I Picked Up a Witch from a Novel

Episode 2-b. For Freedom and Adventure.

In fact, I have always tried to live kindly.

From the past when I first met Ain to now, as I chase after him.

I wanted to maintain the appearance of a normal and kind person, despite my rotten nature, and I hoped that my small and large wishes would come true.

Thus, I tried hard, over and over again, to hide my rotting insides and live as a good child in any way I could.

I feared that if my true self flowed out without trying to be nice, Ain would abandon me.

In my childhood, Ain often showed a look of fear at my potential for trouble.

While holding my trembling hands among people, he looked at me with concern in his eyes.

I always had to wear a thick mask, facing people with the shield of respectful speech.

So, to be honest, I know a lot of bad words.

Most of the words I heard in the alleys since I was very young were curses, and as I got older and wandered through the market streets, there were rough expressions uttered by the elderly.

Maybe I have quite a good memory.

The harsh expressions that pierced my heart like a dagger since childhood still remain lodged in me, and since Ain disappeared, I’ve occasionally pulled them out and spat them out.

Such as telling someone to shut up.

Or using the word idiot.

Well, there are various other things that remain, but I find a strange thrill in letting them out, so I always try to be careful not to let those words stick to my mouth.

After all, I wanted to show only my kind and beautiful self when I met Ain.

However.

Today, my head hurts.

“…, Mother.”

My head aches to the point where bad words come out, and I feel dizzy.

My vision spins, and my stomach churns, so I collapsed onto the bed like Eileen, who was grimacing from muscle pain.

“Asha, that’s a bad word…”

“Hoo, it’s okay for me because I don’t have a mother.”

After all, I’m just saying something a bit worse about the mother who abandoned me.

“Ah…, um… but can it be toned down…? Ah, um… then is it okay…?”

Eileen seemed to ponder over my words, tilting her head before scrunching up her face in apparent pain and making a sound.

“More than that, my whole body hurts too much… I don’t need muscles, so please just treat me once…”

“That’s not happening. And I think it’s better not to drink anymore. I thought I was going to die without being able to meet Ain.”

Since I was an adult, drinking wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, but if I had to share my first experience with alcohol, the only thing that stuck with me was that the next morning was hell.

Fainting from just one drink and being unable to move due to a hangover from just one drink was ridiculous.

And Eileen grumbled.

“Yeah, actually, I almost died too. Asha, you were so heavy that I almost suffocated…”

“…, excuse me.”

“At least today, you’re being more impolite, Asha.”

“….”

However.

Despite Eileen frequently making irritating comments, I had nothing to say today.

“…, um.”

“Ah, Asha?! If you throw up on the bed, there will be an additional charge! No! Quickly to the bathroom…!”

First, I need to get this out of my stomach.

It was some time later that we both managed to get out of bed.

I, with a staggering walk like an old man about to die, and Eileen, trembling like a fawn, somehow stepped outside.

“This place has no traces whatsoever.”

“Then let’s go to the next place, Asha.”

“Yes.”

As always, we wandered around, checking to see if there were any traces left by Ain.

If I had to be precise, while figuring out where he had gone was important, I really craved to indulge in the various things he had left behind.

After all.

Once he left, there was a possibility he wouldn’t return.

If I missed the chance to see him this time, it would mean letting go of the footprints he left behind forever.

Having endured for three years, I could manage just over a week’s more delay.

I only hoped that the time would yield plenty of things to take away.

Thus.

While looking around, pondering where Ain’s traces might still lie, we turned into an alley as a shortcut.

“….”

“Um, children….”

In that place, several abandoned children were huddled together.

They were covering themselves with shabby rags, just like I did in my childhood, curled up on moldy planks.

I could hear their stomachs rumbling, perhaps from hunger, and I saw them scratching their arms because they were itchy from not being washed.

“W-well, something to eat…, oh, there it is!”

“….”

Eileen, seeing their plight, rummaged through her pockets as she approached the children.

I merely stood by, looking at the alley’s scenery for a moment.

To put it another way.

That scenery was quite bittersweet, but it was also quite familiar to me.

Memories of hiding among the buildings of the empire’s capital, barely enduring through winter, came flooding back.

