Chapter 286

Trial of the Alchemist (II)

A village sprawled between the mountains, cascading down a strata, with the fancier houses sitting up top, worsening in quality the lower the drop became. Next to them, a river flew gently until the first drop, becoming a rapid, quasi-waterfall afterward that spilled all the way down into a mini lake that, due to the decline, then spilled out into the river. So, effectively, it was all just one, big river with an acne in the middle.

Though the entire place looked nice, Cain imagine it must be a nightmare to actually live here, what with the constant need to climb up and down and walking around everywhere, all without an access to anything remotely resembling an elevator. Just imagining it he cringed, thanking the gods for the invention of modern-city planning.

On their way from the trial’s entrance to the village, he’d learned quite a few things—not by the virtue of he himself asking, but because Te’gha resumed its general role of a chatterbox. He yapped and yapped and so did the women accompanying them, readily sharing their woes and plights with the ‘heroes’ that have come to save them.

As such, he learned that the witch didn’t personally take the men—she spread strange dust through the village that drew them all mad and caused them to wild out and run toward her into the woods in the mountains. According to the women, she did so out of jealousy because, a year prior, when she came down to look for a man, all men rejected her because every woman in the village was far more beautiful.

In fact, the more Cain listened to the tale, the more certain he became that at least a quarter of what the women were saying were outright lies. Nonetheless, he remained silent, continuing to listen but taking everything with a grain of salt.

He’d also learned that the witch was well-versed both in potion-concocting as well as dark arts, though when he asked the women to elaborate what they meant by the ‘dark arts’, they just said ‘evil and foul magic’ as though that meant anything. They insisted, though, that the witch’s magic went against the natural order of things and that it corrupted the very nature from which it drew its prowess.

This… meant nothing, at least not to Cain. ‘Dark and foul magic’ could, quite literally, be anything if driven to hard enough of an extreme. It could be necromancy, shadowmancy, blood-manipulation, mind-related skills… any one of those could be perceived as evil and foul. In truth, however, there was no evil magic by the nature itself—even something that does lend itself to evil intentions cannot be inherently evil since it lacks conscience.

For instance, necromancy is seen by many as evil magic, but it was hardly evil, really; it just that it looked the part, is all. Similarly, shadowmancy is one of the most useful Skills anyone can have, but because of how it looks when used, it is viewed obscenely as an ‘evil form of magic’. It was clear to him by now that the women were merely trying to incite him and fan the flames of hatred and inspire his heroic blood. Little did they know, however, Cain’s heroic blood was eaten up by twenty years’ worth of cynicism.

He eventually wound up inside one of the houses midway up the cascading town, opposite of an extremely old, blind woman. She had knee-long, snow-white hair and wrinkles on top of wrinkles and rolls on top of rolls. Soon after, only she and Cain and Te’gha remained inside the small room framed in wooden walls and decorated with a bear’s rug down below.

Despite her blindness, the woman skillfully poured the two of them a cup of still steaming-hot tea, picking up the ceramic cup gingerly and drinking a sip with her pinky pointedly looking at the sky. Silence permeated between the two, and, shockingly, even Te’gha didn’t seem interested in breaking it. Instead, the cat lay lazily on Cain’s lap, grooming himself.

“She’s not a witch,” the old woman suddenly said, causing Cain to finally divert his attention toward her. “But… I suppose you already knew that.”

“I suspected,” Cain replied.

“Forgive my sisters,” she said. “They are too eager, sometimes. I want to say they mean well, but sometimes they do not, I’m afraid.”

“…” Cain remained silent, waiting for the story while gingerly sipping the tea. It tasted like a good mix of vanilla and strawberry and it had an extremely calming effect on him.

“The truth is that she did not take our men away—our men went chasing after her,” the elderly woman continued. “The reason for it isn’t as fanciful as you think, however. It was not that they were charmed by her, but rather angered; as you may have noticed, even if you will never say it out loud, there are no beautiful women here.” Cain remained placid, not a word to be read on his face. “That wasn’t always the case. In fact, men from Kingdoms over a hundred spans away came here for my sisters.

“Beauty is one of the means through which we sustained ourselves all these years without depending on anyone else. Alas, one of our sisters… was not like the rest. She was not beautiful. She was cursed at birth with a hunched back and a closed eye and a half a head of bald hair. It was as though gods above took all our ills and plights and put them on her.”

“…”

“We never mistreated her,” the woman said. “I made sure of it. But the heart is a glassy thing. And she, living here and watching all these men, some of whom were Princes of the Kingdoms far, far away, traverse the world for her sisters… she felt it. The seed of jealousy. I suppose, from the glint in your gaze, you can see where the story is headed.”

“So,” Cain mused. “She… stole everyone’s beauty? Just like that?”

“She had outside help, I imagine. There’s nowhere nearby she could have learned such a cursed magic. Our men, angry with her, all besieged her house, but she managed to escape and had ran off into the woods… and they chased. And… we haven’t seen or heard from them since.”

“It’s not the ‘witch’, then,” Cain said. “But whoever’s aiding her that I need to take care of, no?”

“I’m sorry for lying to you,” the woman suddenly bowed her head and banged it directly against the table, shocking both Te’gha and Cain. “We falsified the Trial’s information and if the word gets out… we will all be killed. But… I beseech you… please, don’t tell anyone! Our circumstances would have never been approved for the Trial otherwise! Please! You can execute your wrath on me when it all ends, but please… help us!”

“Jesus, get up, get up,” Cain sighed, once again lamenting the fact that a lot of the worlds he had visited on his journeys had all manner of embarrassment-inducing customs that sent him into a spiral of shuddering. Where on Earth would he get a woman that’s clearly at least a hundred years old banging her head against a hardwood table in front of a man that’s, technically, over half her age? Nowhere. “Don’t worry. I won’t tattle and I will help.”

“O’, Great Hero!” Oh, fuck off already… you’re gonna kill me over here, woman! “T-Thank you. Truly, thank you! If possible… please don’t tell my sisters that you know. Their circumstances embarrass them. And please… if at all possible, bring her to me alive. She’s been like a daughter to me and I’d at least like to offer her a chance to explain herself. After that… you can do as you wish with her.”

“…” Cain merely nodded and swiftly left the house, fearful she might, once again, do something cringe-inducing.

The women, though appearing scattered, all eyeballed him keenly from all points, above and below, expecting. Even he felt some nervousness, rubbing Te’gha’s soft head to disperse some of it away. The cat didn’t protest and, instead, indulged in it; apparently, it felt good.

“What do you think, Te?” Cain asked. “What’s the best course of action?” he quickly ran out of the town and toward the forest, leaving behind the fading cheers of the platoon of women seeing him off.

“Go kidnap the witch and taste her.”

“… what?”

“Aren’t you curious?” the cat asked with a devious expression. “According to that old hag, the witch stole beauty from hundreds of women! She might be almost as beautiful as great Te’gha!”

“Do… do I need to, like, neuter you or something?” Cain mumbled. “Is this your puberty? Please, please don’t! Lana’s already a headache as it is, I can’t have you losing your sanity marbles either! Ah, whatever. Before anything else, I should at the very least find her, no? Let’s see… if I were a witch who just became the most beautiful woman in the world and had an army of men chasing me—not to fuck me, but to actually kill me—where would I be? Christ, these trials are getting more and more ridiculous. What’s next? I’ll have to jump into a pit of fire to look for a drop of water? Sheesh…”