A moment later, after realizing what had happened, Circe suddenly pounced forward.
Her little face was flushed red as she shouted excitedly.
"Lorne~!"
…This hair texture, this skin feeling, and even this smell and warmth!
Mm, yes, yes!
'This is exactly the feeling! I finally found it again!'
Circe hugged the "little piglet" she had lost and regained, rubbing him fiercely as if trying to release the emptiness and resentment that had accumulated over the years.
Meanwhile, the suffering Lorne was being ravaged under those demonic claws.
His face was kneaded until it was completely deformed, his facial features nearly flying everywhere, while his body looked like it had a hyperactive koala hanging onto it.
Finally, when his mouth barely managed to escape from Circe's hands, he could not help but ask,
"How did you... end up... in Athens... selling cakes?"
Because the muscles on his face were still being pulled and kneaded from time to time, his words sounded somewhat muffled and slurred.
However, Circe was clearly already used to this.
She angrily kicked a certain shameless disciple and protested indignantly.
"Isn't it because of you? You emptied my entire little treasury and did not leave even a single coin. I could not even afford decent teaching materials anymore, so I had no choice but to come to a nearby city-state with lots of people and try my luck."
"Teaching?" Lorne asked, somewhat confused.
"Yes. I recently accepted a new disciple."
As she spoke, the great witch waved toward the forest.
Soon, accompanied by a rustling sound, a petite figure wearing an indigo and purple hooded cloak and a purple robe ran out from the woods beside the road.
She held a moon-tin staff in her arms and hurried toward them after hearing her teacher's call.
Because her real appearance was perfectly hidden under the hood, the sense of mystery was instantly maximized.
Circe glanced at a certain senior disciple who had disappeared without saying goodbye, then placed her hands on her waist and proudly lifted her chin, showing off.
"Hmph. She is very talented. Her aptitude for magic is even stronger than yours. She finished your entire first year of lessons in just nine months..."
"Bang!"
However, before Circe could finish speaking, the mysterious little witch suddenly stepped into empty air.
Because the cloak wrapped around her too tightly, blocking her vision and restricting her movement, the girl who was even shorter than Circe stumbled and fell straight onto the ground at everyone's feet.
In an instant, the atmosphere froze.
Circe's face stiffened.
Behind them, Hecate, the Underworld Moon Goddess who was technically the grandmaster of this lineage, decisively reinforced the disguise magic she was already using by adding several more layers.
At the same time, she turned her head away, avoiding the faint gaze of Astraea beside her.
"The road to Ares Hill is a bit steep. Be more careful next time..."
Seeing this situation, Lorne could not help but smile helplessly.
He bent down and helped this junior sister from the ground, then helped remove the purple robe that was wrapped so tightly around her.
As the hood fell back, long light purple hair flowed down.
Once exposed to the sunlight, the mysterious and alluring witch turned out to be nothing more than a simple and shy little girl.
She wore a plain gauze dress underneath.
Her light purple hair was tied into a simple ponytail, and her light purple eyes were clear and pure.
The pointed ears that clearly differed from those of ordinary humans looked very similar to Circe's, proving that she was not a pure-blooded human.
Seeing the timid embarrassment in the little girl's eyes, along with her slight curiosity about the surroundings, Lorne smiled gently and showed kindness.
"My name is Lorne. I studied witchcraft under our teacher before you did. And you? Little junior sister? What is your name?"
"...Medea..."
The little girl, who looked only seven or eight years old, secretly glanced at the senior brother in front of her and answered in a soft voice.
"Good girl."
Lorne reached out and gently patted the head of this little junior sister, smiling warmly.
However, when he looked at the little witch, a trace of pity appeared in his eyes.
Medea, daughter of Aeetes, King of Colchis, was also an outstanding witch taught by the great witch Circe and the goddess of witchcraft Hecate.
In terms of blood relation, she could be considered the niece of the great witch Circe.
Although she grew up in a wealthy environment and was raised freely, her fate would be greatly shaken by the arrival of the Argo, the ship seeking the Golden Fleece.
Due to the interference of the goddess Aphrodite, Medea was cursed to fall in love with Jason, the hero leading the Argo, and attempted to flee the country with him.
During their escape, in order to stop the ships of her pursuing father, she personally committed the brutal act of dismembering her own brother and scattering his remains into the sea.
Because of this, Medea lost the homeland she could return to and began to be despised and hated by those around her, even by the heroes of the Argo traveling with her.
Later, in order to help Jason ascend to the throne, Medea assisted him in obtaining the Golden Fleece and used magic and schemes to kill his enemies.
However, Jason gradually began to fear his wife, who possessed terrifying power and an extreme personality influenced by the power of the God of Love.
Soon afterward, after ascending the throne, that guy chose to abandon Medea, the wife who had sacrificed everything for him along the way, and instead decided to marry a princess from a neighboring kingdom.
In the end, Medea, who had lost everything and was about to be exiled, carried out a cruel revenge against Jason.
She killed the neighboring princess and even her own two children, forcing Jason to live the rest of his life in misery and despair.
After that, Medea rode away on a flying dragon and disappeared.
Some say she was eventually driven mad and died under the torment of the Furies.
Others say she returned to the island of Aeaea to live out the rest of her life.
Still others say that she reached the ultimate peak of magic, obtained an immortal body, and became the queen who ruled the Underworld and governed the Elysian Fields.
That was the life of the witch Medea, filled with tragic colors of being manipulated and toyed with by fate.
However, for Lorne, that was a future that was uncertain and still capable of being changed.
Now that he was here, there were a few things he wanted to change.
Medusa and Medea...these two naturally counted as the most important ones.
"Listen to me. In the future, wear fewer robes that are this big and long.
They only hinder movement and have no real use. A mage is not a wooden stake. Flexibility and mobility are just as important for us."
While passing down practical combat experience to the little junior sister he had just met, the senior disciple casually removed the cheap, oversized mage robe she was wearing and tossed it deep into the forest.
Naturally, little Medea was extremely happy about this and almost wanted to clap in celebration.
That thing was stuffy and hot.
If Aunt Circe had not insisted that she wear it, claiming that a witch must maintain appearances, she would never have wanted to stay wrapped inside such a thick shell all day.
"My three Hera silver coins!"
Seeing her sense of aesthetics and hard work being discarded like trash by her two unfilial disciples, Circe let out a mournful cry.
Then she turned toward the true culprit and gritted her silver teeth.
"You bastard. Are you doing this on purpose just to oppose me?"
"Of course not. All this valuable combat experience was taught to me by the one standing behind me."
As he spoke, Lorne pulled little Medea a few steps aside and smilingly threw the blame onto a certain goddess traveling with them.
Facing this obvious attempt to shift the trouble elsewhere, Hecate first rolled her eyes at the shameless junior disciple.
Then the air around her rippled as the disguise magic faded, revealing her true appearance.
Her purple eyes looked at the disciple in front of her as she snorted lightly.
"Circe, you were quite hard for me to find."
"Teacher?"
(End of the Chapter)