The Last Boss Witch Will Keep Her Past Self's Crush Until Her Dying Day Chapter 13

Before I noticed, the Sky Dragons started circling around in the sky. There were ten of them, enough force to destroy one small town, though the soldiers themselves were small in numbers. They must be the few people who know the truth about the events twenty years ago.

Will was glaring at Sednyl in the sky, but eventually slowly pulled out his sword. Basking in the light of the stars, Witch Killer shone a brilliant red.
The dragons became excited and gave out a scream.

“Oh my, Will~ so mean. Are you planning to kill me? Even though you don't listen to me, you're going to obey that annoying bunch, huh. Logically thinking, they aren't going to harm the Prince or the precious prophet just in order to threaten you.”

“I know that, but I can't possibly let the Prince and Emerald even as a chance. Besides…I can't afford to hand you over to the King.”

That would be a wonderful line if it was said between the lovers, but this situation is different, right?

It is dangerous for my recipe of immortality to end up in the King's hands. Even if it's incomplete right now, they might force me to finish the research.
If the current King becomes immortal, Prince Rain's position as the Crown Prince would become unstable.

“After killing me, you will be killed right after, you know? do you understand that?”

“Enough…”

There is no point in staying alive now.
Now that he has learned the truth, his existence itself endangers the Prince and the others.
Will has already resigned himself. Why is he so understanding only at those times?

But, even despite overflowing with despair, those golden eyes are still beautiful. I want to attain it more than I would want any other jewel.

“Would it be better if you never learned the truth?”

“This is something I desired to know, I won't bear a grudge for that with you. But ――”

Will muttered quietly. That it would be better if he had never been born.
Hearing that words, something snapped in my mind and my blood started to boil. I wonder how long has it been since I've been so infuriated?

“What a pathetic man. I even thought that you were going to kill both me and that eyesore bunch overhead, relay the truth to Rain-sama and rise up against His Majesty.
…But I guess it can't be helped.  You must be scared of telling the truth to Rain-sama, right? Your friends.h.i.+p might get ruined. The Kingdom where Coup d'etat happened might stir again. Or he might even turn a deaf ear to you? It will definitely be shocking if Rain-sama doesn't do anything even after finding out about your parents.”

I haven't talked much with the Prince, but I still understood that he placed the peace of Mistria above everything. Depending on the case, there is a chance that he might even cut off his lover or his best friend for the sake of it. He is a royalty, after all. The fact that he prioritizes the obligation to keep the country peaceful is not a bad thing.

From that point of view, even the current King, Schnell-sama, can't be blamed.
Twenty years since his enthronement, Mistria has had neither civil wars nor the conflicts with other countries. There are many people who revere Schnell-sama as a wise monarch.
It's the same for the Coup d'etat. It certainly involved an underhanded part but it buried the recipe of immortality, protecting the order of the world.
I wonder which side would actually be called evil if they end up killing the King due to the personal grudge?

I don't know who is right and what to believe.
Will looks like he's lost. Without any killing intent or hatred, without any strength to search for a person to depend on, just wanting to end things quickly. With that kind of swordsmans.h.i.+p full of hesitation, you won't be able to kill even a weakling witch.

“Coward. As expected, you are unable to do anything even after finding out the truth, Will. Isn't it exactly how I said?”

“Shut up! You can't possibly understand my feelings!”

That shouting voice was damp. Looking at the figure of a young man who looked like he was about to break down at any minute, I let a charming smile show on my face.
That's right. Expose more emotions. I don't want you to hold back anything.

“Will, at that young age,  have you done such evil deeds that you wouldn't be able to complain even if you died now?”

“Huh?”

“You haven't, right? I am the same. I can't bear to let it end like this. There are still many things I want to do. For now, I'm thinking of silencing that noisy group.”

Following me, Will also gazed at the sky.

“What are you doing?! Hurry up and fight! If you don't start within 10 seconds ――”

Sednyl started screaming something. Sky dragons' cries were also getting louder as if penetrating the sky.
This is a nuisance to the neighbors. Villagers probably started to notice the abnormality in the sky and get scared. I'd start to feel bad if I bothered them any more than this so I guess it's time to finish up.

“Shut up.”

As I narrowed my eyes, Sky Dragons' cries stopped immediately. Instead, the man who looked like a sorcerer held his head and started groaning.
It seemed like neither Will nor Sednyl could understand what had happened.
Even though they would be able to feel it if only they had ‘Creative Brain'.
The tremendous amount of magic power released from my body.

Sky dragons' way of flying changed. Unsteadily rocking their bodies, their wings started to convulse. The sorcerer man was shaken off and fell into the forest. It appeared that the dragons themselves judged that it would be dangerous at this rate and one after another returned to the ground.

“This is why I don't like dragons. You can't feel their determination to work hard for their masters.”

