Chapter 3: Girl left in ruins (3)

A witch’s preparations for camping are simpler than one might think.

She picks out a suitable abandoned building, sets up a barrier, spreads out blankets and throws, and uses the night sky as a blanket to sleep.

Thanks to magic, a convenient tool, Serena didn’t need any other preparations.

Serena was a veteran traveler, so the series of steps flowed naturally.

The only slightly different point from usual was that she wasn’t alone this time.

The girl, who was chewing on jerky, looked at Serena.

“What are you doing?”

“Building a barrier.”

When Serena swung her staff once, a sphere of light floated in front of the girl.

Centered around that, three more spheres appeared around the abandoned building they had chosen as their shelter.

What she was thinking of was the story associated with the four 4.5 magnitude stars that make up the Scutum constellation.

The Scutum constellation was created to commemorate the Polish king, Sobieski, who was called the guardian of Western civilization.

[Barrier Magic – Sobieski’s Shield]

Woo-oong-

With a faint driving sound, a silver dome was created around the abandoned building.

As she carefully adjusted the flow of magic power, the light gradually faded, leaving only a transparent curtain.

“With this, the barrier won’t be visible from the outside…”

The early spring night was quite chilly.

Serena, who had camping experience, might be fine, but wouldn’t it be a little too cold for a girl who looked only about 13 years old? Serena touched the barrier again.

The alpha star of the Scutum constellation, which played the central role in the barrier, illuminated the room warmly.

The cold wind that had been entering through the broken walls was blocked by the barrier, and coziness enveloped the two girls.

“How is it? Cozy, right?”

“…Yes.”

The girl looked at the sphere of light that gently illuminated the room and asked.

“Is magic used in such a variety of ways?”

“Not necessarily. The mystery I wield is a bit unique.”

Serena was able to bring to life the constellation myths that people in her previous life had believed in for hundreds, even thousands of years.

Serena herself didn’t know the exact reason.

She just brushed it off as a privilege unique to a reincarnated person.

Therefore, Serena introduced herself as an astrologer or astronomer… but she was actually not an ordinary astrologer.

Astrologers were a branch of wizards who used people’s beliefs about the stars.

But, the place where they used their beliefs was mostly to predict the future.

It was different from Serena, who materialized beliefs into reality.

“So, maybe no one but me can teach this kind of magic?”

“…I see.”

“So, can’t you reconsider my offer? It wouldn’t be a bad deal for you either.”

Serena asked that, recalling the earlier memory.

The girl’s appearance of vaguely refusing the offer to become her disciple.

Witches were basically treated like nobles.

They weren’t discriminated against for being women either.

You couldn’t possibly discriminate against someone who could break your head with a single gesture.

It wasn’t like the girl had no talent at all. Her mana sensitivity itself was incredibly high.

No matter how she looked at it, there was no reason to refuse.

“If you come with me, you won’t starve. I’m also traveling, so it’s hard to provide a warm bed, but you won’t have to worry about the cold and robbers.”

“…I know that too.”

“Then, why did you reject my offer?”

At this point, she was just purely curious. Why reject an offer that was not bad at all. The girl hesitated and slowly opened her mouth.

“Before that, can I ask you just one thing?”

“Yeah. We have plenty of time anyway.”

Serena replied, leaning against the wall. For Serena, who had been traveling alone, the noisy evening time that had come after a long time was quite enjoyable.

“Honestly, it’s hard for me to completely trust you, Witch. Why are you trying to help me, who has nothing? What do you get out of it?”

So, she could brush off the girl’s answer, which might be somewhat rude, without any concern. Serena, who was munching on jerky, tilted her head and asked.

“Do you need a reason for a person to help another person?”

“Yes. I need it.”

“Why?”

Interest surfaced on Serena’s face. This girl, who was a bit too mature for her thirteen years, was an interesting child in many ways.

“Children aren’t cruel. On the outside, they pretend to be strong and mature… but in reality, they unknowingly crave affection.

They quickly drop their guard with just a few kind words. Forgetting that there’s no such thing as a free lunch.”

“So?”

“Cunning adults take advantage of those weaknesses. I’ve seen a beggar girl charmed by a few warm words. She was sold to a s*ave trader two days later.”

“Hmph…”

“A favor without a price, is ultimately a trap.”

Looking at the girl muttering in a calm voice, she kept being reminded of her childhood self.

Serena, who had to deal with human garbage with a young body, had a passive skill of distrusting humans.

The unknown golden-haired girl was overlapping with her childhood self.

Serena, who felt a strange stubbornness, slowly released the words she had only kept in her heart.

“I’m afraid of a hopeless world. I don’t want to get my hopes up for nothing and then despair. Since it won’t work anyway, I’d rather assume the worst-case scenario. It’ll hurt less that way.”

“Ugh…”

The girl’s expression, which had been stabbed at her weak point, trembled. Serena continued to speak with a gentle smile.

“It’s not that I don’t understand. It’s not actually a wrong judgment either.

