Chapter 861 – #179_Gift Worries(3)
#855
1.
Dorothy, clad in a nun’s habit wrapped in a magic circle, moved with slow steps, a blunt sword in hand.
The city’s illumination, created by a large billboard with a whiskey advertisement and neon signs.
The glow tinged her white cheeks with a reddish hue.
Dorothy’s experience traveling in Japan was limited to Tokyo.
Even that was 80 years ago, during the height of the war.
To have built such a bustling downtown in such a short time, the speed of human development was truly astonishing.
“Oh my~ it’s still here today.”
-Thump thump thump thump!
Dorothy’s sparkling silver eyes spotted a homunculus.
A giant gorilla, straight out of a B-grade monster movie, was on top of a building, pounding its chest and roaring.
This was another homunculus not in the database.
From a distance, she could see it had 20 eyes.
Notable features included long fangs and three pairs of arms.
From a normal perspective, it was quite a formidable foe.
The shockwaves from its chest-pounding alone were enough to shatter the building’s windows into snowflakes.
“Haa~ this is going to be tiring again.”
Faced with a monster that even most witches would avoid, Dorothy let out an uncharacteristic, languid sigh.
She didn’t just seem unconcerned; she looked utterly unmotivated.
“But, it’s for my darling.”
As she released her suppressed magic power, the giant gorilla with spider-like, eerie eyes turned its gaze to Dorothy.
She had stimulated the instincts of a predator that devours imprints.
No.
It was clear that Dorothy had stimulated more than just the predator’s instincts.
Was it that homunculi, resembling primates, also shared similar natures?
The gorilla’s penis, easily over 1 meter long, stood stiffly towards the sky.
“Ugh…”
Dorothy frowned, uncharacteristically.
“Anyway~ it’s a problem that this body is so sinful and charming.”
“Kuaaaaaaa!!!!”
-Thump! Thump! Thump!
The gorilla let out a huge roar towards Dorothy, then used its six arms and two legs to move between buildings.
Moreover, the gorilla’s destructive power as it charged through the city with beast-like movements was truly devastating.
It was using a near-subsonic charge with such a massive body.
“That’s right~ that’s right~”
Although she was quite tall for a woman, Dorothy faced a head-on collision with the gorilla, which was 5 meters tall even when crouching.
The result of the clash seemed obvious.
A normal human would have turned into a bloody mess of organs and flesh, like a flattened piece of gum stuck to the asphalt…
But as you know, witches are far from ordinary humans.
“Fear not.”
With the incantation, the pillars of a chapel lined up behind Dorothy, erasing the city’s glow.
Absolute power settled into Dorothy’s body.
-Bang!!!!!
The monster gorilla, startled by the sudden surge of presence, swung its arm.
The blow, enhanced with magic, was ferocious enough to topple even a mountain.
The shockwave alone shattered the asphalt in the area like cookies, and streetlights and signs swayed like reeds in a typhoon.
“Kieek…! Kuooooo!”
“Hmm~ is that a physical enhancement type of magnetic magic? It doesn’t seem very effective.”
However, Dorothy’s expression was as calm as ever, having blocked the attack with one arm.
There wasn’t even a scratch, let alone a significant injury.
The power Dorothy wielded was absolute.
It was an absurd power that ignored size and strength.
The gorilla realized that the magic waves the witch had been emitting were just a ruse to lure it in and quickly tried to retreat.
But it didn’t achieve what it wanted.
“Originally, it’s not a biplane but a beautiful woman who kills a monster gorilla.”
As Dorothy stomped her foot, an immense force pressed down on the gorilla’s body.
-Crack!
The bones that supported the monster’s body, like steel frames, and the muscles with the strength of bridge wire ropes, let out a death cry just before destruction.
“Why are you trying to leave already? Do I look bad up close?”
“Krrrk…!”
A force like a huge, invisible press was crushing its entire body.
The gorilla, with its head buried in the ground, looked up at Dorothy with fear in its eyes.
“My pride is a little hurt, you know?”
Dorothy, with an angel’s halo floating above her head, stomped her foot again.
What Dorothy was doing was a simple application of magnetic magic.
She had enhanced it after applying absolute power to gravity.
For Dorothy, who lacked mobility, this was the best way to hunt homunculi that were bound to run wild in all directions.
-Crush!
With a dry roar, the ground around Dorothy, except for where she stood, sank more than 10 meters.
The monster, which had tried to use the big-chested witch like a frog, died like a frog crushed under a tire.
It didn’t even manage to let out a proper scream.
“…Whew, that was tiring.”
Because she had used the angel’s halo, her magic power was completely drained.
Still, her heart swelled with a little anticipation.
Dorothy used telekinesis to retrieve the spoils from the ashes of the crumbling corpse.
A useless homunculus ‘core’.
And a strange cat’s eye stone.
There were three main types of spoils that could be obtained from hunting homunculi.
Research materials left by the Creation Witch, artifacts, and gnosis eggs.
And the black cat’s eye stone in Dorothy’s hand was one that occasionally appeared, containing ‘information’.
It was a treasure map with another relic hidden inside, a prophecy recorded long ago, or information about another homunculus, encrypted.
“…It’s a dud.”
To be precise, it was closer to a dud.
Even if she went to the place indicated on the treasure map, it was often already looted because too much time had passed.
The prophecies had different interpretation structures than today, so there was no gain compared to the headache.
And the information about other homunculi wasn’t that important either.
Dorothy’s face darkened.
