Oops, I became the witch's substitute

Oops, I became the witch's substitute

Author: Royal White Fox

Summary:

Filin's life was not very good after traveling through time, but fortunately he had magic that was good at deceiving people.

In order to avoid being bullied, Feilin decided to find a big witch to support him.

Filin used magic to create a substitute for the great witch.

The good news is that he successfully made the world believe in the existence of the great witch, and his substitute disguise was a great success.

The bad news is that people are beginning to think that "Filin" is the substitute for the Great Witch.

Volume 1: Witch

Chapter 001 Magic, Boy

Before traveling through time, I longed for every magnificent day in the other world.

After traveling through time, I have to admit that my original thoughts were a bit arrogant.

Feilin has been here for sixteen years and has almost gotten rid of the habit of getting up to look for his mobile phone. Instead, he picks up the bell beside his pillow and rings it gently.

The memories he brought with him when he was reborn allowed him to enjoy a "genius" childhood, but as time went by, his lack of magical talent made him gradually become mediocre.

Now he could only imagine all kinds of gorgeous magic, watching the maid bring the basin from outside and then wash himself.

The maid stood respectfully by the side, silently handed over the towel, and slowly said while serving: "Master Feilin, the Earl wants you to go to the garden immediately after washing up and invites you to enjoy breakfast together."

Filin felt a headache. His old father was not only profit-driven, but also insatiable. He was like the traditional old aristocrats in film and television dramas. He always said that the family's interests were the priority, but in fact he was a sophisticated egoist.

The old father did not disappoint Filin's expectations. After discovering that Filin's magical talent had limited room for growth, he decisively stopped all investments. Except for the year-end celebrations, he rarely took the initiative to look for his son.

He is like a mobile game player, looking for SSRs among his many children and then investing resources in their cultivation.

So Feilin's reaction was also very cold. After listening to what the maid said, he just washed himself silently, and then asked, "Besides me, is there anyone else?"

The maid was respectful on the surface: "This is a private meeting. Isn't it natural for the Earl to talk to the child?"

Feilin knew the actual situation very well: "Oh? Indeed."

This family lacks so-called human touch; even the biological mother is cold and emotional. Because of their longevity and strength, the family members have naturally developed a set of rules that respect the hierarchy and order of seniority.

The trouble is that, because everything is based on magical talent, there is nothing you can do in this family except become a wizard.

The profession is locked, and you are not allowed to do business. It is considered shameful to become a profession other than a mage, so you are not allowed to go out and show your face in public.

It is rare that the old father would think of himself, a "half-baked" person, in such a situation.

When I put on my shirt and vest and adjusted my cuffs, the maid took a long coat with a single shawl from the hanger. Well, even if I was just having breakfast, I had to wear formal clothes to maintain an unnecessary demeanor.

This family has a strange problem. To put it simply, it is a bit like a middle school syndrome. They always have to pay attention to their dress and etiquette. They are even more obsessed with appearance than the traditional nobles outside. Those with serious illness are so serious that they can't even let their heads break or bleed but cannot let their hair get messy.

Walking out of the main house and heading towards the garden where the breakfast mission is taking place, there are magnificent buildings and artificially trimmed grasses along the way. The power and wealth of this family are among the best in the world and are very difficult to resist.

It took about ten minutes for Philin to find the garden after he went out with a servant leading the way, half guiding and half monitoring him.

What surprised Filin was that the extremely arrogant old father, who was always absent from his shows, actually arrived early today. Just one look at the teacup showed that he had been waiting for a while.

The old father of the Count saw Filin appear, took out his pocket watch, and nodded gently: "At least you are not useless. At least you have some concept of time. Very good. A regular sleep rhythm can keep the magic in your body running well. Abiding by time can allow the magic to exert its due power. Although you have no talent, you are not corrupt, my child."

Feilin's heart skipped a beat. It was rare for this man to act like a father. No matter what happened, he would give him a lecture first. In his mind, this state was already considered "lowering his posture". Under normal circumstances, he would neither care about himself nor blame himself, but ignore him.

"I am just following my family's teachings. Even if I don't have outstanding talents, I won't slack off."

"Okay, enjoy breakfast first, then I have something to discuss with you."

Discuss? For his children, the word "discuss" does not exist in the dictionary of this old father. The so-called discussion is actually announcing the decision to you after making it. The purpose is just to make him feel that it is a discussion.

The servants brought the meal and the two ate in silence. After the meal, the old count's father took a sip of the teacup, but Filin felt pressured because he felt that today might be bad.

The Count asked, "Remember your talent is 'Deception', right?"

