The Witch He Wasn't Looking For (2)
“So how did you even get this far without your own wagon, you freeloader?”
“You really are blunt, just like Lord Noah said. It’s simple. I’m a witch.”
She waved her fingers lazily.
“Pshh. Pshh. Magic! Wah, it’s a witch!”
“......”
What kind of explanation was that? Still, Vergil understood what she was trying to say.
“So you just threatened them.”
“Yep. Every passerby. Like a hitchhiker pretending to be helpless, only to steal their wagon. Something like that.”
Just like in the novel, her personality was nasty.
Yet her hair still bothered him. It had been clearly described as light blue in the novel.
And yet here it was, unmistakably white. Still, as long as Anneliese was alive, Vergil was certain he was still at the prologue.
Bleaching, perhaps?
“You ever think about dyeing your hair blue?”
At Vergil’s question, Amelia frowned. It was the first change in her otherwise aloof expression ever since they had met.
“Huh? No? What a weird question to ask.
Vergil shook his head and let out a quiet sigh.
Were all witches this irritating?
Seris wasn’t even a witch, yet somehow the witch hat alone had amplified her capacity to be annoying, as far as he could remember.
He turned his gaze aside.
Mary was already asleep in her mother’s arms as the wagon rolled forward without trouble.
The road was quiet. Adam sat at the front with the reins in his hand, guiding the wagon.
Ever since the incident at the bar, ever grateful to Vergil, he had insisted on driving.
In the passing silence, the wagon suddenly lurched and rumbled to a halt.
“S-Sir Vergil… the wheel is broken. I’m sorry. I’ll fix it as soon as I can!”
Vergil reached up, pulled the wagon’s cover aside, and leaned out to take a look.
Indeed, the wheel had caught on something. The axle was bent just enough to stop them completely.
“It’s fine. You’ve been driving for a while, Sir Adam. Let’s use this chance to set up camp and rest.”
Adam hesitated for a moment, then nodded.
Relief flashed across his face as he climbed down from the wagon and began inspecting the damage more closely.
It would take time, and forcing it now would only make things worse.
All of a sudden, Amelia appeared, floating lazily as she inspected the wheel.
“Camp? No need for that.”
With a flick of her fingers, the broken wheel snapped back into place as if nothing had ever been wrong.
“There.”
Vergil frowned. This woman truly lacked any sense of timing.
Adam stared at the wheel, then at Amelia, then back at the wagon. After a moment, he rubbed the back of his neck, letting out an awkward laugh.
“Ah… t-that’s a relief. I guess we can keep going…”
Vergil exhaled through his nose. So much for resting.
“Go inside the wagon, Sir Adam. I’ll drive this time.”
“Ah, no… There’s no need, Sir Vergil. Truly, I can keep going…”
Vergil had already stepped forward and had taken the reins for him.
“You’ve been driving nonstop since morning. Get some rest. I’ve already done my share.”
Adam hesitated, then glanced back toward the wagon, where his family was sleeping.
“…Then I’ll leave it to you.”
He climbed down and disappeared under the cover. Vergil clicked his tongue softly and urged the wagon forward.
Behind him, Amelia floated lazily above the ground, hands folded behind her head, before taking a seat next to him.
“What’s wrong? Get in the wagon.”
“Nah. That’s his wife and daughter, right? I don’t want to intrude on family time.”
Vergil kept his eyes on the road ahead. The reins shook slightly in his hands as the wagon rolled onward.
“You don’t strike me as the considerate type.”
Amelia shrugged
“I’m selective. Besides, cramped spaces are annoying.”
The road stretched on in silence, save for the creak of the wheels and the wind passing through the grass.
For someone as small as her, she sure had issues regarding cramped spaces.
“Can I hit you?”
“What?”
“Just felt like it.”
Vergil said nothing more.
* * *
As the moon began to reveal itself, Vergil glanced to his side. Amelia was reading a book.
“Just wanted to ask. Have you really not seen any sign of a white haired witch, aside from yourself?”
“Nope.”
She turned a page without looking up.
“Even if I did, they were probably third-rate. Wouldn’t notice the difference.”
Vergil let out a quiet breath through his nose, but didn’t say anything more.
Speaking to this woman was truly impossible.
“Why? She your girlfriend or something?”
Amelia flipped another page casually.
“If you find her, tell her to switch careers. The job market for witches these days is pretty disappointing.”
“......”
The irony wasn’t lost on him. She spoke as if every witch besides herself was third-rate, yet here she was, hired as nothing more than a tracker.
