After Aeliana urged her, Helia sighed before she took a moment to collect her thoughts and arrange her words.
“I caught the curse from a Wood Spirit,” she uttered a few moments later.
“From a Wood Spirit?” Aeliana’s eyes narrowed before she said, “Elemental Spirits rarely interact with humans and remain isolated in their own world. Even if we encounter them, they are generally timid and try to avoid us, not aggressive or hostile by nature.”
“What exactly did you to do to get spored by one?” Aeliana asked with a sharp look.
After a moment of silence, Helia replied with evasive eyes, “Herbal experimentations.”
“Herbal experimentations?” Aeliana frowned.
“That’s right,” Helia affirmed with a nod before she continued, “Half a century ago, I managed to encounter the Wood Spirit in the Sunset Forest and lured it into following me back to Redpine City—”
“You? A water-attribute witch could lure the Wood Spirit into following you back to Redpine City? I don’t believe it,” Aeliana retorted with a sneer.
“Okay, fine. I captured it with a special magic tool and brought it back to study,” Helia admitted with an exasperated look. “The Wood Spirit was a type of Dryad species with the ability to recreate any plant it had seen before.”
“As such, I sought to use the Wood Spirit to recreate the herbal ingredients required to cut some of the expense on my potion business. However—”
“However, you didn’t expect the Wood Spirit to retaliate and infect you with spores that could restrict your usage of magic.” Aeliana finished Helia’s sentence before she asked, “What happened after? Did you kill it?”
“Of course not,” Helia shook her head before she replied, “How could I? Wood Spirits—or rather, spirits, in general, are so rare. How could I bear to kill such a precious being?”
“After its curse infected me, I looked for various methods to treat myself, but to no avail. Thus, after I failed to exploit it, I spent the following years trying to appease the angry Wood Spirit and earn its forgiveness.”
“However, as you can guess, it didn’t work,” Helia stated with a sigh.
When Vaan heard that, he rubbed his chin with a thoughtful look.
Evidently, it had taken much longer for the anti-magic spores to advance to such a stage than Helia implied when he found out about the state of her hands.
Furthermore, the Wood Spirit was a Dryad, while Aeliana’s second Specialized Magic was Dryad Transformation.
This was, by no means, a coincidence.
“I suppose your elder sister Elvira didn’t disappear because she went out to look for an opportunity to advance to the High Witch rank, right? Rather, she stole your Wood Spirit and ran away with it,” Vaan speculated.
Furthermore, he guessed that Helia and Elvira must have fought over the Wood Spirit, which resorted to Elvira stealing and running away with it.
“That’s right,” Helia admitted with a sad look.
“Prior to that, we had an argument over the Wood Spirit. At that time, my elder sister’s lifespan was running out. When she learned about the Wood Spirit in my possession, she sought to acquire its longevity through experimentation.”
“However, her experiments would have killed the Wood Spirit. Thus, I disagreed. That’s when she decided to steal and run away with it when I wasn’t paying attention,” Helia explained.
“It seemed like she achieved some success in what she aimed to do with the Wood Spirit during the three decades since her disappearance, but it wasn’t perfect. She must have encountered a problem in the process,” Vaan determined.
When Aeliana heard that, her eyes flashed with realization before she glared at Helia.
“The magic flower, you knew what it was when we acquired it together. That’s why you let me win during our duel, didn’t you? You wanted to ruin me,” Aeliana accused her.
“Not at all,” Helia denied before she reminded Aeliana, “My hands were already like this. I couldn’t exert my full power in our duel. You won fair and square.”
“Don’t give me that bullshit,” Aeliana didn’t buy into Helia’s lie. “You were already a Peak-stage Senior Witch while I was only a Mid-stage Senior Witch at the time.”
“Furthermore, I have seen you fought in the pocket realm. Your hands don’t really affect your magic usage,” Aeliana firmly stated before she said, “I have given you a chance to confess honestly. Now, I can’t believe anything you say unless you’re under the effect of the Truth Spell.”
“Then use the Truth Spell,” Helia permitted with a resolute look.
“However, you can only ask me related questions. I trust Sir Vahn and Headmaster Astoria will keep Lord Aeliana in check and prevent her from digging up all my secrets.”
“You have my word, Lord Helia,” Astoria nodded.
…
Nevertheless, after Aeliana used the Truth Spell on Helia and interrogated her, she found that Helia had primarily been telling the truth.
It was only in those two instances that she decided to lie.
After Aeliana interrogated Helia further, she found that she did not exactly know what the magic flower was; she only had vague suspicions it contained the remains of the Wood Spirit.
Nevertheless, the truth brought out a more startling discovery.
“It’s possible to induce berserk transformation through wicked potions and plants, but is it possible to even control the Abomination form?” Aeliana wondered with a frown.
Out of the list of possibilities, she specifically transformed into a Plant-type Abomination that resembled the Dryad.
