Usurer Marina.
She was known across the realm as the "Southern Witch"—a fearsome figure who once leveraged the colossal debt owed by Viscount Wedgwood to kidnap my entire clan and force us into servitude for a time.
Marina now stood before me, her neck and ears draped in pearls—no doubt bought with the lifeblood drained from her countless debtors—and spoke in a gravelly voice.
"So, you didn’t forget my name, huh?"
"…How
could
I forget…?"
Anyone who’d ever borrowed spirit coins from Marina would never forget her name.
Because she was the kind who would chase you all the way to the netherworld to collect.
Her violet eyes gleamed with madness as she bellowed, “When your little clan knocked my subordinates unconscious and vanished, and then left not a single spiritual trace for days on end—I figured you not only forgot my name, but also the fifty thousand gold you owed me!”
With every syllable, her wild hair thrashed like it had a soul of its own.
Just staring into those crazed, violet pupils made my divine sea tremble—I instinctively backed away.
She stepped closer, shortening the distance between us.
“Have you heard the old tale?” she rasped. “They say if you devour the heart of a red-haired maiden, your skin becomes soft and flawless…”
Ugh,
again
with this?!
Her long black claws stretched toward my chest like they meant to pierce my heart.
This was no idle threat—Marina looked
capable
of eating someone’s heart just for fun!
I shrank back, pressing myself flat against the tiled wall of the restroom, trembling as I cried out,
“I—I’ll repay you! I swear!”
“With what? Your heart?”
“Noooo!”
Please, just leave my heart alone! I probably picked up parasites from all the garbage I used to eat anyway!
“With gold! I’ll repay everything in gold!”
Panicked, I blurted out the address of our manor.
“My mother already has the money! I thought you’d go to her first, not me!”
At those words, her razor-sharp claw froze midair.
Marina tilted her head.
“So you
really
married into a rich house? Helena was always obsessed with marrying you off to some wealthy fool, and you actually landed the House of Orléans…?"
“Heh… you saw the announcement, huh…”
I inched sideways toward the sink, keeping clear of her claws.
Of course a wedding that shook the capital would reach her ears. Someone like Marina didn’t stay ignorant of anything.
Maybe it’s a miracle she waited a whole week to come for me…
I shuddered and looked at her warily.
“So yeah, I finally fulfilled my mother’s lifelong wish.”
Even if I wrecked her own wedding to do it!
Avoiding Marina’s venomous gaze—like a viper ready to strike—I mumbled,
“So then, I guess you can head back south now and keep making a fortune doing evil as always, right? After you collect your payment from my mother, of course.”
Feigning calm, I reached for the door handle.
But then—
Clunk!
A wooden stall door beside us creaked open, and this time two enormous, bald-headed men stepped out. I recognized them immediately—her underlings.
How did both of those ogres fit into one stall?!
“W-why?! I said I’d repay you!”
I yanked the door open to flee, but the witch’s hand slammed it shut.
She seized me by the collar and hissed, her purple eyes blazing.
“So she didn’t tell you, huh? Your precious mother didn’t just skip town without paying.”
“…What?”
Then what else…?
“She
stole
my secret client registry! Just to stop me from tracking her down! That cursed Helena—she dared to stab the Witch of the South in the back?!”
M-my mother did
what
?
I gasped for air as her grip tightened around my throat, frantically slapping at her wrist to loosen it.
I—I’m really going to die at this rate! Damn that wretched Helena! No wonder she boasted that Marina would never be able to track me down!
“Do you even know whose names are recorded in that ledger?! Until I’m absolutely sure it hasn’t been leaked, you’re staying with me!”
“Wha—what?! Try saying something that actually makes sense!”
I shouted, struggling to stay conscious as the air thinned around me.
“I’m married, okay?! I’m the daughter-in-law of the House of Orléans! If I go missing, they’ll come looking for me! You want that on your head, you cursed witch?!”
Marina’s grip on my collar loosened—oh, did that actually work?
I racked my brain frantically. Would my mother still have the ledger stashed away safely? She hadn’t… hidden it somewhere else, had she?
If that ledger’s gone, forget the Duke of Orléans—we’d all be corpses before Marina was done with us!
“The Duke of Orléans, huh? Of course that’s not fine.”
Marina finally looked like she’d release me—
“But you know what? I’ll just decide it’s fine anyway.”
And then she gripped me again.
“Wh-what kind of deranged confidence is that? You’re going up against a
ducal house
, woman!”
“Didn’t the news say you’re basically a discarded daughter-in-law? I wouldn’t even get a decent ransom out of this, and that ledger—if it disappears, I’ll be hunted down by my
cultivation clients
. They’ll want more than just compensation—they’ll want my head.”
This damn woman… does she have to be this cold-blooded in her calculations?!
