Chapter 819 – #171_Soul Witch (2)
#813
1.
I let my gaze slide over the hand of Gretel Neftis, who was offering a handshake.
Long, slender fingers, a witch’s delicate hand.
Her nails were painted black to the very tips.
I was reminded of Yebin’s introduction, where she added that the Soul Witch was a great eccentric.
But perhaps this attire wasn’t derived from a symbol.
Maybe she was building her own ‘symbolism’.
“Aren’t you going to shake my hand? You’ve been wandering around looking for me all this time.”
Should I shake it or not?
If Yebin introduced her without much concern, she probably wasn’t an openly malicious exile.
But the unidentified phenomenon that happened to my teacher was bothering me, and the fact that she was a male witch bothered me even more.
A male witch is someone who turns the unthinkable into something you can see with your own eyes.
Even a handshake that seemed like a greeting made me paranoid.
“Piggy, come back.”
“Oink! Oink!”
Just as Siwoo was about to shake her hand after finishing his deliberation.
Gretel pulled her hand away with a resoluteness that was almost embarrassing.
It was as if she was paying him back for making her wait blankly.
A pig with wings and horns ran diligently on its short legs and nestled into Gretel’s arms.
Gretel spoke while holding the pig.
“Just to be clear, I have no hostility towards you. I came out because Smirna introduced you.”
“For someone who says that, a problem has occurred.”
I didn’t let my guard down and threw a sharp gaze at her.
Other problems were one thing, but this was a matter directly related to my teacher’s safety.
If there was even a hint of suspicion, I was ready to ditch the treatment and start a fight right here.
“This one, as you can see, is my familiar Happy Pig, named Piggy. She’s a female.”
It was impossible for a tense atmosphere not to form.
Not only Siwoo but also five great witches were emitting subtle wariness.
However, the Soul Witch showed no signs of being intimidated and held the pig up.
“As you’ve experienced, the clever Piggy really likes people, so she shows them the ideal world they desire with a magic called ‘Happy Time’. You all had good dreams, right?”
“I’m sorry, but enough with the small talk, let’s get to the point…”
“Humans might starve to death while lost in an eternal daydream, but witches won’t. They might be trapped for a while, but most of them wake up on their own.
No matter how perfect it is, it’s still a dream. The longer it goes on, the more they’ll feel a sense of incongruity.
From the moment they feel that incongruity, they can awaken at will.”
Gretel turned her gaze to my teacher, who was lying on the fallen leaves.
“But, it seems like Duke Tiferet got a little too immersed.”
“Immersed? More than that, Tife…”
“It’s strange that you don’t know she’s Duke Tiferet. There’s no exile who doesn’t know her. Hey, would you stop interrupting me?”
“…Continue.”
It didn’t seem like I had interrupted her, but she was annoyed as if she was glaring at a regular troublesome customer.
She might be more hysterical than she looked.
“There are occasionally people like that. You noticed that the Happy Time becomes a parasitic magic that combines with the subject and separates the moment it’s activated, right?”
“Yes.”
“For some people, that dream feels too sweet. So much so that they don’t want to come out no matter how much time passes. They squeeze out memories and imagination to design it, and they want to ignore even the slightest incongruity.”
Gretel’s hand pointed to my teacher’s self-defense, which was gradually fading.
“Those types, if they judge their ideal world as ‘ideal’, perceive all elements that try to interfere with their dream as a ‘threat’. They choose to be trapped in their own cradle and fall asleep forever.”
Considering my teacher’s situation and circumstances, it didn’t seem like a lie.
No matter how much Siwoo loved his teacher, he couldn’t erase her past wounds.
All he could do was help her not to scar too badly.
My heart ached, but I swallowed and asked.
“What if we ignore her self-defense and forcefully wake her up?”
“I told you, it’s better to stop.”
Gretel shook her head.
She took off her hat, scratched her head roughly, and sighed.
“By force? Even if it’s Tiferet, there’s nothing you can’t do. But if the combination is that strong, you have to separate it through the proper procedure.
Otherwise, reality and the ideal world will get mixed up. When you wake up from a dream, you quickly realize it’s a dream and shake it off, right? But that won’t happen. Have you seen Inception?”
There was no way I hadn’t seen it.
Thanks to that, the ambiguous analogy became much more intuitive, and I got goosebumps.
Sharon, who had watched the movie with me, also gasped.
The end of the protagonist’s wife, who mistook reality for a dream and a dream for reality.
I remembered too well how terrible it was.
“Soul Witch.”
The first to join the conversation was Linne.
She held the sword she had drawn at some point and asked sharply.
“In the end, it’s your familiar’s fault.”
Siwoo, who had been her enemy, knew.
How much pressure Linne could exert when she started to exude a menacing aura.
“No, you’re the ones who trespassed on private property.”
“We need to know how to wake her up.”
“Linne, let’s hear what Neftis has to say for now.”
Linne had played the role of the whip, so it was Siwoo’s turn to wave the carrot.
This wasn’t something that could be solved by being coercive.
Although, she hadn’t shown any signs of being intimidated in the first place.
“What do you want?”
