Chapter 64
“What’s going on?”
“Am I under some kind of illusion spell right now?”
Thinking someone was playing a prank, they tried to identify the culprit.
“Fay, what is that thing?”
Realizing it wasn’t an illusion but something real, Zynie asked in a frightened voice. Fay wanted to answer—anything at all—but no words came.
Its identity? Honestly, she didn’t know either.
While the witches were in turmoil, Alnazir looked utterly calm. With a faint smile, as if something pleased him, he extended his hand toward Fay.
“Well, this means I have no choice but to stay here. Just as we hoped.”
“…We hoped for this?”
A nameless rage surged up inside Fay. Saying we was nothing but deception.
“So it didn’t matter what was written in the contract, since you never intended to keep it anyway?”
She had been so happy to finally summon the invoked she had always dreamed of. It felt like she had at last become a witch who could pull her own weight. Calling something unexpected had terrified her at first, but she had even come to think it was lucky.
She thought he felt the same way.
Now she realized, painfully, that what he liked wasn’t the witch Fay, but this unfamiliar world itself. She was nothing more than a means for him to remain here.
“If I disappointed you as a witch, you could’ve just said so.”
“When did I ever say I was disappointed?”
“If you’re not looking down on me out of disappointment, then how could you do something like this?”
He had reduced the contract to nothing more than a scrap of paper, the summoning contract, the most important thing to a witch.
Fay’s hands and feet began to tremble from the shock.
Alnazir didn’t understand her reaction at all. He tilted his head, looking at her with an expression that clearly said, What’s wrong?
“I told you I liked this place. And you wanted me to stay here as your invoked too.”
“That’s not what being an invoked means! It’s about faithfully honoring the contract, building trust along the way, and staying by each other’s side!”
“That sort of thing can change the moment a witch changes her mind.”
Alnazir scoffed at Fay’s insistence on trust. He’d read enough books to understand how the future of even the most loyal invokeds usually ended.
By contract, a summoned being works for the witch. But the moment she has a change of heart, the invoked is cast back to their original world without so much as a chance to resist.
The books—written from a witch’s perspective—always offered excuses, claiming there had been problems with the dismissed invoked. But the conclusion was always the same: everything depended on the witch’s whims.
“I don’t see how you can call that a relationship built on trust.”
Wasn’t it the witch who spoke of trust so shamelessly that was truly deceitful? Not that he believed Fay herself would do such a thing. She might genuinely have wanted to give her trust.
Still, Alnazir preferred certainty. He had no desire to live in constant anxiety, wondering when this lovely woman’s heart might change.
“There’s one thing you don’t seem to realize. If I die, you’ll be forced back to your own world.”
Frankly speaking, would they really win just because he joined the fight? Fay doubted it. He would be a powerful asset, yes, but the sight of that overwhelming golden tide made her see things differently.
Unless they reduced the enemy’s numbers through ambush and carefully planned their strategy afterward, this battle would be dangerous. Even pouring out every ounce of strength, victory was uncertain.
If he only hindered them instead of helping, the end waiting for her would be a brutal death.
“So even if you want to stay, you won’t be able to!”
She tried one last time to persuade him, promising that if he helped, she would ensure he could live here for the rest of his life.
“Please, forget everything else and help me right now! The enemy is attacking!”
Almost begging, Fay clung to his arm. Alnazir gently brushed her cheek, as she looked as though she might burst into tears, and smiled.
“I’ll take you somewhere safe, far from the war.”
“By myself?”
“There’s no need to protect this entire city from that army. Don’t worry. I truly cherish you—and yes, I love you.”
The other witches meant nothing to him. To Alnazir, they were just incomprehensible noise. The only one who mattered was Fay.
“…Then let’s do this.”
Fay slapped his hand away with a sharp sound. Grabbing the broom tucked at her side, she mounted it and leapt off the city wall.
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