Chapter 161 - 161 City of Witches (5)

Words : 1166 Updated : Sep 27th, 2025

161: City of Witches (5) 161: City of Witches (5) In the end, I failed to come even close to finding the White Witch Queen, Aradine. Rather, it wasn’t made known to me how close or not I was from reaching her, because I didn’t know where she was. So, I could have been close, or I could not have been. Still, I thought it was far more reasonable to simply assume that I was not close. I found a number of unfamiliar rooms which were similar to the lounge area from earlier, but none of them were as special as the flower garden, and none of them had anything important or noteworthy in them either. I suppose this result wasn’t much of a surprise. In the first place, rather than me finding my way out of that looping corridor, she was the one who found me. ‘Dumb magic, it’s unfair... Just wait until I’ve got Mana Corruption, then we’ll see how good it really is...’ [Fret not! I believe in you, Enki!] ‘Thank you, Librarian. I know you do.’ [Yeah! I know you’ll become really good and cool with magic, certainly!] ‘Okay, you don’t need to go that far or else it feels fake... And wait, are you saying I’m not cool right now?’ [Even cooler!] “...Well, whatever. I know I’m not that cool anyway, it’s not a big deal...” Muttering to myself as I had such absentminded banter with the Librarian, I again walked down the same corridor as before, glancing out the window which this time was on my left. ‘...It’s the same as before. I swear, it’s been a couple of hours since I first arrived and it hasn’t changed. It’s not just me, right...?’ My brows naturally furrowing, I thought I was going crazy, walking through the same places with the same surrounding scenery for hours straight, to no avail. “Maybe I should just stop...” ‘It’s about time for tutoring now anyway, isn’t it?’ I still didn’t know what it was I was expected to be teaching, but I guess I had no choice but to make some random stuff up until I found that out. No one told me what I was supposed to be doing so it wasn’t my fault, anyway. “...Ah. Another door.” At some point during the mindless walk, I stumbled across yet another door in the side of the corridor. ‘I don’t think I’ve seen this one before. Must be new.’ Walking up to the door, I casually grabbed the handle to open it. Honestly, since everything I’ve found ever since the flower garden with the Protagonist was a whole bunch of nothing, I wasn’t expecting much of anything. I thought that, but when I opened the door, I found... “...Oh?” It was a classroom. It bore the same interior design as all the other fancy rooms, but this time with a bunch of empty desks lined up, and at the end of the room, a big blackboard on the wall. It was also just as dark, with just one, tiny candle atop the teacher’s podium before the blackboard. And, at the very front of the class, a little girl was sitting at a desk. “Aella, you’re already here. Am I late?” Calling out to her, I started walking to the front of the room, glancing out the window to see the dark sky that lay beyond, a large portion of it taken up by the prominent full moon peering down. Suppressing the chill that seemed to surge every time I looked at such a sight, I moved my attention to the Protagonist, watching her turn her head towards me as I approached, then lightly shake it side-to-side. “I’m early. You are early too.” “Oh, good. I couldn’t find your mother anywhere, so I’m not sure exactly what it is I’m supposed to be teaching. Is there anything in particular you’re curious about?” “...” Again, she averted her gaze at the question, appearing to take some time to think. ‘She’s an odd kid, isn’t she... Although, maybe it’s normal for the daughter of a witch.’ Recalling the Tags assigned to the Contract, there was a certain one that sprung to mind at this moment. ‘#NonhumanProtagonist... I guess witches aren’t considered human, then? It’s a bit odd, but I guess I shouldn’t find it too strange to imagine them as different species. In that sense, they’re sort of similar to elves or dwarves, right?’ Of course, that would also probably be why she was so unemotional, completely unlike someone of comparable mental age like the Librarian, or even myself or Gil when we were kids. “...Can you teach me about life?” Before long, she requested that, and I scratched the back of my head. ‘Life again... She’s a bit young for ‘that’ kind of talk, but I think I can make it work.’ “So, biology, is that it? I’m not immensely confident in my knowledge of the subject, but I can teach you what I do know. Would you like that?” She nodded. “Yes please.” ‘She has good manners, I’ll give her that. Maybe this won’t be too bad after all...’ Refreshing my attitude, I put on a smile and pulled a chair out to sit on the opposite end of the desk she was sitting at, moving the candle from the teacher’s podium to sit atop our shared desk. As I did, I did belatedly notice that she didn’t have any equipment like pens, pencils, or even just a book to write down some notes, and upon realising that, I asked her. “Do you not need anything to make some notes?” Simply blinking at me, she shook her head. “I can remember.” Pausing for a few moments, I stared at her before nodding. “...I see. Alright, well, if you have a good memory, I guess notes aren’t necessary, are they? Let’s start then.” Clearing my head of irrelevant and unnecessary thoughts, I thought back to the biology classes I used to have, making an effort to remind myself of what I was taught of how human life first came to be. “So, at a very fundamental level, all life requires water and energy. Water is of course obtained through drinking it, and energy is mostly obtained through sunlight and eating food. All life needs these things to survive, even you and me. Right?” I actually thought my explanation was pretty good, and as the words left my mouth, I thought this whole experience might not be too bad after all. “No.” Alas, the very first lesson hit a wall right there. “...I’m sorry?” “I don’t drink water and I don’t eat food. I have read about sunlight in books.” “...” This was going to take a while.

Chapter 161 - 161 City of Witches (5)

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