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C120: MERMAID AFTER MERMAID
“Zoth Syra came?” asks Puffer, Witch of the Bitter Cold, a fellow worker on our farm.
It seems she wasn’t aware of Zoth Syra’s visit.
“…Well, I was so absorbed in fermenting food that I’ve been holed up at the brewery.”
“You’re trying to make all sorts of cheese with the help of the satyrs, right?” says Garra Rufa, Witch of the Plague.
She’s interested in the lactic-acid bacilli present in yogurt, so she’s been researching it while working at the liquor brewery.
This bacteria nerd, I swear.
“She’s the rumored ‘Witch of the Abyss,’ correct? I’ve never had the chance to meet her until today.”
“Even Lampeye just came back from hunting in the mountain dungeon.”
Lampeye, the Witch of Hellfire, and Platy the Crowned Witch, my wife, are here…
“We sure have a lot of mermaids belonging to the Mad Six here with us.”
“DON’T CALL US BY THAT NAME!!!”
All of them gave me a menacing look.
Do they really hate the name that much?
“I detest it! It makes it sound like we’re a bunch of kids trying too hard to be adults! It’s a load of bull, I tell you! Load of bull!!!”
“Even I don’t want to be seen as a pretentious child… It’s just too embarrassing for me to bear!”
“What’s so hard about calling us something simple as ‘The Six Witches?’ There are six of us, after all.”
“I want to beat the living daylights out of whoever added the ‘mad’ part.”
Everyone is voicing out their disapproval.
It seems that there is an equivalent of “chuunibyou” in this world, but the majority of society shuns upon them.
“…Anyway, had I known about Zoth Syra’s arrival, I would’ve come out to greet her. If she thought I was pretending to be away or something, I’m going to face the consequences later!”
“Are you acquainted with Miss Zoth Syra, Puffer?”
“She’s my instructor who taught me all about pharmaceutical magic!”
“I see. You were a disciple of the Witch of the Abyss.”
“No wonder you’re both tsunderes.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?!”
She doesn’t know what their words meant, but she at least suspects that they weren’t complimenting her from the sound of it.
Well, she is a tsundere.
That’s when I suddenly remembered something, so I casually asked them a question.
“So, even though you’re members of The Six Great Mad Witches, you’re not acquainted with each other?”
“THE SIX WITCHES.”
They were dead set on correcting me.
“Well, of course. Besides, ‘The Six Witches’ is just a group name that arose spontaneously from the word on the streets.”
“It was simply a matter of knowing who the top-class mermaids are, and it just so happens that there are six of us.”
So, that means they weren’t aware of it themselves until the rumor became widespread enough, along with the embarrassing nickname.
“They selected the elite person from various fields. I never knew about the others, so this is the first time we’ve met,” says Garra Rufa.
“The only person among us whom I already knew is Lampeye, who used to serve us as an Imperial Guard. If she weren’t a royal guard, we wouldn’t have been this close…”
“I feel supreme bliss just by being able to protect Princess Platy here on the farm directly!”
“Make sure to also do your part at the brewery, okay?”
So, the pipe dream of the six witches gathering was realized here.
It’s actually kind of extravagant and awe-inspiring.
“Hmm, in that case…”
“The Six Witches” means that there are six members, right?
We have Platy, Puffer, Lampeye, and Garra Rufa here at the farm.
Add Zoth Syra, who will now come to visit us every once in a while. That makes it five.
That means there’s one more person.
“What kind of person is the sixth witch?”
I was dying to know, but my question made everyone quiet.
“The last member of The Six Witches… ‘The Witch of Darkness!’”
“She does exist, right? We’ve got eyewitness testimonies, right?”
“I heard that the credibility of that testimony has become less reliable recently! They say they mistook a dugong for the witch. The controversy of ‘The Witch of Darkness’ remains vague.”
“I support the theory of light refraction!”
Why would you make someone with an ambiguous existence a member of the Six Witches?!
Since it’s still the mermaids’ spotlight, I have one more thing to add that happened recently.
I gave Garra Rufa a certain present.
She’s called “The Witch of the Plague” and is a progressive oddball who managed to discover the existence of bacteria.
We started producing glass ever since the elves came on our farm, so using that same glass, I asked them to make a particular something—a microscope.
With it, anyone can observe microscopic organisms that are usually not seen by the naked eye.
Other than the lens, the rest of the microscope’s parts were made with wood, so its performance is generations inferior to my world’s cutting-edge technology.
Even then, when I gave it to Garra Rufa, she was on cloud nine.
“ASDFGHJKLSQWETPOXBFDLAKMBNWOAHWOWOWWOWCMVBCN?!”
She reacted like that.
I can’t even tell whether she’s happy or amazed. At least speak intelligible human language, Garra Rufa.
I put a drop of water from the rice field on the glass slide and made her peek into the microscope.
Garra Rufa was once again delighted.
“They’re wriggling around, Lord Saint! These are the bacteria, right?!”
“Try magnifying them even more with the lens.”
Also, I think those are Paramecium.
“How astounding! This will help with my research greatly! I love you, Lord Saint! I love you, love you, love you!!!”
“…”
Garra Rufa says some irrevocable words rather lightly.
“…Dear?”
Platy was in the background this whole time, but I didn’t notice her at all.
“Do you want to make Garra Rufa your concubine? Oh well, I’m more comfortable with having people from my own race in our bedroom.”
No, you’re mistaken…
I gifted her a microscope just because my desire happened to align with our circumstances…
It’s not like I have any ulterior motives…
Seeing her happy does make me happy as well, though.
“You’re free to have as many mistresses as you want. Just make sure you love all of them equally. You can’t just do anyone as you please. I won’t allow that as your legal wife.”
You don’t have to warn me about that!
And why are you nonchalantly giving me consent to commit adultery?!
One final thing about the mermaids.
Something was being plotted deep within the sea, a territory utterly unknown to me.
“Well then…What about Princess Platy, the ‘Crowned Witch?’”
“Yes, Ma’am. According to the rumors at the royal palace, she is unlikely to return. She’s been exiled for the rest of her life on land.”
“Great! Because the Witch of the Bitter Cold, Witch of Hellfire, and the Witch of the Plague are all imprisoned while the remaining two are fugitives, never to show themselves.”
“In short, The Six Mad Witches are no more.”
“Then, our time has finally come. The best witches who really should be worshipped in the Mermaid Kingdom. Noble, elegant, and elite…”
“THE FIVE LEGITIMATE WITCHES!!!”
“Hah! Ha! Ha! Just you watch, Sis Platy! I and my comrades will rule the magic realm of the Mermaid Kingdom in your place!