Chapter 7.5: A Horrific Tale from the Past

I remembered that time when my curiosity got the better of me.

"…"

It was at the end of Holy Congress for the 'day', and that incident where Maddie burned a book in her library never disappeared from my mind, no matter how much she told me not to think about it anymore.

There's a single phrase that kept me bothered for such a long time now: the Bloody Witch of Meldech.

That phrase would just pass as some obscure footnote in my memory, had it not for God telling me before of a 'great threat Chersea is about to face ever since the last human-demon war'. Could it be that this 'witch' was the one that posed such danger to this world?

I don't know, so I have to gather more information about it.

"…"

It's been a while since I left the Holy Palatial Gardens, heading towards the eastern section of the land the human saint owned. The palatial gardens acted as the 'Vatican City' of Chersea, established long ago by the human kings as Her Holiness' personal—and independent—fief. I've read in a book that this place used to be much larger than it is today, but because of human politics, the Holy Palatial Gardens shrank in the size of her territory up to the present, when Maddie succeeded to the saintly office.

But well, if I may comment, they told me it's 'small' but there's no way the real Vatican City would be bigger than this. I mean, aside from the main residential complex where Maddie lived, there were random villages that dotted along with the land of the saint. I passed around three already, and the driver of the cart I was riding told me that there were two more that could be accessed by going off the main road.

Hmm…hearing those makes me want to explore this place even more!

Ah, anyway, I counted my 'days' into the journey east, and so far, I accumulated two 'long sleeps' already. The cart owner informed me earlier at breakfast that we're almost approaching the border to the neighboring kingdom of Colveente, possibly crossing the lone bridge that connected the main road to the other side by lunch.

"…"

Oh, and my travel was quite uneventful. I was thinking along the way that maybe if this was an 'isekai' novel, our group should encounter monsters, or bandits, or any kind of trouble by now. But the journey proceeded smoothly as ever, with the members of the Paladin Corps occasionally showing up as they do their patrols along the route.

"So you'll be heading off to Colveente, Mister Kuro?" the cart driver asked me once again; I'd lost the count on how many times he put that question on me. But well, I could tell that the old sod just wanted to strike up a conversation, so I didn't mind answering him repeatedly.

"Yes, Mister Gregg. I'm searching for a friend."

"Yeah, I hope you find that friend of yours, eventually." Mister Gregg commented, "The place you're heading is quite restive, compared to the rest of Chersea, the empire included. Those people from the Confederacy of the East were a bunch of troublemakers, and some of them are even descendants of the bandits who settled in those parts ways back to the last demon war."

"Oooh…" I'm impressed by the old man's memory, "You mean, you lived long enough to witness the human-demon war yourself, sir?"

"Nah, I don't." Mister Gregg laughed, "I just knew the story because my grandfather's grandfather passed it down from generation to generation of our family. But yes, I'm interested in the folklores of different places. It's quite useful to put your grandchildren to sleep, see?"

"Right…hahaha!" I could only reply with an awkward chuckle. However, I realized that Mister Gregg might know something about the 'Bloody Witch' since no one else would like to talk about it. Ruro would only give limited information, and Maddie never wanted to even mention it. The library didn't yield any satisfactory results, aside from that book my fiancée burned.

"What's the matter, Mister Kuro? You remembered something?"

"Ah well, you said before that you're into folklore?"

"I did. Why?"

"Well, Mister Gregg, do you know anything about that certain 'Bloody Witch of Meldech'?

"!!!"

I could tell that the old man was shocked upon hearing that name. His face suddenly went pale, and he had to stop our carriage and park in on the side of the dirt road. And then he went down to sit on the grass, shivering.

I ran after him to make sure he's alright, "I'm sorry, sir. I didn't know that it's that much of a taboo in this place. I'll just drop the subject if you're uncomfortable with it."

However, old man Gregg grabbed my arm and said, "N-no…I was just…I was just surprised w-when you brought up that topic. Sorry for that, Mister Kuro. But I can tell you something about that person, see?"

"Are you sure about this?"

"Y-Yeah, just…let me, catch my breath for a while."

----------

The old man must've been shaken up so badly when I asked him about the Bloody Witch. It took us up till lunch to get him ready to tell his story.

"Just promise me one thing Mister Kuro…" he told me, with the amicable expression on his face dissipated completely, "Whatever you heard from me, will stay with you, and only you."

"A-Alright then, Mister Gregg."

Mister Gregg took a deep breath and started narrating his story, "You see, Mister Kuro, the Bloody Witch of Meldech is the vilest human I ever knew…if you could call that a 'human'."

"Indeed, that's what I read from the books…"

"Really? I don't know what to call you then, lucky or unlucky? You see, any book that was about that certain individual was forbidden and burned after her reign of terror. Many legends say that mere knowledge of that witch gives you a curse that lasts for a lifetime."

"Wow…I certainly didn't know of that." Well, true enough, I did not know about such a curse. But yes, this was normal regarding folklore and related stories. The passing of words from one mouth to another would inadvertently embellish the tale, giving it more legendary status than what it was in reality.

"Ah yes! You know, the Bloody Witch of Meldech killed thousands of her subjects and drank their blood. She was famous for impaling her victims and then displaying their bodies in public as a testimony to her cruelty."

Oh, that reminded me of another individual back in my world's history, Vlad III Dracula of Wallachia—more commonly known as Vlad the Impaler—Dracula's real-life ancestor.

"Not only that, she's infamous for herding people into her castle and would hack them to pieces as they plead hopelessly for their lives before her. Another thing is that the witch would have some of her victims tortured for no apparent offense—she just wants the sight of blood. She also had a room full of torture and execution implements; those would be in operation for most of the time until those damned things would get destroyed due to overuse."

