Chapter 168: The Witch and The Contract of Magic (10)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 168: The Witch and The Contract of Magic (10)
After the incident concluded, Dorothea found herself under the suspicious gaze of the Donnengarten authorities.
The lady of the domain, sobbing too hard to speak. The overflowing spirits. The fact that she was with Rapunzel, who had (supposedly) escaped the tower.
To anyone unaware of the full context, she was, at that moment, the most suspicious person in the room.
Dorothea wasn't ignorant of the fact that she would draw suspicion if she decided to use her abilities to their full extent.
That was why she had summoned spirits to her own room to make it seem occupied and had asked Sophia to draw attention by pretending to investigate another area.
However, plans often go awry in practice.
The moment the dwarf noticed they were being followed, the possibility of a ‘quiet, covert resolution’ went out the window. After that, they were just running on momentum.
Her tendency to act before thinking in a pinch was a trait she shared with the Tin Knight—truly, like master, like knight. Though she would vehemently deny it.
Fortunately (from the Donnengarten domain’s perspective), Dorothea was not thrown in jail to be interrogated by burly men.
If an ordinary adventurer or traveler had been suspected of both necromancy and threatening the lord’s wife, they would have been tossed in a cell first and asked questions later, regardless of the truth. But Dorothea was no ordinary adventurer or traveler.
To put it in the long-winded manner of the nobility, she was a member of the party of ‘Lady Adelaide von Lennart, a candidate for the heir of the Friedel domain, a member of the Lion Duke’s bloodline, the winner of the individual matches at the Thracus martial arts tournament (as the champion was disqualified), the representative instructor of the Lennart dojo’s Tik-Tok branch, and a guest of the lord of Donnengarten.’
This was why the soldiers had no choice but to be cautious in their demeanor, no matter how suspicious she seemed.
To their ‘polite request for an explanation of the situation,’ Dorothea gave a simple answer.
“Ask the lady.”
And the lady, having finally stopped crying and composed herself—
*
[The ‘Tin Knight’ assesses that Dorothea’s threat must have been effective, seeing as how she confessed everything so cleanly!]
“Threat? Please. Anyone would think I told her to make up a story.”
About half a day had passed since the incident concluded.
The atmosphere in the domain was so somber that calling it a house of mourning would not be an exaggeration.
While no one had physically died, the ‘circumstances’ the lady revealed with her own lips were more than enough to plunge people into shock and horror.
It was only natural, as the benevolent and wise lady of the domain had been revealed as a villainess who had been sacrificing other orphans to protect her own daughter.
Adelaide asked cautiously, “What will happen to the lady of the domain now? Will she be… cast out?”
Sophia replied, “Well, I doubt it will come to that. The lord himself is actively shielding her, for one.”
The lord seemed quite shocked by the fact that his wife had used a mage’s power to win his heart, but that was the extent of it.
“Even if our beginning was prompted by outside interference, the years we have spent together are not a lie. My love for her remains unchanged!”
In one sense, it was a foolish remark; in another, a manly declaration.
The distinction was easy to see: the vassals who thought it was the former wore sour expressions, while those who thought it was the latter had tears in their eyes.
Above all, since the lord himself had declared he would not hold her accountable for the charm magic, it became rather difficult to condemn her for what followed.
“Even so, to think she was in a contract with an unknown mage for over a decade, secretly offering sacrifices. Isn’t her wickedness too extreme?”
“Was it not to protect the young lady? That must be taken into account.”
“The children sacrificed were all orphans. They would have died soon enough if the lady hadn’t taken them in. I’m not sure if it’s such a great sin.”
“In the first place, quite a few of the vassals hold favorable opinions of the lady. The only ones with no particular connection to her are the soldiers and knights, and they can’t say much when their own lord, to whom they’ve sworn loyalty, is protecting her.”
“The nobles and vassals may feel that way, but don’t you think the common folk of the domain will think differently?”
