Witches, a race of beings living alongside the many races of the demon realms. Their appearance, as human as it can possibly be but their power anything but. Divinations, summoning, spells, alchemy, rune script are some of the gifts they possess, some wielding more powerful gifts than others. 

A few thousand years ago, some witches interested in the ways of humans, creatures quite like them in appearance and mannerisms. They wanted to satisfy their dying curiosity about the human way of life, so they slipped into the human world to go mingle about. They returned to the demon realms years later, or at least, some of them anyway, with news about the human world after successfully planting the seeds of their legacy all around that world. We’re about to meet one of these legacies of their journey to the human world and as shocking as it may sound, he’s dying already, all thanks to the efforts of his very own admirer and friend. 

[Flashback] 

A few hours ago, Shalia presented Marcel with some food. Marcel ate the roast chicken, only a bite though, then as if he wasn’t expecting this to happen, he got struck by a splitting headache, so painful that he fainted. Spoiler alert: He really wasn’t expecting this.  

He awoke a few minutes later, in the kitchen surprisingly and not in Shalia’s bed. He asked her if she snuck something into the food and here’s what she answered. 

“Oh, it’s nothing. I just added a dash of special elven witch love potion... and then more of it. I did so that we could spend our first night together in each other’s embrace. I read the instructions clearly and it didn’t mention anything about a splitting headache.” Marcel was surprised at the lengths this woman would go to just to end up in bed with her. He thought that he’d seen everything after the past few months of living with her. He didn’t think that she’d stoop as low as drugging him through food, the one thing he can’t resist taking a bite of. He asked her if she had a recipe for it and she went to find it, then handed it over to him. Written at the end of the recipe was a foot note that read:

<< Warning: Recipe may have an unintended effect on witches. If fed to witches, it’ll induce a painful and unforgettable headache that may or may not be continued after seven days. >>  

Marcel looked at the warning at the end of the recipe and thought, I’m not a witch, as said painful and unforgettable headache hit him. He fell to the ground and opened his eyes again three days later.  

[End of Flashback] 

The first thing he saw after waking up was a sleeping Shalia beside his bed and Sephana putting a towel over his head. He was currently in her infirmary. 

“Oh, you’re awake. How do you feel?” Sephana asked. 

“Well, I could be worse,” Marcel answered, feeling awful. He hadn’t drunk much alcohol but was this how the infamous ‘hangover’ was supposed to feel like. No, this was worse than any hangover. His entire body screamed in pain and he felt a splitting headache that threatened to put him on the verge of unconsciousness.  

“Haha! I see!” Sephana laughed at his answer, then took a seat on the left side of Marcel’s bed opposite Shalia. 

“There’s something I have to tell you.” She seemed to have caught Marcel’s attention by her serious tone. She continued, “Well, remember how I was talking to you about witches that one time. Well, surprise, surprise... you’re a witch. To be more precise, you have the partially awakened blood of a powerful witch running through your veins.” Marcel listened, unbelieving what he was hearing. 

He couldn’t stop himself from screaming “What!!!” both internally and externally. His screaming was the last push his headache needed to knock him out. 

* * *  

He regained consciousness a few moments later but his mind was in complete disarray. Did he just hear what he thought he did before he fell unconscious? Did he hear Sephana say that he was a witch? 

For the next twenty minutes, Marcel sat on the bed with a blank expression. He may look awake, but his mind had already left the room. He processed the information he’d received, trying to grasp it. His sensory perception shut off and he lost all his senses until he was completely isolated from the world, his mind having traveled to a different realm. 

“Marcel! You’re awake! I didn’t think that the love potion wouldn’t work or that you’re a witch.” Shalia who’d just woken up from sleeping beside her resting prince’s bed spoke in a frantic voice. Tears streaming from beneath her eyes. Marcel stared into the depths of emptiness with a blank expression, his vision having long left him. Shalia felt so apologetic for what she’d done and desperately wanted to beg for forgiveness, wanting to make things right but Marcel’s mind wasn’t with them. He showed no reaction at all. 

“Shalia, leave him alone. He’s going through a tough phase right now. He probably always thought he was human through and through, never imagining being anything but and even thinking that he’d be coming here to sacrifice his humanity for the sake of defeating the Demon Lord but then, he discovered that his origins were entangled with ours far more than he realized. How is he supposed to react to this? Just accept it? Let’s go.” Sephana said to an apologetic Shalia who had no choice but to leave as Sephana said.  

Shalia left the room, walking with Allan who stood by the door, not knowing what to do. When he heard that his best friend had been poisoned, he rushed to Sephana’s infirmary. He could have never imagined that it was because his best friend and himself shared more than he knew. He walked with Shalia to the courtyard where they sat, awaiting further news about Marcel’s condition when he came to. 

Marcel continued to sit in his dazed state, trying to understand the situation, his mind slowly returning to the same realm as the others the more he grasped. This was about him accepting that he knew nothing about himself far more than he wanted to admit, and it would take some time. He processed the information bit by bit and slowly, his mind returned to being one with his body. He was slowly regaining his senses; first his field of vision, then later, his hearing and other senses, and just when he started to, Sephana noticed. 

“Ah! You’re awake now. Good!” She said smiling. Marcel still couldn’t hear anything she said and didn’t react at all. He continued to sit on the bed with a blank expression. 

“Call me if you need anything! I’ll be in my workplace. Don’t worry about it too much. Shalia only made a teeny piece of your witch blood awaken, although that much was barely enough to keep you protected from ailments caused by witches' spells. I’ll be leaving now.” She thought he heard him, but he could hardly make out what the words she spoke even were. His senses were slowly returning but still, he couldn’t perceive much. His mind was still not fully back yet. 

Sephana left to tell the others about Marcel’s current condition and about twenty minutes after she left, came the Demon Lord in to check on Marcel.  

“Are you alright now?” He asked, his expression slightly worried. Marcel nodded, having regained some control over his body. 

The Demon Lord noticing his nod continued, “I... I knew... about it... your witch bloodline, I mean.” The Demon Lord’s words seemed to reboot Marcel’s thought processes and jolted the last of his mind out of his daze and back to the real world. He couldn’t believe his ears. Was he mistaken?