Millennium Witch

Book 3: Chapter 246: Is This Something Humans Can Even Learn?

After withdrawing her consciousness from Ezra’s descended body, Yvette opened her eyes again and was already back in the large bedroom of the Old Oak Inn’s suite. She was wearing a white nightgown, lying on the soft bed, the door tightly shut. In the adjoining room of the same suite, Lucia was completely unaware of any of this and was sleeping soundly.Sitting up, thinking back on her own divine-level performance just now, Yvette couldn’t help the upward curl at the corners of her lips; she was in quite a good mood.

For the sake of that little speech she had just given, she had specially practiced for over half an hour. It had paid off—judging from Ezra’s reaction, the kid clearly hadn’t noticed a single flaw. Absolutely perfect.

Looks like I really do have a talent for acting—

With that thought in mind, she quietly walked over to the table in the room and picked up a wooden statue of the Silver Witch being sold by the Adventurers’ Guild, which had been placed there. Then, using some of the faith-magic techniques she had just mastered, she began etching the wooden statue, turning it into an alchemical construct capable of storing faith elements long-term.

In the future, this would become the foundation of the “Silver Witch Church,” present within every “Silver Temple.”

Of course, simply collecting faith elements wasn’t enough. It definitely needed some degree of self-defense capability as well. So, during the crafting process, etching in magic circuits related to defense and mana self-circulation was absolutely indispensable.

Taking into account that, as an idol, it ought to possess a bit of the proper aura of a true god, it would be best if it also had some ability to purify malevolent spirits and bring salvation to the masses—so she might as well add some healing magic and holy light magic functions.

But with all these functions, it still needed a certain level of recognition capability. Otherwise, if a believer were being harassed by an evil spirit and the statue simply cast a healing spell on the believer instead, wouldn’t that be incredibly stupid? So she had to add in a bit of low-grade soul-brain—

Finally, using a method from faith magic in which the holy emblem links to the idol, and the idol then links to the deity, Yvette would take a small amount of faith elements to pinch out a faith anchor point that somewhat resembled the Benediction light-sphere, placing it inside the statue.

In this way, every statue placed within a temple could serve as a medium for transmitting her will and power. The power that could be sent through would not be particularly strong, but sending a small Benediction over every now and then was no problem at all. It would even allow her to remotely siphon off the faith elements stored inside the idol, sparing believers the trouble of physically transporting them.

Speaking of which, as a true-god church, Evergreen Revelation had all its faith-collecting holy water physically carried by clergy. Yvette suspected that this was because the church’s coverage was simply too vast; it would be too much trouble for the Tree God to retrieve it all one by one, so the collection had been delegated to church personnel. Someday in the future, if the Silver Witch Church grew large enough in scale, it would probably reach that stage as well.

But that would likely be a very long time from now.

Ezra hadn’t slept so peacefully in a long time. When he opened his eyes again and saw the familiar ceiling above him, he was momentarily dazed.

After silently praising the Goddess in his heart, he got out of bed and put on a set of leather armor that didn’t quite fit. This was part of the spoils he and the villagers had taken after the cultists’ rout. Many of the cultists who died that night had once been part of the village. Now that they had paid with their lives, their property naturally had to be confiscated and distributed among all the survivors.

After getting up, he walked outside and saw his father talking with a few of the early-rising survivors. Once he approached, everyone—including Old Yarrow—immediately placed a hand over their chest, bent slightly in salute, and said devoutly, “Goddess above.”

“Goddess above,” Ezra replied, mirroring their motion.

After everything had calmed down last night and before they went to rest, he had given the remaining villagers a simple recounting of how he’d received the Silver Witch’s Benediction. The lightning power he wielded was impossible to fake, and with the eldritch god’s influence “set as a foil in advance,” the villagers instantly felt the stark contrast between a benevolent deity and an eldritch one. As a result, they all shifted in one go from vague, casual believers of the Silver Witch into devout followers.

Naturally, with that came a corresponding change in his position among them as a God-favored. Even villagers of his father’s generation now felt they had to respectfully address him as a divine emissary. For Ezra, who had yet to reach adulthood, this sudden change in status was something he wasn’t quite used to.

“Dad, is this really all that’s left of the village?” Ezra asked, looking at Old Yarrow.

“Many people have fled to Adelock or to other villages. It’ll take some time to get word to them,” Old Yarrow said, a trace of relief in his expression as he looked at his son. “And of course, you’re the Goddess’s emissary now. You don’t need to worry about this. Just take me to see Aina first.”

After more than three hours of trekking, when it was nearing noon, and after paying a not-so-expensive entry fee, Ezra brought Old Yarrow to an inn in the middle district, where they found Aina anxiously waiting.

When she’d woken up and seen the letter her brother had left behind—which read practically like a suicide note—the girl had been so scared she’d nearly fainted. As soon as Ezra opened the door, she rushed over to him with tearful eyes and threw herself into his arms. Only then did she notice Old Yarrow standing beside him, to her delighted surprise.

Afterwards, they used the remaining money to find a nearby restaurant for lunch. During the meal, Ezra told Aina the entire story of what had happened the previous night. As expected, he was rewarded with his sister’s shocked and worshipful gaze, and his mood grew ever so slightly smug.

