Chapter 18

Mirabel, who had ruthlessly discarded her shackles, began to walk past Karami indifferently.

Mirabel, standing blankly as if struck by a hammer, barely gathered her senses and ran to—

But first, she went to pick up the shackles that had flown far away.

She needed to grab the shackles, but she had no free hands.

Her right hand held a staff.

Her left hand clutched a magic book.

As she pondered, Karami was getting farther and farther away.

Mirabel threw the magic book behind her and hurriedly picked up the shackles. Then she rushed after Karami, who was still walking.

“Master? Master?”

No matter how many times she called, Karami didn’t stop.

She tried to block the path, but Karami simply passed by her.

The dream of liberation was fading away.

The anxiety of becoming lonely again.

A small spark of fear uncontrollably spread, consuming her soul. Her complexion, already pale, drained completely, making her look corpse-like.

As her consciousness faded and her vision darkened, Mirabel finally realized that the situation had gone horribly wrong.

“Master—!”

Just as she tried to run again, she stumbled and fell. Without time to brush off the dirt, Mirabel scrambled to her feet, throwing aside any obstructing objects and wrapped her arms around Karami’s waist, hanging on with all her might.

“Master, I was wrong! I won’t do it again!”

“No, live as you wish from now on. You are no longer my slave.”

“I don’t want that! I want to be your slave, Master! I’ll be a good slave! I’ll listen to you from now on!”

But Karami wouldn’t stop.

Dragged along, Mirabel cried and pleaded, tears streaming down her face.

Could this truly be the girl who had brought disaster until just moments ago?

The sight of her looking as if she had been abandoned by her parents drew sympathetic glances even from those whose lives had been threatened.

“I was wrong! I wanted to be loved! I won’t overstep my bounds anymore!”

“…”

“Please don’t abandon me! I don’t want to be alone again!”

At last, when those words escaped Mirabel’s lips—

Karami stopped in her tracks.

Turning her head slightly to look back, she saw Mirabel dangling at a 45-degree angle due to being dragged. In that position, Mirabel looked up at her.

Their eyes met diagonally.

“Will you really listen well?”

“Ugh… Yes, I will, sniff. I will listen well.”

“Will you refrain from using magic recklessly?”

“I won’t use it.”

“Do you promise?”

“I promise, sniff… I promise…”

Karami stood Mirabel up and bent her knees, extending her pinky.

“Promise.”

“Yeah, promise.”

“Stamp.”

“Stampa.”

“Sign.”

“Sign…?”

Only after reaching that point did Karami seem satisfied and smiled softly.

“Well, if you plead like that, I have no choice. Very well, let’s trust Mirabel just this once.”

“Thank you….”

From a distance, Karami waved lightly at Myara, who seemed to be watching in shock with a blank expression.

Meanwhile, Karami let out a sigh of relief that wouldn’t be heard by others.

‘Wow, this actually works.’

***

At this point, it was completely unexpected that Mirabel awakened as a witch. Therefore, stopping her rampage was practically impossible.

If this were a game, it would have been a game over right away.

But now it was reality.

She could not act only within a predetermined framework. Unlimited interaction without constraints was possible.

If something happened that hadn’t occurred in the game, then all that was needed was to use a means that hadn’t existed in the game.

What came to mind was Mirabel’s unique characteristic.

[Abandoned Witch Mirabel]

Having a history of being abandoned, Mirabel’s dependency on her master was so high it could pierce the heavens.

For her favor to rise to that level would take considerable time, yet for some reason, Mirabel’s favor for me was already maxed out. So, I would use that.

Operation Name.

—Mirabel will live here. The master will go on.

As soon as I implemented the plan, Mirabel reacted immediately. When she fell, it felt like my heart was tearing apart.

I almost couldn’t help but hug her. Holding back was a miracle.

I examined Mirabel’s condition. Her maid outfit was dusty in several places, and her face was smeared with fluids. I smiled wryly as I brushed off the dirt.

Next, I took out a handkerchief and held it up to Mirabel’s nose.

“Blow.”

“Ugh!”

“Good. The other side too.”

“Khuh!”

Swoosh.

The clean handkerchief was folded and put into my pocket. I’d have to wash it later; tossing it away here would surely hurt her feelings.

