How To Love A Witch

CHAPTER III

"My lord is a knight who lived on the battlefield since he was young. He can be very violent."

With how good Lukas's background was, there should be a woman in his life. Yet he married a witch. Something was off.

"Everyone else runs away and screams when they see me. They curse their luck. Others start crying," I said.

"Do you wish for me to do the same?"

"At the very least you shouldn't call me 'my dear'."

"This marriage has to be a successful one."

"You don't have to be so nice."

"Am I being nice to you?" he asked.

Why is he leading the conversation in that direction? His treatment wasn't even close to being considerate, but it was better than the attitudes of other humans.

"A soldier told me what kind of person you are."

"I'm certain he said I was a good man."

"Not exactly." On the contrary, it was the complete opposite. "I heard you were a very violent person."

"Such impudence. He'll have his mouth sewn shut for slandering a member of the royal family."

I could sense the sincerity in his words. I decided to change the subject before he found out who the soldier was. "Usually, humans are eager to kill witches."

"That's to be expected for a normal human."

"You don't consider yourself normal?"

"I am quite fond of witches."

"...Huh?"

"I like witches," he said. "Why are you so surprised?"

I blinked. "I've seen plenty of humans who hate witches, but I've never seen a man who likes them."

At a glance, humans were divided into groups that either want to coexist with witches or hunt them down. Many don't want to live peacefully with us, including a majority of nobles in the capital. What was the chance my husband belonged to the other group?

"Are you a witch in disguise?"

"No."

"But you said you liked us... Oh, you're one of those fanatics, aren't you?"

There was a group of humans who wanted to be witches. They often wandered around in search of Kartelle. There were also humans who thought witches were superior to humans; the Edelin Empire treated them as dangerous.

"I'm not," he answered.

"That's good to hear." It would've been a disaster for the empire and myself if the duke was part of those extremist groups.

"Hmm... Are you an alchemist?"

Lukas grinned as if I just said something amusing. "It appears you aren't aware. That's a very impolite question."

"Really?"

"Yes, you cannot just ask someone if he's an alchemist all of a sudden."

"I'll be careful in the future."

While he nodded, he didn't answer my question. Alchemists were scholars who study the power of witches because there wasn't anything equivalent to magic in the human world. Many alchemists were eccentric people.

Let's return to the main topic of our discussion. "Then what are you?"

"Am I not your husband?"

"I was hoping you'd give me an actual answer. Why do you like witches?"