Chapter 14: 010. Imperial Prince is Hunting a Witch -3 (Part Two)
This boy Prince, what was he even saying? He knew of her real age? But how…?
“Also, her name’s not Morian or whatever. Was it Morgana? I heard that she showed up in the village three months ago. She must’ve been preparing to start this horsesh*t ever since then. What a scary b*tch she is. As expected of a cowardly and cheap as*hole though.”
Morian’s eyes grew cold right away. He even knew her real name.
The villagers formed flabbergasted expressions. But that was understandable–she worked as a pharmacist in the village and saved quite a lot of villagers in the process.
So, between a pharmacist and the mangnani Imperial Prince, who would you trust more?
It was obvious that the villagers would find the Prince insane.
“Your highness, could you please explain what you mean…?”
The Imperial Prince pointed at Morian and spoke, “To put it simply, that b*tch is the Necromancer.”
With this one announcement, the whole cave fell into silence.
The villagers stared at Morian with hardened expressions on their faces. Even Gril sneakily distanced himself away from her as cold sweat trickled down his face.
Such a scene left Morian utterly flustered.
‘Uh? What’s this?! They actually believe the words of a crazy prince?’
Such a thing couldn’t happen though.
She worked so hard for the village’s sake until now, and yet they trusted her even less than the mangnani prince?!
Morian hurriedly shouted out, “That’s not true! That’s not possible… I’ve been kidnapped by the zombies…!”
“Isn’t that weird, though? It’s not like they were trying to mature a bottle of wine or something, so why did they kidnap a woman and let her live?”
“T-that’s because I’m the bait…”
“There’s no need to keep you alive in that case. I mean, you already served your purpose when people saw you get kidnapped alive, right? There’s no way a Necromancer would keep a bait alive when it could potentially escape and become an annoyance later.”
“T-that’s because the evil magician was using me as a hostage…!”
“In that case, there should be someone else besides you here, no?”
“…”
Morian finally shut her mouth up.
Cold sweat drops traveled down her cheek and pooled on the tip of her chin. Her trembling eyes quickly scanned the surroundings.
Even the villagers that initially believed in her innocence were distancing themselves away from her. Why? Because they definitely hadn’t run into anyone resembling a Necromancer during their journey through the cave.
The only person they met was Morian here, waiting for them.
She hurriedly shook her head and stepped back.
“No, it’s not true! I’m not lying…! This is a trap! A trap laid out by that evil magician! Why… why don’t you believe me… Sob…”
She covered her face with both of her hands and began sobbing away. The villagers saw this and exchanged sympathetic glances with each other.
Could they have made a mistake?
Such thoughts entered the villagers’ heads. However, they had to change their minds the moment the Imperial Prince said these following words.
“You idiots, are you all wild animals or something? Don’t listen to your base instincts and use your heads a bit more. You actually believe what she’s saying in this situation?” The Prince harshly criticized them before shifting his gaze over to Gril. “Hey, Gril. Do you still have any holy water with you?”
“Do you mean your holy water? Yes, sir. I still have some left.”
The farmer nodded his head as he pulled out a vial of holy water from his inner pocket. The Imperial Prince snatched it away and tossed it to Morian. She hesitantly caught the vial, looking quite confused.
“Drink it. It’s holy water.”
Morian shut her mouth up. Just taking one look at the holy water caused her to involuntarily cover her nose. Even though the vial’s cap was securely shut, the stench wafting out from it was truly extraordinary.
This couldn’t have been any ol’ regular holy water. No, it must’ve been created by a high-ranking Priest praying for several days and nights straight. Indeed, it was an incredibly dangerous ‘poison’ to a Necromancer who contained a sizable amount of demonic energy.
“You’re injured all over too. You were probably tortured by the cowardly Necromancer, riiight? Drinking that should fix you up right away. However, if you’re actually that very Necromancer…”
…The moment she ingested this liquid, her innards would start incinerating.
Morian took a look around her.
The gazes of the villagers were now focused on her. If she didn’t drink this holy water right now, things would become very bad for her pretty quickly.
She lowered her gaze and stared at the vial with trembling hands, after taking the lid off, the stench stung her nostrils.
Just where did that unhinged fool of an Imperial Prince get himself such powerful holy water?!
She now could tell that the liquid was imbued with an otherworldly amount of divinity. She then abruptly realized that the divine power used within the cave couldn’t have come from an ordinary Priest too.
This bastard of an Imperial Prince, something about him had changed three months ago.
“Ah, well, I…”
She deliberately loosened her grip.
Clang! Smash…!
