Volume 5, Chapter 3 – The Witch of Calamity Flame

Latania was one of the official witches who had originally followed Friede. Through the witch ritual, witches would lose a part of themselves. This could be a physical organ or limb, or something intangible like an emotion or desire. Friede had lost her ability to feel anger, while Latania had lost her feminine voice.

The texts left behind by the Eldest Princess described a simple method of using nano-machines, allowing them to exist within another person’s body for an extended period. At the same time, one could manipulate the nano-machines to perform targeted repairs, greatly reducing the consumption of magic and blood.

Following this method, Fia had eliminated the Sinner’s Mark on Anastasia’s face. By that logic, she should also be able to repair the physiological defects caused by the witches’ rituals. The reason Fia chose Latania was that among the known official witches, Latania’s damage was relatively minor—just her feminine voice. From a scientific perspective, a voice was simply a matter of the width and length of the vocal cords.

If the witch ritual had, in fact, altered Latania’s vocal cords, resulting in the outward manifestation of “Latania losing her voice as a woman,” then the nano-machines should be able to restore it easily. If it worked for Latania, then the blind witch’s lost sight, and even Lianne’s lost body, could be restored. In the future, witches would no longer have to suffer from their disabilities.

“Latania? She’s in the warehouse below. You’re looking for her because…”

Friede looked puzzled, her gaze subconsciously shifting to Claire, who was seated to Fia’s left. She assumed Claire was the one looking for Latania, with Fia acting as an intermediary.

Fia explained with a wry smile.

“This is Claire, whom I’ve mentioned to you before, Friede. I’m looking for Latania because I want to examine her voice and see if I can cure her.”

“Examine her voice…” Friede’s gentle face became hesitant. She faltered, “Although Latania rarely shows it, she has always been self-conscious about her voice. For so many years, we’ve tried many methods, but none have worked. I understand you mean well, Lady Fia, but…”

Friede left her sentence half-finished, but Fia understood the subtext. If possible, Friede was asking her not to reopen Latania’s old wounds.

This is quite the headache.

Just as Fia was feeling troubled, a neutral, resonant voice suddenly sounded from the doorway.

“Let Lady Fia try, Friede. Lady Fia is the Eldest Princess of Silvar, not to be compared with those random witch doctors.”

“Latania?”

“I heard from the apprentice witches that Lady Fia had arrived, so I came up at once.”

Smiling as she walked into the room, the tall Latania, with her long, aqua-blue hair, looked at Fia on the sofa, a hint of confusion in her eyes.

“Doesn’t Lady Fia have black hair? Why the sudden change to white? It’s very beautiful, of course, but black hair and red eyes are your symbols. You can’t find another elf in all of Silvar with the same features.”

“Well…”

Fia was momentarily at a loss. She had changed her hair color to avoid being recognized, yet the apprentice witches at the door, as well as Friede and Latania, had all recognized her at a glance. Although she never expected to fool people who knew her, being seen through so easily was still rather embarrassing.

“Lady Fia is a princess, after all. Walking through the city with her usual appearance would cause a commotion, not to mention the entire city saw her heroic figure last night. Lady Fia must have changed her appearance because she found it troublesome.”

Friede explained on Fia’s behalf, shifting aside to make room for Latania. Since Latania herself had said it was fine, Friede naturally wouldn’t say anything more. She simply asked directly.

“May I ask how you plan to treat Latania’s voice, Lady Fia? When we were traveling the continent, we sought out beastfolk shamans and even asked for help from pure-blooded vampires, but none could retrieve Latania’s voice. A wizard among the Darkborn who was skilled in dark magic once said that Latania’s voice had already died, just as a person’s soul goes to the Land of the Dead in the netherworld after death. Only by going there could her voice be retrieved. All the things we witches have lost are kept there, so we had already given up.”

In history, apart from a Holy Son who entered the Land of the Dead to find his wife and returned alive, no one had ever left that place alive. The witches were powerful, but they were still far inferior to that Holy Son.

What a “magical” explanation.

Fia complained inwardly. She straightened her posture and said with a serious expression.

