Witches, in essence, are people who can use mana without the involvement of God or Goddess. They were being hunted since ancient times because of the same reason as people believed they were worshipers of the Devil.
The Gods and the Saints knew the truth that there was nothing like that, but still hid from these people because they were looked at as a threat to their position. After all, their power would decrease if others started doubting their gods in any form.
But things were not as simple as that. For people who needed to believe in a God to get their power, witches could directly tap into the power of nature. The only limit is their own understanding of the nature they were affiliated with.
Hence, between surviving and thriving, the thriving part became more prominent over the decades.
And it all ended with the appearance of the Great Witch Queen, who was blessed to control all elements. Being born as such, she was powerful enough to threaten the very gods themselves. And that she did..
She sent a clear warning to all the Gods that she will kill an entire nation, just to make an example of why not to go against the witches.
Sadly, the Gods simply laughed at her threat… until she really did that.
The Silver Elves Tribe was one of the most worshiping forces of the Goddess of Life, Freya. They were both strong and devoted races, and they were willing to die for their Goddess…. Which they did in the war against the witches.
The Underworld, which is thriving with mana of all sorts, the primary base of the Witches, was the place where the Silver Elves once lived. It was the gift of the Goddess of Life to her people, which now was a prized possession of the Witches.
'Which brings me back to the current situation,' I thought as I looked at the girl walking in front of me.
No matter how powerful or authoritative a witch is, no witches under 16 are allowed to come to the Overworld. It is to make sure that the witch knows how to at least defend herself.
'Either she is strong enough to be a prodigy or she is just a runaway… or an outcast?' I was curious about her situation as we reached the Shop.
The Shop was a little smaller than the rest in the area, but being the Sole 'Special Array' seller, it was quite popular. From the outside, it was a medieval fantasy shop with a magical lamp outside on the door, and a window to see through the interior.
While there were 2 more Array makers, they focused on storing mana and spells regarding combat purposes. And sincerely I didn't touch that aspect, they too, didn't have any problems with my shop.
In fact, sometimes they visited to buy some arrays and learn it. Sadly for them, I made it excessively complicated so that they can't replicate it that easily.
Opening the lock that I made with the same complicated array, I entered the Shop first before she followed behind me.
The inside of the shop was pretty messed up, though. There were books and sheets all over the place. And the only things that I bought were what I needed. Example: three book shelves for books, and a lot of books of all kinds.
Even though I could get the books from the [Library], I noted that the time outside flowed pretty much the same as inside. And I can't access the [Library] from [Personal Space] as well.
But that wasn't just that. Personally, I found that I liked reading books quite a lot. In fact, it was not limited to any kind of genre and I liked to read all sorts of books. Makes me question if I were some kind of librarian in my previous life.
So, I bought quite a lot of books, since I had some extra cash on me. It also helped me get along with the bookseller, who is one of the 'Lords' of this place.
"Messy," the witch spoke as she looked around, holding her nose, as she avoided the smell.
"Well. I guess I do need a cleanup," I agreed with her. There was no other way to describe the place, but I guess that comes later,
"Come with me," I said as I moved to the other side of the shop, beyond the reception, and reached the storeroom. Entering the storeroom, I then took out the extra books from there and placed it outside before setting a couple of chairs.
The store room was a kind of small, but using some Illusion arrays, I created a window with a nice view and another array for air conditioning. While I was hoping to make it like a modern room, I could only get a little closer to it.
"Nice Smell," the witch spoke as she sat on the chair opposite to me, holding the staff in her hands.
"Glad you liked it," I smiled at her before asking," so. What do you want from me? Any kind of special array?"
She shook her head as she then looked at me," teach me."
"..."
I looked at her for a few seconds and it didn't seem like she was joking about it.
"Umm… You know that this is a special array that is not available anywhere else?" I asked, and she nodded.
"Umu."
"And you know that if I teach that to someone else, then people will stop coming to me?" I asked, and she pondered about it as she put her finger on her forehead.
She concentrated really hard with her eyes closed before she looked at me with that same expression before,"Umu."
"So, what did you understand from that?" I asked as I folded my hands and put one of my leg on another.
"Teach me," but she still repeated the same thing.
"Sigh… All right. End of discussion then," I spoke as I stood up and asked her to go back. This method was going to be an extremely important connection of mine to the players. Teaching someone this was equivalent to giving away a Golden Goose.
That too to a child such young.
Though she held my shirt with her small hands as she looked at me with her eyes focused. I could see that she really wanted to learn it.
"Everything has a price," she spoke as she looked at me while I observed her for a while. Not immediately rejecting her, I asked,
"And what are you willing to give in return?"
She then slowly stood there as she looked at me before she paused as if she were thinking about something.
"Kiss?" she spoke with full confidence.
"Do I look like a pedophile to you?" I asked, with my eyes glaring at her.
"You are not?" She was genuinely confused.
-Chop!
I hit her head slightly enough to cause pain as I declared,"I am not."
"But you look suspicious," she complained with tears in her eyes as she rubbed her head where I hit her.
"Just because I look suspicious doesn't mean I am…. " I paused for a second
-Chop!
"I am not suspicious either," I glared at her as I began arranging the books. This child. Did nobody teach her any manners?
She looked at me with a glare before she started helping me out of the shop out of her own accord.
"Now, what are you doing?" I wasn't angry, but a little annoyed. It wasn't because I didn't like how she never gave up on me. In fact, I quite liked how she wasn't easily willing to give up.
What I didn't like was that even though she was trying to help me, I can't just give her the array method. What she was doing was futile. And wasted efforts were something that I didn't like.
"Cleaning. I won't give up. So I will stay here. But place too unclean." She spoke, making me look at her for a while as she kept cleaning before I gave up on her.
"Suit yourself," I spoke as I went back to cleaning the room.
"Where will this go?" She asked as she picked up the smaller books.
"The third shelf on that one," I pointed before moving the books.
"These?" she asked again.
"There." I answered again.
"Those will go to the corner." I pointed to the one she was picking a bunch up.
"Put them at the reception. I was going to read them today."
"Don't touch those. I was still in the middle of learning those."
Time passed as we cleaned the entire room and became pretty much sorted. Though the dust and smell were still there, we need to do something about that.
"I have these," she took out a water ball out of her pocket. It was a consumable item that the water witches made to utilize for various purposes.
"You want to throw water in the entire room and use flame magic to heat up the water?" I asked, as I understood her method.
"Umu." she nodded, but I stopped.
"Well, I appreciate the gesture, but we won't be needing that," I smiled as I took out a bunch of Arrays and placed them at the four corners of the wall.
"Why don't you pour a bit of your mana into one of them?" I asked as I smiled at her.
-Thud!
But then somebody barged into the room. A woman of about 18, with hair similar to the witch, in fact, the get was the same as well from top to bottom, except she had a grimoire instead of a staff.
"What are you doing with my Anna?!!!" she shouted as she looked at both of us.