Chapter 460: Witch of the Black Rose

Kouhei stared at it for several seconds.

That was certainly one way to welcome guests.

The timing was suspiciously convenient, though, and Kouhei immediately began considering the obvious possibilities. Perhaps their arrival had been anticipated, and someone inside had been waiting for them.

Alternatively, the witch could have already noticed them before they even reached the gate.

Considering the kind of person they were dealing with, the second possibility did not seem particularly unreasonable.

Kouhei stepped forward with Yuka and Yuuna following behind him.

The three of them passed through the open gate and entered the property.

The front garden was just as impressive as the house itself.

There was plenty of open space, carefully maintained greenery, and a long path leading toward the main entrance. Kouhei could not help looking around as they walked, partly because he was curious and partly because he was trying to determine whether anything else was going to suddenly come alive and start talking to them.

After what had happened with the gate, he was not willing to rule anything out.

They continued walking for a while before something appeared in their path.

It was a black cat.

The animal stood in front of them, seemingly without a care in the world.

Yuka stopped.

Yuuna stopped as well.

Kouhei stopped because both of them had stopped.

For several seconds, nobody said anything.

Kouhei looked at the cat.

Then he looked at Yuka.

Then he looked at Yuuna.

Neither of them seemed particularly surprised by the animal’s appearance.

Kouhei, meanwhile, had absolutely no idea what was going on.

"Good to see you again, Wanda," Yuka said.

Kouhei’s attention immediately shifted toward her.

Again?

Apparently, this was someone Yuka already knew.

The black cat looked toward Yuka.

"Yuka of the Sano Family... and Yuuna of the Sarushima Family, huh?"

Kouhei’s expression slowly changed.

The cat spoke?!

Kouhei stared at it.

For several seconds, his brain seemed to refuse to accept what his eyes and ears had just experienced.

He had already encountered plenty of strange things in his life. At this point, Kouhei had seen enough supernatural nonsense that he should probably have stopped being surprised by anything.

Yet somehow, a talking black cat still managed to catch him off guard.

The cat turned toward him.

"And you... who are you?"

Kouhei remained silent for a moment.

He looked at Yuka.

Then he looked at Yuuna.

Neither seemed interested in explaining the situation, which meant Kouhei was apparently expected to handle this himself.

Considering the fact that Yuka and Yuuna had stopped when the cat appeared, Kouhei assumed that this was probably someone important.

He also began wondering whether this talking cat was actually the witch they had come here to meet.

It would not have been the strangest thing he had encountered.

"Kouhei," he answered.

The cat looked at him for a moment.

She seemed to be thinking about the name, almost as though she were searching through her memory for something familiar.

Then her expression changed.

"Okumura Kouhei, one of the Demon Lord candidates, huh?"

Kouhei raised an eyebrow.

"So you know who I am?"

"I know of you," the cat replied.

Kouhei did not know whether that answer was supposed to make him feel better or more nervous.

The cat then smiled.

It was a strange smile.

The expression itself looked almost human, which was precisely what made it so unsettling when it appeared on the face of a black cat.

The cat finally turned around.

"Follow me. I’ll bring you to the Witch."

Kouhei blinked.

His assumption that this cat was the witch had just collapsed in less than ten seconds.

***

Wanda had brought them straight toward the middle of the garden, precisely to a quiet area that seemed almost completely separated from everything else around it.

Someone was already sitting there, occupying one of the chairs positioned beside a round porcelain table. She was calmly drinking tea underneath a large umbrella, looking so completely relaxed that the arrival of three unexpected visitors did not seem to bother her in the slightest. She simply sat there with her teacup in hand.

Kouhei found the whole thing strangely surreal.

The woman had white, porcelain-like skin and ashen white hair, both of which were so incredibly pale that Hina’s silver hair looked noticeably darker in comparison. She wore a black one-piece dress that contrasted strongly against her unusually pale appearance, making her look even more striking from a distance.

Her eyes were completely black, and the color was made even more noticeable by her white eyebrows and eyelashes. There was something unsettling about her.

Kouhei had to admit that her eyes were rather terrifying to look at.