Because there are too many bad adults in the world who try to take advantage of children’s pure hearts.”

In the sapphire-like eyes, a faint past was reflected.

In the 36 years of her life, including her previous and current lives, the most painful memories came to mind.

“My childhood wasn’t that happy either. I was also from a slum orphanage. I was just lucky to meet a good master.”

As the sun slowly set and it was getting closer to bedtime, Serena adjusted the core of the barrier. A dim light, like a sleeping lamp, gently filled the room.

While preparing to sleep, Serena continued to speak.

“But, nothing changes if you don’t trust anyone. Miracles only come to those who are prepared. If you can’t trust anyone, there’s no one who will help you.”

“…Miracles are miracles because they don’t happen. If they happened to everyone, why would they be called miracles.”

“I understand that feeling. There was a time when I thought that way too.”

Serena dismissed the star that was acting as a lamp with a light gesture.

In the room where complete darkness had fallen, she picked up her staff again.

What she was thinking of was the cross-section of our galaxy projected onto the night sky.

The silver starlight that crossed the early summer night sky. The Ojakgyo Bridge that connected the Cowherd and Weaver Girl.

[Illusion Magic – Milky Way]

When Serena swung her staff once, the particles spreading along the staff’s trajectory created a beautiful cluster of stars.

Hundreds, thousands of tiny stars sparkled in disarray.

Serena turned to look at the girl with a refreshing smile.

“How is it? Pretty, right?”

“…Yes.”

Serena liked the Milky Way.

To be exact, she liked the story associated with the Milky Way.

Countless magpies and crows connected the two. A miracle had happened to the two who thought they would never see each other again.

Just like how her master had reached out to her when she was dying lonely in the back alleys.

“Miracles are called miracles because there’s at least a little bit of a chance of them happening.

Just like how a girl orphan in the back alleys came to cast this kind of magic.”

“…”

The girl’s hard heart began to waver. Because various miracles had unfolded before the eyes of the girl who didn’t believe in the existence of miracles.

Even so, she still couldn’t make a definite decision.

Serena had only spent half a day with her, which was too short to throw away the values she had held for most of her short life.

“I won’t tell you to trust me. Because I know very well how meaningless that is.”

The more she looked, the more this girl resembled her childhood self in many ways.

Even her personality, habits, and principles of action.

Therefore, Serena wanted to fix the girl’s broken mental state.

Her master had changed her, who had been like that, into a bright and cheerful personality, but if she, in turn, gave up because she was too lazy, that would be too pathetic.

She always wanted to have a cute and smart disciple. It was a small selfish desire of an orphaned girl who wanted to feel the warmth of a family.

So, Serena decided to give the girl who had rejected her offer one more chance.

“So, how about you take a gamble just once? Whether you live a dull life like this and die a lonely death on the street, or you come in as my disciple and join me on my journey. If you fail, you lose everything, and if you succeed, you gain everything. What’s at stake is your life.”

“Yes…?”

The girl’s expression, who had been listening to the story seriously until then, went blank for a moment.

Once again. A gaze that seemed to be looking at something beyond her comprehension turned to Serena.

Was it a bit shocking to the girl to compare life to gambling? Serena smiled refreshingly as she thought that.

The girl’s appearance of not being able to trust anyone was a kind of defense mechanism.

The girl, who had wrapped herself tightly with a defense mechanism, couldn’t be persuaded with soft words.

In this case, it was better to shake her heart and give her a choice.

If she was a mature girl, she would eventually have no choice but to come to the conclusion that it was better to take her hand.

“A smart person like you probably knows which side it’s better to bet on, right? Still, since it’s a big decision that has your life on the line, I’ll give you until tomorrow morning.”

In the deep night of Bern, where even the stars were asleep.

Looking at Serena, who was sleeping soundly next to her, the girl silently pondered the offer she had made.

“…”

All the girl, who had been wandering the back alleys, knew about magicians were just rumors floating around in the world.

Researchers who spat fire from their hands, controlled the wind, and communicated with nature, and that there were a lot of eccentrics?

In the girl’s eyes, Serena was a person who exuded a bouncing freedom.

A person with a harmless-looking beautiful appearance and a bright and cheerful tone that matched it, who would be popular wherever she went.

Even if bandits came, she wouldn’t even change her expression, and she compared life to gambling… thanks to her eccentric side, she kept being reminded of the fact that she was a witch.

“Hoo…”

Still, there was nothing wrong with what Serena had said.

The girl, who had been more mature than her peers since she was young, knew very well that she had no future.

So was that why she called it gambling. A kind of gamble of trusting someone for the last time, even if it was scary, rather than living a life without a future.

“But…a favor without a price is a trap. You shouldn’t trust people. Miracles, don’t exist. They shouldn’t exist…”

There was no certainty in the girl’s voice as she muttered that.

Serena had shown her, who didn’t believe in the existence of miracles, a miracle.

Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad to trust Serena just once.

That thought raised its head in a corner of the girl’s heart.