[V15C12] More Devious Than the Witch

Jolanda Roseberg was seated in a room on the second floor on the Roseberg estate, sorting through medicinal herbs.

This sort of work could be left to one of their many disciples, but Jolanda insisted on doing it herself. The ingredients of the potions she made had to be selected with the utmost care.

Jolanda was a petite elderly woman in her eighties. Her completely white hair was tied neatly behind her head, and she wore a dark green dress.

She was one of the triplet sisters of the late Sabrina Roseberg, the Third Third Witch. Currently, she was the de facto ruler of the mansion, overseeing all affairs related to House Roseberg.

——The bloodline of the Thorn Witch must go on.

This was the guiding principle of the Third Thorn Witch and her sisters. They obsessed over preserving the Thorn Witch’s blood by any means necessary.

Each of the three bore children, and those children were made to marry among themselves so that the blood of the Thorn Witch never got diluted.

On occasion, outsiders had to be brought in to prevent their mana from weakening.

This lasted until one woman rebelled against the ways of House Roseberg… Tabatha, the granddaughter of Sabrina, and the mother of Melissa and Raul.

“I’m sick of living like this. You should be satisfied as long as I have children,” she had said, before running away. A while later, she returned to deposit the newborn Melissa and promptly left again.

After another few years, she returned with the infant Raul, who apparently had the same father as Melissa. Then, she vanished for a third time.

That was the last they had seen of Tabatha.

(We granted Melissa and Raul some degree of freedom after the failure with Tabatha… But it seems that was a mistake. As I thought, children need to be disciplined.)

Melissa and Raul both bore the title of Thorn Witch. Thus, they had a duty to preserve the bloodline.

Especially Raul, who was a true prodigy inheriting the power of the First Thorn Witch. He was the culmination of House Roseberg’s greatest desire, so he needed to be given a suitably wonderful bride.

After sorting the last of the herbs and wrapping them in paper, Jolanda heard a knock at the door.

Then came the panicked voice of one of the male disciples serving the Roseberg family.

“Jolanda-sama, this is bad! Melissa-sama has been…!”

“Hurry up and get out of the way! He’s going to kill me if you keep standing there!”

“Eek, I-I’m sorry!”

“You! Open that door right now! Stop dawdling!”

“R-Right!”

The voice scolding the disciple unmistakably belonged to Melissa.

Melissa had been entrusted with ‘looking after’ their guests, so what on earth had gone wrong this time?

Jolanda sighed as she picked up her staff, which was leaning against her desk. However, she remained seated in her chair.

The disciple opened the door to reveal Melissa standing in the hallway. But it wasn’t just her.

Behind her stood a tall blonde man, restraining Melissa’s neck with his left arm as he held a knife in his right hand.

Jolanda tapped the floor with her staff and, without any change in expression, spoke calmly in her usual voice.

“What is the meaning of this ruckus, Melissa?”

“Ah, save me, Grandmother! This nasty, ill-tempered man is threatening to kill me!”

The blonde man remained quiet, simply lifting the corners of his lips into a cruel smile.

Meanwhile, Jolanda tapped the floor twice with her staff.

＊　＊　＊

Isaac noticed Melissa pressing her nails against the arm wrapped around her neck, but that was merely an act. She was passing him a message while pretending to resist.

Melissa applied a moderate amount of pressure with her right index finger and middle finger, and her left index finger.

(So in other words, two in the room on the right, and one in the room on the left. Jolanda must have tapped the floor as some sort of signal to them. Telling them to get ready to strike, perhaps.)

Meanwhile, Melissa flailed her limbs and kicked Isaac’s shin. In doing so, she also jerked her chin toward an open window with a fluttering lace curtain.

Isaac immediately understood her intention and called out to the male disciple standing at the door.

“Would you mind closing the window in the back?”

Every plant growing in this estate was potentially a limb of the Thorn Witch. He could easily imagine the roses in the garden slithering through the window to attack him.

The disciple glanced nervously back and forth between Isaac and Jolanda. But the standoff did not last long, as Melissa interrupted with a scream.

“Kyah! Ow, ow, it hurts! He’s crushing my neck…! Hurry up and close the window already!”