The cat casually walked toward the Witch, climbed onto her lap, and immediately curled herself up before going to sleep. She did it with such complete confidence that Kouhei could only stare for a moment.

"I’ve been waiting for you," the Witch said calmly. "Child of Anti-Prophecy."

Kouhei’s expression changed slightly when he heard that.

She had been waiting for them?

The way she said it made it sound like their arrival had been expected.

"You’ve been waiting for me?" Kouhei asked, looking at her carefully. "And how do you know that I am..."

"That you are the Child of Anti-Prophecy?" the Witch finished for him without any hesitation. "Of course I know. You are someone who has been the subject of much discussion throughout the demon world, as well as among the humans who know about the existence of the supernatural. Someone like me was bound to hear about you eventually."

Her explanation was delivered so casually that it almost made the information sound unimportant.

The witch looked at the three of them for a few moments, seemingly studying them without saying anything else. Afterward, she raised one hand and motioned toward the empty chairs around the table.

"Please, have a seat," she said. "I prepared places for all three of you."

The three of them eventually sat down, taking the chairs that had been prepared for them.

Petra then began placing teacups in front of each of them, moving with the relaxed manner of someone who had done this countless times before. When she stood, Wanda on her lap jumped off. She picked up the teapot and poured tea into their cups one after another.

"You must have been rather tired from your journey," Petra said as she continued pouring the tea. "Coming all this way just to meet me must have taken some effort."

"We’re actually not tired," Kouhei said honestly.

Petra gave a quiet laugh.

"Fufufufu, well, you don’t have to be so stiff around me," she said with an amused smile. "You are making this feel much more formal than it needs to be."

She paused for a moment before suddenly seeming to remember something.

"Oops, I haven’t introduced myself yet, have I?"

Petra performed a small curtsy before introducing herself with an almost theatrical amount of elegance.

"My name is Petra, the Witch of the Black Rose."

"Okumura Kouhei, head of the Kouhei Faction," Kouhei said in return, giving her a slight bow from his seat.

Petra smiled after hearing his introduction and then sat back down. The moment she did, Wanda went back to her lap.

"You are very polite for a faction head," she said. "You certainly don’t seem like someone I know."

She did not mention the name of the person she was referring to.

Kouhei immediately had a pretty good idea of who she meant.

Considering that Petra already knew Yuka, and considering that Yuka was currently sitting right there with them, it was difficult to imagine that Petra’s comment was directed toward anyone else.

Yuka did not seem particularly interested in defending herself.

Petra picked up her teacup and took a small sip before continuing.

"Anyway, what is it that you want from me?" she asked. "You didn’t come all this way simply to have tea with me, I assume."

Kouhei took a deep breath before answering.

Honestly, he had no idea whether Petra could actually help them with their situation. They had come to her because she was supposed to possess knowledge that might be useful, but there was still a chance that even someone like her would not have an answer for what they were dealing with.

Still, their situation was serious enough that they could not afford to simply give up without asking.

If there was even a small possibility that Petra knew something useful, then Kouhei thought it was worth bringing the problem to her.

She certainly looked reliable enough, at least from what he could tell.

"Do you know if there is something we can do for someone who has holy power inside their body?" Kouhei asked carefully. "They’re a demon, so that power isn’t compatible with them, and it’s causing a problem."

The moment Petra heard the question, she stopped before taking another sip of tea.

Her teacup remained close to her lips for a brief moment before she slowly lowered it.

Then she looked directly at Kouhei.

"I see," Petra said.

Her expression had changed slightly.

"So you have come here because of the demon who possesses fallen angel blood."

Kouhei’s eyes narrowed slightly.

She already knew.

He had barely explained anything, yet Petra had immediately connected the description to the person they were talking about. That made things much easier than Kouhei had expected, because he had been prepared to spend quite a while explaining the entire situation from the beginning.

At least they could skip that part.

Kouhei had even started to feel a little hopeful.

Unfortunately, that feeling lasted only a few seconds.

Petra calmly placed her teacup back onto the table and looked at Kouhei.

"I’m sorry," she said. "But there is nothing I can do about it."

The answer immediately crushed the small amount of hope Kouhei had just managed to build up.