She looked down and stuffed all of those beautiful jewellike candies into her mouth at once. For if she saw Tien’s face right then, she might very well cling to his sleeve like a human daughter and cry, “I won’t get married!”
The breeze blowing in through the cracked-open window tossed the curtains about. The winds had grown quite cold.
Her wedding was also right around the corner now.
✦ ✦ ✦
∴ ∵ ∴
THE night breeze felt good against her cheeks. From her seat beside the window, Rose looked down below. The Azm mansion entryway was still unlit. No matter how hard she squinted against the milky darkness and perked up her ears, there was no sign of Harij’s horse coming down the road.
She wrapped herself in her sheets and a quilt and leaned against the windowsill.
“…Milady.”
Rose was scared stiff. She threw her hands out to catch herself from falling out the window. The cup she had been holding fell instead, landing below with a loud crash.
After watching the cup’s fatal end, Rose carefully pushed herself back into the safety of the room and turned around, her body drenched in a cold sweat.
A pale-faced Mona was standing there tightly holding on to Rose’s quilt. She seemed to have thrown everything she was carrying to grab Rose at the last second, because the ground around them was littered with things not there before.
“P-Please forgive me!”
Rose shook her head and held up her hand. It was her fault for daydreaming in such a dangerous spot.
“No need for that. Please just accompany me to apologize to Ms. Tala tomorrow.”
“Of course, milady. Please stay here while I go clean up the cup.”
Mona quickly gathered up the items she had tossed on the floor and headed downstairs. She was sure to injure herself by picking up broken ceramic in the dark. Rose followed her with a candle.
“Milady! Please stay in the mansion.”
“It’s fine. I’m used to this.”
Rose stopped the panicked Mona before she hurt herself, and illuminated the area at their feet. Mona rushed to pick up the broken shards as quickly as possible, probably feeling terrible that Rose had to be involved, and she profusely refused when Rose tried to help clean up.
“The wedding is fast approaching. Please take care not to injure yourself.”
Not wanting to upset the maid, Rose settled for holding up the candle to light the ground. Without much else to do, she decided to question Mona.
“Did you want something just now?”
“Pardon?”
“Didn’t you come to my room because you had something to say?”
As of late, Mona had started to open up to Rose. But she still avoided her when her duties didn’t require her presence. Thus, Rose assumed the maid had entered her room for a specific reason this time as well.
As someone who couldn’t lie, Rose was also grateful to be left alone most of the time. Long, meaningless conversations had the potential to lead to life-and-death situations for witches, after all.
That being said, Rose had grown from the introverted, taciturn girl who feared getting too close to people into someone who could hold a natural conversation lately. She had always possessed the skill to avoid difficult-to-answer questions, and it wasn’t necessarily an issue to speak her mind to good and kind people she trusted.
Mona’s hand froze in the middle of picking up a shard, but then she seemed to make up her mind to speak.
“I feel awful about the way I have behaved toward you until now. I am ashamed for having been paralyzed with fear just because you are a witch.”
“…What suddenly brought this on?”
“…I realized my mistake after you protected me from Mr. Công this afternoon.”
Công was Tien’s last name. Mona seemed grateful to Rose for saving her from him. Rose just nodded along. She wasn’t used to being thanked or appreciated.
“What made me think all witches are horrible was because…because I forced someone to drink the potion Mr. Công showed you today.”
When Tien said the potion was going around at a “very reasonable price,” that was by the standards of nobility and traders. In other words, it still fetched a pretty penny. Was Mona actually the daughter of a well-off family? Rose observed her carefully to see if she had any of the telltale markers.
“The young lady I served at my former workplace ordered me to use that potion on a certain man she was fond of… I couldn’t refuse, so I mixed it into his cup and gave it to him.” Mona shuddered as she recalled that very moment. “The man collapsed…after his first sip…”
Mona was fired from her job when the lady of the house came rushing into the room during all the commotion and learned what had transpired. She was given a letter of recommendation as a means to silence her, but never again would she be allowed to step into that household.
Mona was likely plagued by bottomless guilt for unintentionally hurting another. Her voice was filled with sorrow.
Rose gently rubbed Mona’s shoulder.
“…Why are you telling me this?”
“After listening to your conversation with Mr. Công, I thought it might be possible you didn’t make the potion…”
“Of course I didn’t. My love potion will absolutely make the taker fall in love.”
After all, she had tested and proved its effects herself. Rose could claim that with absolute confidence.
Rose was a witch. Witches made secret potions only they knew the recipes for. And as someone who took pride in her work as a witch, Rose didn’t view the witches’ secret potions as inherently evil.
A blacksmith forges a sword to take a person’s life, while a witch prepares a potion to take a person’s heart.
While unnecessary for the majority, it was necessary for some. As long as a single person needed it, the Good Witch Rose would continue making those secret potions.
But a potion that didn’t deliver on its intended effect was indeed evil.
She wasn’t the type to go around remedying all the false potions out there. But it was upsetting for others to confuse those inferior products with hers.
“I didn’t answer Mr. Công’s question because I was shaken, and I didn’t want to betray my former mistress… But I thought about it carefully afterward and realized his question was really about trying to figure out how you wanted to handle the matter, milady. And I felt the need to inform you if that was truly the case.”
It was likely strictly forbidden to speak of what went on at a servant’s former place of work. Mona surely needed to muster all her courage to share that information with the witch she often struggled to be in the same room with. Servants, like witches, couldn’t get hired without credibility. Returning to the earth was the only future for both Mona and Rose if they lost their work.
“Thank you. And if I may say so…” Rose crouched until she was face-to-face with the maid. “I think you are an amazing servant, Mona.”
Rose wasn’t sure how much of the sentiment came across, given that Mona didn’t know witches could only tell the truth. But the maid’s eyes misted as she wished for Rose’s safety.
“If it’s indeed a counterfeit, then you might be dragged into unnecessary danger, milady… As it stands, my former lord and lady grew extremely suspicious of witches. Please, please be careful.”
“I will,” Rose said aloud, as if she were responding to the very darkness itself.
Unfortunately, Mona’s bad premonition came true.
Three days later, Rose was arrested.