What gave her comfort was that the other’s movements had paused.
She breathed a sigh of relief.
Indeed, the desire for immortality is innate in humans.
Whether you’re a stunning prodigy admired by the world or an ordinary person struggling in the mire, you yearn for a longer life.
Gauss looked down at the shattered, head almost void of the dark aura in his claw.
The other’s gaze mixed fear of death with a glimmer of post-crisis hope, as if clinging to the last straw, trying to sell him the so-called "method of immortality."
Gauss was silent, his grip seemed to loosen slightly.
He stared into the witch’s eyes, as if scrutinizing the truth of her words, weighing the pros and cons.
Megan, the witch, was overjoyed inside.
The will to survive made her endure the pain, using the fastest pace of speech in her life to persuade desperately.
"It’s true! I’ve studied for hundreds of years!"
"Brain transfer surgery, just find a body that matches yours, and you can constantly reincarnate into new young bodies."
"As long as you spare me, I can teach you! We can share this secret!"
"By then, you’ll have endless time to explore the essence of magic, to obtain everything you want! Power, knowledge, strength..."
"Gain immortality, and you’ll have infinite possibilities."
Her words were full of temptation, depicting a beautiful picture that was hard for ordinary people to resist.
After finishing in one breath, she opened her eyes and watched Gauss, trying to catch even a trace of movement deep in his gaze.
"So, the portraits on the wall earlier are all past ’bodies’ you’ve replaced? And the little girl in the cellar too?"
"Yes." The witch didn’t think there was anything wrong, she nodded quickly, like a salesperson under enormous performance pressure. "I’ve experienced dozens of lifetimes and will continue."
"You can too."
However, disappointingly, when she finished saying all this.
Gauss’s eyes were still very indifferent.
So indifferent that it made her shiver all over.
He... is he really not interested?
This is immortality, her most precious secret.
"Immortality? I think you’re truly grotesque." Gauss shook his head. "Like a parasite in a sewer."
"Don’t you think so, Chief?"
Gauss looked up toward the distant woods, his voice not loud, but it carried far with the wind.
There was no movement in the woods at first, but under Gauss’s intense gaze, the people inside finally realized they couldn’t hide.
In the sunset, the village chief, along with a few other villagers, walked out from the grove with heavy expressions.
Down below, Aaliyah and the others, who had just dealt with the puppet, looked over.
"Chief?"
"You knew as soon as we left the village, didn’t you?" Gauss’s tone was firm.
He wasn’t surprised that the chief and others appeared here.
They hadn’t disguised their departure from the village at all.
So as long as the chief had someone watching them, he would know they had left the village and in which direction they were headed.
Moreover, from the simple conversation before entering the house, it seemed that even if not everyone, at least some people in the herb village were aware of the witch’s stone house.
Even...
Chief Hodder didn’t answer immediately; his gaze first swept over the filth left by the witch, Megan, then to the broken head held like a chick by Gauss.
His throat rolled with difficulty.
Finally, he looked at Gauss, with eyes filled with awe and an indescribable bitterness.
"Lord... Lord Gauss..."
"We... indeed followed the traces you left."
Gauss shook his head, neither confirming nor denying.
"So if I kill this monster now, do you have any objections?"
"..."
Gauss’s gaze fell on them, especially village chief Hodder.
The invisible pressure seemed to descend on them along his line of sight.
Hodder couldn’t endure this pressure and fell to his knees with a thud.
"Lord Gauss... please... spare Lady Megan."
Aaliyah and the others beside them flashed with surprise.
They had just heard the conversation between Gauss and the witch during the battle.
Learning that the missing girls from the village were abducted to become her next body.
They speculated, thinking the old witch had threatened the villagers for their safety, forcing them to keep the secret and supply her.
But didn’t expect these "victims" to proactively kneel and request Gauss to spare her, even addressing her with respect.
"Lady Megan protected our village, shielding us from monstrous ravages, granting us spell inheritance... All thanks to her, our herb village has maintained peace until now."
"..."
"Even if every so often, she has to abduct an innocent person from the village to extend her life?" Gauss looked at them, increasingly disappointed.
Although vaguely aware of the relationship between the villagers and Megan, at the moment when it was ruptured and the true face revealed, he still felt a mix of emotions.
"What’s wrong with that, sacrificing one life to maintain the safety of dozens of households, the prosperity of the village?" Chief Hodder cautiously raised his head.
Gauss opened his mouth, his lips moved, but he remained silent for a long time.
"... Lord Gauss?" Hodder asked softly, anxiously.
"I’m sorry, but I cannot agree." Gauss shook his head.
For the benefit of the majority, to sacrifice the lives of the few.
He couldn’t agree to such rational "sacrifice."
Would the girl imprisoned in an iron cage in the cellar agree to being used as a pawn to prolong the village?
More crucially...
"I apologize."
"I will only do what I believe is right."
"This is, the arrogance of the strong."
Gauss’s tone was courteous, but the content was resolute.
He didn’t need to waste words explaining to these people.
Without waiting for further reactions from the witch in his palm and the villagers before him.
His palm tightened.
A terrifying force exploded from within, concentrated like a dragon claw!
"Boom!!!"
The already precarious head exploded like a crisp apple in Gauss’s palm.
The witch Megan, died on the spot!
"No..."
Hodder’s voice had just spoken out.
A warm splash sprinkled on his cheek.
He slowly lowered his outstretched arm.
His mind went blank, like the extinguishing of hope.
The "symbiotic" relationship with the witch Megan was the village’s biggest secret, known to only a few and maintained over time.
To this day, they were accustomed to this sheltered life, like sheep in a livestock pen.
He stared wide-eyed at Gauss, throat moving, yet lacking the courage to speak.
Gauss’s "brutal" image of crushing the head lingered before him.
He was quite afraid now that Gauss, in anger, might also "squash" the few villagers present.
But he was being petty and unfairly critical of Gauss.
Gauss merely gave him a glance and then withdrew his gaze.
He didn’t care what these people thought; he only did what he deemed right.
Ultimately, these seniors could never become Megan’s "next body;" no matter how beautified as a great cause for the village’s continuation, this sword would never fall upon them.
Seemingly selfless, yet in truth selfish.
As for acting against them, Gauss had no such intention.
At most, they were accomplices, but not to the point of public outrage.
Moreover, the private human experimentation by wizards was openly resisted by the laws of all countries, a notion held by everyone to be exterminated.
Even Gauss’s Adventurer’s Handbook acknowledged it.
"Defeated Commander Level Demon Mind Shifter *1"
"Commander Progress: Defeat 5 types of Commander Level Demons (4/5)"
Yes, the witch Megan who just died at his hands was recognized as a demon in the Monster Atlas.
This was the first time Gauss "killed a person," yet it counted towards the atlas tally.
Even he hadn’t expected this to happen.
It showed how "inhuman" Megan the witch truly was.
Gauss felt this wasn’t necessarily judged from a "good versus evil" perspective, after all, he had killed bandits and brigands in the past, generally all complete villains, yet they didn’t count towards the atlas species count.