Witch Hunt (4)
Witch Hunt (4)
Before the mansion was even enveloped in light.
Sylvia was in the middle of acting spoiled in the room of her only eonni, Idella.
"Omma is too much! She wants me to call that half-blood 'eonni'? Not anyone else, but Omma?"
The subject of Sylvia's venting was none other than the stance Florencia had recently taken.
Florencia, who had been at the forefront of abusing Renoa, had changed her attitude 180 degrees overnight.
In an argument between Renoa and Sylvia, she had taken Renoa's side instead of her biological daughter, Sylvia.
The shock she felt at the time was beyond words.
"That wicked witch must have cast a foul spell on Omma."
"Well... it was strange."
Idella felt the same way about it being strange.
To the point where she momentarily mistook Duchess Florencia for something else wearing her skin.
"You said she knelt before her? Surely her mind just went a bit haywire for a moment because of the shock. She'll return to normal soon."
"Right?"
"Yeah. So don't worry too much."
It had to be that way.
Even if a blade were held to her throat, Sylvia would never call Renoa 'eonni.'
Thanks to Idella's comfort, Sylvia's heart felt a layer more at ease.
She sipped her tea leisurely. It was just as she was savoring the fragrant black tea.
"Hm?"
Light began to spill out from somewhere.
Idella lowered her head.
What revealed itself beneath their feet were layers upon layers of overlapping geometric shapes and magic formulas.
"A magic circle...?"
It was immediately after Idella recognized the magic circle. A pillar of light swallowed the room.
"Kyaaaaak!"
Sylvia's scream rang out. In the light that bleached their vision white, the two instinctively raised their arms to cover their eyes.
Before long, the cluster of light scattered like a lie.
"W-what was that?"
"I don't know...."
Idella furrowed her brows.
The magic circle that had been etched into the mansion floor and the wave of mana that had just swept over her skin.
To think such a massive magic circle had been engraved inside the mansion.
'Did Appa do it? Or Orabeoni? Or was it someone else?'
Like a proper mage, Idella analyzed the situation calmly without panicking.
—Jjaeng-geurang!
At that moment, the maid standing nearby dropped a plate.
The plate shattered, and fragments scattered everywhere.
Idella, who had been focusing intensely, flinched violently.
"Aish, you scared me."
"......."
"What are you just standing there for? Clean it up quickly. It's dangerous."
The maid bent down and began to pick up the fragments haphazardly. Then, her hand was pricked by a shard.
"Hey. Blood is dripping on the carpet. Can't you get your head on straight?"
"......."
The maid did not answer.
Idella, looking at her with disapproval, shook her head and fell back into thought.
What was that magic just now?
She couldn't feel any changes.
But this time, her thoughts didn't last long either.
—Pu-uk!
"Ack!"
A sharp, agonizing pain struck Idella.
Turning her head, Idella discovered a glass shard buried in her shoulder and blood flowing from it.
The maid who had broken the plate had stabbed the broken glass shard into Idella's shoulder.
"You... what the hell do you think you're doing!"
Idella swung her arm roughly, throwing the maid off.
"Kyaaaaak! E-eonni! B-blood! What are you! Why did you stab my eonni? Guards! Guards!"
The door opened and guards rushed in.
"That bitch attacked Idella eonni! Take her away quickly!"
"......."
"What are you doing just standing there? Can't you hear me telling you to take her away?"
Despite Sylvia's urging, the guards did not react. They remained in their spots, maintaining a wall of silence.
It was Idella who felt a sense of déjà vu. The guards' attitude overlapped with the maid's behavior just moments ago.
Her skin turned cold.
The pain felt distant.
"Sylvia."
"Yes?"
"Come to my side."
"What is this all of a sudden......."
It was the moment Sylvia wore a puzzled expression.
The guards simultaneously drew the swords hanging at their waists. They kicked off the floor and lunged.
"Kyaaaaaak!"
Sylvia's shrill scream erupted.
Idella gritted her teeth against the pain and scattered mana into the air.
Just before the guards' blades could rain down upon the two.
—Jjeo-eok.
