In truth, Dorothea wasn’t certain whether the Chalice of Tuberose would be helpful in this situation.

However.

It’s better than not trying at all.

Since there was no risk in failing, there was no reason not to choose it.

Dorothea decided to casually misuse the power of the sacred treasure.

“Yes, did you call?” Sophia, responding to Dorothea’s call, approached and handed over her mana.

Other people were still in a state of panic, unable to come to their senses while being scattered by the spirits.

Wine-like red mana dwelled in Dorothea’s eyes, and a fissure appeared before her.

Whether because Sophia’s mana was at full capacity, or for some other reason, the fissure was particularly large and clear.

Dorothea reached her hand into the crack.

***

Once upon a time, in some ancient time.

A dwarf was born in darkness.

The dwarf’s world was dark and stuffy, but the dwarf didn’t know this discomfort.

After all, the dwarf had never experienced anything that wasn’t dark and stuffy.

So the dwarf couldn’t understand the lamentations of the adults around.

The adults were always complaining.

The adults were always angry.

The adults told the dwarf.

That there was a land much wider, brighter, and better to live in than this place.

The dwarf asked.

Then why don’t you go there?

The adults answered.

We tried to go but failed.

The dwarf asked.

Why did you fail?

The adults answered.

We acquired many lands, but we couldn’t acquire only the land of faded ash.

The dwarf asked.

Why couldn’t you acquire it?

The adults answered.

The queen of ashes and her loyal knight.

Half of the eight brave generals of the great king fell one by one to the knight, and the other half were subjugated by the sky.

The dwarf was shocked.

The king the dwarf knew was truly a great being.

He was the king of the dwarves, the king of the adults, and the king of all those in darkness.

The fact that such a king had experienced defeat was unbelievable to the dwarf.

Surprise soon turned into curiosity.

The dwarf searched for ways to go to the “good land to live in” that the adults spoke of, but this was not an easy task.

Only the great king and his close associates knew the way.

To stand in a position to serve the great king, the dwarf worked hard.

And when the dwarf could no longer be called young, the minister serving the king called him.

The minister asked.

Are you the dwarf who wants to go out under the sunlight?

The dwarf answered.

Yes, O’ second greatest one in this land.

The minister asked.

Why do you want to go there?

The dwarf answered.

Because curiosity has taken root in my heart, making it beat.

The minister smiled slightly and told the dwarf the way to go to the bright land.

The dwarf said.

Thank you, O’ second greatest one in this land. How should I repay this grace?

The minister answered.

You need not repay anything.

For our great king is the king of those who are angry, lament, wail, and cry out.

On the day of revenge that will come someday, one whose heart beats with curiosity rather than hatred is not needed. Go and find your freedom.

However, you should be careful. The arrogant sky will view us as stains.

The dwarf thanked the minister once again, then left the dark land where he was born and raised and went towards the bright land.

The bright land was a very strange place.

Endless sky, air that wasn’t painful to breathe, abundant food.

The dwarf came to understand why the adults had so desperately wanted to acquire this land.

Moving wherever his feet took him, the dwarf came to be called a “mage” by the people of the bright land at some point.

Although the dwarf thought that the magic handled by the people of the bright land was different from his own power, he didn’t particularly deny it.

He quite liked the title of “mage”, after all.

The dwarf wandering the surface learned that there were animals and plants in the bright land similar to what he had seen in his place.

Perhaps due to the peaceful environment, they were much weaker than what the dwarf knew, but the roots were the same. The people of the bright land called them magic beasts.

However, there was something amusing.

The people of the bright land called not only the animals and plants from the dark land, but also those originally from this land that had been stained with mana, magic beasts.

They even lumped together “people of the dark land” like the dwarf, that was, the remnants left on the surface during the old war, and called them magic beasts.

The people of the bright land were strangely ignorant about the dark land.

For the sky had decreed that knowledge as taboo.

The dwarf tried to correct people’s misunderstandings, but this was a foolish action.

Those with emerald energy called the dwarf a heretic and tried to subjugate him.

It was during his difficult life on the run that the dwarf met the golden witch.

The witch, possessing excellent alchemy skills, demanded the knowledge he possessed in exchange for protecting the dwarf.

The tired dwarf agreed to the deal.

He told the golden witch about the various races living in the dark land.

How giant and strong the giants were, how delicate the work of the little people, the intelligence possessed by the half-human half-demons.

The golden witch tried to recreate them through alchemy, referring to the knowledge he provided.

The dwarf thought the witch’s creations didn’t really resemble the originals, but he didn’t bother to say that out loud.

How could he when he knew that the emerald light, which had been so persistent and vicious, was somehow not visible near the witch?

When the dwarf noticed that the pursuit had been cut off after a long time, he left the witch, and the witch, having obtained the knowledge she wanted, didn’t hold him back.

