Chapter 14
The baby in her arms wriggled.
“Byaa!”
“Oh dear, what’s wrong? Did the cute little one get startled?”
Looking at Lea, who was laughing and talking even to the baby, Helix somehow felt drained.
It was as if bread dough swelling in his chest had suddenly deflated.
He said bluntly,
“Stop smiling.”
“Huh?”
“Lea, you smile too much.”
“What? Why are you picking a fight?”
❀ ❀ ❀
After bickering with Helix, Lea went back into the house.
“If the mood seems good, I’ll call you. Stay there and put the baby to sleep.”
“Understood.”
Helix slowly walked around the yard, gently rocking the sleeping baby. It was a peaceful afternoon.
“Ahem!”
Until someone cleared their throat from beyond the fence.
A middle-aged man stood there, staring wide-eyed back and forth between Helix and the baby in his arms.
“W-Who are you?”
“And who are you?”
At Helix’s response, the middle-aged man flared up.
“W-Who do you think you’re talking to like that?!”
“You spoke first.”
Helix remained unfazed.
The man snorted angrily.
“You insolent brat! How dare you! Why are you holding Luisi’s child? What’s your relationship with that woman?!”
Luisi…?
Helix thought for a moment, then realized.
It seemed that was the name of the baby’s mother—the owner of this house.
The man growled.
“She’s barely been widowed, and already bringing another man into her life! What a shameless woman!”
“Ms. Luisi didn’t bring me here. I’m the one imposing on her hospitality.”
“That’s the same thing!”
“It’s different.”
Helix looked down at him with cold eyes.
“And who are you to speak so freely about my benefactor?”
Gulp.
At that moment, pressured by Helix’s presence, the middle-aged man swallowed dryly.
He’s no ordinary man.
Seeing him up close, his robed physique was also overwhelmingly imposing.
“…Tell Luisi this! She’ll regret it!”
The man shouted venomously before fleeing.
Helix watched his pathetic retreating figure.
“What was that guy?”
❀ ❀ ❀
“He’s the type who’s been pestering my sister.”
At the girl’s words, after hearing the story, her older sister Luisi turned pale.
“Hey, watch how you talk!”
“It’s true.”
“If the villagers hear that, what will they say? People will think it’s just the two of us who are strange women.”
Listening in, Lea chimed in quietly.
“Is that pestering man someone important in the village?”
“Yes.”
The girl let out a long sigh and explained.
The middle-aged man who had been harassing her sister was the village’s priest.
“…A priest?”
“There’s no teaching in their order that priests can’t take women. It’s terrifying. Even the village chief can’t oppose him.”
This village was a remote mountain settlement, almost completely isolated from the outside world.
Because of that, the temple handled the villagers’ faith, education, and even communication with the outside.
In effect, the priest was both the village’s elite and its real power holder.
“No one knows how kind and intelligent he pretends to be in front of others. But only to us….”
The girl sniffled in grievance.
They made a living gathering medicinal herbs and crafting medicines and ointments. After her brother-in-law suddenly passed away, the priest began frequenting them under the pretext of needing ointments to treat patients at the temple.
His intentions were obvious, but the sisters had no way to refuse him.
If Luisi treated him even slightly coldly, the priest would spread false rumors among the villagers.
“There was something similar before.”
A shepherd in the village once insulted the priest while drunk, and was then subjected to malicious rumors for months. In the end, his family had to leave the village as if fleeing.
The girl continued,
“Back then I didn’t realize it, but it seems those rumors were spread by the priest himself.”
Afraid of ending up like that, they had no choice but to endure.
Seeing that the sisters had nowhere to turn, the priest had begun openly harassing Luisi.
“Hmm.”
Helix frowned, troubled, stroking his chin.
“Then that man must have misunderstood about me and Luisi?”
Lea exploded in frustration.
“Who is he to misunderstand anything?! We’re not even involved in anything—why is he acting like this on his own?”
“Well, that’s true, but if he were the type to understand his own position, he wouldn’t harbor such desires in the first place.”
Helix’s blunt remark struck a nerve.
Well… that’s true. Lea nodded and looked at the sisters again.
What had been mere verbal threats from the village priest had clearly left them shaken.
“He said to wait and see. Sister, what should we do? He said that right after cursing Gibson earlier….”
The girl’s voice trembled.
“How can we live in this small village with rumors like that spreading?”
Just how had rumors been spread before to make them react like this?
“Well, people like that tend to use the dirtiest tricks.”
Lea felt uneasy, as if her benefactor’s situation had been made worse because of this.
After thinking for a moment, she made a suggestion to the sisters.
“Would you two like to come with me?”
“Pardon?”
