The Power of the Coffin of Years
"Old man," Anke asked curiously, one hand on the steering wheel, "so when you said that girl looked familiar, did you know her?"
"I didn't," He Ao replied slowly. "She just looked like an old friend of mine. Someone I met while traveling the continent."
"Then maybe she was that girl's ancestor or something?" Anke mused. "Was she that pretty too?"
"Much prettier than her," He Ao said directly.
"Were the two of you not on very good terms?" Anke asked thoughtfully. "I felt like you didn't exactly go easy on that girl either."
"Feeling tenderhearted now?" He Ao laughed.
"No," Anke hurriedly shook his head. "To be fair, old man, if you hadn't acted, she definitely would've killed me and those kids."
"That old friend and I got along quite well at first," He Ao said, his tone pausing slightly, as though he had fallen into some sort of memory. "We were similar in many ways, like old acquaintances who hadn't seen each other in years. Unfortunately, later she insisted I leave her a child, so I could only leave."
"That sounds like some kind of sad, short-lived love story," Anke said in a low voice.
"It was," He Ao said with a smile. "It would've been even better if she hadn't arranged for people to hunt me down and nearly gotten me killed."
"She was that terrifying?" Anke jolted awake at once.
"You can't trust what these witches say." He Ao shrugged.
"By the way, old man, what did you mean by 'Witch Cultists' when you asked that?" Anke immediately remembered something and asked.
"They're cultists who believe in the Desire Witch. She's an Evil God, an Evil God who controls desire," He Ao explained. "Knowing too much about it won't