Quote:Sorry for the delay, my connection died out and my schedule's were unreasonable these past days. Will keep things posted, but I dunno whether I'll be able to do it as fast as usual.

A footstep. A sound of sizzling wind and the bush, touched by a figure of red haired person wandering around here and there. Though the figure never looked gallant at all, his whole dress were dirty and smelly, most of the clothes’ were already beat-up and full of holes here and there. It’s almost like they were stranded for at least a years or more.

[AND WHERE IS THIS RUMORED WITCHES VILLAGE, EEEEEEEEEH!?!?!] [I CAN’T EVEN REMEMBER HOW LONG I’VE BEEN HERE WITHOUT EVEN EATING A SINGLE THING!!!!]

[Calm down, partner!!] [It’s not like screaming here and there would do you good!] [In fact, it’s going to annoy you even more!]

[What do you mean by-….]

*GRMMMBBBBLLLLLLLLL

A sound of empty stomach howling around the forest, as the red haired person finally fall on his knee while rubbing his own stomach.

[Ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo………]

[I told you so, right?] [So far you’ve barely been able to survive thanks to those weird-tasted fruit you eat before, but it’s all run out now.] [Besides, all we ever heard is just a rumor, it can’t be trusted.]

In any case one would wonder, what was a man, alone in this forest, were talking, bickering, and even discussing all by himself. The answer is that he is not alone. Another creature was already in front of him. Not human, not even looked like an intelligent creature. It was just a primate with two long front teeth which was used to chew something. It often called a mouse. Though it may be a little different than the other mouse, since it can talk and have some weird hair model on it.

[Then, can you at least find some food for me?] [If this goes on, I might’ve died before being able to do what we need to do.]

[Hurmm… It’ll be troublesome if you died on me….] [Then wait here, I shall find some great food to eat with this great nose of mine~!]

[Thanks a lot, partner.]

After saying that, the mice started to run as fast as he can while somehow, the red-haired man returned back to his deep sleep.

***

[zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz……………..]

The red-haired man just keeps on sleeping below the tree while hiding himself from the sun. In the middle of enjoying it, another creature comes up through him.

[PARTNEEEEEEEEEER!!]

The dandy-haired mouse keeps running as fast as possible while carrying something, bundled with a cloth. But as if without a care in the world, the red-haired man just keeps sleeping.

[‘TILL WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO SLEEP LIKE A LOG!!!] As he gets angry, he pulled something from the bundled cloth, a food with yellow-ish to orange color with its round-oval shape. And he just jammed the food onto his mouth.

[HMNGGH!!!] [HA HA HU HOI?!? (WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!?)] […. HMM!?!]

As the red-haired man realized that the thing that being jammed onto his mouth was a food, a genuine one, he quickly munched and gobbled the whole things straight onto his throat, then to his stomach.

[*GULP… PHUAAAH!!!] [FEELS ALIVE AGAIN~!] [Hey, where did you find it?]

[Just find it along those ways.] [The shape of the tree somehow feels like they were being nurtured by someone.] [So I stole some that’s already no good to be eaten by normal humans.]

[Wait, did you just said that you gave me the worst taste of all the other fruit?!?] [That’s unacceptable! For you to be able to eat delicious food alone while you gave me these rotten foul of a food?!?]

[No, nope. I never eaten one actually.] [Because it’s just the same as me stealing.]

[Who cares!?] [My, no, our life is on the line here!] [We can’t expect to survive without stealing one or two foods!!]

[Your mind… is wrecked up, partner….] [More so than me, whom have been turned into ‘this’.]

[Shut up!] [For now, lead me to where that fruit’s located at.]

[Alright, alright….] [Don’t blame me whether something do happens.]

Thus, the two people whom have been bickering over and over again, started to went straight onto the place which they’ve been searching all over again, yet unknown to them. Aiming for something they have to find no matter what, the two sets their feet onto the most forbidden and secret place people have been trying to find all by themselves. Such place had a name.

They have entered the area where the Witches live, the Witch Village.

*** ***

Hell’s on earth. Or at least, that’s how we should express their current situation. Such situation can also be considered abnormal, no matter how you’d look at it. A giant, 6-winged insect with poisonous fang on its tail were flying and flocking around each other, aiming toward the same places. At the same time, the places the insects were going to, was a figure of at least 5 persons, desperately trying to outrun the insects.

