Isekai Journey Of The Magic Archer

"You know how witches are different from humans, right?

We have two growth phases of life that happen at random times, but we know when one ends or starts.

Haaa… I have been in this form for the last 111 years.

I stopped growing after I was twelve and around that time, my mom passed away, leaving me with her young sister in the older estate.

She was a wonderful lady, and she will forever have a special spot in my heart.

I was almost like a little sister to the previous duchess and that's why master Zahavi tease me calling me grandpa's aunty.

And I tease him with that old marine soldier salute.

When...

Stop that smirk, or I will throw you from this roof."

Her voice was serious, and I could feel she was already prepared to throw me from this place.

I had no doubt that she could do that. In fact, I knew she might do just that while I won't be able to use my flight magic.

And with that fear, I forcefully stopped this smirk and thankfully, she calmed down and continue speaking.

"Back in the days, I spend almost all my time away from this empire and lived as a mercenary and fought in many minor wars that happen outside and just honed my skills with weapons.

I used many weapons in the past but I never actually found something that was fit for me or that I liked particularly.

In those days, the wars weren't as they are now.

Not many technological developments and although the empire had been prospering in magic and technology for a long time, all the wars I fought in were outside the empire.

The remote places with few resources and technology.

Well, back in the days, I was mostly driven by anger and anguish and well, I just mostly killed people, beasts, and enemies.

On the battlefields, although I was comparatively shorter than most of the soldiers, no one ever looked down on me after seeing me in battles.

I was quite famous back in the day, and many feared me for being a crazy witch.

Well... I was just driven by hate for the world for making me different from most of the others.

I lived and saw the ones I cherished die after living a good life and although I met many people from different races that had long life spans, different from them, I had a normal perspective of time.

Just like humans, I saw a day as a day and not like some moment as elves or dwarves do.

Something weird, something so painful it can't be explained with words, and the reason for it… my origin skill.

Though I don't blame my skill or anything anymore… it isn't something I ever want to remember again.

I was someone bad. Someone drove by pure hate, a machine with no purpose or goal.

Someone who had actually lived the life feeling as if trapped in this young body.

And this feeling of being trapped, feeling the time pass like normal.

Perceiving every passing moment normally, and not like some moments that I am supposed to.

It was painful and infuriating and the deaths, blood, screams, and anguish of others didn't do anything other than just make this void even darker.

The darkness just grew, and even after getting stronger, I didn't feel anything.

Back then, I had even forgotten I had a family or something like that and it wasn't until some years ago that I returned to empire and to this precious home.

And when I came back... the one I played with as a sister had already passed away and her dear son, my grandpa, was the newly appointed duke.

When I first came back and met him, I felt things would be just the same.

Someone else died before me, someone I loved but, by then, I had even forgotten what those emotions were.

And even if I stayed here, things like those will continue to happen.

…

But, unlike what I had thought, grandpa was a different person than anyone I had met in my life.

He was calm, warm, and stronger than anyone I had seen in those countryside wars and battles.

Unlike me, he had honed his talent in the right place and reached heights few could ever achieve.

And his son, my dad, was the same.

If grandpa was a warm wind that took me out of my despair, dad was something that reminded me what life was.

He brought back those long forgotten emotions to me and… I returned to being an actual person.

And then the other two…

Grandma is a wonderful person that healed the wounds that I thought could never be healed.

The deep wounds of despair, hate, the void… she healed everything with her words, affection, and teachings.

And then… my lovely mom kept me in this world, away from that despair I had lived in for decades.

They are just wonderful people that made that [Blood thirsty witch] a decent person that can live as a normal person.

And after that… I really wanted to live for a while more.

With them, however long I can.

Doing the things I never got the chance to do…

Grandpa taught me how to use a scythe, something that not just went perfectly with me… when I held it, I felt like this was something that was a part of me.

Grandma taught me how to hone and polished my existing magic and knowledge and witchcraft.

I only learned something in true meaning when I came here and met them.

I don't even know just how grateful I am to them for taking care of this 'bad' child… but this grateful feeling is undeniable.

It fears me just what might have happened if I never come back, or what I would be if I had just wandered this continent helplessly as I had?

I... what-"

After that long one, she started losing the calmness she had maintained all this time, and even if I was already in tears now, I didn't want her to cry more than she already had.

So this time, I hugged her without wiping these new bastard tears that had come out without my permission.

"Eon...?" she asked with a sudden blank expression that had at least taken her out of her falling state.

She was still sitting down and although this position wasn't so much comfortable; I didn't think much about it.

I just hugged her as best as I could, and the tears that had started as soon as she mentioned the killings and battlefield intensified even more.

I now understand just how she had felt when hearing about my life, and it hurt more than remembering my own shitty past.

Perceiving every day as a day, even while living a long life, was almost like a curse.

Something like my ability to remember everything.

The psychological pain and suffering she must have gone through explained her super high mental fortitude and power.

She was strong, but she had also shed blood and sweat to gain that strength.

But, unlike my deep desire to get back to my family and love for archery, she never had a goal or desire.

Not until she met her grandpa.

Maybe she would have been even stronger if she had found her talents earlier but, that wasn't important right now.

Killing others was nothing new to me, and that aside, she was a different person than she had been in the past.

As I hugged her and after her shock, she came back to her senses and just hugged me back.

The tears that I tried to block weren't affected by my hopeless attempt one bit and flowed out of her gorgeous eyes and fell on my neck.

But thankfully, she was smiling while hugging me…