Centered around the kitchen we had climbed into through the window, there was a living room to the left, and to the right, a short hallway with a single closed door at the end.
It wasn’t even a particularly spacious place, yet it had a hallway—an oddly ambiguous layout, as if the space had been divided for no clear reason.
It didn’t make much sense by common standards, but then, common sense had no place in a situation like this to begin with.
Only one thing was certain.
Beyond that short hallway, there was something.
Creak, creak—
No matter how carefully we moved, the old wooden floor did not easily permit secrecy.
Each time two grown men in gear shifted their weight, the floorboards groaned like a thinly cracked breath, letting out warning sounds.
Holding our breath at every noise, we began slowly making our way toward the hallway.
When we reached the door, we looked at each other without a word.
For a moment, our eyes exchanged meaning.
‘What should we do?’
‘I’ll support you with magic from behind. Just open the door.’
‘Understood.’
I gathered a Water Bullet above my staff and nodded.
Baldik carefully tried turning the doorknob with one hand.
Click.
It didn’t move.
It had been latched from the inside.
We briefly met each other’s eyes.
“…It’s locked.”
“Good. Then I’ll open it.”
No sooner had he finished speaking than Baldik took a step back, braced his shoulder as if gripping it, and charged.
Thud!
The door of the old cabin could not withstand Baldik’s charge and split apart with a crack.
As the entire door was pushed inward, Baldik lost his balance and tumbled straight into the room.
“Ugyah!”
At Baldik’s groan, half-scream, from inside the room, I instinctively raised the Water Bullet.
“Baldik, are you all right?”
“Urgh… I’m fine, but get in here, quickly!”
The entry had gone more clumsily than expected, leaving me flustered for a moment, but I soon gripped my staff and threw myself into the room.
As I stepped inside through the pouring dust, a strange tension spread through the space that had been silent until then.
At first, I had assumed it was a bedroom, but once we opened it, it was closer to a storeroom.
Inside the long rectangular room lay wooden boxes of unknown purpose and all kinds of scattered junk.
Without a single tidy corner, the smell of dust filling the room spoke of long neglect.
And there, in the middle of that room.
“Bill…!”
As expected, Bill was there.
At a glance, fortunately, there didn’t seem to be any major external injuries.
But what caught my eye first was the rope binding his entire body like a spiderweb.
And beneath him, spread across the floor like a stain, was a dark red pattern.
It wasn’t fully visible, but its form was unmistakable.
Geometric lines and metaphysical symbols densely filled the inside of a circular outline.
It was a structure anyone would have no choice but to call a “magic circle.”
“…This can’t be.”
I slowly approached and lowered my gaze.
The lines that had been hidden gradually revealed their faint contours, barely visible.
It was clearly no simple drawing.
This was… something deeper, with an ominous purpose. It looked like the scene of a human sacrifice, the sort that might appear in a cruel fairy tale.
Suppressing the breath rising to my throat, I carefully pulled Bill’s body away.
Only after he was completely dragged outside the pattern did the magic circle faintly waver.
“Bill! Come to your senses! Bill!”
I shook his shoulders.
But Bill only breathed through half-closed eyes, showing no response at all.
A moment later, Baldik, who had followed in belatedly, came over.
Roughly brushing away the small splinters lodged in his hand, he crouched down beside me.
“…His body looks fine. But why isn’t he waking up?”
“It seems like something magical was done to him.”
I wasn’t particularly certain.
Even if I was a mage, it wasn’t as though my knowledge of magic ran deep.
Magic of that kind—especially curses—might be something Baldik, as a priest, knew better than I did.
I glanced to the side.
Baldik was silently gritting his teeth, his eyes shifting away.
“…Damn it.”
That tone contained everything.
The expression of someone who knew quite thoroughly that he didn’t know.
Yes, I had expected it, but it was still exactly as I thought.
Even so, we couldn’t simply stand there blankly.
At the very least, right now, we couldn’t leave Bill like this.
Slowly, I looked again at the pattern on the floor.
“Can we just leave this alone?”
I closed my mouth.
The magic circle was vibrating very slowly, as if it were still alive.
A structure that maintained itself without any apparent activation.
Someone, or something, had designed this.
