CHAPTER 406: ARC 6, CHAPTER 22: WITCH IN THE WOODS

Opening her eyes, sunlight breached through the window by the side of the room. It was cold, comfortably cold, snuggled up under the covers.

Waxing open her eyes to the particularly rustic scene, she saw a redhead above her, gently waking her up by the shoulder. Jotou muttered awake.

With one ear bent down and still in a nightgown, Hotaru awkwardly smiled. Hotaru whispered, her throat uncleared, "You can stay asleep a little longer. I just wanted to tell you I’m going back to my room... and thanks."

Jotou replied sleepily, barely forming a word. Hotaru hovered a finger near Jotou’s cheek, but withdrew it, not wanting to touch her. "I’ll see you later," and Hotaru departed the room.

Jotou took the next few minutes, waking up slowly but surely. She wiped her face clean. ’Glad I kept it together. I swear I could’ve cried throughout the night. How dare she hold onto me like that all night... If she misses me that much, then why not just say it!?’

Jotou groaned rubbing her own face in her palms. ’I’m overreacting. Then again, isn’t she? Why aren’t we over this yet? Am I just being impatient? Who should even apologize to who in this scenario? How would I go about it if I am the one to do it?

Then there’s also the cult to worry about and the journals and the ghost and new gods- GAH!’ Jotou let out a long loud growl as she threw her head back into the pillows.

_

"That’ll be six silver lass."

"Here you go," Hotaru paid the old woman behind the counter. The small bakery carried the scent of fresh goods throughout the whole shop.

The old baker then turned to one of the shelves on a display, "That’ll be another two silver..."

Hotaru turned to notice Fumeko stuffing her face with a large frosted roll of some sort and another in her grasp. The brunette turned with a furrow of her brows, "What?" she muttered through stuffed cheeks. "I was gonna pay."

The redhead sighed, placing two more silver on the counter. "Sorry for asking, but you wouldn’t happen to know about a case around here from last November would you? Something about people going missing?"

"Oh that ol’ tale? It’s been some time lass, but last anyone heard of it was back in November after the constables got involved," she spoke openly.

"Did you know anything else about it? Like how the culprit was living in the castle up on the hill?" Hotaru continued.

The baker made rickety mumbles and shook her head, "Nothing that comes to mind. Other than, oh, bless that young man in the bright red armour! Came right through he did, found that good-fer-nothing crook who was snatching up our sheep and people."

"The Scorching Inferno," Fumeko voiced.

"Is that what he’s calling himself now? He called himself the Molten Inferno when he was ’round here," the old baker replied.

"Odd for a title to change that quickly," Hotaru uttered.

"Might’ve been self-proclaimed by the sounds of it," Fumeko responded.

"You wash out your mouth with soap missy, he was a lovely energetic lad and I believe he’s well-deserving of a title," the old woman scolded.

"Alright, thank you for the baked goods madam," Hotaru bowed her head and left the shop with Fumeko before the brunette said anything rash. A little bell chimed for the other three waiting outside to take notice.

"I wasn’t gonna say anything," Fumeko murmured with a slight leer.

"It was a possibility," Hotaru replied. "In any case, a title doesn’t necessarily have to be official. Asobi’s the Amazing Asobi in a few official documents for example."

"The Amazing Asobi appears before your eyes! Watch, observe, be in awe or meet your demise!" multiple plates spun on each joint of the magician’s figure, propped up by sticks as random circus music played around her on repeat.

"What pray tell occurs after our former excursion? Returning to the domain upon which adventures gather?" Tiffany queried.

"Not yet. For today, we can ask around town about the case involving Ambrose and things we saw in the castle," Hotaru planned.

The brunette held a hand to her chin, "The townsfolk seem to know about the case, but they’re pretty clueless about the details. Most information’s gonna come from the police or guard around here, or this Scorching Inferno wherever he is."

"Or the people who were actually affected," Jotou spoke. "The people who were kidnapped likely had relatives or friends, they’d know more. Besides the shepherds here that is."

"Well it’s still really early," Asobi held the brim of her hat as she gazed up at the morning Sun. "Let’s go ask around the town!"

So they went, around and around the town of Alänschäf, questioning people from simple workers in the orchards, pub owners, people out on a stroll, schoolchildren who were playing hooky.

Unfortunately, though the little bustling town gave way for calm and clarity for the mind, they could not glean much more information than they already had; everyone nearly had the same story to tell.

By the time it took to talk to a lot of them, they had went past noon and picked a small eatery with the tables sat outside, barred by a low-lying wrought iron fence.

Ivy and leaves rustled as cool spring breeze blew past their hair. Flowers blossomed in pinks, yellows and reds around the side, cared for by the owner. They were served various portions of lamb and mash potatoes, seasoned with aromatic herbs and some gravy.

"It makes sense," Fumeko forked and knifed her lamb chop. The other four looked to her. "It happened last year, nearly five months ago.

To this little town, that was probably a pretty creepy event. Once things got fixed and back to normal, these people would just forget about it and move on.

On the opposite end, monsters and magical beasts are probably usual around here in the forests and wilderness, so it could’ve just been any other day to them," she got a piece and chewed. "Makes sense they wouldn’t care to remember."

