It wasn’t an exaggeration to say that the witch was a transcendent being and her magic had reached its peak.
It was powerful beyond belief!
I thought back to the devastating scene in which the whole world was turned upside down by the gesture of the witch’s single finger.
Bianca, who belonged to the ‘Winter Expedition’, was one of the top five mages in the empire and a ski1led person who could easily turn the Estel estate into powder, but compared to the witch, she was inferior.
Therefore, the witch was a powerful mage and, as far as I knew, the most powerful human beings in the world. I didn’t think there was anything wrong with calling her that, given that she had brought an endless winter to the entire continent.
So ki1ling her would be too wasteful.
Even so, the Duchy of Estel was in dire need of high-quality manpower like mages. In the current situation where the weather was cold and the land available for farming was extremely limited, even if there was only one proper mage, the territory would be able to achieve a lot of progress.
Unfortunately, however, I couldn’t find a mage who wanted to come to the cold and impoverished countryside like the Duchy of Estel. In other words, the territory was currently in dire straits.
Therefore, the witch who was blinking in front of me, having lost all her memories, could only be seen as a gold coin lying on the street. Some might wonder, wasn’t it really a risky business to domesticate the evil witch who was supposed to destroy mankind in the future?
Not at all.
As far as I was concerned, it could prove to be extremely profitable. And most profitable business often came with an equal amount of risk.
“You have no place to go back to, and no family. Then it’s okay for you to stay here. Our territory is a bit cold and poor, but it’s not to the extent that we can’t take someone in.”
By the way, the witch said that she felt uncomfortable when I used honorifics, so I was speaking in a more informal manner.
“…really?”
“Yes. Do you know who I am?”
“…..”
Yeah, I guess it’d be weirder if she knew who I was considering that she had lost all her memory.
“I’m not the owner of this castle…but I’m the one who will be the owner in the future. You can consider me as the second most influential person in this castle. So, there is no need to feel nervous. I can’t say I’m rich, but it’s not to the point that I can’t take responsibility for a single girl.”
‘Because I’m going to work you to the bone in the future.’
As I persuaded the witch with a kind face, her expression began to change little by little. It started to change from an expression of not knowing why to an expression of contemplating something.
“…really?”
She lowered her head, and muttered as if she had something on her mind. And after hesitating for a while, she asked me a question in a low voice.
“Really, can I…?”
“Yes.”
“I already told you, but I don’t remember anything. I don’t even know what I’m good at, what I’m not good at, what I like and what I don’t like. I am like an empty shell.”
The eyes of the witch who said that were empty. It was as if she was saying that not only her, but the world itself had no meaning.
“So I am nothing. I have no value. I will be of no use to anyone. Because I don’t know anything. So…”
After talking to that point, the witch hung her head and was unable to speak.
“…..”
I looked at the witch, who her head down. All I could see was the top of her head, which was covered with snow-white hair.
“Haah.” I let out a big sigh.
At the sound of my sigh, the witch flinched.
“Haamn!”
But I didn’t care about any of that as I gently patted the back of the witch’s head.
“It doesn’t matter. What does your lack of memory have to do with your usefulness?”
“That, that… I don’t know anything…what everyone else knows, I don’t know…”
“I don’t know much either. There are so many things I don’t know. The only thing I can say I know a little better than others is how to do paperwork. Then am I useless?”
In fact, before the regression, I learned how to wield a sword and ki1l from the Princess, but let’s leave that out of the conversation for now. Because it was a painful memory that only left a bitter taste. If possible, I wanted to never hold a sword in my life.
“That…that and this are different!”
“What is different?”
“That, so…”
The witch hesitated for a moment without answering, and then began to mumble.
“…I can’t do things that others can normally do.”
“Oh? What are the things that others can normally do?”
“…uh, I mean…normal things like cleaning and laundry…”
“So what?”
I answer the witch’s words indifferently.
“In the Estel estate, there are a lot of people who claim to be maids despite not being good at cleaning or washing. According to what you said, we should kick out all the people who work here right now?”
By the way, the reason we are hiring maids who can’t clean or wash well was because the Duchy of Estel was terribly poor. As the Duchy of Estel was a poor territory with poor farmers, livestock farmer, and mediocre commerce, the means by which the people could earn money were very limited.
That’s why the Duke of Estel was hiring anyone who wanted to work as a servant in the castle to give jobs to the residents of the territory. Thanks to that, terrible maids who couldn’t wash or clean even though they were maids came into existence.
The treasurer who managed the finances of the duchy would sigh every time he looked at the maids, but unfortunately, their washing and cleaning ski1ls didn’t seem to improve that easily.
Even after 10 years, the treasurer didn’t stop sighing while looking at the maids running around the castle.
