TWCT 001

Prologue

Nice to meet you.

I love him. I love him. I love him deeply.

I don’t want to give this person even a single wound, even a single moment of suffering.

——I wonder if that is where the “Witch of the Substitute” begins.

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I desperately reached out my hand toward his lying body.

When my trembling hand touched him, I could feel the faint rise and fall of his chest—he was still breathing.

“……Lord Feliks, thank goodness……”

When I confirmed that he was alive, I whispered in relief. At that same moment, a magic circle began to spread out around me.

Ancient, lost letters appeared like patterns, forming a circular formation.

King and my husband, Lord Feliks, lay on the ground with his eyes closed, completely soaked.

He had been stabbed in the chest and fallen into the river, but he must have dragged himself back to the shore by his own strength.

He probably lost consciousness the moment he reached land—relief and the depth of his injury overtook him.

His upper body lay on the grass, but part of his legs were still in the river, as if showing he collapsed right there.

I bit my lip hard to stop myself from crying and looked over his body.

Even at a glance, the deep stab wound from his shoulder to his left chest was clearly fatal.

Fresh blood kept flowing. Even though only a short time had passed since he came out of the river, the grass beneath him was already completely stained red.

It was obvious—his life was slipping away.

I called out to the small companion sitting on my shoulder.

“Bad La Batrasdean! Please help me!!”

“…Of course. If you call my true name properly, I have no choice but to obey.”

With a serious voice unlike usual, the creature curled on my shoulder—like a small squirrel—floated into the air.

And in an instant, it expanded many times its size, transforming into a completely different form—an ancient, beautiful sacred beast said to have existed in ancient times.

“Magic circle, three-dimensional expansion—Heaven!”

At those words, light rose from the magic circle toward the sky.

But the moment it touched Feliks’s body, it stopped rising and began to wrap around him instead.

I stared straight at Lord Feliks and raised one hand toward the heavens, declaring the contract.

“Now is the time to execute the ancient contract! I, Rupia Starling, the Witch of the Substitute, offer myself as the sacrifice!
I will not allow any exception!
All of Lord Feliks Starling’s wounds—without hesitation—transfer them to me!!”

——At that moment, we became connected.

Body, soul, and wounds aligned—and in an instant, all of his injuries transferred to me.

“…………Aaaahhhhh!!”

A sharp pain shot through my heart.

Pain, pain, pain, pain—so much pain I couldn’t even scream.

I clenched my teeth, but it was not something I could endure.

…It hurts. It hurts. It hurts!!

My vision turned red. All I could think about was escaping this pain.

Ah… so this is what Lord Feliks endured.

He suffered this kind of pain and still crawled from the river to this shore.

With the wish—I want to live.

If so, then fulfilling that wish is the duty of the Witch of the Substitute…

“Khah…!”

But as if mocking my will to save him, a huge amount of blood spilled from my mouth.

The injury was far worse than I had imagined.

…This is bad.

Even while suffering, I forced my mind to think.

How long would it take for help to arrive?

Feliks’s wounds were gone, but he was unconscious. I didn’t know when he would wake up again… when he would be able to help me.

In the first place, I am a “substitute,” so I don’t die—but only if proper treatment is given.

How long would it take for someone to find us in this remote forest?

And even after that… how long until treatment begins?

As I thought further, the pain made it impossible to stand, and I collapsed to the ground.

——But before I could even feel the grass, something warm and soft caught me.

“It’s a fatal injury, Rupia. To lie here and wait for rescue is the same as choosing death. …I will invite you to my castle. There, we will heal this wound.”

Through my fading consciousness, I heard Bad’s voice.

But my mind was too clouded to understand.

“You don’t need to choose anything. This is the only way to keep you alive. There is no other choice.”

With those words, my consciousness was swallowed by darkness.

——And then, my body too was swallowed by a place not of this world… the castle of the sacred beast “Bad La Batrasdean.”