Just in case, I threw the Water Bullet I had gathered at it and even tried directly pouring mana into it.
But the magic circle only trembled for a moment before returning to its original form.
At best, I had merely scratched the surface.
“…Then we have no choice but to find another way.”
I turned my head and spoke.
“There may still be something else in here.”
I slowly raised my staff and pointed it toward the living room connected to the kitchen.
At the end of the dark hallway, where almost no light entered.
It had been quiet until now, but that very quietness felt ominous.
Following my gaze, Baldik turned his head as well.
Then he muttered quietly, almost too softly to hear.
“…I have a bad feeling about this.”
Leaving the uneasy Baldik behind, I rose first.
“…What should we do with him? Should we leave him here like this?”
Baldik nodded and swept his gaze over Bill once.
“For now, we have no choice. We can’t move while carrying him in this state.”
“Right. If a fight breaks out now, he’ll only become a burden.”
Carrying a person around in a combat situation was the same as handing over your lifeline.
That wasn’t helping. It was simply putting yourself in danger together with them.
“By the way, even though we made this much noise, no one came out.”
I turned my head and looked toward the dark hallway.
With this level of noise, if this were an ordinary cabin, the owner would already have come running out.
“True. They made it seem like something would come pouring out, but in the end, there’s nothing.”
Baldik snorted, spat once, and rose to leave the room first.
I lifted my staff slightly and followed after him.
Step, step. Tap.
That was when it happened.
Someone’s footsteps rang out.
More precisely, an unfamiliar presence was slowly approaching from outside the cabin.
The steps were faint, as though placing as little weight as possible on the floor. But mixed within them was the tap of something striking the ground.
Baldik and I stopped moving at the same time.
And instinctively, we turned back and hid ourselves again inside the room where Bill lay.
“…You heard that, right?”
Baldik whispered with only his lips moving.
I slowly nodded and lowered myself behind the wooden boxes.
Even breathing felt dangerous.
Click. Creak—
A low, heavy sound.
It was the sound of the cabin’s front door opening.
That was a definite sign.
Someone had returned.
The stranger stepped a few paces inside, then began slowly looking around, as if inspecting the house.
Those footsteps were familiar with the place, and seemed to have a clear purpose.
More than anything, they were gradually approaching the room we were in.
‘…There’s a chance they’ve noticed we’re inside.’
I slightly raised my staff.
Gathering a Water Bullet at my fingertips, I prepared for any possible situation.
“Should we ambush them?”
Baldik asked in a low voice.
“We don’t know yet. Let’s confirm first, then move.”
That was when it happened.
From the hallway right in front of us, I heard footsteps approaching quietly, but unmistakably.
The creak, creak of old wooden floorboards drew nearer, halting intermittently.
The door remained broken, just as we had smashed it.
If this was the owner of the house, there was no way they wouldn’t notice something was strange.
I raised my staff slightly and steadied my breath.
There was only one presence. At least, only one person was approaching from beyond the hallway.
‘First, we should check their face.’
Baldik must have sensed the presence from behind as well, because he naturally rested his hand on the hilt of his sword and nodded.
Without saying a word, both of us slowly turned our gazes toward the hallway.
“Hmm? You broke the door?”
A low voice echoed from the end of the hallway.
It was the voice of an old woman, hoarse, but the tone within it was closer to displeasure than simple surprise.
Holding my breath, I slightly stuck my head out and looked toward the end of the hallway.
And there, I saw her standing.
A thin figure pulled deep into a black robe.
Through the gaps, a hooked nose jutted out, along with a sharp chin and disheveled gray hair, making her look like a witch straight out of a fairy-tale book.
‘…She really was an old woman.’
So what the people had said had not been a lie.
But she was no ordinary old woman.
Beneath the hem of her robe, strange glowing patterns were faintly flowing.
Baldik also swallowed beside me.
She had not yet fully seen us, but it was only a matter of time before she noticed.
She crossed the threshold.
And in the middle of the room, she found Bill lying sprawled there.
“…So you didn’t take him away.”
A strange lingering note hovered at the end of her words.
Her gaze moved slowly, then turned toward the pile of wooden boxes where we were hiding.
“You’re still inside, aren’t you?”
“…!”
In that instant, cold sweat ran down my spine.
