She Is Not a Witch

After bidding farewell to the three departing fleets, Loranhil boarded a carriage bearing the Night Lacquer Flower emblem, and her entourage began the return journey.

As the weather gradually cooled, fallen leaves started to appear on the streets of Hopland. Though the seaside couldn’t be called very cold, the night breeze still brought a chill to everyone.

After the hot season passed, people’s appetites improved. More food stalls appeared on the streets, offering affordable baked flatbreads, grilled fish sprinkled with spices, and carefully selected grilled clam meat.

The clam meat in white patterned shells, slightly browned by orange-red charcoal fire, sprinkled with salt grains and a touch of bay leaves to remove the fishy smell, spread a savory aroma through the air.

“Sister, I want to eat that.”

A pair of siblings stood by the street. The sister with chestnut-colored long hair wore a black dress, while the brother was in a white hunting outfit. They were the Helis family siblings, Melu and Bel, with four guards following behind.

“Bel, let’s eat when we get back. I’ll have the chef make it for you then.”

Melu looked at the street stalls, directly exposed to the sea breeze with occasional dust blown up by the wind, feeling it wasn’t very clean or hygienic.

“No, when we get back, Father will make me study those annoying numbers again. I don’t want to. I want to eat here. Sister, you promised to spend a fun day with me today.”

The young boy Bel began to throw a tantrum. Melu felt helpless for a moment. She wasn’t a stern sister, and Bel had been under strict management at home due to their father’s high expectations. Only she could occasionally take him out to play.

“Alright, alright. Sister will buy it for you.” Melu indulgently patted Bel’s head, then took his hand and walked forward to help him choose.

Loranhil’s carriage happened to pass by this street. Seeing the siblings, she had the carriage stop to greet them.

The pine wood carriage door opened, and the girl in a white knee-length dress stepped down. The last rays of the setting sun poured down from the sea’s horizon, tinting the white dress with a faint golden hue.

“It’s been a few days, Mel…”

Before Loranhil could finish, a cargo carriage behind suddenly threw off its cover, revealing cold, glinting crossbows. The bowstring vibrated, and before the sharp sound could spread, fierce bolts shot directly at the girl’s body.

Loranhil acted decisively. Her light blue strapped sandals stomped hard on the stone bricks, using it as a pivot point to swiftly turn sideways. Her long dress fluttered, a flash of blood and strands of hair flew in the air. In an instant, a bloody gash appeared on her shoulder, and several locks of hair near her ear were gone.

Before others could react, one of Melu’s guards suddenly drew his sword and charged forward. The cold iron sword had a strange blue glow.

The sword is poisoned, Loranhil quickly realized. If she activated her demon core, she would be immune to any poison, but it would also mean the end of her mission, rendering all her previous efforts futile.

Although she didn’t understand why the Helis family guard was also attacking, after a brief consideration, Loranhil decided not to activate her supernatural core for now. Relying on her extraordinary perception and reaction abilities, she easily avoided the sword’s edge.

The fierce sword light struck the pine wood carriage door, embedding itself three inches deep and getting stuck. By this time, the Carithes Merchant Association guards had also reacted, charging over with shouts.

A steel-armored Carithes guard directly rammed into the assassin, while Chelsea pulled Loranhil back into the sturdy carriage. Four more riders charged towards the crossbows behind. Before the crossbows could fire a second shot, these riders had wounded the assassins operating them and pulled them off the carriage.

By now, over a dozen Carithes Merchant Association guards had surrounded the Helis siblings, spears at the ready, prepared for the worst. If Loranhil hadn’t urgently called for them to stop midway, they would have charged in with bloody spears.

These Carithes Merchant Association guards were young people recently selected from within the association, with excellent aptitude. Their parents and families all worked for the association, and they had been exposed to Carithes’ affairs since childhood, helping out. It could be said that the association had greatly improved their families’ lives, giving them a strong sense of belonging, almost like a second home.

But now, someone was attempting to assassinate Lady Lacey, the sole heir of the Carithes Merchant Association, right in front of them, threatening to bring down the association. This was tantamount to destroying the source of their current happy lives.

Faced with these furious bodyguards, their cold, gleaming spears full of killing intent, Bel dropped the shellfish in his hand, shaking with fear. Melu protected her brother behind her, facing the aimed spears and crossbows with worry.

The remaining Helis family guards had already been subdued and pinned to the ground.

After everything settled, Loranhil slowly walked out of the carriage, looking at the scene before her with some helplessness.

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In the carriage, a maid carefully bandaged Loranhil’s arm, while the girl invited the siblings into the carriage to talk.

Ding——

The sound of porcelain tray meeting teacups rang out as the maid poured warm red tea. Bel held his teacup, finally calming down, while Melu spoke apologetically.

“I’m terribly sorry, Lady Lacey. It’s our Helis family’s fault for not being vigilant enough, allowing assassins to infiltrate our guards.”

“Please don’t misunderstand. This incident was not orchestrated by us Helis. I will visit again tomorrow to apologize and offer compensation for the damages.”

“Lady Melu must be joking. Your guards are all carefully selected from among the association’s family members, practically your family’s branch members. How could you be completely unaware?” Chelsea pushed up her glasses, her gaze sharp, seemingly unsatisfied with the Helis young lady’s explanation.

“I know this explanation sounds far-fetched, but it’s truly the case.”

Melu’s voice carried a hint of self-mockery and bitterness.

The Helis family culture emphasized kinship, which led to many internal positions being held by relatives. These relatives weren’t all capable and diligent; in fact, most were incompetent and corrupt, making the association bloated and inefficient.

She also disliked these lazy relatives, but they were blood relations after all. Moreover, she was only a daughter of the family, not the eldest son, and would eventually marry out. She couldn’t discipline them too much. Who would have thought such a big incident would occur today?

By now, the wound under Loranhil’s bandage had already healed. She wasn’t particularly angry, just surprised that Melu, as the eldest daughter of the Helis family, faced so many inconveniences and constraints within her family.

In fact, Carithes was unique in this aspect. Other merchant family associations had extensive family trees with numerous relatives. Influenced by Western Wind’s tradition of valuing family ties, Vegar’s major merchant families generally favored their own relatives, believing them to be more trustworthy due to blood ties. However, this also dispersed power, bred corruption, and required constant balancing of other members’ feelings and interests.

The Carithes family was completely different. Their internal structure was very streamlined, with advancement based purely on ability and performance. As for relatives, well, Angus only had one daughter. Now, everything was decided by Lady Lacey. From top to bottom, there was only one voice, without need to consider other family trivialities. She was simply unaware of her good fortune.