[SERIOUSLY, WHAT IN THE WORLD ARE YOU THINKING OF, YOU NAKED IDIOT!?!?] [I TOLD YOU OVER AND OVER AGAIN TO NEVER TOUCH THAT “THING” NO MATTER WHAT!!!]

[I… I AM SO SORRY…!!] [H… HOWEVER, THIS THING SEEMS TO HOARDS PURE QUALITY OF MANA…!]

[JUST BECAUSE IT IS IT DOESN’T MEAN YOU CAN JUST NONCHALANTLY TAKE IT OFF!] [THAT “MANA COCOON” WAS SUPPOSED TO BE WHERE THOSE “VASP” COLLECT THEIR FOOD!] [IMAGINE WHEN YOU’RE IN THE MIDDLE OF PREPARING YOUR FOOD, SOMEONE COME AND STEALING YOUR FOOD!!]

[I’M SORRY!!!]

[I’m surprised both of you still bickering even while we’re chased by these Vasp….]

[Vram!!] [Can you do something about those?!?!?!]

[My apologies, master.] [My armament’s not quite versatile enough to fought against those things while trying to protect all of you.]

It was Josephine, Hildegarde, Christine, Rosalinda, and Vram. All of them looked like they have something to do outside the town, though it is clearly seen that somehow they were being sidetracked mainly because of Josephine.

[By the way, what are we supposed to do actually, Lady Hilda?] Though while running from the grasp of the Vasp, Christine still looked as calm as usual.

[WE WERE SUPPOSED TO BE AIDED BY THIS NAKED IDIOT IN OUR QUEST!]

[IYAHAHAHAHA~! THEN ARE WE SUPPOSED TO SAY THAT THING’S WEREN’T GOING AS PLANNED~?]

[THE SITUATION IS MORE DEADLY THAN WHAT YOU THOUGHT, ROSAAA!!]

[I… I’M SORRY~~~~!]

Despite the danger behind their back, the group seemed to bickering happily as usual, though it may seems weird to people who watched this. Then again, such group was quite unexpected, even among the other girls. As it seems that the girl was bickering against each other.

***

[A job??]

A sudden question lingers inside Josephine’s head, which were in the middle of eating something that looked like a snack, with a combination of meat, a variation of vegetable, combined and placed inside a sliced bun. Around her mouth was a stain of sauce coming from the food, covering her face. Then again, the food itself was not of much importance as what Yohana had suggested.

[Try to wipe your face before talking, if you please….] [… Are you even forgetting the reason why we were told to summon our own familiar?]

[Hmm….] [So that we won’t be alone?] [Or in order to wake us up in the morning?] [or…]

[Not even close….] [A familiar can be considered as a way to indicate a witches’ grown up phase and ready to contribute for this village.] [It’s the thing that you’ve always been yearning for, haven’t you?]

[OH YEAH!] [Then, then…. What kind of job will I do right now~?]

[Usually it was decided depends on your familiar type, but….]

[She will be assigned as a “Frontier” unit.] [It was a decision made by the Elder and the circle itself.]

Suddenly Hilda, accompanied with her attendant, Rosa and Chris, appearing out of nowhere and started to mingle herself with them.

[Hilda~!]

[… Do you even know anything about manners, Naked Idiot…?] [Start wiping those stains on your face this instant!!] As she suddenly throw a handkerchief toward Josephine’s face, which was full of sauce stain from the food.

[… “Frontier” unit….] [But she hasn’t even received proper training even as a “Scavage”, and they want her to be on the “Frontier” already??]

[Apparently it was decided by the fact of how skillful her familiar is.] [Thus, I shall be the one to guide her for the job.]

[… If it was decided by the circle….]

While Josephine was wiping her face, she’s just blankly stare at both of the two girls whom have been discussing about her and Vram.

[By the way….] [What’s a Frontier?]

*PLAKKK!!!

The sudden, empty remark created by Josephine quickly snapped both of her senior while somehow and quickly pulled a giant paper fan-like out of nowhere and slapped Josephine both ways, causing her cheek to turn red.

[IT HUUUURTSSSS!!!]

[What are you saying?!?!] [How long have you been living with us, and how long did we study together?!?!?]

