Ch.21If You Leave Them Like That, They’ll Freeze to Death (1)

Four hours.

It had already been four hours since Olivia disappeared.

‘By now……’

Olivia’s disciples were sound asleep. In that state, they wouldn’t notice even if someone carried them away.

“I think I can sleep now.”

Just as Glacia, who had been sneaking glances around, lay down on the floor, the magic circle engraved on the ground lit up.

Glacia jumped to her feet.

“You’re back!”

“Yes.”

“…Your clothes have changed?”

“I changed them.”

Olivia took off her blue moon hat and hung it on a rock. Then she carelessly tossed the night ravens beside it. Her face was so swollen it was hard to recognize.

“…Huh?”

This was a familiar scene to Glacia.

‘Is that a person or a corpse?’

Olivia chuckled after reading Glacia’s thoughts.

“I caught this one sneaking around.”

“Ah, so this isn’t a disciple?”

“Disciple? What kind of madman would carry a disciple around like this?”

“……”

Glacia smiled contentedly.

You. You’re that madman, you bastard.

How could someone be so consistent? And in such a bad way too.

Glacia hid her boiling emotions and asked.

“Then what is this? Are you going to kill them?”

“No.”

Olivia looked down at the night ravens with a displeased expression.

“Tsk.”

I want to kill them but I can’t, you fool.

‘Even when given a chance, they still try to betray me.’

The only reason she had gone along with that pathetic oath in the first place was to find the location of the message scroll. No matter how experienced she was in Lactea, there was nothing she could do about items that constantly changed storage locations like this.

Why didn’t she die after making the oath?

‘She’s not a witch to begin with, so how could she die?’

Olivia’s attire was unmistakably that of a witch. Seth had no choice but to believe it.

Anyway.

According to what she learned through interrogation, the place where Calliophe had stored the scroll was the northern rampart of the City of Beginning.

Fortunately, it wasn’t the capital.

Of course, this could also be a lie, but that’s a problem that could be solved by accompanying Calliophe.

However…

‘If this one acts up, it’ll be a headache.’

Calliophe probably wouldn’t go crazy and harm citizens, but even if she just screamed or ran into a crowd, all eyes would be on them.

If that happened, well, everything would fall apart.

The moment their coordinates were revealed, all sorts of returners would come running to take their heads. The only fortunate thing was that there weren’t any particularly strong NPCs in the City of Beginning.

At best there was the captain of the guard, who could be handled by someone of Aramis’s level.

‘It was the only consideration from the management.’

Most users felt that “the early stages are manageable!”

The monsters were at most foxes or wolves, with the occasional orc.

If you were really unlucky, you might encounter a wyvern that had been driven from its pack, but Seth would have already killed it, so there was no need to worry about that.

Anyway, the difficulty of infiltrating the City of Beginning was low.

Unless you were an idiot, you were bound to succeed.

Moreover, there was plenty of time. There were still 6 days left until the scroll would activate. Of course, Olivia had no intention of postponing this.

“Hey.”

Olivia poked the unconscious Calliophe’s head.

“I know you’re awake, so get up quickly. Otherwise, I’ll hit you as much as I’ve already hit you.”

Calliophe sprang up.

“Ah, understood.”

“……”

Glacia looked at her with pitying eyes. She seemed to have felt a sense of kinship in that brief moment.

Olivia crouched down to meet Calliophe’s eye level.

“Listen. You and I are going to get that damn scroll now.”

“…Yes.”

“But let’s say you try to run away. What do you think will happen?”

“…What will happen?”

“I’ll kill all those kids over there.”

“……”

Calliophe couldn’t bring herself to object. Because the witch in front of her was truly the kind of person who would do that.

“You lead me to a strange place? I’ll kill them all. You scream? I’ll still kill them all. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

Calliophe’s head nodded rapidly up and down.

“I, I will absolutely not cause any trouble.”

Olivia nodded.

“Glacia.”

“Yes!”

Olivia pointed at the swollen Seth and said.

“Just in case, go dump this guy outside.”

“…Pardon? Won’t he freeze to death?”

The heavy snow showed no signs of stopping. In fact, it had gotten twice as bad since Olivia had gone out.

Frankly, even a bear would freeze to death in this weather. No matter how tough Seth was, if he spent the night outside in this…

Well, they just needed to bring him back before he died.

“If someone doesn’t cooperate and we come back late, he’ll freeze to death. Right?”

At those words, Calliophe was startled.

