Chương 193: Chapter 190 - Gaslight, Gatekeep, Girlboss

Mirelda refused to believe that an invite to the Witch's Coven would be given willy-nilly to a random girl off the streets. She remembered seeing her face underneath the pink ski mask. Mirelda was pretty sure this was the kind of girl-next door who lived a charmed albeit oblivious life. She didn't even meet the criteria! The girl at the very least seemed to agree.

"I thought the same thing, right! I mean, I'm not even an adventurer! Grettfield must be messing with me right? She must know from your stories that R—my friend was Artgian and gave me an invite." That… would make sense, surely Matron Grettfield realized that the devil boy was Artigan and was playing a long game. Mirelda almost nodded along until she remembered something.

"Matron Grettfield left before the Witch Tyrant graced us with the story of Artigan. Furthermore she would not play pranks with something like this. This letter must be a forgery. When Matron Grettfield finds out—when the Witch's Coven finds out, you will be cursed for this."

"That's why I'm asking! Am I going to get on [Witch] Grettfield's curselist if I decline the invitation? Am I like—going to be related to the Witch's Coven in any way? I mean, it sounds cool and all, but I don't know about being a [Witch]. Also the Witch Tyrant seems like she's off her rocker you know? Like, I get it, I should sympathize but I think she's actually just a little bit too much of a meanie." The stream of consciousness was blurted out at speeds Mirelda had never seen another mortal speak before.

In her current state, she was struggling to both read the emotions of the girl in front of her and keep up with the contents of what she was saying. At least until it got to that last part. Mirelda shook her head. Her last statement just cemented the fact further.

"You cannot have gotten an invitation to the Witch's Coven. There is absolutely no way."

"I mean, I didn't get an invitation to the coven. [Witch] Grettfield just told me I had potential as a [Witch]."

"It's the same thing!" Mirelda shouted.

"You cannot become apprenticed to a Matron [Witch] without joining the Witch's Coven!"

"I uhh—wait, didn't she leave the coven?" This stupid girl didn't understand anything. Mirelda had no idea what Artigan was thinking letting such an oblivious person know such deep secrets.

"Matron Grettfield will be back. It was just a minor disagreement, Matron Grettfield wouldn't leave like that. Nobody leaves the Witch's Coven, she'll be back and it'll all go back to normal."

"What does that mean?"

"It means—" Mirelda cut herself off when she realized she almost admitted she herself was standing in as a Matron for the Witch's Coven. She looked up and glared at the lying scheming snake in front of her. Of course, this wasn't just a regular oblivious girl. She was clearly manipulating her emotions to trick her and interrogate her. Clever." You will be hexed for your lies and trickery. Did you think the Witch's Coven would be so easy to get into? You don't even meet the criteria!"

"Hey! I didn't do anything wrong, besides, I don't even really want to be a [Witch]! I mean I wanted to when I was a kid but like I grew out of that phase, you know? Black robes in a dark forest? Bleh." Mirelda who was in black robes and who had convened with her coven in a dark forest only a little while ago did not have a response to that. She was trying hard to read the girl's emotions to see if she was lying to her, and it was difficult.

Her emotions seemed like they were bouncing around from place to place and just saying the things she was thinking out loud.

"Do you think I will be tricked just because you're capable of masking your emotions? There isn't a single girl out there that doesn't want to be part of the Witch's Coven. Matron Grettfield—""Ex-Matron."

"MATRON GRETTFIELD HAS NEVER HAD AN APPRENTICE BEFORE. DO YOU THINK SHE WOULD START WITH A GIRL LIKE YOU? SHE WILL COME BACK AN—" Mirelda started gasping, her throat sore from dehydration and the shouting. The girl in the mask drew back, as if afraid that Mirelda might burst out from the chains and start strangling her.

"Wow. Ouch. I—I was just asking—" But the sounds didn't reach Mirelda's ears. It was getting hard to breathe"Hakk, ha–hakk, keh." The world started to spin. Her heart was pounding in her chest. The stump of her arm was shaking, reaching for the chains around her arms and legs to rip them apart. She tried to cast a spell before it was drained away and it got worse. A cold sweat went down her spine as the [Witch] gasped for air. She tried to reach for her class but The girl went up to her, holding her chest and back.

"Hey, hey take a deep breath." Mirelda was trying to. She didn't know what this was, she couldn't breathe, things were tight and it was getting difficult to see. Was this what dying was? Was she going to die of thirst? Pain?

"I'm here, don't worry. We'll get you water and you'll be fine." Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit. The girl in the mask moved over to the chains, staring at runic symbols and realizing she was way out of her depth on how to remove them. Mirelda struggled harder as a flash of pink blurred the vision as the girl stepped backwards, likely just in time for her not to get killed by an eighth realm thrashing about.

The girl looked towards the door in shock, then shook her head and moved in front of Mirelda's vision and took off her ski mask.

"Mirelda! Take a deep breath, slowly." The girl in front of her inhaled and Mirelda tried to do the same, taking a short gasping breath.

"Now breathe out." Mirelda breathed out in a similar choppy manner. She tried to focus on the one thing she could control which was [Emotional Resonance]. She could see the emotions of the girl in front of her radiating concern and trying to help. The thing that stuck out in her mind was that the girl trying to calm her down was young. Mirelda was used to adventurers looking younger than their actual age, but this wasn't an adventurer.

"In." They both breathed in.

"And out." They both breathed out.

"In. And out." It continued for thirty seconds. An eternity for an eighth realm [Witch] like her. Mirelda sniffed, wanting to cry but too dehydrated to do so.

"First panic attack, huh?" The voice of the girl in front of her shook her out of it.

"You've had them too?"

