Reborn as a witch in another world [slice of life, isekai] (ch. 92)
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 92. Interlude: Mockery
Everything that Gregory wore was enchanted. From his helm to the axe and sword he held in each hand. That meant he could manipulate its properties and make them move without touching them. He had revealed this before the real fight had even begun. And he did it by letting every piece of his gear fall at Lily's feet. It was meant to mock Lily. But it had only pumped her up for the fight even more.
She had never squared off against someone this confident in their own abilities. But more than anything, he made Lily step back and assess him before diving into the duel. That had never happened before either. Lily felt herself smiling wider.
The man didn't rush her. He was waiting for her to make the move first. So he could surprise her. Lily didn't give him a chance. She mentally commanded Opal to take to the air. The windcleaver flew up and then dove towards the man in the armor.
As expected Gregory's first instinct was to jump back to avoid the diving creature. But he found himself in the jaws of a large and equally ferocious beast instead.
The dire wolf's canines sank down on the man's armored torso, waving him around like a ragdoll before slamming him down with a resounding thud. “That was Pearl for you,” Lily said as she dropped down on the man after a seven foot leap.
Her shoe sank deep into the armor as if it was made of cloth. But there was no crunching of bone, no splatter of blood, no crushing of spine. The girl grit her teeth. Another distraction. Old bastard.
That's when the knives that had been strapped to the front of his armor flew up at Lily. She dodged them by a hair's breadth. The attack came when her body wasn't reinforced with wrath. So the blades left cuts on her skin as they grazed past her.
Lily wiped the blood on her cheek–another thing that she couldn't remember doing in a while. She smiled again. This was probably what a fight felt like for a normal person.
“You let your guard down way too often,” Gregory said as he swung his axe at her from behind.
Lily whipped her knife and blocked the attack. She couldn't see Gregory's face because of the cowl he was wearing. But she could tell from his eyes that he was visibly disappointed. “I haven't seen a warrior with so much talent but not even half a brain to put it to good use,” he said.
“So you think I'm talented?” Lily grinned.
“Not anymore,” he said. And Lily felt several sharp stabs in her back. The knives had found her. She grit her teeth. “You are not talented when you lose focus and when you leave the wrong parts vulnerable.”
Through the burning pain, Lily smiled at the man again. “You should follow your own advice,” she said.
And just like that something, long and wet wrapped itself around Gregory's waist like a snake and clenched hard. He was yanked back with a lot of force and thrown several feet away into the forest. Aquamarine appeared next to Lily. The girl smiled and patted the frog on his head. “Good boy, Aqua,” she said, wincing and smiling as she yanked the knives out of her back and whipped out the health potion from her satchel. She chugged it down in a single gulp. All the cuts she had taken in the fight disappeared.
She turned to look at the fallen armor. “Opal, take these and fly off,” she said. The windcleaver squawked and flapped its wings. She leaned down to scoop up the gear with her beak. That's when the armor shifted and transformed into a long chain, wrapping itself around Opal's beak and yanking her down to slam her chin into the ground.
Lily gasped and looked around, jumping away from the pieces of armor. Gregory had already gotten in the vicinity to control the armor remotely. “But how could he…so quick, wait…the sword–”
She whirled around to see the knight in his dark clothes and cowl flying at her, balanced upon his long sword like a slender raft sailing the wind.
“Pearl,” Lily said and the direwolf leapt ahead of her to grab the man riding the sword.
Gregory jumped out of the way and directed the sword in Lily's direction. Aqua didn't let the man escape and shot his tongue at him, snagging him mid air while Pearl pinned him down before he could slip away. Lily grasped the long sword with both hands and spun with its momentum before planting her feet into a nearby tree and launching back at the knight. She brought the sword down as she drew closer to the land.
Gregory's eyes narrowed at the girl who was about to chop him clean in two. Just then, the blade disconnected from the handle and fell away. Lily glared at the weapon and tossed the handle away and instead settled for punching the life out of Gregory's face.
That's when all of the knives, the sword and the axe flew up and pierced all three of her familiars at once. They all disappeared in a mist of white flour. Gregory kicked off the ground before Lily's punch could land. Her fist instead met the ground, cracking it.
Gregory raised his hand and the axe flew into his palm. He swung at the girl while she was still recovering from the blow that her familiars had taken. Lily dodged at the last moment and whipped out her knife. She threw it at the man, who simply deflected it with his axe. But Lily had leapt at him at the moment the knife left her hand. She drove her fist forward.
Gregory had already stepped out of her path and her punch met a tree, striking a hole through the bark. She pulled back her hand and swung her leg up in a fierce kick. A chain wrapped around her ankle and she was yanked off the ground and thrown into a tree, knocking it down. Lily didn't pause to catch her breath. She instead decided to change tactics. She kicked another tree loose and brought her open palm down on it so the main trunk fell in Gregory's direction. The man jumped out of the way to dodge but Lily had already kicked down another tree, making the man hop away once again. But she was already kicking down a third tree. The knight jumped around, nimble as a grasshopper.
Lily was knocking down trees in a way to draw him close. When he was in her range, she summoned Pearl. The direwolf lunged at the man. But Gregory struck her down with his axe, chopping her into a mist of flour once again. Lily charged at the man from behind and drove a fierce kick into his back, throwing him at least three meters forward.
