Chapter 123: Chapter 123

Long ago, in a distant past, a time so far back that even their grandfathers didn’t know their own names.

There was the gentle, kind, powerful, and fearsome goddess—Elphaba.

Elphaba had servants—a winged servant, a many-legged servant, and a servant of great might. Each of them lived happily by the goddess’ side.

But one dark night, the many-legged servant accidentally stepped on the goddess’ foot.

The goddess shouted in anger, “Who stepped on my foot!?”

The many-legged servant was scared and lied.

“The mighty servant did it!”

The winged servant, who had always been jealous of the mighty servant, added, “That’s right! The mighty servant did it!”

The mighty servant, startled, answered, “No! It wasn’t me!”

The enraged Elphaba took away the mighty servant’s sturdy armor and weapons and gave them to the many-legged servant, and took away the mysterious mana and gave it to the winged servant.

The many-legged servant became strong, and the winged servant became clever.

The mighty servant became a servant with nothing and was abandoned in the fields.

Afterwards, the descendants of the many-legged servant often bullied the descendants of the servant with nothing, and the descendants of the winged servant stayed by Elphaba’s side and blocked her ears.

The descendants of the servant with nothing came to live painful lives.

Dorothea, who had been listening to the myth passed down among the humans, opened her mouth, “Wait, then what’s this about the Crow Goddess or whatever?”

The skull in the birdcage answered.

《Since you handle mysterious powers like the goddess Elphaba and command servants with strong teeth, they say you’re also a goddess!》

《Since you’re wrapped in crow feathers, you’re the Crow Goddess!》

“They’re just making things up as they go.”

Dorothea was dumbfounded.

To her, who guessed that the identity of the golden goddess Elphaba was the Wicked Witch of the West, the sight of people seriously believing in such an unfunny myth was beyond laughter.

This island itself is bizarre from the start.

It wasn’t much of a problem that those life forms, whether horses or centaurs, were running around talking about civilization.

After all, there was no law saying that only humans could develop technology and build civilization.

But it was unnatural that while they developed to that extent, the humans on the same island had only reached the level of building huts and handling stone spears.

If this island was so enormously huge that the two species were isolated from each other, it might be understandable, but the island wasn’t that big. It was just a rough estimate, but it seemed like it would take about a week to walk around its perimeter.

In a situation where they would frequently meet and rub shoulders, influencing each other, for only one side’s development speed to be bizarrely fast…

Above all, if those self-proclaimed civilized horses or whatever really built their civilization on their own, there’s no way I could understand their language.

Everything felt artificial.

It felt unpleasant, as if someone had deliberately reversed the positions of horses and humans.

If this situation was intentionally staged by the Wicked Witch of the West, then it was truly…

“…in bad taste, really.”

Dorothea left the hut and moved to a nearby shore.

There, people were trying hard to build ships, faithfully following the words of the “Crow Goddess”.

However, the results were not satisfactory.

Looking at the piles of wood that seemed like they would sink instantly if they met a wave, Dorothea sighed.

Seeing that sight, it seemed faster to borrow the hands of those so-called civilized horses or whatever.

It was then that the people suddenly became busy.

The skull that had eavesdropped on their conversation translated its content.

《Witch! Enemies! The horses are coming with an army!》

A punitive force was moving across the plain.

Their shining armor, sturdy physiques, and glossy fur seemed to prove how affluent and powerful they were.

However, their procession didn’t look particularly orderly, nor did their military discipline seem strict.

The soldiers chatted incessantly even while walking on four legs, and their eyes looked too relaxed for those about to face battle.

Even seeing this, their commander, the Red Horse, didn’t particularly scold them.

If this had been a proper battle, it might have been different, but what they were about to do was closer to hunting or pest control.

“Still, a young and strong knight was brutally murdered. The humans might have some hidden trump card, so wouldn’t it be better to be a little cautious?”

At the adjutant’s words, the Red Horse snorted, “Why are you so scared of facing mere humans? The goddess will protect us, so have no worries.”

“But judging by the state of the armor—“

The adjutant bowed his head with a gloomy expression, and the Red Horse opened his mouth as if trying to change the atmosphere, “You’ve confirmed all the destinations, correct?”

“A total of five. All are not much different from the locations we’ve identified before.”

“Tsk tsk, foolish humans. To commit such an atrocious act without realizing that we’ve identified all their nests and left them alone,” the Red Horse clicked his tongue. “You should never show mercy to beasts. You have to beat them endlessly until they can’t even breathe and give them discipline, only then will they know their place and bow their heads. Now that all those miscellaneous fellows calling themselves environmentalists or whatever have shut their mouths, we must sweep away all the humans or at least make them tremble and wet themselves just by seeing us! Do you all understand?!”

