The Witch and The Slave

“Elder Brother!”

Diana hugged her brother.

Was she dreaming? If so, she was in heaven.

“What are you doing? Hey!”

“Brother!”

“Phew. Come one, stop it.”

Emil, who seemed to dislike his affectionate younger sister, didn’t reject her approach.

“I thought you had grown up a little since you turned twelve, but you’re just like Alexia.”

“Twelve?”

“Did you forget your age, too? You, dummy!”

“….”

“You didn’t forget we’re going to the royal palace today, did you?”

“The royal palace?”

Diana tilted her head in confusion.

“Wow, it looks like you’re trying to tarnish your family as soon as you turn twelve. Are you trying to leave an impression on His Majesty the King by looking this unprepared, huh?”

“….”

“Hurry up and get ready!”

Listening to Emil’s urgent voice, Diana soon realized that this place wasn’t heaven. The somewhat irritable nature of her older brother, turning twelve years old, and the first visit to the palace—all of it felt familiar.

◇ ◆ ◇

“Duke, welcome.”

She couldn’t recall how to greet them. However, seeing no particular reaction from the king and queen or Father and Emil, it seemed she hadn’t made any mistakes.

After exchanging greetings, they sat down to have some tea. Diana stared at the fragrant milk tea, bringing back distant memories, when a voice brought her back to reality.

“Right, Your Ladyship. The esteemed daughter of Brien is celebrating her twelfth birthday today, aren’t you?”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

“May you become the kingdom’s most precious jewel.”

“Thank you for your gracious words, Your Majesty.”

“Give her a sapphire pin as a gift.”

‘A sapphire pin?’ Diana was puzzled by the current events overlapping with the events in her memory. Was this heaven? If it were, such events wouldn’t repeat again.

Indeed, this place was strange.

Still, she focused on their conversation. After the birthday wishes for Diana passed, their dialogue returned to the main topic.

“Even so, did that witch even cast a curse?”

In response to her father’s question, the king nodded. Perhaps because he was in the presence of a child and his ally, Duke Brien, the king’s face looked full of depth.

Diana absentmindedly recalled the past.

“It’s only natural for that wicked woman to face punishment.”

This conversation was familiar as well. They were discussing the execution of a certain woman.

“Though that woman’s nastiness and wickedness are a matter of concern for this King…”

“….”

“Hearing things like how hard it must have been for that woman to be born in a mire…”

“She knew how to cast curses like that; she could even have cast one before the execution.”

“That may be true, but…”

Father comforted the king with a firm tone. The king seemed to be reassured by that attitude.

“Your Ladyship.”

At the sudden voice calling her, Diana lifted her head.

It was Her Majesty, the Queen, who had been silent until now. Although she wore a tender smile, Diana knew it was feigned. The queen didn’t particularly like her.

“What does Your Ladyship think?”

“What do you mean, Your Majesty?”

“What do you think about the existence of curses?”

Diana squinted her eyes. This moment was an opportunity to introduce First Prince Ferdinand to her. Her father hoped Diana would become Queen of Fanberoux. However, the queen disliked her, so Ferdinand wouldn’t be present.

The plan to introduce each other failed.

She continued to grope for the vague memories of her twelve-year-old self. Diana couldn’t say anything foolish at this moment. However, she was the queen of Lodbrook Kingdom and a person who knew criticism well. Diana knew the intentions behind this question. It looked like the queen wanted to humiliate her—a child.

The Queen even went so far as to ask her thoughts on the existence of curses instead of simply asking if she believed in them.

Diana smiled faintly.

“I don’t think curses exist.”

“I see. I’m curious about the reason.”

“Aren’t curses a display of apprehension? When we engage in troublesome things, and misfortune occurs by chance, people tend to attribute it to curses,” Diana explained.

The two women looked at each other, and then the king spoke.

“Does that mean this King is a feeble ruler worrying about something that doesn’t exist?”

‘Why would you say it like that?’ Diana was puzzled by the unexpected turn of the conversation, but she looked straight at the king. She was well aware of the king’s timid nature.

When her father seemed about to say something, she spoke.

“As a king, repeatedly looking back before taking the life of a sinner or an innocent—wouldn’t that be an expression of benevolence and prudence rather than weakness?”

The king’s eyes widened at Diana’s words.

“Benevolence and prudence, you say…”

Diana’s innocent words made the king burst into laughter, and the queen frowned.

The child observed them both. The queen, a woman dissatisfied because her family wasn’t the first family in the kingdom, vented her frustrations on a twelve-year-old girl, and the king, a man who was anxious after executing a woman.

When she was twelve, they may have seemed heavenly to her, but now, she saw them for who they truly were.

Perhaps the downfall of Fanberoux was inevitable.