"…"

"The witch once got a village together in the central part of their place and locked them up. Then she had her flame magic spell chanted and watched happily as the rain of fire consumed the helpless villagers."

"She killed the children of the mothers. Then cut their bodies up, had the grieving parent cook it, and then fed it to them. All the while asking those poor souls if they liked the taste of their child."

"The witch is also notorious for her violent games, like locking up people inside a dungeon without food nor water. Then have them fight to the death, using only their limbs, or some random scattered bones or stones for weapons."

Incredible.

No, I did not mean it in the positive way. I just couldn't comprehend if such an individual would be capable of all those horrific things Mister Gregg described. I mean, there could be people like that, yes, but they could only do some of those things. Even that certain Austrian chancellor involved in a genocide only promoted, encouraged, and codified those methods, and he ordered his men to commit the horrible acts for him…

This old man, though, put it up like this 'witch' was capable of ALL those monstrous atrocities.

Can such a person be even considered human?

Hmm…but then again, this was part of folklore and legends. Horrible things done get inflated as time passed to cast an extremely negative light on the villain. It's perfectly normal, no matter how abhorring those deeds could be.

"Mister Kuro."

"Hm?"

"Not to offend you, but you seem to have some difficulty in believing my tale."

"Huh? Does it look like that to you, Mister Gregg?"

"It does, Mister Kuro."

"My apologies. I'm just having a hard time comprehending your story. I keep on asking myself, could such a human do all of those? And could we even consider that person a human?"

"It's fine. I understand your reaction. Even others who have heard my tale have the same unbelief on their faces." Mister Gregg had a bittersweet smile, "But well, all of us who were there knew what we are talking about."

"Oh!? So you witnessed all of those yourself?"

Mister Gregg gave me a sad stare, "Well, of course. I'm one of those soldiers who would round up those poor people to be slaughtered in the most gruesome way possible…"

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Because of the time spent that we rested and talked about the 'Bloody Witch', Mister Gregg's cart arrived at the border of Colveente after lunch. Well, it was not wasted. I learned a lot of history from Mister Gregg, and would surely love to meet him again sometime if Fate permitted it.

"Alrighty, Mister Kuro!" Mister Gregg pulled over his cart on the side of the road, "If you go down this path, Colveente's capital, Falias, is just straight ahead. You couldn't possibly miss it."

"Ah, thank you for your help, Mister Gregg!"

"My pleasure, Sir!" the old man then turned his cart in the direction he intended to take, "I'll be heading to a village to the left of this road. Might be that your companion went that way, so I'd like to help you find her. What's the name of your friend?"

"Err…" I thought for a second about my answer. Although she's royalty, it's a given that Lily's a great warrior, and she could defend herself whenever the need for it arose. However, it's not that I'm worried about; if I said Lily's true name, and he asked for her whereabouts, I might blow my cover and she escapes farther away.

"Hmm? That sure is a strange name." Mister Gregg commented, "Who in the world would name their daughter 'Er'?"

"Ah no! No, that's not her name." I quickly cleared the misunderstanding, "Her name's Lily." Well, I guess telling him her nickname wouldn't hurt? Besides, Lily might've used an alias, so she can travel incognito.

"Well lad, there are many girls out there who's got the same name!"

Indeed, what he said was true. Of course, I couldn't tell the old man Lily's a princess! Maybe I should try the descriptive route?

"Should I describe her to you?"

"Go ahead, lad."

"Well, Lily's got beautiful light brown eyes."

"Yes?"

"Short, light brown hair…"

"It's too general, lad. There are a lot of girls like that around."

"What about her complexion? It's fair, like an elf."

"Uh-huh…"

"Right…" I have nothing else to describe Lily with…or is it? How about her height? "She's about this tall." I showed her height almost around my cheeks.

"Okay? Anything else?"

"Err…uh, her b-b-b-b-b…"

"B…?"

"Boobs."

"Big?"

I nodded. Oh, good lord, I looked stupid.

This time, it's Mister Gregg who asked, "How about the ass, kid? Has she got those perfectly shaped buttocks?"

It was awkward hearing questions like that about your friend. But I just closed my eyes and nodded; my face was red in embarrassment.

"Heh, what a virgin." the old man whispered. And then he followed up with, "One more thing, child, just to make sure. Is this person you're searching for an expert swordswoman? Someone who is formerly known as the 'Iron Princess', right?"

"!!!"

"Your reaction is more than enough for me to know that I'm correct." Mister Gregg had a triumphant look at his face, "And coincidentally, she may have changed her hairstyle, but that person's real name is Lilyhaven Tamriel von Leese, the exiled royal of Nerfes?"

I surely didn't expect that. I mean, I tried to hide Lily's identity, but…

…did she get discovered just because of her perfectly shaped ass?

"Mister Kuro, the light brown eyes, and hair with a fair, elf-life complexion are the well-known traits of the members of the House of von Leese of Nerfes. And when you said that the girl you're searching for has a big rack and perfect buttocks, it's Princess Lilyhaven alright."

I knew it!

Well, there's no point in hiding it, so I admitted it in the end.

"Let me tell you something, lad." The old guy tapped my shoulder, "You should just let the lass go. Don't involve yourself further in her life. There are some things that you have to keep away from, to avoid stirring up the hornet's nest of trouble."

"Eh? What do you mean by that? She's my friend!"

"Of course, she is. And you can't leave her alone, is it?" there's a noticeable change in the expression of Mister Gregg. It's as if he had seen impending doom, "But, the princess has a lot of powerful enemies as well. Don't say I didn't warn you! See you around kid." Without warning, he urged his horse to move in a hurry.

"Err…Mister Gregg! Are you going to help me?" I desperately called out.

"Sorry kid! I remember I don't have any time for that just now!" he replied, as I watch his cart disappear into the forest to my left.