Miss Witch Doesn't Want to be a Diva

"Pugh——"

Black tar was poured over the piled bodies, then set ablaze, beginning to burn.

Standing upwind, a few figures stretched long in the night, silently watching the fire sizzle as it burned, turning twisted faces to charred black, slowly transforming into indistinguishable matter.

"Cough, cough——" The young man with the torch turned around, still bandaged heavily, with traces of blood seeping through.

"My name is Guy, and you are?" His face was pale, with blond-tinged hair.

"My name is Hexia, and this is my companion, Ores," the young girl introduced, as the three stood in the cool night, feeling the waves of heat from the fire before them, their faces intermittently bright and dim in the firelight.

"Thank you for treating the leader." He was referring to the evening when Tilan and Sura arrived to clean and treat the wounds of the weakened leader moose.

"Just lent a small hand." Tilan shook her head, considering today's gruesome scenes, she really hadn't contributed much.

Afterwards, the two engaged in a brief conversation, as Tilan recounted how she met Sura in the jungle yesterday.

"So that's how you met; seems Sura was quite lucky." He remarked, his voice tinged with sadness.

"Several years ago, I too was saved by a girl under similar circumstances, leading me to come here to recover, and eventually integrate and join this place."

"In this world, encountering kind people is indeed rare."

"Come with me, let's sit for a while further away, it's not good to breathe too much of this smell."

The three of them then approached the mountain pass's exit, and finally under Guy's lead, found a more hidden spot on the rock face, where they could enjoy a good view of the scene below while being hard to detect by outsiders.

"When I had nothing to do, I often sat here as well, partly to keep watch, and partly for the quiet and breezy environment."

"I heard from Sura that you guys come from a very safe big clan, seldom going out, not very knowledgeable about the outside world; I've happened to visit some places, perhaps I can tell you about them." He sat down, placing his bow across his knees, rough fingers stroking the scratches on the bow.

"I haven't been to very distant places, but I've roamed quite a bit within this thousand-kilometer expanse."

"In earlier days, I was born in a caravan; my mother said she didn't know who my father was, but according to my guesses over the years, he might be from the more agile species, as I run pretty fast too."

"As I grew, I grew weary of the nomadic life and wanted to settle in a larger outpost and learn some skills, so I stayed at 'Xiao Lin Castle,' where the iron scale wood is a famous specialty, and the outpost houses over a thousand people."

"There, I learned archery skills, including making longbows, nitrating bowstrings with tendons of beasts, crafting arrows, etc. With this, I occasionally hunted near 'Xiao Lin Castle,' or got hired, serving as a guard for caravans—though the pay wasn't much, as large powers have their own gunfire units and don't need our archers."

"Later, I got hired to go to the remote Gray Tomb Wilderness to search for meteorites and rare materials, bringing me here."

"Unfortunately, things didn't go well on land; we encountered patrolling war machines. In battle, both my employer and companions died under the sharp scythes of the flying mantis, and I barely escaped, as I mentioned, I run fairly fast."

"Yet, the scythe's indeed sharp; my wounds wouldn't stop bleeding, my body grew weaker, darkness closed in, and I collapsed on the prairie."

"When I woke, I found myself already here." He patted the rough, yellowish stone before him.

"Others told me I was found by Jico, a girl with pretty cat ears and healthy, tan skin."

"'The plain is desolate and clean, you'd be hard to miss,' she explained when I asked afterward, initially not wanting to save me, but feared my rotting body would attract undesirable things, hence she dragged me back." As he spoke, the young man smiled, reminiscing.

"Jico's quite stingy and gluttonous, saying that's the nature of the Cat Tail Species, often stealing my food."

"But she truly was lively, full of endless vitality, and because of her presence, my life gained much more color."

"Thus, I occasionally helped with hunting scouts, made some fun trinkets for her, or took walks with her, becoming inseparable, which made her a bit upset."

"'Because you're with me every day, others seldom play with me now.' Though she said that, she didn't really shoo me away."

"Originally, I thought such life would last long, until one day we'd truly be together, but now it's no longer possible." His voice held deep sorrow but mixed with a touch of indifference, or perhaps apathy.

"Living on this land, death is a common occurrence; managing to reach adulthood, my mother was quite surprised, as she had other children who didn't make it."

Afterwards, Guy's conversation gradually turned to the details of life on this land and things to be wary of when traveling.

"Firstly, be cautious with food; most wild edibles aren't fit for direct consumption. Animals can eat them because they don't live long anyway or have evolved. If humans consume much, it leads to chronic diseases, ultimately to strange afflictions."

"This place once belonged to a Holy Sun's paradise, though He fell quite early; afterward, various forces vied for it, trying to use this planet to rear their favored, resulting in numerous newborn races scattered across the land, some caught for experiments or studies, now roaming the world."

"I've no idea how many species the planet holds, as no one ever counted. It's said the strongest continue their splendid existence like before, though we've never seen their cities, maybe across the sea, or somewhere."

"Currently, beneath our feet is the world's fringe, sparsely inhabited, scarce in food, challenging life, but its barrenness deters large powers from seizing, granting spatial room for many weaker races to survive."

Listening to the narrative, Tilan contemplated slowly, combining it with the history she learned, while Ores beside her was already dozing off, leaning against her shoulder.

Under the night sky, the stars persisted, the flame in the mountain pass gradually faded, as a cool, crystalline breeze swept over the land.