The Witch and Her Companion: I'm Just a Normal High School Student, but I Became the Familiar of the Highest-Ranked Witch. Also, It Seems I'm the Only Guy in the Witch Organization I Joined - Chapter 31: Resolve and Cost

Chapter 31: Resolve and Cost

[Baba Sakurako]

—”Magical Beast” are what witches become when they lose control, a fate that no human should ever meet.”

That was the first thing Vivian-san told us.

After Emilia-san left, Kanon-chan pressed Vivian-san for answers. Had she deceived us? Was there still something she hadn’t told us?

Vivian-san, in response, pulled a kiseru pipe from her pocket and perched herself lightly on Yakuma-san’s desk.

“—To be honest, the fact that you lot know nothing about the Magical Beast causing such a stir out there has been quite the headache for me.”

She exhaled a long plume of smoke and continued.

“Witches carry within their bodies a magical energy called ‘Odo.’ This Odo is formed by gradually absorbing and converting the pure magical energy, or ‘Mana,’ that exists in the atmosphere.”

Even as she puffed on her pipe, she took care to gauge our reactions, ensuring we could keep up with her words.

“If a witch exhausts her Odo yet still tries to use magic, unconverted Mana will flood her body. When that happens, she loses the ability to regulate how much Mana she absorbs. Eventually, she surpasses her limit, her body mutates into an aberration, and she becomes a creature that endlessly devours Mana until death. That is ‘Magical Beastification.’ In other words, a Magical Beast is, by definition, the final form of a witch who has lost control.”

I couldn’t believe it. I had always thought of Magical Beast as sudden natural disasters, their origins unknown. That was how the world saw them.

And yet, Magical Beast were actually the fate awaiting us witches?

“…That was true up until twenty years ago. But then, the virus researched by the Witch Hunters spread across the world, and humans began turning into Magical Beast.”

Just as I was struggling to process the first revelation, another bombshell dropped—Witch Hunters, viruses… My brain could barely keep up. I stayed silent, desperately trying to absorb what she was saying.

The other three seemed just as overwhelmed, quietly listening.

“The Witch Hunters once had deep ties with the governments of many nations. They were, in essence, a secret organization operating with official sanction. But once they released the virus, they were disavowed and became independent.”

That connected to what Rose-san had mentioned yesterday—how the Witch Hunters had lost their backing over the Magical Beast disaster. So their patron had been the government.

“My guess is that the Witch Hunters planned to let the Magical Beast crisis subside just enough before presenting themselves as humanity’s saviors. But, well, before they could do that, the Seraph Witch Association, had already ingratiated itself with the government and claimed the spoils.”

Vivian-san smirked cunningly, but when Yakuma-san shot her a glare, she cleared her throat with an awkward cough.

“After that, the government fed information on the Witch Hunters to the Ravens, desperate to have them eliminated. After all, an organization that nearly drove humanity to extinction was, in essence, their former accomplice. They wanted to erase the evidence. But in the end, the government officials who tried to protect themselves were also killed by the Ravens once they were no longer needed.”

I recalled the two witches we saw yesterday. Had they done such brutal things as well? The organization seemed all the more terrifying now.

“And so, the then-leader of Seraph—the one standing before you—struck a deal with those cowardly pigs in the government, exchanging their safety and the protection of humans for the witches’ entry into the public sphere. This was a chance to end the long era of witches being hidden in the shadows.”

Vivian-san casually revealed that she had once been the leader of Seraph. She said it so offhandedly, like she was just mentioning she used to be in the basketball club in high school.

After hearing Rose-san’s hints, I had suspected as much, but her blunt confirmation still caught me off guard.

“The Witch Hunters never imagined that witches, who had spent centuries in hiding, would rise to protect the very humans who persecuted them. Betrayed by the government and failing in their coup, the Witch Hunters lost their support and dwindled in numbers. Around that time, they began capturing witches alive. Living witches fetched a high price on the black market, after all. At that point, they had long abandoned any righteous cause, let alone faith in God.”

Vivian-san tapped the ashes from her pipe into Yakuma-san’s ashtray.

“…Well, I went on a bit of a tangent there, but that’s why every witch from Seraph Witch Association, and any witch who survived the disaster twenty years ago, already knows that Magical Beast are the remnants of humans.”

