The overwhelming size and weight were in themselves equivalent to powerful violence.
The sight of the castle crushed by the rock was truly miserable, with no trace left of the majesty or splendor it had boasted just a few hours ago.
《Tsk tsk, what a sha.》
The Witch of the West clicked her tongue.
Don’t be mistaken… it wasn’t a lant for the subordinates who were buried along with the castle, unable to escape in ti.
If they were truly capable, they would have prevented the Tin Knight’s party from reaching the rooftop in the first place, and if they were truly loyal, they would have at least clung to their ankles with their lives.
If there were survivors left in the castle after the Tin Knight’s party reached the rooftop, it ant they were subordinates without ability or loyalty. There was no need to bother saving them. It was a truly ruthless way of thinking, befitting a witch.
The reason the Witch of the West felt regret was because of the castle.
Although she could just rebuild it, the process would be quite troubleso.
But it couldn’t be helped.
Originally, an alchemist’s strength lied in the strength of their familiars, but due to Franka’s betrayal, she had to face the Tin Knight’s party before properly gathering her forces.
To face them in a state where she couldn’t exert her full power, the montum of the Tin Knight’s party was quite fierce.
Even if she fought in that state, she didn’t think she would lose, but there was a possibility of unexpected events occurring.
Rather than creating variables unnecessarily, it was better to boldly abandon the castle.
《Strange, how truly strange. How could a re doll possess such power?》
The Witch of the West repeated the word “strange” over and over again.
The witch was a being who had lived for a long ti.
The witch was a being who knew many things.
But even such a witch didn’t know about that magic doll.
There were few in this continent who could deceive the discernible gaze of the Witch of the West.
《Is it the dull North, or the arrogant South, or perhaps…》
The Witch of the West’s gaze turned towards a certain direction.
This place was the Witch of the West’s workshop. A different world from the original.
Therefore, the east, west, north, and south spoken of by the people of the continent had little aning in this place.
Yet, the Witch of the West stared towards the east.
《Kekekeke, well, that’s fine. I’ll know when I catch and examine them piece by piece. I thought you were closer to than those fools in the South and North, but things have turned out this way, truly regrettable. But don’t bla . It was your foolish apprentice who didn’t know her place and attacked first.》
There was no returning answer.
No voice echoed in the air, nor did anyone new suddenly appear.
The Witch of the West wasn’t displeased.
Rather, she cackled heartily, as if that lack of response was exactly what she wanted.
The Witch of the West looked at the monkeys.
The swarm, which was initially just over a hundred, had sohow swelled to nearly hundreds.
The witch commanded them.
It was truly a bizarre scene as the monkeys opened their mouths to spout commands at themselves rather than the silent witch.
《You go outside and guard the area around the island with that Bill fellow. Be especially careful of the east. It would be troubleso if she tries to invade to help her apprentice. With that crazy personality, I don’t think she’ll do such a praiseworthy thing, but we should be careful of even the slightest possibility.》
《How many should we take?》
《Half—no, take half and then half again on top of that.》
《If we do that, there will be too few left to protect you, Witch.》
《This is also considering that doll. The outside is much more dangerous, so do as you’re told!》
《Understood, Lady Witch.》
The army of hundreds of golden monkeys flapped their wings and flew off sowhere.
The witch commanded the remaining monkeys.
《Find those who have disappeared. Bring them before .》
《Should we bring them alive?》
After pondering for a mont, the Witch of the West spoke.
《If possible, capture the Lennart daughter and the Witch of the East’s apprentice. The doll can be examined even if broken, so bring at least the remains, and the rest can be killed.》
《Even Lady Franka?》
《It doesn’t matter.》
The Witch of the West said coldly.
《I was already preparing the next disciple, anyway.》
***
Dorothea was a witch.
She was a witch because she was a female mage, and at the sa ti, she was a witch in the sense that she inherited the now rare witchcraft.
Among the witch’s techniques, there were all sorts of miscellaneous ones.
It wasn’t that there weren’t practical and easily applicable spells, but conversely, there were more that were ambiguous as to where they should be used, like “weak lighting magic that can only be used under clear skies”.
The ergency transfer magic was a magic that ambiguously straddled between these two.
At first glance, being able to escape dangerous situations through spatial movent seed incredibly useful, but the accompanying conditions were problematic.
First, the materials were incredibly rare, the mana consumption was extrely high, and the difficulty of control was truly vicious.
At this point, it was questionable whether it was made to be properly used, but Dorothea was in a better situation comparatively.
She had scraped together the rare materials by thoroughly ransacking the Garden, and while other mages might have to borrow from loan sharks for the mana consumption, Dorothea could handle it sufficiently.
However, control was an exception.
To begin with, the profession of mage itself pursued quantity over quality of mana, so their mana manipulation was sowhat inferior compared to warrior classes, and in Dorothea’s case, this tendency was even stronger due to her innately large amount of mana.
Thanks to her harsh training under the Witch of the East, she had risen to a passable level, but she was far from a mana manipulation monster like the Tin Knight.
In other words…
“…It’s ruined. Everyone’s scattered.”
…it was impossible for everyone to neatly escape to one place together.
An empty plain.
Dorothea, lying alone in the grass, sighed and got up.
Looking around, there was nothing else to be seen.
No noisy Tin Knight, no dull little lion, no scarecrow useless below the shoulders.
It was truly like Dorothea to not even worry about a certain alchemist and monkeys.