Satisfied with the resounding answer, the Red Horse was about to slowly increase the marching speed when…

“General! There’s a group of humans ahead. But the appearance of one is somewhat unusual!”

At the adjutant’s report, the Red Horse’s gaze turned forward.

There were about a dozen humans there, most of them in the appearance the Red Horse was familiar with, that was, in crude attire covering their bodies with leather or leaves.

If that was the habit of the human beast, that was all, but the Red Horse didn’t like that appearance very much.

It looked as if mere beasts were daring to imitate civilized horses.

However, the attire of one human female standing at their forefront was different from the others.

It was much more elaborate, luxurious, and above all, it exuded “technology”.

“Excuse me, I’d like to talk for a moment.”

When fluent “civilized horse language” leaked from the human female’s mouth, a great commotion arose among them.

The Red Horse shouted, “Everyone, quiet!”

The Red Horse stepped forward and pointed his sword at the black human, “What are you? How can you speak?”

“How? I learned it, so I can speak it.”

“Learned? A mere human?” the Red Horse repeated in disbelief.

“More importantly, what are you trying to do, leading an army so ominously?”

“Before that, let me confirm one thing, are you the representative of the humans?”

The human female frowned, but soon nodded, “Well, let’s say it’s something like that for now.”

The Red Horse turned his head to the adjutant, “What do you think?”

“We must capture her.”

“We came to punish the human bastards. Is there really a need for that? I think it would be trouble-free to just kill them all.”

“It’s to investigate the cause and effect. Judging by the clothes she’s wearing and how fluently she speaks, it’s clear that someone from the city has had a hand in this. If there’s a traitor trying to spread dangerous knowledge to humans, we must catch them and punish them.”

“That’s true,” the Red Horse nodded his head up and down greatly, then spoke to the human female. “You said you understand speech? Stay still until this is over. Then I’ll preserve your neck.”

“…You’re telling me to obey after hearing that conversation?”

“Haa, even if you can speak, it seems your fundamental dullness can’t be helped,” the Red Horse lamented softly, then swung his sword.

It wasn’t aimed at the self-proclaimed representative of humans, but at the other humans nearby.

After cutting off the necks of one or two, they’ll become docile if I intimidate them.

In fact, the Red Horse had been feeling unpleasant inside since he first saw the human female.

When seeing weapons or clothes crudely made by humans, he could let out a scornful smile mixed with contempt, but seeing her wearing clothes that weren’t far behind the technology of civilized horses, he felt an unbearable disgust.

Above all, the female’s eyes were unpleasant.

While the other humans didn’t hide their frightened appearance even as they grasped stone axes or stone spears, only the female standing at the forefront was not only not frightened, but was looking at them with cold eyes.

The very act of daring to try to converse equally with civilized horses, being a mere human, was already tantamount to a great sin.

The sword of the Red Horse, who possessed outstanding military power even among civilized horses, was about to cut off the human’s neck…

Seeing the translucent barrier blocking his way, the Red Horse’s eyes widened.

No matter what knowledge he possessed, there was no way to explain the anomaly happening before his eyes.

“…It’s not sword energy. No, before that, do you not know mana at all? Well, I suppose it’s more convenient that way to control the laboratory.”

The voice of the human female reached the Red Horse’s ears.

For a moment, the Red Horse didn’t understand the identity of the emotion that pierced his heart.

He had always been the one giving that emotion, not receiving it.

Incomprehensible phenomena continued after that.

Black smoke suddenly rose from nowhere and enveloped the surroundings, and the civilized horses who inhaled the smoke all foamed at the mouth and suffered.

The civilized horses panicked and tried to distance themselves from the smoke, but skeletal hands that emerged from the ground firmly grasped their four ankles and wouldn’t let go.

“W-what!? What is this!?”

To the ears of the confused Red Horse, the witch’s voice continued to echo, “I’m not particularly interested in whether you’re right or wrong.

“Whether the ecosystem or social system here is strange or not, that’s not for me to intervene.

“If only you hadn’t rushed in, if only you had talked when I tried to talk, if only you had stayed quiet until I left this place, it would have been better.”

Amidst the black smoke, blue eyes flashed with light.

The features wrapped in white skin distorted strangely.

The Red Horse realized that this was a human smile.

The human—no, the female—no, no, no… what now appeared only as a monster, smiled.

There was one piece of unfortunate news they had failed to realize.

Here, the necromancer had no onlookers to worry for.

Her blue eyes carried an ominous glow.

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