The most fundamental issue Baek Yu-Seol needed to address was this.
'Where exactly is the true body of the Witch Queen sealed, and how is it sealed?'
But that wasn't the only problem.
Why had the Witch Queen been unable to escape from that place for centuries?
Her level of magic was unquestionably among the highest in the world.
Was it even possible for Baek Yu-Seol to break such a seal?
Of course, if she was in a sealed state, her magical abilities were likely nearly unusable. Even if she knew the solution, she might not have been able to act on it.
Baek Yu-Seol wanted to believe that was the case.
If not, it would mean that even if he found her, there would be no way to release her from the seal.
"You hunted one of the native monsters this time? You've got some guts!"
"Made a fortune, too. I'm just going to spend freely for a month now."
"Remember that dungeon we explored back then? Turns out there was a hidden passage, damn it. There was a chest full of gold bars in there."
"Bloody hell! If I'd been a bit more thorough, I'd be swimming in riches now…"
The Adventurers' Guild.
A gathering place for mercenaries, including mages and those who used magical weapons.
They handled tasks like monster hunting, escort missions, exploring dangerous areas, and searching for missing persons. Naturally, secretive information from all over the world tended to accumulate there.
Baek Yu-Seol sat at the farthest corner of the guild's table, quietly sipping his coffee.
Normally, he already knew most of the information these people had to offer. He'd never even felt the need to visit a place like this before.
But now, the situation was different.
'I can't pinpoint her exact location.'
So far, he had relied heavily on the Senitent Spec… directly or indirectly.
There were times when he had solved an entire case solely with the help of the spec.
And other times, while he had resolved issues mostly with his own strength, he couldn't help but think how difficult it would have been without the spec.
Knowing the enemy's personality and weaknesses in advance.
Finding paths no one else had discovered.
Realizing ideas for the future that no one had even imagined.
In countless situations, the Sentient Spec had been everything to Baek Yu-Seol.
It was such a perfect repository of information that he often joked that the only thing it couldn't understand was a woman's heart.
But for the first time, Baek Yu-Seol found himself in a situation where the Sentient Spec were of almost no help.
At best, he could only rely on his past experience of playing Aether World Online.
'There are some places with a high possibility, at least.'
While playing Aether World Online, Baek Yu-Seol had explored nearly every corner of the continent.
The game's fields were vast… so vast that they were sometimes criticized as excessive compared to other RPGs.
Even after more than a decade of service, new locations and events were still being discovered daily. The game's content felt endless, which, ironically, became a disadvantage in real life.
The sheer volume of information meant there were far too many things he hadn't uncovered.
'Places I've never been… I'll have to focus on those.'
The most prominent examples were Forbidden Zones.
The Deep Sea of Alamanca, the Eternal Glacier Mountains, the Burning Cliffs, the Screaming Gorge, and more.
This world had many locations labeled as Forbidden Zones. The common thread among them was that they were teeming with monsters, making survival nearly impossible for both humans and dark mages.
Even as a gamer, Forbidden Zones were terrifying, and Baek Yu-Seol had avoided visiting them often. Now, he cursed his past self for that decision.
'In the game, dying meant only losing a bit of EXP…'
Afraid of losing minor stats, he had avoided several Forbidden Zones entirely.
If he had been willing to take the loss and explored every corner of those zones, he might already know where Scarlet was sealed.
Thunk!
As he sat quietly, the door of the Adventurers' Guild swung open, and a drunken woman stumbled inside.
'… Found her.'
Even though the Sentient Spec weren't providing much assistance, they weren't completely useless.
For instance, they could help him identify someone who might know where Scarlet was sealed.
Some might call it a waste of time, but the chance of getting information about Scarlett through this woman - though slim - was at least 1%.
But in a situation like this, he had no choice but to pin his hopes on something that wasn't 0%.
"That crazy woman is here again."
"Out of money for drinks, I bet."
"Tsk, I'd better step away. If she sets the building on fire again, it'll be a hassle."
As the woman staggered over to the bulletin board to examine the missions, most of the adventurers cleared out.
