The Sorcerer's Handbook

After Dia finished acting out the conversation, she couldn’t help but sympathize with the foolish woman. ”Poor thing... She is so devoted... Of all the men she could have met, why did she end up with someone who doesn’t love her and only wants to use her?”

”What a tragedy,” Sonya agreed, feeling a pang of sympathy herself. But more than that, she felt a simmering frustration at the woman’s weakness. ”If she can fight alongside a Witch like you, it means she isn’t weak. So why does she insist on tying herself to someone else? Can she not live without relying on others? Does she have no hope unless she’s clinging to someone? Why degrade herself like this, dragging herself down into the dirt?!”

”Swordswoman,” Ashe called out, signaling Sonya to calm down. ”Not everyone is as resilient as you. You are simply too strong.”

”I’m not strong at all. I’m just a fragile girl at your mercy,” Sonya teased, rubbing her black-stockinged foot against his calf. ”Besides, how could a Two-Winged sorcerer ever be considered strong—”

”The strength I’m talking about isn’t about power,” Ashe replied. ”This goes for you too, Witch. Both of you are ’strong’ in the grand scheme of life. You are capable of savoring every dish that fate places before you. Maybe you don’t think that’s anything special, but life is like a buffet. Not everyone has the appetite to keep eating.

”I know two people. One of them tasted something so vile that, from then on, he drowned everything in sugar and spice. He completely gave up on tasting the food itself, instead using intense flavors to numb his senses while waiting for the day the sweetness suffocates him or the spice burns him to death.

”The other never actually ate anything disgusting, but once he realized the restaurant itself was basically a toilet, he lost all capacity to enjoy the food. Instead, he focused entirely on finding ways to sneak filth into other people’s meals, because only then could he find any joy in life.

”And then there are countless others who give up entirely, drifting aimlessly through life or ending it prematurely because they’ve been served too many dishes that tasted like garbage. When you tell them to take life seriously, their response is always, ’What, you expect me to keep eating this filth?’

”The woman we’re talking about might be one of those cases. Maybe she no longer wants to continue this meal, whether it’s because the food is terrible or the environment is unbearable. But just as she’s about to walk out, someone pulls her back. And she discovers that as long as she is with this person, every dish tastes wonderful, and every environment feels comfortable.”

”She may not be as brave as you two, but the situation that frustrates you might already be the best possible outcome she can achieve at that time.”

”Of course,” Ashe paused, his tone shifting. ”The man exploiting her is still an irredeemable piece of trash.”

”Exactly!”

”Agreed!”

Despite their differing opinions on the ”foolish woman,” the three of them were completely united in their hatred for the so-called master. A scumbag who weaponized a girl’s devotion deserved to be chopped into pieces and fed to the fishes!

Dia secretly resolved that if she ever met this foolish woman, she would find a way to rescue her from her suffering and break her free from that scumbag’s control.

The Witch Sisters weren’t particularly skilled at verbal persuasion, but if it involved breaking mind control, she could always ask Aunt Perskin for help. If it were simply a case of blind devotion, then it would be Ashe’s turn to step in. Dia didn’t know exactly how he would handle it, but she was certain he would be just as outraged and would stop at nothing to save the poor girl.

Sonya speculated. ”Since it’s not the world, does that mean her master is a Divine Lord? Or are the Witch’s question and mine actually unrelated? Maybe the target of our revenge isn’t her master at all?”

Ashe said, ”Since we don’t have enough clues yet, we can only guess. It wouldn’t be surprising if it were a Divine Lord. Maybe a Divine Lord sent an avatar down to deceive mortals, or perhaps a fallen Divine Lord is slowly reclaiming their power, using their divine charm along the way to turn others into fanatical puppets...”

As Ashe spoke, he noticed Sonya and Dia giving him incredibly strange looks. He cleared his throat. ”Alright, putting aside whether I’m a Divine Lord or not... the real question is, are either of you actually loyal to me?”

Dia glanced at Sonya. Sonya stuck out her pink tongue playfully. ”I’m a reasonable person. I believe everything has its price, so whatever you give me, I’ll return in kind. If you want my unconditional loyalty, then you’ll have to give me your everything first.”

Ashe shrugged. ”See? My personal charm is clearly lacking. I don’t have that kind of devoted follower. In reality, I’m just a... well, let’s get back to the matter at hand.”

Ashe had been about to vent about his real-world situation, but Annan’s confidentiality contract instantly clamped his jaw shut. He couldn’t even complain about being a miserable corporate wage slave.

Dia nodded. ”Then which of these four options should I choose?”

Sonya analyzed. ”First of all, it can’t be violently abducting the Witch. It’s obvious that she used to have a good relationship with the Witch, and the master even promised not to harm her. That’s exactly why she came to capture the Witch herself, so that no violence would be used.”

Ashe added, ”Persuading the Witch is out, too. Based on her tone, it’s clear the Witch harbors a deep hatred toward them. She wouldn’t be swayed with just a few soft words. Triggering a trap to capture the Witch doesn’t work either. If a trap were that simple to set, the Witch would have been caught already.”

Sonya concluded confidently, ”So it has to be option four, visiting the Witch. She doesn’t actually want to capture the Witch. She’s just using the mission as an excuse to see her and apologize. If she happens to complete the task, great; if not, she’s already achieved her real goal.”

Their reasoning matched the sisters’ analysis perfectly. Assured, Dia put on her headset and selected the answer.

