Chapter 69: Omen (6)

“I told you never to show your face around here again. Did you forget? Loser.”

The brown-haired woman adjusted her glasses as she spoke.

“…”

“Adolf, you must know your place, huh? Not saying a word, just standing there like a dumb mute. Get away from here. Just having a failure like you near the Academy puts me in a foul mood.”

Hitler said nothing in return.

He quietly gathered his canvas and supplies.

The woman smirked victoriously, casting a glare at both him and Eva.

“Hey, why are you talking to him like that? Did Adolf do something to you?”

“Loser disease is contagious, okay? Just being near him makes me feel sick. That’s already too much damage.”

“You b*tch…”

“Miss Eva, let’s go.”

“But…”

“I’m fine. Let’s just go.”

Hitler forced a smile.

Eva, clutching the precious portrait he’d drawn, followed him out of the park.

Somehow, it felt like the Academy’s grand façade was reflected in Hitler’s eyes with a deep loneliness.

“What is with girls like that! It’s not like she’s some genius herself. I’ve seen how good your art is, Adolf!”

Eva grumbled as she walked.

She couldn’t understand why someone would be so hostile toward someone as kind and gentle as Adolf.

It irritated her.

“She has a story.”

“A story?”

“She’s Jewish. Her whole family was slaughtered by Germans—specifically by someone named Adolf.
They were all locked inside the grocery they ran and burned alive.”

The image alone was horrifying.

Eva thought pogroms were something that only happened in Russia, but it seemed the multi-ethnic Austro-Hungarian Empire had its share of horrors, too.

‘…Then again.’

Eva herself had bitter feelings toward Jews.

The Witch Federation was backed by Jewish capital.

Dominated by families like the Rothschilds, the Federation had forced its witches into all sorts of grotesque acts.

They made them fight unknown monsters (nichtbekanntUntier) and used the more beautiful witches to “entertain” powerful officials from around the world.

Eva had escaped before it came to that,
but others—whose families were held hostage or who were brainwashed—had all become slaves to the Federation.

She still vividly remembered the day she turned a capitalist who demanded s*x from her into a sizzling roast with lightning.

She couldn’t look at those pigs the same way again, even if not all Jews were like them.

Still—
treating someone like this just for having the same name? That was wrong.

“Adolf, are you really okay?”

“She needs something to hate.
If hating me gives her a reason to keep living… then I think that’s okay.”

Hitler tried to say it as calmly as he could.

But something inside him was uneasy.

Marianne’s Grocery had been a place he frequented.

The look on Maria’s face, after losing everything in an instant—
it had been pure rage and hatred.

It hurt to see that.

She had a goal: to become a great artist and inspire hope among fellow Jews,
so that nothing like what happened to her family would ever happen again.

Unlike him, who just wanted to be famous—
she had a clear purpose.

Maria needed something to burn her hate into.

Something to torch instead of letting it consume her from within.

‘…Well, I guess it can’t be helped.’

Hitler wasn’t the kind of person who could even hurt a bug.

He always treated people kindly.

Maria, too.

And if he had to be the one to bear her hatred—
then so be it.
If it would help Maria, he would endure it.

“…Adolf.”

“Yes, Miss Eva?”

“You’ve never asked anything about me, have you?”

“I thought it might make you uncomfortable…”

The truth was, Hitler had a lot of questions.

Like how Eva’s seemingly fatal wounds had healed in an instant.

What exactly she was.

Why she’d collapsed in the park like someone being hunted.

He knew nothing.

But he hadn’t asked,
because if she was hiding something, he figured she had her reasons.

“…Do you believe in witches?”

What Eva said was unexpected.

***

Witch (Hexe)

A term passed down for centuries,
used to describe women who wield magic.

They kidnapped children, ate their flesh, and played wicked tricks to throw the world into chaos.

That was about all Hitler knew of them.

They were said to appear in the Black Forest,
kidnapping travelers or waiting until children grew up to eat them.

Strangely, all he remembered were the cannibal stories.

“I’m a witch.”

“…What?”

“You probably won’t believe me, but it’s true.”

“…”

Hitler stared into Eva’s eyes—eyes completely serious.

‘…Did she hit her head?’

“What’s with that look? Don’t tell me… you don’t believe me, Adolf?”

“Well… I…”

Scratching his head, Hitler imagined drawing a pointy witch hat over the portrait he made.

Eva, wearing a tall black hat, a robe, and riding a broom…

…It actually suited her.

“Fine, I’ll show you proof!”

Eva scrunched her face and focused her mind.

BOOM!

A bolt of lightning shot from the clear sky and struck an old tree.

“No way…”

“Do you believe me now? I’m a lightning witch—Blitz.
I can control lightning at will. Amazing, right…?”

“It’s incredible! That kind of power… You could power appliances without any electricity! We might not even need light bulbs anymore!”

“…Are you seriously treating me like a power plant?! This power is meant for fighting enemies!”

‘Enemies…?’

Hitler narrowed his eyes at her.

Enemies?

France or Serbia?

Maybe even the decaying Ottoman Empire, Italy who stole Venetia and Lombardy, or expansionist Russia?

Anyone who dared to make an enemy out of someone like Eva must be begging for death.

Hitler’s curiosity got the better of him.

He wanted to know—who was stupid enough to make Eva their enemy?

Who had turned against the Empire and the German people?

“Unknown monsters.”

“Come again?”

“Literal unknowns. We don’t know their names or nature.
When they appear, we witches take them down. Like I just did.”

“…”

Hitler once again looked at her with his wide, bright eyes.

“What’s with that look now!”

“I-I believe you, I do… It’s just…”

‘Unknown monsters…?’

He was getting skeptical.

Monsters without names?

What did they even look like?

“I just got an idea.”

“What?”

“If you tell me what they look like, I’ll draw them on canvas.”

“Oh! Ohhh! Adolf! You’re such a genius!”

Eva ruffled Hitler’s neatly parted hair in delight.

And Hitler didn’t dislike the praise.

“I saw this one right after I became a witch last year.
It had a giant eye in the center and was covered in wings.”

“What kind of wings?”

“Bird wings. But there were like, ten pairs—layered on top of each other.
From far away, it looked circular.”

“Hmm…”

Hitler couldn’t quite draw it.

Eva’s descriptions were too vague.

“I’ll draw too! If I sketch while you describe, we’ll figure it out.”

“Oh!”

A while later, crude sketches by Eva covered the floor.

“This one I saw near Mount Vesuvius.
It had four sets of wings and a human face in the center—like the kind you see in mosaics.”

“This one showed up in Paris.
Its body looked like a huge bracelet, and it also had wings.”

“This one had pale skin—definitely not human.
It had multiple faces, tons of eyes, eagle wings, and bull horns…”

As Eva spoke, Hitler completed sketch after sketch.

“Oh wow! Adolf! You’re a total genius!!!”

Hitler broke into a nervous sweat as Eva hugged him tightly.

‘…These look like angels.’