WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Mordor
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Surviving the Frozen Dark Fantasy as a Genius Mage ◈
Chapter 68: The Sacred Lake and the Witch
──────
I tossed a coin.
‘Heads!’
[Heads]
[Success]
‘Nice!’
Maybe luck was on my side. The coin toss succeeded.
Darnen tilted her head.
“Are you serious? I’m a dark elf and an evil Witch.”
“You said it yourself. You’re a good dark elf. So what does it matter?”
...
Silence hung in the room for a long while.
Her violet eyes blinked more often than usual.
“I see.”
Darnen finally spoke.
“But I’ll refuse your offer.”
Her answer was still a refusal.
I smacked my lips. So that was how it was...
But I didn’t bother asking why.
Honestly, I’d expected it.
I knew she would refuse the offer.
It was probably because of the fate of the clan she carried on her shoulders.
The coin toss might have succeeded and caused a small change, but it couldn’t twist a person’s very nature.
‘Darnen was a hard-to-recruit NPC even in the game’s story.’
Still...
‘What matters is that I got her talking.’
‘Now I know the possibility isn’t zero.’
It was an investment in the future, so to speak.
As I was thinking that, Darnen spoke again.
“Still...”
“Still?”
“Thank you for making me the offer.”
Under the faint candlelight, her violet eyes curved slightly.
It wasn’t the bewitching, chilling smile I’d seen before. It was simply beautiful.
...
For some reason, her naked body came to mind.
Her ash-gray body felt mysterious rather than unclean.
I cleared my throat and stood.
“Ahem. All right. Stay safe.”
“You too, Super Genius Mage Ian.”
I didn’t say we would meet again.
There were too many dangerous people around Darnen.
Whoooosh.
The next morning, we left the Shirinwind Territory to return to the Labyrinth.
* * *
Beyond the window, white snow fell without pause.
Three mages left the territory.
Lord Amodei watched them through the window of his office, hands behind his back. He exhaled a plume of breath and spoke.
“Go deal with her.”
“Yes, my lord.”
The territorial knight and the personal guards, who had been kneeling before him, rose and headed outside.
They armed themselves with crossbows, spears, swords, and poleaxes, every weapon grim and lethal.
“I can’t waste the taxes the residents scraped together through blood and sweat.”
Lord Amodei narrowed his eyes.
The Magic Tower’s mages were untouchable.
But dark elves were another matter.
Those bastards thought they were better than everyone else, drawing fear and rejection wherever they went. Killing them would bring no consequences.
Of course, every dark elf was dangerous.
But not to someone with the power of a lord.
He had plenty of blades to serve as his hands and feet.
As he was thinking this, a soldier’s voice drifted through the footsteps beyond the door.
Amodei had especially sharp hearing, thanks to having elf blood among his ancestors.
“Sir Joseph, I don’t know if this number will be enough.”
“It’s only one person. Besides, we have mages on our side too. What’s the problem?”
“She wasn’t an ordinary dark mage. The other mages said she was far stronger than the Witch we killed this time...”
“You cowardly bastard!”
Smack!
“Ugh.”
“Say something cowardly like that again, and I’ll punish you severely. Understood?”
“Y-Yes...”
The one making a fuss was, ironically, the watcher Amodei had assigned to make sure the Magic Tower bastards did their job properly.
Amodei’s smile vanished.
“...”
What an idiot.
A dark elf might be dangerous, but was a member of the personal guard really going to be scared at a time like this?
That fool was no longer worth keeping around. He should get rid of him.
“Phew.”
Amodei shook his head and headed elsewhere.
There was one more matter that needed handling.
His destination was the sacred pond beneath the castle.
It was the heart that fed the territory and a holy site revered by its residents.
“We’ve caught her, my lord.”
Water trickled softly.
An escort knight standing before the beautiful pond, its surface reflecting a mystical blue glow, bowed their head.
At the knight’s feet, a maid knelt, bound.
Wavy hair, a pert nose, and large eyes.
She was a woman whose beauty stood out even among the other maids.
“Ah, Ellis.”
Amodei smiled when he saw her. He strode over, then suddenly slapped her across the face.
Smack!
“You lowborn bitch! How dare you repay kindness with betrayal?!”
His face twisted like a demon’s as he shouted.
This incident had not been the work of the Witch lurking in the mine alone.
It was this maid who had colluded with the Witch and placed curse talismans in the pond.
Amodei had uncovered that fact through his investigation.
“Do you know how much I lost because of you?! One hundred and fifty gold coins! A whole one hundred and fifty gold coins!!! And I had to cater to those arrogant spellcasting bastards too! Huh?!”
Amodei flew into a rage.
Yet the maid, blood trickling from her mouth, wasn’t intimidated. She glared up at him venomously.
“Kindness? Betrayal? Ha. I only exercised a right that was mine.”
“A right?”
“The right to take revenge! Because you! You killed my son!!!”
The Witch Isanna from the mine had said Amodei had a hidden mistress.
