Chapter 2. Thou Shalt Not Suffer a Witch to Live
Bang!
“!”
A sudden crash jolted me awake.
I recognized the sound immediately.
Someone was trying to break in.
An assassin? But I’ll die even if they leave me alone…
The thought had barely crossed my mind when a face appeared through the prison bars.
“Ah—!”
“Shh! Tyr, it’s me!”
“H-Hector!”
I nearly fainted from shock.
Hector urgently whispered,
“Quiet, Tyr. Just wait a moment.”
The sharp scrape of metal instantly told me what he was doing.
No way… He’s trying to pick the prison lock.
But then—
BOOM!
“!”
The explosion was far louder than before.
Hector’s face turned deathly pale.
Mine probably did too.
We had both come to the same conclusion.
We’d been discovered.
“…Go!”
I pleaded desperately.
“Go, Hector! They’ll catch you! Hurry, please!”
But instead of answering, he only attacked the prison door more fiercely.
The storm arrived much sooner than either of us expected.
“HEKTEIR DE ONICBLOOD!”
A booming voice echoed through the corridor.
Sharp.
Thunderous.
And disturbingly similar to Hector’s own voice.
The prison cell was suddenly flooded with light.
The iron doors swung open, and torches poured inside.
Hector’s face turned completely white.
He knew better than anyone who had just appeared behind him.
His father.
The Duke of Onicblood.
Thud!
“Argh!”
The Duke kicked his son the moment he approached.
Hector didn’t even cry out.
Instead, the scream escaped from me.
“You insane fool!”
“N-No…”
Each sickening impact made tears burst from my eyes.
“Father!”
Hector endured the blows without a sound before suddenly shouting,
“Please… just this once! I’ll do anything you ask! Anything! Please spare her! Spare Astir! Please let her live!”
Instead of running away from his father’s violence, Hector threw himself at the Duke’s legs.
The young Duke.
Vice Minister of Finance.
A prince of the Empire.
And yet…
He wasn’t negotiating.
He was begging.
“I’ll kneel if I have to. I’ll do anything! Please!”
Nothing could have torn my heart apart more than this.
Or so I thought.
“She’s the woman I love! I truly… truly love her!”
No.
There was something worse.
Hector’s desperate cry carved even deeper into my heart.
“She’s the same as Mother was to me! Father… I’m still your son, aren’t I? Then please… just this once… help her! Please—Ghk!”
His words were cut off by another brutal blow.
“You… you mad bastard…”
After punching Hector square in the stomach, the Duke staggered backward, gasping as though he himself could barely breathe.
“You’ve truly lost your mind. Not just for some common woman—but for a heretic condemned to die… you damned fool…”
His rage was so overwhelming he could hardly speak.
Even then, Hector grabbed his father again.
Breathing heavily, he said,
“Astir isn’t that kind of person… and I truly…”
He never finished.
The Duke suddenly seized him by the throat.
One hand covered Hector’s mouth while the other gripped the back of his head, pulling him close.
He whispered something into his son’s ear.
“…!”
The words died.
It was as though Hector’s soul had shattered into dust.
The Duke stood and gestured.
Only then did I notice the men who had accompanied him.
They immediately dragged Hector away.
Smack!
“Move it, you little bastard!”
And just like that…
Hector disappeared from before my eyes.
As for me—
The prison guards from the torture chamber were already waiting.
*
Hector.
His father.
The two of them had turned my mind upside down.
It felt as though they’d reached inside my skull and stirred everything into chaos.
“Talk! How did you convince the young Duke to break you out?”
“Kh…”
So I found myself bound to the torture rack once again.
For the first time…
Even the pain was secondary.
They threatened to pull out my teeth.
I barely heard them.
“And what about Master Killes? How did you seduce him?”
“…What?”
Another name.
Not Hector’s.
The name pierced straight through my soul.
“W-What… did you say? K-Killes…? W-Why…? Why him…?”
My hazy mind couldn’t process it.
It felt as though my tongue and brain had become disconnected.
As though invisible strings controlled my body like a marionette.
So you truly were a witch manipulated by demons.
“You damned bitch! Who else would know what you’ve done?!”
“K-Killes… what… what happened to him…? What did… I…”
“You little—!”
Smack!
Another slap.
“Master Killes has been imprisoned! He was caught trying something suspicious! He even tried bribing people to hand you over to him alive! He must’ve been bewitched by you too!”
“…What?”
Ah…
My mind collapsed.
Astir.
The greatest fool in the world.
I knew nothing.
I never realized that the people I had called family hated me enough to want me dead.
Nor that Hector…
Or Killes…
Loved me enough to die for me.
“Kh… gh…”
“W-What’s wrong?!”
“Hey, something’s wrong with her—”
The guards’ frantic voices faded into the distance.
Hector.
Killes.
