Witch Exam (2)

About a week had passed since Lizzy, who didn’t realize the witch exam was part of a lewd event, sat naked on the altar alongside Lara.

Unlike the chaotic first day, no one was making a fuss about seeing Lizzy or Lara naked around the altar anymore. In fact, after several days had passed, the sight of the two women sitting atop the altar had somehow become an utterly mundane scene.

“Lily, something seems to be approaching from the lake. Can you snipe it with magic?”

“Yeah, sure. This much is easy now.”

-Whoosh!

‘Squeak!’

-Splash!

“You’re getting better, Lily. Before, you’d have needed triple casting to hit something like that, right?”

“That was ages ago. It’s been a year and a half since I entered the academy-I should be able to handle this much.”

Our defense strategy involved chatting casually with the altar at our backs and letting Ethan handle anything that approached. Usually, I took care of monsters coming from the air or water, while Ethan handled ground enemies. Of course, the roles would shift slightly if I was guarding the altar with someone other than Ethan.

By now, Lara and Lizzy’s naked bodies were nothing more than part of the forest scenery to us-no more, no less.

‘At first glance, it was erotic, but after seeing it constantly, it’s just kind of fascinating now.’

In the game, it had been a sexy, titillating event, but…

Well, [Luminor Academy] didn’t show the entire month-long process in real time.

If they had made this scene into an unskippable hours-long cutscene in my past life, it probably would have been more boring than arousing.

‘Lizzy doesn’t seem embarrassed anymore, either.’

The forest’s energy, flowing through her body, was gradually transforming Lizzy into a witch’s constitution, and with it, the knowledge of witches was beginning to fill her mind.

What permeated this “Witch’s Forest” wasn’t just the forest’s energy. The knowledge of the hundreds, thousands of witches who had closed their eyes here-those who had passed on their wisdom to their successors, along with the life force they hadn’t expended in their lifetimes.

Because of that, she wouldn’t feel hunger or fatigue, too busy absorbing knowledge. To put it bluntly, it was like having hundreds of professors cramming specialized knowledge into her head for a month straight.

Leaves and insects were blocked by the circular barrier the elders had created, so the two could focus entirely on their training without any issues.

‘She’ll probably reach an insane level after this. She might even become a hidden-card-level character in this world.’

As I’d mentioned before, the biggest problem with “Witch Lara” in [Luminor Academy] was that she wasn’t a “heroine” in the game.

In [Luminor Academy], the term “heroine” essentially meant “female characters you could add to your party.”

And as I’d said before, Lara was just a one-night stand-unrecruitable, despite her outstanding performance as an apothecary.

But if Lizzy awakened as a witch here and could even join the hero’s party, it might open up new ways to defeat the Demon King.

‘It might actually be a decent combination. Having an apothecary could cover support roles in battle, filling the gap left by Lilith.’

At the very least, if that bastard Kyetmajosyegigot tried to force me into the party, I could use this as persuasion material. Maybe even suggest that Lizzy could replace Lilith.

In two weeks, he’d arrive at the Witch’s Forest, and once I endured until then, this long and grueling summer vacation event would finally be over.

‘If he makes excuses again about refusing the Saintess’s power, I’ll force it into him through Celista.’

I’d humored him as the protagonist long enough-my patience was wearing thin.

Just because we’re from the same hometown, I’ve played along so far, but if he starts treating me like some disposable NPC… I’ll flip everything over.

⁎ ⁎ ⁎

[Lilith has reached Level 21!]

[Lilith has reached Level 22!]

⁎ ⁎ ⁎

The level-up event in the Witch’s Forest smoothly contributed to my experience.

Since we weren’t actively hunting monsters deep in the forest but rather defending the perimeter, there weren’t many battles, but the monsters in the Witch’s Forest were high-level enough that even the few fights gave a decent amount of EXP.

A level-up roughly every ten days. Honestly, at this point, leveling up so quickly didn’t even feel exciting anymore.

Back when Levels 1 and 2 were life-or-death, there was a sense of urgency, but now, there wasn’t any tension. I didn’t even have any immediate need to spend my skill points, so I was saving them.

Story-wise, I was growing faster than Lilith in the original. In terms of pure stats, I was already far beyond her.

Especially since I’d maxed out “Maximum Mana” and “Luck” early on, they scaled smoothly with my level.

