Chapter 115
As Odilia glared at the man with a mixture of bewilderment and anger on her face, the man shrugged his shoulders as if to ask what the problem was.
"As you can see, it's the hammer that judges witches. Don't you know?"
With the man's words, the book in her hands opened by itself. Then the pages moved frantically as if scattered by a strong wind. As it looked like an invisible being was quickly searching for some passage, the Grand Witch couldn't help but throw the book onto the table without realizing it.
But the book didn't bounce or close, instead continuing to turn pages on the table just as it had been in the Grand Witch's hands, and finally stopped moving when it reached a blank page.
A blank page was not nothing, but merely a preparation stage for something to be written.
Black ink began to squirm and fill the white, semi-transparent page, forming sentences in Latin that looked as if they were hastily scrawled with a quill pen.
The Grand Witch found herself reading those words without realizing it.
"In the name of God..."
White light burst forth from the book.
Infinitely similar to sunlight. But rather than being warm, the light containing heat infinitely close to madness formed the shape of a cross for a moment before scattering like mist. The scattered light clung to the cafe walls, creating a barrier.
And as the barrier was created, the appearance of the cafe suddenly began to change.
The customers who had existed until just a moment ago shattered into pieces and became insects, clinging to the cafe ceiling.
The staff became expressionless mannequins.
The bright and cheerful atmosphere of the cafe became gloomy and damp as if in an abandoned house, and stains appeared all over the previously spotless cafe.
The fragrant coffee aroma became the pungent smell of mold, and the windows that had shown the outside scenery were coated with something black and turned into mirrors.
A sealed room.
The cafe had become a sealed room.
A sealed room where no one could enter, and no one could leave.
"Maleficos non patieris vivere."
The man picked up the book like a priest and spoke.
His appearance was like that of a pastor giving a sermon.
Truly devout, truly believable.
They say that the believers listening to that sermon couldn't resist chanting along with it.
[ God says! ]
[ You shall not suffer a maleficus to live! ]
The mannequins shouted.
The mannequins stretched one hand upward as if alive, and drew ears and mouths with insects on their empty faces to shout. Every time the mannequins shouted, the insects clinging to their mouths moved and changed shape, and the bizarre voice created by the sound of insects' wing beats echoed throughout the cafe.
"What is a maleficus!"
[ It is those who blaspheme God! ]
[ Those who are with idols, offer sacrifices to idols, and worship idols! ]
The shadows stretched long on the wall spoke.
The shadows, using the light from the lamps that seemed about to go out as their roots, spread and moved their formless bodies to create mouths and ears, and spoke while shaking their bodies.
Words heard not with ears but with the soul.
That gloomy and sunken will transmitted through the shadows clearly reached the man and the Grand Witch.
"Those who try to plunge people into spiritual ignorance. Idol worshippers who distance themselves from God. Terrible beings who taint everyone with sin. Those whose secrets are evil, causing people to fall into evil, and spreading harm on their path, making everyone unhappy. God has said that such beings are wicked witches."
The man shouted.
"You shall not suffer a witch to live (Maleficos non patieris vivere)!"
[ Maleficos non patieris vivere! ]
[ Maleficos non patieris vivere! ]
[ Maleficos non patieris vivere! ]
Shouts were heard from all over the cafe as if responding to the man's words.
Evil spirits welled up from the tables and danced with bizarre gestures while answering, shadow people densely occupying the walls shook their bodies and shouted, and faceless mannequins cried out again and again with mouths drawn by insects.
"However, as it is not right to kill the innocent, we must properly follow the order."
The man grasped the air.
Then a small wooden hammer decorating the cafe came into his hand.
"Here, in the name of God, we begin the trial. No evil thing shall violate this place!"
[ A holy trial! ]
[ A holy trial! ]
"You crazy divine sorcerer!"
Odilia was enraged.
She jumped up from her seat, grabbed her handbag, and drew out the enormous power flowing beneath her skin. Then a scent full of pheromones burst from her pores, and her body temperature rose, causing her body to turn red.
Her heart, which usually beat calmly, pounded madly, and blood circulated throughout her body as if about to break it, drawing out vitality.
Yes.
Vitality.
The power that witches used in witchcraft was vitality.
The power that all living beings possessed.
The power that determined a person's health and lifespan.
And, the power that made it possible to create miracles in the world in the form of change.
"How dare you try to attack me-! Do you think you can kill me by creating this kind of barrier!"
Odilia screamed with anger as if about to tear.
Her cry was so fierce and sharp that it felt like just hearing it could cut one's ears and tear apart one's brain.