Startled, my body flinched, and my foot brushed the corner of a box.
Thump.
At the small impact, dust scattered, and several boxes rattled, revealing our presence.
We’d been found.
“…Come out.”
Baldik and I looked at each other, measuring the timing to leap out.
“I said come out, you little bastards.”
Her voice grew rougher.
As if she had realized we were hiding behind the boxes, the old woman planted her staff and strode toward us.
Deciding I could no longer stay hidden, I sprang out.
As I raised my staff and drew up mana, droplets of water formed at my fingertips.
The droplets trembled in midair and rose.
“……Magic?”
The old woman’s eyes narrowed.
Her gaze fixed on the flow of water swirling around my fingertips, then flicked over my face.
Then she snorted.
“Hah. This is the first time I’ve seen mana sense this lousy. Who taught you?”
“…What did you say?”
At the unexpected reaction, I stopped my spell without realizing it and asked back.
“Well, whatever. The fact that you got into this space looking like that means you must have some talent, at least.”
She glanced at Bill, then planted her staff again.
“That brat won’t die. So don’t poke around for no reason and stay quiet.”
“Does that make any sense? You kidnapped him and—”
“Kidnapped? Did you say kidnapped? Hah, children these days talk too much. If I meant to kill him, I wouldn’t have left a trace to begin with, you fool. Why would I go through all this trouble? It’s because short-sighted idiots like you keep making things go wrong!”
With the end of her words, the tip of her staff struck the floor with a thud.
Baldik flinched, but that was all the old woman did.
She panted as she caught her breath, then turned her head toward me in a somewhat calmer voice.
“What’s your name?”
“…Liv.”
The old woman narrowed her eyes for a moment and stared hard at my face.
“You’re a strange one. Your magic is clumsy, and I don’t like the look in your eyes.”
…As for my eyes, I didn’t know, but I couldn’t refute the part about my magic being clumsy.
I didn’t even feel wronged. It was true.
“What’s your connection to the Blue Magic Tower?”
“…Pardon?”
“What other magic tower plays with water like that? You’re definitely someone who learned, but you reek of having been kicked out halfway through.”
…She was accurate.
To think she saw through my past just from one spell.
She was different from the people who had looked at me in wonder, calling me a mage until now.
This was the tone of someone speaking with certainty.
A nuance born from experience.
…As expected, this person was a mage too.
“But then, what about the other missing people? Where on earth did they go?”
Bill wasn’t the only one.
Several other people had already gone missing from this village.
If she had brought Bill here to treat him, why hadn’t the others returned?
No matter how I thought about it, it was strange.
“…Other missing people?”
The old woman tilted her head as though hearing of it for the first time, then soon nodded and opened her mouth.
“…Ah, those ones?”
She let out a sigh and looked at Bill once more.
"...Fine. This works out, then. Right now, saving this little brat comes first, so stop spouting nonsense and coordinate with me. If you start saying anything else, I won’t let it slide."
"What? Save him? And what do you mean, coordinate—"
Before I could even finish, the old woman was already striding toward Bill.
Her back looked so resolute that I felt like if I added another word for no reason, I might get smacked across the back.
'What is with this person?'
She was taking control of the situation as if it were only natural, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
It wasn’t as though I’d agreed to anything, and I had no idea what she was trusting in to act like this.
I couldn’t tell what she might be plotting, or whether she was truly someone we could trust.
But at least in this moment, she didn’t seem to intend any harm toward Bill.
When I quietly stepped back toward Baldik, he spoke in a whisper.
"...Are we supposed to trust that crazy old hag?"
I let out a sigh and whispered back.
"But if there really is something wrong with Bill, we don’t have any other way."
"That’s... true."
"Then wouldn’t it be better to trust her for now?"
"Damn it. Even so, she’s way too suspicious. Dragging the kid off to a hut like this, for one thing."
I nodded as well.
"That is strange too. Though I didn’t expect a kidnapper to go so far as to treat him."
"No, that makes it even stranger!"
Baldik cried out softly, then shut his mouth again as if gauging the mood.
Once more, we quietly looked toward the old woman.
She was still frowning, calculating something.
If this were a game, perhaps a message like this would have appeared.
