The Abandoned Prince’s Ghost Bride - Chapter 171

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

The Forsaken Prince’s Phantom Bride
Special Side Story 5

“Did you really think a witch could give birth to an ordinary child?”
“That is…….”
She had never given it any thought at all.
Even after recovering all her memories, the years she had spent as a ghost alongside Lucian and Kaiser far outnumbered those she’d lived as a witch.
Confused, Lia watched as Lucian asked a question.
“Do witches experience Mana Syndrome when they’re young too?”
“How would I know? I’m not a witch.”
Age snorted and shrugged his shoulders.
“You don’t remember?”
“I…….”
Lia furrowed her brow and pressed her fingers to her temple. Memories of childhood didn’t come easily. But one thing was certain.
“……I lost my mother early and grew up alone, so I wouldn’t know about such things.”
She had been a loner until meeting the brothers Odel and Leon.
“Well, so you don’t know either, it seems.”
Age’s slender, graceful fingers enfolded Persio’s face, and cool Mana poured from his hands as Persio soon drifted off to sleep with a soft sound.
“I’ve suppressed his Mana temporarily. But it won’t last long. We have to find a solution before then.”
“We’ll need to find a witch.”
“But where would we even find one? The witches have been in hiding for decades now.”
After Leon’s witch hunt, the witches had vanished into history’s depths, and now few remained who even remembered them.
They had heard tales that witches nested somewhere, but finding them was another matter entirely.
“Lia, don’t worry. I won’t let anything happen to Persio. I promise.”
Lucian, sensing the anxiety in Lia’s heart, wrapped his arms around her shoulders.
Only then did Lia realize that everyone else had also steeled their resolve.
“……Yes. Let’s find the witches and heal Persio.”

* * *

From that day forward, Leopold and Harry returned to the Imperial Palace and began gathering information on the witches whom Leon had exploited and persecuted.
Age also departed, determined to lend his own strength to the effort.
And others too searched for even the smallest clue about witches.
“Coo-coo, waa-waa!”
Persio burst into bright laughter as though he’d never been ill.
Lia smiled as she gently touched his chubby cheeks, but now, three weeks later with no progress to show, her heart felt as though it were burning away.
‘Age said if he has to suppress the Mana one more time, it will be dangerous. We have to find where the witches are, and soon…….’
In her anguish, she pressed her forehead against Persio’s.
It was then.
“Lia! They’ve found the witch’s lair!”
Kaiser burst through the door with Lucian and the others.
“Really?!”
She leaped to her feet, unable to hide her shock.
“The details are something we should hear at the Imperial Palace. Your brother sent word via Communication Magical Tool just now.”
“Leave this place to us and focus all your efforts on finding a way to heal Persio.”
As Dio and James spoke with quiet conviction, Lia and Lucian nodded.
Soon Kaiser teleported the two of them, the child, and the Black Dragon to the Imperial Palace.

.
.

“You’ve arrived.”
Lia’s group made their way directly to Leopold’s imperial study.
There they found Harry, Age, and—after so long—Habier as well.
“May divine blessing touch you. It is good to see you again, Kaiser.”
“Right. But what brings you here?”
In response to Kaiser’s question, Leopold handed over a document.
“You know that the Odrian Empire has been conducting a large-scale witch hunt, yes?”
“Yes—which is why not a shadow of a witch can be seen anywhere in the empire.”
“The Black Mages were the ones who spearheaded the witch hunts. They killed witches and channeled the power they stole from them into their own black magic.”
“We disposed of everything related to the Black Mages, but we preserved records of that painful history. Fortunately, we found documentation from ten years ago indicating that the Black Mages within the Temple had discovered a witch.”
That was precisely why Habier had come. Moreover, he had not only executed the Black Mages but had also issued strict prohibition against any witch hunts within the Temple.
Lia and Lucian hurriedly examined the documents.
The last place a witch was sighted was a small kingdom far from the empire.
And in a remote, isolated region at that.
“Kaiser, could you teleport us there?”
“……I’m sorry, but teleportation is difficult if I haven’t been to the place before.”
“What if we use the coordinates marked on the map?”
“That would…….”
“You might end up lost between dimensions.”
Age answered in Kaiser’s stead, his reluctance plain.
“If witches truly live in that place, they will have erected a Sealing Barrier. Obviously, teleportation won’t work within it. And even if it could, we have no idea what traps the witches might have set.”
Even on the brink of extinction, witches are second only to dragons in their communion with Mana.
They surpass human mages in every respect.
“In fact, the Black Mages themselves did not rush the witch’s stronghold directly; they scouted the perimeter first before entering. If you mean to use teleportation, I would recommend going to a nearby village first, then proceeding to the witch’s den from there.”
With even Habier saying as much, there was no point in being stubborn.
“Hmm…… I think I might be able to reach there.”
“Beatrice, you?”
“Yes. Before meeting all of you, I wandered the world in search of amusement. I stayed in that region for about a month.”
Beatrice pointed to a city not far from the witch’s lair.
“Then it would be best if you used the teleportation.”
“Understood. Everyone, come close.”
As Beatrice opened her arms, Lia—holding Persio—Lucian, Kaiser, and Age gathered around her.
“We shouldn’t go. There’s a history of witch hunting, after all.”
“If they learn you are from the Odrian Empire and refuse to help, please tell them that the Temple officially apologizes for the witch hunts we have conducted.”
Habier added that he wished to find the witches and apologize to them personally, but had been unable to do so because they remained in hiding.
“I understand. I’ll make sure to tell them.”
Lia nodded.
In truth, she was the one most eager to apologize to the witches, perhaps even more than the Temple itself.
If not for her, countless witches would never have died or suffered persecution.
Brilliant light enveloped them, and they teleported away.

