Volume 3, Chapter 12 – The Demon Sword Laevateinn

“Hmm?”

Facing the black-haired woman’s uncertain gaze, Fia tilted her head in confusion. Anastasia, at her side, stepped forward first, glaring at the woman in the cat-eared nun habit.

“Comparing Her Highness to a witch! Do you have any idea who you’re talking to!”

“Uh,” the black-haired woman was taken aback, her black eyes instantly filled with apology. “I’m sorry, I lost control for a moment—”

“Don’t waste your breath on her, Friede! A mere elf dares to speak so arrogantly in front of us. She should weigh her own worth first!”

Before the black-haired woman named Friede could finish, a tall woman with an androgynous voice from behind her stepped forward, glaring back with an intensity that was in no way inferior to Anastasia’s.

Starting with this woman, all the women in cat-eared nun habits placed their hands on their weapons. At the same time, Renee, beside Anastasia, crouched low, entering a combat stance. The atmosphere between the two sides instantly became tense, the air filled with a chilling cold, as if a fight could break out at any moment.

However, this atmosphere lasted only for a moment before the sharp auras released by both sides were dissipated by Fia stepping forward.

“Everyone, calm down. Anastasia.” As she spoke, Fia signaled Anastasia with her eyes to put away her weapon. Then, she smiled at the black-haired woman called Friede. “Could you please have the people behind you put away their weapons as well? I believe this is just a misunderstanding.”

“Ah, yes, it’s just a misunderstanding. Latania, put away your weapon. It was my fault in the first place. You are not to speak again without my permission.”

The black-haired woman frowned and silenced her follower. After confirming this, Friede crossed her hands and placed them on her shoulders, slowly bowing to Fia.

“I am deeply sorry for presumptuously taking you for a witch, miss. I meant no harm. I was just a little excited to see you carrying an item that once belonged to a witch… I am Friede, the Ash Witch of the Witch Hall, and the leader of the witches behind me.”

“Do—” The voice caught in her throat, and Fia quickly corrected herself. “You can call me Fia.”

The elf princess had a “three-no’s” persona, but the side she was currently showing was not. In any case, they would likely never meet again, so using a pseudonym was more appropriate here.

As she finished speaking, Fia drew the silver dagger from her waist.

“Miss Friede, you were referring to this dagger, weren’t you? It’s something I happened to acquire in the Dry Desert of the Milcandis Holy Kingdom.”

“The Dry Desert…”

Friede murmured thoughtfully. The witches behind her instantly broke into a flurry of discussion. Some of the younger ones looked at Fia with eyes full of novelty, a mixture of joy and curiosity.

“Miss Fia, how did you obtain this dagger? May I take a look? This is very important to our Witch Hall. If you need money—”

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“It’s just a look, there’s no need to pay.”

With a wry smile, Fia handed the silver dagger to Friede. Friede received it as if it were a holy relic, her fingertips tracing the patterns on the blade and hilt. It was only now that Fia noticed that Friede’s appearance was not like that of the people of this world.

If Fia had to make a comparison, Friede’s facial features were more akin to the very ancient term “Asian,” soft and reserved, with a static, gentle beauty.

Of course, this was not to say that the other people on the World Tree Continent were vastly different from Friede. The difference Fia felt was more in their temperament. In fact, taking Anastasia and Liti as examples, both of their appearances were very much in line with Asian aesthetics.

After Friede received the silver dagger, the witches behind her immediately crowded around.

Friede did not linger on stroking the dagger. She first had the surrounding witches disperse, then softly chanted something that sounded like an incantation. With a flash of blue light symbolizing mana, the silver dagger flew from Friede’s hands and hovered in the air. Although it fell back into Friede’s hands after less than two seconds, this alone brought an indescribable ecstasy to the faces of Friede and the witches behind her.

“The incantation worked! It is indeed the relic of the Lady Witch of Hope!”

“The Lady Witch of Hope did not deceive us!”

“The Guided One…”

All the witches looked at Fia in unison. Being stared at by a dozen pairs of eyes, Fia couldn’t help but feel uncomfortable. Their gazes reminded her of tourists at a zoo looking at a monkey, and she was currently playing the role of that monkey.

“May I have it back now?”

If this self-proclaimed Ash Witch was the daughter or another relative of the Witch of Hope, Fia wouldn’t mind returning the dagger to her. But it was clear that these witches were merely her colleagues.

Friede immediately came to her senses and returned the dagger with some reluctance.

“Of course, please keep it safe, Lady Fia. Um… when did you get this dagger? Is the Lady Witch of Hope still alive?”

