I Picked Up a Witch from a Novel

Episode 3-a. A Flower that Exudes the Smell of Decaying Corpses.

A breath fogs up in the air.

The landscape entering winter is bleak, to say the least.

Most of the green leaves have fallen, leaving bare branches that sway lightly in the wind as if they have thrown off their clothes.

The sky, which was clear just yesterday, has turned overcast and is now dropping tiny snowflakes.

Snow is falling.

Pure white snow piles up on the ground, dressing the bare branches in a new coat.

It coats roofs and fences white as well, telling of a change in the seasons.

I stood there, gazing at the sky where the snow fell.

Such things.

These things that sometimes evoke memories of the past slowly come closer and make me feel melancholic.

Just because one was always running does not mean that they always possess a steadfast heart.

And having a clear goal does not necessarily mean that the steps keep moving forward.

When I faced things that poked at my memories, I would often become lost in thought.

The white snow that repeatedly landed on my face or settled on my shoulders was one of those things.

When was it?

In the winter of my fourteenth year, it surely snowed that day as well.

There was a woman who, even in her considerably matured appearance, embraced the innocence of her youth as she built a snowman.

It was still a time when she spoke informally to me.

She approached with a bright smile, asking if I was cold, and took my hand to rub it against her face.

Carrots and black beans for decorating the snowman.

An ugly snowman.

That memory of us making the ugly snowman for the first time used to surface whenever it snowed, making the woman’s face shimmer in my mind.

So I remember vividly.

The snow swirling with ash and the woman who smiled at me and nodded amidst it all.

All of it became even more vivid and clear every time it snowed, complicating and tangling my innermost thoughts.

Did I make a foolish choice?

What if I had just given up on the journey and stayed in the Empire?

Could I have lived happily?

If I had just hidden my identity well and acted the same in the same scenery, wouldn’t it have been okay?

In other words, memories are more like an effort to pull at the hem of one’s clothes rather than a firm support for the back.

And.

“Woohoo! Let’s make a snowman!!”

“Wow~ It’s snowing, snow~!”

Such haphazard thoughts were soon buried under the voices filling my surroundings and scattered.

The golden sun and the gal young ladies from the warm southern kingdom were making snowmen, rolling the snow playfully despite the cold.

Besides, the barn filled with straw couldn’t possibly shield anyone from the winter chill.

“Ugh…, I’m a little cold, Ain oppa.”

“Just wait a moment. I’ll bring you a blanket.”

“Yes… Ugh, I really dislike winter….”

Tori spoke to me as she quietly opened the barn door, shivering while tightly hugging Yaki.

So I nodded with a smile and headed towards the wagon.

In truth.

I couldn’t afford to be consumed by memories right now.

I trampled over the snow piled on the ground as I moved forward.

Due to the situation I shared about Tevries, perhaps the plans changed; the golden sun and the gal ladies were still in the barn, despite the planned timeline having passed.

He always smiled brightly.

“Brother! Brother! The villagers say the day to harvest the fruits is drawing near, are you going to see it?”

“…, with this snow piled up, will there really be fruits?”

Speaking of the scenery beyond the barn, the snow that began to fall had not stopped, and it had built up into a thick, white layer.

So, if it were ordinary flowers and trees, they would have dropped not only their fruits but even a single leaf.

“But it’s amazing and mysterious that they still bear fruit in these conditions! The villagers are already clearing the snow piled up on the way to the flowers!”

It seemed that the openly magnificent and mysterious flower bore fruit despite the weather.

“Hmm, when do they start to bloom?”

“They say it should be around tomorrow, and Olly, Charlotte, and I plan to go camping and see it today! I’m curious about how the fruits bloom so quickly!”

Of course, I too was a bit curious about the sight he mentioned.

I had never seen a flower that bore fruit once a month, and besides, it might even be a research subject.

However.

“Sadly, I’ll have to decline. It seems like everyone might catch a cold, and I should take care of them.”

“Ah…, that’s true. I lacked consideration, brother.”

