I Became a Forest Witch Who Raises Dragons

The Witch Has Appeared!!!!!

“How dare you…. point your filthy mouth at whom…?”
The magical beast, seemingly bewildered by my sudden appearance, stopped for a moment.
But soon it started howling, showing its dirty teeth to me.

“Guooooooh!!!!!”
Is it angry because it thinks its hunt was interrupted?
‘I’m even angrier.’

Soon, the magical beast charged towards me.
“Ariel!!! It’s dangerous!!”
Saya’s voice, worried about me.
I smiled at her to show that it was okay, then turned my head back towards the magical beast.

When I was an experimental subject in the magic tower, one of the things they experimented on me was shortening the casting time of magic.
At the magic tower, I underwent a procedure to quickly construct complex magic patterns

…As a result, I gained a casting speed that could be said to be superior to all existing magicians.
“[Wind Cutter]”

Kwagwagwa─!
As I finished the simple incantation, the wind surrounding me soon turned into sharp blades that sliced the magical beast…
“Guoeok….”

…In less than half of half a second, the magical beast was torn to shreds by the wind blades and turned into pieces of meat.
“Saya. Are you okay? Are you hurt anywhere?”
“I’m… I’m okay.”
Saya had a dazed expression. She must have been very shocked.

Well, she was chased by a house-sized magical beast. It’s understandable.
…I hope she’s not scared of me?
She might have been frightened after seeing me easily butcher a house-sized magical beast.

‘That would be a bit sad.’
In the past week, Saya has become a very important existence to me.
Since meeting Saya, I’ve been able to smile more, and every day hasn’t been boring.
Saya was the existence that added color to my bland life.

Hug.
As if denying my imagination, Saya gently embraced me.
…It seems my imagination was unfounded.

“Ariel… I missed you…”
I could feel Saya’s body trembling as she hugged me.

“…Me too.”
I hugged Saya tightly until she calmed down.
Until her trembling stopped.

.
.
.

“Zzzz….”
Saya must have been very tired, as she fell asleep as soon as we got home.

‘Tracking magic and… just in case, protection magic too…’
After casting tracking and protection magic while she slept, I reflected on what happened today.
‘Let’s see…’

There’s no way an adventurer would have accidentally found our house in this mountain valley.
The villagers probably instigated it.
‘Asking to kill the witch who brings misfortune.’
I was foolish to have been at ease, thinking they were the type to only threaten without the courage to directly harm.

‘Should we move….’
With this incident, and not knowing what might happen in the future.

Maybe we should just move.
After I leave this place, the remaining magical beasts will gradually come down to the village, but there’s no reason to care about that anymore.
They’ll manage on their own.

…But a part of me also didn’t want to leave this place I’ve already grown accustomed to.
I still don’t have the confidence to live among people.
Moreover, living among people with Saya is quite a risky thing to do.

Using disguise magic could prevent Saya’s identity from being discovered… but still, the risk of her identity being revealed would increase.
There are magicians who can see through disguise magic, and there are magical tools with such functions too.
As it’s directly related to Saya’s safety, we need to be careful.
I gazed intently at Saya’s sleeping face.

A face like an angel.
“Zzz….”

“Saya. What do you want to do..?”
My words, not expecting an answer, merely scattered in the air like an echo.

The villager─Jack, who had led the adventurer to the witch’s house, ran back to the village in a hurry after seeing Ariel and Saya return home.
Afterwards, he reported the situation to the village chief, but the chief glared at Jack as if he couldn’t believe it.

“Does that make any sense? A gold-rank adventurer. The villagers hired him by pooling their meager resources.”
“…Bu-but. I saw the witch return home unharmed! And the adventurer was nowhere to be seen! He might have been eaten…!”
Jack’s legs trembled like an aspen leaf in fear.
Seeing this, the village chief fell into deep thought.

‘It seems to be true…’
The witch who caused a great fire and flood in the village.
Not long after that witch appeared, mysterious disappearances targeting children began to occur in the village.
One day, while suspecting the witch as the culprit behind the disappearances─one of the villagers testified to seeing the witch taking away the missing people.

But all we could do was just hurl abuse in front of the witch’s house.
Meanwhile, disappearances continued to occur within the village.
…Finally, unable to stand by any longer, the villagers pooled their money to hire a gold-rank adventurer.
‘But to think even a gold-rank adventurer was useless….’

Knock knock.
While the village chief was lost in thought, someone knocked on his door.
“Come in.”
Soon, a man opened the door and entered.
It was Cain, who had testified to seeing the witch taking away the missing people.

“What’s the matter?”
“I was curious about how things turned out…”
“…According to Jack, the adventurer failed.”
“I… I see..”
‘Hm? Did he just smile… No, that can’t be.’

