Kuro no Maou

Chapter 49 The Hungry Witch

That day, after distributing popsicles to many villagers, I made my way back to home. Of course, I didn’t take any quests like yesterday.

Well it’s not like I have to do quests everyday for my livelihood, one way or another it will be okay.

I give Lily a piggyback. While thinking how to sell the popsicle recipe to the merchant guild, I advance on the highway.

I’ve also gotten way more familiar with this highway having a dark background during the time the sun sets.

Normally, peddlers pass by this highway sometimes, but today I discovered a person that I have never seen.

That person was lying on her back without moving a twitch……It was a witch.

“No matter how I look at her……she’s a witch right?”

She has a three-cornered hat covering her face, which I’ve only seen in picture books.

She is wearing a similar jet black robe like me, but near the bottom of her neck it is decorated with feathers. I can tell that it is an superior-class quality item.

Her weapon the long cane staff is leaning on her.

The more I look at her, the more of a perfect witch vibe she gives. It feels like I’ve just slipped into a fairy-tale world.

Well, this is a different world, so it might not be a peculiar thing here, but more importantly,

“……What should I do in this situation?”

“?”

I don’t know how to deal with such a delicate situation, Lily also looks puzzled.

It seems like she’s asleep, but this is not the place to take an afternoon nap (It’s already evening though!).

However, if it’s an sudden illness only I can save her right now. There is almost never a person crossing the bridge at night.

Even so, she doesn’t look like a person sick from illness.

Let’s assess the situation, maybe a witch sleeping at evening on the highway might be natural in this other world, right? It’s just that I don’t know about it, right?

No matter how much I rack my brain, I can’t think of a single reason why this witch is sleeping on the highway.

Should I call out to her? Or shall I ignore her?

After various simulations, the moment I thought of calling out to the witch,

“――That person over there, you’re carrying something tasty, aren’t you?”

The witch suddenly speaks out, and what’s more, very rude words for someone she’s meeting for first time.

“So, you were awake after all?”

At the Witch’s abrupt statement, the beaten down me reflexively forget my polite speech and speak in the normal tone.

“Right now I’m very hungry, I want to eat something tasty.”

The witch takes off the three cornered hat that was her on her face and sluggishly puts in on her head.

And her hidden face is revealed.

Her expression is terribly sleepy with eyes half-opened, but still it’s so cute that one could take her for a noble person just by judging her face.

Her skin is white, has bluish short hair, and golden eyes, though the colouring pattern is different she is definitely human.

The magical power sometimes affects the appearance of the user. The colors that are impossible to be found in my previous world are not particularly unusual in this world.

Now that I think about it, she said “I want to eat something tasty” in a clear tone, so she’s not sleepy, contradictory to her appearance.

“Ah I want to eat delicious things. Ah, I wanna eat~”

“I got it, I will give you something to eat, so listen to me.”

“Really? Thank you.”

There is not not much change in her expression. But I did notice a slight happy expression swelling up from her.

My sister was a thoroughly expressionless person. Thus I have developed a skill to read through an expressionless person and I’m quite confident about it.

There are those expressionless types which have a wealth of hidden feelings and there are those like my sister who is the type whose feelings are all neutral.

Looks like she is the former type, I instinctively thought.

“Ah, sweet things if possible please.”

“……Got it.”

In addition, looks like she a person who goes at her own pace.

‘I got stuck with a pain in the ass type of person’ while thinking that, I take out popsicle from the shadow.

“aiskyandi!” (Lily) [TN: Lily speaks in hiragana, so it’s not really the word for popsicle.]

“You’ve already ate three of them, now wait till tomorrow.”

It’s not good to pamper Lily too much, thus I forged my heart into stone and decided to give her just three popsicles per day at most.

That’s why I will not give it to you even if you make a face like you’re dying for it.

“What is this?”

“It called a popsicle, it’s made from freezing fruit juice.”

“It’s my first time seeing it, thanks for the unusual thing.”

The witch’s eyesight is already pinned on the popsicle, though her face is expressionless her eyes are like of a predator looking at its prey. [ET: Nyarko’s disciple?]

I shake my hand right and left, and the witch’s face chases after it while swinging her head.

“……Meanie?”

“Sorry, unintentionally.”

She was looking at popsicle so seriously that I unintentionally played with her.

While trying really hard not to laugh, I hand over the popsicle to the witch.

“Chomp Chomp――!?”

“Is it tasty?”

“――It’s ridiculously tasty.”

The popsicle vanishes almost instantly in her mouth. Even among the villagers who ate it today she the fastest of them all.

“You had a sweet and delicious thing after all, just like I thought.”