The twins, who were coughing while huddling close to each other, and even Avery, who should have been expectantly waiting, were running a fever and groaning in the straw.

It seemed that fatigue had lowered their immunity.

Though I had given Avery his medicine, colds don’t disappear in an instant, and the three of them still looked miserable.

Besides, I too coughed occasionally, letting out some dry coughs.

My arm, still wrapped in bandages, also ached and felt cold.

At least.

Perhaps it was because the dwarf race is resilient, but Horn was the only one who was perfectly fine, just resting and clucking his tongue.

“Tsk, tsk… these weaklings, this is why humans are useless.”

“And what good do those words do when you’re feeding the twins warm porridge?”

He was feeding the children spoonfuls of porridge with a worried expression.

“What’s it to you, you little shit?”

“Pretty words.”

“What’s it to you, you brat?”

“Right.”

In any case, that was how it ended up.

With the sudden heavy snowfall and my companions all suffering from colds, it wasn’t feasible to force ourselves to see the scenery.

“So you three take care and have a good trip, and if you could bring back just a few fruits on the way, I’d appreciate it.”

“Haha! Don’t worry, brother! I’ll tell you vividly about not only the fruits but also what kind of spectacle it was!”

“Yes, thank you.”

“Eh~ There’s no need for thanks between us, brother!”

The golden sun left the barn with a bright smile, and the sound of his voice, which had been quite lively, gradually faded away beyond the closing door.

So what is there between us?

Isn’t it a rather vague relationship at best, having stayed in the same barn for just a few days?

“Hmph, isn’t that the kind of leech that would think we’re bound by a single meal together?”

“…, that’s true.”

Horn seemed to share my thoughts as he tilted his head and resumed feeding the children their porridge.

And I had to feed the groaning Avery his porridge.

Then.

The next day, when I opened my eyes, a smell of decaying corpses wafted through the air.

“…, what’s this? Why does it smell like flowers all the way over here?”

The twins and Avery were still groaning but were at least still asleep, and Horn, perhaps having caught the scent of decay like me, frowned as he got up.

“What the hell is this all of a sudden…, what a horrible smell.”

“It seems to smell like flowers, but when the fruits bear, doesn’t it typically spread far enough to reach the village?”

Perhaps the smell was the result of the process of bearing fruit every month, spreading out far and wide.

I thought so as I covered the children’s noses with a thin handkerchief, while the old man still spoke with a frown.

“Huh…, I didn’t expect a stench like this. I didn’t know it would smell like a corpse for at least a month.”

“Have you ever smelled a corpse that’s been rotting for a month, old man?”

“…, at my age, it’s harder to find things I haven’t experienced, brat.”

Ah.

That was a foolish question.

My thoughtless words often made Horn’s eyes dim with gloom.

And now, even Horn’s eyes, which had answered so, began to show signs of sinking into melancholy.

So, in a hurry, I slapped the old man’s cheek.

“…, have you finally gone mad?”

“Ah…, I’m sorry.”

Of course, this choice wasn’t the right answer either.

Horn rubbed his reddened cheek for a moment before pulling out an axe from the straw.

“Right, as you said, establishing hierarchy is important.”

“No, no…! Old man, your eyes looked sad, and I just reacted without thinking!”

The glint of the raised axe seemed to whisper that he knew the answer.

“You’re done for, you little shit.”

“Ah, you son of a… damn temper…”

Horn had, in no time, shaken off all his gloom and charged at me with sparkling eyes, and I hastily opened the barn door and dashed outside.

“Did you just call me a foul-tempered dwarf? You racial supremacist little shit, I’ll kill you!!”

“Now you’re deaf too, fucker!”

The clash of axes and swords rang out.

Even after living for hundreds of years, that filthy narrow-minded dwarf’s unwarranted rage was directed at me.

There, as we have become comrades, why not share a little about what happened in the past?

Why do you always make me mess up by not saying anything?

I thought that as I had to fend off his axe blade one by one.

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