Chapter 21 - New Information

After pausing for a while at the unusualness of my question— she finally came up with an answer to it.

"Well to be honest, to only reason I hunt monsters is because they hurt people. My father always says that it's our honor and tradition to hunt monsters— but I don't really care about all that."

What she said in turn caused me to be surprised.

So she hunted monsters because they hurt people— that was understandable. Most Witches kill any monster they come across unless they can use them since monsters attack mindlessly.

Even Witches are endangered by monsters if they come across them— so we had no close feelings with them.

Our only issue with Hunters stems from the fact that they hunt Witches as a whole— even the ones that do not harm people.

That put all our lives in danger and thus makes it so we don't have a chance of peace with them.

"What about the ones that don't hurt people?"

I asked her with a curious look— my eyebrows raised as I leaned closer to try and listen better.

She seemed unsure how to answer my question— hesitant even.

Slowly she thought about it and then replied.

"They aren't any that don't hurt people. All monsters are mindless killers that attack humans. Especially the Witches."

She stopped herself before she carried on— as if she mentioned something she shouldn't have— but now that she was going to talk about the thing I want to hear, I wouldn't let her stop there.

"Witches? Witches exist? What's wrong with them?"

I asked as I feigned innocents— acting like I wasn't a Witch.

She seemed unsure about if she should explain it to me— from this I could guess that Witches weren't knowledge that was easily shared amongst the Hunters.

But I wanted to know what they thought about the Witches even more because of that— so I pushed it.

"They sound interesting— can you tell me more?"

"Ok— but remember you can't tell this to anyone."

She finally gave in to the pressure I was laying on her— making me promise that I won't tell anyone once more.

"Of course— as I said, I won't tell anyone."

"Good, well how should I put this? Yes, witches exist, but they aren't like the stories about them. They are demonic, evil, they eat the souls of humans in order to stay healthy and gain power."

With each thing she said my brows frowned deeper— this wasn't true in the slightest.

Sure Witches exist that did the things she listed— but that was few and far in between, and Witches like that would normally be banished by the Council or even killed.

Which was why what she said made no sense— where did they get this false information from?

"How do you know that?"

I asked without thinking much— my emotions were somewhat influenced by her words making me act odd.

That made her pause for a moment— not expecting my sudden question, one that seemed to be filled with emotion.

"My father told me when I was little. He said that the reason for all the monsters that hurt people, and the rulers of the depths are the Witches. They are the worse— humanity's enemies."

I looked at her with a curious expression on my face— now that made more sense.

It was implanted in her head from a young age— propaganda.

"Your father... Your dad said that?"

I questioned her with a confused tone.

"Yeah, he said that while he was explaining what the Hunters do. How it was our mission to protect the people from the Witches and the Monsters."

Now that made a lot more sense— it was information that was passed on from generation to generation, fed to them at a young age to influence their mindset— whether knowingly or not they were creating a mental bias.

So that leaves the question— was the false information intentionally spread or did it stem from a lack of communication between the two races?

As far as I can tell so far from the information given by Rosaline— it seemed to be due to a lack of communication.

A lot of the information seemed lacking— stemming from myths and tales— which can only be attributed to the fact that the two races never truly tried to speak to each other.

That would mean this constant fighting— the constant killing— is completely avoidable as long as the two races actually tried to put it behind them.

It was avoidable with mere talking.

Groaning at the thought of that I couldn't help but once again be annoyed at the Council's lack of care— their lack of attempt to make things better.

But my annoyance wasn't just limited to the Council this time— it was also directed towards the Hunter Guild.

War was a matter of two sides— and it was also the fault of the Hunter Guild for not trying to fix this matter.

Putting that matter to the back of my mind for now since I couldn't do anything about it. I moved on from the topic of the Hunters as a whole and focus on her family itself.

"What about your family? Why do you hunt, when did you even start being Hunters?"

The class was getting close to starting, so I had to keep my voice low— leaning closer to the girl in order to speak to her in a whispered tone.

She seemed a bit conscious of how close to her I moved— moving away slightly but not going too far since she knew she had to whisper too.

"Well we have always been hunters— at least that's what my father said. We descended from a family of hunters that were part of the original hunting guild, so it is a family tradition to hunt."

Well isn't that something— she was part of the first hunting families that existed?

I don't know if it was mere chance or maybe fate as Seers like to claim— but the chances were interesting.

After all— my bloodline stemmed from one of the original Witches.

Truly it was a very long time ago, but the bloodline that flowed in the blood of my mother— and thus passed onto me— is said to have belonged to one of the first Witches that came to exist.