Chapter 48: The Price of Vengeance

I had no idea if the sharp kitchen knife had pierced Mankha’s heart or lungs. Yet, even if it hadn’t struck a vital spot, an ordinary person suffering such a severe blow should have long since collapsed to the ground.

However, the Mankha before me did not.

She gazed at me with icy eyes. Then, under my shocked gaze, she brutally pulled the knife from her back, contorting her body in an unnatural way.

The blade glinted coldly in the moonlight, reflecting my own twisted, terrified face.

“A monster?”

A savage smile spread across her face, her voice carrying a hint of contempt.

“What an ignorant wretch!”

She swung her fist like a professional boxer, striking my lower abdomen with brutal force.

“Ah—ugh… ugh…”

The sudden, searing pain forced me to double over. I curled up on the ground like a shrimp, bile rising in my throat.

Mankha sneered, her voice laced with mockery.

“You have no idea what extraordinary power lies within my body!”

Her hand, like an iron vice, clamped around my neck. The force was so immense that I felt my feet lift from the ground, abruptly hoisted into the air.

“Ugh… ugh-ah…”

Suffocation and pain assailed me from all sides, threatening to shatter my sanity. I struggled desperately, trying to break free from her grasp, but it was futile.

Mankha seemed to relish my terror, maintaining her iron grip.

“You… if you’re so strong…”

My voice was weak and trembling, tinged with confusion and fear.

“Why are you willing to be Axas’s lapdog?”

“Lapdog?”

An icy glint appeared in Mankha’s eyes as she slammed me to the ground with swift, brutal force.

“Ah…”

My head spun from the impact, and my cheek was scraped raw, a searing pain instantly spreading across my face.

“Ignorant woman!”

The next moment, I felt a heavy pressure on my chest. Mankha’s voice rang out from above, cold and disdainful.

“Once, I, too, possessed a beauty no less than yours. That beauty was my pride; it allowed me to marry the man I loved and build a family. However, it also attracted the covetous gaze of a lord, ultimately plunging me into the abyss.

“My beloved was cruelly murdered by that lord, and my body was forcibly taken by him. Once he lost interest in me, his jealous wife saw me as a thorn in her side, exiling me and my child together to the borders of Coldwind Lordship! I watched with my own eyes as my daughter died of illness in my arms…”

Her voice paused for a moment, a tremor of emotion in its depths.

“It wasn’t until I met Lord Axas that I knew he merely needed a lapdog, yet he truly helped me avenge my blood feud. Therefore, to accept the witch’s curse, exchanging my beauty for immense power, and then to dedicate everything to him… I do so willingly!”

The continuous pain in my body felt like a dull knife carving into my flesh, making it difficult for my thoughts to coalesce. Even so, I endured, listening to Mankha’s tragic tale.

It was only in that final moment that I truly understood why she was willing to serve Axas so devotedly, dedicating her all.

‘So that’s how it is…’

A mix of emotions churned within me. On one hand, I knew this Mankha was certainly not a good person. But on the other, I couldn’t help but feel a pang of pity for her tragic past.

“You… what is that expression on your face!?”

Mankha seemed to detect the unusual look in my eyes. She grabbed me from the ground, her gaze, sharp as a knife, piercing me.

“Do I need your pity, you b*tch!? Damn it, how dare someone like you show me such an expression! Let me tell you, a rotten piece of livestock like you is only fit to be my sustenance, a material on my path to ‘advancement’! I will devour you, using your flesh and blood, your despair, to help me digest the power of the magic potion!”

Mankha’s voice boomed like thunder, rattling my eardrums.

Seeing her increasingly furious and deranged expression, I knew this was likely where I would meet my end today.

I was well aware that the plan to assassinate her was a gamble, and I had lost. Although I had seemingly come into contact with something called a ‘magic potion’ through the witch Lulu, I hadn’t gained any powerful abilities like Mankha. Instead, I had become an even weaker, more helpless female.

Once the fatal wound from the kitchen knife proved ineffective, I knew I was doomed.

Everyone faces death differently. I had always thought a cowardly, selfish idiot like me would surely cry out of fear. But when it truly came down to it, I found myself feeling more regret and worry.

I regretted not being able to repay Aisha’s kindness. Mankha might target her after devouring me, and without preparation, Aisha would likely suffer a terrible fate. I worried about Lulona’s situation; I had no idea if she could grow up safely in Coldwind Lordship after my death.

But I also felt a hint of liberation, because this otherworld was so damn exhausting. Being a woman was also so exhausting; constantly toiling like an ox, having to squat to pee, and worrying about whether I had been disrespectful. I had no attachment to this otherworld. If I had to name anything, only Lulona and Aisha made me feel a sense of reluctance.

Oh, and Fina could probably be counted too.

Who else?

A handsome, gentle face flashed in my mind.

Damn it!

I was startled by my own thought. How could I possibly think of a man?

“Looking at your expression, it seems you’ve already prepared for death.”

Mankha held my neck, laughing savagely. Then, with a curious intensity, she licked the wound on my face.

“I won’t let you die so quickly. After all, only by devouring flesh and blood amidst despair and pain can it truly aid my ‘digestion’.”

“Ugh…”

The warm, sticky, disgusting sensation made me tremble. I didn’t understand what this person meant by ‘advancement’ or ‘digestion’, but I knew she was about to take a bite. To think I wouldn’t even get a quick death…

Closing my eyes, I prepared to meet my end. Yet, I waited for a while, and the anticipated pain never came. Instead, the hand clutching my neck slowly loosened.

“Eh?”

