I Became a Forest Witch Who Raises Dragons

Apologize to Saya

“Witch!!!! The witch has appeared!!!!!!”
The man then ran away in a hurry.
“Ariel, what’s a witch?”
“A witch is… a very, very bad magician.”

Is that right? It should be. At least in this world, the term ‘witch’ isn’t used in a positive way.
Hearing my words, Saya shook her head vigorously.
“Ariel.. not a bad magician!”

…What should I do? I want to hug her because she’s so adorable. How can she be this precious?
Saya isn’t my daughter, but I think I understand why people become daughter-obsessed.
Barely resisting the urge to hug Saya, I held her hand and slowly stepped into the village.

“Lo-look over there… It’s the witch from the forest… Who’s that girl next to her..? Could she be her daughter..?”
“Bu-but I heard a gold-rank adventurer went up to eliminate the witch… We should quickly tell the village chief…”

As Saya and I entered the village, people were gathered near the entrance, probably due to the commotion earlier.
The villagers were murmuring as they looked at us.
We’re not zoo animals. How rude.

‘I’ve come to the village, but… who should I talk to?’
I’ve come abruptly, but I can’t just grab anyone and try to start a conversation.
From what I hear from the people around, there seems to be a village chief. Should I wait for him to come?
Murmur murmur.

More and more people are gathering around us. They’re all giving us hostile looks.
“Ariel…”

Is she scared of the people’s gazes?
I could feel Saya’s hand gripping mine tighter.
Maybe I shouldn’t have brought her. It might not be good for a child’s emotions.

Still, they’re not approaching directly, just watching from a distance, so I must be quite scary to them.
‘Is this how people usually act when they’re afraid?’
The villagers’ hatred towards me seemed deeper than I expected. Why?
Even if I caused a fire and flood in the village, it shouldn’t have been enough damage to completely destroy the village.

“Excuse me. I’d like to meet the person who represents the village..”
Thinking that staying like this wouldn’t improve the situation, I spoke to the group of villagers glaring at me.
Whisper whisper.
But none of the villagers answered my question.
…They seem to be ignoring me and talking among themselves.

‘This is starting to get annoying.’
What are they doing, leaving us standing here? The child is getting scared.
As I was getting increasingly irritated by this situation and about to say something,
“Give me back my child!!!!!!! You witch!!!!”
A woman rushed towards me in an agitated state.

‘Hm?’
What did that woman just say? Child?
“Helen!!! Don’t go!!”

Shaking off the villagers trying to stop her, the villager approached me.
She then grabbed my collar and started yelling loudly.
“Give back my child that you took!!!!!!!”
…I don’t understand what she’s saying. Kidnapped a child? Me?

“Do-don’t…!”

While I was speechless from the absurdity, Saya tried to remove the woman’s hands from my collar, getting between me and the villager.
It looked like she was trying to protect me.
“Saya─”
Just as I was about to stop Saya, thinking it could be dangerous.

“Get out of the way!!!”
As if Saya was in her way, the woman roughly pushed her, causing Saya’s light body to be thrown far and fall to the ground.
“Shaa.. It hurts..”
Seeing this, I completely lost the thread of reason I had been barely holding onto.

“Apologize to Saya.”
As I demanded an apology from the woman in front of me, infusing my voice with magical power, the face of the woman who had been wailing uncontrollably started turning pale.
“Th-that’s….”

There’s a limit to patience. Calling me a witch? I can tolerate that.
It’s true that I provided some grounds for it. But what? Kidnapping children? Give back the child?
There’s a limit to falsely accusing an innocent person. Even if I were to tolerate that a hundred times over, what that woman just did to Saya.
That, I absolutely cannot forgive.

“I said, apologize.”
Even though I knew the woman in front of me was having difficulty breathing under the pressure of magical power, I had no intention of withdrawing it.
The anger that had been building up all this time exploded like a dam bursting.
“A…Ariel…”
Even Saya’s frightened voice didn’t reach my ears, which were already excited.

Once exploded, the anger doesn’t easily subside and continues to disturb my mind.
The villagers have suddenly become quiet as mice.
They were looking at me with fear in their eyes.
…Just like those psychos at the magic tower looked at me on the day I burned it down.

