Omniscient First-Person’s Viewpoint - Chapter 575



574 – Cross-dressing is the most feminine act

“!”

“Catch her!”

“Ouch! My nose!”

“It’s become a hooked nose. Now you look more like a witch.”

When Nebida returned to the World Tree, chaos was unfolding. The moans and screams of witches echoed as brooms flitted about restlessly.

Nebida raised her hand. Just after the white moss had grown thick, a witch flew across the air above it. Thanks to the soft moss, Walpurgis managed to keep herself intact, grimacing as she spoke.

“Druid. What you entrusted to me turned out to be more violent than expected.”

Wow. Did they attempt to escape the moment Nebida stepped away? Without even arms? Nebida was also impressed by that.

“I didn’t expect you to not give up even after losing your arms. What a delightful miscalculation.”

“You might find it delightful. I do not enjoy such unexpected situations.”

Walpurgis, frowning, took a bat from her bosom and scattered it into the air. The bats, flying like stones, suddenly opened their eyes and spread their wings. The bats, flashing green eyes, emitted ultrasonic waves as they flew into the wooden cave.

Witches are secret societies that have mastered black magic and sorcery passed down from ancient times. They naturally appear wherever humans dwell and sometimes transmit knowledge and magical power through daily rituals.

Witches possess various powers, but the most famous is the ability to control familiars. Manipulating small animals like bats, frogs, and field mice as conduits for magic is the essence of a witch’s power.

Walpurgis connected her mind with the bat. The green light flickered as the bat’s senses were transmitted to her. The complex sensations of the bat, which an ordinary human could never comprehend, were interpreted by Walpurgis solely through her intuition and experience.

“Just a moment. I’ll assess the situation.”

The bat’s ultrasonic waves reflected off the wooden cave. A striped corridor, devoid of color or texture, emerged in Walpurgis’s mind. Someone was running down the deep, winding corridor. The figure was indistinct, but anyone could tell that the unsteady form was a returner.

No, what kind of escape is that without arms? First, I need to regain my strength. Should I call it a returner, or should I say it’s foolish?

As Walpurgis chased the returner with the bat, she suddenly discovered something.

“…Hmm. No problem. I’ve resolved it.”

“You?”

“No. It’s a group of bats.”

Witches can certainly be useful and may be powerful depending on the person, but fundamentally, familiars are not meant for combat. How strong can a frog or a bat really be?

One could take a larger beast as a familiar, but controlling such a high-level creature inevitably leads to a backlash against one’s own mind. Thus, when it comes to familiars, cats or crows are usually the limit, and even these are often avoided due to the inherent dangers. The tale of a senile witch cawing and wandering through the forest is not merely a rumor.

But.

“The elephant will handle it.”

It is the being that has overcome such limits that is called the great witch.

Booouuu-.

From afar, the sound of an elephant’s call echoed. At the same time, the connection to the bat was severed. Inside the tree’s hollow, winding like an ant nest, a fierce sound surged forth. The storm of sound flowed through the cave, twisting and turning.

The layers of the arch shook violently. Nebida silently shook the small world tree. The hollow in the tree gradually widened to welcome someone.

What emerged from the expanding gap was a young elephant. No matter how young, it was far too large and intelligent to appear in a tree hollow. With its trunk wrapped around the returner, the young elephant slowly stepped out of the cave.

Unluckily. The returner, in the midst of trying to escape by sending Valpurgis away solely with his legs, encountered the great witch’s elephant.

Valpurgis, atop the baby elephant, removed her hat and bowed her head toward the witch.

“Greetings, Master. Your humble disciple stands before the great witch.”

“Uh, yes. Valpurgis. You’ve had a hard time.”

The witch, with a gloomy demeanor, spoke in a voice that seemed to crawl.

“Yes, Nebida… Wh-what is this man?”

All knowledge contained within, all mysteries held close, all wealth grasped in hand. A deep and dark mystery hidden in the jungle of the world tree.

