Chapter 37: The Table Is a Bit Heavy

“So that’s how it is.
Your real objective was to force me to reveal myself and meet this girl.
You used me as a bargaining chip to negotiate with her…
But how did you manage it?
I’ve been secretly observing you these past few days, and you never had a chance to be alone with her.”

The moment Elberna’s figure entered her sight, Caroline instantly understood Peletti’s scheme, and at the same time couldn’t help admiring the girl’s sharp mind.

This little one intended to leverage the power of the Isachsen family to obtain light-element magic.
The head of the Isachsen family was an imperial duke with immense authority, and for his daughter to borrow books from within the Church was practically effortless.

Even without filing a report, the people of the Church would probably not dare say much.

The only thing that confused Caroline was that Peletti had clearly already reached some sort of cooperation with Elberna.

To ensure this little one’s safety, Caroline had been watching her day and night these past few days, not even missing the details when she changed clothes.

Peletti couldn’t use magic, and the Isachsen family was not skilled in mental magic either, so mental communication was impossible.

So how on earth had she done it?

Moreover, the door had clearly been closed.
Before entering, Caroline had deliberately checked the entire room and only revealed herself after confirming it was sealed.
Yet now Elberna was standing behind a half-open door—and the door had been opened without her noticing in the slightest.

Her curiosity about this little one grew stronger by the moment.

“This question is actually quite simple.
Allow me to explain it to you, Lady Caroline.”

Elberna bent down and picked up a gold coin from the threshold, twirling it deftly between her fingers twice before flicking it lightly.
The coin traced an arc through the air and was caught steadily by Peletti.

“For someone like Miss Peletti, who values money above all else—someone who would even abandon dignity and shame for a single gold coin—how could she possibly fail to notice a coin falling right in front of the door?
This coin just happened to get stuck perfectly in the door crack.
Miss Melantha didn’t notice it.
It both jammed the door and deceived your perception.
That’s all there was to it.”

“To be honest, it’s rather embarrassing.
I thought I had been the one to seize Miss Peletti’s weakness first, but now it seems I was the prey who walked straight into the trap.”

A single gold coin…

Caroline stared at the gleaming coin in Peletti’s hand and fell into deep thought.

She had never imagined she would be deceived by something as trivial as a gold coin.

Just as Elberna had said, how could someone obsessed with wealth possibly remain unaware of their own money falling to the ground?

Perhaps even that trait of “loving money” had been something Peletti deliberately performed for Elberna to see from the very beginning.

But only Feiye knew that Peletti’s greed was not an act at all.

“Then how did you discover that she was a witch?”

“Well, that was naturally thanks to the information provided by Yilian.
A girl this beautiful—how could her personal file possibly be cleaner than my face?
No matter what, there should at least be a few records of harassment cases, don’t you think, Lady Caroline?”

Hearing Elberna’s words, Peletti hugged the fat bird—whose waist was thicker than her own—in disbelief.

“Let’s put the negotiation aside for now.
Forgive my ignorance, but could you tell me how you figured out that this fat bird is called Caroline?”

“Well… actually, the name Caroline is quite famous across many nations.
She’s a renowned historical figure, and her name appears in many alchemy and magic textbooks.
In my family’s records on living alchemy, that successful case perfectly matches this bird’s characteristics, so it wasn’t difficult to guess.
However, only a very small number of people know that Caroline was a witch.”

“Oh?
I didn’t expect you to be such a celebrity in the human world.
How impressive.”

With her identity exposed, Caroline had no choice but to abandon any further attempt at hiding.
After all, the other party was a descendant of her own student, and continuing to speak through an alchemical creation would indeed be discourteous.

More importantly, she truly could not stand this little brat’s sarcasm any longer.
The first thing she did after flashing into the room was to lightly knock Peletti on the forehead.
The force was perfectly controlled—enough to teach a lesson, but not enough to hurt her.

“Why did you hit me?”
Peletti rubbed her aching forehead and looked at the suddenly appearing Caroline with a hint of grievance, already feeling a small bump forming.

The fat bird in her hands had its eye color shift from gold to green.

“I hit your ignorance.
You dared to reveal all your cards without even figuring out the Isachsen family’s background.
Do you have any idea that if something went wrong, the three of us would all die here?”
Caroline casually retrieved her creation from Peletti’s arms.

“Gah-gah! Gah-gah-gah!”

“All right, Little Green.
I’ll change you into a new set of feathers once we get back.”

“Relax, nothing will go wrong.
With a family like theirs, the fact that no reinforcements have arrived for two whole days basically means they intend for her to handle it alone.
How could she possibly fight a witch by herself?
I think Elberna’s original plan was to cooperate with us, wasn’t it?”

Peletti turned her gaze toward Elberna, who had just closed the door behind her.

“Haha, that’s true.
After all, asking me to deal with witches alone would be far too much,” Elberna said with a helpless smile.

“Good.
Then I’ll start stating my conditions.
I want all magic related to the light element, all Isachsen family records concerning witches, help hiding my identity in the human world, a perfected personal file, and assistance in leaving this place once I finish learning magic.”

“Doesn’t Miss Peletti think her demands are a bit excessive?”

“And what can you do about it?
Other than accepting, do you have any other choice?”
Peletti pointed behind her at the two witches standing there.

She was not worried in the slightest that Elberna would refuse or go back on her word.
Elberna had no other option.

Compared to facing two unfathomably powerful witches at the same time, helping Peletti obtain light-element magic and legal identification was far easier.
Anyone would consider this deal the better bargain.

“That’s true…
All right, cooperation established.
The witch-related records will take some time—about three days.
Don’t look at me like that; there’s nothing I can do about it.
My family isn’t the Church, and investigations in this area are very strict.
That’s the only way.”

Peletti’s desire for light-element magic was most likely meant as a countermeasure against the Church of Holy Light.
Did this mean the witches were already preparing to go to war with the Holy Light Church?
The possibility was very small.
The witches had once been driven back by the Church of Holy Light—if war were to break out now, it would only be because the Church took the initiative.

Elberna had once heard from a certain bishop that the Empire was planning to go to war with the elves, and she had thought she misheard at the time.
Now, it seemed that rumor was indeed true.

As for the witch records, that was even harder to understand.
She herself was a witch—how could she possibly encounter matters related to witches that she knew nothing about?

The strength of these three witches was completely unknown.
If conflict could be avoided, it should be avoided at all costs.
Time had to be dragged out.

From beginning to end, Elberna had never fully trusted witches.
Even in her family’s records, witches were described as extremely dangerous beings—pure egoists who would stop at nothing to achieve their goals.

Elberna had seen no fewer than ten records of witches harming their own relatives.
A tiger does not eat its cubs—but witches would.

Thus, in her eyes, witches were purely evil beings, and only cooperation driven by利益 could ever be trusted.

Peletti had precisely seized her weak point.
Considering the safety of the city’s civilians, even with comparable strength, Elberna was unwilling to go to war with three witches.
Now that Peletti had proposed cooperation and a series of demands, she could only accept.
There was no other choice.

In the end, the witch problem in Farisa had been caused by them in the first place.
These three witches had the power to flip the table— and she did not.