[A suspicious witch claims the child has been cursed. The witch says she is the only one who can save him. What will you do?]
[1. Trust her for now.]
[2. She cannot be trusted. Stop her.]
If this were a game, I would have pressed 1 without hesitation.
Even if I failed, I could just use the save-load technique or start over from the beginning.
But right now, this was reality, where I only had one life.
Knowing that one mistake would be the end, I had no choice but to be cautious with my decision.
After letting out a short sigh, I finally made up my mind.
"...Then what should I help with first?"
For now, I decided to trust her.
The unease was still there, but right now, everything depended on this eccentric magician.
If she’d meant to attack, she would have done so long ago.
The old woman glanced at me and snorted.
"Hah. Took you long enough. Men are so damn slow."
Ah, that felt filthy unpleasant.
It wasn’t just a little unpleasant.
Even if a beautiful woman spoke to me like that, it would be irritating, but hearing that kind of crap from someone who looked like an eccentric witch made it twice as annoying.
Of course, I didn’t have the leisure to argue about that right now.
'Hah. So this is why people say magicians have rotten tempers.'
After cursing inwardly like that once, I decided to focus on the matter before me.
"I’ll expand the magic circle, so you just support the mana from the side."
"...What kind of magic circle is that?"
The magic circle before my eyes was colored in a way that could hardly leave a good impression.
Dark red lines spreading outward, thorn-like patterns extending inward.
It looked like it was about to rip someone’s heart out at any moment.
At my question, she narrowed her eyes.
"Would you understand if I explained it?"
"...Even so, I need to know what it is if I’m going to help."
Because no matter who looked at it, it was damn suspicious.
If I helped carelessly, I might end up getting burned black along with him.
"Tsk, tsk. I don’t know who your master is, but it seems they threw etiquette lessons to the dogs. You’re not supposed to pry into someone else’s magic in the first place."
She snorted softly, then placed a finger against the outer edge of the magic circle.
The lines that had just begun to expand started shaking irregularly.
"Fine. Perk up your ears and listen carefully. This is a backflow suppression circle. When external power flows into the body, fails to be purified, and goes berserk, it forcibly reverses that flow."
"...External power? What happened to Bill?"
"A demon stone. This little brat seems to have picked up a fragment of a demon stone in the forest. The fact that he endured this long while holding it is a miracle in itself."
"A demon stone..."
So that stone showed up here too.
Considering how it kept appearing, it seemed to be an unavoidable current of this world.
She clicked her tongue.
"Ordinary people can’t last even an hour before their eyes roll back or they start twisting from the inside. But this brat’s fragment was small, and he was found quickly. If things go well from here, there’s a chance he’ll survive."
"...Then the people who went missing until now, could they have—"
"Tsk. Those bastards had already mutated, so I quietly dealt with them."
I looked down at Bill again.
He seemed to be sleeping quietly, but up close, beads of cold sweat had formed on his forehead, and his fingertips were tinged bluish-purple.
"...So what happens if you expand the magic circle?"
"I’ll gather up the backflow mana the demon stone spread through this brat’s body. Once that’s done, even if he can’t return completely to normal, he’ll at least be able to remain human."
Behind me, I heard Baldik suck in a breath, as if he had realized the gravity of the situation.
In other words, this wasn’t treatment right now.
It was a suspension.
That was how serious this was.
"Then... what should I do now?"
She glanced at me and nodded.
"From now on, while I widen the magic circle, you let mana flow along the outer line. All you need to do is maintain the balance."
"I just need to let mana flow, right?"
Uneasy, I asked again.
Instead of answering, she drew up her mana and fixed her gaze ahead.
"If we mess up, both our hearts melt."
"What!?"
Wondering if it was a joke, I reflexively looked up at her face, but her expression was as hard as stone.
A cold, expressionless face.
There wasn’t even a speck of a joke in it.
Was this woman... actually insane?
"...Could you maybe say things like that a little earlier?"
"Then shut your mouth and focus. The chances of that happening are almost nonexistent to begin with, and even if it does, you’ll die after me anyway."
...She really was eccentric, this person.
Could I really trust her?
Left with no choice, I let out a short sigh and gathered mana at my fingertips.
Then, carefully, I placed my hand against the outer edge of the magic circle.