She Is Not a Witch

Not far from the main entrance of the Carithes Merchant Association headquarters, two young girls stood hand in hand.

“This doesn’t seem right, Laniel. The teacher will scold us.”

“Don’t worry, Lingxin. We just happened to pass by here. It’s only self-defense.”

Laniel reassured her friend. She had always been the bolder one since childhood.

“What if we can’t beat them?”

“Then I’ll rely on you, Lingxin. You’re the fastest in our third year, after all. You can at least help me escape, right?”

“Sigh, why did I ever agree to come traveling with you?” Lingxin looked at her friend with exasperation but still nodded in agreement.

As the two conversed, a group of torch-bearing figures appeared across the street. They were fully armed, marching forward with murderous intent. Urgent bells rang out from atop the Carithes Merchant Association, and some archers began to take their positions.

“Who are you? Get out of here quickly!”

The advancing group warned upon seeing the two girls.

“Sorry, we’re just two students passing by. But we’ve decided to stand here today. If you want us to leave, you’ll have to fight us,” Laniel said mockingly.

The group was in a hurry; speed was of the essence. They had no time to waste on these two girls. Two men stepped forward, intending to pull them aside. After all, judging by their attire, they were children from wealthy families and shouldn’t be harmed casually.

“Let go!”

Laniel swatted away the rough hand that tried to grab her.

“You two still want to be stubborn?” A large man raised his hand to slap her, but Lingxin caught his wrist and kicked him down.

Seeing their comrade fall, the advancing group lost their patience and rushed forward en masse.

“Oh my, oh my, it’s about to start,” Laniel seemed excited, while Lingxin slowly retreated to give her friend space, keeping an eye out for attacks from other directions.

Facing the group of charging men, Laniel remained calm. She clasped her hands together, raising them above her head, as lightning flashed in her eyes.

“Here it comes, gentlemen.”

Then she separated her hands, holding them in the air on either side of her chest. Intense blue lightning flowed between her palms, the strong electrical light illuminating her face in the darkness. The air filled with the smell of scorching and the sizzle of electricity.

Crack——

As if a thunderclap had struck the earth, brilliant lightning snaked across the street.

In the dark street, the dazzling lightning was like a roaring spear tip, flashing for an instant before piercing through everything.

Dozens of people on the street shook violently in the electric light before slowly collapsing.

Looking at the chaotic scene of fallen bodies smoking on the street, Lingxin asked worriedly,

“You didn’t electrocute them to death, did you, Laniel?”

“Don’t worry, Lingxin. I controlled it well.”

Laniel kicked a fallen man nearby, and a low groan followed.

“See? Still alive,” Laniel turned to her friend.

“Alright, I hope you didn’t fry their brains.”

Lingxin was well aware of her friend’s power. Last semester during their internship, she had incapacitated a Sequence 6 dragon, causing it to fall from the sky and nearly die. Fortunately, a student from the Holy Temple Academy who was with them saved it. Otherwise, they might have failed to meet the internship requirement of capturing live research subjects.

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Inside the seaside cliff mansion, or perhaps it could no longer be called a mansion, the entire structure of nearly several thousand square meters was reduced to half a floor. The dome and second floor had vanished, leaving only ruins. Countless people groaned as they crawled out from under debris, only to see the young girl in the center of the hall, along with a small group protected by her air current barrier.

“Who exactly are you?” Wick’s glasses were broken on one side. He grabbed a firearm and aimed it at Loranhil.

“Fire! Fire! Kill her!” He shouted, ordering the guards behind him. Gun muzzles flashed, and lead bullets tore through the air towards the girl, only to stop before reaching her, as if hitting an invisible shield.

Loranhil plucked the bullet from the air with her fingers, examining it briefly.

“So you’re still using these kinds of bullets,” she said, looking at the round metal ball in her hand. Then she flicked it back, piercing Wick’s throat. He collapsed, clutching his neck as blood poured between his fingers, his body convulsing.

“Wick!” Edmond’s face contorted with shock and rage as he watched his brother fall. He drew the curved sword at his side.

“You dare kill my brother!”

“Why are you so angry? Didn’t you think of this day when you killed Angus and Eileen?”

Loranhil looked at the young man before her, light shifting in her eyes, while her mind wandered to another matter.

Is this what killing is like? Why don’t I feel sad or scared? Have I become like the people of this world, viewing life as worthless as grass?

No, it’s just that these people deserve to die. A life for a life, blood for blood, tooth for tooth. That’s how it should be.

She had accepted Angus’s legacy, and with it, his debts and hatred. She couldn’t convince herself to spare the Tisphone family.

Edmond raised his frost-like curved sword and charged forward at high speed, his figure seeming to disappear briefly in the air, leaving onlookers unsure of his whereabouts.

Loranhil sighed softly, her finger tracing a red trajectory in the air, followed by the sound of flesh and blood scattering on the ground.

The curved sword fell to the ground with a clear, trembling sound, now broken in two. Edmond’s bewildered eyes slowly lost their light as his body was sliced in half, blood spraying across the floor.

Witnessing this bloody scene, Loranhil closed her eyes briefly. “Sorry, it’s my first time. I didn’t hold back,” she murmured. Then a gust of wind brought a torn curtain to cover Edmond’s corpse.

The remaining Tisphone family guards in the hall screamed in terror, like wailing infants.

Their voices were like those of madmen, sending chills down everyone’s spine. The others also looked at Loranhil in fear, dreading that their lives might be taken next.

At this point, people in the hall began to flee. Noys, Fernelton, and others carefully avoided the girl’s gaze as they slowly retreated.

However, Loranhil had already noticed their movements. Where could they escape to? She didn’t act now only because a more important enemy had appeared before her.

The alchemist Snape, who had once conversed pleasantly with Loranhil, now stepped out from the shadows of the hall. His black robe was tinged with a faint snow-white in the moonlight.

“Aren’t you going to save Edmond and the others?” Loranhil asked curiously, wondering why this alchemist had been watching from the sidelines without intervening.

“Why should I save them?”

“Although we’re in the same organization, we’re not friends. Why make a gesture that could be misunderstood?”

Snape spoke softly, as if recalling something.

Then a massive, towering figure appeared behind him outside the mansion. A giant golem rose from below the sea cliff, its enormous body blocking out the moonlight, plunging the entire hall into dark shadows.