Chapter 57: Marcel’s… a what…!? (Part 2)
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Oh heavens! Did the Demon Lord just say what he thought he did? Did he just hear him say that he already knew about his witch bloodline? 

“Since when?” Marcel asked inquiringly with a weak voice, his expression still blank, having not fully gained control over his facial expressions. He was incredibly shocked, but his face looked so callous that it made the Demon Lord nervous. Marcel should be shouting by now, shouldn’t he? This expression was one he wasn’t used to, and it made him very uncomfortable like he was talking to a stranger instead of the person he regularly teased. 

“Since the time we shared the night together, I’d say.” He answered nervously. “The day after we met. You remember how I said I made Sigurd, right? Well, before making the blade, I had to analyze the essence I was going to put in it, your essence, and purify it, or I thought so, so the day after I got Frostbite’s scale, I began analyzing it and I found out. Sorry for not telling you... It’s not a strange fact though. Ravencasters are the best at hiding among humans because of their almost fully human appearance and aura. They’re part of the few witches who’ve been to human worlds and left descendants there. You must be one of those descendants.” The Demon Lord answered. This filled Marcel with even more shock. Roughly a year and a half ago, Sephana told him what hair meant according to witches and now he finds out that he’s one of them? How many more surprises is he going to get? 

“Are there any more surprises in store for me in the future or is this it?” Marcel just couldn’t stop himself from asking. He sounded so unenthusiastic and apathetic that the Demon Lord was speechless. Marcel asked, his face showing that he could take more but the Demon Lord knew from how reactionless Marcel was from his usual self that telling him anymore right now would have a negative effect on his psyche. He only learned that he possessed the blood of a witch, making him not very human and this is how his mind becomes. He can’t imagine what would happen if he told Marcel about that other secret. 

 

“I’ll investigate for you. I’m sure there’s more. I’ll find out and tell you when the time is right. You just rest for now. Your friends are very worried about you. They’ll come to visit later, so try to save up enough of your energy for then, okay?” The Demon Lord said with a soft expression on his face and swept his fingers through Marcel’s hair, then he left. Marcel sat there, his mind that had finally returned from his deep analytic moment slowly returning to his usual self. 

The Demon Lord was right. Now’s not the time to tell Marcel most of what he knew about him. After all, he’s been watching him from when he was ten. Of course, he would have done some research on the person who’d come slay him in the future, and what he found was astonishing. Marcel isn’t ready for any of that yet if this is how he acts after being told something as minor as having another non-human blood flowing through in his veins. 

Marcel sat there, in that room, all alone and thinking about what he’d just heard, and just like that, he fell asleep. His mind had worked for way too long. The last forty minutes he spent not feeling anything felt so much longer than that. He thought he’d spent a day trying to process the information but then his mind came back, and he found out that so little time inside his head than he thought. Sleeping was going to do him so much good.  

He woke up again two hours later surrounded by the people he was familiar with. Silva, Valeria, Allan, Nigel, Daniel, and Evan, and even the one who caused all this mess, Shalia. They were all standing around his bed and when they saw him wake up, they rushed to him and asked if he was alright. The Demon Lord was right. He really was going to need the energy to pull through to the end of this visit or else, he might end up collapsing from the liveliness these people brought with them. His headache still wasn’t gone so he had to take it easy before he fainted again. 

After spending several hours with his friends, he felt so much better already. They were lively and extremely worried when they heard from Allan that he suddenly wasn’t feeling well. He watched Silva be sharp-tongued and almost fight with Valeria because of it, Evan got beaten by his brother like usual because of how rudely he spoke to him, Shalia fawn over him even more although he didn’t want any of it, and Allan who quietly watched the commotion with a smile. Strangely, as Marcel watched his friends do the regular stuff they always did, his mood was so much better than before. After all, finding out that he isn’t really human doesn't mean that he suddenly changed as a person. All the time he spent with his friends still felt endearing to him. Why did he think he changed just because of this new discovery about himself? So stupid! 

