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C181: THE INVASION OF THE HOLY WITCHES
Yoo-hoo, it’s me again.
We’re back at my farm.
I’ve been irritated lately because of two lovebirds flirting right in front of me.
“Lampeye, your eyes are like a blazing fire. Their radiance enchants me.”
“Hendra, every word you say is filled with intense flames, and its heat melts me.”
…
Yyyyyep, it’s annoying.
We’ve had numerous couples come together on our farm, but none of them were so public in displaying their affection… Until now!!!
Even the Demon King and Mrs. Astres were a bit more reserved in public!
Ugh! This is making me feel sick!!!
“What’s up? I was only out for a short while but it seems like Lampeye’s brain has gone total mush.”
Oh, Puffer.
You’re here today.
“Prince Arowana will get mad at me if I neglect my work here. Once I’m done checking the fridge’s functions, making new pickles, and stirring the bran bed for pickling, I’ll be on my way.”
My.
Thanks for continuing to help us out despite your busy sched.
“By the way, Lord Saint. Isn’t it about time we start recruiting more staff?”
“Huh?”
I took out a starfish from my pocket…
…but it was swatted off my hand.
“With the farm’s gradual expansion, the required production rate also increased, therefore increasing our workload. But we’re not going to be as efficient as we could be if our manpower stays the same.”
“Ah, that again…”
“Garra Rufa has somehow become the medical officer as well, so the sake brewing hasn’t progressed much at all. The supposedly collaborative effort of making fermented food with Platy has been entrusted to me alone ever since she became your exclusive secretary. And Lampeye… Well, she’s practically useless right now since she’s too deep in love, so the mermaid team can no longer sustain itself like this.”
Honestly, even your love affair is playing a factor in our decreased efficiency rate, Puffer.
But what you’re saying still stands correct.
The fermented food department, which is the core of our farm, is on the verge of collapsing due to the ever-increasing number of farm residents and souvenirs we have to distribute regularly.
Platy also complained about the very same situation before, and we eventually solved the problem by recruiting Puffer, Lampeye, and Garra Rufa.
Now that the three of them have found new things they want to do, we’re short on manpower again.
I guess we have to find more people…
Just as I was wondering about what to do, another problem knocked on our door.
“Heh-heh-heh! I finally found you, you witches! So, you were hiding here after all!!!”
“Huh? Who’s that?”
A mysterious voice is suddenly echoing throughout the farm!
I’ve never heard of this voice before.
Is it someone I don’t know?
The voice is shrill and fresh, so I can at least tell it’s of a young girl.
“You must be daft if you don’t know who I am, you landlubber!!! If you don’t know, the world’s compassion will answer you! Listen carefully with your eardrums cleaned out!”
But if I fiddle with my eardrums, won’t I lose my hearing?!
“Veiltail, the Witch of Fire!”
“Discus, the Witch of Ice!”
“Heckelii, the Witch of Air!”
“Batrachus, the Witch of Earth!”
“…And I am the leader of this group, Angel, also known as the Witch of the Holy Light. The five of us are called…”
“THE FIVE LEGITIMATE HOLY WITCHES!!!”
…
Five pretty girls appear in front of us and strike a pose for no reason at all.
…
I feel embarrassed for them.
So, so embarrassed!!!
I’m going to have a seizure from too much embarrassment just looking at them!!!
Why strike a pose on your entry?
And what’s with the overly embellished name?
Who are these girls?!
“Angel? As in…”
“Princess Angel? Why are you here?”
Puffer and Lampeye seem to recognize the group’s leader.
Hendra seems to know as well, so he proceeds to explain things to me.
“Their leader, Lady Angel, is the daughter of His Majesty, King Nagus.”
The king’s daughter?
So…
“She is Prince Arowana and Princess Platy’s younger sister, the second princess with a reputation for being quite mediocre compared to her brother, the next mermaid king, and her older sister, an extolled genius.”
“Don’t say ‘quite mediocre’!!!”
She forcefully butts in Hendra’s explanation.
I see, so she’s Platy’s sister.
“I’m nowhere near mediocre! I’m an elite witch who shines radiantly and reigns over the mermaid magic realm after my late sister Platy!” aggressively bawls out Angel.
But don’t say “late,” because Platy ain’t dead yet.
“She’s just as feisty as her sister, all right.”
“But how did she get here? Isn’t the farm’s location only known to a limited number of people?”
Well, as a member of the royal family of the Mermaid Kingdom, it wouldn’t be a problem for her to have access to top-secret information.
But I knew intuitively that as she’s the kind of person who would never share that information with us.
“It’s simple. I secretly tailed Hendra.”
I knew it, she used illegal means to get here.
“It’s not my fault someone here is careless, hmmm, Hendra?”
“I’m sorry, Lord Saint. I was so engrossed in my love life with Lampeye that I got carried away. My sincerest apologies. Please don’t strangle me, it hurts… No, my neck will snap, it will snap- Ngggggghhhk!”
I put all of my pent-up irritation from seeing their PDA into my Choke Sleeper move.
Meanwhile, I left our unexpected guests to Lampeye and Puffer.
“Now that we know how you got here, what’s the purpose of your visit?”
“Right, that. You even used the humanizing potion to turn yourselves into humans. What brings you girls to such a remote place?”
The two of them are very cautious since they don’t know what the other party is after.
As expected of the Six Witches’ preparedness. However, the intruders’ reactions are unexpected.
“Aaah! The Witch of the Bitter Cold and The Witch of Hellfire!”
“Ice and fire! Two polar opposites! It’s not every day you see them standing next to each other! Ah, what bliss!!!”
“Master Puffer, reputed to be the best outlaw of the Six Witches, and the battle-freak Master Lampeye!”
“I’m going to burn this moment into the retina of my eyes! A core memory for the rest of my life!!!”
…
Why do they feel like trend-followers to me?
Angel, the leader of the group, scolds her joyful underlings.
“What are you all so impressed about? They’re our enemies! We’ve come here today to defeat them!”
To defeat them?
Not more trouble again.
“That’s right! The Six Mad Witches are now relics of the past, and a group will succeed them! That’s us, the Five Legitimate Holy Witches!!!” says Angel, Platy’s sister. “I know Sister Platy’s here! Go and tell her that her replacement has come to challenge her!”