She Is Not a Witch

“Chelsea, put Eileen down too… cough cough.” Another fit of coughing up blood followed.

Loranhil slowly walked around the side of the rock.

Angus was leaning against the stone wall, covered in blood, holding his daughter Eileen in his arms. Unfortunately, the once lively girl now had no heartbeat.

“Who’s there!” A maid in a black dress and apron looked nervously at Loranhil, holding a thin sword in her hand.

“Don’t be nervous. I don’t think this young lady is here to kill me,” Angus said, looking up and recognizing the girl he had met earlier at ‘Flowers of Summer Leaves’. He relaxed and lowered his head again, gazing at his daughter who had fallen into eternal sleep.

Eileen had a dark red bloodstain on her chest, clearly killed by a sword thrust through her heart.

It really was a revenge killing, Loranhil thought, then took out three [Blood Activation Potions] and tossed them over.

“Drink these. They’ll help with your injuries.”

The butler and head maid looked confused, but Angus didn’t hesitate, grabbing the potions and gulping them down.

Soon, color returned to his face, and his coughing lessened considerably.

“Thank you,” he said, his voice still hoarse.

“It’s nothing. I just saw the terrible scene on the road and came to check the situation,” Loranhil said, looking at this father who had just lost his daughter with some sympathy, but preparing to turn and leave.

“Could you wait a moment, kind miss?” Angus coughed up another mouthful of blood.

“What is it?” the girl asked, turning back curiously.

“Are you going to Vegar?”

“Yes.”

“What for?”

“To make some money.”

“I’d like to propose a deal to you.”

“Hmm!?”

Angus covered his blood-coughing mouth with a handkerchief, his right hand trembling as he took out a seal from his bosom.

“I’d like to ask for your help,” he said, enunciating each word.

Loranhil looked at this middle-aged man covered in blood, his temples slightly graying, calluses on his hands, his deep blue eyes fixed on her, filled with regret and unwillingness to give up.

The girl was silent for a moment, then spoke, “What kind of help?”

“The person I’ve wronged most in my life is my wife. She passed away early, leaving behind only one daughter. And now I couldn’t even protect this only child.”

“I wasn’t a good husband. During my years of traveling for business, I had a relationship with another woman after getting drunk one time. She bore me a child, who is just over 10 years old now.”

“I’m not sure if my enemies know about the existence of this mother and child, but I can’t take that risk. So I want to ask you to take care of them.”

“Why me? Don’t you still have loyal subordinates?”

“Yes, I have no doubt about Ceres and Chelsea’s loyalty, but when the nest falls, how can the eggs remain unbroken? If both I and my only known heir are dead, the Carithes Merchant Association will quickly fall apart, devoured by others.”

“Without the protection and power of the association, those hidden opponents will become even more unscrupulous. At that time, a few loyal subordinates alone won’t be able to resist.”

“So what do you want?”

“I want to ask you to impersonate my daughter, and I’ll transfer all ownership of the association to you. I only ask that you protect my only child and his mother, allowing them to live peacefully.”

The butler and head maid watched this sudden turn of events with surprise but didn’t dare to speak.

“But I don’t look like your daughter. Others won’t believe it, and I’m not familiar with Vegar. It would be easy to give myself away.”

Loranhil carefully observed Angus’s physical condition again. Although the Blood Activation Potion had temporarily replenished his blood and healed most of his wounds, his lungs were ruptured with blood foam clogging them. He wouldn’t last the night, even if Loranhil intervened. Angus wasn’t a supernatural being, and his constitution was too weak for even good healing spells or potions to be effective.

“I’ve been raising my daughter in the Western Wind Kingdom. No one in Vegar has seen her; they’ve only heard me talk about her. As long as you have my handwritten and sealed will and tokens, along with Chelsea and Ceres to vouch for you, no one will be able to question you.”

“Not being familiar with Vegar doesn’t matter. Ceres and Chelsea will inform you about the situation there. Besides, my daughter wasn’t familiar with that place either, so it won’t arouse suspicion.”

Loranhil was silent for a moment before slowly speaking.

“…Although it might be impolite, won’t this really arouse suspicion?”

The girl slowly removed her hood, and the three people opposite her were momentarily stunned. Silver hair like silk slid out from under the hood, skin like white porcelain, moist lips, a slightly upturned nose, and those breathtaking eyes like red crystals! She was even more beautiful than the goddesses described in poems. The visual impact of her silver hair and scarlet eyes was so great that the three unconsciously held their breath, afraid to break this dreamlike crystal scene.

Seeing the shocked expressions of the three, the girl sighed softly and put her hood back on, allowing them to regain their composure.

Since waking from her slumber, her appearance had become increasingly captivating, perhaps due to some change in her aura or the enhancement of certain talents, to the point where even she found it somewhat troublesome. Being beautiful was a good thing, but being too exquisite could bring unnecessary complications.

Angus, who had been somewhat doubtful before, now felt completely at ease. No wonder this young lady concealed her appearance.

“I was presumptuous,” Angus apologized for his earlier rudeness.

“I will transfer all my shares in the association to you. I only ask that you protect that mother and child until the child can establish himself.”

“The Carithes Merchant Association is quite well-known in Vegar. I own 60% of its shares. This compensation won’t disappoint you.”

“…Alright, I agree.”

If not for her ongoing mission, Loranhil wouldn’t have wanted to wade into these troubled waters. Earning money without supernatural means, merely as an ordinary person, was troublesome but not an insurmountable problem for her. Once she accumulated some initial capital, using marketing strategies from her memory to outmaneuver the still-primitive commercial environment wouldn’t be difficult. But since someone was offering her a pillow while she was sleepy, she didn’t want to deliberately avoid the shortcut and take the long way around.

Hearing the girl’s agreement, Angus finally relaxed and had Ceres take out a contract paper for him to write his will.

The contract paper was a special anti-counterfeiting paper. Once written, it would automatically solidify when a special incantation was activated, making it impossible to modify.

After writing, Angus pressed his handprint and personal seal on it, then dripped some blood on top. He recited a short incantation, and finally, the contract paper emitted a faint glow, with the bloodstains permeating and solidifying to form the pattern of a night-blooming cereus.

“Take my butler and head maid with you, along with this will, and you can prove without flaw that you are my heir, thus acquiring all my property.”

Loranhil took the will, then picked up the pen, preparing to sign her name.

“Should I sign my own name or your daughter’s name?”

“Either is fine. As long as you write it, and the contract reacts, it will work.”

“Alright.” Then the girl wrote down a name, neither Eileen nor Loranhil. She didn’t want to be someone else, but she also didn’t want this matter to affect her life after it was over, so she wrote down another fictional name: Lacey.