She had also said that Amodei considered the illegitimate child born to that mistress a disgrace and killed the child.
It had been true.
“You...! You drowned that little child in that pond! My precious child!!!”
The bitter scream of a mother who had lost her child swept through the underground pond.
Sob, sob, sob!
Neither the lord nor the escort knight paid her any attention.
“Shut that mouth. How dare a criminal wag her tongue so freely?”
The knight raised their sword.
“Stop.”
Amodei shook his head, restraining the knight.
Then he stepped forward and wrapped his hands around the maid’s throat.
Ghk!
His thick, hairy fingers writhed like snakes.
Perhaps he had done this often, because Amodei’s grip was steady and practiced.
Grrrk.
Desperate to live, the maid clawed at Amodei’s arm, her feet scraping the floor as she thrashed...
In the end, her eyes rolled back. Drool ran from her mouth, and she stopped moving.
Huff, huff.
“You stupid bitch. How dare you.”
But Lord Amodei did not stop there.
He unbuttoned his shirt, his flushed face and gleaming eyes fixed on the maid’s corpse.
“...”
The escort knight watching him frowned slightly and left.
The knight had long since abandoned their honor, but still had no desire to witness the lord’s filthy hobby.
Thud, thud!
Huff, huff...
The sounds of a man’s ragged breathing and flesh striking flesh echoed through the chamber.
After less time than expected, the lord got to his feet while adjusting his waistband.
...
After satisfying himself once, the blazing desire faded and regret filled him instead.
“What a waste. What a waste.”
Clicking his tongue, Amodei drew the sword at his waist and hacked off the maid’s head.
Thud! Thud!
“Tough... bitch. You filthy whore... still so tough... even in death. Hup.”
He brought the sword down again and again as if butchering an animal.
“Phew.”
Then he examined the pretty severed head before tossing it into the pond.
With the Witch’s curse lifted, the fish in the pond were opening and closing their mouths energetically.
That bitch’s head and body would soon be torn apart as well, becoming nourishment to fill the residents’ bellies.
“They eat well.”
Amodei smiled with satisfaction at the spreading blood and the fish swarming greedily toward it.
At that moment.
Fwoosh!
The torchlight hanging on the wall suddenly flickered, and the temperature dropped.
Waaah. Waaah.
A baby’s cry echoed from somewhere.
Gurgle!
There was also the bubbling sound of someone drowning.
It grew louder.
More and more sounds joined it.
Gurgle! Gurgle, gurgle, gurgle!
The fish tearing into the maid’s head startled and fled beneath the water.
The air in the chamber containing the underground pond had become as cold as ice.
“W-What is this...?”
Lord Amodei rose falteringly at the strange, ominous feeling and looked at the dead maid.
Her head floated half-submerged, eyes raised as if filled with resentment.
Her violated body lay nearby, limbs still curled as yellowish-white fluid left streaks across it.
Then the body suddenly rose on its own.
It sprang upright!
“Eek!”
With a splash, the head that had fallen into the water rose and floated through the air.
The maid, now only a head, spoke in confusion.
“Why... am I alive?”
Through her long, water-soaked hair, the maid’s vacant eyes looked down.
There was her own headless body.
Yet she was still alive.
No, was she?
...
Her confusion lasted only a moment.
One word rose in her mind.
Revenge.
Creeeak!
“Arghhh!”
The headless corpse pounced on the lord as he tried to flee.
The maid’s floating head also wrapped its long hair around his neck and strangled him.
“Heeheeheehee! Die! Dieee!!!”
“Gahhhk!”
The lord’s dignified appearance was gone. Now terrified, he struggled and tried to call for help.
But the Sacred Lake deep beneath the castle was silent.
In that secluded place, which the lord used for his private affairs, only wheezing breaths escaped his blocked throat.
Noooo!!!
“Grrk.”
Just as he had done to the maid named Ellis and countless victims before, Lord Amodei was strangled to death, meeting a miserable end.
Creeeak! Creak!
Having lost its target, the maid’s headless body flailed its limbs grotesquely before turning elsewhere.
“Lord Amodei...”
The knight, who had come down after noticing something strange, gasped upon seeing the scene.
At the same time, the headless body charged.
“Aaah!”
Though corrupted, the knight’s skill was excellent.
Even though they were caught off guard, they instantly drew their sword and cut down the maid’s body.
But while that happened, the floating head passed the knight and escaped outside the castle.
“W-What is that...?!”
“A monster...?! A head!?”
“Lord Amodei! Lord Amodei has been murdered!!! It’s undead!!!”
“That dark elf did this! Chase it!”
The Shirinwind Territory, having lost its ruler in an instant, erupted into chaos.
Darnen had been wronged.
She had burned the Witch’s secret-arts tome to prevent another evil Witch from being born.
Yet despite her preparations, another Witch was born in this cruel world today.
Heeheeheehee!
Amid the blizzard, a woman’s severed head flew grotesquely through the air.
Footnotes:
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