With these thoughts flowing through his mind as he watched his friends be themselves, he accepted his bloodline as a part of himself but really now, what was he supposed to do about it? What will happen to the Dragon Crest and elven natures buried deep inside his body? How come his body accepted them in the first place when he isn’t fully human? What will happen to him? 

As these new thoughts ran through his head, he found the number of questions he required answers to exponentially increase by the minute. Just what secret was his body hiding? Oh, never mind. He’s already decided not to pry any further because of his gut telling him not to. I guess he’ll just accept whatever he finds out on this path paved before him, even if it means he’ll have to go wherever he was just now to process it. 

* * * 

 A few hours after his friends came to visit him, they left again and he was left to rest again, falling into a deep slumber as he was unwilling to stay awake and experience the terrible pain that was his headache making his entire body scream. He stayed asleep for three days, just enough time for Shalia to go get the ingredients for the cure to her love charm turned disaster plaguing him.  

Yes, Shalia went to find the cure’s ingredients that Sephana said she needed to cure Marcel’s condition, albeit how dangerous it was. All the ingredients Sephana demanded were rare items that couldn’t be easily found and wanting to fix her mistake, the princess went to look for them herself, not taking any guards or help from anyone to do it. In her own way, she was showing her willingness to do anything necessary to make Marcel well again. 

With Shalia returning battered and bruised from having to do various things like fighting various wild beasts, climbing perilous terrains and having to almost cry because of how hard the last ingredient was to obtain and what she had to sacrifice to get it, Sephana concocted a medicine for Marcel that slowly alleviated Shalia’s ‘love poison’ until he felt no headache as he waited for his body to naturally recover from the additional body ache that came with his headache.  

‘Do all witches have to live like this all the time?’ He asked himself that question so many times as he was recovering. 

With him making steady progress with recovery, Sephana thought they should have a talk. She switched back from her usual tone to her serious one and asked him a question. 

“Now that you know that you’re essentially a witch by blood, what are you going to do?” 

Marcel thought seriously about this and found... nothing. He didn’t know what to do about this. If not for Shalia drugging him with a fatal love potion, then he would have continued with his life believing he was a human hero and nothing more. Now that he knew this, what was he supposed to do? 

Sephana looked at Marcel who didn’t give an answer and decided to give him options. 

“Currently, you still wouldn’t be called a witch. Your blood is only partially awakened and it’s so little that it’ll hardly affect your human side. It’ll just give you protection against witch-related ailments but that’s it, so here are your choices. You can either, one; continue as you are or possibly seal away your witch blood so that it never affects your human blood. This option will let you continue being human until your death but make no mistake, sealing away a part of yourself always comes with unintended consequences. You can make this choice and live with it, whatever it might the consequences may be or two, leave yourself as you currently are.  

“This second choice will come with its own benefits like allowing you to access the powers and gifts granted to you by your blood, but this choice won’t be good for you either. Eventually, your blood will fully awaken and bring about unintended consequences as well; these consequences, even I don’t know. Hey, it’s your fault for being born into the human world. 

With the first two choices, you won’t be completely safe and the unknown consequences of taking one of these choices might even bring about your death, so how about this third option. I promise it’ll at least provide more stability than any of the other two, be it the powers, gifts, or effects it’ll have on your body.” 

“What is this third option?”  

“The best obviously! What if instead of instead trying to ignore this blood of yours, you use it to your advantage instead and awakened all of it to become a witch?” 

“What?!” Marcel exclaimed, not knowing why Sephana would suggest something like that after seeing how much he had to suffer over the past few days just because he ate some roast chicken with a bit of witch’s touch added to it. 