The disciple’s face quickly went pale, but Melissa screamed even louder to drive the point home.

“Look at this guy’s villainous mug! Those are the eyes of someone who wouldn’t think twice about torturing me to death! What are you going to do if I get killed because of you?! Well?!”

Panicking, the disciple ran to the back of the room and closed the window.

Throughout this exchange, Jolanda did not move a single muscle. She remained as still as a statue, staring at Isaac with murky green eyes under wrinkled eyelids.

The shrewd old witch was observing Isaac’s every move.

But Isaac was not going to let that rattle him. Being royalty meant living under constant scrutiny, so he had gotten used to the feeling long ago.

Isaac maintained an aura of composure as he spoke to the disciple who closed the window.

“Thank you. Now, could I ask you to leave the room? Oh, and please make sure to close the door behind you.”

“J-Jolanda-sama…”

The disciple looked to Jolanda seeking her guidance.

“Do as the young man says,” Jolanda responded, without taking her eyes off Isaac.

“U-Understood…”

The disciple exited the room, shutting the door behind him.

Meanwhile, Melissa tightened the thumb and pinky on her left hand. This signaled the presence of enemies in the hallway, and multiple of them.

Apparently, the other disciples and witches of the Roseberg family had gathered outside.

(Well, that’s within expectations.)

“Quite the ill-mannered guest we have here,” Jolanda said. “Melissa, how many times have I told you to choose your friends carefully?”

Melissa responded with a grimace of genuine disgust.

“Oh come on, Grandmother. This one’s no friend of mine. Just a stray dog that snuck into our estate. Nothing more than a mutt.”

Her wrinkled nose and voice dripping with annoyance did not come from good acting. Those were probably her honest feelings.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Lady Jolanda Roseberg. My name is Walker, and I am the disciple of the Silent Witch.”

Isaac gave a polite introduction, but his face remained chillingly cold.

“This lady attempted to add a secret ingredient to the meal I prepared for my master, so I inquired into the circumstances.”

“I’m so sorry, Grandmother!” Melissa interjected. “I followed your instructions to the letter! I did exactly as you told me! Raul and the Silent Witch were sure to be joined together! But this stupid mutt sniffed me out…!”

Melissa casually lied about following Jolanda’s orders, and she didn’t forget to assert her lack of responsibility either. Her shamelessness was as impressive as always.

“My master, Duke Erin, is indebted to the Silent Witch,” Isaac continued. “I cannot simply overlook an incident like this.”

Even the mention of Duke Erin did not cause the slightest change in Jolanda’s expression.

In all likelihood, Melissa had already told her about the ties between the Silent Witch’s disciple and Duke Erin, aka Felix Arc Ridill.

The relationship between House Roseberg and the royal family went way back.

In times of crisis, the kingdom often relied on the magical potions of House Roseberg. And in return, they allowed House Roseberg various privileges.

If possible, the royal family preferred to avoid creating any friction.

But the same was true for House Roseberg as well.

“You see, my master… Duke Erin was once served a Witch’s Love Potion by a certain young lady.”

“Geh.”

Melissa flinched and grimaced.

After all, the love potion Isaac mentioned was one that Melissa had resold for profit. It was the very reason she lost her position in the Seven Sages.

Melissa stealthily lifted her right foot and tried to stomp her heel on Isaac’s foot.

However, Isaac easily dodged by pulling his foot back.

The pointed edge of her high heels only struck the floor, failing to even graze Isaac’s shoe.

As Melissa clicked her tongue in frustration, Isaac whispered quietly into her ear.

“Practicing your dance steps, milady? I must say that it is a very original choreography.”

“Damn you, mutt…!”

Melissa ground her teeth in anger, though Jolanda remained unmoved.

“Duke Erin could easily hold House Roseberg accountable,” Isaac continued, loud enough for both to hear. “But he is generous enough to overlook this matter.”

Jolanda opened her lips slightly and replied.

“So Duke Erin asks us to withdraw our hand from the Silent Witch. Is that it?”

“I’m glad to see you understand quickly.”

“Duke Erin intends to interfere with our internal affairs such as marriage? Does he realize he is overstepping his bounds?”

