"What?"
Winter stared at the old woman in shock. "Y-You're joking, right?"
"I'm not joking," The old woman smiled. "This is just a transaction. Each party gets what they want."
"…"
Winter suddenly realised something.
"You… you're the legendary witch?!"
"Shhh—"
The old woman raised a finger to her lips.
Winter's heart turned cold as he discovered—his mouth had mysteriously disappeared. He panicked and reached up, only to feel smooth skin where his lips should be.
"Mmm! Mmm—!"
Over ten seconds later, his mouth returned. Winter gasped frantically, breathing hard for several moments. When he finally spoke, his voice was trembling.
"If…if I don't eat it, what happens?"
The old woman calmly retracted the apple.
"Then that's that."
Seeing she was about to leave, Winter gritted his teeth and called out, "Wait! I…I want to know—if I eat the apple…what happens to me? Will I die?"
"No," The old woman gave a chilling smile.
"But after your death, your soul will become part of my collection."
Winter's heart skipped a beat.
"Then…why me?"
"Because I like souls like yours—young, filled with love and belief. Sweet, nourishing…interesting."
She added, "Forget it. I don't like pushing people into a deal. I'll just look for another target."
As she spoke, she turned and walked away, her figure gradually fading into transparency.
"Like that little girl from earlier. She seems quite nice too…"
Little girl?
Winter's pupils contracted sharply. He instinctively reached out to grab the old woman—but the clothes on his body suddenly tightened, yanking him backwards. The next moment, a multicoloured serpent tongue coiled around his neck, slithering up to his face and flicking its bright red forked tip at him.
Winter immediately raised both hands and shouted desperately:
"I'll do it! I'll eat it!"
"Oh?"
The old woman's form reappeared.
She reached out with her withered, bone-like fingers, holding that alluring red apple.
"Then come."
Winter took a deep breath and opened his mouth wide, biting into the apple and devouring it ravenously. He didn't stop until the whole fruit—including the core—was gone.
"Excellent."
The old woman tossed a bulging bag to the ground in front of him. Through the open mouth of the sack, Winter could clearly see it was filled to the brim with gleaming banknotes—gold pound notes, no less. A rough estimate put the amount at several hundred pounds.
To an ordinary person, that was more than enough to live a comfortable life till death.
"From this moment on, your soul belongs to me. Now go—live your life to the fullest~"
The old woman grinned, baring yellowed teeth.
"Oh, and one more thing—there's no need to keep our deal a secret. You can tell anyone. If someone else wants to make a deal with me, I'll show up in due time."
"Of course, that includes you too."
"If your word brings me more souls, who knows…I may not even need yours anymore. Hehehehehe…"
With a series of sinister, rasping chuckles, she vanished into thin air.
Winter gasped violently, clutching his chest as his heart pounded like thunder.
After a while, he grabbed the sack and plunged a hand into it—
Real.
All real money!
At that moment, the ship's steam whistle blew. The vessel was about to depart.
Winter scrambled to his feet and sprinted toward the gangway, shouting at the top of his lungs, "Wait—stop! I want to get off! Let me off the boat!"
——
Meanwhile…
At the pier, the old woman's form twisted and shrank rapidly—becoming small and delicate. She reverted to Lilith's shape. A moment later, Edward removed his Invisibility Cloak.
"How was it? Do you feel any digestion of the potion?"
Lilith nodded and raised two fingers.
"A little."
"Once news of the 'witch' spreads, your potion should digest even more."
The reason Edward had Lilith portray the witch in this way was because of what happened on the pirate ship. When she conjured that red apple and fed it to a pirate, it had shown signs of aiding her potion digestion.
And since Edward hadn't come up with any better way to fulfil the Witch role, he decided to stick with the public's fairy-tale perception of witches—
Mysterious, sinister, strange, frightening…
In short, the general public's impression of witches leaned heavily negative.
Lilith asked, "Edward, do I have to spend that much money every time I play the witch?"
"What are you thinking? Of course not. That whole bag of money was just transfigured. That's the real witchy flair, right?"
Edward chuckled.
"Once your 'Witch' reputation starts to spread, you'll be able to portray it using truly iconic methods. Not only won't it cost money—people might even pay you."
"Okay~"
"Let's go. Time to get ready for the Tarot Meeting."
The two entered the inn. Edward approached the front desk and said, "One standard room, please."
