More Important

The Succubus realized the danger. Without hesitation, she prepared to intercept. The demon bent down low, the muscles on her legs bulging in preparation to jump to protect the Witch. She knew it would mean leaving the Scholar and the Fleur exposed to danger, but the Witch would always be more important to her than any other humans.

In that split second of preparation, a violent slash of sword mana came from nowhere and hit the third wyverns upfront.

Taking a hit to the face, the wyvern screamed violently in pain. The flying elementals bumped into each other in the air, their limbs and wings clashing. Unable to free themselves, the three wyverns fell and landed before the Witch.

The Succubus let out a sigh of relief, knowing that the Witch wasn’t in danger anymore.

In the distance, standing on a rooftop, a cloaked man with a long sword leaped from rooftop to rooftop. He hopped down between the wyverns and the Witch, landing perfectly with precision.

Having separated themselves, the wyverns roared at the swordsman. Their ruby red eyes lit with flames. The swordsman flung his cloak at the wyverns, impeding their vision. He launched himself into an attack, his sword raised up high for a slash. His silver armor gleamed so brightly under the sun that it was almost blinding.

The wyverns dodged the cloak and the slash and rose in the air once again. They opened their mouths wide, raining down fire at the swordsman.

The swordsman raised his sword to block the attack. Of course, a mere sword wouldn’t be able to stop this. However, the sword absorbed the fire in its entirety and glowed bright red. Not a single part of the man was burned.

The Witch held her cane readied to protect herself and the people nearby. Even though a strong swordsman entered the fray, she wouldn’t let her guard down.

However, she was not too worried. Her preparation was almost done.

Since these wyverns had dodged all of her ice webs, she would make it so that they wouldn’t be able to dodge at all. She would finish everything once and for all.

The Succubus, seeing that the Witch was safe, returned her attention to her enemies. However, the fight didn’t last very long.

One by one, the fieries and the wolves started collapsing. They clutched at their hearts in pain, moaning and whimpering, and finally took their last breaths. Even the giant, still nursing his bleeding foot, fell with a loud thud to the ground.

The wyverns plummeted from the sky. They fell with a loud crash. Although weakened, they still managed to stand up, but their bodies wobbled as if drunk and could collapse at any moment.

The swordsman lunged at them and swung his sword. The creatures yelped out in pain before slumping to the floor, dead.

Stunned at the sudden turn of events, the swordsman closely inspected the dead elementals. They didn’t have external wounds aside from the ones he inflicted. While he didn’t know how this happened, his instincts pointed him to a particular person.

“Is this your doing?” the swordsman asked, turning to the Witch.

The Witch didn’t answer and instead announced, “You’re hurt. May I?” She raised her hand. The swordsman nodded, and she traced her finger over the light scar on his cheek. She whispered an incantation and gently swiped along the gash, healing it.

However, when the Witch took her hand back, she felt a tingling sensation on her skin like she did yesterday.

“Are you perhaps the Paladin from yesterday? We bumped into each other near the city gate,” the Witch asked.

The Paladin squinted his eyes at the Witch and realized they did indeed meet yesterday. “I’m surprised you realized it was me,” he said.

“I recognized your cloak,” the Witch said.

She wanted to get away from him as fast as possible. She might have the ring that the Succubus gave her, but she didn’t like how she felt just from standing close to him. The side of her body facing him started to lose feelings, slowly going numb.

“Thank you for your help,” the Witch said, and she gave him a wide berth while heading to the Succubus.

“If I may ask,” the Paladin said in a hurry to keep her attention, “Are you the Witch of the White Rose?”

The Witch paused and wondered why he would ask that question to her rather than any other witches here.

The Paladin looked at her closely and chirped, “You are, aren’t you?”

“Why do you think I’m the Witch of the White Rose?” the Witch asked.

“I’ve been looking for you,” the Paladin said. “If you’re here, that means you’re going on your trip? Please, let me escort you until you reach your destination.”

The Succubus, who had been watching and listening from afar, exchanged a surprise look with the Witch. In the past, they had companions traveling along the same road for part of the way. However, no one had asked to escort her to her destination.

This year, especially, the Witch wanted things to be peaceful—the more people traveling together, the more conflicts breed.

“Thank you for the kind offer. However, I already have someone escorting me, and I am a seasoned traveler. I couldn’t trouble someone as important as a paladin to be my escort.” The Witch curtsied respectfully to the Paladin.

She didn’t want to give him any chance to rebuke her, and she left to rejoin the Succubus immediately. A Paladin was the last person she wanted as a traveling companion.

The Succubus, the Scholar, and the Fleur crouched beside a pile of dead fieries, examining them. When the Scholar saw the Witch coming over, he straightened himself. The Succubus took the hand that touched the Paladin. She blew on it, and the tingling sensation in the Witch’s finger went away blissfully.

The Scholar and the Fleur witnessed this strange sight and pulled strange faces, but neither said anything.

The Scholar cleared his throat. “I believe these elementals all died from one cause—a heart attack. Somehow, near their hearts, I found your mana,” the Scholar said to the Witch. “Your mana stopped the blood flow to their hearts and led to their heart attacks and death. It was a brilliant move, but how did you do it?”

“You can see mana and differentiate between them?” the Paladin asked, joining the group.

“I tweaked these,” the Scholar pointed to a pair of ornate glasses on his nose, “to be able to see mana and other things.”

“Impressive,” the Paladin said. “Even so, normally, the body has a layer of mana around it to prevent other people’s mana from entering. I’m curious to know how you did it as well.” The Paladin looked eagerly.

“Oh, I think I might know,” the Fleur said. “I wasn’t so sure, but I think I felt something like spores leaving the Witch’s body and spreading towards the enemies. Maybe she made her mana so small that they bypassed the body’s outer layer of mana. Then once inside, she could gather up that mana and form something to stop the heart?”

“You felt mana that tiny while all the fighting was going on? Maybe you just felt dust in the air,” the Scholar said.

“As a magical beast, my sensitivity to mana is greater than human’s,” the Fleur said.

The Witch nodded her head. “. It took a bit of time because I couldn’t do it at the same time as I was handling the seal. Now that all this disaster is taken care of, it’s time that we leave. Farewell.”

The Witched turned quickly to leave. However, the Paladin yet again blocked her path. He knelt on one knee before the Witch.

“Please, let me accompany you on your trip,” he repeated. “You saved me from death when I was younger. I became a paladin to repay that debt. Please let me protect you.”

Considering her destination and the effects of his Holy Power, the thought of traveling with him filled her with dread.

“There is no debt to be repaid. The Office of the Arcane Arts paid me for such services. If you wish to repay anyone, it would be more accurate to compensate the Office who paid for my services. Since you are a paladin, a protector of evil, you’ve already repaid enough when you took on this job.”

While she still had a lot of mana reserve left, the physical and mental exhaustion was getting to her. The Witch’s skin grew cold from the fatigue, and her head felt heavy.

She held out a hand to the Succubus, who came forth quickly. The Witch leaned on her and continued. “I’m quite tired and would like to go now. I would greatly appreciate it if you could take care of the aftermath of this incident,” she said, looking at the messy scene around her. “After all, it’s your duty to take care of the people.”

The Paladin gritted his teeth but acquiesced. As a paladin, he swore to live for the people, to protect and honor them, to shield them from all harm, and to become their strength in their moments of weakness. The Witch was asking him to fulfill his sacred duty, and though he wished to continue with her, he knew he couldn’t refuse.