Chapter 91: Has Emilia Really Become a Witch?! (Patreon)

That evening, in a dead-end alley in the royal capital's commercial district.

The air reeked of blood. Several corpses lay sprawled across the ground, and at the mouth of the alley, a few burly Iron Fang mercenaries stood grim-eyed, still not daring to relax their guard.

"That's the lot. On to the next hideout."

Julius sheathed his blood-soaked sword and swept his gaze over the bodies. Their clothes were no different from those of ordinary royal capital commoners. Had he not confirmed the intelligence beforehand, he would never have guessed this was a group of Witch Cult members lying in wait.

"Damn you… ignorant fools… You can't stop us from earning her favor!"

A cultist who wasn't quite dead dragged himself up out of the pool of blood. With the hand whose tendons had been severed, he desperately groped inside his coat for a self-destruct magic stone.

"Not so fast!"

Julius's pupils contracted, and he drew his sword and lunged forward.

Just then, a cold female voice rang out from above the alley.

"That's enough!"

Julius and the cultist about to blow himself up both looked up on instinct.

At the far end of the alley, atop the stone wall, Emilia stood quietly. The golden light of dusk spilled over her silver hair, shimmering with an uncanny gleam, and her pale violet eyes looked down with the imperious, all-disdaining authority of a ruler.

"Lady Witch!"

The cultist was like a drowning man who had caught his last straw. He dropped to his knees with a thud, and the magic stone fell from his coat and lay quietly on the ground.

As for Julius, his expression turned a little stiff.

He had heard about Emilia's plan before coming. Even so, watching a fanatical Witch Cult member prostrate himself before this noble and kindhearted girl as if she were the "Witch" stirred up a storm inside him.

Then again, it was probably a perfectly normal reaction. Who would have imagined that the royal candidate with the infamous "half-demon" reputation really was the so-called "Witch," the very soul of the Witch Cult?

He had to admit, this absurd yet faintly plausible turn of events suited the Lugnica server's excellent matchmaking system rather well.

"Lady Emilia… why?!"

Julius drew a deep breath and worked his face into an expression of shock tinged with grief, as if the girl's "fall" pained him to the core.

"Wake up while there's still time! The Emilia I knew could never be a vile witch like you!"

With that, Julius drew his sword and leveled the tip at Emilia. Lesser spirits of all six colors swirled around the blade, and his face hardened with resolve.

"If you persist in this folly, don't blame me when my sword shows no mercy!"

Emilia only gave a cold laugh.

"Then why don't you try me?"

She raised a hand, and a vast surge of ice mana gathered around her. Countless sharp ice lances formed in the air and shot toward Julius and the Iron Fang mercenaries with a piercing whistle.

"Fall back!"

Julius barked the order and retreated two steps. His knight's sword swept out in an arc of rainbow light and shattered the incoming lances one by one. Under cover of the flying ice shards, he turned and shot a look at the Iron Fang mercenaries behind him.

The mercenaries understood at once and nodded in unison, muttering things like "Damn witch!" and "Don't think this is over, bitch!" The words drew another icy curl from the corner of Emilia's lips as she stood on the wall.

Anyone else might have taken it for the wicked smile of a witch whose scheme had succeeded. Only Emilia herself knew she was simply about to burst out laughing.

Unlike Julius, who could mask his emotions perfectly, Emilia took promises very seriously and had barely told a lie in her whole life. She was no good at acting. She could just about manage in front of a pack of Witch Cult lunatics, but in front of people she knew, it was hard not to crack up.

Right then, a massive pillar of ice burst up from the ground and sealed the mouth of the alley, forcing Julius and the mercenaries to scramble back in disarray. Emilia leapt lightly down from the wall and strode over the carpet of ice shards to the half-dead cultist.

"Lady Witch… ohhh… thank you for your salvation!"

Though one of his arms had been severed and blood still gushed from his wounds, the fanatical cultist kept writhing along the ground, straining with all his might to go through the motions of a kowtow. Weeping, he began to recite the Gospel's hymns of praise to the Witch.

