I Picked Up a Witch from a Novel

Episode 2-a. The City Where Night Does Not Come, Tevriss.

In fact, I was quite a solid young man, and I had never stepped foot in a place like a red-light district.

Neither in my past life nor in my current life.

I just wanted to escape the bounds of an ordinary person, hoping for my small and big wishes to come true.

I was busy running and running, trying to cling to the tails of those overflowing with talent.

I felt that if I turned my gaze towards my masculine desires, those who were advancing far ahead would just ignore me and reject me.

Those who could afford to indulge in such desires were already far ahead of me.

Even if I pursued my desires leisurely and sloppily, I couldn’t catch up.

Like a turtle chasing a lazy rabbit, I had to run forward, staring intently at its pure white tail.

So, to be honest, I was just as scared of this place as Avery was.

The long streets lined with red lights, the dark and secluded interiors of the buildings, the lascivious sounds and all kinds of noise.

Those things were unknown and fearsome to me, and I wouldn’t have come here if it weren’t for a necessary process.

And that remained true in the current situation as well.

“You must leave your weapons here. So, may I check your body for a moment?”

“…, for now, my weapons consist of the sword at my waist and the dagger in my pocket, so please go ahead and check.”

Inside the brothel, shimmering purple lights flickered.

I immediately parted ways with old Horn upon entering, with only a man who appeared to be a guard and the woman I had pointed out beside me.

“Hmm, yes, it’s just what you mentioned. Then, I’ll leave your weapons here and guide you to the designated room.”

“Yes, thank you.”

From the rooms lining the long corridor came the vulgar and crude sounds that men and women could produce when their skin touched.

As I passed by, rooms would open one by one, and a man panting heavily would stumble out, followed by a woman whose disheveled clothes revealed her wet breasts.

Was it truly just a common brothel?

Did the intuition of the three of us, who thought something was suspicious, turn out to be a wild goose chase?

“Here it is. Please use Room 1103, and I must remind you again, the usage time is 2 hours, dear guest.”

“…, yes.”

Such thoughts briefly flashed through my mind, but with the sound of the door slamming shut, they faded away.

In fact, I couldn’t even afford the luxury of being scared, so I checked the already flowing limited time.

“….”

“Guest, would you prefer to completely undress, or would you like to do it this way?”

It was a small room.

A small room with a bed, a mirror, and a bathroom was illuminated by eerie lighting, creating a damp atmosphere.

Before answering the woman’s question, I first entered the room and examined every corner.

Under the bed, behind the mirror, or beneath the floor coverings, and in places like the wallpaper.

“Guest…?”

“….”

I hadn’t examined every spot, but there was nothing suspicious at the moment.

Perhaps there were some secret traces I couldn’t discern due to my ignorance, but at least to my eyes, it was clean.

So, when the 2 hours hadn’t passed yet, it seemed necessary for me to leave the room and check out other places.

And.

The woman who had entered the room with me seemed troubled and spoke up.

“Guest…, those kinds of actions are problematic. This place is a brothel for releasing desires, not a place for investigation.”

“….”

I glanced back at the woman, who was biting her lips anxiously.

In fact, before entering the brothel, it might have looked like I randomly picked any woman off the street, but I chose her because her eyes appeared the clearest among the prostitutes.

“If you continue like this, I will have no choice but to report to the manager. Otherwise, I would have to… receive punishment.”

“What is your dream?”

Her eyes weren’t clouded and murky as if under the influence of drugs.

They were alive with a flicker as if she hadn’t given up on life or dreams yet.

“…, if you don’t intend to, please leave.”

“I have a dream. I think about wanting to change the world every day.”

“If you keep this up, I’ll call the guard!”

So, if she were that kind of woman, I thought maybe if this place was truly suspicious, she might give me some small piece of advice.

Hence, I lifted the bed sheets to peek inside and continued speaking.

“I have embarked on an adventure to create a world where everyone can live normally. Because for someone, living normally is the greatest dream.”

“…, hey.”

“It sounds ridiculous just listening to it, right? A nobody of an adventurer saying they are traveling to change the world.”

“….”

Doubt and anxiety were reflected in her dazed eyes.

She held her body covered in thin, small clothing while standing at the door, looking at me as if I were a strange person.

“But what can I do? Both the prophecy in the letter and my intuition whisper that I must do so. And for me, breaking the curse of this city must be the starting point.”

“The prophecy in the letter… that sounds like an envious story.”

As I chatted, my search of the room came to an end.

I straightened my bent body and turned toward the woman, who was standing in front of the door with a slightly surprised expression.

“Since you seem to harbor quite a grand dream, I did receive the letter. So, let me ask again.”

“….”

I asked once more.

“Do you wish to dream again?”

“….”

Dream.

