Chapter 164 – The Witch and the Black Knight (41)

Re&a;&d; oｎ ＫａṫＲë​adｉ​ṅｇＣ​ａf̂​e

“M-man… can’t be taken…!”

As the density of mana in the air rose, the sirens collapsed one by one—plop—but Violet, unlike the others, held on until the very end, refusing to lose consciousness.

“Lapis… has awakened…! I must… tell you…! Ugh!”

With great effort, Violet spat out blood as she finished her words.

Lapis.

The Witch of the Sea.

If she had awakened, that meant the Kraken had already revealed itself. After all, the Kraken had been sealed away alongside Lapis.

But what did that have to do with Edel?

Were they planning to offer him to Lapis?

Did they really think I’d let that happen?

Before meeting Edel, I would never have imagined the thoughts now flashing through my mind.

For instance—killing every last siren… or sealing Lapis, the Witch of the Sea, forever in the abyssal depths… These impulses, so contrary to the original story’s pure love, surged to the surface of my consciousness, accompanied by a sharp, stinging pain in my chest.

“Ugh… Lapis… that poor child…”

Unable to endure any longer, Violet collapsed onto the ground. Yet my mana only grew denser, tightening around her throat like a noose.

I knew that if I released any more, the sirens would die—but I didn’t stop.

Anything that stands in the way of Edel’s pure love—

“Estelle. Perhaps you should stop now.”

“Huh…?”

Suddenly, Edel’s voice reverberated through the cavern walls, deep and resonant.

The raging torrent of mana, which had threatened to bring the entire cave down, tangled with his voice and gradually subsided.

I was no different from that mana.

The storm of thoughts in my head cleared away, and I regained my senses, but a dazed noise escaped my lips. Before I knew it, Edel had stepped close, his face hovering near mine.

“W-wait! You’re not dead, are you?!”

At the same time, I realized what I had been about to do and hurriedly checked Violet’s condition.

Thank goodness.

She’s still alive.

If the sirens were gone, the sea arc in Part 2 would face serious complications…

The thought that I had nearly derailed Sion and Aria’s love story made my heart sink.

“Estelle, perhaps we should hear what the siren has to say.”

Just as I was pouring potions over the sirens to help them regain consciousness, Edel said something I couldn’t just ignore.

Who do you think I did this for in the first place?!

For some reason, I felt like some wicked witch trying to sabotage their relationship, and it stung.

“The Witch of the Sea. Lapis. The Kraken. The sirens. All of them appeared in the book. At first, I thought nothing of it, but the current situation aligns too closely with the story. Don’t you agree?”

“I-is that so…?”

I shrugged without thinking.

Honestly, I was afraid, what if this fool had figured out that everything written in the book was a depiction of the future?

After all, by the time Part 2 began… Edel wouldn’t be in this world anymore. That was why I had planned to teach him about love through Part 2’s story…

It wasn’t like Edel knowing the future would cause any major problems, but I worried he might recklessly seek out the Witch of the South—the one who led Aria to her downfall, and get himself killed for no reason.

Edel especially hated the Witch of the South.

If he had truly realized the truth… I might have no choice but to use Ulti to erase his memory…

“Even I can tell.”

“Tell… what?”

Gulp.

I swallowed dryly, waiting for Edel’s next words.

At the same time, I readied a shimmering pink current of Ulti in one hand, prepared to alter his memories at any moment.

“You deliberately recreated the fairy tale’s events to teach me about love, didn’t you? So that I could learn by taking on Sion’s role. And just now—you tried to kill the sirens because you were playing Aria’s part, weren’t you?”

When Sion and Aria first encountered the sirens, the same thing had happened. Aria had tried to kill them, and Sion had stopped her. It made sense that Edel would think that way.

“Keh heh heh. What do you think? I’ve finally grown sharp enough to read your intentions.”

With a laugh befitting a third-rate villain, Edel confidently flashed a bright-eyed look, like a fool proudly awaiting praise for guessing right.

“Y-yeah… That’s right. I was trying to keep it a secret, but since you figured it out, I guess there’s no helping it!”

For now, I played along to keep him from realizing the truth.

The current of Ulti in my hand dissipated weakly, now unnecessary.

 

---

 

“Sorry, lady. I didn’t know he was taken.”

The moment Violet opened her eyes, she spouted absolute nonsense.

“Taken”?

By who?

Me?

Silently, I pointed at myself, and the other sirens, who had been hiding behind Violet, gauging the situation, all nodded in unison.

They must have realized they couldn’t win against me, so they were playing it safe.

…Well, I wasn’t unhappy about it.

