The Handbook for Completing Demi-Human Girls

Chapter 98: The Unexpected

The time was five in the afternoon. The location was a hotel that offered rooms by the hour. The room was small — or rather, it didn't need much space at all. A single soft bed was more than sufficient.

Karolina was clearly unaccustomed to this kind of intimate atmosphere. More than that, she felt a physiological wave of nausea when the Schwari gentleman removed his jacket, yet at the same time a strange, tingling excitement filled her.

After a moment's hesitation, Karolina lay down on her side on the bed. After all, she had seen the ladies at the Pink Pavilion do the same; mimicking them couldn't be too far off.

"Hey, hurry up already."

Fischer had his back to her, pulling something from inside his coat. Karolina assumed it was some kind of pill — an enhancement drug, perhaps — and curled her lip in exasperation. She had no intention of actually sleeping with him. Her plan was set: hit him with charm magic, and once the spell rendered him helpless, interrogate him at her leisure.

But he just wouldn't come over. How was she supposed to cast the spell on him?

"Do you work at the Pink Pavilion?"

"...Not exactly. I'm only staying there temporarily. Don't ask about that — coming out alone with you is already an exception, you know. If we don't make the most of our time and I get caught, it won't be pretty."

"I see."

But in that instant, Karolina suddenly realized that what the gentleman had produced from his coat was not some dragon-blood aphrodisiac — it was a pair of tweezers glowing with faint white light.A sense of foreboding washed over her. The gentleman raised the tweezers to his own face, and before Karolina's astonished eyes, the Schwari gentleman's visage was ripped clean off, revealing the man's true, pale features beneath.

He set the silken veil on the table, then turned and gazed at the woman behind him, his face expressionless. Her complexion drained of color at once — she had clearly recognized Fischer.

"Know me?"

"You!"

'Isn't that the man who captured the Witch Bart on Serpent's Head Street the other day?'

It took her barely a second to realize she had walked straight into Fischer's trap.

Without the slightest warning, she flung the bedcovers at Fischer and leaped off the bed, bolting for the window.

But the devil of a man behind her had no intention of letting her escape. Fischer's hand shot through the blanket and clamped down on her wrist like a vice, wrenching her body back.

Karolina gritted her teeth and drew a blade from inside her blouse, slashing at Fischer — but the strike was dodged effortlessly. He caught her knife-hand with one palm, and in the next instant twisted with brutal force, dislocating her right shoulder outright.

"Aahh!"

She screamed in agony. The pain of the dislocation seemed to magnify thousandfold in an instant. The blade clattered to the floor. Fischer gave her no time to recover — he seized her left arm and dislocated that one too, then bound her tightly with the Weaver's threads and tossed her onto the bed.

"Where were you planning to run? Undying Witch..."

Karolina's ashen face turned toward the gentleman beside her, filled with bitter defiance. Inwardly, she was reeling. This man had been putting on an act from the very moment he walked into the Pink Pavilion that morning! The Schwari gentleman had been a lie from start to finish! This cunning bastard hadn't done a single genuine thing all day!

'Are all Nari men this deceitful?'

By entering his room in hopes of extracting Schwari intelligence, she had walked into the web of her own accord. Following him outside had only made matters worse — the height of idiocy.

Only now did Karolina recognize just how foolish she had been. If only she had listened to that woman Anna.

Looking at herself bound up yet again, these were her thoughts — though outwardly she showed none of them. Instead, her face flushed with indignation and she erupted into curses.

"You bastard! Who the hell are you?! You captured Bart — you're not from the Witch Research Society! I've got no quarrel with you! What do you want with me? Or are you trying to create defective Witches like Bart, too?!"

Fischer silently filed away every piece of information embedded in her tirade, considered it for a moment, and spoke.

"I see. So the Witch Research Society's artificial Witch was made from you. No wonder they went to all the trouble of chasing you from Kadu to Naris."

Karolina looked at Fischer. The excruciating pain in her dislocated joints had turned her deathly pale, but hearing his words only deepened her bewilderment.

"You're not after me to make Witches either?! Then what do you want?! I have no grudge against you! The first time, I was just trying to deal with the Witch Research Society people tailing me! And this time I only wanted a scrap of Schwari intelligence! Twice now! The first time you broke my leg, the second time you're breaking my arms — are you some kind of sadistic pervert?!"

Fischer reached over and patted her cheek, cutting short her impotent rage. He had no desire to listen to any more of this one's screeching. His expression cooled, and he motioned for her to be silent.

"I'm the one holding you, so you'd best behave." Fischer glanced at her face, ghostly white from pain, and continued. "I know you have an immortal body. But from the looks of it, that immortality is far from perfect."

Karolina pressed her lips together. Every time she regenerated, the pain was multiplied many times over — and no drug could alleviate it. The Witch Research Society had previously tried anesthetics and psychotropic agents to dull her suffering, all to no avail.

Whenever she invoked her regeneration trait, the agony was indescribable.

Right now, she was a guest under someone else's roof and had little choice but to bow her head. Though the hostility in Karolina's eyes hadn't faded, at least she stopped hurling abuse.

