“Phew, phew.”
“With this, it’s over…”
Eve covers the soil she had dug.
She sets up a small grave marker with Emily and Peter’s names on it, then closes her eyes for a moment, praying for the two.
Whether an afterlife truly exists is uncertain, but she believed that those two would surely be in heaven.
“Now it’s time to leave this place…”
After bidding farewell to them, Eve mutters as she gazes blankly at the cabin where she had spent quite a long time.
She knew she would never forget all the things that happened there, no matter how much time passed.
At least until her life came to an end.
But now it was time to go.
She had too much time left to live merely by reminiscing about memories alone.
Eve forced herself to leave the cabin, her feet reluctant to move.
She had no specific destination set ahead of her.
She simply wanted to meet more humans.
If it were the old her, she would have instantly diverted her curiosity to another race after experiencing one.
However, even after spending considerable time as a human with Emily and Peter, Eve was still curious about humans.
In fact, even more than when she first met them.
She wanted to understand humans, and she had come to like them.
And so, she wanted to meet more people.
She believed that if she could observe more lives up close and learn about them…
Then, perhaps someday she too could become a human like Emily or Peter.
*
Afterward, Eve wandered around, meeting numerous humans.
Naturally, not all the humans she encountered were like Emily and Peter.
“Haha, guys! Today is fantastic! Check out this girl, she’s half and half!”
“If we sell her, we could make some cash!”
“Ugh, wandering around these mountain paths all alone, you’ve got guts for a girl!”
Some humans were treacherous, while others were greedy and cunning.
Due to such humans, Eve occasionally found herself in troublesome situations, but she never grew to hate humans.
“Whoa! A girl just appears out of nowhere!”
It wasn’t just because she had the ability to manage most situations herself.
Eve thought even those emotions of humans were a part of them.
Moreover, Emily and Peter had taught her this.
That humans were not simply beings of evil.
For every bad person, there were also decent ones.
Eve found that truly remarkable.
The world she traveled through was filled with many bad people.
Just as water quickly gets dirty when food falls in, it surely isn’t easy to retain goodness in a world surrounded by malice.
Therefore, Eve focused more on the encounters with the rare kind-hearted people than on the bad ones.
Her meetings with those who struggled to do the difficult things moved her quite a bit.
“Hmm…? I don’t recognize that face, miss. Are you a wanderer? Goodness, you’re so young, how did that happen… If you need a place to stay, you can come to our home. I happen to have a room available.”
Yuria, a woman Eve met in a village while wandering, was one such person.
She was raising her young son, Yuta, all on her own and didn’t hesitate to extend a helping hand to Eve.
She mentioned that if her husband were alive, he would surely have done the same.
Eve realized that, despite Yuria’s hardship in losing her husband, she was a strong woman living bravely for her young son.
For someone who did not have much to spare, being able to offer kindness to another was no easy task, and Eve thought Yuria appeared to shine beautifully because of that.
But tragedy often arrives suddenly.
“Loot as you see fit!”
“Haha! Kill everyone except the women!”
That night, a band of robbers attacked the village.
By the time Eve realized it, the fire set by the bandits was already engulfing the village.
“We… we have to run! Yuta, quickly!”
“Mommy!”
“There! There’s a woman over there!”
Eve dashed out of the house with Yuria and Yuta, seeing the bandits chasing them through the flames and fallen people.
If it were just herself, she could have easily escaped.
But what about Yuria and Yuta?
Should she just leave them to die?
“Ahhhhh!!”
Then came Yuria’s scream.
Eve thought she needed to save Yuria.
Suddenly, her true powers manifested.
“What the! What’s this monster! Where did it come from?”
It was an illusion.
An illusion strong enough to impact reality itself.
The weak illusion that had been limited to changing her form was now manifesting as a gigantic monster before the bandit’s eyes.
“Yikes! Our attacks don’t work!”
“Run away!”
The bandits, losing their will to fight in the face of Eve’s frightening illusion, fled, tails between their legs.
But unfortunately, the situation was already too late.
“Y…Yuta? Yuta… ahhhh…”
Yuria was wailing.
Holding her son’s lifeless body, killed by a robber’s sword.
After a long moment of sobbing, Yuria slowly lifted her head after dropping it like a discarded doll.
Eve locked eyes with Yuria.
The emotions reflected in Yuria’s eyes contained nothing but sorrow, causing Eve even more pain.
Yuria could easily have blamed her—wondering why she hadn’t used her powers a little faster to save Yuta. But kind Yuria did not blame anyone until the end.
She was the type of person who would throw herself away instead of harming others.
Could Eve dare to call her weak?
She could not.
Yuria was a strong person.
Even if immense sadness struck, she could eventually overcome it and rise again if only given time.
However, this moment, having lost her only support in the world, her son, was something she could not endure.
Knowing that, and knowing how beautifully she could shine as a person, Eve wished for Yuria to survive.
And so, with a mournful smile, Eve spoke to Yuria.
“You want to be with your son, right?”
Yuria nodded vacantly.
The next moment, she found herself standing with Yuta.
[Mom!]
“Ah… Yuta…”
Eve looked at Yuria, who was smiling in the illusion, and smiled bitterly.
Is it wrong to hope for happiness, even if just within the created illusion?
Is it a sin to wish that the ones she loves dearly could continue to live happy lives, even like this?
Will there come a day when she could overcome her sadness and live in this world?
She didn’t know.
But what Eve did know was that this was the only method she could consider at the moment.
Unfortunately, there were far too many people in the world like Yuria who were unhappy.
*
News of a new witch appeared in society.