I fell to the ground, taking the opportunity to look up, staring at Mankha with confusion. The old woman, who had just been so savage and fierce, was now motionless, her face blank. Her eyes seemed veiled by a thick sea fog, hazy and unclear.

Unsure of what was happening, I initially didn’t dare to move. But as time passed, I gradually began to distance myself from her.

Then, in a sudden instant, the previously still Mankha abruptly cried out to me.

“Don’t go… don’t go… my child!”

Her dull, ugly face suddenly contorted with emotion, her lips trembling as if bearing an unspeakable burden. Her eyes, once gray and hazy like winter icebergs, now melted into two clear streams of tears, cascading down her aged face, etched with the ravages of time. She was crying.

I didn’t know why she cried, but in that moment, I felt she was no longer the terrifying Mankha, but an old, weak mother longing for love.

“Don’t go… please…”

She called out to me again, this time her voice carrying a hint of pleading and vulnerability, as if seeking one last solace from me.

I stood there, dumbfounded, finding it utterly inconceivable. This old woman had just threatened to devour me alive, but now she was acting like someone with Alzheimer’s, mistaking me for her child? Good heavens, what on earth caused this…

I suddenly noticed the bloodstain at the corner of Mankha’s mouth—my blood. It seemed the entire transformation began after she licked my blood. I recalled the words the witch Lulu had once mentioned:

“…the effect is amplified hundreds, thousands of times, and it will also cause the user’s various metabolic products to produce similar effects…”

I suddenly realized the reason! It seemed the witch Lulu didn’t fully understand the combined effect of the ‘Charm Seed’ and ‘Rosemary’ after all. It had indeed produced the effect she mentioned, but after a certain period, it seemed to have produced other effects.

This Mankha, apparently having absorbed my blood, had fallen into some kind of illusion, mistaking me for the person she missed most—her deceased daughter. With this guess, I softly said to her:

“Mama?”

My voice was weary and hoarse, carrying a certain girlish fragility, sounding very much like what a daughter would say. Upon hearing my call, Mankha actually knelt on the ground. Before I could even react, I saw her clutching my legs and sobbing.

“Ah… my child… Mama… Mama misses you so much…”

Her shoulders trembled with each sob, every word like a secret excavated from the depths of her heart.

“It’s all Mama’s fault, Mama is sorry! Mama… Mama shouldn’t have seen you as a burden, shouldn’t have gotten angry with you that night and locked you, locked you outside…”

Mankha’s voice was filled with deep self-reproach, her tears falling like broken pearls. “If you hadn’t been locked outside by me, you wouldn’t have gotten sick… boohoo… if… if I had gone to sell myself at the ‘Red House’ earlier, I could have gotten money in time to cure your illness…”

Her hands clung tightly to my legs, as if fearing that if she let go, I would vanish. “It’s all Mama’s fault… I’m sorry… I’m sorry…” She repeated her apologies again and again, as if in confession.

From her words, I vaguely pieced together a story: After being exiled to the borders of Coldwind Lordship, Mankha had apparently gotten angry with her daughter while caring for her. One night, she locked her misbehaving daughter outside, which led to the child falling ill. For a small child, without medicine, even a simple cold could often claim their life. To cure her child’s illness, Mankha seemed to have tried various methods, but none were effective. Medicine in the medieval era was incredibly expensive. For Mankha at the time, she would have had to become a prostitute to earn enough money to treat her child’s illness. But she hesitated then; her dignity as an ordinary person made it difficult to make such a decision. However, as her daughter’s condition gradually worsened, her bottom line became harder to uphold. One day, when she finally steeled herself to buy medicine with money earned from selling her body, she found that her daughter had already stopped breathing… Her heart, too, stopped along with her daughter’s last breath.

I stood there, a complex swirl of emotions rising within me. I knew I shouldn’t feel this way towards an enemy who wanted to kill me, but…

After a moment of hesitation, I gently stroked her hair, my voice faint but imbued with a resolute strength.

“Mama, it’s okay. I never blamed you.”

“Jasmine…”

Mankha looked up, her eyes swollen and red. Jasmine? So that was her daughter’s name…

A strange sorrow welled up in my heart. I gently wiped away the tears from the woman’s face and said, “But Mama, I am no longer among the living. If you wish to see me forever, you must do one thing for me.”

“Mama will do anything for you!” Mankha’s reply was urgent and firm.

Receiving this affirmative answer, I suppressed my emotions and slightly turned my head.

“Then… Mama, please dig out your heart for me.”

At this moment, I had lost the courage to meet her gaze directly.

“You want Mama to die?”

Her question was blunt. My heart tightened, but before I could answer, the woman spoke without hesitation, “If that’s the case, just digging out the heart is useless. To kill a witch, you either sever the neck or burn them to death, understood?”

With that, Mankha picked up a chopping axe from the ground and gave me a deep look. I couldn’t help but stare back; there was a power in her gaze that struck directly at my soul.

“Mama is coming to see you.”

After leaving that sentence, I watched with my own eyes as Mankha severed her own head. I stared at the head lying on the ground, feeling dizzy and incredulous. Nevertheless, reason told me I shouldn’t linger. I quickly got up, raked some charcoal onto the firewood pile, and prepared to leave. The great fire would erase all traces.

Before leaving, I looked back. Mankha’s lifeless body lay there quietly, awaiting consumption by the flames, to turn to ash. I had a persistent feeling that when Mankha looked at me for the last time, she was close to waking from the illusion of seeing her daughter. But her love and guilt for her daughter ultimately made her choose to believe my lie and end her own life…

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