Chapter 17: Is This Right? This is Absolutely Right!
Elise couldn’t help but frown slightly, as if a mist had blown into her eyes. She blinked more often than usual.
“Does it hurt…?”
Peiya stopped what she was doing. She didn’t expect Elise to be this sensitive.
Her strength shouldn’t be that strong, right?
Peiya tried pinching the flesh on her own waist with the same force. It didn’t hurt at all.
“No, it’s just that I’m too nervous.”
Elise brushed aside her loose hair. In fact, Peiya’s touch was very gentle, like a feather falling onto the surface of a lake, creating soft ripples.
The one making a scene was actually herself.
Before meeting Peiya, she had always been alone. Not to mention physical contact, even the maids kept their distance, only helping her choose clothes from far away.
So when Peiya touched her hand, she became extremely nervous. Her fingers even curled slightly without her noticing.
And Peiya’s fingertips were soft, pink, like a cake base without cream. When pressed, they bounced back slightly.
How could such a pleasant feeling be something to dislike?
“Alright, get ready. This time I’ll count to three, then we start. Three…”
Peiya began counting down, but Elise only became more nervous.
She wasn’t ready at all.
“Two…”
The countdown got closer.
Her heart was pounding. Elise wanted to do something, but her feet felt stuck to the ground, she couldn’t move at all.
“One…”
Peiya lightly bit her lip, her voice soft and gentle.
“So, are you ready this time?”
“A… a little better.”
Elise gathered her courage. Her slightly puffed cheeks made her look like a small hamster that had just hidden a peanut and got caught by its owner.
She stood there stiffly, her whole body tense.
“If you stay like this, I can’t check anything~”
Peiya lightly touched her tense fingers. Even the veins and lines on her arm were clearly visible, just how nervous was she?
It was just holding hands.
Why be so nervous?
“Come on, follow me. First, take a deep breath. Relax. Imagine you are in a quiet room, with a warm scent around you, your favorite smell. No one will disturb you here. All the bad people are blocked outside by me. Breathe in… yes, now slowly breathe out.”
Elise followed her instructions once, and her body really did relax a lot.
“Very good. Let’s do it one more time.”
Peiya patiently guided her in a soft voice near her ear. Only after Elise fully relaxed did she begin the actual check.
“Open your palm, let me see.”
Peiya gently poked Elise’s palm. The temperature was normal, there was no cold feeling at all.
But when Elise made a fist, a cold sensation spread through her skin.
“What about the other hand? Try again.”
Elise did as told. Peiya scratched her head.
“That’s strange. Could it really be some rare condition in your left hand?”
Peiya had only read about similar cases before. Some people with special constitutions could have a slight risk of magic going out of control.
But after observing Elise, that didn’t seem to be happening.
Could it be a very hidden form of magic instability?
She asked Elise to do a few more basic tests, and everything seemed normal.
So why did her hand suddenly become cold?
If it were really magic out of control, that hand would probably already be half useless.
“Step back a little. I’ll try using my magic to see if it works.”
“Okay… wait, are you sure your body is fine?”
Elise remembered that Peiya’s body wasn’t very strong before.
“It’s fine. I’m quite healthy now.”
After merging with the witch’s heart, even though she hadn’t fully absorbed it, her basic strength was already enough.
She might still feel like her old self, but her abilities had improved a lot.
Elise looked at Peiya seriously. She still didn’t know what kind of magic Peiya was good at. She had always thought Peiya was more like an alchemist or a scholar.
And Peiya didn’t seem like someone who was strong in battle.
She felt more like someone who needed protection.
Peiya took a deep breath and quickly formed a magic circle in her mind.
Then, a soft white light surrounded her body. The light only circled around her briefly before gathering above Elise’s palm.
Elise felt a little surprised. At first, she thought Peiya was just a normal support-type mage who gave blessings. There were many people like that in the kingdom, support mages often joined missions.
Over time, Elise had seen many scenes of support magic being used. She wasn’t an expert, but she knew the basics.
But why was Peiya’s magic so strange?
It felt like the magic power completely listened to her, going exactly where she wanted.
You should know that the kingdom spent a lot of resources training support mages,like blessing casters or prayer mages, mainly because magic power was unstable and often affected both allies and enemies.
In the past, there were even embarrassing cases where buffs were accidentally given to monsters.
The king was furious at that time and scolded the officials, asking if all that money was just being spent to make monsters stronger.
Since then, support mages slowly lost their reputation. Even highly trained ones could make mistakes, not to mention ordinary people.
In normal teams, the position of support mages kept dropping.
If damage was not enough, blame the support.
If defense was too slow, blame the support.
If the team lost, blame the support.
That was how the situation slowly became worse.
While Elise was recalling these things, the pain in her body gradually faded.
“Do you feel better?”
Peiya wiped the sweat from her forehead and patiently asked about Elise’s condition.
“Much… much better. How did you do that just now!?”
Elise moved her hand. It felt much more flexible than before, and the numbness was gone.
She remembered seeing many doctors in the past, but none of them could help. They only told her to use her injured left hand less and wait for it to recover.
She had waited for five years.
She had even gotten used to living with a stiff hand. Now that it suddenly improved, she almost felt unfamiliar with it.
“That’s good. I did a simple check just now, it really was a case of magic instability. Luckily, your body is strong enough to resist the damage. The reason your hand sometimes feels warm and sometimes cold is because your body has been fighting against the magic inside you. I think you trained too hard when you were young, which caused some small damage to your magic circuits…”
“...But I’ve already done a small repair and fixed some of the messed-up parts. As for deeper damage, it’s too risky to fix right now. I tried a few times, but it’s too dangerous. We might need a special item before going further. But overall, it can be treated. You don’t need to worry too much.”
Peiya leaned back in her chair, looking completely exhausted.
In fact, she had really used all her strength.
The witch’s body was helpful, but the witch’s heart was not easy to deal with.
It was almost like it was telling her, ‘Just accept me. Become a witch, and everything will be easier.’
And then mocking her, ‘Look at you, using my power little by little like this… how pitiful.’
The witch’s heart even seemed worried about her.
But Peiya had no intention of giving in.
Wasn’t it good enough to live a simple, peaceful life?
Destroy the world?
Why would she destroy her own home?
Besides, as long as the witch’s heart stayed inside her, it wouldn’t be hunted by holy knights.
Shouldn’t it be thanking her instead?
That way, both the world and the witch were safe.
Wasn’t that a perfect happy ending?
If you think about it, she was basically protecting the whole world.
She had even kept her promise to the goddess.
It was a total win.
While thinking about all this, Peiya could clearly feel the witch’s heart “freeze,” like it had crashed.
Maybe it just couldn’t handle her way of thinking.
After spending these days with it, she realized the witch’s heart wasn’t actually bad.
It wasn’t a person and didn’t have real thoughts.
It was more like a tool, something like a transformation device.
When it stayed inside her, it would influence her emotions a little, like leftover feelings from the past.
In the end, it was still just a part of her body, with one purpose, to make its owner fully awaken as a witch.
But Peiya’s way of using it, taking small benefits without fully accepting it, was completely outside its normal function.
It had probably never seen anything like this before.
It was like a system stuck in an error.
Normally, it would protect its owner. If Peiya fully accepted it and became a witch, she would gain power and protect herself.
But now the question was…
If she didn’t fully accept it, should it still protect her or not?
The witch’s heart got stuck.
Peiya didn’t have time to deal with the strange feelings inside her.
Just as she thought everything was finally settled, a hand gently touched her forehead.
When she opened her eyes, she saw Elise looking at her with concern, gently wiping the sweat from her forehead with her pale hand.