The guards froze in the exact posture of thrusting their swords.
Idella didn't stop there.
She sent the maid, who was lunging with a glass shard in hand regardless of her own injuries, flying with a gust of wind.
"Kyaak! Kyaaaak!"
Sylvia kept screaming while clutching her head.
Idella pulled out the piece of glass embedded in her shoulder.
"Ugh...!"
A surge of fresh blood poured from the wound where the fragment had been pulled out.
Idella immediately pushed mana into it. She froze the wound to perform emergency first aid.
"E-eonni. The people suddenly......."
Sylvia approached Idella, sobbing.
It was definitely an abnormal situation.
Whether it was the maid or the guards, they had suddenly attacked as if they had become different people.
Had they gone mad as a group?
Or were they trying to start a coup?
What flashed through Idella's mind was that mysterious magic circle.
Things had started happening after that was activated. That magic circle must have made the people like this.
"Let's get out for now. It's dangerous for just us to be here. Let's find Cassius orabeoni or Appa."
Idella took Sylvia's hand and left the room.
Outside, a scene from a hellscape had already unfolded.
People they were usually familiar with were breaking furniture with bloodshot eyes and stabbing utensils into each other's necks.
"Hiik!"
Sylvia screamed again as she discovered a corpse rolling underfoot.
"Don't look down. Just look ahead and run."
Idella gripped Sylvia's wrist so hard it felt like it might break and cut through the chaos.
It was just as they were about to turn the corner leading to the central hall.
—Beon-jeok!
A fierce flash, as if it would burn their eyeballs, erupted from the front.
A spear of lightning pierced through the hallway and surged toward the two.
"Kh...!"
Idella hastily deployed a mana barrier.
It collided with the blue lightning that coiled like a snake.
However, the barrier she had hurriedly raised could not fully withstand that firepower.
—Pa-aang!
The barrier shattered in an instant.
The aftermath of the explosion that swallowed the barrier swept over the two.
"Aaaaak!"
Sylvia's shriek erupted. Idella also let out a suppressed groan as she rolled violently across the hallway floor.
"Keu-uk...!"
Idella's vision flickered distractingly. Even the shoulder wound she had frozen to stop the bleeding burst open.
Hot blood soaked her neck once again.
Amidst the tingling sensation of paralysis hitting her entire body and the acrid smell, Idella forced her upper body up.
Beyond her wavering vision, someone was approaching, filtering through the thick mist of dust.
Idella could tell who it was without even looking.
Because she knew very well who the mage was that specialized in this blue lightning.
"Lowell......."
The second son of Edelheid.
It was her only younger brother, Lowell.
"S-small orabeoni? Why is small orabeoni...? It's us! It's me and Idella eonni!"
Sylvia called out urgently, but not a single trace of agitation could be found in Lowell.
"Small orabeoni...?"
"It's meaningless, Sylvia."
Because in Lowell's two eyes looking at his elder sister and younger sister, there was no emotion, just like the others.
At his fingertips, a second bolt of lightning was crackling and taking shape.
"Sylvia, listen to me carefully."
Idella froze the bleeding on her shoulder with ice once more.
"Go find Cassius orabeoni or Appa. Right now."
Mages of those two's caliber wouldn't have fallen for this mysterious magic.
They would surely be looking for a way to settle this situation while maintaining a sound mind.
"I'll tie him down here, so you run without looking back."
"E-eonni? How can I go alone! And what about small orabeoni?"
"That is no longer the Lowell you knew!"
A frost-like shout, with none of her usual kindness.
Lowell was also a genius mage who inherited the Edelheid blood.
His level was on a different dimension compared to a few servants or guards.
It was near impossible to protect Sylvia while facing him with an injured body.
"Go, quickly. Keep this in mind. You must not trust anyone except Cassius and Appa. Understood?"
"B-but......."
"Go!"
Idella heartlessly pushed away her sister, who didn't know what to do.
And then she immediately drew up her mana explosively.
"I-I'll bring them quickly! Just wait a little bit, eonni!"
Sylvia ran in the opposite direction, leaving Idella behind.
