Chapter 58
There was a race known as the descendants of Capella, the goddess of water and wisdom.
Though they looked exactly like humans, they were a long-lived race with lifespans as long as elves'.
They were born with vast quantities of mana unmatched by other races and a high aptitude for magic,
making them the most magically gifted race in the world, each possessing a unique magic called an imprint from birth.
Witches.
“That's who we are.”
A woman spoke with a gentle expression to the girl sitting on her lap.
“Mmm… Then is Daddy a witch too?”
The pink-haired girl sitting on the woman's lap, her pink eyes filled with curiosity,
tilted her head and asked her mother.
“No. Only women are born witches. Your father is an ordinary human. Well, he isn't exactly ordinary, considering he made this mother fall in love with him.”
In response to the child's question,
she gazed bitterly at the ring on her left ring finger before
“A witch can have a child only once in her lifetime—and only with the person she truly loves.”
Her mother then stroked the child's head with a gentle smile.
“Our Rika will meet someone like that someday, too. Someone fated for her.”
“…Can't I just live with Mommy and Daddy forever?”
Perhaps the child preferred her parents' embrace to a story she couldn't yet understand.
The child burrowed deeper into her mother's arms and began to whimper.
“Hehe. Of course you can. But, Rika? You must remember this one thing.”
As she patted the child's back,
the child's mother whispered into her ear with a tearful expression.
“If anything happens to Mommy and Daddy, and you end up alone.”
“Mmm….”
“You must go to the place I told you about before.”
It was a place she had told the child about in case the girl was ever left alone.
“If you go to the city of witches, our queen will protect you, Rika.”
Right afterward, faint red mana began to glow from the hand that had been patting the drowsing child.
After laying the child, who had fallen into a deep sleep under the effect of the sleeping spell, on the bed,
the child's mother gazed at the sky outside the window, which had been black only moments ago but was gradually turning red,
and slowly rose from her seat.
“…O Mother Capella… Why would you inflict such a trial on this little child? What sin has she committed?”
Taking up again the staff she had put away after meeting her husband,
the child's mother
took one last look at the sleeping child's face.
-Find her! Even if we have to burn down the entire forest!
-Over there! That's the direction her father held them off from until he died!
-There will be a great reward for whoever brings the child to us!
When she stepped outside, voices reached her from afar.
-Grind.
She clenched her teeth until they audibly grated,
then quietly extended a hand toward the house behind her and created a barrier.
Then, with a soft rustle, the house melted into the surrounding scenery.
Thus.
“I'm sorry I can't stay with you until the end, my baby.”
Along with her fluttering red hair, a rain of fire began to fall from the sky.
* *
The first thing the girl saw when she opened her eyes was
not the cozy ceiling of her home, but a stark white ceiling that somehow felt desolate.
“Huh…?”
As though she had not yet fully awakened,
the girl looked around with sleepy eyes and a dazed voice.
“Where am I…? Mommy…? Daddy…?”
The girl soon sat up with tears in her eyes and searched for her parents, but
-Stab!
before she could start crying,
something pierced the girl's stomach.
“Aaaah―!”
Screaming from the pain shooting up from her stomach,
the girl lowered her eyes and stared at the large sword protruding through her abdomen.
-Whoosh! Crash!
Behind the girl, an old man lifted and swung the sword he had ruthlessly driven into her.
The old man stared dispassionately at the drops of blood flowing along the blade, then turned his gaze toward the girl who had been thrown far away,
“Ho ho. Indeed.”
and grinned as he watched the girl's abdomen, split wide open, slowly knit itself back together.
“Ever since I heard that a child whose head was crushed by a falling rock had come back to life, you have no idea how much I have looked forward to this.”
Before long, as though the injury itself had been a lie,
the girl's abdomen, visible through her torn clothes, had somehow returned to its flawless white state without a single wound.
The old man began looking at the girl, his hideous face full of greed.
“Ah, ugh….”
The girl herself was too panicked even to realize that her stomach had healed, however.
“The Immortal Imprint. Truly an appropriate name.”
The old man merely licked his lips at the sight of her,
“Begin. For the sake of my eternal life.”
and ordered the people around him.
“If she cannot die anyway, feel free to be as rough as you like. Just bring me results.”
And so.
“Ah, u-uh, o-oh, don't come near meee―!”
The girl's hell began.
* *
How much time had passed since then?
-Clank.
“…I don't even feel pain anymore.”