One day, while wandering here and there hiding his identity, the dwarf discovered a young and beautiful lady.

The dwarf felt regret.

The dwarf liked the lady very much, but she had already given her heart to another young man.

The dwarf thought.

If I can’t win the lady’s heart, I’ll settle for her daughter instead.

After all, the dwarf’s lifespan was incomparably longer than that of humans’.

He could wait as long as it took for the child to grow up.

The dwarf proposed a contract to the lady and gave her a love potion.

In fact, the potion wasn’t anything special.

It just made her more beautiful and more noticeable to others.

But the effect was certain.

The lady obtained the love she wanted.

However, the problem came after that.

The lady changed her words and tried not to pay the proper price.

The dwarf felt ridiculous.

A mage’s contract wasn’t just about the written words.

It was a concept that included mutual consent and understanding that wasn’t explicitly stated.

It was impossible to get away with mere wordplay after signing with full understanding of the meaning at the time of the contract.

If he wanted to, he could have forcibly collected, but the dwarf decided to take a small revenge, adding to his resentment towards the lady.

He twisted the interpretation of the contract as if the other party had done it first, making the contractor bear a much heavier burden.

As a backlash for that burden being slightly excessive, the dwarf also had to give the contractor a way out, but since the other party had insulted the contract first, that way out could be practically nominal.

For the contractor to end this contract without giving up her daughter, she had to guess the dwarf’s name.

But that was impossible.

The dwarf had never revealed his real name to anyone since coming to the bright land.

In his space where no one’s ears could reach, the dwarf sang as if mocking the foolish contractor.

Today I’ll brew a potion; tomorrow I’ll build a tower, then I’ll fetch her new child.

It is so good that no one in this land knows, ■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■ is my name!

***

“—Found it.”

The vision ended.

Understanding dwelled in the witch’s blue eyes, and feeling ominous, the dwarf made the tower tremble instead of his body.

《Wait—》

“You must have felt wronged too. But if you were going to take revenge, you should have ended it with the person involved. From the point you dragged in uninvolved strangers, there’s no room for excuses anymore.”

The witch raised her staff high.

The red mana of the Chalice of Tuberose and the obsidian-like mana the witch possessed surged together.

This much was necessary to even properly pronounce the dwarf’s name in human language, as the very name itself contained immense power.

In the red and black storm, the witch wove the language of demons into human language.

The witch declared, pointing her staff towards the tower.

“The contract is void—“

『Rumpelstiltskin』

***

The tower collapsed.

While the tower in reality was still intact, the alternate space tower overlapping with it could no longer maintain its form and was in the process of collapsing.

The eerie energy emanating from the tower also gradually faded like dissipating fog, eventually disappearing completely.

Dorothea sent back the spirits around her with a short sigh.

[The ‘Tin Knight’ asks if he’s dead!]

“Not exactly. But he must have taken quite a hit. The work he put decades into has come to nothing. He’s probably in a daze from the shock.”

[The ‘Tin Knight’ expresses understanding, saying it would be a big shock if you lined up day and night in front of a limited purchase item only for it to sell out right in front of you!]

“You’re making incomprehensible comparisons again.”

After shaking her head, Dorothea turned her gaze to the wife sitting on the ground.

The wife was dazed for a moment, but soon began to stammer words.

“T-thank you. Really, truly, this gratitude…”

“ I think it’s time we address those words of yours.”

“…Pardon?”

“You probably said the same thing to that dwarf, or rather, ‘mage’, didn’t you?”

The wife swallowed her breath as if caught off guard.

The witch looking down at the wife was smiling, but her eyes were piercingly cold.

“You said you would definitely repay the favor. That you would apologize to the children you used. You said that earlier. It’s a verbal promise, but a promise is a promise.”

As the lord and others approached them from afar, the witch whispered in the wife’s ear, “I believe you’ve learned well this time what happens when you try to play around clumsily with contracts. As a human, you might make a mistake once. But if you knowingly try to repeat the same mistake… well, what do you think will happen? Want to test it out yourself? It seems there are some friends here who have a lot to say to their ‘mother’.”

As Dorothea spoke, several spirits were floating around her hand.

The wife trembled and shook her head several times.

At that moment, the approaching lord and soldiers saw the wife’s pale face and shouted at Dorothea, “You! Get away from the wife!”

Dorothea silently shrugged her shoulders and obediently distanced herself.

The lord approached the wife and supported her.

“Wife, what’s wrong? Are you alright? Wait, eek! What is this!”

The lord tried to shake off the souls near the wife, but they clung to the wife’s body and wouldn’t easily detach.

The wife couldn’t easily open her mouth and quietly sobbed.

Continuously, continuously.

Weighed down by the burden of her sins, for a long time.

***

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