Chapter 5: I Haven’t Read Much…

“Fine, fine.

I’ll explain now, alright, Miss Sophia?”

Karin finally relented.

“Hmph.

That’s more like it.”

Sophia crossed her arms, waiting for Karin’s explanation.

“Here’s what happened.

A few days ago, I went to the demon realm personally to rescue that boy I mentioned.

I did manage to save him in the end, but… we ran into a bit of trouble along the way and angered someone we shouldn’t have.

So we ran all the way to Rosa’s place.

You know the rest—I brought Rosa’s phylactery back through the cross-dimensional gate, her puppet was killed, and her soul returned to her original body.”

“Someone we shouldn’t have?

There aren’t many demonic beings in the demon realm who could threaten you and kill Rosa the Great at the same time.”

So in Sophia’s eyes, Karin and I were already among the stronger beings in this world?

“Uh, well… it was the Demon King.”

Karin finally admitted the truth.

For a moment, the air in the room seemed to freeze solid.

“The Demon King?

You angered the Demon King!”

Sophia shouted in disbelief.

“Y-yes.”

Karin answered honestly.

Sophia stared at Karin with wide, beautiful eyes.

“Not only have we lost an emergency refuge in the demon realm, but we’ve also provoked the Demon King!”

“Yep, that’s about right.”

Sophia pressed a hand to her forehead.

“Karin, this time you’ve gone too far!” she yelled through gritted teeth.

She looked absolutely livid—her face had even turned pale.

“Never mind.

I don’t have time to scold you right now.

I need to issue a red alert immediately, warning all witches to stay away from the demon realm.”

With that, Sophia headed for the door.

Karin stuck her tongue out at me playfully.

“Miss Karin, I will be reporting every detail of this incident to the higher-ups of the Witch Association.

The Grand Witches will discuss your punishment together.

Though you are also a Grand Witch, and a senior contemporary of Rosa the Great, I will still be temporarily barring you from leaving Witch’s Home.”

She paused at the door, turning back to address Karin, who was wearing an awkward, wry smile.

“I hope you will reflect on your actions.”

With that, Sophia slammed the door shut and left.

“Oh dear, this is going to be troublesome.”

“Is… is it really that bad?

The higher-ups of the Witch Association—what will they do to you?”

Even though Karin had dragged me into this mess, I couldn’t help but worry about her.

“Don’t worry, little Rosa.

I’m a Grand Witch myself.

Even if they punish me, it’ll just be house arrest for a decade or two at most.

They won’t do anything too severe.”

Karin replied with absolute confidence, looking like an experienced veteran who had zero fear of crashing and burning.

“Anyway, enough about that—can you tell me honestly how much of your memory you’ve actually lost?

Was it because of some dangerous experiment?”

Huh, so I’d already been exposed?

I thought I’d managed to hide it.

The only silver lining was that she didn’t know I wasn’t really Rosa—she just thought I’d lost my memories.

“Um… when did you figure it out?”

“From the very beginning.

I noticed the moment I saw you.”

“Eh, how…”

“Even though we haven’t seen each other in two hundred years, we’ve been exchanging letters all along.

I told you days ago that I was coming to visit.”

So that was it.

I’d never been able to hide my memory loss from the start.

I’d been wondering why she was so familiar with me after two hundred years apart—turns out we’d kept in touch the whole time.

“Actually… I’ve lost almost all my memories.”

“No way… th-then, did you not even remember me earlier?”

“Yeah.

When I first saw you, I had no idea who you were.”

Karin gasped sharply at that.

“What about dark magic?

Do you still remember that?

Or lich frost magic, curses, things like that?”

“I can only cast some basic spells.”

“Then, what about the results of your experiments over the past two hundred years?”

“All gone.”

“The magical theory we studied together under our teacher?”

“Not a trace.”

“The method for creating a lich’s puppet body?”

“I don’t know that either… Huh?

Wait, why are you specifically asking about that?”

“Huh?

Oh, just curious.”

There’s no way that was just curiosity—I could see the smile she was barely hiding at the corners of her mouth!

“I don’t want a loli body anymore!

Give me a different one.”

“Why?

Isn’t it cute?”

“Because I’m a—no, because a loli body is inconvenient.”

“Hmph.

The choice is mine.

Liches are practically extinct in this world.

The teacher who taught you lich magic is long gone.

You have no other options.”

“No matter what… I’m not going to give in.”

“Are you planning to just run around this world in only your original body?”

“Can’t I use something like a corpse as a puppet?”

“Idiot.

Where did you get that idea?

You can’t just use anyone’s body.

It has to be specially crafted to serve as a vessel for a lich’s soul.”

So that wasn’t possible, huh.

Watching me agonize over it, Karin was all smiles—which only made me more frustrated.

“The materials for creating a puppet body are extremely rare, and nobody else in the Witch Association understands lich-related magic.

For now, you’ll have to stick with your original body… I remember you mentioning in your letters that you’d simplified the alchemical process for making puppets… but you probably don’t remember that now, do you?”

So that had been the case.

If only I’d known… but what was the point now?

My lich tower was gone.

“Still, that means the legacy our teacher left specifically for you is as good as lost.

Those precious magic books must have all been in that tower, right?”

Karin said with a melancholy look.

“I don’t really mind, but… I know you always treasured our teacher’s belongings.”

“And with all that knowledge gone, you’re barely at the level of a novice witch now… I was originally going to ask you to look after Frey for me, but now it’s more like he’d have to look after you.”

A novice witch?

So that meant I was… a complete newbie now?

“I haven’t read much, so don’t try to fool me.”

“Do I have any reason to lie to you?”

“B-but I could easily kill demonic creatures in the demon realm back then!”

“Huh?

That’s only because those mindless demonic beasts only know how to charge head-on.

In the real world, how many people will fight you fair and square?

I’d say any halfway decent assassin could sneak up and knock you out from behind.

You were always someone who only cared about magical experiments and knew nothing about combat—and that was before.

Let alone now.”

“…Fine.”

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