It was something quite important to humans.

Being able to sleep, wake up, and go through each day was a blessing for those who could close their eyes under the darkening sky.

Even if it was just a futile expectation or thought with a very low probability of coming true, it was a goal that allowed people to move forward.

Though those living in Tevriss had lost both of them.

At least, the dream I hoped for was hidden here.

“Since you are also human, don’t you wish to dream again?”

“…, I do. Of course, I want to, but this is…, Tevriss. And… I’m just a prostitute who has been sold.”

So I stretched and spoke.

“Night will return to this place again. I intend to roll a small snowball for that purpose.”

“….”

“Are you not curious how much the snowball of a nobody adventurer will grow as it rolls down the slope and gathers surrounding snow?”

It was about time to leave the room.

The woman lowered her head with a look of contemplation, and I slipped past her and gently opened the door.

Even without any advice, just staying quiet like this would be of great help to me.

“Since there’s still 1 hour and 50 minutes left, you can rest comfortably in the room and then come back. Then, I will….”

And.

“…, it’s underground.”

“….”

“I’ve never been there, but… there were people who were dragged there once in a while. If there’s something suspicious here, it would be that place.”

“Thank you.”

As I stepped outside, I received quite a useful piece of advice.

I smiled and stepped out of the room, turning toward the underground.

In fact, I wanted to grab my weapons first, but there was a guard in front of the weapon storage.

So I stepped into the corridor, now weaponless, where the sounds of lewdness echoed, and soon discovered the stairs leading down carefully.

It was secluded.

The purple dim and shimmering lights had completely vanished, and only a small, pale light connected the path in the pitch-black darkness.

Now, with no more sounds of lewdness, it felt as if my footsteps were echoing louder for no reason.

Moreover, the staircase leading down was quite long and deep, so I swallowed hard and had to keep going down for a while.

Thus.

After quite a descent, I hid behind a wall and quietly muttered.

“Ah…, really.”

Damn.

I wondered why other adventurers didn’t investigate this brothel like us.

In a way, it definitely wasn’t a matter of justification as Horn or Avery had said.

Those adventurers who came here to investigate as we did most likely entered this place and couldn’t get out again, dying unnoticed.

In contrast to the neat walls of the brothel, there was a space made of rough and unrefined bricks.

It gave a sense of something beyond just being old, creating a raw landscape.

That was likely ancient.

The ruins of the first civilization that laid the foundation for the currently stabilized world.

In front of me stood the remnants of a once-glorious magical civilization at its peak.

Moreover, in that landscape, figures in black robes with strange patterns were chanting spells.

“…, dark wizards.”

Those who dressed like that and muttered incantations while summoning something seemed to be dark wizards, and there was no one else like them in this world.

And.

“What? Are there dark wizards here?”

“Perhaps they are dark wizards…?”

A voice came from behind me.

I hadn’t heard footsteps descending the stairs, but someone had quietly approached me from behind.

So, I immediately turned my body and swung my leg with all my might.

No questions asked.

Technique #1, Rib Breaker.

However, my full-power kick missed its target.

“…, have you ever seen such a rude guy?”

“Hey! Old man, you scared me half to death!”

It was Horn who approached me from behind, and fortunately, the dwarf’s small body didn’t swing dangerously near to where I aimed.

“I really almost died, you piece of dung.”

“Anyway, how did you reach here so well? I’d thought you had no information.”

It was only less than an hour since we parted, but seeing him again was somewhat refreshing.

“What do you mean by no information? If you knock, everything comes out.”

Horn grinned and took out his hammer, tapping it on his palm proudly.

“Women…?”

“Dwarves don’t discriminate on that matter.”

“….”

Hmm.

As expected, the best search engine in this world is banging your head.

If you just knock your head hard enough, you can get the information you want in an instant.

No, but.

“…, by the way, how did you keep the hammer?”

“The dwarf screamed that the hammer is like a body part, so they took my axe and shield but left the hammer.”

“Wow, they didn’t take it just because of that excuse?”

They confiscated all my weapons, but old man’s heavy hammer was somehow left behind? Is that logical?

“It worked. They weren’t idiots, so how could they believe that hammer is a body? It’s all old, and I’m going to trash it and get a new one.”

“I guess you’ve never seen a dwarf before. Honestly, if you had said that to me, I would’ve believed it.”

I would have definitely believed it if I had heard such a thing the first time I met the old man.

“Have you ever seen such a dwarf discrimination guy?”

“Isn’t a dwarf racist rather than a general discrimination against all races a bit more righteous?”

“I don’t discriminate against genders like you, you brat.”

“No one talks about hitting both genders equally as equality, old man….”

Of course, I lost any faith in that belief the moment I found out he was a fucking racist dwarf old man.

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