Chapter 6: The Little Witch of the Past

 

 

 

Chapter 6: The Little Witch of the Past

 

GOSSAMER clouds trailed across the sky, melting into a sea of indigo. As the setting sun left, it dyed the mountain’s ridges in gold to the chorus of chirping insects.

It was autumn—the season when the dry, cold winds began to blow, and Rose wanted to wear another layer of clothes under her robe.

She should be preparing for winter soon but couldn’t get into the mood for it.

“…You’re here again?”

For some reason, Safina had shown Rose to the parlor as soon as she returned to the mansion. The words slipped past her lips when she saw Yašm reclining with his legs up on the tufted chaise.

The sun had set, bathing the area in darkness. His presence at this hour meant he had probably been invited to join them for dinner. This was further evidenced by the fact that most of the servants who usually went home by this time were still running about the mansion prepping things.

The droning of bugs and the smell of damp soil drifted in through the opened windows. Yašm snorted, his long black hair hanging loosely around his face as he leisurely reclined on the furniture.

“Put a sock in it. Let’s get one thing straight: I’ve been coming here way longer than you, new girl. Know your place, thieving cat.”

Rose looked around the parlor. Harij wasn’t there. Maybe he was giving dinner instructions in the dining room.

“…Hey, you. Hey, Witch.”

She finally turned toward Yašm when he called her Witch. She distinctly remembered him stubbornly calling her Rose when she told him to call her Witch before. For whatever reason, he seemed to have changed his mind.

“Are you listening?”

“Listening to what?”

A blue vein bulged on Yašm’s forehead after she implied she wasn’t listening.

“I’m asking if you understand how serious the situation is.”

He must have lowered his voice so Harij couldn’t overhear. Rose didn’t know what Yašm came here to do today, but she had a solid hunch the real reason for his visit was to have this conversation with her.

“He may be the third son of the Azm family, but Harij is still the son of the venerable Heizlan count. I’m asking if you understand what he has sacrificed for the mere sake of being with you. Even his future success as a knight hangs in the balance. How could he stain his reputation by marrying some witch…? Don’t you think it’s only right for you to get out of the picture if you care about him?”

There was something intimidating and powerful about the first serious expression Rose had seen from Yašm. Hidden in his voice were his noble intentions and his deep affection for Harij.

Rose tilted her head to one side as she absorbed and appreciated what he said. “…Uh-huh.”

“Uh-huh?! What’s with that dumb reply?!”

“You misunderstand…” Rose locked gazes with the disgruntled prince and explained with a perfectly composed face. “You just made me think how irritating it can be for others to doubt and challenge things you decide for yourself.”

Ever since her grandmother had died, Rose decided everything to do with her own life. She did what she wanted and skipped what she didn’t. She paid the price of those decisions, both good and bad, herself.

Rose couldn’t say if that was the right way, but it was her natural way of life.

And Harij respected that.

“But then I realized I should respect your thoughts and decisions.”

He trusted Rose’s judgment and convictions. His trust became a great source of strength for her. As long as he believed in her, she could take on any challenge thrown her way.

Harij had to be fully aware of the issues Yašm alluded to, which meant he had already carefully thought everything through before letting things reach this point. If sacrifices had to be made, as Yašm said, he wouldn’t have made light of the decision—especially if those sacrifices affected others.

There had been plenty of time for him to pull out of the marriage if he felt the need to. But he didn’t—he kept Rose by his side and continued to pursue her.

Taking all of that into consideration, Rose had but one thing to do as a witch and as an individual: stand by him.

“You’re…less of an idiot than I thought.”

It’s settled. As a witch, Rose paid extra care not to mishandle the witches’ secret potions, but she secretly vowed to herself just then that she would give Yašm a taste of his own medicine someday soon.

“But as long as you are going to live among people—”

“Yašm.”

Rose and Yašm looked toward the speaker with a start. Harij was standing in the open doorway, frowning.

“Did you have too much to drink?”

Yašm squirmed under Harij’s unforgiving gaze. He grabbed his untouched drink off the table beside the chaise and downed it in a single swig.

“Yeah, I think I did.”

