Reborn as a witch in another world [slice of life, isekai] (ch.101)
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 101. Absolute Truth
I don't know how long I stayed like that with my head in Lenora's lap. But she didn't let me feel I had to wrap up my whining soon.
She didn't insist on asking me what had happened that had me in such a state. I was grateful for that too. And I respected her as well. Because I could hear her abyss which kept saying, I don't know what happened to the girl. And I feel afraid to ask her. But I do know that she needs time to process it right now.
So I just took advantage of her kindness and rested there in her warmth. And almost like a dream, the idea occurred to me. “Lenora, do you believe there is anything absolute in this world?” I said.
“I believe there is,” she said, looking out the window with a thoughtful look. “I consider myself a pacifist but even I can't deny that sometimes you need to hurt someone to stop them from doing something bad. But hurting someone just for the sake of hurting them is morally wrong. Like it's the right thing to do to knock someone out who is about to burn a school or a hospital because you are saving lives. But punching an old lady walking down the street just because you can punch her is something I don't hesitate to classify as a wrong thing.”
I chuckled, despite myself. “That actually makes sense,” I said. “Where did you hear that one?”
“My middle school teacher told us about that in class one day,” she said, stroking my hair. “She was quite keen on the importance of kindness. I believe her influence has shaped the kind of person I became.”
“Have you met her recently?” I asked.
Lenora was quiet for a bit before saying, “She died of some kind of disease when I went to highschool. She must’ve been the same age as I am right now. She was gone too soon.”
I went quiet as well. Then I said, “I'm sorry.”
“I'm sure she is at peace though,” Lenora said, her hand slipped off my shoulder.
That's when I sat up and spoke about what had occurred to me. “Would that change anything?” I said.
Lenora looked at me, surprised.
“Does it really matter where we go after we die?” I said.
She cocked her head. “It doesn't?”
I shook my head. “I mean, the core of the soul goes to the spirit realm. And the abyss goes to the World Beyond the Veil. But it's not like there is a heaven or hell like what we think them to be,” I say. “I've seen heaven. And I've seen hell. So I know what we are talking about. Death is just a force of nature. It happens one way or another. What happens after death is not as important as what happens before it. Life,” I said. “Life is what really matters. Life is what gives meaning to death. Even if you die a wretch, what matters is whether you lived as fully as you could. Did you touch lives? Did you make friends? Did you leave something behind for others to remember you by? Did you accomplish what you’d set out to do? That's what matters. Not how you died. But how you lived. It's such a simple thing but such an undeniable truth. It's a shame it took me two lives to figure that out.”
“Two lives?” Lenora frowned.
“That's it,” I said, standing up and pacing back and forth. “It all makes sense now! Martha, who became a curse because all she had in her life was hatred. Oswald, who only brought violence to this world because that's all that he saw growing up. They died in the end but all they left behind was pain and sadness. Because that's all they experienced. If they had a different life, they could've been different people. Because life is what really matters. More than when or where or how you die.”
I was laughing. No, I was cackling. I was going insane. I was feeling brilliant.
Turns out, the Absolute Truth isn't a difficult concept to understand. It is just harder to find because we always overlook it.
I pulled out the black marble from my reticule that Zir had given me. I clutched it tightly in my hand and thought to myself What matters is how you live. Not how you die.
The marble turned gray. I laughed again. I was right.
I'd found the Absolute Truth.
Lenora stared at me, bewildered and concerned as I jumped around and paced back and forth, laughing like a madwoman. But I didn't care. I'd finally figured it out. I knew my absolute truth now.
Lenora finally got up from the sofa and walked over to me and took my hands. “You know what? Maybe you should go and take a nap or something. You need rest, Elsa,” she said.
I calmed myself down. But I couldn't wipe the goofy grin off my face. I nodded. “Yes, I should.”
But Lenora's eyes had moved from my face and were focused on something else instead. She was looking at my hands that she was holding. “Elsa…wasn't the handkerchief stained with your blood?” she said.
I looked at my wounded hand that she had wrapped in her handkerchief. I unwrapped the piece of cloth from around my palm. My skin looked completely unharmed. The blood was gone. And the fabric wasn't stained either.
Then I noticed it. The handkerchief had a pentacle on it with a cup at the center. The cup had gone transparent. The malice divination ritual was complete.
“Lenora, you ended up using your malice,” I said. “And you cured my cut with it. And your malice is something abstract.”
