Chapter 2
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“I’ll be back soon with your father, so just wait here quietly. Do you understand, Lane?”
“Yes, Mother.”
“That’s right. You’re a good girl.”
Hearing Elaine’s obedient answer, her stepmother curled her red lips in satisfaction. It was a very sweet voice from a woman who was always so irritable and short-tempered with Elaine.
But soon after, her lovely mask slipped away, as if the tenderness had been washed off from her face. The stepmother ordered the coachman in a cold voice.
“Let’s go.”
Through the crack of the closed carriage door, the sound of the stepmother’s joyful laughter leaked out. In contrast to the heartless appearance of abandoning a young girl alone in an unfamiliar place, the loving touch from the stepmother to the baby in her arms was caring and tender.
Slowly, the wheels rolled, and the carriage soon quickly trudged away until it could no longer be seen. After they left, Elaine looked around at her surroundings.
Around her was a dense forest. The abundantly grown leaves on the trees drew shade from the sunlight, and the air was quite cool. Elaine crouched under a large tree, waiting for the carriage to return.
Why…why aren’t you coming?
One hour, two hours—no, even though she waited for several hours, the carriage never came back. Gradually, her anxiety began to rise.
At first, she tried to comfort herself, saying that her stepmother was not that cold-hearted. But when dusk fell, and she became completely enveloped in the darkness, she had no choice but to come to terms with her situation.
I’ve been abandoned.
Elaine Christasia was the only daughter of her family. However, her father—the Viscount—had neglected his wife, who failed to give birth to a son, and the resentment he felt towards her was also directed at Elaine. Shortly after his wife passed away from a long-term chronic illness, the Viscount took in a new wife.
The new wife, the stepmother, detested Elaine from the very moment she first entered the residence. It became her daily routine to nitpick and harass every little thing Elaine did. Of course, this situation was only possible because the Viscount condoned the incidents without any sanctions.
After some time, the stepmother finally gave birth to a baby—it was a boy. The Viscount was so overjoyed to the point he was willing to do anything the stepmother asked of him. He would even acquire her a star if she had wished for it.
The stepmother was a greedy woman. She had always regarded Elaine as a thorn in her side, afraid that she would become an obstacle to her son’s succession to the title in the future.
Yet, the current situation was still a little unexpected. Elaine didn’t think the day had finally come, and as she presumed, the carriage never returned.
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The place where Elaine had been abandoned was a remote forest in a city. After she managed to escape from the forest, Elaine survived on the streets alone through her own wit and cleverness, wandering through the streets and back alleys day-to-day. Naturally, in the beginning, she often visited the marketplace to see if anyone was searching for a girl her age. With the title of a Viscount, her father had the ability to find a child through the use of his own resources and manpower.
Still, the unending silence meant they did not seek Elaine’s return.
There was a short time when she held a small ounce of hope that the Viscount might come to find her. But soon, she abandoned that hope. Elaine, who stopped searching the streets, became a street child that day.
She lived through a constant cycle of cold, hungry days. Sometimes, she would be beaten by an adult due to the bad habits she developed as a result of her terrible situation; other times, she would end up hurt from being caught up in a territorial fight amongst the street children.
Now, one year later, she was running with all her might.
“Huh, hah…!”
Elaine had found a pretty good spot earlier today. She had planned to endure sleeping one night there, but unfortunately, the spot was already taken by a man. So, Elaine left to find another spot, but the man had suddenly grabbed Elaine and tried to scare her. She bit down on his hand as hard as she could and ran away. The man, whose eyes bulged from their sockets from the pain, began to chase after her.
I might die if I get caught.
The man was holding a knife—Elaine felt a genuine sense of fear. After running in a wild frenzy in an attempt to escape from the man, she eventually came back to her senses and found herself deep in a forest.
The surrounding swarms of trees were thick with foliage, and the moonless forest was bathed in pitch darkness. The man who was chasing her had long since disappeared.
However, the forest was far from quiet. Every now and then, Elaine would hear the sound of bushes shaking mixed in with the sound of grass bugs. The bush sounds were caused by a mountain animal passing by. Every time that happened, Elaine’s heart would sink, thinking the man from earlier would pop out.
Once again, the bushes shook.
Elaine took a slow, deep breath. Raising her head, she made eye contact with something other than the man. A pair of glowing red eyes in the dark was staring straight at her.
Mon…ster?
The Christasia’s estate was an area where monsters rarely appeared, so Elaine had never personally encountered a monster before. But she instinctively realized something at that moment—that was no wild animal. The rough, ragged breathing was unlike those of mountain animals. The closer the footsteps on the ground grew, the closer death was approaching.
Did she really struggle her way through a horrible ditch and desperately clung onto her life up until now, only so she could get torn apart and killed by a monster? In a place where no one would be able to find her?
She laughed hollowly, feeling indescribable despondency. It was a laugh that was more like a sigh. What an unfortunate life.
Indeed, it seemed like the time for her to die had really come. She recalled the memories of her life in the family residence—a time where she had lived like a fool, holding onto false hope and begging for love.
“Your very existence is a terrible nightmare for me.”
On that day, those words she had heard sounded like an auditory hallucination. Now, she couldn’t remember whether the person who had said those words was her mother or stepmother. Either way, they had said it because there was nothing strange about it.