Rose pointed at Yašm, who had finished his brandy. “This man mocked my intelligence.”

“I said you’re less of an idiot than I thought!”

Harij sighed at their juvenile argument. “…Why do you only pick on Rose like you’re some sort of child?”

Yašm leaned against the armrest and unfurled his hand toward Rose in a pompous gesture. “Isn’t it only fair since she won’t let me give her a proper greeting?”

Rose pulled her hood down further to escape his provocative gaze. “What greeting?”

“Don’t play dumb. You won’t even offer me your hand.”

“My hand?”

It dawned on Rose as she stared at her hand that it was common courtesy in Marjan to kiss the back of someone’s hand. She had only just recently learned this fact. During the whole wedding dress fiasco, Tien had kissed Tala’s fingers to appease her fury.

Rose naturally had no way of knowing how to behave like a lady when she had neither the training nor the upbringing to support it. Although Harij assured her she could remain a witch, it might be high time for her to learn a thing or two about being a lady.

Situations like this were sure to arise from time to time as long as she was with Harij. She couldn’t care less about how people saw her, but she didn’t want to humiliate him.

And when it came down to it, Rose enjoyed learning new things. The only thing she wanted to avoid at all costs was letting the part of her that was a witch die.

Rose reached out her hand. “As you wish.”

“Not mine.”

Rose grabbed Harij’s wrist to kiss him on the hand, but he used his whole body to stop her. While she was all for learning about manners and the like, kissing or being kissed by Yašm was absolutely out of the picture—even for practice.

No matter how hard she tugged on him, Harij’s arm wouldn’t budge. She was smitten by how cool he was.

Yašm clutched his head as he was forced to watch them play fight.

“Enough. I’ve seen enough. Stop showing off how well you two get along.”

Rose wasn’t trying to flirt, but she quickly stepped away from Harij. She wasn’t used to being teased over her relationship.

“I’m gonna be sick… I didn’t think you were this close and intimate. When and where in the world did you two meet?”

Rose’s heart nearly leaped out of her chest. Harij had come to call on Rose at the behest of his former master—Yašm’s younger sister, Billaura.

But Harij had to protect his former master’s prestige and Rose’s confidential clientele.

Rose was a witch. Witches didn’t lie. They also needed to answer this question in a way that didn’t breed distrust and doubt.

He probably couldn’t see her expression under the shadowy depths of her hood, but Rose tried her best to keep her voice flat.

“Well—”

“We met five years ago. In the capital city,” Harij interposed at once, helping Rose.

She could go along with that. It was a fact that he had met Rose five years ago, and one she had shared with Harij. Rose had an easier time working with the truth.

“Yes, we did.”

“Rose fell for me then. Didn’t you?”

Rose was speechless. How did he know? Harij’s smile turned to shock when he saw her gaping at him. She immediately realized her blunder.

He was making a joke to get a laugh out of Yašm. Rose was expected to follow it up with a crisp “In your dreams.” Obviously, Harij was positive she would deny it. Since he only recently became aware of his feelings for her, it wasn’t strange for him to think the same applied to her.

Rose was a witch. Witches didn’t lie.

Red suffused Harij’s cheeks under his wide eyes. He understood what her silence meant.

Rose flapped her lips in hopes of saying something to throw him off, but only air came out. Both “I didn’t” and “In your dreams” would be too much of a lie for her.

“…You deluxe dried mountain of slug turd!”

Those were the words that came out at last. Screaming with tears in her eyes, Rose dashed out of the parlor, her robe fluttering behind her.

“What just happened?” Yašm wrenched his stunned stare from the spot Rose had vanished from to his childhood friend’s face—and his expression grew even more disgusted. “You’re acting just as strange. What in the world are you doing?”

“Pardon me…it’s nothing.”

With his palm covering half of his face, Harij was desperate to maintain his flat expression. His lips were sure to curve into a wide smile if he let his guard down for even a moment.

“You did me a great service just now.”

“If you say so…” Yašm responded in an emotionally dead voice.

∴ ∵ ∴

ROSE slipped on the jet-black dress. This was yet another of many dress fittings she had been through.

