Reborn as a witch in another world [slice of life, isekai] (ch. 77)
Blurb:
What does it take to turn your life around? Death, of course!
I died in this lame ass world of ours and woke up in a completely new one. I had a new name, a new face and a new body. This was my second chance to live a better life than the previous one.
But goddamn it, why did I have to be a witch? Now I don't just have to be on the run from the Inquisition that wants to burn me and my friends. But I also have to earn a living?
Follow Elsa Grimly as she:
- Makes new friends and tries to save them and herself from getting burned
- Finds redemption from the deeds of her previous life
- Tries to get along with a cat who (like most cats) believes she runs the world
- Deals with other slice of life shenanigans.
--
Chapter 77. Land of humans
Lily and I headed out for lunch. The restaurant was a fancier one than where we usually eat. We had our doors opened and our chairs pulled and the napkins laid in our laps for us. The plates were porcelain and the cutlery was silver. All the staff were humans though. And the menu catered to a more human appetite as well. So on second thought, it wasn't nearly as remarkable as getting served by the liches or drakes. But it certainly cost more than most human staffed restaurants we had been to.
We had ox tongue sandwiches with roast chicken and lemon butter. I washed it down with a glass of sherry while Lily had a pint of ale. Conversation was mostly idle and insignificant. It felt good for a change after a night of dealing with monsters and curses and a morning of somber reading at the library.
As we were enjoying the tart for dessert, Lily signaled the waiter over and asked him if he had any suggestions for places tourists should visit.
The man gave several suggestions of some theaters that I turned down with a stern look to Lily. “Ask him about something more brief. We don't have enough time to watch a play.”
Lily huffed and rolled her eyes and looked at the waiter. With a calm smile the man suggested, “You should certainly visit the Noblegate Imperial Hall then. Nothing makes the history of Ravenwind more captivating than the exhibits on display.”
“I love history!” Lily said. “The Imperial Hall it is!”
The sparkle in her eyes and the excitement of her tone made it hard to remind her of our time constraints once again. So I just nodded with a small smile.
Lily left a generous tip for the waiter as I paid the bill and we were off for the Imperial Hall after that.
--
The Noblegate Imperial Hall was a place big enough to be reasonably described as “grand” and “majestic”. The main building was a marble structure balanced upon the shoulders of tall bird headed sentinels on each corner carved intricately from the same material and topped with several spires and a large national flag fluttering in the air. The sigil of a raven's head against the waves of wind. We walked past the tall arched doors and into the museum.
The display at the very beginning was that of the Book of Retellings.
A large painting hung on the wall of three hooded figures standing in the glow of light that seemed to be coming from the sun. But it wasn't the sun.
This was the tale of Four Orators who received the words of the divine and spread them around. Those with whom the words resonated, adopted those words and passed them further to the people they ran into. These people formed their sects and those sects inhabited parts of this country. As more followers joined along, religions were formed.
The account of these sects and their religions and practices was recorded into the Book of Retellings.
The Four Orators are unknown and so were the writers of the Book. It is assumed that the Book must've been written four thousand years ago when the Old Tongue was evolving and becoming a more complex language.
This same language would later be used for making witchcraft spells, manuals and rituals and even other schools of magic would utilize the same language for those purposes.
A thick tome sat open on a velvet pillow behind a glass that looked surprisingly thin. As I stared at the book, its image flickered and shimmered slightly. Then I realized it was an illusion. Made from an enchantment. That made sense.
No museum authority in their right mind would put a sacred document on public display.
“Is this true?” Lily said, gazing up at the paintings on the wall. “A god communicated with those four people?”
“It's certainly possible.” I shrugged. “The Ravenous Ones also communicate with witches in the covens. Remember?”
“Yes, Madam told us about it.” Lily nodded. Then she frowned. “But they communicate with the witches of the highest eschelons. Who was this god, talking to a bunch of nobodies?” Then she paused. Her eyes went wide. “Wait, maybe they weren't nobodies. Maybe they were some kind of angels that disappeared after spreading the word of god.” She covered her mouth with her hand, her face visibly astounded.
I chuckled and nudged her forward. “A good theory. But let's not spend too long on this single exhibit. We need to board the steam locomotive on time after this.”
