Academic gathering with Lich colleagues

"No! Lady Vera! Lady Sersella said we are the hope of the witches! We have an important role to play! We should rest and recuperate here at the altar."

Vera tilted her head, while Kurona, who maintained a serious expression, looked so boring. Even when she cried, she was cuter than she was now, just a bit more troublesome.

"Kirona, between me, who you spend every day with, and Ceresera, the vengeful witch, whose advice do you take?"

"Um... Sese..."

"Mmm~~~" Vera the cat let out a long sound, and her mouth pursed down.

"Yes, Lady Vera! Chrona will obey Lady Vera's orders!"

The cat wasn't having any of it. She lay on the ground, paws in the air, her body writhing like a caterpillar. "I don't care, I'm so angry! The most important person to Kurora isn't me! I don't want to play with Kurora anymore! I'm going to cry too, waaaah!"

Now it was Chlorna's turn to panic. She was at a loss and eventually agreed to Veraliz's request.

"Then let's go to the gathering and play for a little while, and come back before the older sisters come looking for us, okay?"

"Mmm." Vera smiled. Silly girl, if you can still find north when you're happy, I'll turn it into south.

Chapter 237 The Expressionless Fire Witch

“Eve, I think this is a terrible idea.” Franny stopped what she was doing, leaned over the machinery she had specially purchased, and complained to her friend standing beside her. The two were standing on a small booth at the gathering.

Franny glanced at the passing witches, exchanged a few eye contact with the slender ones, and then looked away the next second.

His companion finally responded.

"what?"

“I say, it’s a terrible idea for us to replace the elemental witches and recruit new ones here.” Ferrani awaited her companion’s response, because the strange looks from the other witches who had been there made her doubt herself a little.

The same reply, "What?", fully proved that Eve was just giving herself a perfunctory answer.

"Can you please put that damn bottle down?!"

Eve, with her short, gray hair, stood on the wooden counter, tossing several bottles with flaming tops into the air one by one, like a circus act.

“No, this job requires my full commitment. I’m playing with fire, Fellaini, and you’re playing with fire too.”

"I have absolutely no idea how your bottle-throwing acrobatics and my ice shaver can attract newcomers. We are witches! Witches! We are seekers of witchcraft, not acrobats or chefs!"

Eve set down the bouncing bottles one by one, pouring the flaming liquid into glasses and placing them on the counter. She gave her flustered companion a cold look.

“You’re insulting the chef.” Eve cleverly steered the conversation back on track just as Franny was about to explode.

"The idea of ​​recruiting members for the Elemental Witches is indeed terrible, but there's no other way. The Witch Quarter in the Wandering City has announced that it will no longer intervene in the witches' conflicts; they have chosen peace, just like us. It has to be said that settling in a mobile city is truly the safest choice. Everyone in the Witches' Gathering has their own obsessions; in fact, we all have seeds of hatred in our hearts. We are not so magnanimous as mortals. The Elemental Witches who choose stability are not qualified to enter the Witches' Gathering and can only entrust it to us, the Witches of Death."

"The results were not good."

"Don't have high expectations of yourself. We are different from these witches. The name of death makes us a source of anxiety for them. So, just be ourselves, make an effort, and then fail."

After arranging the bottles, Eve reached out and grabbed a moving glass at the far end of the counter. She easily stopped the slowly moving glass, ripples spreading across the surface of the red liquid. Eve's hand grasped at air; she stared at the glass, her voice hollow and mechanical.

"You're not old enough to drink yet, little sister."

In Eve's hand, a small, waxy white hand appeared, the color slowly spreading through the air, and a little girl in tattered clothes stood before her. She was expressionless, just like Eve, and in Franny's eyes, she was like two sides of a mirror.

The girl with messy hair tried to move her wrists, but Eve held them tightly. After three attempts, she gave up.

"I need some wine, big sister."

"What should I do? Next time, when trying to get closer to someone, use some adjectives, like 'beautiful' or 'pretty,' that'll make them feel good."

"I want to clean my wound with alcohol, beautiful older sister."

"Looks like you're a clever little fellow too; adjectives don't work on me."

"..."

Eve grabbed the girl's small hand and spun her around. "Where's the wound?"

"In other people."

"Take me there, and I'll give you the alcohol."

"Okay." The little girl nodded without hesitation.

Eve nodded in response, "Franny, while I was preparing the alcohol, I grabbed this girl; she was trying to run away."

Franny hugged the little girl as instructed, and small ice crystals condensed in the surrounding air.

“Eve, how did you know she was going to run away? She’s just like you, expressionless. You two have a special way of communicating.”

“Look into her eyes. She’s not good at lying.” Franny looked at the little girl in her arms, just as Eve had suggested. The eyes were empty, there was nothing there except for the image of herself that had been manipulated.

Eve had already prepared the wine and led the little girl forward like family. The little girl's gaze was still fixed on the glass of red wine.

"That cup has a very high alcohol content. If you don't want to sterilize it, you can use that to torture people."

The little girl led the two to a secluded corner behind a tent, where it met a raised hill. There was crude camouflage made of a few broken, leafy branches, beneath which lay a layer of earthen-yellow cloth. A huddled figure was beneath the cloth, on the tent's canvas. It was another little girl, with a deep wound on her shoulder, revealing dark red flesh and blood deep within.