Tien was chased out of the room they borrowed for the fitting session, leaving only the seamstress he brought over and Mona to look after Rose.

The wedding was just around the corner now. They were doing the final checks during today’s session. The seamstress had sewn the perfect dress using outstanding techniques, which was proved by how seamlessly it fit Rose’s slender frame, accentuating her shape in all the right places.

She was going to wear dreadfully high heels in order to balance out the height difference between her and Harij during the ceremony. It took every ounce of her concentration just to walk straight in the tight dress and unreliable shoes.

After the seamstress left for the day, Rose fell back on the sofa, exhausted.

“You look beat. Want to have some dessert?”

Rose sat up straight—the proper courtesy for sweets.

She fidgeted as she waited for Mona to finish laying out what Tien had brought. Attractive delicacies decorated the plate—beautiful and delicious at a glance.

“I happened to get a hold of some unusual sweets. Believe it or not, the apple these are made from turns red when boiled.”

This type of confectionary, which was made by thickening jam, was shaped like a perfect teardrop. It glistened like a ruby. Tien had explained it was made from boiled-down apple pulp and then covered in sugar.

The apple drops were gorgeous lined up on the plate, but they were exceptionally more beautiful when Rose held them up to the light with her fingers. Light gathered within the transparent pulp, making it shimmer like a gem. Rose had never seen such a red confection before. Just looking at it made her mouth water.

Rose’s eyes shone as bright as the sweet when she took a bite. It was soft yet firm enough to give her teeth something to enjoy.

What a robust apple flavor! Every bite was packed with rich juices. The sweet yet slightly tart taste and smell spread over her tongue. Rose licked the specks of sugar off her lips.

“By the way, do you know what this is, Rose?”

Tien carefully pulled a small bottle from his bag as he sipped his tea. It looked like the kind of fancy thing the upper class was fond of.

Rose didn’t recognize it. Tien held it out to her, so she returned the apple candy to her plate and went to take it. But she hesitated because her hands were sticky with sugar, so Mona brought her a wet towel. She gratefully accepted it, wiped off her hands, and finally took the bottle from Tien.

“What is this?”

“Want to know?” Tien leaned forward, bringing his face up close to hers. His eyes twinkled like a boy who wanted to boast about the secret fort he just built.

Due to the nature of his job, Tien had access to all sorts of information, but his job also didn’t allow for him to leak any of it to anyone—not even his real father in the privacy of their own home.

But Rose was a witch. Witches never shared private client information, nor did they even have an interest in human affairs. For as long as she could remember, she had been an outlet for Tien to air his dirty laundry.

“I obtained it from a certain source. Word has it it’s a potion secretly gaining in popularity with the august ones of late.”

“Heh. A potion, is it?”

She had a passing interest in anything dubbed a potion. After all, she made a living concocting potions.

“You remember how I mentioned some of my favorite regulars collapsing randomly?”

“Yeah.”

“Rumor has it it’s all due to this. A potion they call ‘the Witch’s Love Potion.’”

Mona shuddered as she was trying to clear away the wet towel. As she did, her hand hit the plate, knocking the apple drops onto the ground, where it almost seemed as if they’d been swallowed. She blanched when she saw them plop onto the rug.

“I-I am so terribly sorry!”

“We don’t mind. Do we, Rose?”

Rose couldn’t agree. The dusting of sugar crystals on the rug looked like the confections were shedding tears.

“Rose, I’ll give you mine. Rose, look at me.”

Rose reluctantly wrenched her gaze away from the weeping apple candies. She looked to the frazzled Mona and said, with all seriousness, “Bring these to the kitchen… I will rinse them off to eat later—”

“Rose!” Tien raised his voice to stop her and waved off Mona to quickly take the soiled treat away. Mona bowed apologetically and departed. “I can’t believe you have become such a big glutton.”

Though he sounded exasperated, he seemed happy to see her develop an attachment to food. Finding that embarrassing, Rose turned her nose up at him.

“Meanwhile, you have always been a big schemer.”

“Me? A schemer? Whyever would you say that?”

“You purposefully brought up this topic while Mona was present because you wanted her to overhear, no?”

