Silent Witch

The black shadow was already entangled in her left hand when Monica noticed a hair-thin shadow creeping in the dark.

No matter what she does, even if she tries to cast a barrier to repel it with her chantless spell, she will no longer make it in time. So she had to shake off Felix's hand that tried to touch her left hand, keep her distance away, and concentrate her mana to her left hand to prevent the curse from spreading on her entire body.

Fortunately, Nero's quick intervention had helped Monica to repel the curse so only a very small amount of the curse adhered to her body. In fact, she might be able to be suppressed this amount of curse using her mana… or so she thought. But, she soon realized that she had been too naive.

Each time her heartbeat once, she felt intense pain from her left elbow down as if several tiny nails had been hammered into her veins. And to suppress her scream, Monica had to bite her right arm. If it was another place, she might have rolled over and cried out from a long ago.

Monica vaguely felt that Nero lifted her body in his arms, shouting something incomprehensible. Together with him, Felix was also shouting something with a very pale face. However, she couldn't hear their voices didn't anymore. Only the sound of her own heart beating echoed loudly in her head.

Groaning in a muffled voice, Monica gathered her mana in her left arm to hold off the spread of the curse even for a moment.

She felt her head spinning, her vision was obscured by flickers of red and black in front of her eyes before everything was turning dark.

＊ ＊ ＊

In her hazy vision, she saw something there.

There was a collapsed dragon. Different from the cursed dragon before, its body, which was two sizes smaller was covered with green scales. Perhaps that Green Dragon was still in its infancy. And its body, which had been consumed more than 80% by the black shadow was no longer moving.

Standing by the corpse of a young Green Dragon was a person. A human being. She couldn't see his face because it was blurred. But from the lines of his body, she could barely tell that he was an adult male.

"Dammit. Another failure."

Muttering in annoyance, the man turned around and was about to leave the scene, abandoning the remains of the little dragon.

But then a lone Green Dragon, which probably the mother of the little dragon, descended. The Green Dragon was enraged and tried to hunt the human man, but the man skillfully hid behind a rock.

The dragon thought, if this continues, it will lose sight of that hateful man and chance to kill him.

——I will never forgive him! I will never forgive him! I will never forgive him!

Considering that the dragon only saw that human face briefly, it sure it would no longer be possible to find him if were that man blended in with the crowd of humans.

The curse itself has become weakened with the death of the little dragon. If left alone, it would probably vanish on its own eventually. So before that happen, the Green Dragon opened its mouth… to eat the remains of its own child.

It erected sharp fangs tore at the still soft scales and skin, devouring the flesh along with the curse that killed its beloved child. Afterward, the curse had incorporated into the Green Dragon.

Since the ‘witchcraft' imbued with plenty of the shaman's mana, it made it easier to track that man by following his mana.

——I will definitely tear that man to pieces!

Unbeknownst to Green Dragon, the weakening witchcraft that had been taken into its body was transformed by its strong hatred.

The weakened witchcraft had turned into an actual curse.

And the Green Dragon, which had turned into an actual cursed dragon, flapped its wings and began moving to find and kill the hateful man who killed her child with witchcraft.

＊ ＊ ＊

Perhaps after touching the curse, it allowed Monica to catch a glimpse of the Green Dragon's memories,

Ah…

In her fading consciousness, Monica came to realize.

If ‘curse' is something that's naturally created when negative emotions are accidentally mixed with dark mana, then ‘witchcraft' is something that's created by human hands through the arts.

A truly powerful ‘curse' was born after human-made ‘witchcraft' had been exposed to the hatred of the Green Dragon…

After the black shadow was absorbing Monica's mana and sending it into the Green Dragon's body. Its body began to move again, albeit slowly.

With ice spears sprouting from its head, its wings tattered, and its stomach burned from the inside out, the Green Dragon should have long ceased to be alive. And yet, the curse that had imbued with its obsession kept its tattered body to move.

It was all to get revenge on the human that killed its child.

Monica could hear the Green Dragon's vindictive voices in her head. It kept echoing over and over again.

I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry…

She knew that there was no point in apologizing to it. Even so, she felt like she would go insane if she stop begging for forgiveness.

＊ ＊ ＊

Perhaps after losing her consciousness, the head of the Silent Witch in the arms of her attendant slumped down. At the same time, the body of the cursed dragon slowly rose and began to move once again.