Finally, I wiped away her tears, and only then did Mirabel return closer to her original self.

Her eyes were still red and bloodshot, and she was sniffing, but with how pretty she was, it wasn’t truly a flaw. It merely triggered a protective instinct.

‘Now I need to deal with the aftermath…’

I felt unsure where to start solving everything, but taking things step by step would be fine. I was about to head back to those keeping an eye on us.

Tug.

Mirabel pulled on my sleeve.

“What’s wrong?”

“Th-this….”

Sniffling, Mirabel trembled as she presented the shackles. They were gleaming as if she had cleaned off the dirt.

She meant for me to put them back on. I considered getting rid of them at this opportunity, but since it was something Mirabel cherished, it felt wrong to act on my own.

In the end, I put the shackles back around Mirabel’s neck, and she fumbled to check if they were on properly. Only then did her trembling cease.

I calmed Mirabel down and led her to apologize to the others. Mirabel bent at a 90-degree angle.

“I-I’m sorry… I won’t cause any more trouble in the future.”

“Trouble…? What is this…?”

People stared at us in shock, looking from me to Mirabel as if questioning whether this was real.

Well, at this point, it was indeed trouble. If it were originally, an entire city would have disappeared, with several buildings being destroyed.

While Mirabel attempted to apologize, her cuteness alone couldn’t resolve the situation, and the gazes were all fierce.

From now on, as the master, it was my turn to step in.

“Wow~ I never expected our slave to have such talent in magic.”

“Are you seriously saying that now? How the hell will we resolve this chaos? Even sacrificing your lives won’t fix this!”

Delophin’s lord yelled, spitting as he spoke.

I reassured Mirabel, who seemed to shrink like she was about to crawl into an anthill, by gently patting her head.

“First, let’s assess the damage. After that, we can discuss how to resolve things.”

“Ugh….”

The lord left a few personnel to watch us, while the rest were sent to assess the situation. Before long, people returned to report.

“From what we confirmed, most of it was property damage, and there seems to be no significant loss of life. It’s truly a stroke of luck.”

Mirabel must have managed to control herself even during the rampage.

She wouldn’t hurt innocent people; that was her mindset. It was okay to kill her father though. Right, right.

“The problem lies with the mages… even with treatment, they aren’t improving; it seems their souls have been extracted.”

So that was a real soul.

I had told her to learn magic that communicates with souls, but did she instead learn how to extract them? They say kids grow up quickly, but they always exceed my expectations.

While it would be nice to commend her, sadly, this wasn’t the time.

“Mirabel, what did you do to their souls?”

“I-I’m holding onto them. I planned to release them upon your command…”

Releasing souls would mean death, right?

She casually spoke such an alarming thing.

Who taught her this stuff?

“Can it be restored to how it was?”

“J-just a moment….”

As Mirabel moved her hands, souls began popping out of thin air and flowed back into their respective bodies.

‘Huh…?’

If that’s possible, could I also become a cute girl through TS?

Should I ask for it?

While I pondered this monumental concern, the fallen people began to regain consciousness one by one. Perhaps due to not being fully recovered, they looked around with vacant expressions.

“What just happened…?”

“I-I was flying through the sky. Soaring like a free bird….”

“Ah, all the knowledge I had holed up in my room turned out to be worthless. It seems I must study from scratch. The subject will be… liberation.”

Those mages bore expressions as if they had reached some kind of enlightenment. In fact, one of them even shed tears.

In that moment, their gazes suddenly fixed on Mirabel, their eyes wide as if about to pop out, and then they kneeled before her.

“Child, where did you learn such magic?”

“Little one, would you cast that spell on me one more time? I can pay you as much as you need!”

“I want to do it once! No, twice!”

Such people were obsessed with magic. I should have made them exist in a state of out-of-body experience for a lifetime.

Thanks to the souls being extracted, it seemed I wouldn’t scold Mirabel.

Clap.

In this confusing situation, I clapped my hands to gather attention.

“Now, we just need to deal with the property damage.”

***

Thud.

I placed a bag of gold coins in front of the lord.

The lord opened the bag to check its contents, looking back and forth between the bag and me at a speed too fast to be seen with the naked eye.

