33. Lady Ygret’s Secret (3)

“Aaargh!”

Rrrip. As the gold coin pouch opened, gold glittered. Lady Ygret’s skin turned red and blistered where the gold coins touched her, as if burned.

“My skin! My skin!”

‘Thank goodness I brought a few of Grand Duke Inkheart’s gold coins as souvenirs.’

The magical gold coins that greedy people could never grasp actually burned evil people.

“Kak, kak! Sylph!”

“Damn woman, I won’t let you die peacefully!”

Lady Ygret growled at the ugly red marks on her body. However, she seemed to sense the Sylph I had summoned and stepped back with a start.

“A spirit master?”

Magic power and spirit power didn’t have good compatibility.

‘I’ve called it, but I don’t know what command to give!’

“Hmph, it’s just a mere breeze anyway.”

Seeing my hesitation, Lady Ygret snorted and resumed her attack stance. I shouted desperately.

“Sylph, make that woman back off!”

It worked!

Lady Ygret’s magic power dissipated when the Sylph body-slammed her as she was gathering power at her fingertips with her staff.

“Ugh! That’s just annoying! Such petty tricks!”

I quickly had Sylph disrupt her magic again, but as the attacks repeated, Lady Ygret seemed to grow accustomed and dodged.

“I’ll kill you myself and feed your blood to my monster!”

Oh no!

While I was focused on Lady Ygret, her monster had circled behind and was pouncing on me. Sylph was still occupied with Lady Ygret.

‘I’ll die at this rate!’

Just as I tightly closed my eyes before the monster with its gaping mouth—

“Anette!”

Darius appeared in my sight as the door shattered.

‘Darius!’

I had no time to call out.

“Get down!”

Without hesitation, Darius threw an axe past me.

Whooosh. The large axe flew menacingly and embedded itself in the monster’s body.

“Why an axe?”

“Is that really important right now?”

Darius shouted incredulously as he struggled to clear away the broken door fragments. The half-shattered door was still difficult for Darius to pass through.

“Tch, so the lord has arrived……”

Lady Ygret, who had been gaining the upper hand, clicked her tongue softly. Indeed, even Lady Ygret with her monster seemed to find Darius a formidable opponent.

Surprisingly, Lady Ygret displayed remarkable acting skills the next moment.

“Your Highness, thank goodness you’ve arrived. Oh my, a frightening monster appeared and gave the Madam and me such a fright!”

Lady Ygret staggered toward Darius as if she were truly someone startled by a suddenly appearing monster.

The mirror rattled in my pocket. The pair of hand mirrors I had retrieved from Grand Duke Inkheart’s treasure vault could show the face from one mirror through the other.

I never imagined the mirror I had intended to use to expose Lady Ygret’s embezzlement would be used like this.

“Step back, Anette.”

Having clearly seen through the mirror Lady Ygret suddenly attacking me, Darius exuded a fierce aura toward her.

“Th-that’s not right! Don’t scold me just because you believe Anette’s strange words! The strange one is Anette! Yes, Anette is truly suspicious!”

“Nonsense!”

To stop further nonsense and to attack Lady Ygret, I threw Grand Duke Inkheart’s gold coin at her.

Immediately, the gold coin dug into Lady Ygret’s flesh, wounding her.

“Aaaaargh!”

“No one has ever been burned like you when touching the gold coins!”

“My arm! My, my arm!”

Lady Ygret’s eyes rolled back at the ugly red marks.

“Who are you? Are you the real Lady Ygret? Or are you a being that devoured her? If you devoured her, when did it happen?”

The kind relative and head maid of Castle Inkheart I thought I knew well.

When nothing went according to her plan, Lady Ygret finally threw off her detestable mask.

“Originally I planned to just kill the girl and disappear, but I have no choice now!”

Lady Ygret actively began to attack in unison with her monster.

“When did I become a witch, you ask? What are you talking about? I’ve always been me. If it weren’t so easy to eat people, do you think I would have stayed in this wretched North?”

‘She infiltrated the North with the intention of harming people from the beginning?’

I gaped in shock at this setting that hadn’t been revealed in the original story.

Darius wasn’t excited like me. He calmly drew his sword.

“I’ll have many questions for you after I defeat you.”

“Ha, how brave of a youngster who couldn’t even notice my true identity until now!”

Poof. Magic power gathered in Ygret’s hand and shot toward Darius.

Darius swung his sword and split the magic power.

Shrriiiek!

‘A magic sword!’

When Darius’s sword mana collided with Ygret’s magic power, the two forces canceled each other out, leaving only a crackling electrical sound.