“W-Witch, please calm down…”

Olivia gave Glacia a subtle nod.

“What are you waiting for? Go dump him now.”

“Yes!”

Glacia dragged Seth to the entrance. When she returned, she was of course empty-handed.

“Oh, right. Go back and freeze his arms and legs too. In case he tries to escape…”

“L-Let’s go right now! I’ll, I’ll get it right away!”

Calliophe desperately clung to Olivia’s legs.

“W-We don’t have time for this! Let’s go, let’s go right now!”

“You know he’ll freeze to death in an hour, right?”

“Oh my goodness, I know. What’s an hour! I’ll get it within 30 minutes!”

Olivia nodded with a satisfied expression.

“Guard the house well.”

“…Yes.”

She felt like a guard dog, but she couldn’t dare show her irritation.

…It was better than freezing to death in real time.

****

Chirp chirp.

4 AM. The sound of insects echoed loudly through the deeply sleeping city.

“Urgh!”

The only people awake at this hour were drunkards for whom alcohol was life. Of course, they weren’t exactly in their right minds either.

Whoosh.

“I need to pee, I need to peeee…”

“Hehe. Pee blast!”

The men who were fastening their pants caught sight of a strange scene.

Thud thud.

Two people wrapped in thick robes were striding toward them. It was a suspicious situation, strangers approaching in the dead of night, but they didn’t seem particularly concerned.

‘They’re women.’

Though their faces weren’t visible at all, they could tell from their build and footsteps. And above all.

They could see.

Thanks to the clouds clearing and the moonlight illuminating the alley, they could briefly see inside the robes. And after confirming their faces, the men couldn’t help but gape.

‘Beautiful.’

Not only the distinctive red hair, but also the confident gaze that was impressive even in the darkness.

This one was already quite something, but the one beside her was even more so.

‘…Extraordinary.’

‘Damn. I’ve wasted my life.’

Not just their appearance, but the atmosphere they exuded was unusual. Cool and cold, making it seem impossible to even approach them. Their aura resembled that of a dragon.

It was the kind of appearance that made you know your place.

‘This is… I have some conscience.’

‘…Squids should play with squids.’

The men couldn’t bring themselves to approach the women and had no choice but to make way.

Olivia looked with curiosity at the men who willingly stepped aside.

‘These thugs wouldn’t normally move aside so easily. Did they eat something wrong?’

It was a result of appearance stats not being reflected in the game, but she had no way of knowing that.

“How much further do we need to go?”

“We’re almost there.”

They were now near the northern rampart of the City of Beginning. Occasional lights moving on the watchtowers indicated that the guards were awake.

“So, when are they going to increase our wages?”

“Do you think they will? Honestly, are we fighting monsters like the frontlines, or dealing with serial murderers?”

Guards were chatting right in front of them.

‘…They need to move aside.’

Calliophe bit her lip.

Watching her, Olivia said impatiently.

“Just knock them out.”

“…Pardon?”

“If you don’t want to, I’ll do it.”

“……”

Calliophe’s face contorted. If that evil witch failed to control her strength, the City of Beginning would be reduced to ruins that very day.

Swoosh.

Calliophe’s figure disappeared into the shadows.

“Ugh.”

The next moment, two guards lost consciousness and collapsed. Calliophe roughly sat them in chairs before moving forward.

After knocking out about six more guards.

“Just a little further now.”

“You know that’s the third time you’ve said that, right?”

“Yes. It’s over there.”

Calliophe pointed to a watchtower visible through the window. It was the largest and tallest tower on the ramparts. Naturally, it would also have the most guards.

Olivia frowned.

Of all places to hide it.

“Don’t tell me you hid it behind a brick?”

“Yes. I hid it behind a brick on the very top floor.”

For someone like Calliophe who could conceal herself in shadows, getting there and back wouldn’t be a problem.

But Olivia was different.

There was no invisibility magic in Lactea. No invisibility cloak either. Not even anything remotely similar.

But that didn’t change anything.

She would tell her to bring it, then deactivate it right in front of her.

“Seven minutes left. You know how many minutes it took us to get here, right?”

At those words, Calliophe held her breath and calculated the remaining time.

They had used teleport five times from the north to here.

It took 1 minute to activate teleport once.

So the remaining time was…

‘Damn it!’

Calliophe ran toward the watchtower without looking back.

Watching the torches quickly going out one by one, Olivia thought.

‘People really do need to be pushed.’

It was another moment of realizing this eternal truth.