Reborn as a witch in another world [slice of life, isekai] (ch. 79)
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 79. A Sliver of truth
Despite everything, I didn't feel threatened at all. I didn't have a clear upper hand in this situation but I knew exactly what I had to do. And I knew it was going to get me out of this situation.
I relaxed into my chair and leaned back. “So I can perform the ritual. So what?” I said. “That's supposed to make me a mass murderer?”
The violet eyed siren had a calm look on her face as well. “The situation isn't doing you any favors, dear,” she said. “A theater full of people is the exact place a potential mass murderer would want to be at.”
“You really think I would try something like that at a Natalie King show?” I said. “A woman who is openly popular as a witch from the Soulless Sirens coven? You don't think I would guess that you and other sirens would probably be here too?” I hadn't actually guessed that and only came here as Lily's whim dictated but I doubted the siren would believe that if I told her.
“Criminals are so easy to catch these days that I find most of them to be bankrupt in intelligence,” the siren said. “Not to mention when someone unknown and regular is handed a lot of power, they are going to be reckless about it.”
This time I was actually offended. “Who are you calling a regular?!”
The siren just gave me a disinterested look. “You look awfully regular.”
I grit my teeth but held my tongue. She only dared to call me “regular” because I was wearing the enchanted mask. Real Elsa was a knockout beauty but as much as I wanted to put her in her place I held back myself again. None of it would help besides satisfying my own ego.
“Are you trying to stall until Madam hits the crescendo?” the violet eyed siren said. “If you think you can walk out if you stall long enough, you are sorely mistaken. If you don't do what I say before this song ends, you will be arrested.”
“I'm not stalling,” I said, my voice stiff with restrained anger. I couldn't lose my mind in this situation. So I took a deep breath and looked at her. “I get it. You don't trust me. You don't trust my powers. And you don't trust my reason to be here. But you still want to hear the truth from me? Here it is--that dungeon that the monk of solistism mentioned? It's going to be a real problem soon enough. And I mean a really big problem. If you don't believe that, correspond with your friends in the Internal Police and ask them about any unusual activity that had happened following the repeated earthquakes that occurred in Ravenwind in the past month. There were seven earthquakes in seven different cities. Those cities are Stonebarrow, Noblegate, Cinderburn, Steelfall, Ivan's Hollow, Lockhill and lastly, a little outside of the city of Orowen. Craters have formed in these places after they were hit by the earthquake. My friends and I are trying to stop this problem from getting out of hand. I can't tell you my real name or who my friends are but hurting innocent people is not on our agenda.”
The violet eyed siren was frowning deeply. Probably because she had been listening to my heartbeat throughout the time I gave that little speech. And my heart didn't beat like a liar's. After a moment she just nodded and said, “I see.”
She looked back at the stage where Natalie King was about to begin the ending verse.
The protagonist of the song finally accepted that she was the problem all along. And even though she is going to die, she won't die without the knowledge of her own faults. Seems like in death, she was a better person than she was in life.
Natalie king held the last note steady and raised it to an elegant crescendo.
And that was followed by a well deserved standing ovation. The rest of us stood and applauded her as well. Lily was crying without any restraint now. I was curious what kind of story Natalie's singing had evoked in her.
“M-Music…it's such a beautiful thing…” Lily said between sobs.
“Agreed,” I said.
--
We decided to leave after that first song. We had already missed the train so we would have to board a later one. The violet eyed siren followed us out of the box. “Where are you going?” she asked.
“To the train station,” I said. “Or do you think we are going to murder a bunch of people there?”
Lily, who had been immersed in the song during my exchange with the siren, was visibly baffled. “Wait, murder?”
The siren surprised me with her reaction. She blushed and ran a finger through her hair. The action, even though mundane, seemed a bit unlady-like in her high society, formal attire. “No, I still don't trust you completely,” she said. “But I'm going to cross check the information you gave with the Internal Police.”
“Information?” Lily said, scratching her head.
The siren spoke again. “But you don't seem like a complete liar. So I feel like I've treated you rather unfairly.”
I was surprised. “Oh? Well…um, I don't mind being compensated for being treated like a mass murderer. How about five thousand steambolts?”
The siren chuckled. “No, I wasn't talking about money. I was suggesting I drop you to the train station.”
“Oh? That's actually very kind of you,” I said. “We were going to hail a carriage though.”
The siren rolled her eyes. “Don't you know, according to the multiversal laws of rental commute, you don't turn down a free ride?”
