“...Haa.”
Taking a few reluctant steps away from the Lady, I pulled the invitation and pen from my coat and quietly signed my name.
—Bzzzzzt...
The next instant, black sparks burst from the invitation, and in a blink, my entire body was engulfed in dark smoke.
“Wha—”
Just as the Shadow Witch had said when she visited the mansion before, I was preparing myself for the teleportation—only for the invitation in my hand to slip free and fly straight toward Meredia.
“Wait—”
I lunged to grab it, but just before my hand could reach it, my vision twisted, and the space around me changed entirely.
“...Ugh.”
For a moment, panic gripped me at the thought of Meredia—who utterly despises black magic—reading that letter. But I quickly realized that wasn’t the real issue, and I forced myself to focus.
“So this is where the Shadow Gathering takes place...”
To be honest, I had no idea where the headquarters of the Shadow Union was, or where their gatherings were actually held. In the original game, every meeting of the Shadow Union executives was shown only through cutscenes.
Naturally, the black mages’ stronghold wasn’t marked on any map, and it was a place inaccessible through normal game mechanics. Maybe it was meant to be added in some later DLC, but even without such a thing, I could immediately tell that this place was their base of operations.
‘The whole damn world is black...’
The wasteland I’d arrived in was drained of all color—withered trees, thick mist covering the ground, the occasional stagnant puddles, even the sky above—it was all devoid of light. Only dull shades of black and gray filled the space where I now stood.
“...!”
Wary of the unfamiliar surroundings, I glanced around cautiously—only to flinch when I caught sight of something.
“...Mmmnya.”
Hovering right behind me was a broom, floating gently in the air, and sprawled comfortably on top of it was none other than the Shadow Witch, sleep-talking as she napped.
“Hey.”
“...Snore.”
“Hey.”
“Hyaaack—”
When she didn’t respond, I grabbed the broom and gave it a shake. Her eyes snapped open in surprise, and she promptly slid off, landing on her rear with a dull thud.
“Owww... that hurt, y’know.”
“......”
“And touching a witch’s broom without permission? That’s actually a serious offense.”
As I looked down at her somewhat pitiful figure, the Shadow Witch rubbed her lower back, yawning mid-sentence.
“If you were my subordinate, I’d have killed you already. You know that?”
She might’ve looked ridiculous just now, but this was not someone to be underestimated. She once massacred an entire kingdom’s army alone. Her innate sociopathic tendencies, her role as the master of black mages, and her position as their second-in-command made her an untouchable figure.
She was likely one of the very few individuals who could actually go toe-to-toe with Meredia—even now, when Meredia is no longer the final boss. In fact, based purely on danger level, the Shadow Witch might even rank higher than her at the moment.
Meredia had long since transitioned into more of a tsundere villainess. But the Shadow Witch? She was utterly ★ 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ★ unpredictable.
She might smile warmly at you one day and stab you in the back the next—without the slightest hesitation.
“Why were you asleep?”
“...Because it’s the middle of the night? Hwaaah~”
Knowing full well how many had died at her hands just like that, I suspected even this bumbling behavior was part of an act.
‘This could all be an illusion.’
Even though she appeared to be a little girl around Sasha’s age, I couldn’t believe this was her true form. The general consensus was that she was at least several hundred years old. And there was no way someone of her caliber couldn’t use polymorph magic.
This childish appearance was likely just another calculated deception—to disarm her opponents.
“Why’re you looking at me like that?”
“......”
“You’ve got that ‘I’m about to eat you alive’ look. Or... wait, is this your thing?”
She squinted at me, catching on to my intense gaze.
“Was that always how you talked?”
“Ah.”
Instead of answering that meaningless question, I decided to pose my own—something I’d been wondering about since earlier.
“Oh, right. That won’t work with this one...”
“...Huh?”
“So, um. Hello?”
Scratching her head, she reverted to the speech style she used the first time we met.
‘So she changes her demeanor depending on the person, huh.’
That confirmed it—she approached different people in different forms, using different personalities.
“Most people who like this kind of look expect me to talk like this, y’know.”
As I processed that, she seemed to read something in my expression and began explaining herself.
“...Never liked that kind of thing.”
“Oh, this has nothing to do with your preferences.”
Her grin widened as she clarified:
“This form? Just camouflage—meant to keep from irritating you. A show of submission, you could say.”
“......”
“Or... do you prefer a body like Lady Meredia’s? I can change into her, too, if you’d like—”
She stopped herself when she saw my face turn cold.
