[Episode 90] - Sage Time
“You had best answer truthfully. Unless you want to be made an example of for the culprit.”
Morgan pressed her lips to the back of my hand as she asked.
What was this “magic power” of the culprit’s doing, clinging to my body?
Her vivid blue eyes flashed with a chilling cold. A shiver ran down my spine under that ice-cold gaze, and before I knew it, my shoulders had shrunk in. She was only glancing up at me with a slight roll of her eyes, but Morgan spoke as if she were already certain I had come into contact with the culprit.
‘What should I do…?’
My Adam’s apple bobbed on its own as I gulped.
Really, what was I supposed to do?
Morgan looked young, and she was so haughty yet adorably foolish that I must have judged her wrongly without realizing it. The person before my eyes was the witch from those myths, someone who had lived for thousands of years. There was no way she was just some pushover who grinned stupidly at a single compliment.
‘…How do I get through this situation?’
Magic? Would my lousy magic even work on a great witch? Then should I just tell her Snow White’s location? But I hadn’t even had a proper conversation with Snow White yet. Wasn’t “I” the one who had decided to judge after talking with that child?
Then the only means I could take here was—
“…I wonder? I truly have no idea what you mean.”
Nothing more than bluffing.
I tilted my head as if I really didn’t understand, and stared blankly at Morgan with an innocent expression. Morgan’s gaze on me was still full of suspicion, but I couldn’t stop now.
“As you know, today is the day of the masquerade ball. It is a day when everyone wears masks like me, disguises themselves, hides their identity, and enjoys the ball.”
I had to keep acting as if I knew nothing until the end, and instead, I had to forcefully drive Morgan into a corner. No matter how much this might look like a childish act in her eyes, once I had started bluffing, I absolutely could not stop.
“Since I was dressed as a man, I danced with quite a few young ladies. And since the dances involved changing partners often, couldn’t I have brushed past the culprit then? Or perhaps you…”
I twisted the hand she was holding and lightly cupped Morgan’s chin with it.
She could have struck my hand away, saying it was rude, but Morgan merely looked at me in silence. I gently lifted the chin I was holding, making Morgan look up at me.
Then I smiled the smile I had practiced until now in high society. The smile that “Vivian” supposedly often wore when threatening other young ladies.
A smile where the corners of the eyes drooped as if laughing, though in truth, it was not a smile at all. If I had to give an example, this smile was—
“Surely you don’t suspect me? That I’m the culprit?”
A smile like a rose hiding thorns.
When I cast the sort of smile a true “villainess” would wear, Morgan’s eyes, looking up at me, narrowed slightly. Honestly, I felt like I had done everything I could. Just as I was inwardly fretting over what I would do if this bluff didn’t work—
“Khu-hu-hu, forgive me. I only said it in jest, yet I never expected you to react so excessively.”
“…Pardon? What did you say? A jest?”
So she had threatened me like she was going to kill me, and it was just a joke? When I furrowed my brow in irritation, Morgan smiled softly while I still held her chin. What was I supposed to do with this old woman, seriously?
Because of the anger surging up inside me, I unconsciously tightened my grip on Morgan’s chin. Then Morgan’s cheeks were pushed forward, making her lips jut out like a duck’s bill. The sight was so ridiculous that I let out a snicker without realizing it.
“In any case, I don’t know anything. And if you glare at me like you’re going to kill me, of course I’ll react excessively! Do you know how startled I was?!”
“I am truly shorry… sho firsht, let go of my face…”
When I released my hand, Morgan rubbed both cheeks as if they were stinging. Was this airheadedness her true personality, or was that sharp side her true personality…? It was beyond confusing. Morgan, who had been massaging her cheeks, gave a small laugh and glanced up at me.
“Truly, not even that Vivian ever did such a thing to me… You are the first child to ruin the face of a great witch.”
“…Do you miss the original Vivian?”
At Morgan’s expression as she spoke with a bitter smile, I felt solemn for some reason.
Could Morgan be missing Vivian through me? No matter how much of a piece of human trash Vivian had been, had it been a little different for Morgan? When I asked with a sympathetic expression, Morgan widened her eyes and answered.
“No? I do not particularly miss her. I did not like Vivian, you see.”
“Excuse me?”
“You know as well, do you not, child? Vivian’s personality was so awful that there was no one in the Coven who liked her. Though she was a child I brought into the Coven, it was to the point where I wondered if I had truly made a mistake bringing her in.”
“……”
“She did not attend gatherings, and even if she did attend, she would grumble and grumble—it was terribly troublesome. And think on it. If I had truly cherished that child, would I not have stopped her from performing that strange ritual by any means necessary?”
“Th-that’s certainly… true.”
“Do you know why that child could not contract with any fairy other than Ainsel? It was precisely because of that personality. To begin with, her contract with Ainsel was closer to a threat. No matter how delicious her magic power tasted, with that personality of hers—”
Morgan must have had a lot built up against Vivian as well, because once her mouth opened, it did not close easily. Still, should I call it fortunate that the topic had flowed to Vivian rather than Snow White? I began listening to Morgan’s grumbling with a bitter smile.