If it was Unika, no matter what kind of formidable foes we would meet, he would desperately run in order to let me escape. If he wasn't able to escape. he would definitely stand up to the enemies and fight.
Well, the opponents that are strong enough to defeat me don't appear so often though.

“What…did you do…?”

“Nothing particularly. I only let the Sky Dragons know that I am stronger than them. It would a different matter with wild dragons, but domesticated dragons are only at this level…Come, Will. Let's go greet Lord messenger.”

I headed towards the place where Sednyl's dragon descended.
The Sky Dragon made shrunk its body and lowered its heads towards me. Sorry that I scared you.
The sorcerer had fainted and the soldier with the ‘Core' seemed to have been injured by the impact of falling. Sednyl was thrown on the ground and now still sitting down.

“Wh, you, just what on earth are you doing?…! This kind of behavior towards the King's messenger! So you don't care what happens to Cucurouge, to the witches?!”

I kicked Sednyl's shoulder and without a pause​, trampled down on his chest.

“You seem to be misunderstanding many things. I will gently explain one by one, okay?”

As I said so, I put more strength in my legs and his ribs made a strange cracking noise. Ignoring Sednyl's screams, I put up my fingers to correct his mistakes.

“First. Tonight I came to negotiate with the King's side on equal terms. In return for leaving us alone, I will promise silence about the truth and protection of the northern border. I will not make any other compromises. I also have no obligations to one-sidedly listen to your orders.
Second. Will isn't Mistria's knight anymore. He is mine. Letting him live or die is up to me and forcing him to do something is also only my privilege.
Third. Be careful with your way of talking. Since you are calling yourself a representative of the King, I will take your rudeness towards me as the insult from Mistria. If you don't want to die, try not to ruin my mood even more. Do you understand?”

Even while having a coughing fit, Sednyl still seemed like he was scorning me.

“Fool! The members here are not the only fighting force I brought with me! When they sense abnormality, reserve Sky dragons will immediately head towards Cucurouge. If you don't release me right this instant, the flames will in the witches' village ――”

“Forth. Cucurouge is an important place for me. I do not think that it would be okay for anything to happen to it. That's why I'm letting exceptionally ferocious watchdogs house sit. It would be a different matter if you had the best kind of golden dragon but for a mere gray dragon, it wouldn't matter no matter how many of them are there.”

It's natural, isn't it? There are “Mid-level Bosses” beneath the “Last Boss”. They are of course more obedient and good children than in the original.

Understanding that threats wouldn't work against me, Sednyl's face fastly turned blue, but as soon he noticed blankly standing Will not far away, he barked.

“Will! What are you doing?! This is a daughter of your parents' enemy! Hurry up and slash this little girl. Whatever happens to Emerald――”

“Like I said, Do. Not. Give. Orders. To. My. Will.”

After I strongly stepped on his solar plexus, Sednyl doubled over and started to struggle,

“Fifth. Miss Emerald won't become a hostage. Torment? Do as you will. You will only further shorten the lifespan of a valuable prophet.  Though I think you would already know that.”

The one who reacted the most strongly to those words was Will.

“What does that mean?”

“It means exactly as it is. Foresight puts a great burden on ‘Creative Brain'. If you keep forcefully using it, you will become disabled soon enough. Under the influence of a strong stress, the risk of brain death increases even further.”

Predictions are realized by tracing the river of magic power flowing in the nature and appropriately processing the vast amount of information drawn from it.
To use the terms of my past life, it would be something like a “computer”. That world was extremely developed in terms of information processing, but it still wasn't flawless. There were plenty of times when the woman from my previous life became soaking wet because the weather forecast was wrong.

The processing which cannot be done with human's brain, people with the ability of precognition do unconsciously. It can't be helped if they soon go insane, don't you think so?

“You must keep her preciously tended for inside of a cage. If you think about it with other cases in mind, at best in 10 years, at the fastest in 5 years, she might become unusable.”

“That's…a lie….”

“Rather, I'm more surprised that you didn't know about it, Will. I mean, Rain-sama probably knows about it. If you read the history of magic, it will become as clear as water that the people with precognitive abilities are short-lived.”

The two people who had a happy ending in the original work. But I wonder how many years did that happiness continue?
I think that the reason the Prince was able to marry a commoner's daughter is because she had a short lifespan. After all, he could just marry a female of an appropriate status after Emerald died.
Prince Rain must have known about the lifespan of Miss Emerald and most likely hadn't told it to her, along with Will and their allies…he couldn't tell. Ignorance is bliss, after all.

Also, if she found out about her own lifespan, Miss Emerald might have started to repress her powers in order not to do any predictions. The Prince would lose the means of knowing about the impending threats of the Kingdom in advance. In reality, it would probably be better if she stayed cooped up in mountains instead of going on a journey, but the Prince dragged her out on the front stage.