"If we can find someone who knows someone who got affected, it’d be more than enough," Hotaru said, resting her jaw in her palm.

"You’re probably right," Jotou agreed. "Problem is, we have no guarantee they haven’t skipped town at this point. We don’t know if they necessarily could give us more either. Most people seem to think the castle’s haunted, but that’s about it.

Plus, and this is just me being paranoid, knowing how meticulous the cult is and that Ambrose is in fact calculating and a new god, he could’ve picked people who had little to no social connections or next of kin."

Hotaru’s ears pricked, "Okay and that gets us where exactly?"

Jotou scrunched her eyes and knitted her brows in confusion, "I don’t freaking know, I’m just laying out what is and isn’t in front of us. The best bet we got were those books we salvaged.

Unless you wanna go question the sheep for information; we might be eating a key witness right now," she stabbed her fork lightly into her food.

"Perhaps tis best to depart then?" Tiffany replied.

"’Right then, sorry fer eavesdropping, but did I hear yer lot lookin’ for sheep?" the shop owner, a woman in her late forties, approached their table.

"Mhm! We’re adventurers and we were planning to leave, but we thought we should at least visit some sheepies to say hi since we came all the way out here," Asobi nodded.

"Oh," the woman smiled. "Then you might need to meet Seamus by the east side. He owns the ranch and it’s chock-full of ’em all year round."

"Thank you so much!" Asobi gave her a silver piece as the woman gladly appreciated it. "If we have no other places to go, let’s at least go there!" she gave a wink to the rest.

_

"Baaa."

"Baaaah."

"Baaaah?"

It munched on grass.

"Sobi, it’s not working," Fumeko was the first to tell.

Asobi, leaned down with her hands on her knees, stood upright, no longer making sheep sounds at the sheep in front of her. They all stood by the side of a wooden gate that corralled a herd of sheep, except Asobi who was inside the gate.

"I did wanna say hi, but that wasn’t actually what I wanted to do," Asobi waved her wand around. "I guess questioning sheep’s out off the table," she wilted.

"I could’ve told you that before we trekked all the way here," Fumeko had crossed her arms.

An old man with a straw hat and a cane inched towards them. "If you want to talk to the sheep, maybe ask the witch in the woods over there," he croakily said and pointed with his cane. "She might have just the trick."

"Some old witch in the woods might have something that lets us talk to sheep... Seems legit," Jotou did not in fact find it legitimate.

"I’m inclined to believe it," Hotaru shrugged. "Let’s go see, it couldn’t hurt. As a bonus, this witch might even have some information on the castle."

"As a bonus?" Jotou raised a brow.

The wolf-girl pouted, "Well, maybe I wanna see some magical things. Does this witch run a shop by any chance, now that would be great!" she asked to the old shepherd.

_

"Tis an enchanting cottage—from realms of fairy tales and plays even," Tiffany remarked.

In a glade of flowers, the sunlight beamed right through an opening in the trees. Little butterflies fluttered through, as well as glowing orbs of light of various hues that were about as big as a fingertip with tiny shimmering wings that jingled as they flickered about.

At the centre of it all was a cottage in the same style as the buildings in the town. Purple flowers grew on the vines that went over the cream-hued walls and onto the roof where they grew in bunches.

A small creek had a wooden bridge to cross and as they peered down while they walked past, guppies and colourful fish swam about within—the creek itself seeming to loop around like a moat.

While they passed, many of the little glowing orbs seemed to notice them and flickered and flew towards them, jingling like little chimes at their presence.

"Aww, they tickle!" Asobi gushed as they surrounded her.

"They’re cute, but still," Jotou was trying to politely shoo them away from her.

"Don’t hurt the sprites, they’re just little creatures that feed on mana," Hotaru stated.

Jotou turned, "Oh so mana mosquitoes then."

"They don’t eat your mana specifically or even at all," Hotaru reaffirmed.

Fumeko observed, "They do seem to like her."

"Not as much as her though," the redhead pointed to Asobi.

While a few floated around Hotaru, Fumeko and Tiffany, many more seemed to jingle and chime around Jotou, somewhat louder as if they were more excited.

"Woah," Asobi on the other hand had much more jingling around her than Jotou, enough to make Asobi float a little off the ground with each step she took. "Hey look, listen, please don’t take me to space, I can’t breathe there.

But hi, hello, how are you?" she nuzzled the sprites with her finger to each one she could see as they chimed louder.

Fumeko approached the door and saw the fluffy moss-covered sign with the word ’open’ carved onto it. She pushed the door open and a bell ringed from nowhere.

Inside was uneven flooring, a set of stairs, several hanging objects by rope ranging from skulls to bags of some grass. Books and parchment lined up shelves and shelves by the window while a cauldron bubbled with some purple concoction.

Alchemical supplies such as glass vials and swirling glass pipes were arranged along a few tables, dripping slowly into vials. A toad was encased in glass, its webbed feet pressed up against the glass watching as Fumeko entered.

By the counter hung more herbal and medicinal roots it seemed in bundles of many. The scent of liquorice, vanilla and sassafras strongly lingered in the air inside, mixed in with peonies and lavenders it seemed. "Smells like root beer in here..." Fumeko remarked.