WTBHI 83

Chapter 83

Isolen tightly grabbed Gremory’s hair and shouted,
“Shut up, you witch! How dare you try to deceive my father?”
“You shut up, you wicked witch! Trying to frame an innocent human? Count Sien, take this witch to the Grand Temple immediately! Don’t be fooled by her appearance!”

Count Sien stood there blankly. The knights were also frozen, just staring at the two girls.

One of the knights whispered to Count Sien,
“My lord, I’m honestly confused. I heard the witch has short hair and wears a dark blue robe… but both of them look exactly the same. And everything they say sounds convincing.”
“Lady Mori is definitely human. I heard she once underwent a saintess identification ritual. If she were a witch, she would’ve been exposed during that test.”
“Well, yes. The test uses silver needles and holy water. So then, is our Lady Isolen really the witch?”
“That can’t be. I saw her born with my own eyes from my human wife. How could she not be human?”

Count Sien and the knight both groaned in frustration.
“What if we just take both of them to the Grand Temple? Surely the priests there will figure out the truth.”
“That may be the only way.”

Now the two girls started rolling on the ground, still clutching each other’s hair. The knights had to pull them apart before one of them ended up bald.

As the two were panting and held back by knights, Count Sien declared,
“Since both of you claim to be innocent, I will send both of you to the Grand Temple. Lady Mori, is that alright with you?”
“I’m fine with it. Huff… huff…”
“Isolen, do you agree too?”
“I’m okay with it. Huuuh…”

Seeing both agree so easily made Count Sien even more confused. If one of them were really a witch, she would’ve resisted going. This made him tread even more carefully—just as Isolen and Gremory had hoped.

Exhausted from fighting, the two girls eventually fainted. Carried by the knights down the mountain, they were loaded onto a carriage and sent to the Grand Temple.

To prevent anything unexpected, Count Sien personally locked holy relic restraints around both their necks.

About 6 hours earlier, Cheshion departed for the Duchy of Ortega.

He wore holy relic armor, a holy relic cloak, and holy relic accessories from head to toe. In his pocket were a fragrant pouch given by Curhen and potions made by Gremory.

Green “beauty potions” filled the pouch, but one special potion stood out—a deep red-black one. It was a rare potion Gremory made just for Cheshion.

“The green ones are for wounds or light illness. The red-black one is for plagues. That one’s hard to make since I don’t have the ingredients. I made this one just for you.”

Not knowing what Etna or Marbas might do, Cheshion made sure to pack even that rare potion.

He took a carriage imbued with speed-enhancing magic and left Count Sien’s domain. Even with the magic, it would take at least six hours to reach the Duchy of Ortega.

About five hours into the trip, he stared blankly out the window at the sunset in the distance.
‘I hope everything’s okay back at Count Sien’s land… please let nothing go wrong.’

While he was lost in thought, he saw a familiar girl on horseback racing toward the carriage.

“Your Graceeeeee!”
“…Anna? Since when could she ride a horse?”

Cheshion stopped the carriage and opened the door. Anna had already leapt off her horse and landed in front of him.

“Anna? How did you get here?”
“I fell asleep and had a sleep paralysis. Then Princess Iris appeared and asked me to bring ‘Ham’ to Your Grace right away.”

Anna pulled a glowing blue-and-white item out of the bag she had carried on her side.

“She opened a teleport portal so ‘Ham’ could reach you quickly! She even cast magic so I could ride a horse!”
“She had that kind of power?”
“Apparently so! Anyway, please touch this—quick!”

The ham-like object bounced up and down in her hands, as if urging him to touch it.

When Cheshion placed his hand over it, his vision went dark—and the scenery from 200 years ago unfolded before him.

200 years ago, the mighty House of Duke Phernas held enormous power.

Duke Phernas presented a necklace to Princess Serieti as a gesture of loyalty to the imperial family. It was made of gold and top-grade rubies—so beautiful, it could enchant anyone.

Serieti wore the necklace every day—at parties, on casual outings, even in the palace.

One day, a rash appeared on her neck. Believing the necklace was the cause, Serieti threw it away without hesitation.
“Damn you, Phernas! You must’ve cursed me with this thing!”

Her maids tried to calm her.
“It’s probably just a temporary rash. Sometimes wearing the wrong accessory for too long causes that.”
“Exactly. Every gift to the princess is inspected by court mages. If there was a curse, they would’ve noticed.”
“Then the mages are useless! Or Phernas bribed them!”

The skin disease worsened, spreading across her entire body. It became too horrific to treat.

The court mages reexamined the necklace but found nothing unusual. Still, Serieti was convinced Duke Phernas had cursed her.

She threw the necklace at a maid and ordered,
“Get rid of it. Or sell it at an auction for a low price—I don’t care. Keep the money if you want.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”

Duke Phernas grinned when he saw the necklace at auction. He had indeed cursed it—and bribed the palace mages, too.

He hated Emperor Hamburton. They had once been close academy friends, but Hamburton betrayed him in a crucial moment.

When Duke Phernas’s daughter was falsely accused of being a witch, he begged Hamburton for help. But Hamburton avoided him. Only after the duke’s daughter was burned at the stake did Hamburton quietly show up and excuse himself, saying he tried but failed.

Though it was Phernas’s support that helped Hamburton become emperor, Hamburton turned his back on him in his darkest hour. So Duke Phernas decided to use Hamburton’s beloved daughter, Princess Serieti, to get revenge.

He knew Hamburton would do anything for a daughter with an incurable disease—maybe even resort to black magic. Even if he didn’t, hiding the truth about the disease would damage the emperor’s reputation.

In those days, skin diseases were seen as divine punishment—a curse. Anyone who hid such a curse would be considered filthy and unworthy of trust.

Sure enough, Hamburton resorted to black magic—so dark that even black mages were horrified.

Duke Phernas collected evidence of Hamburton’s crimes and made them public. Outraged nobles and commoners followed him and burned down Fort Pquent.

But he was sucked into a rift to the demon realm and died a meaningless death. Thus, House Phernas vanished from history.

After Princess Serieti became a demon in the demon realm, the cursed necklace passed through countless hands—auction houses and black markets alike.

Eventually, it ended up in the private exhibit of the Marquis Doriton. By then, its terrible history had been forgotten.

People gathered to see the mysterious necklace. Among them were twelve-year-old Isolen and her friends.

“Wow, it’s so pretty…! I’ve never seen such a beautiful gem before! Can rubies even sparkle like that? I feel like I’m being hypnotized.”

Isolen’s childhood friend, Lady Sanya Fries, stepped closer to the glass case, completely enchanted. Isolen quickly grabbed her shoulder.

“Don’t you see the line on the floor? Don’t cross it unless you want people to misunderstand. There are a lot of eyes here.”

“I-I know! But I just got drawn in…!”

The other well-dressed girls glanced at Sanya and whispered among themselves.
“Oh my god, did she just try to grab it?”
“Well, she’s from a poor family. No wonder her eyes went wide. She’s probably never seen anything like this.”
“She wouldn’t have even been here if Isolen didn’t bring her.”
“Hey, be quiet. We’ll get scolded if we talk too much in an exhibit.”

With a sigh, Isolen turned and walked away, and her friends followed.

Sanya walked behind them with her head lowered, silent, unable to join in the girls’ chatter.

Watching from afar were two young siblings—Catherine and Kenneth.
“Pfft. Look, brother. What’s a beggar like that doing in such a noble place?”