[This idiot… is hopeless….]

[Vra~m! Why you haven’t protect me!?!?] [It hurts as much as when you slapped me when we first met~!!!]

[You’re kinda deserves it.] [I thought that kind of thing was supposed to be a common knowledge in this village.]

[Oh, so you’re saying you understand what we have been discussed about, black kid~?] As Rose suddenly butted in while hugged Hilda that looked like she’ll went rampage if she doesn’t do so.

[Only the gist of it.]

In Witches’ Village, the way they operates were split into two faction, excluding the circle, which regulating the village’s segregation. The two factions consist of “The Vanguard Unit” and “The Relief Unit”, which indicates each of their own function and abilities.

[Vanguard unit works as a force to maintain the power balance inside the village. They can both works either as a guard for when any incident happens at the village, or as a counter-measure for outside threat.] [Thus, Vanguard unit also has their own specialization of themselves.] [“Gallant”, units that concentrates on safety inside the village, and have a special connection with the circle.] [“Rising”, a unit concentrated for countering the outside threat.] [And lastly, the “Frontier”, which specialized on travelling and doing expedition around this island in order to find some resources needed for the villages.] [And the “Scavages” was a special unit meant to let the witch whom has just received their Combat-type familiar to experience each of these occupations, mainly for evaluation which job she was the most appropriate.]

[Well done, Vram. You really do outlive my expectation each days count.] As Hilda, Chris, Rosa, Yohana, and Josephine clapped in harmony listening to Vram’s explanation.

[As expected from my familiar~!] as she put out her “good job” hand out in the air, which angered every girls there.

[More like… he was too good to become your familiar.]

[You think so too, Chris?] [I was actually thinking the same thing.]

[… Enough of that, for now, as long as Vram understand, we can just leave this Naked Idiot in the dark.]

[HEY!] [WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY THAT!!] [And why you already called him by his name, but not me!?!?]

As Josephine protests about it, Hilda somehow staring at Josephine with cold eyes, as if she was seeing a lesser being.

[… Enough of this charade.] [Yohana, you understand what you should be explaining to her, right?]

[Fina, your situation right now is not quite safe.] [A Frontier, as what Vram had explain, requires you to go out of this village in order to procure something, depends on how much quota they’ve placed upon you.] [And before you were able to fulfill the quota, you are forbidden to go back inside the village for a while.]

[Eee???] [But I was just about to enjoy these new menu they had, called “Hamburger”~!!!] As she said that while pointing toward a bundle of the food called hamburger right in front of her.

[… No, we won’t be departing right now.] [Since your placement was quite a sudden thing, they gave you about 1 month to prepare for your expedition.] [That’s why from here on out, I’ll be keeping a close eye to you, in order to make sure you’d well prepared against what’s about to come.]

[Having Vram besides me were not enough?]

[… You’re taking this too lightly, Fina….]

[The outside world is filled with many unexpected things, Master.] [There are times when even my own shield was unable to protect people.] [Thus, it’d be wise to prepare to, at least, protect yourself against such predicament.]

[Thus, I won’t be as forgiving as Yohana when it comes to your study.] [I hope you prepared for what’s coming next!]

[Yes! Senior Hilda!!]

[… Is she going to be okay, I wonder….] As Yohana ponders about whether Josephine would be safe in Hilda’s hand.

[What?] [You still free to be her senior if you wanted to, Yohana.] [The Elder did ask me to become her mentor, but she didn’t mention anything about you stopped being one.]

[But my main occupation is a “Gallant” Unit, you know.] [And here I was hoping to have another “Gallant” as my junior….]

[But I think it would be good to learn such wide variety of occupation at once, right Vram?]

[I do agree.]

[Wait!] [He’s my familiar, why you didn’t ask about what I should be thinking?!?!?]

[Shut up, you naked idiot.] [What you need to do now is to learn how to survive.] [Thus, I’ll be taking some of these hamburgers.]

[WAIT! THAT’S MINE……………!!!]

***

[I really wanted some hamburger right now….]

[I guess I should remind you that what we need to do right now is to COLLECT THESE MANA STONES THAT HAD BEEN SCATTERED ALL OVER RIGHT NOW THAN DOING NOTHING!]

[YES MA’AM!!!]