Behind her, another flash flared. The impact shook the mansion.
"Heo-eok, heo-eok."
Sylvia ran down the hallway alone.
She had already kicked off her shoes. Her refinement had also been cast aside long ago.
Her heart pounded as if it would burst and she was suffocating, but Sylvia couldn't stop.
"Cassius orabeoni! Appa! Where are you!"
She had to find those people as soon as possible. Only then could she return the maddened Lowell to normal.
But the path to find them was arduous beyond words.
Every time she turned a corner, servants biting each other and soldiers tangled in combat blocked her way.
Sylvia hid her breath and fled to the edge of the hallway to avoid their eyes.
To find the savior who would resolve this situation, she held her breath tight and crossed between the sprawled corpses.
—Teo-eok!
"Hiik!"
A shrill scream erupted from Sylvia's mouth. Something tightly ensnared her ankle.
Sylvia lost her balance and fell flat on the floor. She turned her head with a pale face.
The one who had grabbed Sylvia was the gardener.
The gardener was foam-mouthed with blood, gripping Sylvia's ankle ferociously.
With a giant pair of shears stuck in his back, he almost looked like a clockwork doll.
"Let go! I said let go!"
Sylvia kicked the gardener's face with her other foot as if to crush it.
But as if he couldn't feel pain, the gardener didn't budge.
Instead, he even reached out with his other hand to try and grab Sylvia's calf.
"I said let go!"
Mana sparkled at Sylvia's fingertips. A blade was fired as if grazing the floor.
—Seo-geok!
A gruesome cutting sound.
The gardener's wrist fell right off.
The sight of the severed wrist still gripping her ankle made her want to gag, but Sylvia swallowed her scream and shook it off.
She stood up on the blood-drenched floor and ran forward like crazy again.
How much longer did she run like that?
Sylvia's pace slowed down noticeably. Since her body usually didn't exercise, she had almost no stamina.
She was forcing her legs to move, enduring the urge to collapse right then and there.
But no matter how much she searched the mansion, she couldn't find Cassius or the Duke.
'What if those two have been taken down too?'
Then how was she supposed to resolve this situation?
What about Idella?
What about Lowell?
In Sylvia's mind, which was pushed to its mental limit, ominous thoughts continued endlessly.
"Omma.... Is Omma safe?"
The other family members were mages at least, but Florencia was an ordinary person.
The moment she encountered even a single mad soldier, it would be hard to keep her life.
When the thought that her mother might be in danger reached her, urgency took precedence over fear.
Sylvia changed direction. Putting the search for her father aside, she recklessly moved toward the inner quarters where Florencia's bedchamber was located.
Thus, she arrived in front of the Duchess's drawing room.
Strangely, this vicinity was as quiet as a dead mouse. A silence as if the pandemonium swallowing the mansion hadn't reached here.
Before Sylvia could feel the strangeness, she felt a sense of relief first.
"O-Omma."
She carefully opened the door.
In the middle of the room.
There was a familiar figure.
It was Florencia, dressed in her usual elegant gown, without a single hair out of place.
"Omma!"
The moment she discovered a family member amidst the extreme terror, Sylvia burst into tears.
Even as her legs lost strength and she stumbled, she hurried toward Florencia.
She lunged and hugged Florencia.
"T-thank goodness. I'm so glad you're safe, Omma. Everyone in the mansion has gone crazy......!"
Sylvia sobbed while buried in Florencia's embrace.
Florencia patted Sylvia's back.
With just that, Sylvia regained her stability at a rapid pace.
Regained her stability at a rapid pace.
At a rapid pace.
Rapid.......
'Wait.'
Suddenly, Sylvia thought.
"Omma. Why is your body so cold...?"
Sylvia slowly raised her head. She met Florencia's eyes.
Florencia was wearing her usual elegant smile. It was the Florencia Sylvia knew.
Except, those eyes had lost their focus and their light had vanished.
They were exactly the same as the eyes of the madmen she had seen while coming here.
"Ha, haha......."
Sylvia let out a stiff smile.
Tears streamed down.