Chapter 14
Why a Rainbow Appears (1)
The ability of the “Substitute Witch” is to take on the injuries and illnesses of her marriage partner and completely heal them.
It was a great power granted by God, and one that I was meant to use only for Lord Feliks.
On the other hand, a witch’s abilities were not limited to that. With training, she could also use small forms of magic according to her own wishes.
In my case, that small magic was “casting a rainbow.”
In the founding of the Kingdom of Sterling, there exists the “Rainbow Goddess.”
Because in the Chronicle of the Kingdom’s Creation, it is written as follows:
“At the beginning of the nation, the land of the kingdom was barren, and crops could not grow sufficiently.
All people suffered from hunger and sought salvation, when the goddess cast a great rainbow from one end of the sky to the other.
Thereupon, the land beneath that sky became fertile, and crops began to flourish.”
The people believed in this legend, and the Rainbow Goddess was worshipped by all.
Those born with hair matching the seven colors of the rainbow were respected as “those beloved by the goddess.”
Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet.
Those who possessed any one of these hair colors were believed to be loved by the goddess and thus more virtuous.
Furthermore, there were rare individuals born with multiple rainbow colors in their hair, and they were revered as the “Children Beloved by the Goddess,” receiving immense respect.
Among nobles, such multi-colored hair appeared only rarely—but among the royal family, it was believed that they always possessed at least two colors.
For that reason, everyone believed that royalty were those with two or more hair colors.
And yet, among such royalty, Lord Feliks was born with hair that was a single shade of indigo.
I fell in love with him when he was six years old—but from what I saw by peering into dreams, even at that time, his mother, the queen, treated him cruelly.
“There is no way the child of the king and I could have such a single-colored hair! You were switched at birth! Ah, how hideous that hair color is!”
The queen showed him no affection whatsoever, and every time she saw him, she hurled insults at the young Feliks.
And yet, despite the relentless and unreasonable words thrown at him, Lord Feliks never once talked back.
“I am sorry, Your Majesty.”
He would bow his head and wait for her rage to subside.
Afterwards, he would go to the castle’s back garden and cry alone.
At that time, Feliks was only six years old.
He must have longed for his mother—but both the queen and the king looked down on him, never offering him a single kind word.
Even so, he believed that he himself was at fault for being born with a single hair color—words that had been instilled in him since childhood by his mother—and cried, repeating:
“I wish the Rainbow Goddess had loved me more…”
“If she had, Father and Mother would have liked me…”
He repeated it like a charm.
That is why I decided—I would cast a rainbow using magic.
On Lord Feliks’s birthday, anniversaries, and other meaningful days, I would cast a rainbow over the royal palace of the Kingdom of Sterling, showing everyone that he was loved by the Rainbow Goddess.
However, contrary to my determination, it was not so simple.
Even with Feliks as the focal point, casting a rainbow over a distant country was not an easy task.
It took a full year before I could successfully use the rainbow magic.
Moreover, using this magic required a considerable cost.
The “Substitute Witch” offers her own body as payment for magic.
When taking on injuries or illness, she transfers them into her own body and heals by falling into unconscious sleep.
When using small spells, she does not lose consciousness, but her strength is drained and she collapses.
In other words, after casting a rainbow, I would suffer from a high fever for about a week, too weak to even eat.
Because of this, every time I tried to cast a rainbow, my father, mother, older brother, older sister, and cousins tried to stop me.
“Casting a rainbow is nothing more than a superstition. It may make the other person happy, but it has no real benefit. It is wrong for you to suffer because of it.”
I understood that my family was sincerely worried about me.
But unlike me, none of them could see him in dreams, so they did not understand how much he was truly suffering.
In his country, no one around him could save him.
Even if they pitied him for being blamed because of his indigo hair, even if they were angered by the injustice, no one could speak up to comfort him—because his parents were the king and queen.
So at the very least, I wanted to show him a small hope.
And I wanted him to know that he was someone very important.
With that thought, I cast rainbows over the royal palace of the Kingdom of Sterling whenever I could.
At first, the people of Sterling said, “What an incredible coincidence.”
But after the third and fourth time, they began to say, “This is surely divine will!”
Soon they surrounded Feliks excitedly, declaring:
“The Rainbow Goddess is blessing Prince Feliks!!”
And in no time at all, the entire country began calling him the “Beloved Child of the Goddess.”
The change was dramatic.
With just that, the queen came to recognize and cherish her son.
Following her lead, the king also began to show him affection.
And as his heart finally calmed, everything that had stopped growing seemed to begin moving again—his previously below-average height began to grow rapidly.
His hair color changed from one shade to two, then from two to three.
Such changes sometimes occur among those with rainbow-colored hair—but even that was praised as:
“The goddess is revealing her love through his hair color!”
And thus, Lord Feliks was celebrated.
Before long, he was appointed as the Crown Prince of the long-vacant throne.
