Hunting the Witch Cult

When Subaru returned to the village and asked around, he found that most of the adult Oni already knew disaster was coming. No wonder he hadn't seen a single person working outside today; an eerie silence hung over the entire village.

Subaru acted immediately. He stood in the village square and began telling the villagers who gathered there about the Witch Cultists he had encountered in the forest.

He had already gained some influence by solving the whole village's problem with fire, and the news matched the great calamity the Oni had vaguely sensed was coming. The villagers quickly gathered around him.

"So it was the Witch Cult after all. Kid, you're lucky they didn't spot you, or you'd be dead," someone in the crowd said.

"Yeah, those lunatics don't leave anyone alive wherever they go. So this is what the great calamity really is? I thought it didn't look like we'd have an earthquake today."

"Exactly!"

Subaru raised his voice, drawing everyone's attention. "If nothing unexpected happens, those guys will attack the village tonight! We can't just sit here and wait to die! Anyone who's able to come with me, we have to switch from defense to offense and drive them out of our home before they strike!"

"But... the village chief told everyone to prepare for battle and defend the village. Wouldn't it be too dangerous to go straight into the forest?"

A villager hesitantly raised the objection. The square erupted in discussion at once: voices in agreement, voices in opposition, anxious voices and indecisive ones all mingled in a jumble.

"No!" Subaru shouted, forcibly drowning out the clamor. "If we wait for the Witch Cult to attack, we're finished! Their attack is premeditated, and they've made a plot specifically against the Oni! A Lesser Spirit told me the Mana in the air is gradually being contaminated."

To keep his plan moving forward smoothly, Subaru had to tell a white lie and put the blame on Antares.

"I don't know what methods the Witch Cult used, but they've turned the Mana in the air into poison. Only mages who fight using the Mana in their own bodies can cast spells normally. If the Oni absorb Mana from the air like usual, something terribly bad will happen!"

"Everyone, please believe me! Just this once! If we wait for those guys to come and kill us, it'll be too late!"

Subaru bent at the waist in a ninety-degree bow, making his plea with utmost sincerity.

The villagers looked at one another. Thoughtful, troubled expressions appeared on their faces, and uneasy whispers spread through the crowd.

Many were frightened by the news that the Mana had been contaminated, but it conflicted with the village chief's orders, leaving them unsure whom to listen to.

Just as the crowd found itself caught in a dilemma, a sharp-tongued voice respected by the whole village rang out.

"That stinking old man really knows how to make trouble for Ram. He said he would use the strength of the whole village to protect Ram and make sure Ram survived. He doesn't think Ram would be moved by that, does he?"

Ram walked speechlessly into the center of the crowd and glanced at her younger sister behind her, who had her hands clasped together and was looking at her pleadingly.

I hope I won't regret the decision I made today...

That was what she thought, but she continued speaking.

"Ram can't just hide at home and wait for the Witch Cult to come knocking. A bunch of disgusting creatures are lurking right outside Ram's home. Do you expect Ram to put up with that?"

"Lady Ram! Do you mean..." a villager asked cautiously.

"That's right. Ram is going with this human to kill those Witch Cultists outside the village. Ram has to make you and that stinking old man understand that Ram doesn't need others to sacrifice themselves to protect Ram."

Subaru had persuaded Ram in advance to support his actions.

Of course, going directly to Ram to ask her would most likely have been useless, so Subaru took a roundabout approach and pleaded with Rem instead. He hoped Rem could persuade Ram to support him.

Sure enough, after several rounds of Rem's cajoling, Ram, who might otherwise have flatly refused simply because Subaru rubbed her the wrong way, finally relented.

The villagers talked among themselves, the hesitation in their voices gradually fading. The village chief's first order was to protect Ram, to protect the future of the Oni.

But now that future was about to charge out to fight, so what reason did they have to stay put? Besides, come to think of it, they couldn't stop her even if they tried. Force wouldn't work; nobody in the village could beat Ram.