“Eek! My monster that ate my sacrifices!”

Having failed her first strike, Ygret immediately summoned her injured monster in front of her.

She raised her nails and tore at her burned arm.

“Eat my flesh and blood and lend me your power once more!”

Drip, drip.

As Ygret’s blood splashed onto the monster, it recovered from its wounds.

“Grooooar!”

“Compared to the monsters from the northern borderlands, this is nothing.”

Clang. Clash.

With clear metallic sounds, Darius sliced the monster horizontally and vertically.

The slime-type monster didn’t die even when cut into pieces. The scattered body parts reattached and wriggled, but its movements were noticeably slower.

“My monster that has eaten my blood!”

Ygret screamed and raised her staff.

‘No!’

Just as Ygret extended her staff toward Darius’s back—

“Sylph, Wind Cutter!”

A command to the spirit fell from my lips without me realizing it.

“Anette!”

Swoooosh. A refreshing wind swept through the room. It was a fresh breeze that purified the smell of blood.

And it was powerfully effective.

“Aaaaargh!”

Ygret, struck by the wind, suffered a deep injury and was slammed against the wall.

“Grooooar……”

As its summoner lost power, the monster disappeared to the other side of the demon realm with a weak cry, unable to maintain its existence.

‘I gave a command to a spirit for the first time.’

Not an abstract command like “attack that woman on your own,” but a proper attack command!

‘I just shouted any magic spell commonly used in romance fantasy novels, and I’m glad it worked……’

“Kugh.”

Gulp. Lady Ygret collapsed and coughed up black blood from the reverse summoning effect.

Even in that state, Lady Ygret didn’t give up and tried to draw another magic circle with the blood she had coughed up.

‘No!’

“Anette!”

I tried to control Sylph to subdue Lady Ygret, but surprisingly, Darius blocked me first. My wide eyes met Darius’s black ones.

“It’s dangerous.”

“We need to stop that woman!”

“Please leave such things to me and stay somewhere even slightly safer!”

What is he saying? Whoever discovers something should stop it. I was struggling to free myself from Darius’s arms, feeling frustrated by his obstruction.

“Your Highness, Madam!”

Knights arrived belatedly due to the commotion and were shocked at the sight of the destroyed room.

Even the large magic circle in the room that Lady Ygret had confidently claimed as her territory was now half-erased.

“Oh, gallant knights! I’m so relieved you’ve come.”

Seeing the knights, Lady Ygret once again schemed.

“Don’t support that woman!”

Startled by my sharp warning that differed from my usual demeanor, the knights looked to Darius, their lord. Darius nodded with a stoic face.

“Lady Ygret pointed a sword at me.”

Technically, it was the monster’s teeth that were pointed at me.

“What? Lady Ygret did?”

The knights cast doubtful glances between Lady Ygret’s frail figure and Darius, who still held his sword.

“No, everyone, this is all a misunderstanding!”

“The cute word ‘misunderstanding’ doesn’t seem to suit the crimes you’ve committed.”

I shouted.

“This woman betrayed the Grand Duke’s trust and used her position as the castle’s head maid to embezzle money. When I exposed this today, she tried to kill me to silence me.”

As I added more explanation, the knights’ faces hardened.

“No, I didn’t!”

That’s right, it’s not just that. In fact, she committed embezzlement, treason against the lord, and murder.

“Let’s go, Lady Ygret. We’ll hear the detailed explanation in prison.”

Daniel was among the gathered knights. Upon hearing that I had been threatened by Lady Ygret, Daniel concealed his usually kind face and began to escort Lady Ygret with a rigid attitude.

“I was so close! I was about to leave this wretched North! Aaargh, Anette!”

Lady Ygret, having lost her magic and wealthy life, gnashed her teeth at me.

“Indeed. I’m glad we caught you before that little time passed, before you left the North.”

I muttered, then turned to Darius with a bright smile, intending to say how fortunate it was that everything had been resolved well.

“Do you have two or three lives, wife!”

That is, until Darius clearly showed his anger toward me.

“No, even two or three wouldn’t be enough for this. With Rose, and now this! Why do you always jump into such dangerous situations?”

‘Why is he angry? In saving Rose and finding the treasure, and catching the embezzler Lady Ygret—weren’t those all done for the North’s benefit?’

“It wasn’t dangerous. Thanks to Your Highness arriving on time, I’m alive like this. And everything turned out well.”

“If I hadn’t made it in time, you would have…!”

He thumped his chest as if choked up by my response.