“The higher-ups will be careful not to let the story spread. This is an incident that could easily escalate from the lady of the domain’s personal affair into a scandal for the entire family. The legitimacy of the heir would be shaken as well.”
After saying that, Sophia turned her gaze to Dorothea.
“Of course, it would all be over if you, Miss Dorothea, just said one word to the lady: ‘Confess everything to the common folk, too.’ Are you going to do that?”
“Why would I?” Dorothea replied, sounding uninterested.
[The ‘Tin Knight’ is shocked!]
[The ‘Tin Knight’ insists that for a truly satisfying conclusion, the lady’s head must be cut off and mounted on a pike!]
“Don’t be ridiculous.”
Dorothea had no intention of seeing things through to the bitter end with the lady.
The lady had agreed to pay a proper ‘reward,’ and besides, she had never actually pointed a sword at them.
“Well, I don’t plan on protecting her either, so if you decide to spread the story in the village, I won’t stop you. The vassals won’t lay a hand on you while we’re here, either. What will you do?”
At Dorothea’s gaze, the girl, Rapunzel, flinched.
Her hair, which had been messily cut during her escape, had somehow already grown back down to her waist.
“Uh, um… It’s okay. To be honest, I don’t think the villagers would believe me anyway. And even if they did, I don’t really have the passion for it.”
“How magnanimous of you.”
“No, to be frank, I just don’t want to get involved with this domain ever again.”
“Is that so?”
Dorothea tilted her head as if she found it a little hard to understand, but she soon seemed to accept it and move on.
Rapunzel had already been branded a witch within Donnengarten, and having lost all affection for the place herself, she planned to travel with the group to a new destination.
She would occasionally zone out after hearing the news of her older brother’s death, but she was fundamentally a clever and quick-witted person, making her a decent temporary companion.
With Rapunzel having sorted out her position, the only one left grumbling and rampaging was the Tin Knight.
[The ‘Tin Knight’ insists that a spectacular finale is necessary to implement justice!]
[The ‘Tin Knight’ says that if you just give the word, he will go and wipe them all out!]
At the Tin Knight’s fervent appeal, Dorothea stared at him blankly.
“You’re just using justice as an excuse, aren’t you?”
[The ‘Tin Knight’ protests his innocence!]
“Really? You’re not just disappointed you didn’t get to have a brawl with a super-dwarf fused with a tower or make a dramatic escape from a collapsing tower, so you’re trying to create another fight out of spite?”
[The ‘Tin Knight’ reconsiders and decides that even a sinner deserves a chance to repent, thus acknowledging the witch’s judgment!]
The Tin Knight changed his tune in an instant.
His intentions were transparent as glass.
Dorothea considered firing off a few more retorts but decided against it.
In her opinion, the lady’s future wasn’t very bright anyway.
The incident certainly wouldn’t escalate to the point where she’d be condemned as a witch by the people and burned at the stake.
But the vassals would surely feel uneasy about her, and while the lord was protecting her now, it was uncertain how long his heart would remain unchanged.
Little by little, like a tree being eaten away by insects, the lady’s power and influence were bound to disappear.
No, before that, she might go mad from the ‘daughters’ who visited her every night, whispering in her ear.
Of the more than ten bride candidates the dwarf had taken, Dorothea had found three.
All of them had taken their own lives, despairing of their situations.
She didn’t know what had become of the other surviving daughters, but just having the souls of the three she found clinging to her would surely be an immense source of stress for the lady.
A quick death might have been a mercy, but as she had just said, Dorothea had neither the obligation nor the interest to go that far.
She had more important things to worry about right now.
‘…A dark land, a bright land, a king and a chancellor, a war of conquest for territory?’
Dorothea was an intellectual.
This wasn’t self-praise; it was an objective fact.
In the first place, magic was a field that couldn’t be properly wielded without culture and knowledge.
There was a reason words like ‘study’ or ‘school’ were used in relation to it.
But even for someone like Dorothea, the information in the ‘dwarf’s’ memories was utterly foreign.