“What’s all this?”

“Two thousand gold coins. This should more than cover the compensation for the victims.”

Currently, I had 21,000 points left.

I think I had about 27,000 when I left the kingdom, but buying items and dining in expensive inns caused that to dwindle rapidly.

‘The performance of items is good, but they are quite expensive.’

Spending 20,000 points in a situation like this stings, but it’s foolish to try to save money here. Procrastination will only worsen the situation.

I handed over an amount that far exceeded the compensation to force a settlement.

If the child made a mistake, it was the guardian’s role to take responsibility. Anyway, if I were to liberate Mirabel, I could earn a lot of points, so I thought of this as an investment, not a loss.

I’d have to save money until then.

“This… is sufficient… um, it should recover the damage and still leave over…”

The lord trailed off at the end of his sentence.

It seemed he had something he wanted, and did he think I wouldn’t see through it?

“The remaining gold could be used by you, my lord. I assume you will use it where it is needed.”

“Hoh, you know your stuff. Well, if you put it that way, I won’t refuse. I’ll make sure it’s used well.”

The lord laughed heartily, stroking the bag of gold coins like a baby.

With that, I had resolved 95% of the situation.

It was time for a brief respite.

I took a walk around the castle grounds with Mirabel.

Noting that I had spent money weighed on her, Mirabel hung her head like a sinner.

“I-I’m sorry. It’s because of me….”

“Haha, it’s fine. A few coins don’t matter. More importantly, your value far exceeds that.”

“But that’s two thousand gold coins…”

“Hmmm, it’s fine.”

Mirabel couldn’t easily shake off her guilt.

Wondering how to help her feel better, an idea suddenly struck me.

“Mirabel, over time, don’t you feel curious about how I manage to have things appear from nowhere?”

Mirabel nodded, realizing it was indeed strange.

“I’m going to share a secret with you that I’ve only told you… actually, I know a spell for duplicating money.”

“Duplicating money?”

“Yes, watch closely.”

I showed Mirabel my empty hands, then clenched them into fists. When I opened them again, a single gold coin appeared in my once-empty hand.

“Wow…!”

“Did you see that? I have magic that allows me to create gold coins at will. So—”

I threw the coins far away with all my might.

Damn, my blood-like money.

But I had to endure it for Mirabel’s sake.

“If I can throw it away like this without any issues, it means you don’t have to feel guilty. So smile. I like seeing a slave smile as she is liberated.”

Mirabel nodded. Thanks to the brave sacrifice of the gold coins, her expression relaxed considerably as she shyly smiled.

‘I remember where they landed.’

I need to go pick them up.

I had to address the remaining task.

I retrieved the magic book that Mirabel had dropped. It looked just like the Soul Magic Book.

When I opened the pages to check, it depicted some goblin-like creature controlling thunderstorms atop a mountain.

“Do you know what kind of book this is?”

“It’s a book about how to acquire the soul of the Goblin Master.”

What?

What kind of book?

As Mirabel continued to explain, the book’s information became more detailed. It had changed from “Goblin Shaman’s Magic Book” to some apparently “Goblin Master” something.

Goblin Master?

‘Who are you?’

Is it a goblin teacher?

It was a completely different item, even though it looked the same. This was why Mirabel awakened as the Witch of Judgment.

It was my responsibility for not checking properly before asking her to read it. Later, I’d treat her to two bags of fried slime.

I almost messed up. Such dangerous garbage should be placed in someone else’s pocket. I wouldn’t dare give it back to Mirabel lest she rampage once more.

“Priest Myara, here’s the magic book you were looking for.”

I immediately sought out Myara instead of putting it in my pocket… Mirabel had really done a number on her, and she looked ragged.

“Wow, priest! You’ve had a tough time because of our child. This seems like it won’t even be enough for a meal.”

I tended to Myara casually as usual. However, her expression, normally enthusiastic in conversation, was now dead serious.

Why was she so ominous?

I needed to collect my gold coins before someone else did.

“Priest?”

“You….”

With a furrowed brow, Myara glared at me. No, really, she glared at Mirabel beside me.

“You were a witch?”

I guess searching for coins is out of the question.

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