In truth, as he was recounting the story, he had done a little artistic editing—emphasizing his calm planning after gaining the Benediction, while deliberately glossing over the nervousness and unease he’d felt during the battle. He leaned more toward portraying himself as a cold, ruthless, born warrior.

Of course, he knew this was a bit shameless. But to him, maintaining a strong and reliable image in front of his little sister was extremely important. It wasn’t just a matter of petty vanity—more importantly, he wanted her to know she had a dependable older brother. That way, no matter what difficulties she faced in the future, she wouldn’t fall into pain or despair, because at the very least, she still had someone she could rely on.

Mm, if he got exposed, he’d just say Dad taught him to do that. After all, it really was something Dad taught him—he thought with a clear conscience.

After lunch, Ezra had his father take his sister back to the village first, while he himself prepared to head to the inner city—the so-called Gem District—to pay his respects to that truly genuine divine emissary.

At his current speed, it would only take a few minutes to return to Lute Village. As soon as he finished his business, he could head home right away—he might even beat his father and sister back, despite them leaving first. There was very little need to worry about a possible counterattack from the cultists.

In the afternoon, a sparse drizzle began to fall from the sky. The heavy cloud cover hung low and oppressive; no one could tell whether it would suddenly swell into one of those summer downpours—coming in a rush and leaving just as quickly.

On the balcony of the Old Oak Inn’s suite, Lucia was hanging freshly washed clothes one by one on the rack. Although, as the most prestigious luxury hotel in Adelock, the inn certainly provided laundry services, she still felt that the teacher’s clothes had to be washed by her personally. If the hotel staff handled it, they definitely wouldn’t treat them as seriously.

When she picked up the last utterly ordinary pair of boxers—she had never understood why Yvette occasionally wore such an utterly un-cute men’s style—and clipped them in place, she looked out at the hazy curtain of rain beyond the window and let out a soft sigh.

She didn’t like rainy days.

Back in Sanggren Village, she hadn’t liked rainy days because such weather meant she couldn’t go out and had to stay at home, which was terribly boring. Later, after Yvette moved into the village, rainy days became a little less dreary, because she would often brave the rain to run to the cabin in the woods and spend time with Yvette. At first, they just chatted idly; later, they practiced swordsmanship, and she enthusiastically helped Miss Witch clean the house.

Now, she didn’t like rainy days because they made her think of certain not-so-pleasant memories from that rainy night.

She heaved a few more sighs at the world outside, then saw Yvette’s head poke out from the room next door as she calmly announced, “Since it’s raining today, you don’t have to go out and take adventurer jobs. Come here for class.”

—

Lucia’s expression immediately became even more dejected. When she first became Miss Witch’s apprentice, she had imagined she’d be able to quickly learn all sorts of powerful magic, rapidly become a top-tier expert, and then go out to wage great battles against the Witch Cult, contributing to world peace.

She had never expected that the knowledge her teacher taught would be so advanced, so—terrifying!

Things like rune studies, basic cognition of fundamental runes, the relationships of transformation between different runes, combination patterns, along with those obscure and hard-to-understand rune formulas and higher mathematics—

Is this really something humans can learn?

In her understanding, whether it was magic or combat arts, you were supposed to gradually deepen your muscle memory through two main methods: memorizing incantations and practicing repeatedly, so that in the end you could cast spells and execute sword techniques purely on reflex, without using your brain at all.

She had never imagined that learning magic could be such a painful process, and that from beginning to end it would be nothing but theory—nothing but thinking—and not a single part of it required using your muscles.

On the other hand, though, after gaining an initial understanding of the introductory content of rune studies, she had to admit that she was deeply shaken by the material her teacher imparted to her. It felt like a door to a brand-new world had been opened.

This made her even more curious about her teacher’s past and origins. She strongly suspected that her teacher might actually be the founder or an elder of some rune-magic research school. After all, besides such obscure, clandestine schools, almost no one would attempt to decipher the underlying base runes. First, the difficulty was too high—even in a lifetime, one might never achieve results. Second, the major churches strictly forbade such behavior, considering it an act of disrespect toward the gods.

Given that even the Academy of Truth had no such knowledge, she felt this had to be the case.

Soon, wearing a bitter expression, Lucia went back inside to study. Her math was not very good, so for now she had to first improve her basic mathematics under her teacher’s guidance. Otherwise, when it came to the rune-equation parts of the rune studies course, she would face enormous difficulties.

But not long after the painful math lesson began, a message from one of the inn’s staff caught her attention. She went to the entryway very eagerly to open the door, where the attendant said respectfully, “Good afternoon, esteemed guests. There is a young man at the front desk by the name of Ezra

Yarrow requesting an audience with Miss Loxivia. May I ask if she is available to receive him at the moment?”

“Send him up,” Yvette said lightly before Lucia could respond, walking over as she spoke.

Lucia was slightly taken aback, blinking in confusion.

She remembered who Ezra was—the older brother of that pitiful pair of siblings. At the same time, she had also noticed the words the attendant had used: he was here to “request an audience,” and with her teacher, no less. And the teacher didn’t seem surprised at all—

What was going on? Why couldn’t she make sense of it?