She appeared to be asleep, yet was still having nightmares in her sleep. But in reality, this little girl was suffering from hunger, cold, and weakness; such a life would not survive the coming winter and would most likely perish here.

“Lenka is my friend. She took me in when my parents kicked me out, but soon she became a witch too. I don’t know if it’s my fault, my existence…” Eve listened to the girl’s soliloquy while cleaning Lenka’s wounds.

What's your name?

Jacqueline.

Eve poured some wine into Lenca's mouth and handed the bottle to Jacqueline, "Would you like some?"

"You just said... minors can't drink it."

"I'm not your mother, you don't have to listen to me."

"I don't want to drink." Jacqueline shifted her attention to Lenka, and the alcohol seemed to have some effect, as Lenka's flushed face calmed down considerably.

Why wasn't the wound bandaged?

“I can’t.” Eve readily admitted her incompetence, showing no concern for her adult image.

“Um…” A little witch with a black cat appeared not far away behind the four of them. Chlorna clasped her hands together in front of her. “I know how to bandage. Can I try?”

Eve and the Ankara black cat exchanged a glance and made way for each other.

Kurona plucked a large feather from her body and quickly bandaged Renka's wound.

“She needs rest, warm food and a fire. I am a vengeful witch, and I can provide all of that.” Kurona looked carefully at Jacqueline, who was bowing down to her, waiting for the child to make her own choice.

Jacqueline looked at Eve.

I want to come to your place.

Eve held Lenka in her arms and led the group toward the Death Witch's camp.

"You can go, but you can't join us."

"why?"

"Because I am the witch of death."

Jacqueline followed closely behind Eve, stubbornly taking small steps to be second.

Will you be happy after death?

"Why do you say that?"

"Because you are happy."

Eve paused for a second, looked at Franny, then looked down at Jacqueline, "Your imagination."

Kurona followed behind them, worried about both Lenka and herself. "Lady Vera, are we really going to enter the Death Witch's camp? I heard from Lady Sersera that the Death Witch and we don't seem to get along very well."

Vera the cat arched her back and stretched.

"Of course we should go. The Witches of Death are all good people, and there are also some cute girls around the same age as Chlorna. You can become playmates."

At the camp, Vera, along with Kurona and Morrie carrying a large pile of gifts, gathered together, while Lenka was entrusted to the attentive care of Istara.

Eve and Jacqueline, one big and one small witch, sat by the campfire in their tent.

“I will definitely repay you.” Jacqueline’s voice was firm and resolute, unlike the decisiveness of an eleven or twelve-year-old girl.

"You have no chance. As a dead person, I have nothing I want."

Jacqueline seemed to have all her strength drained away. She sat on her seat, hugging her knees, staring blankly at the firelight in the campfire.

"..."

Eve stretched out her palm, and the flames, under her power, transformed into a spinning, dancing fire person.

“I’ve heard that witches who learn fire spells become very passionate, but I don’t feel that way.”

“Jacqueline, can you help me verify this? Can you do it, a passionate witch?”

Jacqueline's eyes shone with the flickering light of a tiny flame, and she buried her face in her knees, speaking in a voice barely above a whisper.

“I can give it a try.”

Chapter 238 The Shadow of Revenge

The gathering was drawing to a close a few days later, with one final program remaining—a program that had been relayed to various witch communities earlier by the witch matriarchs. It was a testament to self-affirmation and a vision for the future.

On a night when the moonlight was obscured by thick fog.

Wenli and the Death Witch had packed up their tents. Aside from the agreements reached at the Witch Mother Council and with other groups, the Death Witch had hardly received any new members, but fortunately, they had intended to remain neutral anyway. As Wenli had said, now the Death Witch's job was to enjoy a farcical and empty performance about dreams by the vengeful witch Mother, Sersera. After they applauded to show their participation, they could return to Andrei to continue playing with the liches.

Murray, Laura, and Figny are sharing their travel experiences. A few days ago, through the magical cat Vera Liz, they met a new witch companion, Chlorna, a vengeful witch. Surprisingly, the four of them get along very well and quickly become friends.

"Kirona said she'd give us a big surprise today, I really want to know what it is."

"Just wait, we're on our way to witnessing it."

The Witches of Death marched down the hillside, forming a vast procession like other witch clans, their silhouettes a black line that became a new cloak for the mountains. Looking up, the cold wind blew through their tattered garments, making them resemble devout pilgrims enduring the bitter cold.

Piercing through the clouds obscuring her view, the eye was naturally drawn to the somber black pillar standing abruptly in the center of the altar. Neither the bright moonlight above the clouds nor the distant glimmer of light at the edge of her vision disturbed the pillar's somber presence; it stood like a landmark of this sorrowful place, its presence defining the atmosphere. For Wenli, who had witnessed death, gloom and eeriness were commonplace. It was the unnatural light in the distance that stirred her suspicion; it was like a star fallen to earth, eternally shining in the darkness.

Cersera's approach disrupted Wenli's search for the distant light. She looked at the woman in front of her and noticed that her full lips were upturned, displaying a gentle smile.

What are you doing here?