Witch Hunt Chapter 5 part1

(Part 1)

“Good day Your Highness.”

“Your Highness, how are you faring today?”

Just by walking a few paces down the road, we were showered by many voices. As soon as they saw the man beside me, the people coming and going came closer and greeted him smiling.

“Good day Chris, you are still growing taller and taller, aren’t you?”

“Old man Ganon! How’s your stomach?”

Each time he was spoken to, Cougar replied with a polite greeting. As I watched him chat in such a friendly manner with the inhabitants of the city, I inadvertently began to forget that he was a prince of this country. Such was the degree in which he blended into the city, and such was the love of the citizens for him.

“I’m the prince.” Half a year prior, I was so surprised when Cougar told me this while we were at Queen’s Hill that I thought I might faint. But thanks to his affable and approachable personality, I had grown to be unconcerned by his position in society.

“Lucca, sorry for making you wait. Let’s go.” Cougar, done with exchanging pleasantries with the people surrounding him, turned towards me.

I liked seeing him interact with the people of the city. Even though at times I was taken aback by his behavior, so unlike royalty despite being a prince, watching him set my mind at ease like nothing else. Besides, seeing the man I loved be so beloved by everyone made me very happy.

“Another day of being the idol of the people?”

“Hahaha, don’t make fun of me, please.”

We were seated on a bench at the park with the water fountains, where we decided to have a late lunch. We were engulfed by the bright light of the sun; it’s rays showered us, filtered by the many trees within sight.

“Oh, it’s the one I like,” the prince exclaimed after I took a pastry from inside the basket and handed it over. He took a big bite out of it with a satisfied smile.

This must be what a time of great happiness feels like.

That park had once been where Meyrin and I shared lunch, but now it had turned into the place I frequented whenever I was spending time with Michelle or Cougar. Meyrin went into hiding around the time I became friends with Michelle. Before her disappearance, she said many times that she sensed something bad had come to this country. However, since I’m just one-quarter witch I wasn’t able to feel the bad omen she described. On few occasions, she came to my home or showed up at the store for a bit to let me know how she was doing, but recently even that had completely stopped.

Where in the world are you? What are you doing and why?

“Worried about something?”

“Hm?”

When he spoke to me, I finally realized I was still holding the pastry on my hand without moving.

Cougar was peeking at my face with a concerned expression. When his serene eyes looked at me, I felt as if he was seeing everything that hid inside my heart… Though if the contents of my heart were truly so evident, I might be caught by the Society.

“You are worried about Michelle, aren’t you?”

“Ah, yes. I wonder what’s wrong with her.” In truth, I had been thinking about Meyrin, but the worry I felt for Michelle was no lie, so I promptly agreed to his guess.

“It’s fine! Go on, the two of you!” Michelle’s voice reverberated inside my head. It was truly strange for her to raise her voice like that. Was she really feeling sick? Or… “Could it be that I said something that angered her?”

“I don’t think so,” Cougar answered with a second cream-covered pastry in his mouth. “But you’re onto something. Perhaps it was me who made her angry.”
“Eh? Did something happen while I was back home. Did you something to her?”

“I guess you could say that…Umm…” Even though it seemed it was rather difficult for him to say and his serious face looked pained, his mouth was covered in cream.

Holding back a chuckle due to his face, I took out a handkerchief from my pocket and cleaned his mouth.

“Oh, sorry.”

“It’s not about being sorry. Michelle is a very important friend of mine, so please apologize and make peace with her, ok?”

“It would be nice if I could.”

“It’s alright, Michelle is a nice girl.” Even Michelle, who’s always so nice, can get angry sometimes. Perhaps it’s a bit odd, but I was glad to learn about that unprecedented facet of my friend. Despite the fact that we had been hanging out together for half a year, there were still sides to her that I didn’t know.

Furthermore, from now on we were bound to learn more and more varied aspects about each other. When I thought about it, I felt like I had benefited a bit for all this, and that my joie de vivre had increased. However, no matter how close friends I became with Cougar and Michelle, I had a secret I could never divulge to them: my nature as a witch.
Could I truly be friends with them even if I lied?

I ate the pastry from Guns & Bread with an uncertain feeling; even though our products were always delicious, that day it had no taste for me at all.

“Ah, that was good. Thanks for the meal.” Satiated, Cougar patted his stomach while dedicating some brief words of praise towards my boss, and then rose from the bench. “By the way, Lucca, I love you,” he said in the tone one would use to say they met a friend a while ago in that place.

