Overpowered Witch Reincarnation

Chapter 44: Best Witch’s Crystal Find

The snow had already begun melting. The clear blue sky painted a vastly different picture, yet the groggy people all stood around confused. Count Ahole began demanding an explanation from The Wall. His face burned bright red, and he cast spittle all around him.

“What the heck happened here!? I demand an explanation, and where did you all disappear off to? You should know that the guild will here about this!”

Mary flashed a guild badge at the angry man. “In that case, I will also let the guild know about all of your behavior. Moreover, the kingdom will learn of your suspicious activities…”

The man’s face looked like a vein would pop, but in the end he grumbled and turned away.

I watched him walk away before turning back to Mary. “You really showed him, miss guild receptionist.”

She smiled devilishly. “That’s right, and you’re not quite off the hook either.”

“Me? What did I do?”

“You know what you did.”

I pouted and looked towards the road leading into the mountains. “We should continue on. If the Snuffle Empire is on the other side of that mountain, that means we’re close.”

Sumire shook her head. “It might be normal for you to do such a thing, but other people need rest.”

“And why don’t you simply rest in my castle? Any amenities I provide will better than whatever this kingdom will provide.”

“I guess that’s true. Even if you feed us dubious soup, it will somehow taste better than anything this world can provide.”

“Hey, why do you call it dubious soup!?”

Sine hugged me and intruded. “It’s not dubious soup. It’s soft and squishy soup, like witch.”

“Am I really so soft and squishy?”

Mary giggled. “You’re the squishiest. Just look at how your hat flops around, and the picture becomes clear. You’re just a silly Witchhat.”

“Hmph, and what about that Kitten?”

“Oh, are you jealous?” Mary asked.

“N-no, why would I be jealous? And why does she call you sister?”

Mary began towards the mountain and held out her hand. “Come, we will talk and walk. You can think of it as a hiking trip.”

I hesitantly gripped her hand, and Sine clung to my other hand.

Sumire grabbed Riri’s hand and sighed. “I guess my legs are still fine to continue on for today.”

“Didn’t you sleep that whole time?” I asked.

“That may be so, but it’s not like I got any rest from it.”

“And what kind of dreams did you have? Did that Languorous Winter give you any dreams?”

A blush filled Sumire’s face, and she looked away. “That’s none of your business. Weren’t you talking to your girlfriend about something?”

This time my face heated up. I felt the grip in my hand tighten and looked nervously towards Mary. The demon receptionist simply smiled back at me. My heart fluttered nervously. In the end, I pointed towards the mountain again with my staff.

“W-well, what are we waiting for!? We need to get to the Kitten Kingdom!”

Mary chuckled. “You mean the Snuffle Empire?”

“Tomato, tomato! Come on!”

We fled from the townsmen who stared oddly at us. We left the border town in the background and continued on our journey towards the mountain. I had forgotten whatever reason we traveled with that Count Dumhead, and we ended up leaving that headache to The Wall in the end.

By the time we got to the base of the mountain, Riri, Sumire, and Sine complained that their legs were hurting, so I let them rest in my space. Hopefully they would also be able to make good friends with Kitten.

Only when we were alone did Mary finally continue the conversation from before.

“Kitten is like a spiritual sister to me. The demon kingdom doesn’t deal with family like the human kingdoms do. Ones family is not determined by their birth. And that cat ended up clinging to me as her elder sister. I think it helped her grow into what she is now.”

I tilted my head, not quite understanding. “What does clinging to you have to do with her growth?”

“Well, it’s just as it seems. She’d cling desperately to me, so she could sleep. If she slept around me, Kitten said it made her feel protected.”

“Protecting seems like something antithetical to demons.”

Mary shrugged and sighed. “It only seems that way to humans, but in reality, humans are all cut from the same cloth as we are. It’s like two sides of the same coin. Take Count Ahole, for example, that guy could easily be Wrath with that bright red face he showed earlier.”

I broke into a giggling fit from that. The image of him being Wrath did strike me as hilarious. I could picture his head exploding like those old cartoons, and his ears bleeding out steam.

Mary pressed her body closer to mine and held onto my arm with both of her hands. “Doesn’t this make you remember our time on Earth together. They’re all still faint memories to me, but the more time I spend around you, the more the skies clear. Even if you are a silly witch.”

I smiled and nodded. Another memory broke from behind a dam. It felt like a page being added to my mental filing cabinet. An ancient grimoire turned a page somewhere, shining a light into my mind.

///

Sun beat down on my face, and my hand struggled to keep the light out of my eyes. I heard a groan, and I looked down to see Mary’s face.

“Are you spacing out again? We’re supposed to go hiking today.”

I looked up the mountain, seeing the early perma frost settling in. “Are you sure it’s a good idea to do it this time of year?”

“What are you talking about? If I didn’t pull you out now, you’d be stuck in that old house playing games nonstop.”

I raised my head and showed her a smug grin. At the same time, I proudly held my fist to my chest. “Hm, and what is the problem with that? How else would I collect all of the ingredients I need for alchemy? What about enchanting? If I don’t grind that game, I will be just like all of those other noobs.”

Mary sighed and grabbed my hand with both of hers. “Come on, now that I got you out here we should take a bunch of pictures together! You know what they say…”

“A picture is worth a thousand words?”

///

The picture in front of me reminded me of the one taken with that old camera. The trees were sparse this high up, and frost coated some plants speckled around. From our position, we could hardly see the border town anymore. It became a steep drop-off if we wanted to go back the other way. We were nearing the peak.

Surprisingly or unsurprisingly, there were no animals that could be spotted. It made the atmosphere a bit Eerie. Both Mary and I stopped at the edge of a small cave. It looked like the previous inhabitant had made it out in a hurry. There were large bear footprints leading out, and shed brown fur hung around the walls.

The moment we crossed into the cave, a purple circle began glowing on the ground.

“Eerie?”

“It seems like this place became a dungeon…”

As I said that, the two of us were teleported deep underground. My eyes blinked open to thousands of crystals shining along the cave walls. From a distance, the sound of rushing water reached our ears.

Mary opened her mouth wide and gasped in awe. “Incredible. All of these are very high grade crystals, Eerie! I think we just stumbled into a gold mine.”

I looked around with my radar, but it picked up no red blips. “This place is very knew. There are no monsters in here, yet all of these crystals look ancient.”

Mary nodded. She walked over towards a purple crystal on the wall and pulled it hard. There was the sound of cracking, but eventually, the base of the crystal snapped free from the wall. She held it up in the air and studied it.

“You’re right. These do look old. Do you have any idea how valuable this thing is?”

I shook my head. “Would it be able to buy a whole loaf of bread?”

“Don’t be silly! One of these crystals alone is enough to purchase an entire manor in the capital of Candlewax Kingdom. If you sprinkled some of the dust from this crystal onto an enchanter, a threadmaster would be able to spring up a whole new set of enchanted cloth.”

I dug in my mind, remembering that there was something similar to that in the forest. I pulled out an old black mantle and showed it to her. “Do you mean something like this?”

She clasped it between her fingers and nodded. “I am not even going to ask you where you found this...But I am curious…”

“The cloth was just lying on the ground, shredded from some great beast.”

“I see...I am beginning to understand what forest you came from...Though, I almost don’t want to believe it.”