Dorothea calmly assessed the situation.
It’s not that I wasn’t cautious, but to think she would suddenly use such an extre thod. However, the fact that she used a thod that destroyed her own castle in an instant ans that the Witch of the West felt that threatened by us. It’s not that we have no chance of winning.
Even the Witch of the West’s attack, while it might be overwhelming if one didn’t know about it at all, once one knew such a thing existed, there were ways to deal with it. After all, a witch’s strength was in adaptability.
Dorothea calculated that if they could challenge her again with full preparation, they would surely win.
The problem was how to regroup with her companions.
“Leaving aside the others, if I don’t regroup quickly with the tin can, it could be troubleso in many ways… Hmm?”
It was then that sothing strange caught Dorothea’s eye.
A group of people were engaged in a fierce battle surrounding a single horse.
However, the horse wasn’t an ordinary horse but had the form of a centaur, and despite that, its head part was again that of a horse.
What was even funnier was that while the people were at best wrapped in leaves or animal skins and ard with stone spears and stone axes, the horse side was clad in shining iron armor and wielding a well-forged iron sword.
“Ho! You barbaric things, do you think you can overco us civilized horses by attacking in groups, you beasts! Great Elphaba! Grant us your protection! Today, I shall fulfill my duty as a horse and enlighten these creatures!” the horse(?) shouted as if praying to the sky.
It was a truly eloquent speech.
Dorothea stared blankly at the scene.
***
“Infringing on! Our right to sunlight! Evil! Floating city!”
“Fall down! Fall down! Give us back! Our sun!”
“Are there people above people! And people below people!”
“No! No! Laputa must! Reflect!”
As the agitators shouted and ranted, and the protesters responded, several people in robes hid their figures in an alley.
They opened their mouths with gloomy expressions.
“What’s all this fuss about this ti?”
“They’re saying it’s all our fault that this year’s crop yield has dropped. That their farming failed because they couldn’t get proper sunlight.”
“How can that be? It’s just because the weather was bad!”
“Well, it’s true that we can control the weather to so extent.”
“That’s only possible by consuming massive mana resources. Moreover, last ti when we made rain clouds as they demanded, they didn’t even pay properly!”
“But what can we do? If we don’t make the weather as they tell us to, they’ll threaten to bring down Laputa again.”
“Haa, why did Elphaba give them such a powerful magic tower!?”
It was then that a strange sound reached the ears of the lanting people.
Clang-splash.
It wasn’t just a splash, nor was it just a thud.
It was a strange sound that seed like a mix of a large amount of water hitting the ground and sothing heavy falling.
Everyone’s heads turned towards the source of the sound.
And they were horrified.
“A, a corpse!”
“Is it a suicide jump!?”
“Oh my, how could they make such a hasty decision!?”
They each expressed their condolences in their own way, making the sign of the cross or offering silent prayers.
The state of the corpse was truly miserable, as if it had fallen from an incredibly high place.
“But there aren’t any particularly tall buildings around here… Gasp, hii, hiiiek!?”
“What’s wrong, huuuk!?”
Everyone was horrified at once.
The corpse, which was clearly dead, wriggled and then got up as if nothing had happened.
Towards those who had frozen stiff with shock, the corpse—that was—Sophia, smiled brightly.
“Hello, nice weather we’re having.”
***
“Mmmmm.”
Adelaide opened her eyes with a purring sound like a cat.
Adelaide, who reflexively tried to rub her eyes, suddenly realized that her hands weren’t moving properly.
Just as she was wondering, “Huh?” sothing jumped onto the bridge of her nose.
It was a little person, a lilliputian.
The lilliputian pointed sothing like a sharp spear at Adelaide and said, “You’ve opened your eyes! You illegal intruder! Not content with entering our country at will, you’ve crushed the garden our king cherishes with your back. The punishnt for this cri will certainly not be light.”
Adelaide just blinked silently.
However the lilliputian soldier interpreted this, he continued speaking with a smug expression, “Let tell you in advance, it’s useless to struggle! Our country knows very well how to deal with giants like you. We’ve firmly restrained all the body parts needed to exert strength, so you can’t even move—“
The lilliputian soldier’s words didn’t continue to the end.
Creak creak creak!
When Adelaide exerted strength on her right arm and lifted it up, all the various ropes and tal devices that had been restraining Adelaide’s arm were pulled out.
The scientific principle of the point of force application or whatever crumbled easily before the greater strength brought by the Belt of Amaryllis.
After tearing off the various restraining devices attached to her body with a creak, creak, Adelaide grabbed the lilliputian that had been standing on the bridge of her nose and said, “Um, I’m sorry, but could you please start over from the beginning?”
***
“Is that true? There’s a doll smaller than a palm that moves freely?”
“Ah, have I been fooled all my life!? Don’t forget to pay after seeing it!”
“Oh, ooh! Amazing! It really moves. It’s so lifelike, it’s as if there’s a person inside!”
“Hmm? A person?”
“Yeah, doesn’t the doll look just like a person wearing knight’s armor? Moving dolls are interesting, but it’s nothing compared to a tiny person.”
“Hooh, that’s true. Well, let’s try to take off the helt—“
Slash!
“Aaaagh! My, my finger! My finger!!”
“Aah, aaaah! It’s a mad doll! A cursed doll has appeared!”
[The ‘Tin Knight’ declares a giant hunt!]
***
sko-fi/genesisforsaken
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