Their names tore into my heart.
Deeper.
And deeper still.
*
Master Killes.
The Grandmaster.
Commander of an entire army.
The strongest man among all humanity.
He was now imprisoned inside the Tower.
The young Duke Hekteir, prince of the Empire and Vice Minister, was likewise confined under the strict watch of his father.
And Astir No-Name, who had already been imprisoned before them, was being interrogated once again.
This time, she stood accused of using witchcraft to manipulate the two men into attempting her escape.
But then…
Something none of them expected happened.
While being whipped,
Astir collapsed unconscious.
Cold water was immediately poured over her.
No response.
She didn’t move.
Her chest remained still.
Her lips held no breath.
Her heart had stopped.
“If the prisoner dies, we’re finished! Public outrage will explode! There’ll be riots!”
“The witch must be burned as scheduled! It was already ordered by His Holiness and His Imperial Majesty!”
The healers barely managed to restart her heart.
Arguments immediately erupted.
Some insisted they continue the torture.
Others warned that killing her now would spark chaos.
“Cough… cough…”
“Ugh. Gross.”
One healer wiped away the saliva she’d coughed onto him with visible disgust.
Every healer belonged to the Holy Temple.
They cared for the poor.
They cleaned vomit.
They handled filth every day.
They were compassionate people.
Yet none of them could hide the hatred in their eyes as they looked at Astir.
“This is wartime! The Commander and the Vice Minister both went insane! We need answers immediately!”
“And if her heart stops again, then what?!”
The Empire’s two brightest young heroes had risked everything to save a heretic witch.
Rumors had already spread.
The people were shaken.
“The young Duke is heir to the Duchy, but through his mother he’s also related to the Imperial Family! This isn’t something we can treat lightly!”
“Of course we know that! But the prisoner herself has completely lost her mind!”
Had the witch truly bewitched them?
Or was it simply reckless youthful passion?
The interrogators’ debate ended sooner than expected.
“P-Please… stop… I’ll tell you… I’ll tell you everything… I don’t know much… but…”
Perhaps after nearly dying once, the prisoner had finally become afraid.
Freshly awakened from unconsciousness,
She confessed.
Normally, black magic required beast blood, ritual circles, and sacrifices.
But when someone was truly desperate…
Those things weren’t necessary.
When she’d met the two men,
She had cast a spell asking them to rescue her.
She admitted she had successfully used dark magic on both young men.
The proud Master.
The noble young Duke.
They had merely come to see the infamous witch imprisoned beneath the capital.
“Honestly, I thought it was strange. Men like them suddenly acting crazy at the exact same time. It was like they’d switched souls. The hot-headed one started manipulating nobles from the shadows, while the refined young Duke gathered thugs and tried smashing down prison doors.”
“These really are the end times. Once you die, maybe the world will finally calm down.”
The guards grumbled as they dragged Astir back to her cell.
What a vicious woman.
She had corrupted two priceless talents.
They wanted nothing more than to beat her half to death.
But they couldn’t.
If her heart stopped again,
She might truly die.
The crowds waiting eagerly for the grand execution would erupt in fury if a corpse arrived instead of a living witch.
Thus…
Astir’s final attempt to protect the two men—by taking all the blame herself as the witch who had enchanted them—
Succeeded.
Fortunately.
“They say black magic disappears the moment the caster dies. Once she’s executed, those two gentlemen should return to their senses.”
Unfortunately…
It was the worst possible outcome for Astir.
To save the Empire’s two precious young heroes,
They decided to burn the witch sooner.
Her execution date was moved forward.
By five days.
*
“They say he’s so violent they’ve had to keep him asleep with sedatives. Apparently he’s trying to break out through the prison bars!”
“I heard the young Duke is being taken east by the Duke himself. But what will happen to Master Killes?”
“The Grandmaster has completely lost his mind. They say he foamed at the mouth like a poisoned beast, screaming, ‘Don’t touch her! Torture me instead! Torture me!'”
“Oh merciful God! How could they both be so thoroughly bewitched? The great Master… even the gentle young Duke! What terrifying sorcery!”
“That’s why they acted quickly. Once the witch dies, the spell dies with her. Without the witch, the magic loses its source. Once she’s dead, those two will finally be free. And the world will know peace again.”
The square overflowed with excitement.
At last,
The long-awaited day of execution had arrived.
The sun climbed high above,
Bright.
Hot.
As though blessing them all.
Meanwhile—
Deep beneath the earth,
Inside a prison cell untouched by sunlight,
Astir stared at the pair of eyes looking down at her through the bars.
“Hello, little sister.”
A gentle smile.
Sky-blue eyes sparkling like precious gems.
With an empty voice,
Astir quietly spoke the name of the visitor before her.
The girl who had once been her sister.
The woman who was now her greatest enemy.
“Sei…”