“About half a month ago? When I found this dagger, it was on a skeleton. I think the Witch of Hope you speak of is already dead.”

“A skeleton! Where was it?!”

The Ash Witch excitedly took a step forward. Fia guiltily averted her gaze—she had indeed intended to bury the corpse in the dilapidated wooden hut, but at the time, she lacked both the tools and suitable magic, so she had cremated the body instead.

She coughed twice and put on as serious an expression as possible.

“I don’t know. The Dry Desert is so large, and there are no landmarks. It’s impossible to remember where it was, right?”

“Hmm… true. It’s a pity that the Lady Witch of Hope gave so much for our Witch Hall, yet we, her successors, cannot even arrange a funeral for her… We have failed her spirit in heaven.”

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Friede showed a look of guilt.

I don’t think the Witch of Hope would blame you, Fia thought to herself. When she cremated the body, she had felt the deceased’s soul conveying gratitude and relief to her. That must have been a remnant of the Witch of Hope’s soul. She was probably hoping for an early release as well.

Thinking such thoughts, Fia returned the silver dagger to its sheath. Due to the earlier tension and Friede’s self-introduction, Fia’s group had attracted the attention of countless passersby. The soldiers on the city walls and at the gate, the pedestrians walking in and out of the city, and especially the people queuing up—they were so engrossed that they had forgotten to enter the city.

“If Miss Friede has no other business, my companions and I will take our leave. Everyone is watching us. This is really not a place to talk.”

“Alright, then we won’t disturb you any longer. It is our good fortune to have seen the relic of the Lady Witch of Hope.”

She agreed just like that?

Fia couldn’t help but be surprised. In her mind, she had thought Friede would surely try to keep her and tell her more about the Witch of Hope. In fact, the astonished looks on the young witches’ faces when they looked at Fia and Friede already showed that this was not over, or at least not as simple as Friede had claimed.

Fia’s surprise did not last long. Friede soon seemed to remember something and hurriedly added.

“Right, the incantation to activate this dagger. For the relic of the late Lady Witch of Hope to have come into your hands, Lady Fia, is undoubtedly the arrangement of fate. Besides you, no one else in the world can own this dagger. Please make good use of it and do not give it to others. In return, I will tell you the verse to use it. Is that acceptable?”

“I never planned to give it to anyone else, but if a situation arises where I must, I cannot guarantee that I will keep it with me.”

“That is enough. This dagger was forged from the incredibly precious crystals of the World Tree and the heart core of a Darkborn. There is no stronger weapon in the world. Once you have tasted the sweetness of wielding it, you will never want to part with it.”

Smiling, Friede, under Anastasia’s watchful eye, leaned close to Fia’s ear and quietly told her the verse to activate the dagger.

The so-called verse was actually just an elegant term for an incantation. Although the one Friede told her was a mouthful, with Fia’s photographic memory, she was able to master it after hearing it just once.

Friede took a small step back and asked with a smile, like an elder looking at a cute junior.

“Do you need me to say it again?”

“I think I’ve memorized it.”

As if for demonstration, Fia softly chanted the verse. The silver dagger immediately flew out of its sheath on its own, and a feeling of connection to the dagger suddenly appeared in Fia’s mind. She could now control the dagger’s flight with just her thoughts, even easier than [Telekinesis].

It was just like the legendary demon sword, Laevateinn.

The dagger flew up and down around Fia, a world of difference from when Friede had controlled it.

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“Ooh! As expected of the Guided One!”

“It’s like a part of her body…”

“Even Lady Friede could only make it hover for two seconds!”

“Just how strong is she? Or is it that only the Guided One can control the Lady Witch of Hope’s dagger, Mangya…!”

The young witches began to chatter again. From Fia’s observation, the attire of these young witches was slightly different from that of the other adult witches, and their strength was much lower. If the clothes were not worn based on age, then they were likely classified as “Official Witches” and “Apprentice Witches.”

Fia remembered from The Secret History of Witches that an apprentice witch had to obtain letters of recommendation from two or three witches to be eligible to undergo the witch’s ritual and become an official witch. Usually, an apprentice witch was like an official witch’s apprentice, responsible not only for learning but also for serving tea, taking care of the official witch’s daily life, and even satisfying some of their special needs.

She had thought that apprentice witches would be raised to be introverted and timid, but now it seemed they were not only healthy but also full of life, with no signs of abuse.

The witches are surprisingly nice, not as bad as I imagined. The prejudice against them is too deep.

Fia thought to herself.

“Then, we will bid you farewell. We will meet again if fate allows, Miss Friede.”