I felt the oxygen drain from my lungs and shouted desperately.
“Then what about
our Rose
!?”
In times of crisis, there’s only one path to survival.
“Rose? Who’s Rose?”
Marina tilted her head.
Still hanging from her grip, I placed a hand gently on my belly and smiled.
“I’m carrying the future heir of the Orléans bloodline in here.”
“…?”
Ah, she must not have caught wind of that yet—she hasn’t been in the capital long.
I saw her expression freeze. Without hesitation, I sank my teeth into her wrist. Her grip loosened, and I bolted for the door.
“Aaargh!”
As Marina screamed, the bald-headed temple guardians started to approach her. She reached for the door handle, which I was already gripping, and growled:
“You wanna see your heart ripped out and sold on the black market?!”
“You can have my heart! But can you sleep soundly after killing the Orléans heir with your own hands?!”
I shouted, clutching the door handle.
At that, Marina slowly released her grip, growling:
“Fine. Let go—”
“You first, auntie.”
“Auntie?!”
“Well I can’t exactly call you
big sis
, can I?”
You look like you’ve lived a good hundred and twenty years already!
Marina’s face twisted in fury, but then she exhaled deeply. She clutched her forehead in frustration—and naturally, her hand slipped off the doorknob.
“There. I let go. So let’s negotiate. I swear, if I can just get that ledger back—”
“Negotiate my ass! Eat dirt, you hag of a witch!”
BANG!
As Marina reached for the knob again, I shoved the door hard into her.
“Aaaargh! Blood! I’m bleeding, you brat!”
But I didn’t wait to hear more. I slipped swiftly back into the theater.
“The train has broken free and emerged into the world!”
In the darkness, I found him faster than I ever thought possible.
Eric.
In a hall filled with thunderous applause, I found his presence like a spiritual beacon.
And I grabbed his hand. "What's wrong?"
"It's an emergency!"
"What kind of emergency?"
Do I look like I have time to explain?!
I urged Eric forward and tossed aside the box I had been holding. A pity, but survival came first. The moment we stepped out of the theater, a shrill voice echoed from the distant corridor near the restrooms—the voice of the witch.
"You go that way! And you, take the other side! I'll guard the entrance! If you get caught this time, I
will
rip out your heart, Imelin!"
I clutched at my chest in a panic.
Valdek tried to pierce my heart, and now the witch wanted to tear it out entirely. My heart sure was in high demand these days...
Eric frowned. “So we
really
have to leave now?”
“Exactly!” I cried.
With a resigned sigh, Eric gripped my hand even tighter.
“Alright. Let’s go.”
And just like that, he moved—swift and deadly as a shadow blade in flight—leaving me struggling to catch up.
He didn’t have to move that fast, geez!
✵
✵
✵
Thanks to Eric’s speed, we managed to hop into the duchy's emblem-stamped carriage and make our way safely back to the estate.
I was slumped against the carriage wall, breath ragged, trying to recover.
“…A loan shark?” Eric asked, his brow deeply furrowed. “That the same person who assigned you those daily ‘quotas’ you mentioned?”
“That’s the one,” I groaned.
“If that’s the case…”
“Don’t tell me you’re thinking of ‘dealing with her,’ too? She’s nothing like that bastard Anthony,” I warned. “You can’t just make a move on someone like her. She’s… she’s unhinged. You never know what she might do.”
Especially with her stash of weird potions. Who knows when she'd spike a cup of tea or lace the air with sleeping incense...
I waved my hands as if to banish the idea entirely.
All I could do was hope Mother still had that ledger in one piece. Though… it did make me wonder. Just what kind of names were written in that cursed book?
In the southern regions, borrowing money from that witch was practically a rite of passage. She handed out spirit coins like candy and didn’t give a damn about your cultivation rank, background, or credit.
She just knew she could collect—with interest—no matter what.
That’s why Viscount Wedgwood had turned to her in the end, when gambling had bled him dry. First, the graves of the merfolk, then a mountain of debt—dying wasn’t even enough to set him free. Damn Wedgwood…
I leaned deep into the carriage seat and wiped sweat from my brow.
Ugh… and to think I even told her our estate’s location…
“…Should I go?” I muttered.
Eric shook his head.
“No need. I’ll send a few knights to handle it.”
I nodded slowly.
Knights, huh. Would that be enough to stop the witch’s dark arts and grotesque little tricks?
Maybe not. But there was no other choice. We had to try
something
. If she was threatening to rip
my
heart out, who knew what she'd do to Philip or Helena?
I turned to Eric.
“Can your knights deliver a message too?”
“If you want.”
“Then ask Helena if she still has what she stole from the witch.”
“What she stole?”
“She’ll understand if you put it that way.”
And if she
doesn’t
have it anymore…
Well, then...
"We're completely doomed," I shivered.
Chapter 78