After finishing making the macarons, I headed towards Sylvia’s room.
I knocked on the door and opened it to find Sylvia, with a frown on her face, surrounded by various papers strewn across her desk, groaning as she struggled to think.
It was obvious she was trying to figure out a way to deal with the Witch of Gluttony, squeezing her head in frustration.
Noticing that Sylvia was so deep in thought that she hadn’t even heard my knock, I couldn’t help but smirk as I entered the room and called out to her.
“Sylvia, I brought macarons, so eat while you work.”
“Ah, Miss Scarlet! What brings you here… Oh, macarons! Right! I need sugar to use my brain, so I need to increase my work efficiency…!”
As she saw the macarons I brought, her earlier frown evaporated, replaced by a bright-eyed look as her ears perked up.
With such excitement, it was as if she had to justify her pleasure in eating the macarons to someone, and I chuckled as I handed her the treat.
Immediately, Sylvia grabbed one of the macarons I offered, took a big bite, and mumbled happily.
“Mm~! Hehe, since it’s a macaron made by you after so long, it seems even more delicious! Thank you, Miss Scarlet.”
“Thank you, but what were you looking at?”
“Oh, this? It’s a document organizing the information about the sacred remnants from the remaining records.”
Upon hearing “information about sacred remnants,” I glanced over the papers lying on the desk.
Most of the writings had been crossed out as if deemed useless, despite the meager quantity that was left.
Seeing the paltry amount of information, Sylvia muttered with a bitter smile.
“Well, as you can see, there’s hardly anything useful here. The only sacred remnants that might still be relevant are the Everlasting Furnace of the Dwarf Clan and the Sky Gem of the Jo In Clan and Celestial Tribe, but the records remaining are merely what appeared in history textbooks.”
On the paper were red circles marking the information about the sacred remnants I had heard during history class ages ago.
The Everlasting Furnace that was said to have existed in the Dwarf’s underground city.
And the Sky Gem, which was supposedly used as the power source of the floating island where the Jo In Clan and Celestial Tribe lived.
At the time, I thought it was irrelevant and passed over it without a second thought, never imagining I’d have to search for these items one day.
The real trouble was that there was only vague information about this sacred remnant left, and the remaining bits were all just despairing tales for us.
I could roughly figure out the location of the underground city of the Dwarves from old maps, where the Everlasting Furnace was said to be.
However, the Dwarves chose to bury their city alongside the Witch of Sloth when she invaded to prevent further destruction had finally collapsed.
So that underground city was now completely buried beneath the ground.
If we wanted to find the Everlasting Furnace, we would have to search through the vast area that once contained the underground city, digging it all up.
Plus, the situation with the Sky Gem was even worse.
People in ancient times all seemed to love burying themselves along with their troubles; the floating island that used the Sky Gem as its power source was also destroyed in its entirety to defeat the Witch of Greed.
It’s ridiculous how they caused such a grand disaster only for the witches to emerge unscathed.
Well, it’s not like those witches were so easy to defeat anyway.
Regardless, that’s aside from the point. The problem was that the floating island was literally floating and changed its location constantly in the sky.
Perhaps due to its constant wanderings, there was not a single clue about where it crashed in the end.
It means we would have to search the entire world to find it.
Either way, whether it be the Everlasting Furnace or the Sky Gem, the problem was that we needed to explore, and it might take an unknown amount of time while the Witch of Gluttony could awaken from her seal at any moment, driving us heads over heels in frustration.
“The more I think about it, the more hopeless it seems. What should we do about this?”
“Hey! Such negative talk is not allowed!”
Just as I sighed, mumbling about the grim reality, Sylvia suddenly shouted at me in a loud voice.
Startled, I blankly stared at her as she cheerfully smiled and presented me with a macaron.
“Well, it’s clearly a difficult situation. But you can’t just think about all the bad stuff! So, for you, Miss Scarlet, I recommend this macaron. Eating something sweet will lift your spirits and energize you!”
