“What shall we do?” Lady Opera mumbled. “We cannot just abandon these villagers or we will be in hot water!”
“Hot water... That’s it!!!” I exclaimed and thanked Lady Opera for the idea.
She threw me a confused look. “Mille-Feuille, you are not suggesting we abandon these villagers, are you?”
“Of course not! I just mean that hot water will save us!”
I called my white squirrels and asked them to give me a certain device that I had entrusted to them. “Bring it to me.”
“Squeak!” The squirrels handed the dwarf-made magic shovel to me.
Lady Opera was shocked. “Are we going to bash the heads of the villagers with that shovel?!”
“Of course not! I’m going to use it for this!” I then started digging into the hall’s stone floor. The shovel slid into the solid stone like it was pudding.
Madeleine seemed to have realized what I was doing. “Wasn’t there a big hot spring source underneath the mansion?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
And the waters under Diamant have the special property of purification—they can dispel magic related to mind control and coercion.
“Lady Mille-Feuille, I’ll do it!”
“Parfeil, please go ahead!”
Parfeil, an expert in digging through the snow, now efficiently dug for the hot spring source. She kept on digging until...
Whoosh!
A geyser of hot spring water burst out of the ground. The purifying waters splashed onto the villagers and snapped them out of their daze.
“Where am I?”
“What am I doing?”
It looked like the mind control had been fully dispelled.
At the same time, Streusel’s dark magic had been completed. Her magic circle emitted a ghastly glow, and the mansion started trembling.
Are we too late?
“Milady!”
Parfeil and the white squirrels clung to me. I closed my eyes and braced myself for an impact, but the trembling subsided. I tilted my head in confusion.
“Aaaaaargh!!!”
Streusel was now writhing in pain.
What happened?
Lady Opera seemed to have found the answer. “It seems that the purifying waters are poisonous to that woman.”
Van approached Streusel and launched a breath attack at her from up close.
“Gaaaaaah!!!” Streusel let out another pained, twisted scream as the attack pierced her body. Her skin began to wrinkle as her life force started slipping away.
Now at the end of her rope, Streusel took an action that none of us anticipated—she transported herself next to me and started to strangle me with her wrinkled hands.
“I will never, never, ever forgive any of you!!! I will live and lord over this land!” Streusel screamed as she tried to take a bite out of me. She was trying to consume my life force.
“I will...not allow you...to do this!” I cried.
Parfeil then yanked Streusel off me. She was launched across the room, and Van slashed her head clean off. Her head rolled across the floor, but even then, she still wasn’t giving up.
Streusel’s head ended up right in front of me. She glared up at me. “Who are you, and why would I need your permission for anything?!” she screamed.
“Because I am the rightful Dragon Duchess consort of the Dragon Duchy of Éclair!” I declared. Then, in a whisper so low that only she could hear, I added, “And I also happen to be the reincarnation of Princess Charlotte. And I know that she never once sought revenge for herself.”
“Ahh... Ahhh... How could this be...?” Streusel mumbled as her head and body crumbled away. Not a single trace was left of her afterward.
That was the pitiful end of someone who had been consumed by dark magic. I could only pray that her soul would be guided to its rightful path.
With this, the incidents had been resolved, but the conclusion left all of us with a terrible aftertaste.