I wonder if the Prince really loved Miss Emerald.
Maybe he responded to her feelings only because of the guilt from coercing her to do unreasonable things.
Or was he unconsciously falsifying his feelings?

…I must be reading too much into it. Those two must have been truly in love. She wasn't told about her lifespan because it would be a stress for her. I will just think of it like that. It would be too pitiful otherwise.

“But, well, Miss Emerald had the power of precognition since the birth so there is a big chance that her ‘Creative Brain' might have a different structure. She might unexpectedly live for long.”

“Is there a chance that she could be saved? What should ――”

“Who knows? There has been no precedent of Hated Child having the power of precognition, so I think it would dangerous for outsiders to try and do something.  There is no other choice but to live without stress as much as possible. At the end, it's better to just be shut in the castle while not knowing anything.”

There is nothing that can be done. When I declared so, Will was struck with despair and once again fell to his knees on the spot. At last the light disappeared from those golden eyes. Looks like he can't think about anything anymore.

“They wouldn't let the long-awaited prophet die easily. Isn't that right?”

Sednyl didn't answer. It seems that he has realized his loss. His eyeb.a.l.l.s are trembling with fear.

“Sonisama, at least my l-life…!”

“Oh, so it's okay if only your life is intact? Then, I will forgive you with this.”

I took out a small bottle from my bosom and poured the contents into Sednyl's mouth. A bursting sound resounded and an unpleasant smell of burning protein filled the area.

“Aaaaaaaa!!! Gyaaaa!!”

“You are a failure as a messenger, so I made you unable to speak. Your voice should come in about an year but before that, do your best with only writing. I will pray that you don't lose your work. Oh yeah, you should avoid spicy and hard food for a while. Alcohol is not good either.”

I have no more business with the man who's writhing in pain while holding down his throat. I called out to the random soldier trembling by the side.

“Go back and tell his Majesty that Witch Sonia has no intentions of breaking the peace treaty with Mistria. But still, if you threaten me or my precious people, I will engrave an even worse b.l.o.o.d.y tragedy than the attack twenty years ago into the national history.  I will be waiting for a wise reply.”

After sending off the messengers with Sednyl included and making sure that there weren't any dangers left in the forest, I returned to the tent while pulling Will's hand.
He was dejected just like an empty sh.e.l.l, but when I burnt that incense, Will obediently went to sleep. Since I was anxious, I bound our wrists together with a cloth and slept next to him.

I arranged the preparation for departure along with the dawn. Waking up, Will didn't  touch the breakfast. He held his knees and didn't move. Even though he's a young man 4 years older than me, he looks like a small child.

“Will, let's go to the village to pick up Unika.”

“……..”

“Don't ignore me.”

When I pulled on his hair, Will instinctively brushed it off. Thanks good. Even I would be troubled if he kept being unresponsive.

“You might have been pushed to the bottom of the life, have lost the will to live and have no idea what to do from now on but it's alright. Didn't I tell you that I would protect you? I will not throw you away even if you break and become useless. You just have to believe in me and follow me.”

It would be safe to be kept by me. I will be very gentle and make you forget all the bad things.
When I gently held out my hand, Will raised his face and showed hesitation for a moment. But he turned away his face at once.

“…..I can not believe anybody anymore.”

I answered lightly to the voice deeply welling up with suffering.

“It's okay if it's done slowly. We will be together for a long time.”

After a while, Will sluggishly stood up.
He still looks spiritless, but I'm glad that he decided to start moving for now.

After picking up Unika and thanking the village chief, we headed towards Cucurouge.
I decided to leave the reins to Will as usual. Concentrating on something else would stop him from thinking about unnecessary things.

“……….”

Suddenly, something s.h.i.+ny started to flow down from the front.
When I s.h.i.+fted my body for a bit, I saw that droplets were falling on Unika's mane.

I know that it's better to pretend not to notice.
But I slightly strengthened the power in my arms around Will's body.

Betrayed by the King, abandoned by the country, not knowing how to face your best friend and a beloved person anymore.
Will has lost everything he was supposed to protect. He found out that no matter how much he sacrificed himself, he wouldn't be able to make his beloved person happy.

That day, a Knight of Mistria died.
And the one who killed him was…me.

—
Notes:
the word used was 廃人 which can mean cripple; disabled person; invalid​ so I went with disabled.
national history is 国史, dunno what would have been a better alternative.
The last sentence actually had comma instead of an ellipsis but I feel like that slight pause was necessary for the dramatic effect.

Sonia……..

anyway, how would I go one season without catching cold and f.u.c.king myself up? nohow.
Got fever again.

I haven't double checked this chapter yet because I wanted to release soon so as usual y'all better tell me about any mistakes you spot.

P,S Will's POV again next time.