Hilda was in outburst, as she collected each and every Mana stones that had been scattered here and there. Those Mana stones came from when they were finally able to, somehow, killed all the Vasp that had chasing them.

[Then again, you sure do come up with interesting strategy, Lady Hilda.] [I never expected that your fire golem would be able to crush that many enemies in one blow.] [Not to mention that you have him ready to ambush the enemy while standing by above the cliff while you pulled the enemy.]

[It’s what I could do to compensate for its lack of speed.] [He may not look like it, but he has an amazing resilience, thus what made me came up with this kind of strategy.] [By the way, his name is Hougo.]

[Then again, you’re also amazing yourself, Josephine’s Familiar.] [Realizing Lady Hilda Familiar’s going down to crush the Vasp, you quickly turn back and protecting everyone with your shield, so that everyone wouldn’t get caught by his blast.]

[That’s why me, Chris, Lady Hilda, and Josephine were able to quickly cast a large magic to quickly finish them all off!]

[But… Where are your familiar, Chris, Rosa?] As Josephine’s wondering while still collecting the scattered mana stone.

[Ah… they….]

[Both of them were still in rehabilitation.]

[Eh?]

[Senior Hilda, did something happen?]

Hilda went silent for a while. As Chris and Rosa put out their saddening face, they still trying to put out a smile.

[Nhah, don’t worry about us, Josephine.] [They’re fine; it’s just that they were gravely wounded in their recent battle.]

[Guess that’s why Elder asked Lady Hilda to took care of you for a while~] [So that you may be able to fill the force we lacked of~]

[I… I see….]

[Then that just mean that we need to improve our teamwork more, Master.] [You can’t just recklessly do something like that again, especially when we only have Hougo and me on the frontlines.]

[… I understand.] [I’m sorry for being too reckless.]

[Hmph….] [As long as you understand, then it’s fine.] [Besides, this is quite a haul, to be able to fill half of the quota needed in just a day.] [Let’s take a break for now, and we’ll continue tomorrow.]

[Alright~!] As the girls answering together, they put together all of the mana stone they’ve gathered and sets up a camp around there.

***

As they finished eating, chatting, and joking together, both Hilda’s party and Josephine’s party went inside their own respective tent.

[Hmm….]

[Something’s troubling you, Master?]

[No, it’s…] [… Hey, I told you that when we’re alone, I prefer it if you just call me with my name.]

[When I’ll feel like it.]

[Geez, you’re just being shy….] [At any rate, I was actually thinking about what Senior Hilda said this afternoon….]

[Which one?]

[About how she covers for her familiar’s lack of speed with her strategy….]

[… So out of all things Lady Hilda had said, the only thing that got stuck in your head was something unrelated, huh?]

[GEEZ! OFF MY CASE!!!] [At any rate, there is something that just occurred to me….] [… I haven’t had a clue regarding your fighting abilities.]

[And?] [What of it?]

[What do you mean “what”?!] [We’re talking about what you’re capable of here, you know?] [Rather, isn’t that what we need the most right now?] [Considering that we need to take precaution against many things.]

[Wait… are you telling me that you’re going repeat this kind of incident over and over again?]

[Well….] [There weren’t any prohibition about how we do things, right?] [As long as we fill the quota, it’s fine right?]

[*sigh… Well it’s not like I don’t understand.]

Vram take another deep breath and started to explain things regarding Vram’s ability.

[For starters, let me tell you about my basic abilities.] [From where I was come from, my class was referred as a Paladin.] [It is a class that allows us to take more damage than normal person, with the way our armor were heavily equipped and our special stance.] [Thus, it can be saying that I was meant to be put on the frontline, protecting my comrade behind me.]

[Hoee~….!] [I never knew humans were capable of such feats.]

[But taking some damage doesn’t mean that we’re just standing there, taking damage.] [Since our class’ original mission was to protect our comrade behind, we are also equipped with some equipment needed to repel back the enemies.] [In most cases, people uses spear because you can both wield and attack them while defending against their attack with these shield.]

[Spear?]

[It’s something like this.]

While saying that, Vram pulled out a long pole with something like a sharp metal at its head ends. Josephine, whom were asking to check it by herself, slowly examining the thing they called spear.

[Wow, I knew about shield and sword, but this kind of weapon is quite new for me….]