“...Haha. Just kidding.”
Feeling myself getting played by her pace, I sighed and changed the subject.
“So. Where’s this meeting being held?”
“Oh, I’ll guide you there myself. It’s a bit of a walk.”
“Couldn’t you have just set the invitation to take me directly to the meeting hall?”
“Haha, if someone intercepted it, that would be a disaster, right? For people like us, security is everything.”
Just then, I recalled what happened right before I came here and spoke up:
“Actually, I dropped the invitation before I arrived here...”
“...Worried someone found it?”
“Yeah. It flew toward my fiancée, of all people.”
Upon hearing that, a wicked smile spread across her lips.
“Oh, don’t worry about that.”
“......”
“I already took precautions.”
And before I could question her further, she continued as if nothing had happened:
“The moment the invitation activated, the teleport spell and the message vanished. Naturally, I prepared at least that much.”
But the slight excitement in her voice and the glint in her eye made me uneasy.
“So if that’s possible, you could’ve changed the letter’s contents too?”
“...Haha, not impossible.”
“......”
“Don’t worry. Even if I did... I’d never write a lie.”
As expected, rather than deny it outright, she gave a vague answer and simply smiled.
“I swear on all my black magic and my mana circuits. And you know—when a witch swears, it’s no bluff. It’s binding.”
“Haa...”
Honestly, I wanted to rush back to Lady Meredia that very moment. But it was too late for that now. I needed to focus on getting through this ‘Shadow Gathering,’ and if the witch had pulled some trick that caused a misunderstanding, I’d fix it later.
“Hmm. What’s that smell?”
“...?”
“That’s strange. This shouldn’t be happening.”
As I sorted out my thoughts and followed her while she floated lazily on her broom, she suddenly tilted her head and sniffed the air.
“Aha.”
Then, fixing her eyes on me, she grinned slyly.
“Looks like you were on your way back from a special moment, huh?”
And just like that, her earlier comment about camouflage made sense. Had that unsettling grin and voice come from anyone but a girl-sized body like Sasha’s, I might’ve accidentally unleashed white magic right then and there.
“...Thanks to you lot, I got interrupted.”
“Oh? Ahahahaha...”
When I gave that response through gritted teeth, she laughed so hard she bounced on the broom, even wiping a tear from the corner of her eye.
“Honestly, maybe it’s for the best.”
For the best? What was she talking about?
“It might be better if you just broke up with that troublesome fiancée of yours.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
I held back the surge of anger and asked again.
“Tell me. If the one you love more than anything in the world committed an unforgivable sin—could you still forgive them?”
The Shadow Witch, her grin now icy cold, stared directly into my eyes as she asked.
“I could.”
My answer came without hesitation.
“Oh, really?”
“Yeah.”
“No hesitation at all... seems like you really mean that.”
She held my gaze for a moment, then let out a small chuckle and turned away.
“We’ll see if that conviction holds when you’re face-to-face with the truth.”
At that point, I was seriously tempted to strangle her, camouflage or not.
‘What the hell is she scheming?’
My mother was dead, my father missing—and of all things, I wouldn’t tolerate anyone touching Meredia.
“Let’s see... who’d make a good match for your second marriage?”
“......”
“Can’t hand you off to our glorious Shadow who’s been eyeing you all this time. But it can’t just be anyone either...”
As she muttered to herself, clearly enjoying this nonsense, I glared daggers at her. And just as she turned toward me again—
“Hey, would you... never mind.”
She clamped her mouth shut, clearly reading the murderous intent in my expression.
“Well, we’re just about here.”
A few seconds later, she hopped off her broom, stretched, and murmured to herself again:
“Can’t give you away. Gotta raise you into the next Demon King, after all...”
“...This is it?”
“Yes.”
But I couldn’t understand her meaning at all.
“This place looks the same as before.”
We were only a few hundred meters from where I first arrived—a colorless wasteland, unchanged in any way. What kind of meeting could possibly take place in a place like this?
“Stand back.”
As I narrowed my eyes, the Shadow Witch gripped her broom and slammed it against the ground.
—RUMMMMMMBLE...!
The earth—once just endless sand—shook violently, then began to split open.
“What the...”
Staring dumbfounded at the gaping maw opening like the jaws of a beast, I heard the Shadow Witch whisper beside me, a wicked smile on her lips:
“Welcome... to the World of Darkness, future Demon King.”
And as she said, the aura emanating from the entrance was nothing short of abyssal—pure evil made manifest.