Deception, on the surface limited to the ability to conceal one's aura and create illusions, is considered by this family to have no combat power and is ridiculed as a street magic trick.

"That's right." Feilin couldn't help but feel annoyed, because when the Earl first learned that his talent was 'deception', his eyes were full of disappointment, and then turned into contempt.

Of course, double standards are a basic skill for nobles: "There is no weak magic in this world, only weak wizards. Even the 'falsehood' that has no combat power can play its due value, so I want you to leave immediately and sneak into the neighboring country of Miriam."

"What?" Philin asked.

The Earl didn't care whether he would be in danger or not: "You need to investigate the witches' gatherings and find out their purpose. It would be even better if you could steal the witch's spellbook, but I don't think you can do that."

Feilin bowed his head and accepted the order like a subordinate: "Yes, Lord Earl."

The Earl held up the teacup as if saying goodbye: "You will stay in Miriam and monitor every move of that country. Collect local magic information, how they deal with star beasts, how they fight, how they deal with star cores. Whether it is witches or other organizations, you must not let go of any clues. The family will give you an allowance based on the information you provide every month. You must create value for the family, Philin."

Filin was relieved. This was actually an exile, just to kick him out. "I will do my best. So when I get to Miriam, should I organize my own intelligence network or contact the person in charge there?"

The Earl waved his hand, his fingertips flickering slightly, and took out a letter. He was already getting impatient, as if being able to speak patiently was a great favor: "You can find an inn on the most prosperous street in Miriam's capital. The owner is Ma Wen, an excellent intelligence officer in the family. He will teach you what to do. You can go now."

Philin bowed slightly, then left the garden, feeling a little excited.

Maybe in the eyes of his family, he was exiled to a remote small country. Not only did he lose the favorable living resources, but he also lost the space for growth as a mage. He was destined to work for the family all his life and then live a mediocre life.

What made him even more disgusted was that this guy in front of him, who could only be called his father in terms of blood relationship, had created a special imprint in order to control his offspring, which controlled the children's freedom and even life and death. That was why Filin was unable to decisively leave this insane place.

He has endured until today and must find a way to deceive the eyes of this family, tease the arrogant count, break free from the shackles and escape from the birdcage.

And now, the opportunity has finally come.

For Filin, being able to walk out of this cold and violent mansion was a matter of gratitude. Upon hearing the news, he was already celebrating a little in his heart.

Then he began to think about the order given by the Earl. Because they are a magic family, even if these arrogant guys do not admit it verbally, they still value the magic knowledge outside in their hearts. They collect spell books and data documents all year round in order to stay ahead and sit firmly on the top spot in this country.

The other thing is to specialize in combat and collect more techniques to deal with monsters, which are the star beasts mentioned earlier.

The beast of the falling star, this is what people call these monsters in the sky. The son of this world’s current version is as valuable as the Tang Monk from another world.

About two hundred years ago, a meteor fell into a human city and transformed into a terrifying monster that began to destroy. Some people said it was a punishment from God, some said it was a scourge from heaven. Even the gods were helpless against the existence of the star beasts, and the creatures on earth had no choice but to take up arms and fight.

Unlike previous monsters, ordinary people are too powerless in front of star beasts. Monsters that thousands of troops cannot defeat can be killed by heroes alone. Therefore, the worship of personal military power has been pushed to the peak in this era.

After killing the star beast, the material from its corpse is the biggest reward, which can be used to refine potions, make weapons, and advance one's path. The appearance of the star beast is both a disaster and an opportunity.

This is also the reason why Filin was excluded. His talent is "deception" and his offensiveness is weak. It is difficult to make up for it by learning other magic. It seems a bit out of place in this era of "big ships and big guns".

However, Filin never thought that his abilities were weak. After years of training and adjustment, his "deception" was a specialization against humans. He had never won against star beasts, but he had never lost when deceiving people. Even now, his old father, the Count, regarded him as a defective product with weak magic power. However, even if he did not deliberately disguise himself, his family would not change their opinion of him.

Everything is done to leave this family. Even if we cannot completely sever ties, it is still no problem to let fish leap freely and birds fly freely from today on.

At noon, under the witness of the sun, Philin got on the departing carriage. No one came to see him off, and he was very satisfied.

At this time, a pigeon slowly landed on the carriage window, pecked the wooden frame gently, and then turned into a piece of letter and fell into Film's hand.

"to whom It May Concern:

It’s been a while since we last met. How have you been?

The sun in deep winter finally emits a strong and dazzling brilliance. From today on, the severe cold will no longer cover you, my dear brother, I wonder if you feel peace of mind... and joy from the bottom of your heart at this moment?

I said: I want freedom too.

