This land was truly savage!
Tetra Norris, the lady-in-waiting to First Princess Yunia, fought to keep herself from collapsing as she faced the unfolding series of events.
——This must be a joke.
It was the second day of their stay in Sidera, and today was meant to be a dessert tasting.
They had visited a café renowned in town, and, to their delight, even the attendants were invited to partake. The cakes they tasted were so exquisite that even the royal capital’s finest chefs would have surrendered in awe. It was as if they had stepped into heaven, as if they had stumbled upon paradise itself—
And then.
Word arrived that a magic power crucible had formed in the Void Forest.
If left unchecked, the crucible would grow denser, potentially birthing a monstrous being known as a Demon King.
To make matters worse, the crucible had manifested dangerously close to Sidera.
And as if that weren’t enough, she was told that the emergence of magic power crucibles wasn’t even particularly unusual—
Once again, this had to be a joke.
As the daughter of a count’s family and a noble tasked with managing her domain, Tetra had been well-educated from a young age about magic power crucibles and mutants. A terrifying phenomenon, they occurred when certain conditions—ley line flows, environmental factors, and climate—aligned, creating pockets of concentrated magic power stagnation. Any creature caught within would transform into a mutant, a grotesque mutation.
If such a thing were to appear in her own lands, it would spell disaster. The region’s reputation would plummet, people would flee, industries would wither, and it was said that rebuilding would take at least three generations.
And yet—such a calamity was not unusual here?
To Tetra, the residents of Sidera were utterly insane. The people she had seen in this town smiled and laughed, living their lives in apparent happiness. How could they exist like this, with the looming threat of magic power crucibles at their doorstep and mutants as their neighbors? It was unthinkable.
Even Prince Noapp, the Third Prince, and Princess Parker Lulu seemed to have been corrupted by this madness. Without hesitation, they had rushed into the forest alongside Sui Hatano to put a stop to the crucible’s condensation. If she were being honest, she would have said the knight commander was no better.
Then again… if she remembered correctly, hadn’t it been her own mistress who had suggested they accompany Sui Hatano in the first place?
No, surely not. That must have been a hallucination, the delirium of a mind overwhelmed.
「Yuni. Were you truly fine with this? Allowing Noah… your own younger brother to accompany them?」
Back at the café, the Prime Minister was pressing the princess for answers.
This scene, too, must be a hallucination.
「It will be fine. Noah and Parker go into the forest all the time, don’t they? Besides, if it were truly dangerous, Sui-sama would never have allowed it in the first place.」
「I am also somewhat concerned for Continuous Rain-dono. She is a skilled knight and mage, but field combat is not her specialty.」
Not just the Prime Minister, but even the 『Witch of No Return』…
This, too, must be an illusion—or…
Was it not?
「Ano…」
Tetra leaned in and whispered to the butler seated beside her.
「What is it?」
「I can’t help but worry about his highness Noapp and the others…」
「There is nothing to be done but steel ourselves.」
The elderly butler answered with an impassive expression, but Tetra could tell—he had already abandoned all thought. It was the face of someone who had resigned himself to the inevitable.
And truly, at this point, there was little point in fretting. The First Princess had made her decision and issued her orders. No one could be blamed now, and whatever consequences followed were beyond anyone’s control. …Although, if His Highness were to fall, would that mean she would lose her position as well…? That would be awful…
—As she brooded over such things, a carefree voice rang out.
「Well then, the Stollen will have to wait, but the blancmange won’t keep. Since Sui-kun and the others went through the trouble of making it, you should go ahead and eat it today.」
It was the 『Heavenly Bell Witch』—Viole Ella Muucare Hatano.
Tetra was dumbfounded. Was she not worried about her son and adopted daughter venturing into the forest? And more importantly—wasn’t that small child sitting on her lap, grinning away, absolutely adorable? …No, that wasn’t the point.
A short while later, a woman from the kitchen entered, pushing a cart. She, too, showed no sign of concern for Sui Hatano and the others.
…Tetra could no longer comprehend the mindset of the people in this town.
「Ano… Heavenly Bell-sama.」
「What is it?」
It was Prime Minister Eidel who spoke up.
「We are grateful for the sweets. However, we still do not fully grasp the true nature of the 『Void Forest』. All we know is that it is terrifying… As for the Mutants, our only knowledge of them comes from reports—stories of them wiping entire towns off the map or massacring entire villages without leaving a single survivor. Yuni may take this lightly, but to be frank, I am deeply uneasy. Noah and Parker are… they are family.」
Yes! That—finally, someone saying something reasonable!
