She Is Not a Witch

“I… I want…” The young man opened his mouth, about to speak.

“No, you don’t,” Loranhil interrupted him abruptly.

“I can guess what you’re about to say. It’s probably just a momentary surge of passion, a hot-headed desire to change the world.”

“But this isn’t something to be taken lightly. The difficulties you’d face in reality would far exceed your imagination.”

“And it’s not a matter of a day or two, but thousands upon thousands of days and nights of fighting and thinking. Not one or two people, but challenges on the scale of hundreds of thousands or millions of people.”

“You’re not just trying to make grand statements, are you?”

Pullman’s impulse was immediately doused with cold water, rapidly cooling down.

“Then what should I do?”

“That’s something only you can answer for yourself. Since you can’t go back home, why not go elsewhere and look around? Perhaps you’ll find a new life.”

“Hmm…”

The progress displayed in the system finally stopped at 85%.

Well, that’s that, Loranhil sighed. She could probably guess that if she had encouraged the young man to embark on a path of revenge and told him how to defeat those nobles, the progress would have reached 100%.

But she knew all too well that if he truly set foot on that path, there was a 99.9999% chance this young man would die an unnatural death.

Although the quest reward was good, she didn’t want to obtain it at the cost of someone else’s life.

The young man lay by the fire, thinking, and slowly drifted off to sleep.

Loranhil, on the other hand, didn’t sleep. She leapt onto a large tree, gazing at the Milky Way spread across the sky, recalling her past.

In her previous life, because her parents had moved to the county town for work when she was young, she had grown up in the city. But her grandparents were all in the countryside, as were many relatives. So during every holiday, she would return to her hometown to play. The trees in the mountains, the soft fields, the emerald rivers—all filled her childhood memories.

She remembered being quite smart as a child, until middle school when her grades started to slip due to her obsession with games and novels. Fortunately, high school was strict, and her grades improved again. Her college entrance exam scores were the best among her relatives of the same age.

But in university, she became lazy again, studying just enough to pass. It wasn’t until she entered society that she was finally slapped awake.

By the time she looked back in a daze, she realized that the most brilliant period of life had already fallen curtain. What lay before her was only the trivial aspects of life—food, clothing, shelter, transportation, earning a living.

Childhood dreams, like a photograph, were vivid when first taken, but had become unrecognizable after being washed by time. She became less and less daring to make grand statements, only hoping to live a stable life.

Perhaps this was the answer of ordinary people.

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The next morning, after Pullman got up and washed his face by the stream, he looked around before finally noticing Loranhil in the tree.

Loranhil lightly jumped down from the tree, landing on the grass. She pointed in a direction, telling him that over the small hill to the south were a few fruit trees where he could pick some food.

Later, Loranhil used her [Plant Discernment] ability to find some medicinal herbs, which she gave to Pullman, instructing him on how to apply them.

Then, it came time for Pullman to leave.

Pullman stood in the shade of the tree, his tanned face showing an uneasy expression.

He asked Loranhil, “Can you tell me how to defeat those nobles? I still want revenge.”

“I’ll do anything you ask, please.”

“I explained clearly yesterday. This isn’t something one person can accomplish, or even one generation or era.”

“It would only lead to your pointless death. It’s better to live on. You wouldn’t want your parents to lose their only son after losing their daughter, would you?”

Loranhil still coldly refused the young man’s request.

“Alright.”

Pullman reluctantly accepted this outcome. He lingered under the tree for a long time before slowly heading north. It was said that far to the north was the Black Rock Principality, a nation of mercenaries more tolerant of outsiders. Additionally, Loranhil gave Pullman the [Primal Jewel]. These cores from magical beasts were hard currency everywhere, fetching a high price.

The young man’s figure slowly disappeared into the forest.

⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱

Afterwards, Loranhil continued to study the cultivation of supernatural sequences.

Since reaching Nature Sequence 1 · Verdant Gardener, every movement within a ten-kilometer radius was clearly visible in her mind.

This was quite inconsistent with Trina’s records. According to the long-term battle records against elves at that time, even Nature Sequence 3 elven scouts had a [Listen to Nature] ability range of only about 1 kilometer.

In long-term warfare, scouts were usually dispersed around the army for vigilance. This was crucial intelligence in war, and Trina wouldn’t have written about it carelessly. Generally, the limit of counter-reconnaissance was 2-3 kilometers apart; getting too close would be detected by the enemy.

She focused her attention on the [Sky Blue Wind] talent. Could this talent really enhance skills so greatly?

It seemed so. After all, she had been able to single-handedly kill a Sequence 2 creature even before cultivating any supernatural abilities. That wasn’t normal, was it?

During this period, with her [Listen to Nature] ability, she moved through this forest as if it were her own backyard.

Even with various powerful magical beasts, she could sense them from afar, easily avoiding them. She roamed freely within a range of nearly two hundred kilometers, managing not to encounter a single supernatural magical beast.

Where is this?

After turning around a river valley slope, a brilliant red filled her entire field of vision.

Tall and lush red maple trees covered the riverbanks, flatlands, and hillsides of the valley, their fiery leaves filling every patch of land.

The clear river reflected the red canopy that obscured the sky. Occasionally, as the wind blew through the forest, crimson leaves fell from the high treetops, some landing in the small river and drifting away with the current.

How beautiful.

Walking amidst this brilliant red was like being in a fairy tale world.

Loranhil stepped on the red maple leaves, strolling through them, vaguely sensing a voice calling her from ahead.

After turning several bends and winding through the layered red maple trees, a sea of bright red flowers finally appeared before her eyes.

Slender, delicate petals surrounded pale golden stamens that seemed to glow. The wind gently swept across this red sea of flowers, creating undulating waves.

In the middle of the flower sea stood a towering tree, its trunk over 50 meters in diameter. The gaps between its roots were large enough for a car to pass through.

This great tree had rough, broad bark in a reddish-brown color, interspersed with amber-colored sap that glowed faintly like jewels in the twilight of approaching night.