The Reborn Witch had a nice 'Tea Time' with the Dragon Queen today
Chapter 90: Frostbound Vows: The Serpent’s Offer and the Witch’s Grief

Chapter 90: Frostbound Vows: The Serpent’s Offer and the Witch’s Grief

"I am not. I rarely jest without purpose." Coriel’s lips curled up wider, as if promising more politeness. It held an opposite meaning to Manasseh’s eyes.

"Jest? Then did that bout when you manipulated me into action, sent the whole town into a frenzy, your purposeful jest as well?" Manasseh’s brows furrowed, frustrated, pained that the scientist hung her corpse dry for a mere ’jest’.

"Oh, I do not take you for a person who refused to let go of...such minor perturbation." Coriel tilted her head further, amused by her subject’s retort.

"And do not forget. I merely present you with a path that you will partake in. Do you not agree that, in the end, it is your choice, not mine, that matters?"

"You knew full well my mind was cornered at the time, Dragon. I am far from stupid, having to deal with your partnership for the last fifteen years, Coriel."

A blood-tinged hue coiled through Manasseh’s veins. If not for the strength’s difference, she would wish no more than to tear apart the woman and spray her flesh as an offering of gratitude for her ancestor.

"Then allow us to take a step back and focus on another matter." Coriel’s smile never left, as she nailed the vampire with her final suggestion. "Remember 556? The puppet child whose mind I broke?"

"You!" Manasseh’s eyes shook, her steps ever wavering to gorge through the iced ground and kick the daring vampire in the shin.

"Indeed. 556 seems to have a more peculiar... relationship with you than I thought." The serpent’s eyes remain steady, now even more ensured that her venom has entrapped her prey. "Do you perhaps wish to know how to bring a <Drowned> android back to life?"

"If you think that can be used as a weakness against me..."

"I do. I sincerely do." Coriel merely nodded, her satisfactory grin never leaving her face. "It is extremely rare for an opportunity after all. 556’s <Drowned> symptoms have been accelerated by me, and I can confirm personally."

Then, Coriel’s steps, as light as a swan to approach a fish in a pool, tapped the iced ground, her emerald greens coloring the reflection to taint the purity within.

"The Infinite Dungeon. It alone housed a way to heal the Android that even I couldn’t invent, that even my sister couldn’t reverse the damage of." Coriel’s index pointed to the sky as if explaining a mere fact, a fact that would have the Kingdom reveling and exasperated to know.

"...is it true then? That...556...could be healed?" Manasseh’s eyes darted down, the icy grasses met her red eyes, before the greens intruded upon her reds.

"I assure you. It does." Coriel’s finger stretched as she cupped Manasseh’s chin, before holding her head up to meet her gaze. "It is the only way, perhaps, that I could know of."

A <Drowned>’s healing method...unknown to the Kingdom and even to the Holy Church, now within the confinements of this woman’s knowledge. Manasseh sneezed, gritting her teeth, as she uttered.

"I won’t trust you, not ever in this journey."

"I know."

"I will betray you, the first second I know what I am looking for."

"I know."

"I will never forgive you, and the moment I have the strength, I swear upon my resurrected life’s honour that I will kill you."

"You may be welcome to try."

A glare to a smile. A broken avenger to a curious scientist. Under the gaze of Alice’s ice, a reluctant alliance has been formed.

-------------

"Demond...my wife..." Adrei stetched out her hand to her grumply witch, yet the witch merely walked forward.

"Demond...I understand that we may have our differences when it regards to how a...normal romance should have been, but-"

"But I sure hope that doesn’t involve turning an innocent old man into a witch, am I right?"

"..."

A silence that could not be intruded upon by even the glittering runed words and the floating objects enveloped the duo like an awkward cloak. Adrei frowned, then frowned further, the Dragon Queen’s first time for being unable to tease her way out.

Then, as Demond turned the corner, the Dragon Queen’s frown was loosened like cut string, as she glanced upon her wife’s back, her palms gathering into fists.

The Dragon Queen blinked, her hand almost stretched to carrass the witch’s solemn back even if she wasn’t aware of her wife’s predicament, before her arm returned to her waist, as she looked forward to the empty street just as the witch’s eyes did.

Perhaps...her wife was irritated about something else? Or...anxious about what she’s going to lead her to?

Noticing they were straying further and further from the gate, and entering another familiar street two blocks away from the cafe they encountered an ’old friend’, the Dragon Queen widened her eyes, before consciously lowering them.

...she knew full well what her wife is leading her unto, and she was afraid to tell her only bad news.

Together, their steps lingered with each glisten on Alice’s ice, as the Witch’s bare steps threatened to leak out an icy trail again, before they stopped before a sign they once laughed upon

<Cherry’s Bliss>

Chortling to herself, Demond pulled open the wooden door to find a familiar, frozen Android lying on the ground, the elf’s smile still embedded as wide as to her customer, yet an odd sense of peace engulfed the child in a comforting solace among the cold.

"This is..."

"I froze her, Adrei. Right after Coriel left her body." The witch’s step, now as heavy as the coffin of the thousand souls, tapped each regret upon the creaky wooden floor, Alice’s ice on the window unmoving before even grief.

"Adrei." The witch stuttered as she kneeled down and carrassed the ice. "556...answer me honestly, can your <Time Magic> heal the <Drowned>’s symptoms?"

The Dragon’s brows were raised, before shaking her head. "I would have healed every Andriod’s torments if I ever have the capability to, alas...Undine’s curse was not so easily broken."

"I see....I see..." Demond’s head lowered, her hair lock the only curtains to hide her sorrows. "I expected it but....it was never easy huh?"

"My love..."

"Don’t worry. I expect only where we should be headed next." A resolve flared even brighter than the tyrant’s flame coiled up Demond’s tone, as she turned her gaze upon her husband and stood with a steadiness mirroing to when Adil rediscovered her purpose.

"Before the Peace Banquet, shall we try our hardest to at least find a cure for this child?" A smile crept up on the mage, wide enough to tell it is her inbed arrogance, narrow enoguh to hide behind her unspoken regrets.

"It would seem...my love’s mind has already made up a trip for our next destination." Adrei smirked, confidence brewing with the witch’s. "I shall accompany you, no worries."

"As expected of my husband." The witch chuckled before blinking, then narrowing her gaze to the corner.

"Therefore, we shall have some suggestion, don’t you think so, Yasen?"

A shriek of surprise echoed the shop’s tender silence, as the observer’s steps cackled at a corner. Adrei’s draconic lens darted, her flames steaming her scales for a slight irritation of her kins’ disrespectful lateness towards her newly Queen’s order.

"Uh..."

A lone ashen-eyed Dragonoid stepped out, her invisibility ashing away like pieces of fabrics chipping to the cold wind.

"H-how can I help?" Yasen mustered up the best smile she could, for the glare from her Queen and the scowl from the Queen’s wife.