[It’s easy to use as a thrust attack and can be done while holding your shield up, that’s why most paladin used that.]

[Then why are you using a sword?] [A short ones too.]

[Before I explain that, there’s something that I need to review a bit.] [It was something only I was capable of doing.]

As Vram takes another deep breath, Josephine was also trying to hide her anxiousness by gulping her own saliva.

[It’s this.]

Suddenly Vram pulled another spear coming out of nowhere. It didn’t occurred to her before, but Josephine suddenly realized that what Vram’s been doing is something so outrageous and so surprising that she ended up opening her mouth as wide as possible.

[Wh… what have you done…?] [Is that… by any chance… a magic?]

[I can’t use magic, but I have a magic item that lets me do a specific magic by chance.] [And the magic item I have currently allows me to store an unlimited amount of item inside what was seemed-to-be storage.] [The one who gave me this called it “Dimensional Pocket”.]

[Wait.] [So you're saying that... you can literally store as much item as you'd like without even breaking a sweat?]

[Right.]

[THEN WHY YOU DIDN'T TELL ME THAT FROM THE VERY BEGINNING?!?!?] [WHY DO I HAVE TO BOUGHT ALL THESE CAMPING AND MAGIC TOOLS ALL BY MYSELF WHEN WE COULD JUST STORE IT ALL AWAY INSIDE YOUR “POCKET”!?!?!?] [EVEN BETTER, I COULD JUST HIDE MYSELF INSIDE THAT STORAGE WHILE YOU'RE OUT THERE HUNTING SOME MANA STONE!!!]

[That's kinda sly of you to think that way, Master.] [Though I must disappoint you, that this pocket cannot store a “living being”.]

[Still, that's one convenient tool to have!] [No, it can't even be called a tool anymore, it's an artifact!!]

[Oh, so you also knew about these kinds of things, Master?]

An artifact is, one could say, a one-of-a-kind item that people believed to have a strong, unimaginable power. While it was sometimes were considered to be a magic item, the actual magic it emits were nothing like the usual magic, thus it has always been a wonder item that everyone hunts for. It can be anything, like a sword to split the sea, a pole that can pierce anything, or, just like what Vram currently had right now.

[But still, you pulled these weapons so fast that I wouldn't even realize that you were using magic.]

[At first it was quite a hurdle, since I can't use magic.] [But an alchemist gave me a hand to recreate this thing so that I wouldn't even need to chant nor to focus on it.] [I just need to pose a gesture, and then I can access it whenever I want.]

[Hmm....] [Wait, so that means... you were able to freely change your weapons depend on the situation, right?]

[Though it is only limited to what I could hold with these hand, that's possible.]

[So that's why you could freely change your shield when we were attacked before, or when Elder's Dragon attacked you.]

After a while, Josephine started to think deeply while leaving Vram in silence.

[Wait, so how were you able to withstand my magic without even defending yourself?]

[Pardon me?]

[When we first met, you remember?] [I was using everything I had to attack you, yet you seemed-to-be unaffected, let alone hurt.]

Vram went silence for a bit before starting to answer her.

[You didn't hold back at all, Master?]

[Considering I saw you to be quite dreadful, I did went all out.]

[But... that didn't hurt me at all.] [It even barely stings me.]

Hearing that, Josephine's hand suddenly touched the floor together with her knees, while having her head looked downward, like a pose before one prostrating before others, a symbol of a man having their pride broke down. In this case, it was a woman.

[THEN HOW ARE YOU ABLE TO FEND OFF AGAINST IT?!] [I REFUSE TO BELIEVE THAT MY MAGIC IS WEAK!!!!]

[That... I do not know of....] [As far as when I'm alive, that was the only things I was capable of.]

[Then... do you think it has something to do with the way you becoming a monster... a familiar?]

[Maybe.] [I haven't had a chance to test just how far I've changed.]

[Hmm....]

After thinking for a while, suddenly something flashed inside Josephine's head, like a fire that has been lit, something’s inspired her.

[Vram, tomorrow we're going to hunt for the Vasp again~!]

[Uh... You sure?]

[Considering what you're capable off, I think we could.]

Vram then getting silent for a while then started to tilt his head downward.

[I understand, but make sure to speak up with Lady Hilda in advance.]

[Sure~❤]