“Listen to me! I know what you’re thinking but I promise you, it’ll be worth it. Think about it! If your mother or father was someone with the blood of a witch lying dormant inside them and they managed to successfully have a child, then that means that the human blood and witch blood of not only them but their children can coexist to some extent. Witch blood is still witch blood. Dormant or not, it’ll still have effects on its holders, like exhibiting powerful magic capabilities and such. You should have heard from grand aunt that people with compatible natures can have children together even if they’re from different races. If that’s the case and you’ve got both the human and witch blood of your parents, then doesn’t that mean that a sort of balance needed to be established to create you?  

“Your human blood should have melded with your witch blood to form the foundation that would later allow you to live and if we add that unique body of yours into the equation, we get a situation where things should be fine if we fully awaken your witch blood. The balance won’t just disappear. You’d be a human witch, not just a witch, meaning that some of the, um... unfavorable things that come with being a witch might not affect you. With your ancestor being probably a ravencaster, I’d say awakening your witch blood will do you good than bad. You stand to gain even more than you’d lose, except probably your humanity, of course.” Sephana’s eyes shone with a sparkling glint that made Marcel uncomfortable like he was going to be a test subject for this idea swarming inside Sephana’s mind. He sighed as he stared into her eyes that said, ‘You should totally do it!’ and decided. 

"Fine! I'll think about it!" Marcel could swear that he heard Sephana 'tch!' at his answer. She probably thought that he wasn't being fun but this concerned his wellbeing. He had to think this long and hard before he made his decision. Sephana wasn't done though. 

"Oh, and if you decide to awaken the rest of your blood, know that I'll be the one to teach you how to wield your newfound power. There's also that problem with your terrible magic control! I think I can help you with that as well. This honorary witch will teach you much better control than only two people in the entire demon realm. Think it through and choose what path you want to take on this matter. I'll always be around here somewhere when you're ready to give me your answer." She smiled, patting Marcel's back before leaving.  

 * * *

As she was leaving, Claude suddenly appeared beside her and they talked. Claude had found a decision she'd made unlike her and asked her about it. 

"Why didn't you cure Marcel with your powers right after all this started? You could have easily undone the magic on him. Heck, you could even seal away his witch blood if you wanted to. Why didn't you do anything to help him when you usually jump in to help without hesitation?" 

“To teach the little princess a lesson. To make sure she never pulls something like this ever again. I know she’s enthusiastic about finding new opportunities to woo him but this time, she took it too far. Almost too far! If that love charm recipe she followed really worked, then you know what would have happened to Marcel, right?” Her expression turned serious again. 

“Of course, sister! He’d become her slave, loving her unconditionally until the day he died.” Claude looked serious as he answered her. The two were having a serious talk. 

“Yes, but this in itself... is no good! He’d do anything to please his master, even dying for her if she asked him to. If this really worked, Marcel would have become her eternally loyal pet. That spell is worse than a succubus’ contract. I wonder where even she got it from.”  

“Woah! I never knew that. Good thing it didn’t work! I wouldn’t know what I’d do. How would I handle him?” Claude’s expression looked so grave as he tried imagining what would happen when the Demon Lord heard his to-be wife had been turned into someone’s pet. He broke into a cold sweat as he remembered the one time that guy flipped out. 

“You wouldn’t be able to! He’d probably break the spell by breaking Marcel’s connection to this world. Good thing he’s a witch or else, none of us would be able to handle the consequences of that princess’s careless actions.” Sephana showed slight laughter, showing signs of relief. Claude however, looked at her with a grave expression that said that the worst-case scenario was nothing to joke about. Sephana was talking about the Demon Lord severing Marcel’s attachments to the world and turning him into an emotionless, uncaring husk. It was a condition one hardly recovered from. 

Behind Sephana’s relieved expression was a curiosity that welled up inside her, making her want to know the secrets inside Marcel’s body even more. This awakening of Marcel’s was too much of a coincidence and only brought more questions to light. Just how much was the spirit of the world hiding from them? Oh, this was going to be fun... for her! 

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