❀ ❀ ❀
Meanwhile, Prince Patrick’s expedition force, which had been subjugating monsters in the northern region, was looking for a place to rest after a long day.
“If we go just one more day, we’ll reach Helkan.”
At the guide’s words, Prince Patrick nodded.
“Then let’s camp here for today.”
“Your Highness, there is a small village nearby. It may be modest, but it would be better than camping in the open. Might I suggest we stay there tonight?”
The prince glanced at his knights.
Only Ruyan Piert was still energetic, while the rest looked filthy and were mentally chanting “Beer! Grilled meat! Beer!”
If he suggested camping here, things might turn ugly.
“…We’ll inform the village and stay there. But is there really a village in such mountainous terrain?”
“Yes. It’s a mountain village that makes a living gathering herbs and hunting. It’s small but peaceful—it’s my hometown… Gah!”
The guide, looking toward the village, suddenly screamed.
Clank!
Ruyan instantly stepped in front of the prince with his shield raised.
“What’s wrong?!”
The tip of his sword was precisely aimed at the guide’s throat.
The guide trembled violently.
“A-A fire! There’s a fire!”
❀ ❀ ❀
After seeing Helix at Luisi’s house, the priest gathered the villagers and headed to the village chief’s home.
“Chief, in the name of God, we must eliminate the witch!”
“A-a witch?!”
The village chief’s eyes widened.
“You mean there’s a witch in our village?”
“Yes! Without a doubt!”
The priest declared emphatically.
“It is because of that witch that monsters have been rampaging near the village lately!”
Not only the chief, but the gathered villagers also looked serious.
Recently, monster howls had been frequently heard around the village.
A local hunter had even been attacked and nearly killed while entering the mountains.
And now they were being told it was because of a witch!
Sensing the rapidly tense and ominous atmosphere, the priest smirked inwardly and lowered his voice.
“That pair living just below the mountain… especially the older sister—she is certainly the culprit.”
“Luisi? Are you saying Luisi is a witch?”
“Shh.”
The priest whispered as if sharing a secret.
“If you keep saying the witch’s name, the monsters may react.”
Unlike the frightened villagers who fell silent, the village chief spoke up.
“Is Lu… no, that girl really a witch? Priest, I’ve seen her born and raised in this village. She is not that kind of person.”
The chief’s sincere words were echoed by a few villagers who nodded in agreement.
Tsk.
The priest clicked his tongue loudly for everyone to hear, then looked around.
“Then why have the monsters that were quiet until now suddenly begun attacking this village?”
“T-That’s….”
“Didn’t that witch lose her husband this summer?”
It was a coincidence with no relation at all.
Luisi’s husband had died in a sudden accident—something everyone in the village knew. But hearing it framed like this made it sound suspicious.
“That witch must have revealed her true nature by killing her husband.”
The priest whispered, fanning the growing suspicions.
“After that, she began attracting men—and even monsters.”
“Th-That can’t be!”
“No wonder she looked suspiciously beautiful for a simple mountain woman!”
“What should we do, Priest?”
The priest spoke solemnly.
“Immediately light a large fire in the village square. That witch must be hung and burned at the stake!”
❀ ❀ ❀
A fire blazed in the village square.
“You witch!”
“You vile woman!”
Luisi, dragged by the village men, was thrown in front of the fire.
Terrified, she cried out,
“Why are you doing this?!”
The priest, who had orchestrated the situation, looked down at her and swallowed.
Her disheveled hair, tear-filled beautiful face, and the pale thighs visible through her torn skirt that had ridden up to her thighs.
“I was fooled.”
He had mistaken her for an innocent widow, not realizing she possessed a face and body that could lure men in like this.
He felt foolish for having once tried to claim her.
“A woman as wanton as you deserves punishment!”
The priest spoke with feigned solemnity.
“Witch, do you admit your sins?”
“My sins?! I swear to the heavens, I have committed none!”
At Luisi’s protest, the villagers began to murmur.
Even to them, she did not seem like a witch.
Reading the atmosphere, the priest shouted loudly.
“Silence! God knows everything!”
Invoking God quieted the villagers.
Seizing the moment, the priest pressed on.
“Witch, you’ve been using your attractive appearance as bait to seduce men, haven’t you?”
“What? No, I haven’t!”
Ignoring her indignant cries, the priest continued attributing various crimes to her.
A young woman living near the mountains and making medicine was suspicious in itself.
What had she done with those medicines that caused her husband’s death and monsters to descend from the mountains?
Her good looks must have been obtained through forbidden potions or dark arts.
At first doubtful, the villagers were gradually persuaded by the priest’s words.
Raising his voice, the priest declared:
“If we let this witch live, monsters will continue to invade! She will absorb the vitality of the men sacrificed to those monsters, becoming even more beautiful and youthful in the process!”