"I'm very interested in your trait, so I want to study it a bit. Naturally, I won't ask you to give something for nothing. If I'm not mistaken, the Pink Pavilion's protection comes at a price — one that's almost certainly tied to Schwari. More specifically, they probably need you to do something during Schwari's upcoming visit to Naris."

Karolina's pupils dilated in disbelief. Fischer's expression didn't change in the slightest, as if his conjecture were already fact.

"How — how could you possibly know that?"

"Because you're not very bright." Fischer shook his head and declined to explain further. He simply pressed on. "Tell me — what do they want you to do?"

Karolina opened her mouth, wavered for a long time, and finally divulged the truth.

"They want me to... assassinate any member of the Schwari delegation. That's why I was trying to learn about the visit."

Fischer nearly burst out laughing — he couldn't decide whether to laugh at her stupidity or her delusions of grandeur.

The Schwari visit was the product of multiple rounds of negotiations. Both sides would treat it with the utmost gravity. The delegation would be shielded not only by Schwari's own security but by Naris's Royal Guard at every moment.

They would probably enchant the very beds the delegates slept in. With this pint-sized excuse for a Witch, she'd likely be killed ten thousand times over before she even got close.

And even in the wildly implausible scenario where she succeeded, she would face hostility from two nations — a prospect infinitely more terrifying than the Witch Research Society's pursuit. At that point, her only option would be to throw herself into the sea and become a pirate — assuming any pirate crew would take on such a fool.

Fischer's "looking at an idiot" expression enraged Karolina again. As if to prove her worth, she sat up and declared.

"Of course I know the Pink Pavilion is playing me! I'm not stupid enough to actually assassinate a Schwari delegate! My plan is to use the chaos of the assassination attempt to escape—"

"And the plan for that?"

"..." Karolina opened her mouth, then stubbornly retorted, "I haven't worked it out yet! They haven't arrived yet anyway — I still have time to think!"

Fischer sighed, then held up a single finger.

"A deal. Let me study you. In return, I'll provide you with protection — from both the Pink Pavilion and the Witch Research Society. I will guarantee your safety. Once the matter is concluded, I'll set you free. How about it?"

Karolina pressed her lips together. She certainly didn't trust Fischer, but with her less-than-brilliant brain she couldn't think of a reason to refuse. Besides, he had her captured, and this man clearly outclassed her.

So, in the end, her defiance wilted, and she softened just a little.

"Study... what does that involve?"

Fischer stood, turned his back to her, and produced the Demi-Human Completion Handbook. He prepared to register this "Undying Witch" — though ideally he should wait a moment to confirm she was truly the one from the prophecy.

"Considerably better than your time at the Witch Research Society, I'd wager. It's just recording some data."

Karolina hesitated, then finally nodded.

"Fine. I'll agree. Let's start over — my name is Karo. What's yours?"

"Fischer... hm?"

Fischer slowly realized something was wrong. First, this Witch's name sounded odd — more like a male name. And the most critical issue: he had opened the Demi-Human Completion Handbook, and it showed no researchable subject!

He stared at the Handbook in disbelief, then snapped his head around to look at the startled Karolina — no, at Karo.

"You're not a demi-human? And not female, either?"

It was the only possible explanation. The Demi-Human Completion Handbook had only two requirements for a research subject: they had to be a demi-human, and they had to be female. Was it possible that this person met neither condition?

First — not a demi-human. Perhaps this person was something manufactured by the Witch Research Society, the same as that Bart? And second — before the transformation, this person had been, through and through, a male.

Karo opened his mouth, cheeks burning. Looking down at his currently curvaceous body, he gave a mortified nod.

"I'm an artificial Witch created by the Witch Research Society. Before I became a Witch, I was male. They told me I'm no different from a real Witch — their 'most perfect creation'... What's wrong? I thought you were interested in my trait?! What difference does it make?"

Fischer very nearly slapped him, though his expression remained unchanged. Only his eyes went cold. He reached out and retracted the Weaver's threads, watching Karo tumble back onto the bed. Fischer turned away, threw on his coat, and immediately prepared to leave.

"Never mind. I'm looking for a real Witch. You're useless to me. Get lost."

"Huh?!"

Karo sat up in fury, both arms dangling uselessly from his dislocated shoulders. His face was crimson as he glared at the utterly heartless Fischer and snarled.

"Are you messing with me?! You're the one who said you'd study me! And now you're just going to walk out?!"

"Don't forget to pay for the room."

Fischer had already donned his gentleman's hat and was heading for the door without so much as a backward glance, acting as if none of this concerned him.

Just as he was about to leave, Karo clenched his teeth and shouted at Fischer's back.

"You're looking for the real Undying Witch, aren't you? I have a lead on her!"

The tall gentleman's silhouette froze. Then his expressionless face slowly turned.

"A long time ago, someone used the same trick to deceive me. I spent all of my patience on her. I have none left to spare for anyone else. If you dare lie to me, you will enjoy some very memorable consequences. I promise."

Outside the window, a lark tilted its head — as if it, too, had heard Fischer's words.

A bead of cold sweat rolled down Karo's forehead. But he nodded with conviction and addressed Fischer in dead earnest.

"I swear I have a lead on the real Witch. Get me away from the Pink Pavilion and the Witch Research Society — keep me safe — and I'll tell you everything."