Chapter 87
Treat your wife better!
If he were being honest, Bilter would have loved to give Alnazir a piece of his mind for Fay’s sake. He had known her since she was just a little girl.
Unfortunately, he didn’t quite have the nerve to stand in front of Alnazir and scold him outright. In forty years as a carpenter, he’d dealt with all sorts of rough characters. Men twice his size didn’t scare him.
But Alnazir was different. Just standing face-to-face with him made Bilter instinctively want to look away.
His body still remembered the time he had playfully patted Alnazir’s back, only to be turned into stone for it. He himself had been unconscious then and didn’t even know what had happened, but the memory lingered somewhere deep in his bones.
“Just tell me quietly. Is he starving you?”
“O-oh. No.”
The idea seemed so absurd that Fay actually laughed a little—her most natural laugh all day. Satisfied at having drawn that out of her, Bilter nudged her arm with his elbow.
“If he ever does, come to my place. You know my wife’s cooking. She’ll fatten you up like a little piglet.”
“I’m eating fine. Thank you, Mr. Bilter.”
“If it’s not food, is it sleep? You not sleeping?”
“Sleep…”
For a brief moment, memories of last night flashed through Fay’s mind, and she froze.
“Fay?”
“That’s right. I didn’t sleep well last night. There’s just been a lot going on lately.”
She quickly brushed it off, insisting it wasn’t because of Alnazir.
But Bilter wasn’t fooled. He sighed softly, glancing at Alnazir as if he understood everything without needing to hear it.
“It’s not really my place to say, but… you can’t keep living with a husband who makes you miserable.”
“Mr, he’s not— I mean, he’s my invoked. Not my husband.”
“Right, right. He just looks so human I keep forgetting.”
“……”
“But you’re the first witch I’ve seen who’s so intimidated by her own invoked.”
“I-I’m not intimidated…”
She started to protest, then trailed off. After the way she’d been tense around him all morning, there was no point pretending.
In the end, she admitted it.
“Is it that obvious?”
Bilter nodded firmly. His expression showed both exasperation and unspoken sympathy.
“If he won’t listen, maybe give him a smack on the backside. Like my wife does when I come home drunk.”
It wasn’t exactly the most refined advice—but it worked. At least, after getting smacked once, he stayed sober for a good month.
“His backside…”
The idea of hitting Alnazir like that was utterly impossible. Fay shook her head. A bitter taste lingered in her mouth.
* * *
Despite the strange tension between Fay and Alnazir, life slowly returned to Aldehallow.
Virelda sent a letter to the enemy camp, informing them that the witches possessed the Emperor’s head. If they wanted it back, they were to pack up and leave at once.
“Ridiculous! How dare mere witches!”
The enemy commander fumed and refused negotiations. But he couldn’t escalate matters either. Word had already reached him that the Emperor’s head had mysteriously vanished from the palace.
If the Emperor had been dead, they could have stormed in under the banner of revenge. But with his head still alive and in enemy hands, they couldn’t act rashly.
At times like this, the Golden Army’s deep loyalty to the Emperor became a liability.
“They refuse to negotiate?”
The witches, hearing the news, displayed rare unity at the next council.
“Fine. Then let’s make an example!”
“Cut off an ear!”
“No, the nose would be better.”
“Right eye!”
“Left eye!”
The topic was grim, but the atmosphere had oddly lightened—so different from the bitter infighting before.
Virelda dismissed their more barbaric suggestions. Instead, the next day, she had Donovan deliver one of the Emperor’s front teeth to the commander.
[If you do not withdraw, the Emperor will lose something every day.]
The witches read Virelda’s letter and marveled that she had become surprisingly gentle since taking on the role of guardian.
A tooth one day. A lock of hair the next. Then an entire eyebrow.
Each day, something new arrived.
Murmurs of criticism began to spread among the enemy ranks.
“Isn’t His Majesty being tortured because the commander refuses to negotiate?”
Discussion
0 CommentsNo comments yet.