MMFHRK-Chapter 8

Chapter 8: Let’s Bid Farewell to the Past

“What are you doing now…!?”

Lilinai, both shocked and furious, struggled to get up.

But before long, her hands were once again firmly bound by magic.

“Talking about a reward… really, you just want to toy with me!”

“My, those words are a little hurtful.”

Airiya lay over her from behind, her tone somewhat aggrieved.

“Actually, Miss Lilinai’s work wasn’t entirely flawless either—at the very least, you missed one.”

“Which one?”

“This one.”

The white-haired girl slid a book over from the floor.

Lilinai looked down and froze slightly.

“The Luolunbao Kingdom’s… yearbook?”

“Clever as Miss Lilinai is, you’ve probably noticed already?”

Airiya said with a smile that wasn’t quite a smile.

She placed a hand on the girl’s back, gesturing for her to lower her head and look.

“The books I had you organize just now all share one common feature. If you were attentive enough, you should have discovered it.”

“…The year?”

Lilinai caught on quickly.

What Airiya referred to was the publication year of these books.

They had all been published in the year 1345 of the new calendar, without exception.

And 1345…

“Do you remember? That was 5 years ago—which is to say, the year you drove me out of the Kaoenxier family.”

“—!”

Lilinai pressed her lips tight.

From what she knew of the Witch behind her, when she brought up this topic, nothing good would come of it.

“In a certain sense, I ought to thank you. Without your resolve and betrayal back then, the me of today would never have been forged, and there certainly wouldn’t be this scene today, where I get to savor your resentment.”

“…Is there any point to this, Airiya?”

Lilinai closed her eyes, struggling to suppress the stirring within her while speaking helplessly.

The pressure coming from Airiya left her as though sitting on thorns, her heart and mind unsettled.

“You deliberately picked out books from this year—what are you trying to emphasize? To prove to me that you’ve never forgotten?”

“Facts are facts; they don’t need deliberate proving.” Airiya said mildly. “Rather than concerning yourself with me, Miss Lilinai had best consider her own affairs first.”

“What do you mean?”

“Let’s bid farewell to the past.”

Airiya pushed the yearbook in front of Lilinai, to a spot mere inches away from her.

Then she raised a hand and waved, and the yearbook’s pages turned of their own accord without any wind, making a rustling sound.

“Look ahead.”

The Witch commanded.

Following Airiya’s command, Lilinai’s gaze naturally moved to the page.

Then her amber eyes slowly widened.

“This is…”

That kingdom yearbook lay open before her face.

The page it had turned to… bore, unmistakably, the crest of the Kaoenxier family.

“You—nngh!”

“Don’t squirm, Miss Lilinai.”

Airiya lightly moved her fingertips, undoing the buckle of the other’s shoulder strap.

The nightdress slid down like flowing water, and her smooth, fragrant shoulders drew up from tension.

“Look, Miss Lilinai.”

The Witch’s voice was gentle as honey.

She pressed down on the girl’s shoulders while murmuring in a low voice.

“This crest represents the home we once shared.

“But now, it’s gone. Its only son is gone as well, and the maid who served that only son is gone too.

“Do you remember what I said when I first bought you? We should both bid farewell to our former selves. Now, say ‘goodbye’ to it.”

“Nngh…!”

Lilinai desperately turned her head away.

But Airiya quickly brought her under control, forcing her to keep looking at that yearbook.

The contents of this yearbook came from the Luolunbao Kingdom’s royal publishing house, and it had been published in 1345.

And her family had, in 1345, been branded with fabricated crimes and then destroyed.

As for how history hereafter would record the events of 1345, Lilinai knew all too well:

The Kaoenxier family, a prestigious noble house of the former dynasty, whose head had once served as the last chancellor of the previous dynasty.

When the former dynasty fell, Kaoenxier chose to defect to the new dynasty for self-preservation and opportunism.

But the family’s treacherous ambitions never died, and it still schemed for greater authority and private gain.

They murdered the loyal and virtuous, deceived the court and the people, were consumed by lust for power, and committed every conceivable evil…

Fortunately, “justice” was upheld.

The noble and merciful new king resolved to root out this scourge of the kingdom.

