Reborn as a witch in another world [slice of life, isekai] (ch.105)
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 105. False World
I looked at him quietly for a few minutes, letting the information sink in. “So you are actually a big shot around here?” I said. “Really?”
“Indeed,” he said as he led me down a series of winding paths, flanked by stalls and stores on either side. Then we arrived at a single storey structure. A gilded sign at the top said: Servants of Undeath.
At the front was a lobby, where a bunch of men in wolf and bear masks sat lounging around. They stood with a snap at the sight of the golden masked shepherd walking in.
We made our way to a door at the end of the foyer. On the other side was a hallway with rooms on both sides. There were plaques on their doors that read, Alchemy lab, Armory, Storage. And at the end of this corridor was another door that read Shepherd's Office.
Outside the door, a man in a bull mask stood with a leather hold-all and his head was bowed. “Greetings, honored shepherd,” he said. “I brought what you demanded.”
Zir just gave a nod and opened the door to his office and gestured us to follow. That's when I actually realized that the doors in this place were massive because of how tall Zir was. I held back a chuckle as the image of a new visitor feeling intimidated just from waiting outside his office and looking nervously at the double decker door.
The office itself felt grand and minimalist at the same time. A large mahogany desk sat at the center with a plush leather swivel chair behind it. On the desk sat a golden skull, grinning at whoever entered the room. And all four corners of the room stood four shiny sentinel armors with swords in hands. They looked equal parts for show and actual security, as if they would come to life any moment now.
Zir pointed me and the man in the bull mask to the chairs opposite to his desk while he himself sat in the swivel chair behind the big desk. There was no more preamble after that.
The bull mask opened his hold-all and pulled out a bronze hand mirror from it. He carefully laid it on top of the desk. “It was a bit difficult to acquire,” he said. “And it was a bit expensive. But I found the best one I could since you had an urgent demand.”
Zir nodded. “Good work. You can direct your expense receipts during the next auction to my guild. You may leave now.”
“I'm grateful, honored shepherd,” the bull mask said as he got up from the chair and left the office.
I was eyeing the hand mirror curiously. It looked like a regular mirror except for one thing that made it really, really peculiar. The mirror surface was covered with a metal lid that had runes on top of it.
“That's a barrier,” Zir said as if he had heard my thoughts.
I frowned under my mask. “A barrier against what? A reflection?” I half-chuckled.
“Yes,” he said with such graveness it made me pause mid-chuckle.
“You are not kidding?” I said.
“No,” he said. “It's no joke. I don't believe you've heard the story of Dorian Gray.”
I had to take a pause. I had, in fact, heard of that story. But I wasn't sure he was talking about the same one. So I said, “I haven't. What is it about?”
“This is a story that transpired before the Age of Humans. Back when gods were still an active part of the mortal world. Dorian Gray was a prince who was considered one of the most beautiful men to walk this earth. Well, he was obsessed with his own beauty. And he wanted to preserve it. Immortalize it. So he asked one of the Gods of light magic to grace him with eternal youth. The gods granted his wish. But they bound him by one condition. He was supposed to use the strength of his eternal youth to help the weak and be the just ruler that people needed.
“Dorian kept the promise. But even though immortal and forever young, he was still just one man. And as we all know, humans have a tendency of always seeking chaos. The Age of Humans began. The age when this country saw the most wars. Dorian Gray's kingdom was in danger. His eternal youth wasn't enough. He needed power to protect his people. He sought the help of Gods once again. But Dorian's prayers went unheard. Until someone responded. It was one of the Ravenous Ones. They granted Dorian the power he needed. But they gave him a condition as well.”
I leaned forward, captivated by the tale. “What was the condition this time?” I asked.
“In exchange for protection of his kingdom, he would let the Ravenous One devour his youth. Dorian agreed. His kingdom was saved. But with his youth sucked out of him, he crumbled away like a statue of ash. Now where did his youth go, you may ask? The Ravenous One used it to create the Eternal Imps. They were small in size but they were vicious and violent. And they grew their numbers faster than rabbits and they didn't need to breed for it. Every time they bled, a new imp would rise from the blood. And they were graced with the powers of disguise. They could turn themselves into anyone who met their gaze. Since they were so difficult to kill, one witch came up with the idea of locking them away. But what kind of place could hold them down? That place didn't exist. So she created it. The False World. The mirror dimension.
“It was a world separated from our world by mirrors. You could be banished there. Or if you were suicidal enough, you could enter that place yourself but you couldn't break free.”
