Chapter 148: A Hybrid Creature: The Witch's Appearance

'Is master hurt?', this was the only question that wandered in Terran's mind at the moment.

Some weird things had been happening lately. Shin was being led to many things which seemed to be tiny but were in fact big and were some things that would affect the future drastically.

Well, there was another thing that was weird since the start itself.

Shin used to call himself their friends, but in the end, he would end up becoming their master or someone with the utmost authority and the beasts too accepted it without hesitation.

It was as if they acknowledged him which was a good thing, to begin with.

However, asking to be friends and changing the relationships soon as they were named was way too weird, even for Shin.

Due to that, he thought about asking in a formal and better manner instead of actually becoming a friend since that way, he wouldn't be required to jumble and get confused.

Also, no one would feel that they are on the same ground as Shin and for that, he had to avoid making friends.

Making servants would be wiser and from now on, he would aim at that. But this didn't mean that he would forget to help others and would just force them.

Yes, first of all, respect had to be generated naturally.

He was the ruler of swamps, in fact, 5 swampy areas were under him, didn't he have an army already?

Why was he going as far as building a new army?

The reason was simple, he wanted his men to have a sort of natural respect for him instead of the artificial fear and respect that the dwellings of the swamp got due to his title.

Whatever, now that all of them had agreed to stay in the same place, they quieted down.

Shin sat down and thought that it was best to conserve energy.

Alira was energetic though. She was completely healed after all so she had tons of energy left which she had conserved by resting earlier.

Terran was fine too and could move around freely.

However, none of them went farther than 5 meters from Shin while respecting his wishes.

In this world, the monarchy wasn't uncommon. It was probably considered an important thing too since no one could disrespect their monarchs.

In a sense, Terran and Alira didn't want to disrespect Shin that was why they stayed there.

Alira even rushed back and sat near Shin and instead of being playful, she sat calmly.

Terran was still standing probably because he was looking out for dangers.

Whatever the case may be, all of them stayed there, and soon enough, thirty minutes passed by.

It happened way too fast but they weren't waiting for just half the time to pass.

So all they could do was wait. Terran wanted to see if there was something that Shin wanted – such as food or something else.

But Shin just shook his head because he had bigger concerns.

'Damn, I really miss Aella…', this was the thought that his mind was bursting with.

Because Alira was close to him, Aella's image was flashing before his eyes again and again.

Not that he could do anything at the moment, but step by step, he would soon reach and find Aella.

In this thought, he didn't even realize that one hour passed away.

Of course, it was only after seeing the sun above them that he realized that a little more than an hour had passed.

"Ah, one hour has passed…", Shin said.

Animals were not that good at marking time. They could only identify five timings of a day – morning due to sunrise, noon due to the sun being over their head, the evening when the sun moves away from them and the sky changes its color by little, night time when the sun sets and the sky goes black and finally the midnight when the sky turns out to be clear and rich mana starts spreading.

These were the only five times in a day which they could find.

That was why an hour and similar measurements were tough for them. Obviously, the intelligent beasts couldn't be compared to normal animals!

They could keep track of time easily and Terran could do that easily.

However, he forgot to remind Shin that an hour was over since he could sense a weird presence from a nearby area.

What about Shin?

Did he fail to notice?

Absolutely not! He too felt that presence, but he acted as if he was familiar with it or as if he was waiting for something like that.

'Ding'

[ The witch of potions has arrived ]

This was the notification that popped up right after Shin stood up when he saw the sun to be right above his head.

To be precise, it was because of the notification that he found out that an hour was over and nothing else.

"Master…", Terran was surprised by the presence and walked a bit closer to Shin to inform him about this.

"Master, I think-"

Shin nodded his head while looking towards him and murmured, "It's fine, don't worry."

'So master does know about this.', Terran concluded.

Shin waited some more time however the witch didn't show herself.

That was why, Shin raised his voice and called out to her, "I know you are here, witch of potions!"

"There is no use hiding."

"Why don't you show yourself?"

"…"

Right after that, the bushes started to shake a bit.

And the witch made her appearance. It was not because Shin called out, it was because Alira stood up and started to look here and there while anticipating the witch to make her appearance.

The bushes stopped moving and the witch was soon visible.

Right after seeing her, all Shin could say was – "What the fu*k?"

Terran was surprised to see the witch too. Well, just being surprised would be an understatement actually.

"You are the witch?", Shin asked with a surprised expression.

"…"

One couldn't help but be surprised by the creature that the witch was.

"Yes…"

An elderly voice was heard. Yes, it was an older lady's voice.

Now Shin understood the reason why she called herself that, but more than that, the ridiculous appearance of the witch made Shin wonder how much of a unique thing she was.

The ears like a rabbit, teeth like that of crocodiles', a tail resembling that of a lion, and finally, the body and the eyes of a wolf pup – what could possibly surprise anyone after seeing this weird hybrid creature?

*gulp*

Terran tried to look at his ears – 'Are my ears that long?'

He wondered because of what Alira had said earlier.

Whatever, she wasn't lying when she said that the witch had similar eyes like that of Shin, however, what did she mean by cuter?

*gulp*

'I believe I have never seen such an ugly-'

'I mean interesting creature since I arrived in this world.'

'Just what is it exactly?', Shin questioned himself ceaselessly as he continued to stare.

"Sigh looks like my house is destroyed yet again.", was what she said.

The hut which Shin actually cut into half was her house. He somewhat knew that, but still did it.

Anyway, she didn't seem that angry thought and it was as if this was quite frequent.

"I have to rebuild again…" – was what she said.

"Eh?"

"Why don't you just move to some other place?", was what Shin asked.

"…", she didn't reply to him and just stared at him for a few seconds.

"I am waiting for a brat.", was what she said.

And right after that, she asked, "And who might you be?"

"I'm…"

"I'm Shin, just your average wolf.", was what Shin said.

Either he was being sarcastic, or he was being really humble – either way, he was trying to hide his actual power, for now at least.

"…"

"I see…"

"So you are-", and she was about to say his name out loud when Shin stopped her.

"No!", he literally screamed which surprised her.

"Wha-"

"What happened?"

"Why did you scream?!" – she was totally surprised by it.

"Safe…"

"Please, don't call me by my name…"

"You might get some weird sort of shock or punishment.", was what Shin said.

"…"

The witch stared at his eyes, of course, looked directly into his eyes.

"Haha, why would I get any shock by calling your name?"

"Are you some Celestial or a strong respected beast!?"

"Haha." – she laughed.

"Uh…", now Shin didn't know what to tell.

"Haha, you are so tiny, what harm could your name cause me?", she asked.

'Aren't you smaller than me?', Shin had a weird expression on his face.

"…"

To be continued…