Mirror, Mirror on the Wall, Who's the Witch of Fate’s Great Call - Chapter 2
The seven sisters ran and ran, fleeing from the witch hunt.
Over a decade later, Kalynia, now an adult, remained a covert witch whose name was yet to be known by anyone.
The little witch who had once boasted that she would become a great witch no longer spoke of such things. Her long years on the run had made the once-bright-eyed girl somewhat cynical.
Kalynia, now an covert witch, returned to her hometown after hearing that it had been ravaged by war. She wanted to see with her own eyes the suffering of the villagers who had treated her family so cruelly.
The sight of the village was as she had hoped—devastated.
Everything was burnt to ashes, leaving nothing behind. At first, she felt a sense of dark satisfaction.
Laughing like a true witch, she mocked their tragedy.
“Are you crazy?”
Catherine asked sharply upon seeing her suddenly start laughing. But Kalynia paid no mind, pointing at the charred central clock tower of the village. It was a place the villagers had always proudly displayed, claiming it held a clock gifted by the king.
However, the laughter didn’t last long. As her giggles faded, Kalynia fell into a deep sense of gloom.
What change did it bring, that these people had finally been punished after so many years? Her life as a fugitive was no better than before.
As this realization dawned on her, everything felt empty and meaningless.
“Let’s go check the house. There probably won’t be anything left, but you never know.”
Catherine said to Kalynia, who had stopped laughing. Kalynia nodded weakly and followed her.
As they trudged along, they finally arrived at their family home. Perhaps because it had been abandoned even before the war, or because it was tucked away in a corner of the village where the soldiers hadn’t found it, their house remained untouched.
The door, barely hanging on, creaked ominously as they pushed it open. The smell of dust filled the air, making them cough. Kalynia covered her nose with her sleeve and looked around the house.
“Almost nothing left.”
Catherine clicked her tongue as she rummaged through the kitchen shelves. The sisters had once hidden precious items there, out of the reach of their younger siblings. But now, only a single broken plate and cobwebs remained. Not a trace of their valuables.
Leaving Catherine to search the shelves, Kalynia moved toward the bedroom. The furniture was all broken and useless, and her bed was no exception.
“It’s been so long.”
Kalynia sighed in amazement. The bed, which had seemed slightly small even when she was nine, now looked like something meant for a newborn baby.
She sat briefly on the bed, its broken legs causing it to tilt, and then she suddenly remembered something. As a child, she used to hide her diary beneath it.
Could it still be there?
With a heart full of anticipation, she lifted the mattress, and, surprisingly, her diary was indeed still there.
The writing was crooked and clumsy, an earnest attempt by her younger self to write neatly, both embarrassing and endearing. Kalynia slowly read through the traces of her childhood, written down years ago.
The entries weren’t so much about her daily life but rather filled with awe at the feats of the great witches, and her desire to become like them someday.
The name that appeared the most was “Grimdelwald.”
“Right…”
She suddenly remembered how she’d once boasted to her sisters about becoming a great witch herself. Back then, she genuinely believed it was possible…
Unexpectedly, her vision blurred. She hadn’t realized tears had started to form.
If Catherine saw her, she’d immediately tease her. Flustered, Kalynia quickly wiped her tears with the back of her hand, but fresh tears continued to well up.
After wiping them two or three times, Kalynia eventually let them flow freely.
Let her tease if she wants.
Half resigning herself, she let the tears fall, but a thought suddenly came to her.
Becoming a great witch was difficult. She knew well that she wasn’t a prodigy, nor were her wand skills nearly as good as her sisters’.
She could barely stay on a broomstick for more than ten minutes.
But stealing a mirror—that much, she could manage, couldn’t she?
“Just you wait! I’ll do something worthy of being called a great witch!”
The voice of her younger self, unaware of the fears of the world, seemed to echo in her ears.
After years of wandering, worn down by life on the run, Kalynia finally felt as though she had found a new goal—a ‘realistic, relatively achievable dream’. Her heart pounded with excitement.
“Catherine!”
Kalynia called to Catherine, who was rummaging through the living room shelves. Without turning around, Catherine responded indifferently.
“What?”
“Let’s go steal Grimdelwald’s mirror!”
The sister, who seemed like she’d never look back, finally turned around to face Kalynia.
“Did I just hear nonsense? What did you say?”
“I heard that although Princess Snow White is long dead, her grandson is now the king. Apparently, the mirror has become a royal treasure under his possession.”
In other words, let’s get rid of Snow White’s grandson and steal the mirror.
Kalynia grinned at Catherine, who looked at her like she’d lost her mind. She was serious.
But Kalynia didn’t know what lay ahead.
*
“S-Stop… So mean… You’ve done it twice, nnngh, already— Ahh, please…!”
Kalynia pleaded with King Vylon.
But the king seemed determined to savor every inch of her. Ignoring her pleas, he pressed against her, biting and moving on her body like a beast, relentless.
So humans are greedy creatures. Do they know nothing of restraint?
Kalynia thought, her mind drifting as her consciousness began to blur. If she had the power of curses, what would she curse him with first?
An eternal sleep that only a princess’s kiss could wake him from? A curse that would turn those who stoned witches into pigs?
No. The first thing she’d do would be to curse this man’s unyielding pride.
“Focus, witch. I’m still… haah… not satisfied.”
Noticing her wandering thoughts, King Vylon warned her sternly.
He wasn’t a man of mere words. With a forceful thrust, he showed her exactly what happened if she didn’t pay attention.
“Ah, ahh, hnnngh… s-sto, stop… mmnh…!”
Kalynia bit her lower lip as her vision went white.
Oh, how did a simple plan to steal a mirror turned into this nightmare?!
