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[Translator - Tangrine ]
[Proofreader - Seeker ]
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Chapter - 8: Two Sinners
Priscilla followed the foul stench of dark magic peculiar to devil worshippers and arrived at a small cave beyond the forest.
What if they had already killed her mother?
Just as that fear began to grip her ankles, she heard the voices of men from deep within the cave.
“That’s an important sacrificial offering for the Master. Don’t let it die before the morning star rises. Keep a close watch.”
“Understood.”
Sacrificial offering.
It means her mother was still alive. Relief washed over Priscilla’s heart.
It wasn’t too late. There was still plenty of time.
She just needed to carefully rescue her mother.
Soon, a witch’s incantation slipped from Priscilla’s lips.
“Only those with wings and many legs shall be gentle to you, and you shall soon prosper like them.”
Magical threads unfurled from her heart, weaving a magic circle in the air.
Though her talentless body couldn’t perform great magic...
She was a grand witch who had even overcome death.
Soon, all the grasshoppers, flies, cicadas, locusts, and forest cockroaches gathered around her.
Their wings fluttered and they began to darken the surrounding air like a black mist.
“My children, I have filled seven peaks and thirteen valleys as your feast. Eat and devour it.”
The insects began tearing each other apart.
Savage and mindless of their bodies being devoured, driven only by endless thirst and hunger, they shoved each other into their mouths.
Moths were eaten by spiders, spiders by ants, ants by moths.
The fluids leaking from their bodies dripped onto the soil.
No, it was eggs—small, damp, and slimy insect eggs that looked like liquid.
“Multiply and prosper. Fill the seas and the land. Devour the fish of the sea and the birds of the sky, and be full. The whole world is a feast for you.”
Priscilla bit the flesh on her finger harshly, letting the blood drip onto the insect eggs.
The eggs writhed and cracked open halfway.
From within, shadowy forms oozed out sluggishly.
“I am salt, soil, and life—spread across the world through me.”
The weakest familiar a witch could command—flying insects.
Even with these tiny flies.
It was enough to kill a mere devil worshiper.
Priscilla slowly led the insects deeper into the cave.
A guard on watch tilted his head, eyeing the girl curiously.
“Huh? What’s this? Some little kid—”
“Devour them, my children.”
“What?!”
The mist-like swarm of flying insects engulfed the man in an instant.
He flailed his arms and struggled but the flies were too small and too many.
The swarm burrowed into his fingernails, his mouth and his ears.
Soon, the man collapsed, bleeding black blood from every part of his body.
The insects crawled across his corpse.
“Hoo… cough…”
Priscilla’s heart began to tighten as if someone was squeezing it.
Her vision blurred, blood vessels in her eyes burst and her sight darkened.
Spitting up a blood clot onto the cave floor, she pushed forward.
The strain of forcibly squeezing out her magical energy to cast the magic caused symptoms of magical overload...
“What the fuck! What the hell are these bugs—aargh!”
It was enough to save her mother.
Priscilla kept moving forward.
“Eek?!”
“Damn it! What the hell are you all doing?! Stop and fight now! If only the Master would grant us power—”
“How do you expect us to fight against a swarm of bugs?!”
“Ghk—it itches, kyaha—guhh…”
With each step she took, the devil worshipers were torn apart by the insects, flesh ripped from their bodies as they died.
Wrapped in a cloak of black death.
Finally, Priscilla reached the deepest part of the cave.
“…Mom.”
“Daughter…?”
Even the last devil worshipers guarding her mother were ripped apart by the insects.
Amid a horrifying scene teeming with maggots and flying bugs.
Priscilla took a step closer toward her mother.
The distance was so close she could almost reach out and touch her.
“Eek, eek?!”
But her mother, face filled with terror, recoiled from Priscilla’s hand and stepped back.
It was only natural.
A witch is a monster who cannot live alongside humans.
No matter how much a witch tries to imitate love, this is the inevitable fate for a witch.
In a way, it was a relief for it to end like this.
Priscilla was about to die soon from the effects of her magical overload.
Her fragile body could not handle it.
“……”
Her vision was distorted by the magical overload.
Tears of blood streamed down her cheek.
She instinctively tried to say mother but realized that the word no longer belonged to her.
She changed how she addressed her.
“…Ma’am.”
“……”
“I’m sorry. I’ve been deceiving you, Ma’am. I’m not Anna. I’m… a monster who stole Anna’s body.”
The witch confessed her sin calmly.
She spoke of how the month spent together with you had been nothing but a sham filled with lies and deception.
For the first time, she sincerely asked for forgiveness.
