Living as an Unemployed in Another World

138 – 5. Witch Moon (14)

5. Witch’s Moon – Nightmare (1)

There were three moons on that day. Looking out the window at the mansion, it was definitely so. However, I overlooked the sight. There was nothing particularly special or strange about this place. It had been about a year since I had been living in the mansion, and now I knew that all areas under the control of witches were somehow twisted. It was convenient to move on thinking that it was only the perspective that was twisted at that place and at that moment.

“Oops.”

There was no time to worry about whether there were three or six moons. I was carrying animal bones, and among them, I had to pick up what appeared to be horse skulls in my arms and speed up before they fell to the floor. These are all ingredients used in the witch’s ‘experiment’.

“Master.”

I stood in front of her door and said. Over the past year, the name I call her has also changed once.

No, it wasn’t just the title that changed. She was a little taller, had a little more hair on her body, her shoulders were broader, and her voice was a little more manly. Her tone and demeanor became a bit more dignified as she desired, and other little things about her also changed to someone else’s liking.

If there’s one thing that hasn’t changed, it’s probably my existence itself. Even now, a year has passed since I became her apprentice, and even though I have acquired all of the countless knowledge she gave me, I still can only exist as an ordinary human who cannot use magic.

Since we all realized that I had nothing left to teach in terms of knowledge or theory, for the past few weeks I have been working as an assistant to help her with her ‘experiments’ instead of conducting classes.

Her ‘experiment’ is to create something of a higher dimension that I can’t understand. She turned an empty room other than her usual room into her laboratory and used it for a quarter of her day. 3 Was spent there. They poured all sorts of strange liquids or solids into a large jar created with magic, or made an altar with all kinds of skulls scattered around the mansion and put them together, and they had no idea what they were trying to make, and they didn’t even hear a separate explanation. I just silently helped her.

“Master.”

I didn’t get an answer, so I called her name again, puzzled. Still, there was no response, so I pushed open the door with my shoulder without knocking, knowing that it was rude, and went in.

“…… Master?”

Did you go somewhere else for a while? I first poured the bones of her horse’s head onto her table, as she had instructed, and looked around her. The pot that had been boiling bubbling with a strange color was empty, and the table, which was usually littered with junk, was tidy except for the skulls I had just poured out. Is the ‘experiment’ that has been going on for weeks finally over? But if so, where are the results?

I didn’t set out to find her witch, but somehow I tried to find a ‘finished product’ that would stay there and exist. Even if I couldn’t understand her ‘experiment’, I didn’t think I wouldn’t understand the results. She said that all the items in her witch’s room and in the jewelry box in front of her mirror were all created by her. However, there was a time when I personally showed how to enchant and create a spell in front of my eyes, but it was by no means something that took a long time like now.

It must be a magic item with some great effect. The reason I thought so was that recently, she had been encouraging me to use various magic items. He still regrets not being able to use magic on his own, but instead, various try-ons were made under the pretext of learning the sense of using spells through items.

Thanks to that, I felt a little bit of omnipotence for the first time…… Looking at the magic item that had expired, I realized once again that I was just an ordinary person without an item. I no longer listened to the cheers that the aisle would open if I took the last step, the last step. In the end, it seemed that she had given up on instilling her hopes in me any longer. Instead, the witch has been immersed in experiments without much communication in recent weeks.

Did you make something for me this time too? I guessed and had some expectations, but at the same time I became disillusioned with myself as I remembered the image of my teacher who worked hard for me.

She didn’t do anything wrong, but she poured out childish words to vent her anger out of an inferiority complex. When she returns, she decides to apologize formally, and I hold her swollen breasts and try to find the ‘finished product’ in her room.

However, when there is nothing particularly noticeable in the form of precious metals or other objects, I think that she took it with me, so I turn my back without regret…….

“…… Purr.”

In an instant, someone’s voice that I couldn’t hear called me from behind.

I looked back. There was no sign of any living life at all.

Only, among the skulls of the horses I had brought and collected, an eyeball glowed blue and began to rattle its shattered jaws.

“Just… ….”

“Purrule.”

I stared straight at the skull that floated slightly in the air. A bizarre sight, with no four legs capable of running on the ground, no bulky body, only a skull containing a brain.

