Witch Training Manual: My Water Magic Is Wrong

The church doors closed behind them.

Several women stood at the bottom of the stone steps, not leaving immediately.

"How long do you think Lisa will keep this up?" The woman in the green dress turned around and glanced back.

"Who knows?" The person next to her shrugged. "She's been acting really strange these past few months. She's having nightmares every night and can't sleep. A few days ago, she told me she dreamt that a lot of children were crying around her."

"Children?" Another, younger prostitute frowned. "How many has she aborted?"

"If she doesn't say it herself, how would anyone know?"

The group fell silent for a moment.

"It's been fourteen years," the oldest woman said, her voice slower than before. "She entered the industry at fourteen, and she's twenty-eight this year. You can guess that, she's only twenty-eight, not twenty-eight."

"When she first arrived, she was the most beautiful woman in the entire Green Oriole Street. Adventurers, merchants, even people from the mayor's mansion lined up to have her. And now?" The woman paused. "She's old and faded, her customers are gone, and she's contracted a whole host of diseases."

"What illness?"

"I don't know. But it's definitely not a good illness."

The younger prostitute bit her lip.

"What will happen to her in the future?"

No one answered.

Meanwhile, upon hearing that Lisa wanted to confess, Wayne led her to the confessional room next door.

Although it's broken and worn out, it's still usable to a certain extent.

Wayne sat down on one side of the window, and Lisa sat down on the other. The wooden lattice of the window was so dense that only their silhouettes could be vaguely seen.

A panel appeared before Wayne's eyes.

Name: Lisa

[Identity: Prostitute at Rose Courtyard on Tsui Ying Street]

[Actual age: 28 (14 years in the industry)]

[Past: Sold into a brothel by her own father at age 14. At 22, she met a young adventurer, and they fell in love. He promised to redeem her once he had saved enough money. Three months later, he died in a demonic surge. From then on, she gave up on herself and never thought of leaving again.]

Number of abortions: Two. The first was at age 17, when she was forced to take drugs by a brothel madam; the second was at age 22, three months after the adventurer's death, when she discovered she was pregnant with his child, but an accident resulted in miscarriage.

[Current status: Illness (late stage of venereal disease), suffering, despair. Nightmares every night, dreaming of unborn children crying around her.]

[Note: She's not religious; she only came today because she heard the new bishop is very handsome and wanted to see him. But during morning prayers just now, she suddenly felt like crying.]

[P.S.: Her biggest regret was not being able to leave that adventurer with a child.]

After looking at the panel, Wayne remained silent for a few seconds.

From the other side of the window, I could hear soft sobbing.

Lisa is crying.

What started as quiet sobbing gradually escalated into loud wailing; she was crying very sadly.

Wayne did not urge him.

He sat quietly, waiting for the crying to gradually subside.

After a long while, Lisa spoke.

"Your Excellency, I am guilty."

His voice was hoarse, with a nasal tone from crying.

Wayne didn't say anything.

Lisa continued, "I deserve this fate, this retribution."

Wayne spoke up.

"What crime?"

Lisa was silent for a moment.

"I've had an abortion."

Wayne didn't say anything.

Lisa gripped the hem of her skirt tightly.

"I know it's a sin. Those children are my own flesh and blood. It's my fault that I couldn't bring them into this world. Now, every night, I dream about them. So many children surround me, crying and asking me why I didn't want them."

She looked up and gazed through the window in Wayne's direction. Though she couldn't see his face clearly, his silhouette was there—dark and still.

"Your Excellency, what should I do?"

Wayne was silent for two seconds.

How old are you this year?

Lisa was taken aback; she hadn't expected him to ask that.

"2. Twenty-eight."

"How long have you been in this industry?"

Lisa clenched her fists tighter.

Fourteen years.

Wayne looked at her.

"You started in this industry at fourteen?"

Lisa's tears welled up again.

"I was fourteen... my father sold me into this place."

Wayne didn't say anything.

Lisa continued, "He said he was too poor to raise me. My mother died early, and he raised my younger brother and me alone. My brother needed to go to school and get married, but he didn't have the money. Just then, a madam passed through the village, took a fancy to me, and sold me."

Her voice began to tremble.

"I knelt on the ground and begged him not to sell me. I was willing to do anything for him, to farm for him, to cook for him, to wash his clothes. He kicked me away and said that this was how my life was going to be, and that I shouldn't block my brother's future."

Wayne remained silent.

Lisa's sobs started again.

"It's been fourteen years, and I haven't been back to that village. I hate him, so much so that I can't sleep at night. But I can't help wondering if he's doing well, if his brother has gotten married. Am I being pathetic?"

Wayne sighed inwardly.

She really is a pitiful woman.

He had met many people—rich, poor, kind, and wicked—but this woman's experience left him speechless.

She was sold by her biological father at the age of fourteen, lost the only person she ever loved at the age of twenty-two, lost her children twice, and now suffers from an illness. Her entire life is built on suffering.

When the woman asked Wayne if she was cheap.

In fact, Wayne could understand this mentality.

The traumatic grief and the struggle for the meaning of life intertwined, making her both hate the person who sold her and unable to stop thinking about whether that person was doing well, thus seeking her own value in the process.

Wayne reached out and placed his hand on Lisa's, his voice as gentle as the night breeze.

"Child, you are never wrong. The one who is wrong is never you, but this filthy world."

As Wayne spoke, the water elemental began to circulate.

"However... the gods never intended to abandon you; they will bless you when you need it most."

As soon as she finished speaking, a warm current exploded within Lisa's body.

From fingertips to shoulders, from soles of feet to the top of head, wherever that warm current passed, all the pain and torment subsided at the same time. It was like a stone that had been pressing on my chest for over a decade had finally been removed.

Lisa opened her mouth as if to say something, but she couldn't utter a word. It seemed that divine blessing had truly descended upon her.

Half a minute later, Wayne released his grip.

"alright."

Lisa looked down at her hands.

It was still those hands, but the festering wounds were gone, and the pain that had tormented her for months had disappeared.

She raised her hand and looked at it over and over.

Then she pulled open the front of her dress.

The previously ulcerated area is now completely healed. The new skin is slightly lighter than the surrounding skin, but it is indeed new, intact, and without any trace of ulceration.

Lisa was stunned.

"This...this..."

Immediately afterwards, a foul odor emanated from the air.

It was seeping from her skin, a thin layer of black mud, sticky and foul-smelling. It was toxins and filth forced out of her body by water magic.

Lisa naturally smelled it too, and her face flushed slightly.

"Go ahead," Wayne said. "Take a shower, change into some clean clothes, and start a beautiful new day!"

Lisa's voice trembled slightly, then she stood up, bent over at the other end of the window, and bowed deeply.

"Your Excellency, thank you... thank you so much..."

She didn't know what else to say.

Wayne said, "Come and pray more often when you have time."

Lisa nodded vigorously.

"Yes, yes! I'll definitely come."

The door was gently pushed open and then gently closed.