LIGHTNOVELONLINE V1CH16 Quit Your Witchin
The next week Elizabeth came on board with her friend’s plans. Her friends assured her that they would tread carefully. The only problem was that plan had occurred to everyone who had ever walked a slippery slope.
Now that the girls had decided to use magic to improve their lives, the only question now was how to go about it.
The first step of solving any problem was to define exactly what the problem was.
Cassandra’s problem was that she needed to improve at her various activities without needing any extra time. The solution to that was she needed to improve her intelligence, physical abilities, knowledge, and skills. This could be achieved by creating a talisman detailed in the grimoire, the Champion’s Medal. The only materials needed were a tiny medal she won years ago in a spelling bee and the magic they imbued into it. It resulted in a tiny bronze medal connected to a blue ribbon that reflects the light just a little bit off.
Elizabeth’s problem was that she wanted revenge against her ex, Chris, but his popularity and money made that very difficult. Her father also restricted her available options. The solution was to harm him in a way that does not trace back to her. This could be achieved by creating a mildly harmful potion and slipping it into his food or drink. The potion they chose was one that created boils on the victim’s genitals, which had a sort of poetic irony due to his deeds. You see Chris had sweet talked the preacher’s daughter into bed, recorded what should have been a meaningful and significant moment in her young life, then spread said video around to prove his conquest. The potion was made from acne cream found in Cassandra’s bathroom, corrupted with mana to flip its purpose thus causing boils, then mixed with water to turn the concoction liquid. While acne was different from boils, intent mattered more than reality in magic and the two things were close enough.
Sapphire’s problem was her father. You see the man whose responsibility it was to protect her was the one she needed protection from. While her mother was almost as complicit due to her inaction and covering for her spouse, Sapphire knew that she had a good reason for it. Fear should not overpower love, but it does sometimes. Her problem could be solved in a myriad of ways, but she wanted to keep things as non-lethal as possible. They decided on using her father’s favorite tool, fear, against him with a simple empathy curse that would strike fear into the heart of anyone who caused fear. This was a purely mana-based process that only required a fearful victim of his, which they just so happened to have.
That night the three went to bed dreaming of a better tomorrow as is the privilege of the young and innocent.
***
The following days went well for the trio: Chris had been scratching what he thought of as jock itch, Sapphire’s father couldn’t even look his daughter in the eye, and Cassandra had become increasingly proficient at all things academic and sports. To celebrate their success, they decided to have dinner together at The Dim Diner that Friday night.
“Did you see Chris scratching his itch in trig today? Talk about hilarious” Sapphire exclaimed while laughing.
“Yeah, it was pretty great.” Elizabeth sounding a touch unsure. While revenge tasted pretty sweet, a sliver of doubt added a sour note to it.
“Lizzie come on. Don’t feel bad, Chris had it coming for what he did to you.” Cassandra, reassuring her friend.
“Yeah, I know… Just unsure if this is truly the right thing to do. Chris seems to be in pain every time I see him. How long will the boils be there?” Elizabeth said with a note of worry.
“I’m sure they will go away eventually, and I reiterate what Cassie said about him deserving it. Let’s not worry about it and get to what we came here for, celebrating our achievements: My dad can’t even raise his voice anymore, Cassandra seems to be stress-free, and you have your justice. Let’s just enjoy the wind blowing our way for a change.” Sapphire told her friend.
“You’re right. Let’s have a good time and eat some even better food. I’m thinking mozzarella sticks!” Elizabeth exclaimed finally in a partying mood.
“I’m thinking the fish fry.” Saphire added.
“I’ll just go for a Caesar.” Cassandra concluded.
The three friends continued with their party until they were interrupted by a large golden-haired man walking into the diner. When he saw them, he briefly paused and then approached them. The three young women got worried and prepared a curse to defend themselves just in case.
“Excuse me young ladies…” the man started before being cut off.
“Listen pal, whatever you got to say, we’re not interested.” Cassandra stated while putting herself in front of her friends.
“I’m a federal agent, my name is Alexander Cole. It appears to me that you girls are getting a bit over your heads with something you don’t fully understand.” The man told the girls while flashing his badge. The man had noticed the dark magic residue on the young girls and looked deeper with an ability.
What he had seen showed him that they were ignorant or uncaring about the consequences of darker varieties of magic. Either is dangerous, both to themselves and others.
Dark magic was somewhat analogous to bomb making. An expert knows exactly what is needed to achieve their objective and never uses an ounce more or an ounce less. While an amateur will not know the perfect solution to the problem or the necessary level of force. This results in larger sacrifices and more collateral damage. While this did not seem to be too serious a case due to the relatively small amounts of residual, dark magic tends to spiral quickly. The only consolation towards amateurs was that like in bomb making the truly nasty stuff was a work of skill and knowledge that tended to be beyond amateurs.
“We’re fine. No trouble here. No siree. No problems to speak of.” Elizabeth rattled off clearly nervous.
“Shut up.” Cassandra told her friend after elbowing her in the stomach.
“I see. Well, if you do just so happen to need help, I’m based in this city and always available to help those that both look for and deserve it. Here’s my card.” The man said before handing each a business card with his number on it.
The trio followed him with their eyes on his way out, all worried about what he knew and how he knew it. While it was weird that he did not do the very thing he came here to do, that is eat. He loved a cool exit and thought it would be awkward to stay after their conversation.