The Hidden World

Sizzle sizzle

The sound of frying bacon filled the house as Yuki kept a careful eye on the cooking food. He glanced over at the living room couch where Akira was cuddled up with Erica underneath a blanket, their heads together as they watched a show on the television. They had become best friends during the time Yuki was in school. When he wasn’t in the house, they would usually be by themselves and so they passed the time doing whatever they did until Yuki returned.

‘It’s good that they get along. If people live together, they should like each other. Or at least tolerate each other.’

He returned his attention back to his pan. A few minutes later, he plated the food and came over to the couch. They turned their heads toward him when they heard him approaching and accepted the plates he offered them. They scooted to the side and Yuki sat beside them. The couch wasn’t the largest and so they were squished together, their sides touching.

“So what’s the plan?” Erica asked, her words a bit muffled by the food in her mouth. 

“Hmm?” Yuki replied as he chewed.

“The Witch.”

“I’m still thinking,” he said after he swallowed. “I’m not too sure yet on what we should do.”

“I see.”

They fell silent and munched on their breakfast. Yuki watched the television as a show about a couple played. The TV couple were arguing with each other about where they wanted to eat. One wanted to go to a steakhouse and the other felt like eating something light. 

‘It’s nice that I don’t have to argue about those type of things with Akira or Erica. Makes things much simpler.’

“Do you have any ideas?” Erica asked after a while.

“On what to do about the Witch?” Yuki asked in return.

“Yeah.”

“Maybe,” he replied. “Like I said before, I’m not sure yet. She is a threat, but I haven’t determined if she is an immediate threat. From what Akira said, she’ll probably not attack us. She doesn’t seem to have the motivation or urge.”

“Mmm. So is this a wait and see situation?”

“I just said that I’m not sure yet.”

Yuki returned his attention to his breakfast and continued his television show. Akira shifted her position in the middle of the couch and rested her head onto Yuki’s shoulder. Another long period of silence past by until Akira broke it.

“Would you like my opinion on the Witch?” she asked, her eyes still on the television in front of her. 

“I’m open to anything,” Yuki replied. “Tell me.”

“The Witch is collaborating with the Shikaku in exchange for materials and probably money,” Akira said. “She doesn’t seem to have an interest in acting by herself. Or at least we don’t know if she has acted by herself.”

“Yes.”

“But can we for sure say that she will stop helping the Shikaku now that she may have been discovered?”

“No.”

“Then that means that the Witch could right now be preparing for another assault by orders from the Shikaku. We don't know where this next assault will be or when.”

“Wait, what makes you think that she would be preparing for another assault?” Erica interrupted. “If I were her, I would go into hiding for a bit to let things blow over since I was just discovered.”

“That’s true except for the little part where she wasn’t actually discovered,” Yuki explained, glancing over to her. “The Witch knows that we know of someone that was helping the trolls. She’s probably smart enough to assume that the Academy will send someone to investigate the troll nest. What she doesn’t know is that we already know she exists. That we know her title and her role. So she may go into hiding, but we can’t say that she’ll stay quiet.”

“Then how do we know that the Shikaku will be employing the Witch to help with their next attack?” Erica asked as her hand began to move in the air, going right and left. “They should know that we know that the Witch exists.”

“That’s correct,” Akira said, answering this time. “We don’t know if they will be using the Witch again. But the possibility is still there and that makes the Witch a threat.”

Yuki rubbed his hand on his face. “So you’re saying that there is that possibility that the Witch is an immediate threat.”

Akira nodded.

“And you’re saying that because of this possibility, we should preemptively attack her now to eliminate this possible threat.”

“Yup,” she said. “It’ll be safer to do that than to wait and see. We don’t know what she could do in the time we give her if we just watched. Maybe she’ll stay quiet. Or maybe she’ll ramp up her support in response to the recent events.”

Yuki went silent and thought to himself for a while. Everything that Akira said was true and made sense to him. The Witch was a threat but it could not be determined whether or not she was an immediate one. This meant that there were only two options: wait and see or a preemptive strike. Wait and see would allow for the Witch to move locations and gather resources in order to better defend herself. She also may not appear again for a while and Yuki would soon lose track of her. This left only one option.

“So we should strike first,” Yuki said out loud. He looked up and his eyes met with Erica’s who was staring at him.

“Don’t look at me. I don’t really know what’s going on here in the first place,” she said, putting her hands in the air. 

“Akira, you know how to find the Witch, right?” he asked, glancing at her.

“Yes. I took the compass that Shindol had in his pocket,” she replied. She took out a small metal device from her own pocket. “We just need to get within a certain radius of the Witch and the compass will lock onto her location.”

“That’s good,” Yuki said as his eyes started to wander off and began to stare at the space in front of him. “There’s just one thing that’s bothering me.”

“What?”

“We don’t really know anything about the Witch or where she lives. We don’t know her powers outside of being able to make golems and barriers. We don’t know how strong she is other than the fact that she was strong enough to create a giant barrier that can reject magic.”

“And so you’re worried,” Akira finished.

“I’m hesitant at the idea of going in without enough information,” Yuki nodded. “I don’t have a problem with doing an attack. We just need to prepare for the worst. This is why I wasn’t against waiting. It would give us time to gather information.”

“But that would cause all the problems we already discussed. So we attack?”

“Yes, but let’s wait until tomorrow,” he said. “We should get ready today. Get supplies and work out a strategy. Then we’ll head to the forest and start the attack.”

“Alright,” Akira said with a nod. “But first, let me finish my breakfast.”