An elder and great witch who, at the end of a dark contract, obtained the blood of the progenitor, becoming a body of immortality.

And one who once bore the lineage of the immortal sovereign that ruled all nations.

The great witch, Hexia Agartha. The master of all witches.

The great witch pointed at the returner, subdued by her familiar, the elephant.

“Wh-where did you find this…?”

“If it’s that which has lost its arms, it came into the mill on its own feet with you.”

“Ah, no. Not this one… this.”

The great witch slowly approached the regressor. The regressor struggled, drawing on the last of their strength, but without arms, it was truly just a flounder. The great witch extended a finger toward the regressor’s face and asked.

“My mask. Why… does it belong to this one?”

“Mask?”

Nabida, not understanding what the great witch was talking about, responded in confusion. I shared Nabida’s sentiment, but upon reading the regressor’s thoughts, something came to mind.

Hexia Agartha. The eternal ruler of all nations, a direct descendant of Agartha.

And what the regressor was wearing was…

“Heh, heh. You brought it without even knowing, huh… right, you, you’re so insensitive…”

Muttering, the great witch suddenly sharpened her nails and traced the regressor’s face. The razor-sharp touch sliced across the regressor’s face. Blood splattered, leaving a grotesque mark on the regressor’s visage…

It seemed. A thin layer of facial skin was torn. The great witch shook the ‘mask’ she had ripped away with her nails. An impressive mark was stamped on the thin mask that covered the chin, cheeks, and under the eyelids.

“One of the three masks of Agartha, the True (眞). The greatest piece that changes how I appear…”

The great witch naturally brought the mask to her face. As she tapped her skin, the Agarthan mask melded with her as if it had been a part of her from the very beginning.

But in that moment, the impression the great witch held shifted. To me, with my mind-reading abilities, it remained the same, but Nabida and Walpurgis immediately sensed the change.

Walpurgis gasped in shock.

“…! The great witch, as a man…?!”

The great witch is a woman. Yet, in their perception, the face of the great witch before them gave the impression of a man. The dissonance between reason and emotion muddled their thoughts. If they hadn’t known the great witch well, they might have truly mistaken her.

The great witch, seemingly very satisfied, caressed her face and murmured.

“Heh… to disguise as a man. To use such a precious item in such a useless way… No wonder, there wasn’t that distinctively foul male scent…”

And the regressor’s impression, now devoid of the mask, also changed.

It was already a face that stood out quite a bit. But now that the mask is gone, there’s no room for misunderstanding, even if one wanted to. The messy hair, grown long during the journey, now simply looked like a bob, and the long eyelashes hidden behind fierce eyes finally came into view.

Humans do not see the components of a face separately. They take in the whole at once and remember that impression. Agartha’s mask manipulated that very impression. With its disappearance, the impression toward the returnee reverted to its original state.

“…Tch, ugh!”

As the returnee’s gender was revealed to the world, they bit their lip in frustration.

The great witch, delighted by the unexpected windfall, spoke to the returnee.

“Hehe, thank you… Why hide the fact that you’re a woman…?”

“You probably wanted to hide the fact that you’re a fallen woman. Indeed, there was a reason for the fallen woman’s gaze.”

If I’m found out like this, there’s no way to escape! Of all times to be caught, it had to be in front of Nebida, the greatest enemy of the saint!

I had thought that one day I would reveal everything! But I didn’t want it to come out like this! What should I do? Should I say I already knew I was a woman, or should I pretend I didn’t know now?

Whose rhythm should I follow? For now, should I try to read the returnee’s thoughts?

‘…The worst, the worst. My arms are torn off, captured in the enemy’s stronghold. Reduced to a plaything without strength. And now, I’ve even lost my mask….’

Typically, if one is captured with their arms torn off and bleeding profusely, despair is the usual response. Especially if there’s no hope of survival.