But even as Odilia drew out her vitality and burst with anger, the man remained calm, standing in place and just looking at her.
No, he was not just looking, but even sending her a favorable gaze.
"Hahaha. I have no intention of attacking you right now."
The man's atmosphere changed.
From the tone of an innocent young boy to that of an old man who had been through thick and thin, and the atmosphere that had been so pure and clear like clean water changed to that of a swamp so deep and dark that one couldn't even guess what was in it.
His face.
His clothes.
His body.
Nothing had changed except the atmosphere.
But that changed atmosphere was so alien.
So vastly different from his innocent appearance just moments ago.
Odilia could only stare at the man, forgetting even her anger.
"So withdraw your vitality and sit down."
The man said this to Odilia, who was blankly staring at him.
The man's tone was so calm.
As if he believed that Odilia wouldn't harm him even a hair's breadth.
No, perhaps it was because he thought she couldn't harm him.
That attitude was enough to stimulate Odilia, who had been momentarily stunned by the shock as if hit on the back of the head, and Odilia glared at the seated man, feeling the fire of anger reigniting that had disappeared.
The man was looking straight at her while holding the book, seemingly unaffected by her glare that looked as if it could kill.
"I said, withdraw your vitality, didn't I?"
A gaze clearly looking down from above.
Words closer to an order than a request.
Odilia burst with anger at this arrogant attitude and used witchcraft.
"You mere divine sorcerer!"
When vitality and will combined, miracles could be manifested.
The witchcraft she manifested seeped into the chair and table where the man was sitting.
The power that seeped in would transform the table and chair into monstrous forms, becoming her faithful minions to tear him apart.
Yes.
They had to tear him apart.
"...You."
"What, is something not working well?"
The man smirked mockingly.
That smile resembled the expression the Grand Witch had worn earlier when looking at him.
* * *
The beginning of witches was not properly recorded.
Some say it was a transformation of female druids crossing over to the European continent, while others say that a druid who was the 'first witch' discovered some systematic law and developed it into witchcraft.
Some mention the similarity between the techniques used by witches and alchemy to say that the origin of witches was Arabic, some say the origin was China because the desire for youth resembles the art of elixir refinement, and some say that witchcraft was created by imitating the power obtained through contracts with transcendent beings.
But if there was one thing for certain.
It was that beings called witches used a power unique to witches called witchcraft, and lived with the purpose of eternal youth.
Witchcraft was an ability that used vitality as energy.
More precisely, it was an ability to manifest the power of 'change' by carving vitality with will.
Making inanimate objects move like living things.
Turning plants and animals into monsters to use as guards for self-protection.
Creating medicines by mixing substances extracted from living things.
If alchemy was the power to change inanimate objects, witchcraft was the power to change living things.
Of course, since it acted on living things, uncontrollable changes could occur.
There was even an expression 'witch's cauldron', meaning 'chaos itself where you don't know what will appear'.
And these uncontrollable accidents, the occurrence of variables that witches called 'fairy pranks', sometimes became disasters.
Something meant to be a simple medicine for disease could become a terrible epidemic, fertilizer meant to be sprinkled on fields could become a deadly poison capable of killing twenty strong men with a single drop, and attempts to strengthen pets could result in creating terrible monsters.
These accidents weren't a big problem for witches themselves.
Simple poisons or diseases weren't enough to kill witches overflowing with vitality, and even if pets mutated into monsters, it was nearly impossible for them to penetrate a witch's near-monstrous regenerative ability and harm their life. After all, witches were beings who could return to normal within a few hours even if their heads were cut off, and regenerate with vitality even if half their body was blown away.
But just because it was fine for a witch didn't mean it was fine for everyone else.
Poison.
Disease.
Monsters.
The results of accidents created by witches often escaped the witch's control and flew to ordinary people.
They flowed through water, flew on the wind, and moved contained in animals' bodies.
Poisons harmed people's lives and devastated the land.
Diseases caused pain to families and neighbors.
Monsters melted into the darkness of night, attacking people and becoming objects of fear.
Of course, these things didn't happen frequently.
Fairy pranks themselves weren't that common, and even if they occurred, most were resolved on the spot by the witch.
But even if it escaped once in a hundred times.
Even if it harmed people once in a thousand times.
That became perception, and perception soon became prejudice.
This prejudice accumulated in the form of discontent, suppressed by the powerful force of witches.
The anger accumulated in this way became hatred, and that hatred finally burst.
Witch hunts.
Divine sorcerers, who were called 'saints' or 'saintess' at the time, turned their blades on witches.