She didn't smile to celebrate the successful blow. She just charged straight ahead once again. She was beyond frustrated, beyond enraged. She had been struck down, disrespected, mocked. She didn't want Gregory to yield. She wanted him dead.
He lay prone a few feet away from his armor and other gear. She launched herself off the ground. She wanted to stomp down on his spine and feel the life abandon his pathetic body under her feet.
But her feet never met his back. Instead two chains snapped around both her wrists and yanked her down, crashing her on the ground. The surprise broke her focus and the fall hurt like hell. She coughed blood. And her head was throbbing.
Gregory appeared over her, sword in hand, the tip was close to her chin. “Such wasted talent,” he said, looking down at her with that same disappointed look. “You made yourself vulnerable by focusing on killing me. You should’ve focused on your surroundings.”
She glared up at him, feeling weak as she lay bound in his chains while he stood over her without an armor. Mockery. That's all she could see.
“You are supposed to control your wrath. But you let it control you instead. Such a waste of talent,” he said again and poked her shoulder with his sword.
She felt dizziness take over her. Her eyes became heavy. But one last realization dawned upon her. “T-The tip of the sword…had a tranquilizer…” she mumbled before the world went dark.
--
Lily woke up in a room she had never seen before. It wasn't a particularly great room but there was a coziness about it that made it feel like home. Or maybe it was just the softness of the mattress she was on.
She got out of bed and walked over to the window. Birds were singing in the trees, sun was shining through the leaves and somewhere a river was flowing. Lily basked in its serenity for a minute before stepping out of the bedroom.
She found Smokewell in a small dining room with a man with silver hair. She sat atop the dinner table while he was at the stove, probably making tea from the scent of it. None of them paid attention to her so she stood and listened in on what they were talking about.
“I'm done fighting for other people, Alana,” the man with silver hair said. Lily could only see his back but she recognized him as Gregory from his voice. He turned out to be much older than she expected. A frown came over her. She got beat by an old man.
“You won't be fighting for other people,” Smokewell said. “You will be fighting for me. Do it for me, Gregory.”
“And who are you fighting for?” Gregory said.
“Money,” she said. “As always. It is about the money.”
Gregory gave an irreverent scoff. “You still use that excuse? It's no surprise that your disciple couldn't decide what she was protecting in that duel. Do me a favor and let that girl go. She will learn more on her own than you can teach her.”
Lily felt her fists clenching. She was standing there. It wasn't like they didn't know that. They were seeing through her. As if it wasn't going to matter what she thought of their statements. She was about to say something when Madam spoke up instead. “Then take her under your wing. Teach her what I can't. I'm sure she will agree that she can learn a lot from you.”
“Alright.” Gregory shrugged. “Leave her here then. I'll let her go when she is proficient enough.”
The cat frowned at the proposal. “What about my other offer?”
“I'm not joining your guild,” he said. “Forget it.”
Lily's fists were still clenched. She thought of what Miss Elsa would say. Then she decided to speak up. “So it really doesn't matter to you that hundreds of people can die because of the monsters breaking out of that dungeon?” she said.
“It doesn't,” Gregory said without flinching. “If I cared I wouldn't have come to live in the forest.”
“So you are okay with this country getting destroyed?” Lily said, her voice furious.
“I've seen it happen several times before. And each time another country is formed out of its ashes,” Gregory said. “So when I say I don't care. I mean I don't give half a damn.”
“How could you call yourself a knight!” Lily snapped. “I thought knights had honor.”
“Honor is just a word. Just like knight is just a word. And words are just noise,” Gregory said, getting up from the chair to go and gaze out at the forest through the kitchen window.
Lily cocked her head. “Is that how you want to play this?” she said. “Fine then. I won't use my words. I'll use my fists. Let's do a rematch.”
“You want to lose again?” Gregory scoffed again. “I took you down without wearing my armor. Are you just into humiliating yourself?”
“I wasn't serious during that fight,” Lily said stubbornly.
“But isn't that your problem? You can't afford to be serious about a fight. Because you are afraid if you get serious, your defeat will hit you harder than you let it hit you other times. You’re afraid of directing your own wrath at yourself. So you direct it at others while pretending to smile and be happy about it. Because you can’t accept your own wrath as a part of you. You only think of it like an armor you can put on and take off any time you want without letting it define you.”
Lily glared daggers at the man. “That's not true!”
“There.” Gregory turned and pointed a finger at her. “That denial. That's what makes you weak. You can't keep acting like your wrath doesn't define you while looking at me like that.”
“So what?” Lily tilted her head, her face twitching as she tried to hide her glare. “You just want me to accept that my anger gives me power? Fine. I accept it. There. I am my wrath.”
Gregory shook his head. “Those are just words. And I think we established that words are just noise.”
Lily groaned. She was very close to pulling her own hair out. “Then what do you want me to do goddammit?!”
A smirk crept onto Gregory's face. “Good question. Curiosity is the first step of enlightenment. Now we just have to see if you have what it takes to get to the last step. Come with me.”
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Posted Jan 10, 2026, 6:26 AM UTC