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“I’m not one hundred percent certain, but I want to make an effort. You should know that due to some unpleasantness between our parents, Anastasia had a Sinner’s Mark on her face. Now, I have used my own method to erase it and restore the skin to its original state. So, I was thinking, maybe I could use the same method to restore the physical defects of the witches. As for the process…”

Fia took out a thumb-sized glass vial from her spatial backpack. Inside was a viscous, pink liquid—her diluted blood.

It was viscous because Fia had added a low-grade stamina recovery potion and a low-grade mana recovery potion, turning it into a compound potion. With this, for someone of Liti’s or Milu’s level, just one vial would be enough to instantly restore their vitality, stamina, and magic to their peak.

“Drink this, then close your eyes. It will be over in a few minutes.”

The moment the pink potion appeared on the table, Latania’s expression turned to one of surprise.

“This is… Lady Fia, may I open it?”

“You’re the one using it, so of course you can. But once you open the cork, you must drink it within a minute, or at least half of its efficacy will evaporate.”

“I understand.”

Lifting the vial with a solemn expression, Latania uncorked it and sniffed it lightly. As a witch who had studied alchemy, she was highly sensitive to magic potions. She could smell the low-grade stamina and mana recovery potions and could tell that their purity was quite high, clearly the work of a master. What perplexed her was another substance within that she couldn’t identify. The amount of magic it contained was so high that even a high-grade magic potion could hardly compare. It was definitely a treasure that money couldn’t easily buy.

Now I owe an incredible debt.

Latania swallowed. She had already opened the cork; there was no turning back.

“…Thank you, Lady Fia.”

With those words, Latania tilted her head back and drank the entire contents of the vial at once. Then, as Fia had instructed, she closed her eyes.

Looking at her like this, Latania is actually quite a beauty, Fia couldn’t help but think. Because of her voice, Latania didn’t give off an impression of beauty, but once she closed her eyes and remained quiet, a refined feeling emerged. If her voice were normal, she would surely be very popular.

With such thoughts, Fia quietly stood up, walked around the table, and came to stand before Latania. The number of nano-machines in the vial was small and would dissolve into Latania’s body quickly, so she needed to control them herself.

The process involved using her own magic to guide the nano-machines within Latania’s body, concentrating them in one spot to focus the repairs there.

Taking a deep breath, Fia focused her magic on the tip of her right index finger, which quickly began to glow with a faint blue light, symbolizing magic. Then, she pressed her finger against Latania’s throat and slowly used her magic to sense the location of the nano-machines.

Although the image of sensing nano-machines with magic was full of contradictions, it became less incredible if one understood magic as a type of energy that could power the nano-machines.

Magic was being consumed. Fia’s eyes lit up slightly. This meant the nano-machines were indeed beginning to repair Latania’s body.

“Ugh…”

Seemingly uncomfortable, Latania let out a low groan of pain. She subconsciously reached for her throat, but Fia’s voice stopped her.

“Don’t move. Feeling uncomfortable means it’s working.”

“Mmm…”

Since the vocal cords were internal, Fia couldn’t see them being restored. However, as she had said, the whole process didn’t last long. In just a few minutes, Fia felt her magic consumption stop, which meant the healing was complete.

During this time, several official witches had appeared at the doorway. Hearing that Fia was going to heal Latania’s voice, they had rushed over to peek. Witches like Friede, who had only lost the emotion of anger, were a rarity. The vast majority of witches were very unlucky, either losing their lives directly or ending up with very obvious disabilities.

If Fia could cure Latania, it meant there was hope for them to be cured as well, to become normal women, to fall in love and build families like normal people. In the eyes of the able-bodied, these were natural, matter of course things, but for them, they were an unattainable luxury.

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Fia could clearly feel that these formidable witches were now focusing all their attention on her and Latania, their eyes filled with nervousness and expectation, like Cinderella hoping to be chosen by the prince.

Pretending not to see the witches at the door, Fia took a step back and said with a hint of trepidation.

“Alright, try saying something.”

Latania subconsciously opened her eyes. She first looked at Friede beside her, then at the encouraging faces of the witches at the door, and finally raised her head to look at the standing Fia, her mouth opening with extreme nervousness.

“Ah…”

Even with the simplest of utterances, the witches could hear the change in Latania’s voice. It was no longer neutral but thin and sharp, the tone of a mature woman.