Shiwoo had said it was okay, but she still had no way to heal his body or a strategy to avoid the prophecy.
Could it be that she would really lose him?
“Dorothy-nim.”
At first, she thought it was a hallucination caused by lovesickness.
There was no way he would be here.
“How foolish~ how foolish.”
“Dorothy-nim, are you having a hard time?”
Dorothy finally turned around at the repeated call.
There was Dorothy’s darling, Shin Shiwoo, in a smart suit, with a red branch over his shoulder.
“W-what? How did you get here?”
“I just stopped by for a bit.”
“Is it okay for you to come alone like this?”
“I told Count Albiereo. I was running the shortest distance to the location point when I ran into you.”
“How long are you going to stay?”
“I can’t stay long, I told them I’d be back today.”
Where did her gloomy mood from just a moment ago disappear to?
Dorothy felt her steps become light as she hugged Shiwoo.
Sniffing his scent calmed her down a little.
Dorothy started from his shirt chest and went up to his neck, sniffing repeatedly.
“Hmm hmm hmm, you smell so~ good.”
“What are you, a puppy?”
“I’m not a puppy. I’m a cute little cow girl, you know? Moo~”
Shiwoo, who had been smiling wryly at Dorothy’s joke, rummaged through his coat.
“Ah, Dorothy-nim. I have a gift for you.”
“A gift?”
“Yes, I made a lot of money this time. I’ll tell you the details where the masters are. Before that, the gift.”
Shiwoo, who had gently pushed away Dorothy, who was clinging to him affectionately, placed something on her palm.
It was a pretty necklace placed on a white handkerchief.
It was a silver chain with a blue diamond, and he chose it because it seemed to suit Dorothy, who had an overall white color scheme.
“Do you like it?”
Dorothy blinked and stared at the necklace on her palm for a long time.
“……”
“How is it?”
“It’s okay. You have a better eye than I thought?”
Her reaction was a bit lackluster.
Maybe the poetry set he had originally planned would have been better?
“If you don’t like it, should I go exchange it? I didn’t know what you’d like…”
“Where would you do that? You gave it to me once, so it’s mine.”
When Shiwoo tried to take the necklace back, Dorothy turned away like a hamster having its food stolen.
“You’re so clueless~ you don’t just hand it over, you put it on for me. Do it now.”
“I didn’t know that.”
Dorothy tied up her long hair and exposed her neck in front of Shiwoo.
Shiwoo, feeling a little regretful that this gift might have been a mistake, sighed inwardly as he put the necklace on her.
“It’s harder than I thought. This.”
“Take your time.”
“Okay, okay.”
It was embarrassing to show him her childishly grinning face.
Dorothy, with her back to him, finally smiled happily.
She was afraid she would keep giggling.
2.
Originally, the Creation Witch used homunculi as familiars to protect her achievements.
However, it wasn’t just a matter of whether homunculi were just guardians.
The Creation Witch’s intentions were unknown, but the monster’s power source was the witch’s imprint.
After the number of witches decreased due to fratricide, they even preyed on humans.
Humans, who were ignorant of magic and couldn’t even identify homunculi with their eyes, had no defense against this tragedy.
When a duke who had lost his apprentice witch established a subjugation organization called Location Point, the one-sided tragedy was finally brought under some control.
The win-win system that had been established after many twists and turns had found some stability after 100 years, and now large-scale accidents or massacres due to homunculi were rare.
As the subjugation data accumulated in the Location Point DB, the witches were also able to adapt to certain patterns, which led to effective subjugation.
However, after the launch of Hexennacht, cracks began to appear in the stabilized system.
The first reason, which was easy for anyone to understand, was the decrease in the number of exiles staying in the present world.
At the current point in time, where the average rank of witches has steadily increased, homunculi are not a threat to witches, except for a few extremely dangerous ‘named’ ones.
Therefore, until now, exiles had been subjugating homunculi for research purposes or to raise funds.
However, as exiles were absorbed into Hexennacht or hid themselves due to the unstable situation in the present world, they faced an obvious shortage of manpower.
However, the second reason was one that even Eloa found puzzling.
It was the sudden change in the ecology of homunculi.
“Do you have any idea what the cause is?”
“…I have no idea at all.”
The two masters, Linne and Eloa, were sitting facing each other, looking at documents.
It was a homunculus trend report compiled from data from Location Point branches around the world.
“The number of homunculi waking up from hibernation is abnormal.”
“The appearance of new species that have never been recorded before has also increased exponentially.”
The two of them had shown each other very embarrassing sides, so they still felt a bit awkward, but they had been working together at the Hokkaido branch and were now able to talk to each other more naturally.
Of course, the moment the topic of work disappeared, they both shut their mouths.
Anyway, homunculi generally hibernate in the gaps between dimensions and become active once every few years, or even decades.
This frequency and number of individuals were generally maintained at a constant level, but recently, existing named homunculi and prospective named ones were appearing in large numbers.
This was also the case in Japan.
This trend was unprecedented.
“At this rate… the number of humans caught in disasters will increase significantly.”
“……”
Eloa’s expression darkened.
Linne still had a colorless face, but she was not comfortable inside.
Her husband, Shiwoo, would hate to see humans harmed.
At that moment, when the atmosphere was heavy and even the air felt stagnant, the hotel door burst open and Dorothy entered.
“Hello everyone! Did you all have a good time while I was working hard?”
“It’s been a while. Did I come at a bad time?”
“Husband.”
“Shiwoo!”
And Shiwoo, who was holding gifts in both hands.
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