Witch on the Holy Night - Volume 1 - Act 1 - Chapter 0

Volume 1

Act 1/ A Strange Person

Chapter 0

TLed by: TanoshiKara

Note: This series has no acts. 'Act' and 'Chapter' have been added for clarity.

It was eight years ago, on a gray winter day, that I became that child's shadow.

The first time I ever held a life in my arms: an incident that happened on a quiet (solemn) morning.

My house was nestled on a mountainside. It was an ordinary, middle-class house with a garden and a car in the front, and cows, chickens, and a vegetable field in the back.

There was nothing at all in the surroundings, only wilderness. As such, there was no hope of having a childhood friend living next door, and it was of utmost inconvenience whenever I commuted to school or headed out to play.

However, the water and the stars were beautiful.

A memorable house that was the source of a little dissatisfaction, but much tranquility.

That said, it was only during summer. Winter in the mountains was so frigid that mornings were always a struggle.

My dad would drive me to the station. However, the car's windows were iced over today, and it would not move unless its engine was started roughly ten minutes before any trip.

" , could you help to start up the car?"

My daily task was to go outside and start the car's engine while my dad enjoyed his after-meal coffee.

I went out the front door, traversed the garden with icy breath, and opened the door of the vintage sedan.

As usual, I inserted the key and turned it.

*vrrrr*, the engine went as it vibrated.

Just as the task I was proud to do as a child, and had done tens of times up until now, was done...

"⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛—"

A shrill shriek pierced the air.

Although it was not in human tongue, I heard it as a soft voice (sound), crying out in pain.

A few minutes later.

I spotted a single lifeform when my dad opened the hood.

In that 'box' that had things like creaking fan belts and a monstrous-looking engine tightly packed within it—

There were two kittens and a cat, most likely their mother, and they looked really out of place.

The three cats were huddled together, cuddling one another in the engine compartment.

The mother cat was missing its head.

Much of one of the kittens' bodies had been caught in the belt (machine), and it did not move. It probably died instantly.

Half of the other kitten's face was crimson-red, and it was panting like a dog drenched in rain.

The kitten cuddled that corpse—no, that corpse turned mostly meat chunk of its mother—spending the remaining few minutes of its life ever so earnestly clinging to its chest.

"Such poor souls—" My dad said as he grieved.

The frigidness of the previous night was harsher than usual.

After my dad came home in his car, the cats must have snuck under the hood, drawn by the warmth of the engine.

They spent the night in the engine compartment and woke up in the morning, caught in the spinning of the belts.

It seems like this was a common occurrence for cars in the eighties with their lack of airtightness.

"—It's fine. It's not your fault, "

My dad's voice was distant.

The kitten's gray fur was frayed. A tiny, spotted lifeform with half of its body shaved off, soaked in the blood of its mother, brother, and itself.

It was still alive. However, its skull was visible as the skin and the flesh of its head had been shaved off.

The kitten, perhaps no longer able to see, trembled as it earnestly nuzzled against its dead mother's chest.

" ......? Wait, —!"

I took the kitten into my arms and ran deep into the mountains to my grandfather, who was living apart from us.

Honestly, I do not know, to this day, whether it was because I was overcome with regret or the shock of grief.

Trying my best to hold back the tears welling up in my eyes, I burst into my grandfather's workshop.

My grandfather was a mage who could do everything.

I had never seen something like 'Magic' before, and I knew it was a fantasy straight out of a fairy tale. However, I knew my grandfather could not be measured by such common sense.

That was why; Why I thought my grandfather would definitely have been able to save the kitten.

My grandfather's lodging was more of a cave than a house. It had no electricity, water, or TV. It only had books and desks.

Amidst darkness akin to the library of a school that was about to shut down—

"You would order me to alter that kitten's fate?"

The mage who inhabited the cave said indifferently.

I want to save it, or so I begged.

Without saying whether it was a simple or world-changing, hence herculean, task, the mage swiftly granted my selfish request, as if he were a machine.

"............Ah"

Before she knew it, there was a tiny corpse in her hands.

Ice-cold fur. The warmth of life had long vanished from its body.

The tears she had fought so hard to hold back poured out of her eyes.

In her heart was the feeling of deep regret, endless like a gray sky.

"A futile effort, I see. To think it went back to its original outcome"

She could not grasp what had happened.

What she had experienced; Who she had met; What she had learnt; Everything had gone back to square one during that ten-minute blank, selfishly so.

The only things she was certain of: a life extinguished will never return, and—

"Umm... Is someone...there?"

That I was born on that day; Born by the mistake she made.

.........Indeed.

Whatever the case may be, I feel a sense of nostalgia and longing for it all.

This was a fairy tale that took place eight years ago, from the present (reality), that is.

It was, first and foremost, the very day they first met, a day no magic could ever bring back.

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Thank you very much for reading, I hope you enjoyed it.