To My Beloved, I Present My Exquisite Nightmare - Chapter 28

Olga took Laila to a place that looked like a warehouse.

To the eyes of an ordinary person, it would seem to be a place filled with useless and dusty things, but not to Laila.

She could smell everything in there and knew the value of each and every item. This wasn’t just a warehouse. To borrow her mother’s expression, it was a damn treasure trove.

In the narrow space where two or three people would struggle to move at the same time, all sorts of things that could be used as materials for tinctures were piled up.

From the most common herbs to plants that were barely known to exist, to dangerous insects that could make your life hang by a thread if you were stung.

Most of them were things Laila had only read about in books, said to have been left by her ancient ancestors—the witches—but she had thoroughly memorized the contents of those books.

She knew what efficacies they had and how to use them to make medicine or deadly poison.

“How is it?”

Olga said. Laila, who had been looking around the shelves as if entranced, flinched and looked at her.

“Is this enough?”

Enough? It was overflowing! As Laila nodded, Olga took out a small hourglass from her small pouch. Then she placed it on the window frame and turned it upside down.

“One hour. I can only give you one hour. The knights from my branch are holding off that monster from attacking more distant villages. But they won’t be able to last long.”

“I’ll give it a try.”

Laila moved immediately. It wouldn’t be difficult as she had made paralyzing tinctures many times before.

However, the ones she had made directly were only used when encountering dangerous wild dogs or wolves wandering in the forest. The quantity was small, and she only used basic ingredients.

“Is there anything I can help with, Laila?”

Eustar asked. Laila showed a momentarily surprised expression, as if she thought he had left with Olga.

“Don’t you have to go to where the monster is?”

“I will, eventually. But I have to go with you. Otherwise, there would be no reason for bringing you here. Olga gave us an hour, right? Then we’ll be fine for that hour. Let’s finish this quickly, the two of us.”

Even so, Eustar had no knowledge about tincture manufacturing, so there wasn’t much he could do.

Following Laila’s instructions, he took down tools that were high up or heavy, one by one, and ground things that needed to be finely ground in her stead. Just that much help made Laila’s work much easier.

“What in the world is this?”

Eustar said, holding a pestle while peering into a small stone mortar.

It was something Laila had asked him to grind as finely as possible. At first he thought it was some kind of rolled-up plant… But no matter how he looked at it, there seemed to be leg-like things attached to it. A lot of them.

“Those are bugs called Noru Gwishin.”

As expected. Frowning, Eustar began moving the pestle to grind what was inside. Fortunately, they were completely dried.

“What kind of name is that? Why Noru Gwishin?”

“If there’s a dead deer carcass, those bugs come and lay their eggs. They don’t lay eggs in the carcasses of animals other than deer. That’s why they’re called Noru Gwishin.”

“Then I guess you can’t find these bugs in regions without deer.”

“They’re really hard to obtain. This is the first time I’m seeing such a large quantity at once. Be careful, Eustar. Those bugs are poisonous. They’re already dead and dried up, but it doesn’t hurt to be cautious.”

Eustar pursed his lips inward and glanced at Laila.

“It would have been nice if you told me that a bit earlier.”

He grumbled as if complaining. Laila was about to burst into laughter for a moment but was surprised at herself for feeling such an emotion and straightened her shoulders.

Laila said,

“It would have been nice if you told me earlier what kind of things I would experience after coming to the palace. Now you know how I feel, right?”

Eustar quickly turned to look at her.

“Laila, I really didn’t know. I truly never thought my brother would say such a thing… If I had known beforehand, why would I not have told you?”

“It’s fine, I was joking. No, it’s not a joke, but I don’t think now is the time to talk about such things.”

Laila meticulously examined the ingredients laid out on the workbench, measured them, and occasionally muttered to herself as if trying to recall something.

If she needed something, she would find it accurately just by circling the shelves once or twice, like someone who had been here hundreds of times.

There was no trace of her stumbling and fearful demeanor among people and in the palace. Eustar, who saw her coming with an armful of something completely dried, put down the pestle with a peculiar expression.

“I’m done, Laila.”

“Great, then put it in the pot over there. All of these too.”

Laila was confident and treated Eustar like an apprentice or student. Her absorbed appearance was new and attractive.

“What do we do now? Do we boil this?”

Laila answered,

“You think witches just put everything in a pot and let it bubble away?”

The content was a rebuke, but her tone was more lively than ever. Eustar felt a subtle joy at that fact. No, should he say it was closer to a sense of satisfaction?

“Then what are you going to do?”

