The first Chapter is very long, it has atleast 34 pages on a document with arial 12. But the first volume only has 9 Chapters. So I will not be labelling them with 1.1 and so on, rather I will just separate them into chapters like c1,c2…. There are those separators (***) in which I will be basing when to end a chapter. This chapter is just an introductory of their earlier life.
As for the pronoun of Gretel, I kept switching between his or her because Katarina still didn’t know he is a boy/man.
When the heavy iron door was closing, the child woke up very surprised. Katarina threw the child on the floor with her bag without any hesitation as she struggled with her feet. The child groaned as if he were sick and rubbed his butt, but fortunately, he did not cry because he knew his current situation.
The child quickly looked over the unfamiliar room. The narrow studio was full of frozen food trashes, sinks piled up with dishes, tables and chairs, sofas covered with laptops and books, closets, dressing tables full of unknown medicines and cosmetics, and beds piled up with blankets. It was messy, but strangely, there was no dirty smell or dust.
Katarina ate the mac and cheese that she had boiled in the morning and left there. The smell was so stinky, but she thought she was still able to eat it. Put the moderately heated mac and cheese on the table. She took out plates and a fork, and as she was about to dig in she heard a sound from behind. Only then did she look back toward the front door where the sound was made. The child was staring at the pot as if possessed. He didn’t even seem to know that his saliva was dripping.
Katarina said, “Do you want some?”
Oh, my. My delicious dish, full of mana, is to be shared now.
She felt sorry that her meal was about to be shared, but when she heard the child was already eating, she couldn’t take back what she had said.
However, because the child took her plate, she stood up to take another set.
Seeing the child eating she thought: “Do I have an extra mouth to feed from now on?”
She didn’t want to go that far.
“Pour as much as you want.”
She sat down and poured mac and cheese on her plate. It was only a few bites before she could feel a small movement across her. She heard the sound of scratching the pot carefully and forking awkwardly on the chair.
The child glanced at the woman secretly and learned how to use a fork. Seeing a woman put yellow, watery, and warm food in her mouth, he quickly put the good-smelling food into his mouth.
The child’s eyes opened wide. He had never had such warm food.
The food was kinda squishy… And fishy food…Anyway, this was better than potatoes and rotting cabbages he always ate in the basement.
With the fullness of his stomach, the tension in his arms and legs gradually eased.
Katarina watched the child put food in his mouth in a hurry. She couldn’t cook. It was a kind of disposition that wouldn’t change in a thousand years. It didn’t taste very good, but the child devoured it as if it was a delicacy. Seeing this, she felt strangely proud.
It’s good to eat well. Yes, grow a little fat and when you are delicious and gain weight, I will eat you up.
The two emptied their plates without saying a word, yet, in that evening they ate a very satisfactory meal.
It’s time to go to bed after eating. She gave a towel to the child and pushed him into the bathroom. There should be a carpet on the floor, so she thought of letting him sleep there in the corner of the room.
Katarina fell on her bed while fiddling with her cell phone, and the bathroom door opened. The child just stuck out his face outside the door and looked at Catarina. He needed to wash up in order to go to bed. Katarina opened her mouth with her eyebrows bent.
“What?”
“….”
He seemed to not know what to say as he opened and closed his mouth.
Katarina thought he was hesitant and tried to think about him.
He was born with a high mana, but a witch like her catched him and he will die just like that. The thought of it eased her mind a little.
“Why, is there no hot water?”
Shake your head.
“Don’t you know what shampoo is like?”
This time, he thinks for a while his head gently up and down. Katarina tried to tell me where thand moves e shampoo and body shower were, but she remembered that the child was only two months old. She approached the child and looked him in the eye. The golden eyes were still full of fear, but the child stood still, holding the door tightly and not avoiding his eyes.
“Sha. Whoa.”
Katarina made eye contact with the child and pronounced each word clearly. A surprise spreads to the child’s eyes, who was just staring at him.
“……!”
the sharing of knowledge
The knowledge and language that witches on the same planet know can be omitted to some extent and put directly into their heads depending on the level of difficulty. Most things that exist in nature can be learned by just looking at them, and simple common sense can be learned by just listening to some words.
This ability also has a personal difference, but given that the child has understood most of what he/she has said so far (actually, he/she had never answered, but Katarina thought so at will), the sharing ability will also be excellent.