From the time I was born until now, I have been trying my best to survive, as if I have dedicated everything in my life to my family since I came into this world.

But you are different. You are smarter than any of us and now you have successfully escaped from this cage.

I sincerely hope that you can find the life you want, and when we meet next time, I hope we can form the strongest covenant.

——The only little sister who knows your secret."

Chapter 002: The Dead and Alive Superior

Soon, Filin found his new job a bit tricky.

The reason why the problem was difficult was not that his boss, whom he had never met, would make things difficult for him, but that his boss, Ma Wen, the contact person, general manager and intelligence officer of the intelligence base in Miriam's capital, was dead.

As soon as Philin arrived at his destination and found out the location of the base, he heard that a murder had occurred on the most prosperous street in the capital of Miriam. After asking carefully, he found out that the deceased was Mr. Ma Wen, and the incident happened exactly two days ago.

The news was a bit sudden, but it was true. After hearing it, Feilin thought that someone with the same name had died. However, fate did not play tricks on him, and his superior just disappeared inexplicably.

It is said that the battle-hardened Mr. Mawen was found dead in the stable behind the inn. His death was extremely tragic. Several employees of the inn were also dead or injured. The injured had amnesia and were half-crazy. Due to the strange cause of death, it was considered a supernatural event. The inn temporarily became a haunted house and was closed. Mawen was not married in name and had been living alone ever since then, so the property was taken back by the king.

This has resulted in Filin now having no place to stay.

Filin personally went to the inn of the base and saw adventurers coming in and out. They were said to be looking for wanted vengeful spirits. There was also a priest performing a purification ritual at the door, which confirmed that the base was really destroyed.

"You have to die at this critical moment. Mr. Ma Wen, whom I have never met, you can't just die like this."

Filin immediately decided to keep the matter secret. Reporting Ma Wen's death would bring about extra work, and perhaps all the new work would be placed on his head. What's worse, a new boss might be sent in from the family.

Time was urgent, so he immediately disguised himself as a young but wealthy kid from a landlord's family, and asked around about the murder case like a curious baby. He was able to confirm that Ma Wen's death was indeed sudden and without any warning. He was afraid that even he himself didn't know what had happened, let alone outsiders.

After confirming this, Filin decided to take a gamble.

He first secretly approached the survivors to confirm the identity of the surviving employees and whether they were Ma Wen's subordinates. Then he inquired whether there were any grudges among them and whether it was a retaliation against the family by other forces.

The former was easy to say, as the survivor was easily found, but his mental state was not enough to recall what happened that night. As for the latter, no one knew whether the murderer was a person, let alone his motive. So before finding out the truth, Filin decided to carry out his disguised identity to the end.

Before leaving the family, Filin made some inquiries about Mawen. He only knew that he had made a mistake and was demoted here to be an intelligence officer. He had not made any achievements over the years and had a low sense of existence. He went from being a vibrant new magician in the family to a man who spent his days drinking.

If the Earl already knew that Mawen was dead when he arranged the task, given his personality, he would only sneer at him with disdain, and then ask Filin to investigate and avenge the murderer. He would not take the matter to heart after that, nor would he care whether Filin succeeded or not. Of course, if Filin failed, he would inevitably be punished.

Taking all the above into consideration, Ma Wen cannot die. At least from the perspective of his family, Ma Wen must be safe and sound and alive and well.

After much inquiry and observation, Filin learned that Mr. Ma Wen died suddenly, which was somewhat hasty. Under such hasty circumstances, his residence and relics were temporarily preserved quite intact. The local sheriff's thought process and perfunctory attitude also made Filin feel a little incredible.

Since the case was still under investigation, the sheriff only sealed off the crime scene on the surface, but there were almost no guards at night, as if they thought there was nothing valuable in Ma Wen's residence and left it alone. So when Philin sneaked in in the middle of the night, he encountered almost no obstacles. If there had to be an obstacle, the closed windows of the inn were more troublesome than the sheriff sleeping at the door.

The murder scene was also open to adventurers and the church. The stable at the first scene had been messed up by several waves of people, and other rooms had been searched several times. It was unclear whether these people were detectives investigating the case or accomplices helping the murderer destroy clues.

However, this hotel itself is of a considerable size, with three floors. After it became a haunted house, those who knew the situation were horrified. The original guests naturally ran away, and almost all the rooms were messed up. Now the interior is dark and looks even more eerie and terrifying. Feilin couldn't help but sigh that the place where someone had just died is different.

Normally, the murder had happened a few days ago. Ma Wen was a stranger in the area and had no one to rely on. The sheriff should have collected his personal belongings and investigated them long ago, and Filin had no hope of finding anything useful.