All sorts of negative emotions start to overwhelm my mind. They were like a sticky darkness, soon beginning to consume me.
So you too see people as less than human.
That’s why you can act so shamelessly even after instigating my death.
People who think nothing of hurting others.
Fine. I’ll become the monster you wanted me to be.

“Sn..sniff… Ariel…I’m okay… Please stop..”
‘Huh…?’
What woke me from being trapped in negative emotions was Saya’s crying.
Saya, who was hugging my waist and shedding tears like candy beads.

‘What was I about to do?’
Only then did I notice the surrounding scene.
The woman who had grabbed my collar was already unconscious on the ground, and the other villagers were looking this way, terrified.
“Sob…..hic…”
“I’m sorry, Saya. You must have been very scared..”
I hurriedly started to comfort the crying Saya.

Fortunately, she seemed to have calmed down a bit, hugging my waist a little tighter as she spoke.
“Ariel… I was scared…”
“I’m sorry, Saya. Are you hurt anywhere?”
She nodded gently in response to my question.
“Mm-hmm… Is Ariel.. okay?”

“Okay? Of course I’m okay.”
“I’m glad.. hehe..”
Saya buried her face in my arms as she said she was glad.
…Seeing Saya asking about my well-being instead makes me even more ashamed of losing my reason.

‘What am I doing…’
I exploded with anger that had been building up, enraged by the villager’s rough treatment of Saya.
‘Of all things, the villagers’ eyes reminded me of those trash from the magic tower…’
Those trash from the magic tower who treated me as a monster, not a human, and conducted all sorts of unethical experiments.

Those memories still haunt me as trauma even now… and when my emotions ran high, those memories overlapped, causing me to lose my reason.
Step step.
As I was acutely aware of my own weakness, I noticed a man walking towards me.
The man was a slightly hunched old man, but his eyes still held strength no less than a young person’s, as if his vigor hadn’t faded yet.

“I am Galles, the chief of this village. I heard you were looking for someone representing the village…”
‘Saved me the trouble of finding him separately.’

So he’s the village chief. Probably one of the villagers who saw me called him.
“The adventurer who came to our house. Was that your doing?”
I spoke directly to the village chief.
I wasn’t particularly good at beating around the bush, nor did I have the leisure to do so.
The subtle anger still hadn’t subsided.

“Th-that…”
The village chief avoided my eyes, seeming flustered. It was clear without hearing his answer.
Thud. He immediately knelt down in front of me and started begging earnestly.
“It… it was my own decision! I’ll atone with this old man’s life, so please spare the villagers….”

The villagers who were watching this scene started to intervene between me and the chief one by one.
“Pro-protect the village chief!!!”
“You witch!!! If you’re going to kill the chief, kill us too!!!!”
The villagers blocked my way.
It looked like they were trying to protect the chief from me.

“No… When did I…”
“”Eek!!!””
As I made a motion to raise my hand, people screamed in terror.
Yet they don’t run away and stand their ground, which means the chief must be quite respected by the residents.
Swoosh. I raised my hand again.
“”Eeeeek!!!!””

…This is kind of fun. It’s a bit stress-relieving.
“Ariel…bad..”
Oops, did I get too into it?
Stopping my teasing, I spoke to the terrified villagers and the chief.
“…There seems to be a misunderstanding, I didn’t come here to kill anyone.”

“Th-then…”
“I said it, didn’t I? That I wanted to meet the person representing this village. I came to clear up the misunderstandings about me.”
Initially, I just wanted to clear up the misunderstanding about being a witch who brings misfortune, but from what the villager who grabbed my collar said earlier, another concerning issue arose.
‘It seems they misunderstand that I kidnapped children..’
I need to ask about the details first.

“I want to talk with you… Will you stand up first?”
“Ye…yes…”
I pointed at the chief who was still kneeling.
…The chief carefully dusted off his knees and stood up.
“Let’s move somewhere else. It doesn’t seem like we can talk here.”

There are too many people around for now. And more people are gathering.
Thinking that we couldn’t have a calm conversation in this atmosphere, I suggested to the chief that we move somewhere else.
After all, to clear up misunderstandings, it’s more effective to talk with the person representing the village rather than explaining to each person individually.

“I… I understand. Please follow me.”
Saying that, the chief headed somewhere.
The tension was evident in his gait.
“Saya. Let’s follow him.”
“Okay.”
I held Saya’s hand tightly and slowly started following him.