His ruined vocal cords made it nearly impossible for him to form whole sentences. Emilia had no idea what he was saying. She discreetly took half a step back, forced down her discomfort, and ordered in a cold voice:

"Get up. We're out of time! We have to gather the others and leave this place at once!"

"Yes! Yes!"

The cultist staggered to his feet and followed behind Emilia, up the steps of crystallized ice and out of the alley.

"Fell Goa!"

By the time Julius summoned a firestorm and smashed the huge block of ice, the alley held nothing but a floor of broken shards. He stamped his foot in a show of bitter fury, putting on a very convincing look of resentment. The Finest Knight, it had to be said, was as much a perfectionist as ever about seeing the whole act through.

"Damn witch! One day you'll pay for your betrayal! I—"

Halfway through, Julius cleared his throat and swallowed the rest. Since it was only an act, there was no need to swear on his family and his name that he would bring the "Witch" to justice.

If some busybody got wind of it and spread the word that Julius had sworn a blood oath against Emilia, heaven only knew how outrageous the gossip would grow in the royal capital's rumor mill. For his own sake and his brothers', discretion was the wiser course.

When he had gone back to the Juukulius main house the other day, his younger brother Joshua had told him that among the love-struck young girls and noblewomen of the royal capital, the "Three Heroes of the Royal Capital" had become the stuff of legend. Quite a few girls apparently believed the three cool guys shared some kind of bond far beyond friendship.

He'd even heard that some people had written the tale up as blush-inducing little booklets and were passing them around in private. That had given Julius a cold sweat.

One could only say that everyone's imagination was a bit too rich. On top of that, rumor had it that Natsuki Subaru could "transform into a peerless beauty," and the gossip had even gained a love-triangle element. Melodramas like "the Finest Knight and the Sword Saint duel over the mysterious black-haired Dragon Maiden" were being told in vivid detail.

Impossible! Absolutely impossible!

Julius swore to himself that he could never harbor such improper feelings toward his own sworn brothers!

"Lord Julius, where to next?" one of the Iron Fang mercenaries beside him asked, cutting off his wandering thoughts.

Julius gathered himself and regained his usual elegant, composed air.

"Let's rendezvous with Lady Anastasia first. The coming battle is the real fight."

Meanwhile, at the Karsten estate far away, Natsuki Subaru was facing a row of ground dragons when his nose suddenly itched and he nearly sneezed. The odd look on his face made Ferris, standing beside him, ask:

"Nya? What's wrong, Subaru-kyun? Feeling unwell somewhere?"

"Nothing." Natsuki Subaru shook his head. "I think somebody's either missing me or badmouthing me…"

He figured it was either that little widow Priscilla complaining again about him running off to mess around, or Ciel or Emilia and the others missing him. The possibility that it was his own second brother never even crossed his mind.

"How suspicious~ Don't tell me you've got some romantic debt you haven't paid back?"

Ferris eyed him with deep suspicion, the cat ears atop his head twitching twice. Then he turned to look at the line of sturdy ground dragons beside them, rumbling with low hisses, and went on:

"Anyway, nya, Subaru-kyun doesn't have a ground dragon of his own yet, right? Subjugating the White Whale is a huge battle, and going on foot would be way too exhausting, nya! Want Ferri-chan to pick a gentle little cutie for you?"

"You make a good point." Natsuki Subaru rubbed his chin and gave a wicked grin. "But I don't think I need a mount. Look, I'll just hitch a ride!"

"Hitch a ride? On whose, nya?" Ferris asked, puzzled.

Without answering directly, Natsuki Subaru let another wisp of ominous black mist spread from his body. In an instant he vanished on the spot and became an adorable little black dragon. Its cute yellow eyes locked on Ferris as it flapped its wings and flew to his side.

"Nyaah?!"

