Home/The Reason I Was Reincarnated as a Witch in a Novel/ch 20

 Chapter 020

As Lionel's expression darkened, Lindsay sensed something was wrong. What? Did I ask something I shouldn't have?

"...Have I already become a nuisance to you?"

Lindsay realized she had misspoken. She wanted to clear up Lionel's misunderstanding.

"Where would I find another worker like you? But you have to stay by my side if you want to live. That's why I'm saying—being forced into a life of bondage isn't something good—"

"My Lady Witch. I fell ill with this cursed disease four years ago."

His low voice cut Lindsay off, echoing across the mountaintop. Lindsay fell silent, and Lionel continued slowly, chewing each word heavily.

"My life was without fear. Even the Emperor chose his words carefully before me, and all the nobles hung around the Magic Tower trying to curry favor. Inside the Tower, it was no different—rather, it was worse. The mages all revered me, and I thought such days of adoration would never end."

His voice grew quieter as he went on.

"It was a day like any other. After finishing a meeting with the elder mages, I was about to begin a new magical study when I noticed something wrong with my body. I couldn't help but notice—the moment I moved my mana, I felt as if my entire body was burning."

Lionel's face contorted. Corrupted mana sickens both the caster's mind and body.

Unlike mana deficiency, mana corruption syndrome has no known cause or cure—making it all the more devastating for those afflicted.

"After that, I ceased all external activities and spent every day searching for a cure for the corruption."

Lindsay already knew the rest of the story. In the end, Lionel had failed to find a cure, and the novel had begun.

His past, which had been summarized in a single paragraph of the novel, was more painful and desperate than she had imagined. The disease—a plot device to make him fall for the heroine—had festered within him.

She clenched her hands tightly, overwhelmed by the sudden surge of emotion. His suffering, which she had only ever read as text, now felt real.

"Then, having only a death sentence to look forward to, I met my Lady Witch."

Lionel rose from his seat and knelt before Lindsay. He buried his face in the navy skirt wrapped around her knees and took her hands.

Lindsay couldn't bring herself to refuse his earnest reach and offered her hand. The coldness of his fingers against the back of her hand told her how tense he was.

"Please keep me with you, my Lady Witch—until you tire of me, until I become a burden."

Lindsay looked down at the man with his head bowed over her knees, a complicated expression on her face. When she tried to pull her hand free, Lionel gripped it tighter.

But he could not overpower Lindsay by force. A shadow of gloom crept into his lavender eyes as they followed her withdrawing hand.

Lindsay tried to gently push away the head resting on her lap with her freed hand. The silver-haired head then rubbed against her hand, as if pleading.

The fine strands of silver hair slipped softly between her fingers. Are you a dog? I swear...

"Don't abandon me. Without you, my Lady Witch, I'll die."

Lindsay froze at Lionel's whining plea. The man who had tried every sort of seduction was now clinging to her like a child—she didn't know how to react.

She had no intention of abandoning him; in fact, she had brought up the topic precisely to help him. To find a way together to end this unstable existence. She planned to keep making good use of him, so she had wanted to look after him in return!

"I won't abandon you. I won't, so just—pull yourself together and let's eat..."

At this rate, the meat is going to get cold. Can't you see the shadows getting depressed?

The black hands were wilting and melting as they watched the meat cool in real time.

Lindsay awkwardly patted the head rubbing against her palm. It was only after she had stroked his head for a long while and promised to stay with him forever that Lionel finally pulled away.

After dropping Lionel off in the capital and returning to the Molten Mountains, Lindsay was completely exhausted.

She slumped like a withered leaf into the chair where they had dined, the campfire still burning behind her.

The warm air at her back made her eyelids grow heavy. A cold breeze crept in through the upper opening of the barrier—left unsealed for the barbecue—cooling her heated body. Her muscles slowly relaxed, and as she sank into drowsiness, she recalled the evening's events.

Lindsay wrinkled her nose at the memory of the man kneeling before her, begging not to be abandoned. The image made her look like she was holding his weakness and shaking it—a scene she never wanted to see again.

When Nero had asked why she was so soft on Lionel, what had she answered? Something about his face?

"His face, my foot..."

Lindsay draped her arm over her eyes and sighed. This time, she understood for certain.

The reason she was especially weak to Lionel wasn't primarily his handsome face—it was pity for him. And that was a significant issue for her. She could never turn a blind eye to the weak and pitiful.

Before sending Lionel off, she had absorbed his corrupted mana, and his reaction had been different from before.

With his cheeks flushed red, he had kept his gaze lowered as if watching his step, refraining from his usual mischievous antics. He looked like a timid dog trying not to be abandoned.

How could anyone not feel sorry for a man who has everything, yet must depend on others because of a disease?

Ironically, having everything made him all the more pitiful. His attachment to me is surely because I hold his lifeline.

I'll take good care of him, and when he finds a way to live, I'll let him go. That's what an elder ought to do.

Having reached her own decision, Lindsay rose, magically cleaned up the dining area, and teleported away.

She appeared in the deepest part of her 'home' in the Molten Mountains—the power room in the basement.

The 'home' had a total of six floors, from the log cabin at the top to the basement at the bottom.

Among them, the power room was the most important floor. It housed the core stone that powered all the magic implemented throughout the 'home'—including the barrier, the illusion magic that created the artificial sky, and everything else.

Lindsay placed her hand on the massive jade-green glowing stone and granted Lionel's request. She modified the magic formula that had previously blocked teleportation, adjusting it to keep out unwelcome guests.

After a simple adjustment, she removed her hand from the massive stone and bent down. There, a small stone—so tiny that a first-time visitor would have missed it—was flickering. She cupped the fist-sized stone in both hands and poured mana into it.

The faintly flickering stone blazed brilliantly for a moment, then settled back into a soft pulse.

Lindsay pulled a handspan-long dagger from her subspace and, without hesitation, drew it across her palm. Dark red blood welled on the blade, and drops fell from her fingertips.

The blood scattered around the fist-sized stone seeped into the rough rock floor of the power room.

Once the ground around the stone was thoroughly soaked, Lindsay healed her palm with magic. She then placed her bloodied hands on the ground and began chanting in a low voice.

<I offer sacrifice; pay the promised price.>

At the end of the incantation, the blood spilled on the ground burned away into black smoke.

Lindsay infused the ground—now marked only by dark stains—with the mana she had gained in exchange for the blood.

The mana-suffused earth gradually regained vitality and became fertile. The jade-green glow that had risen along the rock veins enveloped the stone and spread outward.

The light shone from the earth beneath the stone, as if alive.

As Lindsay straightened up from her work, a black cat—whose arrival she hadn't noticed—appeared before her.

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