She had no doubt he expected Mona to react to the potion bottle, after seeing her stiff expression when they briefly touched on the subject the other day. Mona was close enough to see the bottle because she just so happened to be nearby to deal with the towel, but Rose was starting to suspect Tien deliberately chose this sticky snack for such a reason.

Tien’s foxlike eyes narrowed. “I wasn’t sure but decided to take a gamble since you said she was acting funny the last time the topic came up. I figured there was a chance a new maid might have spotted this potion at another noble’s mansion…” He slowly lifted his head and spoke to the space behind Rose. “…Say, where have you seen this before?”

Mona, who had dutifully returned to the room, stood in the corner looking whiter than a ghost. Brought into the conversation, she wrung out a pathetic reply. “…I don’t know.”

“Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone I heard it from you.”

“…Is that an order?”

For those who served nobility, their lord’s guest was someone they must never upset, even if they had to go to greater lengths to please them than their lord. Mona’s voice was trembling.

“Stop that.” Rose smacked Tien on the head when he sat there silently smiling. “Don’t go coercing people in Sir Harij’s home.”

Tien gave Rose an astonished look before his lips quirked up. “Good grief… Not even my own father hits me on the head anymore.”

Rose asked Mona to rewarm the still-hot tea, getting the maid to beat a hasty retreat to the kitchen with the teapot.

“What are you trying to figure out, Tien?”

“Hmm… Good question. Judging by your earlier reaction, that’s not something you made, right?”

Rose nodded. She didn’t recognize the dainty bottle.

“I was planning to have a word with you about its value if you had made it, since the person who let me have it seemed to have obtained the potion at a very reasonable price. But if you aren’t the maker…then I can’t overlook someone hawking imitations, as someone who makes a living selling witches’ secret potions.”

The value and rarity of the witches’ secret potions would plummet if they became widely available. Even worse, people who purchased the counterfeit potions might start to suspect the quality of the real thing. Tien’s misgivings had merit as something Rose must worry about as a witch who took pride in her work.

Rose popped the top off the bottle and sniffed the contents. “…Water?”

“The bottle was already washed out by the time I got it.”

Then there was nothing Rose could determine from it. The bottle was a dead end. She might have been able to learn something if there was at least a drop left. Rose had never encountered a counterfeit potion before, so she was unsure how to proceed.

“Now then, how shall I handle this?”

“I strongly advise against you chasing Mona into a corner.”

Rose warned off Tien before he pressured Mona to the point of crying—or, knowing him, beyond that. After seeing how Harij interacted with Tala and the others, Rose realized how much he cared about the people he let into his life. He might even sever ties with Tien if he deemed it necessary to protect them.

“There goes our only potential source of information, then.” Tien pouted with pursed lips, but Rose didn’t take the bait. “Fine, fine. You win. I don’t want to be hated by my brother-in-law or my little sister.”

Who are you calling your brother-in-law and little sister, huh? Rose swallowed her sharp retort with her tea.

Tien seemed to be triggered by his own words, as he set the teacup back on the saucer and emotionally muttered, “I can’t believe you’ll be a bride the next time I see you…”

Surprised by how sentimental he sounded, Rose glanced at him.

Ever since she told him she might get married, he was nothing but ecstatic all the time, as if he had forgotten every other emotion. On the surface, at least, he appeared happier than Rose herself.

He had also relayed the news to his father, whom Rose used to do business with, and convinced him they should accommodate her with anything she needed.

So Tien was the last person she expected to sound disappointed about it.

Just as she was genuinely starting to worry he was against her marriage, he broke the silence.

“The first time I exchanged greetings with you,” Tien began in a nostalgic voice, “you glared daggers at me from behind the Great Witch’s skirt. I had earned your ire by snagging the weasel you were after in the forest right before meeting you that day.”

Rose didn’t remember that. She was flustered over what he might say and was annoyed he had the advantage because she couldn’t remember, so she snatched up one of the apple candies on the plate in front of him.

Tien continued his story without commenting on her thievery. “You were eight at the time. You wouldn’t let me sleep at all that night. You forced me to read the hundred picture scrolls I brought back from the desert kingdom until my voice cracked.”