Unfortunately, one male mercenary, who didn't recognize her, frowned deeply, rolled up his sleeves, and approached her.
"Hey, you. Drunken adventurers aren't allowed to take on missions. Can't you follow basic rules?"
The woman lifted her head and looked at the man. She didn't answer. Instead, she exhaled, releasing a fiery breath.
"Wha—?"
Even though the widespread availability of magical items had raised the overall skill level of adventurers - allowing even non-magic users to wield advanced magic tools - they were still no match for a genuine master.
Caught off guard, the burly mercenary had no time to resist as the flames closed in on him.
But in that split second, Baek Yu-Seol stepped between them.
Whoosh!
"W-what the—!"
"Suddenly…"
Before anyone could even blink, in that fleeting moment, Baek Yu-Seol had stepped between them and deflected the fiery breath with his bare hand, redirecting it to the side.
Crackle!
The flames landed on a bowl of cold noodles that an adventurer had been eating nearby.
The cold noodles were now hot noodles, but at least the building hadn't caught fire… consider it a stroke of luck.
"Crazy! Did he just grab fire with his bare hands?"
"Wait, didn't it seem like he teleported?"
"Is that even possible?"
"Hold on, doesn't his face look familiar?"
While the adventurers murmured among themselves, the woman remained silent, her face twisting into an irritated frown as she stared at Baek Yu-Seol.
She seemed quite displeased at having been interrupted.
Baek Yu-Seol, knowing her personality, skipped unnecessary explanations and immediately pulled out a pouch of money.
"Ten million credits. I need to find a path. Will you take the job?"
Without a moment's hesitation, the woman snatched the pouch from him.
"Let's go right now, client."
The woman's name was Panallet.
She was supposedly the daughter of a nameless noble family who had learned magic but lost her parents during a war in her childhood, forcing her to live as an adventurer. At least, that was the concept she used to blend into the world… a witch in disguise.
Of course, this wasn't a story she had told herself. From her personality, it didn't seem like she was the type to reveal her true identity either.
It was simply information uncovered by some player in the past.
As Baek Yu-Seol read through the details about Panallet displayed on the Sentient Spec, a thought crossed his mind.
If this world were just a game, Panallet would have been nothing more than a minor NPC. So why had certain players gone out of their way to dig up information about her?
He set the thought aside for now and turned his attention to Panallet.
Clatter! Clatter!
Fields stretched out on either side of the road.
In this era, it might seem rare to find horse-drawn carriages in operation, but just a short distance outside the major cities, they were fairly common.
Thanks to the slow pace of the carriage, Baek Yu-Seol could finally enjoy a moment of relaxation. Yet, his mind remained restless.
"Client. What was that thing you did earlier?"
While he had hoped she wouldn't drink on the job, Panallet seemed incapable of parting with alcohol. Her face was slightly flushed as she asked the question.
At least she seemed to be in better shape than before, which was a small relief.
"I just grabbed it."
"Is it even possible to just grab magic?"
"And yet you breathe fire with your mouth, don't you?"
"That's magic."
"So is what I did."
"…Huh? Is there even a spell for grabbing fire with your bare hands?"
"There are all kinds of magic in the world."
That was the end of the conversation.
In reality, Baek Yu-Seol had little interest in conversing with Panallet. All he wanted was for her to take him to his destination as quickly as possible.
After a while, the coachman spoke up.
"Alright, young ones, this is as far as the carriage goes."
"Understood. Thank you for your help."
At the coachman's words, Panallet and Baek Yu-Seol lightly jumped off the carriage.
"Looking at you two, you're quite young, but I'd recommend not venturing too far into that forest. It's crawling with dangerous monsters."
"Thanks for the warning."
"As long as you don't go too deep, you should be fine. The Forest Witch keeps the monsters in check, so they don't leave the forest."
Baek Yu-Seol appreciated the advice, but since they had come specifically to enter the forest, they couldn't exactly follow it.
As the coachman departed, Baek Yu-Seol slung his backpack over his shoulder while Panallet clutched her stomach, laughing.
"The Forest Witch? Pfft!"
Her laughter was understandable.
