Reborn as a witch in another world [slice of life, isekai] (ch. 97)
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 97. Rule of Absolutes
The next day, I was walking down the dark cavern leading to the Skeleton Crew on my own. Krec let me in without a password. I was one of them now. Part of me was excited about the opportunity. Yesterday's exchange with Zir played in my mind again as I made my way across the dining area of the fancy restaurant.
"Such an interesting demand," Zir had said. "Why would you want to know about the Ruler's Word? Why would you want to learn anything about necromancy?"
"I deal with death more often than people can guess by looking at my face," I said confidently. "And I already practice a type of necromancy. So it's not going to be a completely new sport for me."
"I see," he said and went quiet. His skull face, even though it was forever twisted in a grin, seemed to look more thoughtful in that moment. "I already clarified. Now that you gave me the bloodstone, I won't be able to deny you."
The whole matter with the bloodstone had me more than curious. "What exactly was the deal with that stone?"
"Come back tomorrow at seven in the morning. I'm going to be busy tonight." He got up from his chair and turned to walk towards the door on the opposite end of his office. His evasion to answer my question wasn't graceful at all. And it only made me more curious. Had Godfrey known that I would need to learn more about necromancy? Was this his sneaky way of helping me advance? He was technically a god after all. That meant I couldn't fully comprehend how his mind worked and how far his foresight could reach.
I wasn't going to complain, though. This had turned out to be for my benefit in the end.
"Abandon all hope ye who enter here," said the plaque on the door of Zir's office and below it in parenthesis was the humble request (please wipe your shoes on the doormat before entering). The thing still made me chuckle even though it was my third time walking past this door.
I paused the moment I walked in. The entire office was empty, except for the plush leather settee at the center of the room in which Zir sat. One long leg crossed over the other, dressed in an expensive looking black business suit and a cream colored shirt with a dark tie. A blood red rose peered out of his breast pocket. And he held a wine glass in one hand. But it didn't have any wine in it. Instead, pale grey smoke swirled within it.
"Are you sure you are going to teach me necromancy?" I said. "You seem to be dressed to ask me out on a date." I grinned.
"I'm playing the role of a mentor today. The role demands a certain level of...presence. Especially since the subject of focus deals with death." He raised his glass full of grey smoke as if to take a sip. But he breathed it in through his triangular nose hole and let out a sigh of content. He rose to his feet, the glass and the settee disappeared with his action.
I asked him what I was supposed to do about my reticule and my hat. He snapped his fingers and made them disappear in a blink. I was surprised but he was quick to reassure me that my belongings were safe.
"Before we begin, I need to know, why do you need to learn this art?" he said.
I cocked my head. "I think I already told you."
"You gave me a non-answer," he said. "I'm not trying to pry into your business but you need to know necromancy isn't just tinkering around with the rules of death. It's an art that deals in absolutes. Even if you don't tell me, your reason to voice the Ruler's Word needs to be absolutely clear to you. So is it clear to you?"
I paused before speaking.
"Hesitation," he said, his voice as swift as the ocean breeze.
"You didn't give me even a second to respond."
"There's a reason why I mentioned the word 'absolute' while describing necromancy," he said. "You don't need a moment. You only need resolve, Grimly. The resolve to do something that all mortals hesitate to do. That's the reason why only liches can truly perform it. We have to sacrifice our souls before we can learn its dark secrets. Something like that doesn't happen with hesitation."
I listened to him carefully and then I looked at the floor which was as dark as the night sky. Zir didn't interrupt me this time. He was letting me have my moment before I made my resolve. Then I looked up at him. "I want to learn Control," I said. "I want to manifest it at will."
Zir stared at me. Control was a branch of necromancy that dealt with manipulation on several levels--physical, psychological, spiritual and something even beyond that. Whoever mastered all kinds of Control could not just raise the dead from the grave but make them unstoppable, granting them specific amounts of humanity so they could do the Controller's bidding.
"You won't be able to use it to do what a lich can," Zir warned.
"I don't intend to make the dead walk and dance around for me," I said. "I want to learn enough Control to invoke the Ruler's Word. I'm going to face-up against something very formidable. I don't just want to hold my own against it. I want to be the one who wins."
