The Devil’s Cursed Witch

While Ember was enjoying the sights of Ronan, Erlos dreaded his return to the palace.

Draven sat in his chair, resuming his unfinished work on the map as if he never left in the first place, while Erlos stood in front of his king with his head lowered. Though his clothes were still wrinkled, he had long dusted off the leaves covering his body.

As he waited inside the quiet study, the young elf could not help but fidget, only to stay still as a statue seeing the King finally put away the quill in his hand. That meant it was now his turn to be grilled.

Just as he was wondering whether his master would start by throwing  sarcastic remarks or by punishing him by giving more work first, he heard something unexpected.

“A day.”

“Y-Yes, Sire?”

“You returned in just a day,” Draven said in a languid voice. “You must have used your powers in the right way.”

“Yes? Oh. Yes, Sire,” Erlos replied, wondering if that meant his punishment would be lighter. “I tried my best to come back as soon as I can.”

Draven leaned back in his chair and rested his elbow on the hand rest of the chair with his black-gloved hand folded under his chin. He stared at his servant who looked like was waiting to be punished, but now looked slightly relieved after hearing what he said. Draven’s icy cold gaze softened.

“You did well.”

“Yes, I did—Huh?” Erlos was stumped.

Many decades had passed since he started staying by Draven’s side as his personal servant. He had learned the King’s habits and preferences, and he had served him the best way he could, completing each task to perfection, but there was not a single moment where Draven praised him.

In fact, he never said any good words to him, preferring to ignore him on most days.

The only instances he could remember when Draven said a few nice words towards him was back when Erlos was a little kid living with Leeora in Ronan.

Draven pretended to not see his silly-looking face and asked, “What did you find out about that creature?”

‘Creature?’

Erlos sighed inwardly as he got out of the temporary soft corner he developed for his king who just praised him.

“Sire, you just made me recall a really bad memory. Eugh. Do you know how hard it is to investigate her? None of those human beings are sane! All of them are crazy! When I tried to inquire about that human girl from the nearby villages, they simply repeated what we experienced from that first human village—they were just busy boasting about how they killed her, about how they contributed to ridding the curse of that kingdom, about how she’s a witch who caused the bad things that happened to them blah blah. They know nothing about what she looks like or even her name, much less know about her life story. “

Draven scoffed lightly as if he heard nothing different.

“Sire, you were aware that this would happen and those useless humans won’t answer. That is why you didn’t put any effort into inquiring that day, am I right?”

Not answering, Draven simply admired the map he’s drawing, not letting the parts still damp with ink to be smeared. “If you have nothing else to say, go clean my bedchamber.”

‘Ah! I’m not even finished reporting! What was I even expecting from him?’ He inwardly shook his head, but on the outside, he was polite as he said, “I did learn something new.”

“Are you waiting for my invitation to say it?” Draven commented.

Not bothered with his master’s attitude , Erlos continued,, “No, no, Sire. Let me finish. See, I got hold of this one young human female…”

“You got hold of her or she got you?” Draven asked.

It reminded Erlos how that human female approached him, looking like she was bewitched by his beauty.

‘It’s not my fault for being so handsome.’ He cleared his throat and said, “Sire, you look down on me! I’ve learned from you and from Elder Leeora that humans are greedy! That human female saw me asking around and so I gave her an ingot of gold and she was happy to explain.”

Draven muttered, “She must have asked you for compensation first.”

Erlos waved his hands around as if to say ‘regardless of who thought the idea, it didn’t matter’. “Anyway, she told me the same thing as what that old woman told us, confirming that the human girl must truly be that abandoned princess. But she also said that the ‘witch’ was raised by another ‘witch’, but this witch had died about a month back.

“I cannot confirm whether she’s referring to a real witch or just another wrongfully accused woman, just that there is one woman who raised this human girl on that dead mountain. Unfortunately, the humans had caught that woman and tried to kill her. That woman managed to escape but was severely hurt and they believe she died as well on that mountain.”

Not knowing what his master was thinking, Erlos continued, “When I asked how old that abandoned princess was or when exactly they had abandoned on that mountain, that human female said she was just a poor village girl and she doesn’t know how to count. She only knows that it happened years before she was born. That village girl is about the same size as the human girl you found, Sire, and Elder Leeora said that humans with that appearance were around fifteen or sixteen so… that means the human girl Sire had brought must be older than her.”

Erlos waited for his reaction but there was none. “I think, though she looks frail and weak, she is an already adult according to a human’s lifespan.”

Still, there was no reaction from the King, as if the information he brought had no value to it.

“Sire?”

“Are you done?” was all he got as a reward for his efforts.

Sighing inwardly, he spoke, “I will go and clean your chamber.”

Erlos left with droopy ears and Draven stopped working as soon as he was gone. He thought about his guess that there ought to be another person with that human girl. He thought that he had to search for that person, but it seemed like that woman must have really died, leaving that human girl to fend on her own on that dead mountain.

He could easily guess how the story went.

‘Since her guardian died, she was left alone, struggling to survive on that mountain with nothing to eat and that is why she looks so weak and malnourished. She must have tried to venture out to search for food, but she was seen by people. It caused a manhunt to happen, ending up with them burning the entire mountain.

‘Humans! Those weak creatures can really be so cruel. I wonder what else she must have gone through all these years?’