The thin innkeeper glanced up and replied coldly, "Valid identification."
Edward casually produced a slip of paper and used a Confundus Charm on it.
But the innkeeper only frowned.
"Damn it…why'd they have to pick my place? There's another inn across the street, isn't there?"
That reaction gave Edward pause. Then he remembered—on this island, the natives were often looked down upon, while they fawned over their colonisers from Loen.
He waved the paper again and changed the information to a Loen identity.
"Open your eyes and look carefully!"
The innkeeper froze, then immediately bowed and smiled ingratiatingly.
"Y-Yes, of course, sir."
"Would you prefer a room with an ocean view or a quieter, more private one?"
His Loen was heavily accented, laced with the spicy rhythm of native dialect, and his face was practically grovelling.
"Quiet and discreet."
After paying, the innkeeper personally escorted them to the room, tossing out flattery the whole way before reluctantly leaving.
Edward scoffed.
"Seems like every world has people like this—those who scorn their own and grovel before colonisers and invaders."
Then he pulled out a squashed golden goblet he'd found in Kalvetua's ruin and began preparing a divination:
"The place on this island related to this goblet."
"The place on this island related to this goblet…"
...
After the seventh repetition, Edward leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes, entering the illusory, dreamlike realm. Unfortunately, it remained shrouded in pitch-black darkness—nothing was visible at all.
Was the divination phrase too vague?
Edward thought for a moment and decided to go with a simpler, cruder one:
"The location of the Book of Calamity."
This time, the dreamscape presented a hazy, indistinct image. It showed a dark-colored ancient book bound in sheepskin parchment, with several words written in Elvish on its cover—Edward couldn't read them, but could guess they said the Book of Calamity.
The book lay quietly amidst a pile of ruined debris. The surroundings were misty, but the style looked similar to the ruins they had previously explored.
Then the scene shattered, and Edward awakened from the dream.
"That's all I get?"
He pulled out his wand again and tried dowsing:
"The location of the Book of Calamity."
The wand wobbled uncertainly in front of him but didn't lean in any particular direction.
"Tch…how the hell am I supposed to find it like this?"
Lilith, seated on the edge of the bed, kicked her little legs back and forth.
"Edward, what are you trying to find?"
"Mm, an extraordinary item called the Book of Calamity. It's connected in some way to the Elven ruins we explored before—you know, the one with the sea serpent."
"Ohhh~" She nodded.
"Didn't that ruin get discovered by that big bird last time? Maybe you can ask it if it can find this one too."
Edward's eyes lit up. He smacked his forehead.
"Right! That was dumb of me."
A chilly gust blew into the room as Phoenix spread its wings and emerged from the Spirit World.
"Who do you need me to deliver a message to?"
"Not a message this time—I need to find a place."
"??"
Confusion flashed across Phoenix's eyes.
"There should be another location on this island that's similar to the ruins we explored yesterday. They were both left behind by the ancient elves. Can you locate it?"
Edward handed over the golden goblet.
"This cup probably still holds traces of their aura. It might help."
Phoenix grasped the goblet in its claws.
"I'll try."
"Much appreciated."
It nodded and returned to the Spirit World.
Edward stretched out on the bed, loosening up as he yawned.
"All we can do now is wait patiently…"
The Tarot Gathering, the Elven ruins, and his first online class tonight—
Yep, it's going to be another packed day.
———
Elsewhere—
The freezing seawater shocked the disease-stricken and unconscious Klein awake.
He found himself sinking rapidly into the pitch-black depths of the sea. Fortunately, neither the pirates from that ship nor the suspected demigod witch had pursued him.
Enduring the searing pain in his chest, Klein quickly caused Creeping Hunger to turn pale and take on a ghostly green hue. Instantly, the surrounding seawater began to freeze, layering into sheets of frost.
Before the frost could fully crystallise into solid ice, Klein flung his arms wide. Using the power of a Zombie, he shattered the frost and hurled it outward, where it dispersed further into the surrounding waters. This created a narrow vacuum of space devoid of water.
As seawater rushed in to reclaim the void, Klein extended his left palm and released another wave of chilling force. Sheets of frozen seawater formed, constructing thick ice walls that sealed him into a standing-sized space where he could move and speak—though only barely.
