The baby in his arms twisted.

“Bwa!”

“Oh my, what’s wrong? Did the cute baby get startled?”

Watching Leah speak to the baby with a cheerful laugh, Helix somehow felt deflated.

It felt like bread dough rising in his chest suddenly collapsed.

He spoke gruffly.

“Stop laughing.”

“Huh?”

“Leah, you laugh too much.”

“What? Why are you picking a fight?”

***

After bickering with Helix, Leah went inside the house.

“I’ll call you when the mood seems right. Keep rocking the baby there.”

“Alright.”

Helix slowly walked around the yard, gently rocking the sleeping baby. It was a peaceful afternoon.

“Ahem!”

At least until someone cleared their throat from beyond the fence.

A middle-aged man was staring with wide eyes, looking back and forth between him and the baby in his arms.

“Y-you! Who are you?”

“Who are you to ask?”

The middle-aged man exploded at Helix’s words.

“Y-you! How dare you speak to me like that!”

“Weren’t you the one who spoke rudely first?”

Helix remained calm.

The middle-aged man snorted angrily.

“What a terrible fellow! You scoundrel! Why are you holding Louise’s child? What’s your relationship with that woman!”

Who was Louise?

After thinking for a moment, Helix realized.

It seemed Louise was the name of this house’s owner and the baby’s mother.

The man fumed.

“She’s barely been a widow and she’s already bringing in another man! What a loose woman!”

“Ms. Louise didn’t bring me in. I’m the one indebted to her hospitality.”

“That’s the same thing!”

“It’s different.”

Helix looked down at the man with cold eyes.

“Who are you to speak so carelessly about my benefactor?”

Gulp.

The middle-aged man, suddenly overwhelmed by Helix’s aura, swallowed hard.

This was no ordinary man.

Up close, even the build beneath his robe was imposing.

“…Tell Louise! She’ll regret this!”

The man shouted venomously before running away.

Helix watched his pathetic retreating figure.

“What was that about?”

***

“He’s a creep who’s after my sister.”

At the girl’s words, her sister Louise was startled.

“How can you say such things!”

“It’s true though.”

“What will the villagers say if they hear? They’ll think we’re strange women.”

Leah, who had been listening, cut in.

“I guess that creep is someone important in the village?”

“That’s right.”

The girl sighed deeply and explained.

The middle-aged man who was after her sister was the village priest.

“…The priest?”

“They say there’s no teaching in their order that forbids priests from taking women. It’s terrifying. Even the village chief can’t go against him.”

This village was so remote it was practically isolated from the outside world.

That’s why the temple was responsible for the villagers’ faith and education, as well as handling communications with the outside.

The priest was essentially the village elite and power holder.

“You have no idea how much he pretends to be worldly and wise in front of others. But with us…”

The girl sniffled sadly.

They had been making a living gathering herbs and making medicine and ointments, but ever since her brother-in-law suddenly died, the priest started coming around saying he needed ointments for patients at the temple.

His intentions were obvious, but the sisters couldn’t tell him to stop coming.

If Louise was even slightly cold to him, the priest would spread false rumors among the villagers.

“Something similar happened before.”

A village shepherd had cursed at the priest while drunk, and suffered from malicious rumors for months. In the end, that family had to flee the village.

The girl said, “I didn’t realize it then, but I think the priest was behind those rumors too.”

They had no choice but to endure, afraid they would meet the same fate if they openly refused him.

Once the priest confirmed the sisters had no one to rely on, he started openly pursuing Louise.

“Hmm.”

Helix stroked his chin troubledly.

“So that’s why he misunderstood about Ms. Louise and me?”

Leah burst out angrily.

“Who is he to misunderstand? Why is he making such a fuss when there’s nothing between them?”

“Well, if he were the type to know his place, he wouldn’t have harbored such desires in the first place.”

Helix hit the nail on the head.

That’s true. Leah nodded and looked at the sisters.

It was just a verbal threat from the village priest, but both of them were visibly anxious.

“He said he’ll make us pay. Sister, what do we do? They say he said the same thing right after Gibson insulted him…”

The girl’s voice trembled.

“How can we live in this small village with such rumors?”

Just what kind of rumors did he spread last time to make them this afraid?

‘Well, the lower the person, the lower their methods.’

He felt very uneasy about seemingly complicating his benefactor’s situation.

After thinking it over, Leah made an offer to the two sisters.

“Would you two like to come with me?”

“What?”

***

Meanwhile, Prince Patrick’s subjugation force, who had been eliminating monsters in the north.

They were looking for a place to stay after a grueling day.

