Ch- 123.2: Queen Maker
Lorian found himself awake tied and wound by purple vines. He shouted at the purple desolate landscape, but the witch did not appear.
Lorian shouted again in a slightly louder voice.
“Where are you?! Witch of Constraints! Reveal yourselves immediately!!”
-Noisy.
The witch’s voice reverberated in his head like a searing brand. It was a sharp voice unlike the last time’s sensual and sweet.
In front of Lorian, purple thorny vines rose from the ground and began to twine into each other. The mass of thorny vines twisted into a human shape and marbled a woman with white jade skin.
The woman’s light purple eyes glared intently at Lorian.
“You… you… what you did to me and you dare… you dare…”
“That’s what I should say! I asked you to restrain Cloud for five seconds. But you released him in less than three. Why? Why did you break the contract! You broke the contract at will, and I…”
Lorian couldn’t speak further, he bit his tongue in indignation.
The day he was humiliated by Cloud, Lorian swore to avenge himself.
He swore he would pay back dozens of times the humiliation he’d suffered.
He swore he would win the woman he loved.
It took strength and grit to oath both of these goals.
He needed power and more power.
So Lorian returned to the kingdom and brought the nobles together to create a solid political foundation. He persuaded his father, the King, to relinquish him the national treasure, the Lion King’s Armor, and increase his power.
Just when he thought he had garnered enough strength and he finally had his chance.
Lorian, who wanted to achieve his ambition as quickly as possible, seized the opportunity but shambled and collapsed.
What caused the plan to fail?
There were many surprises, if one looked. However, it couldn’t be denied that one of them was this damned witch.
Lorian glared at the Witch of Constraints with seething hatred. Seeing those eyes, the witch let out a hollow laugh, as if she was harrowed.
“Ha… haha… You really don’t know..? You… what did you do to me…?”
She balled her palms into fists.
The grip of the thorny vines twining Lorian grew stronger.
“Keuk…”
Lorian frowned in pain, but his expression loosem.
“At least a millennium. A whole millennium. Thousand years were the time I spent hiding and skulking from those guys! But everything went wrong because of you!”
“Hah, so dangerous to constrain a single Hero for a few seconds…? You’re only this much?”
“Only..? Did you say only? Only… how can you say that! How can you!”
Kwrack-!
The grip of the vines became stronger. The raw strength would have crushed an ordinary person, but Lorian, Hero and prince, withstood it.
“Aaaagh…!”
Although it was execrably painful.
“Shut your mouth. I don’t want to hear your whines.”
Thorn vines muffled Lorian’s mouth. Then no sound came out of his mouth.
After a while, her eyes, filled with fervor, darkened.
The Witch of Constraints tiraded in a gloomy voice.
“I have to leave this place, everything I have built, and run away. From now on, I will be wandering without a place to rest for the rest of my life. Just because of one request from you. Isn’t it too miserable, too hopeless?”
“…”
Lorian couldn’t answer. For the thorny vines clamped his mouth shur.
The witch also didn’t want an answer. She continued, stroking Lorian’s cheek as one would their lover. Right before they died.
“Fortunately, my life isn’t the only miserable thing. What you gave me… it must be returned. Destiny, understand?”
“…!”
“Don’t look at me like that. As per the contract, I’ll only take equal pay. Yes, equal pay.”
The witch smiled and put her lips to his ear.
“Listen carefully. Your life from now on will be full of grief and despair. You will lose reputation, fealty, trust and much more. In the end, you will lose even this humble, mortal life. In the name of Eriache, the Witch of Constraints, a promise is made. And it shall be done.”
The Witch of Constraints, Eriache, looked into Lorian’s eyes.
“Your end will be very, very miserable.”
There was a ghost in those light purple eyes.
* * *
“Huh..!”
Lorian, who opened his eyes, reflexively raised himself. He turned his head and looked around. It was a narrow cell of stone walls and dense iron bars.
“This place is..?”
“Dungeon, Hero.”
Marietta, a candidate for sainthood who was imprisoned with other women in the iron cell across from him, answered his question.
Her face was full of displeasure.
No, not just her.
She and his other colleagues were in a similar dour mood. The moment Lorian felt it and was about to say something, something like a memory played in his head along with a tingling headache.
– Lose… destiny… hopeless… miserable… very, very…
But the memories were hazy, like fog.
A woman looked at him and said something, but he couldn’t remember what she said, let alone what she looked like.
“Brother? Are you okay?”
Inside the dungeon, only Lorraine spoke out, worrying about him.
Lorian didn’t answer.
He was just trying to recall the hazy memory.
However, no matter how hard he tried, his memory gradually faded and never became clearer.
* * *
“Uh, what..? What?”
Eri asked as her voice trembled. I repeated what I had just said clearly.
“I mean Calion, your brother. Usually, we would’ve executed him, but if you want, I’ll think of another way. What should I do?”