Lily frowned. “Wait, that doesn't sound–”
“No, she is right.” I lightly slapped Lily on the back. “You don't turn down a free ride.”
--
The siren led us down a series of corridors and up a flight of stairs. I was confused. “Shouldn't we go downstairs?” I said.
The siren just gave me a one sided smile over the shoulder. “You want to deal with the evening traffic?” That was a solid argument.
And thus she led us up to the terrace of the Bridgefort theater. The creature stood by the edge of the roof, gazing over the cityline getting enveloped in the dimness of the evening, its feathers glistened in the soft glow of the gas lamps on the street.
“Uh, we are going to ride your familiar?” I said.
The siren familiar turned her feminine head to look at me and spat. “Who are you calling a familiar?!”
I was caught off guard. And partly baffled. And terrified.
The violet eyed witch chuckled. “Grace isn't a familiar. She is a malice demon.”
“A what?” Lily said.
--
Malice demons were creatures that had inherited a soul of a much more intelligent creature. Mostly that soul belonged to a human. I realized that Smokewell was a malice demon too. Heh, so that's what a cat sìth is.
The violet eyed witch, Lily and I were riding Grace the siren's back as she flew across the Noblegate sky. The journey had been mostly silent since we'd taken off. But after a few minutes the witch did break the quiet.
“I don't want you to take my behaviour personally,” she said, her violet eyes taking on a more thoughtful look. “I just…didn't expect you to be at the theater and I wasn't sure what to make of that mark on your hand.”
“It's okay,” I said.
“It's really not, when you think of it.” She shook her head. “Witches should be looking out for each other but…it's not a very forgiving world.”
I looked down at the bustling city of Noblegate as we kept flying. “No, I don't think it is,” I said.
“Sirens don't really have a good reputation, what with our history of manipulating others and all that,” she said. “And it was certainly difficult for us to earn our current reputation ever since the Regulated Practices Agreement was made mandatory. It really made the upper echelons of witches reconsider their old ways. Madam Natalie is the one largely responsible for people's good opinion of us. Music cuts through quite a few barriers if you use it right.”
I just nodded. The witch kept talking.
“It especially wasn't always like this when Bridgefort was first built. It was a lot less lavish, the crowd wasn't lining up to see Madam sing and with the nobility gone, we couldn't rely on any royal patrons. You understand where I'm going with this, don't you?” she said. “It was difficult for us to get where we are now. Even after signing the Agreement with the government, so many people refused to accept our help in the beginning. So when I saw you at the theater with that mark on your palm, I was scared. You had the power to really tarnish the image of witches in Noblegate in one fell swoop.”
“I'm not going to do that,” I said before she could go any further. “I understand and respect what you've built. And I know that my friend and I not working with the government nor with any coven means that the general public thinks we are doing something wrong. But we don’t care what they think as long as they aren’t coming at us with their pitchforks. And what they think of me is not going to stop me from keeping peace with them either.”
“That's admirable,” the young witch said. “But, you are doing more than just keeping peace, aren't you?”
“Yes, yes we are.” I sighed.
“Have you considered working with the government about what you told me regarding these dungeons?” she said.
I scoffed. “You are really going to ask that after giving me that speech?” I said. “Look, the government is going to get involved with the whole dungeon matter sooner or later. My friends and I are just trying to stop things from getting worse than they will without us.”
“Also, there's good money in it,” Lily said.
“Wait, money?” the violet eyed witch said.
I brought my palm to my face. “You weren't supposed to say that.”
“So you are doing this for the money?” the witch said.
“Yes, money is an unavoidable consequence, sister,” I said with an annoyed huff. “And we aren’t going to turn down money that is coming to us through cause and effect. Not like we have a luxury theater as a second income.”
“Yes, I get what you mean.” The violet eyed witch smiled sheepishly.
We arrived at the station. We mounted off Grace's back. “That was wonderful, Gracie,” Lily said and reached out to pat the siren.
The siren growled but Lily patted her head anyway.
“So, you really aren't in a situation to tell me anything more about yourself?” the violet eyed witch said.
I shook my head. “I respect you. But that doesn't mean I trust you or your friends in the Internal Police.”
She nodded. “I wouldn't either if I was in your place.”
“But I'm curious,” I said. “That man you told me about--the one who tried to poison those twenty people, are you sure he could actually perform the ritual? I can't think of many men who are capable of performing witchcraft.”
“No, there are indeed no men who can be witches.” She shook her head. “He was a dark mage.”
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Posted Oct 24, 2025, 5:44 PM UTC