Chapter 1000: The Witch Congregation

Selene settled into the chair across from Strax with an almost irritating calm, as though arriving in a foreign kingdom with a proposal to establish hundreds of mages within its borders were nothing more than another academic meeting.

Her two companions remained standing behind her, motionless, while the enormous staff was placed beside the chair.

Even while unused, the crystal at its top continued pulsing softly, absorbing and returning mana to the environment at regular intervals.

Strax noticed that Selene made no effort to completely suppress her presence.

It did not feel like arrogance.

It was simply the natural amount of energy that woman possessed.

"The Witch Congregation has existed far longer than many of the kingdoms that exist today," Selene began. "Our main territory was established in a relatively isolated region because, at the time, it protected us from political conflicts and allowed us to conduct research without outside interference. For centuries, it worked perfectly. The problem is that over the last hundred years, that territory has begun to decline."

Strax sat in the chair opposite her and rested one arm on the table.

"Decline how?"

"Political instability, mostly. Territorial disputes, trade routes disappearing, and Monarchs taking control of nearby regions as though everything around them existed to serve their interests."

Selene could not hide a small expression of contempt when she mentioned the title.

"The White Flame Monarch was particularly irritating. He controlled several sources of magical materials we used and charged absurd tributes simply to allow our caravans to cross certain territories."

Strax tilted his head slightly.

"I killed him."

"We know."

Selene smiled faintly.

"And we thank you."

Strax remained silent for a moment.

She continued before he could comment.

"The Beast Monarch was another problem. The creatures under his control invaded gathering territories, destroyed external laboratories, and forced our researchers to travel accompanied by combat groups. Then Asgard appeared. You killed one, enslaved the other, and within a few years a region that had remained politically unstable for decades began developing protected trade routes, growing cities, and laws that are actually enforced."

Strax ran his fingers over the table.

"So you want to move because I cleaned up the unpleasant neighbors."

"That is a rather inelegant way to put it."

"But correct."

"Yes."

Selene rested her hands on her lap and her expression became a little more serious.

"The Congregation does not need protection in the conventional sense. We have witches powerful enough to destroy armies and defenses capable of stopping ordinary attacks. What we need is stability. Magical research requires decades. Some research requires centuries. It is extremely difficult to devote fifty years to developing a new arcane structure when some Monarch decides to start a war in the region every seven."

That made Strax understand her better.

Asgard had already begun attracting exactly that kind of person.

Blacksmiths wanted permanent workshops because the ore routes were safe.

Merchants brought their families because the roads were protected.

Adventurers stayed because there was work and reliable payment.

Now it seemed larger organizations were beginning to see the same advantage.

"You talk about witches as though they were a separate race," Strax commented. "Are they?"

Selene looked surprised by the question, but immediately shook her head.

"No. Witches are not a race."

"Then what’s the difference between a witch, a mage, and a sorceress?"

"Dedication."

Strax waited for her to elaborate.

Selene raised one hand, and a small blue flame appeared above her index finger.

Then the flame turned into water.

The water condensed into crystal.

The crystal broke apart into tiny magical symbols before disappearing.

"We are women capable of using mana, just like thousands of other people. The difference is that a Witch devotes her life to magical advancement. We do not learn magic merely to fight, work, or solve problems. We study magic because we want to discover how far it can go."

"That sounds like Frieren."

"I don’t know who that is."

"You will."

Selene continued.

"A mage may study dozens of spells and consider herself complete. A sorceress may perfect one affinity and spend the rest of her life using it. A Witch never considers her knowledge sufficient. We can spend forty years trying to improve a single magical formation by three percent simply because we know there is still something left to understand."

Strax stared at her for several seconds.

"That sounds like a disease."

Selene smiled.

"Some people say that."

"You chose the name yourselves?"

"Yes. There were times when ’witch’ was used as an insult. We simply adopted it. Today, it is an internal classification within the Congregation."

Strax slowly nodded.

At least that eliminated the possibility of six hundred members of some unknown race suddenly appearing inside Asgard.

There were still logistical, political, and economic problems, naturally, but those were problems Monica could probably solve after cursing him for a few days.

He decided to reach the part that actually mattered.

"And what do I get?"

Selene raised an eyebrow slightly.

Strax continued before she could answer.

"I don’t mean taxes or another six hundred people buying food at the market. Asgard already has enough military power to defend itself against most threats. I can personally deal with things that would destroy entire kingdoms. So I don’t need a Magic Tower just so I can say I have one."

Selene did not look offended.

Quite the opposite.

That was probably exactly the question she had expected.