“If you don’t know something, you can learn it. Don’t worry. I am willing to teach you anything you want.”
‘Of course, if you’re interested in magic, there’s nothing better than that.’
As I concealed such a thought while placating the witch, she muttered to me in a melancholic voice.
“…but I am an empty person. I don’t even know where I was born or what my name is. Will I be able to do well?”
“It’s okay. You will be able to do well.”
I said that with strong trust towards her ability. If you don’t trust a witch with powerful abilities that will bring winter to the entire continent ten years from the present, then who do you trust?
“And I don’t care where you were born or what your name was. If it bothers you that much, I’ll give you a name.”
“A name?”
When I said I would name her, the witch raised her head and looked at me. Those eyes that were looking at me had a distinctly different energy from before.
The eyes looking at me were so bright that it felt a bit burdensome, but I thought about what name would suit the white-haired woman in front of me, and came up with a name that was just right.
In fact, there was one name that came to mind when I first saw her. A name that suited her so well that I wondered if there was any other name that suited her more than that.
“Aria. Do you like it?”
Aria was the name of the Goddess of Winter in northern legends. I thought it’d be the perfect name for the witch who brought an unending winter to the continent.
“Aria…”
The witch, no, Aria mumbled the name countless times. Then she looked at me and gave a bright smile.
“I love it. Thank you. Um, so…”
I quickly noticed why she mumbled at the end, and introduced myself.
“Call me Cain. Everyone else calls me that.”
“Yes, Cain.”
“…add a ‘Young Master’ at the front.”
It seemed that I had to teach her step by step, starting with the basic etiquette that even the poor maids of the Duchy of Estel were familiar with.
****
[Aria’s POV]
And so, she opened her eyes.
The moment she opened her eyes, she instinctively realized a certain fact.
The fact that she was empty.
Inside her, nothing existed. So she ended up thinking that she might be an empty person. As an analogy, there was a hollow hole somewhere in her body, and there was a terrible feeling that the contents were constantly seeping out.
She couldn’t remember anything.
What was her name, where was she from, who was family, and who she was.
Nothing!
She had lost everything that other normal people usually had from birth.
She got goosebumps. The more she talked to other people, the more her mind was filled with the thought that she couldn’t figure out who she was. It occurred to her that she might have to live while being surrounded by such jarring sensations for the rest of her life.
She didn’t like it.
And, it was scary.
As for what scared her the most, was that she had no choice but to say that everything was scary.
She had lost everything—from the basic knowledge that enabled a person to lead a human life, to the specialized knowledge that could be useful to someone, she didn’t remember anything.
In other words, she had become a useless human being.
‘Ahh…’
She was in despair.
She was afraid of the future.
The fear that she might live her life in such a broken state gripped her entire being. On the other hand, she felt that it was only natural. She felt like someone unknown to her was laughing at her, saying that there was no place on this earth where she could live in peace.
But, that wasn’t the case.
The man who she had been by her side since the time she woke up suddenly said to her.
[Then, do you have any intention of working for the Duke of Estel?]
[If you have nowhere else to go, we are willing to officially hire you from the Duke of Estel. What do you think]
So he reached out his hand to her.
[It doesn’t matter. What does your lack of memory have to do with your usefulness?]
As if to relieve her anxiety, he said that she was ‘useful’ to someone like herself.
Even though she had lost her memory, she still had her common sense. There was no doubt that the man in front of her was a person of a high social status, perhaps incomparable to someone like her, whose origin was not clear.
And, such a man said those words with firm trust toward her, who was insignificant.
[If you don’t know something, you can learn it. Don’t worry. I am willing to teach you anything you want.]
Her heart began to pound.
It was a good feeling. She liked the clumsy consolation of this person who said that someone like her was useful, and the trust he had when he assured her that she would be able to do something was just too good.
Most importantly, that person gave her an unforgettable gift; one she would never forget in her life.
[If it bothers you that much, I’ll give you a name]
[Aria. Do you like it]
That was the name he gave her.
‘Aria.’
It was amazing!
The moment she was given the name Aria by him, she felt a mysterious sensation, as if an empty hole somewhere in her body was being filled.
She really liked the name Aria.
She didn’t know if it was because it was the name he gave her himself, but she liked it to the point where she felt that it was her original name from the beginning.
She felt happiness, and excited.
The thought that she might be of help to someone made her heart thump. And, she made up her mind.
‘Who will I be of help to?’
She had made up her mind, to use up her new life for someone else.
‘Cain.’
She gently touched her heart, which was beating like crazy. It was an unfamiliar sensation she had never felt before, but she felt happy after realizing that this feeling she had had stemmed from her feelings for this man.
‘One day, I will definitely be of help to that person.’
And at the end, she would repay the trust he has shown towards her.
‘Yes, definitely…for sure…’
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