.
.

They arrived in a small, isolated city nestled in a remote mountain region.
Reaching a quiet corner of the city streets, they immediately donned concealing robes.
Then they slipped out of the city and, consulting their map, headed toward the location where the witches were believed to be.
“Looking at it this way, it really is just an ordinary forest.”
“Habier wouldn’t have given us false information, would he?”
“Why would he do such a thing?”
Even after entering the forest, the path remained unremarkable—no sense of wrongness, no déjà vu. It was simply an ordinary forest.
“……Something’s odd.”
Age, the eldest among them, muttered under his breath.
“What’s odd about it?”
Kaiser beside him tilted his head. From his perspective, it looked like nothing but an ordinary forest.
“It’s a forest, but there are no animal sounds at all.”
The group stopped and looked around.
Now that he mentioned it, they saw no small animals like squirrels, deer, or rabbits, nor did they hear any birdsong.
“……Now that I think about it, I could have sworn we saw them at the forest’s entrance.”
“I suspect this place is the witch’s nest.”
“Now that you mention it, I do feel like the Mana isn’t flowing quite right.”
There is nowhere in this world where Mana does not flow.
Forests especially are rich with Mana, which usually flows like wind, but here the current seemed blocked somehow—the flow of Mana was difficult to perceive.
Lucian, instinctively grasping that this was the witch’s domain, raised his voice.
“Witches! Please, I beg your help! Our child suffers from Mana Syndrome! We have come seeking the witches, believing you alone can cure this!”
Lucian called out again and again, his arm around Lia’s shoulders, ensuring his voice reached the witches.
But no answer came.
“……Are we in the wrong place?”
“No, this is it. They’re just not responding.”
“Then what do we do? Soon the magic Age placed will wear off…….”
Lia, holding Persio, began to whimper.
“Well…… if they’re testing us, we’ll have to force them out.”
“How?”
At Kaiser’s question, Age’s lips curled in a smile. He leaned close and whispered something into Kaiser’s ear, and Kaiser himself began to grin with sinister anticipation.
“Make it flashy.”
“You have my trust. The rest of you, this way.”
Age led the group—everyone except Kaiser—toward a clearing.
Just as they wondered what was about to happen.
ROOOAARRR!
Kaiser’s body began to swell, his form expanding with Dragon’s Pressure.
Soon a Red Dragon in Adult Form appeared in the forest.
“Insane! Who’s revealing their True Form in the human realm?!”
Beatrice moved to stop him in alarm, but Age caught her by the shoulder.
“I’ve set up a Barrier around the perimeter, so don’t worry. In this forest, there’s no one but us and the witches.”
A preemptive strike operation, in other words.
Let’s see if they could sit idle while a dragon rampaged across their front doorstep.
Kaiser seemed delighted to reveal his true form after so long, thrashing about with satisfaction.
With each step and sweep of his tail, the surrounding trees were trampled and felled with ease.
Still receiving no response, as enormous flames began to gather in his maw——
—P-please, noble Dragon! We beg you, cease at once!
Finally, the witch’s response came.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————