The vial of holy water oh-so naturally slipped out of her grasp and shattered on the floor. Morian feigned shock and shouted out, “Oh no! I… I was too tense and lost my grip…!”
“There’s no need to fret.”
The Imperial Prince glanced at Gril once more. The farmer hesitantly looked around and pulled out three more vials of holy water. He had enough spares on hand, in other words.
This sight caused Morian’s complexion to considerably darken. Her eyes trembled greatly, agitation clearly written in them.
‘You son of a b*tch of an Imperial Prince!’
She gritted her teeth.
This was a complete unexpected turn of events. She was supposed to ‘assassinate’ the exiled prince, but had now found herself in danger instead.
In order to dispel the villagers’ suspicions, she behaved like a saint and worked as a pharmacist for the past three months, but everything had gone down the drain in one moment, just like that.
It was almost time for the ‘Tide of Death’ to rise up from the Land of the Dead Spirits. The Holy Imperial Family wouldn’t have enough leeway to investigate the death of the Prince, in simple terms. She planned this event to coincide with that very moment, but now, things had become tangled up beyond repair.
Morian’s eyes slowly shifted over to the wall behind the Imperial Prince. This was where the only exit of this cave could be found.
Her gaze then gradually lowered to the floor.
The glass vial that used to contain the holy water had shattered into several sharp pieces. Although there were traces of holy water on them, if she roused up all of her demonic energy and dyed them with her blood, she was confident of changing their nature.
Her previously terror-filled expression suddenly crumbled away. The corners of her lips curled up, and with madness-filled eyes, she glared at the prince. “…You stinking Imperial Prince dog.”
Was it because of those words? The villagers immediately pounced on her.
“C-catch her!”
Unfortunately for them, though, the first one to make a move was Morian.
She quickly picked up a glass piece from the floor. Her skin burned away from the holy water.
She quickly injected her demonic energy in the glass and pounced at the Imperial Prince. Blood oozed out from her hands, and she quickly scattered it all around the boy.
As the blood dyed the floor, she quickly recited the spell in her head. It was a Necromancy spell, one designed to summon an undead stained by eternal resentment.
Demonic energy rapidly escaped from her body. Her once-firm skin instantly shriveled up to form countless wrinkles.
Her stamina also quickly abandoned her and even the remaining vitality left her body in droves. As her reserve of demonic energy was consumed in haste, she aged at a visible rate.
Morian sensed her body growing heavier.
She knew she’d have to work hard for a while after growing old again, but it’d be fine–she only had to steal the lifeforce from another living person after all. She might not get to extend her life, but at the very least, she should be able to maintain her youthful looks.
A magic circle was drawn in the blink of an eye around the Imperial Prince. A large Runic character suddenly appeared, then the earth overturned to reveal bleached-white bones.
“Your highness-!!”
“Oh my god…!”
“Save the prince!”
The villagers stopped trying to arrest Morian and instead, tried to rescue the boy prince. However, it was already too late. The skeleton grabbed onto the prince’s hand and leg.
She wasn’t able to use the proper summoning magic, so only the upper torso had been summoned to capture the prince. Despite this, it was already more than enough.
Morian extended her hand. She aimed the bloodied glass piece at the boy’s neck, and then…!
BANG-!!
The Imperial Prince instantly crushed the summoned skeleton with his shovel. As the monster’s bones shattered and flew apart, the boy bent down and spun around to swing the shovel, as if to borrow the momentum from the centrifugal force.
The blade of the shovel accurately flew towards Morian’s head.
‘You insane bastard!?’
There wasn’t a shred of hesitation in his actions. If she got hit by the shovel, half of her head would be split apart by the blade and she’d die.
‘Don’t make me laugh! Do you think I’d get killed that easily?’
Morian gritted her teeth.
She was an ‘assassin’ after all.
Starting from a young age, she learned Necromancy, hand-to-hand combat, as well as assassination techniques from the ‘Black Order’.
This level of attack from the young boy was nothing to her. She simply ducked her head lower and dodged the shovel.
It was finally done. The Prince was now exposed after making such a huge move. If she went in right now and cut the boy’s neck before making her escape…!
It was then.
Something approached Morian from her side with frightening speed. A set of slender-looking fingers suddenly grabbed her hair as well as her scalp. Pain accompanied her senses soon after.
The unexplainable oppressive pressure caused Morian to look towards her side. A girl with platinum-white hair was glaring at her with a pair of goosebump-inducing red eyes.
“Huh…??”
The girl held Morian’s head in her grip and slammed it down hard on the ground.
< 010. Imperial Prince is Hunting a Witch -3 (Part One and Two) > Fin.