Mona, who had just returned from the kitchen, visibly stiffened when she heard Tien say, “You wouldn’t let me sleep at all that night.” She probably thought she was about to hear a story about her lord’s fiancée’s infidelity. Ticked off that Tien deliberately worded it so Mona would misunderstand, Rose snatched another candy.

“When the Great Witch found out I let you drink too much cognac to celebrate reaching your tenth birthday, she hung me from a beam.”

Rose didn’t remember that, either, but she stole another apple drop, as was her right.

“You poor, naïve little girl… You forgot what I had made you drink, and you begged and begged the Great Witch to let me down from the beam with tears in your eyes because you felt bad for me,” Tien regaled with glee. Rose felt like punching his lights out. Two more candies disappeared from his plate.

“When you were twelve, you did your best to make stew because the Great Witch ordered you to cook, even though you didn’t want to. You were crushed because the stew came out a horrifying color, right? The thing is, I secretly added in saffron because I wanted to see your reaction.”

Rose grabbed all the confections on Tien’s plate, not caring if her hands got sticky.

“…When the Great Witch entered her eternal slumber, I feared you might join her in heaven. You lost your will to live and were more skin and bones than you are now… I had to leave the kingdom on a job I couldn’t neglect no matter how much I wanted to, but I was worried sick about you the whole time. You didn’t have any motivation to keep on living… But then, when I saw you for the first time after getting back, you were acting like things had gone back to normal—I seriously suspected you had picked up and eaten something weird from the forest. Like, did this girl spell herself?”

The last morsel vanished from Tien’s plate.

Teardrops plopped into Rose’s cup of tea.

“…Please be happy, my adorable little witch.”

Rose might have been under a misconception all this time.

After her grandmother’s death, she thought she lost her only family. Thus, she believed she was creating a new one with Harij.

But maybe, just maybe, she had a family all along. Family in the form of an older brother who looked out for her from a reasonable distance.

“…I would never strip you of your family after already making you leave the forest you call home.”

When Harij had referred to Tien as Rose’s family, she’d casually dismissed the idea. But Harij had seen more between them than even she had.

She looked down and stuffed all of those beautiful jewellike candies into her mouth at once. For if she saw Tien’s face right then, she might very well cling to his sleeve like a human daughter and cry, “I won’t get married!”

The breeze blowing in through the cracked-open window tossed the curtains about. The winds had grown quite cold.

Her wedding was also right around the corner now.

∴ ∵ ∴

THE night breeze felt good against her cheeks. From her seat beside the window, Rose looked down below. The Azm mansion entryway was still unlit. No matter how hard she squinted against the milky darkness and perked up her ears, there was no sign of Harij’s horse coming down the road.

She wrapped herself in her sheets and a quilt and leaned against the windowsill.

“…Milady.”

Rose was scared stiff. She threw her hands out to catch herself from falling out the window. The cup she had been holding fell instead, landing below with a loud crash.

After watching the cup’s fatal end, Rose carefully pushed herself back into the safety of the room and turned around, her body drenched in a cold sweat.

A pale-faced Mona was standing there tightly holding on to Rose’s quilt. She seemed to have thrown everything she was carrying to grab Rose at the last second, because the ground around them was littered with things not there before.

“P-Please forgive me!”

Rose shook her head and held up her hand. It was her fault for daydreaming in such a dangerous spot.

“No need for that. Please just accompany me to apologize to Ms. Tala tomorrow.”

“Of course, milady. Please stay here while I go clean up the cup.”

Mona quickly gathered up the items she had tossed on the floor and headed downstairs. She was sure to injure herself by picking up broken ceramic in the dark. Rose followed her with a candle.

“Milady! Please stay in the mansion.”

“It’s fine. I’m used to this.”

Rose stopped the panicked Mona before she hurt herself, and illuminated the area at their feet. Mona rushed to pick up the broken shards as quickly as possible, probably feeling terrible that Rose had to be involved, and she profusely refused when Rose tried to help clean up.

“The wedding is fast approaching. Please take care not to injure yourself.”

Not wanting to upset the maid, Rose settled for holding up the candle to light the ground. Without much else to do, she decided to question Mona.