Instead of answering, Laila carefully tilted a round glass bottle into the pot filled with all sorts of things.

As clear water poured out, mixing the contents inside, it soon turned into a dark purple color. While she slowly stirred it with a long stick, Eustar, who had been watching with his arms crossed, spoke.

“Do you know what you just put in, Laila?”

Laila’s hand, which had been stirring the stick, flinched. A perplexed light rose in her large red eyes.

“Wasn’t it water?”

“No, it’s water. But it’s consecrated water. It’s holy water consecrated by the former Pope Wilnis. Wilnis had a very deep faith and had outstanding abilities in blessings, consecrations, and healing. So…”

Laila’s mouth fell open. She knew who Pope Wilnis was.

The person who was said to have healed five disabled people with just a single blessing. She had heard that when she died, all the people of Sieorow, even the people of remote villages like Rijicus, mourned for days while fasting.

She alternately looked at the less than half-full bottle of water and the contents in the pot and said,

“Will that person… Lady Olga be angry?”

“Don’t worry. She’ll be a bit regretful, but she won’t be angry to that extent. Are you done?”

Laila nodded.

“You just need to sprinkle this on that monster. But just pouring it won’t have much effect. The best way is…”

“Spraying it like a mist and making it inhale.”

“That’s right. But such a method…”

Just then, the closed door of the warehouse opened again. Laila unconsciously looked at the hourglass. Fortunately, there was still some sand left.

Olga said,

“One side of the defensive line has collapsed. I hope you can speed things up a bit more.”

“It’s done.”

When Laila answered, Olga looked down at the pot as if relieved. Then she saw the round glass bottle on the floor…

Olga stared blankly at Laila.

“Don’t tell me you used Wilnis’ holy water?”

Flustered, Laila unconsciously glanced at Eustar.

“Well, I’m sorry. I thought it was just plain water…”

“Eustar! You just watched her use Wilnis’ holy water?”

Olga’s anger poured out towards Eustar. It was a natural outcome… Raising both hands, Eustar shook his head while looking down at Olga’s face.

“I thought this would be more helpful.”

“Does that make sense! Wilnis’ holy water can’t be obtained anymore! Why! Because he’s dead!”

“There’s Beriella.”

Beriella was the name of the current Pope who had succeeded Wilnis. However, Olga only snorted and refused to acknowledge his words.

“That novice trying to consecrate something. Damn it, it was the last remaining bottle.”

That was just the right thing to say to make Laila fidgety. However, Olga waved her hand as if to forget it.

“Fine, fine. I’ll let it slide since you finished it all before it was too late.”

“Do you have a way to spray it?”

“What do you take me for? No, what do you take this place for?”

Olga grabbed the handles on either side of the pot. Just as the startled Laila was about to shout to be careful, Olga lightly lifted the pot that was three or four times heavier than her as if picking up a cookie.

“Follow me.”

Eustar said,

“I’ll go close to the defensive line with Laila. Because she needs to be shown the monster. Both the attacks and defense.”

Olga turned her head without stopping.

“You know you could die, right?”

Eustar didn’t fall for her threat.

“You’ll help us, Olga.”

“Damn it, I knew this would happen.”

Laila kept her mouth shut, unable to understand what conversation the two were having.

Olga, who had set the pot down on a huge round table, stood in front of a strange mechanical device with a hole punched through it. The device had crystals embedded in order, starting from transparent and gradually deepening in blue color.

“Oh, I know this.”

Laila suddenly said. Eustar looked at her as if it was unexpected, but Olga began manipulating the crystals without even turning her head.

“Of course you would know. If you’re a real witch, there’s no way you wouldn’t know the ‘Wizard’s Window’.”

“I heard from my mother. The person who made this…”

Olga finally turned her head to look at Laila. It wasn’t a friendly gaze.

“Was a witch from the Dark Ages. That’s right. It was a time when real witches had quite a bit of interaction with wizards. Thanks to this ‘window’, wizards were able to create their own caves and live holed up inside them. Because with just the window, they could see the outside world without taking a single step out of the house. It was the perfect invention for those lazy and heavy-bottomed folks. It was from that time that they started creating sinister things in their spare time.”

At first, Laila thought that Olga was just listing what she knew about the ‘window’. But as she listened quietly, she could feel the anger and disgust that couldn’t be hidden in her voice.

Eustar intervened and cut off Olga’s words.

“Stop it. It has nothing to do with Laila.”

Olga sneered.

“It’s not entirely unrelated. Come, young witch. Come here. This is your first time actually seeing the ‘window’, right? Take a look at what it’s like for yourself.”