A Reincarnation Romantic Comedy Of A Hero And A Witch - V1 Chapter 1 Part 3
T/N: End of chapter 1. Chapter 2 is around 1.5 longer than this, so it’ll be fun. Also, I cut at different points than the previous translator, so if you wanted to continue where the previous translator left off, it was around the end of the previous part.
Chapter 1 Part 3
After confirming that I wasn’t hearing things, I asked her a question.
“What the hell are you on about?”
“Look, I’m not saying this because I want to, okay? It’s just the way it is!”
She looked away, her face was red like a tomato.
Seeing this, I realized something.
“Did you fall for me? Was that a confession?!”
“N-No, it’s not!”
“Sorry, I didn’t notice your feelings sooner… But still, sorry, I can’t accept that feeling of yours.”
I coolly rejected her while fiddling with my hair.
If she was one of my normal girl classmates, I would be excited when hearing her confession, but she was the witch, so yeah, no way I would be excited.
“Stop it! I-I didn’t mean it that way, okay!”
“What the hell are you talking about then?”
Well, figures. There was no way that she would harbor such feelings toward me.
After all, our relationship wasn’t that simple.
Both the witch and I were sworn nemesis in our previous lives. We tried to kill each other countless times.
We might have feelings toward each other, but rather than love, it was hatred.
That was why her ‘confession of love’ sounded ridiculous to me the first time I heard it.
I brought my face closer to hers, but she backed away quickly with a reddened face.
“Y-You’re too close!”
“Is that so?…”
Our faces weren’t close enough for her to be blushing like that, though.
Like in her previous life, she was still bad at socializing, huh?
The witch coughed and took a deep breath.
“…As you know, my soul is cursed.”
“That’s the price you had to pay for cursing the world, right?”
“Right. Like they said, you get what you paid for. There’s always a price to pay whenever I use witchcraft. In exchange for cursing the world and plunging it into disaster, a curse equivalent to that curse in power was bound to my very soul.” (T/N: Author used 呪術 (Jujutsu) here, which has the same meaning as 魔法 (Mahou)/Magic, but since the kanji for Jujutsu literally meant ‘curse technique’, I’ll be translating it to ‘witchcraft’ instead. I could translate it to ‘sorcery’ like what they did to Jujutsu Kaisen/Sorcery Fight, but I think ‘witchcraft’ is more fitting in this context.)
While they used the same mana to operate, witchcraft was different from normal magic.
Witchcraft was a rare branch of magic that was born by infusing mana with dark emotions. It had a more destructive nature than normal magic, but the user had to pay the cost of casting such magic.
Because of that demerit, the branch of magic was abandoned hundreds of years before I was born. Normal magic was simply way more convenient as you didn’t need to kill yourself just to inflict some damage to your enemies.
That was until she managed to revive it.
Thanks to that, she was able to single-handedly plunge the world into a disaster.
“If I were to die, my soul would disappear and the curse that was bound to my soul would lose its vessel and spread throughout the world. There’s no one in this world who can suppress this curse other than me, that’s why…”
“Ah, I see…”
I heard the same thing came out from her mouth back in the previous world.
But still, what she said back then didn’t actually happen in the previous world. Instead, she was reincarnated into this world.
Wait, does that mean that the same curse wouldn’t afflict the other world?
As if she knew what I was thinking about, the witch continued to speak.
“When I was about to die, I used reincarnation magic. It won’t change anything as my soul will still be bound by the curse, but at least I can buy some time with it.”
“I understand why you did that, but why did you choose to reincarnate in another world?”
“That’s because… I don’t want to put that world in danger anymore… It’s the world you just saved after all… If I transferred my soul into another world, that world would be safe…”
Said the witch, as if she was reassuring me.
I did wonder what would happen if another calamity struck that world once more.
There was no more hero in that world, could the people survive?
Anyway, that wasn’t important for now. The witch said something that bugged me.
“If that’s the case, then won’t this world be in danger instead?”
“Correct. Well, I didn’t care about what would happen to the world that I didn’t know.”
Said the witch with a dismissive tone.
It was obvious that she was lying though, so I asked her,
“So, what’s your plan? If you’ve talked this much, that means you have some kind of plan to save this world somehow, right?”
She wouldn’t be here, speaking to me, if she didn’t actually care about what happened to this world. After all, she put so much effort into making sure that the curse wouldn’t spread in the other world even though she hated it. There was no way that she would feign indifference toward a world she didn’t know of.
“I don’t like the way you speak as if you’ve figured me out… But yes, you’re correct…”
She pointed at my face.
“You. You’re the plan.”
I see.
So that was why she dragged me to this world with me.
“So you need my exorcism, huh?”