The Kaoenxier family was branded with 12 crimes including treason, and was slaughtered to the last, eliminated root and branch.

“Nngh…”

But.

Looking at the contents recorded in the yearbook, Lilinai’s heart gradually wavered.

This yearbook, published in early 1345, had not yet stamped the Kaoenxier family with the label of “criminals.”

On its pages, what was recorded was still the Kaoenxier family’s glory: each generation of the family’s head had been an outstanding figure. The former dynasty’s first chancellor had devoted himself utterly to the founding of the nation; her grandfather had once served as the ambassador establishing diplomatic relations with the northern tribes; and her father, Lanmiuer Kaoenxier, had striven to fulfill a chancellor’s duty while the previous dynasty was buffeted by storms, doing everything he could to preserve stability among the people and in society.

Yet she…

As the only son of the Kaoenxier family, the head of its final generation, she had been able to do nothing at all.

Immense pain pressed down on Lilinai until she could hardly breathe.

Her steady heart, in this moment, showed a crack.

“Why don’t you dare keep reading? Lilinai!”

“Ah, nngh…”

Catching the girl’s opening.

Airiya decided to launch an assault on the girl’s heart.

Her tone grew increasingly impassioned, making Lilinai shake her head involuntarily.

“This is the family you took such pride in, this is the home we once wanted to protect…!

“But! It no longer exists! Its glory remains in the past, and we are no longer who we once were!

“Well? Does it feel good? Do you still think of yourself as the young master of the Kaoenxier family… do you still want to pretend you’re a boy?”

Perhaps it was because she was feeling the exhilaration of revenge.

The white-haired Witch straightened her spine, her expression growing ever more excited.

“Look at yourself, Lilinai: the one beneath me now—that is the real you, that is who you are today! I’m no longer that little girl who could only weep and be abandoned at others’ whims, and you’re no longer the young master of the Kaoenxier family—I am the Witch ‘Winter Solstice,’ Airiya Moerdisike! And you, Lilinai, are nothing but my plaything!”

“I… no… ah…”

Her consciousness gradually fell into confusion, her exhaled breath turning damp, hot, and frenzied.

Their clashing words began to grow fragmented, vanishing between sighs and violent panting.

“Airiya,” the purple-haired girl pleaded feebly, “I’m begging you. Don’t do this…”

“Unless I request otherwise,” the Witch’s tone brooked no argument, “you are to address me as ‘Master.’ That is a slave’s most basic obligation. Don’t make the same mistake again, Miss Lilinai—because I very much dislike repeating myself. Have you understood?”

She brought a hand down. The girl let out a moan.

“But I keep my word,” Airiya wiped away sweat, panting as she spoke. “So I won’t punish you without measure. This is the reward I’m giving you, Miss Lilinai—I’ll bring you pleasure and let you forget the pain you ought to be bearing. Be grateful to me, flatter me, and then obey me—I’ll make you understand that you simply can’t live without me.”

“Nnh, mm—”

Sunlight spilled through the window lattice, illuminating the dust in the air, splashing across the swaying strands of white and purple hair like curtains of light and darkness.

Each of them harbored her own thoughts. Each harbored anger and resentment.

Both of them wanted to forget the past.

To forget that sorrow and pain, to forget how powerless and helpless they had once been.

“Admit it, Lilinai!”

A savage, ferocious light flashed through the Witch’s eyes.

She seized the other girl and roughly pressed her down.

A single teardrop fell onto the open book and the floor.

“—!”

The yearbook’s pages once again turned without any wind, and finally snapped shut with a clap.

Airiya let out a long sigh and casually pushed Lilinai aside; the latter collapsed limply onto the floor, her lusterless eyes staring into empty space.

“…Aoleila undoubtedly warned you that this is my private space.” After a long silence, Airiya spoke in a low voice. “But you needn’t listen to her, Lilinai—the spatial prohibition doesn’t apply to you, and the tower is open to you at any time. In fact, from now on, I’d prefer that you remain in the tower at all times, so you’ll be available whenever I call… understood?”

Lilinai buried her head in the book.

For a long time, she simply lay there without moving.

“…Mm.”

As though a century had passed.

The girl closed her damp eyes and slowly nodded.

Then, slowly, ever so slowly, she clenched her hands into fists.