Chapter 10.5: All About the Bloodbath Curse and the Last Duke of Nerfes

Ah, finally! I reached the capital of the Kingdom of Calabria, the city of Sekhtem…

"…"

My search for Lily in the kingdom of Colveente produced nothing. But well, it's not that useless at all, for I finally learned about the true identity of the witch.

"…"

It's just that I couldn't believe that Lily was both the Iron Princess and the Bloody Witch of Meldech. Just what is happening? I thought she and Maddie fought and killed that noble…Maddie was protecting the witch, after all!

"…"

Nevertheless, it hadn't sunk into me. The Lily I know was a gentle, kind, and protective girl. This witch that everyone feared was someone that could qualify as the evilest demon on earth, Satan.

Haa…I took out a piece of paper where I wrote some useful information for this matter. My eyes immediately fell on those words: 'Iron Princess'.

According to what I researched; the 'Iron Princess' was the moniker given to Lily after a certain bloody battle that caused her to kill a thousand men single-handedly. Her fame increased because of that, and the ruling royal family during that time, the House of von Leese, was forced to grant her a fief in honor of her achievements.

The official records stopped here, at this part.

And then, I saw this in the other books. 'The House of von Leese'. They were one of the two royal houses that ruled the throne of Nerfes, the other one was the House of Reed. Compared to the other regal family, the von Leese produced much of Nerfes' military generals of great ren in the past. However, I noticed one common denominator in many of those 'famous generals' lives …

All of them went insane in the end. One ancestor of Lily infamously slaughtered his family and drank their blood while squeezing it out from the cut-up body parts. Another one tortured her soldiers on a whim, and she was similarly killed in the end. Despite that, another went on a rampage in one of Nerfes' towns, murdering random people with the body of someone he had killed before.

Everything that I read brought shivers up my spine. And it was not rocket science to see that the tales about the Bloody Witch were eerily similar.

What caused them to become like that? Is it in their DNA? They're a family, after all!

Further reading led me to another clue: the 'Bloodbath Curse of the Last Duke of Nerfes'. Its origins hailed back to the last Human-Demon War, where facing certain defeat, the Duke of the Duchy of Nerfes agreed with the hero Cassandra David to grant him the power to save his people. The Bloodbath was a spell tailor-made by Cassandra David that gave the Duke superhuman strength, speed, and an acute sense of battlefield awareness whenever he chose to activate it, helping his armies overturn the potential defeat to a sure victory.

However, it came with an unintended price: the Bloodbath had a side-effect that made the Duke extremely sanguinary—with horrible stories similar to the von Leese generals. Long after the Human-Demon War ended, he was ultimately killed, executed when he became deranged.

That Cassandra David sure made a mess of the Nerfes royal family, huh?

Though it was not stated, I'm sure that this 'Bloodbath' curse passed on the Duke's descendants, for it was written that he had many sons and daughters that gave rise to several noble houses that ruled Nerfes up to the present.

These poor guys must've thought that the Bloodbath curse ended with the death of the Duke.

"…"

Haa…this is bigger than I initially expected, huh?

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I'm sure Maddie knows, even partly, about her friend's condition, that's why she kept her close within the Holy Palatial Gardens. For one, there were only a relatively few numbers of people that would see Lily there. Second, she would be far away from her family, thus she's safe. And third, in case the need for it arose, Maddie could quickly come to her friend's aid.

"…"

And so that's why Mister Gregg was having second thoughts upon learning Lily's true identity. Looks like I'm in deep shit…

But well, who cares? It's not like I'm keen on living on for too long; every human would die at some point in their lives. And I'm not someone who'd abandon a friend just because he's afraid he might get killed.

Heck, I even jumped with my students to hell, and lost my job as a result! Things like this won't easily stop me! Hahaha!!!

"…"

For goodness' sake, I'm scared to get involved with Lily anymore…

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And now, as I was saying, I arrived here at Sekhtem.

Well, I was planning to search every nook and cranny inside the Kingdom of Colveente for Lily. However, it was during one of my library stints that I got a clue on her whereabouts…

"Ah, welcome back, Mister Kuro!" the librarian greeted me. She became my friend already because of my frequent return trips to the library.

"Thanks Miss Greta." I smiled back, "Can I go to the forbidden section again?"

"Sure! Just sign over on this part of the logbook." she handed me a quill pen and a bottle of ink.

While I wrote my details, another girl came to Miss Greta. I heard her say, "Hello, Josephine! Looking good, huh?"

The girl named Josephine smiled, "So you noticed it too?"

"Why yes! Your body was toned beautifully!"

"Not only that, I learned a sword-style that I can use!"

"Ohh!" Miss Greta commented. I didn't know if it's allowed in such a place like a library, but since I'm the only one who was there, they continued their chat as usual.

"I tell you what, you head to Calabria's Sekhtem, and then head north to a village called Hagena. There's a female knight there who teaches this 'Mahan Swordsmanship Style' for only 5 silvers or 50 bronze coins."

"Wow! Please give me more details about that! I'm interested in learning some martial skills lately."

"And so do I." I interjected in their conversation, "I'm sorry for overhearing, but could you please tell me about this 'Mahan Swordsmanship Style' teacher?"

"Well, she's a pretty girl with short light-brown hair and beautiful light-brown eyes." Josephine explained to me, "I'm also envious of her skin, which is like that of elves!"

With such descriptions matching those of Lily, I asked, "Uhm…if I may put one more question, what's the name of this teacher you speak of?"

"Oh…well, I haven't been able to get her first name, but if I remember correctly, her family name is Tamriel?"

And with that answer, I hurried from Colveente to Calabria, intending to head to that village called Hagena. This Tamriel she spoke about was, without a doubt, Lily!

Heh! You won't escape me now, Bloody Iron Witch Princess!