Ferris was stunned. No matter how many times he saw this kind of living-person-to-creature trick, it still shocked him.

Though it was only a small, young dragon, its form already carried considerable dignity, hovering somewhere between adorable and fearsome. Ferris watched helplessly as it coiled around his shoulders and gave a light flick of its tail tip, as if marking its territory.

"Acting cute in front of Ferri-chan won't work, you know, uu…"

The little black dragon seemed to find Ferris's reaction amusing. It let out a soft "aooo" and nuzzled his cheek with its head, leaving Ferris unsure who was really being taken advantage of.

On the surface, it looked like he, the "beautiful girl," was being groped. But in truth, a mighty figure strong enough to call the Sword Saint brother had turned into a cute little pet beside him. When he thought about it, that hardly seemed like a loss.

All Ferris could do was hunch his neck, close to tears. His left hand hovered in midair, wanting to pluck the little black dragon off but not quite daring to.

"Subaru-kyun, change back, nya! You're scaring the ground dragons, nya!"

It was plain to see that with a presence bearing such overwhelming dragon aura nearby, the ground dragons, being creations of Volcanica, felt an instinctive awe of "dragons." Deathwing might not be a "dragon" of this world, but the similar pressure alone was enough to make them restless.

Yet among the ground dragons, one small female of the Diana breed felt no fear at all. Instead she walked over to Ferris's side and sniffed the little black dragon on his shoulder with her nose, plainly very interested.

"Oh? Looks like we've got a bold one here?"

Natsuki Subaru changed back, landed beside Ferris, and reached out to stroke the ground dragon's head.

"How strange, nya. This one is the hot-tempered type, but she's so docile in front of Subaru-kyun?"

Ferris was surprised. In his memory, this black ground dragon was a notorious troublemaker. Far from carrying a rider properly, she threatened anyone who came near her, one of the rare ground dragons with a truly foul temper.

So what was going on now? Was Natsuki Subaru's presence just that strong, or did this dragon simply like him that much? Seeing this dragon calmly let someone pet her head was a truly rare sight.

"Interesting. Since you want to come home with me that badly, I'll keep you!"

Natsuki Subaru nodded.

"From now on, your name is 'Patrasche'!"

The name came from the faithful dog in the English author Ouida's children's story A Dog of Flanders. For some reason, it was the first name that popped into Natsuki Subaru's head. Japan had its own tale of the loyal dog Hachiko, but somehow that name just didn't fit this world.

By comparison, "Patrasche" was a down-to-earth name, and the ground dragon seemed perfectly happy with it. She closed her eyes and purred, looking thoroughly content.

Just then, Wilhelm, his expression solemn, walked over and bowed deeply to Natsuki Subaru.

"Thank you, Lord Subaru! I am truly beyond grateful!"

He knew full well that his flighty son's change of heart was likely Natsuki Subaru's doing. Though he didn't know what means had been used, in Wilhelm's heart this seemingly frivolous black-haired young man was already a hero worthy of his highest respect.

"To see three generations of the Astrea family take part in this great expedition together… before I met you, I never dared hope for such a thing."

"It's nothing. I just couldn't stand how unfair fate had been to you, so I stepped in and set it right."

Natsuki Subaru smiled faintly. Finality's whispers seemed to echo in his mind again, and he couldn't stop himself from continuing:

"I'm the bane of every preordained tragedy and misfortune. If fate insists on tormenting people, then I'm the guy who torments fate. As long as I'm here, I'll make sure everyone gets a perfect ending."

Others might have taken these words for the declaration of some edgy teenager in the grip of chuunibyou. Wilhelm, however, knew that Natsuki Subaru spoke only the truth, and that everything he did was for the sake of bringing others happiness.

But the question was, who would ensure his own happiness?

Wilhelm did not know the answer. All he could do, as a man who had been through it himself, was sincerely hope that this young man would find a partner to entrust his whole life to, just as he once had.

Otherwise, such a way of living would be far too unfair to him…