch!
Beans!
A candlestick flew out of nowhere and hit my head.
“Your eyes look weird.”
…You are quick to notice again.
As soon as I sent a look of resentment, I just silently covered my head from being beaten.
The note was handed over and disappeared. Instead, what took its place was…
“So, what do you have to say to me at the church?”
“Jan, it’s about your condition.”
It was about Yan’s physical condition.
The current Yan was, at best, the body of a 10-year-old child, and his mental age was also young enough to match.
If he recalls what he heard from Lucky, he said it was a side effect of magic to replace the feathers of the phoenix.
At the pawnshop, he talked in his sleep and was no different from a child.
Of course, it didn’t seem like the knowledge I had was lost, though.
“Currently, the church judges that your available power is less than 20%.”
“….Does the church have a lot of interest in me?”
“There must be a lot of interest. The witch…”
Raffy, who glanced at me for a moment, continued her words.
“It is the Empire’s military power to prepare for any contingencies that may arise in the labyrinth. If even the reverse flow of the labyrinth happens again-“
“Monsters will never come out of the labyrinth as long as the barriers and gates are maintained.”
“An incident broke out after being so complacent even 100 years ago-“
“Ebebeb I don’t know if I’m 10 years old.”
It was Yan who stuck out his tongue all the way again and ran away behind me.
Raffy’s eyes look at Yan like that, as if they’re going to emit lasers… Why are you staring at me like that! It’s not my fault!
“It has been thoroughly reviewed. Our church judged that the Jan Estorian witch could not carry out her original duties, the duties of guarding against the demonic realm called the Labyrinth.”
“You don’t believe in witches?”
“Because believing and preparing are different areas.”
Raffy woke up from his seat and his eyes were cold.
“So, the church has made a decision.”
Monga… Monga was happening.
What the hell is going on?
Alternately…
“Under the authority of Saint Rafi Midnight, Sophia the Golden Witch is allowed to stay in the city until Jan Esttoria’s body returns to its original state.”
“?????”
“Take..?”
“Really..?”
A hook came to everyone’s head.
**********
The second witch.
In the game I was familiar with called Labyrinth Maze, witches did not appear.
They are people who I could not know at all from the 1st to the 3rd, and surpassed my knowledge.
Even if I only see Yan right now, I don’t know anything about it, but she’s a new witch.
If all the witches had the same personality as Yan, it might be a bit difficult…
“You bastard who doesn’t know anything♡ You don’t even know such a simple thing?X2”
“Heh~ Such a weak body ♡ Loss of qualifications as a man ♡x2”
A medley of witches echoes in my head.
When a crazy situation like this comes up, it’s true that escaping is the answer.
“So, what kind of witch is that new witch?”
After leaving the church, I asked all the people who were licking the natural stone honey ice cream, but all they returned were beans! It was just a honey night.
“Keep it!”
The phoenix, wrapped in a cloth and sticking out only her head, tried to reach the ice cream with its beak…
Beans!
As expected, they were suppressed in the same way.
That bird head.
“Heojeop is not the kind of witch that would be interested in.”
“Ghmm… If you think about it roughly, isn’t that a person like a witch? She is said to be a golden witch, so she is a bit greedy or something like that…? Do you want to reveal the money?”
“You say money? That multi-personality mad b*tch?”
I tried to reveal her personal thoughts, but rather, Yan’s reaction was more like an absurd expression.
“That b*tch doesn’t reveal money. She’d rather be that she’s not interested in money.”
That doesn’t sound like much.
I have to be most wary of people who say I’m not interested in money. That person is money crazy!
“The Golden Witch is the second princess of the Empire. If you don’t know that, you’re disqualified from basic common sense♡”
“Det.”
You were really not interested in money.
If you’re like a princess, you’re not interested in cancer.
“But the princess…?”
I don’t know anything else, but becoming a witch takes a lot of time and talent.
It’s a position that ordinary people can never reach, and it’s just amazing that the princess achieved it…
“Is that witch just over 300 years old and she is the former princess or something like that?”
No matter how much I thought about it, the year couldn’t match.
Being a witch, she must have been given the feather of the phoenix, and she is… That means she is from a much earlier generation.
It’s a chicken coop… Has the same evaluation become a daily routine among witches?
Somehow, it’s a bit sad…
“Combined age 5K. A chicken coop witch among chicken coops.”
“….?”
Aggregation…? Uh… So 5K means 5000, right?
5000 Years old…? Could such a thing exist…?
“What do you think?”
“Kkogogogok?”
I wondered if he knew about this phoenix, but he still tilted his head.
I was weird for asking.
“So, don’t worry about useless things and go back to the pawnshop…”
“Someone called the chicken coop! You damn kid!”
Something suddenly flew in and squeezed in between me and Yan.
Golden hair shining brilliantly in the sunlight and sparkling jewels.
The girl with starry eyes grabbed Jan’s head and turned the drill against his temple.
“Where is a 170-year-old witch who is not worthy of her age, looking at a 17-year-old who is bright, is a chicken coop!”
It was a sudden situation, but I felt like I could find out who she was even if I brought the beggar from her back alley over there.
A spotless, clean sky blue dress with imperial patterns engraved on it.
And the magic circles that repeatedly appear and disappear between Yan and her.
She is unmistakably a golden witch.
“Someone was suddenly dispatched to the Labyrinth City because of cheap poop and stayed there for a while. What? Chicken coop? Combined age 5000? Today you die and I die. You bastard witch! Kihehehehe!”
The forming magic circles ate each other and shattered each other repeatedly. In the end, it was Yan who cried and looked this way who declared defeat first.
“Do, help me!”
Yan asks for help so easily?
I was staring blankly at the unexpected sight for a while, and sparks flew in this direction.
“Who are you? If you help this witch, I’ll go-“
The golden witch’s pupils turn terribly when she asks for her help, fear itself, and people leave their heads as they are and turn only her pupils sideways!
“…Leave me alone…?”
A moment of silence, and then-.
Before I knew it, there was a golden witch sweeping her forehead as if nothing had happened.
With her head wrapped around one side of her, the weeping Jan had been moved away to a corner of her ice cream parlour, and this golden-haired witch, blushing for some reason, came towards me.
Then, as she stretched out her arm and held her hand, her eyes looking up at me were full of unknown anticipation and excitement.
“…Finally found.”
A strange sight that can only be seen, ‘Rare, run away!’ There was a pitiful cry from Yan, but it was overpowered by the magic circle protruding from behind her.
“Well… Let go of this hand…”
“You-“
This ominous golden witch pulled me in with an unbelievably wide smile.
“Let’s be mine starting today.”