Apparently, even flaunting the authority of Duke Erin and using Melissa’s crimes as leverage was not enough to faze the witches of House Roseberg. They were as stubborn as they were proud.

(Well, I expected as much.)

If he got flustered over a small setback, he wouldn’t have been able to play the perfect prince in the first place.

“Since you seem unconvinced, please allow me to present my own argument. Consider these the words of the Silent Witch’s disciple.”

“And how much weight could the words of a mere disciple possibly carry?”

With that single remark, the pressure exerted by Jolanda suddenly increased. It was as though the air had thickened, making it difficult to breathe.

The head of the most prestigious family in magecraft was telling him, “Know your place, mere disciple,” and her aura even exceeded that of the Starseer Witch.

In the world of magecraft, the master-disciple hierarchy was absolute. Young disciples were the lowest rung on the ladder.

To Jolanda, the title of “the Silent Witch’s disciple” was worth little to nothing.

Even so, Isaac did not falter.

The disciple of the Silent Witch faced the head of the most prestigious house in Ridill head-on, speaking with unwavering confidence.

“Only House Roseberg holds the recipe of the Witch’s Love Potion, but the vial used to preserve it is just as important. Without that, the potion cannot be stored.”

When Isaac got his hands on the Witch’s Love Potion, he had secretly analyzed the vial.

Of course, an apprentice mage like him could not possibly decipher or reproduce the secret technology behind the vial, which had been passed down House Roseberg for generations. But he did learn a few things.

“The vial’s ability to preserve potions comes from the glass itself and the enchanted paint used to decorate the metal lid. Both components are essential. In other words, a special process must be used during the glassmaking stage.”

While House Roseberg possessed the facilities for making magical potions, they did not have a furnace or other equipment required for glassmaking.

Thus, they had to custom-order the vials from somewhere else.

“The vials are being made in secret by a domestic glass workshop, with the Roseberg name carefully concealed. Am I wrong?”

The recent increase in glassware imports from Randall led to a decline in domestic workshops. Tracking down the vials became a lot easier when there were fewer places to look.

Storing the love potion required specially-made vials created from a unique process, so the potion would become unfeasible without a means of storage.

“If that workshop happened to be bought out…” Isaac continued. “That would be quite a problem, wouldn’t it?”

“Are you trying to threaten me?”

At Jolanda’s words, Isaac let out a small chuckle.

Jolanda frowned in displeasure, but Isaac continued shaking as he held back his laughter.

“My apologies. If you consider that a threat, then perhaps the witches of House Roseberg are no big deal after all.”

Melissa widened her eyes in shock, staring at Isaac with the silent protest of, “Why are you provoking her?!”

However, Isaac ignored her and put on an even nastier smile.

“If I truly intended to threaten you, I would want to thoroughly break your will so that there is no risk of you baring your fangs in the future. We are still at the negotiation stage, milady.”

This was a warning to Jolanda, telling her to back off before it escalates further.

“…I’ll keep that in mind,” Jolanda said, letting out a quiet sigh. “It seems the disciple of the Silent Witch is an exceptionally malicious and cunning man.”

“I’m glad to see we’ve reached an understanding.”

He had drawn those words from the great witch who thought of him as a “mere disciple”. That was good enough for now.

Isaac returned the knife to his pocket, released Melissa, and performed a graceful bow.

“Now then, if you will excuse me… Lady Sabrina Roseberg.”

The air froze over, and in the next moment, an explosive wave of killing intent erupted from the petite body of the old woman.

“Hah!?” Melissa gasped. “That’s crossing the line. Grandmother Sabrina is the deceased Third Thorn Witch! Of course Grandmother Jolanda would be pissed…!”

“My apologies.”

Isaac narrowed his blue eyes and apologized to the great witch with a wicked grin.

“Just a simple slip of the tongue, that’s all.”

He stepped into the hallway, and sure enough, several disciples were crowded around the door. However, Jolanda said, “Make way,” and they quickly cleared to the sides.

Isaac walked out of the Roseberg estate at a leisurely pace, even as he was bathed in their hostility from behind.

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