However, for the returnee, even death is not the end. No, rather, the more dire the situation, the more death becomes a splendid escape.

‘Before moving on to the next round, I just wanted to check what happens to Hughes…. Without my arms, this round is practically over. It seems there won’t be a chance to reattach them, so perhaps I should just commit suicide with the heavenly mirror before my strength wanes further….’

Ironically, the returnee considered suicide very rationally and hopefully. Reading that thought, I almost agreed, but I quickly steadied my mind.

No! If you die, it’s all over. The world will revert!

What should I do? For now, let’s play along! I asked, pretending to know nothing.

“What? What do you mean? Agartha’s mask? What is that?”

“It is the power that the wicked villain Agartha dared to steal by tearing off my face. True to the fallen woman’s servant, she has seduced and deceived humans with countless faces. That fallen woman used my power to hide her true identity.”

“Um… Nebida, that’s a bit harsh… after all, she’s my ancestor…”

Ignoring the increasingly faint voice of the great witch, Nebida revealed a sinister intent to kill.

“If I had known you were a traitor, I would have dealt with you by any means necessary when we met in the military… It’s late, but even now…”

“Wait, hold on! You mean to say that Shay is actually a woman…! I had no idea!”

I knew. How could I not? She was practically broadcasting it. To be honest, even if I didn’t have mind-reading abilities, I would have suspected it at least once.

But in this situation, I couldn’t speak the truth! I had to pretend I didn’t know!

“Somehow, she kept saying she preferred men! Shay, did that mean you’ve been saying you like men all this time?”

The bound time traveler couldn’t escape or evade the question. Trembling with shame and pain, the time traveler averted her gaze from me.

“…Ugh, what does that matter?”

“Was it also because your gaze on me felt unusual?”

“What are you talking about! That never happened!”

“What about sneaking into my bed at night?”

“When did I ever do that…! Th-that was an accident!”

I know. I read it with mind-reading. But even if the time traveler spoke the truth, it was a different story from the listener’s perspective.

I hardened my expression and blocked Nebida’s path.

“Nebida, do you remember what you said earlier?”

“What do you mean by ‘earlier’?”

You clearly stated that if a woman was needed, you would provide one without hesitation. I didn’t expect it to come to this, but it seems we have one more woman now. Someone deeply connected to me.

From noble mtl dot com

“Let Shay go. No, give her to me.”

“….”

Recalling the conversation we had above, Nebida understood my intent. No, to be precise, she misunderstood it. She realized I wanted to save the time traveler, but she misinterpreted the reason behind it.

“It seems like you’re very interested in that… Even though its existence is unbearable, I have no choice but to serve you. I’ll have to give you what you want.”

Of course, I don’t have any special feelings towards the regressive. They’re just a PTSD-ridden bundle of nerves who thinks they’re superior just because they can throw a punch faster than they can talk.

But if the regressive dies, the world will come to an end, so I have to do my best to prevent that from happening, at least until I meet the time-related demon.

“If you don’t have an arm, it’s enough to use it as a toy.”

“…What are you talking about right now?”

Nebida summoned a thorny vine. The vine that grew from the ceiling wrapped around the regressive’s neck like a snake.

“Ugh, ahk!”

The sharp thorns pierced the regressive’s skin, and as they sucked in the blood, they grew a little more. The blood that flowed out bloomed into a single red rose. Nebida gazed coldly at the regressive, who was in agony.

“If you want to save your neck, it’s best to serve me sincerely. If you take care of this rose, the thorns will strangle your neck.”

Nebida, who spoke coldly, plucked the rose that had bloomed on the vine and handed it to me. I received the rose with a trembling face.

It didn’t mean I needed a leash… It just felt like I was doing something too much. I just wanted to save the regressive’s life.

Well, at least we both managed to save our lives. I guess that’s a successful operation.

“Just touch me and I’ll kill you…!”

…Is it not yet?