“A male witch with Smirna’s introduction. What do you want from me?”
“Two things. For my teacher to wake up safely, and a simple health check-up.”
“Shall we move the location first? And time is flowing too fast in the dream as it is. We need to adjust it appropriately.”
When Neftis sat down at the head of my defenseless teacher, I instinctively gripped my spear.
“Just in case, if a problem arises, I won’t just let it slide.”
“I’m a doctor, you know. If you pay the medical bill properly, I won’t harm the patient. And you guys look like you have a lot of money.”
As Neftis’s fingertips moved towards my teacher’s forehead, a sign of self-defense arose.
But the moment she gently tapped her forehead, it immediately subsided.
I was relieved to see my teacher breathing more evenly.
“I’ll guide you to my workshop.”
2.
Gretel Neftis’s workshop stood tall in the center of a clearing in the larch forest.
Since it was in a harsh environment, like an island in the middle of the land, I thought the facilities would be poor as well.
But the workshop that greeted the group was more than worthy of being called a mansion.
It was a stone building with a strong Nordic feel.
The landscaping was terrible due to the gloomy weather and the unappealing coniferous forest, but even Siwoo, who was used to the luxurious life of the Geminai mansion, thought it was lavish.
Still holding the sleeping Eloa in his arms, Siwoo followed Gretel to the reception room.
While I was roughly looking at the interior decoration, where white marble and black curtains contrasted, the Soul Witch brought tea.
“Drink, I didn’t put anything weird in it.”
“……”
Her seemingly leisurely attitude made me impatient.
In any case, something had happened to my teacher.
But the Soul Witch didn’t give a definite answer that she could wake her up, nor did she even suggest the price she wanted.
Siwoo wasn’t completely oblivious.
This was a deliberate silence to raise her value.
To do that so calmly in front of so many great witches, was it bold or reckless?
“We can drink tea anytime. I’d like to get to the point.”
“Tea first. I’ve adjusted the time ratio, so there’s no rush. Since I’ve adjusted it, time is flowing at a 1 to 2 ratio.”
When Siwoo thought he had spent half a day in the dream, the time that had passed in reality was in seconds.
Assuming Gretel’s words were true, a 1 to 2 ratio was a very good emergency measure.
“Without further ado, this is what I can offer.”
I didn’t want to be played by Gretel’s pace any longer.
I took out the negotiation material that I had been keeping safe in my arms.
A letter of recommendation stamped with the seal of Count Geminai.
My great aunt had slipped it to me before she left.
Gehenna was promoting a citizenship restoration project for exiles to keep Hexennacht in check.
It was still being carried out for a select few, but it was expected to gradually expand.
Considering the prestige of the Geminai family, there was no doubt that the letter of recommendation was equivalent to citizenship.
“The current world is in turmoil, isn’t it? There’s no place better than Gehenna to conduct research in a safe environment.”
Even though the regulations had become somewhat lax, Gehenna was still a place that many exiles wanted to return to.
Wouldn’t a ticket home be worth a lot?
But contrary to expectations, Gretel’s reaction was lukewarm.
“That’s not enough. You said you wanted to wake up Duke Tiferet and get a medical examination from me, right? The latter was probably your original purpose, and this letter of recommendation is compensation for the latter. You’ll have to pay extra for the new medical expenses.”
Since she was in a favorable situation, she was determined to get her money’s worth.
Was there any need to hesitate?
My teacher’s safety was the top priority.
If necessary, I was willing to cooperate with her research.
“That’s as much as…”
“Wait a minute, can I talk to you for a second?”
Dorothy, who couldn’t stand it any longer, stepped forward.
She was the most experienced negotiator among the people here.
She couldn’t just stand behind like a wall, watching Siwoo’s clumsy negotiation.
“You, you’ve been talking strangely since earlier. In the end, this whole mess happened because you threw that pig at us, didn’t it?”
“So? I’m an exile. If a group of people like this comes rushing in, I have to prepare. Rather, I even gave emergency treatment to guests who might have drawn their swords.”
Dorothy’s eyes, which were always flexible, drew an even softer arc.
It was a smiling gaze that exuded suffocating pressure.
“It’s better to answer honestly. I know what you’re relying on to act so cute.”
“Cute?”
What was that supposed to mean?
Before Siwoo could tilt his head, Gretel’s figure, who had hesitated for the first time during the conversation, was seen.
It was only for a moment, but it was clear.
“Our cute little duchess and handsome witch. If anything happens to either of you, I will find your main body, no matter what.”
“I, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Really? I don’t really know what I’m talking about either. So if you want to keep not knowing…”
Dorothy leaned forward and whispered in a low voice into Gretel’s ear.
“Behave yourself.”
Gretel, who could only move her lips and couldn’t loosen her stiff expression.
Dorothy patted her shoulder and smiled brightly.
“Okay, shall we start a proper conversation again?”
Dorothy had turned Gretel’s face pale with just a few words.
Siwoo recalled that Dorothy, who always smiled and acted cute, was a high-ranking public official who had survived among a pack of wolves, and at the same time, the world’s largest arms dealer.
Dorothy supremacy