He successfully sneaked into Ma Wen's room with the purpose of searching since he was already here. It didn't take much effort to find letters in the desk drawer. He glanced at the letters and found that the contents seemed to be letters from far away, but in fact they were secret letters from the family.

The content of the secret letter is not complicated. It looks like daily chat, but in fact it contains several specific code words, which translate into work-related reports. I don't know whether these letters have been ignored or no one cares about them, and they are still intact in their original places.

Among these letters, Filin picked out several discarded letters, which all seemed to be written by Ma Wen. They were discarded because they wrote the wrong code words. They might be of no value to others, but Filin could understand Ma Wen's language habits from them.

Among them, there was an unfinished letter that caught Filin's attention. It was written recently. He was complaining about the investigation task arranged by the family. He said that the local witch society was too rude, dangerous and chaotic, and he didn't want to get close to those crazy women. And then nothing happened. This letter would never have a chance to be finished.

It was obvious that Ma Wen was feeling frustrated, so Filin gently put the letters into his arms and went back. After returning, he began to imitate Ma Wen's notes to write letters to his family.

After much thought, Filin told the family in Ma Wen's tone: The movements of the Witch Society are very secretive, and the investigation is very difficult, so more time is needed.

Since he was not familiar with the actual situation, Filin paid attention to being concise when writing the letter, trying to say less and make fewer mistakes, and sent a letter back first to see the family's reaction.

As a result, the family's reaction time was a bit long, and Filin's intuitive feeling was that the letter fell on deaf ears. It was two weeks later before he received a reply. However, the content of the reply surprised Filin a little.

Usually, the family’s attitude towards Ma Wen is mostly “Oh, I see”, or when applying for funding, they would just say “I’ll definitely do it next time”.

But after Feilin euphemistically expressed the difficulty of investigating the witches, the family's reply contained detailed instructions: in recent years, a large number of witches have been found frequently appearing in the Kingdom of Miriam, and the Miriam royal family has also expressed support for the witches and provided financial support. The witches are suspected of creating new magic targeting star beasts. Even if it is just a rumor, it is necessary to investigate clearly which witches have cooperated with the Miriam royal family. This will be the focus of your future work. Now I order you to make achievements within two months, whether it is bribery or buying, and develop subordinates among the local witches as soon as possible.

Even without using any code words, and even though magic made the secret letter burn after reading, it was not 100% safe, but it also showed the family's attitude.

They are still as despicable as ever. The family's chain of contempt is like a pyramid, from top to bottom, radiating from the center to the periphery.

This group of arrogant middle school magicians in the family fought bravely when facing the falling star beast. To put it nicely, they were brave, to put it mildly, they were reckless, to put it bluntly... the word "escape" does not exist in their dictionary. Their actual behavior makes people suspect that they actually have no dictionary in their brains, and the final result also shows that they have no brains at all.

This group of people are not suitable for intelligence work. What does it matter even if they give a death order for this kind of thing?

However, as the saying goes, you can rest assured by passing the blame to your subordinates. The family only needs to wait for the results of the intelligence chief of the Miriam Kingdom. If Ma Wen and his people have not obtained the news by the time the deadline comes, it means that Ma Wen and his people are incompetent. What does it have to do with the intelligence chief who is thousands of miles away?

Although Filin complained about the result, he was relieved in his heart. It didn't matter what requests the family made in the reply letter. What mattered was that the reply itself was ordinary and that they really knew nothing about Ma Wen's actual situation.

After much thought, Filin started writing the second reply two weeks later: We have successfully bribed a witch recently. She came here after hearing the news that the Miriam Kingdom treated witches well. She was penniless and destitute when she came here. She was not needed by the royal family after she came, so she felt resentful. We helped her and she is now living in an inn. She is grateful to us. Taking advantage of this, she is willing to help us approach the local witches. In order to ensure that her identity will not be exposed, all the information she obtains will be relayed to Master Filin, who will then use magic to transmit it back to the family. Similarly, when the headquarters needs information about the witches, they can also send the letter directly to Master Filin, and he will be responsible for the single-line contact with the witches.

The family's intelligence chief smiled with satisfaction when he received the reply. In his opinion, the fact that things were going so smoothly was all thanks to his urging. The previous slow progress of intelligence work was simply because Ma Wen's people were not working. For this group of lazy people, he had to issue a death order and set a deadline.

Moreover, if you think about it carefully, Ma Wen's arrangement has a certain rationality. It seems natural and reasonable to let the young and handsome Filin approach the witch. Thinking of this, he waved his hand and wrote a letter directly to Filin, preparing to arrange a new target.

……