“What is that, witch’s intuition?”

From the popsicle container that is inside the shadow space, no smell should leak out, and of course no one should be able to see it.

“I can somehow know that you’re hiding tasty something even if it’s in the shadow space.”

“……Really?”

“I just know, but it’s only that much.”

Do witches just somehow know that sort of thing? I always thought the concealment nature of the shadow was perfect, or is there a skill present in this world to see through such things.

By chance, is she a great witch? Or is she just a roadside glutton with tremendous talent?

I have many things to ask about, but first of all,

“Why are you sleeping in this place?”

Unless I ask this, the talk won’t go anywhere.

“Because I was hungry.”

“Did you collapse?”

“Something like that.”

Despite in the situation where her life is in danger slightly, she still nonchalantly answers.

“Then you should eat something that fills up your stomach, not just a popsicle.”

“I don’t like anything other than sweet things.”

“This is not the time to be picky, walk a little and buy something in the Irz village up front. Do you even have money?”

“I have gold ―― see here.”

Saying that, she puts her hand inside the hat and takes out a large-sized golden coin.

On one side is a portrait on a woman and on the other side is a never before seen magic circle drawn near the border of coin.

It might have been used for a long time as currency. The sides are chipped off a little.

But even those places which are chipped off are showing the luster of gold, looks like it’s not plated with gold but rather made from gold itself.

I can’t tell it’s exact value without weighing it, but it easily surpasses the value of a normal 1 gold coin.

Ah wait, it’s already surprising about the big gold coin but she took it out of her hat, most likely she’s using a similar sort of magic as my shadow magic.

If she learnt it through the proper way unlike me, then among adventurers her rank even in the lowest would be 3.

She doesn’t seem like the person she appears to be.

“If you have such a good gold coin, you can buy anything.”

“Is that so? The with this gold coin, let me buy those popsicles from just now.”

“Too bad, the previous one was the last. and hey! Didn’t I say to go and buy something that will fill your stomach?”

“I only like sweet things.”

I heard it before!

Hey is this lass normally this unenergetic?

“Can you walk to Irz Village? It will take 1 hour at most to reach there from here.”

“If it’s that much then It’s okay.”

“I see, well it looks like you’re a traveller witch too.”

There are many travellers in this world like adventurers, merchants and troubadours.

“It’s okay now that you have given me something delicious. Are you also a traveller?”

“No, I am―― ah, I have not yet told you my name, I am Kurono, and this is-”

“I’m Lily.”

“Are you both adventurers?”

In order to easily tell her, I show her my guild card.

“What is this?”

“It is a guild card, do you not know?”

“I saw the guild card from here for the first time”

‘From here’ you say, is she from a different country?

No wait, if I remember correctly this guild card is common through the whole Pandora continent.

In that case, she might have come from the western great desert or maybe from a very remote region.

“Isn’t it better to register as an adventurer if you’re confident in your magic? When your travelling funds run out you can earn them soon enough through it.”

However, if she has a lot of those big gold coins it’s a story of years from now for them to be exhausted.

“I am also thinking of becoming an adventurer soon. I thought to register when I reach the city of Spada.”

Spada is from what I know, the city state in the middle of continent adjacent to Daedalus’s territory. [TN: Daidalos from now is changed to Daedalus.]

I’ve never been there, but it is pretty famous even among the numerous city-states in the Pandora continent.. Even a countryside adventurer like me knows about it after all.

“That’s why I don’t have that guild card, so let me show you mine――”

Saying so she once again rummages in her hat and takes out the card.

That was completely different from my metal plate guild card seeming like a dog tag, it was a real card seeming like a trading card made of cardboard.

The characters written on it are this world’s peculiar alphabet.

『Fiona Soleil』

Looks like this is her name.

The fact that she has a surname means that she is a noble having special circumstances to have come here.

Well it’s the courtesy of an adventurer to not pry in that area, I should ignore it.

Her class is also magician, the rank is also written but it’s different from this guild’s splitting method, so I don’t know her rank exactly.

“If you’re an adventurer you can live anywhere, but try to refrain from falling on the street to sleep.”

“Yes, I also think if I have my stomach full all the time I will be happy.”

No, that’s not the damn problem here……well whatever.

“Well then, we are going out of here, Fiona-san you should also go to village before it gets dark.”

“Yes, let’s meet again.”

“Yeah, if an opportunity arises.”

And then, I bid farewell to Fiona-san and once again start my way back.

But why do the villagers and Fiona-san also pronounce the popsicle as “eye scan ‘de’” [TN: popsicle is said as ice candy in japanese so they are speaking it as eye scan ‘de’]