“Eh? Ah, no, I ate a lot while making them already…”
“Come on, don’t say that! You love sweet things too, don’t you, Miss Scarlet?”
Despite my protests, I eventually couldn’t resist her insistence and had no choice but to pop the macaron into my mouth.
Sylvia asked me as I chewed on the macaron.
“How is it? Feeling a bit better now?”
I silently responded to her question with a smile and quietly left Sylvia’s room.
And then…
“Ew…”
I immediately spat out the macarons, which had turned into a gooey mess inside my mouth.
As I neatly burned the gooey macaron in my hand, I inwardly muttered to Sylvia.
I appreciate the thought, but I wish you wouldn’t do this.
The truth is, I loved sweet flavors.
But right now, I couldn’t taste the sweetness of the macaron.
Not just sweetness, but bitterness, sourness, or saltiness too.
The very sensation of taste had disappeared.
Since I couldn’t taste anything, everything felt like I was chewing and swallowing a lump of clay.
I had no idea how or when I became like this.
I just suddenly found myself in this state.
It hadn’t been long since I became a witch, but I couldn’t pinpoint the exact moment.
In any case, not eating well recently was definitely because of this condition.
Even though I loved eating, I couldn’t help but lose my appetite in this situation.
Well, it wasn’t just that. I also avoided food because I felt depressed when I ate since I could still taste it and become aware of my situation of not being able to enjoy it.
So, I tried to avoid eating as much as possible, but somehow, I ended up like this.
My mood was sinking.
I could feel those negative thoughts trying to swallow me whole.
“Ugh, huff…”
So, I took a deep breath and tried to shake off the sinking feelings.
Don’t think about it too hard.
Losing my sense of taste is not that big of a deal.
What I need to think about now is how to deal with the Witch of Gluttony.
…Looking ahead.
Damn, thinking about what to do moving forward makes me feel even more depressed.
Feeling that I can’t stay like this, I pulled out one of the Astra combat rations I had stashed away in my pocket.
It resembled those round rice dumplings that others would throw a fit about being disgusting.
I stared at it for a moment before popping it into my mouth.
It had no taste, so it did not whet my appetite, but that was the point.
Rather, I ate because it had no taste.
When eating something delicious, not tasting it can make one feel terribly gloomy.
But conversely, not tasting something already terrible means I could interpret it positively—at least there’s that!
Thinking that, I started to chew on what others were suffering from like it was gum while chuckling to myself.
After I chuckled for a moment, I let out a deep sigh again.
Realizing how grim it was that I had to have such crazy thoughts to feel positive was truly a bitter feeling.
My insides felt heavy.
“…Should I go get some fresh air?”
Hoping to relieve my clogged heart a little, I left the mansion and aimlessly walked outside.
While walking, I pondered over the sacred remnants and the Witch of Gluttony, but no good answers came to mind.
As I walked absentmindedly, I suddenly found myself in front of the boundary area surrounded by barriers.
Beyond the barriers, I could see Ari and the Fury Beast protecting the city from the approaching demonic beasts.
Watching them, I fell into thought.
Ah, speaking of which, that was where the Witch of Lust had invaded with her minions.
She was quite the piece of work, but looking back, she had actually helped us in many ways.
Anyway, wasn’t she the one who came down to us with the information about the sacred remnants?
I chuckled at that thought.
I must have really hit rock bottom to think that.
Even in such a frustrating situation, would the Witch of Lust consider coming down to us again?
I mulled over the thought, silently mumbling.
“Ahh, I really wish someone like the Witch of Lust would just fall from the sky…”
That was right then.
“Hehehe, sounds like quite the troublesome situation, huh?”
Suddenly, the girl with dark violet hair jumped out in front of me, seemingly appearing from nowhere.
“Hello! Long time no see, Eva.”
With an ominous smile, she greeted me, and recalling the old saying that words can become things, I shut my eyes tightly and inwardly muttered.
Not you, damn it…
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