Chapter 5: Is This Also Part of the Cost?

“Looks like it, really looks like it… this is the damn exact same face!”

Inside the pitch-black bathroom, a girl with a soft, curvy figure stood there wearing an oversized shirt. Between the unbuttoned gaps, a few hints of pale skin peeked through.

Dispel stared at the absolutely gorgeous girl reflected in the mirror, and her eyelids twitched uncontrollably.

Her makeup-less face was clean and natural, almost unreal in its delicacy. Her bright golden eyes were dazzling, paired with long platinum-white hair cascading to her waist—like some kind of rare silk, like an angel descending.

Her mouth was small. Her eyes weren’t the typical elegant phoenix shape seen on classical beauties. The slight droop at the corners added a faint, lingering sorrow to her entire expression, an easy trigger for anyone’s protective instincts.

The Dispel in the mirror was, through and through, a young girl. White hair, golden eyes—identical to the woman who appeared not long ago. If there was any difference, it was only the utterly bewildered expression on Dispel’s face.

She had been scammed!

That damn woman talked about “a price,” and in the end, her so-called price was turning Dispel into a copy of herself?!!

Completely unreasonable…

After leaving the basement, the very first thing Dispel did was return home. Considering how complicated things were, she had to prepare in advance for what came next.

Her identification papers, money, and all other important documents were at home. In the Empire, these things were everything—you could lose anything, except these.

Especially money.

Out in the world you can be missing everything, but you absolutely cannot be missing money.

But the moment she got home and looked in the mirror, she went dumb on the spot.

The person in the mirror was exactly the same as that woman.

For a moment, she even felt that staying locked in the basement by Josuna might’ve been better—at least then she could’ve kept the things a man should have.

She wondered if she still had a chance to regret her choice.

“Light Witch… Peleti? Tch… was she talking about me?” Dispel tried to recall that woman’s words. Thinking back, the woman was probably the type who treasured every word—never speaking unless necessary.

Which meant, to her, this identity must be important.

Her goal was to make Dispel a witch?

But witches had disappeared from human history for hundreds of years. Now, information about witches was extremely scarce—maybe even nonexistent.

Witches were originally transformed from humans, but the relationship between the two was absolute hostility—worse than cats and mice.

In ancient times, the Church’s Witch-Hunting Corps was created specifically to hunt witches. But the older witches lived in the borderlands between humans and elves; under the elves’ protection, the hunters couldn’t touch them. And since no new witches were born, the Witch-Hunting Corps eventually became an idle institution, later renamed the Harmonization Unit, taking on missions within the Empire.

But history recorded more about the hunters than the witches themselves.

So then—what was that woman after?

She couldn’t seriously be doing all of this just to mess with her, right?

Even though Dispel’s mind was a fog of questions, one thing bothered her most:

Why did becoming a witch turn her into a girl?!!!

Calm down… calm down…

At least she was free now.

Dispel looked at her reflection and poked her own cheek.

“So soft… like some fluffy, sweet little cake…”

With a body like this, if Josuna ever found her, she probably wouldn’t even be able to run.

“No, no—what am I even thinking…”

Still, the clothes were a problem. Wearing her old outfits made her look like a child stealing adult clothes—cuter, yes, but…

If Dispel met a girl this beautiful on the street, she’d be thrilled. Unfortunately, that girl was now herself.

Too late to regret anything now. She had no choice but to accept it.

More importantly, she needed to use this opportunity to leave the city.

It was the safest option. With Josuna, Dispel didn’t dare gamble on whether she could detect her witch transformation. If she were discovered, Josuna could use her witch identity as leverage. Then no matter if she was imprisoned, tortured, or dragged onto the streets with a collar around her neck for display, people would praise Josuna for it.

Staying near a predator was never safe.

The ideal plan: take a large sum of money, catch a night train, and disappear to another city—as far away as possible.

And she did have such a large sum of money.

After her parents died, the police chief had given her a sizable pension. Since Dispel lived alone and was weak, she worried someone might target the money—so she had hidden all of it behind her mirror.

No one knew this except Dispel. Not Josuna, not Brenda.

Now this money finally had a use.

As for the destination, she already had a good choice—Farisa.

She had looked into it before.

A new rising city in the Empire’s east—full of imperial policies boosting industry, attracting countless merchants.

A booming place with many outsiders. Perfect for disappearing.

Dispel grabbed a stool to add to her new, increased height, struggled to remove the mirror, and gently set it on the ground.

“Alright!”

She turned toward the dark compartment behind the mirror. The light was dim, but once she saw what was inside, her face froze.

“Where the hell is my money?!!!”

Her world collapsed.

The money was gone. In its place lay a set of women’s clothing and an opened identification booklet.

Ignoring everything else, she grabbed the neatly folded clothes and the ID and tossed them aside—revealing only five gold coins and two silver coins at the bottom.

Dispel remembered clearly—there had been at least hundreds of gold coins in here. Now only five lonely coins sat in the enormous compartment.

She picked up the ID booklet. Written clearly on it was:

—Citizen of the Isaac Empire: Peleti

It had an anti-counterfeit seal and even a photo—showing her exact dead-fish-eyed expression.

And the clothes… there was no doubt who had made all of this.

So this was also part of the price…

“To go this far just to force this identity on me? Tch. I, Dispel— even if Josuna catches me today and locks me underground for life, I will NEVER put on this outfit or take this ID and get on a train!”