Cornelia looked at the crone with vigilance.

Although witches are a tight-knit community in the same coven, they are also eccentric, especially black witches. And a black witch living in solitude in a magic forest? They are the epitome of eccentricity. And this crone just claimed she hadn't seen someone for over a hundred years. She must be ancient and powerful... And with quite a few screws loose.

{Cornelia... I would weigh my words carefully from now on.} Tenta advised, feeling as if he was looking at death incarnate.

The ugly crone could probably kill them with a flick of her finger... Or rip their souls out and flay them.

Of course, the crone didn't give them time to weigh their words as she continued speaking.

"Cornelia Duskgrove... Duskgrove... Hn... Are you related to that little munchkin, Pepper?" The crone asked. 

"H-Hah?! How did you know my name?!" Cornelia flinched in shock.

"I can see your status through this thing here. An enchanted nicknack of mine." The witch said, tapping her marble eye. "But you didn't answer my question."

"I... I don't know who is Pepper." Cornelia frowned. "My master was Kaizierli Duskgrove, and I am but an orphane."

"How fares your master, then? Is she alive?" The crone asked.

"No... I buried her last month." Cornelia honestly answered.

"Shame... I suppose little Pepper either kicked the bucket or left. Time sure flies." The crone shook her head in disappointment.

"Excuse me, ma'am... Who might you be?" Cornelia warily asked.

"Oh, where are my manners!" The crone exclaimed, straightening her crooked back slightly before giving a lady-like bow while holding the sides of her robe. "I am Roberta Tenebris, the humble owner of this little haven."

"I am Cornelia Duskgrove, Apprentice of Kaizierli Duskgrove." Cornelia returned the gesture.

"Nice to meet you, Cornelia. How about you come inside and have some tea? You look exhausted, girly." Roberta said with a hint of concern on her wrinkled face.

"I... That wouldn't be necessary... I don't want to bother you... And my things are still out there..." Cornelia carefully tried to make an excuse to leave. She felt it was more dangerous to stay with the witch than with the tiger.

"Girly, I think you have a misunderstanding there," Roberta said, her face darkening. "If I wanted to hurt you..."

As if sensing her shifting mood, the world turned dark, and only Roberta's figure was seen.

"I WOULD HAVE DONE SO ALREADY." She said in a horrid, demonic-sounding voice straight out of hell.

Shake* Shake* Shake* Trickle*

Cornelia was so scared she couldn't stop trembling and lost control of her bladder.

"I prefer the tiger already... It was adorable compared to this hag..." Tenta thought, shaking in the familiar space.

"Oh, sorry, lass. I made you make a whoopsie." The crone lightheartedly said, the world returning to its bright colors.

"As for your little bag..." The crone said and snapped her finger. The next moment, a torn bag with crushed supplies dropped on the floor. "It is now in this state. I think you should discard it."

"..." Cornelia had a scrunched look on her face, both uncomfortable about accidentally leaking and feeling sorry about the bag and rations.

"Girl, have you gone mute?" The crone tilted her head.

"Oh... Eh... I'll be delighted to have some tea... Hehe... He..." Cornelia said, her face twitching and awkwardly laughing.

"Wonderful! Now, please clean yourself up before you enter my abode. I don't want urine on the floor." Roberta said and entered her house.

{Well... It seems like we have little choice...} Tenta bitterly said.

With little choice, Cornelia used a cleaning spell on herself and entered the hut.

The hut was what one would expect from a stereotypical witch's home, with old magic tomes, a cauldron, a table full of eccentric ingredients and magic pages, and some basic furniture, including a bed and a table for four.

"Well, sweety? Are you going to summon that familiar of yours?" The witch asked while brewing tea in a small kitchen. "It must want to stretch, right?"

{NOOOO!!!! DON'T!!!!!! IT STINKS!!!!} Tenta cried mercy.

"Tenta doesn't want to because of the monster-repellent effect," Cornelia warily said.

"Oh, that? It doesn't work in this space." The crone waved her hand reassuringly. "You can summon it with a peace of mind."