If anything, it only gave validity to her complaint.
“She’s not exactly a witch.”
“Huh. So the type who romanticizes it and wears a wide-brim hat, then?”
“Something like that.”
For the first time, Amelia smiled.
“Relatable. Tell her I’ve got plenty of costumes if she’s ever interested in renting.”
Truthfully, witches were nothing more than magic practitioners. There was no real reason to wear wide-brim hats at all.
“Renting? You don’t sell them?”
“There’s more profit for me that way.”
Vergil glanced at her.
“You really are shameless.”
“If you’re going to survive as a witch, you might as well be honest about it. Money’s tight, Vergil. I wouldn’t have taken this job if not for the pay.”
“How much are you getting paid?”
Amelia turned toward him and raised her fingers.
“Five?”
She shook her head.
“Fifty?”
She nodded.
“Silver?”
“Gold, Vergil. I’d rather help shepherds find lost sheep if it were silver. Tracking you isn’t as easy as it looks.”
Fifty gold coins just to find him.
It was an absurd amount.
A countryside commoner could live their entire life without ever touching a single gold coin, let alone fifty.
Vergil stared ahead. The road stretched under the pale moonlight.
Now that he thought about it, she was right.
Following him could not have been simple.
He never stayed in one place for too long, never left a clear trail, and avoided attention whenever possible.
Whatever she said lightly must have required patience, excellent deduction skills, and persistence.
After all, the distance she had crossed was no small matter.
“Aren’t you afraid of me? Or is this some trap to turn me in to the Empire?”
“Nah. And even if it were, what would you do about it? Kill me like you killed the Prince? You think I’d let that happen?”
Her tone sounded nearly bored, as if she were talking about the weather rather than her own life.
She hadn’t even glanced at him once while saying that.
“You’re surprisingly confident.”
“I’m a witch. Confidence comes with the job. Besides, if I wanted you turned in, you’d already be wrapped in spell chains and handed over for a reward. I wouldn’t bother riding next to you under the moon like this.”
Vergil glanced back.
The family was already awake. Adam and Hannah were doing their best to keep Mary entertained.
“Is their safety guaranteed?”
Amelia followed his gaze toward Mary and her parents.
“No idea. Who even are they?”
“People who escaped with me on that day.”
That day.
The northern village reduced to ruins. Dragons descending from the sky. An Ice Dragon revealing herself.
It had been anything but ordinary.
Still, Amelia understood the implications.
People who did not live under the Empire were usually those who had fled from it, or those who had been born into it.
There was rarely anything in between.
“Can’t say for sure. But if the danger is the Empire, then they’re probably fine.”
“What makes you so certain?”
“Lord Noah is isolated, too. He’s already established himself in the Empire’s northern region.”
“Northern region?”
Vergil’s eyes widened.
There had always been something that bothered him ever since he arrived in this world.
Something that never quite lined up.
The day he first opened his eyes, for some reason, the Liebert Duchy wasn’t a northern duchy.
However, what kind of romance fantasy lacked a northern grand duke?
That was exactly his role. Or at least, supposed to be.
Noah Johannes von Liebert.
The main protagonist.
The northern Grand Duke.
“Did he…”
“Yup. Built a castle after the whole northern fiasco. The Lieberts were granted half the land for handling negotiations with dragons. Nepotism, if you ask me. Must be nice having a Dragon Royal as a childhood friend.”
Noah Johannes von Liebert.
The childhood friend of the current Prince of the Dragon Empire.
That was the main reason the Lieberts maintained such strong ties with the Dragon Empire, and why the Imperial Family could not touch them so easily.
Even so, the main antagonist was not called the main antagonist for nothing.
In the original narrative, Cardinal Richelieu exploited that very gap.
What had begun as a romance fantasy with revenge as its driving plot had slowly reshaped into a story of loss, anguish, and despair.
In the end, Noah sat upon his northern duchy as an iron ruler.
His fiancée, Anneliese, dead before the plot even began.
Amelia, the woman who should have been his lover, had died as well.
And yet, he remained.
Not as a hero, nor as a man who found happiness, but as the pillar that held the Human Empire together.
But that future had not come to pass yet.
For now, Noah had not tasted that tragedy.
For now, he was still a naive and oblivious ruler of the north, unaware of what awaited him.
Vergil glanced ahead. Figures were standing along the dark road, barely visible under the moonlight.
Amelia didn’t even bother.
“Ignore them. Hitchhiking is a scam these days. I’m the living proof of that.”
