Chapter 4: The witch's proposal.

Let's talk a little about Kimino, also known as the supreme witch of the north.

Actually, despite her extravagant name and great power, her past before the last 100 years is almost unknown.

It is only known that one day, a mysterious young prodigy appeared on the outskirts of the Terminus Empire where the cruel and magnanimous Emperor Clover Terminus received her with open arms and offered her his complete protection.

The royal family of the current emperor Clover, was a descendant of the great black dragon Terminus Drako, the one that according to legends, almost completely destroyed the continents Kyros and Luxis, and managed to be stopped by a hero who wielded the original dragon slayer sword.

However, even though that hero was powerful, he could do nothing more than seal the dragon, giving his life and that of his team in exchange for it.

In any case, the story explains that Terminus on several occasions liked to take human form and have intimate relations with human women.

Which resulted in several blood heirs of that legendary dragon, and during the course of history for many years these heirs have suffered abuse from the church because of their origin and have even been hunted on several occasions, so they were forced to hide their origin and keep a low profile among society.

Or at least it was, until the current emperor, formed an alliance between several cities, towns and even countries, and took them under his protection, until finally creating a huge empire, with all the people of different races who were not happy with the treatment they received from humans and most of all from the church.

Of course the other countries did not stand idly by with the formation of this empire, since many of the cities that joined it were human, so they decided to send tens of thousands of troops to oppose the creation of the empire.

This number was not at all exaggerated, since they knew the power of the heirs of Terminus, but even with their numbers far above the empire, they could not oppose the enormous power of only three heirs, including the emperor, which left them no choice but to surrender and recognize the existence of the empire on the continent and Clover, earned the title of cruel and magnanimous emperor, for his devastating and overwhelming power during that battle, as well as brutality in killing the enemy soldiers.

The reason why this man, received Kimino this way, was because he instinctively perceived that her father had been taking care of her for a long time, and although the humans condemned him for living with her father's surname, he personally did not hate him in the least, and in front of him was a woman who possibly knew her father, although this fact was not something known by the people outside, since everyone believed that the reason he welcomed her in his empire was for his interest of power.

Anyway, the great sorceress Karen at that time, started many magical researches in the empire, and published them all without any exception in the newspapers of all countries, making sure that this knowledge was available to everyone.

She wrote many books, which revolutionized the world and the way magic was used, and with each research she became more recognized in the world.

Of course there were people who decided to challenge her on multiple occasions, but they did not even come close to harming her.

And in that way she was recognized as the most powerful sorceress, and proclaimed as the supreme witch, after doing the great feat of slaying 3 red dragons with a single attack in the northern mountains.

Kimino was and is the most respected person in the world so she did not need to work, since everything she asked for was given to her in an instant, she was as powerful as any monarch or ruler in the continent.

And her power went to such an extent that she was allowed leniency in any matter both political and military.

She was technically speaking impartial in those matters, but in the minuscule case that she decided to join any side, no matter the final outcome, she would never be seen as an enemy, some even believed that even if she decided to destroy a kingdom, she would not be condemned for it, and in fact it was not far from the truth.

Her beauty, intelligence and power was known all over the world, so there was not much to do but to feel honored with her presence and hope that nothing would anger her or that if she had any whims it would not negatively affect the people around her, although her personality never showed any sign of doing that kind of thing, the possibility was always there.

In any case, after Kimino mysteriously disappeared during one of her daily trips, no one celebrated, nor was anyone happy about it, the villagers could do nothing but feel sad and a little melancholy at not being able to see that eternally young and smiling witch walking or flying through the streets as if nothing bad was going to happen to her, So they only prayed silently for her safe and speedy return, since no one could think that someone so powerful would be defeated so suddenly, much less that she was dead, for them, the supreme witch of the north, Kimino, had only embarked on a journey a little longer than usual.

And right now, the lucky demon, Gin, was listening to a proposal from the witch that everyone adored and respected.

The witch's proposal was simple....

First, stay in the library for 2 years to learn to control her magic in its entirety and even learn to manipulate new magics.

Second, during that time, she would find time to properly train her body and also have time to meditate and get in touch with Belphegor in an easier and more practical way.

And third, on the last day before leaving the library, the two of them would have a battle in which she would decide if she could leave the library or if she would stay in the library for eternity.

Gin had a week to decide, as the library would be accessible to the outside world at that time, which would be equivalent to 6 hours in the outside world from the time her village was attacked.

The library's appearance system was quite complex, but Kimino managed to figure it out in just two days from the time he stepped into the library.

In a nutshell...

Scattered around the library, there are different devices similar to clocks, but these have 3, one for the past, one for the present and the last one for the future.

Every time one of the clocks strikes 12 o'clock and one of them glows, the library appears, however, the clocks do not always glow when the time strikes, so apparently it is random.

Or at least it would be, if there were not a huge marker on the lowest floor of this library.

This marker marks the days, months and years and is in constant movement, Kimino discovered that this clock indicates exactly the date on which the small clocks will glow.

And after a long explanation of a number calculation that Gin could not even pronounce, Kimino explained that the doors would be accessible to him only in one week, or two years in the library, equivalent to one month in reality.

The series of calculations she did were simpler after she explained them, but how she arrived at those digits in the first place was a mystery to Gin.

But basically the library was constantly traveling through time, so Gin wondered why she couldn't leave at any time.

It was true, theoretically speaking, if what Kimino said was true, as soon as any clock reached 12 o'clock, he could leave, he would just have to worry about not appearing too far into the future or too far back in the past.

But noticing the glimmer of hope in Gin's eyes, Kimino shook his head.

It was obvious that Gin would want to try to prevent the tragedy of their village, but that was impossible even if they managed to make it to the day before that event.

This was caused by the temporal paradox of the god Chronos.

In the case of the past time, if the person who went back did not yet exist, if there was no temporal magic to protect him, this person would rejuvenate until he disappeared.

In the case of the present time, if he appears at some point in time when he still exists, the paradox would simply eliminate the existence of the strange temporal being, and the person of that time would continue with the flow of time.

And in the case of the future, the person would turn to ashes or the weaker entity would disappear from that timeline.

The rule always stated the same, it must have existed in that timeline and if there are two entities in the same place, one would disappear, that way the flow of time would remain stable and without an external interference.

Or at least that was Chronos' plan, however the supreme witch in his library was able to do whatever she wanted with respect to those rules, as she only had to imbue her body with a certain amount of temporal energy, although she was not interested in experimenting with the flow of time at the moment.

But since Gin, she was not capable of doing that, she simply had to give up with that idea and think about Kimino's proposal.

Still, Gin couldn't understand, why Kimino was offering him something that only brought benefits to him, besides the last part about the fight, it didn't make sense, it was obvious that he would lose no matter how much training he had during these two years.

And what surprised him the most was what Kimino told him to convince him, before he walked around the vicinity of the library to think.

"You will be able to know the truth about everything if you accept my proposal."

Kimino had told him earlier that the truth he was looking for was not written in any book or document in this library, but....

Is that the only way to know the truth?

If what he said was true, then it was obvious where he could find the answer.

The centuries of experience of the supreme witch Kimino and the millennia of existence of the cardinal sin of laziness Belphegor.

They were the greatest source of information that Gin had, nay, that the world could have, this was his only chance to learn the truth.

«I guess I'll just have to do it, huh?»

This was not the time to hesitate, she could no longer turn back, besides even if she left the library, she still didn't have her objective clear.

His only concern was what Kimino would ask of him in return, but now, just as he promised his family, he would go ahead, never hesitating again and accept that proposal.