The girl, now a woman, Frederica,
quietly murmured as she sat with all four limbs bound in thick iron chains, sunlight filtering in through a window high in the distant spire.
The old man who had first kidnapped her and called himself a king had long since died when his lifespan ran out,
but his descendants, from son to grandson, had continued to imprison her and research immortality, generation after generation.
“Sigh.”
Even if her head were cut off, she would not die.
Even if her heart were pierced, she would not die.
Even if all the blood were drained from her body, or she were burned until nothing remained but ash,
her body would continue regenerating.
Perhaps because she belonged to a long-lived race destined to live for many years,
decades had passed with her living on, literally unable to die, without even being able to go mad.
“I miss Mommy….”
Her human father had probably reached the end of his lifespan, so there was nothing she could do about him,
but her caring mother must surely be looking for her.
And so, as Frederica lamented,
-Drrrrrr….
“Huh.”
she noticed the surroundings growing noisy along with a sudden vibration.
-We have to hurry and help the hero!
-Damn it, why is there a disaster-class threat in the capital…!
What she heard were the frantic voices of the mages who usually dissected and researched her body.
And Frederica quietly pondered one word she heard among them.
“The hero… They said the hero saved people who were suffering and in pain….”
As she recalled the stories her parents had once told her while they held her on their laps,
-Bang! Rumble rumble…!
“Could they perhaps save me, too?”
Frederica was staring blankly at the shaking wall of the spire when
-Crack!
“Huh?”
As the vibrations continued, the chains binding her shattered with a sound,
and Frederica suddenly regained the freedom of her limbs.
“Huh…?”
The commotion outside had even caused those who usually watched over her to leave their posts.
-Creeeak.
Perhaps because she had already been imprisoned for decades,
the door to the room where she was confined did not even have an ordinary lock on it.
“Gulp.”
Swallowing nervously, Frederica cautiously headed outside the spire.
Unlike usual, she crossed the spacious castle grounds without finding so much as a shadow of another person.
-Kra-kaboom!
“Wow… It's pretty….”
Some distance away, she caught sight of a huge monster rampaging,
and a man holding a greatsword that shone white as he fought it.
She also saw people fleeing from the monster right before her eyes.
“Aaaah!”
“Hurry! Run!”
Frederica forced her stiff limbs to move and slipped among the fleeing people,
escaping so effortlessly that all her fears of being discovered and captured again seemed foolish.
“Huff, huff…!”
Panting heavily, Frederica hid in a back alley far from the city center,
“Excuse me, are you all right?”
“Eek―!?”
and screamed at the sudden male voice from behind her.
“Ah, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to startle you….”
Seeing Frederica stagger backward and sink down as though her legs had given out,
a black-haired man who looked barely old enough to be an adult awkwardly scratched his head.
“You seemed to be in some kind of trouble….”
“Wh-who, who are you…?”
“Er… My name is Ray….”
Despite her mature appearance, Frederica looked like a tearful child.
The man who introduced himself as Ray could only stand there awkwardly, looking flustered and unsure what to do.
“Hey, Ray―! What are you doing running off on your own―!”
Then a red-haired woman came running toward Ray, shouting angrily.
The short-haired woman, who also looked barely old enough to be an adult, grabbed Ray by the collar and shook him several times before
“Huh? Who's this?”
finally noticing Frederica crouched beside him and sniffling, she asked Ray.
“Well, you see….”
Ray confessed that he had been worried after seeing Frederica, dressed in rags, slip into the alley while helping evacuate people, and had run over to her.
“Honestly, you're too kind for your own good.”
“Haha. Anyway, you're going to help her, right, Stella?”
The red-haired woman, Stella,
turned her reddening face away from Ray as he asked with a bright smile, then quietly nodded.
“Let me introduce myself again. My name is Ray. I'm an adventurer.”
“…I'm Stella. An adventurer too.”
The two soon extended their hands toward the seated Frederica, as though telling her to stand.
Frederica did not know what to do with the kindness she was experiencing for the first time since being imprisoned in the tower,
“I-I’m Fr-Frederica.”
and shyly clasped the two hands extended toward her,
and Frederica returned to the place where her original home had stood together with Ray, the otherworlder she had met by chance.
Thus.
After about a month of travel, when she returned to the place where her home had stood, what she encountered was
【Wise Witch, Thalia. Resting here.】
【Veteran Mercenary, Arvan. Resting here.】
not the house in the blue forest from her memories, but two tombstones standing on a barren hill, bearing the familiar names of her parents.