The support-only, one-trick Lilith of the original-who couldn’t even use offensive magic and relied solely on Mana Blast-no longer existed. I had long since been reborn as the all-rounder Lilith.

Meanwhile, Lizzy, surprisingly, had stubbornly continued the witch exam for nearly three weeks without giving up.

Unlike Lara, who had known about the exam since childhood and prepared accordingly, Lizzy was achieving absurd results for someone who had only started learning three weeks ago.

Honestly, given what she’d already done, quitting now would make no sense. She’d already shown everything there was to show-giving up at this point would just be a massive loss.

As the leader of the August Trading Company, Lizzy wasn’t the type to back down after coming this far. Sunk cost fallacy alone would push her to see it through.

By the way, we’d already gotten explicit promises from everyone not to disclose what they’d seen of Lizzy’s witch exam.

It was unfair enough that she’d already been seen naked by outsiders-ruining her marriage prospects would be too cruel.

‘Though honestly, the guys don’t even seem that interested in Lara or Lizzy’s naked bodies.’

For one, Ethan had seen me naked in bed just a few weeks ago, so his eyes weren’t wandering toward Lara or Lizzy.

Lara had a similarly voluptuous body to mine, but she was taller than Ethan, which probably made her intimidating. Lizzy was about my height, but I had her completely beat in bust size.

So, aside from the first day when I explicitly told him to look, Ethan rarely glanced at the altar. Occasionally, he’d turn his head to fight monsters, but most of the time, the two women on the altar were treated like part of the scenery.

As for Prince Antonio, he was currently head over heels for Agnes.

If loving Agnes meant loving her body type too, then the two women on the altar wouldn’t even register in his eyes.

…Honestly, that was a much more dangerous preference, but since it wasn’t my business, I decided not to dwell on it.

And as for Karaham, it was just his sister’s body, so rather than feeling lust, he probably just pitied her. He was likely just hoping the witch exam would end safely.

And so, as the witch exam entered its fourth week with about a week left to go…

“F-finally found it… Haaah…”

“The terrain was complicated-we got lost for a while. If we’d followed the path properly, it wouldn’t have taken this long.”

“On the way back, let’s just stick to the path, Silena. No more ‘Elves never get lost in the forest’ nonsense, okay?”

“…Okay.”

The hero’s party-the reinforcements for Lara’s witch exam-had arrived.

⁎ ⁎ ⁎

Including the hero Kyetmajosyegigot, the hero’s party that had followed him to the Witch’s Forest consisted of four members.

Hero Kyetmajosyegigot.

Saint Celista.

Archer Silena.

Princess Seraphine.

It seemed only the hero and the three confirmed heroines had come along. Characters with ambiguous roles were excluded.

‘Well, this event didn’t exist in the original, so it can’t be helped.’

I didn’t know what combination they’d used to handle things in the Northeastern Grasslands, but they must have had their own struggles there.

That event involved clashes between nobles and natives, small-scale battles, and even duels-so they’d probably needed some recovery time.

Only Celista, Seraphine, and Silena-driven by their affection and rivalry for the hero-would have followed him here despite their exhaustion.

“S-Sister Seraphine…? What brings you here…?”

“The trade route with the witches, of course, Antonio. And the hero said we should help Lara with her witch exam, so we’re doing that too.”

“I-I heard you went to the Northeastern Grasslands…”

“We did. A lot happened there. More importantly, Antonio, why are you here?”

“W-well, since Agnes was heading to the Witch’s Forest, I had to…”

“…He followed me on his own. I told him to stop clinging to me.”

“Sigh, Antonio. Do you really have to keep bothering me like this…? And you shouldn’t approach girls like…”

“S-Sister Seraphine…”

“…Your Highness, perhaps you could continue this conversation elsewhere?”

Seraphine immediately started scolding Antonio, who shrank under her reprimands, while Colt escorted them away.

Meanwhile, Agnes exchanged brief greetings with the other two heroines, and Kyetmajosyegigot quietly approached me.

“How’s the event going? Where’s Ethan?”

“The witch exam’s in its fourth week-about a week left. Ethan’s guarding the altar with Karaham right now.”

“…Karaham? You mean the August family’s Karaham?”

“You think there’s another Karaham at [Luminor Academy]?”

“No, I know that, but why is he here helping with Lara’s witch exam…?”

Kyetmajosyegigot was bewildered by an event unfolding without his knowledge.

Rather than explaining everything, it’d be faster to just show him.