The Virtual World immediately graded her response.

[Incorrect. Destiny Quiz ended. You may begin asking your questions.]

”What?!”

Everyone stood frozen. How could that possibly be wrong?

”Let me sort this out,” Sonya frowned, pulling her foot back from teasing Ashe. Her toes curled slightly as she absentmindedly rubbed them together. ”Option two is absolutely impossible. If you’re trying to persuade someone, you at least need to offer some kind of benefit, right? But she only emphasized that she wouldn’t harm the Witch and wanted to build a relationship. How does that qualify as persuasion?”

”Then could it be option one? That’s possible,” Dia mused. ”She did say the original plan was for her and her master to capture the Witch together, so violent means must have been part of the design.”

”I think it’s option three,” Ashe suddenly interjected.

Dia blinked in surprise. ”A trap? But if it’s a trap—”

Ashe reminded them, ”Do you remember the last part of the conversation? She wanted to braid the Witch’s hair.”

Dia countered. ”If she’s close with me, that’s perfectly normal. I’m terrible at managing my hair. I usually have someone else braid it for me.”

”But when she braids your hair, you’re completely defenseless,” Sonya murmured, her eyes narrowing. ”The back of your neck would be right under her control. The cervical spine is tied directly to the central nervous system. If she has a way to restrain you, then you’ve already stepped straight into the trap.”

Dia scrambled for excuses. ”But... but that’s too much of a coincidence! We were enemies to begin with. If she could reach the back of my neck, then trap or no trap, she could’ve captured me anyway!”

”She probably didn’t have the ability to capture you outright,” Ashe reasoned. ”That’s why she had to build a relationship with you first, so you’d lower your guard and expose the back of your neck on your own.”

Dia insisted, ”But I wouldn’t let my guard down! From the conversation, you can tell I only grew close to her because she saved me once during a pursuit. How could she have planned even that chase in advance?”

”Is it really impossible?” Sonya asked suddenly. ”You were being hunted, yet you escaped unharmed and even found a safe place to hide. Don’t you think your luck was a little too good?”

Dia froze, unable to find a rebuttal.

Even so, she couldn’t bring herself to believe it. The Watcher and the Swordswoman had only heard her retelling, but Dia had personally heard that woman’s voice. She knew the care shown to her wasn’t fake, and she knew her future self had genuinely grown fond of and dependent on her.

If all of that were nothing but a calculated deception... it would be unbearably tragic.

Noticing Dia’s distress, Ashe said gently, ”Maybe she really didn’t know. They may not have appeared in the recording, but don’t forget there’s still the master. In the original plan, the master should have shown up long ago to capture the Witch. Yet, even after they were hunted down and severely injured, there’s still no sign of them.”

Sonya snorted. ”Because the pursuers were too strong. That master is probably a coward who only knows how to use women and didn’t dare show up.”

Ashe suggested. ”But what if everything was orchestrated by the master from behind the scenes? The Witch isn’t weak. Killing her and capturing her are completely different matters. To ensure a perfect capture, the master could have drawn in the pursuers and adjusted the pressure from the shadows, intentionally creating an environment that would rapidly deepen their bond.”

Ashe leaned forward. ”The hair-braiding might have been part of that setup. Once they reached safety, that foolish woman would naturally braid the Witch’s hair. Maybe the hair tie carries some Miracle, or maybe it’s a form of mind control. Either way, the Witch would be captured without herself ever realizing it.

”Only then can we explain why the Witch let her guard down. Even if she herself relaxed, her companions would have stayed cautious. Only if the foolish woman was completely unaware could the Witch and her sisters be fooled.”

Dia and Sonya both nodded, thoroughly convinced. This explanation accounted for many of the coincidences and the Witch’s sudden trust. More importantly, the idea that ”it’s all that scumbag master’s fault” fit their emotions perfectly. However...

Sonya asked curiously, ”How did you think of something like that so quickly? That sounds like the twisted scheme a Mind Class sorcerer would come up with.”

Dia guessed, ”Did you read a similar plot in some fairy tale?”

Ashe looked puzzled. ”Is it really that hard to think of? Isn’t it just a pretty ordinary scheme? Maybe I just have a good imagination. Besides, in both conversations, the Witch sounded completely confident. I don’t think she was afraid of being captured at all. So if you look at it from another perspective, the master couldn’t rely on conventional methods to capture her, making the foolish woman, who had a genuine relationship with her, the perfect, unwitting trap.”

It all sounded reasonable, but the fact that the Watcher could so easily reconstruct a villain’s train of thought still left them a bit unsettled... Nevertheless, Sonya quickly brushed the feeling aside. She turned to Ashe. ”So, what did the quiz ask you?”

At that, Ashe’s expression turned deeply strange. He hesitated for a long moment before saying, ”Let me tell you the question first.”

[Multiple Choice Question: Among these three people, who is the Watcher’s closest companion?]

① The first person

② The second person

③ The third person

④ None of the above.

Sonya’s eyes lit up, and Dia also leaned in with curiosity.

”And the dialogue?”

”The answer is the third person,” Ashe said.

Sonya urged, ”The conversation is the important part! Information from the future is way more valuable than some quiz reward! Come on, hurry up! Don’t be shy like some squeaky little horn.”

”I’m not being shy,” Ashe said helplessly, spreading his hands. ”The problem is that there is no dialogue at all. It simply jumped straight to the answer. My future self cheated.”