“I’m sorry. I’m truly sorry…”
Though a sob escaped in her voice, only bloody tears streamed from eyes ruined by magical overload.
She felt relieved by the fact that she was incapable of shedding normal tears.
A monster who stole the body of the daughter she loved deserved no tears.
“…I see. So you weren’t our Anna.”
The mother’s voice was strangely calm.
As if she had somehow suspected this all along.
“Yes…”
“What is your real name?”
“Priscilla… It’s Priscilla.”
“I see. Priscilla.”
The mother repeated the name a few times thoughtfully.
“I had some suspicion already.”
“Huh?”
“When you came back with fruits and herbs good for colds, I found it strange.”
“…”
“Anna hated the smell of herbs. She wouldn’t have known much about them.”
The mother was an herbalist.
That was why Anna’s room always carried a gentle scent of herbs.
The first thing Priscilla ate after waking was porridge filled with herbs.
It tasted terrible but the herbs were well mixed for health.
“Priscilla. Did you know? I had already given up on Anna once.”
“…What?”
“When Anna fell ill in this countryside without priests, there was no way to save her. So I
just prayed. Asked God to take Anna to a better place.”
“…”
“When Anna suddenly woke up, I was overjoyed by the miracle but I was also afraid. Afraid that she’d realize I had given up on her. That’s why I tried harder to treat her well.”
“…”
“We were deceiving each other with kindness and gentleness to hide our guilt.”
The mother smiled sadly.
Even through the blood-tear blurred vision, her smile remained strangely clear.
“Priscilla. Our lying daughter. You say you’re not my daughter… but a month is enough time to become family.”
“…”
“I love you. My daughter.”
"Hhic… nghh…"
She sank to the floor, and this time it was her mother who stepped forward first, reaching out her hand.
Without saying a word, she embraced her and gently patted her back.
“…Mom.”
“Yes, my daughter.”
“Is it okay if I keep living with you from now on?”
“Of course.”
“Can I still ask you to tell me bedtime stories and hold me until I fall asleep?”
“As many times as you want.”
“Is it okay if I… live longer?”
“If my daughter dies, I think I’d be heartbroken. I don’t want to give up this time."
“…”
The young girl Anna’s body was dying from magical overload.
Her eyes were completely blinded and blood poured from every orifice as a result of overusing excessive magic.
But this time, she wouldn’t run away.
‘…’
Not the heart of the girl Anna but the soul of the great witch Priscilla.
The magic that formed the curse was engraved in her soul.
The source of her immortality.
It poured out as raw magical energy, seeping into the girl’s body.
It sealed ruptured blood vessels, regenerated melted muscles and slowly restored the damaged body.
Although the completely lost eyesight could not be restored and escaping death was no longer possible—
It was okay.
“I love you, Mom.”
“I love you too, my daughter.”
Because now, she had found her own ‘life.’
-“Congratulations, my Daughter. You’ve performed a miracle far greater than the goal we aimed for.”
‘…Can we not kill the mood?’
-“It’s nice to be sentimental but let’s go home now. To prepare for tomorrow’s miraculous morning, we have to get a good night’s sleep first.”
‘Sigh…’
Priscilla sighed quietly in her heart and then smiled softly.
“Mom! Let’s go home now! I’m sleepy.”
“Alright, let’s go.”
===========
“Congratulations. You’ve successfully prevented the world’s destruction.”
For this moment, so much was prepared.
The bandits near the village were made to see illusions of a powerful demon.
Then they were ordered to offer a sacrificial victim.
While the bandits kidnapped the mother, Priscilla’s senses were distorted so she wouldn’t notice.
Gigachad provoked her to stir her emotions.
False smells of blood led her to the bandits’ cave.
And other devices were used to steer the story along the planned scenario.
And this was the result.
The witch herself gave up immortality.
Now, she was just an ordinary girl who could only use simple magic.
No longer would she die and revive by stealing another’s body.
“This means the task of rehabilitating that ‘Witch of Suicide’ is finally complete.”
“Not yet.”
“Huh?”
“Though the witch has given up on magic for now, there’s always a chance she’ll take it up again someday.”
It would be difficult for the witch to complete the magic in Anna’s body…
But ‘Difficult’ and ‘Impossible’ are not synonyms.
People can change their minds anytime and it wouldn’t be strange if a witch who once pursued immortality sought it again.
“You don’t mean…”
“Soon, a hero will come to the village.”
The best finale for the witch has been prepared—
Hopefully, it will please her.
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[Translator - Tangrine ]
[Proofreader - Seeker ]
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