“If that is true, that makes Fallen Witch Elvira even more dangerous. And right now, she is still out there on the loose. It’s had to imagine the chaos she could spread if she decided to create any more of such magic flowers,” Astoria frowned.
“If she inherited the Dryad’s ability, that does seem possible for her,” Vaan agreed.
After he listened to Helia’s confession, he had a general grasp of the situation.
It was likely that Fallen Witch Elvira used body transmutation magic on the Wood Spirit but was infected by its anti-magic spores in the process of acquiring its abilities and longevity.
And while looking for a solution, she determined that another Dryad was needed.
But since it was too difficult to find another Dryad, she decided to create another one artificially by producing a magic flower that could induce berserk transformation.
However, Fallen Witch Elvira didn’t just choose any random witch as the target for her berserk transformation-inducing magic flower.
It had to be a fairly strong witch that was compatible with her.
Thus, the magic flower was most likely intended for Helia, her blood sister. However, it ultimately ended up in Aeliana’s hand, which also worked to her advantage either way.
Both light and water attributes complimented wood elements.
Furthermore, the loss of a witch lord and the spread of anti-magic spores would cause either of the two prosperous cities to decline, reducing travelers in the regions and thereby lowering the number of people venturing into the Red Goblin Mountains.
It was all part of Fallen Witch Elvira’s deeply calculated scheme.
Not only was Fallen Witch Elvira calculative and scheming, but she also had the talent of creating the berserk transformation-inducing magic flowers to back her up.
That made her all the more dangerous.
‘The truth should be something like this,’ Vaan silently determined.
Nevertheless, shortly after Aeliana ended her interrogation, Helia’s eyes regained clarity, breaking free from the effect of the Truth Spell.
Helia was completely aware and overheard everything while she was under the Truth Spell’s effects.
The Truth Spell only forces her to speak the truth when asked a question; it doesn’t render her incapable of making other decisions.
“My elder sister—Well, the Fallen Witch may not pose too much of a problem to the world,” Helia mentioned.
“She had fled south on the magic airship. And to the south of Black Rose Kingdom lies the Holy Knight Empire, a very light-attribute-oriented super country. They won’t tolerate beings of the darkness and shadow attributes.”
“If she makes big waves in that place, even if she is a Mid-stage High Witch, she would still be hunted down by their powerhouses. I hate to admit it, but even though we have Her Majesty, the Holy Knight Empire has more experts,” Helia stated.
“Is that something I should hear?” Vaan casually asked with amusement.
Helia paused for a moment before she replied with an awkward smile, “Just don’t tell people you heard it from me, Sir Vahn—No, don’t let people know that you know in general.”
“Understood,” Vaan casually acknowledged.
Nevertheless, he didn’t find it surprising to learn that another country outside of the seven witch kingdoms was more developed.
After all, a feudal and matriarchal-oriented kingdom like the Black Rose Kingdom had too many restrictions on men.
A country that only granted half its population access to learning resources wouldn’t be as developed as a country that permitted everyone to learn.
That said, Vaan wasn’t too sure if the Holy Knight Empire mentioned by Helia was a country like that. There could have been other unaccounted factors that made it a powerful and developed country.
Even so, no matter how powerful the Holy Knight Empire was, it was still no match for the Black Rose Kingdom, and that was because of a single person, the Transcendent Witch, Henrietta Rosegarden.
“Enough about Fallen Witch Elvira. I will settle our debt one day—If she is still alive at that time,” Aeliana coolly said before she mentioned, “We aren’t finished yet. It’s time to decide the price to receive my treatment.”
Although she was infuriated that Helia knowingly allowed her to fall for Elvira’s scheme, her Lord had already expressed his will.
She had to treat Helia’s hand.
However, she will definitely make it so that it would cost Helia an arm and a leg to pay for the treatment.
Helia’s heart slightly tightened when she looked into Aeliana’s eye, but she forced herself to remain steadfast and strong.
“Very well,” Helia nodded and said, “State your conditions, Lord Aeliana.”
“First of all, I won’t fault you for Elvira’s crimes. However, your intentional negligence has caused my territory’s decline, and I suffered three terrible years, Lord Helia.”
“And for that, I apologize, Lord Aeliana.”
“Save your sorry for yourself. I don’t need it. If you want your hands treated by me, you have to fund all of Sunpeak Town’s development plans for the following three years. That is the only way you can receive my treatment, Lord Helia.”
“T-Three years of development funding?!” Helia sucked in a deep breath with a grave expression.
Sunpeak Town was bound to rise with Aeliana’s return and the curse lifted.
If Aeliana had big development plans for Sunpeak Town, her coffers wouldn’t just bleed; she might even have to sell her own city to acquire enough funds!
In other words, she would definitely go broke if she accepted Aeliana’s condition.
Helia found it very difficult to accept.