In an instant, joy appeared in everyone’s eyes, and the room was filled with an atmosphere of pleasant surprise.

Latania’s body trembled. Her eyes widened slightly, first with disbelief, then with an overwhelming surge of joy and emotion. Her breathing quickened as she turned to Friede, as if afraid she was dreaming.

“Friede… my… my voice…!”

“Your voice is back! It’s incredible! In just this short time, your voice is back!”

Receiving Friede’s confirmation, Latania’s eyes instantly welled with tears. She looked at Fia, her gaze full of gratitude.

“Lady Fia!”

“Wait, don’t do that!”

If Fia hadn’t reacted in time, Latania would have grabbed her hands and knelt before her, weeping with gratitude.

“You cured my voice! I thought I’d have to live with a man’s voice for the rest of my life… I… how can I ever thank you!”

It’s fine, you don’t have to thank me. I just want to help you.

Answering this way in her heart, Fia didn’t say it out loud immediately. She was pondering a problem. Something that was easy for her was surely of monumental significance to Latania. No girl would want to live her entire life with a man’s voice, facing discrimination. If Latania gave nothing in return, she would surely feel indebted to Fia. It was better to have Latania pay something, and it couldn’t be too little.

She thought for a moment and then said.

“Let’s make it eight platinum coins for the treatment fee. The repayment period is ten years.”

“Just eight platinum coins…”

“If you think it’s too little, I can raise it,” Fia said playfully.

The platinum coins minted in Silvar had considerable purchasing power. A single Silvar platinum coin was equivalent to 1.67 platinum coins from the Milcandis Holy Kingdom. For an ordinary family, this was a huge sum that would take decades of scrimping and saving. However, for Latania, who was at the Sixth Tier of power, eight platinum coins was a sum she could safely earn within a few years if she worked hard. If she was willing to hunt high-tier monsters, she could get it in a few months.

Beside her, Friede quickly urged Latania.

“Hurry up and thank Lady Fia.”

“Ah! Thank you, Lady Fia! Thank you, Lady Fia!”

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Latania’s repeated thanks made Fia smile.

“Go and share the news with your good friends. Since your voice can be restored, it means the defects of the other witches can also be cured. Perhaps it won’t be long before you can all live normal lives. Oh, and you should probably go test your strength. Just in case being cured causes a sharp drop in your power—”

“As long as my voice is back, I don’t care if my power drops! Please wait a moment. I’ll go tell them the good news. They will surely see you as a saint!”

Her mature, feminine voice was filled with impatience. Latania almost flew out of the room, nearly knocking over a witch at the door on her way out.

As the room quieted down, Fia instantly felt countless beast-like, fiery gazes fixed on her, as if they wanted to eat her alive. She didn’t need to look to know it was the witches who had been peeking from the doorway. They had witnessed the process of her curing Latania and naturally thought that they, too, could be favored by her and have their disabilities cured. Among all the witches, only Friede’s expression was relatively normal; losing the emotion of anger hadn’t affected her life.

Friede looked at the official witches at the door, who were staring eagerly at Fia, their eyes seeming to say, “Please, please, look at me.” She couldn’t help but sigh. With great embarrassment, she turned her gaze to Fia.

“Lady Fia not only has the destructive power to annihilate hundreds of thousands of monsters but also the power to reclaim Latania’s voice from the Land of the Dead… The reward of eight platinum coins, you only set that price so Latania wouldn’t feel guilty, right? You are truly a kind-hearted princess.”

“Ahaha…”

She hadn’t done anything like taking a voice back from the Land of the Dead. That was just the nonsense of a quack doctor. It now seemed the truth was that the witch’s ritual permanently altered a witch’s physical characteristics in a way that even magic potions couldn’t cure.

Thinking of this, Fia looked at the official witches at the door, who were suppressing their excitement.

“You can come in too. The sooner these injuries are healed, the better.”

“Your Highness, c-can we too…?”

“We didn’t come with Friede…”

By “not with Friede,” they meant that they had initially followed Lianne, not Friede.

Fia waved her hand dismissively.

“A witch is a witch. But the payment is still as I said: eight platinum coins. If you’re willing to pay, then step forward.”

“I’m willing!”