Exorcism. It was exactly what it called, a technique to exorcize demons and curses. (T/N: While the author used 祓魔 (Futsuma) here, which refers to strictly Christianity’s way of exorcism instead of 祓 (Harae) which is Shinto’s way of exorcism, for some reason, the exorcism this novel is talking about is Shinto’s exorcism. In other words, fighting demons and purifying curses and the supernaturals is part of the jobdesc instead of only dealing with evil spirit possession.)
By interfering and dispersing mana flow, it could nullify every phenomenon that was caused by magic. Witchcraft was no exception to this. Although it was different in nature than normal magic, one still needed mana to perform witchcraft.
The user of exorcism was also rare, that was because only those who were unable to manipulate mana could perform it. In other words, only ‘talentless’ people could do it.
There weren’t many people who couldn’t use mana in the previous world. You could scour the entire continent and at most, you’d only find a hundred or so of such people.
“Yes. You’re the only one who could dispel my curse, after all.”
I was one of those people.
Being able to use exorcism was the pre-requirements to kill the witch.
Exorcists like me were natural counters to the witch since she thrived by manipulating mana. (T/N: 祓魔師 (Futsuma-shi/Exorcist) was used here instead of Priest or something like that.)
It was possible for other people to kill her, but if they were to do that, the curse in the witch’s body would spiral out of control and bring even bigger disaster to the world. That was why only exorcists were allowed to kill them.
And that was the reason why I was chosen as a hero in the first place.
After all, aside from my status as the world’s strongest swordsman, I was also the world’s strongest exorcist.
My mission was to kill the Witch of Calamity and to save the world.
“So, will you help me?”
The witch laughed and glared at me.
There was a hint of hatred in her eyes.
“If only you’ve done your job properly back then, everything wouldn’t have come to this…”
Her words were true.
I could only nod my head weakly.
“I got it, fine, I’ll do my best to help you… How though?”
“Use your exorcism to gradually dispel the curse from my soul, that’s the only way to do it without killing me. It’ll probably take a few decades for everything to be done.”
“…So that’s what you meant by ‘I can’t live without you’, huh?”
“Yes. Sorry in advance, but you’re stuck with me during that time period.”
The easiest way to dispel the curse would be to kill the witch herself. There would be a period of time when the curse would stay dormant and that would be the timing to dispel the curse completely. It was just, if you failed to dispel the curse during that time, the curse would afflict the witch killer’s soul instead and we had to go back to square one if that were to happen.
“Of course, the easiest way to do it would be to kill me right now.”
That period of time when the curse stayed dormant was the moment when the curse itself was at its weakest so it would be easy to dispel it.
As a hero, that was part of my job description. To kill the witch and dispel the curse that was bound to her soul.
But…
“I don’t want to kill you.”
“I know you’d say so. Seriously, you’re such a troublesome person.”
The witch let out a deep sigh.
This part of her hadn’t changed. Even after her reincarnation, she still treated her life lightly like this.
“Let me remind you of one thing. There are no magic users in this world. That means no mages, exorcists or heroes like you. We only have one chance in this and if we fail, this world will be doomed. There’s no way that the residents of this world will be able to fight the demons.”
Demons. (T/N: Author used 魔物 (Mamono/Monster) here. Other possible translations are demon and evil spirit. For now I’ll be translating it as demon because it’s more fitting to the exorcist theme and less mouthful than evil spirit. Might change if they introduced actual demons later in the series.)
The embodiment of a curse in the form of a monster.
They feed on dark emotions and could only act on their instincts to kill humans.
Most of them had strength and agility that surpassed that of a normal human.
Because of the witch’s curse, demons spread through the other world in great numbers.
If it wasn’t because of the magic users risking their lives to fight them, humanity would’ve gone extinct already.
In other words, if demons were to appear in this world…
“Even so, I still don’t want to kill you.”
“You’re such a troublesome person. How many times have I told you that this is the fastest way?”
“Speak for yourself. If things were that simple, you wouldn’t go out of your way to transfer to this school. You could just have approached me and begged me to kill you. Why did you go out of your way to do something troublesome?”
She furrowed her brows and let out another deep sigh. It seemed like I hit a sore spot.
“…Fine, fine. In that case, you have to spend the rest of your life with me. That’s the price you have to pay for keeping me alive.”
“Now, that’s a surprise. Who knows that you’d give up this quickly. Back in the other world, you’d stop at nothing to make me kill you. Like seriously, don’t place a dagger in my hand when I’m asleep. That’s not the kind of night crawling that I want to experience.” (T/N: If you don’t know, 夜這い (yobai/night crawling) is a custom in ancient Japanese where an unmarried man would crawl to unmarried woman’s room at night. If the woman consented, they would do the deed. It’s one of the ways for ancient Japanese men to find a wife.)
“I’m not a suic*dal, stop treating me like one!”
“After everything that you’ve done, you might as well be one!”