Facing the worst situation, Felix gritted his teeth. He might have bullets that could kill the dragon, but it won't work on the curse. After what all happened, he had no intention of dying heroically. After all, his adored Lady Everett had collapsed while protecting him. So he couldn't let her die in this place.

"…I'll buy you some time, you take Lady Everett and run away from here," adjusting his hunting rifle, Felix told Bartholomew with a grim face. But Bartholomew paid no attention to him and laid the body of the Silent Witch down on the grass nearby. Then, with an almost unnatural gait, Bartholomew slipped past Felix and approached the curse-spreading dragon.

"Didn't I say to not break with my master?"

Despite no wind blowing, Bartholomew's black hair rustled and swayed.

The body of the attendant of the Silent Witch gradually darkened as if it were melting in the night. Leaving only the golden eyes shining brightly, as if they were floating in the darkness.

"… I will do you a favor as a fellow species. I'll reduce you to dust in an instant so that you won't have to show your pathetic form any longer."

The darkness surrounding Bartholomew swelled with a tangible mass.

His body, which was even larger than the Green Dragon's, was covered with scales that looked like obsidian. Stretching out from the back of such a huge body was a pair of wings. On its thick arms were sharp jet-black claws, and a mouth so large that even a cow would be torn off instantly with its sharp fangs.

…in addition, his golden eyes that shining brighter than the moon in the night sky.

Felix could feel Will's small trembling in his breast pocket. More so for himself, who could barely contain his shudder, but still could not hide his astonishment.

An entity in front of him was said to be one whom the Silent Witch had once defeated. A legendary dragon whose stronghold was near the Wogan Mountains in the County of Kelbeck, and who was followed by more than 20 wyverns.

"The Black Dragon Wogan…"

As if responding to Felix's murmur, the Black Dragon turned up his neck and hissed.

Taking a deep breath in, the Black Dragon's mouth opened wide, spewing out jet-black flames with its breath.

Deeper than the shadow of the curse and more beautiful than the darkness of the night, the black flames enveloped the body of the cursed dragon, painting its body into black as if it were melting into flames.

Just within three blinks of time, the cursed dragon burned up without a trace along with the curse that had been eating away at it.

The flames breathed out by the Black Dragon, just like the flames of the underworld, consume everything whether it's a barrier or a curse. Once the flames are unleashed, no one can prevent them. All things become dust in the same manner.

The Black Dragon tilted his long neck lazily and looked down at Felix, who stood there dumbfounded.

His golden eyes were gazing at Felix with inhumanly reptilian characteristics. It was like they were trying to find out his true intentions.

When Felix stared back into his eyes without flinching, the Black Dragon breathed out a snort.

Suddenly, the Black Dragon's body melted into the blurry jet-black miasma just like water before forming the shape of an adult male.

Once the blur cleared completely, Bartholomew Alexander—A young man with dark hair and golden eyes, the attendant of the Silent Witch—was standing there.

"Wow, you've got some balls not to run away, Prince."

"This still surprises me in its own way…weren't you supposed to have been exterminated by Lady Everett?"

"You humans will feel safer if things are left that way."

At the Black Dragon's words, Felix swallowed his rebuttal.

What this dragon said was right. If the people found out that the legendary Black Dragon had become a familiar of the Seven Sages… most likely panic would break out in the kingdom.

Taking a dragon as a familiar is unheard of. Not to mention, a legendary Black Dragon at that, there has been no such witch in history.

Some people might treat the Black Dragon as dangerous and scream for it to be slain.

Or some may carry the Silent Witch and the Black Dragon as a deterrent to other countries, if not as a weapon of war. And Duke Crockford would certainly do so.

And the Silent Witch probably wouldn't want that either.

As Felix fell silent, the Black Dragon in human form grinned at him, showing his sharp teeth.

"Worried? Afraid? Relax. I am the Silent Witch's familiar. As long as she is my master, I will not attack humans."

Lifting up his master, the Silent Witch, the Black Dragon lazily turned his head and looked at Felix.

"But, you know, if you tell anybody about my true identity, then…"

With a vicious smile on his mouth, his jagged, sharp teeth clattering menacingly.

The golden eyes were looking somewhat mischievously at Felix.

"You can expect your head crushed in my mouth."