If she hadn’t experienced it directly through the Chalice of Tuberose, she wouldn’t have even believed such things existed.
‘No, is it certain they even existed? The dwarf didn’t experience the war directly either, he only heard about it from the adults. But setting the war aside, the mere existence of another land is a problem in itself.’
And it wasn’t just land and a country; there were people somewhere who coveted the ‘bright land’—the place where Dorothea and the others lived.
‘What a headache.’
Dorothea frowned.
The sheer scale of the information was a headache, but the content was too unsettling to dismiss as someone else’s problem.
Fortunately, there was at least a clue to obtaining more information.
‘The Kingdom of Heaven. And the Four Great Witches.’
The Kingdom of Heaven, which was hiding information about the ‘dark land,’ and the Four Great Witches, whom even the Kingdom of Heaven was reluctant to provoke, were highly likely to know something about it.
Dorothea pondered for a moment, then went into her room and began to write a letter.
It seemed she needed to send her greetings to her teacher after a long time.
*
On the day they left Donnengarten, there was no grand farewell procession of people sad to see them go.
The lord himself made a brief appearance, and a respectable number of people gathered so as not to be rude to departing guests, but that was all.
A subtle fear and a desperate wish for them to leave quickly were etched on the people’s faces, and the party wasn’t offended by it.
Whatever the victims had gone through, the truth was that to those not involved with the tower, all they had done was stir up trouble in the domain and leave.
They had anticipated all of this, so there was nothing surprising about it.
However, one thing did happen that they hadn’t expected.
“I have caused you a great deal of trouble. I am truly sorry. And thank you for stopping my mother from committing any more sins.”
The daughter of the lord’s wife.
The heir of Donnengarten, the central figure of the incident who had also been the most peripheral, had come to see Dorothea’s party off.
And she did so not with the others, but by approaching them alone just as they reached the edge of the domain.
“This isn’t much, but it is a token of my gratitude. It cannot compare to the wrongs that were committed, but please, I hope you will accept it.”
“Hmm.”
“Ah, yes.”
Dorothea, with a slightly dubious look, and Rapunzel, dumbfounded, each accepted one of the two jewelry boxes the girl offered.
While it didn't matter much to Dorothea, who had absorbed the Witch of the West's fortune, it was enough treasure to make Rapunzel gasp when she peeked inside.
Considering the not-so-large scale of Donnengarten and the girl’s status as a mere heir, it was easy to guess that she had brought her entire fortune.
Dorothea asked, looking puzzled, “Whatever about her, I don’t have anything to apologize to you for, do I? Same for the thanks. I’ve already received payment for dealing with the mage, and from your perspective, I’d think I’m more of an enemy than a benefactor.”
The heir, whose name she didn’t even know, shook her head.
“My mother committed those evil acts for my sake. I bear responsibility as well. I haven’t been able to persuade my father and the vassals yet, but I will reveal the whole truth someday. And I will build a memorial for the victims.”
“…You’re just making trouble for yourself.”
“If you ever happen to come here again, may I ask you to appease the spirits?”
Dorothea asked back, looking dumbfounded.
“You’ve heard the stories about me, haven’t you? You’re asking a necromancer to perform a memorial service?”
“Aren’t souls your area of expertise?”
“Well, yes, but.”
“Of course, if you feel uncomfortable, you don’t have to force yourself.”
Dorothea fiddled with a strand of her hair that had fallen over her shoulder, as if in thought.
Then, with a light shrug, she replied, “Well, if I ever have a reason to stop by.”
“Thank you.”
The girl bowed deeply, and only after repeatedly apologizing to Rapunzel as well did she let them go.
Inside the departing carriage, the Tin Knight spoke to Dorothea.
[The ‘Tin Knight’ asks how it feels to have secured future employment!]
“Are you mocking me right now?”
[The ‘Tin Knight’ says there’s no harm in securing a stable job for your old age!]
With idle chatter and a temporary companion added to the cargo hold, the carriage moved forward.
Once again, onward to a new destination.