And thoughts continued.

For some reason, I felt certain.

I vaguely recalled that the man who saved and cared for me wouldn’t have passed by this scenery without a second thought, and I nodded my head.

Surely, Ain wouldn’t have been able to overlook these bitter sights.

He is truly a kind person.

Unlike me, who merely pretends to be kind, he is genuinely good and wonderful.

So I felt that I had accidentally come to the right place.

Therefore, I raised my hand to cast magic.

“Hehe! I, Lucia Vicente Toderika Seymour, am bustling about for the sake of poor commoners! How magnificent this noble obligation is…!”

“…?”

If it weren’t for the chirping voice that suddenly came from behind, that might have been the case.

“Ah, who are you?! Commoners?! You look poor! In shabby attire! That’s right, you’re foolish commoners!”

“….”

A golden-haired lady in an elegant dress approached, thrusting her fan out dramatically to point at me.

“Then leave the noble task of helping the fallen orphans to me and go your way! A commoner helping another commoner is such a ridiculous sight!”

Her exaggerated display, clutching her chest and crying out in despair like in a play, was truly strange.

“….”

“Ah, Asha, what kind of person is she…?”

Eileen, who had quietly returned to my side and was hiding behind me, said that, but.

“Hmm, but! I, being an exceptional noble, can at least offer one meal for the commoners! Commoners! If you are hungry, please come to the Seymour mansion, hehe!”

“….”

“….”

She fanned herself with a sharp sound and smiled, then, receiving no response from us, awkwardly tucked her fan away and took the hands of the children before leaving.

Amidst the sound of her clicking heels, voices like “Hehe!” and “Commoner!” mixed into the air.

Clearly, she was a perfectly strange person, with not a single error.

“…, so all nobles are strange people.”

Therefore.

Both Eileen and the noble lady in the dress were quite strange, gradually forming the image in my mind that nobles were merely a gathering of oddities.

“No, that’s not true. But, um… no.”

Even Eileen seemed reluctant to deny it, hanging her head and revealing only her flushed ears.

Anyway.

Leaving behind the peculiar person who had passed like a storm, I cast magic in the alley.

The illusory space that had been forming softly soon enveloped us in a scenery.

– You can tuck two of them under your arms, and the remaining one, the two of you can support.

– Yes~

Just as I expected, Ain’s figure appeared.

He was trying to leave the alley with the twin little ones he used to hang out with and other children lying around.

And.

– Ah, no…, wait a moment. Commoner, there’s no room at the orphanage…!

– Then build a new one.

Another character was present.

“…?”

“Um, that strange person from just now…?”

The odd woman who had left with a strange laugh and chirping voice was now in the scenery.

– No, you just told me to save money, and now if you spend money like this…

– So, should we just leave it?

– Ugh…, that’s impossible! I, Lucia Vicente Toderika Seymour, do not abandon the commoners! Give me one child! Taking in children is a noble duty!

The two seemed to be on friendly terms.

She approached Ain and kicked him playfully, receiving one of the children.

“How dare you….”

The clever woman, using the child as an excuse to subtly close in on Ain, made me…

“Ah, wait a moment. Asha, no matter how you look at it, that’s a moment between comrades…! There was no romantic atmosphere at all! She just kicked him!”

Ah.

Hmm.

“I see.”

“Yes, that’s how it is…”

That’s true.

Ain wouldn’t turn his attention to another woman, leaving me behind.

Ain, who knows me well, certainly wouldn’t be oblivious to the things that could happen.

Thus.

The illusion ended, and the remnants of the swirling mana gently faded away.

Yes, those were quite important and good scenes.

“Eileen.”

“Yes, yes…?”

“I will go to the orphanage.”

“Asha, just to be clear, you know you absolutely must not kill her, right? She is Ain’s comrade…”

Lucia Vicente Toderika Seymour.

I should go see her first.

I thought that as I recalled her laughter that echoed, “Hoho!”

“Asha, Asha? No, slow down a bit…! Your steps are too fast…, why are you running!”

I dashed towards the orphanage.

Pink atmospheres, huh.

“….”

Whatever it was or wasn’t, I would find out when I saw it in person.

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