The next exhibit was much more detailed than the previous one. It was an entire section titled ‘Age of Humans.’ The same period when Ravenwind saw the most wars. Also, the country was simply called the Land of Humans back then. And it was divided in seven parts, ruled by seven different royal families that kept fighting among themselves, trying to unify the nation under one supreme dynasty.
They were Thorngraves in the Copperwall province to the west. Merivane in the Côteclair province in the north west. Kaerthwyn in the Caerwynn province in the north. Solbrecht in Eisenmark province to the east. Vallincourt in the Valecrest province to the south west. Azhakar in Karzhaal province in the south east. And finally Thrymsdottir in Vargstrond province in the south.
Each of these royal families had their own standing army of light magic users. It hadn't been too long since the light magic sects had been formed and they were looking to take in more disciples and strengthen the sect further.
The royalty offered their own subjects as potential disciples in exchange of making the sects swear their allegiance to the royal family. The sect grew their numbers, the royalty became stronger, more wars were fought, more people died and the cycle continued.
“Is this why there are so few light magic users now?” Lily said. “Because most of them just killed each other all those years ago?”
“Seems like it, Lily,” I said absentmindedly. I was mulling over something else. Was the Void of Solistism one of these sects?
Did they develop their sacred vow of silence as a way to protect and preserve whatever members they had left of them?
“Miss Elsa, there's no mention of any of the dark magic sects here,” Lily said.
“I don't think history is comfortable with mentioning them,” I said.
“But look at all these wars.” She waved her arms at all the classical paintings, statues of war generals, crests of each royal family and the sects they had commanded. “So many people died in these wars. And it was a bunch of light magic users who were fighting. History seems plenty comfortable talking about them.”
I pursed my lips. Lily was making too much sense right now. So I grabbed her arm and pulled her close and whispered, “Hush it. I think it is quite clear what the theme of this place is.” I moved my gaze over the museum. “The light magic users slowly lost their numbers. The dark magic users didn't fight any wars for these royals. Which means…” I trailed off, hoping she would pick up on what I was hinting at.
Her wide eyes said that she did. “It means there are a lot more dark magic users now than the light ones!” she said in a hushed whisper.
I spoke again in a quiet voice. “It would make sense why the government stresses on reducing our numbers or making us sign their agreements. The country has already seen what magic is capable of. The idea of a magic that is on the darker spectrum must terrify them. That also explains why the non users are so obsessed with the Steam Elemental, because the inventions he bestowed upon them makes them feel safe. And the government wants to keep reinforcing that feeling of safety. Probably why they formed the Inquisition in the first place.” I looked down at my feet as we slowly made our way across the shiny marble floor. “I'm not saying any of this is fair or right…it's just–”
“Just that people are desperate to not repeat history, right?” Lily said in a solemn tone. Then she scoffed.“I don't think they are doing a very good job. People killed each other to rule this country back then. Now they are just killing in order to keep ruling it.”
--
Further down the line was the section titled Age of Ravenwind.
The age that we were living in. The age heralded by the Steam Elemental. The age where the People's War happened and the nobility was stripped of their privileges. Industries were built, guns were invented, so were the locomotives and the steam boats and the airplanes.
One would expect, there would've been enough time between these inventions. But all of that transpired in a period of mere thirty years. And in another decade the Steam Elemental spread his influence across other provinces of Ravenwind. Though this was still in progress.
This section detailed other things like formation of Inquisition and its efforts in extinguishing the threat of dark magic, the Regulated Practices Agreement and so on.
This was around the same time when Ravenwind opened its doors for trade, made easier by the advancement in technology. This allowed it to let other races such as dwarves, elves, fairies, drakes and such live alongside other humans and aid their progress. Some other races weren't quite in agreement with this. Some of them waged a war against us for that reason.
“Wait,” Lily said. “They all came from other nations?” Her face was pale with shock.
I was just as stumped as her. Maybe we wouldn't have been if Smokewell had sent us to school. Or at least taught us some of this history herself.
Then I remembered the map of old Ravenwind I'd seen in the section of Age of Humans. The country was called the ‘Land of Humans.’
No, it couldn't be that simple, right? I looked around hastily for the current map of the world. It was on a large wall next to a statue of a cannon used in the People’s War. I moved my eyes across the names of the countries.
Veloria, the land of elves. Emberfall, the land of drakes. Morndarlock, the land of dwarves…
“W-We…are the only humans?” I said.
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Posted Oct 8, 2025, 2:34 PM UTC