“Compared to her, you are truly no different from an angel, child. By any chance, have you no thought of learning magic? I shall teach you as if you were my finest disciple. No, I shall take you as my disciple. A great witch’s teachings are not something one can receive easily, you know? Together with your daughter—”
“Haha… I’ll just accept the sentiment. Just the sentiment…”
I waved my hand at Morgan, who approached me with sparkling eyes, and somehow refused. It would be a lie to say I had no interest in magic, but even living without magic until now, I hadn’t found anything inconvenient. Well… in truth, I had simply gotten used to this medieval-like era.
As I absentmindedly listened to Morgan, the topic of Vivian passed before I knew it, and Morgan began talking about the Coven. How all witches were like her family, what the Coven had done until now, and so on—she began chattering about things that seemed likely to go on for quite a while.
‘This seems like it’ll take a long time… Will Snow White and Titania be all right? Well… Ainsel is with them too, so nothing should happen, right…?’
With a truly bitter smile, I simply listened attentively to Morgan’s story. Like a subordinate smiling and listening to a superior talk about something they had no interest in.
“So, when I first met little Franc then—hm? Child, you are not thinking of something else while I am speaking, are you?”
“Ahaha, I’m listening… I’m only… listening.”
*
About ten minutes had passed since Titania entered the lounge where Snow White was. The atmosphere in the room was so awkward it was truly hard to bear.
Neither Titania nor Snow White knew what to say to each other, so they simply sat on the sofa and stared blankly elsewhere.
Just how long was this mood going to continue? As Titania let out a sigh deep enough to sink the earth, Snow White, watching her, opened her mouth.
“…Did that woman send you here?”
“That woman…?”
“Vivian. Didn’t you come because that woman sent you?”
Twitch.
At Snow White’s tone in calling her mother “that woman,” one of Titania’s eyebrows rose slightly.
Now that she thought about it, that woman who looked exactly like her had always been like this. Even when she had transformed into Princess Fiona, she had been the woman who tried to drive a wedge between her mother and herself.
No matter how much that woman hated her mother, Titania did not want to see her insulted right in front of her.
It made it seem as if her own reflection in the mirror hated her mother. Besides, who gave her permission to call her mother by name?
“…I don’t know about that. But from now on, don’t call her that woman or Vivian. Call her Her Majesty the Queen. Mother isn’t your friend, is she?”
At those words, one of Snow White’s eyebrows also twitched, just like Titania’s, and shot high into the air.
Snow White felt the same as Titania. Seeing someone who looked exactly like her being fond of Vivian was, honestly, painful to watch. Still, if there was one thing different between her and Titania…
‘Whew… Hold it in, hold it in. I’m an adult, unlike that child. It’s strange to get angry over something like this. To begin with, unlike me, Titania grew up receiving love, didn’t she? So she might like Vivian, unlike me. Yes, that’s what it is.’
Snow White steeled her heart like that, somehow put on a smile, and looked at Titania. When their eyes met, Titania snorted, “Hmph!” and turned her head away. Truly, unlike herself, she was a bold child.
“…Did Her Majesty the Queen send you here?”
“Yes, that’s right. Mother told me to wait here. She didn’t tell me that you were here, though…”
“She was trying to hide me from the great witch, so she must have kept her words to a minimum. Don’t worry about it too much.”
“Hide you? Mother did?”
Titania’s brow furrowed slightly in puzzlement. For now, Titania could understand well enough what the situation was.
The culprit the great witch had come looking for was that woman right before her. She didn’t know what incident she had caused, but it seemed clear that she had done something bad.
That was why Titania could not help but find it strange. Why was Mother trying to hide this culprit the great witch had come to find?
As Titania pondered deeply, Snow White, who had been looking at Titania’s wrinkled expression, widened her eyes as if she had realized something.
‘No way. Is that child jealous because that woman hid me?’
Snow White let out a hollow laugh in disbelief.
She wanted to think that couldn’t be it, but the emotion Titania was clearly pouring toward her was jealousy, no matter who saw it. Telling her not to call her mother by name, or that wrinkled expression upon seeing her help someone other than herself.
Once Snow White became certain that the emotion Titania was directing at her was jealousy, irritation surged all the way to the top of her head.
She simply did not want to see Titania, with the exact same face as hers, looking as if she adored Vivian so much she did not know what to do.
‘Because it makes it look like I adore Vivian so much I don’t know what to do!’
And so, Snow White decided to tease Titania for a while. She couldn’t get angry at a thirteen-year-old child, so she would have to be satisfied with teasing her. With a sly expression, Snow White looked at Titania.
“That’s right. Her Majesty the Queen said she wanted to speak with me alone. So I was waiting for Her Majesty.”
“…What did you say?”
“I thought I would have a secret conversation with Her Majesty the Queen, just the two of us… Honestly, it’s a little disappointing. I didn’t think you would come. Ah, what a shame.”
Snow White continued speaking as if mocking Titania. When she glanced at Titania through half-open eyes, Titania, whose face had flushed bright red with jealousy, glared at her as her shoulders trembled.
At first, seeing Titania so angry that her body shook made her feel better, but…
Soon, because of the actions and words that made it sound as if she liked Vivian, a hollow feeling and a terrible sense of self-loathing came over her at the same time.
Snow White sagged, lowered her head, and let out a deep sigh.
‘What on earth am I doing against a thirteen-year-old…’