When I rubbed the frown on my forehead, the witch pouted and turned her face away.
“…Back in my previous life, I was all alone.”
“Only halfway through your life. I was always by your side for the rest of it.”
“Being able to casually say something like that… That part of you didn’t change…”
For some reason, she looked at me with disgust.
Then, she opened her mouth to speak.
“There was no one who mourned me when I finally died except for you… Seriously, what were you thinking? I was your enemy, for hell’s sake…”
Exactly what she said.
No matter which world we came to, we would always be enemies.
“But still, you were right… I have a family now… I don’t care about my own life, but if I were to die… My family would be sad…”
She muttered those words while blushing furiously. Seeing her in this state, a series of chuckles escaped my mouth.
“W-Why are you laughing?!”
“D-Don’t mind me… Good for you then, Witch.”
I was being sincere when I said that.
She was no longer alone in this world.
“That smile of yours pisses me off… Hmph.”
The witch snorted, crossed her arms in front of her chest and leaned against the wall.
It was a familiar posture, but it felt different somehow…
“…I don’t know why, but that posture looks weird on you.”
“What?”
“Hm… Is it because you look different now?”
Due to the differences in her appearance, her posture just felt too off.
“Shut up! As if you also don’t look different from your previous life!”
“Are you implying that I look uglier now?!”
“I-I didn’t say anything like that! B-Besides, your current look doesn’t look bad…”
As expected of her, she managed to poke where it hurts without realizing it.
I didn’t manage to catch the latter half of her muttering, but whatever, I’ll forgive her for now.
“In your case, you looked pretty back then, but now you’re more cute than pretty.”
“C-Cute– A-Ahem… I’m not happy from hearing your praises, okay?”
I looked at her appearance once again.
Since she was a second year like me, she should be in her sixteen.
She was around the same age as in her previous life, but aside from her facial features, her body proportion also differed.
Compared to back then, there were two things that were missing from her appearance. Those two things were something that she was proud of. Two big things.
“W-Where are you staring at?!”
The witch hid her chest with both hands, as if to shield it from my gaze.
“Well, don’t worry about it too much, okay?”
“Don’t give me that pitying look! I’m still growing, okay?! They’ll grow for sure!”
It was rare to see her flustered like this. Since that was the case, it should be fine for me to get carried away a little.
“You had such an amazing figure back then…”
“I’ll sue you for sexual harrassment!”
“Well, I know that the only good thing about you was taken away from you, but don’t be like this. There’s still hope for you… Maybe…”
“…I see, so that’s how it is. You think I wouldn’t dare to throw hands? Let’s see how you’ll love these hands–”
She exuded a thick killing intent as she said that. I had to take a few steps back because of the pressure.
“V-Violence isn’t the answer to everything, you know? C-Calm down!”
“…Haa… Whatever. Let’s go back to the classroom quickly. It’ll be bad if I miss the entire morning classes on my first day. Also, to tell you the truth, I really didn’t want to miss the first period…”
Said the witch after looking at her watch.
I followed suit by taking out my phone. Sure enough, the first period had ended already.
The witch turned away and started to walk away. I was about to follow her when I noticed something.
“By the way, what’s up with your act back in the homeroom?”
“What? It’s my honor student act, you got a problem with that?”
“Well, an honor student wouldn’t skip class on the first day.”
“S-Stop bringing that up! You know that I had no choice but to do it!”
“So, why did you do that? Pretending to be an honor student, I mean. That’ll just make you look like a quiet kid with a communication disorder.”
“…I know, right? As expected, you think so too.”
She slumped her shoulders as she said that.
Somehow, the current atmosphere was more depressing than when we were talking about the other world.
“By the way, do you still have trouble talking to other people?”
“Yes, so what?! You were the only person I could talk properly with back in the other world, so it can’t be helped that I’m also like this right now!”
“Then was then, now is now. You aren’t a witch anymore so people wouldn’t unconditionally hate you, would they? Besides, you have family and friends now, right?”
“I-I can talk to my family just fine! F-Friends though… W-What are those? Can you eat them?”
“So you have no friends, huh?”
“S-Shut it! People don’t change that easily, okay?!”
“If you just talk like how you normally talk to me, it’ll be easier for you to find some friends. Acting like an honor student would just make people avoid you, you know?”
When she heard that advice from me, the witch furrowed her brows.
“What are you on about?”
She tilted her head, there was a confused expression in her face.
“If they were to see my true self, they would obviously hate me.”
She said that as if it was an obvious truth, leaving me with no chance to rebuke her words.
Seeing me staring at her in silence, the witch turned away and dashed toward the classroom. Her black hair danced in the air following the movements of her body.
TL: Iyo
ED: Dodo
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Callister
Thx for the translates
USERNAME
Thanks for the chapter