After all, the real witch was standing right there, yet they were calling someone else a witch. It must have been absurd to her.
It was also a self-deprecating laugh.
People often labeled any mysterious or fearsome woman as a 'witch.'
It wasn't exactly pleasant for someone from her lineage to hear such a term thrown around so lightly. Without Baek Yu-Seol around, the coachman might have lost his head for saying such a thing.
"Let's go."
"Hmm. Aren't you afraid of witches?"
"The scariest thing in this world is humans."
"Haha! I think so too. You're an odd kid."
It was late autumn, the season when summer had fully receded. A crisp breeze rustled the edges of their coats.
The name of the forest they were heading toward was The Secret Forest.
A simple and straightforward name, but one that lived up to its reputation.
"People say if you go in, you somehow end up back at the entrance… Isn't that strange? Totally like something a witch would do!"
"I don't think it's witch-like at all."
"Huh? Why not?"
"To ordinary people, it might seem like an enchanting witch's spell. But in reality, it's just a combination of spatial distortion and cognitive reduction magic—a type of high-level magic."
In essence, the magic peacefully and subtly prevented humans from entering the forest.
But that wasn't the way of a witch. A true witch would have created horrifying illusions to scare humans away.
'Though, in modern times, doing that would just make her the target of ghost story clubs or paranormal hunters, making it even harder to live in hiding.'
Panallet, curious, asked with a puzzled expression, "If you know all that, why do you even need me?"
"Just because you know what magic is doesn't mean you can break it. If it were that easy, anyone could be a grand mage."
"Ah, fair point."
Panallet shook her bottle of liquor, clearly more concerned about running low on alcohol than the conversation.
"You're such a peculiar person. Follow me."
The forest path was winding, and the thick trees obstructed visibility.
This made even a slight application of spatial distortion magic highly effective. Just a small twist in one's sense of direction, and their path would completely reverse.
On flat ground, one might have noticed quickly, but with the obstructed view of the forest, only someone exceptionally perceptive would realize what was happening.
Of course, Panallet walked confidently, humming a tune, as if the forest's magic didn't affect her at all.
Sometimes she turned left, sometimes right, but in reality, she was walking in a straight line.
Before long, and contrary to the coachman's warnings, they easily reached the heart of the forest.
There, instead of a small, cozy cabin fitting the atmosphere, stood a large mansion.
In front of it was a disheveled woman, presumably the owner, pointing a thick staff directly at them.
"...Huh?"
Panallet let out a foolish noise and quickly hid behind Baek Yu-Seol.
"What? Why? Why is she angry again? Can't we even visit?"
Even as she hid behind Baek Yu-Seol, Panallet rattled off her words like a machine gun.
The disheveled woman gritted her teeth in frustration, her prominent dark circles making her look particularly menacing.
"Every time you come here, I have prophetic dreams starting a week in advance, which ruins my sleep! I couldn't even get a wink last night! Do you know how annoying that is?"
"Why do you only get prophetic dreams when I visit?"
"Because it's my duty to monitor witches!"
"And yet you're holed up in this forest while you're supposed to monitor me!"
Thunk!
As the woman pointed her staff, Panallet, who had been shouting just moments before, disappeared behind Baek Yu-Seol's back, hiding completely.
For someone who had seemed so confident at first, she was surprisingly timid.
"Haa..."
Baek Yu-Seol let out a sigh and began approaching the woman.
"That's far enough. Come any closer, and I'll cut off your legs."
Instead of answering, Baek Yu-Seol silently reached into his coat and pulled something out to show her.
It was the Essence of a Witch Hunter, one of the spoils he had obtained after killing a witch hunter some time ago.
"That's… Could it be… Are you a witch hunter?"
If Baek Yu-Seol were to respond with "Yes, I'm a witch hunter," the conversation might have gone smoothly.
After all, the woman standing before him was a former witch hunter herself.
However, Baek Yu-Seol's instincts warned him against doing so.
He trusted his instincts quite deeply, and that trust quickly translated into action.
"No. I'm a witch hunter killer. And from now on, I'm going to kill you."