Chapter 96: The Night Witch
“I’ve been waiting for you, Alfred.”
Noel, Princess Marietta, Sister Luche, Sophie, Brother Roberto.
Everyone had split up to take on their respective roles and settle things with their respective opponents. The hall I ended up in alone was occupied by the person I expected.
“…!!”
It was the evil woman still clad in the academy uniform, her intentions unclear even now.
Until I arrived here, I intended to strike at Lucille immediately if she entered my field of vision. She’s an unpredictable opponent. I planned to make the first move before she could employ any devious schemes against me.
“…Hey you. Explain yourself.”
But the moment I laid eyes on that thing, the source of the presence I sensed on my way here, my body became immobilized as if rooted to the spot.
“What in the world is that?”
A jet-black spherical object, pulsating with an oppressive rhythm.
It sat enthroned like a pitch-black cocoon.
“Someone very important.”
“Someone? Don’t joke. It looks like you’re nurturing a monster.”
“How cruel. I told you, it’s someone very important.”
Lucille stroked the jet-black cocoon, its surface covered in a muddy substance, almost lovingly.
“The person inside is someone very precious to me. And…someone very precious to you too.”
“…!!”
This evil woman is telling me that Charl is imprisoned within that cocoon.
“…Ah, I see.”
I don’t understand what that thing is. But my body, once paralyzed by a primal fear, can now move freely. The rage coursing through me has completely shattered the restraints on my limbs.
“If that’s the case, it’s simple.”
I won’t hold back against Lucille. From the start, I’ll activate [Arsène] and [Sublimation – Transcendence] to unleash my full power in one go.
“I’ll smash you first, then destroy that strange cocoon, and rescue Charl!”
“There’s no need for that.”
A crack appears in the cocoon.
“You don’t need to fight me.”
The cracks widen, and the jet-black cocoon shatters—
“The one you’ll be fighting is not me.”
—bursting apart.
“The one you’ll be fighting is our mother.”
Amid the scattered Ragments and crumbling shell, at the center of the black mud, a girl awakens.
“Prostrate yourself, human. Bow down and offer your thunderous applause. To our absolute mother—the Night Witch!”
Golden hair unfurls from the black mud, and a figure clad in a night-colored dress rises up.
The light has faded from her eyes, and her familiar features now feel eerily cold and hollow, as if belonging to a different person.
Indeed, a different person entirely. But her appearance is unmistakably that of my fiancée, whom I know.
“Not Charl…”
She is Charl. Or at the very least, her physical body is. There’s no mistaking it’s Charlotte Merssenne, whom I’m acquainted with.
But it’s different. I can’t provide any physical evidence or rationale, but my heart, my instincts, are telling me.
“You’re not Charl…who are you…!?”
“I told you, didn’t I? Our mother. The Night Witch.”
The Night Witch. A name that represents calamity itself in this world. A curse that still leaves its marks on the world to this day. An existence the former royals were supposed to have defeated, the root that gave birth to the [Ragments] the later royals fought against for generations.
Lucille identifies the girl before me as such.
Disregarding my confusion, Lucille respectfully bows her head to Charl.
“Good morning, Mother.”
“…Ah. Good morning, Lucille.”
“…!!”
No.
The voice that greeted Lucille after being called the “Night Witch” was unmistakably Charl’s. I couldn’t have misheard it. It couldn’t be anything else. And yet, it’s different. This fact only reinforces that this person is not Charl.
“How are you feeling? Is your body alright?”
“Not bad. Not bad. Not bad at all. ……”
The girl examines her palms as if checking the condition of her body, then clenches her fingers as if crushing an insect.
“Marvelous. Just as you said, it’s a fine vessel. As expected of my daughter. My beloved child.”
“Fufu. I’m glad you’re pleased. I worked very hard for your sake, Mother.”
“Indeed. You have labored well for this mother.”
With a tender, loving smile, the girl spreads her arms wide in acceptance.
“Come here, Lucille.”
“…Mother!!”
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Without hesitation, Lucille leaps into her embrace. The girl also holds her child close to her bosom.
“Mother, Mother, Mother!! Oh, I’ve longed to see you…to be with you like this…! To see you with my own eyes, hear you with my own ears, touch you with my own hands, to hold you in my arms…!”
“Yes. From now on, you can do so as much as you wish. We family have eternity.”
Her voice is very gentle and filled with love for the daughter before her.
“I see…so this is [love]. I see. I see. Now that I’m awakened, I can rejoice. I can be angry at fools, grieve over loss, revel in trampling, hate them, and love my family.”
“Yes, that’s right. You are human now, Mother. The foolish human you so desired to become.”
“So this is joy. Ah, I understand…hm?”
The eyes of the girl calling herself the Night Witch, cold and piercing, fall upon me.
“…Lucille. Who is that human over there?”
“That’s Alfred. I’m sure his memories will come to you if you peek into Charl’s recollections.”
“Ah yes, they do come up. So he was this vessel’s [fiancé], was he? Now I recall you mentioning him.”
After ending her embrace, the girl with Charl’s face smiles at me.
“——It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
“…!!”
The girl standing before me, with Charl’s face and voice, said, “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
A simple greeting, nothing out of the ordinary. And yet it falls like molten lead into the pit of my stomach.
“My apologies, it’s only proper that I introduce myself first. I am the one you call the [Night Witch]. A name you humans have given me. Not quite the [name] I’m familiar with, but I’ve taken a liking to it regardless.”
With every word she utters, the girl before me seems to drift further and further away from being Charl. It terrifies me. An indescribable, overwhelming fear.
“…Lucille. Why doesn’t Alfred introduce himself? Isn’t self-introduction a mutual exchange?”
“Fufu. Alfred is just confused. After all, his own fiancée has suddenly become Mother…[the Night Witch].”
“Why be confused?”
“Because Alfred loves Charl.”
“I see…though the other party is of royal blood, a despicable foe…now that I am as I am, I can understand the sorrow of losing a loved one.”
Averting her eyes with a pained expression, the girl calling herself the Night Witch looks at me with pity as she declares:
“Alfred. I’m afraid your fiancée will not be coming back.”
“What do you mean…!”
“Exactly as I said. [Charlotte] the human was devoured by me.”
“…!!”
“I am, by nature, a devouring phenomenon. The miasma devours animals, processes the information, and regurgitates Ragments based on that processed information. For example, if there was a lizard. The miasma would devour the lizard, process its information, and spit out a [Ragment] based on that lizard. This is the same. Using the miasma, I devoured the human Charlotte, processed her information, and took on this form based on that information.”
Devoured? So the one before me is merely a mass of miasma…in the shape of Charl?
“The ring Lucille made for me inverts light into darkness—a purification magic, as you would call it. With this, I inverted all of Charl’s [Fifth Attribute] magic power into miasma and devoured it. Though, before that, I had to shatter her heart and strip her of her resistance. …In other words, even before I became like this, Charl’s heart as a human was already broken. But it doesn’t matter, does it?”
Darkness encroached upon my vision. As if the ground beneath my feet had vanished, swallowed by the blackness.
“I grieve as well, but it couldn’t be helped. Resign yourself to the fact that your fiancée is gone.”
Resign myself. Is there no choice but to resign myself?
“—Like hell I’ll resign myself.”
No. I’ve already decided never to choose that option again.
“I don’t know how. I can’t even imagine a way. But I’ve decided. I promised Charl. That I would never give up again.”
I raise my blade, pointing its edge at the witch before me.
“I will definitely get Charl back.”
“I’ve already told you, Alfred.”
From the jet-black ring, a dense miasma spills out, forming a staff that the Night Witch grasps.
“Resign yourself.”
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