Klein took four counterclockwise steps and chanted 'his' honorific name—The Fool that doesn't belong to this era, The Mysterious Ruler above the Grey Fog—and quickly elevated his spirit body to above the grey fog.
There, he grabbed the Sea God's Sceptre, combined it with the Black Emperor card and the Bronze Whistle, then condensed a spiritual body that flew off to summon a massive sea creature nearby—a giant fish that immediately swallowed the entire ice prison in one gulp and began swimming aimlessly away from the area.
Klein didn't linger either. He returned to the real world and regained control of his body.
Everything around him was pitch black—he couldn't even see his own fingers. The sound of a loud, booming heartbeat echoed from deep within the sea beast.
He shivered—not just because of the witch's disease, but also from the bitter cold surrounding him on all sides. He pulled out the Sun Brooch and injected it with spiritual power. A wave of internal warmth rose from within him—not real heat, but enough to make him feel significantly better.
Whoo—
Letting out a long breath, Klein could feel the burning pain in his chest ease slightly. Though he was relieved, he was also puzzled.
That was a demigod-level witch. There's no way her disease should've been so easy to recover from…
Wait—was she not actually trying to kill me?
No…the moment I was infected, my body instantly weakened, and my life force began draining rapidly. That was a kill move for sure. And the black flames that followed…if they'd touched me, I'd be dead without a doubt.
So why did I survive? Just dumb luck?
He tried divining the answer:
"Why didn't I die from the illness?"
—but the divination failed.
He returned to above the grey fog and attempted the divination again. This time, the vague dreamscape revealed a figure dressed in strange clothing—features indistinct, gender unclear.
It gave Klein the same unsettling sensation as when he once divined Ince Zangwill in Tingen and saw only red chimneys.
Is this because I lack crucial information, or…did I stumble upon something on par with that quill's level of existence?
Half an hour later, after confirming the pirates and the witch hadn't come back for him, Klein ordered the giant sea creature to swim toward Bansy Harbour. Once they were about thirty meters offshore, it spat out the ice prison.
Klein broke free, then swam the rest of the way.
The frigid sea wind whipped against his drenched body, causing his limbs to tremble. He knew he'd almost certainly caught a cold. But the harbour's darkness and strangeness made him wary of going ashore.
And he wasn't sure whether returning to the Nameless would bring trouble either.
So instead, he found an empty fishing boat, climbed inside, stripped off his wet clothes, and wrapped himself in a moth-eaten blanket he found onboard—clean or not, he didn't care. It helped warm him up.
Before long, he dozed off in a half-conscious haze.
———
The next morning, a loud commotion outside woke Klein.
Wrapped in that filthy old blanket, he rubbed his eyes and peeked through a crack in the boat's hull. Early risers were carrying nets and tools, preparing to go out to sea. Several of them were walking straight toward his fishing boat.
Klein immediately sobered up. He grabbed the clothes he'd hung out the night before—still a bit damp—and quickly dressed. His head spun, and his nose was blocked.
Yep. Caught a cold, alright.
He pulled out a packet of waterproof matches and struck one. Thankfully, it ignited.
Snap.
With a flick, Klein turned the matchstick into a flicker of flame and vanished from the boat, reappearing on the harbour shore.
Bansy Harbour in the morning was a completely different world from last night—busy residents and fishermen bustling about in a well-organised rhythm. Nothing appeared strange at all.
He glanced toward the harbour. The Nameless sat quietly in one corner. Several crew members were busy moving things on deck.
Ding.
He flipped a coin and confirmed there was no danger onboard, then walked over.
From a distance, someone spotted him and shouted in excitement, "Mr. Sparrow! You're back!"
"Mm."
Klein nodded coolly.
"Has Aldrich returned?"
"Yes, sir. He's just—"
Before the crew member could finish, Aldrich rushed out from below deck. He looked eagerly around Klein.
"Sir…did they…did they come back with you?"
Klein's voice was calm.
"Sorry. A demigod got involved. I couldn't rescue them."
"Demigod?" Aldrich froze. "Why…why would a demigod be involved?"
"That's what I'd like to ask you."
Klein jumped aboard, his gaze cold.
"I want the truth. What exactly did you hide from me?"
"I…" Aldrich's face twisted with guilt. "I only…only hid the fact that I'm related to Olivia. That's it…I swear I don't know anything else."
———
[Note]: Don't forget to VOTE. It keeps me motivated.