Chapter 10: Chapter 10

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“Baron, this is just too much!”

They couldn’t even enter the mansion, and the faces of the people who rushed into the garden were all angry. At the forefront of those people was the butcher.

“Come on, everyone, calm down.”

The Baron, with a slightly perplexed expression, raised one hand and waved it down, as if he could calm people’s anger.

“Really, I can’t live because I’m anxious about that witch.”

Hearing the butcher’s dissatisfied voice, the Baron let out a small sigh.

He figured that was the problem. Otherwise, given the strict social order, there was no reason for the common people to dare come to his mansion like this.

If it was enough that he dared to complain to the Baron and say threatening words, it could only be about the witch.

“Yesterday?”

“Yes! And also, this morning…”

The man paused for a moment. The man, who seemed to hesitate for a moment, looked at the Baron with a determined expression.

“It didn’t stand.”

“What?”

“Isn’t it normal that the man’s thing would stand up in the morning!? But I… Today it… was meekly down.”

Due to his pride getting hurt, the man’s face was flushed.

“So, what you’re saying…”

The Baron’s gaze naturally fell down between the man’s legs. The Baron who naturally imagined what was in his pants, showed a frowning expression as his stomach churned at the image.

“If it won’t stand up forever, I will!”

The butcher was sobbing and was unable to speak. It was the most terrifying ending for a man. The Baron also clicked his tongue and shook his head. It was because he sympathized with his predicament as a man himself.

“Originally, I was a formidable man. My wife, Marie, said that she goes back and forth between hell and heaven thanks to me.”

By the way, his wife never said that.

“But this morning, this formidable thing was modestly lying down like a newlywed bride.”

To add to that, the man’s thing has never been formidable, and the reason why it was docile this morning was because he had been trembling all day thinking about the curse Layla had spoken of yesterday.

In other words, it was just a physical phenomenon that he created psychologically because he was trembling in fear of Layla’s curse.

“Really, even though she’s the Baron’s daughter! We are really anxious and we cannot live like this any longer.”

“As you have said, she’s my daughter. I’m listening to your pleas now, but you’re not in a position to argue about a noble family’s daughter!”

“But… but isn’t she a witch!”

Baron bit his lips at the man’s point. Whatever the Baron does, the witch continues to haunt him.

Although he tried to enter the capital by bribing a powerful noble in the capital, who was famous for being a corrupt official, he was rejected under the premise that he could not help a noble whose daughter was rumored to be a witch.

Even if he tried to buy the mining rights of a mountain of the lord he plays with in the neighboring estate, he was rejected at once, saying that the Baron could not bring a witch into his own estate, or that the witch might come and live there.

That’s not all, after hearing the rumor that there was a stinky witch, the people who worked in the mansion stopped one after another, and in the end, they had to pay twice the wages servants normally received in a noble’s mansion before they could hire people.

Even after sending Layla out to the cabin in the forest, he had to listen to the complaints of occasional visitors.

‘What kind of sin did I commit in my previous life for things to be like this!’

The baron internally resented himself in his previous life and clicked his tongue.

“Didn’t you ask me ten years ago to send the child out of the mansion and into the forest?”

“But doesn’t she come out of the forest!?”

It was a tedious repetition. It was a debate, not a discussion, that he had repeatedly shared with people for the past 10 years.

There was no conclusion.

“If that witch won’t go somewhere else, we have no choice but to move.”

The butcher said with a firm expression, as if he had made a big decision. The Baron’s expression hardened upon hearing those words.

“I don’t think permanent residents could move freely though?”

“We all figured it out. It is said that it is possible if there are unavoidable circumstances, and the lord of the area where you want to move gives permission. Besides, it is said that there is a way to make a petition directly to the imperial palace.”

“Are you threatening me right now?”

The departure of the tax paying common people meant that the money that was supposed to go into the Baron’s pocket would go to another lord’s pocket.

For Baron Valencia, who lived off their taxes, their move was enough of a threat.

When he thought that the common people dared to threaten a noble such as himself, as well as the lord of the land, he frowned and glared at the crowd.