◇ ◆ ◇

“You did very well.”

Duke Brien patted Diana’s head. Only then did she finally look at her father’s face. Her father was generally reserved in his expressions, though he spared nothing for her. He gave her affection in his own way, only to tragically die at the hands of that monster, Guiscard, seeking revenge.

Guiscard.

Diana recalled his face. Why did her beloved father bring Guiscard in as a slave? He was a person who didn’t even express anger toward the servants. Then, why did he bring Guiscard into the mansion and let him fester with resentment?

“The weather is bad today. Since Father has more to discuss with His Majesty, go back first.”

With those words, Duke Brien turned away and disappeared.

‘It had been an incredibly long day.’ Diana thought while riding the carriage. The sky was filled with gray clouds that seemed to hang like a dark shadow covering the sky.

Was she back to the age of twelve? She repeated the unbelievable fact in her mind over and over again.

“That thing about curses—what was that? Where did you read it?”

“What do you mean?”

“You were scared of curses. If you step on black marble four times in a row, it means death, or if you write your name in purple, you’ll die…”

“That’s not a curse; it’s superstition.”

Emil and Diana talked as if bickering.

“I believe in curses. Our mother was a victim of a curse, wasn’t she?”

“Huh?”

“In the capital, she saw the mixed-race slaves who were about to be executed casting strange spells one time.”

Slaves. Diana’s gaze became blurred. Fanberoux had a system of slavery. She had forgotten about it since there were no slaves in the Lodbrook Kingdom.

“…It wasn’t a curse, brother. Curses don’t exist.”

“What?”

“The way not to get cursed is simple; just don’t torment weak people.”

A witch’s curse comes from tormenting a woman, and a slave’s curse comes from making them slaves and tormenting them. The curses come from the guilty conscience of tormenting the weak. Diana realized that.

Soon, the sound of heavy rain was heard outside.

Listening to the splattering raindrops, Diana was lost in thought. It was nothing after she turned twenty. However, today was a special day because it was the first day she entered the royal palace, so she had some vague memories.

However, she felt like she was forgetting something. Diana tried to shake off the discomfort. Her task was to prevent her father from bringing Guiscard. It won’t be long before he arrives. She had to stop the tragedy from unfolding. She was still a twelve-year-old who had lost her mother.

How could she stop her father?

‘If only it were three years later…?’

After she turned fifteen, she had some say in the house. Diana clicked her tongue.

“Sister! What are you doing that you’re not coming?”

Alexia’s sharp voice echoed. Most likely, she was upset with her older brother and older sister, who went to the palace without her.

In this miracle-like world, Alexia was also alive. Diana smiled and entered the room.

Young and immature Diana didn’t like comforting Alexia. She had a weak body, and her father listened to all her tantrums, so she was often selfish. But now, it was okay. It was enough that she was alive. Her own blood—the one completely on her side.

How much Diana had longed for that.

Suddenly, she felt her stomach ache. There was a time when she briefly had an ally of her own. She tried hard to erase that memory.

“Did you have fun at the palace?”

“It wasn’t fun at all. Look, it even started to rain. Reading you a book would have been more fun.”

With that, Alexia’s anger immediately melted away. Diana read her a book, something she always found bothersome, but now she was grateful for it. Maybe it was because of the rain, Alexia had a severe cough, so she gave her some medicine and the child soon fell asleep.

At that moment, she saw thunder striking the sky.

For some reason, her heart started to beat faster. She should enjoy the miracle of returning to the past, yet her fingertips became cold with an inexplicable tension.

“His Grace the Duke has arrived.”

She stood up.

Her memories of this very same day, but many years ago, were not clear. She couldn’t answer the queen’s question, and after her father scolded her, she might have spent the whole day crying alone in her room.

Diana lifted the hem of her skirt and went downstairs. The pitter-patter of the rain ran throughout the mansion. As the door slammed open, she winced unknowingly at the loud sound in a mansion filled with only the sound of rain.

The duke came in with an umbrella. A bright smile adorned the usually curt Duke’s face. His unfamiliar appearance made Diana’s heart beat even faster.

“Kids, I brought a present.”

The Duke spoke with a bright voice. At the same time, thunder flashed, brightening the world.

Diana gaped in surprise at the scene that immediately caught her eye. The person who came in with a slave collar around his neck was undoubtedly the one who ruined her life. The boy with purple eyes, looking more wretched and miserable than a slave, entered this house as a dog—no, as a slave.

She realized it.

Not long after, she encountered Guiscard for the first time at the mansion. She didn’t know exactly when he came. Her face turned pale as though she had seen a ghost.

It felt as if the God of fate was mocking her.

She hadn’t returned to a day when she was twelve years old.

…Diana went back in time to the exact day she met Guiscard for the first time.

_