VIP Chapter 430: Entering The Witch’s Corridor Again
“Phew… phew… phew… I’m so scared, so scared, so scared!!!”
Liya panted, her hand on the wall of The Witch’s Corridor, trying to calm her racing heart. She paid no mind to the strange portrait she was touching, which depicted what looked like a necromancer, only a skull for a head with hollow eye sockets staring at her.
“That was close. I felt that arrow grazing my head. But, thank goodness, Liya, you managed to pull us here,” Will said calmly. He took off the hat from his head.
There was no need to hide it anymore. Grace had seen him, which meant Carver would know he was alive.
However…
If this was the case, he couldn’t freely go to whichever city he pleased or simply stroll through the streets openly in this world anymore.
He then looked around, his eyes struggling to adjust, so he took out the Monocle he had before and put it on.
“A… Monocle?!”
Unexpectedly, this action elicited an excited shriek from Iaar, an excited shriek that could only be described as such. She suddenly grabbed Will’s hand. Will saw her gray eyes sparkling. He felt her unconsciously grip his hand tightly and bring it to her chest.
“Hm? Wh-What’s wrong?”
“Iaar… No, I’ve always thought Will looks the most dashing with a Monocle. It’s a shame the conditions back then only allowed for a complete pair of glasses split in half…” Iaar was quite forward.
Iaar didn’t shy away. She forgot the distance. She reached out to caress Will’s face, especially the side where he wore the Monocle, and even playfully moved the frame of his Monocle with her hand.
“Mmm…”
“Just as I thought! It looks great! So handsome! I love it!”
“Iaar, you… you’re…”
Even though he had been intimate with many people, Iaar’s direct praise was something he had never experienced before. Moreover, Iaar was acting like his fan, her eyes filled with adoration, reflecting him entirely. It was as if she had finally opened her heart, moving past her previous awkwardness of thinking she was merely a “pet.” Now, she was like a girl genuinely radiating love for him at all times, wagging her tail joyfully.
“Am I… am I being too much? S-Sorry… It seems… it seems I’m still not used to myself like this… If… If Will preferred my old self, Hmph… I can change back…”
“No… just like this,” Will said with a relieved smile.
“Sorry, excuse me, let me transport this—!” Liya, leaning against the side, finally interrupted their overly intimate display by having Al float over. Pouting, she roughly pushed Al as if he were a trolley.
“Mmm… mmm… Where is this…”
During this process, a whimper could be heard from Al, audible to all three present. “My… my head hurts. It feels like something is being poured into it… Ugh… So… so uncomfortable…”
“Huh?! She’s awake already?!” Liya was too surprised. She had expected Al to sleep more soundly, perhaps not waking up even after they transported her to The Witch’s Lair. But to think she’d wake up so soon after they arrived here.
*Splat.*
Because of her surprise, the magic maintaining Al’s flight wavered. Al fell to the ground. Since the drop height wasn’t significant, she didn’t seem to be seriously injured.
“Ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch…” She clutched her head, sitting up and unsure if she was complaining about her headache or her body ache.
“Are you alright?! Are you injured anywhere? Do you need bandages or treatment?” Iaar, ever the caregiver, rushed over first, briefly checking for any external wounds. However, throughout the entire battle, Al had remained safely inside the Fire Dragon, completely unharmed. She looked even healthier than Iaar.
“It shouldn’t be an injury,” Will said, as if he had expected this. He walked over to Al, crouched down, and spoke to her like a child psychologist, “Take your time. I know you’re likely recalling many things now. Don’t resist, just slowly accept it.”
“Slowly… accept…?” Liya noticed that Al’s eyes were not as clear as when they had last seen her outside the Dungeon of The End Ash. Back then, she had seemed like a knowledgeable “elder,” much like most witches Liya had met, just with a youthful appearance. However, she could sometimes be childish, as she hadn’t existed in this world for very long.
But the Al now… she seemed more like a patient suffering from some kind of mental shock. She touched her forehead. Her mental state and personality were completely different from the Al that Liya knew. It was as if… she were battling countless memories and personalities, desperately trying to anchor herself in the process.
“Look at this book. The title… ‘Ice Array (Attack)’ — that’s what it’s titled.” Will produced “Ice Array (Attack).” Liya had transcribed the book herself, even replicating the original text’s font on the cover.
“Is… Ice Array… (Attack)…?” Al’s eyes cleared slightly. She raised her head, squinting, trying her best to see the contents of the book.
“Yes. That’s right. When you open it, the first page looks like this…” As if trying to awaken a memory within Al, he knelt before her, presenting the book “Ice Array (Attack)” and flipping through its pages for her.
“Dear, let me do it. Holding it like this might be tiring…” Iaar walked over, wanting to take the thick book “Ice Array (Attack)” from him, but Will held her hand.
“It’s fine, she’ll only need to look at a few pages before…” Even as he spoke, Will flipped a few more pages of “Ice Array (Attack).”
Then… as he suddenly turned to a page with a very large magic circle printed on it, Al lowered her head, looking extremely uncomfortable.
“It seems this book has also been deciphered… No, wait, how old is this book…” Her way of speaking was slightly different from when she was “Al” before. She sounded much more irritable, and perhaps because she hadn’t fully regained her personality yet, her speech was very hurried, as if she were about to consume herself.
“Will, you’re not planning to use this method, are you…” Looking at Al like this, Liya understood Will’s intention.
“Yes. I want her to become ‘Yar’ completely, to find her personality as ‘Yar’—I can’t describe how much memory she can recall. I’ll do my best.” Will stared intently at Al. Her small, somewhat chubby hands were deeply buried in her hair, gripping her scalp tightly, as if trying to massage her way into remembering.
In the original work, Al was a “special” existence. Her origins became the key to unlocking a corner of the truth about the Adventurers who might have died in the Dungeon. Will just didn’t know why Al was special. If Al remembered everything, he would know this truth. The way she remembered her identity was… while in the cockpit of the Fire Dragon, she accidentally touched a page of Ancient Magic from a book belonging to Liya, which awakened some “past memories,” leading her to realize she was once Yar.
So… if Will could impart the entire content of “Ice Array (Attack)” to her here, wouldn’t she be able to recall almost everything? This was also why he had intended to hit Al with the book and recite the obscure incantations to her. The best way to input knowledge was physically!
“I… I remember. Damn it…” She seemed to finally understand something, and shakily stood up, leaning on the ground.
“You… you remember, then we…” Will couldn’t finish his sentence. The Yar who stood up seemed to have activated a rebound magic, pushing them away.
“Where is this? Damn it, where was I thrown?!” She pushed the hair that had been covering her eyes behind her head, hands on her hips, and surveyed The Witch’s Corridor.