It was all Layla’s fault. He would not have been subjected to humiliation by these lowly things if she had not been a witch.

“What do you mean threatening the Baron?! There is no such thing.”

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The man said hurriedly, waving his hand.

Although he said he would move as a last resort, he had no intention of abandoning his shop and moving. Besides, he didn’t even have the guts to make threats against a noble.

“If not, what could your words mean other than threatening?”

“That is to say, this umm… That.”

“That’s not it, we are just that desperate. Because of that witch, I was so anxious that I could hardly stretch out my legs and live. So much so that we can not live under the same sky.”

When the butcher hesitated, a man in the back interrupted. The Baron’s eyes widened and he turned to that man.

“Then tell me what the hell am I supposed to do now!”

Baron Valencia couldn’t stand it anymore and got angry.

He was annoyed with the people who dared to come to him and make these requests and with Layla, who caused this kind of problem.

She’ll be stuck in the forest until her last breath, so why the hell did she crawl out and cause this problem?

He provided her with a house to live in, brought her food she needed, provided her with everything that she required, and all he asked her to do was to simply not leave the forest.

God was indifferent. Why was his nice and good-hearted self given such a trial?

“That’s why, Baron. We are asking you to do something about that witch.”

“How should I take care of her then?”

“Somehow.”

“As I was saying, how?! What more do you want me to do here?”

Honestly, the other parties knew each other’s demands, how and what.

Witch hunting, witch trials, and burning. Such things.

However, the baron couldn’t bring it up because the subject was his daughter. the common people couldn’t bring it up first because the subject was the daughter of a noble.

If one party spoke up first, the other party would have no choice but to accept the matter. However, both of them just didn’t have the courage to speak up first.

“Everyone.”

While the baron and the people were arguing, a delicate voice intervened from somewhere.

As the crowd turned their heads, Ariadne stood there with a sad expression on her face.

“I’m really sorry…”

Ariadne said with an expression on her face that seemed like she would drop a tear any second now.

“As a member of the Baron Valencia family, I would like to apologize to all of you for causing such trouble because of my sister.”

“Y-young Lady!”

“Ariadne!”

The end of Ariadne’s speech as well as her action were enough to astonish the crowd standing there. Even her father, Baron Valencia.

She, a noble young lady, bowed her head down to the common people.

“We are also doing our best.”

Ariadne raised her head and looked even more like she was about to cry. Her eyes were already red and bloodshot.

With the appearance of the noble lady who even bowed her head to the angry common people, asking for understanding, the crowd’s anger subsided like they were struck by a bullet.

“We are supporting our sister so she will stay in the forest, but it’s difficult for us to control her sudden behaviour from time to time. So we would appreciate it if you, the good people, with your generosity could understand us a little.”

“No, but…”

The butcher’s head lowered. It wasn’t sure if he was looking down because he wanted to look at his thing that may or may not stand up in the future anymore, or because he couldn’t bear to look at the face of the pitiful noble lady.

“If everyone feels anxious about it, we will think about other solutions to resolve this. I fully understand everyone’s opinion, so can everyone go back for today?”

When Ariadne, who had her hands neatly clasped with her pitiful eyes, spoke earnestly, the people glanced at each other and exclaimed.

“T-then, since the lady has said so, we will just go back for today. But, I hope that you can do something about that witch.”

Those who were hesitating, turned their foot around at the butcher’s words. The people who came to the Baron’s mansion because of his daughter, returned because they felt bad for the other daughter.

They thought that she was truly pitiful for having a witch as her older sister, and such a beautiful noble lady had to bow her head to commoners such as them.

But there was one thing they didn’t know.

In fact, each time they took a step further away from the noble lady, the sorrow in her eyes also faded.

And when they finally left the mansion, Ariadne’s expression was not sad, but annoyed.

“How can things be like this?”

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Ariadne, who reproached her father with a fierce look on her eyes, showed a face filled with reprimand. Also, her sharp voice right then was impeccably different from the voice she used earlier.

And that was Ariadne’s true self.

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