“We should reach Helkan in about another day.”

Prince Patrick nodded at the guide’s words.

“Then shall we camp here tonight?”

“Your Highness, there’s a small village nearby. Though humble, it would be better than sleeping outdoors. How about staying there tonight?”

The prince looked around at his knights.

Only Ruyan Piert was still energetic, while the rest of the knights were grimy and spiritually chanting ‘Beer! Roasted meat! Beer!’

It would be a disaster if he suggested camping here!

“…Let’s notify the village and stay there. But is there really a village in these mountains?”

“Yes. It’s a mountain village that makes its living through herb gathering and hunting. It’s small but peaceful, my hometown… Uwaaagh!”

The guide who was looking toward the village suddenly screamed.

Clang!

Ruyan instantly blocked in front of the prince with his shield and asked.

“What’s wrong!”

The tip of his drawn sword pointed precisely at the guide’s throat.

The guide spoke while trembling.

“F-fire! There’s a fire!”

***

After seeing Helix at Louise’s house, the priest gathered the villagers and rushed to the village chief’s house.

“Chief, in the name of God, we must eliminate the witch!”

“W-witch?”

The village chief’s eyes widened as he asked back.

“Are you saying there’s a witch in our village?”

“Yes! Without a doubt!”

The priest spoke emphatically.

“That witch is the reason monsters have been rampaging near the village lately!”

Not just the chief, but all the gathered villagers’ expressions turned serious.

Lately, monster cries had often been heard around the village.

Even a village hunter nearly died after being attacked by a monster while in the mountains.

To think those monsters were because of a witch!

Noticing the suddenly tense and unsettled atmosphere, the priest inwardly smiled and lowered his voice.

“Those sisters living right below the mountain… especially the older one must be behind this.”

“Louise? Are you saying Louise is a witch?”

“Shh.”

The priest whispered lowly as if telling a secret.

“If we keep saying the witch’s name, the monsters might respond.”

Unlike the people who fell silent in fear, the village chief asked again.

“Is Lou… is she really a witch? Priest, I watched her grow up in this village. She’s not that kind of person.”

At the village chief’s sincere words, several villagers nodded in agreement.

Tsk.

The priest clicked his tongue loudly for all to hear and looked around at the chief and villagers.

“Then why would monsters that were quiet until now suddenly rampage and target the village?”

“W-well that…”

“Didn’t that witch lose her husband this summer?”

It was a completely unrelated coincidence.

Louise’s husband died in a sudden accident.

Everyone in the village knew about it, but when the priest spoke this way, something felt strange.

“That witch revealed her true colors when she killed her husband.”

The priest whispered, adding fuel to the rising suspicions.

“And then she started luring in men and monsters.”

“N-no way!”

“I thought it was strange how pretty she was for a country woman!”

“What should we do, Priest?”

The priest spoke solemnly.

“Light a big fire in the village square immediately. We must burn that witch at the stake!”

***

A fire blazed in the village square.

“You witch!”

“Evil creature!”

Louise, dragged by the village men, was thrown down in front of the fire.

She cried out in terror.

“Why are you doing this!”

The priest who orchestrated this looked down at Louise and swallowed.

Her pretty face with disheveled hair and tear-filled eyes, and the fair thighs visible through her torn skirt that had ridden up…

‘I was fooled.’

He had mistakenly thought she was an innocent widow, not knowing she used such a face and body to lure men.

He felt like a fool for trying so hard to win her over properly.

‘A loose woman like you deserves punishment!’

The priest spoke with feigned solemnity.

“Witch, do you understand your crimes?”

“Crimes? I swear to heaven I’ve committed no crimes!”

The villagers stirred at Louise’s plea.

Even to them, she didn’t seem like the type to be a witch.

The priest read the mood and shouted loudly.

“Silence! God knows everything!”

The villagers fell quiet at the mention of God.

The priest seized the moment and pressed on.

“Witch, you’ve been using your pretty looks as bait to seduce men, haven’t you?”

“What? No!”

Ignoring Louise’s cry of injustice, the priest heaped various crimes on her.

It was suspicious from the start for a young woman to live near the mountains making medicine.

What did she do with those medicines that made her perfectly healthy husband die and monsters come down from the mountains?

Her pretty looks must have come from forbidden medicines or dark arts.

The villagers who had been uncertain and whispering at first were gradually convinced by the priest’s words.

The priest shouted with bulging veins.

“If we let this witch be, monsters will keep coming! She’ll suck the life force from the village men sacrificed to those monsters, and the witch will become prettier and younger!”