"Knowledge."

Strax kept watching her.

Selene pointed toward her staff.

"This staff contains one hundred and nineteen integrated magical formations. None of them were created by me."

That caught his attention.

"How?"

"One Witch created the main structure almost four hundred years ago. Another improved the mana channels. A third developed the technique that prevents the crystal from saturating. Others worked on storage, structural regeneration, elemental compatibility, and spiritual connection."

She took the staff and laid it horizontally across the table.

"This object exists because generations of Witches accumulated knowledge and allowed others to continue from where they stopped."

Strax looked at the crystal.

Now he understood better why the amount of energy inside that thing felt absurd.

Selene continued.

"I cannot guarantee that every Witch in the Congregation will be useful to Asgard. Some will probably never leave their laboratories. Others may spend years studying things you would consider completely useless. But most of them want only two things: to become more powerful and to better understand their own magic."

"That doesn’t sound very different."

"It isn’t. The more we discover about our abilities, the stronger we become. The stronger we become, the more phenomena we can study."

Selene subtly pointed at him.

"You possess abilities that would probably keep some Witches occupied for decades."

Strax laughed.

"They’re not cutting me open on a table."

"Not without permission."

He narrowed his eyes.

Selene smiled as though that were a perfectly acceptable joke.

"Besides, we have archives accumulated over centuries. Alchemy, necromancy, barrier formation, artifact construction, magical engineering, elemental manipulation, enchantments, arcane biology, soul studies, and hundreds of other fields. If we establish a Tower in Asgard, some of that knowledge will inevitably begin circulating between our researchers and yours."

Strax leaned back in his chair.

That was already a much better proposal.

Asgard had talented people.

Frieren, Monica, and several specialists had developed systems that few other territories could even understand, but the kingdom was still young.

It lacked exactly what ancient organizations possessed in abundance.

Accumulated time.

"I need to see it with my own eyes," Strax said. "I’m not authorizing an organization of this size just because you brought me a nice story and an interesting staff."

"That is reasonable."

"I also need to consult my own mage before deciding anything."

Selene nodded.

"Naturally."

Strax looked toward the window for a moment as he thought about Frieren.

The elf was probably still in the underground laboratory working on the artificial bodies.

Since Albedo had stabilized the demonic cores, the main problem had become inserting souls and forming complete identities.

"She’s pretty busy right now," he commented. "She’s creating homunculi."

Selene froze.

Strax noticed immediately.

Her eyes widened.

Not with concern.

With happiness.

"Homunculi?"

Her voice came out far more excited than anything she had said so far.

Strax raised an eyebrow.

"Yes."

Selene stood so quickly that one of the mages behind her took a small step back.

"Flesh homunculi or alchemical?"

"Artificial bodies with their own cores."

"Do they have soul matrices?"

"We’re still solving that part."

Selene grabbed her staff.

"Call her."

Strax stared at her.

"Now."

The diplomatic seriousness had completely disappeared.

Selene looked like a child who had just discovered there was an entire candy store behind the next door.

"Let’s go immediately. We don’t need to continue this meeting here."

"You just spent half an hour explaining why you want a Tower."

"We can continue later."

"You’re abandoning the negotiation."

"You said homunculi."

Strax began to understand why those women called themselves Witches instead of mages.

Selene was already walking toward the door.

"Our Congregation has an entire division dedicated to homunculus research. We have three different schools of artificial-body construction, methods for core stabilization, accelerated growth systems, and techniques for personality integration."

She stopped and turned around.

"We also have specialists in magical golems."

Strax remained seated.

Selene smiled with extraordinary excitement.

"Homunculi and Golems are practically among our specialties."

Strax ran a hand over his face.

"You don’t even know Frieren and you already want to invade her laboratory."

"Exactly."

One of the mages behind Selene finally spoke in a low voice.

"Great Witch... perhaps we should wait for authorization."

Selene looked at him.

The man immediately fell silent.

Strax laughed.

"You two are going to get along far too well."

Selene raised an eyebrow.

"She is also a researcher?"

Strax stood.

"She almost cut open a living creature because she wanted to find out why it learned so quickly."

Selene’s smile widened.

"I already like her."

Strax walked toward the door.

If that reaction was genuine, then perhaps Monica had done much more than simply push a problem onto him.

Perhaps she had just placed one of the greatest magical organizations in the world directly in front of the person capable of deciding whether Asgard truly needed it.

"Let’s go," Strax said. "But if you two blow up my laboratory, the Tower gets built outside the walls."

Selene followed him immediately.

"No promises."