Ever since Sine could remember, she loved witches. There was something so fantastic about imagining cute witches brewing potions or casting spells. Sine remembered the reason she got detention on that fateful day. She’d been doodling witches in her notebook instead of paying attention to the teacher.

Even in detention, the small girl didn’t learn her lesson though. Sine spent most of the time there reading about witches—a manga she had gotten from the school’s library. Sumire had tried talking to her, but Sine was too engrossed in the book.

It wasn’t like Sine had a vendetta against the popular girl. On the contrary, Sine respected her, but Sumire could never understand Sine. The small witch-obsessed girl mostly stayed quiet and kept to herself.

That had all changed when Goddess Kreah summoned them to her domain. Sine was awestruck by the beautiful woman but was more awed by the circumstances.

“All of you heroes will have your desires granted,” Kreah said. “You only need to defeat the Demon King…”

Sine had stopped listening after that. She only cared about the part where Kreah would grant her desires. And the only thing she ever wanted was a cute witch to pamper her. Sine wished for such childish things as the heroes were transported to Candlewax Kingdom’s capital.

The first day in the castle was hectic. Sine and the other seven heroes were introduced to their maids, dressed in extravagant clothing, and displayed like trophies before the city people. They had all become like runway princesses—even though four were boys.

After that, the heroes were taken to the church’s temple to gain an understanding of their blessings.

Sine obtained the Blessing of the Caller. According to the church, her gift would enable her to summon or tame strong creatures. Still, the weakness would be her relatively low magical capacity compared to the other sorcerers in the party. Her growth would be the slowest but would end with a pinnacle much higher than Sumire.

Sumire gained the Blessing of All-Magic. Her magic capacity would start huge, and she could easily cast most spells. Her only weakness would be becoming a master of none. Her spells would be strong, but none would reach the peak of this world’s specialized magicians.

Riri, the last girl of the heroes’ party, got the Blessing of the Saintess, coming as no surprise to the rest of the heroes. She’d always been kind at school. The fact that she had landed herself in detention was odd.

After the last heroes got their blessings, things continued to be hectic. During the following two weeks, the heroes trained most of the time. The country's best mage trained Sumire, yet Sine had two trainers.

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One of Sine’s teachers was an S+ ranker of the tamer’s guild, and the other had been a professor of summoning at the magic academy.

Even with the fantastical nature of magic and summoning, Sine felt bored. She could only summon a small demonic-looking bat with a strange crest. It hadn’t been useful for much except giving it pats, which Sine passed her time in boredom by doing so. Either that, or she spent her free time in the grand library of the castle.

She found intrigue in many tales, but there had been one problem. There were no witches!

However, one day, that all changed! In this enormous city, she’d found a single witch on a regular outing to collect magic potions. Sine couldn’t believe it. It took everything she had not to jump on her at the first chance.

With sparkling eyes, Sine planned her escape from the castle that afternoon.

image [https://i.imgur.com/vP8tmMc.png]I let the two girls explore my house while I made them food. Everyone knows that any witch can cook! I at least had that part down after the three thousand years of isolation, or was it three hundred?

Either way, I poured the asparagus into a boiling pot, using various spices from my inventory. I poured magic mushrooms from my starter forest, and a few strange garlic cloves gathered around there. All I knew was that they were tasty by themselves, so the blend would be divine! The whole time I mixed and swirled the ingredients, I tried to not think of my predicament.

I wondered what would happen to a criminal who kidnapped two little girls and served them dubious food. Maybe I would receive divine punishment? But it wasn’t my fault! They were the ones who misunderstood the situation! I was an innocent Witchhat.

As I sighed, I felt Sine’s arms wrap around me again. “Back already?”

It was Sumire who answered in Sine’s stead. “This place is enormous. It’s a wonder you can find your way around here.”

“Well, that will happen if you build on it for a hundred years. Eventually, the house will become huge,” I said.

“A hundred years? Aren’t you from Earth?” She asked. I was happy she had calmed down enough to sit comfortably on my couch, but I didn’t expect her to ask that.

“You know about Earth?” I asked.

“Duh, that’s where Sine and I are from.”

I could only gape at her while continuing to stir the pot. If they came from Earth, did that make them some divine traveling actors? Maybe they were a troupe that traversed universes vast?

“By the way,” Sumire said. “There is no way I am eating that!”

“I eat witch’s food.”

“Sine!?”

“Witch food,” Sine said, drooling onto the back of my robes.

Sumire slumped onto the couch, sighing in resignation. “I don’t care!”

Somehow, watching this scene felt nostalgic. It had been quite lonely over the few millennia I had been here. I made a few friends, sure. But none of them would understand traversing from another planet.

I finally got Sine to let go when the pot was finished cooking. I poured each of them a glob of the soup, sitting across from Sumire. I was lucky to include two couches in the building of this place. Sine decided to sit on my lap.

Both of them took the first bite of soup at the same time.

“It’s so…”