"Yup. The first time it happened was a couple months after I ran away from home. The second time was when I was told that the apocalypse might be coming and nobody would stop it. I've had smaller ones since then. I think I've gotten better at figuring them out before they happened. They suuuuuuck. I didn't know adventurers could have them." Mirelda sniffled.

"It's… it's quite common amongst adventurers. Especially when allies team up with their team members that just lost their safety life. I—I guess I've been lucky to have avoided it." Mirelda bounced around different teams doing their Trials. Never having picked one. There was a reason for that but she wasn't going to tell the girl in front of her. When the silence started to become a little awkward the girl without the mask spoke up.

"Name's Clara by the way. Claribel Waters actually, my parents were fancy like that."

"Mirelda, Mirelda Cowens. Y-you said you ran away from home?" Mirelda was too tired to lie about her last name, besides Pinkie probably already knew it. She tried to make Clara talk about her own life so Mirelda could avoid talking about her own.

"Yep. Twice actually. I wanted to find the nanny that raised me and she took me in for a bit. Then she called my parents up and told me that a life with them is at least better than what's out there. She probably did it for the reward money—which was totally fair, she had her own family to take care of and everything. But yeah, anyway, she told me a girl like me wouldn't be able to handle what was out there." Mirelda had a hollow laugh.

"This nanny sounds like my mentor." Clara laughed, as if imagining her nanny being some dragonslayer tier [Witch] in the Witch's Coven.

"She was totally right by the way. If the younger Clara actually knew how crap it was out there, she totally would have stayed at home and just kept being the pretty daughter that looked great in pictures." Mirelda chuckled. She felt the same way. Why had she been so stupid to put herself up as a matron? Mentor Dremma had been right, it had been foolish, and now she was abandoned and alone. I just thought Mentor Dremma and I were closer than that. There was a knock on the door and it opened.

Artigan came along bringing in a large pitcher of water and some snacks. Clara immediately jumped up and went up to him. Artigan froze as he saw his friend without the mask.

"Ooo, snacks, good idea. Okay now shoo."

"Your mask."

"Yes, yes, it's whatever. Shoo, shoo, it's girl talk time now." He kept blinking at her, concern radiating out from him in waves. He looked nothing like the dastardly Artigan in the videos, nor the one that had just threatened her earlier. He now looked like the person Mirelda had imagined in the Witch Tyrant's stories. Gentle but strong-headed. Absolutely naive in his ideals. Artigan took one last look at Mirelda while he was getting pushed out by Clara, the deathly glare making the threat obvious.

Think about doing anything to my friend and you die. The whiplash really confused Mirelda. —— Ryan stood out in the hallway for another, hoping Clara was making some headway. Whenever he asked Pinkie what they were saying, she just shook her head and told him she didn't want to bother to talk about it. It was clear that something interesting was happening in there. Pinkie's gaze was too focused for there not to be, nor was she fidgeting as much as earlier.

Clara finally stepped out after fifteen minutes, closing the door behind her.

"Yeesh, that got a little too personal."

"So?"

"So what?"

"What has she told you?"

"It was girlstuff, secret. Can't tell a guy like you." Ryan didn't want to say it out loud in case Pinkie lost her temper, but he had a feeling that Clara had completely forgotten about their original objective. The look at least seemed to be enough for her. Clara threw her hands up in the air.

"I made progress okay! But I also have no idea what you're going to say to her to make her talk. She's happy to talk about herself but everytime we talked about the coven she just shut up and started yelling at me for tricking her." Ryan distinctly felt the prickle of Pinkie's gaze on him. Well, at least talking about her past was something.

"Like I said, I have a plan or two. But we do need to wait for the Secretary though." The mention of her ex-lover made Pinkie blink.

"Ella, she's helping?"

"No, not really, just acting as an intermediary. I managed to twist her arm a little and got her to provide a contract, it should arrive soon." Pinkie's eyes slitted.

"When did you talk with Ella?"

"Just then. Why do you think I took so long to get food and water?" Actually, part of it was that he'd gotten lost wandering the Dubois mansion. The other part was telling Milo that he wanted a contract with specific terms signed by the Secretary. Pinkie still looked like she wanted to pounce on him for daring to talk to her ex-lover.

"Hey, I don't like her at all. It's just in this case the best way to convince her is to convince her that you're actually going to hunt her coven down one by one." Pinkie looked confused, her tail curling upwards slightly.

"I already plan to?" Both Clara and Ryan stared at the murderous lizard. For some reason, Pinkie actually tried to explain herself.

"They knew the risk when they ate my wing for a snack. They eat me. I eat them. It's the circle of life."

"Okay, I understand. But what if I tell you that her giving you that information about the hex they placed on you hinges on you not killing them?" Pinkie growled in her throat. Not in a threatening manner but more of a growl of frustration. Her tail spikes slamming into the ground and leaving deep gouges that would no doubt be a pain to fix.

"You can't think of anything else? These are [Witches] that follow the Witch Tyrant. They are not innocent, they've been hexing adventurers left and right under her orders. If anything me hunting and eating them will save more lives in the long run." It was like Pinkie was trying to convince him that eating the [Witches] was a net positive for the world. Which, arguably might be true, but completely opposite of the lesson he was trying to get into Pinkie's thick lizard skull.

If he let her act on her impulses, she might just decide that killing all of them was the safest way to keep her secret.

"Okay, well. It does hinge on you threatening her entire coven and then convincing her you won't do it. Do you think you can do that?"

"Sure." Ryan could tell Clara didn't believe a single word of it and was giving him the side-eye. He'd have to adjust some things but it would do for now.

"Okay, while we wait, do you have any more of that disgusting liquid you used to wake me up?"

"Why?"

"I've got a system-enhanced plant monster to kill."