“Eh? What did you say just now?”

“I said I love you. So…would you marry me?”

“Eh? What?!” The suddenness of his words made my thoughts grind to a halt. What did he just say? My ears had properly picked up his words, but my head simply couldn’t process them. Flustered, I looked up to him. Thanks to the light illuminated his figure from behind, I couldn’t see Cougar’s face clearly from my seat. “Er… Could you say that one more time?”

“Lucca, come on. Don’t make me propose over and over again. This is a bit embarrassing…” Perhaps because I gave him such a trivial answer, he sighed and sat back on the bench. One of his ears was facing me; it looked like it had turned somewhat red.

He was embarrassed! He, who always was so calm and unflappable! Seeing him like that filled me with so much love that my chest tightened. This was likely yet another side of him I didn’t know about.

“Marriage…”

I love Cougar. I’ve come to feel that way since the day when he caught my headdress, after it was snatched away by the wind. I couldn’t be anything else but overjoyed that he reciprocated my feelings. To be together with the one I love… I was genuinely surprised such an opportunity had come for the likes of me. My heart was pounding hard; I was quite aware of the huge differences in our social standings, but I loved him.

I want to marry Cougar.

“…That’s impossible.” Even I was shocked to the point of disbelief at how cold my words sounded.

“Why? Do you hate me?”

“No! But there’s no way it could work!”

“If this is about my social standing, it’s ok. For you, I would-”

“It’s not that! It’s... not…”

It’s not about that; it’s a more fundamental issue. I shouldn’t have fallen in love with a human like you, because I have witch blood running through my veins. If he married a witch like myself, someday he might fall into misfortune. If that ever happened, how could ever face my responsibility for it? And I certainly wouldn’t be able to face his childhood friend Michelle either. On the other hand, even if we married and lived happily together, I would have to live a lie, hiding my true self from my beloved. So ultimately, could that really be said to be ‘loving each other’?

“Lucca, I want to know your true feelings.” Cougar was looking at me with a serious expression. His eyes looked black, so much that it felt as if they would suck me in. I couldn’t even turn away from the intense pressure of that stare. I was quite aware of how nervous I looked reflected in his eyes. “I’ll ask one more time… Do you hate me?”

It’s not that, I love you. I shook my head.

“Do you hate the idea of marrying me?”

That’s not right either. If I were able, I’d love to spend my life with you. I shook my head once more.

“Th-that’s good to hear!” His relieved voice seemed to come from the bottom of his heart. Cougar smiled; perhaps due to tension, his forehead was drenched in sweat.

The trees wavered and the leaves scraped against one another, like instruments playing the song of the wind. Birds cut the atmosphere as they travelled towards the southern sky.

Maybe Cougar could come to accept me even if he knew my true identity, thanks to his unique personality. Maybe he could me love forever and ever, despite knowing that I’m a witch. Maybe, just maybe…

“You know, Cougar…”

“What is it?”

My beloved, telling me that he truly loved me. I hated the idea of living with Cougar while keeping a secret from him. At the very least, I wanted the man I loved to know me as I am.
I want you to know my true self.

“I’m… I’m really…”

*clang* *clang*

Suddenly, the sound of church bells echoed, interrupting my confession. They should’ve been rung already at midday, just a while before. When I heard that ominous bell, I felt something like a vague apprehension. Then came the yelling...

“The Archwitch has been found!”

“She’s trapped in the square before the cathedral!”

“The witch that went into hiding has been caught!”

I saw the people of the city running in masse towards the square, probably seeking to watch the spectacle.

“A witch at a time like this?” Cougar creased his brow.

“An archwitch? An archwitch they say?” My witch blood was ringing an alarm throughout my body. Quickly, you have to go quickly. It was something so big, a sense of foreboding so awful that it felt as if the earth’s surface was about to collapse… “Cougar, I’m sorry! Let’s continue this conversation later!” By the time I realized what I was doing, I had set out running in the same direction of the busybodies of the city, towards the square.

I heard Cougar call out to me from behind, but I didn’t stop. On the way, I realized I had forgotten the basket with the pastries for lunch on the bench; however, it was more pressing to immediately verify the face of the captured witch.

“It can’t be!” But there was a chance of something so unwelcomed it pained to think about it, so much it made my mind run in circles. And that something could be happening in that moment in a place I knew nothing about. Finally, I stopped my conjectures and just ran quick towards the city center.

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Chapter end