“Me first! I’ll pay double!”

“I’ll pay triple!”

Hey, I didn’t set a price to make money.

As the witches pushed and shoved their way in front of Fia, the reception hall quickly became extraordinarily noisy. Even the doorway was crowded with apprentice witches watching the excitement.

Just half an hour later, Fia had successfully cured all the witches with physiological defects. Of course, “all” was only five or six of them. Some had extremely obvious disabilities, like being unable to walk, while others had less visible defects, such as having no sense of taste or smell.

Finally cured of the disabilities that had plagued them for years, these adult witches sobbed or wailed like children while thanking Fia. One particularly motherly older witch even hugged Fia tightly while crying, her large, soft chest pressing and squirming against Fia’s face, making it difficult for her to breathe and causing Anastasia’s face to turn pale.

It took a considerable amount of time for Friede and Claire to gradually calm the witches down. The room finally quieted after Friede ordered the apprentice witches to take the official witches back to rest.

Friede wrung her hands lightly, her face full of embarrassment.

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“I’m sorry, Lady Fia, for you to have seen such a spectacle.”

“No… it’s fine. It’s only human.”

But next time you hug me, you’d better give me a heads-up so I can prepare myself, Fia grumbled silently. Fortunately, Claire wasn’t the jealous type, or she didn’t know how Claire might have complained.

“Speaking of which, do you need healing, Friede? I don’t know if it can be cured, but losing the emotion of anger must be difficult at times.”

“Thank you for your kindness, Lady Fia, but I’m fine. Not being able to feel anger doesn’t mean I can’t dislike someone. Losing anger has, instead, allowed me to look at problems calmly. As the person in charge of the Witch Sanctuary, it’s better that I don’t have unnecessary thoughts. I’m one of the few exceptions among the witches, besides the Witch of Hope. Compared to me, Lianne is the one who needs the most help. She lost the body that the Multi-tailed Fox Tribe is so proud of and has never dared to return to her clan to visit her people. Can you cure her too, Lady Fia?”

“Lianne… To be honest, I’m not confident. She’s missing too much. I don’t know if my nano—I don’t know if my magic can repair it.”

“Is that so…”

Friede’s gaze fell, her dark eyes filled with melancholy. But she quickly composed herself, put on a smile, and asked tentatively.

“By the way, would you like a witch’s title, Lady Fia? As the de facto leader of the Witch Sanctuary, both Lianne and I believe that even if you are not a witch, you should be granted the title an official witch deserves. Although you might find it impolite, having a witch’s title is something every one of us dreams of. Only then can one be recorded in the witches’ handbook.”

“If you’d like, we think a title like ‘Witch of Calamity Flame’ would suit you best, given your feat of incinerating hundreds of thousands of monsters in an instant and creating a crater several kilometers deep. Of course, ‘Witch of Holy Flame’ would also be fine, and you can also choose a name you like. We only suggested ‘Calamity Flame’ because we witches like to choose names that sound frightening.”

“Is that okay? I haven’t undergone the witch ritual. I’m not even an apprentice witch.”

“You saved us in our time of need. Of course you are qualified.”

“Then…”

Fia subconsciously looked at her companions. She was terrible at naming things. If she had to choose, she would just pick Witch Number One, Witch Number Two, that sort of thing.

“This subordinate believes ‘The Witch of the Sun’ would be suitable.”

“Euphimilu’s Witch.”

‘The Witch of the Sun ‘ sounds somewhat normal, but what on earth is ‘Euphimilu’s Witch’?

“I still think Witch of Calamity Flame sounds more impressive. Doesn’t ‘The Witch of the Sun’ imply that little Fia is inferior to the sun?”

Claire’s words made Anastasia nod in realization.

“Indeed. Her Highness is an existence more dazzling than the sun.”

“Hmph…”

Seeing her suggestion ignored, Milu pouted unhappily. Fia found it amusing. She patted Milu’s head while affirming to Friede.

“Then let’s go with the Witch of Calamity Flame. I’m skilled with fire, so this name suits me well.”

“Then from now on, we will record you in the annals of the Witch Sanctuary as the Witch of Calamity Flame.”

Not having been rejected by Fia, Friede let out a sigh of relief and confirmed it with great joy.