Lyr’s sudden departure left Aoyuewa and the others puzzled.
“Leaving in such a hurry? That really is a bit strange.”
They began to wonder if they hadn’t talked to Lyr enough, and he had deliberately found an excuse to leave.
“Lyr might really have something going on.” Aoyuewa didn’t think too much about it. The fact that Lyr agreed to come at least proved he wasn’t averse to interacting with them.
Lyr, who had left early, had no mind to guess what Aoyuewa and the others were thinking.
He followed the direction the figure had gone, exiting through the tavern’s back door, and was met with a pitch-black street.
Lyr looked around, trying hard to find that person from earlier.
‘Where did they go?’
That person seemed able to understand his inner thoughts. And that voice he himself found so strange, the other party seemed very familiar with it.
Troubled by these things for days, Lyr urgently wanted to find an answer.
“Over here.”
The voice sounded in his heart, responding to Lyr’s confusion.
Following the feeling, Lyr looked up and saw that person standing atop a house.
From that high vantage point, the cloak fluttered wildly in the wind. Their face was still unseen, but a flash of crimson hair was faintly visible, particularly eye-catching.
Seeing Lyr’s gaze finally fall upon her, the corner of her mouth twitched into a mocking smile. She turned and quickly moved away across the rooftops.
“You! Wait!”
Even the confused Lyr could sense she was deliberately toying with him.
The more it was like this, the more Lyr wanted to figure out what was really going on.
Disregarding everything else, Lyr kept his eyes fixed on the figure and quickly gave chase through the streets.
Seeing Lyr follow, the person on the eaves didn’t deliberately speed up, nor did they slow down at all. They maintained a fixed distance, making no effort to hide their teasing.
“Interesting,” she commented simply about Lyr.
She had applied wind magic to her feet, which was how she maintained this speed. Lyr, on the other hand, was relying purely on physical stamina. She had thought he might use magic to chase her too.
On the streets, because she had no classes for the afternoon, Yilu had temporarily left the Academy and gone outside again to hunt magical beasts.
This was something she did whenever she had free time.
Strangely, the outside world was unusually quiet today. No magical beasts were in sight, but there were more soldiers patrolling, forcing her to return early.
“It’s all that guy’s fault, taking all my magic cores.” Yilu was still brooding over her method.
Now that all the cores were with Lyr, she couldn’t proceed normally.
Magical beasts had suddenly vanished, and this series of events was putting her in a foul mood.
“Ugh, how annoying. If that guy were in front of me right now, I’d definitely punch him.”
As if to fulfill her wish, she turned her head and saw Lyr running towards her.
She paused, confused for a moment, then rolled up her sleeves. “You better give me back my magic cores, or I’ll punch you in the face right now!”
If she didn’t get serious, this guy would really think everything she said was a joke.
Lyr kept one eye on the figure above and the other on the road ahead.
The streets twisted and turned, not as open as the rooftops.
With just a glance, his eyes met Yilu’s, but he quickly looked away, continuing to focus on the figure above.
He naturally had no mind to pay attention to Yilu’s threats.
Without a moment’s pause, he brushed right past Yilu.
This made Yilu’s eyes widen. He was just going to ignore her like that?
“Don’t you go too far!”
As if hearing Yilu’s shout, Lyr turned and ran back.
He had not the slightest intention of chatting with Yilu.
Taking advantage of Yilu’s momentary surprise, he snatched the sword from her hand. “Borrowing this.”
“Huh?”
Coming back to her senses, Yilu realized belatedly that her sword had been taken by Lyr.
Her mouth fell open in disbelief.
Others said her temperament was bad, but so far, everything Lyr had done to her was truly awful! Far beyond just ‘going too far.’
But in the blink of an eye, Lyr’s retreating figure was already growing distant.
Under Lyr’s relentless pursuit, it wasn’t until they reached the Royal Capital’s city wall that the figure finally stopped.
Unhurried, she stopped fleeing and stood there waiting for Lyr to catch up, while also admiring the moonlight.
Lyr, using his already scant magic power, leaped onto the wall. When he landed, he gasped for breath, trying hard to recover his condition in a short time.
Even now, he still didn’t know if this person was friend or foe. It was necessary to stay alert, which was why he had taken Yilu’s sword earlier.
“Such a short distance seems to have left you rather disheveled,” the figure turned, her tone flippant.
“Who are you?!” Lyr placed his hand on the sword hilt, ready at any moment. “How do you know about my… condition?”
“Who am I? Although this is our first meeting, even without this, a destined encounter would have happened in the future.” The figure gave a slight bow, lifting the edges of her cloak in a ladylike curtsy, but still made no move to remove the hood. “The Devouring Witch. It’s an honor to meet you, Inheritor of the Witch of Nightmare Words.”
Lyr’s pupils contracted slightly. ‘Another witch.’
This was the second time he had heard this term.
“Just as you don’t understand the changes in your body, you also completely fail to comprehend the meaning and price behind this title.”
The figure jumped down from the wall’s edge, coming to stand at eye level with Lyr.
“I’m curious, though. That little crybaby chose to hide away in the deep mountains and dense forests, enduring the torment of the curse alone. How could she bear to pass that pain on to someone else? How did you become the inheritor of Nightmare Words? Oh… could it be you killed her?”
Without explicitly stating it, Lyr understood what she meant.
Looking back now, he felt a sense of realization.
Back then, after he approached that girl, he had killed her with surprising ease. She hadn’t put up much resistance.
Lyr had found it strange at the time—a being capable of creating such a powerful magic vortex was so easily slain by him.
“Ha, you really are cruel,” the figure sneered. “To even lay hands on such a fragile creature. And she was truly laughable. After giving all her power to you, she probably didn’t even have time to explain the reason, did she? No wonder you’re so confused about the changes in your body now.”
Without having witnessed the specific scene, she could easily imagine that Lyr had killed the original Witch of Nightmare Words completely unaware.
There were only two ways to obtain a witch’s inheritance. One was the simple transfer of power. The other, more direct method, was to kill the witch and take their place.