"Alright then," Zir said without letting my statement linger. "I think we can begin now."
--
Zir spent the next half hour explaining to me the importance of 'Absolutes' in necromancy. How it was the very foundation of the discipline and how it was the biggest barrier of entry for anyone who thought the art of manipulating the dead was a cool thing. "And the reason why I'm emphasizing the importance of Absolutes to you is because of who you are," he said. "Asmod has told me about the kind of witchcraft that you and your friends perform. And I've heard about Lady Smokewell's work. Those who believe in curses, believe in the ultimate uncertainties of life. Will someone find peace? Whether someone will become a creature of malice? ‘Whether’ and ‘maybe’ aren't the language of necromancy."
I frowned as I listened to him carefully. "But it is difficult to ignore the uncertainties." I scratched my chin. It was especially difficult for me to believe in the Absolutes. I had a different life before this. I'd died like anyone dies but I hadn't remained dead. I lived again after tasting death. And I wasn't myself anymore. How was I supposed to believe in Absolutes after going through all of that? Especially now that I knew that curses existed. And they were nothing but the hatred of those who died in misery and their hatred became a power that burned everything.
Zir lifted a skeletal finger, pointing at me. "That right there is what I was talking about," he said. "You either believe in curses or you believe in the ultimate end. Unless you don't fully accept the latter, you can't find Control. And you can't invoke the Ruler's Word."
"How am I supposed to do that?" I spread my hands wide, feeling lost. "Curses are what give me power."
"I thought it was knowledge that gave you power," he said, his tone was that of probing, as if he was trying to dig something from my heart that I had kept buried.
"Right now, my knowledge is what keeps me from believing in Absolutes," I said. "When I apply what I know, patterns emerge. And when I see patterns, I see their differences. So believing in Absolutes makes sense even less."
"Do you want to invoke the Ruler's Word? Yes or no?" he said.
"Yes!" I said, frustrated.
"You are not being honest," he said. "Because you don't know who a Ruler truly is." He slid his hands into his pockets. "That's your homework for today. Find something that is Absolute. Something that you believe to be the ultimate truth." He pulled out a small black sphere from his pocket and tossed it at me. It was the size of a marble. "When you'll discover your ultimate truth, the sphere should turn gray. If it doesn't, then you are nowhere close to being a Ruler of anything. Class dismissed."
“Wait, I have a question!” I said. “What's the fastest anyone has found the Absolute truth?”
“Everyone finds it when they want to gain Control,” he said.
****
I didn't go home after our “class”. But I didn't linger at the Skeleton Crew either. Even though I had been offered complimentary drinks because of Zir's partnership with my friends and I.
Instead I went to a park and sat on a bench. An old man was throwing bread crumbs at the pigeons on the far opposite end. A bunch of kids were playing tag on the grass. The clouds were lumbering across the sky. The wind was slow
I just sat and kept thinking.
How could there be any absolutes in a world like this? This was the place where angels tricked the needy out of their souls, where heaven was a place where humans went and returned as monsters, where mortal life was a game for the amusement of gods.
I remembered Oswald Gooding, the man who had grown up surrounded by violence and responded to the world with violence of his own. I remembered Martha Langsdale who had been hated by the world and she became hatred herself, consuming innocent lives even after she had perished. Yet, here I was thinking that maybe they could've been different if they lived in a different world.
What else was I supposed to believe? Ever since I was reborn, I treated everything like a second chance. And the value of second chances had soared in my eyes. If I didn't believe everyone deserved a second chance it would mean that I believed I didn't deserve it either. And if I didn’t deserve it, I would just go back to being who I was before I became Elsa.
So even “everyone deserves a second chance” wasn’t my absolute truth either. It was just naive optimism that kept me sane.
A part of me knew, not everyone deserved a second chance. Not everyone would make the most of it if it came knocking at their door.
So where was the Absolute? Here, everything was uncertain and gray.
I looked at the black marble. I smiled wryly. “Except for you,” I said. “No, you aren't gray yet.” I sighed tiredly and looked up at the sky. “How am I supposed to find something that I can't deny?”
Patreon (if you wanna read advanced chapters. It has 2-5 weeks worth of chapters rn, depending on the tier)
Posted Feb 9, 2026, 4:48 PM UTC