As a mere lady-in-waiting, Tetra had no right to interject, no matter what she thought. So she could only inwardly rejoice at Eidel’s words, feeling as if a weight had been lifted from her chest.
「Family? This guy family too, like Yunia?」
「That’s right, Mint. Eidel is Yuni and Noah’s older brother.」
The 『Heavenly Bell Witch』, however, remained as unruffled as ever, answering the innocent words of the child sitting on her lap with a smile before turning back to Eidel.
「You worry too much. Well, I suppose that’s a necessary trait for a Prime Minister.」
She took a refined sip of the tea that had been brought over and continued.
「…Let’s see. Together, Noah and Parker could probably handle a mid-tier Mutant. Karsch, on the other hand… she wouldn’t stand a chance alone. Her magic isn’t suited for one-on-one combat, so it’s not surprising.」
「Then…!」
「In this matter, Yuni’s judgment is spot-on.」
First Princess Yunia tilted her head slightly.
「And what do you mean by that?」
「You said it yourself earlier, didn’t you? 『If it were truly dangerous, Sui-kun would never allow it.』 That is exactly right. Though the nuance is a little different.」
「Hey,Onii-san, Sui with them! That’s why Noah, Parker, and that onee-san will all be fine!」
The young girl’s bright, confident words were met with an affirming nod from the 『Heavenly Bell Witch』.
「As long as they are with that boy, not a single hair on Noah’s head will be harmed—no matter how many Mutants they face, no matter what kind of unforeseen accident may occur. …The fact that my son is with them means exactly that.」
「…Even so, Viole-sama, are you saying that not even the 『Heavenly Bell Witch』 yourself could harm them?」
「That’s an amusing question. The answer is yes. Even at my full strength, I could not break through Sui-kun’s barrier—not as he is now. His darkness attribute has already surpassed that of my husband.」
Everyone present was struck speechless, their faces frozen in stunned disbelief.
For the renowned 『Heavenly Bell』—who wielded the title of the world’s strongest without dispute, whom all existing witches on the continent feared—to declare such a thing so definitively…
The weight of those words was clear.
Her husband—Kazuteru Hatano.
The man who stormed the royal palace, dragged the former king from the throne without suffering a single scratch.
The legendary 『All Night Witch』, spoken of even now in hushed awe.
And yet, she had just declared that Sui surpassed even him.
「…What, Yuni? You mean to tell me you didn’t realize?」
「I-I… No, I simply believed that since Sui-sama is familiar with the 『Void Forest』, his judgment must be sound… That was all…」
「Then it’s the same thing, isn’t it? How do you think we’ve managed to live so comfortably in the depths of the 『Void Forest』 all these years? You must have heard from your parents, haven’t you? About our home in Nertep—the 『Untouchable House』.」
Tetra knew about it too. Her father had told her the story countless times.
The otherworldly house that had appeared alongside the 『All Night Witch』 in the fields of Nertep.
The 『barrier』 that had repelled every last assassin sent during the strife surrounding the change of rulers.
After all, one of those failed assassins had been dispatched by a noble house that had long tormented the Norris family, Tetra’s own household.
That noble house had collapsed as a result, allowing the Norris family to continue living in peace.
She had grown up being told that the 『All Night Witch』 was an indirect benefactor of her family.
And that barrier—the one her benefactor had kept active at all times.
An impenetrable, invisible wall, the ultimate manifestation of dark-attribute magic, repelling all harm and all who would bring harm.
「Now then, that’s enough talk, isn’t it? The blancmange we went through the trouble of chilling will be lukewarm at this rate. This one was made with corn—an ingredient widely cultivated in the Elf Kingdom of Alfheim…」
Listening to the 『Heavenly Bell Witch』 ramble on about such trivial details, staring blankly at the pure white, pudding-like dessert placed before her, Tetra found herself with no mental capacity left to think further.
But at the very least, as she considered the bizarre town of Sidera, where magic power had become so concentrated it was practically a crucible, and the even more bizarre circumstances that had led to this situation…
She couldn’t shake the thought that, even now, on his way to that very place, that seemingly harmless young man with black hair was likely wearing the same unbothered, carefree expression as this 『Heavenly Bell Witch』.
That was the conclusion she reached—with a sigh of resignation.
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