“Yes, goodbye.”

Friede gave a wry smile. For some reason, Fia felt that Friede was conveying the idea that “we will meet again soon.”

She’s not going to look for me privately after entering the city, is she… Even if she does, it’s fine. I’m leaving Byrne City tomorrow anyway, and I’m a little interested in what the young witches said about the “Guided One.”

Putting such thoughts aside, Fia and her group returned to the carriage. The untied bandits were taken away by the guards, and the carriage, driven by Renee, slowly entered the city.

“Those people didn’t impersonate Your Highness. They have some self-awareness,” Anastasia said with a light snort, sitting upright in the carriage.

“I didn’t expect to meet witches here. As expected of the most chaotic city in the Alfrieg Kingdom. Even witches can openly admit their identity. If it were anywhere else, they would have already been wanted by the guards and chased all over the world.”

“Does Silvar also ostracize witches?”

Fia had always thought that only religious countries like the Milcandis Holy Kingdom would reject witches.

“Of course. Witches are walking disasters. They are capricious, and sometimes even a perfectly normal sentence can be twisted into something else by them. Plus, there are rumors on the continent of witches collaborating with the Darkborn to slaughter cities and destroy nations, so it’s not a good idea to deal with them. Since the founding of Silvar, witches have been forbidden from entering. Once caught, they are beheaded in public.”

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“But aren’t those all just ‘rumors’? The witches just now seemed quite nice.”

Fia tried to speak up for the witches, but Anastasia just sighed helplessly. She lowered her voice so that Renee couldn’t hear and said softly.

“Your Highness has lost your memory, so you are easily swayed by a little kindness from others. Those witches may seem respectful to you on the surface, but who knows what schemes they’re plotting in their hearts. Witches will stop at nothing to achieve their goals. I once participated in a campaign to encircle and suppress a witch with Lady Erin Slate. When we entered that witch’s basement, what we saw made even me feel nauseous.”

“That witch had secretly captured over a hundred elves to obtain their complete Mana Surge. She knew that once an elf died, the Mana Surge would disappear, so she first tried to turn them into undead. When that failed, she resorted to even more cruel methods. By the time Lady Erin Slate and I arrived, the chains on the ceiling and walls of that basement were already hung with severed limbs, and most of the elves inside were only half-bodies, begging us to kill them.”

At this point, Anastasia’s brows furrowed tightly, and hatred flickered in her eyes.

“Although not all witches are like the one I described, there are few good ones among them. The only kind witch I know of is the Witch of Hope, and in ten thousand years, there has only been one. They are people who should not exist in this world. Your Highness, please do not speak up for them in front of others. We never know what they are thinking.”

“If you put it like that, Anastasia…”

Fia fell silent. Anastasia’s words reminded her that she was indeed a bit too trusting of others. She couldn’t just assume someone was a good person because of a smile. You can know a person’s face, but not their heart.

“But that group of witches seems to have a request for you, sister,” Liti suddenly interjected, her gaze falling on the silver dagger at Fia’s waist.

“And they said it’s a weapon made from the crystals of the World Tree and the heart core of a Darkborn. If that’s true, then not even a forbidden-level high-rank magic crystal can compare to this dagger.”

“Is it very precious?” Fia asked, puzzled.

“Of course!” Liti said decisively. “The crystals of the World Tree are a treasure that one can only hope to come across by chance, as rare as a branch of the World Tree itself. And the heart core of a Darkborn is something that only a high-rank Darkborn can produce.

A weapon forged from both of these things is rarer than the divinely bestowed holy sword in the hands of a Saint. It’s something that has no price, no, it’s something that simply cannot be bought. Can I see it, sister?”

“No problem.”

If Liti liked it, Fia wouldn’t mind giving it to her. With this thought, she handed the silver dagger to Liti. This action brought Anastasia closer as well, and she and Liti examined the dagger’s material together.

Seeing their interest, Fia told them the verse and let them try to command the dagger. However, because the incantation was too much of a mouthful, Anastasia and Liti couldn’t memorize it and say it fluently, so they were unable to control the dagger.

It wasn’t until the carriage stopped that Liti was barely able to repeat the incantation with a stutter. Unfortunately, this could not be considered chanting, so it naturally could not make the dagger, named Mangya, react—Mangya doesn’t sound very good. I’ll call it “Laevateinn,” the name of a demon sword, from now on, Fia thought.

“Your Highness, the First Princess, Your Highness, the Third Princess, we will be staying here for the night.”

Renee’s cold voice came from outside the carriage.