I Picked Up a Witch from a Novel

Twisted Gear.

To put it simply, what intruded into the girl’s life was just that one thing.

Even after intruding, it seemed like it would break and roll away like one of the thousands and millions of tiny pieces at any moment.

In the well-functioning spring mechanism, parts that were more important than that were strewn everywhere.

It felt like such protruding pieces could have no impact on changing the world.

Even so.

The gears always turned at regular intervals, so if there was a problem in just one place, they would start to make a strange ticking sound.

The boy’s seemingly inconsequential actions piled up and piled up.

By the time he expressed with his whole body that he was twisted, it had already begun to lose its regularity with a ticking sound.

Something broke, and something else twisted alongside it.

The flow that was circulating the mechanical device began to shake strangely.

By the time one noticed it too late, the scenery and the sound had definitely changed.

However, that doesn’t mean the mechanical device was completely broken.

Before the twisted gear could completely break down the device, a manager would appear to repair it, and everything that had gone off its track while ticking would find its way back to its proper place.

In literal terms, the boy’s desperate struggles and roaring cries were merely one of those thousands and millions of tiny pieces.

Before that small world was destroyed, everything would ultimately find its original regularity again.

So if one were to ask if the boy’s actions had any meaning.

There would be no choice but to answer that it did.

There was indeed another gear that had become assimilated into the already twisted gear.

Already twisted together, at least in part, it had changed slightly from its original form.

If the number of these changes was less than ten out of thousands, it would seem quite trivial and insignificant, but the change would gradually spread to the surroundings.

By the time the manager would notice it again, it would undoubtedly have become a hundred out of thousands.

By the time they tried to change the gears, it would likely have spread to a thousand out of thousands.

When it’s looked back on, it couldn’t be said to be meaningless.

So it had meaning.

The small affection the boy offered to the girl held such meaning.

For the girl who had been abandoned in the alley, barely surviving day by day.

It was at least more meaningful than anything else.

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Now, it is an old tale.

A nameless girl looked up at the sky.

The story of the days when she murmured her small longing towards the light patterns etched on the dark and vast curtain.

She thought there were gods in the world.

Believing that there was a god who looked at her even in sorrow.

With the strange song of the heavens resonating as “la” and the existence of the boy who came to find her.

She once thought that it was surely the mercy of the god in the high sky who lowered down a small boy named Ain just as small as her.

Even though the small boy had shown her indifference or neglect at their first meeting.

Just the fact that it was neither contempt nor disgust was enough for the girl to think that way.

And in the following days, she would wonder if there really was mercy from the god.

Because the boy came like the wind, gave something, and vanished like the wind.

A boy who, without a word, always looked at her indifferently and gave only what she needed.

At that time, she truly believed that the representative of the gods came to her and gave her a glimmer of hope.

Looking back, it was quite an embarrassing thought, but at that time, the boy’s existence was that for her.

At some point, the girl held warmth.

It was the warmth of hand-me-down clothes given to her by a boy.

Since it was the first thing given to a girl who had nothing.

Just hugging it and staring blankly at the sky would bring back memories of that time.

At some point, the girl started to eat ordinary food.

Now, it was the roughness of the boy who came at regular intervals, just throwing it down and disappearing.

Thanks to that, she no longer had to eat things that were no better than garbage.

Though it wasn’t warm food, what the boy provided was definitely only delicious.

So while chewing it, she began to think of the boy.

At some point, the girl stopped scratching her wounds.

On days when her wounds were severe, it was the boy’s gentle hands that came to apply ointment.

Even while still feeling itchy and painful, the boy’s words not to scratch echoed repeatedly in her ears.

Though he maintained a nonchalant expression, the boy slowly, really slowly entered into her range.

Time passed.

And that day was both like any other day and a different day.

Once a month.

It was the day the still nameless boy visited to give her food and medicine.

The girl spent each day waiting for the boy to come.

Whether it was during the day when the children who disliked her came to throw stones, or at night when the cold wind blew and she endured it wrapped in old clothes.

So she sat there with a blank expression, wishing time would pass quickly.

The boy would come only after the sun set, so she waited for time to move on.

And.

Finally, as the sun was about to set.

As the sound of footsteps approached gradually, the girl perked up her ears, but what appeared was not the boy.

It was a rough-looking man passing through the alley carrying a large sword on his back.

He muttered as he looked at the girl.

“…, Ashen?”

“….”

The low, deep voice was a small murmur, yet it had strength.

There was a power rushing in that filled the alley, and for the first time, the girl thought it was frightening.

“To be in the heart of the Empire and be called Ashen. How absurd.”

“…, Ah.”

Seeing her hair and eyes, he raised the sword.

So when he finally took a step forward, the girl thought and spoke.

It was coming.

Death was slowly approaching the girl.

“…”

“…”

The girl had always wished for death.

Since the past when she was abandoned in the alley and had to face stones every day, she had felt this way.

Hope was never given to her, and everyone always disliked her.

Finding the meaning to live was impossible, so she thought she wanted to die.

“…”

“Ugh…, Ah….”

However, it was no longer the case.

Though it was because of just one reason, she did not want to die anymore because of the boy.

Even if it was just once a month, she wanted to live because the boy would come.

“…”

“Ah….”

As the man approached her, slowly raising his great sword, she trembled.

So.

She wished for him to save her.

Having shown mercy amid such unhappiness, she thought she shouldn’t have to want to die.

But even as she thought that, the great sword was raised high.

Silence hangs for a moment.

Like the calm before a storm, the one who intends to kill and the one who is to die are silent.

The girl realized that death was not postponed, closed her eyes, and the giant man was watching it.

Tick-

Ultimately, death approached.

Tick-

It slowly came for the girl.

Tick-

It whispered that the moment would come with a steady sound.

Tick-

Then another sound mixed in and it stopped.

Thud- thud- thud-

The scale of fate pointing to death was blocked by the urgent footsteps and equally rough breathing.

There was no need to wonder what it was.

“Do you know what you are trying to protect?”

“…, Stay back, don’t come closer.”

Even with her eyes tightly shut, she heard a familiar voice.

Because she heard the voice she so desired, the girl opened her eyes.

And before her stood a back mightier than the man who intended to kill her.

Trembling yet wide open, the boy struggled to somehow block her way.

Even as the sword was aimed at the boy, he growled like a beast, preventing the man from coming closer.

The boy’s tears fell to the ground, and the girl stared blankly at the whole scene.

“Ha.”

A low laugh.

Once more, with the great sword on his back, the man spoke.

“You’re a boy, then.”

“…”

The boy didn’t respond, but the frightening man spoke again.

“That’s how you protect what’s precious.”

“…”

The boy didn’t answer, but he stood firm in front of the girl until the massive figure disappeared.

Precious thing.

Could the girl be something precious to the boy?

She was quite curious about that, but she also wanted to hear it directly from the boy’s mouth.

“…, Are you okay?”

There was no need to be concerned about him.

As the two were left alone in the alley, the first words out of the boy, who sat down before her, were worries for her.

Thus, the girl’s life began to change.

Her desire to die gradually gave way to a desire to live.

The withered emotions began to lift their heads and sprout slowly.

Her wishes were slowly coming true.

The warmth she had longed for was accumulating beside her.

Before long, the girl learned how to lift the corners of her mouth.

With care directed towards her, even her withered body that was dying was growing with the passage of time.

There were indeed gods.

The boy, that boy was the girl’s god.

He might not be omniscient or omnipotent, but he was surely a person who was no different from the girl’s god.

Others may laugh at it.

But every time the girl thought of that moment, she believed it to be true.

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