This witch, dubbed the Witch of Jealousy, passed through areas leaving behind stories of people disappearing in groups, inciting terror among the populace.
At the same time, a rumor began circulating in secret.
It was a story about a woman who guides those she meets to paradise.
*
When Eve first learned about witches, she had a hunch.
That she too was likely a part of the same race as those witches.
She had heard that witches bring death to all living beings merely by existing, but she knew that the energy expended with each use of her powers could cause such destruction.
She was not born only to kill, as some tales claimed.
It was just that her energy was so unique and strong that anything other than a witch would be destroyed just by being in its presence.
Perhaps witches lived simply to spread their energy around to create a suitable environment for their own survival.
Of course, Eve instinctively regulated herself so that it wouldn’t happen.
Yet, knowing this made Eve inevitably gloomy.
She realized anew how distanced she was from humans, and how difficult it was to coexist with them.
How did she end up being born like this?
If only she were born as an ordinary human…
These days, with people flocking to capture her, she couldn’t help but feel down. As Eve contemplated this, she suddenly felt a man breaking through the illusions surrounding her.
And the next moment, she saw a large man standing before her with a huge sword drawn.
“…So you’re the one called the Witch of Jealousy?”
Hearing the name of the Witch of Jealousy uttered by the man, Eve let out a bitter smile.
It had become her new label due to her actions being made known, as she couldn’t ignore people attempting to commit suicide.
So much so that strange rumors circulated about her.
Until now, Eve had managed to deceive those who came looking to hunt her with illusions. But someone who saw through that had appeared…
As she was laughing helplessly, the man’s voice, filled with hostility, flew toward her.
“Where are the people you kidnapped? If you don’t hand them over right now, I’ll kill you.”
“…Calm down. If you kill me, they won’t be able to return.”
“…Is that a threat? Do I look like someone who can be swayed by something like that?”
Seeing the man appear as if he’d mistook her words for a threat, Eve waved her hands in a hurry.
“N-No! That’s not what I meant… Can you hear me out first?”
“…If you want to talk, go ahead.”
When Eve requested him to listen, he nodded, and she cautiously began sharing the stories of the people trapped within her illusion.
Telling him their names, their stories, and that if she awoke them now, they would all perish.
Even as she spoke, she trembled with anxiety.
It wasn’t the first time she told someone this.
But the first time she did, the person had attacked her, questioning if they could believe a witch’s tales, and she barely managed to survive.
Because of that experience, she could feel the hostility humans had toward witches, and the man before her appeared far stronger than the last her.
If he truly came at her with intent to kill, she wouldn’t escape.
Eve accepted the possibility of dying there, but she thought her death would mean the eternal bondage of those individuals within her illusion.
That could never happen in her mind.
She wished for them all to live again someday when they could overcome their sadness.
And so, Eve prostrated herself before the man.
“I don’t mind if you want to kill me, but not right now. At least let these people live their lives first, and then you can kill me… please, just until then…”
Watching the trembling Eve, the man…
“…Fine. Get up. I’m not going to kill you.”
With a sigh, he put away his sword.
Eve, lifting her head in shock, could only ask.
“…What?”
“I said I’m not going to kill you. Ugh, those noble idiots. I can tell from a glance they probably spouted nonsense to scare the villagers to prevent their escape because of the rumors.”
Seeing the man mumble as if he had been deceived, Eve found herself in utter shock.
He genuinely believed her just like that?
Even though she was a witch?
“Y-You believe me?”
“What reason do I have not to believe you? You don’t seem like a particularly bad person, and you don’t look like you’re lying.”
“But I’m a witch, not a human…?”
The man chuckled, as if he found it amusing.
“So what? I have a good eye for people. There are plenty of people who are even more witch-like than you among humans. Honestly, you’re more human than them.”
“Ah…”
Maybe it was just that one comment about being more human than humans that made Eve’s heart swell. Biting her lip tightly, the man asked with a surprised voice.
“What’s up…? Why are you suddenly about to cry?”
“N-No… It’s just, I’ve always wished to become human… So hearing that I seem more human is just so touching for me…”
Hearing Eve’s yearning to be human, the man seemed to think for a moment before asking her.
“…So if you became human, what did you want to do?”
“…Huh?”
“I meant, if you became human, what were your desires? Have you ever thought about it? If not, it’s fine.”
At the man’s words, Eve reminisced about the cherished memories she kept in her heart and softly replied.
“…I wanted to be a teacher.”
“A teacher? Like teaching students?”
“…Yes. That was my dream.”
The man chuckled, seeming amused by her dream.
“That’s perfect. Hey, I was planning to set up something like a school. I was thinking I couldn’t just let you be, so I should keep an eye on you nearby. If that’s the case, you can take the teaching position there.”
“…Whaaat?!”
Eve was taken aback when the man said he wanted her to be a teacher, and he laughed.
“But first, you have to promise me that you won’t harm anyone in the future. If you can promise that, I can’t turn you into a human, but I can let you live like one. What do you say?”
Eve felt her heart race as she answered.
“…Witches have something like a contract. A promise that must be kept no matter what.”
“Hm. Is that so? Then let’s do that contract. I’ll make you a teacher, and you’ll help humanity from now on.”
“Yes.”
“Oh, by the way, there’s no end date for this contract. It’s for life. If you want to quit later, you can’t.”
“I understand.”
As Eve laughed and answered, the man asked her.
“Well, if we’re going to form a contract, I need to know your name. What’s your name?”
“My name is Eve. And yours?”
The man grinned as he replied.
“Aegis.”
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