“Okay? Go wash up.”
Catarina watched the child nod loudly and enter the bathroom. Soon, I can hear the sound of water pouring from the shower and brushing my teeth. Only then did Katarina remember that she didn’t take out her child’s toothbrush, so I thought it would be a good idea, but it was a toothbrush to throw away and she would die soon, so I let her use it and remove mine.
Catarina woke up with a strange noise. The strange sound came back to me without even a dream. It sounds like something is falling into the sewer and it sounds like a baby bird’s bird’s cry. I’ve never heard of anything like this.
When he was surprised and raised himself from the bed, a black shadow crouched next to the bed jerked toward him.
“Kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk!
A thief or a pervert? Whatever it is, eat this!’
Katarina clenched her teeth and tried to reach out with pepper spray between the wall and the bed….
“Huh… Argh!”
I am awakened by the sound of crying.
Catarina quickly pulled up the curtains on the window. Bright moonlight poured in through a large window that reached the ceiling. As the room brightened, the child was seen crying next to the bed. Katarina sighed with relief after recognizing her short-sleeved T-shirt with a big cartoon character on it.
Oh, I had her in my house.
The sound of crying died down quickly. Katarina looked at the child, who had never been scolded for crying, biting his lips and struggling to stop crying. The child moved his shoulders and wiped the tears with the back of his hand. He then bowed his head to avoid Katarina’s gaze, lying on his back.
“Why did you cry?”
“…….”
The child still didn’t answer, but Katarina didn’t care much. He’s not interested in the reason why he cried.
“Are you going to cry again?”
“Dark….”
The child’s eyes filled with tears again at the words of Katarina. Catarina did not hide her annoyance and sighed with annoyance.
“I have to go to work early tomorrow morning….”
“Uh…”
“How can you not cry?”
“…….”
The child just looked at her with a look of uncertainty. Katarina started to get angry. Seeing you cry, I think your throat is fine, and you understand what I’m saying, so it’s not like you can’t do it. Why aren’t you talking?
As she opened her mouth to say something, the child’s lips opened and a thin voice came out.
“…no… dream… stand.”
[I had a terrible dream.]The room rang slightly due to the mana that flowed out of the mouth, and the child shut up as if surprised. He seemed to have no control over his mana at all. That’s probably why he hasn’t said anything so far.
Katarina just sat on the bed trying to find out if she had a magic pearl that didn’t let anyone have nightmares. Witches who are growing up keep having nightmares. It was a long time ago, but Katarina also experienced it. When suppressing the nightmares of young witches, considerable advanced magic is used, and it takes a lot of mana to use advanced magic. Katarina had to save even a little bit of mana. A small magic pearl, a drop of mana, and everything is money. There was no reason for such an investment in a little witch who would soon go into her stomach.
“Come on up.”
She pulled herself toward the wall to make room for her. The child quickly climbed to bed unlike before. The old mattress is slightly squeaky. It was not a very unfamiliar sensation for Katarina.
Katarina’s teacher would hold her in her arms and put her to sleep whenever she had nightmares. At that time, she could sleep well without having a scary dream until the morning. Her teacher must have cast a spell on her to sleep well, but…Anyway, Katarina wished that it would work a little bit on the little witch.
“My arm.”
The child was surprised by Katarina’s words, opened his eyes wide and his mouth was puffed. Katarina thought it was cute and laughed without realizing it. She grabbed the child’s head and roughly put it on her arm because the child was just frozen in the spot.
The little face of the child was reflected in the bright moonlight. Although slightly swollen, the almond-shaped eyes were still large, and the nose was quite high as a child. Katarina had never seen children of her age carefully, but she could tell that she was especially pretty. Suddenly, I thought about how this child would change when he grew up and how I might miss him.
Katarina fell asleep thinking all the way there. I drove for a total of four hours a day, and I was quite tired because I was plagued by strange people.
Almost as soon as the child lay down, he stared at the face of Katarina, who was asleep. She was the first person to talk to him. His hair was the same color as the darkness that bothered him all the time in the basement, and his eyes were deeper than the pit that fell endlessly in his dreams. He was scared that he would be sucked in if he were looked into the eyes. But it was the only thing he could have.
The child’s eyes just looked at Katarina all night.