"... Summon Familiar," Cornelia said, knowing that not following the crone's instructions would only get her in trouble.

The next moment, Tenta appeared on the wooden floor.

"Oh?" Roberta's marble eye shined as she looked at Tenta.

Tenta suddenly felt his secrets were being pried, but also felt a shield protecting his core secrets.

"Juvenile Consentacle? Never heard of it." Roberta said, intrigued. "I see it is already overlevel 39 and mastered many classes. Quite talented... And it holds interesting secrets."

"Oh, shit! She saw through it?!" Tenta panicked. He thought Gentleman's Secrets would protect him completely, but it seemed like the crone was powerful enough to discern some things.

"But it seems like it hid its unique skills and class quite well. I can't see them." She said, impressed.

Fortunately, however, she didn't see his second class or unique skills.

"What secrets?" Cornelia narrowed her eyes.

"Oh, deary. That is not for me to say! Ask him." Roberta said, bringing the tea over.

{Tenta?} Cornelia asked.

{I can tell you whenever you want, but I prefer not to.} Tenta replied. {If you demand it... I'll tell you everything.}

{... No, I don't want to force you.} Cornelia shook her head.

"Hm... I see you chose to let him tell you later. Empathetic, but soft." Roberta commented, pouring some tea into a porcelain cup. "Here. Some tea."

"Thank you..." Cornelia carefully accepted the tea and looked at it for anything strange.

"Oh, dearie. I commend you for your vigilance, but I assure you my tea is top-quality and beneficial." Roberta said, pouring herself some tea. "Want some honey? Maybe some citrus? Cream?"

"Honey and cream would be good, thank you..." Cornelia politely replied.

"You like it sweet, hah? It is good to be young." The crone said and snapped her finger, a jar of honey and a tiny cream pitcher popping into existence on the table. "Help yourself, girly."

"Thank you..." Cornelia said and put some honey and cream in her tea.

"And what can I get you, fine gentleman?" The crone asked. "Tea seems like a poor choice for your kind, so how about I give you some snacks?"

"Snacks?" Tenta blinked. "Well... Okay." Tenta said, using his lvl 2 Communication skill.

"Hah... Seems like she has regular tastes..." Tenta thought.

"Alright." The crone nodded, unsurprised he could talk and snapped her finger.

The next moment... A bowl filled with candied eyeballs popped in front.

"... Looks... Tasty..." Tenta warily blinked at the eyeballs.

"Oh, I am glad you think so! I cooked them myself. Please, try it." The hag expectantly said.

"..." Tenta looked at Cornelia, who gave him a nod.

"Okay..." Tenta said, hesitantly picking one, and popped it into his mouth, carefully chewing it before swallowing it.

"Well?" Roberta asked with a smile.

"Its... DELICIOUS!" Tenta exclaimed, eating another one. He felt power rushing in his body from eating them.

"Heeheehee. I am glad you like it, young man." The crone smiled. "I made these out of doom cockatrice eyes, candied in genocide bee royal jelly and simmered in carnage cow milk."

"Uwa..." Cornelia looked at her tea before taking a sip and then widened her eyes. "D-Delicious! I feel my fatigue and mana recovering!"

"That's because I use a special blend of Aasard Laceflower and Chrifmard weed, deary," Roberta said, sipping from her tea.

"I-I don't know the name of those plants..."  Cornelia blinked her eyes.

"Understandable. It is a bit too high-end for you. They only appear from the 51st layer of my backyard dungeon." Roberta said while sipping her tea.

"..."

"..."

"Oh... Shit..." Tenta and Cornelia thought at the same time.

The 51st layer. That was where only the A-rank adventurers ventured, where B-rank monsters on the level of Winslow and Leopold were common mobs. And she used precious materials from such a floor to make... tea and snacks. Tenta and Cornelia only now understood the person before them was beyond the scope of their understanding.

"Ah... Fuck it." Tenta thought and continued eating a few more candy pieces...

 

 

"Oh... Yeah, makes sense." Tenta thought. He ate high-level food, so it was converted into racial exp. Along with the experience he gained in the last three days, it pushed him to level up.

