Shin felt as though his head had been filled with lead — a lethargy that, as a Pillar Man, he had never once experienced since the moment of his birth pressing down around him from all sides.
He felt himself sinking, endlessly, as though falling into a borderless ocean. Or perhaps as though he were lying on a cloud — impossibly soft, impossibly still.
So this was the power of St. Trina's nectar — the nectar that could enchant even the gods themselves.
No — wait. He hadn't drunk the nectar. He'd been caught by the Great Witch's thoroughly unreasonable [Share] magic.
All he could say was that the Great Witch was entirely too crafty. Not only did she command all manner of spells, but each one she commanded individually was on the level of a Concept.
And there were four Great Witches of this caliber.
It was hard to fathom how a Witch Clan with four Great Witches at its disposal had been wiped out by fifteenth-century humans who hadn't even crossed into the industrial age yet. Unless something like what happened to the Night Clan had occurred — some kind of internal betrayal, a traitor within their own ranks.
Ugh…
Shin fought to open his eyes. His vision flickered between blurred and doubled several times before the ceiling above him came into any kind of focus.
It was the familiar bedroom ceiling of Witch Island manor, with the ornate carved moulding distinctive to the building's classical style.
Miscalculated. I should have sent Meruru to deliver the tea instead.
She may be a mage but the Great Witch is completely broken — how was she able to counter me even like this…
Shin pushed himself to sitting, head throbbing dully at the back of his skull. It felt like a mortal's hangover on top of a blow from a cudgel, which was strange in itself — he was an Ultimate Being. Even unpleasant symptoms like these should have resolved themselves quickly.
And yet here they were, refusing to leave. Refusing to let him feel quite right.
Outside the window, the night was deep.
A hush lay over the entire manor, but something about it felt different from the usual silence — not empty, but inhabited in a way Shin couldn't quite pin down.
He recalled that his last conscious moment had been in the second-floor library.
He wondered if the Great Witch on the sofa had woken yet. He figured his own constitution was sturdier than hers, which meant she was probably still out — but even so…
Wait — was it Meruru who carried me from the library to the bedroom?
Shin reached instinctively for the space beside him — and found it empty. No Meruru.
After they'd confirmed their relationship, the girl had made a point of latching onto him every night to sleep, clinging tight — and naturally, there was always some extended activity involved beforehand.
Had she slipped out for water in the middle of the night?
"Meruru?"
He called out tentatively.
His voice came out a little lower than usual. It resonated faintly in the empty room and got no reply.
Odd.
Shin patted his forehead, trying to shake off the lingering fog. The grogginess was thick enough that even his Ultimate Being senses weren't operating at full capacity.
He needed to get a handle on what time it was — he was hoping he'd only slept through to that same evening.
But then he noticed something wrong.
The system was fine — but the group chat he was linked to had gone strange: he could only view it, not post. It was like trying to type in a dream, where the words just won't come.
[Moon Princess]: What on earth? Why did Great Witch and [Aspiring] change status to [Away] at the same time — [Aspiring] wouldn't have sneaked into Great Witch's world without telling us, would she?
[Moon Princess]: Oh my — is this what I think it is? I have a very frightening guess…!
[Moon Princess]: Do you think [Aspiring] has something going on with the Great Witch on the side?!
[Moon Princess]: Oh no oh no, does Great Witch's Shaya know about this? Is this what they call a "cheating mother" in those novels?
Shin: ?
Shin scrolled through the chat history. The moment he saw the system notification showing that he and the Great Witch had gone offline at the same time — he'd already braced himself for the worst. The jig was up.
But then he actually read Kaguya's message. What did she just say? Shin felt heat crawling up his face.
Not from embarrassment! Absolutely not!
To avoid his blood pressure climbing any further, Shin decided to shift focus:
Either way — first things first, assess the situation.
He got up from the bed. After a couple of slow breaths to sharpen his senses, his gaze drifted out of the window — and in that moment, his expression froze.
His pupils contracted.
The position of the stars in the night sky — was wrong.
As an Ultimate Being, Shin's astronomical awareness was almost disturbingly precise.
He knew exactly what the stars over Witch Island should look like, which season it was. Living in what was approximately the fifteenth century without modern conveniences meant you made a point of committing these things to memory. The positions of the constellations in the night sky were one of his primary tools for keeping track of dates.
And the star pattern outside that window was not what he remembered from before he'd lost consciousness.
More than that — the humidity in the air, the smell of it — all wrong, all very different from the Witch Island he knew.
Had he slept for half a year? No — impossible.
Shin crossed to the window quickly and pushed it open. The worn wood of the frame moved with much less resistance than it should have.
Outside, Witch Island's landscape. But the arrangements — different. Many things out of place.
In particular, the flower bed left by the Earth Great Witch — now bare. Completely empty.
An absurd hypothesis bloomed in Shin's mind.
He hadn't woken up. He was still…
"Hmm~ hmhm~~"
A light, cheerful humming drifted from the corridor outside, clear and bright with obvious delight, growing from far away to close — with no sound of footsteps, as though the girl were simply floating.
Shin swallowed. For some reason, a wave of guilty unease washed over him — because he had just noticed something else. The bedroom's furnishings weren't the same as he remembered either.
They were on the second floor of the manor, yes — but the décor had a certain girlish softness to it that the room Shin knew didn't have. For instance, the white rose vase on the bedside table.
Creak—
The door was pushed open by a small, pale, delicate hand.
Steam — carrying the fragrance of flowers — poured from the warm body beyond, and as the door swung open, that mist billowed into the room and spread through the moonlight.
Shin held his breath.
The person who appeared behind that door was not Meruru. Nor was it the Great Witch in her usual state — lounging on the sofa, too lazy to even change out of her bodysuit.
The face was just as exquisitely beautiful, yes. The snow-colored hair was still dripping crystalline water droplets. Those pale blue eyes still carried the languorous ease of someone fresh from the bath.
The face was the same. The presence was entirely different.
The girl had simply wrapped herself in a large white bath towel — concealing a frame so flat it was nearly architectural, revealing only the outline of her ribs — but two slim, pale legs in soft pink peeked out below.
She was rubbing her snow-colored hair with a smaller towel, the faint trace of her humming still playing at the corners of her lips.
Until —
"Hmhm~~ hmm…?"
Their eyes met.
The air seemed to freeze solid.
Shin stared at that familiar-yet-utterly-unfamiliar face. His mind blanked for approximately a tenth of a second — and a name came out of his mouth before he could stop it:
"…Mother?"
To be continued…