“But we need a man. A handsome one…! So, won’t you sell him to us?”

This time, she spoke as if Edel were some kind of prized slave up for auction.

“Sell?! You think Edel is some kind of merchandise?! This isn’t how the script goes!”

Unable to entertain this nonsense any longer, I bared my teeth threateningly. The sirens immediately ducked behind Violet’s narrow shoulders.

Hadn’t they begged Sion and Aria to free Lapis from her suffering?

And now, out of nowhere, they wanted to buy Edel?

This was beyond ridiculous.

“We know how it works. Humans buy and sell each other for money, don’t they? We can pay as much as you want. Cruelle?”

“Yes, sister.”

At Violet’s call, a siren named Cruelle dove into the water.

A short while later, she resurfaced, carrying a large chest, and proudly flipped the lid open before me.

Sure enough… the chest was filled to the brim with gold, silver, and jewels. Enough to buy several slaves—or even an entire village, if one bargained well.

Most likely, they had salvaged these treasures from shipwrecks across the ocean.

The source was painfully obvious.

“Well? Humans like shiny things, don’t they? If you want, we can give you even more than this.”

Violet looked at me with confident eyes. As if to prove her words true, Cruelle made to dive back into the water.

“Sorry, but Edel isn’t for sale. No—he can’t be sold. How could anyone even put a price on him?”

“Estelle…”

Edel shot me a disgustingly moved look.

You’re getting emotional over this? Now?

Edel was Edel, but… the Edel who had learned pure love from me was someone I wouldn’t trade away even for half the world.

“Sell me.”

“Excuse me?! Edel, have you lost your mind?!”

“With that money, we could buy so much food.”

I smiled gently, assuring him that there was no way I would ever do such a thing, only for him to hit me with the most ridiculous response.

Selling himself?!

There was no way Edel understood what he was saying.

“So, you’ll sell him to us? How about ten chests? No—I’ll throw in two more. But that’s the highest I can go.”

“I said NO—!!!!”

Before Violet could dive any deeper into haggling, I shrieked, my voice bordering on a scream.

“First of all, why do you even want Edel? Tell me. It’s not like I can’t help you.”

“Lapis has awakened. Our poor Lapis… She’s screaming in agony, thirsting for love once more. That’s why we need a man. A handsome one who will treasure her.”

If this kept up, I’d be buried under the nonsense spewing from both the sirens and Edel, so I quickly steered the conversation back on track. Violet began spouting the same lines that kicked off the sea arc.

But the last sentence was different from what I remembered.

In the original, it had been:

“So please, help her suffer no longer.”

This change was probably because of Edel.

Now that he had a charm potent enough to hypnotize the Kraken, it made sense why the sirens’ dialogue had shifted.

“After what happened to Lapis, I studied love. I learned that wounds born from love can only be healed by love itself.”

This was the first I was hearing of this backstory for Violet.

But it was true—wounds inflicted by love could only be mended by love.

“So I’m begging you, lady. Sell us the man. I can’t bear to see Lapis in sorrow any longer. Do whatever you want with me in return.”

Violet bowed so deeply that she ended up prostrating herself.

Given that sirens didn’t wear clothes, this resulted in what could only be described as a naked dogeza. Without thinking, I averted my gaze.

I couldn’t let Edel see something so indecent, so I made sure to cover his eyes too.

“No. Absolutely not.”

In any case, selling Edel was out of the question.

“But… I can help Lapis stop suffering.”

“You mean it?”

“I’m the Witch of Love, aren’t I? Matters of trials and love are my specialty!”

…Even though I’ve never actually been in love myself.

But that wasn’t important right now.

Come to think of it, Lapis’s seal wasn’t supposed to break for at least another 200 years. That was the only way it would align with Sion and Aria’s adventure.

If the seal was already breaking, the entire southern continent might sink beneath the waves, just like the sunken kingdom of Atilla…

If that happened, not only would Josie, who was currently traveling the southern continent, in danger, but countless love stories from Aria Chronicle would be lost to the depths as well.

Lapis, consumed by the witch’s curse, would act according to her own desires. Whether I liked it or not, whether it had anything to do with Edel’s pure love lessons, I had to step in.

“Thank you, lady! Just tell us what to do!”

“Don’t call me ‘lady’. My name is Estelle. Oh, right—have you seen a guy who looks like a human but has long ears wandering around lately?”

The only one who would break the seal this early was that elf—the one who needed vast sums of money to fund his relic hunting.

I didn’t know why the seal was breaking 200 years ahead of schedule… but if we wanted to stop Lapis, we needed that elf.