The adult Oni villagers, their bodies packed with muscle and looking every bit like capable fighters, began getting busy.

A restless pre-battle heat hung over the square. Some people checked their weapons, while others wrapped bandages around their arms. Amid the tense atmosphere, one loud, rough voice stood out.

"Hahaha! What a haul, what a haul! And I'm selling nothing but weapons. This is the life I've always dreamed of as a blacksmith!"

Uncle Baren the blacksmith had a row of gleaming blades, swords, axes and spears laid out at his feet, and his face shone with a radiant smile.

"Uncle, is it really okay to profiteer from a war at a time like this?"

Subaru looked at him, somewhat speechless.

"Hey, kid, you can't put it like that!" Baren raised a finger and wagged it with a perfectly serious expression.

"I'm not fobbing anyone off with shoddy goods. My weapons are the best quality for hundreds of miles around! Every one of them is crafted with care, guaranteed to be worth more than its price! If you're strong enough, you could even chop a dragon's head off in one blow!"

"Of course they are! There's nothing but trees for hundreds of miles around, not even a decent town! Yours is the only blacksmith shop! If there were a human town nearby, I'd have moved there ages ago!"

"Don't worry about the details. It's their own fault for relying on magic so much that their weapons all rusted away and they didn't even have time to replace them. They always had me making hoes and sickles. Trading a little money for your life is worth it any way you look at it, right?"

Subaru looked at his carefree manner.

"Could you at least be a little nervous at a time like this? We're about to go up against a bunch of lunatics. Get too carried away, and you could lose your life."

"Of course. Don't worry, kid. I'll protect you when the time comes."

"Why say something like that all of a sudden?"

"I don't need you to agree to it. You've been living here all by yourself, kid. It must have been hard. You could say I just took a liking to you. Maybe it's because I don't have a son, so I've come to see you that way."

"Can I refuse? I have a dad."

"But they're not here with you now." Baren suddenly dropped his joking expression and placed a large, heavily callused hand on Subaru's shoulder.

"Don't worry. Whether it's the Witch Cult or some other danger, I'll stand in front of you. You just make sure you stay alive, kid."

Subaru suddenly remembered the previous loop, and the burly corpse lying among the burning houses.

Uncle Baren's corpse had been not far from Subaru's front door.

Baren's smithy wasn't even next to Subaru's house, yet he had fallen there. Did he even need to ask why?

"Ooh, what's this? Are you embarrassed? Did I move you?" Seeing Subaru suddenly fall silent, Baren put his flippant expression back on.

"No, you didn't. I just got sand in my eyes."

Subaru blinked hard and turned his head away.

"What? That's such a stale excuse."

Subaru really was moved. He even wanted to step forward and hug this money-grubbing uncle who was so dependable at a time like this, but in the end he held back.

(About Ram's strength with her horn)

(Ram won't lose her horn in this story. The old bastard said that Ram with her horn could rank in the top five strongest in the series, but now that the story has grown longer and longer, that setting has definitely been retconned.)

(Take these five, for example: Reinhard, the Witch of Envy, Divine Dragon Volcanica, First Sword Saint Reid, and World Source Od Laguna. Surely Ram with her horn couldn't beat those five.)

(Also, adult Ram with her horn has almost no showings in the original. Leaving aside Gluttony's mechanics, the one she killed couldn't be considered a top-tier powerhouse at all.)

(The author remembers seeing a setting somewhere that said Ram with her horn had to be an adult, with her horn intact and fully grown, to be that strong.)

(Would little Ram with her horn be only a little weaker than those people above? If she really were that strong, all the Witch Cultists who came to wipe out the clan would have been wiped out in one round, before the side effects could even kick in.)

(So the author thinks adult Ram with her horn is in the same tier as the fully powered Beast of the End Puck, the Witch of Sloth, the Witch of Pride, and the Demon of Melancholy, stronger than Blue Lightning and the Witch of Gluttony.)

(Little Ram with her horn should be in the same tier as Theresia, Echidna, and the Sword Demon at his peak.)