“Did you say that?”

“Pureuk.”

I slowly approached the table, enchanted by that mysterious presence. Up until now, in the mansion, except for the two of us, the witch and I, I had never encountered anything called life.

No, just because the light of the underworld flashes on a skull doesn’t mean it becomes life. However, even so, I was struggling to hold on to my pounding heart and communicate with that unknown being.

The skeleton slowly wobbled towards me. As if tapping the ground with invisible hooves, it floated at exactly the height of my chest and approached me. I slowly, as I had seen in the book before, thrust my forehead…… As the bridge of its nose touched my forehead, it began to bounce in the air as if it were jumping around me, shaking its head in response to me.

I laughed. In my dream, I was definitely smiling. Perhaps, that was the only ‘different kind’ happiness I felt in the mansion…… At the same time, it was also the beginning of my long nightmare.

※

“Purrule.”

I looked at a horse stomping in front of me, devoured by the darkness. As if to prove that it does not belong properly to this world, its whole body was burning in a black color, and there was no shadow despite the full lighting in the room, and its eyes…… As I remember, it was still green.

“Jin…… ?”

As you might have guessed, the culprit who harassed many guests at this inn and gave everyone a nightmare is in front of her, but Grace calls me, who doesn’t give any instructions.

I dropped both hands weakly and slowly approached him. Have you grown a little too big? However, it’s definitely the way I remember it. My vision is blurred. I feel a warm liquid running down my cheek. I slowly stretched out my trembling hand, and he…… As if responding to me like that, as if performing a charming act, I pushed my forehead and let out a purring, smoky cry.

“…… Nightmare.”

“Purrule.”

Boom!! A noise rang out later. At the same time, a swift figure rushes into the room. As Alphonse broke down her door with an ax in one hand, Mira entered with her dagger in reverse grip. The two of them opened their mouths as they alternately looked at Grace standing blankly and me facing the Nightmare.

“What is this…… Jin? What are you doing! He’s a monster…… !”

“Mummy, wait.”

Alphonse grabbed and stopped Mira, who was immediately running away. Meanwhile, I got down on one knee. With her tongueless mouth, I hugged her neck in response to the guy who eagerly rubbed my cheek with her long nose.

“Why, why did you come? Why… ….”

“Purrule.”

“Why, again… ….”

I hugged my cold body and finally collapsed. In the silence, only my wailing resounds widely. When I touch that body, my consciousness is sucked into the darkness again…….

※

In my memory, I was running down the hallway. Like a living horse, no, rather than that, he ran down the hallway with an excited expression, carrying a bizarre skeleton with more charm. I looked for her witch with it in my arms. I wondered if this mysterious skull was her gift for me, and even if it wasn’t, I believed that she would be able to make her wonderful friend a wonderful body of hers.

Soon I caught my breath and reached the front of her room. I searched the whole mansion, but I couldn’t find her, so I naturally concluded that she was in the room. I knocked, but there was no answer, and in the end I had no choice but to push through the door again, violating rudeness.

“Master.”

Fortunately, this time I came to the right place. She lay rather helplessly on her bed, and I hurriedly approached her, holding her head on her horse, not observing even her manners, which would normally not have been omitted from her.

“Master…… As you instructed, I gathered the heads in the mansion and visited them, but they weren’t there, so you’re here.”

“… ….”

“Would you like to take a look at this? I don’t know what happened, but there was one like this among the heads I collected from the mansion. Ruler… ….”

Then she slowly raised her body. A haggard face full of fatigue. On the other hand, I must have had a rather bewildered face filled with some kind of expectation.

How could I not have noticed, from that expression.

How could I not have noticed, from that cold attitude?

She looked at me, crossing her one leg and holding her head.

“You have no talent.”

“…… Yes?”

Without hesitation, he gave me an ultimatum.

“No, no. Nothing. No talent…… The foundation is not made in the slightest.”

“Now, wait a minute. Witch. That is…… What are you talking about?”

It was like a thunderstorm. At the starting point for absorbing all of you and becoming a wizard, with only one step left, why should I listen to that? Looking at me in confusion, the witch twisted the corners of her mouth to the point of displeasure.

“Jin, you are my one and only disciple. You are incapable of using magic.”