Learning something from someone wasn’t simply acquiring knowledge and skills.

It also meant inheriting that person’s way of thinking, and the experiences and lessons they accumulated while mastering that skill.

The Witch of the East, who taught Dorothea necromancy, always emphasized compensation.

Dorothea knew that this stemmed from hatred and contempt for dedication without reward.

The seamstress who taught Dorothea sewing skills was the same.

People often said that the seamstress, who pursued her own sense of beauty even at the cost of ignoring public opinion to some extent, was obsessed with superficial beauty.

“Clothes are much more important in the unseen parts than what’s visible on the outside. If you don’t finish them properly, they’ll hurt the skin, and if you don’t design with body shape in mind, it’ll worsen blood circulation and strain the body.”

But when Dorothea actually learned techniques under the seamstress, what she emphasized most wasn’t how to design clothes beautifully or decorate them elaborately, but how to make safe and comfortable clothes.

Of course, beauty was important too, but secondary to safety, she said.

When Dorothea asked why, the seamstress avoided answering, but as the lessons repeated several times, later she volunteered the reason without even being asked.

“Our family wasn’t well-off. Our clothes were always dirty, practically just rags wrapped around our bodies. Especially my mother, while she was fine with other housework like cooking and cleaning, she was strangely clumsy at sewing, so the clothes she made herself were a mess, and we were subtly ridiculed by others.

“Then one day, my father bought a new outfit from the market as a gift for my mother. Well, to be honest, it wasn’t that great. Maybe half a step better than the dirty rags we usually wore? But my mother was really happy.

“But you know. In the clothes my father bought, there was a small wooden thorn stuck in it. My mother got hurt wearing it. It wasn’t a serious injury. At most, just a few drops of blood.

“Thinking back later, that’s what was bad. If it had been a big wound, we would have gone to the village’s only herbalist, or come to the city to find a doctor, or done something. But because it was such a trivial and small wound, my mother didn’t even treat it properly and just left it alone. Thinking it would heal on its own.

“By the time pus had formed in that tiny wound and her body was burning like fire, it was already too late for everything. It was so futile that I couldn’t even cry properly.

“Of course, this might not necessarily be the fault of whoever made or sold that outfit. Maybe my mother was just unlucky. Still, I can’t stand seeing someone get hurt or suffer because of my clothes. I can be stubborn about that much in my life, can’t I?”

Dorothea opened her eyes, which she had been keeping tightly closed.

Inside the cold underground prison bars. The sight of the unconscious seamstress was so different from her usual glamorous and bold self that it was hard to recognize her.

Her hair was disheveled, her clothes were in tatters, and bruises covered various parts of her skin.

Especially her fingers, the fingers that had created countless clothes as a seamstress, were all bent in different directions as if they had been meticulously attended to one by one.

People on the street were saying that the lord of Glückstadt was merciful, that he showed “mercy” by not killing the foolish seamstress who injured his daughter.

Therefore, this too must be within the realm of mercy.

The seamstress, left with ruined hands, would no longer be able to make clothes, and as a result, might end up starving to death on the streets, but such things were not the concern of those in high positions.

Dorothea, as well, had no business with the circumstances of those in high positions.

Thud.

Regardless, Dorothea scattered numerous bone fragments on the floor all the same.

Souls that had been stuck in the prison like earthbound spirits clung to the bodies created by the fusion of corpse fragments and Dorothea’s mana.

Dorothea spoke to them, “Don’t go outside the lord’s mansion. Don’t touch unless attacked first. And even if attacked first, don’t kill. If you understand, depart.”

It might be something the usual rational Dorothea would regret if she knew, but Dorothea, whose mental screws had loosened after seeing the seamstress’ miserable state, didn’t stop herself.

She additionally infused mana directly into some souls to make their presence strong enough for ordinary people to see, then ordered them, “From now on, go around the lord’s mansion and spread what I told you. So that everyone can hear.”

The materialized spirits, wraiths, nodded and spread in all directions through the walls.

After that, Glückstadt was turned upside down.

“U-undead! Undead have appeared!”

“What, where, where on earth did they come from!?”

“It’s a necromancer’s attack! Protect the lord!”

The soldiers of Glückstadt struggled in their own way, but there was a clear limit to what the guard, which had become so lax that they couldn’t even properly carry out their duty of maintaining public order, could do.

They could temporarily take down a few undead, but that was all.

They couldn’t organize a defensive formation to hold out, nor could they attempt to find and eliminate the source summoning the undead.

Dorothea’s mana summoning the undead gushed forth endlessly, and even if they somehow managed to take down an undead, those that had received black mana immediately repaired their bodies and revived.

The lord’s mansion quickly became a wasteland, and although the lord and his family weren’t directly injured, they had to tremble while surrounded by the undead.

Towards the terrified lord’s family, the wraiths shouted.

《Wicked lord! Bad lord! In your domain, innocent people are suffering, yet you neglect them and indulge in laziness!》

《Because you’ve managed the domain so poorly, the witch who visited the domain had an unpleasant experience! This time it ends with a warning, but if this happens again, next time you won’t even be able to enter your graves intact!》

The lord bowed his head several times, begging the witch for forgiveness, and the undead horde and wraiths suddenly disappeared.

