Continuing from the little witch’s perspective.

***

I’m Rufé, a witch.
And together with Kiri, I set out on a journey to rescue the kidnapped Alraune.


Kiri had placed a tracking spell on Alraune.
With Kiri telling me the general direction of where Alraune was, I kept flying through the sky.


I was sure I could bring Alraune back.
That was what I thought when I left. But as it turned out, I wasn’t nearly as prepared as I thought.

Because I had forgotten five important things.


The first was that when I fled the forest, I had dropped my money and ended up penniless.

The second was that I had no food, so I quickly grew hungry and lost my strength.

The third was that Alraune was very, very far away, and no matter how much I flew, I never seemed to get there.

The fourth was that, perhaps because it was summer, a storm rolled in. Heavy rain poured down, soaking me completely and making it difficult to travel.

The fifth was that, thanks to all that, I came down with a fever and got sick.


Several days passed after leaving the forest.
Unwell and starving, I continued flying through the sky through sheer willpower.

By this point, I’d come to realize that without Alraune, I was just a powerless child.
Because without her, I couldn’t gather food at all.
Whenever monsters attacked me, all I could do was run away.

Seeing that I was nearing my limit, Kiri, who was riding on my back, spoke up worriedly.


“Come on, forcing yourself to keep flying like this is reckless. You haven’t eaten anything in days. You’ve got a fever too. Let’s stop and rest for a bit.”

“No… I can’t. Alraune must be lonely right now. I have to go get her…”


That was where I lost consciousness.

The last thing I remember was falling out of the sky into the forest below, still in my bird form.



When I next opened my eyes, I found myself being cared for by a bare-chested man with dog ears.

As he tended to me in my bird form, the man peered down at me and muttered to himself.


“Good, you’re awake. You suddenly fell right on top of me. I was worried.”


I must’ve survived because I happened to fall on top of him.
My body still ached a little, but the dog-eared man applied medicine to my injuries.
Unlike ordinary humans, he had dog ears. So maybe he wasn’t a bad person.


“I may look like this, but don’t worry. I’m not some scary wolf who eats little birds.”


My transformation spell still hadn’t worn off, and he hadn’t realized I was a witch yet.
Kiri wasn’t anywhere in sight, but knowing her, she was probably hiding nearby.


“That said, you smell like a person. Let me guess—A pet bird got separated from its owner and collapsed from exhaustion?”


A person’s smell?
I thought that as long as I was transformed into a bird, no one could identify me as a witch. But to think someone could pick up traces of my human identity through my scent alone.


“My sense of smell is much better than a normal human’s. That’s how I can tell. Anyway, even birds need water. I’ll fetch some from that river over there.”


The dog-eared man stood up and started walking toward the nearby river.

Being around this person feels dangerous.
I need to get out of here before he figures out I’m a witch!


Just as I thought that, I realized why the dog-eared man had been shirtless.
He had been bathing when he found me.
Because of that, all of his belongings had been left unattended on the ground nearby.


The way things were going, I was going to starve to death.
If I wanted to continue my journey without having to worry about going hungry, I’d have to keep stopping in towns and buying food.
If the alternative was failing to find Alraune and starving to death, then I was prepared to do whatever it took.

I reached into the human’s belongings and pulled out a small pouch filled with money.
Clamping the pouch in my beak, I took to the sky.


Behind me, I heard the dog-eared man shout, “Thief!”

But thanks to his loud voice, I was able to reunite with Kiri as soon as I entered the forest.


“Rufé, you stole money from a human? Why would you do that?”

“I’d do anything for Alraune. Besides, I hate humans.”

“Well, I guess getting money was lucky. But you look like you’re about to collapse again. Let’s stop at a nearby town and rest.”



After much persuasion, Kiri finally talked me into it and instructed me to head for a nearby human town.
And there, I rented a room at an inn.


Not long afterward, my fever spiked, and I spent several days bedridden.

It was a good thing I had money. I was able to pay the innkeeper and ask them to buy medicine for me.
If I hadn’t taken the money from the dog-eared man, I might have collapsed in some forest and died of fever by now.
My condition was really that serious.


Maybe it was fate that I managed to take the money from the dog-eared man.
It’s as if God was telling me to keep living.

Thanks to it, I was able to buy food. Not only did I avoid dying from my fever, but I escaped starvation too.

I did something terrible to the dog-eared man, but it was for my life and Alraune’s sake.
So please forgive me.
When I find Alraune, I’ll pay the money back someday. I promise.



After resting at the inn, my fever finally began to break.

But during that time, Kiri started acting a little strange.


Every time she came back from outside, she’d bring flowers with her.
At first, I thought she was decorating the room. But for some reason, she’d open her mouth wide and bite into them instead.

The tiny fairy sucked the nectar out of the flowers. The sound of her slurping filled the room.
She looked just like a butterfly.


“This isn’t it… it’s not what I’m looking for… but I can’t stop myself from drinking it…”


Drinking flower nectar? At this point, she was basically acting like an insect.
Well, I guess that’s just Kiri.


As for me, every time I looked at the flowers Kiri brought back, it reminded me of Alraune.
And for some reason, my fingers would start trembling.


Say, when was the last time I tasted Alraune’s nectar?

Since there was nothing else to do, I decided to try some honey that I’d asked the innkeeper’s wife to buy for me.


──Lick.


“It’s sweet… but it’s not the same…”


It really doesn’t compare to Alraune’s nectar.
For some reason, it felt like something was squeezing my heart tight.
Like a gaping hole had opened up inside my chest.


Without Alraune, all the color had drained from my life, leaving me with nothing but emptiness.

Now that it has come to this, I needed to resume the search immediately once I recovered enough to move again.
After all, more than ten days had already passed since I left the forest.
Right now, Alraune was probably crying all alone, trembling as she kept her bud closed.


While I was thinking that, Kiri suddenly shouted, “What is this!?”


“No way… what’s going on with this signal!?”

“Kiri, what’s wrong?”

“The tracking spell I put on Lady Alraune—the signal split in two!”

“…Meaning?”

“The only explanation is that her body split into two!”


Wait… does that mean something happened to Alraune?
Was her body torn apart?


No… I don’t want that…

If the signal split into two, then she must have been cut in half.

This can’t be happening.
It’s too cruel…

My precious Alraune.


Please…

Be safe.

***

Author’s Note:

This chapter was from the little witch’s perspective.
She’s getting closer to the Alraune, but there’s still quite a distance between them. It looks like her search will be continuing for a while longer.

Next Time: The Alraune Whose Nectar Was Requisitioned Speaks of the Forest She Longs For