I see. That’s why Rose-san avoided bringing it up. Telling Hikari-chan, who had unknowingly been killing them, that “they were actually former humans”—of course she wouldn’t want to say that. Especially not to witches from a different organization.

“Hikari and Sakurako being throwbacks to ancestral witches is understandable, but for Kanon and Karuta not to know either… that was unexpected.”

That confirmed what I had suspected—Hikari-chan was the same kind of witch as me. She had hinted as much in the hospital before, but now I knew for sure.

But even though she wields magic so skillfully, she’s the same as me?

“…Mother never wanted to talk to me about witches,” Kanon-chan muttered, her head hung low. She seemed deeply shaken.

“My mommy never really met with me, and she wasn’t part of the Association, so…”

Karuta-chan’s eyes were brimming with tears.

“When I first recruited you all, someone had already killed a Magical Beast. So, well… I was waiting for the right time to tell you, but… That’s not really my fault, is it?”

“Of course it is, you idiot,” 

Yakuma-san scolded, delivering a solid whack to Vivian-san’s head. The contrast in their attitudes was stark.

“…So I’ve been killing people all this time?”

Hikari-chan, who had been silent, whispered in a trembling voice that made my chest tighten.

“Hikari-chan, that’s not it. They weren’t humans anymore. They were monsters that kill people.”

—That’s what I wanted to say. But coming from someone like me, who had never taken a life, those words wouldn’t reach her.

“Hikari, yes, you have slain Magical Beast. But I do not say this to comfort you—those creatures were no longer human.”

“…How can you say that? How can you be sure they had no consciousness? What if there was a way to turn them back…?”

“Unfortunately, there is no return from becoming a Magical Beast. The condition for human transformation is that an individual infected with the virus must be on the brink of death. They lose themselves, bring destruction, and consume others. Left unchecked, their bodies will collapse from the Mana they absorb.”

“…Collapse?”

“—Sooner or later, they die. If I were to become one, I’d rather be put down before I killed someone.”

Yakuma-san put out his cigarette and said this to Hikari-chan. Perhaps that was his way of comforting her.

“…”

Hikari-chan clenched her teeth, looking down. Unable to bear it, I grasped her hand. She flinched slightly but didn’t pull away.

“Well, everyone has their own values. Take your time to process it. When I first took a life… Hmm, well, I don’t even remember. But I suppose it was quite shocking.”

“If you can’t say something helpful, just shut up, idiot.”

Everyone except Hikari-chan turned their condemning gazes toward Vivian-san. Was this person really the leader of the Seraph Witch Association

“Wait, wait, wait! Just one more time… Ahem. Well, everyone has their own values, but if you have a wish you want to fulfill, you need the appropriate resolve and price to pay. I, too, continue to live in disgrace because I want to save more lives than I have taken.”

Honestly, the fact that she had to rephrase it was questionable, but it did sound more reasonable than before.

“…Resolve and price to pay.”

Hikari-chan muttered, still looking down, as if something about those words resonated with her.

“There’s no need to rush. Time flows gently, after all. A magical beast disaster isn’t something that happens so easily—”

『Magical beast disaster detected! Magical beast disaster detected! Citizens, please evacuate to the shelters immediately.』

The shrill sound of sirens rolled in through the open window. Speak of the devil… but this was the one thing I really didn’t want to hear right now.

“…”

Kanon-chan and Karuta-chan looked nervous and fidgety, but Hikari-chan still had her head down. Even so, the hand she was holding trembled slightly.

“Good grief… Well, what’s done is done. You all, follow me. This time, I’ll allow you to observe… as a special exception.”

Vivian-san tucked her kiseru pipe back into her robes and leapt out the window into the siren-filled cityscape.

Without a word, Kanon-chan and Karuta-chan followed, jumping right out the window after her. Just to be clear, we were on the fourth floor.

“Yubari Hikari, Baba Sakurako, you two get moving. We have work to do.”

Yakuma-san turned to me and Hikari-chan, who had been left behind. Taking Hikari-chan along in her current state seemed far too cruel.

“Yakuma-san, Hikari-chan can’t handle this right now. And besides, if I jump out the window, I’ll die.”

“…What a bunch of troublesome kids.”

Yakuma-san grabbed Hikari-chan by the scruff of her neck and forced her to stand before wrapping an arm around her waist. It was way too rough, so I got up to stop him, but before I could, he scooped me up with his other hand.

And just like that, a tired-looking man carrying two high school girls leapt out of an office building window—