Looking at Cain’s face again, it was filled with bewilderment.
The village chief soon thought he must have seen wrong.
“Well then. Rest easy.”
“You too, rest well.”

Whether he really came because he was curious about how things turned out, Cain immediately left.
The village chief, after seeing Cain off, went to sleep thinking he should visit the lord as soon as day breaks.
.
.
.
“Tch. That village chief. Making unnecessary trouble.”

Cain, who had left the village chief’s house, muttered to himself, his previously polite demeanor completely gone.
“Damn. Useless old geezer.”
He was displeased that the village chief had hired a gold-rank adventurer on his own.

It was fortunate that the witch was still alive; if she had died, it would have obviously caused great trouble for his business.
Because there were still ‘those things’ left to be delivered.
For now, he could hide it as the witch’s doing, but if disappearances continued to occur even after the witch was gone, suspicion would turn towards Cain.
‘I should wrap this up after this last delivery…’

The day after that incident.
“Ariel. Where are you going..?”
“Just for a moment. I have somewhere to go.”

I was preparing to go down to the village.
…The reason was, of course, to protest about what happened yesterday.

The initial reason this happened was because I was misunderstood as a witch who brings misfortune.

Honestly, I desperately wanted to make the villagers pay, but I clearly made a mistake by just ignoring the villagers without clearing up the misunderstanding.
That’s why I was going to visit them directly to clear up the misunderstanding.

‘Will I be able to speak well…’

After being betrayed by my most trusted friend in my previous life, I developed a fear of trusting people.
Naturally, I became reluctant to talk to people and avoided conversations out of fear of forming deep relationships with others.
That’s why even after defeating the Demon King, I ended up living in this remote mountain valley.
Of course, young children like Saya are an exception.
Children are basically not good at lying. They don’t do it much in the first place.

“Hm..? Saya?”
Just as I finished preparing and was about to step out the front door, Saya grabbed my collar.
“Saya… Don’t leave me behind..”
Saya said to me, sniffling.
Seeing her like that, I realized my own foolishness.

‘I was short-sighted.’
Maybe because I’ve gotten too used to living alone for the past year, I’ve developed a habit of doing things alone by default.
To think I was about to leave Saya alone after what happened yesterday. I was severely lacking in consideration.

“Alright. Let’s go together, Saya.”
The horns on Saya’s head can be hidden with disguise magic…. At least it’s better than leaving Saya alone at home.
Saya’s face immediately brightened at my words to go together.
“Yay! I love Ariel!”

‘To think I almost couldn’t see this smile again..’
I suddenly felt a surge of anger towards the villagers and the adventurer who broke into our house.
‘Calm down… There’s a child in front of you.’

“…Ariel. Are you… angry? Because of me?”
Oops. Did I fail to manage my expression?
Saya seems to have misunderstood that I was angry because she asked to come along.
Hug.

“I’m not angry! Saya!”
“A-Ariel.. Can’t.. breathe..”
I hugged Saya tightly as she cautiously looked at me. How can she be so cute?
After hugging Saya for a while, I headed down to the village with her.

“Do you really want to walk? We could get there quickly with transfer magic…”
“Saya wants to walk with Ariel!”
“…Alright.”
The mountain path is a bit rough, but it should be fine since I roughly cleared the path last time.

“Ariel! Have we arrived?”
“Yes. See that fence over there? The village is beyond that.”
As we went down the mountain, we saw the fence surrounding the village.
It’s quite well-fortified for a mountain village.
That’s because occasionally, not just magical beasts but also monsters come down to the village.

If you look closely at the fence, you can see some scorch marks.
It’s because when I was killing a magical beast trying to enter the village, the fire spread.
I burned the magical beast that appeared then, but at the same time, the fire spread to the village.

…Honestly, that was my fault. Why did the wind have to blow like that?
I hurriedly summoned water to extinguish the fire, but the output was too strong, and while it put out the fire, it caused a flood in the village.
That’s why the villagers called me a witch.

After the Demon King’s death, the remnants of the Demon King’s army and magical beasts scattered and hid all over the continent.
…The magical beast that attacked the village was one of those cases.
If I had left the magical beast that appeared in the village alone, it would have caused more damage than the flood.

‘To call me a witch without knowing that. It’s too much.’
Of course, I’m also at fault for secluding myself in the mountains without actively explaining.

“Who goes there!”
As we approached the fence, a young man from the village who was on guard duty spotted me and Saya and shouted.
“Shaa!”
Saya raised her claws in response.
…It’s not threatening at all, rather it’s cute.

“Hm? A little girl? Wait a minute. You…you are!!”
The village youth who made eye contact with me soon turned pale and started screaming.
“Witch!!!! The witch has appeared!!!!!!”