--
I walked into the Skeleton Crew the next day. I was wearing my enchanted mask. I had my hexonomicon and I had another abyss in my bottle of azure varnish.
I'd just killed more than fifty people yesterday. I'd helped an evil goddess slip off her chains. And those things still weighed down on my conscience. But I still felt a sense of confidence as I walked down the lush carpeted floor of the restaurant and up to Zir's office.
I walked in. He wasn't dressed in a sharp tuxedo today. And the room wasn't empty. He was in a long robe instead and there were bunny slippers on his skeletal feet. But he was still sniffing black smoke out of a wine glass.
Even though he didn't have skin on his bones, his skull face seemed surprised when he saw me prancing into his office with a confident gait. I didn't have to say anything. He had already guessed why I was here. “The marble turned gray, didn't it?” he said.
I brandished the small gray sphere triumphantly.
“Fascinating,” he said, tapping a bony finger against his chin. “May I ask what that Absolute Truth is?”
“What truly matters is how you lived. Not how you die,” I said. “I can believe that people can become curses. And I can believe that people die and become nothing. But an Absolute Truth is something that I can't deny. I did what you told me to do. I found my Absolute Truth.”
Zir paused. “Unbelievable,” he said.
I frowned. “What happened?”
“I'm going to teach necromancy to someone who holds a belief like that,” he said, shaking his head.
I chuckled. “You aren't teaching me necromancy. You are teaching a part of it that overlaps with witchcraft.”
“I believe you are right,” he said, sucking in the smoke from his wine glass. I wasn't sure how he did that without any lungs. “Now that you have your Absolute Truth, you are ready to learn about Control.”
He told me what Control truly meant. It wasn't just what you asserted on your surroundings. But what you practiced within yourself. Because you couldn't control your surroundings if you couldn't control yourself.
“Your Absolute Truth has given you something to live by. But now you'll have to practice it each time you invoke the Ruler's Word. You can only become a Ruler if you don't falter from the path of your Absolute Truth. When you let yourself believe something that goes against your truth, your word will become weak. And you will lose control over what is yours,” he said.
“So what should I be doing next?” I said.
“Your next step is to find a part on this plane of existence and claim your ownership on it,” he said. “For that you'll have to mark it as yours. Once you own that part of reality, you will be able to speak the Ruler's Word and summon that part whenever and wherever you want. Whoever lives on that part will be your servant. And whatever exists on that part obeys your word. But remember, as a Ruler, you can't act against your absolute truth. That will make your control weak. In necromancy we simply call that part of the world ‘The Ruler's Land’. But eventually you'll have to give it a name of its own so you can summon it at will. That name is going to be your Ruler's Word.”
I jotted all of it down in my notebook and then I looked up at the tall lich standing in front of me. “Alright, and you have a Ruler’s Land of your own, don't you?” I said.
“Indeed, I do.” He nodded. “Would you like to see it?”
I nodded quickly. “Yes, please!”
Zir'Zulec lifted a finger and pointed it at the ground. “Behold the Hall of Skeleton King.”
As he uttered the words, Zir's office around us disappeared, replaced by a banquet hall with a long table at the center. Candles lit the place, illuminating the ornate patterns on the glass walls and people feasting at the table. They were all skeletons. And there were more than a hundred of them at the feast.
My jaw dropped at the sight. “What is this place?” I said. I realized I was standing next to Zir who was sitting on a throne at the head of the long table.
“It's Limbo. The space between life and death,” he said. “Only necromancers have access to this part of reality. Watch this. Attention!” he snapped, his voice reverberating against the walls like thunder.
The skeletons at the table halted their feast and sat up straight.
“On your feet!” Zir snapped.
The skeletons stood up at once.
“Weapons!” he snapped.
Axes and bucklers and swords and spears and shields and crossbows appeared in the skeletons’ hands.
“At ease,” Zir said.
The weapons disappeared.
“Let the feast continue,” he said.
The skeletons went back to wolfing down the food in front of them.
Zir leaned back in his throne, crossed one bony leg over the other and looked at me. “That's the power of a Ruler in their Land. You can try to attack me but my subjects will obliterate you where you stand,” he said.
I looked at the skeletons, the food they were having, the ornate patterns on the walls. I felt my heart pacing. “You mean…I can have a place like this too?” I said.
“Once you master Control. Yes,” he said and breathed the smoke from his wine glass again.
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Posted Feb 13, 2026, 1:26 PM UTC