Chapter 36: An Impossible Cooperation

When Caroline became a witch, it was already the final stage of the Month of Greed. At that time, although humans and witches still maintained a façade of cooperation, in reality their relationship had already reached a breaking point—one spark was all it would take to ignite open conflict.

That spark was the death of the Blood Witch.

The strongest among the witches had fallen. With no one left who could restrain humanity, they naturally turned their blades against the witches who had once fought alongside them.

From that moment on, humans and witches completely severed ties—and for Caroline, this was nothing short of a catastrophic start.

She had just become a witch, only to be met with humanity launching a full-scale purge of witches. Was there anything more unlucky in the world than that?

At the time, Caroline thought not. Back then, simply seeing another person on the road was enough to scare her half to death, and it was only thanks to the Star Witch that she was safely escorted back to the Tower.

Only now did she truly understand the weight of the old saying: there is always someone stronger, and always a higher sky beyond.

Peletti’s difficulty level for survival—was something that would be hard to overcome even with both Caroline and Feiye protecting her.

Putting aside the malice of the witches in the Tower for the moment, the prerequisite for witches to discriminate against Peletti was that she actually had to make it there alive. Given the current situation, it would already be an achievement if she could leave this city alive.

Over these days, Caroline had pored over a massive amount of human historical records. After finishing them, she was left with only one thought:

How has humanity not gone extinct yet?

Races waged war against races, nations fought nations, and even faiths slaughtered one another. Caroline even wondered whether, at this rate, battlefields would eventually produce scenes like—

The enemy I just stabbed muttering the name of his god with his dying breath, while my own ally beside me suddenly starts shouting slogans about heresy. No time to talk—I’ve got to go beat the heretics together with my teammates.

Absurd things like that.

If you’re going to wage war like this, doesn’t it all just collapse into chaos? Or are wars between nations and wars between churches somehow separate things?

It was utterly ridiculous. After fighting like this for so long, humanity still hadn’t gone extinct. Their reproductive ability was truly impressive.

If any other race fought like this, they would have gone extinct long ago.

And the city Peletti was currently in was facing precisely a religious war.

Unlike proper battlefield warfare, wars between religions were usually extremely insidious. Put simply: as long as they could bring you down, anything went—don’t ask about the methods.

On one side was the Church of Gluttony. On the other was the Church of Holy Light. And at present, the Holy Light Church was clearly on the losing end—and wouldn’t be able to hold out much longer.

When the followers of the Church of Gluttony eventually charged in and saw Peletti’s high affinity for light, a bunch of fanatics shouting “High-value target ahead!” would rush her—and she genuinely might not be able to stop them.

You couldn’t exactly say that someone with such high light affinity had nothing to do with the Church of Holy Light, right?

Who would believe that?

Peletti was also a witch—and witches were explicitly on the Holy Light Church’s and the Tuning Division’s kill-on-sight lists. It could be said that the moment her identity as a witch was exposed, the Holy Light Church would hack her to pieces without hesitation.

The Church of Gluttony wanted her dead.

The Church of Holy Light wanted her dead.

The Tuning Division wanted her dead.

That night, when Peletti had been saved by Feiye, Caroline had heard every word clearly from the catgirl’s mouth: the number-one assassination target among the beastfolk was no longer the current Saintess—it was Peletti.

Although she didn’t know what possessed the beastfolk princess to act this way, one thing was certain: she had learned of some prophecy concerning Peletti from somewhere and wanted her dead.

The beastfolk wanted her dead too.

Most witches wanted her dead as well.

When Caroline fully grasped this, she suddenly felt as though the entire world was conspiring against Peletti.

Back then, at least Caroline herself could hide and flee. But now? Everyone was closing in from all sides—where was she supposed to run?

It was as if the whole world only had two safe places left: the vampires and the elves.

After thinking it through, Caroline decided she had to take Peletti back immediately.

Back there, at least there would only be hostility from witches. With Isabena’s deterrence, those witches with ill intent wouldn’t dare act rashly against Peletti.

The beastfolk wouldn’t dare chase her all the way to the Tower either. And if some brave soul actually tried, Caroline would at least commend them for their courage.

The place that had once been the most dangerous for Peletti had now become the safest.

And then, turning her head, Caroline discovered that this little brat had somehow gotten involved with the Isachsen family. At that moment, Caroline felt as if the sky itself were collapsing.

Was she really trying to die faster?

“You refuse? Do you have any idea that your only way to survive right now is to leave this hellhole with me?!”

“All I know is that if I leave now, I’ll die even faster.”

“And why do you think that?”

“Even if I don’t know what kind of witch you are, let me ask you this—if I really went with you to that so-called Tower, how many witches there would truly treat me as an equal?”

That question clearly stunned Caroline. She hadn’t expected a newly born witch to think about things on this level. No wonder Peletti hadn’t asked Feiye to take her away when they first met—she had her own plans.

Caroline suddenly wanted to hear what this little one was planning.

At present, she knew almost nothing about this newborn witch. Taking this opportunity to understand her better didn’t seem like a bad idea.

Seeing that the fat bird remained silent, Peletti continued.

“Would it be half? Thirty percent? Ten percent? None at all? Or maybe only the witch who sent you here—and you and Feiye? I’ve studied the history of that era. The Church’s betrayal is something witches absolutely loathe, and I just happen to possess light-element affinity. So whether it’s you or the witch who sent you, neither of you can guarantee that nothing will happen when other witches see my light affinity.”

“So I won’t go with you to that Tower.”

“Then what do you plan to do?”

“It’s simple. Get stronger—and survive.”

“But Sister, didn’t you say before that power only needs to be ‘enough’?” Feiye asked in confusion after hearing that.

“I said it just needs to be enough—but I haven’t even reached the ‘enough’ standard yet. Of course I need to get stronger! Anyway, my current plan is to first learn light-element magic. Other than the Church of Holy Light, there’s nowhere else to learn light magic. And with the Church of Gluttony setting its sights on this technologically advanced city, the church being too busy to spare attention is the perfect opportunity.”

“You still want to go to the church? No! Absolutely not! The Holy Light Church’s internal detection methods are far stronger than you imagine. Even if those simple bracelets can’t detect you, once you enter the cathedral, you’ll definitely be exposed!”

“I never said I was going.”

“What do you mean by that…?”

Caroline looked utterly confused. Then she saw Peletti’s lips curl into a mysterious smile as her finger traced an elegant arc through the air before pointing lightly toward the doorway.

Following her gaze, Caroline saw that Elberna had somehow appeared behind the half-open door, watching everything inside the room with great interest.

“Hi~ I didn’t interrupt anything, did I?”