"Oh? Seems like you are about to evolve." Roberta said, her marble eye shining. "I wonder what you would evolve into."

"I'll leave that for later..." Cornelia said and changed the subject. "You said I have demonic heritage. What did you mean by that?"

"You don't know? Poor thing. You said you are an orphan, right?" Roberta said. "Have you ever seen your birth parent before?"

"No." Cornelia pursed her lips.

"Figures." Roberta shook her head. "Girl, sorry to break it to you, but you're half Lesser Succubus."

"Eh...?" Cornelia blinked her eyes. "How is that possible? I am a regular human. Don't succubi always give birth to other succubi?"

"Not exactly." Roberta shook her head. "Out of every hundred births, one of the children is born a boy from the father's race, who would eventually become an incubus, or in this case, a Lesser Incubus, sharing some of the powers of succubi. When a Lesser Incubus mates with a human female, some of the children inherit the demonic heritage and later awaken a lesser variant of the bloodline. Do you know how succubi blood awakens?"

"I don't," Cornelia said.

"Sex, deary. After having your first intercourse, your bloodline will awaken, overriding your human bloodline, and your race will forcibly change. Since your bloodline is that of an E-rank Lesser Succubus, your race would be an F-rank Imp or G-rank Lesser Imp. It is inevitable." Roberta said, taking a sip from her tea. "On the flip side, all your accumulated racial exp would become part of your new race, and you can evolve later into a more superior succubus, so it isn't that bad."

"..." Cornelia had a bitter look on her face.

"Welp..." Tenta decided to remain quiet and not comment on it.

"Oh! Convenient Sex Plot Device!" The Reality Smuggler clapped his hands. He then broke the fourth wall and stared at you. "Sorry to do this, dear reader, but I have a message from our dear author. This is a free novel written on a free website called Scribblehub. The novel's name is Consentacle Familiar. Please report to the author if you see it on another website. Thank you!"

"Am I supposed to accept it? Just like that?" Cornelia painfully asked.

"Pretty much, it has been preordained, unless you want to remain a virgin black witch, which sounds like a bad joke. Back in the day, I fucked a dozen guys a year, and they called me a prude." The ugly hag shrugged. "Never found a real keeper, though."

"... Right..." Cornelia decided to change the uncomfortable subject. "Can Tenta and I stay the night? I promise we will leave tomorrow..."

"Deary, you can stay however much you want." The hag smiled. "But once you leave... You won't be able to return. Ever."

"What do you mean?" Cornelia asked, not understanding it.

"This is a haven I enchanted." The crone mysteriously said. "Young troubled girls who don't seek it but need it can find it... But those who seek it but don't need it will never find it. Many tried, all failed, and you will not be an exception."

"... Then, do you suggest I stay?" Cornelia suspiciously asked. "For free?"

"Of course not for free, silly!" Roberta had a cunning grin. "You need to become my apprentice!"

"And what does that entail? What do I get out of it, and what are your demands?" Cornelia asked, not quick to accept it.

She knew firsthand that apprenticeship is potentially nothing more than glorified servitude.

"You will get delicious food of this quality, shelter, lessons, and access to the dungeon, and I will even give you a new bag and equipment for you to leave after working for me for at least a month. In exchange, you will clean my house, cook, make my bath, fix my house, rub ointment on my back, etc, every other day." The crone said.

"..."

The demands were not much different than her previous apprenticeship, but the benefits were so much more. It was indeed worth it.

{Tenta? What do you think?} Cornelia asked.

{Honestly? I think it's fair. She is so strong she can rip us to shreds, and monsters like that tiger are outside. Staying with this woman for a few months or even years... Doesn't sound so bad.} Tenta said. {By the time we leave here, we might already be comparable to C-rank or even B-rank adventurers and can defend ourselves.}

"So, Cornelia Duskgrove, do you accept me as your master?" Roberta kindly asked.

"Master." Cornelia respectfully lowered her head.

And so, Cornelia gained a new master.