I had to stop him right there. “Wait, wait, wait. Are you telling me every reflection we see in the mirror is that of an Eternal Imp?” I said.
“No, the reflection you see is just light bouncing back at you in an orderly pattern and forming an image. But the imps can see you through the unprotected part of the false world. They are harmless while we are here. But nothing can save you from them if you enter an unprotected part of the False World.” He reached out and laid a bony finger on the rune of the hand mirror in front of me. “This is a protected part of it. Inside this mirror, there are no Imps. So this one is safe to use.”
“So, do we go in now?” I asked.
“No,” Zir said bluntly. “Why do you think the place is called the ‘False world?’ Because it is just a pale imitation of this world. For someone like you, someone who needs air to breathe and light to see is going to suffocate in the dark emptiness of that place. You are not prepared for it yet.”
“But I want to see the place,” I said with a huff.
“I know,” Zir said. He grabbed the mirror and rose from his chair. He pointed a finger at the floor. A large magic circle appeared on the ground, foreign words glowed in its outer rim. And there was a triangle at its center. He went and stood in the middle of the triangle with the mirror still in hand. He beckoned me to stand next to him.
I did.
Zir snapped his fingers. The circle glowed and the world around us shifted into one of utter darkness. But the darkness had some texture to it. Like the inside of a cave. And the magic circle protected us from the lack of air or atmosphere that Zir had talked about earlier.
“I got to say it. It's underwhelming,” I said with a nod.
“I don't know what you were expecting.” Zir shrugged his large shoulders. “This place is akin to a vacant lot of land where you can erect a castle. It wasn't going to be much. But the utter darkness has a reason. This part of the False World doesn't have a window.”
“Window?” I looked up at him.
“The window is the face of the mirror,” he said. “In case of this mirror, it is sealed up right now. Because when left open, it attracts the imps trapped in this world. As long as the window remains closed, the Imps stay away.”
“That's the only thing keeping them back?” I said.
“Yes,” Zir said.
I scratched my chin with a skeptical look. “I don't know why but it feels like choosing this place to create my Ruler's Land is a bad idea,” I said.
“Limbo is much more dangerous than this place,” Zir said. “There are creatures that you can’t fathom, stalking its edges like hungry predators. And guess what? Every kingdom has its enemies on the outside. It's all up to the Ruler how strong they make their fortress.”
With that, he snapped his fingers. And we were back in his guild office.
The look of skepticism still hadn't left my face. I pulled out my notebook and pen. “A strong fortress,” I mumbled as I wrote that heading. “Tell me how to make one?” I looked at him.
He took his seat behind his table. “Listen close and write down everything I'm about to tell you,” he said. Then he started talking.
--
Me scribbling my notes and interrupting Zir's lecture with my questions took almost an hour before he finished and rose from his chair. He offered to show me around the Vulture’s Exchange some more and I agreed eagerly.
We walked out of his guild office and into the stone lanes of the market. That's when we were hit with a wall of sound. A commotion coming from not too far away.
“Don't let him escape!” I frowned, feeling a sense of deja vu gnawing at me.
I saw shapes of people rushing in our direction. The man running at the very front wore a rat mask. And he was being chased by a bunch of eagle masks.
A leather satchel swayed sideways on his hips as he ran. He passed us by swiftly before tripping over his own feet. Papers fluttered out of his satchel with his fall. He scrambled to snatch them and stuff them back in his bag while the eagle masks closed in on him.
Before he grabbed the last page and took off running again, I was frowning. I’d recognized what I saw on one of his fallen papers. It had been the mark of the Liberation Ritual.
As the rat and eagles disappeared in a crowd of people ahead, I stepped forth and stood in the spot he had tripped. He had dropped something else he forgot to pick up. A fountain pen. I took the pen and stowed it into my reticule.
“I did feel like I'd seen that mark somewhere before,” Zir said, stepping up next to me.
“There's more to it,” I said. “His ears. They were pointed and visible outside of his mask. He was an elf.”
“A Velorian,” Zir said thoughtfully.
I remembered the map of Ravenwind that I'd seen at the museum in Noblegate.
I remembered the country of Veloria, the Land of elves and fairies. Thrymsdottir province was the part of Ravenwind closest to the home of elves.
Thrymsdottir, I thought, the man that Aria of the Soulless Sirens told me about. The man who tried performing the Liberation Ritual in Noblegate had been from Thrymsdottir too.
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Posted Feb 26, 2026, 1:58 PM UTC