Miss Witch’s Devotion Has Gone… Twisted-Chapter 53: Fairy Tale

"Watch out!"
When the commotion erupted, Loren immediately pulled everyone into his embrace, using his powerful physical constitution to shield them from the crashing crowd.
The moment she was tucked under Loren's protection, Scarlett felt her heart skip a beat. This was the first time she had ever experienced the feeling of being protected by someone, especially after she felt the warmth radiating from Loren's body.
Her role in Loren's household was that of a maid. Although she usually horsed around with Anna, sometimes Scarlett would still wrestle with self-doubt, often feeling like she wasn't truly a part of this family.
At this moment, that feeling completely vanished.
Loren felt like an old mother hen, only now with more chicks, and he nearly failed to hold them all.
As for the Blackened, Loren wasn't too worried. The Blackened would only focus on beating their specific target of hatred. As long as you didn't get in their way, you wouldn't become their target.
After spreading the name of Ligoss, Loren's intention was to give the common folk at the bottom the strength to resist the nobility. But he had forgotten one thing: conflicts among people aren't limited to class struggle, just like the Blackened on the stage.
Even though Loren had tried his best to channel all conflicts towards class struggle, such incidents were still unavoidable. Loren wasn't sure if this was a good thing or a bad thing.
People like Luna who were bullied could use Ligoss's power to seek revenge, but villains like Sylvia could also use Ligoss's power to take revenge on Loren.
Ligoss's domain is hatred. It doesn't care about the source of the hatred. Whether it's righteous or malicious, it's all the same to it.
There's a fact many find hard to understand: some bullied individuals only need to fight back once, and the bully might end up harboring deeper hatred than the victim. Their worldview is simply like that: daring to resist them is a sin. Such hatred is also delicious to Ligoss.
However, looking at the current situation, the benefits still outweigh the drawbacks.
If the sky falls, the tall will hold it up. When the situation truly spirals out of control, the Bountiful Church will step forward to resolve everything.
Loren only started to leave after most of the others had evacuated. He hadn't expected that just going out to watch a musical would lead to so much trouble, but Loren was already used to it.
As everyone knows, in any game, trouble follows wherever the player goes. Loren didn't think too much about it, just figuring he had retained this characteristic after transmigrating.
After the theater was cleared, Scarecrows entered. Not long after, the knocked-out Blackened was brought out.
In the eyes of the Church, these Blackened still hold considerable value. They retain their memories and know how they were blackened. Of course, this was also within Loren's calculations. Even if the Church captured all the Blackened and interrogated them one by one, they would ultimately only find the "Robed Figure," and wouldn't even know the Robed Figure's gender.
But things having reached this point, Loren wondered if he should give the Robed Figure a codename.
Finally getting a chance to go out and have fun with Loren, only to have it suddenly interrupted by a Blackened, left Naclis feeling a bit downcast.
Due to the appearance of the Blackened, the nights in the Royal Capital were now exceptionally quiet, with very few people outside.
Loren even spotted Luna jumping from roof to roof. Upon seeing Loren, she froze for a moment and promptly fell off the roof.
"..."
Luna didn't have much impact on Loren's plans, and he couldn't be bothered to deal with her. Since she liked playing superhero, let her go ahead.
"Let's head back first. I'll tell you a story when we get home tonight."
Loren sensed Naclis's mood and placed his hand on her head, comforting her.
"Mhm."
Naclis's spirits immediately lifted. Naclis was twenty years old this year, but her mind was still like a child's.
Since she turned eighteen, Naclis's appearance hadn't changed. Most witches' aging typically freezes around this period, which left Naclis somewhat dissatisfied. Couldn't it at least wait until her figure developed a bit more before freezing...
Today was very peaceful. In the evening, everyone gathered in Loren's bedroom, and Loren, for the first time in a while, began telling them a story.
When they were little, Loren would often tell them stories from the novels and anime he had seen. If Loren weren't so lazy about writing, he could have made a decent amount of money just by copying those stories.
This world also had its own fairy tales. The most famous one told the story of a female knight.
The story was set in the Holy Flame Empire, a real place. This nation worshipped the God of Light and Fire.
Unlike the God of Bountiful Harvest, who had over a dozen countries under its banner, the God of Light and Fire presided over only one massive empire, which was currently in a state of constant expansion.
The story's plot was simple: a little princess of the Holy Flame Empire, in her bid to become queen, caused the deaths of her parents and siblings. After ascending to the throne, she began ruling tyrannically. In her pursuit of immortality, she even apprenticed herself to an evil sorcerer. Finally, a female knight rose up, overthrew her, and after beheading the queen, the female knight became the new queen.
Before being beheaded, the queen's last words were, "I want to eat dessert," which perfectly showcased her absurdity.
To avoid repeating the same mistakes, the female knight decreed that henceforth, only those who earned the people's affection would become the king of the nation. Eventually, the Holy Flame Empire became the world's only country with a system of abdication and succession based on merit, which is why Loren remembered it so clearly.
But what left the deepest impression on Loren was that the evil sorcerer in the story was also named Loren. Back when he played games, Loren could hardly keep a straight face whenever he encountered this.
He found it quite helpless. Loren wasn't his online alias; his surname was really Luo, and his given name was Lun. The same 'Luo' as in Luo Tianyi.
This world's history had experienced a hiatus, so people nowadays were basically clueless about the past. Only some fairy tales contained fragments of true history.
"Then Dio raised the Stone Mask, shouting, 'I reject my humanity, JoJo!' and thrust the knife..."
Tonight, Loren adapted *JoJo's Bizarre Adventure*, narrating the story to everyone in a storytelling style. Although Loren himself found it a bit strange, the children listened with rapt attention.
"Wait, Scarlett, why are you crying?"
Loren hadn't even gotten to the part where Jonathan Joestar blocks the knife, and Scarlett was already crying. Loren was baffled.
"It's nothing... I just never thought I'd be able to listen to someone tell a story before bed and then fall asleep peacefully..."
Scarlett wiped her tears. Like the vast majority of witches, Scarlett had been alone since she could remember. When she began showing abnormalities, parents who couldn't bring themselves to kill her would choose to abandon her. Although the outcome was most likely death, there was always a chance to survive.
Witches like Luna, who came from happy families, were ultimately a minority. Every witch who managed to survive was incredibly fortunate.
"There will be plenty more days like this in the future..."
With the mood having built to this point, Loren stroked Scarlett's hair and spoke gently.
The texture of her hair wasn't as good as Anna's or Naclis's. After all, before meeting Loren, she had never slept soundly, so it was normal for her hair quality to be poor.