“Did you want something just now?”

“Pardon?”

“Didn’t you come to my room because you had something to say?”

As of late, Mona had started to open up to Rose. But she still avoided her when her duties didn’t require her presence. Thus, Rose assumed the maid had entered her room for a specific reason this time as well.

As someone who couldn’t lie, Rose was also grateful to be left alone most of the time. Long, meaningless conversations had the potential to lead to life-and-death situations for witches, after all.

That being said, Rose had grown from the introverted, taciturn girl who feared getting too close to people into someone who could hold a natural conversation lately. She had always possessed the skill to avoid difficult-to-answer questions, and it wasn’t necessarily an issue to speak her mind to good and kind people she trusted.

Mona’s hand froze in the middle of picking up a shard, but then she seemed to make up her mind to speak.

“I feel awful about the way I have behaved toward you until now. I am ashamed for having been paralyzed with fear just because you are a witch.”

“…What suddenly brought this on?”

“…I realized my mistake after you protected me from Mr. Công this afternoon.”

Công was Tien’s last name. Mona seemed grateful to Rose for saving her from him. Rose just nodded along. She wasn’t used to being thanked or appreciated.

“What made me think all witches are horrible was because…because I forced someone to drink the potion Mr. Công showed you today.”

When Tien said the potion was going around at a “very reasonable price,” that was by the standards of nobility and traders. In other words, it still fetched a pretty penny. Was Mona actually the daughter of a well-off family? Rose observed her carefully to see if she had any of the telltale markers.

“The young lady I served at my former workplace ordered me to use that potion on a certain man she was fond of… I couldn’t refuse, so I mixed it into his cup and gave it to him.” Mona shuddered as she recalled that very moment. “The man collapsed…after his first sip…”

Mona was fired from her job when the lady of the house came rushing into the room during all the commotion and learned what had transpired. She was given a letter of recommendation as a means to silence her, but never again would she be allowed to step into that household.

Mona was likely plagued by bottomless guilt for unintentionally hurting another. Her voice was filled with sorrow.

Rose gently rubbed Mona’s shoulder.

“…Why are you telling me this?”

“After listening to your conversation with Mr. Công, I thought it might be possible you didn’t make the potion…”

“Of course I didn’t. My love potion will absolutely make the taker fall in love.”

After all, she had tested and proved its effects herself. Rose could claim that with absolute confidence.

Rose was a witch. Witches made secret potions only they knew the recipes for. And as someone who took pride in her work as a witch, Rose didn’t view the witches’ secret potions as inherently evil.

A blacksmith forges a sword to take a person’s life, while a witch prepares a potion to take a person’s heart.

While unnecessary for the majority, it was necessary for some. As long as a single person needed it, the Good Witch Rose would continue making those secret potions.

But a potion that didn’t deliver on its intended effect was indeed evil.

She wasn’t the type to go around remedying all the false potions out there. But it was upsetting for others to confuse those inferior products with hers.

“I didn’t answer Mr. Công’s question because I was shaken, and I didn’t want to betray my former mistress… But I thought about it carefully afterward and realized his question was really about trying to figure out how you wanted to handle the matter, milady. And I felt the need to inform you if that was truly the case.”

It was likely strictly forbidden to speak of what went on at a servant’s former place of work. Mona surely needed to muster all her courage to share that information with the witch she often struggled to be in the same room with. Servants, like witches, couldn’t get hired without credibility. Returning to the earth was the only future for both Mona and Rose if they lost their work.

“Thank you. And if I may say so…” Rose crouched until she was face-to-face with the maid. “I think you are an amazing servant, Mona.”

Rose wasn’t sure how much of the sentiment came across, given that Mona didn’t know witches could only tell the truth. But the maid’s eyes misted as she wished for Rose’s safety.

“If it’s indeed a counterfeit, then you might be dragged into unnecessary danger, milady… As it stands, my former lord and lady grew extremely suspicious of witches. Please, please be careful.”

“I will,” Rose said aloud, as if she were responding to the very darkness itself.

Unfortunately, Mona’s bad premonition came true.

Three days later, Rose was arrested.