novelraw Book 2: Chapter 3: Her Vile Deeds
Book 2: Chapter 3: Her Vile Deeds
The moment the sigil was completed, Fischer’s entire body suddenly felt light. His vision was engulfed by a thick darkness, yet he could vaguely make out the slow flow of various materials around him. It was as if he had entered the deep end of a body of water—every sound gradually faded away.
It was an intensely uncomfortable and strange sensation, like a newborn opening its eyes to the world for the first time—everything unfamiliar and frightening.
Fischer’s breathing quickened unconsciously. He looked down at himself, only to realize his body had completely vanished. In its place was a trunk-like structure emitting a soft, milky glow, branching like twigs—his Magic Circuit.
His Magic Circuit had temporarily freed itself from his physical body. It moved with liberty, but the farther it strayed from his body, the faster the light dissipated. The body exerted a strong suction force to pull it back in.
He had entered the soul’s field of vision!
Just as Fischer’s mind registered this revelation, he suddenly felt something watching him. It wasn’t just his body reacting—his very soul bristled with the sense of danger.
The moment he tried to turn his vision to see what it was, something yanked at his soul. The surrounding darkness exploded into vivid colors, and his senses and breath snapped back one by one. His sight returned to normal.
But Fischer was chilled to the bone. He couldn’t shake the discomfort of that perspective—or rather, the feeling of being watched by that “presence.”
Beside him, Renée's worried violet eyes were gazing into his. She cupped his cold cheeks in her palms. It was her touch that broke him out of the soul state.
“You okay? Your face just went pale all of a sudden.” Fischer took a deep breath to calm the pressure left behind by the magic. He had definitely sensed something staring at him in the soul’s field of vision. Thinking back now, trying to look directly at that thing had been a stupid move—it could’ve led to something completely unpredictable.
Thankfully, Renée had pulled him back. Otherwise, Fischer had no idea what consequences might have followed if he’d stared at that terrifying presence in his soul state.
“I’m fine. This at least proves the method works...”
Renée pouted, and seeing he was okay, she floated back up.
Fischer let out a breath of relief. The spell’s success alone was enough to prove to those human scholars that the soul truly existed. The Universal Magic Sigil he’d drawn earlier was a beginner’s tool for aligning the Ring Head of a spell correctly and demonstrating its echo effect.
Now the real question was: what was that thing watching him in the soul state? He couldn’t explain why, but it reminded him of that giant eye he’d encountered on the Southern Continent...
“Whooo~”
Thick black smoke curled from the top of the massive cruise ship. As the piercing whistle blew, Fischer felt the vessel slowly pulling away from the dock. He turned to look out the window—at Port Crete, or more precisely, the Southern Continent behind it.
It was time to say goodbye to this place, for now.
“Boooooring. So boring. Ugh, Fischer, I’m dying of boredom.” Renée—this troublemaker—had insisted on taking the ship with him back to the Western Continent. But it hadn’t even been three days, and she was already floating around the room chanting how bored she was.
“You could’ve just gone back directly, but no, you chose to spend thirty-plus days on a ship with me. So stop complaining.”
“That’s not it! I imagined thirty days of you and me cuddling and flirting in the cabin—not watching you write boring articles all day!”
Renée was about to die of boredom. She’d flipped through the room’s newspaper three times already. Even floating around couldn’t ease her restlessness. Fischer was starting to worry she’d fly out of the cabin and start pranking other passengers.
The sea outside was calm and peaceful, but Fischer was getting irritable too—not from boredom, but from Renée.
“You really think I’d get all cuddly and lovey-dovey with you?”
“Fischer. Look at me.”
“What?”
Renée’s teasing tone suddenly turned serious, making Fischer think she was upset. He turned to look at her—only to see her pulling the black dress tight against her body to accentuate her figure, then saying with a completely serious face:
“Do I look good?”
Fischer turned away without a word and went back to his paper. His nonchalant reaction puffed Renée’s cheeks in frustration. She flew over and started bonking him on the head with her fists.
“Enough...” Fischer caught her soft, half-hearted punch with his hand. He’d been writing for ages and was feeling a bit tired anyway. He put down his quill. “By the way, when you sent that message with Hart, I never really asked—did you find your family in Cardu?”
“Huh?” Renée hadn’t expected that question and looked a little troubled. “I was too young when I left. I only have a vague memory of where I lived. Even if I passed by it now, it’s probably changed. Not finding it makes sense.”
Fischer had found Renée near the Schwalli–Cardu border. Back then, he’d just recently discovered the strange nature of the Demi-Human Girl Completion Handbook. He hadn’t even heard of the prophesied “Child of the Sea” or “God of the Sky.” Since Dragonkin were unique to the Southern Continent, he had to start with Witches from the West.
The defining feature of the Undying Witch was, naturally, “undying.” Whether it was literal immortality or endless reincarnation, any form of “not dying” would count.
But Renée didn’t match any of those. Her Attribute was trash. She had tons of magic but couldn’t engrave a single spell and was terrible at learning. Her Hart birds were only good for sending messages—basically decoration. Fischer gave up on her entirely.
After learning Fischer was looking for the Undying Witch, this little liar claimed she had intel and begged him to take her past the Schwalli border. She’d tell him after.
Back then, Schwalli and Cardu were on bad diplomatic terms, with tensions high. Fischer risked sneaking her across the border. But the moment things got dicey, she bolted. She even got shot and came crawling into Cardu bawling that the witch had already left.
Even an idiot could tell she’d been lying. After Fischer grilled her, she finally confessed pitifully—she just wanted him to help her look for the family she’d left as a child.
In the end, they didn’t find anything. But Renée stuck to Fischer like glue, saying she couldn’t use magic yet but would help engrave spell sigils for him every day once she learned, to repay his life-saving kindness. After one successful spell engraving on his staff, she was exhausted and tried to sneak off. She even shamelessly offered to “repay him with her body.”
Fischer, furious, kicked her out on the spot.
Back then, Fischer was still young and naive. He hadn’t yet learned how treacherous the world could be—and that’s how Renée tricked him so many times.
Since then, in Fischer’s eyes, Renée had become the embodiment of an insufferable Witch—a classic example of the worst kind. She single-handedly dragged down his impression of all Witches and reinforced his belief in the reliability of the world-ending prophecy.
“I think you might have better luck checking those small countries south of Cardu. They haven’t gone through the big development boom yet. Local culture is still pretty much intact.”
“Hm... You make a good point... Wait a sec. You’re trying to get rid of me, aren’t you?”
Renée’s eyes gleamed with sudden clarity. She had that “I caught you!” expression. Just the mention of her leaving made her aches and boredom vanish. Arms crossed, she floated mid-air, refusing to budge.
“Ugh.”
Fischer grunted in exasperation. He reached for a cigarette from his coat, only to find he was out.
Sighing, he stood up, brushed past the immovable Renée, and headed for the door.
“Hey, you’re not gonna jump overboard, are you?”
“....”
Fischer waved dismissively, not bothering to respond.