The next day, the lord issued a pardon, releasing all prisoners from jail, while extensively replacing the guard and beginning to focus on stabilizing the city’s public order.

The guard, which had previously turned a blind eye even when conflicts arose among the people or someone was being beaten, began to actively intervene in incidents.

The seamstress was surprised two times.

Once when she regained consciousness in prison and found her fingers, which had felt like they were dying from pain, somehow bearable, and again when the soldiers who had looked like they would devour her just yesterday released her with a dazed expression.

Receiving two question marks in such a short time, the bewildered seamstress returned to her shop, where she was greeted by a small witch apprentice who was somehow sighing deeply and clutching her head.

“You, what are you doing?”

“…It’s something like self-loathing or whatever, just some things happened. More importantly, hurry up and come in.”

Dorothea fixed the seamstress’ hands and fingers using clean cloth and sticks, then let a suspicious liquid seep into them.

After that, a soup full of herbs awaited the seamstress, and then a servant from the lord’s family came, expressing a desire to continue their business relationship.

By this point, even the seamstress couldn’t help but notice.

“Was the commotion that happened at the lord’s mansion your doing?”

Dorothea didn’t deny it.

Instead, she asked the seamstress, “So, did you really make a mistake?”

The seamstress snorted, “Even if there was a problem with the clothes design, I wouldn’t make a mistake like that. The servant who took the clothes probably made a mistake on the way and tried to cover it up.”

“…I see.”

Dorothea nodded with a slightly shadowed face.

The seamstress was puzzled but, knowing that Dorothea wasn’t the type to speak easily at times like this, shrugged her shoulders instead of prying and said, “Anyway, with my hands like this, I can’t give sewing lessons. Will you come back later? More importantly, will this heal? Fortunately, it doesn’t hurt much.”

“You should be able to move your thumb slightly by tonight. With that, you should probably be able to hold a spoon. I’ve prepared several days’ worth of soup with ingredients that don’t spoil easily, so keep eating that for a while.”

“My, such care.”

“And, forget about the sewing lessons. I probably won’t be able to come to this city for a while, so I’ll just self-study the last part.”

“I see.”

That was the end of it.

The seamstress was an adult and someone who knew well that some farewells came suddenly.

She didn’t try to hold Dorothea back and make her feet heavy.

Instead, she only said this to the departing Dorothea, “Thank you, little miss. Come back when you’re grown up. I’ll make you an outfit befitting a fine lady.”

Dorothea nodded and then left the tailor shop.

After that, Dorothea went straight to find Tip.

“Amazing, Dorothy! The city that was such a mess has changed into a proper place in an instant! I thought the lord was really an amazing and high person, but compared to Dorothy, he’s nothing!”

Tip’s eyes sparkled like stars.

Although Dorothea hadn’t said a word about this incident, Tip already seemed to have concluded that she was the mastermind behind this situation.

Facing such a Tip, Dorothea asked with an expressionless face, “Don’t you have anything you need to tell me?”

For a very brief moment.

So brief that it would be hard to notice unless one was paying close attention, Tip’s face hardened.

“Something to tell? Ah, if it’s about this incident, I guessed it because Dorothy was too conveniently prepared to nurse the seamstress. Was it a misunderstanding?”

But that was only for a moment.

Tip soon answered with a natural attitude, as if knowing nothing.

“I see.”

Dorothea closed her eyes.

The souls lingering in various parts of the city were much more useful sources of information than ordinary people might think.

Especially in an environment like Glückstadt, where people kept dying within the city.

Dorothea came to know that Tip, who always had an innocent face in front of her, had actually started to form a considerable power in this city.

That he skillfully used the “fear” that Dorothea had wielded to protect Tip, packaging it as his own power to intimidate and subdue others.

Once established, hierarchical relationships weren’t easily overturned.

Whether Dorothea was there or not, whether she helped or not, the boy—perhaps a girl—in front of her had the quality to grow the power once obtained, rolling it like rolling one’s eyes.

And among the servants working in the lord’s mansion, there were those who had succumbed to such intangible fear.

Of course, this was just circumstantial evidence and suspicion.

There was no clear proof that Tip had trapped the seamstress.

However, it was also true that Tip had kept secret what kind of power he had obtained.

Tip had kicked away the last chance Dorothea had given him, and Dorothea returned not as a girl wanting a friend, but as a witch’s apprentice.

“Well then, I’m going now.”

“Huh?”

“I told you before, didn’t I? That it would be hard to come here anymore.”

Tip’s pupils trembled.

“B-but you haven’t finished learning sewing yet, have you?”

“It doesn’t matter whether I’ve learned it all or not. My teacher said this is the last time, so.”

“Then, I-I’ll come visit! If you just tell me the location—“

“Tip, “Dorothea declared, as if shaking him off. “Don’t depend on me too much.”

“…”

Tip’s mouth gaped open as if shocked.

Feeling slightly sorry at that sight, but with even more anger and disappointment, Dorothea turned her back.

And so, a friendship that might have been solidly connected was severed, split in two.

***

[The ‘Tin Knight’ seriously asks Dorothea if she was actively trying to generate the obsession, angst, and regret tags!]

“What are you talking about!?”

***

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