'The devil in front of me is so terrifying. Not only did he manage to mask himself as completely harmless to blend into humans, but he also found a way to charm Duchess Isabella Lilly. Fighting this thing alone won't be a good idea.'
Madam Shelly had lived a long life. And in her long life, she had achieved a peak no other witch had.
The result of her power and effort had granted her a special power—to be able to see the future…or, at least predict it.
So far, Madam Shelly had never been wrong. If she said that there would be rain tomorrow, then rain would arrive without fail.
Her power was not omniscient, but it was accurate enough to the point where she no longer doubted it.
And it was her power that told her that something evil was coming her way. But that in itself was not concerning to her.
When humans heard the word Evil, they usually took it to mean that it was something harmful. But that was not how the supernatural world saw it.
In truth, evil was just a type of energy formed from negative faith. The desire to hurt others, to want to conquer, and to even desire, they were all considered evils of the world.
At the opposite end was the faith to protect and to help. Those kinds of energies were considered good.
But ultimately, all powers in this world converged to one source—one's faith. The more one had faith, the stronger they were. But no one (as far as she knew) had been able to find where the faith was used by the people who believed in a concept.
For example, her faith in magic made her almost unparalleled. But even she did not know what magic wanted from her…or if it even was conscious.
But that all was a separate topic and currently, Shelly needed to think how she found herself in this mess.
'Ah yes, the prophecy I gave myself told me that I would be visited by evil tonight. So to avoid it, I decided to take a walk. But the duchess found me.'
Duchess Isabella was a follower of good and also a good financial source for Shelly. So she could not ignore her.
'Had I known that the duchess would be the one to bring the signature of evil in my store, I would not have allowed her to find me.'
There was…nothing especially special about the duchess's guest either…and that was the problem.
The bag he had contained the evil aura she sensed and she could have excused the guest as someone innocent.
But he showed no reaction when she tried to overpower him physically or even magically.
And when she tried to see into his future, all she saw was blank space. It was as if the person in front of her had no future…or too much future.
It made her head hurt and she felt uncomfortable.
Even her magic felt confused…which was not supposed to be possible in the first place.
Magic was not a living thing…it could not be, because that would make anything and everything Madam Shelly ever understood become invalidated.
She would rather believe the person in front of her to be a devil. And she was even willing to bet that the duchess was under his control.
'There is no way I am spending any more time with the devil here. He needs to leave-! He needs to leave before he causes me any trouble-!'
Madam Shelly brought out a small packet from her pocket and recited a spell to cast the evil out. But there was no result, even when the powder touched the devil.
The duchess looked pissed and immediately stood in front of her guest to stop Madam Shelly from harassing her guest any longer.
"Madam Shelly, have you lost your mind-! Never mind! Shopkeeper, would you mind heading back for now? I think I need to talk to the Madam alone."
The duchess told Cyrus and he nodded before he took his leave.
His absence did not make Madam Shelly feel better and the feeling of something being wrong just kept increasing.
The magic around her had started to act restless, almost as if it was sensing a force opposing it heading toward her.
"Hey, calm down-! Madam Shelly, calm down and tell me why you felt the need to insult my guest before I make you regret your actions."
The duchess asked and Madam Shelly felt herself sweating. Then, she grabbed the duchess and shook her around.
"Y-Your guest…the devil…I-I had the prophecy…j-just look in my ball and see-!"
Madam Shelly huffed out as she tried to speak. But ultimately, her words failed her and her magic acted to show the duchess the future that she was talking about.
But the crystal ball she used for her magic cracked before she could do anything. That meant only one thing—the point in the future that she saw was finally upon her.
The devil was here.
______
"What a lovely night. The lights from the stalls give this place an ethereal look. It reminds me so much of the movies I used to watch when I had time back home."
Not that I had a lot of time, but that was what made movies special for me. Even now, I felt like I could get lost in my thoughts if I closed my eyes.
It was that peaceful and…
Grrrr
The puppy in my bag growled loudly and the sudden sound broke the serene atmosphere. I felt startled enough to almost drop the bag I was holding. But I caught it at the last second.
"What the hell-"
I questioned as I looked around, but the world around me seemed a little…dim compared to before.
"Is it just my imagination…or, did something happen? Did someone cast some kind of spell…or curse? Fuck-! Are we going to be ok?"
I asked myself but there was no one here to answer.
Suddenly, I wanted to head toward the duchess and bask in her protection. But everything around me felt frozen.
I took a few steps when I suddenly saw a shadow walking toward me. The atmosphere seemed to darken around the shadow and I tensed up.
But then, the closer the shadow got, the easier it seemed for me to be able to see a figure. It looked like a young teenage boy who walked toward me.
He was lanky and seemed as if he would get knocked over by the wind and he had a gloomy atmosphere around him sharp enough to push others away.
In simpler words, he seemed like an emo teenager of my time with a gloomy atmosphere.
I had often heard my colleagues talk about how some of their clients had a certain atmosphere around them that seemed to change the air around them. It was a concept I never understood.
But now, looking at the teenager, I suddenly had a feeling that this was what they talked about.
Which also meant that there was nothing to worry about.
'Ugh, it seems like the one who has lost my mind is me. Shouldn't I be scared right now? No matter how I look at this situation, this is not normal?'