You, what did you hate so much about me.
Elaine stared into the monster’s red orbs, then closed her eyes in resignation. No, she tried to close them.
Kieeek—!
Suddenly, scorching blue flames lit upon the monster. It was an incredible sight. Elaine’s eyes grew wide open in astonishment. A black beast, the size of a house, was being swallowed up alive by a blazing blue fire.
And in front of the monster, a woman with long, fluttering black hair stood watching the monster’s flurry. The azure flames gradually faded, and only black scorch marks remained where the monster had once stood.
Shocked by the sudden situation, Elaine froze and looked up at the raven-haired woman. When she made eye contact, the woman turned away.
“……!”
Violet eyes that shined brightly in the dark. As soon as she met those eyes, Elaine lost consciousness.
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Elaine suffered from a high fever for several days after losing consciousness. She had been chased by a mysterious man with a knife, nearly killed by a monster she had encountered for the first time in her life, and was then rescued by someone who was even more powerful than the said monster.
All of what happened was too harsh for a mere 9-year-old child to bear.
“……”
Elaine woke up in a strange cottage. She blinked her eyes and looked around the unfamiliar room. The neatly arranged bedroom gave off a simple but cozy feeling. It was then that she heard voices talking from outside.
“Do you think she saw?”
“She must have.”
“I thought so. Ah, really. Who would have known that a child would be in a place like that in the middle of the night? I was so surprised…”
There were two people talking. One voice belonged to a young man, and the other belonged to a young woman. The sound of footsteps grew closer as their conversation continued and stopped right in front of the bedroom door. Soon after, the door opened quietly.
Elaine immediately closed her eyes and pretended to be asleep. As a result, the two resumed their conversation inside and kept their voices down, under the assumption that the child was still fast asleep.
“What are you going to do with the child?”
“I’ll have to think about it after she wakes up.”
“There’s no room to think about it. Didn’t you say she saw you using your powers? No doubt she knows what you are now.”
“That…the child is a human, she’s not an object or an animal.”
The man laughed at the woman’s words and replied in a cynical voice.
“There are many humans who are worse than animals. You’ve been through it, so you should know it better than most—how ugly they can become.”
“……”
At the woman’s silence, the man continued.
“In any case, I can never accept a human child. You should know that by now.”
“Shh, you’re going to wake her. Be quiet, Espel.”
“Really, you…”
With a deep sigh, the man rose from his seat and left the room.
Regardless, the child had woken up. The woman let out a small shriek and went over to wipe the child’s cheeks with a wet towel carefully.
“Did you wake up?”
“……”
“Does it hurt anywhere?”
Elaine stared up at the woman silently. The violet eyes she had seen before she fainted in the forest were swimming with worry.
Witches, beings known to have existed long before the Philion Kingdom was established, were said to be immortal beings. On top of the unwithering youth they possessed, witches also held an almost absolute power, and hence they became the subject of awe and fear amongst humans.
Their exact appearance was unknown, but there were none in the continent who did not know about the tales of the witches’ blue flames—a power that has been passed down for hundreds of years. From children to the elderly, it was a tale known to all. So, Elaine knew at once what the blue flames she saw in the forest that night meant.
Elaine stared straight into the woman’s eyes and asked.
“Are you a witch?”
“As expected, you know what I am.”
The woman smiled bitterly as she lowered the wet towel. She spoke in a calm voice that contained no emotion.
“Yes. If you’re asking me what name the humans call me, ‘witch’ would be correct.”
“Then, what about your real name, not what they call you?”
Hearing the child’s words, shock rippled like waves across the woman’s face. As if she was seeing something unfamiliar, her eyes were wide open, and she couldn’t say anything due to embarrassment. Then, suddenly, Elaine didn’t know what was so funny, but the woman laughed.
“This is the first time I’ve ever been asked such a question.”
She has indeed lived for many long years. Such a long time that the girl in front of her couldn’t even dare to fathom.
All of the humans she has encountered throughout her years of living were those who feared confronting a witch, those who prayed in reverence, or those who were blinded by greed for immortality.
But there was no fear, awe, or any sign of emotional disturbance in the girl. After learning that she was a witch, the child reacted differently from those who were quick to change their attitudes after the revelation. On the contrary, Elaine’s consistent manner of ease and composure was very unfamiliar to her.
The woman smiled softly, recovering from her surprise and closing her wide-opened eyes. With a warm smile, she spoke with a pleasant-sounding voice.
“My name is Bella.”
Bella — Elaine tried to roll the name in her mouth. It was a soft-sounding name that smoothly rolled off her tongue.
“That’s a pretty name.”
“Please tell me your name too.”
“My name is…it’s Elaine.”
The day she had decided to become a street child, Elaine abandoned the name Christasia. Because a street child had no need or attachment to the past of a young, aristocrat child.
Bella quietly stared at Elaine, who had suddenly gone silent, and opened her mouth.
“Do you have a place to go back to?”
A place to go back to. The only place for Elaine to return to was a dreary alley where the cold and hunger awaited her.
“…No.”
Elaine shook her head slowly. Bella then asked in a soft tone.
“Then, would you like to stay and live with us?”