The moment the black liquid splashed, a strange, foul stench filled the alley. Carlisle hurriedly held his breath, thinking, This is bad.

“What is this stuff?!”

At his question, Sherry simply climbed to her feet without a hint of panic and gave him a sweet smile.

“Hehe.”

For Carlisle, who’d already been burned once, that smile was downright lethal.

In all his years of life, he’d never dealt with a Witch before. But that first encounter had seared their cunning, treachery, and shamelessness deep into his soul.

Containment of the bizarre was easier than dealing with Witches.

Witches had no ordinary sense of honor or shame. If some dirty trick could win them the fight, they’d use it.

He’d figured them out. Next time he fought a Witch, he’d have to be fast, ruthless, and precise. Only after knocking her out with one punch could he do whatever he wanted.

With that settled, he turned, swept his robe around, and fled toward the exit of the Holy Land.

That bottle of black potion was probably the same kind of thing as the sleeping potion from before. He’d breathed in that sharp, pungent gas twice, so he was definitely poisoned. If he didn’t want Witch Sherry to catch him again, he had to get out of there fast.

Once he was gone, Sherry let her smile fade.

“It stinks!” She waved a hand in front of her nose, trying to disperse the potion’s smell.

There was nothing special about the black potion. It stank, and that was all it did. You could hardly even call it a potion.

Whenever she made potions, she ended up with failed batches. She couldn’t bring herself to throw them away, so she piled them in a corner of her ring. After enough time passed, the liquid inside naturally began to stink.

The ingredients for brewing potions were expensive—each batch cost a fortune. She was a thrifty, practical Witch, and she’d always believed those failed batches would come in handy someday.

And that day had finally come.

She tossed down a stinking potion, and a Knight of the Round Table retreated without even fighting!

A potion that takes effect just by smelling it? Come on. How could a weak Witch who’d only been around for a few decades possibly invent something like that?

But, to be fair, that mysterious smile of hers had been essential too. Put a strange, stinking potion together with an eerie smile, and she’d guessed he’d start imagining all sorts of things, scare himself silly, and run away in the end.

No one understood human nature better than her. She had Knight of the Round Table Carlisle wrapped around her little finger!

The monster beside her had finished healing, and its bright-red tentacles lashed toward her again. This time, though, she gave a dainty little huff, and purple flames surged toward it like a Dragon’s breath.

In an instant, the meatball’s tentacles began to smell like roast meat.

Her pink hair turned silver, and her pink eyes gradually shifted to gold. Once she was sure Carlisle wouldn’t come running back, Sherry unleashed her spells without restraint.

She hadn’t earned the title of spellcasting prodigy for nothing!

She only couldn’t beat a Knight of the Round Table because she lacked real combat experience. Give her a completely safe space, though, and she could blast Carlisle into fleeing with his head in his hands!

The meatball was scared by the flames. It whimpered and retreated deeper into the alley, its low wails drawing more monsters.

The crawling noises of all kinds of strange creatures made Sherry raise an eyebrow. She left the charred meatball behind and headed down another alley.

Now that she could use spells, the monsters posed much less of a threat. Even if she couldn’t beat them, she could still get away.

More importantly, the monsters didn’t get along all that well. When two mindless creatures crossed paths, they were bound to fight.

That made it easy for her to find a way out.

She ducked into an empty building and changed into a white Church robe, stuffing her cloak and dress into her ring.

Only by becoming the flawless Saintess Liya could she truly escape Carlisle’s pursuit.

By the time she finished changing and stepped outside, the Church priests’ advancing line had nearly reached the depths of the Holy Land.

The scholars were still risking their lives to carry out research materials. The fire was burning even more fiercely than before, and countless scholars’ work had been destroyed in the explosion.

The Church priests showed no mercy in battle. They didn’t care about the materials the scholars were risking their lives to protect. Their powerful spells destroyed the monsters—and reduced one building after another to ash.

She chanted a long incantation, and astonishing bolts of lightning gathered in Liya’s palm. She went behind the priests’ advancing line and unleashed a lightning spell at the monsters with their backs to her.

The powerful current left the monsters paralyzed in an instant, and the smell of roast meat drifted through the air once more.

Liya’s appearance drew their attention.

“Lady Liya! What are you doing here?”

“You seemed to be having a little trouble, so…” She flicked her silver hair, revealing a hint of allure.

“Having trouble?” The priests weren’t happy to hear that.

Wasn’t she saying they couldn’t handle it? They couldn’t afford to look useless in front of the Saintess!

“Leave this to us! Lady Liya is still young and doesn’t have much combat experience. You should rest in the rear.”

Her words fired up the priests’ competitive spirit. They stopped wondering why Liya was behind the front line and charged into the monsters, casting all sorts of strange Gerald Spells.

“Don’t underestimate me! I’m not weak at all!” she said, landing two short-range fire spells to make her presence known. Then, while no one was paying attention, she quietly slipped away toward the Candlelight Sanctuary’s great gate.

Fighting monsters was dangerous. It was much safer to go home and lie down.

Still, if she could, she really wanted to tell the priests one more time, in full: “the spellcasting prodigy of the century who graduated early from Saint Perode Academy.”

Calling her useless? Try getting into Saint Perode Academy first!

When she reached the gate, she hadn’t expected to find a huge crowd gathered outside the Candlelight Sanctuary after the explosion. They’d left only a narrow path down the middle for the priests bringing aid.

The moment she appeared, people spotted her.

“Hey, isn’t that Liya? Why did she go in there too?”

“There was such a terrible explosion here. She’s kindhearted, of course she came right away.”

“She’s heading out of the Holy Land because she’s tired and wants to rest, I bet…”

“…”

Awkwardly scratching her cheek, she felt that continuing to run out after being spotted didn’t quite fit Saintess Liya’s image.

A kindhearted Saintess was supposed to fight side by side with the priests.

As she struggled to figure out how to slack off once she got back to the priests, a dark figure bolted out from nearby as if fleeing for his life.

“That’s the thief who stole the Church robe!”

“He dared to harass the Saintess! Unforgivable!”

“There’s a bounty out on him! Catch him!”

When Carlisle saw the tightly packed crowd blocking the way outside the Holy Land, his eyes nearly popped out of his head.

Clearly, even as a wanted man, he hadn’t expected to find such a huge crowd gathered outside the gate.